Tough-to-swallow evaluation and budget dominate meeting

By Emily Daly
The Guardsman

The  City College Board of Trustees elected John Rizzo and Chris Jackson as  the new president and vice president at its Jan. 27 meeting, which also  included the results of the the board’s recent self-evaluation.

An  informational handout stated the self-evaluation results were made up  of responses from constituent groups like the Academic Senate, American  Federation of Teachers Local 2121, Classified Senate and the trustees  themselves.

Pamela  Mery, a representative from the Research and Planning Office at City  College, presented the results of the self-evaluation. Questionnaires  had been distributed to the trustees at the previous board meeting, and  all responses were anonymous.

Responses were meant to refer to the period of July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010.
The  results were put into two categories: qualitative, consisting of  comments to open-ended questions, and quantitative, consisting of  numerical ratings averaged from one to five.

In  the quantitative section, constituent groups rated the board 3.02 for  board organization, 2.93 for community relations, 3.0 on policy  direction, 3.05 on standards for college operations, and 2.73 for board  leadership.

The  qualitative results stirred the most discussion. Open ended comments  from the trustees showed a wide range of opinions, from “a majority of  board members work hard” to “at this point in time, I find no great  strengths in this board.”

Former  board president Milton Marks expressed concern as he read aloud some of  the open-ended comments from the constituent groups like “The board is  rude, crude, and disrespectful … The board is completely dysfunctional.”

“I find these to be disturbing,” Marks said.

Another  negative comment read, “While individual board members can be  thoughtful and even caring, collectively the current board is a train  wreck.”

However,  the board received more than just criticism. The constituent groups  listed the board’s major accomplishments of the past year as supporting  the DREAM Act, not firing employees during the financial crisis and  working on the budget.

The board was also praised for its diversity and sincere concern for students.
But other seemingly facetious comments showed clear frustration at the board’s perceived lack of focus.

When  asked what the board’s major accomplishments were, answers included  “showing up for photo opportunities,” “grandstanding against the college  for personal political achievement” and “surviving each meeting without  resorting to violence.”

Trustees’  comments about areas in which the board could improve related mostly to  making sure meetings were shorter and more effective, and being open to  compromise. The board’s comments showed that they felt they should make  budget issues a priority for the new year.

The  longest comment by a trustee addressed issues of mistrust between the  college community and the board, and accusations of micromanaging. The  comment stated that these issues arose after three former administrators  were charged with multiple felony accounts for their misuse of district  funds.

The  comment also addressed the relationship between administrators and  board members, specifically that college administrators are major  campaign contributors to certain board members, and have given more than  $32,000 to certain members.

After discussing the results, most board members seemed to welcome the feedback.

“I think this is very, very valuable for the board,” said Trustee Lawrence Wong.

Academic  Senate President Karen Saginor said the faculty has a “somber mood”  while planning what to do with the reduced budget for the 2011-12 fiscal  year.

Saginor  also noted the Academic Senate is continuing to work with the  administration over the issue of website access. Certain websites cannot  be accessed from the school because of their content, although students  and faculty may legitimately need information on the websites.

Chancellor  Don Griffin said it was crucial the board look at the budget as a  17-month problem in order to make sure the school stays afloat over the  budget problem in 2012 and 2013, and the board and administration need  to come up with a plan of action concerning the budget in the next 30  days. He also said the college would have to raise a tremendous amount  of money locally.

The  board passed a resolution requesting the City and County of San  Francisco to suspend City College’s fees and provide aid to the college.

Highlights  of Griffin’s report included news that Gov. Jerry Brown put the  Performing Arts Building in the state budget proposal using 2006 bond  funds, and that a “robust” City College summer session is planned for  2011.