12000 S.W. 49th Avenue - Portland, OR 97219
Sylvania Campus, Conference Rooms A & B
October 21, 2004
Board Members Present:
Dana Anderson, Norma Jean Germond, Jaime Lim, Doreen Margolin, Karen McKinney, Bob Palmer, Harold Williams
The Board of Directors convened an executive session for Real Property Transactions and Litigation in accordance with ORS 192.660 (1)(e, h) at 6:48 PM, adjourning at 7:23 PM.
The business meeting was called to order by Chair Anderson at 7:30 PM. The Chair asked all present to introduce themselves.
The agenda was approved as published.
President Pulliams discussed the importance of new approaches and strategies to diversity. Our perspective needs not to be that the College has failed in the past (because it has not) but rather to look ahead to the future. That the College be a place welcoming to all persons is an essential element of the Board's goals and the Educational Master Plan. President Pulliams noted that forming new strategies to enhance diversity of the College community is also one of his strategic objectives. He said the College will be working actively in coming months to develop these strategies more fully and will share them with the Board.
President Pulliams said that he has asked Sylvia Welch and Jerry Donnelly to be in the lead in forming the initial thinking on what our strategies and plans should be. Ms. Welch noted that one theme of our strategies needs to be effective partnerships within the college community. Areas where partnerships are important include staff development opportunities related to cultural competency (such as the college participated in this past summer), being able to look across the College on a broad basis for both our resources and diversity opportunities, and in actively pursuing unique ways to reach out in hiring processes. Jerry Donnelly noted particularly the opportunities that can exist in looking at faculty hiring opportunities, on a targeted and national scale. He said that strategies also are being explored that will link our diversity objectives with our staff development objectives.
Directors McKinney and Germond expressed appreciation that these conversations and developments are taking place and noted that diversity and cultural enrichment is a broad opportunity for our students and staff, and part of the College's mission and Board policy. Chair Anderson expressed the Board's appreciation for the linking of this discussion with the Board goals and policies, and the Educational Master Plan. She stated that as the Board discusses Board goals in the near future, it will be important that the Board be kept updated on the development of strategies and plans. President Pulliams said that he would be sure to do that.
President Pulliams invited Vice President McEwen and Dr. Christopher to introduce this information item. Vice President McEwen noted that a resolution is before the Board to grant the President authority to execute a long-term lease agreement with the Washington County Historical Society if and when the Board's conditions are met with regard to the Museum's proposed expansion. Dr. Christopher reviewed the proposed increase in leased land from 1.1 to approximately 2.2 acres, and noted that if the Board's conditions are met, the expansion plans will result in an exciting and expanded partnership opportunity between PCC and the Museum. He introduced Joan Smith and Mark Granlund, former and current Museum Executive Directors, respectively. Ms. Smith reviewed the longstanding relationship between the College and the Museum, and confirmed that the Society's recent capital campaign has been successful and that the Museum is posed to embark on its expansion. She noted the Museum's gratitude that the PCC Board has been willing to discuss an expanded lease arrangement, and is confident that our future relationships will be even more productive for each party. Mr. Granlund expressed his gratitude to the College staff for their enthusiasm in working with the Museum over the past two years and for the way the College staff has responded to the Museum's needs and has sought opportunities to merge College and Museum plans together. He introduced representatives of CIDA Architects, the Museum's architectural firm, who presented visuals on the planned site layout and overall design of the expanded building. Mr. Granlund closed the presentation by expressing confidence that in the very near term all of the more detail-related items will be clarified to everyone's satisfaction. Mr. Granlund also expressed his appreciation to the Board for allowing the College to participate in these discussions.
Director McKinney expressed her appreciation that it appears that this relationship will continue to be successful, and noted how important the Museum is to our heritage. Director Williams expressed his support for the expanded lease, in part because of the confidence he has that the College staff has ensured that the Board's objectives for this arrangement will have been met. Director McKinney said that partnerships of this sort between public agencies are important demonstrations to the public of prudent use of public funds, which everyone knows are in short supply. She thinks this is a model for such agreements, and is proud that PCC is participating in this.
President Pulliams acknowledged the hard work of faculty and staff on this project. It is a very well thought out, documented, strategized plan to transition from courses offered in three credit hour blocks to four hour blocks. The advantages are that the PCC curriculum will align better with PSU and OUS curriculums, students will have more hours of core content, more contact with faculty, and will have to take fewer classes to meet transfer requirements, which will save money on textbooks. Faculty support this move because it will increase the learning effort.
Karen Jolly, chair of the Educational Advisory Committee (EAC), stated that about a year ago administrators at Portland State University approached their counterparts at PCC to talk about the idea of aligning credit hours for easier transfer between institutions. The EAC spent a year investigating the feasibility of this idea and appointed a good quality standing committee to take a look at the issues. Porter Raper, Writing Instructor at Cascade Campus, was asked to chair the committee. In May the committee brought a recommendation to the EAC to make the transition to four credit hour transfer classes, which has been embraced by the faculty. The EAC accepted the committee’s recommendations and asked administration to take a further look at the financial impact, access, and facilities issues to see if this could be accommodated. In September administration reported that these issues could be accommodated and the EAC voted to recommend the move to four credits. The EAC will be meeting with Dr. Pulliams tomorrow to receive his approval to move this project forward.
Porter Raper gave a brief history of this process, including the thorough exploration of this idea by a committee that broadly represented the College district. They also held discussions with staff at Portland State University, Clackamas Community College, Lane Community College, and Central Oregon Community College to discover their thinking on this change. All of the universities in Oregon and some of the community colleges have begun to move to the four credit system and their input was very valuable. They reported very few negative aspects to this change and this information was presented to faculty, students and staff via a series of well-attended forums on each campus. Several patterns emerged during these discussions: student success, cost to students, and transferability of credits. Scott Huff, Dean of Instruction at Cascade Campus, noted that the EAC asked Institutional Research to look at the statistics on student enrollment, the effect fewer sections might have on tuition revenue, effect of part-time faculty teaching an extra credit, and possible benefits, such as a slight increase in faculty salary and the change in tuition fees.
Chair Anderson thanked the EAC for providing important background information prior to the Board making this significant decision. Director Palmer stated his support for this transition and asked what some of the negative impacts might be. Mr. Raper said that the main concerns that surfaced are the effect on part-time faculty, on casual students who take only one or two classes per term since the cost per class will increase, and that the College may not be able to offer as many sections as before. The committee felt that these are minor concerns that can be resolved. Director Germond asked if the number of contact hours will remain the same with more course content squeezed into that amount of time or if the number of hours will be increased. Mr. Raper said that the number of contact hours would be increased from three contact hours per week to four and the content will be increased significantly to match the increased time. Faculty often feel that they are struggling to cover all the course content in the three contact hours and are excited about having the extra time to more thoroughly cover the course objectives. Changes to courses with less than three credits will be decided by division administrators on a course-by-course basis.
Director McKinney feels that this change will be a real asset to students. She asked what impact this will have on accreditation, if there would be changes to FTE reimbursement, if this would impact classes we have contracted to provide for businesses, what the timeframe for this transition is, and what the projected costs might be. Ms. Jolly said that the EAC is recommending the change take effect Fall Term 2006 so there will be a year to phase in students that are in sequenced classes. President Pulliams said that there should not be any negative financial impact to the College or to the accreditation process.
None
Director Germond moved to approve Resolutions 05-020 through 05-025 by consent agenda and it passed unanimously.
None
Michael Dembrow, President of the Faculty Federation, reminded everyone of the upcoming election on November 2, which has absorbed the energy of both Federations and student government. They have registered several thousand students to vote and are encouraging them to actually vote. Ballot boxes have been set up on each campus to provide a safe, convenient way for voting.
Mr. Dembrow commented on the affirmative action proposal and is gratified to hear the initiatives that are being considered. He looks forward to working with Ms. Welch and Mr. Donnelly on them. He hopes the rich talent within the College will also be considered. He expressed support for the three to four credit hour transition project. Faculty feel there is much benefit to being able to spend more time on each course. He commended the EAC on their very responsible leadership in the process used to consider this change. There will be some challenges and contractual implications to be dealt with in this transition, but he is confident that agreement can be reached to work things out.
Deborah Hall, Representative for the Classified Federation, reported that the Federation is preparing for bargaining and trusts that those sessions will continue to be amicable.
Director Margolin distributed her report on the ACCT Congress in New Orleans. She and President Pulliams introduced the Life Options Partnership program that PCC is involved in. Neal Naigus made an excellent presentation and she hopes he will be asked to make another presentation in the future to get other colleges involved in a similar program. Director Margolin found the sessions very useful and noted that she and Director Williams attended the Senate as voting members for PCC and also spent time in committee and board meetings.
Director Germond reported on some excellent programs that she anticipates discussing with the president and board in the future. She attended the session presented by Dan Moriarty and Director Margolin and they made an excellent presentation on Choosing Consultants for IT Investment and Growth.
Director McKinney reported she attended many of the same excellent sessions, as well as some others and found them very beneficial. There were a lot of good ideas we can use for our Foundation as we set goals and give them direction for the future. Another area was the economic forecast model, which would be helpful to Director Margolin on a state-wide perspective. All the community colleges got together and invested $10,000-15,000 to do that state-wide with all the community colleges. Ray Taylor reported that close to 400 community colleges nationwide have completed ACCT’s survey. She feels that Oregon has not made much use of that information because some questioned the way the data was collected and the form in which it was presented back to the colleges. It might be to our advantage to look at how we might use that data from the state perspective to make what we’re doing dovetails with work at the national level. Governance will be a central issue nationally and the models are being developed based on student input, and will include input from other areas in the future.
Chair Anderson thanked Board members for their reports and encouraged all Board members who attended the ACCT Congress to submit their written reports for Board consideration, in keeping with Board Policy.
Chair Anderson reported that she will represent PCC, along with Dr. Pulliams, at the OCCA Board meeting on October 22 and will bring a report to the November Board meeting. At the September Board Retreat the Board made plans to discuss board goals at the October Board meeting, but proposed revisions were not ready, so the discussion is planned for the November agenda.
Chair Anderson said that all Board members received a letter from Barbara Raz, member of the PCC Foundation Board, asking for full participation of the PCC Board in the 2005 Giving Campaign. She encouraged all Board members to meet that challenge.
President Pulliams reported that Neal Naigus sparked what he hopes will become a national movement in the role community colleges will play in dealing with seniors in this country.
The President expressed the appreciation of the Board to the staff for the successful grand opening event at Rock Creek Campus, and again to the staff at Cascade Campus at their grand opening ceremony. The President reminded the Board and staff of the upcoming grand opening event at Sylvania Campus on Wednesday, November 10 at noon. The President thanked Board members for their representation of the community at these celebratory events.
President Pulliams was happy to announce that PCC received a five-year, $748,000 grant from the U.S. Dept. of Health Services to train Hispanic Head-Start paraeducators in a program leading to an Associates Degree.
The President reported that he has been asked to join the Portland Business Alliance Board as an ex officio member and has also been asked to join the United Way Board and he is happy to be a part of these outstanding efforts. He thanked Director McKinney for making arrangements for him to meet with the Mayor and Hillsboro City staff leaders to discuss a possible PCC presence at the new Hillsboro Civic Center.
He also thanked Board members and Federation leadership for making Fall Inservice and the start of the academic year a real success. The President also reported that all bond construction projects were ready for the start of the year and thanked all staff for the great teamwork displayed in making this happen.
The President discussed the need for the optional November 4 board meeting and it was decided that the meeting is not needed.
President Pulliams reported that he had a very successful trip to the Dominican Republic in an advisory role to the leaders and educators of the country in starting up a community college system. The country faces some real challenges from crime, illiteracy, a stagnant economy, and a poorly trained workforce. The new president there feels that community colleges are the answer to some of these issues. President Pulliams extended an offer to visit PCC to these educational leaders so we can share information with them and they can see the wonderful things that we are doing. They are tentatively planning to visit PCC the second week of February, 2005.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 9:15 PM.
The next meeting of the Portland Community College Board of Directors will be held on November 18, 2004 at 7:30 PM at the Cascade Campus, Terrell Hall, Room 122.
_____________________________ _____________________________
Chair Anderson President Pulliams
Prepared by:
______________________________
Judy Schwartz
Assistant to Board of Directors
Minutes approved on November 18, 2004