1 1 2 Board of Trustees Meeting 3 Suffolk County Community College 4 5 A meeting of the Board of Trustees of Suffolk County 6 Community College was held in the Culinary Arts Center 7 of Suffolk County Community College, Eastern campus on 8 November 12, 2009 at 9:00 A.M. 9 10 Members Present: 11 Ernesto Mattace, Jr., Chairperson 12 Walter C. Hazlitt, Vice Chairperson 13 George Kane, Secretary 14 Paul V. Pontieri, Jr., Member 15 Belinda Alvarez-Groneman, Member 16 Avette D. Ware, Member 17 Saul R. Fenchel, Member 18 Chigozie Onyinanya, Student Trustee 19 20 Members Not Present: 21 David Ochoa, Member 22 Dr. Thomas J. Germano, Member 23 24 Also Present: 25 George Gatta, Interim President/SCCC 2 1 2 Teri Kopp, Secretary to the President 3 Nancy Stier, Vice President/Business & 4 Financial Affairs 5 Joanne Braxton, Associate Vice President for 6 Planning & Institutional Assessment 7 Ilene Kreitzer, College General Counsel 8 James Whitten, Vice President of Economic 9 Development 10 All other interested parties 11 12 Verbatim Transcript Taken by: 13 Gabrielle Skolom 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 [The meeting was commenced at 10:11 A.M.] 3 4 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 5 Good morning. Will you all rise for the 6 Pledge of Allegiance? Walter, please do 7 the honors. 8 9 [Salutation] 10 11 Good morning, everybody. 12 13 PANEL: 14 Good morning. 15 16 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 17 We have a guest this morning that I'd 18 like to introduce, and I'd ask her to 19 step forward. Tricia Saunders, a 20 representative from the County 21 Executive's office, to read a statement. 22 23 MS. SAUNDERS: 24 "Dear Trustees," -- 25 4 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 SECRETARY KANE: 3 Come closer. We can't hear you. 4 5 [Ms. Saunders complies] 6 7 Thanks. 8 9 MS. SAUNDERS: 10 This is from Suffolk County Executive 11 Levy: 12 13 "Dear Trustees, I have learned that the 14 Suffolk County Community College Board 15 of Trustees intends to vote today on a 16 new management benefits and salary 17 schedule which includes raises and step 18 increases. 19 20 "As County Executive, and as a County 21 Legislator prior to that, I have always 22 opposed step increases for County 23 management employees. Several years 24 ago, I vetoed the Legislature's proposal 25 to give step increases to County 5 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 management employees; however, they 3 ultimately overrode my veto. And 4 earlier this year, facing a difficult 5 shortfall in sales tax and property tax 6 revenue, I ordered step increases 7 suspended for 2009. 8 "Steps provide a double raise for 9 management, which typically is paid higher 10 wages to begin with. Even in good 11 financial times, I have found the step 12 system for management to be unrealistic 13 when compared to management salary 14 practices in the private sector, who 15 typically receive just one annual 16 percentage increase. 17 18 "In addition, the proposal to be voted 19 on contains additional benefits and time 20 off for management employees. How can 21 we ask for concessions from our 22 unionized employees and not set an 23 example with management employees? The 24 Faculty Association and the Guild of 25 Administrative Officers will soon 6 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 commence negotiations for a successor 3 collective bargaining agreement. In 4 these tough economic times, how can we 5 hold the line on salaries and benefits 6 for unionized employees while granting 7 exorbitant raises and increased benefits 8 to management employees? These changes 9 for management employees at the college 10 are wrong in good economic times and 11 outrageous in the current economy. 12 13 "As we continue to work through a 14 difficult economic period, it is my 15 belief that granting accelerated raises 16 to management through a step system on 17 top of percentage increases sends the 18 wrong message to the students, employees 19 and taxpayers we all serve. 20 21 "I ask that the Board of Trustees 22 reconsider its intention to vote on this 23 plan today and to develop a salary 24 schedule that is more realistic with 25 today's economic times. Thank you for 7 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 considering my thoughts. Sincerely, 3 Steve Levy, Suffolk County Executive." 4 5 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 6 Thank you. 7 8 SECRETARY KANE: 9 Thanks. 10 11 MS. SAUNDERS: 12 Thank you. 13 14 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 15 Okay. Next order of business, Approval 16 of Minutes of October 22. 17 18 VICE CHAIRMAN HAZLITT: 19 So moved. 20 21 SECRETARY KANE: 22 Second. 23 24 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 25 All those in favor? 8 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 PANEL: 3 Aye. 4 5 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 6 Opposed? Abstentions? So passed. 7 Approval of College Resolutions as 8 attached. We're looking at 2009.85 9 through 2009.88. Motion? 10 SECRETARY KANE: 11 So moved. 12 13 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 14 Second? 15 16 TRUSTEE WARE: 17 Second. 18 19 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 20 All those in favor? 21 22 PANEL: 23 Aye. 24 25 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 9 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 Opposed? Abstentions? So passed. 3 4 We have the college finance report. Vice 5 President Nancy Stier. 6 7 MS. STIER: 8 Good morning, everybody. 9 10 PANEL: 11 Good morning. 12 13 MS. STIER: 14 I have a very brief report for you because 15 our financial situation is very similar to 16 the last time I spoke to you. In your 17 material, you can see that we still 18 estimate good revenues because of good 19 enrollment this year. We have $4.8 million 20 above budget. We need to spend additional 21 funds on adjuncts to pay for those 22 students. We were helped by the fact that 23 we had -- we were able to add student 24 courses, but it's still going to cost about 25 $750,000 to pay for those courses. Still, 10 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 we expect to have savings in other areas to 3 cover those costs and expenses, so we will 4 be just about on budget. 5 6 You will recall the carryover in the budget 7 of $1.7 million, so we expect overall to 8 end the year about $3.1 million over 9 budget. That's where we are now. Of 10 course, this does not include any impact of 11 potential State budget cuts, which I 12 believe the President will talk about, but 13 that's the condition now, and the next 14 major changes will come when we see spring 15 enrollment. Any questions? 16 17 [No response] 18 19 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 20 Thank you. 21 22 All right. To bring the Board up to speed 23 on what's happening with the presidential 24 search, we are now at the first phrase of 25 interviews which will be occurring next 11 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 week. When those interviews have been 3 concluded, the committee will make a 4 recommendation to the Board at the 5 beginning of December. We will be 6 interviewing the final three candidates. 7 Any questions that I can answer? 8 9 [No response] 10 It's going very well. I have to be honest 11 that the committee's worked very hard and 12 diligent. We've had some really good 13 interaction, good conversation, and I'm 14 very happy with the results up until this 15 point. 16 17 SECRETARY KANE: 18 Excellent. 19 20 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 21 All right. Roundtable. Anybody have 22 anything that they'd like to discuss? 23 24 TRUSTEE PONTIERI: 25 Last week, we put up the banners, the 12 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 Holocaust and Diversity -- 3 4 INTERIM PRESIDENT GATTA: 5 Suffolk Center on the Holocaust, Diversity 6 & Human Understanding, Embracing Our 7 Differences. 8 9 TRUSTEE PONTIERI: 10 Embracing Our Differences -- over at the 11 middle school next to village hall on South 12 Ocean Avenue. That building is about 35% 13 to 40% Latino, minority population. What 14 we did is put them up on a Monday, started 15 putting them up. We never really told the 16 kids. We put them up over a couple days, 17 so they grew on the lawn, and then on 18 Wednesday of last week, we had an assembly. 19 And at the end of school, their last period 20 -- there's about 550 kids in that building, 21 walking around on the lawn of the building 22 in front of the banners, and that took 23 about a half hour or so. We had three or 24 four speakers, approximately, who spoke. I 25 did, Marcelo Lucero's brother spoke and 13 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 Commissioner Gail {Kirwin} spoke. 3 4 But what amazed me about it is that for the 5 20, 25 minutes that we were there, not one 6 word was said. The kids stood there, and 7 it was the most amazing thing in my whole 8 career. Those banners had such an effect 9 on that building. 10 11 And most immigrant communities -- those 12 people that know Patchogue -- you take 13 Ocean Avenue, it takes you to the bay and 14 probably 80, 90% of the residents of the 15 community at some point in time go down 16 over South Ocean. And you watch the cars 17 come down, you see people walk through. 18 The effect it had on the community was 19 tremendous. 20 21 So what we did was when I had spoken, I had 22 ask the kids to do a couple things. I 23 asked them to look and see all the banners 24 in terms of -- to rate the banners, if 25 there were one or two they would like to 14 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 keep, maybe we can put them up. South 3 Ocean Avenue Middle School is a 4 traditional, old building built in the 20s. 5 It has big pillars. And also that they 6 develop one they can submit to be part of 7 the display next year, and it just really 8 -- at the end, the principal said -- 9 because it was about five or seven, maybe 10 ten minutes before the busses came -- is 11 for the kids to go to their classrooms, and 12 think about the banners. And for those of 13 us that have been in education in schools, 14 you've seen the kids; they can just wander 15 off into the playground screaming and 16 spreading. They turned around, they walked 17 quitely. Some went over and spoke to the 18 brother, and some spoke to the 19 Commissioner. They quietly walked over, 20 and there wasn't that much chaos that you 21 would expect. They really did exactly -- 22 you know, it was great. 23 24 We put these up on museum grounds and 25 college grounds to look at, but what we 15 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 really need to do is get into elementary 3 schools and get to those -- because I'm a 4 believer this whole immigrant issue will 5 take a long time to solve itself, but it's 6 going to be solved in the elementary 7 schools and middle schools. It's not going 8 to be solved in high schools or, you know, 9 programs for adults. You know, the adults 10 have their minds made up; the high school 11 kids are too into graduating; but it's we, 12 the adults, that really frame the 13 conversation on immigration, diversity, 14 minority inclusion, and I just truly -- if 15 you think about the things that we do as 16 adults, the things we do and how that looks 17 to those 500 kids. 18 19 There's been a group called Not In Our 20 Towns, a PBS group out in California, 21 wandering around the village for the past 22 year or so doing a piece on how communities 23 respond and react to hate crimes, and they 24 did one on the Shephard murder in Wyoming. 25 They did one on another issue out west 16 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 where there was a radio station blasting 3 out hate crimes -- hateful statements 4 broadcast. But they went in and they did a 5 piece with the school and said the kids 6 were so engaged, so tuned in to what those 7 banners were, that -- Steven Schrier just, 8 you know, quitely stands to the side and 9 does what -- that committee he had put 10 together, the outreach and the effect it 11 had was tremendous. We put up a total of 12 18 banners. There was six of the 13 triangular pieces, but it was just 14 tremendous. 15 16 You know, if that is the only thing that I 17 got sitting on this board as long as I ever 18 sit here, that 20 minutes, half an hour for 19 those kids, many of those kids, out of 500, 20 it will change -- it changed a tremendous 21 portion of them to begin to understand what 22 it was all about. And for the community, 23 it was a very subtle way to talk about 24 diversity and inclusion. But also the fact 25 that the school -- village hall is right 17 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 around -- right next door to the junior 3 high school, Baker Street, so we wrapped it 4 around the corner so it showed the 5 connection between the community, the 6 American Legion is there and the school. 7 So it really was just a neat thing just to 8 talk about things to do, decisions you 9 make. Sometimes the ones -- the ones you 10 think are inconsequential become the most 11 effective. 12 13 So I think it's something the College 14 should be proud of. Steven should be proud 15 because it really was done in a way that 16 really touches those it most effects, has a 17 real impact, so I appreciate it. 18 19 SECRETARY KANE: 20 I'm sure I'm speaking for the entire board, 21 Paul, when I say that your leadership has 22 been very, very impressive. 23 24 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 25 Anyone else? 18 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 TRUSTEE ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: 3 There is a Bank of America event on Long 4 Island that is going on this evening, and I 5 recall being there last year and Dr. 6 Pippens was one of the judges at the time. 7 In fact, Marylou, are you here? 8 9 UNKNOWN SPEAKER: 10 She's not. 11 12 TRUSTEE ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: 13 I am attending this evening. It's the 2009 14 Neighbor Excellence Initiative Awards. 15 They give out neighborhood builders, local 16 heroes and student leaders. That's 17 tonight, and I'll be attending that tonight 18 at the Long Island Children's Museum in 19 Garden City. 20 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 21 Anybody else? 22 23 STUDENT TRUSTEE ONYINANYA: 24 I just wanted to give my opinion on the 25 student assembly conference I attended. I 19 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 attended the Student Assembly Conference in 3 Binghamton, New York. The meeting 4 consisted of a series of business meetings. 5 The SUNY assembly organized and presented 6 these meetings. Each college was allotted 7 voting delegates based on student 8 involvement in the SUNY system. Suffolk 9 was allotted a record-breaking five 10 delegates with yours truly being one of 11 them. This was actually the largest amount 12 of voting delegates in the senior assembly. 13 14 Suffolk was there representing students and 15 constituents. We talked about the New York 16 State Governor Patterson budget cuts. The 17 College had held rallies and obtained many 18 signatures against these cuts. So far in 19 total, over 10,000 signatures have been 20 collected. Numerous calls to our New York 21 State Legislators have been made. I 22 commend the efforts of the Student Assembly 23 and all students involved who have taken a 24 proactive approach to this issue, and I 25 felt proud to be a student trustee. I hope 20 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 to attend the next conference in the 3 spring. 4 5 I also had the pleasure of attending a 6 special educational trip to Cornell 7 University last week with a few other 8 students. Suffolk is one of the few 9 community colleges that has a partnership 10 with Cornell through the Pathways to 11 Success Program, providing the ability for 12 community college graduates in continuing 13 their education. In fact, I would like to 14 publicly thank Dr. James Canniff for 15 meeting with me. He and Mary Dernbach were 16 very approachable to any concerns I had in 17 regards to the admissions policy and 18 details surrounding my major and career 19 goals. 20 21 Cornell's campus was absolutely beautiful 22 and breathtaking as well as the weather, 23 very cold. Overall, I thought that trip 24 was very inciteful, and I'm happy to say 25 that Cornell is one of my choices of 21 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 transferring. 3 4 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 5 Good luck. I attended class up there, so 6 it's not only a beautiful campus, it's an 7 enriching experience. Good luck. 8 9 TRUSTEE ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: 10 Did you get an 'A'? 11 12 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 13 Yes, I did. 14 15 [Laughter] 16 17 To tie into that, I was chosen by the 18 Chancellor to be one of 200 and attend 19 my first meeting. It's become a little 20 bit of a problem because a lot of it's 21 going to be conflicting with our 22 interviews and our public search, but I 23 will be going to Delhi and Plattsburgh 24 later on, and what it is is input from 25 the Chancellor. The goal is going to be 22 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 no more than a 15-page report to see 3 what SUNY needs to do for the future. 4 We have a great cross-section, and I was 5 very proud to, in my discussions, to 6 talk about how our program became the 7 biggest in the state, how our culinary 8 institute is flourishing, the 9 partnerships with the community, and it 10 was one of the areas they discussed. 11 And my particular work group, you know, 12 felt it was an important issue 13 especially for the community colleges 14 because they are the backbones of the 15 community. 16 17 So, again, I'm very proud to say -- 18 hopefully we are going to be leading the 19 way in many areas and help the state, help 20 the communities. 21 22 This evening, Sister Mary Ann from the 23 Grant Campus is being honored in the March 24 of Dimes. 25 Tonight is education night, so I'm going to 23 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 be happy to be attending. 3 And as I spoke about before, we are going 4 to be working on, hopefully to everybody's 5 benefit, to sit here for three- or 6 four-hour meetings when everybody has to go 7 in five, ten different directions is 8 nonsensical. That's why the committees are 9 going to be doing the work. They are going 10 to present it to the Board so we don't have 11 to dig deep, but it's not going to stop 12 anybody from asking questions, interacting 13 with other members of the Board. 14 15 But, again, all your time is valuable, and 16 we have to get the work of the college 17 done, and I think the most efficient way to 18 do it is through committees. So we're 19 going to be talking about that as we go 20 along, adjusting positions, and I would ask 21 you to please don't hesitate to speak your 22 preference on a committee that you'd like 23 to work on because it's much better off for 24 you and the Board if you're doing something 25 that you enjoy and that you're interested 24 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 in. With that, we'll move on to the 3 agenda. 4 TRUSTEE ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: 5 Is the school here making pies this year? 6 7 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 8 Are they making pies? 9 10 TRUSTEE ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: 11 Someone behind you is saying yes. 12 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 13 When are we ordering them? 14 15 MS. KREITZER: 16 Now. 17 18 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 19 We can order now? 20 21 MS. BRAXTON: 22 Yes. 23 24 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 25 Okay. I'm in trouble. What kind of pies 25 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 are we making? 3 4 MS. KREITZER: 5 Blueberry, apple -- 6 7 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 8 Okay. 9 10 TRUSTEE ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: 11 I just thought it would be nice if we could 12 order some pies for the Board. Of course I 13 need to send a bunch back to Pronto. 14 15 MR. WHITTON: 16 Counsel happens to have the menu. 17 18 [Laughter] 19 20 TRUSTEE ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: 21 I wanted to know, as a board, if we're 22 going to be put a basket together either 23 here for Suffolk Community College through 24 Mary Ann or through Pronto of Long Island. 25 I won't ask you for any more money, but it 26 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 is time for giving, sir. 3 4 [Laughter] 5 VICE CHAIRMAN HAZLITT: 6 How much is a slice? 7 8 [Laughter] 9 10 TRUSTEE PONTIERI: 11 Can we just circle -- put our name on it 12 and circle and give it to you? 13 14 MS. BRAXTON: 15 Yes. 16 17 TRUSTEE ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: 18 Are they going to deliver to the three 19 campuses? 20 21 MS. KREITZER: 22 I know they deliver to Ammerman on 23 Wednesday and Grant also. 24 25 TRUSTEE ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: 27 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 Okay. Perfect. I'll order about 20 of 3 them, anyway. You don't need this right 4 now, right? 5 MS. BRAXTON: 6 No. 7 8 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 9 They are excellent. All right. Anything 10 else? 11 INTERIM PRESIDENT GATTA: 12 I just have one item to continue to update 13 you on and that is budget. As we await the 14 disposition of the Governor's proposed 15 midyear cuts, which from reports in the 16 media, we understand will be revealed 17 somewhat next Tuesday, we hear the leaders 18 in the Assembly and Senate are in 19 discussions with the Governor this week, 20 and they are actually putting some numbers 21 on the table. We don't know what they are, 22 but while we wait, we -- I want to just 23 update the Board that we've taken a 24 significant amount of action, both what we 25 did last year that positioned us very well 28 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 coming into this year and in the summer 3 looking at the massive enrollment with a 4 working group that involved many, many 5 different constituents in the college and 6 also within the past three weeks, Executive 7 Vice President McKay had headed up a budget 8 working group involved in the business 9 office in the three campuses and central 10 business offices, so we're looking at both 11 short-term and long-term strategies to deal 12 with the situation. 13 14 We're hopeful that this year's midyear cut 15 will not materialize. However, should it, 16 and if that sets the tone for a two-year 17 cut, the cumulative impact on us would be 18 about $7.5 million between this budget year 19 and the next. It's a significant amount of 20 money to deal with. Again, we're putting 21 together plans to address it, but from Vice 22 President Stier's report, from a revenue 23 standpoint, we are in good shape this year. 24 We did finish last year significantly ahead 25 of where we thought it would be, so we are, 29 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 in fact, building -- have built our 3 reserves beyond what was projected. 4 5 TRUSTEE PONTIERI: 6 Is there a cap on state reserves? 7 INTERIM PRESIDENT GATTA: 8 No. However, there are suggested standards 9 and as we add to the reserves, we're 10 approaching what would be a reasonable 11 amount, but we're still not there yet. 12 We've come a long way in the past two 13 years. 14 15 TRUSTEE PONTIERI: 16 Districts have caps. 17 18 INTERIM PRESIDENT GATTA: 19 We don't, and the good news is we're 20 building them, and should we need them 21 in the '10,'11 budget or the '11,'12 22 budget, they will be there. The bad 23 news is -- well, the good news is that 24 it's there, but the challenge is when 25 you use it as a one-shot in a subsequent 30 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 year, unless conditions improve, you 3 have that much more difficulty balancing 4 your budget. 5 6 So I want to thank Executive Vice President 7 McKay, Vice President Stier and everybody 8 working to send recommendations to the 9 Board so that we can present them so we can 10 deal with what looks like could be a 11 challenging fiscal picture over the next 12 year and a half. That's all I have this 13 morning. Thank you. 14 15 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 16 Anything else? 17 18 [No response] 19 20 I'd ask for a motion to go into executive 21 session. There will be no further business 22 conducted after executive session. 23 24 VICE CHAIRMAN HAZLITT: 25 So moved. 31 1 SCCC Board of Trustees 11/12/2009 2 3 TRUSTEE ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: 4 Second. 5 6 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 7 All those in favor? 8 9 PANEL: 10 Aye. 11 12 CHAIRMAN MATTACE: 13 Opposed? Abstentions? Thank you. 14 15 [The meeting was adjourned at 10:36 A.M.] 16 {} Indicates spelled phonetically 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 32 1 2 CERTIFICATION 3 4 I, Gabrielle Skolom, a Notary Public 5 for and within the State of New York, do 6 hereby certify: 7 That the foregoing is a true and 8 accurate 9 transcription of the stenographic notes 10 taken herein. 11 I further certify that I am not 12 related to any of the parties to this 13 action by blood or marriage; and that I am 14 in no way interested in the outcome of this 15 matter. 16 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto 17 set my hand this 12th day of November, 18 2009. 19 20 _______________________ 21 Gabrielle Skolom 22 23 * * * 24 25