DRAFT
EL CAMINO COLLEGE
Planning & Budgeting Committee
Minutes
February 3, 2005
MEMBERS PRESENT
David Vakil, Chair
Thomas Jackson
Dawn Reid
Susan Taylor
Cheryl Shenefield
Melissa Smith, ASO
Harold Tyler
Lance Widman
OTHERS ATTENDING
Susan Dever – Alternate, ECCFT
Pam Fees – Staff Support
Ann Garten
Alex Kelley, Staff Support
Bill Mulrooney
Arvid Spor – Staff Support
Handouts
1. Community College Update, The “Deal” is Off, January 21, 2005
2. Community College Update, The Governor’s “Reform” Agenda, January 21, 2005
3. Community College Update, Legislative Analyst Critiques Governor’s Budget,
January 21, 2005
4. El Camino College Strategic Plan 2004-2007
5. Basic Skills Courses Information and Suggestions
6. El Camino College Precollegiate Basic Skills Courses, January 2005
7. El Camino College Basic Skills, January 2005
David Vakil called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m.
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 two corrections:
 Page 4, paragraph 2:
Equalization is not budgeted and probably will not be newly funded in 2005-2006.
Also, non-credit will not be credited at the same level as credit instruction.
ASO representative, Melissa Smith, introduced alternate member Billy Wilson who will be
attending PBC meetings in her place because of a conflicting schedule.
Minutes stand approved as corrected.
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Matrix Evaluations Continued
Minutes of the January meeting did a very good job of covering the discussion that was held. In
the interim, David Vakil has prepared a program to help. Instead of looking at each individual
item, examine the category subtotal scores. If all responses are at the same level, move on to the
next category. This method was tried with the $1 Schedule-of-Classes charge and was found to
be satisfactory based on the 5 responses.
Lance Widman stated that significant differences may be missed in the sub-total, but it was
pointed out that going through each of the 15 items individually would be very time consuming.
Page 2 of the 1/20/05 minutes could be used in discussion and to prepare presenters.
Follow-up to Recent Recommendations
On the February Board of Trustees agenda will be a health fee increase to $13 from $10. The
increase will partially offset the deficit spending that currently exists. While health services are
not available during the winter and summer sessions, PBC previously recommended that the
possibility be examined of charging during winter and summer sessions. Pat Caldwell and Vic
Hanson are exploring this. Even if the additional fees are charged, Dawn Reid stated that it
would not be enough to cover the costs of being open and this needs to be reviewed. It will need
to be determined where funding can be supplemented.
One of the Passed Recommendations at the January 20 meeting was a proposal to charge $1 for
the printed schedule of classes. This will also be on the February 22 Board agenda.
Basic Skills
The last recommendation PBC made was to audit basic skills classes. Audit of basic skills
courses was prepared by Ann Collette. Every class on campus is designated as 1 of 3 categories:
precollegiate basic skills, not-precollegiate basic skills, and not basic skills. Why is ECC low on
the basic skills? ECC has focused on creating degree-applicable courses rather than basic skills
courses. That is why other schools have more basic skills funding. (Non-degree applicable,
individual does not possess skills for college.) Precollegiate basic skills will assist students to be
able to take the precollegiate. ECC has classified classes as degree applicable and made
curriculum meet needs. Other schools have chosen not to classify courses as degree applicable.
Some suggestions include offering the following 2 kinds of courses, assuming they will be
sufficiently enrolled:
 Offer more sections of current basic skills courses, providing there is a demand.
 Create courses to prepare students to enter a specific discipline.
 Develop new courses that are non-degree applicable and that meet the definition of basic
skills.
 Create non-degree applicable courses for students.
 Reclassify courses that could be construed as basic skills from degree applicable to nondegree applicable.
Ann Collette felt it would not go over well with the faculty.
 Create parallel, non-degree applicable versions of courses that are currently degree
applicable.
Alex Kelley suggested that, before moving forward on anything like ESL, numbers are needed.
There would have to be careful follow-up on the impact to students. What would be marginal
gain in moneys relative to time and money? If the college wants to start pushing for this money,
there is a risk that the State may discontinue the funding.
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Enrollment for 2004-2005 & Advertising
Spring 2004 enrollment was 25,925 students. As of the February 1, 2005, Spring 2005
registration is 20,900. It is improbable that ECC will achieve the 2004 number again. The
District has up to Tuesday, February 8, plus the 2 weeks add period to grow. It is unlikely it will
grow to 25,924.
Non-resident applications processed in 2004 were 13,834. Non-resident applications on file as
of February 1, 2005, are 8,572. Application count has substantially dropped. Lower numbers
may be partially offset if students on campus take more classes. This is similar to other colleges
in the area. Last year, there were about 15-16,000 for the equivalent period in enrollment. One
difference was students registering exclusively for Spring. This year’s registration covered
Winter and Spring. More people are applying on line but the application count is still down.
The count is 13,900 for the number of students who had appointments for Spring and did not
register. Graduates could be included on the list of appointments. Hortense Cooper and the
Student Services team are making phone calls to the 13,900 students to find out why they did not
register. They have been able to speak with about 50% of the people that are called. PBC
members are interested in seeing the reasons given for not returning for registration.
Winter session enrollment is about 2.5 times higher than the last Winter session 2 years ago.
There are triple the number of sections offered.
Lance Widman would like to see an update of numbers and FTES. The budget is built on 19.900
FTES enrollment.
Alex Kelley suggested a task force be put together to look at retention. Offer more classes to
career students. Every year sees more continuing students lost.
It was mentioned that a survey done last year by Rod Fleeman indicated drops were largely
caused by conflicting work and school schedules. Alex Kelley suggested doing a survey of
students currently at ECC to find out what difficulties they are experiencing. Bill Mulrooney
said this campus needs a PACE program.
What services does ECC offer to working students?
Ann Garten is doing a new community survey, one was done 3 years ago. David Vakil reminded
everyone that one of the questions in the program review is examine time offer of classes and
examine time needs, schedule needs of the students. As program reviews are done, there may be
more data available. At some point there has to be an academic scheduler on the hire list. The
position has been combined with two other positions and it takes what deans are doing now and
centralizing it.
Pam Fees stated that Cabinet met with the President Fallo and went over priority positions. The
scheduler position was in the top priorities. This position will report to the vice president of
Academic Affairs.
It was suggested that students be asked to comment about why students are leaving. Student
leaders in the past three years are getting through ECC in 1½ years. One reason to drop was that
students could not afford books. One family with 3 students pooled their funds to afford to pay
for one of the three.
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If there is an attempt to survey, it cannot be done on-line or telephone as easily as in person.
Prior to on-line registration, there have been survey cards given out by cashiers. This is one
good place to get information collected.
Susie Dever stated that a retention task force is a good idea. Students who work on campus and
interact with faculty and groups have better retention. Students could possibly be assisted by a
mentor on campus, students on campus who have made it through the class.
Dawn Reid moved that ECC form a Persistance and Retention Task Force, seconded by Harold
Tyler.
Harold Tyler asked what is to be done to get it back once all the factors are known about being
down 1,700 FTES? Where are replacements?
Other colleges’ numbers are down in enrollment but FTES was up because students who were
there were able to get the classes they wanted. It is important for instructors to add students to
their classes. If one class reflects a large number of students attempting to add, consider opening
a new section to handle the overflow.
Retention is completing a semester. Persistence is reaching the goal of a degree. Lance Widman
suggested naming the task force Retention and Persistence. A decision on the task force will
come from the president and vice presidents. The motion to recommend the task force was
unanimous, no abstentions.
Advertising
Regarding advertising, Lance Widman said the market is like casting a net on water to capture as
many wriggling enrollees as possible, but some are not prepared for what they will encounter.
ECC is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in the current advertising. If ECC doesn’t
know what its available market is, why is the money being spent?
Is there any way to know how many students the advertising is bringing in? Is ECC spending
advertising money to keep students here? Try to ask Ann Garten back again to discuss
marketing?
Harold Tyler said that Pat Caldwell should also be involved in this discussion.
A new division of Enrollment Services is being set up, headed by Bo Morton. Ann Garten is not
related to the new division but should be working with the people involved. Give questions to
her in advance. PBC members can send questions to David Vakil to prepare the request for Ann
Garten. Pat Caldwell is in Cabinet and Cabinet generates what Ann Garten does.
The Education Committee is coming out against the Governor breaking his agreement to support
education. Two handouts were distributed. Read through the information and bring comments
to the February 17 meeting for discussion.
Ask Pat Caldwell to attend the next meeting for further discussion.
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Agenda Development
Approval of Minutes February 3, 2005 – All PBC Participants
2005-2006 Budget – Review of first principle apportionment - Pam Fees
This information was available last year on February 19. If it is available for 2005, it will be
shared at the next PBC.
Planning Retreat
An invitation was sent this morning to each person on PBC to attend the Planning Retreat on
March 4. Arvid Spor will speak about it at the February 17 meeting.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 2:30 p.m.
Recorder: Delores Buerger
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