The Southeastern Illinois College Board of Trustees met Dec. 6 to analyze the impact of the 2016 elections.
Here are the meeting's minutes, as provided by the board:
"The Southeastern Illinois College Board of Trustees holds its regularly scheduled meetings on the third Tuesday of each month (unless otherwise posted) at 6:00 p.m. in the Rodney J. Brenner Board Room located in the Harry W. Abell Administration Building. A meeting schedule is provided to local media per the guidelines of the Open Meetings Act and the Illinois Public Community College Act."
MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES REGULAR MEETING SOUTHEASTERN ILLINOIS COLLEGE 3575 COLLEGE ROAD; HARRISBURG, IL 62946 DECEMBER 6, 2016
The Southeastern Illinois College Board of Trustees held its regular meeting on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 at 6:00 pm in the Rodney J. Brenner Board Room. On roll call, the following members were present: David Dennison, Debbie Hughes, Jim Ellis, Richard Morgan, Dr. Frank Barbre, Dr. Pat York, and Bridget Fitzpatrick, student trustee. Absent: Blake Bradley. Also present were: Dr. Jonah Rice, Dr. Karen Weiss, Chad Flannery, David Wright, Gina Sirach, Karla Lewis, Dr. Diane King, Jason Fitzgerald, Matt Businaro, and Barbara Potter.
Dr. York welcomed guests and allowed a time for comment.
Mr. Matt Businaro, Kemper CPA, presented the financial statement audit report for the year ending June 30, 2016. He commended Mr. David Wright as Chief Financial Officer for his high professional standards and practices. He reported that at the end of fiscal year 2016 the total net revenues of the college had decreased by $2,646,957 mainly due to the reduction in state funding.
Reports
Dr. Frank Barbre reported that the ICCTA Board of Representatives took the following actions at its November 12, 2016 meeting at the Chicago Marriott Naperville Hotel in Naperville, Illinois: Adopted a resolution to “endorse and support the Illinois Council of Community College Presidents in the pursuit of the option of Illinois community colleges conveying the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree.” The Illinois Senate Higher Education Committee has scheduled a subject matter hearing on the BSN degree for November 16 in Springfield; Received copies of ICCTA’s report on “The Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Illinois Community Colleges”; Analyzed the impact of the 2016 elections on the state’s budget stalemate; Encouraged trustees to invite their lawmakers on campus in January/February 2017, when the legislative session is not as hectic; Reminded trustees of the February 13-16, 2017 National Legislative Summit in Washington, D.C.; Approved a motion to limit ICCTA award eligibility to member colleges; Were informed that ICCTA’s Trustee Roundtable participants discussed fiscal management and college athletics; Learned that the ICCTA Strategic Planning Committee continues to gather trustee input and will extend the deadline to respond to its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats survey to December 1; Were informed that ICCTA’s November 11 “Legal, Legislative and Ethics Update” featured sessions on the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act, the Freedom of Information Act, the Illinois Open Meetings Act, procedures for the April 2017 trustee elections, and guidance on college foundations; Noted the passing of James Polk (Illinois Central), a past chair of ICCTA’s Diversity and Trustee Education Committees and a former board member of the Association of Community College Trustees; Recognized Reggie Coleman (John Wood) and Dr. Charles Middleton (City Colleges) for their service on ICCTA’s 2016-2016 Executive Committee; Honored Dick Cheney (Danville), a 24-year trustee who is not seeking re-election in April 2017; Congratulated Diane Gallagher (Highland) on receiving ACCT’s 2016 M. Dale Ensign Trustee Award, and the College of Lake County on receiving ACCT’s Charles Kennedy Equity Award;
Acknowledged Greg Knott (Parkland) on his re-election to the ACCT board, and Amanda Howland (Lake County) on her election as Central Region representative on the ACCT Diversity Committee; Received reports on the activities of the Illinois Community College Board, the ICCB Student Advisory Committee, the Presidents Council, and ACCT; and Thanked ICCTA’s November meeting sponsors OpTerra Energy Services and Robbins Schwartz. The next meeting of the ICCTA Representatives will take place in January or February with details to be announced by ICCTA soon.
Dr. Rice reported on the following items: Matt Berry from the ICCB spoke at the Regional Trustees Meeting in place of Karen Hunter-Anderson and Mike Monaghan who both had to cancel. Trustees were informed of the dire situation of higher education in Illinois and the impact on community colleges; According to the IGEN director who spoke at a recent president’s council meeting, the SIC’s biofuels program is “one of the success stories of the TACC grants.” We have taken more aggressive marketing techniques for this regional and national program, targeting population areas where biofuels plants are located; Sources say U of I’s Compact for Predictable Funding proposal is DOA. The compact requested funding for U of I only in return for certain performance and financial performance indicators.; We plan on housing a new low-cost program at Carmi that will require some modest remodeling. Funds may come from the General Obligation Bond for capital purposes. We expect to see new revenue for this program. We also plan on moving a program to the Carmi Center next year to expand to a new population base in a shared capacity. We have secured a donation of equipment for the program, should all go according to plan, valued into the thousands.; The IBHE has granted $17 million in emergency funds per the stop gap appropriation for three universities in trouble. The remaining $3 million will go to community colleges. If we are truly going to have to subsist on possibly only 50% State funding in the future (which would be welcome even today since we are only at 33% funding), that would mean we would have to adjust to a $2.4 million reduction every year starting 2018. Our GAP plan goal is to reduce/raise a combination of $1 million for FY 18. Should we actually have to reduce/raise another million plus, it would most likely be a multi-year process step down with additional bonding required in order to allow us to phase in structured reductions over another 24 month period. We have discussed such planning with the BOT subcommittee.; I met with union representatives and the division chairs as well as key cabinet and administrative personnel to discuss the ICCB fiscal outlay for higher education in Illinois as well as the status of SIC as a result of the State’s shortchanging us of millions last year and this year. I requested ideas to be given to me if anyone had anything to offer. I want to maintain open communication and stay within protocol channels per governance norms. SICEA has prepared a letter with ideas. We have met and I plan on continued discussions on campus with stakeholder groups and cabinet. Such items will be engaged with the Board of Trustees finance subcommittee.; In State Election news six legislative races surpassed the $4 million mark - a level that was reached just once two years ago (Sen. Mike Jacobs' loss). And a total of 16 have hit the $2 million mark, a level which was reached just once in the House two years ago. Senator-Elect Fowler visited campus just before Thanksgiving. We had a good visit and discussed SIC’s finances. S-E Fowler was very receptive to our needs and also toured our diesel and coal mining training areas.; Legislative issues that are key to us per president’s council are: Funding: flat hopeful, but the new norm may be only 50% of what the State owes us; BSN: Informational hearings have been held in the Senate. This will most likely take years to happen. SIU-C is opposed as are other State Universities; MAP: This is not the burning issue as it is for universities; Local Control: We must be mindful of the erosion of local control.; Connect SI is dissolving. It has run its course and is now being dissolved. In the Federal Election we will be monitoring issues such as Gainful Employment. There is speculation that gainful employment regulations will be eliminated by the Trump administration. The pros should that happen is that it reduces cumbersome and time-consuming paperwork with questionable direct use by the institution or consumers. In cons, for-profit colleges that use taxpayer dollars (Pell) for questionable credentials will most likely flourish again as there will be less consumer information and career counseling tools. Multiple other HR issues will most likely be engaged under a Trump administration such as educational policy issues. For instance, the deadline to deliver the ACA forms per IRS requirements has been updated to March 2, 2017 as opposed to January 31, 2017. Some employers need additional time to be ready to file reports. Federal Grant Submission for Title III application is in the works.; We are planning on a meeting in late March for an official launch and ribbon cutting for the Memorial Fountain on the patio. It will be on the same day as the SICF quarterly meeting, March 29 at 9:00 am. I am poised to send our SICCM letter to pull from the group later this month. I will include in the letter our right to property and capital per By-Laws. We (other colleges) expect a fight over this from the remaining member(s). SIU wants to keep SICCM going and use it for international recruiting and other such partnerships. I will let them know that such relationships may occur via IGA and no need exists for an administratively bloated organization like SICCM. Central Animal Hospital and a few other vets in the Williamson-Jackson area want to keep vet tech via letters of support. The vet tech director told our allied health director that she saw no need for the vet tech program due to low completion rates and lack of ROI. In SIC Foundation news we had a great meeting at Morello’s for the Foundation’s annual Holiday quarterly meeting. Officers remain the same for next year. The Graves Scholarship was renewed. The new process was approved and will be followed.
The administrative cabinet presented brief reports.
Student trustee Bridget Fitzpatrick reported on some student initiatives and club events.
Consent Agenda
A motion was made by Trustee Ellis and seconded by Trustee Dennison to approve the consent agenda which included the October 18, 2016 regular and closed session minutes, destroying tapes of the May 2015 closed session, the Treasurer’s report and the October bills which totaled $1,310,116.03 that included $540,082.16 in payroll.
On roll call the following members voted:
Aye Nay Mr. Dennison Ms. Hughes Mr. Ellis Mr. Morgan Dr. Barbre
Dr. York Ms. Fitzpatrick, Advisory Vote
All members voted aye. Motion carried.
Action Items
A motion was made by Trustee Ellis seconded by Trustee Dennison that the Board of Trustees approve the Certificate of Tax Levy for 2016 as presented in the board packet.
All members voted aye. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Trustee Morgan seconded by Trustee Barbre that the Board of Trustees approve the annual audit as presented by Matt Businaro, Kemper CPA Group.
All members voted aye. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Trustee Hughes seconded by Trustee Dennison that the Board of Trustees approve the budget transfers as presented in the board packet.
A motion was made by Trustee Barbre seconded by Trustee Ellis that the Board of Trustees approve the revision to the College 403b plan.
All members voted aye. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Trustee Barbre seconded by Trustee Hughes that the Board of Trustees approve to adopt the 2017 Board of Trustee meeting dates and times. The approved dates were the following with the times beginning at 6:00 pm:
January 17 February 21 March 21 April 18 May 23 July 11 August 15 September 19 October 17 December 5
All members voted aye. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Trustee Dennison seconded by Trustee Ellis that the Board of Trustees approve to adopt a master joint agreement between Rend Lake College/Shawnee Community College and Southeastern Illinois College.
All members voted aye. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Trustee Morgan seconded by Trustee Hughes that the Board of Trustees approve the following resolution to withdraw from SICCM.
RESOLUTION
Whereas, Southeastern Illinois College is a founding member of the Southern Illinois Collegiate Common Market (SICCM), and has benefitted from shared programming for many years;
Whereas, State fiscal reductions in higher education, diminished credit hour reimbursement, excessive SICCM administrative costs, program retention/completion concerns, and other related challenges have occurred;
Be resolved that Southeastern Illinois College hereby grants authority to the President/CEO to fully withdraw from SICCM and seek recovery of SIC’s portion of capital investment, including all property and tangible assets, at a time the President/CEO chooses to execute.
Further, this Board emphasizes SICCM By-Laws, Article III, Section 8 “Autonomy of Member Institutions” that SICCM “shall have no authority over the internal affairs of the member institutions nor shall the corporation be regarded as conflicting with affiliation by its members with any other state, regional or national groups or ongoing actions of any nature.”
As such, SIC has full autonomy to enter into other agreements and/or engage in its own programs without external interference from SICCM members.
All members voted aye. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Trustee Hughes seconded by Trustee Barbre that the Board of Trustees approve the recommendations of the curriculum committee.
All members voted aye. Motion carried.
Non-Action Items
In non-action items, the Board was presented with a first reading to revise the Email Retention policy 4024 and a letter from the Higher Leaning Commission regarding SIC’s Open Pathway Comprehensive Evaluation visit is scheduled for April 22 and 23, 2019.
Closed Session
A motion was made by Trustee Morgan seconded by Trustee Dennison to convene into closed session as allowed by the Open Meetings Act 5 ILCS 120/2, Section C, Sub-Section (1) appointment, employment, and compensation of specific employees, (2) negotiations, (5) acquisitions of property, (9) student discipline, and (11) litigation. The board went into closed session at 7:33 pm.
On roll call, the following members voted:
Aye Nay Mr. Dennison Ms. Hughes Mr. Ellis Mr. Morgan Dr. Barbre Dr. York Ms. Fitzpatrick, Advisory Vote
A motion was made by Trustee Dennison seconded by Trustee Hughes to reconvene into open session at 8:01 pm.
Personnel
A motion was made by Trustee Ellis and seconded by Trustee Morgan to approve all items under personnel.
Approved a revision to the Part-time Library Assistant position description; approved the transfer of Michelle Metten from Financial Aid Specialist to Financial Aid Director at a salary of $48,000; accepted the resignation of Dominique Taylor, Financial Aid Specialist effective November 28, 2016; accepted the resignation of Shelly Boots, TRiO/SSS Program Specialist, effective November 18, 2016; accepted the resignation of Dara Cox, TRiO Advisor, effective December 21, 2016; approved the employment of Tracy Stokich as the part-time kitchen assistant at a salary of $11.00 per hour effective December 7, 2016; approved the Reduction in Force of the SICEA Psychology Instructor position effective December 6, 2016; approved the Reduction in Force of the Adult Education Coordinator and Data Manager currently held by Angie Dunk effective January 31, 2017; approved the recommendations of the COS advisory council; approved a 403b request; and, approved a number of adjunct faculty recommendations.
All members voted aye. Motion carried.
Adjournment
There being no further business to discuss, Trustee Morgan made the motion to adjourn the meeting seconded by Trustee Barbre. All members voted aye. The meeting adjourned at 8:03 pm.
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