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Volume 90 Issue 7 • Oct. 26, 2015
Yvonne Katz, District 7 trustee and non-committee member, explains how having small tuition increases over the years could have been a better option instead of a single 5 percent increase during the Oct. 20 meeting of the Audit, Budget and Finance Committee. Cynthia M. Herrera
Tuition increase forwarded to board Employees expected to receive one-time bonus.
Stand together
The Non-traditional Students Club members, together with students and faculty, hang up T-shirts Oct. 21 on the second floor of Loftin in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month after marching from the Empowerment Center to Loftin. Club president Katherine Alexander described her personal experiences and then led the crowd outside to release purple balloons in remembrance of victims lost to domestic violence. Danielle Kelly
Discussion regarding degrees coming to a close Regular board meeting Tuesday is open to faculty, students and community. By Melissa Luna
mluna132@student.alamo.edu
The board will decide the fate of the policy to remove designations from the associate of arts and associate of sciences degrees Tuesday during a regular board meeting at Killen Center. Policy E.1.3, which includes a “premajor designation (that) provides students with the greatest flexibility to customize their course schedule and program to meet both their academic interest areas and the specific requirements of their intended transfer institution,” would take effect spring 2016. “The biggest benefits for students are to save time and money and maximizing the amount of transfer hours,” Jo-Carol Fabianke, vice chancellor for academic success, said Tuesday at the Student Success Committee meeting at Killen Center. As part of the reaffirmation process, this college told the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges that students will be awarded degrees for transfer
rather than discipline-specific. Each advising guide will include a block of coursework providing students with skills needed for the workforce and also satisfy freshmen and sophomore requirements at a university. “We want students to gain marketable skills that are needed in the workforce,” Fabianke said in an Oct. 1 phone interview. “This is how we will teach students what employers want them to know.” Academic leaders will meet with employers in the community to figure out what marketable skills they look for in an entry-level applicant. Fabianke explained faculty would cross course competencies with sought out marketable skills, such as problem-solving and group communication, into classes and ensure those classes get into the advising guides. Using AlamoInstitutes and the new advising system, the goal is to create a direct pathway for students to complete a transfer program without taking extra courses. Incoming freshmen will meet with an adviser, choose an institute and pick a transfer plan for the university they intend to transfer to. Students will choose from six insti-
tutes: creative and communication arts, health and biosciences, advanced manufacturing and logistics, public service, business and entrepreneurship, and science and technology. The student is expected to follow the guide to university to ensure all hours count toward a bachelor’s degree. In the event students want to change majors, the adviser’s goal is to keep the student within their already chosen institute. If students don’t know what pathway they want, they will follow a generic plan until almost 30 hours are completed. Then a decision must be made. The transfer curriculum is similar to the core curriculum, but the student focuses on completing a baccalaureate degree and gaining marketable skills instead of just an associate degree. “It’s the same system we’re doing now, but we’re implementing it differently,” Fabianke said. “This is a way for faculty and Alamo Colleges to work directly with universities and their faculty.” Faculty Senate has been in discussion and debate since April 2014 when the college presidents and vice chancellors committee decided not to offer diplomas with specified majors.
District checks McCreless Hall air quality Two removed from offices following health complaints. By Richard Montemayor
rmontemayor15@student.alamo.edu
In September, one faculty member and one staff member reported feeling sick from being in their offices in McCreless Hall. Roy Brown, district and risk manager, tested the air quality and mold levels Oct. 12-16. Brown said he is working on the root cause of the problem in McCreless. Math Professor Hoan Duong said he was relocated from his office in Room 118 into Room 316 because of air quality and an unidentified black substance. “I’ve noticed it for a couple years, but I didn’t report it. There’s some, like black mold, or dirt dropping from the
air ventilation,” Duong said. Duong said he would sometimes come in over the weekend and find his desk covered with the substance. It started to smell bad and Duong started to have problems breathing while he was in his office; he finally had enough and contacted Brown, he said. “He came by so I took him to my office. He said yes, that the air smelled bad and that he was going to have an air sample collected and give me a personal report,” Duong said. David Mrizek, vice president of college services, said the report will arrive this week. Duong is not the only one feeling ill from being in his office. Computer support technician Frank Marcie has
reported the same issue with his office. “I emailed Roy Brown to see if he could come out and do an air quality sample on my old office,” Marcie said. Marcie said he doesn’t know if Brown checked his old office in Room 124G, but he believes the root of the problem was the flooding of the basement two years ago. During Labor Day weekend 2013, the basement of McCreless Hall was flooded in a “freak thunderstorm,” John Strybos, associate vice chancellor of facilities operation and construction management, said. The building was closed for the summer but reopened for fall classes. Marcie said he would feel sick when he would go in his office but loves his new office in Room 136A.
By Cynthia M. Herrera
cherrera151@student.alamo.edu
A 5 percent increase starting in the spring and a one-time employee bonus were sent to the full board for consideration after Tuesday’s executive session during the Audit, Budget and Finance Committee meeting Tuesday. The October regular monthly board meeting is 6 p.m. Oct. 27 at Killen Center. Proposed tuition increases would take effect spring 2016 and are expected to cost students an additional $3.50 per credit hour or $42 for 12 hours. This applies to in-district and out-of-district students. The last tuition increase was fall 2012 with a 3 percent increase, bringing it to the current rate of $480 per credit hour. To date there has been a $3.7 million investment in 45 advisers and an additional $1 million to be spent on software for advisers. This anticipated increase of $1.3 million changes the total operating budget from $328.4 million, which was approved in July to $332.1 million. Revenue is expected to be $2.4 million, which would be used toward providing every student with an adviser. An additional estimated $1.7 million would be spent for 20 new advisers and office space in 2017. Diane Synder, vice chancellor for finance and administration, said the Alamo Colleges are currently $8 per credit hour under the state average for community colleges. Of 50 community colleges across the U.S., Alamo Colleges had the 35th lowest for in-district tuition in spring 2015. Alamo Colleges also comes in second for highest out-of-district tuition and non-Texas and international students in spring 2015. According to the PowerPoint,
taxes are main sources of funding for community colleges, while tuition, state appropriations and benefits have decreased. District 7 trustee Yvonne Katz said the district should have increased tuition at a smaller rate every year so it wouldn’t be so much all at once. Katz mentioned she did this while she was superintendent of Harlandale Independent School District. “Every year, we looked at going up on our taxes, every single year 2.999 percent, 2.999 percent, it’s a little bitty amount,” Katz said. “I sat on another board of directors at a university, a private university, and we go up on tuition just a little bitty bit every year ... It’s when you don’t go up a bit that you get to this point where you have to say ‘a big 3 percent or a big 5 percent’ … we need to adjust our thinking over the next few years.” District 4 trustee Joe Alderete told Snyder he would have liked to see more budgetary options. “It’s your responsibility, as a CFO, to come to us with a variety of budget plans and budget offers,” he said. Employee bonuses under consideration cost an estimated $2.5 million, $400 for full-time faculty and $200 for part-time and would be received in December. Bonuses were proposed to the committee to recognize employee work in increasing student graduates to 35 percent. District 8 trustee Clint Kingsbery wanted to make clear the tuition increase was not to fund bonuses nor does he want to see it occur year after year because they are unable to raise funds. “I’m not opposed to giving our employees a bonus, but I don’t want to see it as a trend … I want to make sure that it’s clear that the bonus is not why the proposal for the tuition is there,” he said.
Proposed tuition increases (In-district)
Semester hours
Proposed rate
Current rate
Increase
1-6 9 12
$504 $691 $873
$480 $658 $831
$24 $33 $42