Sunday, March 25, 2012

$30,000 spent on "College Brain Trust" (but not for the civility initiative)

John Spevak of CBT
     (See UPDATES below. The gist: the $30K doesn't seem to be for Spevak's efforts re the civility initiative.)
     Some readers seem to have a great interest in how much the college is spending on the assistance it is receiving from "College Brain Trust," the Sacramento consulting firm that sent John Spevak down to help with our "civility initiative." Spevak organized and directed Friday's workshop and also the workshop held in December.
     I quickly scanned recent board agendas—including the one for tomorrow’s meeting—and here’s what I found:
     I found no items for “College Brain Trust” in the March or February agendas. There’s a $900 item (expenditure) for "College Brain Trust" in the January agenda. That same item appears (I think as an expected expenditure) in the December agenda. There’s an expenditure of $28,676.23 to “College Brain Trust” in the November agenda. Nothing in October or September agendas.
     So we’re looking at about $30K here. Don’t know if that’s all of it. It's more than I thought they were spending, but, on the other hand, I'm not surprised by the amount.
     I suppose that IVC President Roquemore is thinking that, since this initiative was occasioned by serious accreditation concerns, it is best to bring in a neutral party to run things. Is it worth $30K to help make this process look like it's on the up-and-up? Could we have gone with something cheaper? 
     I dunno. No doubt some of you have opinions.

UPDATE: Dennis Gordon (one of the workshop facilitators) has sent the following:

Roy,
   The College Brain Trust has been used as a consultant for a number of tasks including work on the the District Wide Accreditation report. The $30k you mentioned was for other work that has been done, not for the Civility working group.
   In the spirit of transparency, I think the question of how much was spent for John Spevak to coordinate and facilitate the Civility project is a valid one and I will inquire as to the cost and report back.

UPDATE 2 (3/28):
Dennis Gordon has left a new comment on your post "$30,000 spent on "College Brain Trust" (but not fo...":

   I wanted to report back on the cost for John Spevak (The College Brain Trust) to conduct the Civility Working Group meetings for IVC. The amount paid was $6,750.79 which included multiple meetings and workshops and also included John's travel and hotel expenses.
   I feel this is a fair amount given the time spent by John with our campus community and the work that has been accomplished in support of the civility initative.  
   Every governance group had represenation at our meeting last week and I encourage anyone who has questions or comments regarding the initiative to have an open dialog among your constituants.



"....if a tax measure on the November ballot fails..."


Carla Rivera, a tireless reporter covering higher ed issues, is at it again. This time, in this morning's Los Angeles Times, she covers Jack Scott's recent address at Pasadena City College.

Community colleges chief decries budget cuts' toll on students

excerpt:
"We should be working together to rebuild California and making it a better place for our children," Scott told about 300 students, faculty and community members who gathered in the campus auditorium. "Dreams are necessary to live. If we keep dashing college dreams and denying opportunities for Californians, we're going to lose our best and brightest to other states, which will only further exacerbate our state's economic situation."

Earlier last week, California State University announced that it will freeze most admissions for spring 2013, with the exception of a few hundred community college transfer students who will be offered admission to eight of Cal State's 23 campuses.

The move will shut out an estimated 16,000 others, most of them would-be transfer students who are likely to remain at community colleges and clog access for recent high school graduates and unemployed workers who have been streaming into the two-year system for job retraining.

Scott said he understood the reasoning for Cal State's actions: State universities suffered $750 million in funding cuts in 2011-12. Meanwhile, community colleges took a $564-million hit. Both systems could lose millions more if a tax measure on the November ballot fails.
To read the article in its entirety, click here.

*

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...