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March 9, 2022 Meeting of the Governing Board...
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Good evening, and welcome to the March
9th, 2022 monthly public meeting of the Pima Community College Board
of Governors. I'd like to call to order this meeting and begin with
some remarks before we begin with our agenda items.
Please bear with me. I just have a few remarks here as the
chair. Thank you so much. It's my second meeting as chair.
And much has happened in the past four weeks since our last
meeting, here locally, as you have all witnessed virtually in the
world. Once more we are right in the midst of yet another historic,
political and cultural world paradigm shift. As educators, it's
therefore our responsibility to make sure we continue to provide all
of the resources available to us to teach the truth, which includes
history as well as current events, but more importantly the
responsibility that we have as world citizens to fully understand how
and why we are connected and what that means.
Why is Ukraine important? Why was Bosnia important? Why was
Rwanda important? And more intimately, why are our closest neighbors
to the south and to the north are so important, because indeed they
are to all of us. We are indeed connected. Even though we are on
Zoom and we're not in person, we are connected. And I hope you feel
that.
Chancellor, I'd like to thank you for sending out the public
message that we, as a college, are dedicated to developing globally
engaged citizens, and will continue to ensure diversity, equity, and
inclusion for all, as we condemn in the strongest possible terms the
decision by Russian leaders to attack Ukraine.
So here at Pima, we plow ahead with our programs, our events, and
our strategies, all of which are dedicated solely towards our
constant efforts to offer equal and fair access, affordability, and
opportunity to every single student who wishes an education at Pima.
It's our bottom line and our top priority. Everything we do towards
that end will get the board's full attention.
We believe in what we do with every fiber of ourselves. I think
I speak for everybody on this Zoom. I wish to thank everyone on our
staff, faculty, adjunct faculty, administration, students,
volunteers, community members, donors, and supporters for your
tireless efforts.
They are not thankless, by the way. Because a thanks, thanks,
comes in the form of that student's face who I just met this weekend
who just received their GED at El Pueblo or the young Air Force woman
who dreamed of becoming a first responder her whole life, just
received her EMT certificate. Or the athletes who gave their fullest
this past season in games I witnessed and could viscerally feel proud
of. Or the casts and crews of our amazing theatrical and fine arts
productions and plays.
SpongeBob Square Pants left me smiling to myself for days. What
makes me burst for joy mostly is those students, specifically some
students that I had who immigrated from war-torn countries like
Central African Republic, who not only -- this one student not only
transferred after two years at Pima where he not only learned English
as a second language but excelled in political science, went on to
the U of A, and is now getting a Master's degree in international
relations at Georgia Washington University.
This is one example and I have many, many more. This all just
happened in the last four years. This is what all of you made
happen.
We are the behind-the-scenes facilitators that take our
responsibilities and obligations seriously just so another student
can contribute to their families, themselves, and the world, and feel
proud of their accomplishments.
It's all so very simple. At the risk of overusing the phrase, I
say we truly are all in this together. With that, I thank you for
indulging me before we proceed with our agenda.
As a reminder, our board meetings are conducted in accordance
with Arizona state statute and also within both the spirit and policy
of shared governance. Please be sure to submit your items for the
agenda ahead of time.
I'd also like to remind everybody that we, as elected board
members, are obligated to conduct ourselves and act as a board and
not as individuals.
I'd also like to provide a few shoutouts. As our academic
programs continue to flourish, I'd like it take this moment to thank
the faculty, both the permanent faculty and the extremely valuable
adjuncts who continue to adjust and selflessly serve our students.
And also to the staff and the administrators who keep it together
from every angle and aspect it takes to keep these trains moving
through this next phase of COVID, pandemic, virtual, hybrid, online
learning.
Also, a shoutout to Pima Wellness. There are some fantastic
activities. Go online and look at the webinars, health screenings,
gym access, all of these things, general tips for our mental and
physical well-being.
Again, another shoutout to Pima athletic departments. I can't
mention them all, but our athletics department is doing an amazing
job. Well done to all our student athletes.
And once more, the Pima theater and arts, I can't stress enough
the value and importance our arts programs are to the community and
to the world. I attended the closing, as I said, of Sponge Bob,
which although based on a children's show, truly resonated with
audiences in terms of the importance of friendship, love, compassion,
diversity, acceptance, and teamwork, crazy enough in a crazy
children's cartoon. All these traits and practices we need today
more than ever. Thank you for an afternoon really of pure joy. This
is what our arts programs do for us as human beings.
To all of you who come in every day physically and virtually to
run the campuses, all five of our campuses, we are in the middle of a
serious paradigm and cultural shift that the entire world is feeling.
We'd still not even recovered from the economic recession of 2008
when COVID hit, and now we are on the heels of a pandemic and
witnessing yet another war in a far-off place that impacts us all,
even Pima.
So I plead to you all in the Pima Community College family to
know that we are all hurting in one way or another, but we are also
committed to the same exact thing, and that is ensuring our entire
community has a fair shot at an education and resources to improve
their lives. We all want the same thing.
So I ask you, with all my heart, to also ask the hard questions
and make the tough decisions. But don't ever lose your humanity and
your kindness along the way.
Make no mistake, the crisis in Ukraine is humanitarian. Let's
not lose sight of our humanity. It's why we not only give folks a
shot at jobs and careers but also celebrate and teach what it means
to be human for the arts, athletics, language, history, literature,
and social sciences. This is what I most am proud of at Pima.
With that, I thank you for indulging me before we proceed with
our agenda. As a reminder, our board meetings are conducted in
accordance with Arizona state statute and please be sure to submit
your items, like I said, ahead of time.
We are attempting to hopefully return to in-person meetings
perhaps by next month. We are shooting for that. If that's the
case, all community members are welcome to show up.
Thank you very much.
With that, I would like to continue calling the meeting to order,
and the first thing I'd like to do is call for a roll call.
Mr. Silvyn, would you take the roll?
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Demion Clinco?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Present.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Maria Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Present.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Dr. Meredith Hay?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Present.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Luis Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Here.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Catherine Ripley?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Present.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: All board members are present.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you very much.
Our next item on the agenda is public comment, call to the
audience.
We are hopeful that this will again be our last virtual meeting,
so I thank you all for submitting. I think we only have one public
call and that is from Matej from PCCEA.
Before you do that, I would like to make this one statement, just
as a reminder. The Pima Community College Governing Board welcomes
public comment on issues within the jurisdiction of the college.
Generally the total time for public comment will be limited to 45
minutes, and comments will be limited to 3 minutes per individual.
These time limits may be modified by myself or the board.
Individuals sharing comments are expected to communicate with decorum
and respect. Individuals who engage in disorderly conduct or use
divisive or insulting language may have their time reduced or
concluded by board chair.
At the conclusion of public comment, individual board members may
respond to criticism made by those who addressed the board, may ask
staff to review a matter or ask that a matter be put on future
agenda. Members of the board, however, may not discuss or take legal
action on matters raised during public comment unless the matters are
properly noticed for discussion and legal action.
Finally, be advised that internal college processes are available
to students and employees for communication.
With that said, do we have -- Matej, are you present?
>> MATEJ BOGUSZAK: Yes, I am.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Great. Go ahead. You have the floor.
>> MATEJ BOGUSZAK: Thank you. Good evening, Chair Ripley,
Chancellor Lambert, board members, colleagues, students, and guests.
My name is Matej Boguszak, and I teach math here at Pima.
I'm also a rep on the AERC, a faculty senator, and past president
of PCCEA.
Before getting to business, I'd just like to acknowledge that
there is a brutal war being fought in Ukraine right now. Thank you,
Ms. Ripley, for your remarks.
Some of you know I'm from former Czechoslovakia, so this hits
pretty close to home for me. At times like these, it is important
for all our leaders to speak out for what is right and wrong in
measured but clear terms.
I thank Chancellor Lambert for doing just that in condemning the
decision of Russian leaders to attack. The level of support for
Ukrainian people and refugees has been truly touching. Still, I
cannot help but be struck by the contrast to how Haitian refugees
were chased on horseback by the U.S. Border Patrol or how Syrian,
African, Afghan refugees have been turned away at EU borders.
There is deep injustice in how non-White people are treated in
this world. That is just one of the reasons why the Refugee Center
and Hilda Ladner's work on equity are so relevant and important in
our bubble here at Pima.
To be successful as a college, we need a budget that funds the
most important priorities. This has been a struggle with falling
enrollment and revenues. It seems that each year new challenges are
thrown at us.
PCCEA would like to thank Dr. Bea for the detailed presentation
in February and all the board members for your careful deliberation.
We support the strategy of developing three possible and
malleable budget scenarios and using data like FTSE-to-staff ratios
to help determine the overall size of the college. This is something
we have called for for a long time, and as have some of you on the
board.
We look forward to more conversations with finance as the fiscal
year '23 budget takes shape. The class and comp study continues but
now appears to be significantly behind schedule.
PCCEA's focus for the faculty salary schedule is on clear,
objective criteria for salary placement and then advancement while
striking a healthy balance between market rates and competitiveness
and equity.
Unfortunately, specific criteria have been elusive so far, and I
regret to say PCCEA is growing increasingly concerned that there may
not be enough time to gather faculty feedback, revise policy, of
which there is a ton, through the AERC, and implement the
consultant's recommendations for contracts effective July 1.
Likewise, we are yet far from identifying criteria for deciding
which disciplines should be prioritized for hiring, aside from plain
enrollment. This is another critical project the consultant was
contracted to help us with, given the chancellor's repeated calls to
shift significant resources from some programs to others yet to be
specified.
We really need to return to regular faculty hiring cycle in order
to reach deeper, richer, and more diverse candidate pools. It should
not be prohibitively difficult for an institution our size to plan
and make strategic recruitment decisions in a timely manner.
The chancellor is right: the times are changing. He speaks of
needs to restructure the way we do our internal business and change
how we look at contracts for employees.
We would love to better understand what he means and encourage
the chancellor to involve key stakeholders like Senate, Staff
Council, AERC, and PCCEA at the early stages of developing any
solutions to his concerns.
Please remember our policy already supports 9-month, 12-month,
and flexible contracts including evening and weekend classes. We are
all always open to look for new ways to better serve our students.
So thank you all for your service and leadership, and we will see
you in April.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you so much for your valuable
comments. We will take what you said to heart. Hopefully we can
work together on getting those results for the class comp as soon as
possible.
Any comments you would like to make, Chancellor, to that end or
shall we get back?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: I need to follow up with my team before I
can really respond to that.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you so much. Thank you, Matej.
With that, our next item on our agenda will be reports from our
Governing Board members. We each may take five minutes. I will go
across the screen I have here.
Board Member Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: I'm not muted, right? Okay. Thank you.
First of all, I want to thank Chairman Ripley for her words and
to Matej for specifically stating the differences in how people are
treated. A lot of people feel that way. Most people will not
acknowledge that, so I sincerely thank you. Then I just want to read
a small statement.
To all my constituents and to all the Pima Community College
faculty and staff. Thank you for all the support that you have given
me during these very trying times.
Individuals have alleged that the focus visit by the HLC is a
result of my dialogue with the board. For clarity to the general
public, HLC focus visit was instigated by a complaint filed by the
vice chancellor of facilities and police, Bill Ward.
That's my final statement. The reason I'm stating that is
because I know that -- well, we all know that the HLC site visit will
be here on March 28 and 29. Thank you.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you, Board Member Garcia.
Board Member Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Yes, good afternoon. I also just want to
acknowledge the comments that were made earlier by Mr. Matej and
yourself, Ms. Ripley.
Very true of what was said in reference to the staffing and
faculty and staff and reference to having a more diverse candidate
pool. I think that needs to be more evident in reference to what we
have at Pima. I think we can do better.
As I have always said before, there is always room for
improvement, and that's what we are really looking, would like to
look at.
The other thing I want to say is as you mentioned earlier,
Ms. Ripley, Chair Ripley, reference to the meeting that was at the,
the Saturday meeting at Irvington, there was a committee forum, and I
think it was good. Unfortunately, one of my comments and concerns
that I had then and continue to say when we meet with the community,
I think we have to have the community there, as well, too.
I was very happy with the staff that were there, the people that
work for adult education, but also the Pima staff that were present,
as well, too.
Mr. Lambert and even our congressional people, Mr. Grijalva, Ms.
Virginia Romero from the mayor that we have, as well, too, but also
more important, the stakeholders. I think that's one of the issues I
have been saying before and will continue to say that we need to meet
with the stakeholders, as well, too, out in the community.
One of the ideas that I shared very early when I was elected,
going on three years, is us as a board of governing members, we need
to rotate within our institutions, be it not only at the District
Office or whenever we come back to the community. But let's have
meetings at Southwest, let's have meetings at the West Campus, board
meetings at the Downtown Campus, and Northwest Campus, as well.
I'm a firm believer in reference to the stakeholders, and the
primary stakeholders that I see is not only our continuing students
at Pima right now and the high school students, as well, too, but
more important the parents. I think we should not forget our
parents, that those are the ones that have our future students in
mind, as well, too, but we also have to meet with them. With all the
positive that's happening with Pima, what can they expect within 5,
10, 15 years, as well, too.
In closing, I just want to say that those are the population that
we need to really look at, the population of the parents and
grandparents. Because those are the people that are providing the
day-to-day basis, support, not only family support but also
institutional support in reference to some of the academics, but I
think it's very important that we need to continue on that spectrum,
continue on with that spectrum in reference to the importance of
education, not only the K12 component but also in the postsecondary,
as well, too. But that's another thing that, as mentioned before, is
involve the stakeholders.
I think the stakeholders very strongly should be the community.
I really would like to see this year, 2022, for us, for the Governing
Board members to rotate and be at the different facilities and
different campuses that we have, as well, too.
Thank you. And I appreciate the adjunct faculty, appreciate all
the teachers and the people, not only the K12 but also in the
postsecondary with Pima. Because we need them. Those are the
people, those are the young people and the people that are currently
enrolled that we need to really look at and find that support. I'm
glad we do a lot of stuff here at Pima, but also, we need to share
and communicate and involve in this, as well, too.
Thank you.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you, Board Member Gonzales.
Next we have Board Member Clinco.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Chair Ripley.
I just wanted to comment on two different items. First, of
course, is Ukraine. Thank you for your very impassioned and
thoughtful words.
As I have sort of watched myself over the last few weeks, what's
been so striking and so moving to me is how hard individuals are
willing to fight for democracy. Democracy, as we all know, is a
fragile exercise and experiment. It works because we all agree to
play by the rules, and it's so important to do that.
It is so inspiring to see an entire country rise up to fight for
democracy and against authoritarianism. My thoughts and prayers have
been with them and will continue to be, and I'm just so grateful to
Chancellor Lambert for his kind words to the community. So thank
you.
The second item is I want to report on the Bellwether College
Consortium and the fact that the college was nominated as a finalist
in two different categories. Pima College, for the third year in a
row, is amongst leaders in innovation and thought leadership in the
community college space creating programs that are on the cutting
edge of innovation and that are being looked at nationally for
replication.
To see two of our workforce programs, our EMT program and our
workforce development program, being highlighted in this way is not
only inspiring, it really is a testament to the extraordinary work we
are doing.
A team went last weekend to San Antonio to present both of the
projects, and as I sat and watched other institutions around the
country and saw what they were doing, I'm truly inspired by the
tremendous work really in leading community colleges in innovation.
Last year we were nominated and finalists for five awards and the
year before we took home a Bellwether award.
Again, I want to congratulate everyone involved in the
development of these particular projects. Chancellor Lambert, for
your continual push towards excellence of this institution and
becoming a premier community college. But really across the college
that this is I believe now part of the culture to really take up the
mantle and find ways to create new, innovative, and exciting
projects.
I'm just so proud and so thankful on behalf of the community,
because it's really, at the end of the day, serving students. I'm
just so appreciative. Thank you.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you. Thank you, Board Member
Clinco. Next, Board Member Hay? Any remarks?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Thank you, Chair Ripley. I want to echo
certainly your opening comments, which were just so right on point in
terms of the importance of democracy now as always.
Also I would add that my thanks to the faculty and the staff and
the students at Pima College, because an educated democracy is the
foundation of everything that we do. That's why we are here.
I want to thank the faculty and the staff and the students for
their commitment to continue the fight for an educated democracy and
to protect our democracy as we move forward.
Thank you.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you so much for those board
remarks. And I wanted to add, yes, we attended the El Pueblo
Community Outreach Day. We do need to somehow get our community to
attend these things. We will have more of them. I would love to
attend as many community events as possible.
We also opened another veterans center, this one at Northwest
Campus, this morning. It was very touching and near and dear to my
heart as a veteran, and just shoutout to Hector Acosta and his team
for making that happen. We now have robust veteran centers at every
single college. It's really important to provide those services for
many reasons.
Thank you so much.
Next on our agenda will be the Pima Mission Moment. The EMT
Pascua Yaqui Tribe collaboration with us will be talked about by
Amanda Abens, dean of workforce development and continuing education.
Amanda, if you would.
>> AMANDA ABENS: Thank you so much, Board Chair Ripley, and
board members, Chancellor, guests, colleagues.
I am Amanda Abens. I serve as the dean of workforce development
and continuing education. We are so honored and very excited to
share with you about our EMT and Pascua Yaqui partnership.
Pima Community College has enjoyed partnership with Pascua Yaqui
Tribe for many years. In 2018, under the leadership of Sharon
Hollingsworth, who is our EMS program manager here at Pima Community
College, we started the EMT partnership. It has been incredibly
successful.
Fast forward now to 2022, and we have graduated four cohorts,
tribal members, to be EMTs. 47 learners have participated, and 40 of
them now are fully certified EMTs.
I really want to thank the board, Chancellor, Dr. Dor�,
Dr. Roark, for all of their leadership to make this happen, everyone
at the tribe, Sharon and her team, and a big thank you to Brian
Stewart for being our college liaison to the tribe, as well. It has
taken all of these individuals to make this partnership happen.
Now I'd like to introduce our guests. I'm so appreciative to
have our guests from the tribe with us here today. We have on with
us Chief Carlos Flores, chief of the Pascua Yaqui Fire Department.
We have Johanna Farmer, who is the deputy director for economic
development for the tribe. Cheryl Bakari, director for the NACTEP
career program. Erin Pazos, the assistant Itom Yoemia program
manager.
We have our students, our graduates. Angelica Talavera, Eucario
Mendez, and Aniza Valenzuela. Now I'd like to turn it over to our
guests to share their experience.
Chief Flores, can you kick that off for us?
>> CHIEF FLORES: Absolutely. Good afternoon. Good evening to
all board members. Chair Ripley, I'm really inspired by your opening
remarks. What really caught my attention was the fact that you
mentioned family-oriented approach to your educational approach that
Pima College is striving for.
I can tell you it really resonated and was championed by Pima
College and Sharon's team from Day 1. They came in and really
interacted with the students immediately, not as a student number but
more as an individual. They came in with the understanding that our
tribal nation has unique challenges and unique barriers.
They understood that and embraced it and really looked for ways
to break down those barriers. Each student had, whether it was
social, educational, or economic barriers, they found ways to
overcome those and really allowed the students to focus on the
program. That's proven with the success of this program.
I went to several conferences throughout the state and even some
national calls with other fire chiefs, and I have yet to find a
program that has been as successful as this program was, which is a
good indication of how being inclusive and really reaching out beyond
your comfort zone to those maybe communities that might traditionally
have been left in the shadows and really reach out there and see what
their needs are and really do something about it.
It didn't take very long to see that this was not only -- it
started out as a pilot program, but as Ms. Abens said, there are four
cohorts now, which is really remarkable.
I don't want to take too much time. I just would like the
students an opportunity to let you know for themselves how the
experience was and how we, I am greatly appreciative of the
opportunity that Pima College allowed in collaboration with the
tribal department that participated in this and really become a
one-of-a-kind program.
>> AMANDA ABENS: Thank you, Chief. We'll turn it over to the
students. Eucario, would you like to go ahead and share with us your
experience?
>> EUCARIO MENDEZ: Absolutely. Good evening. Thank you for the
opportunity to be here and to Pima Community College, the Pascua
Yaqui tribe, and the Pascua Pueblo Fire Department for giving us such
an amazing resource, allowing us to carry out our dreams and the
opportunity to be here through successful development and through
everyone giving us the tools to succeed.
I'm very honored and very blessed to be here today to be able to
speak out and especially for such successful cohorts of EMT classes
and just striving to see the future success of how everything is
going on.
Again, I'm Eucario Mendez. I'm from the second cohort. Yes,
that's a little about myself.
>> AMANDA ABENS: Where is your uniform? You have a wonderful
uniform on. Tell us about that.
>> EUCARIO MENDEZ: So my current uniform right now, I'm actually
on duty today. I'm at the station here today. I just wanted to wear
my proper uniform for the Pascua Pueblo Fire Department. I have my
Maltese Cross here, and Firefighter/EMT on this side.
>> AMANDA ABENS: That's wonderful. Thank you so much.
Angelica?
>> ANGELICA TALAVERA: Hello, good evening, everybody. I'm a
little nervous. I was actually the first cohort. It was a
challenge. I am a mother of three. I was working a full-time job at
the time. But it was something I wanted to do. I went to the info
session and it was presented great, got my interest.
Went into it. Very challenging. I was out of school for 13
years. But I did it. Then I went into the fire academy. Got
certified as a Firefighter II, and I'm also working with Eucario at
the fire department. I'm off duty though today.
Yeah, that's a little bit about me.
>> AMANDA ABENS: Thank you, Angelica. Congratulations.
Aniza?
>> ANIZA VALENZUELA: My name's Aniza Valenzuela. I'm from the
third cohort. I started the EMT program, and shortly after we were
able to do the fire academy, I was able to do it with Eucario and
Angelica.
I have learned so much along the way, especially just about me as
an individual. I'm super grateful for the opportunity that was
given. I'm even more grateful to continue to learn and to grow and
just kind of see the challenges that I'm capable of that we all could
just pretty much just -- I'm sorry, I'm getting tongue-tied.
Yeah, I'm just super grateful, and like I said, I also work with
Angelica and Eucario. So that's a little bit about me.
>> AMANDA ABENS: Thank you all so very much. We are incredibly
proud of you. You're all inspiring. You're out there every day on
the front lines serving. We're honored that you chose Pima Community
College for your EMT training and for your fire academy. Thank you
for all that you do for our community every day.
We have a few more minutes. I would love to hear from Cheryl
Bakari from the NACTEP program, and from Johanna, I'd love to hear
your thoughts on the program.
>> Good evening, everyone. Board members, Amanda, and to our
alumni. I am not going to cry. It's so wonderful to see these
students.
I wanted to let the board members know a little bit about the
special partnership that created these fantastic individuals that you
see right here. Sharon Hollingsworth and her team got together with
our community members, Chief Flores, Greg Madril from WIOA, Chief
Matus Senior, and said that we wanted to put this program together.
We knew that there were some unique challenges to do it.
We started this first cohort, and some of the things that were
unique to this program is the students get a huge amount of support.
E-mails are flying back and forth all the time. Hey, so-and-so has
not done any of the quizzes in Chapter 17. And then people on our
side would jump on it and get with the students. They had an
enormous amount of support.
That wasn't because we didn't think they could do it. That was
just because we wanted to let them know that we are here to help them
all the way through this process.
The students didn't do themselves justice. Most of our students
work full time, raise families. They went to school in the evenings.
We had part of the class at the PY Fire Department, and they'd be
in class until 9:30 at night, which was my bedtime. I'd say a little
prayer about them while I rolled over and went to bed while they were
still in class, and then they would meet all day Saturday for months
and months and months.
These are incredible students. Sharon and her team worked with
us tirelessly. They say it takes a village to raise a child. We
were a village to raise up these EMTs.
Sharon and her team are probably too modest to say this, but I
will tell you that we are getting better with each cohort. Our
fourth cohort so far, 10 of the 11 students have tested and 10 of the
11 students have passed. So right now we have a 100% pass rate.
That is outstanding. That is due to the quality of the instruction
and the support that they get all along the way.
Thank you to Tribal Council and all the people who allowed us to
create this opportunity and put this all together. I don't know if I
left out anything else that was important to highlight, but take it
away, Johanna.
>> I just want to thank everyone at Pima for your support in
creating this program. We continue to build partnerships. We just
hired a program manager, Pascua Yaqui, to focus on liaison work
between Pascua Yaqui and Pima Community College, so our partnerships
can only grow and thrive.
I think the one thing that wasn't mentioned already was Aniza and
Angelica were the first two Pascua Yaqui tribal women to be hired in
the fire department in over 20 years. So congratulations to them for
that, especially poignant after International Women's Day to
recognize their work. Not to take anything away from Eucario, did an
awesome job also, succeeding at the fire academy and the EMT program.
I wanted to say we highlighted them in the center of our CTE
consortium notebook, and they are in a picture in front of a fire
truck. We are so proud of all of you for what you have done, the
students. Your guys' work was the hard work. We just were able to
help guide you along the way.
We are so proud of you, and thank you for being willing to put
yourselves out there, you know, and go at your dreams.
Thank you.
>> AMANDA ABENS: Awesome. Thank you all so much.
Erin, I know you're on with us from the tribe. Any comments you
wanted to add?
>> No. Just congratulations on this venture. It's a very
positive one, and I hope that we can continue to move forward in
supporting our tribal students as well as all of our other students
in all of these ventures.
I look forward to working with all of you. Thank you.
>> AMANDA ABENS: Thank you. Thank you all so much for the
partnership and for being with us this evening. It is hard not to be
emotional about this. It is truly phenomenal and absolutely
inspiring what all the students have accomplished.
Thank you for the time today, Board Chair Ripley.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you so much, Amanda. Thank you.
Applause, I guess, silently from our desks and houses to Eucario,
Angelica, and Aniza.
Really, it is hard not to cry, but you have no idea how proud we
all are of you, and I'm sure your families are extremely proud of
what you have done and the work you have put into it. It's
appreciated. We are so happy to be a small part of this team. To
the tribal leaders and to the entire Pascua Yaqui tribe, we hope that
we can continue this relationship. It's extremely important. Thank
you, thank you so much.
I think we do have a question here from Board Member Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: I just want to also just say to the three
individuals, Angelica, Mr. Mendez, Ms. Valenzuela. I'm very proud of
you guys.
I know you guys have Saturday classes, as well, too. But more
important, one of the things that Ms. Bakari can attest to is there
was one young gentleman in one of the cohorts that came all the way
from Guadalupe, because that's the epitome of being Yaqui, the
commitment, the passion, and desire.
Can you imagine this young gentleman? I was there, one of the
graduations early, that his brother drove him all the way, 110 miles,
to get the classes. That's the epitome of Yaqui is, having the
passion, compassion, but also the desire to do what's available but
more important taking advantage of it, but also giving back to the
community. I really acknowledge and congratulate all three of you
guys too.
Thank you.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you so much.
With that, again, thank you, Amanda and everything that you have
done and everybody on this team has done. We look forward to
continuing this program.
With that, amazing, amazing Pima Mission Moment, let's go to the
next agenda item. We next have reports from our administrators and
representatives to the board.
First up is the audit results for fiscal year 2021 presented by
the Arizona Auditor General. We have Lindsey Perry, Donna Miller,
and John Faulk.
Are you here? If you are, you have the floor.
>> DONNA MILLER: Thank you, Chair Ripley. I'm Donna Miller.
I'm the office's financial audit director. Lindsey Perry sends her
apologies. She couldn't be here tonight. Unfortunately we are a
legislative state agency, and if you all are paying attention to the
news, the legislature is in session. It takes a lot of her time
away.
Again, thank you, Chair Ripley. Thank you to all of you board
members for inviting us. Chancellor Lambert, it's good to be here,
and all of the members that are here.
As I got on early before the meeting started, I was actually a
graduate of Pima College. And that was a long time ago. An
interesting story, with me today is John Faulk who is the manager
over Pima College's audits. When I started with our office 28 years
ago, my first audit was Pima College. John Faulk and I did it
together. We have come full circle, and now together as leaders at
our office we are presenting you, the board, which is great.
In the 28 years that I have been with the office in doing your
audits, I don't think we have ever met with the board and talked to
you about our audits. So this is great that you have invited us.
I know there is a new law that I hope all of you are aware of
that changed Arizona Revised Statute 15-1473, which is what requires
your financial audit, annual financial audit, and said that the board
needs to invite us to these meetings.
So we are happy that we get to do this. Believe it or not, we
are happy that we get to do this.
To give you a little bit of information about our office, our
audit work of course focuses on the accuracy of the district's
financial statements in compliance with certain laws and regulations.
We also work to help yours and other college districts to understand
important reporting standards and laws that help you all as
governance make important decisions to ensure the district is
spending and accounting for public monies, including those federal
program monies, appropriately.
We strive, as an office, to provide recommended improvements to
help government fulfill their responsibilities efficiently and
effectively. So that's part of our mission and goals.
John's controlling the slides for me. Before I begin going over
the actual audits, I just want to take a quick moment to very briefly
explain the standards that we follow when we conduct our audits.
I think that's a very important thing to point out right now in
today's world. We are required to -- state and federal laws require
Arizona college districts to receive these annual financial and
compliance audits, including audits of your federal programs.
When we conduct our audits, we do them in accordance with U.S.
Generally Accepted Auditing Standards, which are issued by the
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. These are the
same standards that any CPA firm has to follow when they conduct
audits. We have to follow those, and there are upwards of 150
auditing standards right now that we comply with.
For audits of most governmental entities, auditors must also
follow government auditing standards that are issued by the
Comptroller General of the United States. These require auditors to
review and report on significant financial reporting, internal
control, and compliance with laws and regulations.
Finally, we are required to audit the district's federal programs
following the federal requirements based on the federal Single Audit
Act, and as stipulated in federal Uniform Guidance.
These standards require that we maintain our independence,
integrity, and objectivity, and that's very important to us to make
sure we continue to do that.
As you see on this slide, we of course conduct these audits
annually, and as we have done and will continue to do in future
years, we send you e-mails when your annual reports are completed.
Today we will be discussing our work on the district's annual
comprehensive financial report and the associated single audit
report. We sent each of you links to these reports in separate
e-mails, one dated December 15, 2021, and another on February 3,
2022, along with our report highlights. I will talk a little bit
about those later.
So to give you a little bit more detail about these reports, the
district's financial report presents the district's annual financial
statements and our opinion on them.
As in prior years, we reported an unmodified opinion, that's a
technical term for a clean opinion, which means that the district's
financial statements are reliable basically.
Second, the single audit report includes our required financial
statement and federal program internal control and compliance
reports. Everything has a long name in auditing.
That report also includes our district schedule of federal
expenditures, the district schedule of federal expenditures, not
ours, and our opinion on it, and our opinion on the district's
compliance with federal program requirements over each federal
program we are required to audit.
Finally, the single audit report is where you will see any
findings we have found during our financial or federal compliance
audits, along with the district's responses to them.
We reported no findings for fiscal year '21, and we did see that
the district corrected a finding we had reported in the prior year,
and John will speak on that a little bit later.
So because we know these reports are lengthy and include a lot of
information, and you all are very busy readers, we always provide a
report highlights. It's just a two-page summary that includes the
district's largest primary revenue sources and how the district used
these monies as well as brief information about our key findings and
recommendations if we have any. Those highlights can be found on our
website, and we send you links to those when we send the reports as
well.
Lastly, I just want to bring up that in accordance with
standards, we are required to communicate certain information to the
governance of the college. That includes you, each of you, the board
members, and Chancellor Lambert and Dr. Bea, executive vice
chancellor for finance and administration.
As I mentioned earlier, we e-mail you when we issue the reports,
including a report highlights. We also provide additional
information to you by e-mail when we began our annual audits and when
we complete them.
We provide information in our audit completion e-mail to make
sure you know our audits are complete and whether we encountered any
difficulties. As always, we did not have any difficulties with Pima
College's audits.
Finally, I will just give a brief mention that our office
provides resources on our website that you can see listed here if
anyone needs guidance related to Pima College's financial related
topics. Please never, ever hesitate to reach out to me or John.
With that, I will turn the time over to John Faulk. I will be
happy to answer anybody's questions they may have now or after John's
finished with his brief discussion.
Thank you very much for all of your time and attention and again
for inviting us and again for the great relationship we have with the
college.
>> JOHN FAULK: Good evening, everybody. Thank you, Donna.
Thank you for letting us present to you today. My name is John
Faulk. I'm the financial audit manager here in Tucson, and I'm the
manager over the Pima College audits.
As Donna mentioned, we reported no findings in our audit reports
for the year ended June 30, 2021. However, we did report on the
status of previously reported findings. This information is reported
in a document called the summary schedule prior audit findings which
you can find at the end of our single audit report.
In the prior year, we did note one finding, reported one finding
recommending that the district improve their controls over their IT
change management process.
During the current audit period, which would be fiscal year '21,
we noted that the district fully corrected this finding through
implementation of its new change management process team dynamics,
which incorporated our recommendations from the prior year finding
detailed on this slide.
In addition, over the last several audit periods we reported
various findings over the district's IT controls. The district has
successfully implemented our recommendations to mitigate those
findings as well. So congratulations to Pima College for doing that.
Also, I wanted to mention that each year, usually in February, we
meet with the district's finance and audit advisory committee also to
discuss the results of our audit reports just in case some of you
didn't know that was occurring.
Are there any questions that I can answer for you concerning the
district's audit?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Any questions from board members?
I see none. Thank you.
>> JOHN FAULK: All right. Well, as a reminder, we just wanted
to -- we provided these reports to each board member and that you can
find them on our office's website. Also there, you can find various
resources such as frequently asked questions, fraud prevention
alerts, reporting guidelines, user guides, and webinars that our
office offers.
I want to thank the board to present our results today. I'd also
like to thank Dr. Bea, Daniel Sosa, Agnes M., and the rest of the
district staff for their cooperation in the audit.
We have had a great working relationship with the district's
management and staff, and we look forward to getting started on next
year's audit in the spring.
Thank you very much.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Looks like we have one question from
Board Member Clinco.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: It's actually a comment. I just wanted to
take a moment and congratulate Dr. Bea and Agnes and Daniel. You
know, I don't think there has been a clean audit of this caliber
since I have arrived on the board.
So when I opened the package, which all of the board members
receive independent copies of the audit report, I was so thrilled to
see just that all of the work again that we have been doing to just
make sure all of our Is are dotted and all of our Ts are crossed.
It really gives us, as board members, the confidence in both the
accuracy of the information but also that we are making continual
improvements to protect the institution.
Thank you, Dr. Bea, and your entire team.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you.
>> DONNA MILLER: Excuse me, Chair Ripley. It makes our audit
much easier when we have good auditees like the college. So we do
appreciate it.
>> JOHN FAULK: Absolutely.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you so much for that report, and
again, echoing on Board Member Clinco, it's really important to all
of us that we continually improve ourselves, because it's a constant
effort. I think one of the most important things that I love about
this institution is that we do provide this kind of transparency and
we welcome any kind of comments and suggestions for improvement.
Thank you. We look forward to working with you in the future.
With that, if there aren't any comments, we can go on to the next
item.
Next we have legislative update from Jonathan Paton. Are you
here?
>> JONATHAN PATON: I'm here. Thank you very much.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: You have the floor.
>> JONATHAN PATON: Thank you. I want to basically put my
comments in three different buckets, talk a little bit about the
governor's budget, talk about some of the bills floating around at
the legislature, and then finally talk about the healthcare
occupations Center of Excellence proposal. So just going to go in
that order.
Start out with the governor's budget, as he proposed in the
beginning of January, one, full funding for STEM for the community
colleges, that translates into a little under $2 million for Pima
College. There is also an allocation for -- it's $30 million that
will be allocated for workforce issues. They are calling them
accelerators. We would be applying for these. They are in $6
million increments.
I think given the fact that Pima has already a long history of
working on workforce and the kinds of projects we have already in the
pipeline, I think it's going to be a very -- I think we are going to
be very competitive in applying for those through the Arizona
Commerce Authority.
So that is the top-line issues of the governor's budget.
Obviously there is going to be changes to that budget as you go
through the legislative process. We are about in the middle of the
legislative process or at least the middle of where the bills are.
We just went through crossover week, which means all the bills
from the Senate now are crossing over to the House. All the bills in
the House are now crossing over to the Senate. So we're starting to
reach some deadlines at the end of the month when bills are going to
be heard in the opposite chamber.
A lot is going on. A couple of bills for you to be aware of,
there is a dual enrollment bill that has been making its way through
the process. That bill puts a tuition cap for dual enrollment. Pima
College doesn't charge tuition. So we are not necessarily affected
by this. It's something I think the Maricopa College is very
concerned about.
That bill is stuck now in the Senate. It doesn't appear to be
going very far because of opposition from the Senate education chair,
Paul Boyer.
Another bill that I think is of big interest to the college, and
that's the expenditure limitation bill that's been floating around
through the legislature.
All I can tell you is I think every year I talk about the
expenditure limitation, and I cannot tell you what a lucky position
that the college is in that we went through this process to the
voters already, because there is a level of desperation among a lot
of the other colleges about the situation that they find themselves
in regarding expenditure limitation.
This bill, it made it out of the Senate. It is now stuck in the
House. The majority leader asked whether this bill is
constitutional. They asked for a ruling from the rules attorney.
They have said that it's unconstitutional. That doesn't make it so,
but it's caused some controversy. AC4 is trying to come up with
their own experts to comment on that.
As I always tell you, the legislature is created not to pass
bills but to kill bills. Every step in the process is designed to
hold up a bill or derail it so that there is a winnowing process.
This is exactly where this bill finds itself right now. It's
struggling over this constitutional issue. Doesn't mean it's dead,
but it definitely has a major hurdle to overcome.
It is fortunate that we are in a better EL situation than a lot
of the other colleges because they are very much depending on this
bill. This bill would also be good for us but it is not quite the
same sense of urgency that maybe the other colleges have.
Finally, I just want to mention that Goodwill has tried to pass
funding for their adult education aspirations statewide. We have
objected quite often because our own adult education with the
community colleges has not been fully funded by the state.
I think that what they are trying to do this year, there are
three different bills. One is to fund what Goodwill wants. One is
to fund more of what the adult education folks at the community
colleges want. Then there is a third issue. I think what they are
trying to do is fold them into one package and so that they all live
or die based on each other.
So that at least has been the plan that I have been told about,
and that's where that bill is moving along.
Finally, I think this is one of the most important things I want
to talk about. Some years ago, we approached the state with a
proposal for a dramatic increase to our Aviation Center at Pima
College.
We received $15 million after a long process of applying to the
state, talking about getting stakeholders together, getting our
partners, industry partners to comment to lawmakers, and through a
lot of lobbying and a lot of effort on behalf of the college and a
great proposal, we received $15 million towards that program.
We are trying to do the same thing now with the healthcare
occupations Center of Excellence at Pima College. We have been
speaking with the governor's office, the executive branch, about this
issue. We have put together a proposal that your staff has worked
on, we have submitted that to the governor's office, and then at the
end of this month we are going to be at a formal meeting with them,
with their state budget director and others, to directly apply to the
executive branch for another $15 million ask.
I think that we are in a great position for that. I said this
some years ago about our aviation request. That came to be true. I
think we are in an excellent position of getting this as well. They
certainly have the money. I think we have a great proposal.
I think we also have the employers that are willing to say, look,
we really need these folks. We are in desperate need of more nurses,
of more folks in the dental profession, et cetera. I think we are in
a great position to get that. I have a lot of confidence in our team
to make that proposal.
That's where we are at. So it's never boring at the legislature.
There is always something new happening. It's a little bit crazy
right now, but I'd be happy to answer any questions about what's
happening in Phoenix.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you so much, Jonathan. Any
questions from the board?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Again, just a comment. I just want to
thank Mr. Paton for his remarkable and consistent advocacy at the
legislature to advance the college's priorities, help assure that we
get some state funding and help kill bills that would adversely
affect us.
Thank you, Mr. Paton, for your tireless work in Phoenix on our
behalf. We really appreciate it.
>> JONATHAN PATON: Thank you.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Hear, hear. Thank you.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yes, thank you. Thank you for
tirelessly doing what you do and keeping us informed of all of these
issues and all the moving parts. Some of us do know how crazy it is
up at the legislature. Thank you for that.
You mentioned expenditure limitation. I just wanted to point out
how, with Prop 481, how people power and the power of the community
can triumph.
Education is nothing to blink about. I think this is something
we just have to keep fighting for, and with all the moving parts,
politicians, community, with yourself and with our school.
Thank you so much. We will just keep plowing ahead.
>> JONATHAN PATON: Great.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Next we have our last administrative
report from -- there is a Santa Cruz update from Dr. Dolores
Duran-Cerda, our provost. You have the floor.
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: Thank you so much.
Good evening, Board Chair Ripley, members of the board,
Chancellor Lambert, students, colleagues and guests.
I have a very positive report to share with you. I have also
invited a couple of my colleagues and they are Ted Roush, interim
vice president for the Santa Cruz operations, and also advanced
program manager Brian Nelson who have been leading this effort and
have been very successful.
With that, I will continue sharing to the next slide. I'd like
to provide a brief history about Santa Cruz. So we used to offer
services in the '70s until 2003 and then we picked it up again in
2017 until the present.
There were some concerns regarding accreditation that have been
addressed. For example, there was a concern about not having enough
tutors for the students there. We have increased funding for tutors
and so that has been addressed.
But because of COVID, we went completely virtual, and so in that
case, the tutoring wasn't needed in person, but we had the online
tutoring services. So now we are resuming to in-person tutoring as
well.
Also, the new IGA was implemented just recently in July 2021, and
there was a very thorough review by both boards and also our
leadership, academic leadership and college leadership. We came to
an agreement for a new IGA, which was approved in July 2021.
Every January there is an annual meeting which combines the
leadership of both Santa Cruz and also Pima College. We are one
college, we are together, but we just give each other updates on
things. That took place this past January towards the end of the
month, and it was very successful and positive.
We have results as far as strong enrollment was creeping up every
year in a positive way, but then of course COVID hit us, and that
shifted things to the way things were going.
But as you'll notice in the next slide, all of the services had
been in person, and students preferred in person before COVID, but in
the next slide you'll see that there was an increase in wanting to
stay with some virtual classes and online.
We have also improved on our relationship with the Santa Cruz
board. Ted and Brian have been instrumental in that, and I want to
thank them for their role in really smoothing out the wrinkles and
having a strong relationship with the Santa Cruz board, so much so
that they have invited speakers to go, present to the board. For
example, Libby Howell has provided legislative updates. Dr. Bruce
Moses has gone down to talk about accreditation. Also Dr. Ian Roark
and his team on workforce, business and industry initiatives. So
they feel very much a part of the college, which is so important.
As well, there is a stronger dual enrollment presence. Then also
more engagement with the community itself, Nogales and Santa Cruz.
Also a greater variety of mode of delivery for the Santa Cruz
students. You will see here in this chart the development of how
students have been interested.
As I mentioned before, students had preferred in-person classes
and services, but because of COVID, and we were all pretty much
forced to be virtual and online, they have indicated an interest to
continue having some virtual classes, as well as in person, of
course, but we just wanted to highlight that.
So that is a brief overview of where we are with Santa Cruz, and
Ted and Brian, I don't know if you have any other comments you'd like
to share with the board?
>> TED ROUSH: Just to quickly echo what Dolores said is we feel
like we have come from a place where we weren't well communicating
and the relationship was not all it could be.
We really feel like we are in a positive place now. The Santa
Cruz board feels very included in the Pima family. Really enjoy
having our administrator and team members to come down and tell them
about various aspects.
It's been a great relationship, and we feel like everything is
double thumbs up going forward.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Board Member Hay?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Yeah. Thank you, Dolores, for that
excellent summary. I just have a quick question. I saw some of the
students prefer online for various reasons.
How are the outcomes compared to online versus in-person?
>> TED ROUSH: I would say that, Dr. Hay, that the outcomes for
Santa Cruz students are generally reflective of what the rest of PCC
students see. There is in general in online, hopefully I'm not
quoting old information, this paradigm hasn't changed, but we
generally see a little less success in online mostly because students
have more responsibility placed on them and sometimes don't react
soon enough and put enough work to be successful sometimes.
And also, those online interventions we have done more with in
the last few years, so embedded tutors and things of that nature, are
resources that do help students. We have been diligent in
identifying those.
But kind of at the same place you'd expect to see for Tucson
students.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Thank you.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you so much. We have another
comment or question from Board Member Clinco.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you so much. Again, I just want to
thank Dr. Duran-Cerda and Ted Roush and everybody down in Santa Cruz.
This has not been the smoothest always, and we spent a lot of
time working to sort of reframe this relationship. I'm so glad to
hear that it's working out so well.
I mean, we have continually said, the board has continually said
over the last five years how important it is to ensure that the
educational services truly are reflective of those offered here and
that providing those services to Santa Cruz is important for our
region.
I just want to say thank you for all your work. We know how much
time it took and how much it continues to take. I'm just so glad to
hear it's moving smoothly now.
Thank you.
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: Thank you. Any other questions?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: I guess if there are no questions,
thank you so much, Dr. Duran-Cerda. Thank you, Ted Roush, for
everything you have done. I mean, your work is acknowledged and we
do understand how hard it was. Thank you for hanging in there and
really doing the work. It's very much appreciated.
With that, I'm happy to welcome comments from our representative
groups. First we have our student report from Collin Bryant.
Collin, are you here?
>> COLLIN BRYANT: Yeah, I'm here. Hello.
Good evening, Chair Ripley, Chancellor Lambert, members of the
board, faculty, fellow students.
Short-and-sweet update tonight. The Student Senate mural will be
located at the Downtown Campus. We are hoping that it will unify
people with Tucson's culture and compassion.
The Student Senate promotion strategies are coming out as well.
Yesterday PCCTV filmed an interview at the West Campus that gives a
look of what it's really like to be a student senator.
This coming Friday there will be a virtual Q&A with all of the
senators. This session will allow students to learn about senate and
bring any issues they have directly to their senators.
Elections for Student Senate will be held after spring break. To
enter, students will have to record a video essay and fill out a
short application form on PimaEngage. Be sure to look out for D2L
announcements and fliers around campus for when the time comes.
Thank you all for your time and have a great night.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you. Your leadership is very
much appreciated.
Next we have from adjunct faculty report Mr. Sean Mendoza.
>> SEAN MENDOZA: Hello, Chairman Ripley, Chancellor Lambert,
members of the board, honored guests. I'm happy to report that
college administration continues to work collaboratively with adjunct
faculty on a number of important topics.
Tonight I'd like to highlight our access to professional
development funds and the administration's support of our development
of a tiered system for adjunct faculty.
Through our work with the AERC, the All Employee Representative
Council, and college administration, adjunct faculty now have access
to enrichment funds up to a thousand dollars to further your
professional development.
At our last adjunct faculty meeting, Aubrey Conover shared the
form that highlights funding criteria and the process for awarding
funds. Most importantly, we also discussed how this benefit would
positively impact the institution and our students.
Having been with the college for nearly 30 years, I'm happy to
see that this resource is now available to our employee group, which
was not possible in the past, if it were not for the board and
administration support for adjunct faculty.
Thank you.
At the last meeting, I shared an example of adjunct faculty
facing a difficult decision, doing something that they love, which is
teaching, or qualifying for the state's healthcare program for
themselves and their families.
With support from the provost's office and college
administration, an adjunct faculty tiered system team was formed a
number of months ago to address this and many of the diverse needs of
our group. Through the leadership of co-chair Kate Schmidt and Sarah
Jansen, I'm happy to report the team has made significant progress
and is ready to meet with college administration to move forward on
this important initiative. We look forward to meeting with Dr. Bea
and the provost in the weeks to come.
Thank you for your support of adjunct faculty. This ends my
report.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you, Sean. As always, we
desperately need our adjunct faculty to be intact and happy. Thank
you so much.
Our next report is a staff report from our new staff
representative, Erika Elias. You are next. We welcome you as a new
member of the board.
>> ERIKA ELIAS: Thank you. Good evening, Chairperson Ripley,
members of the board, Chancellor, and guests. First I want to say
that Staff Council really appreciates the administrators that were in
attendance for a meeting on March 4. Their support and efforts to
discuss different topics and address questions from the various
groups was beneficial to everyone at the meeting.
At this meeting, some questions were brought up regarding
transferring more than 40 hours of sick leave to annual leave.
Another question that was brought up was childcare. Also questions
about the cost of living and inflation and how that impacts the
workplace.
We at Staff Council understand that we are charged with bringing
the concerns of the staff board but also know that not everything can
be addressed. So anything that can be done to review these concerns
is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you so much. Again, welcome to
your position.
Finally, we have a faculty report from Denise Reilly.
>> DENISE REILLY: Hi, good evening, Chair Ripley, members of the
board, Chancellor Lambert, colleagues and guests. I want to say that
I really appreciate and I just want to thank you to the Board Chair
Ripley and members of the positive start to our meeting. Just
highlighting the local and international events that truly inspire us
to just continue doing what we do on a daily basis, which we love to
do, which is teach.
Students are here, as you mentioned earlier, to educate
themselves, to put themselves in a better place for themselves and
their family members. So I just want to say thank you. It was a
great start to a meeting to recognize not only are we in it as a
small community in Tucson, Arizona, but we are also in it as a large
global society.
That was something that was mentioned today in our faculty
leadership meeting with officers of the Faculty Senate as well as
leadership of the college. I just think it's really appreciated to
just recognize we are in a much bigger space than just here, as much
as we are focused on our students and what's going on here. Just
thank you so much for the start to this meeting.
I want to share that there is some good news to come, but I don't
think I'm privy to share this, as a Phi Theta Kappa advisor, which
many faculty members do faculty advising and have clubs on the side,
I can share we are ready for some great student international and
national recognition, but that's to come at another meeting. We will
save that for then.
I just wanted to share a little bit about the last couple
meetings and just a hot topic that's been brought up. I just want to
share that we have just, our group of Faculty Senate officers, we
really highlight the diverse groups on campus. We represent
emergency medical technology, we represent health information
technology, accounting, writing, and college readiness and student
success. We kind of have the gamut of everybody all together in this
leadership group. We have really formed, stormed, normed and tried
hard to push the initiative of shared governance.
I just wanted to highlight, and I will actually post it in the
chat, a great presentation by our president, Rita Lennon. I want to
highlight just her leadership and sharing that with the HLC visit
coming up and with this idea of shared governance that it's really
important to talk the talk and walk the walk.
With the expectation that the college in the last ten years, I
would say, maybe has had different stances on what governance is and
shared governance, but I would say that we are really seeing some
great strides and we are really proud of the leadership team.
We are really proud of the shared governance that is taking place
and the expectation that we have as full-time faculty with our role
in that process and shared governance.
I really appreciate the chancellor, the provost, and many other
at the director and higher levels have been at many of our meetings
lately. We have really been talking about that expectation of where
can we move forward? We have shared articles today and discussions
about where we are moving forward as a college.
I just want to say that, and we look at the visit coming up with
the HLC and 5C and embedded in the criteria is this idea of shared
governance.
I just want to keep reiterating that, that we are going to
continue to push for that, but we also appreciate that the faculty
leadership as well as the leadership of the college has really heard
that and has really tried hard. I just want to recognize that and
just say I appreciate the work that everybody is doing right now in
order to move us as a college, as the chancellor has mentioned, in a
different direction, in the direction that it needs to go.
I just appreciate that, and I just want to share Rita's
presentation, so I will post it in the chat because I think it really
reflects the great ideas of what we are meant to do and what we need
to do moving forward and our expectation.
And I just want to say thank you. That ends my report.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you so much, Denise.
It is really important to us. It's important that the spirit and
the practice of shared governance is always in the forefront of our
minds with the AERC and all of the employee groups.
We don't know what we don't know. So we depend on you to let us
know whether -- and again, the good, bad, ugly, we need to know that.
Thank you so much to all our representative groups that reported
today. We really appreciate the feedback.
Again, I will throw this out, Chancellor, you know, his door is
always open, as well. If you have anything you need, please don't
hesitate to give him a call, because again, he doesn't know what he
doesn't know. So thanks so much.
Next on the agenda, information items. The information items
were provided to the board for general information purposes, and if
any board member has clarifying questions regarding any of the
information items, please let me know and we can have the chancellor
follow up or add a topic to a future agenda.
So with that --
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Madam Chair?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yes?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: You skipped over the chancellor's report.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: (Laughter.) I did it on purpose.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Denise did such a great job.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: She did. I got so excited. I was
looking at the chat. Okay. Thank you for interrupting me.
With that, item 2.3, we hand it over to the chancellor for his
report. Thank you so much.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Well, good evening, everybody. Thank you
all for what each and every one of you do for our students and for
our community.
We are coming up on the second-year anniversary of going into
this pandemic. It's been a long, hard road, but through it all, many
of you, all of us, really have really shined and stayed focused on
our mission. I want to thank you all for that.
Also, I just want to remind us of the importance that we place on
the dignity of each and every one of us, and in light of what's going
on in Ukraine, it's easy to sometimes forget and separate what's
happening with the Russian leadership and their oppressive moves
against the Ukrainian people versus the Russian people. I think
that's important for us not to lose sight of that either.
Why I bring this up, because we have had some of our own
employees, Russian employees of the college, in the community, being
harassed because they are Russian.
I think, as a community, the more we can do to help support all
of our employees, especially our Russian employees and students, as
well as our Ukrainian employees and students, anyone from Eastern
Europe and throughout Europe and really across the globe, the more
that our folks at least feel a sense of belonging and connection to
this community. I just want us never to lose sight of that.
But also highlight something bigger in many ways, and that's what
the purpose of education is. I think UNESCO really lays this out
very nicely. I want to reinforce this. This is my paraphrase, very
simply put, it's both, we are really preparing people to be
well-rounded individuals and preparing them for a successful career.
It's not one versus the other. It's how we manage to integrate
the two and support both. That's why we have the liberal arts side
of the college as well as the career technical education side of the
college, held up with our focus on DEI, our focus on adult education,
our focus on dual enrollment, our focus on developmental education,
all the pieces that allow for access to those opportunities to get to
those two larger goals.
So I just want to thank everybody who has been involved with
that. I want to make clear, because there was a rumor out there that
the college wasn't being supportive of its adult learning centers,
and that is just outright false. I am very committed to
strengthening what we are doing at the adult learning centers.
We want to look at how we can turn them more into community hubs
and continue to support the respective parts of our community, and
then to the extent we are able to, where else should we have adult
learning centers.
I just want everyone to know you have my commitment to that.
Looking at bringing more holistic opportunities. We know we have to
do better by our youth in this community.
How can we help support them and bring them into those learning
centers as their first foray into a higher education experience,
along with their parents and larger communities. So you'll hear us
talk more and more about this as we go forward.
But I also want to put that into context. So I had a recent
conversation with Ron Shoopman from ABOR, and he shared some
important and some alarming statistics about what's going on in the
state of Arizona. I shared some of that with the Faculty Senate
leadership earlier today.
Today's ninth grader, ten years from now, only 17 of them of the
100, out of every 100, will get a Bachelor's degree. Only 3 out of
that 100 in that ten-year period of time will get an Associate's
degree.
That is not acceptable. I came from a community, and I saw what
happened in the State of Washington, so many Washingtonians getting
locked out of great opportunities because talent had to be imported
in because the Microsofts and Boeings could not get their talent
source within the state.
That unfortunately is happening in the State of Arizona as we
speak. We are key to making sure that doesn't happen to our
community members. We need to make sure people leave K12 with the
STEM foundation. That's why you hear the provost talk a lot about
that digital literacy component. It's going to grow ever important,
not less important.
We also need to make sure we are infusing the ethics around all
of these technology pieces and focus on the well-rounded human being.
I just want you all to know that that's top of mind for us and
how we think about the way we lead the college.
Also, Bruce and I unexpectedly, I know there was others of us who
were supposed to go to Washington, D.C., for the ACCT legislative
piece, and because of what was going on and so forth, unfortunately
flights got canceled and delayed, so only Bruce and I made it out
there, but we saw a wonderful presentation by the National
Clearinghouse, National Student Clearinghouse. It's a presentation
that I certainly want all the board members to see. Certainly would
be a great presentation for anybody who cares about higher education
to see.
We have enormous challenges ahead of us, driven in large part by
the demographic realities, the shifts that are happening in each and
every one of our communities.
Also had a great meeting with the Foundation board, had a nice
retreat. Thank you, Marcy, for that retreat, to really focus on,
again, strengthening and growing support to the college through the
Foundation.
As you know, we have had some really good recent success and we
want to keep that success going. A lot of it centered on what's the
vision for Pima, where is the future of education going. I'm hoping
to share that with the board but tie it into and show you through
that vision, how we are going to make decisions about the future
financial reality of the institution so that it aligns and allows us
to continue to march in that direction.
We have already been doing it, so that's the great news here at
Pima. I think you're seeing it reflected in the Bellwether awards.
I want to thank David, Ian, Amanda, all the folks who were there
on this trip. Thank you, Demion, for being there. It's always great
to have a board member.
Cat, you'll be the next board member I think we hope to bring,
because you're the chair.
I am hoping that we will submit I think the Pascua Yaqui
partnership, EMT, would be a perfect submittal for a future
Bellwether award. We are going to be looking to submit that piece.
And then we had a student with us. I think it's important to have a
board member, a student, faculty as part of our team. So I'm just so
proud of what we have accomplished in the last three years.
Also, I want to thank a couple of individuals. First of all,
Officer Diana St. John for your generous gift to the college. Your
art collection that you and your husband has donated to us, much
appreciated, and thank you for your service to Pima.
Also want to thank Laurie Wright. You heard this wonderful
auditor's report earlier. Well, a big part of that report are our
federal grants. We have been so successful at Pima in getting
federal grants. Laurie Wright and the team have done a phenomenal
job. Laurie also just retired. Just want to recognize Laurie for
her tremendous service to the college.
Also want to say, and it's been pointed out, I had a chance to
meet with Staff Council, with Faculty Senate, with the adjunct
faculty group, as well. Thank you for your questions, and please
keep them coming. I want to be as transparent and open -- as you
know, Denise, I'm going to tell you what I think, you know, and know
that that doesn't mean that's what we are going to do, but I want you
to know that's what's on my mind, right, and we will work through a
lot of those things. But I think it's important that I share where I
think the future is going and how we can continue to push down that
direction.
Also, just want to mention that some of the questions were about
inclusion. We talk a lot about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and
inclusion of our LGBTQ+ employees was a big part of the conversation.
As you know, we have done the Campus Pride Index. We are going to
work to improve what we are doing here at the college.
Questions have been brought to my attention about our medical and
dental -- medical plans, prescription plans. I just want everyone to
know Pima does a lot in the area of supporting gender-affirming care.
Our plan is not like the state's plan. It's important to keep that
distinction, right?
You might hear about some other entity. Our plan is different.
We will always be glad to share what we do in that front. But also
our prescription plan. Yes, we use Magellan, but if you think about
how that plan is constructed, and how we support the gaps in the
plan, I really encourage all employees, please come and talk to
Denise Morrison and her team before becoming too confused or
disoriented about what is covered and what's not covered.
Denise and her team are so well-prepared to help guide you
through that process. You'll find in many ways that the college will
try its best to support our employees.
So I just want to say again thank you, all. Tomorrow I'm going
to say more about the pandemic and what we have accomplished over the
last two years. We are going to have Dr. Garcia come in and talk
about the state of the pandemic today and where that's going to go
here into the near future.
Things are improving. That's important to note. And as you all
know, NAU has gone public and has lifted their mask mandate. ASU,
last I knew, are talking about doing the same thing. We will
probably hear from U of A in the near future. My understanding is
Maricopa has already announced that it's pulling back from its mask
mandate. The county just recently made its announcement.
A lot of shifts are going to be occurring here in the next few
weeks. Pima has got to look at where it is in the context of all of
that.
With all that, thank you, all, for being at the college and
please enjoy your upcoming spring break. Faculty, especially,
because the rest of us, unless we take leave, we don't get spring
break.
Thank you.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you for those remarks. Thank you
so much. Any questions or comments from the board?
With that, again, thank you, Chancellor, for your remarks. We
will move on to now the information items. The information items
were provided to the board for general information purposes.
If any board member has clarifying questions regarding any of the
information items, please let me know. We can have the chancellor
follow up or add the topic to a future agenda.
With that, our next topic is the consent agenda. The consent
agenda was provided also to our board members for review.
May I have a motion to approve the items on the consent agenda?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: So moved.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Second.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Any discussion? Any opposed?
So with that, all in favor, please signify by saying aye?
(Ayes.)
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Opposed?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Opposed.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Opposed? Two opposed?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: So let me, Chairperson Ripley, the items
-- my understanding is that we are approving the tuition increase, or
am I wrong?
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: That's not part of the consent agenda.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: This is consent agenda. That piece will
come --
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: We'll get to that.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Okay. Forget it.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yeah, this is consent agenda. We will
get to the action items.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Okay. I'm sorry.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: No, that's fine. There is a lot of
moving parts.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: I'm going to change my vote to yes.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: With that, we do have a majority.
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: I do too.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: We do have a majority. Consent agenda
has been approved. Thank you.
The next item are the actual action items. So we will now
consider the action items on the agenda.
Mr. Silvyn, will you please read the first recommendation from
the chancellor? I believe there are two items.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Yes, but we will take them in order
completely separately. I will read the recommendation. The board
can decide what it wants to do on the first item. Once that's
completed, we will move to the second item.
For the first item, the chancellor recommends the Governing Board
approve the college permanently provide student support courses at no
cost for tuition or service fees beginning with academic year 2022
through '23. A list of success support courses will annually be
provided to the Governing Board when tuition and service fees are
set.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you. Do I hear a motion to
approve the chancellor's recommendation?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: So moved.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Second.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: I now open the floor to discussion.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Chairwoman Ripley, if you don't mind if we
just share a little bit more background for this so that way the
board members, before you do take a vote, you just have a greater
context of understanding.
So we have shared a little presentation piece here about the
impact that this has had this last year in which we have implemented
this, and we feel that it has been very positive. And the impact
from a retention standpoint is well worth the consideration for why
we are recommending that we make this a permanent part of what we are
doing.
I don't know if Dave or Dolores, you wanted to add to that.
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Chairperson Ripley, members of the board,
Chancellor Lambert, colleagues and guests. The one thing I might add
is I will do it like as a real quick return-on-investment type of
exercise that sort of follows up on some of the information provided.
So in the information provided it talked about in the fall that
there were 2,000 students who took a certain series of these courses
that now it's been two years running since we have stopped charging
tuition. This was something we initiated two years ago.
And what we are looking to do tonight is just continue that on a
regular basis so that we don't have to come back every year. That's
essentially what this item is about.
To give some context about those 2,000 students, you saw that the
persistence measures improved about 7% for those who were taking the
courses versus those who weren't.
Just a quick way, there are multiple ways you could do
return-on-investment kind of calculation on this, but I will try and
keep it real simple.
If those 7% now who are persistent, that translates into about
140 students, if those 140 students then follow up and take 12 units,
that basically that covers the cost of what those entire 2,000
students we were foregoing for the entire 2,000 students.
That's just tuition, so that's not including also the fact that
when you think about our FTSE and the enrollment, how critical
enrollment is for expenditure limitation, for how the STEM funding is
calculated, how 301 is calculated, and also how 207 is calculated,
enrollment really matters.
So not only is it good from an academic standpoint, it's showing
that, yes, it actually is having a positive return in terms of
student success, which is ultimately the most important thing. I
don't want to make this about the money. This is actually about the
student success.
But on top of that, it's very reasonable to say that providing
these courses and getting the enhanced success from the students also
pays back to the college.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you so much, Dr. Bea, for that
discussion.
Anything else, Chancellor, you'd like to add to the discussion?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: No, other than to say I think our faculty,
like Denise and others, who teach these STU courses make a huge
difference for our students. I think that I guess the PowerPoint we
shared here really highlights, there is learning gains in each
instance.
I think this is hopefully you would see it the same way, I will
use this term, a no-brainer, and I hope you will support passing this
so we can make sure that we can scale this across the entire college
on a permanent, go-forward basis.
>> DR. DOR�: Board chair, if I may, may I comment?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yes, please.
>> DR. DOR�: I think the other thing is that these courses make
the most difference for our most vulnerable students. These courses
are a real game-changer for those students who are falling between
the cracks.
So I just want to applaud the board for supporting this
initiative and all of our STU faculty, because they are really making
a significant difference for our most vulnerable students.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you so much for reiterating that.
Is there any more discussion? Any further? So is there any
objection to ending the discussion? Board Member Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: One quick question. It's a comment.
I think it's ideal in reference to providing what we are going to
be passing. I support it. But more important, the focus of the
students is going to be which area? For example, are we looking at
focusing with the high school students who are going to be graduating
in May? Or are we focusing on students that are returning or which
-- what is the focus of these students? That's what I'm asking. Or
what was the focus?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: If it's okay, I will have Dr. Irene
Robles-Lopez answer for us.
>> DR. IRENE ROBLES-LOPEZ: Sure. Really the STU courses are
offered to all students at Pima College, so again, as we have talked
about how this really helps to support those students that need
additional help with study skills, critical thinking, transfer
strategies, we cover so many things within those courses that really
help our students get the foundation for success, whether they are in
the high school, just coming into college, or if they have been out
in the workforce and then are returning.
So it really is key. As a former counselor, I used to teach the
STU courses. I can tell you the growth, really the bonding that
occurs within the class, it really is key to student success.
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Right. Like I mentioned, I support it,
but I just wanted to see what the focus or the target are with the
young people. Because if it's returning students, as long as they
have demonstrated or -- what I'm trying to say, are those people that
are in good standing or ones that are going to be eligible, correct?
>> DR. IRENE ROBLES-LOPEZ: So all of our students are eligible
to register for an STU class. The majority of them do not have any
type of prerequisite or anything that is required for them to take in
addition to that course.
Many times we recommend these, especially if students are just
starting. So whether it's at the beginning as brand new, incoming
high school students, or those students that are returning, because
it really does help them with that skill building.
And so if a student is struggling, they may be referred to take
an STU class, because maybe they are having challenges with note
taking, and maybe not being sure how to take tests, test-taking
strategies.
So sometimes it can be a recommendation for a student that maybe
is not being as successful as we know they can be, but then also for
a student that is just coming in that wants to make sure they start
off on the right foot.
Dr. Dor� did just put in the chat that students can also take
them as dual enrollment, so again, that high school population as
well as our students that are already regular students at the
college.
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Thank you.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you so much, Irene, for
explaining that.
Any other discussion? If there is no further discussion,
Mr. Silvyn, would you please take a roll call vote to approve the
student success support courses at no cost?
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Sure, be glad to.
Demion Clinco?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Yes.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Maria Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Yes.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Dr. Meredith Hay?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Yes.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Luis Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Yes.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Catherine Ripley?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yes.
So the motion is approved. Thank you very much for that.
The second and last item for our action is the academic year 2022
to 2023 tuition and service fees.
Mr. Silvyn, if you would?
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Yes, be glad to. The chancellor recommends
the Governing Board set tuition and fees for academic year 2022-2023,
including an increase of $2 per credit hour to the instate resident,
nonresident, including summer and online, and differential tuition
rates and maintaining service fees at the current year rates.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Do I hear a motion to approve the
chancellor's recommendation?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: So moved.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Second.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: I now open the floor to discussion.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Madam Chair -- sorry.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Go ahead, Chancellor. You can explain
things up front.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: You want me to go ahead and provide a
context?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Yes.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: As you recall since going into COVID we have
not recommended a tuition increase. So this would be the first year
of us coming before the board asking for this increase.
Also what I'd like to do is have Dr. David Bea provide you a
larger overview. As part of that, Dave will also talk about how we
are connecting the increase to what the students are going to get in
terms of the value of that increase.
Dave?
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Good evening again, Chairperson Ripley,
members of the board, Chancellor Lambert, colleagues and guests.
You can all see the screen? See it okay?
I have a brief presentation tonight to sort of put some context
around the recommendation for the tuition increase and how it fits
into the budget.
So recall we have had a couple of study sessions with the board,
first in November and then more recently in February, to sort of
outline the budget parameters, what some of the expense priorities
were, and to have a conversation with the board about the board's
priorities, what the board was supportive of, what the board wanted
to make sure how we approached things in terms of going forward.
With the feedback related to tuition and fees, and Chancellor
Lambert just mentioned this, it was really clear that the board was
interested only in considering a tuition increase, one, that would
keep tuition as low as possible, and that has been a commitment that
the college has done everything it can to maintain for years, and
then secondarily, that any tuition increase would be tied directly to
things that would benefit the students in a direct way.
And so we talked more specifically in February about what the
recommendations were in terms of a potential tuition increase. Those
were the priorities were institutionalizing initiatives that we were
able to fund from the federal aid that we received through the COVID
relief money, the higher ed emergency relief funds, particularly
related to the student device lending program, so our having tablets
and laptops available to students to borrow, including actually
hotspots as well, which has been popular. I think it's really helped
students who may have come from backgrounds where they don't have
that technology available to them.
So initially we were able to use the federal funds to kick off
that program. As you would expect, if you think a program like that,
as much as we do follow up with students, we do have program to
program ending at a certain time frame, there is damage that happens
to the equipment, and then there is equipment that gets lost.
So firstly, it's to be able to continue that program on a
revolving basis. Then also that there is staffing involved in being
able to prepare the machines, get the machines ready to respond to
students if they are having issues with the equipment, so there is
some staffing dollars involved in providing that support.
So the first part of the ask is about, it's around $600,000
combined for the ongoing needs for the equipment and then for the
staff. We expect there will be at least about $100,000 after we fold
that into the budget from a $2 tuition increase to enhance the
student scholarship money. So the recommendation is a $2 tuition
increase that generates about $700,000.
Again, that would be then directly supporting the ongoing effort
to have the lending equipment available, supporting the lending
equipment, and then enhancing our scholarship dollars a little bit.
Then I'm going to go back, and I went through that already, the
Arizona colleges, our peer institutions, they are in various stages
of their tuition increases and proposals. On average, they are
increasing it $1.75. That's excluding one that I will explain in
just a second when I show the chart.
It's really right around the average what we are talking about
when we are proposing a $2 increase. It's really a range. There are
a few institutions that are at zero, and then there are a number that
are at 3, so we are sort of in the middle of that mix.
And then to show you in comparison to our peer institutions, this
is what the proposed rates appear to be going forward, either what
they have had approved or what they are proposing and where we fit in
with it. We are a little bit on the higher end when you factor in
our service fees.
The one caveat that I said is Central, which is there at $50, I
said that excluding one college, it's $1.75 on average. That's
because Central is going from zero, they used COVID relief money to
provide their students with the opportunity to have zero tuition.
They are phasing back in to what will be a more normal tuition model
over the course of a couple of years. So their upcoming rate will
jump from 0 to 50 and then they are expecting it to go from 50 to 75
in the next year.
If you're wondering why is it so low and why am I saying there's
an exception, it's because there's one college that did something
very dramatically different from the other colleges. But they are
essentially going to be moving toward the normal model also.
So that's where we stand versus our peer institutions, and then
we provided in this chart what does it mean a dollar tuition
increase, what does it mean in terms of all the nonresident rates
because they are proportionately changed, what their change would be.
They are not actually proportional. They add the same dollar amount
for those other programs as well.
Again, the recommendation is to do this last column, the +$2.
The processing fees, technology fees, will all stay the same. And
again, this is reinforcing what the idea is, a moderate $2 increase,
we haven't increased tuition in a couple of years.
Again, it's turning those potential tuition increase dollars
right back to providing ongoing support for those really necessary
student support mechanism.
One other piece I will add when talking about that chart and what
the action was that the board just took a few minutes ago is that we
don't factor in and don't take down the tuition total average or
per-unit amount because we provide those student support courses at
no cost. So that's not factored into it.
I think we are the only, there might be one other school that
does it, I think we are the only one right now that does it, so when
you are looking at that tuition chart, that's for those other
courses. Again, we provide the student success courses at no charge,
which I think we should really take some credit for recognizing the
importance to our student success that that provides.
With that, I will ask if there are any questions or conclude what
my brief presentation was related to this.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Well, first of all, I just want to clearly
state that I do not support a tuition increase, and I'm going to give
my justifications for that.
No. 1, with gas prices being as high as they are going right now,
I really don't think that people can afford any additional increases,
with housing costs as high as they are, with day care as high as they
are. You know, $2 may not seem like a lot of money, but when you
factor in everything else, it can be considerable. It could be a
meal.
Now, the other thing is that I believe that, and this is just
-- I think that with the new -- as I stated before, with the new
housings coming in and college getting additional revenues from the
marijuana money that they are getting and the new housing costs and
you guys have noticed how much that revenue is going to be, I believe
this college can manage with what we have and what we are going to
get and there should be no increase in tuition.
So that's my take on it. Thank you.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you. Board Member Hay has her
hand up.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Yes. Thank you, Chair Ripley.
I wanted just to state my support for the chancellor's proposal.
Primarily, as I stated a few months ago, I don't think the faculty
have seen significant raises in a number of years, whether that's
adjunct faculty or regular faculty as well as staff.
I fully support excellence at Pima Community College, and
excellence means excellent faculty. We can't afford to lose anybody.
While I appreciate Board Member Garcia's acknowledgement of the
increase of costs to the students, there is also increase of costs to
faculty and staff making a living. We have not done a good enough
job, I don't think, in my opinion, to really retain and promote those
faculty members we have. They have done such an extraordinary job in
fulfilling the missions that the chancellor has laid out.
So I am fully supportive of this proposal.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Board Member Garcia? Do you have
another comment?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Board Member Hay, I don't believe that the
tuition increase was connected to the salary increase for faculty, or
to relook at that. My understanding when we had our budget session,
that was not. Tuition increase is different. It's to support
specifically the students for the equipment repairs, providing
additional hotspots.
So correct me if I'm wrong, Dave Bea.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Madam Chair, can I respond to that?
I think you have to first step back and look at things
holistically. Because we are able to use the tuition increases to
now come in behind the HEERF pieces and then to use it to come in
with the STU courses and the like, we now don't have to use other
monies to do that. That money then is freed up to do the things that
Dr. Hay is talking about.
So I think you have to look at it holistically. Otherwise we
will have to make other kinds of choices around those things. So if
you want to see us continue to offer the digital tools and devices,
you want us to be able to do these STU courses, you want us to do
those kinds of things that are a direct benefit to the student, we're
going to have to take it from somewhere else if we don't have this
revenue enhancement.
I don't know, Dave, if you want to add to that.
>> DR. DAVID BEA: I think that was effectively said.
You know, essentially what you'd be saying is there are sort of
two choices, that we don't provide these types of equipment because
they are not supported by tuition, or we do, and then those end up
being funded by other sources, then we have fewer other sources to do
the important things.
What we have been talking about with the study session is there
is a very big increase that in order to make headway on compensations
to address the concerns that our employees have about inflation,
those other revenue sources that Board Member Garcia referenced are
going to be critical for us making good headway in terms of the
compensation issues.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Any other discussion? Board Member
Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Well, I did not hear that in the study
session that we had, Dr. Bea. I guess I would like to see us go back
and relook and you give us other options so that the faculty can get
their increase and we do the correct compensations for them that they
are entitled to, and the staff, but I believe we can get those
revenues from the property taxes.
That's for you to figure out. And I'm done.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: So from my understanding, Dr. Bea, it's an
all-funds budget. So we get funds from multiple different sources.
We have not increased funds from tuition in a while. We have funds
from other sources recently to help fill those holes, as the
chancellor discussed.
I think the faculty deserve and the staff deserve our support,
because quite frankly because the students expect excellence. We
can't retain excellence and we can't recruit excellence unless we can
recruit and retain our faculty.
So from an all-funds budget perspective, it's all funds. It's
tuition dollars, it's real estate dollars, it's tax dollars. It's
all of that. It comes into balance and we allocate those as we see
most appropriate.
Absolutely now is the time to support our faculty and our staff,
and that's through an all-funds budget increase, which includes a
tuition increase.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Any other discussion?
I would just like to add, just to bring it back down to my level,
I guess, so our revenues are tuition, property taxes, and state
funding, which we don't get, so those were the three normal sources
of revenue.
Because of that, we have been creative in getting grants. Very
generous grants. The last one was $5 million. And then the HEERF
monies but the HEERF monies are not sustainable.
We haven't increased property taxes or tuition, because two years
ago we didn't know what was going to happen with COVID. So we did
that knowing at some point, God willing, COVID will end and we are
going to have to regroup, because at the same time, enrollment is
decreasing.
So these are all the moving parts. We are standing up an
enrollment committee. That's really crucial. We are making a more
robust effort at boosting our enrollment resources, the people and
the money that's spent on recruitment. But that has not happened
yet. We are still experiencing a down trend in enrollment.
So it's all numbers. Thank you, Dr. Bea, because it would make
my head explode. But there is a lot of moving parts and a lot of
numbers to crunch. It's really not magic.
So something's got to give, and to me, these are the, like I said
in my opening remarks, these are the hard decisions and the hard work
that we have to do to make sure that we take care of everyone.
I would like to add the class comp study is almost complete, and
we are quite sure there is going to have to be adjustments. Those
adjustments are going to come pretty harshly, and we are going to
have to increase the salaries on people that are not being paid what
they should be paid.
Where is that money going to come from?
So this is where we, as a board, have to make these hard
decisions for the good of the college.
With that, Board Member Clinco, you had some comments or
questions.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you.
Again, I just want to reiterate a number of points that were made
by Dr. Hay and yourself. When I ran for this board, it was not my
vision that we would sit here and have to raise tuition. But the
financial realities of the institution, you know, we've spent
multiple years looking at the ins and outs of the money flows in and
how it is chopped up and carved out and spent.
I simply at this point could not imagine -- what we have seen
with COVID -- you know, at the very beginning of this meeting we had
an enrollment report that talked about -- I think it was at the
beginning of this meeting, might have been an earlier meeting today,
but the enrollment report of just how many students are,
Dr. Duran-Cerda I believe was reporting on how many students are
still going to be online in the summer and how many are going to be,
how many we anticipate online in the fall. Without the technology
tools to support those students, how many will be left behind, unable
to enroll into classes online or with the hotspots needed to be able
to actively participate in this hybrid or a virtual learning space.
I'm hopeful that the pandemic is over. There's still
uncertainty. Again, to everyone's point this evening, yes, inflation
is happening. This tuition proposal is not keeping pace with how
inflation is increasing not just this year but over the last three
years.
I think this is a modest increase that helps us offset some of
the commitments that we have been talking about now for two years
with the compensation study.
Again, it's not something I want to support, but I'm not sure I
see a way to be able to effectively achieve the goals that we have
asked for and have a balanced budget.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you, Board Member Clinco.
Any other discussion or questions or comments?
Yes, Board Member Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: As mentioned before, the inflation is
coming -- it's not coming, it's here. It's impacting a lot of
people, a lot of students, and more important, the families.
As mentioned before, I have always been supportive of what we
have and what Pima is doing, as well, too. But I think right now is
not the time. The rest of the group is correct. We need to provide
our faculty their due compensation, as well, too. But more
important, this impacts the families. I do not agree with the
tuition increase.
That's part of the thing that we need to look at, at all options.
We do have, as mentioned before by Dr. Bea, there is very healthy
reserves for this year. Utilize some of those reserves and do not
raise the tuition. Because I think, and I believe strongly, that if
we do increase even $2, it's going to impact not positive but more
negatively.
That's my opinion. But like I mentioned before, if there is no
other option, utilize it at least one more year. Because inflation
is not coming, it's here. Utilize some of the reserves. That's why
we have them there too.
That's all.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you, Board Member Gonzales.
Any other discussion? Okay. Again, I would like to add that
this is why we are a board. We have to make the tough decisions and
we do have to look at everything from every angle.
If this motion does pass, this vote passes, I want to assure
people that, or even if it doesn't, that we are expending an
inordinate amount of energy and time and resources that out of love
for this school to try to get tuition to as free as possible in
accordance with the Arizona Constitution.
We have done that through donations and grants and scholarships
and apprenticeships. We are going to continue to do that in addition
to providing, like Dr. Bea pointed out, the hardware and the
software, the Wi-Fi spots.
We will try, we will not leave any stone unturned to ensure we
consistently strive towards as free as possible, but until that
happens, this is something that again this is a hard decision we have
to make, and there are so many moving parts. Again, I can't imagine
how much number-crunching had to happen to get to this point.
Again, I agree with Board Member Clinco, this isn't a decision
any of us want to make, but it is one of those hard decisions.
With that, if there is no further discussion, Mr. Silvyn, will
you please make a roll call vote.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Demion Clinco?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Yes.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Maria Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: No.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Dr. Meredith Hay?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Yes.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Luis Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: No.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Catherine Ripley?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yes.
With that, with the majority, this action item does pass. I
think those were the two action items. It was a lot. We got through
them.
The last item on the agenda is request for future agenda items.
Would any board member like to request an agenda topic for a
future meeting?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: I'm requesting that we have face-to-face
meetings for next month. I think it's very critical that we meet.
I think as mentioned before, everybody is lifting their mask
requirement, but I think the next meeting should be a face-to-face
meeting.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you, Board Member Gonzales.
Yes, we are seriously moving towards that. The next meeting may
just be in person. I'm hoping it will.
We are just consulting with the county, with the city, and with
all of the medical professionals to make sure that we can do that
safely, and so, yes, it most likely will happen, yes.
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: And the other thing I mentioned earlier is
that I really would like to see at least rotate our board meetings as
well, too, to the different campuses, beginning with Downtown or
Desert Vista or West Campus, Eastside and Northwest, too.
I think that's something we need to look at and put in the agenda
for discussion, because I think it's important that people want it,
as well, too. Thank you.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Great. Thank you. We will put that on
the agenda.
Any other requests for future agenda items?
Well, we have completed all items on the agenda.
Is there any further business?
Hearing none, is there any objection to adjourn?
Hearing none, we are officially adjourned.
Thank you very much.
(Adjournment.)
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