EL CAMINO COLLEGE
Planning & Budgeting Committee
Minutes
February 17, 2005
MEMBERS PRESENT
David Vakil, Chair
Miriam Alario
Dawn Reid
Susan Taylor
OTHERS ATTENDING
Patricia Caldwell – Staff Support
Carolee Casper – Alternate, ECCE
Susan Dever – Alternate, ECCFT
Cheryl Shenefield
Harold Tyler
Lance Widman
Ann Garten
Alex Kelley
Bill Mulrooney
David Vakil called the meeting to order at 1:05pm.
Note: David Vakil will ensure that all handouts are provided to committee members who may
be absent. Information will be sent either electronically or via campus mail. It was further
suggested that presenters provide an electronic version of material to the chair of PBC and the
information can then be sent to committee members electronically.
Approval of Minutes
The Minutes of February 3, 2005, were approved with the following corrections:
Page 3 – survey done several years ago by Rod Fleeman….
Lance Widman asked when PBC would receive survey results on the 13,900 students with
Spring semester appointments who did not register and what reasons were given. Pat Caldwell,
Hortense Cooper, and Robin Dreizler are working on a report. Satish Warrier is preparing a list
of students to compare the list of students now enrolled to make comparisons and see how
many enrollments the survey helped generate.
Lance Widman reported that some colleges offer a program for accelerated college education,
an intensive 2-year program for liberal arts or business or both. Students have 2-year schedules
already planned out, know in advance what classes are offered, and what courses they would
take. Classes were held one day a week and every Saturday.
Pat Caldwell had questions about the minutes. In some places it appears there are
misstatements about enrollment and advertising. It is more likely misreported than misstated.
The Spring enrollment is 25,925. About 2,700 additional students enrolled during add period
last Spring. Many continuing students have learned it is easier to wait and register in the add
period. Miriam Alario said she tried several times to register on line without success. Spring
2005, on the third day of the add period compared to 2004, the adjusted seats taken were at
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100% but FTES is down. It appears students are taking less units even though more students
enrolled.
Lance Widman asked about an update on FTES enrollment. Pat Caldwell said there will be one
coming.
A survey was done several years ago at cashier windows when student dropped. This was
stopped because it was not that helpful. Most reasons had to do with conflicts, family or
personal reasons. The survey was voluntary and not everyone filled it out.
Cheryl Shenefield said classes are dropped because students’ work schedules are changing.
Taking on-line classes can be resolve this.
Miriam Alario suggested giving a list of on-line classes that can be taken at any time and
hopefully reduce the number of drops from classes.
Pat Caldwell referred to the academic scheduler position. This is a new position that will be
housed in the office of the Vice President of Academic Affairs. It is primarily a room
scheduler, not building scheduler. Assignment of rooms will be done by this person. It will
make more efficient use of rooms to schedule more classes at desired times. The position will
incorporate parts of the position that audits faculty contracts, teacher load summaries, and doing
the 320 report (attendance accounting that the college reports to the State that gives FTES
generation and apportionment.
Lance Widman said the whole purpose of scheduling classes is to meet the needs of students.
Question always comes up, minimum 40% of students work at least 20 hours a week. M-W-F
and T-Th is not conducive to student work schedules. Santa Monica Colleges does block
scheduling, L.A. is moving toward it. Should this discussion take place? It is understood that
Jim Schwartz wants to have this discussion in the deans’ meetings. Possibly move in the
direction of half time on campus and half time on line, same with ITV.
Pat Caldwell referred to page 4 of the minutes, the name of the new division set up by
Bo Morton is not correct. It should read Center of International Education. Bo will report to
Pat Caldwell.
Disseminating the Strategic Plan
Hortense Cooper has worked with Arvid Spor regarding outreach and has put money into
advertising. Ann Garten is working on it.
Page 4, Education Committee should read Education Coalition.
Ann Garten reported a marketing plan was developed and each year it is reviewed and updated.
Research drives marketing. The college will be doing another community survey.
ECC is trying to reach residents of all ages within the district as well as surrounding current
middle and high school students and their families, alumnae, government services, etc.
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Twice a year, once each semester, an ECC newsletter promoting financial aid and honors
transfers is mailed to the homes of parents of high school seniors and to high school counselors.
A community newsletter mailing is sent to all district residents, once each semester. Additional
copies are distributed at high schools, South Bay adult schools, community education classless,
libraries, and doctors’ offices. ECC registration postcards are mailed prior to Spring to all
district residents. This Spring, 50-60,000 names outside of the district were added to the
mailing.
Advertising and Enrollment
Advertising for Summer and Fall 2004 and Winter and Spring 2005 was put in the Daily
Breeze, Easy Reader, Beach Reporter, L.A. Weekly, Argonaut, …
Newspapers have different demographic markets. L.A. Weekly tends to go to younger readers.
In general 23 and above is the designated age audience.
Advertising spots are shown in local Pacific Theaters, AMC Rolling Hills and Redondo Beach,
Palos Verdes Peninsula, and some in Culver City and Marina Del Rey this semester. Some
theaters now have ability for 30-second spots. Cable advertising and movie theaters primarily
target 20-34 age group.
ECC advertises in L.A.’s number two top radio stations. Started with Fall semester, also did
Winter this year. Power 106 targets ages 12-40.
Advertising covers multiple activities and ages. Local “free” newspaper advertising targets the
23+ audiences. Movies target the 14-50 ages, and radio targets the 12-40 age group.
ECC buys ads in high school sports programs for the inside back cover to target high school
students and their parents. Ann Garten is working to get a contact person at each high school to
have ECC included in all programs. PBC wants to know the costs to do this.
ECC had advertised with community organizations as appropriate and sometimes participates in
community events.
Other marketing efforts include inserting appropriate ECC fliers in Chamber newsletters, and
information on the ECC web site. Public Information has a CD Rom available that targets
middle and high school students. There is also a CD case with the ECC logo being sold at high
schools. Lynnda Nelson puts the money into the Auxiliary Services fund for use in newsletters,
PSA, and local cable programs,
President Fallo does interviews and goes to different service organizations to speak about ECC
throughout the year, usually giving an overview and update on the college.
Surveys are recommended being done every 3 years.
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Ann Garten received information from questions on a bond survey that helped in revising and
updating marketing information.
Lance asked how the international student program measures success in recruiting and in the
outreach program. Ann Garten said that an advertising test was done earlier this semester with
postcards and she received a lot of response. Radio ads were then done and received more
feedback. It is important to look at demographics, ages, and survey information.
Bill Mulrooney said that last year saw an increase of new applications but that previously the
college has been seeing a drop in applications. The advertising campaigns have been the reason
for the surge of enrollments. Everyone in the state appears to be experiencing a decline in
enrollment applications. The increase in fees is a factor. Historically that is the assumption
people will make. When fees go up, enrollment suffers.
Ann Garten said this year, because anticipating a fee increase would impact enrollments, they
did a very strong summer ad campaign. Once a decline starts, it is hard to get it to stop. The
college spent more money this year for the winter session to let people know it was offered.
A good job is being done to get students in, but the college is not doing well in keeping them
here. Orientation should include asking students how they heard about ECC. This type of
survey could be done if a student applies in person but it would be a problem to try to get the
information on line. If students are given multiple choices they will take the first remembrance
which is not necessarily accurate.
Susan Taylor wants some information about what ECC is spending on advertising and what the
college is getting for it.
Pat Caldwell said the committee has to understand that there are lots of reasons why a student
attends ECC. Alex suggested designing a student survey that covers individual areas and goes
into classes. It is about time to do an attendance satisfaction survey again because accreditation
is not that far off.
There is a lot of aggressive competition out there for students. Ann Garten said she is open to
advertising with other radio stations, but radio is very expensive. Her research has shown that
the target audiences are reached by the current stations, KROC and POWR 106, which cover
multiple ethnicity and ages.
Some of the outreach advertising done goes toward the older students. Radio is most expensive
advertising. Santa Monica and Pasadena Colleges have their own radio stations. L.A does a lot
of billboards. It was also suggested using the local theaters for advertising.
Ann Garten said everyone advertises in their equivalent of the Daily Breeze, their own local
papers. Pat Caldwell said it is not known if other colleges’ advertising is working for them, all
that is being said is that their registration enrollments are down. Current residents know ECC’s
reputation but it is necessary to get the information to new people moving into the district.
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If ECC had a specific department to do advertising research, more detailed surveys could be
done.
Alex Kelley suggested advertising in the Long Beach Press Telegram to reach students in
Carson. Ann Garten said this area was included in postcard mailings out of the district to high
school seniors. Some schools will not release their mailing lists of students. Outreach also
targets middle school students and summer programs.
Miriam Alario asked how far forward are the college is looking in terms of research, is it for the
immediate or trends of demographics 5 years ahead? The community survey is to get a feeling
for offering the right types of programs. Where do people get their information? Information is
received within the district, extensive demographics were for the master plan. The State
Department of Finance and their demographics unit on projections expect ECC to have an
enrollment of 40,000 on this campus in 2020. ECC cannot absorb this volume. The Master
plan talks about looking at more off-campus sites or looking at creating an educational center in
another location. The Board has traditionally said ECC will never be a multi-campus district,
but this may be subject to change.
Students should be encouraged to come to ECC. A staff member reported his high-achiever son
was being discouraged by the high school counselor from attending ECC. He told his son that
every dollar saved by attending ECC would go into a savings for transferring to a university.
Alex Kelley suggested parents be reacquainted with the cost savings of ECC against the 4-year
college’s expenses and that goals be given to students for four-year institutions. Parents and
students have “four-year mentality”, and ad campaigns are built around this. It has been
reported that ECC ads are stale and the same ads over and over.
Update on Retention and Persistence
Pat Caldwell reported there are many recent things happening for retention and persistence. A
few weeks ago Bill Mulrooney brought to a meeting of Student and Community Advancement
managers the number of students on probation or academic discipline. There are approximately
3,000 every year. Dismissal workshops are put on like orientations that students should have
had as new students. They are to acquaint students with student support groups available, and
also to work with students one-on-one. Many students never saw a counselor or had a plan.
There is tutoring all over campus that is highly successful, but not all students avail themselves
of the services. The college is in the process of stepping up efforts to encourage use of the
programs.
SCA is looking at doing more in the way of orientations to improve information that goes to
students before they get into trouble. They are in the process of putting together their own task
force for research. A suggestion was to have a SARS appointment system to track how many
students are on the list who never saw a counselor or had a plan. Have a program to call
students, and to reinstate and enlarge the early alert system so faculty members can let SCA
know when students are having a problem. David Vakil stated this needs to be sold to the
faculty. A study directed by EOPS shows students need to work with faculty, a form in the
mailbox does not do it. The matriculation plan has to have an orientation plan in it.
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Harold Tyler said that, prior to technology, he worked with registration and the first stop was a
counselor with 30-45 minutes orientation to get support information. Fifteen minutes was
presentations, then the student talked with a counselor and worked out an education plan. The
more the college has gotten away from the individual contacts, the more failure problems are
being faced. It cannot be information handled to students, personal intervention is necessary.
Legislation will not allow making orientation mandatory, and the colleges do not have the
manpower.
Robin Dreizler and staff will be using on-line orientation in high schools for seniors with hardcopy orientation materials, to be held in a computer lab with Robin there. Materials include a
welcome to ECC booklet that is mailed out to everybody who applies to ECC. There must be a
budget determined for this. David Vakil said this is the purpose of the committee. ECC
already has CD’s that can be mailed to all on the mailing list. David Vakil suggested sending it
to everyone who registers at ECC. Dawn Reid suggested playing it on campus where people
are standing in line.
Pat Caldwell looked at retention documentation produced by Mike Wilson. ECC has about
80% retention per class sections, compared to other schools. ECC had this information at the
planning summit presented last year.
Pat Caldwell said it is in the faculty contract that success and retention are to be discussed at
each faculty member’s review.
The search for a Direction of Research and Planning has not been successful. The position was
advertised a second time and the same four applications were received. Of the four, only two
were marginally qualified. Possibly the few applicants are because the director has no staff.
Once the infrastructure is in place, the college may get a better pool.
Miriam Alario suggested ECC make assumption that students drop out for personal reasons, do
alternate sections, rearrange schedules, find outside source to deal with family problems. Look
at what student support services can be added to keep students in classes. Frequently personal
reasons can seem overwhelming.
Harold Tyler will send out survey copies. Don Goldberg is working with his faculty to get
them to buy into it.
Agenda Development
Approval of Minutes February 17, 2005 – All PBC Participants
David Vakil asked what kinds of things are there to follow up in the future:
Center for International Education
PACE
Starting to review Q Builder
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Where ECC is now compared to the goals established a few months ago.
What the committee wants.
The timing needs to be right for Q Builder.
Action plans for 2005-06 are asked for in March.
PBC is supposed to have a report back from Leo Middleton with recommendation in January
with a February time frame. This was brought to the vice presidents on February 17.
Regarding PACE, David Vakil will speak with Pat Caldwell about PACE.
FTES Report
Budget for Advertising
Recommendation that some research be done, follow up,
Effect of advertising dollars
Retention
Add COGNOS live on screen, Alex and Satish 3/3/05
Auxiliary budget put in Q Builder
Stats and reports on Portal
Registration
COGNOS for FTES
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 2:40 p.m.
Recorder: Delores Buerger
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