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Published on 11/6/2023.

Comments/Board Business

Land Acknowledgement:  President of the Board Biggin read the District’s revised statement recognizing our area’s Indigenous Peoples as the original stewards of the land that College of the Redwoods occupies. 

We acknowledge that the land on which we are gathered today is unceded territory of the Wiyot, Hupa, Karuk, Mattole, Tolowa, Wailaki, and Yurok. We honor them and all neighboring tribes by our ongoing commitment to developing trusting, reciprocal, and long-lasting partnerships.

Member Comments: Trustees Mullery, Biggin, and Pedrotti mentioned that they attended a Government Relations meeting last month. Trustee Kelley provided a 2023 ACCT Leadership Congress report. Among the topics covered during the Congress was a discussion on global learning integration, an in-depth analysis of the federal appropriations process and its implications for community colleges, and the concern that there’s too much emphasis on appropriations rather than on other legislative priorities. Overall, according to Trustee Kelley, the Leadership Congress was enlightening and productive.

Reinstate Trustee Benefits: The Board of Trustees has been discussing reinstating Trustee benefits for several weeks. The Board agreed to offer benefits to newly elected or appointed Trustees. I will provide a revised BP 2730 at the December Board meeting.

Appoint Ad Hoc Committee on Nominations for Board Officers: The Ad Hoc Committee on Nominations comprised of Trustees Pedrotti, Biggin and Dorn presented a slate of potential officers for next year. Going to the Board for election in December is Trustee Dr. Rebecca Robertson for Board President, Trustee Dr. Mullery for Board Vice President, and Trustee Mathews for Board Clerk.

Set Annual Board Meeting Calendar and Establish Board Meeting Dates, Times and Locations for 2024. The Trustees approved the Board meeting Calendar without discussion. However, the Trustees changed the date of their January Regular meeting from January 2 to the 9. The Trustees also moved the date of the Klamath Trinity meeting from November 5 to September 3.

Consent Calendar Action Items

Approve/Ratify Personnel Actions: The Trustees unanimously approved or ratified several personnel actions at this meeting. We welcome several new classified staff colleagues to our community: Sara Klobucar, Administrative Office Assistant II – LRC and Administrative Secretary II – Career Education; Nick Rosa, Custodian I – Swing Shift; Heather Legg, Early Childhood Education Assistant II; Theresa Lancaster-Huffman, Student Services Specialist II – Basic Needs; and Amanda Staak, Student Development Advisor - Career Center.

I want to congratulate Cheryl Merten for her change of employee status from Administrative Office Coordinator – Campus Safety to Administrative Office Coordinator – Health effective October 16, 2023.

The Trustees also ratified my decision to accept the resignations of Janis Polos, Assistant Professor of Nursing and Mariya McPhearson, ECE Assistant II. We will automatically replace Janis Polos since she resigned her position while in the tenure process.

Contracts, Agreements, MOUs: The Board approved several contracts and agreements at this meeting. There are two contracts I’d like to highlight. The first is the contract with DriveSavers, Inc. We asked them to help us recover our data warehouse information that we lost several weeks ago. I want to provide a bit more information on the Professional Personnel Leasing (PPL) contract. This is a consulting agreement for coaching and technical assistance for the Interim Director of Human Resources not the Interim Assistant Vice President of HR.

Curriculum Changes: The Board approved a curriculum agenda item that included several course/degree deactivations and revisions. I want to note that several new courses or course revisions will help us meet the CSU Area F (Ethnic Studies) requirement. 

Dr. Stacey Anne Salinas created an ASAM 1 Introduction to Asian American Studies that philosophically, students graduating college with a degree ought to have the option of taking in order to navigate and challenge the social and political frameworks and systems historically undergirded by institutional racism and other interlinked sites of discrimination and oppression in the United States and beyond. By learning the histories, movements, and methods of dismantling oppressive spaces, policies, systems, and perspectives, students can effectively serve as co-conspirators for a more civil, democratic, and empathetic society. Another key goal of this course is to equip students— through course readings, writing assignments, in-depth section discussions, and examinations—with a working knowledge of interdisciplinary theories and methods that they will learn to critically and systematically apply in the process of evaluating a range of issues not just in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Desi, and Pacific Islander communities, but American culture and society more broadly.

History 24 The African American in the United States to 1877 and History 25 The African American in the United States Since 1865 were deactivated. Dr. Stacey Anne Salinas introduced, and the Academic Senate and Board of Trustees approved, AFAM 1 Introduction to African American Studies, AFAM 2 The African American in the United States to 1877 and AFAM 3 The African American in the United States Since 1865.

Approve Naming Recommendation for Mr. Dan Phillips: I want to thank the Board of Trustees for approving the recommendation to name the wrestling room in the new physical education building “The Phillips Family Wrestling Room" after Dan Phillips. Mr. Dan Phillips is a co-chair of the President’s Advisory Council, a former CR football player and wrestler, and pledged $100,000 to CR Athletics. The recommendation satisfied the requirements set out in Board Policy 6620 and Administrative Procedure 6620. The Expanded Cabinet, Executive Cabinet, the Foundation, the Management Council, CSEA, and the Academic Senate supported the request.

Action/Discussion Items

Approve Monthly Financial Status Report:  This month’s financial report noted that we did not make any adjustments to the budget since its adoption in September. Our expenditures are tracking well with budgeted amounts; however, Capital Outlay is significantly higher due to the purchase of Lexipol, a service utilized by the CR Police Department to assist with developing and maintaining industry standard Public Safety Policies, furniture in the new Creative Arts Complex for administrative spaces, and seven replacement servers.  The 2023-24 Beginning Fund balance is still an estimate since we are currently working through closing the books for the 2022-23 fiscal year.

The report continued to show that the $1,414,720 in total transfers out are comprised of $90,000 to the Child Development Center, $74,720 to the Shively Farm, $750,000 to the OPEB fund, and $500,000 to the Debt Service Fund.

Informational Reports

Institutional Self Evaluation Report (ISER): We presented an ISER draft of Standards I-IV for the Board’s first read. If you look at the draft document, please keep in mind that the accreditation language is reflected in red, and the evidence is represented using an internal numbering system. This formatting will allow our Accreditation Oversight Committee to ensure that all recommended changes are reflected in the document. The document’s formatting will be revised to adhere to the ACCJC’s style guidelines by the time it is presented to the Board for approval at the December meeting. We intend to send a revised draft back through the constituent review process in the next few weeks.

The Trustees expressed their appreciation for the work involved in writing the document.

Recognition: My Cabinet colleagues and I believe that we must take as many opportunities as possible to recognize the outstanding achievements of our faculty, staff, managers, and students. In this inaugural Board of Trustees agenda item, we recognized Assistant Professor Lupe Galván for having his artwork included in two articles (see attached).  We believe that our students and our local art community will benefit profoundly by having Lupe as a faculty member at College of the Redwoods. Here is a link to a YouTube video sharing Lupe’s background and artistic philosophy and process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is40KUhIAis

Organizational Reports

Academic Senate: President Dr. Herrera's written report noted that the Academic Senate leadership has continued to be engaged with the Academic Senate of California Community Colleges. Deanna Herrera has attended the Area A conference to review resolutions that will be voted on at plenary. Feedback from faculty was requested and provided. The Senate President will be the delegate at plenary in mid-November to vote on a variety of resolutions. The proposed Bylaws committee was reviewed by the Senate and is up for Action on November 3. The updated Distance Education Master Plan was authored by Leigh Dooley and feedback was provided by the Senate to this plan and will be voted on for approval on November 3. Senate leaders were invited to the Presidents Council to discuss new directions for the council in supporting program areas and foundational skills graduates should gain from any program. The following were forwarded by the Senate leadership: Ethics, Cultural Competency, Communication, and Leadership skills and to instill and Openness to Learning. The Senate Executive Committee Bylaws will be determined November 3. Because the Senate has focused on its own guiding documents and these are being approved, there will be more opportunities to build on discussions regarding future resolutions related to Faculty Prioritization, Program Review, the activities in the 1 of 10+1, and committee membership. The BPC will provide a report on Program Audits to the Senate November 3.   

In her verbal comments, President Dr. Herrera thanked the faculty who agreed to serve on various committees. She also acknowledged the phenomenal work that Leigh Dooley did on the CVC-OEI and the Distance Education Master Plan.

CRFO: President Haggerty’s written report noted a few things that the College of the Redwoods Faculty Organization (CRFO) is working on currently.

• California Community Colleges Independents (CCCI) meeting: Last week officers of CRFO traveled to San Diego to meet with the 13 other colleges that are in our independent’s union group. We meet with these colleges for a three-day meeting one time a semester. It is always great to connect with our colleagues from throughout the state and hear about what is occurring on other campuses and on statewide initiatives. Frequently we have members of the Chancellor’s Office and legal counsel present at these meetings for more information sharing.
• Technology issues: I am sorry to start with something negative, but I feel the need to bring to your attention an issue that all members of the campus community have been deeply affected by this semester. We are all aware of the failure of the server at the beginning of the school year. The failure caused irreparable data loss and affected the timelines of some of our most essential processes, causing postponements and disrupting communication. Next, we all needed to start using the “Authenticator” application to gain access to email and Canvas, which created access issues for many. It is my understanding that this authentication creates a “geofence” that locks out students and faculty from access to CR programs when out of the country also. Additionally, last week access to at least one library database was not available due to the need to renew a license. This affected students working on research papers and faculty who’ve been helping them find academic sources, since we rely on the library databases for our research process. Last, but not least, this week (10/30/23) we had an alarming Canvas issue, which made all active Canvas courses disappear from our dashboards. All students and faculty experienced this issue, which caused panicked students to email their instructors into the night. The course shells were restored the next day, however, some faculty experienced loss of work that had been graded for students. Aside from instruction, Canvas is also used for the evaluation process: student evaluations are administered on Canvas and faculty's online classes are evaluated on Canvas. All classes that are being evaluated were also gone from the evaluators’ dashboards and needed to be re-added manually. These are some of the technological issues we’ve had to face in the last few months. Since we rely on technology in every aspect of our professional lives at CR, all disruptions, especially major disruptions mentioned, affect our ability to serve our students so that they can be successful in their chosen paths. This is the mission of the college, and it’s why we do what we do. I know that all campus departments work hard to make instruction move smoothly. However, smooth is not how technology has been perceived this semester. I have personally heard many students complain about this and have tried to reassure them that we will figure it out. I worry about the students that I have not heard from, the ones we have lost this semester due to these issues. CRFO urges the board and the administration to look for ways to reduce the barriers of access to the college’s systems as well as having a continued commitment to proactively preventing disruptions and to being prepared to respond quickly when they do occur.
• Building community: The words “building community” have been used by many of us in the last few years as we transition out of Covid times. When CRFO officers met with our CCCI colleagues last week we heard many of them talk about interactions they have with their respective board members. Historically at CR we were told that these interactions were illegal, but we have all learned this is not the case. Faculty appreciate the hard work that the board members do for our campus community. CRFO is brainstorming ways that we can sponsor interactions between board members and faculty. Look forward to hearing more about this in the future.
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA): DEIA is an acronym that I have used in conversations with faculty, administrators, and statewide colleagues many times in the last few years. This acronym is a new one, but the work is not new in our campus community. I want to highlight that faculty have been working hard on these initiatives at our college since I came to this campus 21 years ago. Faculty efforts are behind updates for inclusive curriculum, advocating for a multicultural center, creating a college equity plan, and establishing student groups that create an inclusive and supportive environment for our students. I think it is important that we honor and celebrate this work!

CSEA: President Engman’s report noted that:

• CSEA Leadership and the Negotiations team are working to prepare a survey that will go out to membership, in preparation of negotiations of our successor contract, which begins July 1, 2024.
• We have started the nomination process for 1st Vice President, Vice President – Del Norte, Treasurer and Communications Officer. We will hold nominations again at our November chapter meeting and hold election(s) at our December meeting if necessary.
• We have begun the preparations process for our December chapter meeting, which includes our annual basket fundraiser. Individuals, departments or programs donate items, the President’s Office graciously allows us to display the items, we sell tickets, and then draw names/winners at our December meeting. We hope to begin ticket sales on December 1st, and we always appreciate the support we receive from everyone!
• Next month, I hope to provide information related to bills that CSEA’s legislative team, along with the Board of Directors, has voted to support or oppose.

Management Council: President Barber highlighted the important work of our managers from Dining Services, Shively Farm, and the new Pride and Dreamers Center. 

• Dining Services and the Shively Farm continue to collaborate on special events both on and off campus. In September, they sold out of seats at the Farm-To-Table dinner at the Wharfinger Building. Chef Anthony Finck curated an 8-course meal using ingredients directly from the farm. On campus on October 11^th, they joined forces with other departments to put on the first annual Fall Fest for students. Approximately 275 people attended Fall Fest activities and participated in pumpkin painting (hosted by the Multicultural and Equity Center). They also enjoyed fresh pressed apple cider direct from the farm, created garland at the marigold workshop, and sampled food specials including a giant turkey leg.  
• A grand opening of The Pride and Dreamer Center was held on October 23^rd featuring a ribbon cutting, games, music, and food. The Pride and Dreamer Center, located near and connected to the Multicultural Center, will provide programming, services, and resources for undocumented and LGBTQ+ students. Under the direction of the Dreamer Resource Liaison, or UndocuLiaison Irene Gonzalez-Herrera; Irene is knowledgeable in available financial aid, social services, state-funded immigration legal services, internships, externships, and academic opportunities for all students meeting the requirements outlined in Section 68130.5, including undocumented students. Additionally, under the guidance of the LGBTQ+ Campus Liaisons Irene Gonzalez-Herrera and Katy Ferrier, the space will be assisting with the following support:

• Serve as a main point of contact for students to access community and support on campus
• Receive reports of students who experiences bias treatment on campus based on their gender and sexuality and act as liaison with Title IX and other offices as appropriate
• Work with planning groups for LGBTQ+ focused programming and events
• Encourage campus participation in CCC LGBTQIA+ Summit
• Consult on new policies and procedures affecting queer and trans students such as chosen name and pronoun implementation programs
• Create allyship trainings and workshops for the campus
• Consult or lead spending of AB 132 funds
• Advocate for LGBTQIA+ needs and concerns on campus and in assigned shared governance meetings.

• Student Trustee: In her report, Student Trustee Godfrey noted that:
• The ASCR is currently working with Interior Designer Sharon Hunter to choose new furniture for the ASCR office in LRC 104B and expects to begin ordering furnishings at its second meeting in November.
• The ASCR had good turnout to each Halloweek event and most if not all of the food provided was claimed each day. The planned dance unfortunately needed to be canceled but the ASCR is looking forward to more events later this year and a draft on a dance during December is being looked at.  
• The ASCR has had a large amount of interest in the open senator positions after a poster and text campaign regarding them was held. Many students have inquired for more information regarding ASCR and three applications have been submitted that are under review. The ASCR hopes to campaign the open positions more in efforts to have a full senate by the end of the fall semester. 
• ASCR Advisor Todd Olsen resigned from the position 10/24/2023. Vice President of Student Services Dr. Crystal Morse has stepped in as interim Advisor of the ASCR for the remainder of the fall term while a new advisor is recruited. 
• The ASCR is planning on a workshop mid-November with some speakers from administration and other departments of CR to better understand the roles of student government and to draft updates to the ASCR bylaws to better define certain procedures and club guidelines. 

Administrative Reports

President/Superintendent's Report: Included in my written report was a summary of the Community College Baccalaureate Degree Program, a mention of two Title 5 regulatory revisions approved by the Board of Governors, a brief list of pertinent legislation signed and/or vetoed by the Governor, and an update on joint CR/Cal Poly Healthcare Education Hub work. I also noted that:

• The College of the Redwoods Men’s and Women’s wrestling started this fall semester. Most recently, CR's wrestlers competed in the Modesto Invitational and the Simpson Dual competitions and a match with Sierra College. The President attended the Simpson Dual and the Sierra College matches. Here is a link to a few pictures from the Modesto Invitational meet: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tech-fall/albums/72177720311826358/page2
• Standard III.A.14 calls on the College to provide personnel with appropriate opportunities for continued professional development, consistent with the institutional mission and based on evolving pedagogy, technology, and learning needs. There are several examples of the College meeting this accreditation standard including offering a novel professional development leave opportunity to CR’s permanent senior executive staff. With this professional development leave program, several administrators shall be expected to make full use of a professional development leave in accordance with the several criteria including: after two (2) years of full-time continuous administrative service a leave shall be granted for 30 calendar days; the program to be followed must be approved by the President/Superintendent; the leave shall be at a time convenient to the College; all work developed directly related to the professional development leave program will belong to the Redwoods Community College District; and if granted leave, the administrator must agree to return to the College for a minimum of one year after the completion of leave. The College also sponsored Management Council member Katy Ferrier to attend the Eureka Chamber of Commerce class, Management: Navigating for Success and Lisa Gaetje, Crystal Morse, Alia Dunphy, and Colin Trujillo to participate in the Leadership Redwood Coast program through the Eureka Chamber.

In my verbal comments, I noted that I intend to send a letter to Senator McGuires requesting an augmentation to the Healthcare Hub budget.

Vice President of Instruction Report: Lisa’s written report focused on the following:

• On Oct 21, under the leadership of Professor Karen Reiss, biology students were on the Eureka Campus identifying plant and bird species at the Bioblitz event. During the event, 157 species were noted, ranging from mosses to grasses to salamanders, birds, and fungi. Twenty-six students and past students uploaded observations. Some of those were out in the pre-dawn light to bird the “dawn chorus”, and many stayed well into the afternoon. The Focus Groups were well attended. Bioblitz featured the first focus group led by a student, "Trees and Shrubs by Molly," which was excellent and well-received. Over multiple semesters of this event, CR's Biology faculty have led 292 observers to have made over 3,000 observations of 663 unique species.
• CR Adult Education staff work tirelessly to help students transition to Career Education or transfer areas and have been innovative in taking our programming into the jails. Though many instructors have been a part of this work, Professor Wendy Butler and Student Development Advisor Jonny Maiullo are among the pioneers of this work. Professor Butler and Mr. Maiullo were invited to speak on Thursday Night Talk on Oct 12 about their experiences with education in the jail setting. The show aired on KZZH-LP 96.7 FM and streamed at kzzh.accesshumboldt.net.
• CR continues to work with its K-12 partners to find ways to provide early college experiences to Humboldt and Del Norte students. The College is experimenting with traditional dual and concurrent approaches toward the Chancellor’s Office goal of all high school students graduating with college credits. Professor Kyle Shamp (Welding) and Professor Robert Landry (Agriculture) are among CR's faculty members leading the way in early college partnerships. The local K-12 schools have been grateful for CR's willingness to find win-win approaches to providing college credit opportunities to high school students.

In her verbal comments, Lisa mentioned that the Deans understand the importance of increasing overall enrollment, increaseing dual enrollment and providing a mix of face-to-face and virtual classes that optimizes enrollment. She also mentioned that CR will “go live” as a teaching college at the end of November.

Vice President of Administrative Services Report: Included in Julia’s written report was updates on the UIR and Community Stadium Projects and her takeaways from the Fall 2023 ACBO Conference.

• The final phases of the UIR project are near completion. The new water tanks are in use and the demolition of the old tanks is almost done. The outside area behind the Eureka Campus cafeteria will be used for the new Aquaculture program's outdoor lab. 
• The design team has been making great progress on designing the new artificial turf field, widened track, seating, and lighting. The project will be broken out into two distinct phases. Phase 1 is based on the current project budget and should include the widened track and artificial field. Attached please find an initial rendering of the new track and field. The building in the background is the new Fieldhouse.
• The Association of Chief Business Officials (ACBO) conference covered topics such as leadership and ethics, the Faculty Obligation Number (FON), managing through a fiscal downturn, student accounts receivable management, steps for a successful bond measure, student housing, and more. Julia was thankful that several of the proposed best practices are already in place at CR. 

Vice President of Student Services Report: Crystal’s written report mentioned that a cross-functional team of employees across the student services is actively engaged in multiple in-reach and outreach events to support student enrollment for Spring 2024 and beyond. The team, comprised of Outreach staff, Enrollment Services Advisors, Special Programs staff, and admissions/financial aid experts, is focused on a combination of high-volume calling campaigns to students not yet registered for spring classes, as well as outreach events to local High Schools for application workshops, partnership events with the Eel River Community School's Fall Family Night and partnership events with Cal Poly Humboldt for the upcoming American Indian Motivation Day and Cal Poly Senior Saturday.  

Crystal thanked the staff of KTIS for hosting the Board of Trustees meeting and thanked Misty Knight for all the work she’s done to support student success and achievement of KT students and for her contributions to the overall functioning of the District. Crystal also noted how much the Student Services and the IS staff contributed to CR’s successful application to become a teaching college in the CVC-OEI.

Interim Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives: Kerry provided a brief summary of the potential new academic programs we’re considering. She mentioned that she secured regional approval from the North Far North Regional Consortium (NFNRC) to move forward with proposals for the following new programs: Healthcare Navigation/Patient Care Coordination, Personal Wellness Training, Psychiatric Technician, Respiratory Therapy, and Surgical Technician.

Additionally, we also received positive Labor Market Analysis reports from the NFNRC's research office related to the viability of Engineering Technology/Pre-engineering and Offshore Wind Technology. The next step in the regional approval process for these potential programs is to submit draft program proposals to the NFNRC for their consideration. She is currently working with industry partners in Offshore Wind to draft the program proposal for an AS degree and Certificate of Achievement in Wind Turbine Technology and with Cal Poly Humboldt partners in the Engineering Department to develop a program proposal for an AS degree in Engineering Technology. These programs will be forwarded to the Office of Instruction for review under the AP 4020 process should the program proposals receive regional approval.

Kerry informed the Trustees that we are closing in on the final design of the Healthcare Hub.

Executive Director of College Advancement and the Foundation: Marty’s report noted that a memorial bench has been purchased in honor of Mark "Radar" Sigsworth, a longtime employee of College of the Redwoods. Radar's memorial bench will be located in the Applied Technology Courtyard and is due to be delivered in late November. Donations can be made at:  https://app.donorview.com/pqPlp.

He also mentioned that the dedication ceremony for the Floyd Bettiga Art Gallery has been moved to February 2024, he met with Assistant Professor Valerie Elder, Forestry and Natural Resources, and with Colin Campbell, Green Diamond, on the establishment of a Green Diamond endowed fund to benefit the Forestry and Natural Resources Program and trade programs related to the industry, and the Foundation’s Presidential Innovation Funds Grants Committee will meet in November to review faculty, staff, and economic development applications. We received seven academic, three economic, and four staff innovation applications. The awards will be given in December.