ICCCSSO Winter
Meeting
March 2-3, 2006
Meeting opened at 10:05 a.m. on March 2, 2006.
Attendees:
Black Hawk: Kim Armstrong; Carl Sandburg: Steve Norton; CCoC: Cynthia Armster; CoD: Kay Nielsen; Danville: Belinda Dalton-Russell; HCC: Fred Peterson and Kathleen Collins; ICCB: Andi Berryman and Karen Hunter-Anderson; IVCC: Bob Marshall; JWCC: John Letts; KCC: Judy Marwick and Michael Townsend; Kishwaukee: Larry Apperson; LLC: Tina Stovall and Jon Van Dyke; LLCC: Faye Fullerton; L&CC: Pete Basola; Parkland: Linda Moore; RDC: Gayle Ward; RCC: Marcus Brown; RVC: Amy Diaz; SVCC: Pam Clodfelter and Joan Kerber; SCC: Richard Masse; SEIC: Tim Daugherty; SWIC: Ted Lewis; SRC: Sharon Wrenn.
Introductions:
President Sharon Wrenn welcomed everyone to the meeting and started with introductions.
Secretary-Treasurer’s Report:
The minutes from the Fall 2005 Meeting were presented. Fred Peterson made a motion to approve the minutes. Kathleen Collins seconded. John Letts made a motion to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Joan Kerber seconded. All motions carried.
Reports:
ORS/Rehab Issues – (Chair - Sharon Wrenn). ORS is experiencing budget cuts and is cutting the amount in half that they previously agreed to for services to students with disabilities they work with. This is putting a greater burden on the colleges to support special needs such as interpreters.
IVC/ILCCO – (Chair – unknown). This group is still in existence; John Wood CC is a current member. No update given.
IAI – (Chair - Joan Kerber). Joan attended the major panel co-chair meeting last week where the discussion surrounded - what should the future role be of the panels? Co-chairs asked members; panels wanted to continue to meet and they wanted to continue to review courses. Math and Education major panels still meet and are doing good work. There are problems with attendance and the role of the panel. ICCB and IBHE will have to make a decision soon about the future of the IAI major panels. Ivan Lach’s report will be made soon.
Ted Lewis asked if Joan thinks the changes proposed to the current structure of IAI will be made. Joan thinks some of them will due to colleges limiting their travel budgets. The meetings may take place in a virtual manner (email). The major panels may not continue to review courses, however. They will be asked to continue to meet for at least one additional year to develop clear guidelines for their future work.
Pete Basola brought up the issue of CAS and how that initiative works with or against the future of IAI major panels. Joan commented that currently CAS is too difficult to completely replace IAI. Tim Daugherty mentioned that many of the feeder 4-year institutions are not loaded into CAS. This makes it even more difficult to use it. Joan also discussed CurricuNet and the possibility of one additional resource for community colleges to use.
Financial Aid – (Chair - John Avendano; not present). Fred Peterson. asked about entitlement grants (i.e., IVG, etc.). Unfunded mandates are not new. Fred asked what if anything colleges are doing about this. John Letts agrees with Fred – we should not be silent on this issue. However, the options appear bleak. Most colleges are currently writing off the money lost due to the mandate to implement these programs.
Karen Hunter-Anderson is attending the next President’s Council meeting. She will bring this issue to their attention and ask if they would like to address it. The percentage cut-back is not known at this time, however, it is expected to be as low as 5-6%. The claim is on a first-come, first-served basis. Colleges in attendance are stating their loses are any where from $50 – $80K. Amy Diaz commented according to the CFO at RVC, the CFO’s at our respective colleges are aware of the situation and have been in informal discussions about this topic.
Ted Lewis volunteered to collect the number of veteran’s at each college for the fall and spring semesters including the cost projected to be lost. ICCCSSO representative were asked to send that information to Ted via email as soon as possible.
Cynthia Armster volunteered to attend the next President’s
Council meeting in
Leadership and Core Values – (Chair - Carol Steinman; not present). No report given; no discussion.
Dual Credit – (Chair - Pete Basola). Pam Clodfelter and John Letts volunteered to join Pete on this committee. He discussed the email from Ed Smith regarding the email sent out on 3/1/06 asking us to determine if the calculations regarding the P-16 grant are accurate. Pam asked Pete about his college’s calculation. Pam stated SVCC’s figures are stating only the number of students they can serve with that amount of money. John stated JWCC is reporting the numbers like SVCC on the P-16 end of the grant report. Pete believes the numbers are coming from the SU/SR report (apportionment).
Karen Hunter-Anderson discussed the establishment of the formula for the allocation of P-16 dollars. Judy Marwick asked if all colleges are claiming apportionment on the SU/SR for dual credit courses regardless of whether students are paying tuition or not. The answer appeared to be unanimously yes.
Another issue is the HS certification vs. college qualification of instructors. Faye Fullerton attended the last Dual Credit committee meeting and represented us well. Karen asked her to attend and expects she will continue to be invited.
We decided to bring this issue back to the afternoon meeting when Scott Parke from ICCB is present.
Teacher Training/NCLB – (Chair – Richard Masse). No updated given at this time. Richard stated he expected ICCB may give an update during there report. Discussion followed regarding where the AAT degree approval process. NIU and EIU are the only two 4-year institutions that have officially signed on with community colleges. Fred stated this must be a joint effort; if it is led by the community colleges only, there may be trouble for our students with respect to advising, etc.
Larry Apperson asked if everyone received an email from NIU lately asking to document how the standards will be included in the appropriate courses. Joan Kerber commented that she responded to them yesterday. However, Joan also discussed that all community college courses will have to be re-submitted to IAI for approval with the standards listed. Once this occurs, NIU will be able to see exactly how the standards are met in each course.
International Students – (Chair – Larry Apperson). Larry talked about the $100 fee assessed to International Students. Larry asked whether we have recently increased our cut scores on the TOEFL test due to the addition of the computerized version. Ted Lewis asked why we would do this. Larry said TOEFL has recently updated their equivalency tables and this may be a reason why institutions may have done this. No one commented they had done so lately. Larry asked everyone to keep up on their reading and interpretation of the manuals.
Pete Basola stated they had an audit by SEVIS last year. We should be keeping these student records separate from other student records. Larry stated SEVIS is behind schedule on their audits this year. He reminded us to have all of our records in place.
Cynthia Armster asked whether we charge in-district or out-of-district for au pairs (who have J-1 work visas). Kay Nielsen stated only F-1 visa students should be categorized as international. J-1 visa students should then qualify for in-district rates. Ted Lewis stated they also charge J-1 visa students’ international fees because they are not taking up permanent residency in the district. This particular tuition issue is clearly a local board issue for each individual college.
Fred Peterson asked how/if illegal aliens are addressed at our colleges. Most colleges just don’t ask for that information.
Phi Theta Kappa – (Chair – Richard Masse). Andi commented that Student Lobby Day and Phi Theta Kappa Banquet are separate this year. She expects Student Lobby Day attendance will be negatively affected due to this change. The start time has been moved back to 10:00 a.m. Legislators should be available that day. Both events will be held at the Lincoln Presidential Hotel/Conference center. While the budget may be passed by 3/22/06, it is expected there will still be issues to discuss. John Letts asked when and how we should make appointments with our respective legislators. Karen Hunter-Anderson said the students would be released by 11:30 to meet with their legislators after 12:00 noon. One other issue with Student Lobby Day is hotel reservations. If you are not going to use the rooms reserved, then let them go as soon as possible. Cancellations need to be made early in the process so other institutions have the opportunity to get those rooms. If this does not happen, then ICCB may end up paying for open room anyway.
A suggestion was made to put this request out on the listserv (Who is attending Student Lobby Day and how many hotel rooms will you be using?).
Andi also stated PTK Banquet registration information will go out via email today. The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. on April 4th and should end by 9:00 p.m. at the latest.
ICCB Report:
Karen Hunter-Anderson distributed American Education Corporation folders (and pens) to all for our review. She is not endorsing this product but wanted us to see it.
Budget update: proposed 1.9% increase ATB. $3,000,000 Student Success Grant (old Special Pops Grant) was included in that amount. All signs indicate this grant will remain on the books for next year. The funding formula for the allocation of the SSG may include the following components: minority populations, disability populations, Pell members, and students enrolled in remedial courses plus a base qualifier. There will be guidelines given for how to use the funding at our respective institutions. Adult Education is not going to be part of this formula.
Karen asked about our impressions with College Zone and/or Illinois Mentor. All stated impressions have been positive. Fred Peterson stated the concern he has is with ISAC selling off our students’ loans. Karen says ISAC is going to keep the staff in place.
Karen reported on the status of Minority Student Transfer Centers/HECA funding. The future is uncertain, however, Karen expects the money will remain intact for one additional year.
Old Business:
Pam Clodfelter passed out three summary reports from data collected on the ICCCSSO listserv (SSO office location/title; penalties for missing deadlines; and Pell Grant charges).
New Business:
Summer Meeting Dates 2006 - (Bob Marshall) June
21-22, 2006 (Wednesday-Thursday) at Stoney Creek Inn in
Summer Meeting Dates 2007 - (Pam Clodfelter) June 14-15, 2007 (Thursday-Friday) at Starved Rock; combined meeting on June 14th with CAOs.
Electronic Signatures – Fred Peterson presented us with our collective responses to his listserv question related to electronic signatures for online applications.
Tuition Increases – Pam Clodfelter asked how many institutions are anticipating tuition increases for FY 07. Several institutions have proposed tuition and/or fee increases for next year. Judy Marwick has last year’s information for every college. She will send it to Pam who can put it out on the listserv for all of us to reply to. Faye Fullerton from Lincoln Land CC mentioned they have a formula-based increase system so the Board of Trustees does not have to vote for tuition increases each year. Several people voiced concern over the need to continually increase tuition due to decreases in apportionment for developmental courses and transfer rates.
Electronic Signatures for Midterm Grades – Amy Diaz asked if any institution has implemented online mid-term grading and how they handle the electronic signature required for this practice. SVCC is in their first semester of implementing completely online grading. Lewis & Clark has their faculty check a box at the bottom of the roster stating they verify the grades for their students. Parkland & Kaskaskia have implemented online midterm rosters with electronic signatures and could serve as valuable resources for others who are in the process of implementation.
Homeland Security Conference Report – Richard Masse presented us with information from this conference. He stated the composition of attendees was varied (IR, Public Safety, Grant writers, etc.). The theme of the conference consisted of first responder strategies and how to fund these initiatives. Richard distributed information on Risk Assessment Matrix (RAM) Process. A question for all to consider – does your institution back up their information technology system and where/how? Also, where is your emergency reaction plan? How easy is it to access in the event of a crisis? SVCC has a flip chart per type of crisis posted in every classroom. CoD has an emergency/counseling response team available for crises reaction.
Other –
a. Facebook issues: Some institutions who either have or are considering participating in Facebook should also consider adding an educational component to the orientation program to warn students about their responsibilities for participation. It was suggested that all colleges go to the website (www.facebook.com) and check to see if your institution is listed as a participant. Some believe participation is student driven not college driven.
b. NCSD Conference Dates: October 22-24, 2006 in
c. ICCB Essential Skills Task Force: Karen Hunter-Anderson asked for volunteers to serve on this task force. If interested, please contact Karen as soon as possible.
Meeting adjourned at 11:50 a.m. on March 3, 2006.
Respectfully submitted by
Amy Diaz