Academic Affairs Cluster

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

OF CPC

MINUTES

May 6, 2009

1:30 p.m.

Conference Room 219

ATTENDANCE

PRESENT:

 Luis Rosas, Linda Spink, Dave Humphreys, Jonathan Lee, Bob Richards, Sally Fasteau, Joyce Parker, June Smith, King Carter, Stanley Sandell, Charles Davis, Mark Wood, Joy Fisher, Lauren McKenzie

CALL TO ORDER

Luis Rosas called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m. in Conference Room 219.

1.  ADOPTION OF AGENDA

There were no objections to the agenda.

1.  ADOPTION OF MINUTES

After review of the minutes from April 15, the minutes were accepted as presented.

Dave Humphreys and Bob Richards began the meeting with a presentation on the Environmental Scan. From the current statistics we have it was observed that the Ethnicity of the students was the same as that of the service area. There has been a change in data for ethnicity.  June Smith spoke of the dramatic change from 18 years ago, when there were very few Latino students.  The white student population is declining, possible reasons were discussed.

It was suggested that the College redefine its image, hold classes at Palos Verdes, invite counselors from Palos Verdes District to see what our Programs are like, and take a look at our new modernized buildings. Many students from Palos Verdes

attend our summer sessions. Kristi Blackburn said that the schools have a defined area of classes they want to be held on their campuses Students living in our area who attend other Universities, attend our campus in summer. Students from all over Los Angeles take online classes here.

Dave Humphreys suggested we market more to students who are online. Lauren McKenzie announced that his Introduction to Engineering class was doing very well and his students were transferring to Universities. King Carter remarked that the Chemistry program was popular with his students from Palos Verdes.

There was discussion on online applications which are taking approximately 72 hours to process, due to lack of adequate personnel in admissions. We are growing significantly online and need to make sure that the online application process is quicker. 

Dave Humphreys suggested Susan McMurray sign up instructors for the FTLA (Faculty Training, Learning Academy), which is a web-based student support.  Bob Richards commended Sheila Millman for doing an outstanding job moving students towards applying for Financial Aid online.  There are many older students coming in larger numbers for retraining, and are in transition.  There are many classes for older students to learn how to use computers.

Other ideas that were discussed were Programs like University of Phoenix who had a partnership with companies like Fed-Ex, they went to job sites to teach employees.  They also gave them discounts for their education.  Currently we are working on partnerships with Kaiser and the Refineries.  Other suggestions were that we try to set up partnerships with local businesses, to teach employees effective communication and maintaining documentation on computer files.

Luis Rosas commented that some universities use a one class per month schedule. City College does 48 hours over 4 or 5 days, 8 hours a day. June Smith suggested a subset of education- like a 3 week skill course, she suggested we find out what the community needs are and meet them.  We need to distinguish between teaching classes and training classes. She said the campus appeals to kids who want to go to a smaller campus setting with a more nurturing culture, she said in years past we referred to ourselves as “Happy Harbor”

We should be marketing ourselves as a fully accredited college that has courses that are transferable to other colleges.  We can enhance our presence online with the various listings of colleges that offer on-line degrees in Google to get more hits.