Student Services Cabinet
Meeting Notes
January 6, 2009
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Student Services Cabinet Meeting
January 6, 2009
Present: Rick Perez, Sharon Combs, Joy Cook, Pat Hurley, Brenda Jones, Mary Mirch,Elmira Nazaryan, Jewel Price, Alfred Ramirez, Paul Schlossman, Jeanette Stirdivant
Discussion Items
Interim Program Director, Library and Learning Resources
Rick introduced and welcomed Brenda Jones, who has been selected as the Interim Library Director.
Retired Classified Employee Duties
Rick asked the group how each office is covering the duties of staff who have retired.
- Paul: Stipend for Susan’s additional duties will be advertised. There is a budget outside of Susan’s salary line item which can be used to employ hourly help for other projects.
- Elmira: Nellie Lopez will be coming in hourly for one month and then the position will be advertised.
- Jewel: Judy Razze will be coming in to work 21 hours per week at an hourly rate for duties which cannot be done by a temporary employee. Phones will be covered by a classified employee from another area during some of the hours Judy is not in.
- Sharon: Kathryn Ligon’s duties have been divided between two registration workers, Michelle Mora, and Sharon. Sharon asked about the status of this position. Rick said that he would follow up.
Budget Update
Rick reported that the Governor’s proposed midyear cut appears only to be the elimination of the 0.68% COLA. Rick will be attending the Budget Workshop in Sacramento on Jan. 16.
Newsletter
Still need a name for the newsletter. Rick will accept articles through the end of the month. Would like to send the newsletter out within the first two weeks of the Spring semester.
Accreditation Standard II Document
Working meeting is scheduled for Jan 13 from 8:30-11:00 in the President’s Conference Room.
Falsification of Information
- Discussion was opened about falsification of information on the admissions application and financial aid documents.
Many of the problems seem to focus on how students interpret their level of college education, particularly if the degree was earned in a country outside the United States.
It was proposed to add “or other country” to the choices for Associate Degree and Bachelors Degree to help make it more clear to students. Sharon will see if there is enough space to accommodate the additional language.
College has never enforced any punishments for students who sign an application with false information.
Outcome: Discussion will continue at a future meeting.
Updates
Elmira Nazaryan
- Students have utilized the suggestion box which was added to the EOPS website. The program has updated its webpage based on suggestions that were submitted. Feedback has been positive.
- 53 students have responded to the survey sent out about the new student email system. Feedback has generally been positive. System could be launched campus-wide in the Spring semester.
Discussion took place on the importance of being able to access a report of emails which were not delivered to or accessed by students so that hard copy information could be mailed out.
Email cannot be the sole method of communication.
Brenda Jones
- Linda Winters will be coming in hourly to train Brenda and the new Learning Center Coordinator, Shant Shaoian.
- Zovig Ayvazian is moving into her new position as Tech Services Manager. This position is new and the restructuring of this component of the Library was proposed by Linda and approved in Fall 2008. Tech Services component of the Library oversees the acquisition and cataloguing of materials.
- Circulation Technician position vacated by Sarah Williams still needs to be filled.
Mary Mirch
- Busy part of the winter for the HealthCenter is serving the new nursing students who have to have all of their medical requirements completed prior to beginning in the program. This includes immunizations and a physical exam totaling over $400 in cost to the student. The HealthCenter has done what it can in the past to help alleviate costs wherever possible, but it is becoming difficult.
- Discussion moved toward problems other areas are having with the Nursing Program and ways to help students.
Information is given to student piecemeal. Information is not posted on the website.
Could some of the costs be paid by the Nursing Program through grant funding?
A notice of additional requirements and projected costs should be included with the acceptance letter. Mary has worked with Nursing program to create a grid listing state requirements and timeline with the intent that it be distributed at informational sessions.
Student should be applying to the college at the same time they are applying to the program.
Decisions and procedures are done on a ad hoc basis.
Pat Hurley
- FAMS has not been working properly to download student units. 1500 checks were sent out this week, based on units enrolled prior to the holiday break. This is a problem for students who enrolled during the break.
- Discussion moved toward issues with ITS and the void left by Dave Mathew’s leave from the College. Several of the managers expressed their dependence on him to maintain their systems; there is concern that other ITS staff members are not able to service these areas’ problems when they arise.
Outcome: Rick will take the issue to Senior Staff.
- 2009-2010 FAFSA is available online.
Alfred Ramirez
- CalWORKs is running smoothing.
- Noncredit ESL program is overflowing with students. Program cannot offer more classes because of the budget situation. Labs are being run with skeleton crews. Foresee a general staffing problem for all service areas.
Jeanette Stirdivant
- Humanities 135 is the only class which satisfies one of the requirements for the Associate degree. She is concerned that those scheduling the class are not aware that it is the gatekeeper class for students who have taken ESL 151 or English 120. Class did not have an evening section scheduled for Spring. This is a problem for students who work full time and take only evening classes.
- Discussion took place on deadlines and importance of turning in grade and census rosters and the effects of late rosters on students.
Late census rosters are a particular a problem for students with financial aid. Mary indicated that it would help the district at the negotiating table if they had the figures for the number of students who had to pay back financial aid because of retroactive drops.
Need to have greater consequence to the instructors who submit rosters after the deadline.
- Jeanette asked about the status of granting sabbaticals. She was told that the issue will be taken to the negotiating table.
- Discussion took place about the role of Study Abroad with the current budget situation. Could the program be temporarily cut to better serve the students on campus? Classes which would be offered to a few Student Abroad students could be offered to on-campus students with a larger seat load. Rick indicated that this issue is being discussed in the Budget Committee.
- Asked about the status of the Garfield building project with the cutes is State spending. Project is not affected because it is being funded by Measure G.
Sharon Combs
- Very busy first day at the Admissions Office.
Took in almost $3000 in transcript requests on the first day. This was the largest amount ever taken in one day.
Grades are due today (1/6) and cumulatives will be run over the weekend.
Students who require a rush on their transcripts are told that they will be sent in 48 hours and grades are being entered manually. All other transcripts are being sent with “Report Delay” notations.
- Discussion took place about the Pick-a-Professor website ( This website shows grades distribution by teacher. Drops are included. Does not include CR/NC grades.
School is required to send the information in because it is public record and there is no discloser of individual student information.
School has delayed sending the statistics as long as possible, but the company has now threatened to sue the college.
Jewel Price
- Jewel reported staffing changes in Counseling. Four experienced counseling interns who were working as professional experts will not be returning for the Winter and Spring 2009 sessions. One adjunct counselor who did work with the vocational/technical programs, including the Nursing Program, was hired to work with the Title V ACE program. Changes are good in light of the budget situation, but valuable resources were lost with the cuts.
- Academic Counseling was very busy the first day. Counselors are having a difficult time finding classes with students.
- A discussion took place on class scheduling and potential loss of students to other colleges.
Students have been experiencing problems getting into basic English and Math classes because of across-the-board cuts to the schedule. Is same scheduling pattern going to be used?
Will we be scrambling in two years to bring enrollment back?
College may not be over cap because of the changes in TBA reporting.
Changes in graduation requirements for the Associate Degree need to be made. Currently, only one class can be double counted. GCC also requires more units than other colleges in the area.
Paul Schlossman
- A large group orientation was done for all Spring 2009 student athletes. Previous years, orientation had been done separately for each teams. The new format allowed for presentations from various services to be given to all students at one time.
- Changes in the ASGCC leadership will be announced soon.
Next Meeting: January 13 – 8:30-11:00.
Recorded by Heather Glenn