Ronnie gets a trustee room; district gets more lawyers; students get cheaper books?

There’s a meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees Monday night. You can download the entire agenda, a pdf file, at the district website. Looks like the board might make some decisions re ATEP in closed session. Hard to say. The “Janez Group” is listed as a participant in negotiations.

As you know, the board has scheduled a special ATEP meeting for Nov. 3. The open session is set to start at 7:00. Up first: board resolutions concerning the “professors of the year.” Scintillatin'! October's discussion item is “strategies” for “enrollment management” for the three campuses. It'll be a total snoozefest. The IVC student government budget is coming back for a second review. Things could get exciting for student government tomorrow, what with this and the trustees’ interest in lowering book prices (student government gets its money from booksales). The Ronald Reagan Board of Trustees Room

Item 6.3 is approval naming the Health Sciences Building, Room 145, as the Ronald Reagan Board of Trustees Room.  The “status” of this item is (awkwardly) described as follows: Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States of America, who dedicated Saddleback College forty years ago, and in recognizing that no greater national leader has ever had a role in the history of our community college district, the Chancellor was authorized by the Board of Trustees to send a letter to Mrs. Ronald Reagan, seeking her permission in dedicating the Health Sciences and District Services Building, Room 145, Saddleback College to the memory of her husband, President Ronald Reagan, and naming the room the Ronald Reagan Board of Trustees Room. Mrs. Reagan responded to the letter graciously giving her permission to allow Room 145 to carry President Ronald Reagan's name. Yeah. Ronald Reagan is the hero who gave us deregulation. That's turned out swell. It might be too soon to tell how great a role Ronnie has had in our history. Oddly enough, the next item is revision of various board policies, including BP-1500, Naming of College Facilities. Near as I can tell, the only changes to this policy being proposed are the addition of ATEP as among the district’s campuses and the addition of this line: “The District reserves the right to change the name of college facilities at any time.”

LAWYERING UP RE INVOCATIONS:

Item 6.9 is curious: “Approve retainer agreement for legal counsel to assist in matters involving invocation at Board meetings and College/District functions.” The full item is the following: 

 BACKGROUND

Our District was founded in 1967. For every year except one in the ensuing more than 40 years, the Board has opened its meetings with invocations. Trustees have offered these invocations and used the opportunity to do so for traditional prayers, moments of silence, and words of inspiration. STATUS

The legal propriety of continued invocations has been challenged by some faculty members. The District has consulted with several legal counsels in this regard and believes that we need to employ a legal counsel to further advise us in this matter on a continuing basis. It is recommended that the Board of Trustees employ John Eastman as our legal counsel for the aforementioned purpose. Mr. Eastman currently serves as the Dean of Law School at Chapman University.

TEXTBOOK COST SHOWDOWN?

Among reports are 7.1, “Information on plans for reducing textbook costs for Saddleback College and lrvine Valley College students.” I predict that some trustees will be displeased by this report. They’ll press for more aggressive action to lower textbook costs to students. And they’d be right. Bramucci, Plano, and Telson will be presenting a report on the colleges’ “strategic plans” for reducing textbook costs. Saddleback College’s “recommendations for the future” are the following: 1. The Saddleback College ASG and Foundation will be asked to consider contributing anually to the "Emergenw Book Loan Program," thus building reserves in the Library and accounting for edition changes.

2. The Saddleback College Bookstore is instituting a Book Rental Program, to be in place no later than the Fall of 2009. If feasible, program expansion should be supported as recommended by the Bookstore Committee.

3. Faculty will commit, whenever possible, to use any edition for as long as pedagogically possible.

4. Reminders of the importance of timely book adoptions will be sent to faculty more often. In addition, department chairs will be encouraged to commit to enforcing departmental early adoption policies.

5. Course readings should be encouraged wherever pedagogically possible.

6. Within five years, a CSU-led effort called the "Digital Marketplace," which will offer online resources such as an open-source digital library, should be available. For some reason, IVC’s report seems to highlight a document from student government.  I doubt that the board will be impressed by these reports. In the past, some trustees have seized upon the circumstance that bookstore textbook prices are artificially raised to fund student government (I think the figure is 10%; I could be wrong).  THE 50% LAW: Item 7.2 is a report regarding 50% Law compliance. It’s “status” is explained as follows: There has been no year when the District has been out of compliance with the 50% Law. The calculation for fiscal vear 2006-2007 was 50.03% and the calculation for this past fiscal year, 2007-2008, is 51.65%. No consultant has ever been hired to assist with compliance for the 50% Law. As required by the State Chancellor's Office the District’s independent auditing firm of Vicenti, Lloyd, and Stutzman examines and verifies the details of the calculation as part of the annual financial audit.

As you know, the Chancellor ignored this law for several years, a fact that was detected about a year ago. It soon became clear that radical steps would be necessary to increase "instructional" spending. Thus the massive and hurried hiring of 38 faculty last Spring.