Standard III: Resources

Standard III: Resources

The institution effectively uses its human, physical, technology, and financial resources to achieve its broad educational purposes, including stated student learning outcomes, and to improve institutional effectiveness.

B. Physical resources:

Administration Chair: Wally Bortman

Faculty Co-Chair: Myriam Mekelburg

List of participants:

Leslie Foster

Ife Keller

Richard Rains

IIIB. Physical Resources

Descriptive Summary:

Los Angeles Mission College was founded in 1975. For the first 16 years of its existence, the college operated out of scattered storefronts throughout the northeast San Fernando Valley. In 1991, the college moved to its permanent home – a 22-acre campus in Sylmar.

It contains more than 170,000 assignable square feet of instructional support service facilities. Included in this inventory are the following permanent structures:

-Administrative building

-Campus Center

-Child development Center

-College Services Building

-Collaborative Studies Building

-Instructional Building

-Instructional bungalows 1-8

-Learning Resource Center/Library

-Plant facilities building/Campus Sheriff

-Health Center Trailer

Off campus:

-Creative Arts Center/Community Services

-Employment Development Center

-Foothill Physical Education Center

-Maclay Center

Other instructional areas:

-Sylmar High School

-El Caruso Park

The college most recently opened the Collaborative Studies Building in 2002. Its smart classrooms, child development laboratories and faculty offices were immediately occupied. As only the second instructional building on the campus, this space was desperately needed. However, it increased the instructional space overall by only 15% and has barely helped the college keep pace with growing student demand and enrollments.

In 2001 Propositions A and in 2003 Propositions AA, the voters of Los Angeles County approved a $2 billion bond for the Los Angeles Community College District to improve its facilities. Los Angeles Mission College’s portion is known as the “Arroyo” Master plan, which will lay out a vision of completing the campus to “full service” status. Although Mission College remains one of the most contemporary community colleges in the state, it still lacks many of the facilities usually identified with a college.

The $150 million are to be used to renovate, construct, and/or equip the following:

-New Child Development Center

-Two New parking Structures

-New Plant Facilities Building

-New Student Services Center

-New Media Arts Building

-New Family Consumers Studies Building

-New Physical Education/Wellness Center

-Two (120,000 square feet) of new instructional space

-Various renovations of existing campus buildings

-Infrastructure

In addition, some of the funds above are going to be used for new land acquisition. This will add approximately 8 acres to the North East edge of the current campus.

Los Angeles Mission College strives to meet the educational demands and desires of the communities it serves, but lack of appropriate facilities and space constructed for educational purposes continues to be one of the biggest stumbling blocks in fulfilling this objective.

The overall aesthetics of Mission College Campus is based on the theme of the Mission Style Architecture, with red Mission tile roofs, deeply recessed windows, thick walls and columns, and heavy wooden beams. This thematic consistency enables the campus to generate the image of a unified and well-integrated space. Our survey indicates that the exterior of each building is maintained properly and in good condition. The building interior, on the other hand, can be improved by implementing better space planning and by upgrading interior finishes, lighting, acoustic treatment, furnishings, and signage.

MISSION COLLEGE FACILITIES ("ARROYO") MASTER PLAN

[Click image for enlargement]

Federal, state, and local agencies have specific safety standards that Los Angeles Mission College must abide by-mandated air quality levels in the buildings, inspection of safety vessels, and operation and inspection of automatic devices, and storage of hazardous material. Facilities safety standards are regulated by CalOsha (California Occupational Safety and Health Act) on such things as machinery tools, work place conditions, and ladders. Building fire sprinklers and fire alarms are designed to meet National Fire Protection Association recommendations and Uniform Building Code standards. State agencies regulate lighting, fire escape procedures, exit doors, and fire extinguisher inspection. Federally mandated regulations through the Americans with Disabilities Act are applied to Los Angeles Mission College facilities. There is also a risk management office that develops district-wide safety standards and procedures through the Los Angeles Community College District office.

The five-year Facilities plan has the capacity/load ratios, which are based on the projected enrollments provided by the California State Department of Finance. The statistics in the plan evidence the comparison of available square footage compared to the utilization. The Maintenance and Operations Department and the Vice-President of Administrative Services update this plan every year.

Since 2002, LAMC houses the Instructional Television (ITV) department, a separate college of the LACCD district. Therefore facilities and equipment needs are handled separately from Mission College budgets. However when new buildings will be added to the campus, plans have been made to move that department into larger facilities to provide adequate space for faculty and staff.

The college has integrated technology into the student learning process, administrative services and support teaching, and support activities: currently, Computer Network Support Specialists review hardware and software for compatibility and feasibility. The college adopted the computer standards from the District Technology committee; College IT manager attends monthly DTC meeting to collaborate and align the college technology and District technology. District IT provides directions and support to campus technology initiatives. These efforts are coordinated by the Vice Chancellor at the District office.
The college implemented the Etudes course management system for delivery of distance learning. As part of the equipment, Mission College has entered into a District wide consortium to use, implement, and upgrade Etudes Course Management, and now Etudes NG (Next Generation) in Fall 2006 - This is the online program that our students use in their online classes. The use of a standardized Course Management System (Etudes and Etudes NG in Fall 2006) - provides support from the College of the equipment needs for delivery modes of online classes we offer at Mission. The faculty does have a choice in using the Etudes system or other means of delivery to their students.

Students at Mission College have access to computers on campus to work on their online classes. All faculty members have a computer that is connected to the college data communication network.

The institution uses the same criteria and processes off campus for determining the safety and sufficiency of facilities as it does on campus and Off-campus sites. Los Angeles Mission College is contracted with the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department for its main campus, as well as some off-campus sites. These contracts are negotiated for a length of three years.

Los Angeles Mission College is contracted with the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department for its main campus, as well as some off-campus sites. These contracts are negotiated for a length of three years.

Self Evaluation:

In order to determine classroom sufficiency of facilities, past patterns of student enrollment have been used to decide which disciplines will have access to specific classrooms. Since full time instructors have already established enrollment patterns through their normal class load, student demand is tracked through automated enrollment data. Some classrooms are designated to specific disciplines mainly due to the types of materials that are available in those rooms. The following disciplines currently have designated classrooms. They are the Natural and Physical sciences since they utilize laboratories similar to the Computer Science, Office Administration and Food Industry departments. Other disciplines include Health, Chicano Studies, History, Sociology, Child Development and Accounting. The Math department requested to have their classrooms in the bungalows and that is where they are located today.

In the Fall of 2005, Academic Affairs created an enrollment management program to increase the efficiency of our facilities. This made it possible to evaluate enrollment of students on campus and classroom placement to maximize classroom space. This is also a tool to increase FTE’s.

Another tool identified was the “room book” where we can identify off-peak hours could be identified and suggested as possible time to schedule classes to maximize room occupancy.

Every discipline could analyze their enrollment data to evaluate the level of growth and the need to increase/decrease sections. That data could identify upcoming needs and used to justify new buildings or changes in classroom locations. There are two areas of interest discussed by Academic Affairs personnel. One is that the English department still has more demand and the need for rooms is constant. Second, two large classrooms (60+) will be turned into Natural Sciences laboratories so other disciplines will be affected by the loss of large capacity classrooms.

At this time one of mechanism that is used to evaluate effectiveness of the facilities is for a department chair to request changes due to student enrollment. This request is usually done verbally to the office of Academic Affairs. A room log is used to evaluate which classrooms are available and at what time of the day and week. Then changes can be made to accommodate growth or change of a classroom. This room log is manually created by the office of Academic Affairs and used to track occupancy of each room on and off campus.

As summarized in the Evaluation of Existing Conditions draft of 2004, from 1995-2000 the student enrollment grew 27%. In addition the school has projected to grow another 41% in the next ten years, doubling student population from 7,500 to 15,000. In its current condition, LAMC is operating at full capacity in terms of utilization of campus facilities. The current 22 acres and off-site locations cannot meet the surrounding communities projected need for educational support.

In regards to student services, the process for evaluating facilities would be reported to the Vice-President of Student Services. He/she files annual budget planning to the Vice-President of Administrative Services, where needs can be identified and requested. Unit planning is also another tool that can be used to assess facilities needs for student services.

Our five-year Facilities Construction Plan utilizes capacity/load ratios ?????to identify and evaluate current and future physical resource needs. There are also several shared governance committees in the position of commenting on how well the institution is meeting its facilities needs: such as College Council, Work Environment, Academic Senate, and Associated Student Union.

College faculty members use the work order process to identify needed campus improvements. For example, the District Risk Management makes an evaluation and works with the insurance underwriters to make a recommendation. Staff and faculty can make an evaluation on facility space needs or they may identify an American with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirement. Maintenance and Operations will work to make the campus more compliant. The college employs similar processes to assure the safety and sufficiency of its equipment.

It is currently the responsibility the faculty member to bring equipment needs information to their department chair; he/she, in turn, reports this to his/her respective dean. The administration is charged with making sure that when the budgets are drafted that there is money for the things that are most needed. The deans then report the needs to the Vice-President of Administrative Services.

The information Technology Department at Mission College maintains and repairs equipment including computers and servers. The District IT technology is responsible for maintaining routers and firewall. The firmware of these equipments is upgraded frequently. Internet access is maintained by CENIC site. College coordinated with Verizon, CENIC and District Office to plan and install the broadband service (T3) project.

The college IT department also maintains an inventory database of voice and data communication equipments. This information provides reporting capabilities to assist in assessing equipment and decision making to purchase the new equipments for student computer labs and computers for faculty/staff.

The college recently purchased 108 new Pentium V computers equipped with 108 flat panels in LRC in 2004. Upgraded additional 18 computers from P2 to P4 in 2006. The total P4 computers in LRC are 126. Two new high-resolution LCD projectors were installed in 2005 to assist teaching in LRC 234 and 205.

All faculty computers with PII or III or Celeron have been upgraded to Pentium IV. All faculty computers are connected to the college data communication network andall full time faculty members now have a computer.

2Sheriff's Deputies (Patrol Main Campus & Off-Campus Locations)

1- 6AM- 2PM

1- 2PM- 10PM

8 Security Officers(Patrol Main Campus & Off-Campus Locations)

3- 7AM- 3PM

3- 3PM- 11PM

2- 11PM- 7AM

7 Cadets(Patrol Main Campus)

2- 7AM-3PM

3- 10AM-6PM

2- 4PM- 11PM

Due to contractual agreements additional security companies cannot be used for special events. However, special event planning does include additional funds for security personnel and the Sheriff Department evaluates its staff needs. A Facilities Request Form would generate this kind of planning.

Our main campus and our off-campus sites are deemed safe because of adequate safety personnel on duty throughout the day. A Campus Safety Log is kept on file to maintain records of all safety activities. According to the 2005 crime statistics published by the Sheriff department, the largest occurrence of crime on campus is vandalism, in the form of graffiti.

Having Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) systems monitored by the Sheriff’s department could reduce some of these crimes. Insufficient lighting along with poor location contributes to the lack of uniformed effective lighting coverage. With ineffective lighting at night, the opportunity for vandalism, theft, and trespassing on campus increases. All other crimes reported had negligible quantities. This would show that we are providing a safe environment to our students, faculty and staff.

However, according to the Master Facilities Plan Report of 2002,the inability of LAMC campus sheriff’s department to have centralized Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) monitoring system places them in an entirely “blind reactive capacity”. Without the assistance of electronic such as CCTV, the protection of campus property is entirely dependent on the sheriff to patrol to alarm signals. The absence of these critical tools severely limits the effectiveness of the campus sheriff’s department and greatly restricts their ability to serve in a proactive manner versus a reactive posture on campus.

We currently have existing cameras that appear to be 7-15 years old and provide black and white images. This existing CCTV surveillance system is non-operational and does not record. New building plans include updating this system when the Sheriff department moves to a new location.

At this point an alarm does sound when emergency exit doors are opened. This triggers an audible alarm in the Sheriff's Officeand personnel responds. We currently have a camera located in the kiosk on the main campuswalkway that also needs to be replaced. The bookstore and the financial aid office are responsible for their own security systems.

LAMC currently does not have access control on any of the buildings on campus. The campus at one time did have a staff only parking lot access control system, which has since been abandoned.

The college supports all issues dealing with distance delivery modes when it created a new committee named the Distributive and Distance Learning Committee (DDL) per Article 40 of the AFT Contract. This committee or its equivalent will serve the function of communicating and advising the college in its decision-making regarding D/DL issues. It should report to the college’s Educational Planning Committee or its equivalent and should include D/DL faculty, information technology staff and administrators involved in D/DL course development and delivery. The college Curriculum Committee and the D/DL Committee or equivalent should address D/DL efficacy as it relates to the total instructional program. This committee is under the purview of the Academic Senate. The DDL reviews and assists the College, the Technology Committee, and the IT Department with recommending improvements in equipment, and support for equipment needs of distance education delivery.

Planning agenda

The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) will receive more than four million dollars in funding for projects under the federal transportation bill passed by Congress. President Bush is scheduled to sign the bill, H.R. 3 – The Transportation Equity Act, A Legacy for Users (TEA-LU), also referred to as the Highway Bill. Each of the five Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) campuses receiving funding will match 20% of the federal monies with funding generated by voter-approved Proposition A or AA. The funds will improve mobility and access for students, faculty and local residents, and complement the progress being made to build a better Los Angeles community college system. A transportation needs assessment was performed by LACCD to improve access to existing public transportation. The district worked with members of Congress to secure funds for projects that address those needs. For Los Angeles Mission College, the funds will make it possible to develop an on-campus transit center and will create an off-street terminal/hub for MTA line 234. Project includes: off-street terminal for layover of busses, restrooms for drivers, sheltered benches, landscaping, lighting, and an information kiosk.