Board Standards and Management Committee Minutes September 16, 2009

STANDARDS AND MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE Minutes

THE PERALTA COLLEGESGOVERNING BOARD

WEDNESDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2009

Present: Trustee Withrow, Trustee Gulassa, Minh Lam, Jeff Heyman, Joseph Bielanski, Karen Ulrich, Alexis Alexander.

  1. Review preliminarystatus and conceptual approach for the IT Master Plan. (VC Minh Lam).

IT finance issues will be on a future audit and finance committee agenda.

  1. Discuss issues related to the high cost of text books, including the status of a pilot project action plan. Discuss status of the consortium for OER as a source for textbooks and progress achieved to date at The Peralta Colleges. (Dr Wise AllenDr Van Puten).

Alexis presented an article on the OER consortium, which is just beginning and doesn’t assist our students at this point. Faculty need to get information to students about free resources that are currently available. Textbook rental information is also included. Used book sites are also listed. E-bay and Craig’s list is also a resource. Iphone has a campusbooksforless.comand big words online to help search for textbook prices. There’s a one hour seminar tomorrow that was communicated to faculty. Open source textbooks were also presented at a Flex Day. Microsoft reader is free, and the kindle is also an option. There are many kinds of readers and resources, so a standard should be developed. “The New Yorker” had a recent article on readers, and there are many iphone applications available. There are some problems with the kindle that there are no pages listed, and graphics vary in how they upload. Coursesmart also has textbooks. A recent article in “The Chronicle” was also sited. It was suggested to offer some small stipend, perhaps from the Foundation, to help with OER research. If some instructors could get interested in one department, they could get together a pilot project, such as for math or English, where the curriculum does not change. Follett can’t guarantee that they can get the same volume edition, and the Board student services committee is also examining this issue. Guttenberg provides free classics online. There was a suggestion to have this handout available for students as they get their textbooks. This information could be provided on a website to suggest resources, with a poster or flyer inviting people to view it. There was a suggestion to add our course book requirements in the course catalog. It was explained that the logistics to do this would be difficult to list this in a printed document. It should be in the class syllabus, and the textbook information could be available online, with the approximate book cost. It is important for the students to know what they are buying, and the course costs. This might entice faculty to offer less expensive textbooks, to maintain enrollment. Faculty members have webpages and can attach their syllabus there, as well. Textbook information is not usually disclosed until one is already enrolled in the class. Some students don’t even buy books at all, but buy book legged copies. The one page of resources listed would be helpful to get into students’ hands. Faculty should be reminded of the difficult economic status of the students, without jeopardizing education. Faculty can’t make copies due to possible copyright violations. Students need their own initiative to research textbook prices prior to enrolling in a class. It’s difficult to get the faculty motivated in this area. Teaching by using published articles or newspaper could be encouraged. E-book migration might be recorded in the program or unit reviews to show how the disciplines are moving in this direction. On Friday mornings, the bookstore gets a list of books being used to know what books are needed, and Minh will see if he can capture and use this information.

  1. Discuss the status of the performance contracts and annual performance evaluations throughout the entire structure of The Peralta Colleges management team. (Chancellor Harris and General Counsel Nguyen)

Karen gave an update on the performance contracts. The make-up of a performance contract was reviewed. It involves subordinates communicating with a manager to see what accomplishments are needed in the coming term, with a priorityon the entire organization, listing specific productivity, goals, and objectives. The Board wants to see a pyramid structure of what the position is trying to achieve during the review. Goal setting is framed in terms of the strategic plan. Clear objectives for positions need to be outlined, which could assist employees with promotion. Seniority rather than performance has been the basis for promotions. Desk audits and position movement should be driven by what’s been accomplished by the position. The performance contract needs stages and clearly identifiable goals. Karen will create a draft for a performance contract, and then will get feedback from the committee. Job descriptions also need to be updated, as they’ve been used for 20 years. The job description should be built from what is needed in the organization, and they need to get updated. We don’t perform to full capacity until we do this. Karen will start that process, with union input. Departments need to contribute their goals and expectations for the process, based on facts and not relationships. Dr. Drummond’s suggestion for step and column increases for management could occur after we have job descriptions. This could lead to some restructuring. We put more responsibility onto our classified staff than other comparable districts. There is not much incentive to have people move up the ladder if they are paid the same amount. Former ChancellorTemple had been delegated to restructure ten years ago. It may be discovered that some positions can be completely eliminated, as they are obsolete. We want employees who are motivated and committed. This process may encourage some employees to retire. A model draft examining afictitious employee as an illustration of how the plan works could be used. Trustee Withrow is available to assist with this plan.

The process for management and classified evaluations were reviewed. Karen did not meet with the accreditation team, but Tom did. Faculty evaluations occur at the college level and not at the District. HR needs to ensure that the college executes this, by submitting their plan with a calendar and deadlines. A staff person at BCC helped to ensure that evaluations are complete, helping with reminders and calls when the documents were not submitted. If there are no performance contracts, the managers need to follow-up. There need to be consequences if employees don’t perform with an evaluation added to the performance contract, such as informing the Chancellor of non-performance. Performance contracts are needed to create an improvement plan. It was discussed if there should be an anniversary review date or one date for all. It was suggested that employees should also submit their own evaluations to review theirown performance.

Respectfully submitted,

Roxanne Epstein

466-7203

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