Student Services Cabinet

Meeting Notes

February 3, 2009

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Student Services Cabinet Meeting

February 3, 2009

Present: Rick Perez, Sharon Combs, Joy Cook, Pat Hurley, Brenda Jones, Mary Mirch,Jewel Price, Alfred Ramirez, Paul Schlossman, Jeanette Stirdivant

Discussion Items

Feedback from Technical Assistance Presentation

Group really liked the presentation, but most agreed that they were unclear about the purpose of the meeting and why they were there.

Updates

Joy Cook

  • Will be cancelling the English 188/189 portion of the English Package due to low enrollment. These classes will be opened up to the general student population. Joy indicated that this will be the last semester of the package because the program is not seeing the results they had hoped. Student retention has improved, but pass rates have not. She is working with Ellen Oppenburg on a new approach which she outlined for the group. Classes for the new program will be presented to the Curriculum and Instruction Committee in Spring 2009 and piloted in Fall 2009.

Pat Hurley

  • Reported that she was in WashingtonD.C. last week as part of a group that was brought in to try and redesign financial aid as part of President Obama’s first 100 days.
  • Worked with Andra Verstraete to get more student help through the Job Placement Office. These students will be trained to do give one-on-one assistance to students filling out the FAFSA forms. This service was previously eliminated due to budget cuts and loss of student help.
  • Department of Education is floating a proposal to streamline the application process. Proposal would reduce the number of questions on the FAFSA to approximately nine to twelve. Many of the income questions are taken off. Pat is concerned about possible loopholes created with the changes.
  • A budget report has gone out recommending an increase in Community College fees to $30/unit. The rationale behind the proposed increase is to discourage students who are enrolling for “recreational” purposes.
  • Increase in financial aid applications for reverse transfers and for students enrolled at more than one college. Governor has also proposed reducing the amount of the Cal Grants to below the total fees.

Alfred Ramirez

  • Plans for the construction of the new building are moving forward. Demolition of the apartment on Adams is scheduled for March. Anticipated move-in date is Fall 2011.
  • Core PeopleSoft team will be meeting with the consultants on February 5.

Jewel Price

  • International student orientation is today.

Sharon Combs

  • Distributed copies of an article from the LA Times which addresses the cuts at the universities and the strain it is putting on the community colleges. Also discusses transfer and counseling.
  • The P-1 is complete and shows Collegeis up about 200 FTES. Did not include anything on Winter because of the FTES loss with changes to TBA hours. MIS reporting has also changed to more closely track TBA hours.
  • Sharon followed up on the revisions to BP 5120, Standards of Scholarship. She did further research on whether all transcripts should be included in GPA calculation. She found that previous revision to BP 5120 was incorrect. Distributed new revisions to the policy which follow what CCLC is requesting. Other language will be part of the corresponding regulation, including the language about transcripts from other colleges. Ed Code language leaves it up to interpretation on whether other transcripts can be used to determine academic probation.

Outcome: Sharon will bring the corresponding Administrative Regulation to the next meeting for discussion. She will bring information on how area colleges handle transcripts from other schools.

  • Registration of high school students began on Feb. 2. Increase in the number of high school students who want to take more than the 6 units allowed.

Paul Schlossman

  • Marketing Steering Committee has agreed to change its approach to marketing. Rather than trying to bring in new students, they will “piggy-back” on Jeanette’s idea of giving strategies on how to navigate the admissions process and increase registration priority. Will still publish the High School Connections piece and Road Map to Success in the Spring.

Mary Mirch

  • Mary reported that she was visited by former students who are now at CSU schools. These students are not able to get all the classes they need at their universities so they are signing up for classes at GCC and attending both schools.
  • She commended the staff in Admissions and Records for the handling of the emergency on January 29.
  • She is concerned about the new State-mandated disaster training. Her staff is required to have 52 hours of training completed by October. Her concern is that there is not enough down time to even give her staff vacation time, much less release them for training. None of the classes are being offered online.

Outcome: Rick will follow up with Senior Staff.

Jeanette Stirdivant

  • Jeanette reported on a nice PR piece on GUSD in the newspaper. GUSD has received a $25,000 grant to set up an animation lab at GlendaleHigh School. She wanted to know if there had been any discussion with GUSD about bussing students in to use GCC’s new lab. She will send copies of the article out to the group.

Recorded by Heather Glenn