EL CAMINO COLLEGE
PLANNING & BUDGET COMMITTEE
November 21, 2002
MEMBERS AND ALTERNATES PRESENT:
Bobbi Villalobos, Chair
Miriam Alario-Wolski
Susan Dever
Thomas Jackson
Bo Morton
Darren Peters, Student Representative
Bernie Rang
Cheryl Shenefield
Lance Widman
ALSO ATTENDING:
Pat Caldwell, Davida Clary, Steve Fasteau, Suzanne Gates, Victor Hanson, John Means
Bobbi Villalobos called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m.
1.
MINUTES
It was moved and seconded (Rang/Alario-Wolski) to approve the minutes of the November 7,
2002 meeting. The minutes were approved as submitted. Bobbi Villalobos stated that she is taking the PBC’s recommendation regarding the cost neutral winter session, voted on at the last meeting, to cabinet on Monday, November 25.
2. AREA BUDGET REPORTS
John Means, dean, community advancement, and Davida Clary, project specialist, Workplace
Learn Resource Center, gave the committee members an update on the Workplace Learning
Resource Center, including credit and not for credit training, contract services with local restaurants to provide customized training to their employees, and the ECC food service/cafeteria operations. John stated that the costs needed to change the cafeteria to an instructional program, including equipment purchases, were much more than expected. He said that despite the difficulties in the change, he is following the original plan—it’s just taking longer than expected to implement.
Davida Clary distributed a report showing the comparison of the first quarter of 2001-02 and
2002-03 fiscal years. Longer evening hours, improved customer service, and providing good food at a reasonable cost contributed to more than 20,000 customers being served in the cafeteria during the first quarter 2002-03. The cafeteria was closed during August 2002, which reflected a loss of revenue when compared to last year’s figures.
Other topics during the discussion included the advantages of having the cafeteria more centrally located, contract services with the South Bay Center for Counseling and the
Torrance Lomita Workforce Investment Network, the loss of the staff dining room to create an additional classroom, and future funding. John said that the program does have an advisory group. He said enrollment in the program is about 75 students and that he may propose adding more class sections to accommodate additional students. John explained that the largest source of funding for the culinary arts program was from the Job Development
Incentive Fund (JDIF), a two-year grant from the Chancellor’s Office that ends June 2003.
He added that ECC has reapplied for another grant.
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3. EDUCATIONAL MASTER PLAN UPDATE
Bobbi Villalobos reported that presentations regarding the Educational Master Plan update are being made to Area Councils, which are being asked to identify two team leaders to facilitate scanning and forecasting. Lucinda Aborn and Tony Christopherson volunteered to be the team leaders from Academic Affairs. Once leaders are identified from Student & Community
Advancement and Administrative Services, training will begin mid-December so the teams will be reading to begin once the spring semester has started. Steve Fasteau explained that each participant would review and share one article per week for six weeks. The committee discussed the advantages of having student input through a representative on each team. It was the consensus of the PBC that a fourth team comprised of students, with Darren Peters as the team leader, should be developed.
4. PROGRAM REVIEW UPDATE
Bernie Rang expressed the opinion that divisions for which no program review is on file should be the first to conduct program review. Pat Caldwell agreed and added that the unit planning guide provided by Steve Fasteau at the last meeting could be used in absence of a program review. Program review, along with the unit planning guides, concurrent with external scanning, will then be used to develop an educational master plan. Susan Dever proposed that current program review information be posted on Infonet for reference.
Suzanne Gates continued the discussion by reviewing responses from a survey of Academic
Affairs deans and directors that she used to determine themes and help define and review a new program review process for ECC. She said that the deans/directors agree that it is most important to look “outside” to see how their programs can change to meet the needs of the community rather than looking to the “inside” and assessing what is being done in the programs. She also said that the deans/directors agreed faculty should determine measures for assessing their programs, and that planning and budgeting should be aligned. She added that one concern of hers is that faculty members are under no contractual obligation to complete program reviews, and she suggested that they could possibly receive flex credit for participation. The next step will be to draft a model and establish a program review task force. Suzanne said that her work is focused on Academic Affairs but that some of the core elements may be able to be used campus wide.
5. BUDGET UPDATE
Vic Hanson distributed and reviewed a report from School Services of California regarding the increase in district contributions to PERS. He said that all indications from the
Legislative Analyst’s Office indicate that the budget shortages will not only affect 2002-03 but will continue to get worse in the next couple of years. He discussed other possible changes that may have negative impacts on the budget, including suspending or reducing
COLAs, deferring spending, raising tax rates, and the growing deficit factor. He defined deficit funding and explained that the state has the ability to cut back, through deficit funding, the amount each college will receive based on how much the State is able to pay. Vic added that some previous deficits have been partially restored 2-3 years later.
Vic said that he expected the PBC to make recommendations regarding funding and, possibly, cutting programs on campus. In order to avoid serious adjustments in programs for upcoming years, he suggested the PBC develop criteria on which to base budget requests.
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Lance Widman referred to a 3%/5% budget cut from approximately 1994 and requested that the criteria developed at that time be used as a starting point. The criteria from the current budget book, along with the criteria developed for the 3%/5% (if it can be found) will be sent to PBC members for their review prior to the next meeting. Lance felt a process needs to be established where areas have the opportunity to respond to any proposed cuts and provide background regarding extenuating circumstances.
6. AGENDA DEVELOPMENT
Development of criteria for planning/budgeting decisions
Environmental Report (or a version of it)
7. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 2:38 p.m.
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