Board of Trustees Report District Office November 19, 2008

Committee of the Whole

This Board met as a Committee of the Whole to get an update on the budget crisis. Before that started, however, Chancellor Drummond drew attention to the fact that one of our staff members at Trade has lost his home in the Sylmar fire. He also mentioned the bright future ahead for younger students, given all the new buildings we will have with the new bond.

The budget discussion began with a report from our lobbyist, Patrick McCallum. He said this crisis is the worst since the Prop 13 cuts in 1979-80. In fact, he says it’s worse in a way, since this time the reduction in state funding is accompanied by a sharper downturn in the economy. Keeping the cuts to the CCC’s limited is really all we can hope for. He argued that we should insist on proportionality. Since we are 11% of Prop 98 funding, we shouldn’t be cut any more than that, but in the Governor’s proposal, our budget is reduced by 13.6%. By McCallum’s figures, the Governor would cut 4.4% of our budget, as compared to 2.2% of the UC’s and CSU’s. (This news came as a surprise to some Board members.) He said we should prepare contingency plans for mid-year cuts of anywhere between $20 million and $37 million, and that we should expect cuts within the same range next year.

A rather long discussion followed as to the best way to go about lobbying legislators, with Miguel Santiago suggesting that the Board focus on key individuals and that they work with various unions to coordinate strategy. He also said that information on the effect of such cuts by assembly district should be produced, in order to make a more forceful presentation to legislators. Others suggested breaking the data down by colleges. Given the likelihood of a Sunday vote, BOT members and senior staff were urged to call immediately.

Carl pointed out that we need to take a longer view as well, given that this looks to be a three- to five-year struggle. He also mentioned his worry about this year’s certain property tax shortfall.

Jeanette Gordon distributed a handout, detailing the effects of these cuts on our district reserves and itemizing how much each college would have to cut to reach these totals. She pointed out the difficulty of them doing this, given that five to six are already projecting deficits this year. The fact that 85-90% of our expenditures are in salaries and benefits makes the task extremely hard, if layoffs are not considered.

Angela Reddock asked for greater Board participation in the discussion, but the Chancellor insisted that shared governance precluded Board involvement at this stage, pointing out that they would be kept fully apprised, and that recommendations would come to them in time. He also made a spirited defense of the need to continue with faculty hiring, in spite of the budget cuts, given that we have a Full Time Obligation Number that will increase to some 140 this year. While a deferral has been granted for this year, we will eventually be held responsible for it. A waiver of the fine we incurred for last year will be requested, but he isn’t at all sure that it will be granted. In the end, we came up about 20 short of our obligation, some 15 more than we had been told a few weeks ago, and that will lead to a fine of some $1.5 million.

Each of the college presidents was asked to describe briefly what steps they were taking. Cancelling one of the summer sessions was mentioned frequently, as was scaling back the winter intersession.

In response to a suggestion by Sylvia Scott-Hayes that this is a good time to cancel programs that are not effective, the Chancellor pointed out that this is a Senate matter. I said there was a need to go through the viability review process, agreeing that it hadn’t worked adequately in the past at many campuses. Nonetheless, I said that we couldn’t short circuit the process.

I pointed out that faculty were very concerned that the efficiency of the district office be closely looked at. I also mentioned the frustration faculty at solvent colleges express regarding colleges that run persistent deficits. Scrutinizing both sharply is important to assure faculty that we’re all being dealt with fairly in the tough times ahead.

The Board resolved to meet again as a Committee of the Whole on Dec. 3 and then every two weeks, starting in January, to keep abreast of the budget news.

Open Session

From the Resource Table, Josh Wible (sp?), the ASO president at Valley, expressed his concerns about the budget cuts. I added that Carl and I would be speaking to the Student Affairs Committee this Friday, to help guide them as to how to lobby Sacramento.

There were a number of public speakers. A student from Trade complained that he was forced to drop a Math class. Then his mother joined in, vehemently criticizing the administration. Kelly Candaele had to threaten her with forced removal to get her to stop. They were followed by a student from Southwest, complaining about the lack of concern of Math teachers there. She was followed by a tutor at Southwest, who emotionally decried the Math program. Among other things, he talked about an “invasion of Armenians” in the department. Two community organizers, Nora Ramirez and Miguel Perez, then claimed that we were failing our students and that we needed to show them more respect.

Katrella Walker and Velma Butler talked about the Walking Challenge. Nancy Pearlman said preventive health should be a district priority.

There were no items reported out of Closed Session.

Mona Field gave a summary of the morning Committee of the Whole (see above). Ms. Ann Havens was named to replace the retiring James Strott on the Personnel Commission. She thanked the Board. The process by which she was selected was reviewed.

Royston Thomas, who works in the Workforce Education Division downtown, spoke to the Board about the district’s new Career Advancement Academies. In order to address the problem of disconnected youth, we were awarded a grant of $1.6 million/year for five years. Academies featuring basic skills instruction contextualized by occupation were established at several colleges (as Non-Credit programs). They served some 870 students this year, with over 500 finishing. 700 should complete the program next year. Evaluations have been excellent.

The Consent Calendar was passed unanimously, after some discussion about changes in the administrative procedures for 403b programs (see the letter from Jeanette Gordon sent this week) and about the need for campus Facilities Committees to monitor the details of parking structure design.

Finally, the Board adopted a resolution authorizing Energy Conservation Service Agreements. They will lead to energy audits at each college, which should lead to cost savings.

Comment

The Board clearly wants to be on top of things as we move into this difficult period.

The Chancellor’s commitment to hiring full time faculty has been consistent and solid. We hired a large number last year, some 45 at a rough guess, in spite of a “freeze.”

If you recall our conversation two DAS meetings ago, I suggested that some colleges did not hire because they couldn’t find candidates they were happy with. Some of you countered that the real reason in most cases was budgetary. While I know that was the case at City and elsewhere, it does now seem to be true that many did hold off for reasons of quality. At least, the bump-up in our number of unfilled positions (from 5 to 20) suggests that, according to HR people.

We need to think about viability review more. Too often, it’s at the bottom of our agenda. If programs are not working, they really do need to be dealt with. Otherwise, students suffer. That said, it can’t be done hastily. Nor should shared governance be ignored, as was the case at Trade four or five years ago, when Photography was eliminated by the administration without any process. That can’t be allowed to happen again.

These student complaints to the Board are difficult to witness. Often enormous frustration is expressed, and I wonder about its source, as it doesn’t seem likely to come from just the incidents in question. It’s all kind of sad.

David