E
S
D IVISION C OUNCIL M EETING
D ATE : S EPTEMBER 9, 2011
C HAIRPERSON : Arvid Spor
MEMBERS PRESENT : Breanna Anderson, Liz Fernandez, Lorena Garcia, Julieta Ortiz,
R ECORDER : Lucy Nelson
The meeting began at 9:00 a.m.
The committee was reminded of the Division Council meeting format of reporting department news through the Division Council monthly newsletter and for members to send their October news to L. Nelson by October 3 rd .
Review May 13, 2011 Minutes
1.
Correction: remove Julieta Ortiz from list of members present.
2.
Updates: a.
Vinyl stripes signage was installed in the Student Services Center second floor hallways. Vendor was contacted and scheduled to return Friday to repair areas that were already peeling and to add CARE to the CalWORKs stripe. The total cost is just under $5,000 (includes installation and tax) which will be paid by the Foundation.
Special adhesive was used. Signage for Outreach, the Enrollment Services Division office, and Financial Aid lab was not included. b.
Foster Care will transfer back to the Community Advancement division and move to the Community Education bungalow. Outreach will be moving from the Cherry Tree offices to SSVC 206.
3.
The minutes were approved as amended.
Accreditation/Budget/Partnership
1.
The ECC Accreditation midterm report is due to the Accreditation Commission by October
15 th
. This report will reflect the College’s planning, program reviews, and SLOs and will include Compton Center’s fiscal issues and other concerns. College budgets must be board approved by September 15 th
. Because of errors in their budget, Compton requested an extension from the Chancellor’s office. Vice Chancellor in charge of fiscal services and another Chancellor’s Office representative visited the Compton Center last week.
2.
President Fallo sent a letter in June to Chancellor Scott and Special Trustee Hudley-Hayes indicating ECC would end the partnership with Compton within the next six months if certain changes did not occur. Primary issues include fiscal decisions made by the Special
Trustee without ECC’s input and the Center continually not meeting the rule requiring 50% of expenditures to be spent directly on instruction. September 13 th
is the deadline to receive a response from the Chancellor’s Office. December 15 th
would be the last day of the partnership if it were to end. The desire is for the partnership to continue. Uncertain how mid-term report with the Compton piece will affect ECC’s accreditation, but it would give
ECC another reason to end partnership if it put ECC on warning.
3.
Board of Trustees voted to approve ECC’s 2011-12 final budget after removing $975,000 negotiable line item pertaining to a salary and benefits savings. Removing an amount changes the budget, so the approved budget was off by $975,000 – official outcome not yet

known. Estimated $22 million (22%) in reserves. Minimum of $6 million in reserves is required which leaves a $16 million cushion to protect against potential mid-year cuts and delayed payments from the State. The economy is not expected to improve for years and a higher reserve would allow flexibility in a number of situations. Expect 2%-2.3% mid-year cuts requiring more cuts to sections. Fee increases may be implemented next summer.
Ease/School’s First
1.
LACOE’s EASE program for district employees and their families offer a list of services. Is
Downey the closest office? Office hours and distance is not convenient for employees to travel after work. Counselors may be available locally. A. Spor will follow-up to question asked about employees having to use sick time to meet with EASE counselors for workrelated problems.
2.
Information about SchoolsFirst Credit Union’s programs and services was handed out.
Services include pretax retirement savings, loans, etc.
Group Reports
Financial Aid – L. Fernandez
1.
Students who have been packaged will receive an award letter online letting them know, if eligible, when they can pick up loan packets.
2.
Thousands of Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) notifications were emailed to students not meeting satisfactory academic standards. Students are waiting in line to get the appeal forms (not printing themselves) and to schedule counseling appointments (booked two weeks ahead). Not many appointments available with three counselors, so sending students in
EOP&S and FYE programs to see their counselors for lock-in lists. Students in line are given the option to call for appointments. SAP students are given policies brochures and questionnaire with their SAP appeal notification. The policy of booking counseling appointments two weeks in advance was just implemented by Counseling for financial aid counselors, so students have not been notified in advance of the change. Why only book counseling appointments two weeks in advance? This could be the cause of long lines in
Counseling on Monday mornings. The idea to implement group SAP sessions with the financial aid counselors did not materialize. Suggestion was made to create book marks to inform students about alternatives for booking counseling appointments. Ideally, students should see financial aid counselors for their lock-in lists and others counselors for ed plans.
There are not enough available lock-in list appointments for SAP students.
3.
Students must indicate on their FAFSA application the high school they graduated by selecting the city/state of their high school from a drop down list. This brings up the high school list for that city/state. But if they manually type in the name of the high school, it shows up as an invalid high school and flags the student as ATB. The Testing office has seen an increase in the number of students requesting the ATB test. The Financial Aid office is working to condense instructions for students on how they can correct the error. Options for students include: 1) fixing their FAFSA, 2) bringing to the Financial Aid office their high school diploma or academic transcripts indicating they graduated, 3) taking the ATB test, or
4) having the ATB requirement waived by a counselor if the student has six or more college degree applicable credits. To prevent students from taking the ATB test unnecessarily,
Testing must ask them if they are high school graduates. Students who graduated from a foreign high school must take the ATB test or have their transcripts evaluated through an evaluation service. Once students bring ATB passing score to Financial Aid and their file is complete, disbursement can occur approximately six to eight weeks after.
4.
Card readers are used at the front counter to bring up student’s Datatel records. Problem: record does not close when next student swipes in. Card reader currently works with Datatel
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but not SARS – Financial Aid is working with Counseling to resolve this. Will eventually request all students to use their ID cards to swipe in.
5.
Upcoming disbursement dates: September 2, 16 and 23; October 21 or 23. Dates alternate with Compton disbursements.
6.
During peak periods, Hoang Linh Nguyen staffs the financial aid lab taking in fee waivers and SAP appeals only. This allows the financial aid assistants to remain in the office.
7.
Staff news: Rutina Taylor has new 6 lb 11oz. baby daughter, Lauren. Linda Detwiler is engaged and the wedding is scheduled in March 2012. Linda Gallucci and Michelle Arthur have made a positive impact in the financial aid office.
Outreach & School Relations – J. Ortiz
1.
Eight fall high school classes are offered, three of which are contract classes. Roster issues continues from classes taught in fall 2010 and spring 2011.
2.
There are 9,822 interested students in the prospect database who signed up online.
Departments are sent prospect information of students interested in their programs. Outreach uses the database to contact students from district high schools. The database is purged of students who have registered, or have been in the database more than two years with no activity. Contact Robin Dreizler if your program wishes to use this database.
3.
High school list serve consists of almost 300 high school counselors and administrators.
Contact R. Dreizler if your department has information/notification to distribute through this list serve.
4.
There are 33 student ambassadors for 2011-12. Twelve are federal work study students providing thousands of hours of Outreach throughout the year; five of the twelve work at the
Information Desk.
5.
Six tables were set up on campus during Welcome Week. Two students dressed in caps and gowns reminded students the importance of seeing counselors and being on track for graduation. Students in caps and gowns will also walk the campus during the first few days of winter session.
6.
Outreach office will move from the Cherry Tree offices to SSVC 206 by the end of
September.
Student Development – B. Anderson
1.
The Student Development office was remodeled with new desks and door. The East lounge was opened again for student use. Some old desks and chairs will be moved to the area. New furniture for student use in the east lounge is on the Foundation’s fundraising list.
2.
ASO and ICC participated in “Ropes Course” team building activity at UCLA.
3.
Forty-three clubs requested tables for next week’s Club Rush next.
Testing – L. Garcia
1.
ATB issues – L. Fernandez will provide Testing with the revised ATB ½ sheet instructions for students. ATB appointments are scheduled through mid-September. Problems with no shows; students are encouraged to call if they have to cancel. ATB tests are computerized, given 2-3 times a week, and last 1 ½ - 2 hours.
The meeting adjourned at 10:30 a.m. The next meeting is scheduled on October 14, 2011.
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