Quick Jump to Sections: Accreditation, Facilities Master Plan, Smoke-Free Campus, Enrollment Management, Strategic Collegewide Planning, Other Things, Budget, Next Meetings.
[Budget presentation was given at the end of the meeting. This was a rehearsal for the open budget forums to held Wednesday, April 25th at 12:40 to 1:40 and repeating at 5:30 to 6:30 in Forum West. However, this rehearsal did not give the specifics of program cuts that will be given at the April 25th forums. I had to leave part way through the presentation to attend faculty position interviews.]
The Self Evaluation report is now finished! Whew! President Jensen will read through the report this weekend and then send it to the district office. We'll be the first college to get their accreditation self-evaluation report to the Board of Trustees. A lot of people across the college were actively involved in putting the report together.
The Cambridge West Group (CW) gave a presentation to the college on Wednesday (April 18th) about the facilities master plan we will use for upgrading/renovating buildings in the next 25+ years. The presentation was their initial findings and the process that is being used to create the facilities master plan. The master plan for the main campus and for the Delano Center are posted in the public folders: direct link to Delano Facility Master Plan (4 MB PDF) --- direct link to BC main campus Facility Master Plan (3 MB PDF). After you log in to Outlook Web, the PDFs will download to your computer. Cambridge West did say that the main campus was well laid out and that it looks like a four-year college campus instead of the "fifth year high school" campus look of many other California community colleges. Yes, the buildings are old and in need of repair/remodel, but we have good material/robust structures to work with.
More specifics will be fleshed out after we submit our Educational Master Plan on Monday to the district office and CW because "form should follow function". Cambridge West will create a facilities master plan draft by May 11th for feedback. Accessibility and safety are among the several issues CW is looking at in creating the facilities master plan. We need to design facilities that are flexible, fitting new unknown future disciplines/programs. CW has also updated the external scan of the Bakersfield area and the internal scan done for the KCCD strategic plan.
Student Government Association (SGA) General Counsel Derrick Kenner presented the proposed policy to make Bakersfield College a 100% tobacco-free campus. The steps to arriving at this proposal include the March 20th-23rd all-campus (students+employees) online vote where 82% respondents wanted restrictions greater than the current ones placed on smoking, with 48% wanting a 100% tobacco-free campus; a unanimous decision by the B-COUGH (Bakersfield College Organized and United for Good Health) group for 100% tobacco-free campus, and unanimous decision by the SGA E-Board. Next steps toward enacting a smoke-free campus policy are getting approval from College Council, Academic Senate, and finally the Board of Trustees (so it will become part of official Board Policy).
Kenner also noted the connection of the proposed policy to the college's mission statement (especially the "provides the high quality education" and the "thrive in a rapidly changing world" parts), the student excellence college goal (especially the second sentence "continue to encourage student excellence by addressing basic skills at all levels of academic and student services"), facilities college goal, and the image college goal. This is also part of the BC Be Fit program of SGA—a healthy body leads to student success because the reasoning and creative powers of the brain work better in a healthy body and students are less likely to miss class due to sickness. Enforcement and communication of the policy to all students are things to be worked out but SB 795 now law, enables colleges and universities to enforce their smoking policies by citing violators.
SO: College Council needs your feedback on the proposed Bakersfield College Smoke-Free Policy as given below.
I. Background
The Surgeon General of the United States has concluded that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found secondhand tobacco smoke to be a risk to public health, and has classified secondhand smoke as a group 'A' carcinogen, the most dangerous class of carcinogen. Furthermore, the California Air Resources Board has categorized secondhand smoke as a toxic air contaminant. Tobacco smoke and tobacco products are hazardous to smokers and non-smokers alike. To promote a safe and healthy campus environment, Bakersfield College has adopted this smoke-free policy.
II. Policy
Smoking and tobacco usage is prohibited on all property and in all indoor and outdoor spaces owned, leased, licensed, or otherwise controlled by Bakersfield College. Smoking and tobacco usage is prohibited in all vehicles owned by Bakersfield College and at any event or activity on campus property. Signs stating "100% Tobacco-Free Campus or other Bakersfield College controlled locations," shall be posted at major campus entry points.
III. Compliance and Enforcement
The success of this policy relies on the consideration and cooperation of all Bakersfield College students, faculty, staff, administrators, and visitors. It is the responsibility of the College President or the College Designee to ensure the successful enforcement of this policy. Any complaints or conflicts resulting from this policy should be reported to Campus Security or the Dean of Students in concordance with SB 795.
IV. Cessation
For individuals interested in quitting smoking or smokeless tobacco use, the Student Health and Wellness Center will provide free cessation services. Additionally, for help quitting, contact the California Smokers' helpline at 1-800-NO-BUTTS, Kern County Public Health Department, or www.californiasmokershelpline.org. Other resources and information can be required through the Student Health and Wellness Center.
We'll have the same enrollment targets as last year which are the same as the 2009-10 academic year = 12,696 FTES. I don't know if that number is "target" or "cap" (floor) beyond which the state won't pay us for. Registration is going smoothly. A couple of suggestions from President Jensen for us to consider in future enrollment plans:
The complete Bakersfield College Strategic Plan for the next three years including the indicators/metrics/outcome measures that will be used to measure the objectives will be up for final adoption by College Council at the May 4th meeting. Also, at the May 4th meeting, assignments will be made of individuals, groups, or committees who will be responsible for the measurable objectives under each goal. See my April 13th report for goals, measurable objectives, and the indicators/metrics/outcome measures or download the full printable document (Word docx)— key pages are page 4 and 10-13 with other pages giving you background info of the process used to develop the goals+objectives and a glossary of terms. Since the devil is in the details, we'd better be darn sure we're using the right indicators/metrics/outcome measures! Please give your feedback and critique of the indicators/metrics to the Strategic Planning team (select the link to send them an email). Also, please let me know who would be willing or should be assigned to the measurable objectives.
Objective 1.6 about the student success in English and Math is the KCCD Strategic Plan goal 1.2 and cannot be changed by us ("Increase the percentage of students who, within a one-year period, successfully complete English or Math courses both one level below transfer and at the transfer level"). However, wording in the outcome measure for Objective 1.6 has been added to clarify that the Math and English departments have not been singled out and that they are not alone in meeting this objective of skills fundamental to success in the other college transfer courses offered by the rest of the college. The wording for the outcome measure of 1.6 now states:
Develop collaborative efforts among Academic Development, Counseling, ESL, English, and Math with the support of district office resources to increase the percentage of successful completions using a baseline established in 2011-12.
Use for baseline: total successful completions fall 2011 through summer 2012 in:
1.6.1 Math 1 level
below transfer (MATH BD)
1.6.2 Math
transfer level (B2, B4a, B16, B22, B23, B5, B1a, B1b, B6a)
1.6.3 English 1
level below transfer (ENGL B50)
1.6.4 English
transfer level (ENGL B1a)
The strategic planning task force includes: Primavera Arvizu (chair), Ann Morgan, Corny Rodriguez, Kate Pluta, Jennifer Marden, and Stephen Eaton. You can send them feedback directly by clicking on strategic planning task force link.
President Search: Interim President Jensen will be leaving at the end of May. He has other commitments after that time, so president functions will be handled by another interim president until the new college president is hired. The search committee has been formed but the classified reps were not known. Rosa Carlson (Porterville College President) will be the chair of the committee. BC Administrative reps are: Nan Gomez-Heitzeberg, Bonnie Suderman, Todd Coston, and Prima Arvizu; Faculty reps are: Corny Rodriguez, Pat Coyle, Randall Beeman, and Michael Korcok.
We will be working with Dean Colli of PPL, Inc. to conduct a nationwide search. A new president is expected to report for duty starting January 2013. A tentative timeline (as of mid-April 2012) is as follows:
Vice President of Student Services and Dean of Instruction: no update on the search for a permanent associate vice-president of Student Services. Interim vice-president Bill Cordero will be leaving at the end of June. Dean Stephen Eaton will be leaving April 27th for his new position as Vice-President of Student Services at Barstow Community College. Nan Gomez-Heitzeberg will be the acting dean for his area (Social Science, Philosophy, Behavioral Science, Art, Performing Arts, Communication) until a new dean is hired, though some of the dean duties will also be farmed out to the other deans. There is also the possibility that that dean position may not be filled as part of the budget cut plans, in which case the remaining deans will be taking on one or more additional departments.
April 25th at 12:40 to 1:40 and repeating at 5:30 to 6:30 in Forum West is an open forum on the proposed cuts with cost savings estimates. Programs that are proposed to be cut will be identified. Specific people will NOT be identified.
College Council was given a first look at the budget forum presentation. However, this presentation did not get into the specifics that will be given at the April 25th forums. Broad categories were identified. Robert Jensen presented the assumptions used, then the "vice-president equivalents" presented cuts for their areas: Lamont Schiers presented for Administrative Services plus Information Services, then Bill Cordero presented for Student Services, and finally Nan Gomez-Heitzeberg presented for Instructional Services (Academic Affairs). Unfortunately, I had to leave near the beginning of Cordero's presentation for interviews of a faculty position scheduled for 10:40 AM. College Council then critiqued the presentation with meeting finishing at 11:45 AM.
Some assumptions:
Criteria: core mission, college goals, budget decision-making criteria, the Academic Senate's resolution on keeping cuts as far from students as possible, collegewide suggestions from the public folders (anonymous budget suggestion from the website then stored in the public folders), plans from the departments and the annual program reviews.
Link to collated version of all of the Budget Cut suggestions from the Budget Ideas public folder, collated into four areas: districtwide, BC Administrative Services, BC Student Services, BC Instructional Services (after you log in to Outlook Web, you'll be taken directly to the collated suggestions posting).
Budget figures:
April 25th at 12:40 to 1:40 and repeating at 5:30 to 6:30 in Forum West is an open forum on the proposed cuts with cost savings estimates. Programs that are proposed to be cut will be identified. Specific people will NOT be identified. Cost savings estimates will based on average salaries for an employee group since we don't know the specifics of what faculty/classified staff bumping will occur and we're not specifying individuals to be cut. These will be proposed or recommended cuts from the BC President's cabinet. Those recommendations then go on up to the chancellor's office and then the chancellor's cabinet will look at how they mesh with the proposals from Cerro Coso and Porterville. One thing they'll consider is how cuts in programs at one college then affect the other colleges (students shifting to a sister college that still has the program they want and faculty and classified staff bumping rights, etc.). The meshing of the colleges' and the districtwide recommendations has to amount to an overall savings to the entire district as a whole. That's why the best the President's cabinet will be able to present at the April 25th budget open forum are the recommended cuts. Also, the proposal at April 25th will likely be revised in the following months as new state funding information arrives and people (rest of us) have had time to correct faulty or obsolete assumptions used in making the proposed cuts.
First and third Fridays of the month at 8:30 to 10:30 AM (except finals and winter+summer break). Next meeting is May 4th = last one for this academic year.
Last updated: May 3, 2012 (April 27th: added two budget cut assumptions + link to collated budget cut suggestions from public folder + link to Budget Cut presentation at Budget forum April 25th and May 1st: added FCI info to Facilities Master Plan section. May 3rd: in President Search item: Nan will NOT be doing any president duties---there will be another interim president after Jensen leaves in May.)
Document author: Nick Strobel