OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR
50 PHELAN AVENUE BOX E200SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112 415) 239-3303  FAX (415) 239-3918
MEMORANDUM
Date:
July 21, 2006
To:
College Faculty and Staff
From:
Dr. Philip R. Day, Jr.,
Chancellor
Re:
MID-SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS 2006
Once again, I write to you from my home state of Maine where Val and I are wrapping
up the last few days of our annual vacation...we leave on the 26th to travel back to San
Francisco and will be at work on the 27th. It has been a bit of a whirlwind this summer
and I can’t really believe that it is almost all over….and that I am sitting here in the early
a.m. writing my 9th mid-summer highlight report to the college community. You should
know—and I am almost embarrassed to admit this—but I am creating this letter via the
computer and a word document for the first time “IN MY LIFE!!!” It is not that I
couldn’t or was not able to do my writing this way—it is just that I never have and
depending on how this goes—I might never again attempt such a fete. I have alwaysparticularly with communications that are most important, preferred to write things out
by long-hand (those Catholic Nuns who taught me my penmanship would be so proud!!),
and then I would give a copy of my work to Letha or Aly and they would put it all in the
computer for me. Val has scolded me often about the waste of time and talent and that I
should discipline myself to accommodate the realities and potential of technology. So
alas, here I am venturing forth on my first attempt…note that it took me what I feel is an
extraordinary long time to just get the heading correctly put together. So, now that I have
let you know of one of my serious constraints, let me share with you some highlights of
the summer.
First, on a more personal side, I hope that all of you are finding the time and space to get
some downtime, particularly after the year that we have just completed. It is so
important to take the time, get out of the work situation and attend to things that are also
important—family, relatives, personal odds and ends, etc. It allows us all to recharge our
batteries, develop perspective, and find some balance with our lives. So, if you haven’t
already done so…you should and when you do please enjoy.
As for us, it has been a great month of July. Per my usual itinerary, I came up a bit
earlier than Val who had to stay behind until the 8th to focus on her Registration duties at
USF. So I came up on the 4th (great traveling day by the way), and went directly to our
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
DR. NATALIE BERG, PRESIDENT JOHNNIE L. CARTER, JR., VICE PRESIDENT DR. ANITA GRIER MILTON MARKS
JULIO J. RAMOS, ESQ. RODEL E. RODIS LAWRENCE WONG, ESQ DERICK BROWN, STUDENT TRUSTEE
DR. PHILIP R. DAY, JR., CHANCELLOR
kids house in Holden, Massachusetts. So in effect, I had a four day head start on
absolutely mixing it up with our grand-children (Tyler David now almost 2 years old, and
Colby Dean now at 3 months). Believe it or not—and I am absolutely telling you the
truth—I have read Dr. Seuss’s “THE LORAX” to Tyler at least 50 times. I can’t hold his
attention long enough to read it word for word so I have to do a bit of storytelling by the
pictures and paraphrasing, with considerable flair I might add. The amazing thing about
it is that he really has got the whole concept and meaning of the book….he can
distinguish between the Lorax, Mr. Onceler, the Lerkim behind which he hides and all of
the other characters, animals and themes in the book. Most importantly, he loves it and
constantly follows me around in the house saying, “Grandpa Pill—read book!! Lorax!!”.
As far as Colby is concerned he does what every 3 month old does, smiles a lot, feeds a
lot and seems to be quite content looking at his brother and I getting such a bang out of
reading a book.
Between the 4th and the 8th, our son Todd and I engaged in our usual “mano on mano”
golf contest by getting up at 4:30 every day and going to the golf course where he works
in the summer. We play 18 holes of golf, keep the scores and then at the end of the
vacation, see who has bragging rights for the rest of the year. Our other son Nathan
couldn’t make it this time but he and I went at it a couple of times while he and his
girlfriend visited Val and I in Maine. You’ll be happy to know that your Chancellor still
retains his title of “best golfer in the family,” at least for another year. I figure that I have
only a couple years to hold on to that honor unless something gets in the way with their
progress—grad school and/or work. I intend to enjoy it as long as I can cutting them no
slack at all on the course. And the answer is “Yes!,” I have already bought Tyler a small
set of plastic golf clubs and some large golf balls to practice with so he can participate in
the annual event a few years down the road.
Val and I actually didn’t arrive in Maine until the 9th and it was none too early. We got
hit with a very serious heat-wave in the Northeast so it was good to be at our place on
Fish House Cove in West Point (Phippsburg), Maine. The temp was a significant 20
degrees difference from the rest of the region. The kids came with us and we have been
having a great time...although they have all gone back to Massachusetts and Val and I
have the place to ourselves for the remainder of our stay. The weather has been just
right and we have had about as much lobster, clams, and Maine scallops that we can
stand...although we will celebrate our departure with one last seafood dinner. They keep
making life easier for us in this area…they have finally located an Amato’s Italian
Sandwich Shop in Bath which is our nearest town/city—about 20 miles away. And the
sandwiches are every bit as good as the place where we usually stop on Route 1 in
Brunswick. We are trying to do the best we can to not totally blow our diets and to stay
in shape—golf, tennis, and long-walks/runs, but it is a challenge for Val and I not to go
overboard. So far, so good…the real test is when you try on those clothes that you keep
in Maine that you haven’t tried on for a year and then reality can sink in if you’re not too
careful. Like I said, so far so good!!
Well, I should probably get off this personal stuff and fill you in on a few things that have
happened since June. I am going to try and be very brief and the areas I would like to
highlight are as follows:
ACCREDITATION
BUDGET/LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
ENROLLMENT
PERSONNEL
Let’s start with ACCREDITATION—you’ll be happy to know that WASC held their
June Meeting and not surprisingly, they granted us a full RE-AFFIRMATION OF OUR
ACCREDITATION STATUS. Cheers and congratulations to all of those who were
involved including the Steering Committee members and the many faculty, staff and
students that participated. Thanks also to Dr. Bob Gabriner and his staff for their
leadership and follow-through with all of the logistical and organizational issues that
needed to be addressed throughout the 18-24 months of the self-study process. We
should all take pride in the very clear reaffirmation of our excellent institution—
referenced as one of the best post-secondary institutions in the country by the President of
the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (WASC) in an earlier
communication. We will have to do our usual Mid-term report in 2009 and they have
requested a status report on our Financial Planning issues by March 15, 2007. This is
getting to be a standard request because of matters related to state funding, the high cost
of employee health and retirement benefits, and the associated long-term liabilities. This
further relates to the new Federal accounting standard (GASB 45) which requires
institutions like ours (and others in the private and public sector) to “account for” the
funds necessary to offset the long-term costs associated with the payout of vacation, sick
leave, retirement and health benefits. We are ahead of the curve on this by virtue of us
retaining an actuarial accountant who has done a study of our situation and by next year
we will have to submit a plan to our auditors on this matter anyway. That along with our
on-going Budget Review and Recommendation Process that is taking place under the
watchful eye of the Planning and Budgeting Council, puts us in very great shape to have
something to say to WASC next year.
In terms of a BUDGET/LEGISLATIVE UPDATE, for the first time in the past six
years, the Governor and the State Legislature reached agreement on a final state budget
for the new fiscal year before July 1st. Highlights of the final 2006-07 budget include:
1. Student enrollment fees will DECREASE (hallelujah!!) from $26 per unit to $20
per unit beginning with the Spring 2007 Semester.
2. A COLA of 5.92% provides City College with about $8.18 million in new
funding.
3. We have had a historic breakthrough (FINALLY!!) in funding for non-credit
instruction, with a $30 million statewide allocation for enhancing apportionment
for most areas of non-credit. This should provide City College with at least $4
million in new funding, and opens the door for additional installments in future
years. These funds go directly into our base.
4. A “final installment” of $159 million in credit equalization funding that will bring
all community colleges up to the 90th percentile of the state standard for funding.
For the first time, City College will receive a share of this funding, approximately
$1.7 million.
5. A one-time block grant of $100 million for “general purposes” and a $94 million
one-time block grant for instructional equipment and scheduled maintenance has
been made available also to the state community colleges. City College’s
combined share of these grants (one-time, not added to base) should total nearly
$5.6 million.
While the final state budget was by far the best the California Colleges have seen in
years, the work is not yet done. We still need the Legislature to enact and the Governor
to sign, SB 361, the legislation required to activate both non-credit enhancement funding
and credit equalization. In addition, specific rules need to be created to specify which
non-credit courses will qualify for the improved funding—an effort that has started
already and will be hopefully consummated by the September Board meeting of the
Statewide Community College Board. As you might expect our Dean of Governmental
Affairs, Leslie Smith (a hero to us all and to the state non-credit community) and I will be
VERY DIRECTLY involved in both of these efforts. We are very optimistic about the
outcome—the work done to date by our advocacy team of Leslie, Dale Shimasaki, Peter
Goldstein, Former Sen. Jim Brulte (who helped us directly with the Governor’s inner
circle of advisors) and John Whitehurst/Trustee Johnnie Carter (both of whom helped us
get an unprecedented level of support from Senate Pro Tem, Don Perata) and myself,
gives me a real sense of confidence that this will all get done in a manner that favors our
situation and will also prepare us for the work ahead with the Governor and Legislature
on the 07/08 Budget.
The above situation that I have described benefits the college’s own budget for 2006-07
in a very significant way. First, as you have probably already noticed, all college
employees will be receiving their largest across the board salary increase in recent years.
Special note of appreciation has to be extended to the leadership of AFT 2121, SEIU 790,
The Trades, the DCC, and Administrators Council for working with us in a collaborative
way to get what we need to treat all employees fairly and at the same time recognize that
this is just one year and we need to be mindful that next year may not be quite as good a
year. Effective communication, trust, confidence, and patience got us through the year
and those same attributes will guide us in the future. Secondly, the one-time funding we
are receiving from the state will allow us to restore some of our reserve to offset what we
withdrew last year, about $2 million.
All in all, it was a banner year for City College as far as generating much needed and
long-overdue funding from the state. The situation regarding the significant reduction in
fees for tuition will benefit our students enormously and will help keep the “door open”
and serve as a hedge against other cost increases that are directly impacting them (and all
of us).
On the matter related to ENROLLMENT, while we did not achieve our enrollment
objectives for 05/06 because of a significant and unexpected drop in the Spring Semester
enrollment, we feel we are in a good position to achieve our objectives and enrollment
cap for next year. We think that the significant drop in the Spring enrollment was related
to the economy which has been charging along and employing many, many people which
impacts on those folks being able to take classes. Most importantly, the significant
increase in fuel costs and the $26 dollars per unit cost, have also kicked in and have had a
negative impact on our efforts to enroll as many students as we can. Statewide
enrollment is down in most of the community colleges and in the Spring of last year, I
think it finally caught up to CCSF. The good news is that both Don Griffin and I believe
we have turned the situation around in the non-credit enrollment area and at just the right
time given the increased level of state funding. Also, the significant reduction in student
fees ($26 to $20 per unit) should help as well. We are planning on an aggressive
marketing, outreach and enrollment development effort to make sure we get to where we
need to be in terms of number of students served and the budget. The final reported
FTES for FY 2005-06 will be 35,103 FTES. We will also be moving summer 2006 credit
FTES to the upcoming fiscal year which will afford the College the opportunity to meet
its 1% growth cap for FY 2006-07 and to (perhaps) take advantage of some additional
growth monies that might become available given the experiences of the rest of the
colleges statewide and the level of state funding that is available to support growth. Our
targeted enrollment for 2006-2007 is a total of 36,200 FTES (23,700 credit and 12,500
non-credit).
In terms of PERSONNEL, we have been able to fill 37 tenure track positions including
the 16 faculty hires that we put on hold last year. We have also hired 3 faculty members
with categorical funds and have one long-term sub in the works. The search for the ViceChancellor for Student Development continues although we are experiencing a bit of a
pause over the summer due to faculty, administrators and staff taking some much needed
vacation. We have advised all of the candidates of the timetable and that we expect to
conduct interviews in the early Fall Semester. I am hopeful (and so is Dr. Griffin) that
we can have a replacement on board no later than January 1st. You have probably noticed
the posting of the position of Interim Dean of Admissions and Records. I really wish I
could have gotten this communication out sooner so that I could tell you about the plans
of our current Dean, Bob Balestreri. Bob has announced his retirement, effective July of
07; and further, he has requested that he be re-assigned for the upcoming year so that he
may be able to work with Don Griffin directly on the continuing effort associated with
the fine-tuning of our Banner Student Information System and to be free to help out on
the follow-up to the recent study and review of our operations in Admissions,
Registration, and Records conducted by a consulting team courtesy of the American
Association of College Admissions and Registration Officers. Bob has done a great job
as Dean and I can understand and support his plans for the future. We look forward to
working with him throughout the upcoming year and in the meantime are putting the
process together to backfill his position on an Interim Basis. We have also re-advertised
the position to backfill the retirement of James Kendrix after not having a sufficient
number of applications the first time around. In the meantime, between the efforts of
Peter Goldstein and John Bilmont and with the added but limited access to James on a
continuing basis, we are still able to hold down the fort and follow-through with all of the
necessary logistics associated with budget, accounting and finance.
Finally, on the GRANTS AND DEVELOPMENT front, we have been able to receive a
number of grants over the summer months. In June and July, CCSF was awarded five
grants across a wide range of programs. The College received two grants to support
education around the production and use of biodiesel fuel; The Environmental Protection
Agency awarded CCSF $200, 000 to demonstrate quality biodiesel use, distribution, and
education across a broad spectrum of stakeholders, and the San Francisco Department of
the Environment awarded the College a $35,913 Environmental Justice Grant to establish
an Emission Reduction Biodiesel Education and Training Program for residents of
Bayview/Hunter’s Point.
CCSF was also awarded two grants from local Bay Area foundations. The Walter S.
Johnson Foundation will provide the College with $25,000 to coordinate and enhance
support services for emancipated foster youth. Furthermore, the van Loben
Sels/RembeRock Foundation has granted CCSF a small grant of $10,000 to support WayPass, a project of the Health Education and Women’s Studies Departments that assists
formerly incarcerated women in accessing opportunities in higher education. We also
receive the first installment of a $100,000 grant in the amount of $35,000 from the Wells
Fargo Foundation to support the Math and Science Scholars Program through the Teacher
Prep Center. Special thanks to all those faculty involved in this development effort and
to the resource staff of the Grants and Resource Development Office.
I guess that is it for now. I have got to figure a way to save all of this now (Val, please
wake up!!!). It is still very early. The light of dawn has broken through what appears to
be a very cloudy and foggy day. We did have a bit of rain early this morning and a bit
more just a while ago—we are on the fringes of the tropical storm that moved up the
Northeast Coast this morning. However, it is not raining now. I can see the birds feeding
on the bird feeder we have out front by the cove—beautiful Gold and Purple Finches,
several mature Cardinals and lurking above them all, our usual array of Osprey. For the
first time in my memory and experiences with this cove, we have also had a Bald Eagle
set up a nesting in the trees although we haven’t located it yet. We just see him zooming
down over the water picking up his meal for the day with its catch of fresh fish that are
out in abundance. Val and I are heading down to Massachusetts on Sunday to help
celebrate Tyler’s 2nd birthday and then we’ll come back here and close up the house in
preparation for our return to San Francisco next Wednesday. I hope everything is well
with all of you. I look forward to seeing you in the Fall and particularly for our annual
Flex Day gathering. Enjoy!!
PRDJ:
cc:
Board of Trustees