LAS POSITAS COLLEGE
College Council
September 20, 2007
MINUTES
Present:
Christine Acacio, Lee Bateman, Greg Daubenmire, Frances De Nisco, Noah Fischer, Jim
Gioia, Laurel Jones, Bob Kratochvil, Pam Luster, Jane McCoy, Kayla Moreland, Todd
Steffan
Handouts:
Agenda
2007 – 08 Adoption Budget
Academic Services Criteria for Recommended Reductions
The meeting began with each of the College Council members introducing themselves. They then
reviewed the agenda, deciding that there weren’t any additional items to add.
1. Accreditation
Vice President Jones informed the Council that the following day (Friday, September 21) WASC
would be conducting a formal Accreditation training at the District Office. Only a certain number
of participants – representing LPC, Chabot, and Napa Valley College – can attend the session in
person, but it will be viewable (for Accreditation “resource” people, administrators, etc…) by live
video link at the Innovation Center from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. On October 19, there will be a
Standard chair/resource meeting at which the Wiki process will be presented. The archival
library is now in place, and items are being cross-referenced with the Standards. The
Accreditation team is also working to make sure that all of the shared governance committees and
divisions have updated information on their web pages, including meeting minutes and relevant
documents. President Kratochvil added that this is important for conveying accurate and current
information to the College. The third training session will be held closer to December, and by
that time the Standard team members should be identified. We will then be ready to begin the
self-study in the Spring.
Vice President Jones and Dr. Machamer are working on new surveys for both students and staff.
They are also setting up times to conduct focus groups with each of the shared governance and
constituent bodies. Vice President Jones noted that she is pleased with how well the College has
moved forward thus far, and that she is very impressed with our technology staff. The focus
groups will address two specific Accreditation themes: dialogue and student learning outcomes
(SLOs). This process will demonstrate how our committees have been looking at these themes
across campus. We now have a rubric for institutional effectiveness that focuses on planning,
program review, and SLOs. This rubric will be given to our Accreditation visit team to use
(along with the SLO rubric). It seems that when other colleges have been placed on probation or
issued a warning, it has been because of program review, SLOs, and institutional planning.
During the discussion of Accreditation, Jim Gioia mentioned that – as the Planning and Budget
Committee (PBC) reviews and drafts a new version of the Mission Statement – he has been
contemplating the most effective way to engage the College and various constituent groups in
dialogue and involve them in the process without being inundated with feedback. He wondered if
it would be possible to incorporate this into the focus groups. Vice President Jones thought that
the focus groups may not be the appropriate forum, but suggested that Dr. Gioia use the
appreciative inquiry process. They will talk in further detail “off-line”, and then take it back to
PBC.
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2. 2007 – 2008 Budget
President Kratochvil began by stating that the colleges were given additional time to adopt their
respective budgets due to the delay of the State budget. At the Board of Trustees Workshop on
October 2, the District budget will be presented and ideally adopted by the Board. He then
distributed copies of the 2007-2008 adoption budget for the College, and proceeded to explain the
significance of some of the figures listed in the three columns (2006-07 Adjusted Budget, 200607 Unaudited Actual, and 2007-08 Budget). President Kratochvil then answered questions from
the Council, and they discussed revenue allocation, 05-06 budget surplus, and expenditures for
adjunct salaries.
The members then went on to talk about FTES targets, noting that the College exceeded its 2006
– 2007 goal by approximately 250 FTES. This year the target is 7001 FTES, and after
considerable analysis is seems that it will be challenging to be able to meet this goal with the
current funding – and we now know that the College won’t be allocated any additional funding
for the year. With Fall semester already well underway, we don’t have an opportunity to make
impactful changes on the current schedule. As a result, the only place to make changes (to
classes and sections) this year would be for the Spring, and Vice President Jones has already been
working with the Deans. At the same time, Lee Bateman is developing other areas for possible
reductions, such as supplies, services, and capital outlay. Jane McCoy stated that her Division
Dean, Marge Maloney, addressed the situation in their Division meeting the day before. She also
expressed concern about the role of the faculty in this process, as enrollment management is – by
contract – faculty driven. Vice President Jones explained that there have already been
discussions with the College Enrollment Management Committee (CEMC) chairs, and the
recommended class reductions will be brought to CEMC. The timeline for all of this is very
limited, as we need to finalize the schedule changes before the Spring publication gets printed.
For the benefit of our students, we don’t want the schedule to include classes that won’t actually
be available. The Deans will work with the faculty and send recommendations to Vice President
Jones, who in turn will forward them to President Kratochvil. Ideally, the recommended cuts –
including savings in FTEF and dollars – need to go to CEMC by the middle of next week.
3. Other
Greg Daubenmire brought forward an issue that had come up in his Division meeting yesterday.
There had been discussion – and some concern – about how SLOs relate to Accreditation, and the
possibility of SLOs playing a role in rating faculty performance. Vice President Jones assured
him that SLOs were never intended to be used as an evaluation tool, and that the premise of SLOs
is that they belong to the student and faculty member. She went on to say that the Accreditation
visit team will focus on where LPC is in the cycle of SLOs, for example: what are the processes
and has there been dialogue; are we reflective on the data; and now that we’ve been doing this a
while, how have we moved forward. The key to evaluating institutional effectiveness is looking
at how the College knows it’s successful at what we say we do [in our Mission Statement].
Frances De Nisco asked if there would be information sent out to the campus (via email)
regarding the budget. President Kratochvil stated that he would consult with the Vice Presidents
and send something out to the campus community, so that he could provide info on the process
and continue to give updates as further details emerge.
Next Meeting:
Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 2:30 pm
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