Minutes, Meeting of the Board of Trustees
April 13, 1999
The meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Long Beach Community College District, County of Los Angeles, California, was held in Building FF, Assembly Hall, Pacific Coast Campus, 1305 East Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach, on April 13, 1999.
Prior to the start of the Board of Trustees meeting the ribbon for the opening of this new room, the William H. Dyer, Jr. Room, was cut by Mark Curtis, President, Long Beach City College Foundation; Dianne Theil McNinch, President, Long Beach Community College District Board of Trustees; and E. Jan Kehoe, Superintendent-President, Long Beach City College.
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m., the items to be discussed in closed session were announced, and the meeting was adjourned to closed session.
The meeting was reconvened in open session at 5:02 p.m. in Building FF, Assembly Hall. President McNinch reported that, in closed session, no action was taken.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Mark Curtis, President of the Long Beach City College Foundation, led the Pledge of Allegiance.
ROLL CALL
Present: President McNinch, Vice President Lofland,
Member Clark, Member Polsky, Member Thorpe
and Student Trustee Beatty
Absent: None
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
President McNinch: Is there a motion for approval of the minutes of March 9, 1999, and March 23, 1999?
It was moved by Member Lofland, seconded by Member Clark, that the minutes of the meetings of March 9, 1999, and March 23, 1999, be approved as distributed. The motion carried, all voting aye.
ORDERING OF THE AGENDA
There were no changes in the order of the agenda.
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Special Recognitions and Demonstration of FF 107 – Assembly Room
Superintendent-President Kehoe: It’s a pleasure to introduce this section of the agenda because this is something very, very special. This is a cooperative effort. This room is a result of the hard work of a lot of people and one of those people is Ginny Baxter, the Executive Director of our Foundation who has participated in helping with the funding of this room. So I would like to introduce, not only Ginny Baxter at this point, but I would also like to introduce to you the Master of Ceremonies for tonight, Dr. Gary Scott. He will be assisted by the lovely Cindy “Vanna” Hanks. (Applause)
Gary Scott: This room, as Dr. Kehoe says represents something rather extraordinary in that this room could not exist with only public funds. It could not exist with only one person participating. It’s the cumulative work of extraordinary numbers of people and a participation of money that we simply aren’t used to seeing in the public sector.
(Dr. Scott then demonstrated the capabilities of the system, what it is presently designed to do and what it will be capable of doing in the future.)
Cindy Hanks: I just want to particularly thank Jan Kehoe and Randy Wooten for giving me the opportunity to be on this project. It was so exciting to be able to work with the appropriate budget; to get this kind of technology, it was a joy. As the Technical Media Specialist here at Long Beach City College it is my vision and my goal to see that we do a whole lot more of this. As you will see later on in the evening, we are going to be demonstrating all of the different capabilities of the room and I think by the end of the evening you’ll see what a benefit it is to our faculty, our staff and, particularly, our students, and that just excites me so much. I just wanted to thank you and we are going to be doing more of this. In the D Building at LAC, every single classroom is initially designed in the same type of concept as this room, to varying degrees. This is the “Cadillac”version; but it’s still the same basic concept to get technology into the classroom so that faculty have direct usage all the time. They can decide that whatever they want to do, they can just go in, push a button and away they go. And, like I said, that’s my future goal. Thank you. (Applause)
Gary Scott: As Dr. Kehoe said and as will become evident throughout this presentation, this project is a product of a coalition of a lot of people and a lot of hard work and as Mark Twain’s father once said, “There are two groups of people in the world: Those that do the work and those that take the credit.” And his father said, “Get in the first group because there’s a lot less competition.” (laughter) And I would like to now introduce someone that we all know but, I think, she kind of lives under that guise as one of those people that does the work and maybe doesn’t always get the credit and to recognize the many, many people who have contributed to this room, I’d like to introduce Dr. Virginia Baxter.
Virginia Baxter: I am here to recognize the people who put together this room and if you were not noted in the program, I apologize up front. This was a total college effort. Randy I don’t think I’ve seen people so excited about a facility for a long, long time. Every time I came down here people were anxious and willing to help and they are listed on the back of your program:
Project Administrators, Cindy Hanks and Dr. Gary Scott; Pete Alarcon; Javier Arjona; Tom Bell; Camille Bolton; Wayne Brashear; Caldwell Architects: John Caldwell, Malisa Sharpe an Vinceena Kelly; CMTS Construction: Phil Lucero, Mike Horigan and Rodger Hughes; Jeri Carter; Roger Cronin; FF Building Fundraising Committee: Bill Barnes, Barbara Bostwick, Helen Ann Crawford, Sandy Finstuen, Herm Hardaway, Lowell Johnson, Nancy Lough, Virginia Matkowski, Betty McWilliams, Dorothy Ruterhford, Verla Saylor, Hermione Seigenthaler, Charlie Westlund and Ruth Wright; Ali Izadian; Alex Kaloian; Kerry Lawrence; John McGovern, C.C. Sadler and Laura Jackson from the Foundation Office; Lynn Schamber. (Applause)
So, those are the worker bees; the people who were working literally for the last four or five years and trying to pull this all together. I’m very appreciative of them.
However, you can’t have worker bees unless you have money. So that’s why we’re going to turn to this part of the program because that’s what my job is all about. So I would like to recognize key individuals who were responsible for the room.
I’d like to start with a lady who doesn’t know she is going to be recognized today, but without her we would not have that room and that’s Ruth Wright. Ruth I want you to come forward. (Applause)
Ruth is crying over some good news and bad news. Ruth, I feel, is the heart of this room.
It was one of Ruth’s dreams. The Goals Committee of the Foundation met in my living room in 1992 and we talked about the vision for the college. I think it’s very important that we know where we're going and we have a plan and we have dreams. Because if you don’t have dreams and you don’t have vision you won’t go anywhere. And so Ruth was very instrumental in suggested to the Foundation that one of the goals be this room. Now that’s great and a lot of people talk; but then Ruth and I met with at least ten people to sell the room because we needed the money and we’d take people to lunch and we’d be charming to people and we’d be wonderful to people and finally we found that person that it clicked with. And that person that it clicked with is William H. Dyer, Jr., and he is not here today. He is being honored in Northern California -- he lives in Walnut Creek -- or he would be here today, because he feels very strongly about this. He met with Ruth and me and we had lunch with Dr. Kehoe. Before the lunch started he said, “I want to give you money,” and so then it was just a matter of determining how much money we were going to get. Ruth, even after he gave us the first sum of money, which wasn’t enough and I told him, continued to work with him and talk to him and explain to him the importance and he kept saying, “I don’t want my name on a room; it’s not important. You know, I gave you the money, that’s it.” But I mentioned to Ruth that he never said “No.” He always said, “Maybe.” And just recently, Ruth met with him on Saturday and he was so thrilled, because on Thursday he called me and made a contribution totalling over $100,000 for this room. And it was because of people like Ruth. Because Ruth brings authenticity. She brings sincerity, not that I'm not sincere, and a genuine love for Long Beach City College which started when she was a freshman here, and I won't say what year, but just a few years ago, and she was really responsible for this. So, thank you, Ruth.
Dr. Baxter also recognized the Estate of Margaret Leslie which left $25,000 to the college and which was used for the completion of the room; Doris Wescott who contributed $25,000; Jess and Evelyn Grundy, Nancy Lough, and the Estate of Irma Luoma Vessor, who also contributed funds for the completion of the room.
Virginia Baxter: Now, money is important, but you need other people too. And so I'd like to talk about the brains of this whole project and one of the persons who was very, very involved in making sure that everything was done on task, that people were motivated, that people were held together and that's Sandy Finstuen and I want Sandy to come to the front of the room. (Applause)
The great thing about Sandy is that she has been at Long Beach City College a long time. She knows people; people respect her; admire her. She's been President of the Academic Senate; she's been a leader on campus both in visible roles and behind the scenes. I don't know that there's anybody who doesn't love and respect Sandy Finstuen. She was invaluable and really is the mother of this room and of this whole facility because she was the one who rode herd on it and we're very, very grateful for that.
Sandy Finstuen: I owe one of these to Bill Barnes who has been an inspiration to me and to Mary Thoits and to John McGovern who worked every day on this. Thank you very much.
Virginia Baxter: Now, you've got to have somebody who keeps everybody together and that's the body of that group and there's a person on this campus who really is that focal point at the Pacific Coast Campus. It's somebody who had the dream of this room. She is, again, very, very respected. And in a minute you'll see how well respected she is. She called me yesterday and she said, "They're not going to do anything for me; are they, tomorrow?" I said, "Who would do anything for you, please. Boy, what an ego you have." And the reason I said that is that because if she knew what we were doing she wouldn't like it and would stop it. And that is Mary Thoits. Mary come on down here.
(A sign was then presented to Mary Thoits that said "Mary Thoits Senior Center.")
Virginia Baxter: Mary doesn't realize this, but what this sign means is that we raised enough money to name the Senior Center which is going to be across the hall, in her honor. (Applause)
Gary Scott: I forgot to mention that one of the things on this podium is a timer. (laughter) Another thing that's kind of neat is that this podium is an ADA-compatible podium so that it will lower for presentations for people who may be wheelchair-bound.
We're now going to show a special tribute to our latest recipient, Mary Thoits.
(A clip from the show Horizon showcasing Mary Thoits was then shown.)
Following this presentation, Dr. Kehoe presented flowers to Dr. Pauline Merry, the new Administrative Dean of the Pacific Coast Campus.
REPORT OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES
CCCT Board of Directors Election
It was moved by Member Clark, seconded by Member Lofland that the Board submit the following names for the CCCT Board of Directors:
*Maria Nieto Senour San Diego
Tom Clark Long Beach
Jerry M. Patterson Coast
*Mark Takano Riverside
Don L. Jenkins Rio Hondo
*Michele R. Jenkins Santa Clarita
*Anthony E. Bugarin San Joaquin Delta
*John H. Moore Cerritos
*Mary Mason Foothill-DeAnza
Marcia Milchiker South Orange
*Incumbent
This slate was recommended by the Selection Committee. The motion carried, all voting aye.
Committee Reports
Dianne McNinch: I have been proposed by the Police Chief to serve on his Senior Advisory Council. What that means is that you must be at least 55 years of age; therefore, I qualify. I've also been asked if I would be interested in serving on the Public Corporation for the Arts Board and I said I would.
Member Clark: The AACC Convention was held in Nashville just this last week. Trudy, Pat, Marilyn Brock and I were there. It was a very interesting conference and we must have had a hundred different opportunities for meetings and sessions that were there. There were several things that I had an interest in and I wanted to bring back and possibly ask for some reports and maybe some information. When you go to a meeting of this sort it stimulates your interest. There are two areas that I had a particular interest in.
We had a number of sessions in regards to distance education, which is quite an area of interest on the part of colleges and this is the educational opportunity that you can do through either computer or possibly television. I think this is of enough interest that, Madam President, I would like to see if we might not have a report in regards to what we are doing in this area, particularly planning for the future, that would be appropriate at some meeting in the near future to have a report on. Because this is an area that would appear to be a rather high priority for most colleges. And the interesting thing as far as the points that were raised was that so many of the young people who are coming up are much more computer oriented than certainly my generation and other generations and the second point is that you're going to get a lot of activity in the education area conceivably by AOL, Disney, Microsoft, and we're going to be competing in these areas with organizations that have very large amounts of resources. There will be opportunities there to see individuals who have certainly achieved a high elevation in the academic field, Nobel Prize winners, etc. So, I think it's a very important field and one that I'd like to see us have a report on.