Progress and Decisions – December 2014

With finals here and winter break just around the corner, it is an extremely busy time of the year. Along with everything else, your governance leaders and committee members have been working hard to complete their year-end work. Read about what is happening.

In this issue:

 

Accreditation

As part of the accreditation process, the District Office and its three colleges hosted visiting teams in October as they conducted an external evaluation of the college’s self-study reports. The teams, assigned by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (ACCJC/WASC), reviewed and validated the assertions and findings in our self-study and wrote a report recommending the level of accreditation to be approved.

The visiting team report has been submitted to the ACCJC and will be reviewed at their January 2015 meeting. Their decision will be announced shortly after that meeting.

The DVC team consisted of eleven members, all from other California Community Colleges. Numerous meetings with team members and representatives from the college, including two open forums, were held and DVC representatives impressed the visiting team with their knowledge, honesty, sincerity and professionalism.

At the exit report the team chair reported that the team would recommend five commendations, three college recommendations, and one District recommendation to the ACCJC. The final determination on both recommendations and commendations rests solely with the Commission.

Governance committee and council reports

Governance meetings are open to all members of the campus community. For up-to-date information on governance and the various documents including those listed above, please visit our new governance website. Also see our new governance meeting calendar!

College Council (CC)

College Council is currently working to combine recommendations from both the IC and the BC into a resource allocation recommendation to the college president for fiscal year 2014-15.

CC reviewed the Student Equity Plan and recommended approval.

CC heard from representatives of the IPC regarding the status of the Facilities Master Plan.

CC is also hearing a recommendation from IPC regarding the regularly scheduled review of the college mission statement.

For more information, please visit:
the College Council website
Current Chairs: Stacey Shears (management) and Patrick Leong (faculty - interim vice chair for fall 2014)

Integration Council (IC)

The Integration Council (IC) continues to work with the Academic Senate Program Review Task Force to assist in the improvement of the program review process, timeline, and templates.

IC has met with members of the Budget Committee and College Council to answer questions about the 2013-15 IC report, which includes narrative commentary on major college-wide needs and themes identified in program review, and the IC prioritized ranked resource allocation recommendations.

The IC is discussing how to further integrate and align the new Strategic Plan into the program review process.

For more information, please visit:
the Integration Council website
Current Chairs: Beth McBrien (faculty) and Marina Crouse (faculty)

Budget Committee (BC)

The BC has submitted the 2014-15 Annual Budget Plan recommendation ($750,216 in one-time funds and $57,636 in ongoing funds) to the CC for review based on: available funds, prioritized program reviews, college wide plans, and district and state mandates. Highlights of the Annual Budget Plan include:

  • a recommendation for on-going IT replacement cycle funding, and
  • $509,221 of onetime funding to be allocated toward the IC Annual Report - Program Review Allocation Recommendations for 2014-15.

Upon completion of the Annual Budget Plan, the BC resumed work on “Phase III”, which involves the review and analysis of current operating budget allocations for all college units.

The BC will submit a recommendation with options for re-allocating operating budgets to the CC by May 2015.

For more information, please visit:
the Budget Committee website
Current chairs: Michael Almaguer (management), second chair, Katrina Keating (faculty)

Institutional Planning Council (IPC)

The IPC is reviewing the DVC mission statement, which is up for its two-year review. IPC members have visited Faculty Senate Council, ASDVC, CC, and Classified Senate. The IPC is recommending rolling over the current mission statement, and coordinating a Task Force in the spring 2015 to examine and potentially revise the Mission, Vision, Values and Philosophy statements for approval in spring 2016. This would align with the start of reviewing and updating the Strategic Plan.

IPC evaluated the progress of the 2007-17 Facilities Master plan (FMP) to assess what has been completed, changed, and is still relevant to college. A draft report was presented at CC. The IPC has requested that CC reconvene a Facilities Committee to monitor the FMP and issues related to facilities.

IPC continues its work on revising the planning template and validation tool for new/revised college-wide plans to better align with SP language and goals.

The council is still struggling with the integration of college plans into governance processes particularly related to resource allocations and progress reports. The IPC is charged with monitoring the progress of the SP, so the council still needs a tool that will help committees responsible for plans integrate their work with Program Review.

For more information, please visit:
the Institutional Planning Council website
Current Chairs: Tish Young (management) co-chair Mauricio Najarro (faculty)

Resource allocation timeline: (remaining)

The governance co-chairs and college president have agreed upon the following timeline/deadlines for the current resource allocation cycle:

December 12, 2014 - College Council will submit its resource allocation recommendation to the College President.

January 24, 2015 – The College President will make a decision on the final resource allocation.

For the charges and functions of the above committees, please see the College Committee Handbook.

All DVC constituencies, including our students, can access our governance committee minutes and agendas through the public website. See links above.