KIRTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE

BOARD OF TRUSTEES SPECIAL MEETING ON STUDENT HOUSING

MINUTES NOTES

June 19, 2008

NOTE: Due to a lack of quorum, this was an information meeting only.

Chair Roy Spangler announced a delay in calling the meeting to order due to a lack of quorum. He hoped by waiting, another trustee would arrive.

CALL TO ORDER

Chair Roy Spangler called the meeting to order at 7:07 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance.

ROLL CALL

Members Present:      Richard Silverman, Roy Spangler, Roberta Werle

Members Absent:       MaryAnn Ferrigan, Sally Galer, Denis Weiss, Patricia Webb

Others Present:           Nick Baker, Stacey Barnes, Jerry Boerema, Jo Ann Comerford, Jim Enger, Jeremy Jones, Lois Jones, Kathy Koch, Ed Koliba, Kathy Marsh, Dennis Mansfield, Tom Quinn, Ilene Scherer, Tim Scherer, Dale Shantz

WELCOME

Chair Spangler noted that this will be an informational meeting since there is no quorum present.

The 2008-09 Preliminary Budget was to be approved at this meeting, so discussion was held about what to do about it. The consensus was that although the board bylaws requires the budget be approved by July 1, we have contractual obligations that must be honored, so business as usual should be conducted until the next board meeting.

PUBLIC COMMENT

None

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

President Tom Quinn provided a presentation to begin a conversation about college housing. The topic of his presentation was “Current housing: What’s it worth?” Factors to consider regarding housing are creating a learning community for the purpose of building leaders, providing day care services, energy conservation, security for students, life span of remodeling existing buildings, maintenance costs, legal risk, limited capacity, and other uses of funds.

Current housing: Is it obsolete? We need a sprinkler system, central fire alarm system, water distribution upgrade, appliances, furniture, remodeling and landscaping. Quinn provided some estimates of costs for remodeling compared to new housing estimates on a cost per bed basis. Consensus within the industry is not to spend more than half the cost of new housing on old housing. The model he presented showed that it is not feasible to upgrade current housing.

The board is being asked to set a time to suspend current housing, to form a committee to recommend what to do with current buildings, and to start working on new housing/transportation issues. If approved, the capital improvement funds from the state would be used to build infrastructure on campus for other buildings. Factors that impact decisions are gas prices, new programs, and extension sites.

Quinn displayed photographs taken during his recent visit to Jackson Community College to see their new student housing facility. Their facility is energy efficient and provides security for students through security cameras and keycards. These important factors are missing in our housing.

If we do not have student housing, what other things could we do with the money? This presents cost opportunities.

OPEN DISCUSSION

Trustee Richard Silverman commented that the housing questions and answers provided in the board packets were very helpful for preparing for this meeting. He supports the idea of suspending current housing and moving toward new. We are the only community college north of Bay City that does not have competitive, decent student housing. We have been remiss in letting this happen.

Trustee Roberta Werle shared information she gathered from the Internet about Michigan community colleges with housing. She noted that they appear to be very successful with student housing. She does not see spending over a million dollars to try to renovate old housing. We should close current housing as soon as it is feasible to do so while continuing to move forward with other things including a strategic plan for the next five years..

Roy Spangler agreed with the comments. The buildings were originally designed for single-family dwellings. If we were not aware of the sprinkler and fire alarm situation, we might continue as is. However, because we know about it, liability becomes a high priority issue.

Stacey Barnes, Dean of Student Services, was asked what the status is of students currently enrolled for the fall semester. She responded that we have twelve deposits for student housing for the fall semester. The proposal presented is to suspend housing after the winter 2009 semester. Richard Silverman expressed concern about liability between now and then. Quinn said he would entertain discussion on when to suspend. The proposal also contains an initiative to form a committee to decide what to do with suspending housing and to investigate possibilities for new housing.

Silverman asked for this to be an agenda item for the next board meeting to keep the conversation going. He would like to see the board set up time lines to keep this issue moving forward.

Roberta Werle said that she has qualms about opening even in the fall due to the fire liability. It is a risk she does not want the college to assume

Stacey Barnes agreed about the risk, and said that they might want to consider limiting residency to the current students for fall with strong advice of the risks. Fewer students mean fewer risks. The parents of the students need to understand the risks also.

Jeremy Jones asked where would the money come from to build new. The response was venture capital and/or bonds. For remodeling, we could take from the fund balance or borrow the money.

Preliminary Budget

Richard Silverman returned to the issue of the Preliminary Budget. He is not comfortable with being consciously in violation of our own bylaws. We should consider a special meeting to approve the budget in June. Ed Koliba added an urgency that the college might have to cease operating June 30 without an approved budget. The board members agreed to hold a special board meeting on Thursday, June 26 at 7 p.m.

New Program Opportunities

Roy Spangler reported that Kaletta Air is doing a lot of work in Tawas, from the old air force base, where they bring planes in and totally rebuild them. Because they have a shortage of skilled workers, requests for proposals for training was published. As a result, the local intermediate school district and Mid Michigan Community College are working with them, but Dr. Quinn has been investigating opportunities. Tom Quinn added that they are hiring 60 people per month for engine and frame repairs on 747s and DC10s. He said they are a poster child for economic development in the area when virtually nothing else is going on in the state. Because they cannot find the people they really need to hire, we need to look at what we can do through economic development in our workforce division. They see us as one of the solutions by providing an airframe and power plant, aviation mechanics program. It is a big ticket item which is the reason we discontinued our aviation maintenance program previously. Quinn said that he has begun investigating a grant opportunity for this purpose. The location of such a facility is unknown; cost is unknown; but there seems to be some interest in this opportunity. It is out of our district, but has ties to West Branch because it is within commuting distance.

Quinn stated that we are beginning to look at programs that have regional appeal. We need to challenge the culture of primarily serving our in-district population in an era of declining enrollments. Within the strategic planning process, we need to determine what is the role of this college in economic development within the communities we serve. If we are going to compete in today’s market, we need to challenge the old traditions.

Quinn said that he is also investigating a grant for a surgical technology program and research has begun research on wind technology.

ADJOURNMENT

With no further business to come before the board, the meeting was declared adjourned at 8:24 p.m. by Chair Roy Spangler.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathy Koch

Recording Secretary