Notes on last night's board meeting, part 2

Eventually, the trustees got to item 6.1, the faculty contract. The trustees made an effort to thank all parties, including members of the faculty negotiating team. Tom Fuentes suggested that the board “divide the question.” The problem with the new contract, he said, was specifically the “raises, some of them retroactive.” In “this economy,” he said, he couldn’t in good conscience support the raise, for he has an “obligation to taxpayers.” He harrumphed. In the end, the contract passed unanimously, except for the raises, which naturally lost Fuentes’ vote. The fellow sighed and then flicked a piece of raw meat into the camera. Splat! Item 6.2 was the renewal of printing and mailing class schedules for Fall 2009, and that was approved. This time, the bill was a mere $75K. Here’s what they approved, evidently:

At the March…meeting the Board instructed the colleges to investigate a more cost effective way to distribute the class schedules, perhaps totally through online. Both Colleges looked at the option to mail out a postcard and found that due to post office requirements…there would be little savings over continuing to mail the class schedules. IVC has determined that it could save approx. $32K by decreasing the number of Fall class schedules…from 314K to 30K (campus copies only) and printing a trifold mailer that will be sent to 284K residents…. The college will use the same approach for Spring 2010…. Saddleback College staff is planning to reduce the number of pages for the Fall schedules from 116 to 110 and will convert to an online schedule of classes in the Spring of 2010. In addition, SC will have some campus copies available for sale in its bookstore for a minimal cost of one or two dollars each. …Campuses are preparing to move toward totally online schedule of classes by Spring 2010….

This sounds pretty dicey to me. Is anyone paying attention to this? I sure hope so. I try to keep people informed, but sometimes I think I oughta just shut down and go home. Fuentes nastily intoned that item 6.2, a cost decrease, is “fitting,” given that the faculty contract represents a cost increase. Item 6.4 was the latest curriculum revisions at IVC. This, too, worried Mr. Fuentes, who asked that he be walked through the process. He seemed stunned to learn that about one thousand curriculum changes occur per year. His eyes grew large. How can this be? It was explained to the fellow. IVC Senate Prez Gabriella chimed in to clarify matters. Some of the changes are minor and technical, she said. But, yeah, we do lots of work in this department buster. Item 6.7 concerned board policy revisions, including BP4016, “Drug-free environment and drug prevention program.” Fuentes got excited. Wait-a-minute, he seemed to say. Don’t we now have a “zero tolerance” policy? For some reason, those in the room who attempted to explain our existing and proposed policies re drugs failed to employ the buzzword “zero tolerance,” and that fact caused in Fuentes palpable and noisy pain. “Zero tolerance, zero tolerance!” he shouted. Yeah, sure, zero tolerance, I guess, said everybody else. We don’t use that phrase, but that’s our policy I suppose. Fuentes suddenly stopped the show, asking if any colleague disagreed with zero tolerance on drugs? He scanned the panel ominously. Finally, some poor soul in the audience squawked, “um…just say no!” Actually, that just happened in my mind. What’s with all the red meat? I can only assume that, for some reason, the expected TV audience for this meeting is going to be big. Maybe there’s an AARP convention in town. Who knows. Item 6.8 was academic personnel actions, including a recommendation for a new administrative position: a Dean of Academic Programs, Student Learning, and Research. Glenn Roquemore explained that, with changes that have occurred in recent years, the burdens on the VPI have grown, yadda yadda. What this boils down to is that the Presidents of the colleges are supposed to be allowed to make their own decisions concerning where money should be spent in maintaining an effective administration, and Glenn really wants, and says he can afford, this new position. But, owing to “this new economy,” some trustees resisted the idea. Somebody failed to get their ducks in a row. Chancellor Mathur stated that he supported the proposal. Oddly, he even seemed to say that, if the position is approved and Glenn sends up a candidate, he’ll support that recommendation too! (I think I got that right.) Sounds like Raghu has been in the woodshed. No wonder he looked so glum and his fanny looked so red. Marcia used the “m” word (micromanagement). We oughta back off and let Glenn do this, she said. But, in the end, 5 of the seven trustees voted to table the item (Marcia and Don dissented). Fuentes used item 7.3 (“basic aid information”) to talk up his boy Chriss Street, OC’s corrupt Treasurer. Yadda yadda yadda.