President's Council Meeting Summary

February 18, 2004

 

 

Present:  Dene Thomas, Kathy Martin, Rob Lohrmeyer, Richard Moore, Whitney Pugh, Allen Schmook, Polly Blasko, Bert Sahlberg, Deacon Meier, Dave Taylor, Dawn Byers, Kathie Wilcox, Chet Herbst, Janis VanHook

 

Absent:  Tony Fernández,

 

Guest:  Ken Clark

 

Calendar Review

Calendars for February and March were distributed noting President’s travel and major campus events.   

 

President’s Report

 

President Thomas traveled to Washington D.C. last week where she met with the Idaho delegation and staff to discuss potential federal appropriations projects.  Projects include:

·        Safety Training Facility (Skid Pad Phase II): Land, site preparation and facility construction.

·        Idaho Virtual Incubator Phase IV: creation of three Fulfillment Centers as a proven model for global e-commerce

·        Firefighting Distance Education: Develop curriculum for on-line delivery

·        American Indian Students in the Leadership of Education: Provide distance delivery and summer certification program to paraprofessionals and others interested in working with American Indian students education and obtaining teaching certification.

 

Ken Clark reported on meetings with the Idaho delegation on federal appropriations requests and other initiatives under the auspices of Grants and Contracts.  His report is listed below: 

 

·        The visit to DC had two purposes: (a) Thank the Senators for support for LCSC and the National Youth Sports Program which will enter its 30th year; and attend the NYSP annual meeting.  (b) Visit with our Senators on Capitol Hill and follow up with any questions they might have about our appropriations requests.

·        LCSC’s American Indian Student Leadership in Education grant has been funded ($457,345) for FY 2004.  This makes our 2005 request a second phase of this same project, which increases our chances of further funding.  The project is modeled after tribal school community for higher graduation rate.  

·        Senator Crapo asked for a letter written by us for him (he’ll make revisions before sending) to send to the FMCSA requesting $285K of the previous $695K award to be used to purchase land for the skid pad project.

·        The Senator’s office also requested some paper document to prove that we are able to buy the land we are seeking, as well as a written contract from the National Guard Engineering Unit that they are committed to site development for the Skid Pad project.

·        The proposals President Thomas took to Washington this year were much better proposals than have been submitted in the past.  The key is the Project Groups who worked hard to put the proposals together.

·        We had a project group working on a Title III Development Grant.  Because the deadline for it was February 26th, and we had much more work to do than time to do it, I asked the committee if we could continue working on the project for next year’s funding cycle.  We have a much better chance of being funded if we do our homework, instead of cutting corners and turning in sloppy work.  They held a meeting February 13th and agreed to continue to work.

·        This office is committed to joining with Polly Blasko and visiting each Division and educating them about the grants process.  No one has to do the work alone.  We’ll organize a project group for each proposal.  It’s more enjoyable and the participation of several knowledgeable people results in a much better proposal.

·        I hope to meet with Senior Administration and propose modifying the indirect cost distribution system to provide incentives for grant writers.  The extra incentive will increase the number of people willing to write a grant, we’ll organize a project group to help them, and the more grants we write, the more external funding we can generate for LCSC.

·        On-line grant program needs to be replaced by an off-the-shelf version.  Allen Schmook is assisting in the search.

 

 

President Thomas attended the Workforce Development Council meeting on February 13 in Boise.  LC is receiving recognition that we are proud of and own our community college function and promotion of the community economic development role of the institution.

 

Kevin Learned, Special Adviser to the President, visited campus on February 5 and 6.  He will assist with legislative, student, alumni and advancement relations in the Boise area.   

 

JFAC voted Monday for a $223.3 million general fund budget that does not provide more money for more students or facility occupancy costs. The general fund increase of 2.5 percent will pay only a portion of the $8.5 million needed to give raises to employees and cover their benefits. The difference will come from increases in student fees.  The State Board approved 8.5% fee increase.  President Thomas will go back to the Board and request the full 9.98% increase.   President Thomas has agreed to not ask for more than 9.98% if student leadership will support that request. 

Two positions on the State Board of Education are due for reappointment or for new appointment.   Terms expiring are James Hammond and Karen McGee.

 

 

Provost and Vice Presidents’ Reports

 

Provost:

 

On February 10th, the School of Technology hosted approximately 500 regional high school students to preview our professional-technical programs and tour the LCSC campus.  Consideration will be given next year to host a campus-wide Preview Day.

 

 

Administrative Services:  

 

·        The Compensation Review Committee met on February 12.  Issues are being discussed and recommendations will be formed.

 

·        The occupancy date for the Activity Center has changed to December 2004.  

 

 

Student Affairs: 

 

Dr. Meier attended the Association of Student Judicial Affairs officers meeting in Florida February 6-10.  The meeting provided an opportunity to review legal issues affecting student affairs and receive an update on FERPA.

 

The Strategic Enrollment Management Committee will meet today at 3:00 p.m.  The intent is to review the existing plan, revisit core principals and link the plan to the overall institutional strategic plan.

 

Direct Reporting Units

 

Athletics:  Baseball season opened on February 13.  Due to the Activity Center construction, the alternate entrance is on 11th Avenue and 6th Street.

 

Information Technology:

·        The Information Technology Resource Management Council (ITRMC) reviews and evaluates the information technology and telecommunications systems presently in use by state agencies, and prepares statewide short and long-range IT and Telecommunications Plans.   ITRMC met on February 13.   Institutions of higher education have been categorized with the other state agencies which are required to request exemptions for products that are not on the standards list.  Allen Schmook recommends a close review of the standards and exemption requests.

 

·        Information Technology is conducting a periodic review of computer security/disaster recovery policies/procedures written June 2002.\ to incorporate suggestions of homeland security and department of defense. 

 

·        The new connection to the Internet via XO Communications is in place.  The IT department's system engineers are stress testing the new "pipe" to determine its capacity and verify its reliability.  If there are no problems we will move the campus to the new provider on Friday, February 27, at 5:00 p.m.   The move is estimated to take approximately six hours to complete the process, during which time there will be no access to the network, either locally or off campus.  That means no e-mail, web browsing, WebCT, Datatel, or printing from networked printers.  The change will more than double our bandwidth to the Internet. 

 

College Communications:  We need to do a better job on getting the word out on high visibility campus visitors.

 

Institutional Research and Planning:  The fall Northwest Commission on College and Universities five-year, interim accreditation visit will be in October.  The exact date will not be determined until May when the two evaluators have been assigned.  

 

Grade Point Average Summary – Fall 2003

The following averages are based on the Fall 2003 semester GPA for the cohort group of academic and technical students who are First-Time, First-Year, Full-Time, Degree-Seeking.  Any GPA of 0 was excluded.

 

Cohort Group                                                  Number of Students                 Average GPA

 

All FT-FY Students                                                       388                                           2.70                             

All FT-FY Students except FT-FY SSS Students              318                                           2.69

All FT-FY SSS Students                                    70                                            2.75

All FT-FY SSS Students except CAMP*                         38                                            2.63

All FT-FY CAMP Students                                            32                                            2.89

 

*All 32 CAMP students are also in the SSS program

 

Other Reports

 

The Classified Staff Organization will conduct their Silent Auction on March 4 and continue to sell the remaining books. 

 

Meeting Adjourned

The next President's Council will be on Wednesday, February 25, at 9:00 a.m., in the Alumni Board Room.