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August 2, 2004
To: Members, Board of Governors, and Statewide
Colleagues
From: Mark Drummond, Chancellor
Subject: Update
There are a number of developments that deserve
your full attention as the summer moves along and the new
academic year is before us. Of course we all know that the
2004-05 budget was finally passed and signed. The unfortunate
veto of $31.4 million dollars by the Governor from Partnership
Funds was foreseen and lobbied against, yet in the end the
Department of Finance prevailed. This veto will be hurtful
to all districts, especially the small districts who cannot
benefit from either increased growth or equalization dollars.
I am hopeful that by using some COLA and whatever growth dollars
can be garnished the most severely affected districts will
be able to squeeze through one more year. There will be a
concerted effort to reestablish the ability of districts to
aid and assist high schools with advanced courses (particularly
college preparatory) through the concurrent enrollment mechanism.
The loss of much of this capability has been especially damaging
to small rural districts and the populations and high schools
they serve. I am attaching a document
that details the approximate (as close as can quickly be calculated)
impact of the veto on each district. Each district should
let their legislators know how damaging this veto is at this
particular time.
The long anticipated California Performance Review (CPR)
document is also scheduled for release this week. There are
a number of recommendations contained within the report that
merit and warrant careful analysis and consideration. The
one major recommendation however, to eliminate the Board of
Governors and to place my office under a deputy in the office
of the Secretary for Education does not in my opinion deserve
any further consideration. I have attached a document
that summarizes my views of this proposal.
Other things going on at the System Office include:
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Agency Review - We have presented
the strategic recommendations for the restructuring of
the services provided by the System Office (available
on our web site - archive.cccco.edu)
to the Board of Governors. We are now almost finished
with the development of the first draft of a plan to begin
implementation of the findings and recommendations. Although
we work in the "shadow" of the CPR report we
will not be paralyzed by it, and we will move forward
to reform the Office.
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2005-06 Budget - the Budget Work
Group continues to make progress on the BCPs, which will
be first considered by the Board of Governors in September.
It is important that you stay connected with this process
so that your concerns are adequately reflected. It is
best to work through the CCLC structure to get your concerns
integrated into the budget committee process using your
regional representatives.
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Field Visits - David Viar and
I recently visited Lake Tahoe, Lassen, Feather River and
Shasta Colleges. These visits are very valuable and informative
for us, and we greatly appreciate your efforts in organizing
and hosting these visits. · New Faces - At the
last meeting of the Board of Governors the board agreed
with my recommendation to organize the System Office into
two divisions, one for external affairs and one for operations.
Although it is extremely difficult to get appointments
through the Office of the Governor, and probably even
more difficult with the shadow of the CPR recommendations,
we will proceed to augment staffing using the IJE approach.
I will keep you posted as we proceed to streamline the
Office and implement the agency review recommendations.
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U.S. Navy Opportunity - Board
of Governors member Ambassador J. Steven Rhodes has been
working with the Department of the Navy for a great opportunity
for our presidents. The Navy has proposed a program that
will fly a group out to an aircraft carrier at sea, where
they will spend 24 hours and be thoroughly briefed on
ship operations and educational needs (after which, of
course, they will be flown back to shore!). The Navy is
also interested in a program that would encourage colleges
to adopt particular ships in order to help provide educational
opportunity for ship-bound sailors. David Viar and I will
work together to coordinate an outing this coming fall.
In the meantime Ambassador Rhodes is contacting a number
of presidents who have already expressed interest for
an earlier trip.
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Compton College - the Legislature
passed a very specific bill empowering me to intervene
in the operation of Compton College. The Governor signed
the bill into law. This should end the dispute about the
appropriateness of intervention in this case, and let
us focus on fixing the problems and returning the College
to a routine of successful operations. There has already
been good progress on analysis and some problem solving.
I expect things to improve rapidly, although I expect
that there will be some strong messages coming from the
Accrediting Commission in the near future.
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