Board of Trustees Meeting
Location
Virtual Zoom meeting: 8:00 a.m.
Minutes
Attendees
Board of Trustees: Chair Sharmila Swenson, Vice Chair Joe Bowman, and Trustee Exstrom present
Executive Cabinet: Josh Gerstman, Summer Korst, Emily Lardner, Jamilyn Penn, John Mosby, Michael Pham, Danielle Slota, Tim Wrye present.
Bruce Marvin (AAG) present.
Study Session call to order: 8:11 a.m.
Discussion Topics
BAS in Early Childhood Ed., Dr. Tanya Powers
- Challenges presented with one degree in BAS in elementary education and early learning (two tracks) – co advising, confusion with students and faculty, financial aid, data collection, etc. Splitting the two tracks into two degree pathways would mitigate these challenges.
- Would like to move forward with separating the two degree tracks into individual BAS programs. Has been approved by the Faculty Senate and the SBCTC. BoT approval needed to submit to the NW commission.
- Currently have 30 students admitted into program
- Request to put forward motion in February 2022
Legislative priorities, Vice President Josh Gerstman
- Opportunities for conversations in Olympia are currently virtual – had hope to supercede this with the HUB ribbon cutting but event was canceled due to public health concerns
- Dr. Mosby hosted Congressman Adam Smith at the HUB – 45 minutes of question and answers. Offered the option to him and his staff to host future meetings at the HUB, particularly ones that involve young audiences
- ACCT NLS in Washington DC – Chair Swenson and Shakira Erickson to attend
- Shared 2022 Supplemental Operating Budget Request from December 16, 2021
- Highline’s Cyber Security program would receive funding from this request
- Financial aid needs are high
- A lot of work occurring at HC providing education for homeless students
- Legislative capital budget request – HC moved to number 3 for the Welcome Center for Student Success
- Chair Swenson asked for data points specific to the supplemental operating budget request items to be used as talking points – JG to provide
Tenure process review, Vice President Dr. Emily Lardner
- May need to consider February meeting timeline – BoT may want to schedule a special meeting. DS to followup with JM and Chair Swneson
- Tenure files will be electronically available
- Reference information provided by VP Lardner here:
- Essentially the role of the trustee is to review file asking the question “were any issues addressed and has the process been fair”
- How has tenure been affected by the great resignation? – Trustee Exstrom
- Consequence of shift to remote teaching did cause a decline in student evaluations in a few quarters as HC had a process of paper evals previously
- Senior faculty are retiring
- Mid Level faculty that are leaving are doing so because their families are relocating
- Has tenure criteria been revised to reflect the need for hybrid teaching moving forward? – Trustee Exstrom
- Tenure has not been adjusted by there is no requirement that every course have a canvas shell so that it has the ability to switch to online modality if needed.
- Starting to review the quality of our online courses.
- Are classroom observations done randomly or are they scheduled – Trustee Bowman
- Tenure is a trust based process. In theory they can happen at any time however they are typically scheduled.
- How does immediate corrective action occur when needed? – Trustee Bowman
- Immediate action is challenging – changes are based on data collection, systematic action based reviews
- How does tenure at HC compare to other institutions in the state? – Chair Swenson
- In community colleges most faculty are working towards and receiving tenure because the hiring process is with the intent to hire successful faculty and retain them.
- Job of Highline is to steward a culture of inquiry – embedded into our culture
- Highline sits in a unique position in its level of diversity and faculty continue to learn in a direction of supporting the diversity that is in the classroom at a particular moment in time
Review of preliminary minutes from Nov. 4, 2021 and Dec. 9, 2021 to be voted on in General Session
- To be voted on in general session
Meeting adjourned at 8:57 a.m.
Board of Trustees Meeting
Location
Virtual Zoom meeting: 9 a.m.
General Session Minutes
Roll Call
Board of Trustees: Chair Sharmila Swenson, Vice Chair Joe Bowman, Trustee Exstrom present
Trustee Savusa absent
Executive Cabinet: Danielle Slota, Josh Gerstman, Aaron Reader, Emily Lardner, John R. Mosby, Michael Pham, Summer Korst, Tim Wrye present
Bruce Marvin (AAG) present
General Session called to order at 9:07 a.m.
Approval of minutes
Approve minutes of the regularly scheduled meeting of Nov. 4, 2021 and Dec. 9, 2021 to be voted on in General Session
- Trustee Exstrom moved to approve the minutes from Nov. 4, 2021. Trustee Bowman seconded the motion. Potion passed unanimously.
- Trustee Exstrom moved to approve the minutes from Dec. 9, 2021. Trustee Bowman seconded the motion. Potion passed unanimously.
Opportunity for public comment
No Public Comment
Standing reports
- Associated Students of Highline College: Mya Leonard
- S&A Budget Committee met yesterday with a full committee scheduled to meet throughout the school year
- Thunderweek events: https://cls.highline.edu/get-involved/events/thunderweek/
- MLK week programming: https://ccie.highline.edu/programs/mlk-week/
- Washington Public Employees Association: No report
- Highline College Education Association: Ben Thomas
- Were hoping for more stability during winter quarter but Omicron did not allow
- Faculty are rolling with hybrid teaching
- Faculty workshops occurring to support faculty in an array of areas on campus including improving practices in student advising
- Pandemic continues to offer challenges but faculty feel supported by Dr. Lardner
- Faculty continue to appreciate the hiring practices of tenure track faculty that exist at Highline
- Faculty Senate: No report
- Highline College Foundation: Sheri Keller
- Embarking on activities informed by the Clifton Strengths Finder as they begin to recruit new members
- Will be replacing the annual spring event with a virtual campaign following model of Mary’s Place
- Annual ask campaign is doing exceptionally well at $16k so far which is approximately 3x more than past years
- Community conversations – hosted an event to discuss effects of census data and what the numbers really mean. Next conversation will be about the local job market
Action items
- No action items
President’s remarks
- Messaging to be sent to community regarding MLK week
Unscheduled business
- No unscheduled business
General Session was adjourned at 9:23 am
Board of Trustees Meeting
Location
Virtual Zoom meeting: 9:40 a.m.
Retreat Minutes
Board of Trustees: Chair Sharmila Swenson, Vice Chair Joe Bowman, Trustee Exstrom present
Trustee Savusa absent
Executive Cabinet: Danielle Slota, Josh Gerstman, Aaron Reader, Emily Lardner, John R. Mosby, Michael Pham, Summer Korst, Tim Wrye present
Bruce Marvin (AAG) present
Retreat Session called to order at 9:45 a.m.
Presentations
- Public Health Updates, Nick Bly
- Presentation slides linked here
- Working hard to encourage all employees and students to stay home if sick
- Mask guidance
- Encouraging KN95s or surgical mask with a cloth mask layered on top
- Received 1000 free N95 masks from King County
- None of these are required by the CDC og DOH but Highline is committed to the safety of our employees and has chosen to take these extra measures to provide a higher level of protection to our community
- Face shields – manufactured here on campus using 3D printing on campus
- Student Services being offered on campus and in person
- Current classroom cap at 24 with flexibility provided to faculty to move their courses online through January 28th to reduce the number of bodies on campus
- Vaccine requirements
- 6800 winter quarter with under 6% of students with exemptions on file and less than 2% of those students taking on-campus and in-person courses
- Testing site on campus managed through a community partnership with King County Public Health. Currently limited to symptomatic cases. Have established a partnership to allow vaccine exempt employees to test weekly.
- Have a process established for a rapid testing site on campus as well but awaiting the delivery of rapid tests to HC. Currently only have enough stock to test athletes.Hoping to be fully up and running for the campus community by week three of the quarter.
- Case investigation
- No direct transmissions through fall quarter
- COVID education, campus safety plans, and event safety planning in place
- Return post COVID
- Isolation post symptoms – Nicki provides follow ups to positive test cases on campus to help determine isolation ranging from 5 days to 10 days dependent on severity of symptoms
- COVID-19 Leadership Team
- Roberts Rules, General Board Practices & Policies, Bruce Marvin AAG
- Presentation slides linked here
- Parliamentary procedures are not laws – they are general practices that a board choses to conduct their business within
- Robert’s Rules currently appears under “quorum” language in the current board practices. Will need to put forth an action item in the future if the board wishes to remove it.
- Bruce Marvin currently represents Bellevue, Olympic, and Highline. Seattle Colleges on an interim basis.
- OPMA – any board action (broad definition) needs to take place in open public meeting.
- Case law holding that the quorum of the board engages in an email dialogue can trigger open public meeting liability.
- Special meeting action needs to include that action in the posted agenda
- Executive Session only approved in cases of lease values on public land, performance of a public employee, etc. Narrow definition.
- Public comment – statutory requirement that does not appear in the open public meeting act but does apply to college board meetings (both general and special sessions).
- APA rulemaking overview to be added to an upcoming agenda – DS
Break
Discussion topics
- Open discussion with Trustees and Cabinet, Q&A
President’s comments
- Constant theme is safety of the institution and the community at large
- Concerns about staffing, services, enrollment, student housing, the “great resignation”, etc. – all are devastating struggles we as a cabinet and the college are currently facing day to day
- Institutional morale is a great concern right now as every single individual is struggling at different levels through the pandemic. The goal is safety and service in education.
- Addressing enrollment in the short term while also building an enrollment recovery plan that can be utilized in times of challenges and peaks. HC was one of the last institutions in the system to experience a challenge with enrollment so the weight is heavy right now.
- Emergency remote teaching played an important role in this but HC has been experiencing a slow decline for 5+ years. The pandemic however has exacerbated this situation to a much higher level.
- Students faced with immediate need for income creating a pull away from education
- Enrollment impacts everyone on campus but impacts different areas differently on the immediate day to day. Initial impacts were on the classroom and faculty, but not that drop is starting to impact all areas of campus including staffing models with difficult and challenging conversations now needing to occur. Budget planning for the coming year is expected to be extremely difficult as federal stimulus money expires.
Trustee Bowman asked if the current state has swayed us from the current values and vision of the college
- Connection to the bigger picture – the passion and connection – is hard to keep on the forefront when operating in survival mode. Physically and mentally disconnected from the larger “why”. – Summer
- Individual units and individual people are experiencing a greater struggle with making connections from their own work to mission, vision and values during times of overwhelm and fear. The intent and desire for the connection are there but the headspace to make it happen is not available. – Tim
- Conversations of “what is your why” – asking leadership to share to help understand where the gaps are. Found that a lot of it wasn’t about the institution, it was very vulnerable and personal information. A need to lift into the work that needs to be done. Next conversation will be about bringing the team back together to an institutional why. – Jamilyn
- Challenge of enrollment is greater for Highline because we don’t have the experience and we are needing to address it at a time when a pandemic is guiding our decision making. – Josh
- Additional challenges lie within different cultures across the college. Faculty have lost income and are now dealing with “how do I keep my health benefits”. Faculty don’t have space to ask “what’s my why” because their consequence is already impacting their households. This means that a student story about financial aid, course drops, etc. are felt as work reduction by some employees where it’s felt as a need for process improvement by others. It’s not a level playing field right now because faculty have been personally impacted already and are now in a state of fear of losing all income after experiencing challenging reductions in income. – Emily
- Cabinet will be starting the budget planning process early this year. Asked for additional time on future agendas to continue budget conversations.
Chair Swenson expressed a desire to learn more about the strategic plan and recruitment strategies in upcoming meetings.
Trustee Exstrom asked that we continue to look at enrollment as a short term emergent need and the long term recruitment need.
Mission Statement: As a public institution of higher education serving a diverse community in a multicultural world and global economy, Highline College promotes student engagement, learning, and achievement, integrates diversity and globalism throughout the college, sustains relationships within its communities, and practices sustainability in human resources, operations, and teaching and learning.