Minutes of the Community Colleges Committee Meeting

of the Board of Trustees

of the State University of New York

March 10, 2015

Pursuant to a notice of ameeting duly given on February 24, 2015, the Community Colleges Committee of the Board of Trustees of the State University of New York held a meeting on March 10, 2015, at the SUNY Administration Building, Albany, NY.

Committee Members Present:Other Trustees Present:

Trustee Henrik N. Dullea, Committee ChairChairman H. Carl McCall

Trustee Tina GoodTrustee Ronald Ehrenberg

Trustee Peter L.K. KnuepferTrustee Cary F. Staller

Trustee Eunice A. Lewin Trustee Lawrence Waldman

Trustee John L. Murad

Trustee Lori Mould (via video)

Trustee Carl Spielvogel

Others Present:

Chancellor Nancy Zimpher

Provost Alex Cartwright

Senior Vice Chancellor Johanna Duncan-Poitier, Committee Liaison

Dona Bulluck,Associate Counsel

Beth Bringsjord, Jill Lansing, Sandra Casey, Jennifer Miller, Joel Pierre-Louis,Wendy Ravitz, Josh Sager– System Administration;Acting President Martha Asselin – Schenectady County Community College; President Steve Tyrell – North Country Community College; President Kevin Drumm – Broome Community College;Cynthia Demarest – NYCCT; and Thomas Bailey –Teachers College, Columbia University.

Trustee Dulleaconvened the Community Colleges Committee meeting at10:04 a.m.

Approval of Meeting Minutes

Trustee Dullea called for a motion to approve the Minutes of the November 6, 2014, Committee meeting.

  • Upon motion of Trustee Murad and second by Trustee Lewin, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the November 6, 2014 Committee Minutes.

Resolution

Trustee Dullea mentioned that there is a resolution before the Committee to make an adjustment to the salary and retirement compensation for Dr. Belinda Miles at Westchester Community College.

Trustee Dullea called for a motion to approve the resolution for an Adjustment to Salary for Dr. Belinda S. Miles, President, Westchester Community College

  • Upon motion of Trustee Murad and second by Trustee McCall, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the resolution.

Remarks of the Chair

Trustee Dulleareported on NYCCT advocacy day held the previous week. He mentioned that it was aninspiringday to see representatives from community colleges across the state coming to Albany. Many attendees had meetings with chairs of the Higher Education committees and local legislators. A group of 60 students from Suffolk, Community College traveled to Albany, as well as other student groups. During the meetings members of Senate and Assembly expressed strong support.

Trustee Dullea asked for comments from constituency groups and the following was reported:

  • President Drumm reported that NYCCAP participated in both the NYCCT Advocacy Day on March 4 and the PTK Awards event on March 9. Two issues he shared for advocacy purposes is that the cost of degree programs that are heavily lab based; health and technical programs are very expensive but that is where the demand exists. He mentioned that it is hard to expand and create new programs due to the struggle for base aid and cost of programs increase. He mentioned the priority across the country is to improve our graduation rates but when we talk about the rates we should include transfer rates. Many community college students transfer and that could be considered a success. He indicates that we should include transfer numbers along with graduation rates when speaking about community college successes.
  • Cynthia Demarest, president of NYCCT updated the Committee on the March 4 Advocacy Day. She mentioned that 170 were registered from 14 community colleges and 11 community college presidents participated. She also shared that NYCCT participated in the PTK all academic awards luncheon and will participate in SUNY Voices with student trustees and Roxann Buck to discuss shared governance from student trustee perspectives.
  • Trustee Tina Good, president of FCCC, reported they were pleased to partner on PTK event. The FCCC has been busy helping campuses implement seamless transfer for implementation by fall 2015 by working with provost office. They have held curriculum workshops at several campuses. They have also had meetings on shared governance process to work out issues and unintended consequences of seamless transfer. FCCC has been working with CUNY/SUNY for faculty preview of curriculum standards. They are supportive of applied learning but not as a mandate. FCCC also participated in community college advocacy. Finally, they are working on the SUNY Voices conference March 20-21 where Trustee Murad will be joining for awards. The April plenary will be her last plenary and they will be honoring Chairman McCall.

Report of the Senior Vice Chancellor

The Senior Vice Chancellor shared a few general updates on the Governor’s Executive Budget and its impact on community colleges. She mentioned SUNY’s community college legislative priorities including the increase base operating aid, support for the SUNY investment fund, and capital construction and shared the one pager advocacy document. Additionally, Associate Vice Chancellor of Finance, Josh Sager shared specific updates on the Executive Budget and the Assembly One House bill. The announcement of President Obama’s Free Community College Tuition Initiative was also briefly discussed. The Senior Vice Chancellor also updated the committee on the progress of the accelerated math model, Quantway/Statway math, which yields twice the success in half the time, and the proposed partnership with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for a NY Hub to bring this initiative to scale. Several community colleges have already adopted the model and more are planning to soon through a network of faculty-to-faculty mentoring.

The feature presentation at the meeting wasDr. Thomas Bailey, Director of the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, whoreturned at the request of the Committee to further discuss the completion agenda and national data and trends with and community colleges. From this national research base, he provided data and emphasized that one of the most important resources needed for community college students is quality guidance and that colleges are going to have to spend more money on student supports to achieve greater success. His data pointed out how colleges across the nation are spending the smallest amount of dollars on students who need the most support.

Executive Session and Adjournment

Trustee Dullea called for a motion to enter into Executive Session. Upon motion of Trustee Lewinand second by TrusteeMurad, the Committee entered into Executive Session at 11:43 a.m.

No votes or action were taken in Executive Session. Committee Chairman Dullea recessed this session at 11:58 a.m. and returned to Open Session of the Committee Meeting.

Trustee Dullea called for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Upon motion of TrusteeMurad second byTrustee Lewin, the Committee adjourned at 11:59 a.m.

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