HIGHLINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE             

                                        COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT 9                     

                                       

 

MINUTES OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES’ MEETING

 

                                                           December 13, 2007

 

 

STUDY SESSION

 

Board Discussion

Student Rights and Responsibilities /Code of Ethics

Marketing Update

Legislative Update

Update on MaST

Commission Visits

Capital Project Requests

Burien City Council Presentation

                                                           

 

MEETING

 

Call to Order

Karen Vander Ark, Chair, called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m.

 

Roll Call

Members Present:                              Karen Vander Ark

                                                            Rita Creighton

                                                            Elizabeth Chen

                                                            Mike Regeimbal

                                                            Edward Davila

 

Attorney General Representative:       Derek Edwards

 

 

Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees on November 8, 2007 were approved with one correction.  The minutes read,

      “A change was requested in the agenda to accommodate an early departure schedule for Trustee Rita Creighton.  Rita was asked to present information on the Presidential Search process which would be followed by the report from the Faculty Senate Representative.”

 

The minutes should read:

      “A change was requested in the agenda.  Rita Creighton was asked to present information on the Presidential Search process following the report from the HCEA. 

The agenda then continued with the report from the Faculty Senate Representative.”

 

 

 

 

 

Correspondence

 

The graphic production program has received ten awards from the International Association of Printing House Craftsmen.  A number of these awards were displayed in the Board Room.  Three of the awards shown were gold, and one for the publication, Arcturus, was silver.  Tony Sittner, head of the Graphics Program, had noted that this competition was industry-level competition, and not just student work, and that these products represented a  very high level in their production qualities.  Congratulations were offered to all those in the Graphics Production Program.

 

Standing Reports

 

Steve Simpkins had a final exam, so Lydia Bracco’s report was heard first.

 

Washington Public Employees Association

Lydia Bracco reported.

 

·         Lydia offered her thanks to Jack Bermingham for arranging a discount for the Winter Luncheon.  She received a lot of positive feedback from the classified staff employees.

·         The Brown Bag meeting will not be held in December, but will meet again in January.

·         The Otis Spunkmeyer Cookie WPEA Scholarship drive raised a total of $858.00.

 

Highline College Education Association

Ruth Windhover reported.

 

·         Ruth said that elections for the HCEA Executive Committee were completed.  Ruth said she will continue as President, and Alan Walton will continue as Vice President.  Ben Thomas is the Secretary, and Bob Bonner is Treasurer.

·         Ruth Windhover said that she has had a few meetings with Marie Zimmermann, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and she feels that there is an outstanding collegiality between the faculty and administration at Highline Community College.  She said that so often, this relationship at other institutions is a more traditional us/them relationship, and that this has not been the case at Highline.  She said it takes a lot of hard work to develop these positive relationships and Highline has been successful in maintaining this environment.

·         On the State level, Ruth discussed the two Task Force groups that are underway; the Technology Task Force and the Salary Task Force.  She wanted to acknowledge the tremendous work on the part of the Technology Committee and especially recognize the work of Marc Lentini, from Highline, who has devoted a lot of time toward the Technology Report.  She said it had been stated that the Technology Report had Marc’s fingerprints all over it which was one more example of the collegial relationship between our faculty and staff members.

·         Ruth explained that with regard to the Salary Task Force, on which she serves, they are still looking at data of the past 10 years.  There is no upward movement in increasing salaries.  Currently there are 30 different salary levels in the State, and Highline is the only college that is in the top one quarter in all of the areas.

·         Ruth expressed her surprise at the level of Presidents’ salaries.  She said that for those Presidents who remain at one college, their salary level is significantly lower.  She hopes that the Legislature will review these issues in 2009.

 

 

 

Trustee Mike Regeimbal asked about the Technology Task Force and whether there was interest in focusing on this on a local level.  Ruth explained that there was interest in having the faculty retain control over instructional issues, i.e., types of technology best suited to their instructional needs.  She added that some issues lend themselves to system wide consistency, and some do not, but that instructors should have choices on how the technology integrates into their curriculum.  She said there is often a “Costco” type of mentality and that buying in bulk can save money, but that the strength of the community college system is to meet the needs of the students and not necessarily to systematize instruction.

  

Faculty Senate

Ruth Frickle reported.

 

·         Ruth reported that the most recent meeting of the Faculty Senate was entirely devoted to discussions on the role of the Faculty Resource Center.  Allison Green and Kathy Oberg led discussions about this issue.

·         Ruth said there would be more information on the role of the Faculty Resource Center at a later date.

 

 

ACTION ITEMS

 

a. Dates for Board Meetings in 2008

Mike Regeimbal moved that the following dates be approved for the Highline Community

College regular meetings of the Board of Trustees for 2008:

 

·    January 17

·    February 14

·    March 13

·    April 10

·    May 8

·    June 12

·    July 10

·    September 11

·    October 9

·    November 13

·     December 11

 

The motion was seconded by Elizabeth Chen.

The motion passed.

 

b. Adoption of the Revision of the Student Rights and Responsibilities Code

(WAC 132I-120)

 

Mike Regeimbal moved to adopt the revision of the Student Rights and Responsibilities Code (WAC 132I-120); Revision dated December 13, 2007, with a notation of the correction under 132I-124 which will now read 15 days instead of the 7 days as listed.

 

Ed Davila seconded the motion. 

The motion passed.

 

 

 

c. Appointment of Presidential Search Committee Members:

 

Rita Creighton moved to appoint the following members to the Presidential Search

Committee:

·         Faculty representatives: 

Ruth Frickle, Jack Horton, Ed Morris, Jason Ramirez

·         Classified staff representatives: 

Lydia Bracco, Lynne King, Mark Wynne

·         Exempt staff representatives: 

Yoshiko Harden-Abe, Rashid Norris, Cesar Portillo

·         Student representative: 

Steve Simpkins

·         Community representatives: 

Dan Altmayer, Arun Jhaveri, Phyllis Byers

·         Trustees representatives:

Rita Creighton, Elizabeth Chen  

d. Approval of the profile of the presidential candidate (copy filed with the Official Minutes located in the President’s Office)

 

Rita Creighton moved to adopt the profile the of presidential candidate and to have this

information posted to the Highline Community College website.

 

Elizabeth Chen seconded the motion.

 

The motion passed.

 

Rita Creighton noted that the make up of the committee members had changed from last month’s discussion.  She said there was a request for an additional representative from the faculty which indicated the requirement of an additional representative.  This also complied with the language of the contract.  She felt that the end result was a more diverse committee in background and experience.  She said the committee met recently and will be meeting on February 11, 2008 and on February 21.  The meeting of March 17 will be held to select finalists.  This list will be reported to the Board of Trustees.  Rita wished to offer accolades to Patricia Overman and thank her for all her hard work.  She said the website was ready to go live and that the consultants had also been very impressed with the look of the website.  She added this was not only a good tool for the presidential search, but for Highline as well.  The address of the website is: http://presidentialsearch.highline.edu.  Advertisements will go out soon.

 

 

Associated Students of Highline Community College

Student Body President, Steven Simpkins reported.

 

Steve thanked everyone for accommodating his schedule while he finished his final exam in Statistics.

·         Steve said the Giving Tree was coming to an end.  The students had gathered and wrapped all the gifts last week which was a very good time for all of them.

·         Steve’s initiative on the International Summit will begin next quarter.  The Indonesian students will be honored at the first meeting.

·         One idea that Steve has had to raise money would be for a “foreign currency” drive.  People who travel and bring back change from other countries would be requested to contribute that change into a fund for the International Exchange.

·         Steve reminded everyone of the Legislative Breakfast to be held on January 9.  There will be three speakers to discuss some of the issues that students are concerned about.

·         The Club Fair has now developed 45 clubs, and a Health Fair is planned for next quarter.

 

AREA REPORTS

 

Student Services

Toni Castro reported.

 

Toni Castro said she would like to add a little information from Steve’s report on the Giving Tree.  CWU also mobilized this drive with more than 80 gifts, and there were lots of exciting toys for all the children.

 

Toni asked all to join her in welcoming Lorraine Odom.  Lorraine is the new Director of Financial Aid.  She comes to us from the Evergreen State College and also worked at other community colleges.  She obtained her degree in Public Administration from the University of Washington. We also have a new Director for the Women’s Programs/Workfirst Program.  Deana Rader will begin at Highline on January 7th.  She is from South Puget Sound Community College and has her Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Evergreen State College.

 

The student success story for December is Noory Kim, a graduate of the Running Start program.  She is completing her AA degree and is interested in Psychology.  She is a member of Student Leadership and participated in the Giving Tree.  She is going on to the University of Washington and eventually plans to go to Medical School. 

 

General Administration

Larry Yok reported.

 

Larry reminded everyone of the storm of December 3rd, and said that the campus had faired quite well.  There had been some flooding; however it was a good opportunity to see how the retention ponds worked on the west side of the campus.  Their purpose was to capture and cleanse the run off and measure the flow into the creek.  Larry said he was pleased to report that the method worked very well, and that this part of the “green” project seemed to be successful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instruction

Marie Zimmerman reported.

 

Marie wished to offer congratulations to Christiana Taylor for her dramatic production, “Earth and Sky.”  She noted that it often seemed that one character in a production can steal the show, and in this case if was definitely the character of the bartender who really captured the attention of the audience.

 

Marie wished to share a success story regarding The Center for Extended Learning.  Dean Mary Averett was approached by the Highline School District to assist in the program, “Language Communication for Employers.”  There are now 100 employees signed up to improve their skills in the Spanish language in order to improve communication with parents in Spanish speaking families. 

 

Marie also wished to make a special note of congratulations to Amal Mahmoud.  He will be traveling to Kuwait on a six month Fulbright program at the American University of Kuwait.

 

Institutional Advancement

Lisa Skari reported.

 

Lisa announced the date of the annual benefit show of the Breeder’s Theatre this year as January 30th.  TimT. M. Sell is the author, and Nancy Warren is doing the music., and Melissa Sell does the costumes and Iit promises to be a great show.

 

The MaST update includes a recent contribution of $2000 from King County.  Lisa also distributed the Save the Date cards for this year’s Gala which will be held on April 26th.  Lisa said they hoped to be sold out by March lst. 

 

Lisa also announced that information is being prepared for the Trustees by the State Board to support the role of the Trustee within the five-year strategic plan through the “Creating Opportunities” Public Information section.

 

Unscheduled business

Ruth Windhover addressed the Board of Trustees concerning the Search Committee process and wished to make a request.   Ruth asked that the Search Committee should not be dissolved once the names of the candidates are identified.  Her reasoning for this was that she felt the Trustees would be getting a lot of feedback from the faculty once they have gone to the forums with the candidates and without a faculty member or representative – to take that data; analyze it, and understand it, and then pass it on to the Trustees, she thought it would be overwhelming and confusing to the Board of Trustees to get that raw data from the faculty members. 

 

So if at least there were to be one representative from the faculty group and maybe the other groups as well; that this representative could be the collector of that raw data from their own group and then present it to the Board of Trustees, Ruth thought that it would give the Board a better sense of the response from the various groups. 

 

A second request was that she asked that representatives from the employee groups should sit in on the interviews as well.  That’s the way that it was done in the past, and Ruth explained that it had been her personal experience when she sat on the search committee for the CEO of the State Board, that once again, those interviews held a college faculty representative and a college Trustee representative college and college president on those

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

interviews.  She suggested that this was a relatively common practice for stakeholders to sit in on the interview process. 

 

New Business

None.

 

Announcements

Jack Bermingham announced that Highline Community College will have a visitor from Yangzhou in January.  Zhao Lan will be with us for a period of six months, and is from the Yangzhou Foreign Affairs Office.  She will be assisting us in marketing trade opportunities with Yangzhou and this could be very helpful in cementing a good relationship with the city. 

 

Dr. Bermingham also wished to thank Steve Simpkins for his work in initiating the discussion he recently had with a student panel.  He said there was a common thread in the struggle to involve more students in student leadership.

 

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 10:50 a.m.

 

Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting of the Board of Trustees

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Trustees will be on January 17, 2008.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                               

Karen Vander Ark, Chair                                             Jack Bermingham, Interim Secretary