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November 10, 2021 Governing Board...
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Good evening. Welcome to another episode
of the Pima Community College Governing District Board of November
10, 2021. This is our regular meeting and I am calling it to order.
First item is the roll call.
Mr. Silvyn?
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Catherine Ripley?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Here.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Demion Clinco?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Here.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Maria Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Here.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Dr. Meredith Hay?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Here.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Luis Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Here.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: All members are present.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Terrific. Thank you, Mr. Silvyn.
Next we have our public comment/call to the audience.
The Pima Community College Governing Board welcomes public
comment on issues within the jurisdiction of the college. Generally
the total time for public comment will be limited to 45 minutes, and
comments will be limited to 3 minutes per individual. These time
limits may be modified by the board or board chair.
Individuals sharing comments are expected to communicate with
decorum and respect. Individuals who engage in disorderly conduct or
use divisive or insulting language may have their time reduced or
concluded by the board chair.
At the conclusion of public comment, individual board members may
respond to criticism made by those who addressed the board, may ask
staff to review a matter, or ask that a matter be put on a future
agenda. Members of the board, however, may not discuss or take legal
action on matters raised during the public comment unless matters are
properly noticed for discussion and legal action.
Finally, be advised that internal college processes are available
to students and employees for communication.
We have a number of individuals this evening wishing to speak,
and we are going to start with -- I may butcher a few of these names,
so my apology in advance. The first is Chrecentia Nduwimana.
>> Chrecentia Nduwimana.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Welcome. Please go ahead. You have three
minutes.
>> Hello, everyone. My name is Chrecentia Nduwimana. I serve as
the student success coach in the refugee educational program at Pima
Community College.
Part of my role is supporting students during their journey of
learning English and getting started in the U.S. as they are newly
arrived refugees.
I help them with goal setting, connect them with community
resources as needed, and make sure to support every student in the
process of schooling.
Our students have limited access to technology and have limited
literacy skills. Our college's effort to provide iPad and hotspot to
students was vital for their studies. The iPad technology is very
user friendly. Getting devices helped our students to get connected
to the English classes, but it also meant more to them.
One student shared how sad she was when her iPad was broken. She
expressed that not only has the iPad helped her to continue her
classes during the pandemic, but also it helped her to reduce stress
and kept her mentally healthy by this link to gospel music during her
tough times.
She then said if I didn't have this iPad, I don't know where I
would be today. I could hear the appreciation in her voice and was
lucky to witness the excitement on her face when she got the new iPad
as replacement for the old one.
Another student appreciated having an iPad too. For her, the
iPad is small enough to fit in her purse. Therefore, she's capable
of taking classes from anywhere. She logs in during her breaks at
work and participates in Zoom classes every day which she couldn't do
if she didn't have an iPad with her. I remember her saying how cool
is it to take classes from anywhere?
On that note, I'd like to thank Pima Community College on behalf
of our students. Thank you for your time.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much for sharing that
inspiring story and the work that you're doing.
Next we have Sarah Haghighi and Samer Altoqa.
>> Hi. My name is Sarah Haghighi, and I'm the refugee education
program coordinator at Pima Community College. We call the program
REC.
We have been contracted with the Department of Economic Security
Refugee Resettlement Program since 1987 to offer English classes to
refugees and asylees who have been living in the U.S. for less than
five years and have been resettled in Pima County.
We receive students with various backgrounds. Some of them come
with higher degrees from their native country. Some students come
with some level of education, but it's been in nonromance languages.
We also see adult emergent readers. Adult emergent readers are those
students who lived in refugee camps for years, and I'm talking about
10 to 20 years, and didn't get an opportunity to receive formal
education in their native language.
They are experimenting with formal education for the first time
in our college where they learn English as an additional language.
These learners are beginning readers, but they are definitely not
beginning thinkers or problem solvers. They come with vast knowledge
from life, which we use to help them learn English.
We are very excited that our program is housed in such a
supportive community college. Our refugee students have benefited
from a lot of resources, especially during the pandemic, which have
helped our learners to thrive. We appreciate that the college
provided a number of iPads and hotspots to the REC students. Without
having these devices, REC students wouldn't be able to attend classes
during the pandemic.
The majority of REC students don't have access to technology and
have limited digital literacy skills. Since the pandemic started,
REC teachers have been creating teacher learning packets for
students. The college helped to mail those to students in a timely
manner.
Then we use the iPads to provide classes on multiple platforms
such as WhatsApp and Zoom. It's interesting to know that although
our students have limited digital literacy skills when they enter our
program, they build digital literacy as fast or faster than English.
Thank you again for being supportive of our students and program.
I pass it to Samer.
>> Hi. My name is Samer Altoqa. I am from Syria. I came to the
United States in 2016. I love American people, and I love in their
language. I enrolled in the Pima College refugee education program
to learn English.
The education system is very good in Pima College. I like all my
teachers and the education they provide.
I meet my teachers every day for my studies. I attended
citizenship classes, and recently I became a U.S. citizen. I am very
happy, and I thank my teachers for helping me.
Now I am very happy because I have a country where I can stay
forever in peace. Thank you for your time.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much for your inspiring
story and for utilizing Pima Community College. That's really why
we're here is to be able to support programs like this, because that
can make such a transformational impact on individuals' lives. We
really appreciate you taking the time from your evening to share that
with us. Thank you.
Next is Makyla Hays.
>> MAKYLA HAYS: Good evening, Chair Clinco, Chancellor, board
members, colleagues and guests.
On behalf of PCCEA, I'd like to highlight some of the amazing
things that faculty have done during sabbaticals over the past few
years. Sabbaticals are competitive professional development
opportunities where the college invests in a faculty member and their
work by releasing them from teaching for one semester to pursue
projects that provide great value to our students and the college
community.
Sabbaticals require a detailed proposal, ongoing accountability
during the sabbatical, and commitment to present results upon
completion.
Sabbaticals give faculty time they need to develop large-scale
innovative projects that would not otherwise be feasible. These
projects create ripple effects of positive change within their
division. Having working artists, published authors, and faculty
connected to national professional organizations conducting original
research elevates our educational programs and makes Pima a richer
experience for our students.
The return on investment for the college for each sabbatical is
significant. Faculty gain a renewed zeal for teaching in connection
to the field so they can continue to bring relevance, currency, and
innovation to the classroom.
A few examples of sabbatical projects are Dr. Amy Cramer wrote 12
chapters of a college-level textbook for use with the Voices on the
Economy VOTE Program. The text has since been expanded and is being
used as an OER text for Economics 150. The VOTE Program also
incorporates professional development workshops for middle school
through university educators.
Robert Foth created an OER textbook for Math 142 that is now
being used across the college. Robert was able to take a second
sabbatical this past spring to extensively update and improve it.
This text is being used in 51 sections of this terminal math course
just this fall, a large cost savings to more than a thousand
students.
Elizabeth Rollins' sabbatical involved research on writing
fiction completing ten chapters of a guidebook on writing and
creating and conducting writing workshops, one for Pima students and
one for faculty, staff, and administrators.
Kyley Segers created a library of inquiry based on active
learning activities for two transfer-level math courses and went on
to create an active learning academy for faculty. These
research-based practices have been shown to reduce inequities and
increase success rates for historically underrepresented students.
Next spring a second run of the academy will train even more
full-time and adjunct faculty.
As you can see, the impacts of this work reach well beyond the
individual faculty member. Sabbaticals cost about $13,050 to hire
adjunct faculty to cover classes and have been one of the faculty
resources reduced. Each year policy allows for up to 12
full-semester sabbaticals though for each of the last several years
only six have been funded.
This coming year a decision was made to fund only four. In
recognition of the great works sabbaticals make possible with
tangible benefits for our student experience, helping move our
college toward common strategic goals, I'd like to ask for a
commitment during the budget process to restore faculty sabbaticals
back to the level allowed for in policy.
Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much.
Chancellor Lambert, I mean, I actually didn't know that we had
cut the sabbaticals as deeply as we have. If you could please take a
look at that and include it as part of the discussion, I think it's
really important for academic flourishing and opportunity to really
explore new ideas that then flow into the value of our educational
offerings.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Be glad to take a look at what we can do.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you so much. Ms. Hays, thank you
again for bringing that to our attention.
Next speaker is Howard Stewart.
>> They are not connected.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Next we have Michael Coskis (phonetic).
>> They are connected. Michael?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Mr. Coskis? We will come back.
Isaac Figueroa next.
>> They are not connected.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Finally, we have Bryan Hannley.
>> They are connected.
>> Yes. Thank you, Chair Clinco. This is Bryan Hannley, current
board chair for the Pima Foundation. I want to first thank the
Governing Board for your support. I have had an opportunity to talk
with you, Chair Clinco, and meet Cat, as well. I look forward to
opportunity to meet the rest of the Board of Governors at another
event. If you see me, please come up and introduce yourself, and I
will do the same and try and seek you out, as well.
It's great to hear the stories that I have been listening to thus
far regarding student achievements as well as the dedication of
teaching staff at Pima. I think that's the message we need to
continue to put out to the public.
I'm very excited to be in the position that I am, because I see
all the great things that are occurring at Pima. The most recent one
that I can applaud everyone for is the support and dedication towards
the center of excellence at the IT department, in particular the
partnership for the live fire cyber warfare range. I think this is
something that most people on this call probably don't even recognize
as being a jewel within Pima College.
I just read today that in 2020 there was almost $385 million
extorted through cyber terrorist attacks around the world. To think
that we have a program specific at Pima that not only helps to thwart
that for our own community but perhaps for our entire country, and to
set potential students up for these incredibly rewarding careers is
absolutely amazing that that is occurring here at our community
college.
We can go on and on with the different stories, but again, I just
want to thank everyone for their engagement. It shows that we are
all equally passionate about Pima, and our end goal is the same
thing, to continue to grow the programs, to continue to provide the
opportunities for deserving students, and to see that thrive
throughout Pima, Tucson, and Pima County.
Thank you for your time. I look forward again to engaging with
the rest of the Board of Governors at the next opportunity.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you, Mr. Hannley, and thank you on
behalf of the entire Governing Board for everything you do for the
Foundation, the time commitment that you're making to help support
the students at this college.
We are all in this together, I always say. This is a team sport,
and you are an important part of that. Thank you and your entire
board for everything they do. Please expression this board's
gratitude to the full Foundation board.
If we could revisit again Howard Stewart?
>> They have disconnected.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Michael Coskis?
>> Still not in.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Isaac Figueroa?
>> Not in.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: That concludes our comment and call to the
audience.
The next item is our Governing Board recognition and awards. I'm
going to begin, start by handing it over to Dr. David Dor�, our
president of campuses and executive vice chancellor of student
experience and workforce development, and our faculty emeritus
recognition with Dr. Dolores Duran-Cerda, provost and executive vice
chancellor for academic affairs.
>> DR. DOR�: Thank you very much, Chair Clinco. It is an honor
to recognize our students, our community, and our employees who are
being recognized this evening for really extraordinary events.
So I will begin with our students. We have one student that we
are recognizing this evening, and that is Mr. Samuel Phillips. He is
being recognized by the Boy Scouts of America for the following.
Seven Silver Eagle Palms recognizing receipt of all 137 merit
badges that are possible to earn in Boy Scouts of America.
Four-year senior leadership of Boy Scout Troop 733 at St.
Joseph's Catholic Parish, national medal for outdoor achievement
International Spirit Award. The Dr. Bernard Harris Super Nova STEM
Award, Outdoor Ethics Action Award, Venturing Pathfinder Award, 50th
Anniversary Environmental Protection Agency Award, and the National
Outdoor Achievement Award for over 210 nights of camping, 330 miles
of hiking, 440 miles of riding, 150 hours of aquatics, and 45 hours
of conversation projects during BSA events.
Mr. Phillips is now president of Venture Crew 733, a merit badge
counselor, and adult volunteer for the troop.
Congratulations to Mr. Sam Phillips.
Our next awardee is our community. We have one awardee from the
community, and that is Ms. Laura Porfurio (phonetic). She has been
awarded the Lifelong Learning Advocate Award in honor of Francis E.
Blake by the Arizona Association for Lifelong Learning.
Congratulations to Laura.
Our next category is for our employees. Our first employee is
Ms. Sara Haghighi. Sara received the All Arizona Association for
Lifelong Learning Rookie of the Year Award. She was also selected to
represent Arizona in the Coalition of Adult Basic Education 2021
State Advocates For Education Fellowship.
Congratulations to Sarah.
Our next awardee is our provost, Dr. Dolores Duran-Cerda.
Dr. Duran-Cerda was elected to the National Phi Theta Kappa Senate.
Congratulations, Dolores.
Next awardee is Mr. Don Martin. Don is the president-elect of
the board of directors of the National Network of Health Career
Programs in Two-Year Colleges. This is a four-year term of office.
Congratulations, Don.
Our next awardee is Mr. Robert Foth. Robert was selected to
receive the Award for Outstanding eLearning Faculty from the
Instructional Technology Council.
Congratulations, Robert.
Next awardee is Dr. Mays Imad. Mays was the recipient of the
2021 Association of Community College Trustees Pacific Region Faculty
Member of the Year Award.
Congratulations, Mays.
Next awardee is Ms. Kate Schmidt. She's being awarded for
completing a strategic human resources certificate program at
eCornell, focused on diversity and inclusion, strategic talent
management, and analytics.
Congratulations, Kate.
Ms. Dawn Weyer (phonetic). Dawn was recognized by the Pima
County Department of Environmental Quality for Compliance with a
permit and authorization to operate the emergency diesel generator.
Congratulations, Dawn. Thank you for your service.
Our next awardee is our chief of police, Ms. Michele Nieuwenhuis.
She has been recognized by the Department of Labor, Occupational
Safety and Health Administration for participating in the 2021 Sound
and Safety Week.
Next awardee is Mr. JM Aldridge, who is recognized by the
Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration for
participating in the 2021 Sound and Safety Week.
Next is Mr. Lee Heller, who is recognized by the Department of
Labor for participating in the 2021 Sound and Safety Week.
Actually, Mr. John Semple was also recognized for participating
in the Sound and Safety Week. Ms. Laurie Thomas was recognized for
participating in the 2021 Sound and Safety Week. Mr. Robert Ellison
was recognized for participating in the Sound and Safety Week. And
finally, Ms. Audrey Keefe was also recognized for participating in
the 2021 Sound and Safety Week.
On behalf of all of our board members, the entire college, we
want to congratulate all of our recipients. (Applause.)
Now I'd like to turn it over to our provost, Dr. Duran-Cerda.
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: Thank you, Dr. Dor�. That's
wonderful. I'm so proud of all of our students and employees who
received this recognition.
Good evening, Chairperson Clinco, members of the board,
Chancellor Lambert, guests and colleagues. It is my honor and
pleasure to present our new faculty emeriti recipients. There were
three this year, and I believe at least two of them have joined us in
our meeting today.
I will first provide some context so you understand the
background of this honor. Then I will share with you a little bit
about each of the three recipients.
So the Governing Board confers emeritus status on distinguished
individuals retired from the college to signify honor and respect for
outstanding accomplishments and contributions to the college over
many years.
Faculty and administrators receiving such an award exemplify the
characteristics of ideal community college educators who, through
their professional careers at Pima College, have contributed
significantly to their discipline, to student success, to
professional organizations, their campuses, and to the Pima
community.
Emeritus nominations come from the Faculty Senate and the
chancellor's Executive Leadership Team who forward their recommended
nominations to the Governing Board for approval. The faculty emeriti
receive several benefits, such as a tuition waiver, a lifetime
e-mail, and a library card that gives them the same access and
privileges at a Pima College library as full-time faculty.
They will also be receiving a beautiful framed certificate in the
mail. You will be receiving that next week.
So I am pleased to announce the three recipients. They are
Dr. Gail Gonzales, Dr. Gary Mechler, and Becky Moore. They have now
been awarded emeritus status from Pima Community College.
Yay. (Applause.)
So now I'd like to share a little bit about each one of them.
Dr. Gail Gonzales began working for Pima College in 1993/1994. As a
coauthor of the NCA report, she served on the NCA reaccreditation
team. Again in 2010 and 2011 as a faculty co-chair of the student
learning criterion and again in 2016 and 2017, and was recognized for
exemplary contributions that helped lead the college from being
removed from sanction.
She started teaching part time in 1994 as a telecourse instructor
on the Pima College cable channel. Then acted as interim director of
employee relations and professional development for four years.
She developed a professional development program for newly hired
faculty with Dr. Rosemary Schultz, which is now known as the Faculty
Learning Academy, and was a model for several other colleges, as
well. This is where I first met Dr. Gonzales. I was in the cohort
when she was leading this effort when I was first hired.
She began teaching full time at the new Desert Vista Campus,
"new" Desert Vista Campus, in 1998. Then moved to the new Northwest
Campus in 2005 where she served as department chair.
Some of her outstanding work includes completing the professional
program on neuropsychological assessment at the University of
California Berkeley. She created an outline learning app which
increased student grades on comprehensive finals and completed the
United Nations program called Global Education for the 21st Century
at the University For Peace in Costa Rica.
Congratulations to Dr. Gail Gonzales. (Applause.)
Next I will share some information with you regarding Dr. Gary
Mechler, and I see Dr. Mechler is here. Thank you for joining us.
Dr. Mechler has conducted research in the field of astronomy, in
particular photoelectric photometry and spectroscopy of stars at
major observatories in U.S. and in Chile and in space to pursue his
studies of double stars.
His career started running the planetariums at the Cleveland and
Cincinnati Natural History Museums. He also taught physics and
astronomy for several universities in Ohio and Kentucky before moving
to Tucson to work as the public information officer for the Kitt Peak
National Observatory.
His first full-time astronomy class as a faculty member -- and
he's been in that role since his retirement since 2020, after 37
years of service -- he served as astronomy, physics department chair,
astronomy lead faculty, a faculty senator, and participated on
numerous college committees.
He was also a founding member of the International Dark-Sky
Association, an association committed to limiting light pollution to
preserve night skies for astronomical research which now has 130
chapters around the world and thousands of members.
We congratulate Dr. Gary Mechler for his contributions to Pima
College and to the community. (Applause.)
Our third recipient, who has also joined us tonight, is Becky
Moore. She was the educational support faculty librarian who retired
from Pima in May of 2019 after 47 years of service. She still
remembers a visit to her graduate school at the University of Arizona
when a guest speaker from Tucson's fledgling community college led
her to imagine, maybe I'll be able to work there someday.
She attained her dream job in 1972, a little over a year after
completing West Campus, where she was a student and when, as we say
here, a card catalog was the pinnacle of technology. Gas was 36
cents. You didn't need a phone to read the newspaper.
Becky began as a cataloging librarian at West Campus and went on
to be a reference librarian East Campus. She has served in PCCEA,
Faculty Council, now known as Faculty Senate, and also in Faculty
Senate, as well as a myriad of college committees and work groups.
Becky's great love has always been teaching, mentoring, and serving
our college's community.
Pima Community College will forever be indebted to her. Let's
give Becky a round of applause, as well, and to all of the three
recipients. (Applause.)
We are extremely grateful for your contributions, your
dedication, and your commitment to student success, to the college,
to your field of expertise, and to the teaching and learning
community.
Thank you for your legacy, and congratulations as new faculty
emeriti.
Thank you. (Applause.)
With that, I will pass it back to Chairperson Clinco.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: On behalf of the Governing Board, I really
want to congratulate Dr. Gail Gonzales, Gary Mechler, and Becky
Moore. This college clearly owes you and this community owes you a
debt of gratitude for your service and the incredible teaching skills
that you have brought that have impacted generations of students.
We really appreciate that, and it's a small token of what this
college can do to recognize your incredible contributions. Thank you
very much. We really owe you a debt.
>> GARY MECHLER: It's my honor. Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: For those who can't see us all on the
boxes, all of my colleagues are clapping. So big congratulations.
Okay. Next item on the agenda is remarks by the Governing Board.
We will start with Mr. Gonzales.
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Good evening. I have nothing much to say
at this point, but I do want to acknowledge all the people that were
recognized in reference to really providing such a great, great
commitment to the college.
As mentioned a while ago with Ms. Becky Moore, I think it's
outstanding. I think that's the spirit of what the college is. I
think it's very important, as Mr. Clinco mentioned, in providing
those instruction, those one-to-one to the students for the last four
generations. I think that's ideal, but more important, you as
teachers and faculty and staff, you make a big difference.
I know that, because I hear it from my grandkids, two of them
that are in college right now at Pima. They really like the school.
They also like certain teachers and how they promote but also how
they instruct.
I think that's one of the best compliments that I have heard so
far in reference to the teaching staff of our employees, faculty,
staff. I do acknowledge and really am happy in reference to this
acknowledgement and recognition for all those teachers.
But that's the only report that I have for right now. We need to
keep on doing and supporting our faculty and staff and employees of
the great job they have been doing so far and we will continue not
only today but tomorrow, as well. Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Mr. Gonzales.
Ms. Garcia?
We will come back to Ms. Garcia. We can't hear you if you are
speaking. Your microphone is muted.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Okay. Good evening to everyone that has
taken the time to view the Pima Community College Governing Board
meeting.
When I woke up this morning, I asked myself, what are the reasons
for serving on this board? I care deeply about the future of the
college, and I want to be a voice that addresses the concerns and
needs of our community. In my heart, I know that Pima is the only
option for the underserved residents of our community. I'm a product
of that community.
Everyone that serves on this board has diverse backgrounds and
experiences. I am a product of the underserved community. My
observations and opinions are quite different from those who do not
share my experiences.
I asked my fellow board members to consider the reasons for
serving on this board. I have learned -- sorry, I kind of lost my
place here.
Serving on this board has been a learning experience for me. The
ideas or philosophy that has guided me is the principles of shared
governance. I believe that the college has room for improving its
policies and behaviors.
I'm sorry. I'm trying to pull this thing up. I have -- oh, my
God.
There are problems to be solved at every institution and Pima is
no different. I believe that triplizing the HLC-focused visit is
short-sighted and will negatively impact Pima. No one can say with
certainty what HLC will find, but they do not conduct these visits on
a whim. The college may take the HLC visit as a warning that we must
reflect on our operations and make changes where necessary.
My contacts in higher education have assured me that our faculty
is doing an outstanding job, and we, as board members, should do all
in our power to support them.
This must begin by improving the work environment and increasing
salaries. I feel that the primary obligation of a board member is to
create policies that benefit our community and students, and to
assure that our employees are treated with respect. I know that each
board member shares these commitments to our faculty, staff, and
community.
On October 15, an e-mail was sent out to the faculty and staff on
behalf of the chancellor. It informed employees that we focus visit
by the HLC, which is the Higher Learning Commission, they are our
accreditor. This e-mail is an example of the lack of candor,
transparency, and openness that has characterized this administration
in my time on the board.
This e-mail fails to document the primary cause of the focus
visit by the HLC. Faculty and staff should be aware that Bill Ward
filed a complaint with the Higher Learning Commission on June 30 of
'21. HLC concluded that the complaint raised potential concerns
regarding the institution's compliance with HLC requirements, and it
found sufficient merit to require a response by the college.
On October 7th of '21 the HLC informed the chancellor that its
institutional action council would schedule a focus visit on April of
'22. The October 7th letter from the commission provides no factual
basis for the conclusion in the chancellor's October 15th e-mail on
the HLC focus visit.
I have been repeatedly told that the chancellor is the center of
the college operations. Mr. Silvyn and Mr. Clinco have asserted that
the chancellor's authority has few limits. In my judgment, the
chancellor and certain members of the board have established a
symbiotic relationship which prevents the board from acting
independently and from taking appropriate actions to safeguard the
well-being of the college employees.
For a board member to make an informal decision, they must be
provided an opportunity to question actions by the administration and
they should be given an opportunity to fully articulate the concerns
at a public meeting.
I regret to inform the faculty and staff that safeguarding the
rights of our employees is not a priority at PCC.
Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Ms. Garcia.
Dr. Hay?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: I have no comments today. Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Ms. Ripley?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yes, thank you.
I have a few shoutouts to make. First of all, I want to
acknowledge all of the awardees. Thank you again. Congratulations
for all you do for us, the school, and the community and all the
people that we serve.
There are too many people, programs, events, day-to-day heroes
than we have time to mention. But I just wanted to make a few
shoutouts.
I have been visiting all of the campuses this past month, and my
mind is blown at every single visit. I really just want to give a
shoutout to a few of the departments right now, but please know that
we are collectively doing, you all, Herculean work of not only
keeping this college afloat over the past 22 months but we are
thriving.
My observations lead me to one reason. We are working as a
community within a community. We are a community within a community.
So think about that. And know this: Sacrifices have been made
without fanfare, and you're not going to hear or read about it. We
have course-corrected every time a new challenge or problem came up
before it turned into a crisis.
Our faculty and staff made online learning happen literally
overnight, and as we move toward a more in-person teaching, they
continue to be, and I say this not lightly, but our front-line
workers or, in the military, tip of the spear, if you will, in
academia.
They continue to jump through hoops, they pour their hearts and
souls into our students every single day. I thank the leadership
from Chancellor Lambert on down to administrators, faculty, staff,
for pulling us all together and for not forgetting our common goal to
provide affordable, high-quality, accessible education to everyone
who deserves it and desires it.
A testament of this was given today by Sara and Samer, our
precious immigrant population. They are near and dear to my heart as
an adjunct professor here at Pima Community College for five years.
I have many former students who were immigrants, who were seeking
asylum, seeking a better life and a better way of life for their
families. I was moved to tears by that. Thank you so much. Second
time I was moved to tears.
Earlier today, a shoutout to the Veterans Center and Hector
Acosta and what he has been doing. The veterans from Pima Community
College were presented with a handmade quilt from women who are part
of Quilts of Valor. You'll have to read the story, but it did draw
me to tears.
I also would like to shout out to West Campus, the site for our
next great center of excellence, where we hosted the visit from the
Secretary of Education and Congressman Grijalva. Although free
tuition for community colleges didn't make the cut this time from the
federal government, as you all read and in watching the television
about what's going on with the new request for the budget, rest
assured the fight is not over.
In doing my research, I found that most students here at Pima
Community College, if qualified and really need it, are already
receiving close to free tuition and fees here at Pima already through
our grants, scholarship programs, paid internship programs that we
have. This is because we have been able to team with our community.
Until we get more funding, state funding returned, we will continue
these workarounds. A shoutout to everybody who has made that happen.
A shoutout to East Campus, our newest center of excellence in
cybersecurity and IT. These folks, these geniuses, will blow your
mind. Cybersecurity will make or break us as a society.
Teaming with the greater Tucson community and businesses, we will
be bolstering our ability to place people into lucrative and
important jobs in a very short time and help to protect the safety
and health of our citizens right here, right now. Thank you, center
of excellence for cybersecurity and IT.
Another big shoutout to the music, fashion design, and art
departments who also kept busy behind the scenes throughout the last
22 months with recitals, gallery showings, and most recently, big
plug, this Thursday opening night for Little Shop of Horrors, which
I'm totally psyched about. I got my tickets. I'm a musical theater
geek. So get your tickets. Please support our arts. We need the
arts in our community in all mediums. It's what makes us a
civilization, a culture, and a community. It's really what makes us
human.
I have to shout out to the student athletes, Aztecs. Volleyball,
cross-country, basketball, baseball, soccer teams. You guys are
rocking it, specifically our women's soccer team who took the NJCAA
Region 1 division II championship. Awesome.
Our men's cross-country team, also the first NJCAA region 1
championship since 1981. Our amazing women's cross-country team also
rocked the championship in second place. Good luck next week in
Kansas for the nationals.
The discipline it takes to be a student athlete is what it will
take to become leaders in our community and in the world. Sports,
music, art are truly universal languages.
I'd also like to acknowledge the ongoing effort that we have in
teaming with our community for climate change. Stand by, everyone,
there's great things happening behind the scenes. We are really
looking at Pima Community College as an anchor for addressing climate
change through education here in Southern Arizona.
I have to mention this, sorry. Student mentors, I met one of our
student mentors at East Campus the other day. She didn't know who I
was, so of course I asked her about being a mentor and what she felt
about Pima Community College. She was literally beaming. She not
only expressed her joy about mentoring but truly loves her time at
Pima.
I got the same reaction from the folks in the book store,
library, even at the loading docks. It's a happy place. I'm happy
to be a small part of this. And when I was in the military, when I
saw happy sailors, it was always, always a testament to who was
running that ship.
So again, I would like to thank the chancellor personally and
like to thank his administrators and the faculty and staff and all of
the employees that make this team, this family, happen.
One more. I would be remiss in not mentioning our AV crew, audio
visual crew. They are here now. Many barely notice that they are
even there, but I do. At every event, from graduation certificate
ceremonies, sports, ribbon cuttings, live streams, folks in audio
visual, PCCTV, external affairs, are not only truly talented
professionals but always provide beautiful work to help capture all
of the thousands of things we do every day throughout the county.
Check their Instagram post, you'll see.
I have to stop, but mostly we would not be here without our
students. Thank you so much for trusting us with your education,
your futures. Our students are the best. They want to be here.
They fought to be here.
Thank you, Chancellor, President Dor�, and Provost Duran-Cerda,
for taking our requests to heart to start bolstering student
services, recruitment and retention programs, with your amazingly
robust enrollment plan which was laid out a couple board meetings
ago.
In order to not only recruit but keep and nurture future students
here at Pima, it's hugely important. Adding five more staffers
specifically targeted at Hispanic-speaking community and in direct
collaboration with our tribal partners is a huge start. Thank you so
much.
So there is so much more that I could do. I'm boggled. We can
never truly show you all our gratitude in a tangible way, but I do
hope you can be as proud as I am to be part of this important
community anchor. There are more folks than you will ever know who
are out there working, thriving, and living because they went to Pima
Community College, from our mayor on down to so many others, nurses,
doctors, technicians, educators.
Be proud. Thank you so much.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you so much, Colonel Ripley, for
your enthusiasm. It is heartwarming to hear your summary each month
that articulates just the incredible things that the college is
doing.
I just wanted to highlight a few things that I thought were
pretty exceptional over the last month since our last meeting. First
and foremost was the fact that Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona
came to visit, for someone from the Cabinet to come to our community
college to see the work that we are doing and to talk with our
students about their experience. He spoke with students in our
Allied Health department.
I will say, you know, over the course of the pandemic, I have
really missed the opportunity to interact with students in that way
and to hear the transformational experiences that they are having and
that their lives are having, their families are having, because of
the education they are getting at Pima Community College. It was not
just inspirational. It was moving.
I really hope we can schedule a time soon to have those same
students come and talk to the board, because listening to that
dialogue really bolstered my sense of why and resolve for why we are
here, because it really is about, at the end of the day, the
students.
Also, again, massive congratulations to the entire team in the
ribbon cutting, especially to Dean James Craig, for the new IT center
of excellence and cybersecurity.
I was really stunned to hear that there are 450,000 jobs open
currently in the United States in this sector and that we are at the
forefront of beginning to fill that need. If there are future
students out there listening, looking for a high-paid job, I hope
they will quickly look into our center of excellence and the degree
programs that we offer.
I also want to briefly congratulate Mays Imad for the award from
the American Association of Community College Trustees. I was also
really humbled and honored to receive the award, the Trustee
Leadership Award for the Pacific Region, at the conference in
San Diego.
Over the last six years, the college has undergone tremendous
transformation. I look back to the point where I joined the board to
today, and it is almost an unrecognizable place. I think we have
come huge, huge leaps and bounds as part of this transformation to
realign to the needs of our community in a much more strategic and
profound way.
None of this happens alone. I'm humbled because it takes every
single person in this college and every single person on this board
and every single person on this call to join together to make that
transformational change. That award is really just reflective of the
work that we have all done together. It's so powerful because we
focus on student success and we create economic ladders that are
leveling the American playing field.
Tibetan Buddhist teacher, I'm going to read this quote, Chogyam
Trungpa said, The bad news is you're falling through the air, nothing
to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is? There is no ground.
I'm really thrilled that I'm falling with all of you, because I
think together we are making transformational change for this city,
for this region, and for the students who attend our college.
I will challenge each and every one on this call and every
employee of this institution to double down and focus even more,
making sure that no students fall through the cracks. We have to do
better, and we are doing well, but we need to do even better. We
can't let anybody slip. It's all of our responsibility.
Thank you so much for the time this evening. I think I have
exceeded my time limit, and so we will move on. Thank you.
The next item on our agenda is our Pima Mission Moment. This is
a new item that I think we are going to feature students.
Chancellor Lambert, do you want to introduce this item?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Yes, Mr. Chair. We are so pleased that the
board was willing to create a new item to allow us to really showcase
the best of Pima.
Really, I just want to give a nod to the United Way. They do a
mission moment at the start of their agenda, and I find that to be a
positive reminder of why we do what we do.
Thank you for supporting this. I will turn this over to Phil
Burdick who will introduce this month's mission moment.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Before you go, I forgot one thing. I just
wanted to note that, as I'm sure everyone on this meeting knows, that
one of the college's long-term partners, the administrator of Pima
County, Chuck Huckelberry, was in a very terrible bicycle accident
and has been hospitalized. I just wanted to acknowledge and take a
very, very quick moment to sort of send some good thoughts to him.
If we could take a small moment of silence and send healing
energy his way.
(Moment of silence.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much. Mr. Burdick? I
apologize for interrupting.
>> PHIL BURDICK: Thank you, Chair Clinco, members of the board,
Chancellor Lambert, it's my pleasure to introduce as our first
mission moment, and I think this is an event where some of the board
members attended, but I wanted just to reiterate just really
tremendous progress on our campus by the cyber IT program and its
ribbon cutting for its center of excellence.
With that, let me turn it over to Dean Jim Craig.
>> JIM CRAIG: Thank you, Phil. Hello, everybody. Chairperson
Clinco, distinguished board, Chancellor Lambert, PCC family and
friends.
I'm Jim Craig. I'm the dean of business and information
technology, and I wanted to let you know a little bit about the
center of excellence. The mission of the center of excellence for IT
and cybersecurity is to fundamentally change how IT and cybersecurity
is taught.
The mission is to create a nexus, an interdisciplinary community
with industry partners, with industry experts, with faculty, with
staff, with people from a number of different disciplines coming
together to learn more about cybersecurity.
The purpose is to raise up, to skill, to reskill, to train and
retrain our underserved community, existing professionals, everybody
in the community so we can raise a generation of future cybersecurity
and IT experts that are poised and ready to protect Tucson, Pima
community, the state of Arizona, and even the entire nation.
To do this, we must listen to our industry, listen carefully
about what they need, what's missing, where are the gaps. That's
exactly what we have done is partner with a number of industry
experts and our advisory committee.
There is no better example of that than Brett Scott. Brett Scott
is the director of the advanced solution teams at Tech Data SYNNEX.
He's also the co-founder of the National Cyber Warfare Range. He's
been a friend and a colleague and a champion for cybersecurity
education.
Brett has graciously stood up the Arizona Cyber Warfare Range at
the East Campus, which is the first live-fire cyber warfare range in
a community college anywhere in the country.
Brett is a world-class cybersecurity expert. He's a patriot, and
he's been helping defend our country for many, many years.
Without further ado, I introduce you to Brett Scott.
>> BRETT SCOTT: Thank you, sir. I really appreciate it. Kind
words. I probably don't deserve them.
I have to tell you that the success that we are enjoying together
starts with a bold decision, right? That bold decision was made by
Chancellor Lambert.
If you can imagine a chancellor saying here are all these hackers
doing potentially dangerous things, I'd like to bring all these folks
to my community college to make better students and better
cybersecurity experts, that is truly a bold, innovative, and
courageous decision to make.
Into that void that Chancellor Lambert enabled comes Jim Craig.
He is backed by Will McCullen, backed by Chris Bonhorst, and all of
these leaders are collaborative, they are selfless, and they're
willing to work towards a mission and a goal together without any
expectation of glory or any of those other silly things that people
with vanity waste their time with.
I have to tell you that because of the enablement of that
decision by Chancellor Lambert, because of the incredible leadership
and innovative thought process of Jim Craig, and of course the
unbelievable amount of labor and work that Will McCullen and Chris
Bonhorst continue to do every day, we have something truly
exceptional.
I work for a company called TD SYNNEX, which most of you have
never heard of. We are the biggest company that you have no idea who
we are. We are the largest distributor of technology in the world.
The National Cyber Warfare Foundation was founded. We are about
to hit our 10-year anniversary in 2012. We were a bunch of absolute
radicals, right? Everybody was like what on earth is going on?
But we have had a tremendous response globally to all of the
things that we are doing. I mean, for example, it's a really odd
thing, but the country of China sent a delegation through the State
Department to come meet with us and talk to us about what we are
doing and all the things we are accomplishing.
Ambassadors for countries, not our ambassador to those countries,
their ambassadors to us come to talk and say we love what you are
doing, we really want this to be a part of what we are doing, and
obviously there is a massive list of educational institutions that
would very much like to be a part of what Pima Community College has
established and the success that they are already receiving in the
industry and in the world.
So I have to tell you that it's my full commitment to make sure
that Pima Community College always remains on the very top of that
heap. Why? Courageous effort, selfless innovation. All of those
things make Pima Community College the right leader to follow to help
us transform our cybersecurity posture in a national footprint but
also amongst all our allies globally.
Cybersecurity touches every aspect of our lives. What we are
seeing is something that for ten years this National Cyber Warfare
Foundation has been trying to inculcate, but it has had difficulty
because everybody claims to be an expert in cybersecurity.
Unfortunately, nobody is really good at this stuff. If they did any
other job, they would be indicted for fraud.
So it's really important that we produce competent cyber warriors
out there. The competency comes from knowledge. People who are
doing, people who have actually done, people who actually know stuff.
Not a book, not some curriculum that was published by some dude that
spoke at a conference. We are talking about actual knowledge and
actual cyber warriors.
The great thing about being real in cybersecurity is the other
real players, they find you. This is truly "if you build it, they
will come" moment. That's not a common thing in the world these
days.
So I have to tell you that it is very exciting to see, for
example, transformational initiatives like engaging diversity of
thinking in cybersecurity. I'm not talking about the color of your
skin or who you choose to have as a life mate. That's meaningless
and something that most people cannot change. I'm talking about
diversity of thinking.
Cybersecurity is male dominant. Just dudes everywhere. Men and
women think differently. We absolutely need people who think
differently. So my diversity message has nothing to do with things
people can't change, but it has everything to do with people bringing
different ways of thinking about how to solve the unbelievable and
growing problems we face.
So now, more than ever, is the time for true, honest leadership
in cybersecurity. And I'm so grateful and thankful that we have
leaders like Jim Craig, like Will McCullen, and Chris Bonhorst, and
we have enablement people like Chancellor Lee Lambert that help us to
do this unbelievably important work that truly, truly affects
everyone.
I think we also have one of the students that's involved in the
program, and I am very happy to say please pay attention to what he
has to say.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you. You have about four minutes
left.
>> JIM CRAIG: Thank you, Brett. Yeah, without further ado, I'd
like to introduce Ivan Castro, one of our current IT cyber students.
>> IVAN CASTRO: Thank you. Brett, the more I hear words come
out of your mouth, the more I get scared of what's out there.
To give a little background on me, I returned to school in 2018,
knew how to use Google, and that was pretty much it. After a
semester of taking just a couple of IT classes and running into the
cyber warfare range where I met Brett bringing in big servers, I
didn't know what they were, but I was bringing them in, setting them
up. Little by little I started seeing what was inside. They're
Exactly the same as desktops.
I was learning what was going on inside these machines semester
after that, I'm taking a hardware class where some of even the new
Cengage stuff they were showing older connectors that were outdated.
So I was getting more current information from the donated servers at
the warfare range than I was getting from Cengage, from brand new
textbooks.
So forward that to another semester right before March 2020 when
the pandemic happened, comfortable with what's inside the computers,
approached by my supervisor if I know how to use Google Workspace,
this will give you a good idea about return on your investment, I
said, yes, I know how to use Google Workspace.
I started reading Google documentation, and I was put in charge
of showing other people how to use Google Workspace. I did workshops
I think every other week. Because I was a part of the cybersecurity
in the cyber warfare range, all of those workshops I would bring
something about cybersecurity into the conversation.
It's amazing how little we know about the tools that we use on a
daily basis. So just talking to the other faculty and students,
sharing links, boy, was that educational to know what leads to how
they can take control of your machine, new QR codes are just like
links. I would tell participants watch out for those new QR codes.
Those can all be hacked and redirecting and stealing your identity.
I was able to put together my own computer right before the
pandemic. I used my entire stimulus check to build my computer, and
then I was able to turn around and teach other people how to use all
these things.
The investment in the cyber warfare range allowed me to turn
around and share my newfound knowledge with numerous people
immediately after, you know, a few weeks or semesters of learning new
things.
The more we can invest and let other people get their hands on
the machines, take them apart, break them when it doesn't hurt their
own pockets, that's how we learn. Unfortunately we're going to break
some of the servers in the center of excellence, but we'll be able to
fix them ourselves, which is a good thing, and protect them, then
hack them, all that stuff. We can do it with our own hands and have
people like Brett, Will, Chris, looking over our shoulders and
watching us crawl up and learn how to do these things so they can
say, okay, do you feel comfortable? Now look at this. This is
actually happening. Apply what we do in here to this new attack
that's going on right now.
That could change the world from just like from what others were
saying one student at a time goes out and shares what they know.
Really quick, I wanted to thank Becky. I didn't see Becky. My
first semester back she gave me a tour, an assignment in the library,
and it was very nice of her and I just want to say congratulations to
her.
>> BRETT SCOTT: I'd like to quickly wrap up with that. This is
a person who was not in the industry who came to the industry and now
has a much better competency than most of the people that I see every
day applying to do work with me at TD SYNNEX.
One of the things that we just launched is a thing we call
Passage Program, where we take people that come from our educational
partners in the cyber warfare ranges we operate and we inject them
directly into the marketplace globally.
Tens of millions of businesses are within the ecosystem of TD
SYNNEX globally. We take those competent cyber warriors that are
being produced there at Pima Community College, and we inject them
into jobs in cybersecurity directly which has a transformative effect
on the lives of your students, and it also helps us with our
cybersecurity posture, as well.
Thank you so much for all that our folks have been doing. Thank
you very much for the courage of Chancellor Lee Lambert, and I can't
tell you how much I appreciate the vision and innovation that comes
from Jim Craig.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Well, thank you very much, Brett, and
thank you, Ivan. We really appreciate all of the work and
partnership that you're doing, Ivan, that you have enrolled in the
program and you're such a wonderful example of the type of students
Pima is producing.
We are really appreciative. I think we will continue to have
these small updates highlighting some of the impact of the mission.
Thank you guys, so much.
Next we have our administration reports. The first report is the
initiative to increase spring enrollment with Dr. David Dor� and Phil
Burdick.
Chancellor Lambert, do you want to introduce this or do we go
straight in?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: I just want to say kudos to Brett and to
Ivan for being on just a moment ago.
I'm so pleased that I have Dr. David Dor� and Phil Burdick, going
to talk about the exciting things we are doing around spring
enrollment.
I will turn it over to you, David.
>> DR. DOR�: Thank you very much. Good evening, Chair Clinco,
members of the Governing Board, Chancellor Lambert, colleagues and
guests, students.
This evening, Phil Burdick, our vice chancellor for external
relations, and I will provide a brief overview of the current status
of enrollment at the college and an update on the spring enrollment
campaign.
Before I begin, I'd like to publicly commend all of our employees
across the college who have continued to work collaboratively and
diligently to find ways to lessen the impact of the pandemic on our
students.
While the college has significant work left to do, I do want to
acknowledge that student retention and enrollment has truly been a
college-wide effort with many areas working on multiple large-scale
initiatives simultaneously.
So to begin, I'd like to provide an overview of current
enrollment at the college. The National Student Clearinghouse
recently released its report on fall 2021 enrollment, and as could be
expected, enrollment at public two-year institutions across the
country continued to decline this fall with total community college
enrollment down 14.1% since fall 2019 and Arizona community colleges
down 15% from prepandemic levels.
The good news is there was less of a decline this year than the
previous. While community college enrollment is down 5.6% nationally
since last year, Pima's fall '21 enrollment is down about 3.72% as of
November 3rd.
I also want to point out to the board that we still don't have
all of our enrollment numbers. A lot of our enrollment numbers are
not yet in, so that number probably won't improve throughout the
year.
Registration for spring 2022 just opened this past Monday, so
it's too early to get a clear picture of what spring will look like.
We had approximately 2,000 students who registered on Monday. That's
an increase over the last two spring terms for first-day
registration. Provost Duran-Cerda will be presenting on spring
enrollment at February's Governing Board board meeting.
Now I'd like to share an overview of some of the initiatives the
college is implementing for spring enrollment, persistence, and
retention. Now, our programs and services must be designed to serve
what we are now calling the new majority learner, or who we
traditionally referred to as nontraditional students.
Now, these are students of color, part-time students, working
students, parent students, first-generation students, students over
25, and so forth.
Now, student affairs continues to collaboratively lead and
implement the short-term Strategic Enrollment Management Plan. To
date, the college has reenrolled 750 students who had their debt
forgiven.
You know, just to give you an idea, we have now distributed HEERF
funds directly to over 10,000 students totaling about $7.2 million
that we've put directly into the hands of our students.
Additionally, all of the centers of excellence are continuing to
develop programs and partnerships and are proceeding on schedule.
The COEs are also partnering with community organizations to provide
much-needed community services. Just examples are our dental program
is providing dental services to youth in need. Our hospitality
program is doing events for at-risk youth.
We are also expanding our onramps to enrollment, such as our new
military training and service articulation guide for prior learning
assessment. FastTrack initiative, which Phil will talk about, and
expansion of our IBEST programs.
Additionally, the dual enrollment program recently began
overseeing high school recruitment, including for nondual-enrolled
students. Dual enrollment head count has already surpassed last
year's, and dual enrollment is also bringing on five new schools this
spring and planning for mass application for high school seniors in
the spring.
Next, the student support services that have been so helpful to
our students throughout the pandemic, those are continuing, including
the free student success class, Early Alert and progress surveys, and
mobile device checkout that Jeff Thies and his team will continue to
lead in the spring.
Additionally, we know that one in five college students today is
a parent, and yet they have remained a largely invisible population.
In partnership with Pima County, United Way, and child/parent
centers, we received a federal childcare access grant that will
provide $285,000 per year over four years to support childcare at
Desert Vista Campus, provide stipends to students at all campuses to
support childcare costs, provide wraparound services for our parent
students, and then recruit new students who may have foregone college
because of childcare needs.
It has become increasingly clear to us that we need to continue
to leverage partnerships that provide both social services and direct
financial support to our students.
So, for example, we are continuing to work with the Bank of
America, and we will convene an education and workforce round table
later this fall with community-based organizations that support and
serve our learners and potential learners, and then we are
establishing long-term engagement with these community-based
organizations. We are also establishing positions to support
enrollment and registration for students referred by these
organizations.
Now, often these partnerships result in funding provided directly
to students to assist with the cost of education. For example, both
Metallica Scholars and the Ford ASSET program will provide full
academic funding for our students in the CTE fields and in the
automotive program respectively.
Our college police have been active in community outreach to help
promote enrollment through attending a number of events throughout
the county and are now getting ready to launch their children's toy
drive.
In terms of next steps, I'm providing an overview, you know, of
next steps. David Arellano and the strategic enrollment management
team will continue to lead, assess, and adjust the short-term plan
and are working on the long-term 2022-2026 strategic enrollment
management plan.
The breaking barriers task force is also continuing its work and
is now examining retention and success issues related to curriculum
and academics. Finally, through both student affairs and marketing,
we are continuing the spring enrollment campaign.
I'm going to pass it on to Phil to talk about our outreach
efforts, and then we will be happy to answer any questions that the
board has.
>> PHIL BURDICK: Thank you, Dr. Dor�. I appreciate all the work
that you and your team have been doing to support marketing as we
start our spring enrollment marketing campaign.
Even though spring enrollment opened on the 8th, we have already
been hard at work making sure that current students and students who
are no longer with us are aware that spring registration is now
opening.
We have already texted, did our first text campaign to about
13,000 students. We will do that three more times before the spring
semester starts.
We are geofencing homes. For those of you who don't know what
geofencing is, it's beaming messages like the one that you see on the
right into a home where a person is using their Smartphone or
computer, laptop, or they are streaming on TV, we are actually
beaming messages to enroll this spring right onto their devices.
We are also e-mailing 40,000 stopouts. We will do that twice
before the spring semester starts. Those are students who have been
at Pima before in the last three years, but for one reason or another
have discontinued going to the college. So we will make sure that we
contact them and see what we can do to try to convince them to
continue their journey with us.
You'll see these colorful banners around the campus, probably
beginning tomorrow. They're at all entrances as well as the outside,
reminding students to register for spring classes now and that
registration is open.
In addition to the text geofencing and signage, we are also doing
a general enrollment campaign. As you can see, these are the
demographic groups that we are targeting with both radio, geofencing
actually our own campuses so when a student is on their Smartphone
here on any of the campuses, they will see a message that you're
seeing on the right. We have general website banner ads, social
media ads, and again Spanish radio and streaming audio.
We will also continue our Pima FastTrack marketing. These are
our Applied Technology and career programs that take only three
months to get a credential and start working in these particular
careers.
We have only been marketing this for about a month. We have
already had 600-plus inquiries. As you can see, we have had
tremendous success appealing to the kind of student that would not be
a traditional either college student or community college student.
In these 600 inquiries, over half are currently unemployed or
underemployed. This is really the target audience that we were
looking at, especially with the pandemic. These are people who we
call maybe disgruntled workers, workers who are dissatisfied with
their current jobs, low-wage jobs, jobs that are not paying a family
sustaining wages, and getting them on track for a real career and a
good paying family sustaining jobs in the areas that you saw
previously.
We have distributed over $100,000 of financial assistance, thanks
to our partners, and we are happy to report that all sections are
running, except for advanced industrial technology. That should be
running at the beginning of next year.
So we are really excited about the different ways that we are
reaching out to students, both our own students and students outside
the Pima Community College campuses. We are looking forward to a
good spring enrollment campaign, which hopefully will set us up for a
successful fall enrollment campaign next year.
Happy to answer any questions that you might have.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you so much. Are there any
questions from the board? Ms. Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Hi, Phil. I have a question. How are you
geofencing homes?
>> PHIL BURDICK: So we actually contract out with one of our
consultants, and this is a very typical marketing technique where you
can now stream ads according to addresses so that when you're sitting
at your home, if you're wondering why you're seeing a particular ad
on your Smartphone or on your Google search or on your streaming
device, it's because you did a search with that particular search
term, or we have also given the addresses to our partners with that
ad and say, you know, beam it into their home, if they click on their
device, if they click on Google or Yahoo or Bing.
You know, from a personal privacy point of view, it's rather
frightening, and I'm not in favor of it. As a marketing person, I
love it, because what it does is we are able to do metrics. If they
click onto that ad, I can tell you how long they were on that ad,
what they searched next, how long they were engaged with us.
So as far as doing some data-based decision-making on marketing,
it's a godsend for marketers. As a personal privacy person, hmm,
maybe you don't like it so much.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: My next question is for Dr. Dor�. On your
plan for enrollment, to increase enrollment, how will you know that
the enrollment plan is effective and how will you measure, evaluate
your effectiveness in meeting the needs of our students in our
community?
>> DR. DOR�: Yes, and thank you, Board Member Garcia. That's an
excellent question.
So, you know, we are looking at a lot of things to measure, but I
just had -- actually, I throw this by the board to see what you
think, I just had a discussion with Dr. Duran-Cerda today, I had a
discussion with David Arellano and Edgar Soto at our Desert Vista
Campus, what we'd like to do in terms of really measuring
effectiveness, one is we really need to go right to our students,
right? And so what we are thinking of doing is in the short term
doing some focus groups, specifically be working with United Way and
with David Arellano and James Palacios to identifying students at
each of our respective high schools and to ask them, what are their
pain points, or what are the things they need to enroll? What are
the things they are looking for?
What we would like to do is to do these focus groups prior to
registration for the fall semester for these high school students.
Now, in the long term, what I'd like to do and I spoke with Dolores
about this, is to have an advisory committee that is really made up
of these students from -- again, this is just one group, right,
looking at that pipeline from K12, and to have students and parents
and counselors that are on these advisory committees that would
advise the provost and myself on how we can better help with that
transition.
So that's just one thought that I had. I'd be more than happy to
get any feedback from the board on additional ways that we can better
serve our local high school students.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Thank you so much. I notice you didn't
have the FTSE on your enrollment. Do you happen to know what that
is?
>> DR. DOR�: Yeah. Thank you, Board Member Garcia. I'd be more
than happy to give you. So this is unofficial. As of November 9,
our FTSE, and again, this does not -- remember, right now we are not
counting the year term workforce programs, we have not folded in the
dual enrollment yet, we haven't folded in any of the ABE or any of
that stuff yet, but our fall '21 FTSE is 4,326 as of November 9th.
Now, if we look at fall 2020, our FTSE was 4,593. So if we are
looking as a snapshot today of FTSE, that's a decrease of about 5.8%.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: All right. Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Ms. Ripley?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yes, thank you so much. Thanks for
those presentations. Yeah, I just wanted to give kudos, and thank
you for addressing probably arguably one of our most important
issues, which is enrollment.
One of the things I just wanted to address and thank you for is
the childcare that will be provided at the Desert Vista -- it's
Desert Vista, correct? And from my understanding, just for
everybody's edification, is that this is the first. I think, talking
to the chancellor, the goal is to have one at every campus at some
point.
Because this is one big cycle as far as enrollment, faculty,
staff, taking care of our own people, as well as getting students who
might not otherwise be able to go to school because of day care, so
it's just one big cycle.
So it's seemingly a small thing, but it's actually very huge.
Thank you so much for addressing day care. I just wanted to shout
that out. Thanks.
>> DR. DOR�: Board Member Ripley, also for everybody to know,
the grant we received, even if the campus doesn't have childcare, it
does support the stipend to pay for childcare for student at any
campus. I just want to make that clear.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Mr. Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: I just wanted to make a comment. I like
the presentation that was done. It's excellent. I like some of the
words that were used, and Ms. Ripley mentioned it's a cycle.
I think the component that lacks right now, and I have been
professing since day one, even before I got elected, is for us, as
board members, to really be out there in the community. It was
mentioned before over and over, "the community."
I think it's time for us to really be in the community at the
different campuses to hold our meetings, meet with the people, meet
with the parents, and more important, meet with the students. I
think that should be a good initiative to look forward to, starting
in January. I have been saying this before I even got elected.
The other thing I wanted to say is that the people, the
community, especially the parents, I think that's one of the areas,
because we are looking at not only the young adults but also looking
at the K12 system in reference to what can we do better or more with
the people that we have that were mentioned by Mr. Palacios, Senor
Arellano and Soto at Desert Vista.
I think another word that came up was a "collaboration." I think
it has to be a full collaboration, a full initiative in reference to
really doing what we need to do, as well, too.
But I like the presentations, but I'm coming back to what I said
before and will continue to say, the board should have meetings in
the community, meeting with the people, meeting with the parents,
because I think it makes an impact.
Let's provide the full support. I think that's one of the things
that I really would like to put on the agenda, but I think it should
be -- it's doable and feasible, and I think we should do it. Thank
you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you so much. Just to recap,
Mr. Gonzales, I think you're absolutely right. At our board retreat
we talked about the board becoming more actively engaged in outreach.
Chancellor Lambert, you know, I think if you can reach out
through your office to begin finding ways to sort of schedule whether
we call them summits or community forums where board members can
invite the broader community to attend and provide, you know, sort of
an update on what we are doing and create, I mean, the very thing we
talked about in our retreat.
So I think if we can sort of get started on that, that would be
really tremendous, and I think January is a good start date.
Mr. Gonzales, I hear you volunteer just now to be the first one to do
it, so I'm hoping that you'll reach out to Chancellor Lambert, as
well, and begin to coordinate how you sort of envision that type of
outreach to reach your community more effectively. So that's No. 1.
No. 2, I also heard Dr. Dor�, you mentioned this advisory
committee. I wonder, as we talked about -- I think we all agree that
enrollment is probably the biggest issue facing the institution
today. You know, we have two standing board committees, one on
finance and our audit and the other on human resources, and maybe we
need to look at standing up a board committee specifically on
enrollment.
I mean, that means where we could invite, similar to those, we
invite experts from the community to help and advise and guide that,
but also have at least two members of this board on that committee.
If we do that, it means more commitment from the members of this very
small board. So I want to be cognizant of your time, but, you know,
I see David Dor� putting thumbs up on something like that. But I
sort of want to poll my fellow board members.
You know, if there were two people who would want to serve on an
initiative if we were to do something like this, and then we need to
talk with Chancellor Lambert about what that would take, and is there
the staff resources to be able to sort of staff something like that
and create a whole other administrative board committee.
I don't want to just flippantly say let's do that tonight, but I
want to do this thoughtfully. I think it's time -- every discussion
we have now is just enrollment, enrollment, enrollment. I think to
put the focus on it so that the key board members can really be
focused on it and report back so not every single meeting every
single time is consumed too by this one topic.
I saw Ms. Garcia, you raise your hand, you were interested in
serving in a role like that. Is there anybody else? I see Cat
Ripley and Mr. Gonzales.
Chancellor Lambert, maybe we could have a little meeting and then
we could come back with a plan on something like that if -- do you
think that's viable?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Mr. Chair, this is already in the works. We
have Phil and David have been working to do exactly what you just
talked about. We're also going to be making some other adjustments
that I think will help with that transition to occur. It will mean
ending one practice of doing some things in order to move in a new
direction which we think are going to be more beneficial.
So it's in the works. Now it's just a question of us getting
that time. I think as you go through your bylaws and your board
policies, building in this piece into that structure, would also be
beneficial.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: I think the timing works well for that
because we hope to have that completed by the end of the year.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Yes.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: So we'd start the end of the year with a
new committee.
I sort of see nods. Everybody feels comfortable with that sort
of approach? I think doing a board committee puts it at the highest
level of the institution, right?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Yes.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Can't get any higher than us (smiling). I
mean, I think really forces the focus on what we all know needs to be
addressed.
Okay. So we have somewhat of a game plan. We will flesh it out
as we move through some of those study sessions around the bylaws and
those discussions with the intent of having something at the early
part of the year? Is that agreeable to everybody?
Mr. Gonzales, you're going to reach out to Chancellor Lambert's
office to begin scheduling --
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Sure. Consider it done.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: -- a community summit? Okay. Terrific.
I feel like we really just achieved something in that particular
agenda item.
Okay. Thank you very much for the reports. That was really
great.
Next we have our reports to representatives to the board. Our
first is our student report by Collin Bryant.
Mr. Bryant, I'm afraid the connection you have is pretty choppy
and we aren't able to hear you very clearly.
Mr. Bryant, I think we will come back to you at the end and see
if you maybe sign off and sign on, it might be a little clearer, if
that's okay.
Next is our adjunct faculty report with Sean Mendoza.
>> SEAN MENDOZA: Chair Clinco, Chancellor Lambert, members of
the board, honored guests. I'm happy to report that I've been
elected as the adjunct faculty chair by my fellow adjunct faculty
senators. Thank you to Tal Sutton for managing our elections. This
means I will be representing my fellow adjunct faculty to the board
for yet another two years. Yay. (Smiling.)
Also, another thing too is the initiatives we hope to implement
during my new term include the creation of a tiered adjunct faculty
system, the continued development of processes, and create greater
transparency of assigned courses, and the ability of professional
development monies for adjunct faculty.
I'm happy to report that the administration, specifically David
Bea and Kate Schmidt, have begun discussions and preliminary work on
these very important initiatives. We'd like to thank them and the
provost's office for their support. I look forward to sharing this
information with you in the months to come.
Lastly, I want to remind everyone the impact adjunct faculty have
on our institution. Many educators like myself begin their careers
at the college as adjunct faculty, working, learning, and eventually
earning full-time faculty positions or becoming a provost or a board
member. Even when we retire, many of us come back to the
institution, earning well-deserved accolades like faculty emeritus.
Congratulations, by the way, to my faculty peers.
Tonight I'd like to honor fellow computer science adjunct faculty
member Manny Durazo who passed earlier this week of a brain aneurysm.
I had known Manny for nearly 30 years, and I count him to be one of
my closest friends.
Not only did he have a gift for problem-solving in computers, but
he was also a published science fiction writer, father, and lover of
food. Besides computers and families, that's something we both had
in common, food. A humble man with big dreams but always looking to
help and serve others.
I'm sure he'd be taken aback by all of this attention. I believe
if he were here, he'd want us to honor not just him but all adjunct
faculty who are no longer with us.
With that in mind, I'd like to take a moment of my time to honor
my friend, Manny Durazo, and all adjunct faculty who have passed in a
moment of silence.
(Moment of silence.)
>> SEAN MENDOZA: Thank you, members of the board, and your
continued support of the adjunct faculty. Rest in peace, Manny, my
brother.
This ends my report.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Mr. Mendoza.
Congratulations on your two-year reappointment, and thank you for
your thoughts on Manny Durazo.
Next is our faculty report with Denise Reilly.
>> DENISE REILLY: Hello, good evening, Chairperson Clinco,
Chancellor Lambert, members of the board, colleagues and guests.
As we head into the holiday season, these months remind us to be
thankful and grateful. On behalf of Faculty Senate, I'd like to
thank all of you board members as your hard work and dedication and
commitment to supporting the mission of community college is not
unnoticed. We are grateful for you. So thank you.
I'd like to start by recognizing faculty members, that seems to
be a theme of the evening, recognition, so I'd like to recognize
faculty members that go above and beyond through club advising.
Clubs of student interest are an important co-curricular
experience that keep students engaged whether through social
interaction, career experiences, leadership opportunities, or
volunteer and community engagement.
Students and faculty have remained engaged even through the
virtual format in the last year and a half. A few notable clubs
mentioned in my report led by faculty, which I have too many names to
mention this evening, but the Archeology Club, Pima Cares Club, a
brand new club called the Advanced Manufacturing Club created during
the pandemic, Pima Honors Club, and Phi Theta Kappa Club. I was just
thinking as the sentiment tonight was that board members wanted to be
more active in the community and attending and meeting with students
and how precious that time is and those interactions are, that I'd
like to invite any board member to attend any of the PTK and Honors
Club meetings that we have continually on Fridays, and I'm sure my
fellow colleagues and faculty members would enjoy any pop-in or visit
to a club meeting would be helpful.
Thank you so much for wanting to engage with our students,
wanting to engage with our students and what is going on and what
kind of extracurricular or things that can be done to help the
students succeed. As we know, some of these clubs, it is what drive
students to persist and retain them at the school.
A few highlights I'd like to share from our Faculty Senate
meeting and administration meeting. From our Faculty Senate meeting,
we received a presentation on the Cradle to Career program, which is
part of the United Way, and that was a partnership with PCC that we
heard extensively about. We received numerous updates regarding
committees at the college, so we have the general education, the
college curriculum council, and of course we had numerous updates on
the class and comp study.
Steering committee representatives definitely discussed in depth
the fact that Faculty Senate was assured -- or we discussed in depth
the fact that Faculty Senate didn't feel like faculty had a strong
role in shared governance at the time, and so now we were assured by
executive administration, namely Dr. David Bea, that communications
will be improved in the future and that further conversations will
take place regarding the class and comp study, as that is a hot
topic, we can say, regarding faculty pay, retention, enrollment
efforts, and shared governance just continues to be another topic for
us there.
Only other comment to make other than inviting everyone to attend
and please come to the college, come to the different campuses, as
Cat mentioned earlier, even talking to the students, talking to the
ones that belong to different clubs, co-curricular activities, what's
going on, what they enjoy, I would just like to invite you all.
And also to come to our Faculty Senate meetings. We have them
once a month, so our next one is in December. We have the website
updated with all the information about dates forthcoming in the
spring as well as members of Faculty Senate. We'd like to just
invite you to come to those events, and that could be scheduled in
advance.
I'd like to end with just the same comment that I have been
reading, as this is shared by my constituents and faculty, and this
is just our statement that we'd like to make.
Faculty senators are approached more frequently by our colleagues
and constituents regarding employee pay at the college. We
understand that finances are especially volatile, given the depressed
levels of enrollment college-wide and the ongoing pandemic. But
faculty senators are concerned with the current allocation of funds.
The Faculty Senate is interested in hearing from faculty
colleagues on the class and comp faculty steering committee, having
Faculty Senate officers collaborate during their administrative
meetings with members of the ELT, and exploring how faculty, staff,
and administration can work together on how to allocate funds in ways
that will optimize academic excellence and student success.
With that, I thank you very much for your time.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much. We really appreciate
it. Next we have our administrative report with Jeff Thies.
>> JEFF THIES: Happy World Science Day for Peace and
Development.
Chairperson Clinco, board members, Chancellor Lambert, students,
colleagues, guests. My name is Jeff Thies and I'm here to provide
the administrative rep board report.
Pima Online Educators Conference was held in early October and
was a huge success. The theme of the conference was every
interaction counts, expanding innovation and inclusion and online
learning.
Over 250 participants, including faculty and staff, attended the
conference that offered keynote speakers and an assortment of
workshops and presentations. Pima is the first community college to
use D2L Brightspace to hold a professional development conference of
this kind.
Almost 30 programs can now be completed fully online. The latest
editions include the translation and interpretation study certificate
and the translation and interpretation studies concentration AA
degree. This number will continue to increase as we move forward.
ITC awards for excellence in eLearning. The following have been
recognized by Pima Community College for receiving nominations for
awards for excellence in eLearning offered by the Instructional
Technology Council. Outstanding eLearning student, Webster Rose.
Kimlisa Duchicela, outstanding eLearning faculty. The course,
Culinary 130, outstanding eCourse. And PimaOnline educators
conference and Reed Dixon for the outstanding eLearning support for
faculty and students.
As you may or may not be aware, the online enrollment in fall
2021 accounts for almost 42% of our courses with close to 19% being
virtual, so nearly 60% of our courses have some online component
either asynchronous or synchronous.
And thanks to a two-week period in fall 2021, PimaOnline
department heads were able to respond to enrollment needs adding 47
sections of online courses that resulted in nearly a thousand
enrollments.
Moving on, academic digital literacy cross-functional task force
completed their work. It was created as a larger plan to evaluate
and recommend digital literacy outcomes, implementation plans, and
assessment.
The team of 17 Pima Community College employees met regularly
from last March up until this past month. Team meetings were broken
into two components. There was a part that was information sharing
and research, and the other part was breakout work groups to move
forward our recommendations.
The recommendations on academic digital literacy is defined as
the identification, understanding, and use of digital technology.
ADL, academic digital literacy, focuses this definition on
postsecondary learning. The primary learning outcome is to locate,
evaluate, apply, and create information from, with diverse digital
resources in an effective and ethical manner.
This new learning outcome is not considered an additional general
education learning outcome but instead is embedded within the current
list of GELOs and should be considered part of each GELO's assessment
process. Kudos to the team that worked on that.
Lastly, PCC/U of A STEM partnership, this has been going on for
about a year and a half now, the efforts of the cross-institutional
team of STEM student supporters was on display last Thursday at the
Association of American Colleges and Universities' Virtual
Transforming STEM Higher Ed Conference. The presentation, developing
an inclusive culture, responsive mentoring context for STEM community
college students transitioning from a two- to four-year his, that's a
mouthful, was led by PCC's dean of science, Emily Halvorson-Otts.
The project's goal is to implement and test a transferrable model
for creating a bridged culturally responsive community of practice
between two- and four-year Hispanic-Serving Institutions to raise
persistence and graduation rates for low-income, academically
talented community college students pursuing STEM majors at the
four-year institution.
Lastly, there is some great information in the report for those
of you that haven't had a chance to go and download it, please do so,
on equity and the reasons why we disaggregate data when we are
investigating our successes.
That concludes my report.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Mr. Thies.
Next we have our staff report. Michael Lopez has stepped down
from the role, so now a new staff representative has been elected,
Dorothy Netherland.
Dorothy, if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself and giving us
a brief report, we have four minutes.
>> DOROTHY NETHERLAND: Good evening, Chairperson Clinco,
Chancellor Lambert, members of the board, students, colleagues and
guests.
Yes, it was a last-minute decision. Michael decided to step
down. Unfortunately, that did not give me any time to prepare a
report for you, so I apologize. I do look forward to providing
feedback from Staff Council to you, and I appreciate the honor that
this is to be involved and speaking for my fellow staff.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Well, welcome to the board meetings. We
really look forward to hearing from you and getting to know you.
Please express our gratitude to Mr. Lopez for his insight and his
monthly reports. They have really provided insight into the
activities and concerns of the staff classification.
We are going to circle back around and see if Collin Bryant, our
student representative, has a better connection. Mr. Bryant?
>> COLLIN BRYANT: Good evening, Chair Clinco, Chancellor
Lambert, Governing Board members, faculty, fellow students and
guests.
First off, the Student Senate would like to thank the board for
their quick response to the concerns we brought up last month. It
seems there is good action being taken on both the lighting and Wi-Fi
connection issues, and speaking on behalf of many students, we really
appreciate that.
I'd like to get some exposure on the Arizona Public Research
Group's COVID-19 information campaign going on here at Pima and the U
of A.
Arizona PIRG is looking for testimonials from people who have
already received their vaccine. These testimonials will be shared on
AZ PIRG's social media platforms to urge people to consider getting
vaccinated.
Basically they are looking to raise awareness and dispel
misconceptions about the vaccines in order to get higher vaccination
rates among younger people here in Arizona which are among the lowest
of all demographics.
The Student Senate met with the representative from PIRG and felt
this is something simple that can do a lot of good here locally in
Tucson. More information about AZ PIRG and their COVID-19
information campaign can be found on their website,
www.ArizonaPIRG.org.
Moving on, there were some small maintenance issues reported to
senate, such as bathroom stalls at East Campus that don't lock, as
well as ADA buttons that don't work. We'd like to recommend for
these maintenance issues to be checked up on.
Speaking of bathrooms, the Student Senate has decided to look
into the status of gender-neutral bathrooms on each campus. We
realize there is not a lot, and we'd really like to know what is
being done to create more.
Some students express that they feel uncomfortable using
restrooms that aren't gender-inclusive. Others have said that they
don't use the restrooms on campus at all. Aligning ourselves with
Pima's goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion, we think this
should be a priority.
We understand that this is an issue that must be approached
thoughtfully and delicately but also must be taken care of within a
reasonable time frame.
Thank you, all. That is all I have to report.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much. We really appreciate
it.
Chancellor Lambert, will you let us know, a report, I believe we
have some gender-neutral bathrooms, but perhaps if we could get a
small report at an upcoming meeting in January where we are on that
and if there is anything else we can do to increase that.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Actually, I was going to share some data
with all of you here shortly, what we have.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Let's move right into your report.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: I will start right there, to begin with.
Good evening, everybody. So we have had Dr. David Dor� and the
facilities team under the leadership of Dr. David Bea to really look
at what's the lay of the land currently with our gender-neutral
bathrooms.
East Campus, we have two. Northwest Campus, we have five.
Downtown Campus, we have three. Then I think the note says there are
six single-spot restrooms around the campus, as well. This is
Downtown. Desert Vista, there are four. And West Campus we have 15.
That's kind of the state of where we are presently. When you
look at our new buildings, you'll see those being integrated into the
new facilities as those come online as well.
The question is how many is the right number? I think that's
going to take a little time to understand that a little better
vis-�-vis the resources we have to work with and our overall
priorities as a college. We want you to know that we do have them.
Now the question is what's the right number. We will continue to do
that analysis.
Also, just to follow up from last meeting around security, I
believe Dr. Dor� and the student senators met to talk about the
lighting. They did a walk-through with the senators, and I believe
short-term lighting issues have been addressed by replacing lights
and adding additional lighting in areas of concern. I'm very pleased
that David has followed up and made sure that we are addressing the
concerns of the students.
I also want to go on and talk about some of the things we have
done over the past month. There is a small group of us who
participate in the Bank of America partnership that we have that also
involves NCII and a number of other colleges and universities. This
is some of the best professional development anyone could go through.
This last presentation was about probably "the" No. 1 issue is
the financial stability of our students, and they broke it into three
buckets: Covering their cost, addressing their basic needs, and
making sure that we support them in important choices.
So Pima was one of the colleges that were featured as part of
that discussion. So I'm very pleased to say to all of you we are
ahead of the curve, if you will, in addressing financial stability.
I mean, this is a challenge overall, and just being mindful that Pima
is doing that, but we still have a lot to do as we go forward. But
relevancy of programs, the advising, those things are very important
parts of the overall financial stability of our students.
I want to shout out to our veterans. Veterans Day tomorrow.
Please enjoy Veterans Day. I want to say to all of the veterans who
received the Quilts of Valor today, congratulations. Sorry I was not
able to join you all today. I believe Board Member Ripley, you were
among the honorees today, as well. Congratulations to you.
I had a conversation with the board chair of Santa Cruz. Things
are going very well. They had a retreat over the weekend. Libby
participated, Ian participated, along with Ted, and I think the
relationship is on the right track and is going very well.
Also thought I'd share just something bigger picture for a
moment. So there is this book that's out called The Great Upheaval,
talking about higher education specifically. There is like five
major points in there, and you really see that Pima is addressing all
of those pieces.
They talk about how content producers and distributors are
entering our market from outside of traditional higher ed, and in
some cases we have partnered with some of those folks.
You're seeing a shift from the locus of control from the
institution to the student. That shift is going to continue to
occur, and that's something we need to be ever-vigilant and mindful
about.
Digital devices are going to be ever important to the learning
landscape. You heard mention of that earlier this evening, and it's
going to grow in importance. I will come back to that point here
shortly. There is a shift underway from being process-oriented
institutions to outcomes-focused institutions. That shift is going
to continue to grow in importance, not less so. We need to not lose
sight of outcomes are so critical.
Then this balance between nondegree and degree. Students are
seeking less degrees with more focus on the nondegree side of things
is also growing in importance. That's why the Pima FastTracks and a
lot of the other things we are doing are important.
I'm so pleased we have been in conversation was Council Member
Kozachik's office about how we might support the refugees coming to
our area from Afghanistan. He shared with me that presently we have
100. He expects that number is going to grow to about 600.
We are partnering with them. David has been working with the
council member's office on a program called Ready, Set, Rec events,
and they will be doing some of those events at I believe our Downtown
Campus.
Going back to this digital piece for a moment. Dolores and I,
the provost and I sat in on the Apple Spotlight. We are part of that
Apple series. And we listened in on Maryville University and Penn
State Allegheny. Remember, we had that conversation around the Apple
piece before the pandemic hit.
They have taken all of that and they fully integrated it into
their colleges. Maryville is seeing shifts in enrollment and
retention and outcomes as a result of that, and they shared their
successes. Students are really embracing this.
The other thing we are seeing, and there was a couple of articles
that just came out, you want to improve your arts and humanities
programs? You bring in the digital pieces into those programs. I
think that probably pairs well with what we heard Maryville doing. A
small group of us are going to go visit to learn more about how
they've done that total integration as well.
I want to do a shoutout to ABECC, and you heard from the program
earlier. I had an opportunity, Tom Davis and I, to go tour all the
programs recently, hear from our students. Our students are so
grateful of what's going on at the college. You heard some of that
earlier today.
And I want us not to lose sight of that, how grateful our
students are. They really just are so engaged and they look to us
for that hope and opportunity and we are delivering. Laurie and her
team are doing an outstanding job. They are proving you don't need a
high school diploma to acquire these critical skills for future
success.
I have been asked to participate on the Banner Advisory Council,
so you will see me -- now we are highly engaged with all of the
hospitals in our community at this stage. Also, we were so pleased
that Secretary of Education Cardona visited us. On that same day we
had the Rev It Up event. So I want to thank Marcy and the Foundation
Board, that was a very successful event. I was glad to see that some
of our deans, some of our other staff were leading the tours that
happened that day.
People who go into that facility are just blown away by what Pima
is doing, so we should all be very proud of how we have been
elevating the college.
Also want to again just say congratulations to you, Demion, and
to Mays for being Pacific Region participants. Since I have been
here now nine years we have had four Pacific Region awards and one
national award. That doesn't happen by accident. That requires that
you're doing more good things than not.
I think sometimes when we come to the board meeting we only hear
the things we are not doing. We are doing a whole heck of a lot. So
thank you, Board Member Ripley, for highlighting those positive
things that are going on at the college.
Also want to think Brett for your comments and your partnership.
We really appreciate that tremendously.
Also, I just want to say when I'm out there talking with
employees, whether they are faculty, staff, administrators, we have a
lot of folks who are very grateful for how we have led this college
over the last 20-plus months. I have had people say to me thank you
for not laying any full-time folks off. Thank you for keeping us
employed. Thank you for keeping us safe.
I think that sometimes gets lost when you come to the board
meeting. You don't hear that because of the great decisions we made
prepandemic, we were able to make that kind of commitment to our
employees.
A lot of places weren't able to do that same thing, especially
when they first went into the pandemic, so we have a lot to be proud
of that we are making a positive difference, and many of our
employees are grateful for the working conditions and the environment
we have at the college. Otherwise you wouldn't have all of this good
stuff happening with our students. So let's not lose sight of those
important pieces, as well.
So again, just thank you everybody. I know this is our last
official regular board meeting of the year. Happy Holidays coming
up. Please enjoy Veterans Day tomorrow, and thank you to all the
veterans and all the active duty members and their dependents for
what they do to keep our country safe.
Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Chancellor Lambert.
The next item on our agenda is our information items. They are
posted. The next item is our consent agenda. Do I have a motion to
adopt the consent agenda?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: I move to adopt the consent agenda.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Second.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Any discussion? All in favor of adopting
the consent agenda as published, signify by saying aye?
(Ayes.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Mr. Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: I believe Ms. Garcia had a question?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Ms. Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: What's on the consent agenda? I don't see
it.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: There are about 18 different items on the
consent agenda that were of course published on the website.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: I know. I'm trying to find it.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: It's on the board docs. There is (quickly
reading the items on the consent agenda).
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Okay. I'm sorry. Thank you, Demion.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: That's okay. Again, because after our
study session, I just want to remind everybody that we agreed that we
wouldn't read each of the items. So if everybody can read them
before and send an e-mail if there is anything you want to pull to
have discussed as a full action item, we can do that. But it's
helpful if it happens before. It just saves a little bit of time.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Any other questions? Want to discuss
anything?
Let's have the vote again. All in favor, signify by saying aye?
(Ayes.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Anyone opposed?
Hearing none, the motion passes unanimously.
Action items. 5.1, proposed annual calendar of regular board and
study session for 2022.
Mr. Silvyn, could you please read the recommendation?
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Thank you. The chancellor recommends that
Governing Board approve the proposed annual calendar of regular board
and study session meetings for 2022 and January 2023.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Is there a motion to adopt the
recommendation?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: So moved.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Second?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Second.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Any discussion on this item?
Okay. Hearing none, all in favor, signify by saying aye?
(Ayes.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Anyone opposed?
Hearing none, the motion passes unanimously.
The next is 5.2, the COVID-19 vaccine plan for employees to
comply with pending federal requirements. We have 10 minutes set
aside for this item.
Mr. Silvyn, if you could please read the recommendation.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: The chancellor recommends that the Governing
Board authorize the chancellor or designee to develop and implement a
plan to ensure that all employees are fully vaccinated against
COVID-19 so that the college is fully compliant with pending federal
requirements while minimizing disruption to operations and services
for students.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: I'm going to move this item. Is there a
second?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Second.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Discussion? Chancellor Lambert? Do you
want to give us a short presentation on this item?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Yes, I will just open it up and I don't know
if Dave or Jeff were going to talk about how we are proposing to move
forward.
As you know, there has been a lot of discussion around vaccines,
and then the administration through President Biden has decided to
issue some executive orders requiring federal contractors to be in
compliance with vaccine mandates for its employees with some
exceptions, as noted in this proposal.
Again, I just want to, it's about safety and the health of our
employees. It's about the health and safety of our community. I
don't want us to lose sight of that bigger-picture piece as this item
is before everybody.
But we are required to do this because Pima Community College is
a federal contractor. We have over $4 million in federal contracts.
Our biggest federal contract is with United States Air Force.
So with that, I don't know if Dave or Jeff, you want to add
anything else?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Could you maybe share the timeline?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: You want to take that, Dave or Jeff?
So what we have done is we have built into a message, if you
approve this item, a framework that lays out the timeline in which
folks have to meet each marker to be in compliance by January 4th.
January 4th was the date that was communicated by the
administration in terms of being in compliance with the federal
contract requirement.
So we backed up from those dates and figured out at what juncture
each employee had to meet -- for those who have not been fully
vaccinated. Let me be clear. For those who have not been fully
vaccinated.
I don't remember those dates off the top of my head. If Dave or
Jeff do, please chime in. But you'll see that we will be having
clinics, we have been holding clinics here at the college, at the
different campuses, and I believe we are going to be doing another
set next week. We've been partnering with the county, so we will try
to do more of that as we move through the next few months.
But also, a reminder that people can go out to the Walgreens, the
Fry's, and also get their shots there, as well.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Are there any additional questions for
Chancellor Lambert or his team?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Are they going to have the booster shots
available at the campuses?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: So in fact you can go get a booster. I got
my booster last week, because it's the same shot. There's nothing
different from that shot than the shots you got earlier. You just
come in to one of our campuses and just go ahead and get your
booster.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Okay.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: I got the booster two days ago at West
Campus. They were awesome. It was easy. I've just got a sore arm.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Awesome.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: On the booster question, at Northwest
Campus, I believe we ran out of the Moderna shots, so some employees
who went there, because they got the Moderna, were hoping to get the
Moderna. Some decided to get the Pfizer.
We have gotten word you can mix and match, but I also understand
people not being comfortable sometimes to mix and match, as well.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you, Chancellor Lambert.
You know, I think this is something that the college needs to do.
I believe that 100% of the board is fully vaccinated and many of the
administrators.
You know, I think we have tried to lead by example, and I think
it's important that to protect each other and to protect our students
and to protect everyone in our community college family, it's
important that we do this thing together.
With that, all in favor -- Mr. Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: I just want to mention, as well, that I
got my booster yesterday, as well.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Good for you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: I'm glad our board members are protected.
With that, all in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye?
(Ayes.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Anyone opposed? Hearing none, the motion
passes unanimously.
Next item, 5.3, discussion and possible approval to extend the
term of the chancellor's existing contract by one year.
Pursuant to board policy 1.05, delegation of authority of the
chancellor, the board bylaws and the chancellor's employment
contract, the board conducts an evaluation of the chancellor. The
typical practice of the board is to consider extending the
chancellor's employment contract for an additional year and possible
revisions following the completion of the evaluation. Consistent
with the practice, the board will consider a one-year extension and
no minor modification to the employment contract, which included
initially two additional annual days of leave, but those have been
deleted, and the proposed agreement showing the changes accompanies
the board report.
Do I have a motion to extend the chancellor's contract?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: So moved.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Second.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Discussion?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Yes. So I'm not in agreement with
extending another year. The chancellor already has four years on his
contract, so I would like the board to consider not extending an
additional year, because the other part of it is that nobody else has
that kind of a contract. Any faculty member could be terminated
within 90 days.
So I'm just going to read a small statement here. I have been
asked to approve an employment contract. I will not support the
contract. I believe it is not timely, considering that the Higher
Learning Commission has scheduled a focus visit.
I have not been provided with clear and compelling evidence the
chancellor merits this contract and is not in the interest of my
constituents to approve it for the following reasons. Failure to
address declining enrollment and lack of clear measure of students'
academic success. A negative culture that does not support the
principles of shared governance and does not encourage dialogue and
does not respect descent. The use of questionable and arbitrary
procurement procedures, the unlawful termination of a senior
administrator for disclosing wrongdoing.
When the chancellor assumed his post on July 1 of 2013, the
college reported to the Auditor General a FTSE of 9,514. In the
monthly report I received for October 21, the unofficial FTSE, the
report was 4,581, an approximate decline of 77%.
Mr. Clinco has asserted that the chancellor's authority has few
limits. In my judgment, the chancellor and certain members of the
board have established a symbiotic relationship which prevents the
board from acting independently and from taking appropriate steps to
safeguard the well-being of the college's employees.
For a board member to make an informed decision, that must be
provided an opportunity to question actions by the administration and
they should be given an opportunity to fully articulate their
concerns at a public meeting.
I regret to inform the faculty and staff that safeguarding the
rights of our employees is not a priority at PCC.
That's my comment.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you, Ms. Garcia. Dr. Hay?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Yes, I'd like to speak to the matter at
hand. I fully support adding the additional year. It's best
practice for university senior administrators to have a rolling
five-year contract. There is absolutely nothing unusual about that.
Chancellor Lambert has been exemplary in his leadership of the
college, as was extolled by many of the folks earlier on this call.
Many of the board members, as well, extolling his accomplishments
over the last year.
He has achieved his goals in extraordinary circumstances and have
elevated Pima Community College to one of the best in the country.
I fully support continuing his contract in support of the
chancellor.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Dr. Hay. Ms. Ripley?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yes, I'd like to make a statement, as
well, unprepared, but I just would like to respond to the comments.
I also agree with Board Member Hay in that the chancellor, in my
10 months I have been here, 11 months, has demonstrated undoubtedly
above and beyond performance for a chancellor.
I can say this with all confidence, because I did attend the
national conference in San Diego, I spoke to many board chairs, many
chancellors, former chancellors, and it's pretty astounding what's
been accomplished not only in the last 10 months throughout COVID but
over his entire tenure.
I would respectfully disagree with the data that was presented as
far as the FTSE. The term "symbiotic relationship" I think is also,
it's a strong term and I would disagree with that, as well.
What I did learn at the conference is that a board, a functioning
board should act as a single unit, as one organism. And our
relationship with the chancellor is extremely crucial.
Is it symbiotic? It's only symbiotic inasmuch as we all agree
that the betterment and the success of the school is the foremost and
first priority of our students, our staff, our faculty, and
administration.
So with that said, you do not punish someone midstream who has
been doing an outstanding job, and by decreasing the contract, it is
a form of punishment. On the contrary, if anything, we should be
rewarding this chancellor for not only getting us through COVID with
flying colors but taking the college to another level.
Also, I can say this now confidently after observing what
happened at the national conference and observing other colleges,
other chancellors' contracts, and if anything, we are doing above and
beyond what a lot of community colleges are doing, but this
chancellor and this administration in particular.
We are doing a class compensation study, we are going to figure
it out as far as some of the issues that you bring up about equity in
terms of salary, all of that stuff is happening.
But for now, in terms of this contract, I think by continuing the
same contract, he's not getting any more or less than he has in the
past, I think is the least we can do. It's the least we can do for
our faculty and staff, as well. So that's my comment.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you. Mr. Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Coming back to the contract, chancellor,
it's on the agenda, as I mentioned before, to approve the contract
extension for the chancellor with an increase in benefits, which now
it has changed, but when I look at the present state of the college,
I am puzzled that the chancellor and the board would place this item
on the agenda.
There are several reasons for my decision to vote against the
contract extension. First, our faculty and staff have not received
fair and just compensation increases while senior managers are
provided with enhanced compensation and titles without review or
input from the board.
I will not vote to approve the chancellor's contract extension
until we increase the compensation of our faculty and our staff. I
think it's time that the faculty, staff, and our community consider
the other ongoing crisis at this institution. That crisis is that
state of decline in enrollment since the chancellor assumed his post.
Let me state that the enrollment numbers mandated for the Arizona
State statute are prime importance to the board's deliberations.
PCC is required to provide the office of the auditor general with
certified enrollment numbers annually. The criteria for calculating
FTSE enrollment are prescribed by the Arizona Revised Statute
14-146.01 and 02. The reports of the auditor general contain the
following data. The chancellor's first year ended June 30, 2014.
For that fiscal year, PCC reported a basic annual FTSE of 13,239 and
a total FTSE of 17,963.
On June 30, 2020, the college certified basic FTSE of 9,666, and
a total FTSE of 13,874. I remind our community that spring 2020 FTSE
was taken 45 days after the start of the semester, and therefore was
only marginally affected by the COVID pandemic.
These numbers speak volumes about the chancellor's administration
of the institution. Less than 10 years ago for the fiscal year
ending on June 30, 2012, PCC certified a total FTSE enrollment of
22,028.
I understand and make allowances for factors affecting enrollment
that are beyond our control. However, it's beyond dispute that this
continuous decline of enrollment has occurred on the chancellor's
watch. A leader cannot claim to be responsible for all the college
success while shedding responsibility for its declining enrollment.
I am very troubled with the chancellor's more recent evaluation
that cannot be discussed in open session. I ask that the chancellor
permit faculty, staff, and the community to have access to the entire
chancellor evaluation file.
I am aware that divulging files of all college employees are
subject to public records request, yet the chancellor evaluations
remain hidden from public view.
The taxpayers from Pima County elected members of the board, and
they have the right to see how this board evaluated the chancellor.
If taxpayers of Pima County knew the score he received, there would
be little support for this contract extension.
All of us have heard the chancellor and the board profess their
commitment of transparency. Yet the community, through elected
members of the board, are asked to extend the chancellor's contract
without full disclosure of the board's evaluation.
This is unconscionable in a public postsecondary institution.
The chancellor's contract has been rolled over annually and he's the
only senior administrator with five-year contract. I am informed the
senior administrator can be terminated at wish with a simple 90-day
notice. Perhaps we should add this clause to this contract.
In my opinion, he seems to be more interested in preserving his
employment rights while limiting those of other employees. When a
board member asks a question or critiques the chancellor's actions,
certain members of the board rush to defend him and criticize anyone
who dares question his action.
In closing, let me state the following. The residents of
District 5 elected me to the board, and their votes conferred their
trust in my judgment. I will always exercise my best judgment when
taking decisions that affect the college's well-being.
Given the present circumstances, I cannot vote to extend the
chancellor's contract. I urge my colleagues on the board to consider
the ramification of their vote in light of the pending HLC focus
visit.
Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Okay. Are there any additional comments?
Okay. Then I'm going to close with a comment, and then we'll
vote.
Chancellor Lambert, I want to personally thank you for your
incredible leadership in steering Pima Community College not only
through the last six years of tremendous transformation but through
COVID and the remarkable challenges that we have faced over the last
19 months.
Your leadership is undoubted. It is lauded and applauded
throughout our community. You're tremendous asset not only to our
college but to our region, bringing a vision to realign this college
to the priorities of the economic development sector of Southern
Arizona.
You have continued in the face of outrageous and continual
accusations of wrongdoing and illegal behavior. You have, in the
face of unbelievable poor treatment by members of this board, you
have continued to act with incredible integrity and aplomb. You have
continued to acknowledge and I think responsibly and effectively lead
the upper administration and the college.
I am particularly grateful to have been here, to have watched
this transformation, to have participated in it in the little way I
have over the last six years, because it has been profound.
I can't think of an institution I have been involved with that
has gone through such transformation and come out so far ahead. We
are leading the country as a community college, and all you have to
do is look to the Bellwether awards that we continue to be nominated
for, the awards you have received and the college has received for
this extraordinary innovation.
You have led the way in creating a premier community college, and
I think we have a long way to go, but you, I believe, are key to that
success. Extending your contract by one year I hope will encourage
you to stay and continue to champion this cause and this college in
the coming years.
This entire region owes you a debt of gratitude. I personal owe
you a debt of gratitude for your commitment and living every day, 24
hours a day, Pima Community College.
Thank you for everything that you do. I am so appreciative.
I plan to vote yes. With that, I will call for a vote. We will
do a voice vote. All in favor, signify by saying aye?
(Ayes.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: All opposed?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: No.
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Opposed
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: The vote carries 3 to 2 with Ms. Garcia
and Mr. Gonzales dissenting.
Thank you, Chancellor Lambert.
The next item on our agenda is 4.5, the resumption of in-person
meetings. I will read the description of this item, if my computer
will allow it.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the guidance of federal,
state, and local health officials, the board changed its meeting
format to virtual only. After FDA issuance of emergency
authorization for vaccines, the reduction of COVID transmissions in
the community, and improvement of the Pima County Health Department
disease data criteria, the board began holding hybrid meetings.
Subsequently, increase of COVID increased significantly with the
outbreaks of the Delta variant, and board returned to virtual-only
meetings.
This is the opportunity for the board to discuss the
circumstances and timing under which we might change from the
virtual-only format. The administration recommends that the board
follow the guidance of the Pima County Health Department and the
practices of the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
I think in this case we should just have a discussion and see
what people want to do? I will say I tend to agree that since the
other two major municipalities, major government agencies in our
region, both Pima County and the City of Tucson are still holding
virtual meetings and Pima County is the health agency, we should rely
on them rather than bringing all of our top administrators into a
single room for multi-hour meetings, because there are now lots of
breakthrough cases happening across the region.
Dr. Hay?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Yeah, I agree with your assessment, Demion.
I think we should follow the leadership of the board of supervisors
and the Tucson City Council who look to Francisco Garcia and his team
about when to hold these large in-person meetings. I think we should
hold off at least maybe until midspring and see how things fare.
That's just my thought.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: I think we should resume our meetings and
not have virtual. The reason being is that we're not a municipality.
You know, Marana, Vail, and Tucson Unified are all having in-person
meetings, and it's not like we get a whole bunch of people that
attend our board meetings.
Now, I would consider it if we (indiscernible) them. We could do
that.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Can you repeat that? You broke up a
little bit at the very last sentence. You said...
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Let me see. I can't remember now. I just
think we should reconsider it. We could limit the amount of people
that come in if they are vaccinated. There is other ways of being
able to do it. I think we are more effective if we're in person. I
will end it with that.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thoughts from anyone else?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: And I agree with Maria, Ms. Garcia
mentioned. I think it's very important for the community also to
come before us in reference to any issues of concerns or wants. But
I think we should open it up. That's my opinion.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Ms. Ripley, do you have thoughts?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yeah, so based on my background and
also being in the military for 30 years, I would always tend to err
on the side of safety first. That's just what we have always done.
Yes, we are not a municipality, but I do think that following the
lead of our local government is the wise choice, and always you're
never wrong in erring on the side of safety.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: I certainly think as we are beginning to
explore some of our study sessions and it's just a very small group,
we could look at that. With what the county did is, what the
county's sort of decision was they had to have 100% agreement because
if somebody doesn't show up, it's not effective, so this is something
where we can vote, but I can't -- we can't compel people who don't
want to come to the physical meeting. We will just be in some sort
of hybrid format.
This is really a unique decision we have to make. So based on
what I'm hearing, I'm not hearing a unanimous decision at this point,
but everybody is willing to do maybe some limited in-person, hybrid
study session, especially around some of this bylaw review?
You know, I think having the meeting with everybody sitting in
the entire upper administration sitting in the room, if we actually
had a COVID breakout with everybody there, just from a risk
management standpoint, even if people are vaccinated because of
breakthrough cases, it would be very disruptive with testing.
Again, I think if we sort of do a hybrid and limit, but I think
ultimately -- is everybody in agreement on that? We can try a little
bit of in-person and see how it goes, and hopefully in the new year
we will have a new board president and be able to review and think
about what other options as COVID cases continue to decline or go up.
There is another spike occurring coming from Europe. It's sort of
unknown.
Does that sound reasonable to everybody? We still have the
opportunity for the public to call and participate in our call to the
audience, and as we heard today, people are taking advantage of that.
We had six people.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: I agree. It's a moving target and
flexibility is really -- we're lucky there is five of us. As long as
we keep our ear to the ground and be flexible, it's the only smart
way to go forward.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Agreed.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Do I have a motion to table the item to a
future meeting date so we can reevaluate as the conditions change?
Do I have a motion?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Yes.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Second?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Second.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: All in favor of tabling the motion to a
future meeting?
(Ayes.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Anyone opposed? Hearing none, passes
unanimously.
Request for future agenda items? Okay.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Wait a minute. Sorry. One of the agenda
items I would like to see is a shared governance focus group, that we
could discuss that.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Could you explain a little bit more...
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: What I mean, like to include members of the
faculty, the staff, ourselves, and administrators to discuss what
they believe would be shared governance so they could participate in
how we set our policies.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: We have these meetings to discuss the
bylaw revisions and the policies, which are specifically around these
issues around shared governance. I think in the same way we talked
about earlier today, creating a board subcommittee specifically
around enrollment, that might be a time to talk about, you know, what
a path forward might look like, since we are going to be talking
about it anyway, if that's suitable to everyone? Ms. Ripley?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yeah, I think that's a great concept,
Ms. Garcia's, and I think in the meantime, I would urge us all to
take the Faculty Senate, Student Senate, AERC, all of the employee
groups up on their invite to attend, and personally as board members
actually ask each individually what their concerns are.
They have invited us to attend. That would be doing our due
diligence before, you know, we have a limited frantic board
discussion about it. That would be my suggestion.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: And I think even a better way, so that we
all hear the same thing, would be, I think out of this we could ask
all of our employee representatives to talk to their groups and then
come forward through our board meeting to talk about that.
I mean, I think rather than us trying to go out and everybody
hearing something different and trying to bring feedback, to really
use our format maybe to create a clarity of communication that's
really formal, approved, and we get to all hear it together, if we
are going to go -- okay.
So let's not all run out and start attending meetings and I think
that's inconsistent with the policy. So if you're going to any
meetings, please make sure Chancellor Lambert know.
I will stress, please, all board members, I would encourage
everybody to get out the current bylaws and current policy and just
read it over around complaints, concerns, protocol, how we handle
ourselves.
We have to hold ourselves to the standards that we have already
set. I know we are going through a revision of this, but I'm not
sure that we always do such a great job of holding ourselves
accountable to the policies that already exist.
Please, just as a reminder, to please do that, and I know that
will be on a future agenda item and can't be in a discussion about
it, but I just want to put that out as a reminder.
Okay. So with nothing else, we are adjourned at 8:13.
(Adjournment.)
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