>> The regular meeting.
Minutes of the regular meeting of December 21st
and we have the signed review of monthly bills signed off
by Chair Hutchinson for Finance and Audit.
The invoice report for December
for a grand total of $1,897,983.70.
Invoice report for January 2022
for a grand total of $1,455,662.90.
Stipend lists six and seven for a grand total of $105,370.42.
Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?
>> I'll make it.
>> Okay, we have a second?
>> Yeah, second.
>> Thank you.
All those in favor.
>> [Unison] Aye.
>> Thank you, moving on to.
I'm sorry.
>> I'm sorry.
I apologize for interrupting, but I do believe there's someone
in the room that is here for public comment,
and I wasn't aware that prior notice was required.
>> Yeah, it is.
That's our practice to --
>> Right, so next time.
>> Okay, thank you.
>> My apologies.
>> Well, that's fine.
We can entertain it at the next meeting
for whoever is interested in speaking, thank you.
Committee meeting notes and recommendations for Finance
and Audit committee, Ms. Hutchinson.
>> Good morning.
But first, well, we met a couple weeks ago,
and we actually had a presentation from Bonadio Group.
They presented the audit results for the most recent fiscal year.
I'm going to move a resolution to accept those audit results,
but I wanted to give a couple of points.
Everyone, all the trustees were able to make that meeting,
so we didn't feel it necessary to invite Bonadio Group back.
But they did issue an unmodified opinion
and found no material weaknesses
in internal controls at the college.
The auditors were particularly pleased
with accounting staff's administration of $12 million
in federal funds, including $5 million
in higher education emergency relief funding
where guidance is ever-changing, and so Marie
and staff, thank you very much.
Overall, the college added $3.2 million this year
to its unrestricted fund balance,
and its unrestricted fund balance as a percentage
of operating expenses is consistent
with that of its peers.
In response to statewide and national demographic trends
that have resulted in declining enrollment,
the college has cut expenses almost $3.5 million since 2018,
all while expanding its offerings
and competing strategic initiatives,
including the culinary institute,
the athletic [inaudible] park,
and the very soon-to-be-completed Advanced
Manufacturing Institute in Fulton.
So I will make a motion to approve the audit.
>> Do we have a second?
>> Second.
>> Thank you.
We had kind of a question behind the scenes whether the audit
report requires a roll call vote or not,
even though it has no direct financial impact.
But we're going to err on the side
of taking a roll call vote anyway.
>> Ms. Brown.
>> Yes.
>> Mr. Camardo.
>> Excuse me, yes.
>> Ms. Hutchinson.
>> Yes.
>> Ms. Kerr.
>> Yes.
>> Mr. Klink.
>> Yes.
>> Mr. Franceschelli.
>> Yes.
>> Dr. Van Buskirk, I have not seen her arrive yet.
Ms. Winfield.
>> Yes.
>> And Mr. Weissman.
>> Yes.
>> Great, thank you.
It's not just a regular.
>> Resolution 3.1.2 is a resolution
to grant professor emeritus status to Dr. Sharon Coolican.
Whereas Dr. Sharon Coolican has recently retired from a long
and successful career at Cayuga Community College,
which began in 2000,
and whereas Dr. Coolican was a member of the full-time faculty
for 20 years and retired as a full professor.
And whereas Dr. Coolican is acknowledged
by both her students and her colleagues as an excellent
instructor and was awarded the Chancellor's Award
for Excellence in teaching in 2004.
And whereas Dr. Coolican's passion for chemistry
and her students motivated her to participate
in the National Open Educational resource
event that culminated in the publishing
of an OER chemistry book used by departments across the country.
And whereas Dr. Coolican was instrumental
in developing the honors Biology 103 and 104
courses that allowed students to conduct
and present scientific research and serves as a faculty advisor
of the Chemistry Club.
It was very popular among science students.
And whereas her exemplary record of contributions
in advancements of her
students to her students and to the Science division led her
to serve as a Co-chair for the Middle States
accreditation process,
and whereas Dr. Coolican profoundly influenced
and made a significant contribution to the lives
of her students, her colleagues, and to the college as a whole.
Now, therefore, be it resolved,
that Dr. Sharon Coolican be appointed Professor Emeritus
of Science with all rights,
privileges, and honors, pertaining thereto,
effective February 22nd, 2022.
I will make that motion.
>> We have a second.
>> I'll second.
>> Okay. Thank you.
Any discussion?
All those in favor.
>> [Unison] Aye.
>> Okay, Resolution 3.1.3,
resolution to grant professor emeritus status
to Professor John E. Lamphere.
Whereas Professor John E. Lamphere came to the College
in 1991 as a member of the adjunct faculty for 14 years
until he was hired as a
full-time faculty member as an assistant professor
in the Disciplines of Criminal Justice and History and retired
from the college with the rank of full professor.
And whereas in 2014, Professor Lamphere was appointed
by President Gregory DeCinque as
Associate Vice President and Dean of the college
at Fulton Campus and held that position until 2017.
Whereas Professor Lamphere has
taught a wide range of criminal justice
and American history courses and developed the colleges courses
in the history of the Civil War and History of New York State.
And whereas Professor Lamphere has a superior record
of contributions to the college as an instructor
and has made significant
contributions to the advancement of his division and the college.
And whereas Professor Lamphere has been a tireless advocate
for the college and profoundly
influenced the lives and careers
of countless faculty and students.
Now, therefore, be it resolved that Professor John E Lamphere
be appointed Professor Emeritus of History and Criminal Justice
with all rights, privileges, and honors pertaining thereto,
effective February 22nd, 2022, and I will make a motion.
>> Do we have a second?
>> [Unison] Second.
>> All right.
Any discussion?
Hearing none.
All those in favor.
>> [Unison] Aye.
>> Okay. And Resolution 3.1.4,
resolution to grant professor emeritus status
to Professor Diane E. Valdina.
Whereas Professor Diane E. Valdina,
excuse me, has recently retired from a long
and successful career
at UT Community College, which began in 1987.
And whereas Professor Valdina began her career at UGA
as a member of the adjunct faculty for four years
until she was hired as
full-time faculty member in the disciplines of English
and literature and achieved the rank of full professor in 1998.
And whereas Professor Valdina has made significant
contributions to the advancement of her division
as a program coordinator and program director.
Her dedication to the success of students, colleagues,
and the college community is well known and respected.
And whereas Professor Valdina taught a full range of English
and literature courses, including American Literature I
and II, World Literature I and II,
British Literature I and II, and Children's Literature.
She has served as coordinator of the Honors Program,
director of the Cuba Advantage Program, and coordinator
of the Literature Concentration.
Whereas Professor Valdina has received numerous honors
for teaching, including the SUNY
Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2018
and the Senate Faculty Excellence Award in 2007.
And whereas Professor Valdina has also helped many
community groups,
drugs, workshops for youth and a local school district,
and coordinates readings for senior citizens
at local department retirement homes.
Now, therefore, be it resolved,
that Diane E. Valdina be appointed Professor Emeritus
of English with all rights,
privileges, and honors pertaining thereto,
effective February 22nd, 2022.
Now, I will make a motion.
>> We have a second?
>> Second.
>> Great, thank you.
Any discussion?
>> I just want to comment that I had her last semester
and I was very impressed with her and her teaching style.
And it was just a very good experience.
>> All right, thank you.
Nothing further, all those in favor.
>> [Unison] Aye.
>> Great, thank you.
It's always wonderful to be able
to acknowledge our excellent faculty in this way,
so it's a tribute to the college's efforts
to help develop faculty and allow them to thrive
until internal our students to thrive and grow and develop.
So thank you to all three of those wonderful faculty.
We're going to miss having them around.
So anything more, Ms. Hutchinson?
>> I think that completes my report.
Thank you.
>> Okay, great.
Well, it doesn't look as though Dr. Van Buskirk has joined us,
but there was no governance
and planning meeting held in February.
She did send Annette to send
out for her the Legislative Conference Report,
so perhaps we can take a look through that and have her report
in our March meeting if there's particular items of interest
for us to be aware of in terms of the legislative agenda.
So hearing nothing further, moving on to reports.
Mr. President.
>> Good morning, everyone.
I hope everyone is doing well.
Just a few updates this morning.
One, hopefully, you were able to find or locate
in your board packet we have added
or included just a topical, sort of overview chart
of different capital projects, operational explorations
for facility enhancements, as well as some
of the capture deferred maintenance.
We're going to look to routinely provide updates
and also is something that we're going to use as a template
to bring updates to the greater college community
and future presidential updates as well.
So I know we've talked about trying
to keep a little bit more clarity of where we are
because some things are moved quickly and then they sit
for a few months, hopefully,
this will help provide a reference point
for the trustees and others.
I want to just take a moment and thank Marie and the finance team
for the work and effort that went
in through the audit process and really year-round.
The team works well together and I think has really galvanized
over the last couple of years
to strengthen the cross-functional knowledge base
to be able to enhance our institutional compliance
with many different areas of checking things
and having other people that can also double-check it
and make sure that things are making sense.
I'm really proud of the work that's been done by the team
to give leadership the confidence that it deserves
to be able to do our work, of course.
And so, Marie, to you and your team,
thank you for your ongoing efforts
and for your patience with me at times.
>> Thank you.
>> I also want to say that,
I know that maybe Tom will reference this,
but we have commenced our search or national search
for our CFO position with the pending retirement of Marie,
as well as our Director of Human Resources position
with the pending retirement of Tom.
We know that we've made those announcements,
but those searches are underway.
Applications are coming in and search committees are formed,
and we'll be meeting with them.
And hopefully, we'll have finalist candidates
in late March, early April to meet with and move forward.
So I just want to make sure the board is fully aware of that.
You know, we will be making an announcement this week formally
of our commencement exercise.
It will be outdoors at Falcon Park, and we are going
to have it on Thursday evening at 6:30, I believe.
And that Thursday, Andrew Poole, it's going to be May?
>> Nineteenth.
>> With great confidence, is that Thursday the 19th?
If Thursday is not a 19th, pick the one closest to it.
>> You know it is the 19th.
>> So we're looking forward to that and other celebrations
that will be able to be had will be there.
As referenced prior to the meeting beginning,
we still stand, and our current COVID protocols,
the ones that we've basically been working
with through the beginning of the year of the requirement
of all students to be vaccinated and our social distancing
and mask requirements on campus, as well as of as well
as our testing protocols that have existed
for well over a year now.
With the governor's announcement about a couple of weeks ago
with businesses being able to choose to wear masks
or provide a maskless opportunity regardless
of vaccination status, we, at the college,
continue to stay required based on our SUNY regulations
and we continue to move forward.
We anticipate at some point soon
that there may be updated guidance to look ahead,
and we are continually looking at opportunities
for flexibilities, but I'll just say that we're at the point
in the semester where one of the things that has been positive
for our institution that we're very proud of is
that by following these guidelines and by being
in a situation where our surveillance testing,
although has been tremendous amount of work
and follow-through, and required great participation and patience
from our entire college community, we have been able
to minimize the disruption of work or shutting down of classes
or moving things remote, particularly
over the last two semesters.
And we're at the point in the semester where we also want
to make sure that we can get through the semester
without any disruption for students so that they're on pace
for the best level of success possible.
That being said, if new flexibilities emerge for us
to consider, we certainly will.
We know that we have lots of interest from students
and faculty to potentially try to add trips
or to add other experiences to their courses.
And we want those experiences
for students to be safe and well.
However, at this point,
we continue to stay where we are at.
If we have updates over the next month, we will be providing them
and then work with our community on them.
But for now, if you're asked, we're still requiring,
all activities people
who participate have to be vaccinated.
All students must be vaccinated or boosted to be on campus
and any college-related activity or engagement, and we continue
to move forward as was.
The last thing I want to say, this is advocacy time.
I know Linda was going to mention what happened
at the federal level, but at the state level,
we'll be providing you with a one-pager of advocacy notes.
On behalf of the New York Community College Association
Presidents, we will be formulating some communication
to our local elected officials.
Marian, Linda, and I took time over the last month or so
and met with a few elected officials,
had great conversations about the institution about your work,
our achievements, and what we're looking to do and move forward.
[Audio cuts out] a very positive discussion
and I really appreciated their time.
As we move forward, obviously, I think I mentioned last month
when related to advocacy.
We appreciate Governor Hochul's prioritization
of the State University of New York in the State
of the State Address, and certainly
in the original budget presentation.
And as a SUNY Community College, there's a couple of key points
that we're going to be advocating
for this particular year.
We agree that 100% state aid funding is in the best interest
of SUNY Community Colleges to help prepare us to be a partner
in the rebuild and retool of New York State.
That gives us the best ability to predict that level
of funding regardless of enrollment,
and that gives us the most certainty to be able
to make the decisions that the community will hope we can make
to invest in our future, create programming that's necessary
and work with economic developers
to support the human resource demands.
That being said, what we'll be asking for is 100% funding based
on the pre-pandemic year of '19-'20.
That whatever was allocated to community colleges,
including our own during that particular time that year,
will be what the award met would be for '22-'23.
In addition to that, we're looking for the state
to set aside a sum of money that would be available for just
in time funding for workforce development noncredit
initiatives that could support institutions to be able
to not just react but to be able to be proactive
in developing the quick training programs that are necessary
to help support local workforce needs.
Beyond that, we'll continue to advocate for other aspects
of funding, but those will be our key advocacy points
for this session, and like I said, we'll be providing you
with one-pager for your reference and background,
and there will be crafting communications
or elected officials on these initiatives.
So we appreciate the interest, and I think the top of mind
that the governor and the legislature are putting SUNY
in right now.
We appreciate that they recognize our value
and importance to the next steps of New York, and this area
of funding support, at the levels of 100% of '19-'20,
as well as the funding to further enhance our ability
to build workforce development programs,
that really will help set us up for success
and help achieve the goals and aspirations
that the leaders have across the state.
So we'll be appreciating your support and advocacy,
we'll be looking to give you the tools you need to help us
with that advocacy, and we're looking forward with you,
we're looking forward to working with you
and the entire legislative bodies as we move
through the next 75 days.
Any questions?
>> Yeah, I had a few.
Are there advocacy days, or have you guys already done this,
where there's opportunity to speak directly
to the state legislators about these concerns?
I know there's been, through NYSAC, advocacy plans online
around specific issues.
I didn't know if that was something that would happen
with the SUNY Community College network or not.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
One of the best parts about the network is similar
to other associations.
We have reps and supporters at SUNY
that are our chief advocates, including the Chancellor.
And we also historically had advocacy days in Albany
that I participated in.
It's been a little different in the pandemic world,
we haven't done them necessarily in person.
But we also have, you know -- we've been able to create,
our teams, whether it be our leadership group
at NYCAP [phonetic] or other individual college presidents,
what we really try to do is to tear it
out from a central message to leadership through SUNY
and executive bodies of the presidential group,
and then you have all the other presidents spread
across the state who work with the local elected officials
to help educate and advocate to them and with them.
But the other piece that we've done here at Cayuga
in recent years that we're not anticipating
to do this particular spring yet, but we usually do it
in the fall in a non-pandemic world,
that actually has been very beneficial is we've done a
regional advocacy day with a couple of our colleges
with a real wide array of elected officials.
And that, I think, has actually been a very beneficial approach
to us.
So hopefully, when we get into the fall, we'll be able
to have a regional day where we'll be all included,
have an opportunity to engage and provide updates
to a wide constituency
of elected officials and influencers.
But, at this point, our role will be to really focus
on our local delegation.
>> Great. One more question on that.
I guess I would just say, I would welcome the opportunity
to be involved in any kind of advocacy for the college
and for the network with our state reps.
I have done a little bit here and there,
but I think it's really important.
And NYSAC, New York State Association of Counties,
also has its legislative priorities for 2022,
and community colleges and higher education is part
of their platform as well.
And it seems like it's primarily aligned, but there are a couple
of things on there that I don't fully understand.
One related to the Fashion Institute of Technology,
and I can talk to you offline about this
if it's more appropriate, but I just wanted to bring that up.
And then, there's something specific
to increasing the state aid to 40%
of the community colleges operating budget.
There's another one related to the 100%
of the base aid from prior years.
So I would love your input on that as well.
>> I can answer the first two very quickly.
The first one is related to why FIT is involved.
My perspective on that would be based in Ed Law,
when the creation of community colleges
across the state happen, the Fashion Institute or FIT,
was created and chartered as a community college.
So when we talk about the 30 community colleges
across the state of New York, FIT is one of them
because they're funded in a very similar way
to the way the community colleges are
with some nuances related to the city of New York.
When you look at the definition
of comprehensive university center and so on, when you look
at that definition within it,
FIT is in our world a community college.
However, they do offer advanced degrees.
I mean, that's been an ongoing advocacy
that colleges have done based on, again, originally the marker
across the state was to have basically a third, a third,
and a third funding between tuition, county support,
and state aid to be able to balance that.
It's never really been in play if we look at our thresholds.
Many community colleges
across the state now have tuition is 50 plus percent
of their budget and revenue.
It's a very significant piece.
Ours is slightly less than that.
Our out-of-county chargebacks help I think a significant deal
with our ratios, however.
But that 40% mark, again, as part of the original targets
that exist to say if we can increase state share
of the overall budgets, then that helps the affordability
and access sentiment of community colleges.
Those were my opinions on it in a quick version,
but there may be more to it that NYSAC decided
to rationalize that with.
>> Okay. They're actually calling for FIT
to be reclassified as a four-year institution
or a different classification of that college.
>> From my seat I have no view on that.
I appreciate the work that I FIT does for its students.
>> Great, thanks.
I appreciate you weighing in on that.
>> Hey, anything further for Dr. Durant?
>> Yeah. Well, first of all, I want to call the university for,
this is regards to the COVID requirements.
I think we're doing a very good job.
I think that even if this may be very a little bit unpopular,
but I think even if we do loosen some restrictions, allow travel,
I think we definitely need to require
that anybody does travel be vaccinated,
and I think we should require that they be masked even
if other participators in an event aren't masked.
And in terms of on-campus,
because there are certain students who have exemptions
to the vaccine, I think
that unless we are literally 100% vaccinated on campus,
I think we should consider always having a mask because,
I mean, I could be in a class that's like 9
out of 10 students are vaccinated
but there's one student isn't vaccinated.
The 6-foot rule is fine, but once you get over an hour
within a space, that 6-foot rule breaks down.
It really is meaningless, and then all the more
so for longer classes.
I have a three-hour class in the evening
for anatomy and physiology.
So yeah, unless we would go away with or do away
with the exemptions
and literally everybody is vaccinated,
I think the mask requirement stays, it remains valid.
That's my two cents.
>> Yeah, I appreciate the sentiment.
Like I said, for now, it continues to be a requirement.
And as we consider the changes, we'll be talking
with multiple stakeholders to get perspective for sure.
>> Okay, moving on.
It doesn't look to me that we have Dr. Cantor
for an academic affairs report.
Brian, is there anything you want to say in that regard,
or if there's anyone else on the call that -- ?
>> Well, I would just say and he would probably,
he would say this too,
and I meant to add this was congratulations
to the faculty, Marie, Tom.
That comes from recommendation of our faculty
and we appreciate their work and service.
Many of them are continuing to work in part-time capacities
and continue to share their gifts
with their students and the college.
Our academic leaders are working as we speak to plan
and outline the fall schedule and hopes to maximize
and increase the utilization of our campuses
and really leveraging the technology that we have
for hybrid and flex courses.
And really trying to be mindful of obviously health and safety,
but also of our goals to improve success and engagement
of our students and so on.
So I know that the academic leaders have been meeting
and having those conversations about targets and goals.
And moving back towards, we'll call it a new normal
to overuse the term, but what it may be for us.
And so, I know that probably in their next meeting in March,
we'll be able to talk a little bit more
about what we think fall is going to look like
or hope it'll look like based on leveraging lots
of different technologies and the infrastructure that we have.
>> Okay, thank you.
It also looks like we do not have Dr. Dotterer
for student affairs.
There is a report on enrollment in your packet,
which is looking quite hopeful which I think is nice.
>> Yeah. One of them had to be out this morning.
The other one's on vacation this week.
So related to Dr. Dotterer,
I know that we have been making final decisions
and gave a presentation update
on some marketing initiatives working with our academics,
working with other initiatives that we have
on our marketing initiatives.
On the Student Affairs side, we were busy putting together,
Annette, and Cathy, many others,
we did put together an EOP application
over the last five weeks on a grant application.
We have many grants going in,
but that's one that's been happening
on the Student Affairs side and we also have been focusing
on fine-tuning where enrollment will be this year
and looking ahead to next.
So on the Student Affairs side,
we have to continually be examining how we're serving
students from a distance,
and then how we keep engaging students in person
and what designs are going to be best in place as we move forward
with probably even a more distinct mix
of enrollees to our institution.
>> Great, thank you.
Well, speaking of some of those mixed enrollees in programs
for the college, we do have Dr. Kimura to speak
for Workforce Development and Partnerships.
>> Good morning, everyone.
Just a few items I wanted to share.
One is that Cayuga has been invited to serve
on the advisory board that the Manufacturers Association
for Central New York is convening
to pilot a youth apprenticeship program
in the upcoming academic year.
So just some background on Youth Apprenticeship.
It follows the practices of registered apprenticeship
but starts prior to students earning a high school diploma
and being 18 years of age.
So this pilot is going to focus on rising 11th
and 12th graders starting this summer in Cayuga
and Oswego counties and we're getting quite a bit of support
from our TMA, the Rochester Technology
and Manufacturing Association Group.
They have been doing this apprenticeship for many years
and have experienced quite a bit of success with that,
so we're learning a lot from them in this process.
It will be a small pilot, but it hopefully will lead
to greater gains in terms of getting individuals prepared
and ready for the world of work.
With respect to grant proposals,
the nursing program submitted an application
to SUNY's Emergency Training Funds Grant.
And this grant is meant to increase capacity
for training slots within the nursing program given the very
desperate need for trained nurses in the healthcare field.
So this request translates to really staffing
to address the needs for instructors
that meet the faculty to student ratio that's required
for accreditation.
We're also hoping that this funding will allow us
to continue the work that began
with Perkins-funded nursing coach.
This is someone who is inserted into the first semester
of our nursing cohorts' experience
and gives them some additional guidance in terms
of learning styles, time management,
and other critical aspects of how to be a good student
and just successful college graduate.
Let's see.
Unfortunately, we were informed
that we were not awarded the Rural Pathways Project grant
proposal through the Office of Postsecondary Education.
However, the partners that we had convened to support
that proposal are still very much interested
in how we might work together in other avenues.
And very likely some of the interventions
that were identified in that project will reappear
in our Build Back Better Regional Challenge
grant proposal.
And then, finally, we're busy preparing
for the March 16th program and Professional Development Day.
That's coming up fairly quickly for us,
and an agenda will be going out to the college community.
We anticipate early next week.
So we're going to have a couple of guest speakers coming
to speak to us about integrated planning as well
as project management fundamentals.
And this will allow us to be prepared
for doing some work related
to aligning our operational projects for the upcoming year
with the strategic priorities
that we have identified in those three areas.
Improving institutional outcomes,
modernizing infrastructure, and aligning
with strategic partnerships.
And that concludes my report.
>> I have a question.
In the nursing program, how many additional spots will
be available?
Because I know over the years the nursing program has
been full.
Are these additional students that you'll be looking
to take on the program?
>> That's an excellent question because the request that came
through through SUNY was really about increasing capacity,
and although our proposal does reflect that, it's really more
from our perspective about retaining the students
that we have accepted into the program.
That has been historically a challenge
because nursing is incredibly rigorous,
it is academically challenging,
and this proposal is really designed to see a greater number
of graduates come out in the end
because the goal really is we need
to have more trained professionals in the field
and we believe by providing some additional instructional
supports and wrap-around services that we're going
to see a greater outcome in the end with respect
to the number of graduates.
>> I know I'm talking with Rod and Mary [assumed spelling],
if this doesn't capture where it fully landed,
you can let me know.
The hope was to be able to increase the number
of graduates annually to the tune of 20 to 30 more nurses
if that were possible.
So to answer your question,
I think in the end we're hoping to, you know, increase.
That's pretty significant,
it'd be almost a third increase I believe, for us to be able
to put out for, you know, our community.
And we believe that some admissions,
but also on the retention completion side is
where the real growth opportunity is
for us at this point.
>> I will add to that the nursing program is the first
in our SUNY Pathways Project where we are looking at programs
in partnership with area high schools
to create a more prescriptive pathway
within the K12 environment so that when students
who have expressed an interest in health careers will graduate
from high school really at the perfect point
of being an excellent candidate for the nursing program.
That's another kind of piece of this
that we think will contribute overall to our outcomes.
>> I always appreciate your updates, Keiko,
and this is really exciting work going on, I think.
Regarding the Youth in Apprenticeship Program,
will that include college classroom instruction
and credits for students, and is it in a specific industry
or type of manufacturing?
Or, is it targeted, or is it kind of more broadly open
to different pathways?
>> It's in manufacturing because McKinney is spearheading
this effort.
Now, let's assume it is successful, it makes sense
that we would want to try and replicate that in other areas.
But yes, this initial effort is in advanced manufacturing.
And yes, it will involve college credits too.
>> Great. I just didn't know within advanced manufacturing,
is there a particular sector that we're looking at,
like for instance, the plastics industry or the steel industry,
or is it going to be more broadly across all types
of manufacturing processes and production?
>> I don't think we've identified that
yet because what's happening right now is McKinney is working
with employers to figure out which ones are really going
to be interested in trying this out with us at first.
So I should have better information about that
in a month or so, but we're still kind
of at the beginning stages of developing this.
>> Okay, great.
Well, I look forward to seeing how it evolves
and I think you're going in the right direction there.
It's exciting work.
>> Thank you.
>> Great. Anything further for Dr. Kimura?
Okay, moving on to acting CFO and Treasurer, Ms. Nellenback.
>> Good morning, everyone.
I'm just going to talk very quickly
about the financial statements.
I think they were, since everybody was there
at the meeting, the biggest change in the income statement
for January was we had budgeted, as you know,
$1.7 million in CARES fund.
The federal guidelines were out at that point
when we did the budget, but the SUNY guidelines were not out.
I took the CARES fund down to the amount that SUNY allowed us
to claim for lost revenue, so that did result in a change
to the bottom line of about $350,000.
I'm still projecting that we'd be adding to the fund balance
by a little bit, but almost a break-even at this point.
That was really the biggest change that happened.
But, in regard to the CARES fund, there was a process
that came out about a week and a half ago to apply
for an extension of funds to use the funds.
Basically, we have right now until May 11th of this year
to use all of our CARES funds.
By getting an extension, it will allow us
to maximize the use of the funds.
We're looking to try to --
just recently, SUNY came out with guidance
that we could use the HEERF funds
as a local match for HVAC projects.
And you might remember we had a project
in the '22-'23 capital plan for the library for HVAC.
We also have a project on the books for Spartan Hall
and we would like to be able to use HEERF funds
as the local share for that.
But that, extending the time will allow us to be able
to get those projects completed, so I will be applying
for that extension shortly.
There will also be capital resolutions for you
to allow the use of the HEERF funds
as a local match next month on the books for your meetings.
We also did learn that there's a new round of stimulus funds
as part of the American rescue plan.
Looks like it will be focused on the institution, and it looks
like there is a way that we will qualify.
You have to have had a four
and a half percent enrollment drop year over year,
and you have to have 50% of your students Pell-eligible,
which we do qualify for that.
So we will be applying.
I'll be working with Julie [assumed spelling],
our new grants writer, and that application is due April 4th.
It looks like it's focused on the institutional side,
but to meet unmet student needs.
So I don't have any idea about, or anything at this point.
We're working on the '22-'23 budget.
We're actually well along in the process.
Preliminary revenue projections are made based
on all the information we have right now.
The budget managers have until February 25th
to submit their operating budgets.
In the background, Kelly
and Jackie [assumed spelling] working on the labor budget
and the manager budgets, the operating budgets.
And as soon as the budget managers submit all their
budgets, we'll start assembling everything
and getting it together and start having budget meetings.
With an anticipation of getting tuition and fees to the board
in April and passing the budget after that.
And regard to -- let's see, I'm actually going to be --
you may have heard that SUNY colleges
and the governor is looking to stop the practice
of withholding transcripts for students
who owe outstanding balances, and that actually took effect
in January for SUNY colleges, and we did enact
that change right away, so we no longer withhold transcripts
for outstanding balances.
That, of course, is to improve access
to education for students.
I'm going to be sitting on a SUNY committee to look
at other debt collection practices.
And really, the biggest one would be not allowing students
to come for an outstanding balance.
I mean, they're looking at all those policies and procedures.
You may or may not be aware that that's fairly standard
across SUNY colleges, so we are going to be working
on making recommendations to the chancellor and then looking
at issuing those recommendations by May of '22.
And then, finally, in the area facilities,
we're actually beginning preparation
for our roof repair work, which should solve all
of our roof issues in the main building in Auburn.
Test cuts are being made so we can get an idea
of the roof replacement materials that are needed.
That project will be going out to bid and Doug Kinney,
our director of Facility Services, will start to meet
with the engineers on a weekly basis in the next coming weeks.
And that's about it for now.
If anybody has any questions.
Thank you.
>> Thanks, Marie.
Moving on Mr. Corcoran for Human Resources and Public Safety.
>> Good morning, everyone.
First, I wanted to introduce Lindsey Suppes,
who has joined the call this morning.
Lindsey, if you can hear me, you might want
to turn your camera back on for a quick second.
So Lindsey is on week four, week five, I should say.
She entered week five as our Assistant Director of HR
and Title 9 Coordinator and is furiously into her orientation
as our new Assistant Director.
And invited her to join us today, especially as part
of orientation, and of course, I was always welcome to join us
as this is an open meeting.
So welcome, Lindsey, and I'm glad you were able
to make it today.
Lindsey is certainly jumping
in with all the recruitment activities that are going
on because this is a key element of her job and one
that she comes well prepared for based on her background.
As Dr. Durant mentioned, we have a number of key searches
and a couple more positions that are going to be going up,
so recruitment activity is coincidentally a little more
robust than it's been in past cycles, and certainly
for some key positions.
So we're early in the game
and particularly Director of HR and CFO.
We've seen some resumes trickle in,
but the good news is the search committees are formed.
They're in the process of scheduling their first meetings,
and Lindsey will be largely on point for working
with those committees in her Assistant Director role,
and of course, I'll be willing to help any way
that I can along the way.
Beyond that, I just want to mention that with my departure,
I'm going to be entering
into some benefits planning a little bit earlier this year
teed up and ready to go.
We have some key dates with respect to benefits planning,
with respect to the Health Care consortium, and so just mention
that is something that's coming into the HR hopper.
And also, we are getting ready, believe it or not,
to issue in March our tee up again
for the annual mandatory training requirement.
So this is for Title 9 for the training
that we offer for all employees.
We are repping in students.
We are repping in childcare, and we offer two at the board.
This is Title 9.
This is workplace violence.
This is New York sexual harassment, so we tee it
up in the spring, ask people to complete it by June.
And then, new employees are added throughout the year,
but we tee everybody up for an annual research each spring is a
cycle we landed on.
So those are the key elements that I wanted to just report
on today, but I'd open it up if anyone has any questions.
>> Nothing for Mr. Corcoran?
I just want to say to him on your Personnel Changes report,
I don't want to accept Page 2 of transitions.
>> You're very kind.
>> All right.
>> I have a question not related to your report,
a public safety issue.
Is there always a public safety officer on campus?
Is it 24 hours?
Is it 12 hours?
For example, it's, say, 5:00, 6:00, 7:00 at night,
is there a public safety officer?
>> Our current model hope is
to always have a single public safety officer
when the college is in operation.
So on days in which the college may not be open like a Saturday
or Sunday without any events and then it may
or may not have coverage, we have other security measures
in place to be able to provide health and safety monitoring.
And in general, the goal is to always have coverage
on both campuses as of today when we are open.
>> The reason why I'm asking is because,
with our COVID guidelines and particularly the mandates
that we have, well, a week or two weeks ago,
I forget when it was, it was a Thursday
and there was a county EMS conference being held
in the student lounge or nursing lecture hall,
however you want to call it.
Out of everybody there,
there were three people who were masked.
And this is why I think --
>> I was at that meeting.
Nobody was masked.
I was masked.
Nobody else was.
There were state representatives there,
county representatives there.
I was not the organizer, but I was wondering what, who is --
>> This conversation we can have it in a further time,
but I think we need to have some sort of vehicle or mechanism
in which we ensure that guests who come
in adhere to the requirements.
Because when students pass by a conference like that and see
that nobody is masked, it kind of dampens the effectiveness
of us telling them, you got to be masked all the time.
It really --
>> Listen, I don't disagree.
This is news to me.
I can assure you that when we gave permission for that
to have, it was stated what the requirements were going
to be including masks, and that's news to me.
And if they didn't follow through with that,
then I will look into it.
Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
>> Yeah, I guess I'll just add.
I wasn't sure what the situation was.
I had assumed they worked with somebody from the college
on that, but it was definitely an uncomfortable situation
to have all of those EMS professionals, nobody was masked
and we were sitting right next to each other.
It was quite interesting.
So yeah, I agree that I don't know how those events are
handled, but there should definitely be somebody.
Maybe a point person or I don't know.
>> And of all people, EMS officials should know better.
>> Well, again, I'm not going to judge the who.
I think it comes down to when you have different buildings,
different facilities have different requirements.
There can sometimes be perhaps confusion, so I'm not going
to weigh in on people's choices, regardless of what roles
that they may or may not have.
But, as the president of the institution who has rules
in place that may be different than others, if people are going
to choose to be in our facilities and we're going
to allow them in, then compliance is a must.
So thank you for bringing it to my attention.
I will look into it.
>> Great, thanks.
Anything further for Mr. Corcoran?
Okay, moving on.
Mr. Weisman, your Student Trustee Report.
>> Okay. So to start off, we now have a full-stream government.
Well, we never had a treasurer,
and our vice president was acting treasurer,
but unfortunately, we lost two of our officers.
Elena [assumed spelling] moved on, which had to do with,
I think, an individual research grant that --
a study that wasn't approved.
So she decided to take the semester off until the fall
where she is an attending SUNY Buffalo.
And then, unfortunately, our vice president,
for personal reasons, had to drop out, had to resign.
So we had elections a couple of weeks ago
and we now have a full staff, president,
vice president, treasurer, secretary.
And really, a vibrant staff.
We really have a good group of people.
And we're looking at various different projects
that we're working on.
The Grab and Go is still in effect.
We're analyzing that and considering adjusting it,
especially with the Panera that we're doing.
I think we can still have it,
but maybe adjust it, has a food offering.
We're also looking into purchasing gift cards,
around $5 gift cards for Barnes & Nobles that we could provide
to students to help with them
in purchasing the food that's being offered
at Barnes & Nobles.
Okay. So we're trying to revitalize the cafe area.
Get a little bit more student involvement.
Make it a little bit more lively.
We currently have a Connect Four, I believe,
on both campuses for students to play with.
We put in a requisition, I believe it's been approved,
for also a giant chess set.
I don't know if you guys are familiar,
those large lawn-like chess sets that we would place
in the cafe area for students to play with.
And obviously, we'd have to be masked and gloved
and we would sanitize everything on a regular basis.
One last thing is we are in the process of, and again,
we put the requisition form in, I believe it's been approved,
to provide water bottles for students.
Up until now, we've been handing out bottles of water,
which hasn't been very efficient, and it's costly,
and it's not environmentally sound as well.
So instead of providing them bottles of water,
we're going to give them water bottles and it's going
to have the official Cayuga logo with student government on it.
Probably have that within the next couple of weeks.
And that concludes my report.
>> Great, thank you.
Any questions for Mr. Weisman?
>> I guess I just was curious about Barnes & Nobles.
Is there an official connection
that the college has with Barnes & Nobles?
I'm a little out of the loop in terms of --
>> Barnes & Nobles is a bookstore.
>> The college's affiliation with Barnes & Noble is
through our Faculty-Student association.
So our Faculty-Student Association
or FSA is an independent agency and their main function,
as a nonprofit, is to support the affiliated agencies
of the organization.
The affiliated agencies of our organization currently
through the FSA would be the bookstore.
The bookstore is a contract process
that actually will be going out to bid next year.
It's currently with Barnes & Noble, and I believe it's been
with Barnes & Noble now 10 years and has facilities both
in the Fulton and Auburn campuses.
And since the pandemic,
the Fulton Campus has not reopened yet.
And also, our childcare services are
through the Faculty-Student Association, that entity.
And they also act as the accountants or bookkeeping
and managing of the student association's finances.
The FSA is not the student association's finances.
Sometimes it gets a little cloudy
with how it gets discussed, but it's the agency
in which manages the funds of the student association.
>> Great, thank you.
>> Just a question.
If Barnes & Nobles was not open on the Fulton campus,
how are students there getting books?
Are they just going online to get books
or was there any provision made to order through Barnes & Nobles
and deliver to campus or whatever?
>> The funneling of all students,
regardless of how they're enrolled
with the exception would be in high school if they're provided
by their high schools, would be through Barnes & Noble
or they could go on their own just like any other student,
but through Barnes & Noble and Barnes & Noble would package Box
and send them to students.
I don't know if we did any drop-off mechanisms, Keiko.
We talked about that at one point that during the startup
of a semester they might be able to pick up a pre-ordered package
of books at the particular campus,
but I think mostly during the pandemic they've been mailed.
Is that correct, Keiko?
>> Sorry, I missed it.
if you're talking about textbooks?
>> Yeah.
>> Yes, they're direct mail to students.
>> Okay, thank you.
Just a question.
>> And when we go out to bid, when the FSA goes out to bid,
we'll put the full scope of enrollment students,
utilization, HOPE, all that, and then the vendors will tell
if I say what's viable and what can be.
We'll tie in, of course, food service and other mechanisms
into those HOPEs, but we'll see how they respond when it goes
to a particular course.
Well, Kyle referenced in his report though
about food services hearing the students' concerns over lack
of food service on the campuses.
It was the FSA leadership that went to Barnes & Noble to try
to see if there was any sort of solution or option
that could be created or at least piloted.
And in doing so, they were able to come to an agreement
that some pre-packaged stuff would be available I think
starting at some point the spring semester, I think it's
around now, and that would be tried through the end
of the semester and see what the utilization will be.
We understand that it's not the long-term solution,
but all of these things, as we step forward and look ahead two,
four, six years from now, will all have
to be really repackaged, put out to bid,
and see what's viable moving forward.
>> Well, it should be noted
that the Barnes & Nobles participation
in food services is a partial solution
and it's a very good augmentation
to what we already have in place, namely the Grab and Go,
but it's definitely not a replacement of that.
Unfortunately, FSA really didn't consult with us
about us being student government about that,
and there was a bit of a condition involved between FSA
and Barnes & Nobles that we would stop what we're doing.
We've discussed that and it seems
like we have a better understanding
of what's going to be going forward.
But like I said, it's not a replacement
for what we've already had.
It's definitely a very good augmentation in addition
to what we're already doing.
>> Brian, one question relative to Kyle's talk
about the student government issuing water bottles.
At one point we had talked about replacing some
of the water fountains on campus
with water bottle refill stations,
which would better support that for hands-free.
I just didn't know where we might be with --
>> We did, we replaced I think five or six of them
to include the water bottle filtration.
A couple we may not have in areas where we didn't want
to disturb, but I think for the most part we were able
to do that.
And as a reminder, that was a great thing we were able to do.
That came from a request from the student government directly
to college administration and offered.
They wanted to split the costs and we chose, we told them
that we would cover it in full
and we did them one better than just doing two.
I think we did five or six.
>> Yeah, we did do six and we actually were able
to utilize CARES funds to do that.
>> I thought that was the case.
>> That's one of the reasons why we're handing
out those bottles is because the students have the ability
to fill them.
>> Great, thanks.
Thanks. Anything further?
If not, moving on to Mr. Cosentino
with the Foundation Report.
>> Good morning, everyone.
I want to tell you that we had a great end of the calendar year
at the foundation to benefit our staff, students,
and the college as a whole.
We'll be making some of those announcements
in the coming weeks in coordination with Mr. Poole
and the president, including closing
out the Student Emergency Fund.
We had someone come in, an organization come
in to do an end of -- a capping of that program.
So we are delighted that we'll have more than $48,000 to give
out to students in the coming year on that emergency fund.
We also will be announcing some scholarships that were funded
at the end of the year and we'll be rolling some of that
out with this part at the end of next month as well.
And I know you just talked about nursing.
We will have some announcements on some funds
that have been donated to help our nurses
in two different categories and more so to the issue
that President Durant and Dr. Kimura brought
up about retainage, helping with exams,
as well as emergency needs for nurses
and facilitate some help for them as well.
The foundation, through the Alumni Association,
is also working to get our nominations
for alumni of the year.
I think as of last night we had four great applications in.
That continues to the end of the week,
and the Alumni Association will be reviewing those.
We originally would have done our event on May 15th,
I believe, which is two days before commencement.
And we are going to do that most likely at a date later
for a couple of reasons.
One, we don't want to have back-to-back events,
but more importantly, we have two years previously
of award winners that we would like to recognize as well
and we think that will be a larger event
that you will all be invited to and want to let you know that.
We will be sending you, I believe,
in your next board packet and naming resolution based
on a gift that was received from the foundation --
for the foundation, and Dr. Durant I think has had some
preliminary discussions with you on that as well,
and so we'll be putting that forward as well.
Final two items are that we did receive several summer faculty
fellowship applications.
We're reviewing those right now.
We, on average, do two a year.
We changed some of the criteria in the last year,
and we're waiting for some backup documentation.
But, the Long-Range Planning committee
of our board will be hopefully awarding those
within the next 30 days.
And finally, some other good news.
We have added three new board members as of today
to the Foundation Board.
Mary Beth Leeson of Auburn, who many of you know,
works in the finance department of the county.
She was with Cuddy & Ward for many, many years.
For all of us who ever worked with a not-for-profit,
I think she audited us at one point or another
and she's a great addition to us.
Michelle Shatrau of Baldwinsville
who has a company in Fulton.
New York, a tool and die company, is joining us as well.
And finally, a name that you might be familiar with,
Meghan Stapleton Steenburgh of Fairfax, Virginia.
She and her family have had a long history
with Cayuga Community College, and we're delighted
that she will also be joining us as well.
And so, those board members will be joining us I think
at our first meeting in May, and I'd be happy
to answer any questions you all have.
>> Anything for Mr. Cosentino?
>> Hi, I missed the last person you mentioned from Fairfax.
I've got some spotty internet stuff going on right now.
>> It's Meghan Stapleton Steenburgh,
who as many of you know, is from Auburn,
but she's had a varied career.
She's currently right now doing some work
for the federal government, but she's also going to law school
as she was a continuing ed person.
So I was delighted to have that.
We're getting heavily weighted on attorneys on our board,
and we're okay with that right now.
Our next round is bankers,
which I know President Durant always loves
when we have more bankers on our board, that's our next group.
But, what we're very thrilled about.
>> Careful, Guy.
>> I appreciate all volunteerism and commitment
to the institution as well.
It's just wonderful.
>> But we have a good solid finance and group
and we're very thrilled that we're adding people from Fulton.
And John Klink, our trustee link has been very, very supportive
of us reaching out to the Fulton community,
and we hope to have some other names by the end of the year.
>> Great. Thanks, Mr. Cosentino.
We'll move on.
We don't have any old business, new business, or communications
in your information packet.
We do have the trustee attendance assignments.
There have been some changes, so I would commend you
to take a look at that and make sure you know
when you're coming up.
The contact list, the procedures, the meeting dates,
please take a look at those as well for any changes.
We do have a need for an executive session
for the purposes of personnel and real estate.
>> Marian, real quick for you that I just want
to make a note related to the commencement date and target.
One procedural step that we'll be making
to make it official is working through the calendar process
to get endorsement support by our faculty.
So I believe we'll be doing that hopefully next Friday
in the faculty meeting.
So I know that it's a procedural piece that we want to clarify.
But, we've worked with our academic leaders to target
that as the recommendation.
So we'll be working through that
and then we'll be making the formal announcement.
>> Okay, great.
Thank you.
So we do have a need for an executive session.
So I believe there would be no business
after that, correct, Brian?
So at this point, I would entertain a motion
to exit regular session and enter executive session.
>> I'll make a motion.
>> Do we have a second?
>> Second.
>> Okay, all those in favor.
>> [Unison] Aye.
>> Okay. Thank you to all the rest of you folks.
Have a good day.
>> Brian, anything for HR?
>> Yeah, please stay.
Tom, you stay, please.
And that is forwarding a written report update
and then I'll be there next month
to provide an advocacy update.
>> Okay. Thank you.
I forgot where we were.
Do we have a motion?
>> Motion for regular session to end.
>> Yeah. So moved.
Do we have a second?
>> I'll second.
>> Okay. All those in favor.
>> [Unison] Aye.
>> Thank you all for your time.
>> Bye-bye.
>> Thank you, all.
Have a great day.
>> You, too.
Enjoy your vacation, Brian.
>> Working on it.
Thanks.
>> Where are you?
>> I'm in Florida.
>> Nice.
>> Well, I will say, your Internet connection is better
in Florida than it's been right at your office.