March 21, 2023

Welcome 

Debbie Lee will be replacing Elvin as EAC (Equity Action Council) representative starting today.  Tim will be on PDL (Professional Development Leave) next quarter, so FA is looking for a new faculty member to represent and report back to FA for this committee.

Agenda and minutes are approved.

Revieing Resource Requests

Erik went thru the Summary of Current Work spreadsheet and removed from lottery software license requests that are not student facing.  The $200k “base” allocation for lottery dates back to 2018-2019, so Erik removed it for now until we can get more clarity on what it is.

Instructionl Equipment (IE) is now at $463k in total requests and only $380k in funds.  There was a lengthy conversation on what can qualify for lottery funds, especially what software counts as “instructional materials” that qualify for lottery funds.

Martin Varela provided the definition of “Instructional” and “Technology-Based” Materials under Ed Code Section 60010(h):

“'Instructional materials" means all materials that are designed for use by pupils and their teachers as a learning resource and help pupils to acquire facts, skills, or opinions or to develop cognitive processes. Under EC Section 60010(m)(1), “Technology-based materials” means basic or supplemental instructional materials that are designed for use by pupils and teachers as learning resources and that require the availability of electronic equipment in order to be used as a learning resource.  Technology-based materials include, but are not limited to, software programs, lesson plans, and databases.  This lottery definition was released 11-13-20.

For example, if a software is used by instructor to create e.g. a video or syllabus that is then seen and used by the students, that does count as eligible for lottery funds.

Christina Espinosa-Pieb said that the base amounts allocated to instructional and student services programs from lottery funds were approved by a previous shared governance group with the promise that they would always be provided annually.  Historically, IPBT had always held back $500k from lottery funds and $200k from IE as contingencies for the years that we got nothing from the State for lottery and/or IE, or in case there was an unexpected increase in cost for an approved item.  Based on this explanation, Erik updated the rows 2-4, colum H on first tab of the spreadsheet.

There is currently already an IE contingency account controlled by the Vice President of Instructions with $100k in it and a lottery contingency account with $141k in it.  Christina advocated that, given the State budget projections, these contingency accounts should have at least $200k and $500k, respectively.

Erik shared the allocations and requests overview from 2018-2019 for reference and comparison to 2022-2023.

Eric M asked why only three divisions have received their base lottery allocations so far this year.

Motion: Approve all lottery allocations on tab one of the spreadsheet, plus any other software or PE requests for IE funds that are eligible to be moved to lottery.  Passes with unanimous consent.

Purchasing requests for 2022-2023 must be turned in by April 10, 2023, which is Day 1 of Spring quarter.  After that, ordering closes until July 1, 2023, when orders for the 2023-2024 year can begin.  Historically, allocated IE funds that weren’t spent/encumbered by June 30 got returned to the IE pot to be reallocated the following fiscal year.  RAPP can decide if they want to allocate IE funds this year and allow divisions to carry over unspent money into the 2023-2024 fiscal year.  Because returning unspent/unencumbered funds after June 30 was the IPBT policy last year, there may be unspent allocations being returned to IE after June 30, 2023.

Motion:  Allocate IE funds of $12,030.21 to Creative Arts and up to $12,000 to all other divisions that requested IE funds.  Passes 15-2.

Erik noted that these funds were approved March 12 last year, so we are no further behind schedule on this than we were last year.  Christina added that doing these allocations in November is ideal so folks don’t feel rushed to get their orders in.

ACTION NEEDED: A subcommittee of Erik, Tina and Salvador will go through the current resource requests and find things with facilities and/or ETS needs and see if those requests have been reported and priced properly with facilities/ETS.

Personnel Hiring

Please review and comment on this Proposed Personnel Request Justification Document before next meeting.

Tim Shively expressed concern about the District reporting of current full-time to part-time faculty ratios.  He is writing a column about it for the upcoming FA News.  He cross-checked the numbers with other data and the District reports don’t make sense.

Moaty Fayek asked if we are currently in a hiring freeze, and Thomas and Rob both said not that they were aware of.