The Sacramento Business Journal carried a story on Drexel University’s new efforts to ease transferring from Sierra College (and other community colleges) to its programs.

Drexel University is tightening its link to Northern California by simplifying the transfer process for prospective students from the region.

Drexel, which has a Sacramento graduate center, announced Monday that it has added six Northern California community colleges to its transfer partnership that allows prospective students to view which courses are transferable to Drexel’s undergraduate campus in Philadelphia.

Drexel has a partnership with AcademyOne Inc., a Web-based services provider for transfer students and the institutions that serve them. Through AcademyOne’s CollegeTransfer.net service, students can view which courses from their current college are transferable.

The long term vision is for Drexel to locate a four year university in South Placer County. At Sierra College, we view this possibility not as competition, but as the chance to develop a great strategic partnership that can give our students greater opportunities for higher education.

» Read the Entire Story

I still remember where I was. You likely do as well.

I woke up, checked my BlackBerry and saw a WSJ news alert that a “small plane” (that’s what they thought at the time) had crashed into the World Trade Center.

They weren’t saying terrorism yet. Not that I guessed it, but I thought…”that’s weird.” I flipped on the Today show and moments later saw the second plane fly over and crash into the second tower.

Everybody knew what was happening then.

Then the Pentagon was hit. Then the bravery of Todd Beamer and Mark Bingham saved either the Capitol or the White House, we’ll never really know. Remember the Secret Service flying the President around the country in serpentine fashion — from Florida to Washington by way of Louisiana and Nebraska. Nobody knew what was next.

In the eight years since, my how the world has changed. Our men and women in uniform are still fighting a determined enemy in Afghanistan where this began. We fought another war — a much more controversial one — but one that did bring freedom to millions in the middle east at a great cost.

Despite all of our current challenges, I think we have much to be grateful for in the United States of America. Today, don’t forget to remember the heroes of 9/11 and our men and women in uniform around the world. We owe them a lot.

Photo Credit: 911Photos.com

The Union covers the Sierra College budget story. Here’s the latest from David Mirhadi…

The Sierra Community College District will cut $2.7 million from its $96 million budget this year, and another $5.6 million from the 2010-11 budget because of declining state revenues.

Nancy Palmer, who has represented Nevada County on the board of trustees for 15 years, called the budget situation “the worst thing that has ever happened to Sierra College in its history.”

The community college district voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt the provisions for the next two years.

The college would have had to cut an additional $5.6 million for this fiscal year, but is using $5.6 million in reserves to lessen the impact.

…

The fact that the next year begins with a deficit is of great concern to trustees, Klein said.

“My concern with this budget, which I expressed strongly (Tuesday) night at the meeting, was that our institution is choosing to push most of the pain of these cuts to next year. As a result, we’ll have to get the budget back into balance next year, and closing a $5.6 million gap in a single year will be one of the most painful and challenging experiences Sierra College has ever experienced,” Klein wrote in his blog, aaronklein.com.

“We will spend today until June 2010 figuring out how to do that in a way that protects students as much as possible,” Klein said Wednesday.

» Read the Entire Article

I’m not an expert on health care, but I do have a pretty good understanding of how the economy works. So when Fred Wilson featured an article from The Atlantic on putting consumers at the center of the health care system, it sparked my interest.

The piece is written by David Goldhill, a media executive and lifelong Democrat who delved into a study of health care after his father was in the hospital for pneumonia, was infected with sepsis and died several weeks later.

I’ll say in advance that I’m not sure that I agree completely with his specific recommendations at the end of the article. Yet there are major principles of competition and free markets that have never been put to work in our health care system.

In effect, our health care system is like an “open bar” — and when someone else is paying for the drinks, it’s a safe bet that people will consume more whether they “need” it or not. In the same way, our system is giving people the illusion that someone else is paying for their health care…but there is no one else.

Here are a few key excerpts from the article, starting with one glaring difference between health care and every other industry.

I’m a businessman, and in no sense a health-care expert. But the persistence of bad industry practices—from long lines at the doctor’s office to ever-rising prices to astonishing numbers of preventable deaths—seems beyond all normal logic, and must have an underlying cause. There needs to be a business reason why an industry, year in and year out, would be able to get away with poor customer service, unaffordable prices, and uneven results—a reason my father and so many others are unnecessarily killed.

The cost inflation of health care…

Spending on health care, by families and by the government, is crowding out spending on almost everything else. As a nation, we now spend almost 18 percent of our GDP on health care. In 1966, Medicare and Medicaid made up 1 percent of total government spending; now that figure is 20 percent, and quickly rising. Already, the federal government spends eight times as much on health care as it does on education, 12 times what it spends on food aid to children and families, 30 times what it spends on law enforcement, 78 times what it spends on land management and conservation, 87 times the spending on water supply, and 830 times the spending on energy conservation. Education, public safety, environment, infrastructure—all other public priorities are being slowly devoured by the health-care beast.

The use of insurance to finance routine and predictable expenses is unique to health care…

How often have you heard a politician say that millions of Americans “have no health care,” when he or she meant they have no health insurance? How has a method of financing health care become synonymous with care itself?

The reason for financing at least some of our health care with an insurance system is obvious. We all worry that a serious illness or an accident might one day require urgent, extensive care, imposing an extreme financial burden on us. In this sense, health-care insurance is just like all other forms of insurance—life, property, liability—where the many who face a risk share the cost incurred by the few who actually suffer a loss.

But health insurance is different from every other type of insurance. Health insurance is the primary payment mechanism not just for expenses that are unexpected and large, but for nearly all health-care expenses. We’ve become so used to health insurance that we don’t realize how absurd that is. We can’t imagine paying for gas with our auto-insurance policy, or for our electric bills with our homeowners insurance, but we all assume that our regular checkups and dental cleanings will be covered at least partially by insurance. Most pregnancies are planned, and deliveries are predictable many months in advance, yet they’re financed the same way we finance fixing a car after a wreck—through an insurance claim.

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As expected last night, the Sierra College Board of Trustees passed a budget reflecting the fiscal hurricane we are in: a $5.6 million deficit funded by the “rainy day reserve” fund built by the responsible budget policies of the last five fiscal years.

Ultimately, it was a budget that followed the two principles the board established back in early 2005. Those two principles were as follows:

1. Balance the budget in good economic times.
2. Maintain prudent reserves, and be cautious about reserves dropping below 8%.

Sidebar: For those who don’t remember, when I was first elected in November 2004, the college had run up three years of deficits in a row during relatively good economic times. We worked together as a team and brought the 2004-05 budget back into surplus by a mere $2,883 at the time — and built a total of $6 million in new reserves since then.

Back to comparing this budget against those principles. Clearly, these aren’t good economic times. And even after funding a $5.6 million deficit out of our reserves, our reserve levels will still be at 8.12%. So this budget fit our principles, and it received a yes vote from me, albeit on a cautionary note.

My concern with this budget, which I expressed strongly last night at the meeting, was that our institution is choosing to push most of the pain of these cuts to next year. As a result, we’ll have to get the budget back into balance next year, and closing a $5.6 million gap in a single year will be one of the most painful and challenging experiences Sierra College has ever experienced. (In fact, we’ll spend the rest of this fiscal year actually finding and preparing those cuts to begin on July 1, 2010.)

That being said, I understand the perspective of college staff. Here’s an example of why it would have been difficult to find even more cuts to implement for 2009-10.

Well after the fall semester had opened for registration, the state finalized its budget, which then was translated into a specific spending cut to Sierra College. That specific cut reduced funding by around 650 full time equivalent students, or between 1,200 and 1,800 actual students.

If the state had acted earlier, we could have opened fewer classes. So we were faced with a tough choice: use reserves to protect the seats of students who had already been promised classes, or cancel classes that students were already counting on to graduate, transfer or acquire new job skills.

Despite the fact that it would have been very challenging to find another $1 to $1.5 million in cuts this year, I think next year will be so painful, the college will look back and regret that it didn’t take more of the pain in this budget. But such was the decision.

On another note, as tough as it was to get a seat for this fall semester just starting, it will be even tougher in the coming spring semester. Our incredible staff is working very hard to shape customized solutions for students desperate for a particular class to graduate or transfer. They deserve our thanks for their hard work.

Pre-meeting documents:

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

This is going to be a very important meeting — we have a budget to adopt for the 2009-10 fiscal year. The state has made substantial cuts to community college funding, which total about $5.6 million for Sierra College in fiscal year 2009-10.

Another point of evidence that California’s state government is all but hopeless: note that the state (a) has the ability to cut our 2008-09 budget retroactively months after the fiscal year is over, but (b) bars us from enacting most reductions that affect employees unless we notice those reductions three months before a fiscal year begins.

Frankly, I think this budget probably doesn’t make enough cuts for this year. There are cuts there, but ultimately, all the spending categories except “capital spending” are still higher than 2008-09. The institution wants to leave 95% of the pain to future years, in the hopes that it won’t happen. These folks — and they are good people — just don’t believe that this is “the new normal” and think some money will come floating down from that pot at the end of the rainbow next year. Nice thought, but not grounded in reality.

So this budget will open a $5.6 million structural deficit. It will be very tough to close this deficit in 2010-11 and 2011-12, but we will have to. Unlike the federal government, we can’t print money, and unlike the state, we can’t just borrow it.

Ultimately, I do expect to vote for this budget. It leaves us with reserves still within our current reserve policy of 8% to 12%. And the reserves we are using to fund the deficit spending were set aside for a rainy day (although I’d argue this is more of a fiscal hurricane).

Spreading the pain out would be easier for students and employees, but I understand how hard it is to face that fact. I’m going to listen to the arguments and make my decision at the meeting.

The Union had a great story a few days ago about a generous donation from a Nevada County couple to the Sierra College Foundation. It’s the perfect lead-up to the annual “Back to the Prom” fundraiser for the Nevada County wing of the Sierra College Foundation.

Theirs is a love story that started on Litton Hill where Sierra College’s Nevada County campus now stands.

On the hill, where the crepe myrtles bloom, Richard Boundy worked on a pear farm once owned by the family of Willam Prisk, a pioneering Nevada County newspaper publisher.

“I was 13, 14 years old, and you couldn’t keep me out of the place,” Boundy said Tuesday, seated on a bench where rows of trees once stood. The love of his life, Elaine Boundy, sat next to him as students passed by.

It’s fitting that they came to Sierra College Tuesday, to a growing campus, the foundation of which was laid generations ago at a small junior college in Auburn. That’s where a young Richard met his future bride, Elaine, just after World War II.

The Boundys have always valued education, and have always been grateful to the college that schooled them both, their daughter, and other members of their family.

That generational connection led the couple to donate $50,000 to the Sierra College Foundation and created the green space that fronts a part of what old-timers call Litton Hill on the Nevada County campus.

The couple will be honored for their donation at 7 p.m. on Sept. 12 on the Nevada County campus at the “Back to the Prom” event for the foundation.

» Read the Entire Article and Get Your Tickets for “Back to the Prom”

We’re spending Labor Day with my folks out on the boat, doing a little water skiing and generally having a great time. Hope you all are taking the weekend off to rest and relax.

A few nights ago, Cacey was hosting a baby shower for her sister, so Spencer and I had my good friend (and practically family member) Dan and my brother-in-law Christian over to the house for a fun evening. Spencer found a good way to “freak out” the guys. Enjoy the video and your Labor Day weekend!

Something pretty cool greeted students at Sierra College this week — open wireless Internet access for student use all throughout our campuses.

This was the result of a $250,000 capital fundraising campaign by the Sierra College Foundation, helmed by the tireless Sonbol Aliabadi, which successfully raised all of those funds in the midst of these awful economic conditions. Kudos to Sonbol and her incredible foundation board and team!

The major sponsors of wi-fi across our campuses include:

• United Auburn Indian Community
• Wells Fargo Bank
• Drexel University
• Sutter Roseville Medical Center
• Turner Construction

Our thanks go to each of these organizations for their investment into education and our community.

And if you haven’t yet, visit the Sierra College Foundation and make a donation of any size, or e-mail foundation@sierracollege.edu and ask to be added to their e-mail list.

Here’s one of the questions I’ve been asking at Sierra College for a few months: is this the new normal for our economy, at least for a while?

In most recessions, the economy tends to contract a bit and then pop back up to the previous high and start growing from there. In this recession, it appears we’ve stopped contracting, but serious growth looks to be a ways off.

We also have to consider the fact that our budget is a trailing indicator by about two years. So our budget situation at Sierra is likely to get worse over the next year or two, and then fail to see much improvement for a while (unless there is a big game-changer in the state’s budget, which the laws of economics would seem to make impossible).

The normal modus operandi in business is to ask “when will the climate improve so I can go back to normal?” An article I was reading this morning by Ram Charan in Fortune made the point that this is the wrong question to be asking.

Last October, GE CEO Jeff Immelt decided he had had enough. For months, GE managers had been dutifully preparing reports for him explaining declines in their businesses in excruciating detail. He laid down the law.

“I don’t need that to be part of your presentation,” he told them. “I already know the market’s slow.” As Immelt puts it, “The presentations had to go from ‘The market’s slow’ to ‘There’s an 80-locomotive order in Egypt — let’s go get it.’”

In that one stroke, he put an end to the agonizing game so many leaders in corporate America have been playing since the recession began: the waiting game. If we can just hold on, they are still telling themselves, one of these days things will finally get back to “normal.”

But Immelt and the other top CEOs I work with have come to a radically different conclusion. Forget about waiting for normal to return: This is the new normal.

The question we have to ask at Sierra is: what game-changers can we pursue to do more than survive — to really thrive — if this is the new normal?

Do we really want to consign ourselves to five or six years of being in crisis mode, or should we figure out what kind of institution we should be in the new normal, get the pain over quickly, and start building for the future?

I don’t have all the answers to those questions, but those are the questions I’m trying to raise as a board member.

» Read the Entire Article