Update to the Board of Trustees

 

Steps taken since my last report to the Board include:

1. A presentation to the BOT Accreditation Sub-Committee in which Tracy Schneider and I reviewed accreditation standards, demonstrated how to access the accreditation wiki, and gave an update on the Special Report and the Self-Study. The subcommittee members asked many questions and provided some good input to the process.
   
2. During our fall Flex Cal we continued to work on the Self-Study Report. In general the organizational structure was productive and groups did have a chance to begin brainstorming, collecting evidence and writing to the standards. They also were given an explanation on how to use the accreditation wiki.
   
3. A conversation with Jack Pond from the ACCJC in which I was able to clarify a few points:
   
   1. The date of the Self-Study visit and the date when we'd need to turn in the Self-Study Report. 
      
      1. Unfortunately, EVP Reyes is correct.  They visit in October and the report is due 8 weeks prior.  This puts us in a difficult spot.  Tracy and I have come up with an alternative timeline that we will share with you when I have a moment to finalize the document.
         
   2. The scope of the evidence required for the fiscal addendum in response to the Perry-Smith 2009 audit.
      
      1. They want us to include mention of the addendum in the introduction to the report.
         
      2. We need to maintain the same rigor for evidence that the rest of the report will need.
         
   3. In the rest of the conversation they were interested in hearing how the Special Report was shaping up.  I mentioned our progress and took the opportunity to present to them how we have decided to frame our responses to Recs 6 and 8.  (Jack Pond specifically asked about these two.  For Rec 6 (Administrative capacity) he mentioned that the visit in October would be an opportunity to see how the reorganization had "panned out" and that in general the Commission looks to see that as a result of change an institution doesn't "stall out".  He recommends that we highlight how our response to change is different today than the last time (when we lost our CBO and Dir. of Fisc. Servs.).  As for Rec 8, it is as we had thought in that the goal is to show how we've continued to make progress and that we have addressed the concerns expressed by the Commission that the Board won't backslide. It was a very informative talk and I was glad to have their time and attention.  They mentioned to me that there is a training/workshop for new ALOs in November that would be good for me to attend and finally, as an added bonus, they asked me if I would be willing to serve on a visiting team in the future!
      
4. The first draft of recommendations 1, 8 and 6 our Special Report should be ready for campus consideration on Monday, August 23^rd.
   

Finally, we'll need to get more participation from Human Resources, Facilities and Fiscal Services in the Self-Study report. While there are a handful of faculty and staff working in these areas, they lack the in-depth expertise to fully address the standards.