December 09 Governing Board Meeting, Oral Communication Video

Thanks to student Veronica Golenia, we have some video of last Wednesday's Board Meeting:

Part I: "Oral Communication" begins at around the 11:16 mark with a report on the budget and reserve funds from SCEA President Philip Lopez*, who asks the Board, "Who will be held accountable? Who will take responsibility? Will you?" when come next Fall it turns out that cutting 429 course sections was unnecessary.

*Please also see Phil's comment on the board's inability to comprehend budget matters.

SWC Board of Govenors Meeting 12/09/09 PART 1

Ronnie | MySpace Video


Part II continues the last part of Philip Lopez's remarks, followed by Patti Flores-Charter, who observes that "leaders don't hold forums after a tsunami" and provides an "Update on the Injured"--an accounting of staff "lost in the proverbial brain drain."**

Next up at 2:53 is Valerie Goodwin-Colbert, President of the SWC Academic Senate, reading the text of the Senate's recent Vote of No Confidence in the SWC Governing Board. (At its regular Nov. 24, 2009 meeting, the Academic Senate unanimously voted no confidence in the Board.)

At 7:28, Jose Preciado, President of the South Bay Forum, comments on the Board's poor reputation in the community and the adverse impact of its recent decisions.

SWC Board of Govenors Meeting 12/09/09 PART 2

Ronnie | MySpace Video

** The full text of Patti Flores-Charter's remarks: Governing Board Meeting Oral Communication 12/9/09 The tsunami that was heading toward us has hit head-on. Leaders don’t hold forums after a tsunami. They don’t ignore community leadership structures after a tsunami. They mobilize community leaders in triage efforts to rescue the injured and begin repairs. The tsunami has hit and our leaders continue to ignore the injured and the damage. By Friday we can add our web programmer, Patty Ramert, to the list of staff lost. So here’s an update on the injured resulting in a proverbial brain drain on campus: Debra Fitzsimmons, Fiscal Affairs Fusako Yokotobi, Human Resources Greg Sandoval, Student Affairs Arthur Lopez, Financial Aid Nevada Smith, Community Relations Linda Gilstrap, Grants Fernando Poveda, Outreach Silvia Lugo, Performing Arts Eli Singh and Patty Ramert, Web Technologies And these are just the injured I know about. But what about critical services after the tsunami? Here’s just an example: CSS remains so understaffed that the dedicated and limited staff must work almost round the clock to keep up with repairs and requests. They cannot keep up this pace. At a time when President Obama’s agenda for higher education is focused on student aid and grants we do not have Arthur steering the rescue raft or Linda Gilstrap’s experience guiding our fiscal rescue. Instead I heard we’ve hired yet another consultant for grants. After cutting 429 sections we find out from the Union Tribune we can have 50 back. After cutting 429 sections we now hear there may be faculty hiring and we’re supposed to scramble into this leaking raft and head over a new unseen cliff. The fact is there was no rescue plan. There is no rescue plan. There is no leadership at Southwestern College.

The next regularly scheduled Board meeting will be held January 13, 2010 at the Otay Mesa Higher Education Center.

The Spin

We all knew it was coming; we just didn't expect the San Diego Union-Tribune to go along with Chopra's spin game to such a degree.

On November 20, the Union-Tribune presented a damage-control "interview" with Raj K. Chopra under the name of "news."

Here is another version, courtesy mandrake1 and photographer X:

As someone who knows something about this let me play counter point here. Chopra is well known for being evasive and at times spinning complete fabrications. The vast majority of students, faculty and staff at the school live in a climate of fear and retribution. Let me answer the questions in a way that readers can understand the issues at SWC and that many who work and go to school at SWC believe are the real motivations behind the actions.

QUESTION: What do you see as the issues pertaining to the Oct. 22 protest?
Those faculty members are mostly union officers and have defied my will and have displeased me. This was a way that I could punish them and maybe even eliminated them for good. I was going to have them prosecuted by the DA but unfortunately, there were no unlawful actions so I had to drop it.

QUESTION: Why has the situation turned so volatile, and have you done anything to address it?
I hated listening to others, particularly when they don’t agree with me. That’s why I took vacation just hours after I suspended the 4 professors. I just didn’t want to face the heat for my actions (notice the director of HR also immediately went on vacation). I am so refractory to input that doesn’t match my own beliefs that I disenfranchise those that disagree with me. Even though, by law, I am supposed to work with faculty and staff to reach consensus, I believe that I am I charge and that is that. People get really really angry with that, but tough darts I say, I am president.

QUESTION: What is your response to criticism that the school’s free-speech zone is too small?
I got lucky on that one. The previous interim president and previous academic senate president (who was voted out of office before the end of her term) were able to craft a free speech policy that worked to my advantage. No matter that the policy violates the 1st amendment to the US Constitution. The school has been contacted by the ACLU about this and has been advised that we will be in court if we don’t change it. Oh well, it was great while it lasted.

QUESTION: Many don’t understand why so many course offerings have to be cut. Can you explain?
Well its really very simple, what I should do and what law says I need to do is consult with managers, faculty, staff and students to come to a consensus on how to make cuts with a minimum of impact to students and programs. But I want to do it my way and since the faculty and students have not supported me, its time that they faced the music. I decree that all of the cuts will come from the class schedule. No cuts from the administrative side of campus at all. I know that the faculty and students have come up with reasonable and prudent plans for saving much of the class schedule but I am not interest in that and don’t want to hear it. I already know what I want to do and the governing board is ok with it. After all they hired me, gave me a raise and a contract extension. Does that all make sense?

FREE SPEECH RALLY THIS FRIDAY, NOV. 13, AT SWC

11:00 a.m. in front of Mayan Hall

We expect an impressive array of speakers, who will address

• Freedom of Speech
• Class Cuts
• Broken Promises

Faculty, staff, students, community members--all are welcome!

(SWC employees: remember to avoid attending the rally during your service hours. SWC students: Don't cut class to protest class cuts. Attend only between classes.)

Rally co-sponsored by SCEA (faculty union), CSEA (classified union), and the Southwestern College Academic Senate

Rally to Protest Suspensions, Class Cuts this Thursday!

Southwestern College's faculty union (SCEA) has organized a rally for this Thursday, Nov. 5.

When: 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Where: Corner of Otay Lakes Road and H Street.

Who: Faculty, staff, students, and community members. All are welcome!


Important note for employees and students of SWC: Come to the rally during a break. Do not miss class or cancel appointments to attend.

Rally on Thursday!

Thursday afternoon, there will be a multi-college rally to protest the budget cuts that have been hitting local colleges:

Balboa Park, corner of President's (hmm) Way and Park Blvd. 3:00 pm.

Here's the flyer.

For more information call: 619-640-1155

Letter to Board from South Bay Forum President

Jose Preciado, president of the community group South Bay Forum, sent the following letter to SWC Governing Board members:

19 October 2009

Dear Board Members:

I am writing to express interest in your current business model.

As you proceed to reduce course sections, the matter of the reserve has not been fully explained. Board members and faculty have shared with me that you recently went to New York to work with someone or some groups in establishing
your credit rating. Members of the faculty have shared with me that you are not working collaboratively with them in developing policy to meet the educational mission of the campus. So, the speculation is that you have decided to maintain multiple priorities during these trying budget times and as such you have subjugated the educational mission of the campus to a secondary goal in order to maintain and expand the physical plant. In fact, some are suggesting that for some of you the physical plant is more important. What are we not understanding about your leadership of the campus that makes your board colleagues and the faculty reach out to us inviting our involvement? Questioning your motives? Making these types of claims about your priorities?

The area of inquiry then centers on your rationale for prioritizing construction bond related goals of the college during a period of time when you are experiencing unprecedented course offering reductions. Why are you unwilling to use reserves to meet the instructional budget gaps created by the state and national recessions? Should you delay any work on the bonds and construction given that you are reducing student enrollment? Why do you need physical plant expansion now--given that you are losing funds to offer coursework and you have under-utilized satellite campuses?

Our region, students, working families, and residents in general need access to the educational offerings that only your college has. So please share with us if you have decided to cut classes as a last resort. Have you chosen to protect your credit rating to sell bonds instead of reducing your reserve to bridge your instructional budget deficit? Will you consider fee increases to maintain access to the college? Bond related construction or coursework---Which comes first in your view?

Please advise.

I am copying your cheerleaders on La Prensa's Editorial Board and the San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board to see if they have a perspective on this.

Jose Preciado, President
South Bay Forum

SWC Teacher Suspensions Update

We still have no details on the justification for the suspensions, though the district denies that participation in the student rally played a role.

One faculty member, Janet Mazzarella, has been cleared to return to work on Monday. The other three remain suspended.

UPDATED: SWC President Raj K. Chopra is on vacation for three weeks, effective today. He was present to sign the orders of Withdrawal of Consent (to access the campus).

Human Resources Director Jackie Osborne (who helped serve the suspension notices) is also on vacation effective today.

San Diego Union-Tribune article addressing the suspensions.

Student Rally!

Today's rally at SWC marked the beginning of a new era of activism for SWC students, staff, faculty, and even a few administrators.





The theme was "got classes?" and the message was clear.




With police officers standing by, one student after another took to the open mic, expressing how the class cuts were impacting not just themselves but their families and communities.




As the "free speech hour" drew to a close, participants decided to take their message beyond approved confines and marched to President Raj K. Chopra's office, where police blocked their way.




Student leadership says this rally is just the beginning.

Student Rally Today!

got classes?

The administration of SWC has decided that roughly 430 classes will be cut from the Spring ‘10 schedule. This reduction is nearly 25% of the course offerings and means that throughout the catalogue; almost 1 out of every 4 classes will not be offered for the students who are nearing graduation or transfer.

Most of the UC and CSU schools have begun closing their doors to new and transfer students due to the economic crisis. This limited availability of SWC courses may cause many students to wait another year or more beyond their desired transfer date and eliminate their ability to obtain their goals on time.


On October 14th, 2009, numerous students spoke out against these cuts; their voices were not heard. The Governing Board of SWC voted against holding a special meeting to discuss alternatives to these class cuts to better serve the students of Southwestern College.

BE HEARD!!!

Join us in rallying against these class cuts and finally
be heard!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2009
11:00am
between the cafeteria
and the SWC Bookstore

Printable flyer

Information Alert!

Information Alert #3

Chopra claims that despite cuts, no current students will be turned away, and courses necessary for transfer and graduation will remain intact. Here are the facts:

Spring cuts to courses needed for graduation, certificates and transfer: Spring 2010, Math cut 52 sections. Last spring there were 47sections of Math that were taught from 1:30 PM through the evening. Math cut from 80 sections in summer 2009 to 15 sections in summer 2010. There will be 8 sections of math offered on the main campus. Currently the efficiency in MSE is 97% so there are not many available seats for students. Spring 2010, English 71 cut 21% of the sections from this basic skills course. This fall there were 821 students on wait lists. Spring 2010, English 114 cut 21% of the sections from this transfer and AA required course. This fall there were 270 students on wait lists. Spring 2010 English 115 cut 22% of the sections from this transfer and AA required course. This fall there were 330 students on wait lists. The total number of sections cut from the English department for spring is 43.

On October 14, 2009, many students, faculty, and community members gave 2 hours of testimony regarding the adverse impact cutting classes will have on students and programs. The Board voted 4-1 to NOT have a special meeting where these concerns could be discussed and other options considered. Why is this Governing Board, on the advice of this administration, choosing to sit on millions of dollars in reserves rather than even discuss how we can best serve our students and this community?

Governing Board Meeting, cont'd

Among those speaking at Wednesday night's board meeting were several department chairs. Transcripts of two of their talks appear below.

Randy Beach, SWC Chair of English and Presiding Chair, Council of Chairs:

Governing Board Members and Superintendent President Chorpa, my name is Randy Beach and I am the English Department Chair and Presiding Chair of the Council of Chairs. I’m here to help make clear for you the impact of the class cuts we’ve been asked to make in the English program.

In order to reduce our course offerings to the level of FTES mandated by the Vice President of Academic Affairs office while trying to maintain some integrity and diversity in our program, we’ve cut 21% of our Chula Vista campus English 71 classes, the first level in our English sequence. Chairs and deans were not allowed to make cuts at any centers.

21% means 150 students are now stuck. They’ve worked hard to make their way through our ESL program or placed into this basic skills class through assessment. But there they will sit. That’s one out of every five students who needs English 71. By the way, 821 students were on waitlists for English 71 in Fall 2009.

We’ve cut 21% of our English 114 classes. Now, 270 students will not have an opportunity to meet the prerequisite required to move on to the next level of English. Nor will they have a chance to improve their basic essay writing skills which are fundamental to success in classes across the curriculum. 691 students were on the waitlist for 114 at the beginning of Fall 2009. These 691 students did not get into English 114 in Fall 2009, so the question now is what are
their chances now that we’ve eliminated an additional 270 seats?

We’ve cut 11 sections from English 115 here at this campus. That’s 22% of students who may want to transfer or graduate who can’t because we decided to cut sections and fire instructors rather than find additional funding through creative methods even if that requires sacrifice from everyone on campus. That’s 330 students who won’t transfer to SDSU, Berkeley, UCLA or anywhere or get their degree after years of hard work. This should not be acceptable.

All in all 43 English sections were cut, 26% of our offerings. 1 in 4 students will not get an English class they need. Is this what we are willing to accept at Southwestern or can we go back to the drawing board and approach our problem with more creativity? I urge you to suspend any new administrative or director positions, put the aspirations we have for the centers on hold and shut one or more down for a year, and consider the budget-saving plan put forth by the faculty union, SCEA.

Finally, the Governing Board has yet to address the No Confidence resolutions put forth by the Academic Senate and the Council of Chairs back in Spring 2009. These resolutions, while they concerned Dr. Chopra, were expressions of frustration that the Governing Board seems to be willfully blind to the lack of shared governance and collaboration between all groups on campus that has led to an environment of mistrust and hostility. We’re still waiting to hear from you.

Thank You

-------------------

Tinh Khoung, SWC Chair of Physical Sciences:

Members of the Southwestern College Governing Board and Superintendent/President Chopra,

The Department of Physical Sciences which includes the disciplines of Astronomy, Chemistry, Engineering, Earth Sciences and Physics reports the current and future impact of the mandatory 25% (28 sections cut of 109 total sections) course reductions made to the Spring and Summer terms in 2010 over the ~10% course reductions that have occurred over the past year and a half.

The academic impacts of the course reductions are:

1. Between 500 and 800 science students will be unable to take a course.

2. Evening courses have been decimated, leaving a significant segment of the community without access to highly sought, impacted courses in the sciences.


3. It will be increasingly difficult for students to complete coursework in these demanding and critical fields at a time when the President Obama himself has called upon community colleges to help produce graduates in these disciplines.

4. With the dearth of general education sections, it will be impossible to draw students to explore these disciplines.

5. The reduced number of adjunct faculty in these small disciplines will greatly impact the intellectual richness of the college.

6. Southwestern College’s ability to garner external funding could be adversely affected by a lack of success in important Career Technical Education programs such as Pharmaceutical and Laboratory Science and Geospatial Technology, the establishments of which were brought about by several hundreds of thousands of grant dollars from the National Science Foundation.


The human impacts of the course reductions are:

1. Career adjunct instructors with families are losing their jobs solely because they’ve been loyal to Southwestern College.

2. Budding teachers, many of whom are outstanding, will also be unemployed.

3. With the loss of these instructors, we will lose many years of experience and discipline-specific memory.

4. Industrial connections that lead to internships and jobs will be lost.

5. For the future, it may be difficult to replace them once courses are reinstated, as they surely will be.


Furthermore, the Department is dismayed that the community was led to believe that running a handful of course offerings over the summer somehow constitutes a Summer Session.


Respectfully,

Tinh-Alfredo V. Khuong, Ph.D.
Prof of Chemistry, Chair of Physical Sciences

SWC Governing Board Meeting Protest

It was SRO (Standing Room Outside) at Wednesday night's much-anticipated board meeting





Despite numerous appeals from staff, students, and community members to relocate the meeting to a larger venue on campus, President Raj Chopra and Governing Board members chose to keep the meeting in tiny Room 214, seating capacity 85.

As a result, most of those attending this "public" meeting were left standing outside, straining to hear the proceedings over a pair of small speakers as the news media looked on.

For almost two hours, a steady stream of both full- and part-time faculty, students, and community members stepped to the microphone, pleading for the Governing Board to reject Chopra's planned elimination of 25% of course sections for the coming Spring 2010 semester. The Board was unmoved.

We hope to have text of the speeches posted soon.

In the meantime view these two segments from Channel 8 News:

Southwestern College cuts classes and teachers

Protest of big class cuts at Southwestern College

ASO Recommendations

In response to the threat of widespread class cuts, the SWC Associated Students Organization produced the following documents:

Spring/Summer '10 FTES Reduction Recommendations

Spring '10 Course Offering Recommendations

These are pdf files and require Acrobat Reader, available free from http://get.adobe.com/reader/

A Plan to Save $2 Million

Presented at the SCEA (faculty union) meeting on Thursday, October 8.

1. Reduce the Governing Board reserve by $1 million.

2. GASB: Our current budget will put an additional $500,000 into a fund for medical benefits for retirees. This fund already totals $1.3 million. In addition, our current budget will provide about $380,000 for this year’s cost of retiree medical benefits.

Skipping this year’s GASB contribution and funding this year’s cost of retiree medical benefits from the existing GASB fund will save about $880,000—and nearly $1 million will still remain in the GASB bank.

3. Items 1 and 2 will save $1.8 million. Salaries for management employees at SWC total about $6 million. A temporary 2% reduction in these salaries would free up an additional $120,000.

Taken together, items 1, 2, and 3 are equal to the current budget shortfall of $2 million. If this plan, or something similar, were adopted, not one adjunct faculty member would lose a job, not one full-time faculty member would lose an overload assignment, and most important, not one student would lose a class.

25% Class Cuts, or . . .

Academic Senate Reorganization Input / Suggestions (06/18/09)

With input from the campus community, the following budget and reorganization suggestions were presented by the Academic Senate in Spring and Summer 2009. Highlights, in red, were inserted in June as priorities that have budget implications.

Campus reorganization must be reviewed by all constituents. Several academic programs have been moved multiple times over the last 5 years. Collegial consultation prior to change is required by 10 + 1 agreements. Allow sufficient time for input on reorganization.

Legend: A = Cost Effective; B = Organizational Effectiveness; C = Campus Culture/Climate

Administrative/Institutional		In Agreement – 6/15/09 Memo
	Reduce the number of deans and keep the department chairs (A,B,C) Combine Vice Presidents for Human Resource and Financial/Business (A,B) (estimated savings of $160,000 dollars) Place moratorium on new administration positions (eliminate Instruction, Research) (A,B) (Cost savings of approximately $500,000 to $1 million) Put online and Continuing Education under existing schools (A,B) Eliminate center administrators, one dean over 3 centers, with either a supervisor or director (A,B,C) Establish Research Office (A,B,C) Place Accreditation under Research (A,B) Limit outside contractors/consultants (A,B,C) Replace Keenan & Associates with more cost effective consultant (A,B,C) Academic Senate be relocated under Superintendent/President as per Title 5 (B,C) Improve HR efficiency in hiring, evaluate advertising timelines and locations (A,B,C) Eliminate unnecessary supervisors and directors have one or the other. (A,B,C) Eliminate the $1.7 million in this year’s tentative budget for PT/OL since the college reduced the course offerings in the last two years (A) Concessions money from events need to go into the general fund. (A) Maintain Board reserves at 4% instead of the proposed increase (A)	(Reference: June 15, 2009 Budget Recommendation Memo) Pg. 1, Nos. 9, 19 Pg. 2, Nos. 34, 43, 47
Center
	1. Conduct a Cost analysis of centers and close those at a deficit (A,B,C) 2. Rent center space (A,B,C) 3. Return support staff to CV campus (A) 4. Evaluate FTE by credit and non-credit to centers. Use data to plan and project. (A,C) 5. Reduce number of deans, have one dean to cover all three centers, either one supervisor or director at each, not both (A,B,C)
Schools
	1. Reduce number of schools, consolidate programs on the CV campus (A,B,C) 2. Increase online offerings to maintain a competitive edge (A,B) 3. Obtain outside funding (A) 4. Condensed 4 day work week (A) (last estimated between $1 million to $2 million savings)
Employee Relations
	1. Offer Retirement incentives (A) – our last Golden handshake incentive offered by the district, saved an estimated $2 million at the time 2. VPAA: a) needs to participate more in curriculum and instruction, i.e., CC, APR, SLO (B,C) b) needs to advocate for faculty and academic issues, such as: (B,C) • Support faculty coordinators overseeing academic areas, i.e. tenure review, curriculum committee, and SLOs • Support Faculty leaders in off-campus professional development activities 4. Send out electronic weekly campus bulletin and post on campus website (B,C) 5. Analyze and go paperless wherever possible (A) 6. Increase public information via SWC website and other media outlets (B,C) 7. Improve communication between all constituencies (C) a. Joint communiqués between District and Academic Senate (C) b. Inform and collaborate before decisions are made (C) c. Adopt Google Calendar (C) 8. Value our employees and showcase those who do extraordinary things. (C) a. Solicit cost saving suggestions and reward them, i.e., a $5 Starbucks card, bookstore certificate (C)	Pg. 1, No. 11 Pg. 4, No. 80 Pg. 15, No. 295
Facilities
	Utilize corner lot for portable classrooms (A) Fundraise, i.e., Foundation could sell brick pavers for any construction or remodel (A) Make Technology purchases to keep infrastructure up to par (A,B,C) Re-evaluate technology replacement plan and timelines for faculty and staff (B) Obtain input from faculty for curriculum and instructional use as well as equipment lease agreements (A,B,C) Reduce evening hours in the Cesar Chavez building to two nights per week (A)	Pg. 5, Nos. 115, 116, 118 Pg. 6, No. 125 Pg. 7, Nos. 155, 160 Pg. 8, Nos. 173, 174, 175, 177, 178 Pg. 8, Nos. 182, 187, 197, 198, 199 Pg. 10, Nos. 200, 205 Pg. 12, No. 230

Legend: A = Cost Effective; B = Organizational Effectiveness; C = Campus Culture/Climate