North Seattle Community College s4

North Seattle Community College College Council Meeting October 16, 2007

Convened : Matt Ayer, council chair, convened the meeting at 3:04 p,m.

Attendance: Rodolfo Franco, Therese Quig, Alice Smith, Vladimir Vilkevich, Simone Church, Ryan Packard, Matt Ayer, Rachael Mendonsa, and Jack Bautsch (staff).

Welcome to the new members. Matt welcomed new members of the committee and described the purpose of the committee as that of providing senior leadership (the president and vice presidents) input and feedback regarding matters about which they need to make decisions. Four members each represent the three employee groups (faculty, classified and exempt), and one member represents students. The council provides the voice and perspective of its constituencies to institutional decision-makers.

Two issues that regularly come to the council include (1) a review of the upcoming year’s annual budget and (2) recommendations to help guide decisions about unmet funding needs. Last year the timing of this latter process was poor in that it occurred during the summer when faculty members were gone. Efforts will be made to avoid a recurrence of that problem this year. At the same time, members of the college community can bring issues forward through the council to the executive team. Members are encouraged to be alert to such issues.

Committees: Jack Bautsch described President LaFayette’s desire for greater information about campus committees and for greater accountability from each committee for the work they do. To accomplish these outcomes, the president has asked Bautsch (1) to inventory existing committees and their membership, and (2) to create an easily-accesible on-line resource that would contain basic information about each committee, including its purpose, membership, meeting schedule, and minutes of its meetings.

The president would like each committee to submit a short annual report of its activities each year, and for the College Council to review these reports. The council could request that committees come before it to report on their work. Such a review could be helpful in determining whether committees are duplicating one another’s work, or working at odds with one another, are too big or too small, have outlived their purpose, or otherwise are not a productive use of institutional resources. Jack shared a template for a web site that is under development. The web site, utilizing the campus wide WWW, would provide a simple way for committee chairs to post information about their committees, and for members of the campus community to access that information.

College Council Make-Up: In a recent meeting with council chair Matt Ayer, President LaFayette raised a question about whether the College Council should be downsized. Matt told the council that he did not believe it should be any smaller since, as a representative body, it was imperative that the council represent as many viewpoints as possible. He noted that the council is effectively “downsized” when—as is currently the case—members’ slots are vacant, or when members are unable to attend all of the meetings. Having voiced his opinion, he asked council members what they thought.

Council members echoed Ayer’s perspective. There was general agreement that the council should not be made any smaller, and that the council needed to fill the currently vacant positions in order to be the effective representative body it is intended to be. It was also noted that the council would be more effective if all members attended regularly. Members expressed appreciation for being able to hear, in council discussions, opinions that they normally would not hear simply by virtue of their place in the organization. It was observed that the council is an advisory group, and that limiting the number of members would make it more difficult to adequately represent all constituencies.

Some ideas were suggested to help give greater opportunity for the council to hear constituency voices. Perhaps on a rotating schedule time could be set aside at each meeting to hear from one of the four major constituencies, either through council members representing that group, or from members of that group themselves. It was noted that some people would like to come and present before college council, while others may be reluctant to do so. Underscoring the importance of representing constituency views, Ayer encouraged council members to “keep your ear to the ground and bring forward ideas.”

President’s Day: At the president’s request, Ayer asked council members for feedback about this year’s President’s Day program. Council members offered these observations:  It is always frustrating for staff who are required to remain at their workstations (serving students) during President’s Day activities.  The program was interesting, but too long. Perhaps it could have been broken up into smaller segments.  Sima Aslani’s presentation about the master plan for college facilities was appreciated.  The room was uncomfortably cold for some people.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 3:50 p.m. Minutes by Jack Bautsch