Board Services meeting notes: May 8, 2008
Board Student Services Committee
May 8, 2008
Present: Trustees Abel Guillén, Nicky González Yuen, Linda Handy, Marlene Hurd, and
Reginald James, Tom Smith, Kerry Compton, Mario Rivas, Jeanette Dong, Sanjiv Handa,
Linnea Wren, Thomas Branca, Follett representative, Greg Kiryakakis, and Roxanne
Epstein.
The meeting was called to order at: 4:23 p.m.
The committee is frustrated that there is not full representation from all of the campuses.
Staff is asked to send a representative is they are unable to attend the meeting.
Minutes Trustee James attended last month’s meeting.
Student Health Care Coverage A Health services assessment draft was distributed and
discussed, which is attached. The purposes of the survey are to ascertain student needs
and fiscal planning. There may be possibilities to help defray the costs of the system if
students hold or are eligible for other insurance, for example. Two pre-tests will occur
shortly to see if the questions are asked correctly, and then the survey will be adjusted
accordingly. Suggestions from the committee were given. The survey will be conducted
in class in the Fall from a random sample of classes, is it thought. Dr. Sue is the research
expert on this project. The committee wants to ensure that the researcher is familiar with
the unique attributes of the community college student, and to sample our entire student
population, such as night and weekend students.
Text Book Affordability and Presentation by Follett A presentation was given by Greg
Kiryakakis, which is attached. He also brought with him $16,000 in the form of $10,000
for the Foundation and $6,000 in gift cards. Thank you Follett! Peralta has received the
cards before, but there was no process to distribute the cards before. Tom has been
working with Alton on a future process. Follett is also interested in receiving more used
books in their inventory, as it makes economic sense to them. Greg shared that faculty
need to give accurate information about what books are required to Follett, also, as
students get angry when they sell back a required book that was not used. If the faculty
disclose their book list at an earlier date, then students can get more money back on that
book at a used book rate. Publisher bundles can’t be purchased by students at the used
book rate. Financial Aid transactions can be applied directly at the bookstores, which online vendors can’t do. It is planned to hook-up our Financial Aid system to this part of
Follett’s system in the future. The gift cards can be set-up so that they are only used for
specific classroom textbooks and not general merchandise, and the committee wants to
ensure that the card isn’t sold to others. This can be done if Follett is given the names of
the recipients, the dollar amounts, and any other criteria can be established. Follett wants
to educate the faculty, students, and Follett staff with information about the advantages of
buy-backs and used books. The adoption date target, the deadline for providing the next
class booklist, isn’t being hit by our faculty. Follett needs to attend faculty meetings to
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Board Services meeting notes: May 8, 2008
address this. A bookstore advisory committee will be established with faculty and
students to open up this dialogue.
It was asked when faculty order books if they can be given the price and some
comparables at that time. Comparables are not given. Reports can be sent to a
chairperson with the prices, but it is not readily available. The faculty side of the website
shows some publisher information where some pricing could be available. Follett is
working on such a system as they upgrade their system to provide this information. It is
very useful information for faculty to have. The issue of open stacks system is a big
problem with Follett. Open stacks is a campus-by-campus decision. The committee
finds this current process intolerable and insulting. Follett is actively pursing this with
different possible store designs and marketing ideas. The committee recommends that
this be addressed within the year, or they would consider ending the contract based upon
this issue alone. The District administration is also working on this issue.
The Foundation is working on a process for the cards to be distributed to the most needy
students. The committee asks for an accounting of how past cards were distributed to
whom and how. Tips to faculty are to provide timely adoption information, and to use
the same book. There is also the option to take a core class, such as English, and to enter
into a two year contract, knowing the same book will be re-adopted for that period to
ensure that the same textbook is used. The commission to the Associated Student
Government is a percentage of the total gross sales received, which has been $330,000
through March 1st.
Committee Charter A draft was distributed for future discussion, and it is attached. It is
suggested that the committee is staffed by the Vice Chancellor for Educational Services
or designee.
Passport Student Registration The committee has received several reports about the
frustrations associated with the new system. The committee is frustrated that Howard
Perdue does not attend this committee meeting. Once the person called back, they were
very helpful. The Trustees don’t feel that the system works. The committee suggests
that people try to use the system. There is a concern that this may be affecting our
enrollment numbers with no paper or phone options. It was felt that our enrollment
numbers are fine. Why did we pull the paper and the phone? Why is no one here to
answer these questions? It is unacceptable that others are not here. Perhaps it needs to be
on a Board meeting agenda item. On the campuses welcome centers, there is an increase
in the hourly clerks and student ambassadors on the campuses. Maybe the command
center needs to be reactivated at this time. This will be added to the Board agenda for
Howard to give a report to specifically to answer these questions and IT. How can we get
students to move through Passport if it’s not working. Maybe there needs to be a paper
back-up system to help these people through now.
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Board Services meeting notes: May 8, 2008
Student Equity Reports Update Alameda – completed the narrative data for the 5
indicators. They had a meeting on the acitivities, and they have further work to do on
this. A report could be done. It has not been requested by the State Chancellor’s office.
An update/evaluation could be done from the 2005 report. BCC is also ready. The
district research office is also changing, so this would be a good time to get a common
reporting structure. VPStudent Services responsible? It would be nice to have both the
VP of instruction and VPSS doing it together, or the college President. Laney College
was previously rejected. Bring the current report and a status report on wherever you are,
and provide it ahead of time. Tell other colleagues about this. There is the need to have
this be a document that we actually use and not just sent to the state. It would be good to
see what common overlap areas are being discovered in the reports.
The meeting was adjourned at: 5:51 p.m.
The next meeting will be held on June.
Respectfully submitted,
Roxanne Epstein
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