Board of Trustees Report
District Office
November 17, 2010
There was an Infrastructure Committee in the morning, but I was unable to attend, due
to the public release of the League’s Commission on the Future report and a long,
unanticipated conversation I then had with one of the trustees (perfect excuses, I’m sure
you’ll agree).
Open Session
Georgia Mercer remarked briefly on the morning presentation by the Commission. Its
report is an ambitious plan for the future of California community colleges. She thanked
Chip Chapdelaine and his staff for hosting the Commission, as well as the Board yet
again.
I complained about the recent hiring of a dean of student services at Mission. I pointed
out that the Senate had worked hard over several months to get this resolved amicably
and keep this from coming to the Board as a complaint, but that we now had no choice.
There were serious violations of the proper process, and we had been assured in May
that the hiring would not go through, only to find it completed this fall. I said this was the
third time in a little over two years that we had had an improper administrative hire in the
district, but hopefully would lead to improved district guidelines.
Bill Elarton, Vice President of the Faculty Guild, introduced himself to the Board. He was
sitting in for Joanne Waddell.
John Seleva, a contractor working at Mission, announced that the Health, P.E., and
Fitness Center there had been given an award, winning over 135 other nominees.
Thirteen speakers from City College followed. All but one were students from The
Collegian, complaining that their printer had refused to do their latest issue because he
didn’t like an editorial criticizing the quality of his company's work. Many of the students
were quite upset, citing the very long hours they put into the issue and their shock that
the printer would take such a step.
Rhonda Guess, the journalism advisor, also spoke. She objected to some of her job
duties being taken away, which apparently led to a change in printers. They had had no
complaints regarding their earlier printer. Jamillah Moore said there was no intention of
censoring the newspaper on the part of the administration. Allison Jones, the supervising
dean, reported that she was working on a speedy resolution. Nancy Pearlman
complimented the students on the awards The Collegian has won recently, and Mona
Field complimented Guess.
Two actions were reported out of Closed Session, one involving "the institution of action
regarding redevelopment funds" (no further details were mentioned), and the settlement
of a small pay dispute with a construction firm.
Nancy Pearlman reported on the IC meeting in the morning. Project presentations were
made by Harbor (regarding its Job Placement and Data Center and its Astronomy
Building), by Southwest (School of Arts and Humanities and School of Career and
Technical Education buildings, among others), and by Mission (Student Services
Building).
Student Trustee Linda Tong reported on the Student Affairs Committee. Recent
concerns have been raised about the new ATM machines that financial aid recipients
now use with debit cards. Adriana Barrera said that a meeting has been scheduled with
the vendor to work out implementation snags.
A resolution honoring classified retirees was passed. Three of the five have served for
over thirty years in the district. An additional resolution regarding spouse survivor health
benefits was approved.
The Chancellor praised the young City students who spoke forcefully to the Board. He
also introduced Thalia Roussos, a CORO fellow, who is spending two weeks with
Yasmin Delahoussaye, observing how we do business in the district. CORO is a nonprofit based in Southern California that sponsors the study of government and
educational institutions. Rousseau then spoke briefly.
LaVista followed with three short announcements: the Vincent Price Gallery at East LA
received a $65,000 donation from the Getty Museum, and Valley's Foreign Language,
Art, and Media Arts Departments did a recent program on the 20th anniversary of
Germany's reunification. Finally, Pierce's football, women’s volleyball, and women's
soccer teams have all won their conferences.
The major part of his report was devoted to a response to the Shulock and Moore study
of the district, which was released on Nov. 9. This is their follow up to their Divided We
Fail report on California’s community colleges, which was released about a month
earlier. LaVista noted the projections of a shortage of college educated workers in
California, as well as global comparisons that show the U.S. slipping in ranking among
36 economically developed countries. We’ve gone from first to twelfth in only ten years.
In its key findings, it shows only 25% of degree seekers completing a degree or
certificate or transferring, and only 10% completing a transfer curriculum. Huge
achievement gaps are evident: 28% of whites transfer, for example, compared to only
15% of blacks and 11% of Latinos. These gaps were noted in the morning presentation
by Scott Lay and others.
The Chancellor and Yasmin Delahoussaye did take issue with the operational definitions
used by the researchers. They argued that their definition of a degree-seeking student
was too broad, and that if they had followed the ARCC definitions, our numbers would
have been considerably better, in fact, almost twice as good. Delahoussaye reviewed
the academic preparation of our incoming students. She then summarized key
recommendations from Shulock and Moore:
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collect data and act on it
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create a public agenda for higher education
assess and support students to succeed
publicly report milestone data
identify common policy barriers
Policy issues for future consideration included
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a state longitudinal data system (K-16) to gather data on readiness and
completion
assessment and placement of students
some element of performance funding to promote success
flexibility on categorical programs
In the discussion that followed, Field cited the low level of funding for community
colleges, while Sylvia Scott-Hayes said we can’t “wait for funding,” and again called for
changes in basic skills courses. I suggested caution about expecting too much from the
new transfer degree bill, as it had serious implementation problems. I also questioned
whether or not the ARCC data reported was necessarily more accurate than
Shulock/Moore. Finally, I noted that we were still seriously understaffed in the District
Office in terms of promoting student success. Kelly Candaele mused as to whether
anything really had improved in terms of student success in the district over the last ten
years. He said our legitimacy as an institution was subject to challenge.
In Consent Calendar questioning, Tina Park and Kelly Candaele asked about the
appropriateness of a subsidiary of Jacobs Engineering serving as the whole-building
commissioners for a Jacob's building project at East. Larry Eisenberg explained the
circumstances (Jacobs recently bought the subsidiary) and the college felt it was better
to proceed, given the timeline. There is also a precedent for this, when it can’t be
avoided without cost. Given that explanation, the trustees withdrew their objections.
Four lay-off notices for food service workers were approved. They were necessitated by
lack of future work at Pierce, given the January demolition of its cafeteria. The decline in
need for food service workers has been discussed over the years at Board meetings,
and the process for laying off these workers followed the necessary procedures, with
attempts made to find alternative work for them. In the end, two are choosing to retire
with the other two reassigned (I believe this is correct). The vote was 6-1, Miguel
Santiago voting no.
Comments
I challenged the data on student success only because George Prather had told me that
there wasn’t really any significant difference in results between the two studies. After
talking with him further yesterday, it’s now not clear that that’s the case. In any event,
we’ll get it straightened out and report back to you.
The important thing, in any case, is to see this new focus on student success. The
Chancellor shows just as much commitment to this in private as he does at Board
meetings. All of us on the Exec have been impressed by this.
Have a great Thanksgiving!
David
District Academic Senate President
213-891-2294
dbeaulieu@email.laccd.edu
www.laccd.edu/das