President's Report to the Board of Trustees
January 25, 2013
Reports available at www.hartnell.edu/president/reports_by_month.html.
1. Hartnell College Graduate and Boronda Scholar, Sergio Buslje, Conducts the Pan American
Symphony Orchestra for the "Latino Inaugural Celebration" at the Kennedy Center
The Pan American Symphony Orchestra
(PASO), joined headliner Hispanic performers
at the Kennedy Center on January 20 to honor
Hispanic culture and arts. The PASO artistic
director and conductor is Sergio Buslje,
Hartnell College graduate and Boronda
Scholar. Read more about Maestro Buslje at
http://www.panamsymphony.org/art%20dire.
html.
Hosted by actress Eva Longoria, a co-chair for Obama's
inauguration festivities, the Latino Inaugural celebration
featured top Latino entertainers such as Marc Anthony, Chita
Rivera, George Lopez, Jose Feliciano, Antonio Banderas, Rita
Moreno and famed Peruvian tenor, Juan Diego Florez, among
others.
For this very special inaugural event, PASO accompanied the
music stars named above and joined the Youth Orchestra of
Mexico for the grand finale. Latino Inaugural 2013 is part of a 3day series of events organized around Hispanic issues. The
performance was broadcast live on Univision television.
2. Hartnell NASA SEMAA Winter Awards Ceremony
On January 15, 2013 NASA SEMAA held an
Award Ceremony/Family Café Event at
Monterey Park Elementary School in Salinas.
80 students from grades 2, 4, 5 & 6
participated in the 8 week Fall Session and
most students that participated came with
their parents and family. It was a very special
event for the school, but the principal, Mr.
Dillender, was not expecting much
participation. He was the first one to be very
happily surprised to see the room fill up fast.
More than 120 people attended. NASA
SEMAA Director, Maggie Melone-Echiburú,
provided a short presentation on SEMAA and
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the importance of early STEM education exposure and what other resources are offered in our
community. Aerospace Education Lab Coordinator, Angelica Meza, provided a robot demo. The
night finished with the awards ceremony for the students where each teacher presented them with
their SEMAA Certificate of Completion.
3. USDA Chief of Staff to Undersecretary of Agriculture Visits Hartnell College
Elvis Cordova, Chief of Staff, Research,
Education and Economics Agency (REE) of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) visited
the Center of Advanced Technology at Hartnell
College on January 24 and 25. Juan Alvarez,
Regional Director, USDA Hispanic Serving
Institution National Program, also joined the
visit. Mr. Cordova gave a presentation to the
students in the Agriculture and Business
Technology program about the USDA and the
mechanisms by which it serves the
constituency and ensures the safety of
consumers and the leadership of the U.S.
L to R: Dr. Steve Triano, Agriculture Faculty, Elvis
Cordova, USDA; Molly Lewis, Director of Community
Collaboratives and Articulation
agricultural industry. He also provided information about the ways that students can apply for
internships or jobs with the Federal government. Mr. Cordova led a forum of conversation with
students regarding building a future filled with hope and success, and he included his personal
experiences having grown up in the inner-city projects of Boston, MA and overseas. He also talked
about his experiences as a first-generation college graduate from a Salvadoran descent, and related
his story to those of the students in attendance. On January 25, Mr. Cordova escorted the students
to a visit at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service station in Salinas. Five USDA scientists gave
presentations to the students and discussed possibilities for internships and student jobs.
4. Hartnell College Graduate, Michael Rivera,
Member of Salinas Police Force
On September 7, we celebrated the 10th
anniversary of the King City Education Center.
At the event the Rivera family was recognized
because of their success as a result of taking
classes at KCEC. I was attending a meeting at
the Salinas Police Department and bumped into
Mr. Rivera who is a police officer with the
Salinas PD.
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5. Chancellor's Office Consultation Council Meeting January 17, 2013
Two items of note from the recent Consultation Council meeting at the Chancellor's Office in
Sacramento.
a. Accreditation Task Force Resurrected
At the request of the statewide faculty leadership a task force is being formed again to address
ongoing concerns about the number of colleges under ACCJC that are at some level of
accreditation sanction (warning, probation, etc.). It has been pointed out that for other
accrediting regions in the U.S., the percentage of colleges under sanction is less than 5%. For
community colleges under ACCJC the percentage is close to 40%. The representation on the task
force will be as follows:
CEO
CIO
CSSO
ASCCC
CCC/CFT or CCA/CTA or CCI
CSEA
FACCC
ACCCA
SSCCC
I realize there are a lot of acronyms, but suffice it to say that there are representatives from all
major constituent groups including students. Broadly stated, the charge of the task force is as
follows: For California community colleges to gain a greater understanding of the processes
used by ACCJC so that the work of ACCJC becomes more transparent to the colleges, while at
the same time helping ACCJC to better understand the stresses placed upon the colleges by the
accreditation process and the sanctions.
b. "California Competes" Petition
The organization "California Competes" (www.californiacompetes.org) filed a legal challenge to
the governance provisions enacted through AB 1725 (1988) and the subsequent regulations
adopted by the CCC Board of Governors. Chancellor Harris stated that his office will respond
within the 45 day period. It was clear that the chancellor is not concerned about this and is not
giving it much attention. He stated that the leader of the group met with him for about an hour.
The last 5 minutes included "oh by the way, we are going to sue you." Quite a bit of discussion
centered on the issues of accreditation/governance vs. collective bargaining. Chancellor Harris
and many others pointed out that majority of the high profile problems (CCSF, Cuesta, etc.)
stemmed from collective bargaining issues, not governance. There were many statements such
as what has been in place for over 20 years now (AB 1725) seems to be working well overall and
a court is unlikely to overturn something that has been in effect that long and working. Who
knows? It was clear that this is not any priority for the Chancellor's Office.
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6. Governor's Proposed 2013-14 Budget for California Community Colleges
The following is a broad overview of the governor's proposed budget for 2013-14. There is
considerable uncertainty regarding most items and of course, there is a long way to go before the
budget is finalized. The shift of responsibility for adult education and apprenticeship programs from
K-12 to community colleges is something new. There are more questions than answers at this point
including, what happens to the K-12 employees who are currently working in these programs?
Another intriguing policy change has to do with apportionment funding proposed to be based on
student completion rather than on census date enrollment. We will be monitoring all developments
and we will provide updates as we learn more.
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$196.7M in increased apportionment funding. It is proposed that the Board of Governors will
determine how those funds will be allocated (e.g., growth/restoration or COLA).
$179M to buy down existing deferrals. This would lower the total year over year deferrals from
$801M to $622M.
$49.5M to support energy efficiency efforts pursuant to the recently passed Proposition 39
ballot initiative. The Governor intends the CCCs to expand career technical educational training
and on-the-job work experience training in partnership with the California Conservation Corps
and participating community conservation corps programs.
$16.9M to enhance online education efforts in the CCCs, including the creation of a centralized
Virtual Campus into a single hosting system, so students could find online courses and access
24/7 support through a common portal. The proposal would further expand and enhance credit
by exam options to make it possible for students to earn credit for core SB 1440 Transfer Degree
courses and also for remedial coursework. One way that students would be able to acquire the
skills necessary to pass these exams would be through MOOC providers.
$300M in a shift of responsibility for Adult Education from K12 to the CCCs. These dollars would
be provided to districts in a block grant bases on students served in core instructional areas.
$15.7M in a shift of responsibility for Apprenticeship from K12 to CCCs.
Replace long-standing provisional language concerning the funds for the Economic and
Workforce Development Program with a requirement that the Chancellor’s Office submit an
annual expenditure to the Department of Finance for approval (similar to SB 70).
The Governor’s proposal also includes some significant policy changes:
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A 5-year phase-in of funding apportionments on completion rather than on census date
enrollment. Unlike previous proposals, though, this is intended to be cost neutral, as districts
would have funding lost through the apportionment shifted to student support efforts such as
the Student Success and Support Program (formerly known as Matriculation).
A 90-unit cap for students. Under this proposal, no state support would be provided for students
that have exceeded 90 units. Students taking courses above the cap would be required to pay
the full cost of instruction, with some provision for case-by-case waivers.. Similar limits are
proposed for UC and CSU students.
Alter Part B BOG fee waivers to require students to complete a FAFSA and include the income of
both parents and the student to determine eligibility.
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