ACCT Trustee Quarterly Winter 2015 by Moire Marketing Partners

A Chicago Congress | An Agenda for Equity | Weathering the Storm

WINTER 2015

Full Circle

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

2014-2015 Chair Robin M. Smith Lansing Community College MI

Chair-elect Roberto Zárate Alamo Colleges, TX

Vice Chair Bakari Lee Hudson County Community College, NJ

Secretary-Treasurer Emily Yim Edmonds Community College, WA

Immediate Past Chair LeRoy W. Mitchell Westchester Community College, NY

Central Regional Chair Diane Gallagher Highland Community College, IL

Northeast Regional Chair William E. Coleman, Jr. Mercer County Community College, NJ

Pacific Regional Chair Jane Strain Cochise College, AZ

Southern Regional Chair Randall Jackson Midlands Technical College, SC

Western Regional Chair Robert Feit Southeast Community College, NE

Tamela Cullens South Florida State College, FL Stanley Edwards Halifax Community College, NC Mary Figueroa Riverside Community College District, CA Jim Harper Portland Community College, OR Connie Hornbeck Iowa Western Community College, IA Vernon Jung Moraine Park Technical College, WI Gregory Knott Parkland College, IL Jeffrey May Joliet Junior College, IL Kent Miller Mid-Plains Community College Area, NE Norwood Ogé Louisiana Community and Technical College System, LA Clare Ollayos Elgin Community College, IL

From the Chair On Board for Opportunities WHEN IMMEDIATE PAST ACCT BOARD CHAIR LeRoy Mitchell passed the gavel to me last October, I was overcome by the deep resonance of the moment — not only because I consider it a tremendous honor and accomplishment to have been elected to lead such an important organization, but also because of the opportunity that this honor represents. ACCT is the voice of community college leaders in Washington and throughout the nation. If you attend ACCT events, then you know that our board and staff are committed not only to securing federal and state support of our colleges, but also to advancing the community college mission through compelling, and sometimes controversial, conversations. Chuck Underwood, host of the PBS series America’s Generations, opened the 2014 ACCT Leadership Congress with a dynamic discussion about the differing world views and values of generations — from the Baby Boomers who are leading our colleges to the up-and-coming Generation Xers and the Millennials who make up a large proportion of our students. This broad but eye-opening discussion laid the groundwork for Mark Hugo Lopez, Linda Johnson Rice, and Cheryl Crazy Bull to speak candidly about the nation’s Hispanic, African American, and American Indian populations. The common thread among all these discussions comes down to one thing: communities in search of opportunities, and what more we can do to meet their needs. We understand that not all colleges serve significant populations of all of these groups (yet). But as leaders of colleges created to uphold a promise of open doors within a nation whose diversity is unparalleled, trustees and presidents in every community must maintain a national perspective in order to be sensitive to the changing needs of students over time. More than 60 years ago, the visionary poet Langston Hughes asked us to think about what happens to a dream deferred — does it dry up…or fester…sag…or explode? The outcome is never good, but the good news is that as community college trustees, we are the guardians of millions of American dreams. It’s a staggering challenge to make sure they are all realized, but as trustees, we are all “on board” together for the opportunity that we have to create opportunities for others. I look forward to my year as ACCT Chair, and to seeing you this February at the Community College National Legislative Summit. By showing up in Washington and meeting face to face with our elected officials, we, the leaders of our great nation’s greatest and most democratic institutions, can help to transform our students’ dreams for a better life into a reality. Thank you for getting on board.

Hector Ortiz Harrisburg Area Community College, PA Robert Proctor, Diversity Committee Chair Lansing Community College, MI Dennis Troy Bladen Community College, NC

ROBIN M. SMITH LANSING COMMUNITY COLLEGE, MICHIGAN

Rafael Turner Mott Community College, MI

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WINTER 2015

Trustee

QUA R T ERLY

The Voice of Community College Leaders

From the President & CEO

WINTER 2015

Editorial Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF J. Noah Brown

Embracing Changes

President & CEO

MANAGING EDITOR David Conner Communications & Publications Manager

EDITOR Mark Toner CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jee Hang Lee Vice President of Public Policy and External Relations

Narcisa Polonio Executive Vice President for Education, Research, and Board Leadership Services

Ira Michael Shepard ACCT Legal Counsel

EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES Karen Lomax Executive Assistant to the President and CEO

Indya Rogers Board and Publications Assistant

Jennifer Stiddard Senior Public Policy Associate

DESIGN & PRODUCTION www.moiremarketing.com – Washington, D.C. YOUR OPINION MATTERS CONTACT: David Conner (866) 895-ACCT (2228) dconner@acct.org

TRUSTEE QUARTERLY (ISSN 0271-9746) is published three or four times per year as a membership service of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). ACCT is a not-for-profit educational organization of governing boards of public and private community, technical, and junior colleges. Membership is also open to state coordinating boards, advisory boards, and state associations. The mission of ACCT is to foster greater understanding of and appreciation for community college boards; support boards in their efforts to develop public policies focusing on meeting community needs; help build board governance leadership and advocacy capacity through in-service education and training programs; and support boards through specialized services and programs. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and values of the Association of Community College Trustees. Non-members may subscribe to TRUSTEE QUARTERLY for $60.00 per year (plus postage for international subscriptions). Third-class postage paid at Washington, D.C.

ALL OF US AT ACCT ARE EXCITED ABOUT THE prospects of 2015. We began the new year in a new office space — one that is able to accommodate our entire staff on a single floor, and where we will be able to host educational and advocacy events and related gatherings that support our mission. I hope that you will visit us while you are in Washington for the Community College National Legislative Summit and throughout the year. On the cover of this issue is the new chair of the ACCT Board of Directors, Robin M. Smith. As a first-generation college student who has gone on to become an educator, a student advocate, and a community college trustee from my home state of Michigan — an up-andcoming success story in its own right — Chair Smith is a beacon for the type of opportunities we strive to catalyze through our colleges. I hope that you will read her story on page 20 and be reminded that all of our students have the potential to achieve as much as long as we support their journeys. This issue also recaps the recent ACCT Leadership Congress (p. 14) and Symposium on Student Success (p. 10), both of which focused on equity divides that run through our communities and can be improved by our campuses. And as always, this issue of TQ includes important information from the ACCT team, including Jee Hang Lee’s first of three installments looking at the Higher Education Act reauthorization (p. 8), and highlights of recent court cases that impact community colleges from ACCT General Counsel Ira Michael Shepard (p. 26). We are also excited to continue “Trustee Talk,” in which Narcisa A. Polonio answers questions from ACCT members about board governance (p. 18). I’m also pleased to share contributions from outside of ACCT, including great advice from Corporate Council member CampusWorks (p. 28), and a must-read story about how Erie Community College’s leadership and staff came together to weather a treacherous storm and came out better for it in the end (p. 30). Finally, I strongly encourage you to read through the news department (p. 4), as a great deal has happened in our sphere since the fall issue, from ACCT’s continually strengthening partnerships with the United Kingdom Association of Colleges to truly unprecedented federal developments that hold the potential to change — and benefit — all of our colleges and students. Our advocacy work is more important than ever, and I look forward to seeing you here in Washington this February for the National Legislative Summit.

J. NOAH BROWN ACCT PRESIDENT AND CEO 1101 17th Street, NW, Suite 300 Washington DC 20036 (202) 775-4667 FAX: (202) 775-4455 E-mail: acctinfo@acct.org www.acct.org

1-866-895-ACCT (2228) FAX: 1-866-904-ACCT (2228) 2

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Contents

TRUSTEE QUARTERLY | WINTER 2015

DEPARTMENTS 8

Advocacy The Higher Education Act: Access and Affordability Jee Hang Lee

26 Trustee Talk With ACCT

Guidance for Challenging Issues in Community College Governance Narcisa A. Polonio

32 Legal Legal Issues Impacting Community Colleges Ira Michael Shepard

IN EVERY ISSUE

FEATURES

From the Chair

From the President & CEO

10 An Agenda for Equity — By Mark Toner

News

The fifth annual Symposium on Completion focused on the ‘educational divide.’

14 Winds of Change — By Mark Toner

24 Around the Regions 34 ACCT Lifetime Members

The 2014 ACCT Congress served as a reminder of dramatic transitions in higher education and the country — and the importance of staying the course.

36 Searches

Full Circle — By Mark Toner

44 Advisor

41 Interface

COVER PHOTO BY G.J. FLEMING PHOTOGRAPHY

For ACCT Chair Robin M. Smith, the support she received from her family drives a lifelong commitment to improve opportunities for men of color — and all students.

28 Defining the Student Experience — By Hank Dunn Colleges must bring different departments together to see how students experience their institutions in totality.

Weathering the Storm — By Jack Quinn Erie Community College’s relief efforts demonstrate leadership outside the classroom.

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College Ratings Plan Raises Concerns On December 19, 2014, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released the first draft of the long-awaited college ratings plan, known as the Postsecondary Institution Ratings System (PIRS). President Obama announced his intention to develop a college rating system in August 2013 along with other policy proposals to improve affordability and student success in higher education. The PIRS draft release identifies the key metrics with which the Administration plans to rate colleges in the near future, with numerical ratings to be assigned to specific institutions for a “version 1.0” release of PIRS prior to the 2015-16 academic year. These metrics are grouped into a framework that contains three domains: access, affordability, and outcomes. Although the proposal was relatively light on specifics — stating only the metrics that were “under consideration” by ED — the draft included several items of significant concern to community colleges. It is widely known that currently available federal measurements of community college completion and transfer rates are vastly incomplete given a restriction to first-time, full-time students. Some other metrics may be subject to manipulation. Within the release, ED acknowledged many of these data limitations. ACCT plans to issue formal comments on behalf of community colleges before the February 17, 2015 deadline. We encourage community college trustees, presidents, and other leaders to share their thoughts so that we can relay these comments to the Administration and include relevant concerns. Email publicpolicy@acct.org with your comments.

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NEWS Annual ACCT Association Awards The 2014 ACCT Association Awards were presented on Friday, October 24, during the Annual ACCT Awards Gala in Chicago. For photos and videos of the Association and Regional Awards, visit www.acct.org/awards.

2014 M. Dale Ensign Trustee Leadership Award M. Thomas Perkins Western Nebraska Community College

2014 Marie Y. Martin Chief Executive Award Kathleen Hetherington Howard Community College, Md.

2014 Charles Kennedy Equity Award Seattle Colleges, Washington

2014 William H. Meardy Faculty Member Award Bill Mulkey Midlands Technical College, S.C.

2013 ACCT Professional Board Staff Member Award Jeannie Odle Chemeketa Community College, Ore.

Keep an eye on your mailbox and email inbox for the 2015 ACCT Regional and Association Awards Call for Nominations, to be issued early this year! See inside front cover for details.

White House Continues Focus on Completion ACCT, Single Stop USA announce new learning community at December College Opportunity Day of Action event.

LET THE LAW WORK FOR YOU Timing is everything when it comes to advocacy, but not everyone has time to pay attention to pending legislation day in and day out. ACCT’s Latest Action in Washington (LAW) Alerts do the work for you.

Left: President Barack Obama delivers remarks during the White House College Opportunity Day of Action summit at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 4, 2014.

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY CHUCK KENNEDY

Right: First Lady Michelle Obama delivers remarks during the White House College Opportunity Day of Action summit at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., on December 4, 2014.

On December 4, ACCT President and CEO J. Noah Brown joined President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House Opportunity Day of Action to support the goal of leading the world in college degree attainment. The White House College Opportunity Day of Action helps to support President Obama’s commitment to partner with colleges and universities, business leaders, and nonprofits to support students across the country and help our nation reach its goal of leading the world in college attainment. As the voice of community college leaders across the nation and in Washington, ACCT leads a number of major efforts to improve college completion, including attainment of degrees, certificates, and successful transfers to baccalaureate-granting institutions. In 2010, ACCT co-signed the Democracy’s Colleges Call to Action, which pledges to promote the development and implementation of policies, practices, and institutional cultures that will produce 50 percent more students with high-quality degrees and certificates by 2020. A notable partnership with Single Stop USA connects low-income students at community colleges across the United States with services and benefits, such as financial aid, tax credits, emergency medical care coverage, food stamps, and other resources that empower them to complete their educations. As part of the White House College Opportunity Day of Action, Single Stop and ACCT have committed to supporting the President’s goal by developing a learning community to promote and improve integrated models for comprehensive student services among at least 10 percent of American community colleges by 2020. The community, chaired by Eduardo Padron, president of Miami Dade College, and Joseph May, chancellor of the Dallas Community College District, will convene conferences and workshops; publish best practices and training materials; and support the implementation and integration of the Single Stop model as part of a broader set of evidence-based practices that reform student services and financial aid. Continued on page 6

Since 2008, nearly 1,600 new people have signed up to receive ACCT’s LAW Alert emails — brief summaries of legislative actions emailed to subscribers as legislation happens, giving community college trustees, presidents, and other leaders and advocates time to contact their representatives and exert influence before it’s too late. Please encourage your fellow trustees, presidents, and colleagues to stay up to date about legislation that affects their community colleges by joining the LAW E-Alert network. To join simply email publicpolicy@acct.org with “LAW Alert” in the subject of the e-mail. For more information about ACCT’s advocacy services, visit www.acct.org/advocacy. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY

WINTER 2015

Get Involved with ACCT Enhance your membership by joining the State Coordinators Network, a Board Committee, or the ACCT Board of Directors. Your input and participation are vital to the success of our work. If you would like to get involved, please download the brochure at www.acct.org under “About Us>Apply for ACCT Board or Committee” from the menu. Contact Karen Lomax at klomax@acct.org for more information about running for the ACCT Board of Directors and Jee Hang Lee at jhlee@acct. org for information about the State Coordinators Network.

NEWS

Continued from page 5

“Our members are troubled by the high number of students that have the academic ability to succeed but drop out because they can’t afford to stay in school. On-campus supports, like Single Stop, bridge student need with existing resources to give them the opportunity to earn a degree,” said Brown. “We are thrilled to expand our national partnership with Single Stop to increase retention through innovation.” “Community colleges are the engine of our country’s economic growth,” said Elisabeth Mason, co-founder and CEO of Single Stop. “Community colleges educate 41 percent of low-income students and 38 percent of all students. Through better integration of services and supports, we hope to ensure that a student never has to choose between groceries or graduation.” President Obama will announce new steps on how his Administration is helping to support these actions, including proposing $10 million to help promote college completion and a $30 million AmeriCorps program that will improve low-income students’ access to college.

ACCT Builds Partnership in UK ACCT Board Chair Robin Smith and ACCT President & CEO J. Noah Brown represented the association at November’s Association of Colleges (AoC) conference in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Continuing to build on the partnership established in 2010, ACCT and AoC officials have been focusing on assisting the two nation’s educational sectors around issues of governance, workforce relevance, STEM, accountability, and leadership. In addition to attending one another’s conferences, the two organizations are committed to the furtherance of effective governance and leadership. ACCT and AoC are in discussions involving specific initiatives strengthening the capacity of both British further education and U.S. community and technical colleges to address economic and social needs. AoC officials will join ACCT colleagues during the 2015 Community College Leadership Congress to discuss and share progress on joint efforts.

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REGISTRATION AND CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS:

2015 ACCT LEADERSHIP CONGRESS Join more than 1,400 trustees, college presidents, philanthropic leaders, and federal officials as we move the needle on student success at the 2015 ACCT Leadership Congress, to be held October 14-17 in San Diego, California. REGISTRATION FOR THE 2015 CONGRESS OPENS IN MID-FEBRUARY AT WWW.ACCT.ORG. For more information and to submit your presentation idea, contact ACCT Education Events Specialist Christina Sage Simons at csimons@acct.org. The deadline for presentation proposals is May 1, 2015.

Obama Proposes Free Community College, Technical Training Fund

On January 9, President Obama spoke at Pellissippi State Community College in Tennessee to discuss two new proposals aimed at community colleges and students. The first, entitled the America’s College Promise proposal, is a federal-state partnership grant that would provide free tuition at community colleges for qualified students. In order to qualify, students would have to be enrolled at least half-time and maintain a 2.5 GPA while making progress towards their degree or certificate. The requirements for community colleges are that they offer “1) academic programs that fully

transfer credits to local public four-year colleges and universities, or 2) occupational training programs with high graduation rates that lead to in-demand degrees and certificates. Community colleges must also adopt promising and evidence-based institutional reforms to improve student outcomes.” While the federal government would cover three-quarters of the cost under this proposal, states will be required to provide the remaining quarter if they choose to participate. The projected cost is $60 billion over 10 years. ACCT’s statement on the proposal may be viewed at http://bit.ly/14E0bYM. The second proposal, entitled the Advanced Technical Training Fund, would be a successor to the expired Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant (TAACCCT) program. Funds would be used to support college and industry partnerships that include “work-based learning opportunities, provide accelerated training, and are scheduled to accommodate part-time work.” The proposal would fund the creation of 100 programs at community colleges or other training institutions, as well as the expansion of existing programs that have strong outcomes. Both proposals will be included in the President’s FY 2016 budget request. They will require Congressional approval to be enacted into law. The White House has prepared a fact sheet on the proposals: http://1.usa.gov/1FzlV8m.

ACCT HAS MOVED! Please change your databases and contacts to our new address: ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEES 1101 17TH STREET NW, SUITE 300 WASHINGTON, DC 20036 Email: acctinfo@acct.org Tel: 202.775.4667 | Toll Free: 866.895.2228 Fax: 202.223.1297 | Toll Free: 866.904.2228

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WINTER 2015

ADVOCACY

The Higher Education Act: Access and Affordability

The Pell Grant program and student loan issues will play large roles in reauthorization of the law. By Jee Hang Lee

THE HIGHER EDUCATION ACT (HEA) is due to be reauthorized, and its future could have a lasting impact on the accessibility and affordability of higher education for millions of community college students. Community college advocates will push for a variety of changes to make higher education easier to navigate and afford for so-called “non-traditional” students — including returning adults, part-time and part-year students, and those in need of basic skills training. A key part of this effort is stemming the decline of state support for higher education, which has been severe and almost universal across the nation. Throughout 2015, each issue of Trustee Quarterly will examine some of the major issues facing the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act; this first column focuses on issues impacting affordability.

The backbone of HEA is Title IV, which governs nearly all aspects of federal student aid. The cornerstone program for community colleges is the Pell Grant program, with 3 million community college students receiving an award each academic year. The maximum award level for FY 2015-16 will be $5,850. Unfortunately, the growth in the total number of recipients and the maximum award level has generated funding shortfalls, which previous Congresses have resolved by making eligibility changes that reduced access to the grants. For example, in FY 2011 Congress eliminated year-round Pell while providing an additional $17 billion for the program through the Budget Control Act. In the FY 2012 appropriations package, Congress again needed to find savings in the program and opted for more shortsighted eligibility changes, 8

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including eliminating financial aid eligibility for “ability-to-benefit” students, such as those without a high school diploma or GED, and instituting a limit of 12 full-time semesters for all recipients. More recently, the cost of the Pell Grant program has declined — primarily due to a stabilizing number of recipients — and the program is now running a surplus. In December, Congress passed a bill to allow ability-to-benefit students enrolled in a career pathways program to receive Pell Grants. But even this good news is shortlived. Starting in FY 2017, the program is estimated to once again experience

shortfalls in funding ranging from $2 billion to $7 billion every year. Therefore, policymakers will have to grapple with efforts to increase access to Pell within constraints on federal spending. For instance, Congress must decide whether to maintain yearly inflationary increases for the Pell Grant, which are currently scheduled to expire in 2017. These steady increases to the maximum award help combat the rising cost of higher education for students, but have also enlarged the overall cost of the Pell Grant program. ACCT continues to advocate for broad access to Pell Grants for community

MICHAEL AUSTIN

Pell Grant Program

college students, including restoration of year-round Pell, allowing all “abilityto-benefit” students to receive aid, and increasing the semester limitation from 12 to 14 semesters. ACCT is also advocating for improved state–federal college affordability partnership grants to incentivize state funding, as well as for stronger maintenance-of-effort provisions. New leaders in Congress also have their own ideas for higher education reform. Based on bills introduced by the new chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), there is interest in eliminating some higher education programs and benefits in order to infuse additional funds into the Pell Grant program. The Financial Aid Simplification and Transparency (FAST) Act proposes the creation of a single federal loan program and a single federal grant program — doing away with Direct Loan subsidies for low-income students and eliminating the federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) program. Savings generated by these FAST Act changes could help close any Pell shortfalls or even reinstate the yearround Pell Grant. It is also possible that Congress will look at other reforms or reallocations of campus-based aid, including SEOG and the Federal WorkStudy program, to include the formulas that govern the distribution of funds under these programs.

Loan Debt and Default The HEA reauthorization process also provides a critical opportunity for Congress to address the much-discussed issues of rising student debt and loan delinquency and default. Although

ACCT continues to advocate for broad access to a Pell Grant for community college students, including restoration of year-round Pell, allowing all “abilityto-benefit” students to receive aid, and increasing the semester limitation from 12 to 14 semesters. community colleges remain the most affordable institutions of higher education, about 17 percent of all community college students take out federal loans. Many of these students — and particularly those who fail to complete a degree or credential — have defaulted on their loans. Congress must reexamine the rules for loan disbursement and for cohort default rates, or CDRs, which can penalize institutions for high rates of default even if few of their students take out federal loans. CDRs should be replaced with fairer metrics that consider low borrowing rates, and challenges and appeals must be made more responsive to those who file them. Colleges should also be given more authority to limit over-borrowing by students and to require more intentional and effective student loan counseling. Observers can expect that Congress will also examine student loan repayment plans, which have grown in number and complexity, by considering consolidating

these plans. ACCT supports significant changes to student loan repayment, including developing a single, universal repayment portal for students, a better process for loan consolidation, limiting loan amounts based upon degree type and enrollment status, and more frequent outreach to delinquent borrowers. While the list of community college priorities for HEA reauthorization is long, this window is a historic opportunity to once again make higher education an engine of economic opportunity and reverse troublesome trends of declining state support, accessibility, and affordability for students. Paired with new investments, a renewed HEA can simplify a complex system of federal financial aid and become much more accessible for the students who attend our campuses today. These students don’t deserve nonsensical federal rules and requirements that make their lives more difficult, but a seamless system that provides a pathway to success. ACCT will continue to work and advocate on behalf of community colleges as Congress and the Administration work to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. We encourage you to utilize ACCT’s online policy center to communicate with your members of Congress, and follow federal legislative updates through the Latest Action in Washington (LAW) email alerts and the Capitol Connection e-newsletter. To join, email publicpolicy@acct.org.

ACCT Vice President for Public Policy and External Relations Jee Hang Lee can be reached by email at jhlee@acct.org, or by phone at 202-775-4667. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY

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Agenda for Equity

THE FIFTH ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM ON COMPLETION FOCUSED ON THE ‘EDUCATIONAL DIVIDE.’ BY MARK TONER

From left: Richard Kahlenberg, executive director and senior fellow at the Century Foundation; Gail Mellow, president of LaGuardia Community College; and Douglas E. Wood, program officer, Higher Education for Social Justice Initiative, Educational Opportunity and Scholarship Unit, Ford Foundation

Stan Jones, founder and president, Complete College America

WITH GROWING ECONOMIC DISPARITY AS A

education divide. Working groups also developed an equity action agenda, which ACCT will release later this year. “For many with low incomes, simply getting access to higher education can be a great struggle,” said 2013-14 ACCT Chair LeRoy W. Mitchell, a trustee at Westchester Community College in New York. “That is a primary reason why community colleges are so vital to making good on our nation’s promise of equal opportunity for all.” ACCT President & CEO J. Noah Brown called community colleges “the great equalizer of higher education.”

backdrop, community college leaders gathered before the 2014 ACCT Leadership Congress in Chicago to take stock of efforts to improve student success over the last half-decade. The fifth annual Symposium on Completion, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Kresge Foundation, and Lumina Foundation, focused on helping community colleges keep true to their promise of ensuring a gateway out of poverty. Sessions addressed student stories, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, opportunity gaps, reinvention of established models, and bridging the higher 10

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Frank L. Matthews, cofounder and publisher, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

From left: Lumina Foundation Vice President for Policy and Mobilization Danette Howard, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Director of Education, Postsecondary Success Daniel Greenstein, and Chronicle of Higher Education Senior Writer Goldie Blumenstyk

“Our colleges are specifically designed for this purpose — to offer real access and opportunities to high quality education and experience, regardless of socioeconomic class or other designations,” Brown said. But the reality on the ground has been stark, and disparities have grown in the wake of the Great Recession. “There’s a huge opportunity divide,” said Russell Krumnow, managing director of Opportunity Nation. “We’d like to think we’re the best in upward mobility, but there are numbers of countries where the chances to move up from the bottom tier are now higher. We have to be honest about that fact and open the bottlenecks.” Narcisa Polonio, ACCT executive vice president for education, research, and board services, urged Symposium attendees to consider the role that trustees can play in ensuring that equity becomes as important a value as access and success for community colleges. “It’s always important to ask with the services we choose to provide, or not provide, if we are perpetuating the educational divide,” Polonio said.

8 percent of the population held college degrees. Today, 86 percent of all high school graduates plan to go to college. Yet the promise of access for all has masked some sobering realities. Students who come from families in the top quartile of income are 10 times more likely to get a college degree than those in the bottom quartile. While the most affluent postsecondary students have an 85 percent chance of receiving a credential, only 8 percent of the poorest ones manage to do so, according to Mark Mitsui, deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s office of career, technical, and adult education. Even students in the middle-income brackets are far less likely to get degrees than those in the top quartile. And students of color — particularly African American and Latino males — come to college with the highest expectations but have the lowest outcomes, according to Evelyn Waiwaiole, director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement at the University of Texas. While community colleges enroll more men of color than any other sector in higher education, black males receive fewer than 4 percent of all associate degrees awarded; Latino males earn fewer than 5 percent. The culprits are familiar ones — the length of time it takes students to earn a degree or certificate and the challenges of remediation among them. But they also represent troubling trends about the growing stratification of society. At selective four-year institutions, students from affluent families outnumber the poorest students by 14 to 1, according to Richard D. Kahlenberg, executive director and senior fellow at the Century Foundation. The opposite is true at community colleges, where students from the lowest income quartile outnumber those from the wealthiest by 2 to 1 — and those numbers keep growing. Between 1982 and 2006, the percentage of the most affluent students at community colleges declined from 24 to 16 percent, Kahlenberg added.

The Changing Face of the Student Body For all the damage it caused, the Great Recession did one positive thing — it encouraged more people to pursue degrees and certificates. “It’s a testament to higher education that people of modest means looked around and saw their best opportunity to improve their prospects was to go to college,” said Stan Jones, president and founder of Complete College America. The result? Student bodies across higher education “looked more like the country than ever before — more minority, more low-income students,” Jones told attendees. In some ways, the changing student population marks the culmination of six decades of higher education policy, beginning with the GI Bill that made college a reality beyond elite circles for the first time. Before World War II, about

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Symposium participants work in groups to develop an Equity Action Agenda.

“We have known since Brown v. Board of Education that separate institutions are rarely equal,” he said. “Today, we have separate institutions for low-income kids, and there are important ramifications.” Chief among them: the loss of middle-class advocates for adequate funding at the state level. From 1999 to 2009, community colleges saw a $1 increase in funding in real terms, while all other sectors of higher education saw much larger gains, Kahlenberg said. Another ramification is de facto segregation. As the Civil Rights Act of 1964 celebrates its 50th anniversary, more high school students now attend segregated schools than before the passage of the groundbreaking law, according to Frank L. Matthews, co-founder and publisher of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. “The buck stops with you,” Matthews told attendees. “Community college trustee boards are the only way we’re going to move the needle.”

Finding Solutions Speaking of her own experience as an elementary school student who barely spoke English, ACCT’s Polonio points to an encounter with a teacher who encouraged her to get a library card — and changed the trajectory of her life. But her kind of story is one that community colleges must get past, she stressed. “It was accidental — a faculty member said something to me,” she said. “If you look at our history to a large extent, it has been accidental events. Think of the role we could play if it were no longer accidental, but intentional — we could double, triple, quadruple the number of students who could move forward.” Intentional solutions do exist — and with the support of foundations including Gates, Kresge, and Lumina, they have been shown to work on campuses across the country. Working with 45 focus groups nationwide, Waiwaiole said key themes that lead to improved success for students of color emerged, including personal connections, high expectations, instructor quality, engagement, and diversity and cultural competency. 12

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Complete College America focuses on what it calls proven “game changers,” including performance funding, co-requisite remediation, programs that encourage students to take full course loads to speed time to completion, guided pathways, and structured schedules. Competencybased education may also play a key role, said Danette Howard, vice president for policy and mobilization for the Lumina Foundation. Data have been a key at many successful institutions, according to Daniel Greenstein, director of postsecondary success at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Along with overarching systems that use predictive analytics to help track student progress and improve advising, data can surface smaller changes, such as the most effective ways to provide emergency grants — the temporary funding that helps with problems like flat tires or childcare emergencies. “Little interventions can make a huge difference,” Greenstein says. Differentiated services are also critical. “Students aren’t all the same, and the education they require isn’t all the same,” says Greenstein. For instance, wraparound services may help first-time, low-income students — but could also get in the way of highly motivated older learners with specific goals. It’s critical, he said, “to meet the many segments of your students where you are.” And there’s a need to change the whole stigma of non-degree options, particularly when students facing daunting remediation coursework enter challenging degree programs without understanding the low odds of completion. Thinking about ways to destigmatize certificate education will be critical, along with more modular educational opportunities such as stackable credentials that provide paths to return to postsecondary education. “There’s an evolving social need to foster more of these sub-BA activities,” Greenstein said. “It’s a very important discussion to have.”

Working groups continued on day two of the Symposium.

An Equity Agenda Symposium attendees committed to the importance of improving equity at community colleges. “The premise of our work is one that binds us — that zip code should not be destiny,” said Opportunity Nation’s Krumnow. Working together in small groups, Symposium attendees began thinking through ways that trustees can help make intentional actions a reality on their campuses. As trustees, “our job is not to pull the weeds from the garden, but ensure that the policies are in place that will guide the institution,” Polonio said. Policy plans that surfaced during discussions included eliminating key barriers and focusing on common problems like remediation, aligning systems and structures, examining intake systems, and rethinking the role of faculty within a broader team that can better support students with services such as mentoring, tutoring, and guidance. As it did several years ago when it developed a student success agenda for community college boards, ACCT continues to gather input to develop a similar agenda that will allow boards to evaluate ways to steer their institutions towards improved equity. “Remember to think practically,” Brown urged attendees. “Let’s not be too philosophical. Let’s be on the ground and think of things we can do to be scaled and advanced to benefit all.”

Facing the Needs Gail Mellow, president of LaGuardia Community College in New York, provided a poignant reminder about the need for additional resources. An institution with 65,000 students, most of whom come from poor families where no one has attended college, LaGuardia has a 620:1 student-advisor ratio — and is an example of the “haves and have nots in higher education,” Mellow told attendees.

Evelyn Waiwaiole, director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement, University of Texas

“We are bankrupting the future of America, and the future of America is a multicultural one,” she added. “To ask us to work with the hardest to serve with the least amount of money is a myopic way to do public policy…As trustees, don’t take the ‘you have to do better’ from any legislator without turning around and saying, ‘fine — give me the money to do it.’” The challenge, observed Goldie Blumenstyk, senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, is that the policy agenda is currently framed around a “reform movement growing more and more insistent that higher ed spend less, show better results, and welcome new educational providers.” The Century Foundation’s Kahlenberg suggested that policymakers look at models that have helped address needs at the K-12 level, such as Title I funding that provides additional support for high-poverty students. Performance funding systems, when properly designed, offer one way to do this. “The dirty secret is if you implement them in a way that is really thoughtful, what happens is the money actually follows the need,” said Doug Wood, program officer with the Ford Foundation. Ensuring that happens, however, means that trustees must be engaged in the creation of accountability systems. “Don’t stand back and wait until it happens to you,” Wood added. “Use the information you have now to engage your policymakers.” Mitsui pointed to the sea change that’s taken place since 2009, when President Obama issued his call to return America to first in the world in college completion. “It’s hard to find an institute or community college or state system that isn’t talking about student success,” he said. “That notion of community and collective impact is what we need to be able to move more of our population to greater opportunities.” And trustees have the ability and the responsibility to guide that collective impact, speakers said. “The problems society has heaped upon you are complex, vexing, and very difficult to solve,” said Matthews. “But you can do it.” T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY

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Winds of Change BY M ARK TONER

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The 2014 ACCT Leadership Congress focused on

the historic forces that shaped the community college movement — and the demographic changes that are now transforming its future. Yet with the theme “Winds of Change,” Congress attendees were reminded that their mission remains constant in the face of these broader shifts. 14

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3 1. 2013-14 ACCT Chair LeRoy W. Mitchell; 2. Moraine Valley Community College’s Chorale; 3. Presentation of Colors by the Chicago Fire Department

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“Staying the course to the American dream reflects our commitment to the communities we serve and our country,” outgoing ACCT Chair LeRoy W. Mitchell, a trustee at Westchester Community College in New York, told trustees during the opening session. Nearly 2,000 community college leaders came to Chicago for the 45th annual Leadership Congress, which capped a year of milestones. Immediately before the meeting, ACCT held its fifth annual Symposium on Completion, which coincided with a half-decade of emphasis on student success following President Obama’s 2009 call to restore America’s place as first in the world in college attainment (see p. 10). “Confront the winds of change — don’t fight against them,” said ACCT President and CEO J. Noah Brown, who kicked off his 10th year as leader of the organization. “Deliver our students safely.”

An Evolving Legacy

3 1. ACCT President and CEO J. Noah Brown; 2. University of Chicago President Dr. Robert Zimmer; 3. generation studies expert Chuck Underwood

The history of the country and higher education are closely intertwined, Congress speakers said — both looking to the past and ahead to the challenges shaping the future. The precedent for community colleges dates back to the 19th century, when land-grant colleges began a tradition of public higher education that continues to this day, said keynote speaker Dr. Robert J. Zimmer, president of the University of Chicago — an institution whose founding president played a central role in the creation of Illinois’s Joliet Junior College, the nation’s first community college. “We have a diversity of students with varying needs, goals, and ambitions, and our system has evolved to fit this,” said Zimmer. “Community colleges play an important role in educating a broad part of this population.” Yet over the past dozen years, funding for public institutions of higher education, including community colleges, has declined by 30 percent in real terms, Zimmer said. Together, community colleges and public four-year institutions educate three-quarters of all higher-education students, with ongoing funding cuts a threat to “the health of our society,” Zimmer said. “To me, this is a huge shift, which will impact the opportunities our young people are going to have, and it comes at a time when other countries are continuing to invest,” Zimmer said, urging community college leaders to advocate for their institutions. “If we’re going to be competitive as a society…this issue must be addressed.” T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY

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1 The evolving face of America continues to impact community colleges — and the American dream writ large. “The American dream is one of the most important, far-ranging conversations we can have,” said Linda Johnson Rice, chairman of Johnson Publishing Company, the publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines. Despite the massive societal changes sparked by the Civil Rights movement, African American students continue to face significant challenges, Johnson Rice told attendees. While minority enrollment has increased in open-enrollment programs like community colleges, vast disparities continue to exist at selective and elite higher education institutions, in large part due to economic factors such as mounting student debt and persistent poverty among African American children. “We cannot let the economic forces impacting your students become another form of segregation,” Johnson Rice said. “We can’t ignore the challenges, but we shouldn’t regard them as insurmountable.” Keynote speaker Mark Hugo Lopez focused on the rapidly changing Hispanic population, which after a period of wide-scale immigration now includes growing numbers of American-born youth. “We think of the Hispanic story as an immigrant story, but that is starting to change,” said Lopez, director of Hispanic research for the Pew Research Center. “For many students, the Latino experience is not an immigration experience.” College enrollment among Hispanics has surged in recent years, now accounting for nearly 20 percent of the overall college population. Nearly half of Hispanic high school graduates now attend college immediately after high school, surpassing the rates of their white and African American counterparts. Yet Hispanic college attainment continues to lag, with the need to support families and affordability among the key factors, according to Lopez. With shifting demographics, it’s vital that colleges look at ways to address these challenges, he added. “Young Latinos are going to make up the bulk of new entrants in the labor force,” Lopez said, stressing that their success levels will shape the overall skill level of the nation’s future workforce. “[That’s] the importance of this demographic to the future.” In his keynote, demographic researcher Chuck Underwood outlined key generational shifts currently underway. With Boomers finally taking the mantle of senior leadership from older peers, “leadership and governance for the first time becomes multiethnic and multigendered,” Underwood said. At the same time, since Generation Xers began their educations in the 1970s, “all the 16

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5 1. Johnson Publishing Company Chairman Linda Johnson Rice and 2014-15 ACCT Chair Robin M. Smith; 2. Johnson Rice; 3. Pew Research Center Director of Hispanic Research Mark Hugo Lopez; 4. 2014 ACCT Congress participants; 5. student trustees from throughout the country

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progress in education has gone to girls,” Underwood added. “Young black men, especially, are falling behind.” With five very different generations coexisting for the first time in history, community colleges need to create a culture of generational sensitivity, diversity, and understanding to “enable trustees, leadership teams, and faculty and staff…to shift from dealing with a legislator to a student, a parent, a coworker, a local business, and the local community,” Underwood said. Speakers also urged attendees to support yet another demographic group — the nation’s first. Keynote speaker Cheryl Crazy Bull, president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund, urged trustees to help support the “original American dream” — the 5.1 million American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AIANs) who comprise the fastest growing racial demographic in the country. Only 13 percent of AIANs have earned a college degree, and AIANs account for only 1 percent of the nation’s college students. Forced education that stripped many AIANs of their language and heritage left behind a complex legacy, but Crazy Bull said that tribal college movement, which began at the same time as the dramatic expansion of community colleges in the 1960s, has allowed AIANs to “grasp the dream” of opportunity, whether students attend one of the 34 tribal colleges and universities or other institutions of higher education. “If your list of minority students doesn’t include native students, you should ask,” Crazy Bull said. “Your leadership can help our dreams come true.”

A Leadership Tsunami

3 1. ACCT members raising voting cards during Senate meeting; 2. 2014 ACCT Regional Awardees; 3. Joyce Foundation President and Board Member Ellen Alberding

At the same time as demographic shifts are remaking the face of community colleges, their leadership faces an imminent wave of retirements that has been likened to a “tsunami.” Nearly 640 leadership transitions have taken place in the nation’s 1,132 community colleges in the last three years, and new leaders are coming into the presidency with less experience than their predecessors. “We could never have predicted this tsunami,” said Walter Bumphus, president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges. The Congress brought together the leaders of five organizations that have joined forces to prepare the next generation of community college leaders, including ACCT and AACC, as well as the League for Innovation in the Community College, Achieving the Dream, and the Aspen Institute. Along with providing training T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY

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and resources to help groom future leaders, these organizations are working to help trustees identify the characteristics needed to steer their institutions in the future. In session after session, speakers stressed the importance of new kinds of leadership. “How can boards look for presidents who can not only survive, but thrive in an environment that is very results driven and focused not on managing the revenue that is here today, but developing new revenue streams?” asked Debbie Sydow, president of Richard Bland College in Virginia. “Fundamental shifts in thinking have to occur.” But the challenges don’t end with senior leadership. In another session, Mitchell stressed the importance of attracting more diverse faculty. “If we have a multicolor country, let’s reflect that in every dimension of our institutions,” he said, urging trustees to make inclusion a priority in staffing at all levels. “The tone is set from the top,” Mitchell said.

Preserving the American Dream The changing face of America has led to a changing conversation about ways to preserve economic prosperity for all. “We have very little margin for error because we have to improve America’s position in the global economy, and we have to do so quickly,” said keynote speaker Ellen Alberding, president of the Joyce Foundation and vice chair of the City Colleges of Chicago. Since 2010, City Colleges of Chicago have seen dramatic increases in graduation rates and the number of degrees awarded. A broad range of changes were put into place without raising tuition or taxes, with $42 million in savings “reinvested in student success,” she said. College leaders reached out to other institutions nationwide for strategies and insisted on using data to make key decisions focused on student outcomes, Alberding said. Other institutions have tackled poverty through stronger connections with K-12 schools. In Washington state, Wenatchee Valley College’s Running Start program brings community college courses to the local high school, where virtually all students are on free and reduced lunch programs. Many students now graduate high school very close to earning an associate degree, and for the last two years all graduates planned to continue college. “We’ve eliminated every excuse,” said Tamra Jackson, principal of Bridgeport High School and a trustee at WVC. In a poverty-stricken region of Texas, South Texas College focused on increasing the overall education level of the population 18

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1. American Indian College Fund President & CEO Cheryl Crazy Bull; 2. and 3. Outgoing ACCT Chair LeRoy W. Mitchell passes the gavel to incoming Chair Robin M. Smith; 4. to 7. Members of the ACCT Board of Directors

Cheryl Crazy Bull discusses similarities and differences between tribal colleges and community colleges. ACCT has released a new report on the structure and composition of tribal college governance (see p. 40 for details).

as a “benchmark for economic development,” in the words of President Shirley A. Reed. The number of adults without a high school diploma fell by more than 13 percent in two counties, while the number of degree holders increased through STC’s applied baccalaureate program. “Our premise was the educational attainment level of our community was going to be our pathway out of poverty,” Reed said. Co-requisite courses, which allow students to take remedial and credit-bearing courses simultaneously, are another emerging strategy. In West Virginia, where 64 percent of community college students need remediation, the state’s nine community colleges are creating pathways featuring co-requisite courses, said Sarah Tucker, vice chancellor for the West Virginia Council for Community and Technical College Education. “We’ve gone to full scale developmental education reform,” she said. Other institutions are responding to changes in their local economies. In Rochester, New York, Monroe Community College conducted extensive surveys of regional employers to identify middle-skill jobs with the highest local demand and create programs to support them. A conscious decision was made to reach out to smaller companies and target jobs that pay well enough to lift people into the middle class. “There was a time when you’d go to the top three companies and ask them what they need,” said MCC Chair John Bartolotta. “The reality is that this no longer exists in any community.”

Looking Ahead Looking to an uncertain future, community colleges are prepared for continued change, speakers said. “The discussion for the past decade has made our institutions more studentcentered and… focused on local collaborations,” said Chris Baldwin, executive director of the Michigan Center for Student

Success. Yet funding challenges in particular remain daunting. Dan Phelan, president of Jackson College in Michigan, noted that since 1964, 14 attempts at increasing local support had all failed. “Higher education is now seen as a private good instead of a public good,” he said. But colleges continue to navigate the winds of change. At Wake Technical Community College in North Carolina, one of the winners of the Community College Futures Assembly Bellwether Award, an initiative encouraging all staff to suggest ideas for change — and giving them raises if they did so — yielded more than 1,100 ideas in 2012, ranging from online courses to new roles for faculty members. Advocacy continues to play a key role, with reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, decoupling recent connections between student loan default rates and Pell eligibility, and preserving the Pell Grant program as key priorities. Community colleges continue to push to roll back eligibility changes made in recent years, including the elimination of ability-to-benefit students and year-round Pell. “The stopout in the summer is a mindset from years ago,” said Mary Graham, president of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. “Students want and need to go through semester after semester.” As the 2014 ACCT Leadership Congress concluded, incoming ACCT Chair Robin M. Smith urged community college leaders to focus on supporting men of color in their institutions. Pointing to statistics that show that minority males lag behind other groups in postsecondary success and completion, “we can do more and must do more,” said Smith, a trustee at Lansing Community College in Michigan. “Community colleges are perfectly postured to take on this work,” Smith said. “Yes, it’s a heavy lift, but we can and we must. If not community colleges, then who, and if not now, when? T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY

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For ACCT Chair Robin M. Smith, the support she received from her family drives a lifelong commitment to improve opportunities for men of color — and all students.

FOR ACCT CHAIR ROBIN M. SMITH, THE OPPORTUNITIES SHE HAD GROWING up have led to a lifelong focus on ensuring that others can follow in her footsteps. In the parlance of her native Lansing, Michigan, Smith was a “GM Baby” — both of her parents worked at the city’s General Motors plants, affording their family a stable, middle-class life that was out of reach for many. Family came first — her parents worked different shifts so Smith and her siblings wouldn’t be latchkey kids. And while neither parent had a college degree, her father started attending night courses at Lansing Community College while she was in middle school, sharing his college textbooks with her. While they were proud of their work with GM, her parents felt strongly that their children would have a different future. “They made it clear that the doors I would go into would be the doors of the office, not the line,” she says. Smith’s family “created an atmosphere where success was something was that expected for you and created in a tangible way to be achievable for you,” she says. “They framed things for me so it wasn’t if I was going to college, but what college I would attend.”

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The experience shaped Smith’s adult life, much of which has been spent working to encourage students and families in Lansing’s public schools to believe that they too can go to college. It also ultimately brought her to trusteeship at the same institution where her father once took night classes, to ACCT’s highest office — and to a renewed commitment to improving the experience for first-generation collegegoers, especially men of color in higher education. “It’s so important to me that we establish an effective support structure because if things aren’t framed for you, you have no picture to go by,” she says. “But if you have people who create that frame, that structure for you, it’s a powerful way to change a life. I’m passionate about supporting the success of students and creating a successful support system.”

A New Direction After graduating from Michigan State University with a degree in advertising and communications, Smith first worked in the corporate world, including serving as the advertising director at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. After getting married and becoming a mother, she put her career on hold until her oldest son’s early experiences in school pointed her in another direction. After learning her son was struggling in first grade, she came to the classroom to observe. It was a moment that changed her career path. “I saw that everyone was expected to learn and do things in the same way,” Smith says. “Seeing that every student learns differently made me realize it’s up to us to recognize the difference, unlock that path to learning, and lead them down it.” So Smith became a classroom teacher in Lansing. For many of her students who grew up in poor or single-parent households, “I may have been the first person to tell some of them that they could be successful,” she says. “I don’t think a child comes to school hoping to become a dropout, but no one frames a different vision for them. I love giving them the tools they need to be successful.” She quickly discovered how badly parents needed resources and help to understand how to guide their children to college. That led to a job as a parent-student coordinator with the Lansing district, where she focused on helping families get their children through school successfully — and helping teachers better support them. “I tell teachers that before any learning begins, they have to deal with all the problems that come to the classroom — they have students who are homeless, who don’t have enough to eat, and who are living with foster parents,” Smith says. “I really believe that students don’t care how much you know until you show them how much you care.” For the past three years, she has worked as a media specialist for the Lansing district, and previously focused on STEM programs and ensured that students have a place to study and are connected to enrichment activities both in and out of school. Her passion 22

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for education also led her into community college leadership, because, even with support, she saw promising students struggle with the idea of going to college. “When kids say that they aren’t college material, I challenge them — I ask them what does that mean?” she says. “College opens a door for you, and if you don’t at least turn the knob and open the door, how will you know?” So Smith focused on exposing students to different professions in an effort to create a desire to turn the knob and consider the value of college. “You have to show them that they are going to school for a purpose, to get the necessary skills they need to move forward not just for their own lives, but to build a legacy for their children,” she says. She also noticed that even when students did well in Lansing’s K-12 schools, many struggled when they went to college. She soon realized that there was a need to bring the two more closely together. “I understood there needed to be stronger K-12 alignment with our community college,” she says.

Getting On Board Having served on a local utility board, Smith was already familiar with the responsibilities of governance. So in 2005, she ran for a seat on the board of trustees at Lansing Community College. Now in her second six-year term, Smith says one focus of her time on LCC’s board has been consensus building. “It’s so important to build consensus with your fellow trustees. That allow you to more successfully focus on board policy,” she says. Smith was an early advocate for the Lansing Promise Zone, with its Promise Scholarship that offers financial support for a two-year degree or its equivalent to graduates of public and private schools within the Lansing K-12 district’s boundaries. “It promotes educational access for all, because educational access should not be based on your income,” she says. “This program will help change the lives of students, create an educated and skilled workforce, and build families in our community.” Smith also focused on building relationships with Lansing’s religious community, helping to bring LCC’s annual Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Fair to one of the largest churches in the city to broaden its exposure in the community. “It’s so critical we form relationships with every sector—our business community, the education community, and the religious community,” she says. Above all, though, her experience as a K-12 educator has influenced her work as a trustee. During Smith’s tenure at LCC, “we’ve built student success into the bricks and mortar,” she says, including a renovated arts and science building with state-of-the-art labs and re-envisioning student services as a one-stop shop. “Studies have shown that having institutions set up in certain ways causes students to thrive,” she says. “I’m very proud that it’s not just been a model or philosophy at LCC, but a living, breathing strategic plan.”

If you create a system where minorities are succeeding, you create a system where all can succeed. It becomes an issue of not just minority males, but ultimately all students, and it bridges student success across the institution. While Michigan has gone through difficult economic times, new — and very different — industries are now emerging. “Michigan is a comeback state, and I believe community colleges are an important part of that comeback,” she says. “It will be a new skills economy, and it’s already starting to come to Michigan now.” Smith was first exposed to ACCT as a new trustee, when LCC’s board opted to go through an Association-facilitated leadership retreat before beginning a presidential selection process which she ultimately helped lead. Out of that work came a code of conduct — a “compact between trustees, boards, and our community” — and a renewed commitment for Smith. “I didn’t just want to be a trustee — I wanted to be a great trustee,” she says. Smith rose through the ranks of the ACCT committee structure, ultimately elected as secretary-treasurer in 2012. In fall 2014, she took the gavel as ACCT Chair. “I am so humbled that they would see me as someone they would want in a leadership role,” she says. “I hope it is a reflection of my belief that it’s important to bring people along, and that’s the kind of leader I am.” Smith’s father passed away earlier in the year, but not before she had told him she was nervous about stepping into the new role. “All eyes are on me,” she recalls saying. “My father told me they must have been watching me already.” Smith’s younger son is a now a freshman at LCC, following in the footsteps of her own father, who had attended the college when it was just one building, the aptly named Old Central. “My father was surprised after I told him it was going to change, and he realized that it really had. Now we are a college like no other,” she says.

Supporting Men of Color As Smith’s younger son begins his academic path at LCC, her oldest son graduated from college earlier this year with a bachelor’s of science degree. Both of her daughters are on the same path — her oldest daughter is a junior in college, and her youngest is in high school. These successes within her family, Smith says, have made it all the more important for her to support minority and first-generation students as they enter college, particularly men of color.

Smith remembers her freshman orientation at college — a time when she, like so many other newly arrived college students, was asked to look to her left and right and told that only one of her seatmates would make it to graduation. “I was with two friends and we said we were committed to making it through,” she says, but as time passed, she paid attention to the smaller numbers of minority males that made it through college. Conversations with her brother about his own college experience also opened her eyes, she says. “In some ways, it was almost expected that as an African American female I was either smarter or worked harder, but because he was a minority male his experience was different,” she says. “It was difficult to hear that, but it was true.” Those experiences have shaped her priorities as ACCT Chair, chief among which is focusing on men of color in the community college setting. “African American males come to college with the highest of expectations, yet achieve at the lowest levels,” she says. “We have to look at why it is happening.” A recent trip to the United Kingdom as ACCT chair confirmed to her that it’s a global issue — and reinforced the importance of examining how all segments of the student population are doing. “If you create a system where minorities are succeeding, you create a system where all can succeed,” she says. “It becomes an issue of not just minority males, but all males, and ultimately all students, and it bridges student success across the institution.” At LCC, for example, a mentoring program for young men of color called Rites of Passage brings African American business and community leaders together with high school students to help them prepare for college. “It’s very powerful because there may not be a male in the home, or that male may not have gone to college,” she says. “It brings the fiber of community, education, and industry together in a wonderful way.” Smith’s favorite time of the year is graduation season — both for high school and college. “I tell graduates that it’s your day to shine,” she says. “It’s wonderful to see them so happy, but to hear the stories about the obstacles they overcame, the challenges they went through, and the struggles they had — that’s why you see them shine so greatly on that day. It’s our job as trustees to support this.” T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY

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Around Regions the

comprised of 11 community colleges and 35 different manufacturing partners.

CENTRAL REGION

The Michigan Strategic Fund board approved the guidelines for the $50 million Community College Skilled Trades Equipment Program, which was included in the 2014-15 budget.

The Wayne County Community College District and three DetroitMore than a dozen Illinois area colleges are participating community college presidents will in a $21.2 million grant from the travel to Cuba in February to learn National Institutes of Health to about the country’s education implement academic programs system. Sponsored by the Illinois targeting disadvantaged and Community College Board, the underrepresented students. trip was planned before recent The Rebuild Detroit project is developments in the relationship intended to establish the city as between the U.S. and Cuba, a center for biomedical research and may include possible and training center for minorities exchange opportunities for Illinois and low-income students, with community college students. roughly half of the grant money earmarked for scholarships and The Eastern Iowa Community student training. College district has expanded its Plus 50 Initiative, which seeks to help older residents earn a degree or certificate. It is one of 100 colleges nationwide participating in the American Association of Community Colleges program, funded by the Deerbrook Charitable Trust. U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez visited Lorain County Community College in Ohio to tour the Richard Desich SMART Commercialization Center for Microsystems, a facility LCCC uses to prepare students for careers in robotics and manufacturing. LCCC received a $15 million grant under the U.S. Department of Labor’s TAACCCT program and was selected to lead a statewide consortium

NORTHEAST REGION Community colleges and career and technical high schools in Massachusetts have developed seven new articulation and transfer agreements aimed at creating seamless pipelines and reducing the time to completion for vocational high school students entering community colleges. The

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agreements were developed by the Massachusetts Community College Executive Office and built on a four-year partnership with the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators and the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

to support its videogame design and development program, which was launched in 2012 in partnership with Wilmington University.

Metropolitan Edison (Met-Ed) in Pennsylvania is restarting its partnership with Reading A $180,000 state grant awarded to Area Community College to the Community College System of train the next generation of New Hampshire and its four-year utility line workers. Training will counterpart will be used to help be provided through the Power the systems’ campuses create Systems Institute, a two-year health and wellness committees program that combines handsto create guidelines and policies to on utility skills at Met-Ed’s limit tobacco use. training facility with technical coursework in a Reading Area New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Community College classroom. recently passed legislation The program will be reinstated regarding eligibility for the New for Fall 2015. Jersey Student Tuition Assistance Rewards Scholarship (NJ Stars), a program that covers the cost of tuition at New Jersey’s 19 community colleges. The scholarship is awarded to students that are ranked within the top 15 percent of their graduating high school class. During a special kick-off event in the Statehouse, the New Jersey Council of County Colleges officially introduced the New Jersey Center for Student Success. The Center works with the state’s 19 community colleges to assist students in achieving degree and certificate completion. Funded by the Kresge Foundation, New Jersey’s Center is now part of a national network of community college Student Success Centers.

PACIFIC REGION The National Institutes of Health awarded a five-year, $23.8 million grant to Alaska colleges for minority students in biomedical education. The grant is divided between the University of Alaska campuses and Ilisagvik College in Barrow.

Arizona State University and the state’s community colleges Salem Community College in New have implemented a reverse Jersey is undertaking a $780,000 transfer program, which gives transfer students the project to create a game design opportunity to earn associate laboratory and other renovations

degrees from the community colleges they attended before transferring to ASU. The Maricopa Community Colleges Foundation has launched a four-year, $50 million campaign to support student success initiatives. The campaign would provide funding for direct student support, faculty and staff innovation, and partnerships that expand opportunities for students. The only college in Arizona’s Maricopa County Community College District without a mascot, Rio Salado College is soliciting ideas and designs for a mascot. The online college is offering a gift card and recognition for the winning design, which college officials say will help with marketing and student engagement. Fullerton College in California led the nation’s community colleges in enrollment growth in 2012-13, according to statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics. The growth was attributed to Proposition 30, the state measure that provided $800 million in additional funding to the state’s community college system, according to Community College Week. The College of DuPage in Illinois was the fastest-growing community college outside of California. Nine community colleges in California’s San Diego and Imperial counties surveyed 1,400 community college graduates, determining that 52 percent had gone on to a four-year college. Of those

graduates who opted to pursue jobs, 60 percent found jobs related to their studies, the survey said. The California Energy Commission approved $6.7 million in no-interest loans for community colleges and K-12 schools. Yuba and Kern Community College District received funds to install energy-efficient upgrades at their facilities. The loans are funded by the California Clean Energy Jobs Act and are paid back within 20 years of the loan date using energy cost savings. The Guam Community College Foundation was awarded a $5 million Community Facility Direct Loan by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, part of a $27.6 million investment for the University of Guam and Guam Community College. The loan can be used to develop essential community facilities in rural areas and towns and will provide funding for the renovation and expansion of buildings on both campuses.

SOUTHERN REGION The eight Arkansas community colleges that make up the Arkansas Rural Nursing Consortium have expanded the

number of nursing students it accepts to 280 students in 2014. Three community colleges in Louisiana have joined forces to create a maritime training center. The Louisiana Community and Technical College System has requested $50 million from state lawmakers to build the facility to house the program, a joint effort by Delgado Community College, Fletcher Technical Community College, and South Central Louisiana Technical College. Initial results from a survey of 400 businesses found that 3,000 skilled workers would be needed in the maritime industry over the next five years. Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in North Carolina has been leading the revision of the statewide practical nursing and nursing assistant curricula. Funded by a grant from the North Carolina Community College system, the project will improve alignment of nursing curricula between high schools and community colleges. It marks the first time the core nursing courses have been revised at the state level since 1997. The U.S. Department of Education awarded West Virginia $21 million for college preparedness and workforce development as part of the GEAR UP grant. The GEAR UP program urges students to earn an associate degree, bachelor’s degree, or trade certificate after high school.

WESTERN REGION Colorado community colleges added nine additional transferable degrees, including ones in highdemand fields such as chemistry, biology, and physics. Following a 2010 law requiring seamless transfer from community colleges to four-year public institutions, the new agreements bring to 28 the number of majors covered by the transfer program. The Oklahoma Association of Community Colleges has joined the Community College Completion Corps (C4). As part of their participation in the national initiative, the state’s 14 community colleges will continue efforts to change their culture to support completion efforts. Texas community colleges are pursing five legislative priorities this year, including efforts focused on workforce and skills alignment, measuring and funding success, college readiness, transfer and articulation, and increasing funding to serve the 3.4 million Texans who could benefit from adult basic education. The Wyoming Community College Commission urged the state department of education to take action in the legislature to begin the process of aligning K-12 and college curricula as an important step in curbing remediation rates.

Around the Regions provides an opportunity to share what’s happening in the states and around the regions. This section focuses on state legislative and budgetary issues, economic development, and finance. Please e-mail items from press releases or newsletters to ACCT at dconner@acct.org. Fax submissions to 202-223-1297. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY

WINTER 2015

ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT ISSUES AFFECTING BOARDS TODAY

TRUSTEE

TA L K

Guidance for challenging issues in community college governance. BY NA RCIS A A . P OLONIO

This issue of Trustee Talk continues the examination of trustee participation in board meetings through technological means. To download previous issues of Trustee Talk, visit www.trustee-education.org/trustee-talk. To receive the monthly Trustee Talk newsletter by email, or to submit a question for consideration, contact ACCT Executive Vice President Narcisa A. Polonio at narcisa_polonio@acct.org.

Q: What should my board know before permitting board meeting attendance through technological means? Once you have established that it is legally permissible for trustees to participate in board meetings through technological means, board members should consider the following points to help decide if this is in the best interest of the board.

Effect On In-Person Attendance The wise board will encourage in-person attendance at board meetings and benefit from the engagement with colleagues and the college community. However, interactive teleconferencing is a vehicle that is useful when it is necessary to accommodate trustees. While teleconferencing is not a substitute for in-person attendance at board meetings, it can be an effective tool. Having some guidelines to encourage trustees to use teleconferencing only on an as-needed basis is helpful. Each trustee should weigh which of these reasons provides a valid justification to participate by video conference: (1) emergencies, (2) when 26

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urgent business appointments prevent attendance, or (3) having a summer home that takes a trustee away from the community, and specifically the location of the board meeting, for weeks or months.

Atmosphere of Meeting Interactive teleconferencing also has the potential to alter the general atmosphere of a board meeting. While in-person board meetings can build trust and relationships among trustees through traditional face-to-face communication, interactive teleconferencing may require exploring different approaches to achieve the same results. As in the informal gatherings that take place before or after the board meeting, it is important to establish camaraderie among trustees, the administration, and faculty. Additionally, it is important to take steps to minimize the impact on the procedures and flow of the meeting. Avoid distractions during the meeting caused by inconsistent video and audio quality or background noise at the location of the teleconferencing trustee. The location from which the

teleconferencing trustee participates can present challenges. Make every effort for the trustee to feel comfortable letting the general public into their home or other locations by technological means. This is important when public notice at the alternate site and accessibility by the public may be required.

Costs It is a wise investment to have equipment and facilities necessary for interactive teleconferencing. Skype and other providers are readily available and offer an extremely affordable alternative.

Live Streaming Board Meetings Another popular technology for viewing meetings is “live streaming,” which allows community college constituencies in a large system or remote college geographic service area to observe board meetings through a live internet broadcast. The North Dakota State Board of Higher Education oversees community colleges spread across a wide geographic area, where hours of travel would be required for many citizens to attend

state board meetings in person. The state board live streams its meetings online, so that the public and all community colleges within the system are kept informed of the activities of the board. North Dakota State Board of Higher Education Board Chair Kirsten Diederich says that while the state board supports live streaming of its face-to-face board meetings for public viewing, when it comes to trustee videoconferencing, “we still prefer to have face to face communication when possible.” Nevertheless, when trustee videoconferencing has taken place, it has been a positive experience and has not changed the nature of board meetings, according to Diederich. Joe May, chancellor of the Dallas County Community College District, has also had a positive experience with live streaming meetings. Although May cautioned that “there’s always a bit of a risk that someone will play to the camera,” he noted that this has not been the case with the Dallas County Community College District.

Establishing Guidelines to Prevent Unintended Consequences If the board determines participation through interactive teleconferencing is legally permissible and decides to allow trustees to participate in meetings through technological means, it should establish clear policies defining when interactive teleconferencing will be allowed and incorporate these policies into board bylaws or procedures. The board should decide if participation through interactive teleconferencing will be permitted for regularly scheduled board meetings, emergency meetings, and executive committee meetings

of the board. Acceptable reasons for allowing participation through technological means can include urgent out-of-town business meetings, family or personal emergencies, and ensuring a quorum to be able to carry out the important business of the board at the college. The question of how many members can participate by teleconferencing at the same time should also be considered.

Executive Sessions and Confidentiality The board needs to be clear on what is acceptable for executive sessions, as the guidelines could be different from general meetings. It is also important for the board to be aware of the potential impact of confidential discussions on the well-being of the college. Protecting the interests of the college and students must always be of the utmost importance to the board. Questions that should be answered include: • What is acceptable for executive sessions? • What is the potential impact of broadcasting confidential discussions on the well-being of the college? • How does the broadcasting of meetings change these considerations from non-broadcast, public meetings? (The considerations should probably be the same in states with sunshine laws, but may vary otherwise.)

Supplying Board Materials in a More Timely Fashion The board’s policy on interactive teleconferencing and live streaming must ensure that trustees remain fully engaged in the work of the board. One

Cautionary Note: Don’t Forget to Amend Your Bylaws or Procedures In creating a policy on participation in board meetings through interactive teleconferencing, the board should formally amend its bylaws or procedures to explicitly define how — and when — trustees can participate in board meetings through technological means.

of the real benefits of teleconferencing technology is supplying board materials to the board in a more timely fashion, particularly when a web portal is set up for the board.

Final Thoughts It is the board’s responsibility to assess whether interactive teleconferencing technology will serve as an effective tool for full trustee participation at the college. This assessment should be ongoing, as the issue will continue to evolve as further means of technological communication are introduced and adopted. Technology has influenced almost every part of American life, and one thing we can be sure of is that the demand for interactive teleconferencing to facilitate the work of the board will continue to grow. We want to encourage readers to share experiences with interactive teleconferencing to inform board assessments of the technology. Please email narcisa_polonio@acct.org with your experience.

Narcisa A. Polonio, Ed.D. is executive vice president for education, research, and board leadership services at the Association of Community College Trustees. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY

WINTER 2015

Defining the

BY HANK DUNN

Student Experience Colleges must bring different departments together to see how students experience their institutions in totality.

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AS AN INSTITUTION COLLECTIVELY UNPACKS ITS CURRENT STUDENT PROCESSES, ITS STAFF DISCOVERS THAT WHAT THEY ONCE PERCEIVED AS A STRAIGHTFORWARD, LINEAR PATHWAY THROUGH THE INSTITUTION IS ACTUALLY CONFUSING AND NON-LINEAR TO THE STUDENT.

TRUSTEES CAN HELP MOVE THE NEEDLE ON HIGHER education’s goal to produce more graduates by encouraging faculty, staff, and administrators to better define the student experience. The reason for defining the ideal student experience is straightforward and simple: students cannot complete their educational goals if they don’t remain enrolled. In the most simplistic terms, dropouts are not completers. While many factors impact whether a student remains enrolled, one of the most important is how they are treated while they are on campus. Research indicates that how students are treated on campus has a direct correlation to whether they persist to completion of their education goals. Are students treated as valued customers, or are they seen merely as consumers of campus services, with a resulting “take it or leave it” attitude by campus personnel? At many colleges, the student experience is the result of processes and procedures that have developed unsystematically and organically over time, accumulating through evolutionary changes in college regulations, revised state and federal guidelines, emerging academic pedagogy, or required levers pulled through participation in national initiatives. For too many institutions, the day-to-day student experience is the result of departments having processes and procedures that accommodate their needs better than student needs. The student experience becomes merely the sum of multiple college offices having created their own singular processes with no consideration about how those processes affect a student when experienced in their totality. By better defining the student experience, you can help your institution create an academic atmosphere that is supportive of students as they navigate the often complex processes and procedures that plague modern-day community colleges. A proven way to create an institution-wide vision of the ideal student experience is to bring together representatives from throughout the organization to discuss the current student experience and then to collaboratively work toward a shared understanding of the “desired” experience. This methodology helps break down “silo thinking” and allows individuals to see a broader picture of the overall student experience. Having done this at many institutions across the country, I have seen that it is not uncommon that as an institution collectively unpacks its current student processes, its staff discovers that what they once perceived as a straightforward, linear pathway through the institution is actually confusing and non-linear to

the student. This collective “aha moment” helps institutions better understand how their departmental processes can create barriers to student success. By looking through a collective lens, our experience has found that cross-functional departments working together can simplify and optimize the student experience. As CampusWorks works with institutions across the country, we find that beginning with the desired student experience as the end goal helps quantify and drive necessary process improvements. Essential areas that directly affect student persistence and completion, such as admissions, advising, registration, and financial aid, find that working together enhances the student experience and creates better college efficiencies. Sometimes, as a college redefines its processes and procedures, it may seem like it needs to purchase new technology to accomplish those objectives. However, often the college has the technology to keep up with changing demands, but its old processes and procedures keep it from effectively using it. At many community colleges, workarounds and manual processes have become so routine that they sometimes degrade the quality of the student experience. Working with a variety of colleges — large and small, urban and rural, public and private — CampusWorks understands that the quality of the student experience can be appreciably improved by finding ways to maximize the tools already inside the college. Therefore, colleges help improve student success when they begin with the end in mind by first defining student success and subsequently removing operational barriers identified through that exercise. Every department on campus should work to create the desired student experience. Facilitating broad participation by faculty, staff, and students will create institutional buy-in that will drive improved student success and completion. Defining the student experience is something trustees can easily encourage to create an end result that improves both the institution and student outcomes.

Hank Dunn is executive director of client development for CampusWorks Inc., an ACCT Corporate Council member.

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WINTER 2015

WEATHERING the

STORM

ERIE COMMUNITY COLLEGE’S RELIEF EFFORTS DEMONSTRATE LEADERSHIP OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM. BY JACK QUINN

WE JOINED FORCES AS A COLLEGE COMMUNITY — WITH THE SAME TYPE OF PATIENCE AND TIRELESS WORK ETHIC USUALLY EXHIBITED BY OUR STAFF — TO NOT ONLY HELP OUR CAMPUSES RECOVER, BUT ALSO TO SERVE AS AN INTEGRAL COG IN ASSISTING WESTERN NEW YORK’S HARDEST HIT AREAS TO DIG OUT, REGROUP, AND REIGNITE THEIR USUAL LEVEL OF ACTIVITY.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES ARE RIGHTFULLY APPRECIATED by their host regions as places that provide a flexible, affordable, and career-oriented education to students starting, restarting, or redirecting their educations. This is true, and it remains essential as we try to extend opportunities amid rising tuition costs and a diversifying economy. But in Erie Community College’s case, our collegiate family recently experienced an extension of our role during a catastrophic snowstorm that dumped nearly seven feet of snow across our western corner of New York State. Yes, Erie County and the Buffalo area have seen their share of snow over the years, but this storm — which helped reclassify November across the area as “Snowvember” — was particularly brutal. Throughout a continuous stream of snowfall from November 18 through November 22, driving bans were standard; businesses and homes were damaged or destroyed; and 14 people tragically lost their lives in stormrelated incidents. At ECC, we were forced to close all three of our Western New York campuses — a tremendous disruption in the last third of the semester, with students working toward finals, certificates, and degrees. But instead of buckling under the duress that hampered our entire region, we joined forces as a college community — with the same type of patience and tireless work ethic usually exhibited by our staff — to not only help our campuses recover, but also to serve as an integral cog in assisting Western New York’s hardest hit areas to dig out, regroup, and reignite their usual level of activity. Our Williamsville, New York-located North Campus hosted over 200 pieces of snow-fighting equipment from local, county, and state agencies, and served as the staging area for county and state emergency personnel. The campus also aided the entire snow response by the U.S. Army National Guard, then accommodated their massive sandbag

staging area in anticipation of flooding. North’s athletic center housed members of the National Guard, while other areas of North, South (in Orchard Park), and City Campus (Buffalo) were reserved for residents affected by flooding. Our center for information technology services (CITS) staff rewired IT capabilities for 10 classrooms to be used for National Guard planning; college facilities employees assisted both internal and external operations; and housekeeping staff selflessly hustled from one unrelated responsibility to another. And while this was all spinning forward, members of college’s culinary and hospitality programs joined ECC’s auxiliary services staff to serve three meals per day to on-site emergency responders, thanks to generous donations from area businesses like Tim Horton’s, La Nova Pizzeria, and Wegmans supermarket. It was an impressive effort, one that landed the college’s efforts on the cover of The Wall Street Journal. More importantly, it once again showed our Western New York neighbors the indispensability of ECC. I’ve never been more proud of our college personnel, and I’ve never been more confident in our role as a leader of our community. Our ability to assist its post-storm revival is a testament to that, and is yet another example of how our nation’s community colleges continue to move our country forward both in and out of the classroom — and in all kinds of weather.

Jack Quinn is the president of SUNY Erie Community College, a role he’s served for the three-campus academic institution since 2008.

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WINTER 2015

LEGAL

Legal Issues Impacting Community Colleges First Amendment issues, equal pay claims, and employee cyberattacks among recent developments.

By Ira Michael Shepard ACCT General Counsel

THE FOLLOWING RECENT LEGAL ISSUES and developments are of importance to community college trustees and their institutions. Adjunct faculty union president’s letter critical of community college is protected first amendment speech. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed a federal trial court’s dismissal of an adjunct faculty union president’s claim that a community college violated the First Amendment when she was discharged two days after sending a letter that was critical of the college’s treatment of adjunct professors. The letter went on to emphasize that the “shoddy” way the college treats adjuncts could affect student performance.

The college successfully argued to the lower court that the plaintiff’s motives in sending the letter were purely personal, as she was an adjunct herself. But the three-judge appeals court unanimously reversed the decision, holding that the letter was written in the plaintiff’s capacity as adjunct union president and contained “almost no content personal to Plaintiff.” The court concluded that the letter raised “several matters of public concern,” not the least of which is student performance. (Meade v. Moraine Valley Community College, 7th Cir. 14-1217, 10/30/14). The appeals court noted that an individual’s “motive is not dispositive

“A hacker broke into our computer and, in an act of random kindness, organized all of our student files.” 32

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of whether the speech raises a matter of public concern,” concluding that “the people who attend Moraine Valley, along with their families and others who live in the area, no doubt want to know if this practice poses a threat to student performance… It is difficult to see how any part of this discussion could be considered purely personal... or of zero interest to the public.” Finally the Court pointed to a prior Supreme Court decision, Pickering v. Board of Education, which recognized that “public employees as a class may often be the best informed on matters of public concern related to their jobs.” EEOC loses bid to stop employer from assessing penalties tied to employee refusal to participate in wellness program. A federal district court denied the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s request to block a company from assessing health insurance-related surcharges on employees refusing to participate in the company wellness program. (EEOC v. Honeywell International Inc., D. Minn., 0:14-cv- 04517, injunction denied, 11/3/14). The program included biometric screening, the drawing of blood to test cholesterol levels, and a determination of body mass index by measurement of height, weight, and circumference. The EEOC alleged that employees and spouses who refused such testing would be assessed a $500 surcharge on their 2015 medical plan costs and could lose as much as $1,500 in company contributions to health savings accounts and be docked as much as $2,000 in additional tobacco-related surcharges. The EEOC stated that the testing would be acceptable if it were voluntary, but

the size of the “fines” means it is not. The company defended its practices, saying they are lawful and that it firmly believes “it is not fair to employees who lead healthier lifestyles to subsidize the health care premiums for those who do not.” While the EEOC lost its bid for an injunction, it is likely the case will go forward as the federal commission will likely litigate the legality of such plans. Probationary campus policeman loses first amendment retaliatory discharge claim involving a “love triangle.” A newly hired campus police officer lost his First Amendment retaliatory discharge claim after a federal court held that his speech, which he claimed raised domestic violence as a matter of public concern, was not protected by the First Amendment. The Court concluded that his speech was nothing more than a personal complaint against another campus police officer, who was the estranged husband of the woman with whom he was engaged in an affair. As the plaintiff was still within his probationary period, the university was not required to terminate him for just cause, and absent a valid First Amendment claim, the discharge stands. (Goff v. Kutztown University, E.D. Pa., no. 5:14-cv-03415, unpublished 10/22/14). The plaintiff received a call from the woman with whom he was having an affair in which she stated that her estranged husband, a fellow campus police officer, had threatened her with a gun. The plaintiff called the state police to report the threat, stating that he was a campus police officer reporting the incident without divulging that he was having an affair with the woman involved.

The court ruled that the complaint to the state police was not made as a private citizen and did not involve a matter of public concern. “While it is admirable that the plaintiff suggests that any threat of domestic violence is a matter of public concern, he is mistaken,” the judge wrote. “The substance of the call did not relate to any matter of political, social, or other concern to the community, but to the safety of his paramour at the hands of her estranged husband. This situation cannot be considered constitutionally protected conduct for a public employee.” Community college loses summary judgment that a “red circled” salary is a defense to an equal pay act claim. A federal district court in Alabama ordered that a community college must proceed to a jury trial on an Equal Pay Act complaint filed by an employee that she was paid less than a male counterpart with a similar job. The community college stated that the higher salary resulted from a legitimate “red circling” of the male employee, who was transferred into the comparable position because of health reasons. The Equal Pay Act allows legitimate “red circling” of salaries as an exception if it is done pursuant to a valid seniority system or for transfers into lower-paying positions because of health reasons. However, the court rejected the college’s defense based on pretrial evidence that the male stated that his transfer was not a result of health reasons, ordering that the case proceed to a jury trial (Youngblood v. George Wallace Community College, 2014BL183122, M.D. Ala. No. 1:13-cv00033, 7/1/14).

The college also claimed it had a general policy of not reducing an employee’s salary as a result of a transfer to a lower-paying position. While this defense would be sufficient under the Equal Pay Act, the court noted that the college did not produce any written documents confirming its alleged schoolwide policy of maintaining prior salaries. Increases in “disgruntled” employees using Internet cloud services to hack employer’s computer servers and create damage, steal data, or extort money. Disgruntled current and former employees are increasingly using Internet cloud services and other computer tools to hack their former employers’ computer systems, according to both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, which are being asked to investigate. The agencies report that former employees are increasingly using services like Dropbox Inc.’s cloud storage or other software that allows them to gain remote access to their former employers’ networks and steal trade secrets and other data or create other problems. The agencies report that some employers victimized by current and former employees have incurred multimillion dollar costs, and point to multiple incidents in which disgruntled current or former employees attempted to extort their employer for financial gain by disabling content management systems or conducting other cyberattacks.

Ira Michael Shepard is a partner with the law firm of Saul Ewing, LLP, in Washington, D.C., and ACCT’s general counsel. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY

WINTER 2015

Richard N. Adams Kenneth R. Allbaugh Arthur C. Anthonisen Alwin Arce Joan Athen Chuck Ayala James Ayers Steven J. Ballard Ken Bartlett Geoffrey L. Baum Elmer Beckendorf Manuel Benavidez, Jr.* Thomas M. Bennett Marilyn Blocker E. Stewart Blume George Boggs Kitty Boyle Lewis S. Braxton Harold Brock* Robert Burch Ken Burke Donald Campbell Lois Carson Dennis Christensen Gene P. Ciafre Don Coffey Brian Conley Angelo Cortinas Paul J. Cunningham, M.D. Carole Currey Clara Dasher Robert Davidson* John Dent Beatrice Doser* Denise Ducheny Isobel Dvorsky Dorothy Ehrhart-Morrison M. Dale Ensign Nino Falcone Mark Fazzini H. Ronald Feaver Phyllis Folarin Paul Fong John Forte* Frank S. Gallagher Rebeca Garcia Robert E. Garrison* 34

Norma Jean Germond John Giardino Paul J. Gomez Maureen Grady Jane Gregory Jan Guy Gloria Guzman Diane Olmos Guzman David W. Hackett* Daniel Hall Joyce Hanes Fred Harcleroad* Thomas Harding Robert W. Harrell, Jr. Raymond Hartstein Jody T. Hendry William T. Hiering James D. Hittle* Troy Holliday Walter Howald Nancy M. Hubers Jo Ann Huerter Rosie Hussey Melanie L. Jackson B.A. Jensen* Joan Jenstead* Patricia Jones Worth Keene Bruce Ketron Dick Klassen Kirby Kleffmann* Brenda Knight Sheila Korhammer Ruthann Kurose Robert Lawrence Hugh Lee* Morrison Lewis George Little Donald Loff Gloria Lopez James Lumber Judith Madonia Molly Beth Malcolm Thomas W. Malone Doreen Margolin* Marie Y. Martin Montez C. Martin, Jr.

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Fred Mathews David Mathis Robert Matteucci Bennie Matthews Donald M. Mawhinney Robert G. McBride Robert McCray William McDaniel* Gene E. McDonald Carla McGee Jean M. McPheeters William H. Meardy Frank Mensel Michael Monteleone Della-May Moore David Murphy* Moudy Nabulsi Rich Nay Helen Newsome* Wayne Newton Ed Nicklaus Shirley Okerstrom Joann L Ordinachev Kathleen Orringer Therese G. Pauly Debra Pearson James R. Perry George Potter Pattie Powell Naomi Pursel Raymond Reddrick Rebecca L. Redman Mehdi M. Ressallat Carl Robinson Elizabeth Rocklin Herbert Roney Nancy R. Rosasco Wanda Rosenbaugh Linda B. Rosenthal William O. Rowell* Armando Ruiz David Rutledge Steve Salazar Edward “Sandy” Sanders Lydia Santibanez Evonne Seron Schulze Anne V. Scott

Virginia Scott Peter E. Sercer, Sr. Jo Ann Sharp Vaughn A. Sherman C. Louis Shields Darrell Shumway Betti Singh W.L. “Levi” Smallwood William J. Smith James Smith Joshua L. Smith Lillie J. Solomon Lynda Stanley Betty K. Steege Victor F. Stewart, Jr.* James Stribling* Pete Tafoya David H. Talley Esther D. Tang James B. Tatum Leslie Thonesen Charles Tice Dick Trammel Celia M. Turner* Linda Upmeyer Roberto Uranga David Viar Jim Voss Franklin Walker Barbara Wallace William C Warren Nancy Watkins Lauren A. Welch Denise Wellons-Glover Mary Beth Williams Ronald Winthers Jerry Wright John Wright M.W. “Bill” Wyckoff Brad W. Young J. Pete Zepeda* * Deceased

A Lifetime of Appreciation ACCT LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP Community college trustees give a lot of themselves — time, energy, wisdom — and ask for little or nothing in return. The gift of an ACCT Lifetime Membership is a way to thank trustees for everything they do, and to empower them to keep doing it for as long as they choose. A lifetime membership is a perfect way to… • Recognize outstanding trustees whose dedication to your college has made a difference and set an example. • Thank outgoing members for their service. • Remain involved with your peers and make a tax-deductible donation to your national association by purchasing a Lifetime Membership for yourself.

7 REASONS TO BESTOW A LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP

Giving outstanding and retiring board members a Lifetime Membership to ACCT is a way to thank them for their service, recognize them among their peers, and ensure their ongoing interest in your college.

Lifetime Members receive complimentary registration to all ACCT meetings, including the Annual Leadership Congress and the National Legislative Summit, after retiring from their local boards.

3 Lifetime Members receive all of ACCT’s award-winning publications, including Trustee Quarterly magazine and Advisor. 4 Lifetime Members are recognized publicly in Trustee Quarterly, on the ACCT Web site, and elsewhere. Lifetime Membership program supports and promotes ACCT’s continuing trustee education and 5 The professional development. 6 Colleges that purchase Lifetime Memberships can deduct the expense from taxes to the fullest extent allowed by law. 7 It’s just a nice thing to do — and haven’t your most exceptional trustees earned it? For more information and to submit an application, go to www.acct.org/membership/lifetime or contact ACCT’s Member Services at 202.775.4667 or acctinfo@acct.org.

Presidential Searches The Board Leadership Services staff and consultants of the Association of Community College Trustees are pleased to have assisted in the search for the following community college chief executive officers.

We would like to thank all our member colleges with whom we have worked in 2014 for the trust and confidence they have placed in ACCT. We pledge, as your membership association, our continued commitment to partnering with you to deliver the highest quality executive search services. ACCT is proud of our work supporting governance and fostering strong leadership at community colleges across the nation. Through our Executive Search Services, we provide expert support and thoughtful, strategic counsel to boards and colleges as they search for the highest caliber education leaders to fill critical executive roles.

Aims Community College, Colo.

Glen Oaks Community College, Mich.

Baltimore City Community College, Md.

Hocking College, Ohio

Bellevue College, Wash.

Hostos Community College, City University of New York, N.Y.

Blinn College, Texas Bossier Parish Community College, Louisiana Community and Technical College System, La.

Houston Community College, Texas

Central Oregon Community College, Ore.

Los Angeles County Community College District, Calif.

Central Wyoming College, Wyo.

Louisiana Community and Technical College System, La.

Connors State College, Okla.

Northampton Community College, Pa.

Delaware Technical Community College, Del.

Shoreline Community College, Wash.

Delgado Community College, Louisiana Community and Technical College System, La.

Tacoma Community College, Wash.

Doña Ana Community College, New Mexico State University, N.M.

Ventura County Community College District, Calif.

Eastern Gateway Community College, Ohio

Kentucky Community and Technical College System, Ky.

Tulsa Community College, Okla. West Shore Community College, Mich.

It has been an honor to work with each of these colleges. If the ACCT Searches team can be of assistance in your next executive search, please contact Dr. Narcisa Polonio, executive vice president for board services, at 202-276-1983 or narcisa_polonio@acct.org. 36

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Kentucky Community and Technical College System

National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship

Dr. Jay Box System President

Rebecca A. Corbin President and CEO

Former Chancellor

Former Vice President of Institutional Advancement/ Executive Director

Kentucky Community and Technical College System “After an excellent comprehensive national search, we are certain that we selected the top individual to lead KCTCS to our next level of development. Dr. Jay Box has demonstrated strong leadership and dedication to our students, faculty and staff, and the entire state of Kentucky.” — Porter G. Peeples Sr., Board Chair

Burlington County College Foundation, N.J. “We were pleased to partner with ACCT to conduct our firstever national search for the new president/CEO of the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship. We were delighted with the process that resulted with the appointment of Rebecca ‘Becky’ A. Corbin. We are grateful to our partner, ACCT.” — Edwin Massey, NACCE Board Chair and President, Indian River State College, Fla.

BOARD RETREATS ACCT would like to thank the following colleges which have taken advantage of our board retreat services:

Baltimore City Community College, Md.

MassBay Community College-North Shore Community College, Mass. (joint retreat)

Community College of Philadelphia, Pa.

Monroe Community College, N.Y.

Erie Community College, N.Y.

Montgomery College, Md.

Florida State College at Jacksonville, Fla.

Oglala Lakota College, S.D.

MassBay Community College, Mass.

Pima Community College, Ariz.

New Mexico Junior College, N.M.

SUNY Broome, N.Y.

Community College of Allegheny County, Pa.

Washtenaw Community College, Mich.

Alvin College, Texas

Western Technical College, Wis.

BOARD SELF-ASSESSMENTS AND PRESIDENTIAL EVALUATIONS ACCT would like to thank the following colleges which have taken advantage of our Board Self-Assessments and/or Presidential Evaluations services: Baltimore City Community College, Md.

Monroe Community College, N.Y.

College of Southern Idaho, Idaho

Solano College, Calif.

Erie Community College, N.Y.

Washington State Community College, Ohio

Klamath Community College, Ore.

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WINTER 2015

Vice Presidential Searches ACCT’s Board Leadership Services is now providing assistance to chancellors and presidents looking to identify a new member of the executive leadership team for the college or district. We are pleased to announce the completion of the following searches for provosts and vice presidents.

Bellevue College, Wash. Gayle Colston Barge Vice President for Institutional Advancement Former Director of University Public Relations Central State University, Ohio “I am very excited Gayle is joining us. She brings a great resume of diverse experience, a creative mind, and an optimistic perspective to Bellevue College leadership. Gayle is exactly what our college needs as we look to celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2016.” — Dr. David Rule, President

LOOKING FOR A

NEW PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT, PROVOST, OR VICE CHANCELLOR? OUR SUCCESS ACCT Board Leadership Services brings over 30 years of experience to every executive search. We have assisted more than 300 colleges and governing boards in successfully identifying the best candidates for new presidents and chancellors. ACCT’s services have been expanded to work with chancellors and presidents to identify the most outstanding candidates for vice presidential positions at your college. ACCT Board Leadership Services will guide you through every step of the process.

OUR STRENGTHS • We understand the needs of community colleges. • We find and cultivate high-caliber talent. • We build a unique pool of candidates for each search to “fit” the college. • We have extensive contacts with women and minorities poised to advance. • We have the advantage of the ACCT membership as a source of contacts. ACCT Board Leadership Services will hold your hand during every step of the selection process.

For more information on ACCT’s expanded services to assist with the placement of vice presidents, provosts, and vice chancellors, please contact Narcisa Polonio at npolonio@acct.org or 202-276-1983.

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Miami, Florida

February 26-28, 2015

Hosted by Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus Accommodations at the Hyatt Regency Miami

To register and make hotel reservations, visit: www.trustee-education.org For registration and hotel information, contact: Christina Sage Simons 202.775.4462 csimons@acct.org

For additional information, contact: Narcisa Polonio, Ed.D. 202.276.1983 narcisa_polonio@acct.org

New York City, New York

March 19-21, 2015

Hosted by the Borough of Manhattan Community College

To register and make hotel reservations visit: www.trustee-education.org For registration and hotel information, contact: Christina Sage Simons 202.775.4462 csimons@acct.org

For additional information, contact:

Narcisa Polonio, Ed.D. 202.276.1983 narcisa_polonio@acct.org

NOW AVAILABLE! SEE INSIDE BACK COVER FOR ORDERING DETAILS.

Public Community College Governing Boards: Structure and Composition Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s community colleges are as variable as its people, with greatly differing backgrounds, needs, and cultures all connected by a single identity and purpose. The purpose of this publication is to offer an overview and understanding of the variations and intricacies in structure, responsibility, composition, and method of selection for governance authorities of public community colleges throughout the United States. This revised and updated second edition incorporates new data collected since 2012 to create the most up-to-date source of information on community college governing boards. The report has become a sought-after reference for many organizations and individuals and should be a staple in every community college boardroom and presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s library.

Tribal Colleges and Universities Governing Boards: Structure and Composition Tribal Colleges and Universities hold a unique position among United States higher education institutions in that they were designed to meet the post-secondary educational needs of American Indians. These colleges provide access to higher education that preserves tribal culture, traditions, and history, while also providing academic instruction. This overview of tribal college governance and leadership, compiled by ACCT in partnership with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), is a definitive publication on the governing boards of tribal colleges and universities.

NET WORK NEWS WINTER 2015

INTERFACE

A PUBLICATION OF THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROFESSIONAL BOARD STAFF NETWORK IN COOPERATION WITH THE ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEES

PROFESSIONAL BOARD STAFF MEMBER 2014-2015 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Winds of Change in Chicago

OFFICERS

WINDS OF CHANGE CERTAINLY BLEW IN CHICAGO AT THE

Mechell Downey, President Administrative Assistant to the President Seminole State College, Oklahoma m.downey@sscok.edu

2014 ACCT Leadership Congress. In addition to the change in

Christina Heskett, Vice President Executive Assistant to the President Hillsborough Community College, Florida cheskett@hccfl.edu

enthusiasm for an exciting upcoming year. Great things are

Alonia Sharps, Secretary Chief of Staff Prince George’s Community College, Maryland sharpsac@pgcc.edu Debbie Novak, Immediate Past President Assistant to the College President Colorado Mountain College, Colorado dnovak@coloradomtn.edu

MEMBERS-AT-LARGE Heather Lanham Executive Assistant to the President Edison Community College, Ohio hlanham@edisonohio.edu Carla Patee Executive Assistant to the President And Clerk for the Board Dodge City Community College, Kansas cpatee@dc3.edu Sherri Bowen Director to the President Forsyth Technical Community College, North Carolina sbowen@forsythtech.edu Margaret Lamb Executive Assistant to the Chancellor San Diego Community College District, California mlamb@sdccd.edu Jane Thomas Executive Associate to the President and Secretary to the Board of Trustees Chesapeake College, Maryland jthomas@chesapeake.edu

ACCT leadership, a new slate of officers for the Professional Board Staff Network began their term on October 24 with already in the works for next year’s Congress. This year’s sessions were huge successes, with presentations on electronic board packets and roundtable discussions covering a wide range of topics. Participation was greatly increased — there wasn’t an empty seat in the room. The annual business meeting, held on Friday, October 24, included the election of the new executive committee. Newly elected members to the executive committee include Vice President Christina (“Tina”) Heskett of Hillsborough Community College in Florida and Secretary Alonia Sharps of Prince George’s Community College in Maryland. Members-atLarge include Sherri Bowen, Southern Region; Margaret Lamb, Pacific Region; Jane Thomas, Northeast Region; Heather Lanham, Central Region; and Carla Patee, Western Region. I appreciate each one of these ladies’ service in their respective roles. I would also like to congratulate all PBSN members who won regional Professional Board Staff Network Awards. These included: Central Region — Benita Duncan, Lansing Community College, Michigan; Northeast Region — Yolanda Howell, Westchester Community College, New York; Pacific Region — Jeannie Odle, Chemeketa Community College, Oregon; and Southern Region — Michelle Lee, Cape Fear Community College, North Carolina. All regional recipients were nominated for the national-level award. The recipient of this award was Jeannie Odle. Congratulations, Jeannie, and to all the regional winners! I am honored to represent Seminole State College and hold the position of President of the Professional Board Staff Network. I believe this group is a great resource for everyone, and I hope each of you will utilize our networking abilities to make your job easier. Let’s all work to keep attendance high at next year’s Congress. If you would like to see a certain session in San Diego, please let me know. These sessions are for your benefit and will contain valuable information. Spread the word about the Congress sessions and please feel free to contact me at m.downey@sscok.edu or (405) 382-9260 if you have any ideas, concerns, or questions.

MECHELL DOWNEY SEMINOLE STATE COLLEGE, OKLAHOMA

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WINTER 2015

NET WORK NEWS WINTER 2015

INTERFACE

A PUBLICATION OF THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROFESSIONAL BOARD STAFF NETWORK IN COOPERATION WITH THE ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEES

Turning the Page — Electronically, That Is! By Christina M. Heskett, Hillsborough Community College, Florida

MEMBERS OF ACCT’S PROFESSIONAL BOARD STAFF NETWORK (PBSN) kicked off this year’s Congress with their annual Meetand-Greet on Wednesday, October 22, at Giordano’s, home of the Chicago classic, deep dish pizza. New friends were made, old friends were reunited, and pizza was shared by everyone — with the exception of the lone anchovy-lover who had one all to herself. This was a nice opportunity for everyone to get together, away from the hustle and bustle of arriving college presidents and trustees, to discuss the operations at our respective colleges and meet the ACCT Professional Board Staff Award nominees. Thankfully, the PBSN workshop did not begin until 2 p.m. on Thursday, giving us plenty of time to sleep — or, work off the carbs from that oh-so-scrumptious pizza! This year’s workshop was extremely successful with a record-

Professional Board Staff Network executive committee, 2014-15.

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setting 65 attendees — it was literally “standing room only,” with not so much as a single seat remaining. After a short icebreaker, the workshop was divided into two sessions, with the first half dedicated to electronic board packets. PBSN President Debbie Novak, assistant to the president for Colorado Mountain College, presented the low-cost option of preparing an agenda using Adobe Professional, and I presented on the use of Diligent Boardbooks, software created specifically for board meetings. The two presentations offered insight into preparation, transition, research, expense, and implementation, and were followed by a Q&A and open discussion on what is currently being used by others throughout the country. This provided everyone the much-needed opportunity to share ideas on best practices and future trends.

NET WORK NEWS WINTER 2015

INTERFACE

A PUBLICATION OF THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROFESSIONAL BOARD STAFF NETWORK IN COOPERATION WITH THE ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEES

For many, the highlight of the workshop was when ACCT Chair LeRoy W. Mitchell stopped by to personally thank everyone for our hard work and dedication to ACCT and to our respective colleges, stressing that we “…are the glue that holds this organization together.” He reiterated the importance of the work that professional board staff members do both in front of and behind the scenes; his kind words and recognition were greatly appreciated. The second half of the workshop consisted of six roundtable discussions on a variety of subjects ranging from legal issues and sunshine laws to trustee orientation and board assessment. The discussions were so involved that when it was time to break up and share the results, Novak had to whistle to get everyone’s attention. Wrapping up this year’s session by sharing ideas not only helped to solidify the bond that we, as professional board staff members, share, but it also provided us an opportunity to recommit to inspiring and helping each other through ongoing communication. When asked what she liked most about this year’s workshop, first-time attendee Jane Thomas of Chesapeake College

in Maryland responded, “Meeting this amazing group of professional men and women gave me the opportunity to expand my knowledge and discover tools that will enhance my role as secretary to our board of trustees and executive associate to our president.” Lindsey Vanek, assistant secretary to the board of trustees for McLennan Community College in Texas, added, “We compared our jobs, ideas, and struggles. I felt like part of a group and that was very encouraging to me.” Their sentiments were shared by many, and several participants stopped by after the workshop to thank the Executive Committee for continuing to advance the PBSN. Preparations for another successful workshop will begin when the Executive Committee meets in Washington, D.C., during the National Legislative Summit. If you would like to present, offer suggestions for roundtable topics, or just want to make a suggestion, please email PBSN President Mechell Downey at m.downey@sscok.edu. We encourage everyone to participate in the planning and look forward to working with each of you to make next year’s Congress even more successful — we couldn’t do it without you!

We’ve moved! Please update your records! Our new mailing address is: ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEES 1101 17TH STREET NW, SUITE 300 WASHINGTON, DC 20036 Our phone numbers will remain the same: Tel: 202.775.4667 | Toll Free: 866.895.ACCT (2228) Fax: 202.223.1297 | Toll Free: 866.904.ACCT (2228) NOTE: Our remittance address has not changed. Please mail all payments to: Association of Community College Trustees, Dept. 6061, Washington, DC 20042-6061

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advisor

2014 ELECTION RESULTS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

REGIONAL DIRECTORS

Chair

(3-year terms except where noted)

Robin M. Smith Lansing Community College, MI

Central Region

Chair-Elect

Vernon Jung Moraine Park Technical College, WI

Roberto Zárate Alamo Colleges, TX

Northeast Region

Vice-Chair

Bakari Lee Hudson County Community College, NJ

Pacific Region

Secretary-Treasurer

Jim Harper Portland Community College, OR

Emily Yim Edmonds Community College, WA

Southern Region

Immediate Past Chair

Dennis Troy Bladen Community College, NC

LeRoy W. Mitchell Westchester Community College, NY

Southern Region (2-yr Partial) Tamela Cullens South Florida State College, FL

REGIONAL CHAIRS

Western Region

Central Regional Chair

Roberto Zárate Alamo Colleges, TX

Diane Gallagher Highland Community College, IL

Northeast Regional Chair

DIRECTORS-AT-LARGE

William E. Coleman Mercer County Community College, NJ

Norwood Ogé Louisiana Community and Technical College System, LA

ACCT DIVERSITY COMMITTEE (2-year terms except where noted)

Central Region Robert Proctor Lansing Community College, MI

Northeast Region Benjamin Wu Montgomery College, MA

Pacific Region Edwin Hiel Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, CA

Southern Region Helen Rosemond-Saunders Tri-County Technical College, SC

Western Region Rosa Benavidez South Texas College, TX

(3-year terms except where noted)

RETIRING ACCT BOARD MEMBERS

Mary Figueroa Riverside Community College District, CA

George Regan Robeson Community College, NC

Clare Ollayos Elgin Community College, IL

Dana Saar Maricopa Community College District, AZ

Randall Jackson Midlands Technical College, SC

Hector Ortiz Harrisburg Area Community College, PA

Dave Talley Palm Beach State College, FL

Western Regional Chair

APPOINTED BOARD MEMBERS

Robert Feit Southeast Community College, NE

Diversity Committee Chair

Jean Torgeson North Iowa Area Community College, IA

Pacific Regional Chair Jane Strain Cochise College, AZ

Southern Regional Chair

Robert Proctor Lansing Community College, MI

ACCT DEADLINES ACCT Leadership Congress Call for Presentations May 1, 2015 ACCT Awards Nominations June 16, 2015

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Amendments to ACCT Bylaws July 1, 2015

Submitting Resolutions July 1, 2015

ACCT PUBLICATIONS To order any ACCT publication, please fill out the form below and give it to any ACCT staff member or (preferred) fax, e-mail, or mail your order to ACCT Publications (contact information below). Please include both a billing and shipping address and a purchase order, if necessary. As a membership benefit, book orders from ACCT members are fulfilled immediately in good faith of payment. An invoice will be sent within 2-3 weeks of your order. ACCT requires pre-payment from non-member colleges.

TITLE

PRICE

QUANTITY

Tribal Colleges and Universities Governing Boards: Structure and Composition

$10 $12

member* non-member*

Public Community College Governing Boards: Structure and Composition

$10 $12

member* non-member*

History of the Association of Community College Trustees: 1972 – 2012

$40 $45

member* non-member*

Making Good on the Promise of the Open Door: Effective Governance and Leadership to Improve Student Equity, Success, and Completion (2011)

$30 $42

member* non-member*

Essentials of Good Board/CEO Relations (2009)

$16 $20

member* non-member*

The Trustee’s Role in Effective Advocacy: Engaging in Citizen Action to Advance Educational Opportunities in Your Community — What Trustees Need to Know About Exercising Their Voices and Influence on Behalf of Community Colleges (2009)

$24 $28

member* non-member*

The Trustee’s Role in Fundraising: From Arm’s Length to Knee Deep — What Trustees Need to Know About Institutional Advancement (2008)

$16 $20

member* non-member*

The Board Chair: A Guide for Leading Community College Boards

$15 $20

member* non-member*

Trusteeship in Community Colleges: A Guide to Effective Governance

$30 $40

member* non-member*

Community College Trustees: Leading on Behalf of Their Communities

$30 $40

member* non-member*

TOTAL

*Please check whether you are a member or non-member

Please include $3 postage and handling fee for each publication (maximum $15)

POSTAGE $ TOTAL $ Total enclosed $ Name: College: ACCT MEMBERS Use any of these methods to order: Email: acctinfo@acct.org Call: 202.775.4454 Fax: 202.223.1297 Or mail order form to the address below. (Note: ACCT members are not required to send payment at the time of order.) ACCT NON-MEMBERS Send order form and check or money order to: Attn: Publications, Association of Community College Trustees, Dept. 6061, Washington, DC 20042-6061

Address: City, State, ZIP: Phone/Email: Mail to (if different): Name: College: Address: City, State, ZIP: Phone/Email:

or bill:

www.acct.org 1101 17th Street NW Suite 300 Washington, D.C. 20036 202.775.4667 866.895.2228