April 25, 2023

RAPP meeting minutes 4/25/23

Membership Attendance:

In-person: Nicholas Turangan, Izat Rasyad, Moaty Fayek, Tina Lockwood, Jason Sousa, Mallory Newell, Justin Fry, Erik Woodbury, Rob Mieso, Kate Wang, Javier Gomez-Tagle, Adam Contreras, Salvador Guerrero.

Remote: Eric Mendoza, Alicia Mullens, Bidya Subedi, Erick Aragon, Julie Hughes, Andre Meggerson, Pam Grey, Michele Lebleu-Burns, Felisa Vilaubi, Martin Varela, Debbie Lee, Thomas Ray, Melinda Hughes.

10:00am start

Corrections to minutes – Added Javier and Kate to in person attendance from the absent list, corrected the spelling on Erik Woodberry to Woodbury.

After corrections were made the RAPP minutes for 4/18/23 meeting was approved. 

10:05am Update on Instructional Equipment: 
 
Martin – accounting just closed the month of March and the update for Instructional Equipment the unallocated portion balance is $335,576.44. Martin said this was approved last month.

Erik added - That ASL has a different number than what RAPP approved, perhaps they have money from other sources. It was understood that RAPP approved ASL up to $6,400. Martin said he will review that again, but this is what was allocated so far.

Martin added – total unspent funds that has been allocated in Restricted Instructional Equipment is 1,914,622.27

Martin – a question to the committee? In past practice annual allocations have an end date. The previous 1.7milliion and the $66,000 they have an ending date of June 30, 2023. Do we continue to provide that end date to those allocations? Because in the past unspent funds go back to the unallocated portion.

Thomas ray – There are some approvals for multiyear plans or software license or other needs that were approved over the course of the past few years. He thinks in some cases there is money in the $800,000 that might be available because they used HERF funds over the past year instead. He would need to sit down with Pipa for more information on this.

Tina commented - The concept of money going away at the end of the fiscal year makes for some not wise purchases. Some division have buckets of white board markers have not been used yet and immense amounts of printing cartridges. We might spend our money wisely if we weren’t afraid it was going to go away.

Moaty commented – In the case of BCAC we always get some IE money, but we try to leave that for divisions who do not receive the strong work force.

Erik added – typically we are hitting a reset button on all the process…. There are 2 sides, we need to be able to give the deans the flexibility to purchase what they need but at the same time make sure the money we allocate are responsibly spent.

Eric Mendoza in chat - The $276 for PE/Athletics could possibly go towards one score board. Still pending meetings/ approvals

Christina in chat - The IPBT approval for multiyear software license purchases were from lottery for Language Arts.

Christina added – As a co-chair for IPBT when money was approved for Office of Instruction, she would monitor that. It was the Office of Instruction that would do that.

10:25 am – Funding Analysis presentation by Student RAPP members on behalf of DASG Finance Committee:

·      DASG Finance Presentation

·      DASG are responsible for allocating the annual budget up to a 1 million dollars.

·      2 primary funds,

·      fund 41 General fund, Committee expenses, staff and student employee wages, student leadership scholarships, La Voz, Athletics etc...

·      fund 46 smaller fund $86,000 “Student Representation Advocacy fund”. For example, this funds student Leadership Conferences, Advocacy and Policy Conferences, FA PAC internship etc...

·      3 major spending categories for DASG are Athletics, Classified staff, and Tutorial services.

The ask?

We kindly request that the College fully fund the following Classified Professional positions:

·      Maritza Arreola (current breakdown: 100% DASG; current total funding: $126,191)

·      Dennis Shannakian (current breakdown: 25% DASG, 25% VTA Smart Pass, 50% College; current total funding: $141,128)

·      Lisa Kirk (current breakdown: 40% DASG, 60% College; current total funding: $189,005)

·      Jennifer Nguyen (current breakdown: 100% DASG; current total funding: $145,255)

1.     By not funding these salaries, we are leaving it to the hands of students to be funding these positions. Also, DASG funds for general use and student representation are directly tied to student headcount and do not increase with COLAs or have any other adjustments. Institutionalizing these salaries are critical in fair union practices.

2.     Additionally, for the college to provide support to essential programs, services, and divisions such as the Student Success Center, as those are not traditionally funded by Student Activity or Student Body Membership Fees, and the decreasing funding to these programs have already had devastating layoffs and lower student success.

Alternative usage of funds:

Homecoming

·      De Anza currently has no homecoming events. 

·      There have been consistent complaints about lack of campus spirit and low game attendance.

·      Large-scale events such as college homecoming week can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. 

·      Office of College Life has no money to accommodate for this at the moment.

Student positions, conference/workshops

·      Due to us funding classified positions, we have turned down student employee positions such as those at pride center, HEFAS, college life, Euphrate, Office of Equity, IMPACT AAPI, MPS, Puente.

·      Sending students out to conferences is a known way of getting them to bring back knowledge to better serve their community & lifelong learning.

Large-scale Events

·      We could fund graduation for affinity groups, such as LATINX grad, Lavender grad, APISEA grad, etc.

·      Students have also shown great interest in large college dances, socials. Large-scale events take money and time.

·      Greater connections = Greater student success + retention!

$1,113,911.49 Is the total available to allocated.

Difference Between Total to Allocate and Total Requests 932,199.00

Eric Mendoza in chat said - for 2022-23 Athletics is using charter buses.

Students feel the college is dead not a lot of life and events on campus for the students to participate in.

Lisa Kirk in the comments - DASG currently funds 25% of Dennis; 100% of Maritza, and 40% of Lisa's classified positions.

Eric Mendoza in the chat - Athletics is not experiencing “devastating layoffs or lower student success” as the slide indicates.

Andre Meggerson in chat - Thank you Senators for doing the research to bring here and ask. I do have a few questions yet need processing time for me to better ask my questions. What’s your ‘why’ comes up yet I do not mind meeting you all to have a conversation since this request needs time and conversation to be heard. I hear placing ‘our’ funding in a place of sustainability to be better support and show value in what we value and support. You all are challenged with the budget presented to you and the ‘why’ to the decisions made for you.

Michele LeBleu-Burns in the chat - Without these positions, the DASG and the Office of College Life could NOT function!

There is an ask so we can bring this back in 2 weeks.

10:55 Rapp Planning & timelines:

Mallory - Program Review is a big Item that we need to finalize this spring.  

Michele - confirmed that Student Services has completed their program review.

Mallory – Program Review committee

·      Asking for a small committee to volunteer to help guide what a program review will look like moving forward.

·      We need to determine a timeline for submissions potentially moving from spring to fall.

·      Annual vs Staggered, instead of everyone doing it every year maybe do it every 3 years with some type of comprehensive reflection, to close the loop.

·      Would need the committee to look at what other colleges are doing around program review and bring back best practices.

·      This committee would need to make recommendations back to RAPP by May 23rd so it can be approved by RAPP and approve it through College Council and have that process in play in the fall when we return.

Personnel hiring – Small Committee 

·      Develop a process to establish a collegewide fund to be used for hiring. 

·      Revise Personnel Request Forms – Staff and Employees 

·      Develop criteria for review and ranking. 

·      Develop criteria or review for programs with emergency personnel needs (e.g., nursing, Auto) 

·      Bring back to RAPP by May 9th. 

Kristin Skager commented - I’m loving this new thinking about program review!

Revise hiring forms for faculty hires and staff hires.

Criteria for ranking for hiring deadline for this May 9. For the request for hiring in fall? 

Michele LeBleu-Burns, Kristin Skager, Nicholas Turangan, Salvador, Moaty and Mallory volunteered to be on the Program Review Committee.

Julie Hughes, Erik Woodbury, Debbie Lee, Justin Fry, Moaty, Mallory and Jason volunteered be on the Personnel Hiring Committee.

Jennifer Mahato added in chat - Gentle reminder that our College Operations doesn't fit in the same mold of instructional and student services - I would recommend reviewing with College Operations for stakeholder engagement later.

Funding Streams 

·      Develop a better understanding of all funding streams the college uses for hiring and resource allocations (Lottery, Instructional Materials, Perkins, Strong Workforce, Student Equity, etc.) 

·      Determine if RAPP should oversee or just be advised on the various funding streams. 

Resource Allocation: 

·      Review and update the resource allocation form for 2023-24, include filters to ensure the resources requested are requested from the appropriate funds. 

·      Develop timeline, review allocation process, metrics, etc.  

·      Develop a process for closing the loop on instructional materials funds, e.g., following up to ensure items have been purchased and if not, money is returned to the fund. 

·       Reporting and review process at end of fiscal year. 

Planning Calendar: 

·      Compile all planning and resource items for the 2023-24 year.

·      Touch base with Perkins, Strong workforce, etc. Deadlines to ensure we are meeting all deadlines.

·      District purchasing deadlines.

Mallory added – a need for a planning calendar where we compile all the planning and resource items for the whole academic year.

·      It will have all the deadlines.

·      when do we need to have our forms available?

·      when do we need people to submit their forms?

·      When do we need people respond to questions?

·      When do we need to make final decisions?

·      When does it need to go to College Council?

Mallory - Is going to start working on this planning calendar and get input from the college planning committee and from RAPP if that is the direction that we want to go.

Organizational Chart of All Committees: 

·       Develop an updated organizational chart of all planning and resource committees. 

Mallory – updated the governance handbook to represent the change. Dismantling of the PBT’s and the incorporation of RAPP in addition of the Budget Advisory committee. She can bring back to the College Planning committee. And we need to update our flow charts. Just so that all our documentation about the shift that we made is up to date and current on the website and for accreditation purposes.

Jennifer added in chat- Gentle reminder that deadlines also need to be inclusive of our district's purchasing deadlines.

End of meeting 11:25am