SC@Work: June 9, 2009 Board Meeting

This meeting was focused almost entirely on the budget. Before I get to that, I’ll note that the rest of the meeting included an update on accreditation, and a briefing on several programs to promote success among minority students historically underrepresented in success statistics.

On the budget, we were dealing with a difficult situation. We’re in completely uncharted waters with the economic and state tax revenue situations, so it is impossible to decide exactly how much to cut, and how much to draw down our reserves.

As the meeting progressed, I was quite sure I was going to be voting against the budget, which laid out an opening blueprint with a $2.3 million deficit.

I’m going to write a more expansive blog post about the budget issue, but suffice it to say that our reserves exist to protect our most valuable asset: our faculty and staff. If we agree that it’s acceptable to take reserves down to 6%, a drawdown of $2.3 million would utilize roughly 58% of our ability to outlast this “great recession.”

As it turned out, Trustee Martin proposed not setting a specific reserves vs. cuts target in the absence of solid revenue projections from the state, and I was glad to join my board colleagues in a unanimous vote asking staff to begin preparing a budget blueprint with a mix of spending cuts and reserve draw.

When the revenue picture comes into focus in July, we’ll return to the task of adopting a budget with a specific target for spending cuts and reserve drawdown.

No matter how you slice it, the pain of these cuts will be felt very deeply by our students, faculty and staff. The key is finding the right balance so we don’t end up being forced in year two or three to make much deeper cuts to course sections and employees than we would have had to if we had planned ahead.

Meeting documents:

• Meeting Agenda
• Contracts (General / Capital Projects)
• Warrants

Here’s the Twitter feed from the meeting. Starting next meeting, I’m going to change the hashtag to #scmtg to create more space, but we used #sierracollege for this one.

• 3:33 PM — Sierra College board meeting starts at 4pm. You can “attend on Twitter” at #sierracollege. We need your input!
• 4:05 PM — And the meeting begins. Packed house. #sierracollege
• 4:08 PM — http://twitpic.com/708tn – Swearing in our new student trustee, Chris Randleman #sierracollege
• 4:23 PM — 08-09 budget revision passed, on to the 09-10 budget. Tough choices. #sierracollege
• 4:25 PM — 09-10 revenues projected to drop by $5m from $97m 08-09 budget. Never happened before. #sierracollege
• 4:44 PM — Discussion on whether this is a 2 year or 3 year economic problem? I think it could be 3-4. #sierracollege
• 4:45 PM — @ErikaMackay I agree aaron!!! RT @aaronklein Discussion on whether this is a 2 year or 3 year economic problem? I think it could be 3-4. #sierracollege
• 5:07 PM — Just delivered my perspective on reserves. Drawing down 22% of our reserves in one year is too much even in these times. #sierracollege
• 5:08 PM — My perspective on the economy: it may be “welcome to the new normal.” #sierracollege
• 5:18 PM — Trustee Leslie talking about the outlook in Sac with the state legislature. #sierracollege
• 5:20 PM — Trustee Reynoso just pitched electing a different Gov. Thinks new taxes are the solution. Hmm, thought we tried that. #sierracollege
• 5:41 PM — [Appropriately] Passionate speech from Athletics Director on the legislative proposal to cut athletics. #sierracollege
• 6:07 PM —Board passes motion directing staff to develop a budget based on cuts and drawdown of reserves, 7-0. #sierracollege
• 6:38 PM — http://twitpic.com/70lo4 – Receiving a commendation from the LtGov for underrepresented student success programs
• 8:11 PM —Overall, good board meeting. Glad faculty and staff were there to input. Many tough choices ahead at #sierracollege.

So interestingly enough, a Sierra College staff member didn’t like reaching out for community input via Twitter…

• @aaronklein why are you twittering from the board meeting? you are being paid to sit there and participate in the meeting and not twiting!!

My reply:

• @kg6pir My role is to bring community input in, and we need it on critical issues like budget. Happy to facilitate that w/min twittering.
• @kg6pir and if you think I’m not participating, you’re obviously not here LOL. Others prob want me to shut up.

And another Sierra College staff member (@lindyatoms) replied:

• @kg6pir Well maybe the board member is letting the public know what is going on at the meeting in case we’re not there.

Meanwhile, the person who runs @sierracollege was excited about getting a Twitter feed of the meeting:

• Get live tweets from Board of Trustees meeting going on right now by following @aaronklein. A trustee who gets social media. Yay!
• Trustee @aaronklein is on Twitter and wants your input about the budget issues. Follow him for real-time info. #sierracollege

…and I replied:

• Thanks again for spreading the word, @SierraCollege. Had some good questions and input! Twitter is great for helping people engage w/govt.

Here are some of those questions (Q) and answers (A):

• Q @quizwedge: How much of a drawdown of reserves was approved? #sierracollege
• A @quizwedge: Didn’t. Compromise motion to develop a budget with a mix of cuts and reserves. No target number adopted. #sierracollege
• Q @lgoddard: Has SC had to cut summer classes like many CSU schools? If so, how do you handle those who have already made plans?
• A @lgoddard: Sierra did cut 31 sections for this summer. It was well in advance, so students had as much time as poss to adjust.
• A @lgoddard The problem is, we had already served 650 students above our funding cap so we were already way over. Had no choice with summer.
• Q @lgoddard Ouch. That makes for a tough decision. Has your enrollment slipped for next year? Any incentives offered to attract students?
• A @lgoddard No, we have way more students than we have funding, so that’s not a problem. Hard to say what happens tho if they 3x fees.

Rest assured, Job #1 will remain discussion with my colleagues and casting votes during the meeting. But I’m glad that I can do some minimal twittering to bring more community input to the table. Communicating with the public is one of the central roles of a trustee, after all.