>> Chairman: I'd like to call to order, please, the meeting of the Pasadena Community College District Board of Trustees. Let's begin roll call, please. Mrs. Mary Thompson? >> [Inaudible]. >> Chairman: I am here. >> Mr. Martin, Mrs. Brown. >> Here. >> Dr. Fellow. >> Here. >> Dr. Mann. >> Present. >> Ms. [Inaudible]. >> Present. >> Mr. Soto. >> Here. >> Chairman: Okay. Let's begin then with the Pledge of Allegiance. Dr. Fellow, would you lead us, please? >> Please, place your hand over your heart and repeat after me. >> All: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation, under God, indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all. >> Thank you. >> Chairman: Okay, the first item on the business we will, I'll ask Dr. Rocha to introduce the superintendent of the South Pasadena Unified School District and have him comment addresses, please. >> Yes. Thank you, President Thompson, trustees and members of the community. I would ask my colleague and friend and superintendent of Pasadena Unified School District, South Pasadena. [laughter] Remember where we are. [laughter] Dr. Joe Shapiro. Joe, welcome. >> Where would you like me to stand? Over here? >> Chairman: There or wherever you are comfortable doing. >> Okay. This way I can kind of turn around too so that's good. >> Chairman: Okay, that's fine. >> It gives me great pleasure to welcome you here this evening, and we are delighted to be your hosts. I am very, very pleased with the partnership between South Pasadena Unified and PCC. I've really enjoyed working very closely with Linda [inaudible] and with Dr. Rocha on a number of initiatives that we've discussed, but your decision to come here and hear directly from our community members really means a great deal to us that you value input from our community and we look forward to continuing to work with you in terms of your helping to provide the programs that are really the best for our students. So thank you very much for being here and we'll look forward to having you back. >> Chairman: Thank you very much. We appreciate the opportunity to be here because part of our approach this past year has been to have our study sessions in different parts of the geographic area that we represent and so we're pleased to be in South Pasadena this evening and let me turn now if I may please to trustee Linda [inaudible], who represents this area. >> Thank you, President Rocha. >> Chairman: I'm President Thompson. >> Oh, I'm sorry. President Thompson. [laughter] Sorry. [laughter] >> Chairman: Not that that's an insult or anything like that. [laughter] >> Yeah. I want to take this opportunity to welcome all of the South Pasadena community and the Area 5 community who have come out to this meeting. It really means a lot to us as a board because as President Thompson said it's part of our outreach and it was something that was one of our goals to ensure that we had outreach both for input from the community so that we can meet your needs at the college. Now I wanted to introduce a few people who are here in the audience to the board. I wanted to introduce, well, Mr. Shapiro already got introduced, but also Rich Sonner, who is one of the board members from South Pasadena School Board. Also we have David Edelstein also one of the school board members. Let's see and, Joel, maybe help me out if I miss anybody. Is Dave Cabela here? We also have Gary Pia, who is our soon to be new treasurer of South Pasadena. Let's see we have Scott Feldman who is the Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce and Scott was instrumental in working with Dena Chase on the Farmer's Market for PCC. We also have Sally Kelby, who is the city clerk of South Pasadena. Thank you all for being here. [ Silence ] >> Chairman: It's now my pleasure to introduce Dean Ted Young, who has a couple of distinguished guests that I believe he's to introduce to us. We're so very fortunate at Pasadena City College to have international students and the two young women with Dean Young represent the very best of that. >> Thank you very much. It's my great pleasure to introduce Iana Suzuki from Yokahama National University, and Aaron Suzuki, no relation, from Sophia University. [laughter] They're majoring in biology and English literature and through the efforts of the PCC global club and the Pasadena District City's Committee. We have them here with us from September 10th through September 30th. They're going to be here for 3 weeks. They're being hosted by three of our faculty members at PCC; Dr. Stephen [inaudible], who brought them this evening, thanks. Professor Charlene Potter and Professor Jenny Herringer. [Inaudible] teaches Italian; Charlene teachers French and E.S.L.; and Jenny teaches E.S.L. So we're exposing them to a variety of different things on campus. They have visited a number of our classes, several E.S.L. classes taught by Russians Frank and Dan Myer; World History taught by Susie Ling; Applied Business Principles and Practices taught by Don Raden; Italian I, French I and I believe they're going to a biology class also so they can see how we do things here and compare them. They've also served as student interns. They volunteered with our Japanese program in our learning assistant center so our students can have some first-hand contact with them. This is the first time that faculty members and students from our languages division are working together to welcome foreign students through this exchange program, but over the past 20 some years PCC students have been involved through the sister cities program going to Germany, Japan, Finland, Armenia for different summer programs. So, on behalf of the college I'd like to welcome you and see if you'd like to say a little something. Hi? [laughter] >> I'm really happy to be here and thank you that I could study in PCC and I am really happy because so many people are interested in Japan and thank you very much. [ Applause ] >> I think she's the spokesperson. [laughter] >> Chairman: I have a question for Dean Young. >> Yes? >> Chairman: Now let me get this straight. They're over here for about 20 days at PCC and they're going to learn French in that period of time? [laughter] >> Of course. They'll be fluent in French and Italian. No. [laughter] But it's a good opportunity for them to compare our methodologies and what they're used to. >> Chairman: Well that's great. We're delighted to have you with us and glad that you could make it this evening and if we can give special recognition to you. So, thank you so very much. >> Thank you for having us. [ Applause ] >> Chairman: Okay, other members of the board of trustees in the announcements, greetings, introductions? Ms. Brown? >> No. >> Chairman: Dr. Mann? >> No, I don't have any. >> Chairman: Mr. Soto? >> No reports. >> Chairman: Dr. Fellow? >> Just happy to be in South Pasadena. >> Chairman: [laughter] And Ms. [inaudible]? >> Well, two things I think since our last board meeting. One is the upcoming farmer's market on September 29th. So PCC will have our first booth in the farmer's market and we have a total of four dates thanks to the work of Dena Chase, our outreach director, and the Chamber of Commerce through Scott Feldman. Then also the new incoming city treasurer, Gary Pia, was nice enough to talk about, he talked to me about financial literacy that he was offering in the community and I knew that the ASP was getting ready to do a financial seminar in October so I offered it as a resource and I think our ASP took advantage of it. Alex, I don't know if you want to say anything? >> It was probably one of the most informative sessions I've been a part of ever. I told him that I probably learned more in there than I've learned in other areas in terms of financial awareness. Definitely very helpful. >> And I also wanted to thank Vice President Miller for attending the San Marino School Board meeting with me and it was a good introduction to their new superintendent and introducing them to our program. So, we have a schedule to address their PTAs in the upcoming months. So, thank you, Bob. >> Chairman: Okay. Dr. Rocha? >> Yes, thank you, President Thompson. I'll just say briefly first of all to express my own personal thanks to Superintendent Shapiro and all of you for hosting us. I want to thank all of the members of our board of trustees for supporting these outreach meetings that we've had are enormously helpful to me and my team and I especially want to thank trustee Linda [inaudible], Area 5, who was instrumental in making these connections and has helped us with our partnership with the Unified School District and with all of the communities in Area 5. So, I want to express my gratitude for that. I'm going to move along pretty quickly. Also, in addition perhaps I'll do it this way. I have, you know, so proud of the team that we brought with us and we travel heavily, we brought everybody with us, but I'd ask all of my colleagues to do we have our executive staff, our officers, we have our deans, we have faculty, we have staff. I'd ask everybody on the PCC team to please rise so that we can see who you are and give you a round of applause. [ Applause ] So, I appreciate my colleagues being here tonight and to community members who have been good enough to spend time with us, you know, during and after the meeting I encourage you to input to any and all of us because we're here primarily to listen. That's my report. >> Chairman: Okay. Thank you. Is there public comment on any item not on the agenda this evening? Okay. None appearing. We'll move along. As is set forth in the agenda, this is a study session and the purpose of this is for us as trustees to review and to discuss our plans and recommendations and the process we're implementing to try to reach out and educate people within our district and the students who come to Pasadena City College as effectively and as well as we can. And so we very much need your feedback and your input and your participation because if we work together as we do, that will make for a better college and a better educational system and better results. So, we're very appreciative of your attendance this evening. We're going to begin I think with a short presentation about the educational master plan that we adopted a few months back. It's going to guide us over the next years and in a little bit less than four years I think we will be celebrating our 90th anniversary at Pasadena City College. So we're very excited about that and the educational master plan is part of our road map to allow us to get there and achieve certain goals we have set for ourselves by that time. So, having said that let me go back to Dr. Rocha and I assume Mr. Miller and we'll move forward. >> Let me call the presentation team up and first is Vice President of Educational Services Bob Miller. [Inaudible] introducing Bob and the rest of the team that what we had envisioned for tonight is to present some basic information about 10-15 minutes very, very briefly that tracks what we've done in the past year to reconnect to South Pasadena Unified School District and especially the high school. This time last year when I had the pleasure of beginning my working relationship with the superintendent, we set out a goal to make sure that every at that point 12th grader coming out of South Pas High School was not only fully informed but had the opportunity for guaranteed admission and guaranteed classes and that was at PCC. That was the result of a conscious policy on the part of the PCC board of trustees to make sure that we were giving priority to our in district students, to our in district high schools and our in district community. So, what Bob and his colleagues will do we'll just briefly set out what we're doing and we'll brief in this presentation and our main goal in this is to hear from you, your questions, your comments, your concerns so that we can do better to serve you. So, with that present Bob Miller. >> Thank you, Dr. Rocha, members of the board. I wanted to just start by indicating that this is a presentation prepared by what we call team one at Pasadena College, our teaching and learning team, and that is headed by Dr. Jacob, Vice President for Academic Affairs; Dr. Bell our Vice President for Student Learning Services; and myself as the VP of Education Services. As Dr. Rocha said, this presentation is about what we call our PCC Pathway Success Starts Here. So we thought we'd give you kind of a fall report as to where we are right now. First we start with the signature goals that are in our educational master plan or what we call Project 90. I won't read these to you but you have copies of the Power Point in front of you but beyond that you will recognize these as signature goals of the district and of the board as it relates to our education master plan of where we want to go. Tonight's presentation is going to concentrate primarily on the guaranteed enrollment for in district high school students. The other thing that is important about our education master plan is this notion of what our student success achievement targets are and I'll remind you transfers, associate degrees, STEM degrees, all of our CTE certificates, certificates of completion and then increasing our [inaudible] completion rate and, again, our pathways activity drives this. Another thing that we are heavily engaged in right now and I'll speak a little bit about this in a minute, but is our Two Plus Two college commitment, which between our district high schools, PCC and working with Cal State LA upon graduation from our PACCD college commitment high schools if you will those of our high schools that commit to this, they can go directly into, they will be guaranteed directly to come into PCC and achieve a pathway into the degree, the certificate or transfer. If they're ready, they can go directly to Cal State LA and then they can transfer directly from PCC to Cal State LA upon their completion and we're working on that right now and that's a joint team effort that's going well. Just briefly why do we have first year experience programs. Well, you can see there that 50% of those entering community colleges drop out before their second year. This is information from the survey of entering student engagement [inaudible] University of Texas the community college center that they have there. This is national data, it's true here in California as well. The benchmarks what are effective practices and all of our pathways activities are built in these effective practices, clear academic plans, engaged learning, early connections, high expectations and aspirations. Every one of the pathways that we've developed include these sense benchmarks. This is just an example of things that we've gotten up and off the ground as quickly as we could in 2010, '11. Our first year of pathway funded by our Title V grant, 289 students are engaged in that, 218 are what we call a general pathway. There's 71 in the athletes' pathway. Then we've got a number of other what we called pre-college ready first year student pathways in all of those things that you see there. These are programs out of our student services area out of our instructional area. Many of them the essay SI relates to our student access and success initiative and so this particular pathway is funded through that opportunity. So 565 students are in track pathway opportunities for their year and actually in many cases into their second year as well. This is the demographics. We're proud to say 42% of those students are in district. The first year athletes in and out of district. They represent 22%. You can see the males and females and you can also see ethnically it's a very nice diverse group of students. One of the, if you will, the key foundational things that our Title V team in our math division put together is our Math Jam Program and just a couple of quick things about that. This program through data and tracking over the last several years has indicated that if the students participate in this they succeed at more than 2 1/2 times faster in terms of moving forward in their mass sequences and they complete Math 131 and English 1A, which is our entry-level college and English more than twice as fast as the comparison group. So the point is it's a very successful program. Now we have a number of CTE pathways and Dr. Jacobs is going to speak to those right now. >> Thank you. You will notice that in addition to the regular basic skills type pathways that we've been dealing with, in fact, the Chancellor's Office has asked us to focus on three major areas; transferring of our students, helping them with basic skills, and also the career and technical pathways. We have three types of certificates now. We have about 70 programs, career and technical programs, that students can enter into. These will take you to the work force and a lot of people not only those that are in high school now but also those that are unemployed, looking for work, can come back and retrain into the various areas. So, we won't go through all of these but I want you to know that we have a brochure that we'll be, it's being printed as I speak I guess and so we will have those ready for you and we will be getting those to the schools so that you can see the programs that we have and we encourage your students and adults to look at our programs and certificates that we have and the enter in some of our programs. I mentioned that one person said, I said to one of you I said one of our best kept secrets is our career and technical programs, but this person told me that she was aware of our programs and do we have the other slide? >> There you go. >> Okay. These are our programs and we won't go through them but you can see we have programs that people take and you can transfer with the programs. Some of them get the basis for going into medical areas and all sorts of fields. So, with that you get the other information a little later, but I just wanted you to know that we have career and technical programs at Pasadena City College. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Jacobs. The other thing that we created this year is what we call our student portal 1.0 and we call it My PCC. What the college is working hard to do is to create the student portal so it becomes the home base. So every student who comes to Pasadena City College when they get up in the morning they will check this portal and it will provide all of the information they need regarding their schedule, their registration information, it'll have social networking options and what have you. We are piloting that right now with about 365 students and we plan to take it live for the whole campus next year and that's a project being led by Ray [inaudible], one of the professors in international sciences area again funded through Title V, but this is one of our most exciting projects that I think that we're engaged in right now. Then professional learning. The EMP spoke a great deal about the importance of professional learning and professional development for our faculty and for our staff and for our managers. So this is just a list of some of the professional learning activities that through the student access and success initiative and other funding sources that we are engaged in right now we were recently honored to have George Boggs on our campus, president emeritus of the American Association of Community Colleges and Palomar College, and he sort of kicked off this series. Tomorrow we are continuing with some additional stuff. So the point being is that we are engaging our faculty and others in a great deal of professional learning activities right now. This is some of the detail behind the Two Plus Two Plus Two, and I'm not going to get into it for obvious reasons, but you can see that the primary foundational aspects of this are the outreach piece, the curriculum piece and the professional learning piece and you'll note that it starts back, as far back as the 8th grade and it is basically the notion of creating a college going [inaudible] back in the 8th grade and we hope to go even further than that and so on and so forth as it relates to manners in which we assess students and we develop pathways for them, et cetera, but this is a plan that as Dr. Rocha likes to say is not quite soup yet but it's getting there and soon we will be presenting it to Dr. Jim Rosser, who is the present Cal State [inaudible], and Dr. Rocha and some others in terms of what we hope to be doing in that area. These are some of the things that we've got planned as we continue this year and going into the future; double the number of students in our first year of pathways, increase our pre-college ready pathway growth program, international students, campus-wide portal rollout, math modulation pilots, many, many things that we're doing in order to make certain that we can provide those incoming 12th graders and thousands of other students at PCC the opportunities that they need to be successful. It's about as we said before it's about progression and completion through our college. One initiative, one mission, educational master plan, these are the resources, Title V funding, our student access and success initiative, the basic skills initiative funding through the State of California and the Chancellor's Office, and then the many combined resources of the academic affairs office, our student services and educational services is what we call team one now. All of those folks. This is just a small sample of our faculty, our staff, our managers, our administrators who are engaged in this project right now. We put this slide up here to let you know this is truly a college-wide initiative and a college-wide activity and it's very, very exciting and good to see. At this point or whenever it's appropriate, Dr. Bell, Dr. Jacobson, I'd be happy to entertain any questions, but that's the formal presentation. >> Great. Thank you, Bob. Perhaps what we'll do is to take that complete the presentation and go on to the honor's and fast track so we can put that together and then I think we'll have everything out there and then we can just open it up to general discussion. >> Chairman: I would invite Dena Chase to come up and do her presentation. >> Good evening and thank you very much for the opportunity to share with you this evening some of the wonderful programs and services available for high school students as well as PCC students once they make the transition to the college. The first program I'd like to discuss is our fast track program. Fast track basically is a program for concurrent enrollment and students in the fast track program can begin to take [inaudible] level classes, which are the general ed classes, accepted at the Cal State and UC systems in several private schools. Fast track when it was established was set up so that a student could begin the program as early as their sophomore year and taking one class per semester finish high school come to PCC, one year later transfer as a junior. We've gotten wonderful success in the courses. It's obviously accelerating time to degree and give students an opportunity to get a flavor of what colleges like while they're still in high school and learn how to make that transition; high school, college, university. One of the things that we're looking at this coming year is to see how we can perhaps guarantee enrollment in courses for fast track. As you've already heard about the guarantee program for the in-district schools, we are looking to see if we could tag along with that for the fast track in our in district high school students. Once a student has transitioned to PCC, there are several programs and opportunities for them to help in the transfer process. One of them is the scholars program. It's basically our honor's program and it's rigorous instruction that the students receive and while UCLA does not guarantee admission to anybody, the scholar's program is the pathway that is the closest program that gives you priority consideration and the majority of students who participate in the honor's program, the scholar's program, are accepted to UCLA. In addition to that, there are the tag programs and I've listed the UC's and independent institutions that offer tag to PCC students. These programs do guarantee admission to the specific campuses for a specific term and major. One of the things that we always tell students maybe it may not be the campus that you want to go to but go ahead and apply for a tag. Last year we had over 2,500 tags submitted by our PCC students and all of them received admission to a UC. Now, whether they accepted it or whether they decided to go to Stanford or USC, that was their choice but they had that in their hip pocket. That was their opportunity to know that they were admitted someplace. SB1440 is the guarantee to CSU pathway and I was just at an advisory meeting at Cal State LA today and received an update that the CSU system is working out their final bugs and then they'll be showcasing that to all of us. As you know, PCC has a wonderful tradition of transferring students to the university. Our 2011 data is not available yet, but I wanted to give you a short snapshot of the transfers that we've had to the UCs, Cal States, California independent, out of state public and out of state independent schools. As you can see from the period of 1989 to 2010, PCC successfully transferred over 36,00 students across the nation. The Community and School Relation's Office is made up of Counselor Tamika Alexander, and school relation specialist Allan Delavara [phonetic], as well as the president student ambassadors. The staff goes out to all the district high schools, community events, showcases the programs and services that the college has available. As you can see in addition to the farmer's market that trustee [inaudible] had mentioned earlier, these are the semester visits that the staff will be making to South Pasadena High School and coming in the spring in addition to additional outreach advisement sessions that they'll be providing at the high schools, there will also be additional farmer's markets in February and March as well as a PCC day at South Pas and that's an opportunity for us to take our show on the road kind of like what we're doing tonight and bringing different departments to South Pas and having students get the opportunity to talk to people in different departments and whoever said there is no free lunch hasn't attended our South Pasadena Unified School District Counselor Lunch and Learn and that's where our outreach staff brings lunch to the counselors and they're held hostage while we share with them all the updates and upcoming news. So, that's pretty much it in a nutshell. I, again, thank you for the opportunity to give you an overview of what we're doing and what we're planning. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dena. [ Applause ] We might as we're continuing maybe leave that last slide up for the community because it really lists the schedule of community outreach activities in South Pas so that you can take notes or any way you can connect. That's the formal report, President Thompson. We're ready to open it up. >> Chairman: Okay, we would love to hear from those of you in the audience if you have questions or comments or whatever just please come forward, identify yourself and tell us what you'd like to tell us or ask the questions. We'll be more than delighted to respond and engage in a good conversation. Come on up. Don't be bashful. >> Where do you want me to come up to? >> Chairman: Right to the microphone. Just tell us who you are to begin with, please. >> My name is Tracy North. I'm a resident of South Pasadena and my son is a freshman at Pasadena City College. As anybody who has college-aged kids knows part of the difficulty of transitioning into school is getting the courses you need. What I was so impressed by and I wanted to share this with everybody in here is for the new freshmen coming in who may have had a challenge getting their English and math courses my son being one of them, you offered a day for those students to come in with guaranteed enrollment in those required courses and I have to say that Bob Miller and Dr. Rocha as well as many of your other staff were actually there on hand helping the kids and the parents work their way through this new experience and I was really, really impressed. I just wanted to share that with everybody in here. >> What's your son's name? >> Michael. >> Michael. >> And you personally and Bob Miller personally helped him navigate his way into the math class he needed to get into with the help of the dean of the Math Department so we're very appreciative. Another comment that I wanted to make that's unrelated is I would love to get information about any fundraising efforts that we can do as part of the community to help raise that extra needed money for the city college. >> Chairman: We will be more than thrilled to make contact with you. [laughter] >> Well, I'm a board member of the South Pasadena Educational Foundation and I'm in my third year of that and that's what we do for this community's school district and I would love to do the same for Pasadena City College. >> Chairman: Well, thank you so very much. I mean one of the things -- [ Applause ] One of the things that we are doing there is a PCC foundation, which has existed for a number of years and they've done a good job over the years in raising what we would probably describe as modest sums of money, they've done a great job with a couple of capital campaigns but we all realize now with the state's budget and economic woes that the foundation will have to step up and do a much more of a major job of fundraising and so we're thrilled to have you volunteer and we will certainly be in contact with you. [laughter] Rest assured of that. >> I dovetail many of your questions. I might ask Dr. Bell, Dr. Bell is really response for the program that you spoke of, but I might ask Dr. Bell, who's primarily responsible for the actual, you know, connection, the outreach, to just describe a Photo Finish Friday because this is one of the things that didn't exist last year and one of the ways that we're trying to make real our commitment to making sure that every one of your students, you know, who are coming out of 12th grade have a seat at the college. >> Well, thank you, Dr. Rosser, board members, ladies and gentlemen. The reason Photo Finish Friday didn't exist last year because I didn't exist last year. [laughter] >> Chairman: Well, you existed but just not at PCC. [laughter] >> Let me go back and clarify that statement. [laughter] I'm new to the position of Vice President of Student Learning Services of Pasadena City College has been there about six weeks now. When I arrived, one of the things that we immediately want to do is move quickly to honor that commitment with guaranteed enrollment to our in district students. So, we put together this project called Photo Finish Friday and we literally did it on the Friday before classes begin connected to our welcome day and it's been described by a parent -- and thank you very much -- we outreach to all of our in district high school students who have graduated and have completed our assessment test so we knew exactly where they should be placed in math and English. We invited them in, did a morning's presentation to them and successfully placed them in their specific map in English class consistent with their placement exams and as any of you who are either a parent of a high school student going to a community college or know any students getting a math or an English class are the two biggest Mount Everest you have to climb to successfully navigate through. So, we did it, we are very proud it was successful, very well received and we are taking that as if you will the template and expand that over the course of this semester and then spring board it out in the spring when we go to the high schools across the district in South Pasadena and all of our [inaudible] high schools in district to make it a much more comprehensive delivery program for all of our students. Not only South Pasadena High School but all of our high schools. Vice President Miller handed me something and I have to read it. [laughter] This is data on the student from South Pasadena High School the class of 2011 who enroll in colleges, and I think I counted there are 117 different higher educational institutions represented here; 79 of those graduates with the Pasadena City High School the next closest is UCLA with 12. So clearly we're doing a good job of outreach, but my sense is we can clearly do better. So thank you. >> Chairman: Thank you, Bob. [ Applause ] Okay. Who else would like to come forward, please? >> Hi, I'm Sally Kelvie. I'm a parent of two almost grown children. I've had very good experiences as a parent with one child at PCC. Bianca was my daughter's counselor, but I guess I feel that PCC has to overcome a stereotype that it's not as good as and in our high school there is such pressure for the students to be admitted to a four-year college that when my son graduated some 10 years ago one of his best friends wasn't admitted to a four-year college and we went to different graduation events. He never admitted that he was going to be going to PCC. He told people he was going to Cal Poly Pomona. I heard him say it there. The other thing I'm representative of the Chinese-American Club, and I know a number of our board members feel definitely it's not as good as. They do not want their children going to a two-year school. I think it's just untrue these stereotypes and it's a big challenge and this is what you're doing overcoming some of those stereotypes with your outreach and all the programs. I was going to say if I could have this Power Point we could put it on the city's TV channels and have it go on Channel 19 and Channel 99 for a couple of weeks. >> Chairman: That's a great suggestion. >> Are there, it is a wonderful point that we need to take in. Are there things that you might, that come to mind that you might suggest to us that we can do to, it sounds like that's an education project. So anything come to mind that we can do to help that out? >> I think you're on the right track. I guess just a lot more of it and meeting with the groups and I know Linda has met with the Chinese-American Club and we had a group here at the community room with both of you and I guess just that kind of involvement and showing all you have to offer. >> Chairman: Thank you very much. One of the things we want to do is be more visible in the various communities that we represent and if that means going to South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce meeting or whatever it might be, we're open to your suggestions and we'd certainly make arrangements to do it. Don't be bashful. Come on up and line up if you have to. >> Hi, my name is Melinda Snow and I'm a resident of South Pasadena and a parent of a high schooler. To that point the college dropout rate I have always heard and I've recently heard it's not true maybe you could speak to that and I think that's where the old PCC thing comes in not being as good at that if they go to a junior college they're much more likely to drop out. I've recently heard that the statistics don't support that statement. >> Thank you for the question. We just last week had on campus the former president of the American Association of Community Colleges. His name was Dr. George Boggs, who was the, had oversight over all the community colleges in the nation and he reminded us of a fact of a statistic and that was the data shows that students who come to community college and complete the program and complete the, in our case, the CSU or the UC so called [inaudible] program. That their completion rate at the bachelor's level is higher than the native students who started at Cal State or UC as freshmen. So, again, that's the facts of the matter but, of course, you raised the point, you know, we need to get that message out there and I'm thinking with your comment and the previous comment that, you know, we have some of our faculty members here and maybe what we need to do is do more faculty-to-faculty, school-to-school outreach so that we can develop relationships that way. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Chairman: Thank you. Tony, I'm sorry, Jeanette first. >> I'm Jeanette Mann. There's a statewide student success task force established by the legislature appointed by the regence of the board of governors, which is the governing body for all of the community colleges in the state and we been coming up with 22 recommendations to go to the legislature in March on ways to improve student success and one of the studies that we've seen and I can't remember who it is but if you look at students who are college ready, that is students who place as being ready for college math and English, their dropout rate is really very, very little from the dropout rate of the kids in the CSU and the UC. The problem is there's this huge percentage of students 70, 75 sometimes as high as 80 who are not college ready and those are the ones where you have this really very alarming dropout rate. So, we got really almost two different populations that you can assess and analyze that way. >> I just wanted to add with the president that I think if you looked at Mr. Miller's list of where do the students go you would be shocked. They're going to Stanford, to Harvard, to Yale, to PCC and, of course, the greatest school in the United States USC so. [laughter] >> Chairman: [laughter] That's right behind Georgetown and Bucknell I think. >> Hi, David Edelstein. I'm a school board member, a parent, although my youngest just graduated a little bit over a year ago. I'm trying to hold on to summer as long as I can so excuse the informal attire. The students that we send you I think for the vast, vast majority are well prepared. I don't have the data and haven't looked at it recently, but my guess would be is that the vast majority of students from South Pas are going to PCC are testing ready in math and language arts. I think that I'd offer two thoughts in terms of success because I've seen the numbers of what happens to our students as they go to PCC and I've seen the success rate with respect to students who identify as wanting to graduate. I think that you probably agree that the numbers aren't quite as high as we'd like them to be. Our hope would be that all students that we send over to you who identify as wanting to graduate within 2 years with an AA degree or an AS degree are wanting to transfer and able to do it. So, two thoughts. Number one, you are on the right track to the extent that you identify one of these tracks where our students can quickly and efficiently get the courses they need and do it within two years. I think that you, number one, you increase the likelihood that students will stay the course and actually do it. The one thing that I've heard over the years from students in the district is that to the extent they have trouble getting courses and instead of it taking two years to get through PCC it takes three years or four years the chances that the kids will not complete the course just go up astronomically. So, one thing is you can really help that rating, you can really increase it the likelihood of success if you shorten the period. Then the other thing is I'll just tell you I think that PCC's reputation is growing within the school district. It is a very high achieving school district. There is still a perception that you want to go to UC, you want to go to a private school, the fact of the matter is, however, is that you provide a wonderful course to get into a CSU or a UC campus to the extent that you can actually take one of these pathways and you can tell a student who is graduating from South Pas High School you're going to PCC but you're on this scholar track and you can create some cache for that student to say, yes, I'm going to PCC but I'm on the scholar path and I'm guaranteed admission to so on and so forth I think you actually raise your level of involvement, I think you've raised the level of prestige with which our students will hold your institution and I think that some of the reluctance perhaps that some students or some families might have financially starting their kids at PCC will start to diminish. So, I think you're on the right track and to the extent you get that word out both on two years guaranteed and then a scholar path or something similar I think you're going to find some real success. >> Chairman: Great. Those are excellent points and we appreciate your bringing them to our attention. That's one of the very reasons that we did put together the pathways project because I think you're right if you're going to take four years, five years or six years to get your community college required courses in it makes it that much more difficult to transfer later on. >> I just wanted to thank [inaudible] Edelstein for his comments because they were about, it's pretty much what I was also going to say and all over Area 5 the Area 5 students are very high academic achievements. So, we're not sending our kids in for basic skills and they're not remedial, they are college prep. So, you know, the numbers I've seen in talking to the parents, you know, really there's more discouragement in that they're not getting the classes they need but I think this new turnaround in PCC is really helping us and the other thing I know there are quite a few parents and some brought their students here and so we talked about what would that early outreach look like. Part of the community outreach I think is people like Scott Feldman through the Chamber of Commerce is helping us. I know Scott, the Chamber of Commerce mentioned at the last meeting that they would love to have a presentation from PCC and so I know that that's something Scott is thinking about, but also just even in talking with parents here in South Pasadena and San Marino, you know, they're asking for more outreach at the PTA so the parents can actually get involved and hear what's happening just beyond what's being presented in the schools. So, I think that needs to happen not only at the high schools but also at the middle schools. >> Chairman: Those are very good points. Just to complete the picture as Dr. Mann was alluding to a few moments ago we find it's not unique to pass in city college, it's not unique in the State of California. In fact, it sadly is across the country. Roughly 70% of incoming students need training in basic skills; reading, writing and math. South Pas is fortunate not to be in that same situation, that same category, but it's a serious, serious issue that this nation faces and we are doing our very best to try to address is and we believe that the pathway's project is one good first step toward addressing some of that because as a part of that program the students have to get their basic skills out of the way in high school and so that's a pre-requisite and we think that's a good way to go. So, yes, sir? >> My name is Gary Pia. I live here in town and have my business here in town. I want to add my welcome to you for being here. I really appreciate the fact that you'd come. All this information I've heard about the perception of PCC I don't think that you have to worry about coming up with more facts. You've got the data to support the position that PCC is a viable alternative. The selection of a college though is not driven by data; it's an emotional decision. It's my future, it's my child's future. I think that if you continue to reach out into the community and in these efforts if you execute flawlessly you will convey that comfort that people need in order to be able to make the choice, which they will justify with all the data that you have. Case in point trustee [inaudible] came to a garden reception some weeks ago, which I attended. She brought along the PCC catering department and conveyed such a sense of quality to the experience I thought highly of the college to begin with. My opinion was elevated by this experience. It's an emotional decision and execute flawlessly. >> Chairman: Thank you very, very much. Others who have questions or comments or want to volunteer to help out? >> I wanted to just acknowledge a school board member trustee Elizabeth [inaudible] also came and she came after I made the introductions so I wanted to introduce her to the board also. >> Chairman: Thank you. >> Raise your hand. [laughter] >> Chairman: Come on up. >> Hi, my name is Linda Hess. I'm a parent of a junior at South Pas. Last year I was spending a day helping someone who was doing the community outreach booths and I was absolutely impressed with the level of integrity of the students. This is a question for some of the things that you have coming up and programs and it's the sustainability. So I'm not sure to whom I would direct that question? >> Great. We had somebody. [laughter] Thanks so much for your question because, in fact, with the trustees are supporting a major effort in sustainability. Let me introduce and ask Dr. Rick Van Pelt, who is our Vice President of Administrative Services, to come forward, please, Rick, and just talk a little bit about our sustainability effort. >> And I just wanted to share another dimension to it that I've gotten recently involved in in the last few years and I'm noticing that colleges aren't quite embracing and we were just talking about it and that is food recovery and in the world of sustainability, they're seeing that creating a zero waste environment is taking the food and composting it but at PCC and so many other more city oriented colleges there is homeless factor and in Pasadena alone there's over a thousand people that are homeless. If between the commissary and just some of the student clubs can sort of create a, foster a sense of community on that to not only divert it from the waste stream but get it to those shelters and pantries that need it but to encourage the kids that they are learning it not just the environmental issue of it but the human compassion part of it as well and I'll go sit down and look [inaudible]. [laughter] >> Chairman: Thank you very much. >> You want a brief overview of the sustainability? >> Chairman: Please. >> Please. >> Okay. In fact, thank you for the question. Right now we're working on a comprehensive sustainability plan, which will be completed by the end of the school year and it will include working with our contractor who is the food service vendor on the campus for composting and certainly we can bring up the food to shelter's program as well. In the past 12 months, PCC has won four awards including a national award from the American College and University Presence Climate Commitment; the first community college in the country to do so. Recently we won an award which we'll actually pick up next week, I guess maybe the week after that, from the South Post Air Quality Management District in conjunction with Cal Tech and the City of Pasadena. So, we have been the leader in sustainability for a number of years and we continue to do so. We're working on converting all of our fluorescent lights to LEDs and we're going to bring forward a proposal in the very near future on that. Of and by itself that will save 55% of our energy on the campus that's currently devoted to lighting, which is on the order of about $700,000 savings per year. We were the first entity in the world to heat our swimming pool the way that we have, which is through two turbines that produce 120,000 watts of electricity and then we use the waste heat to heat the swimming pool. So, essentially our pool heating is free. We've converted our air conditioning plant to be extraordinarily efficient. We have an energy management system on the campus that is unique and very user friendly. So our water bills have diminished and our water usage has diminished by 32% and we're striving for a 50% reduction. So in all aspects of all of our operations we are striving to be the leader in the world. >> Congratulations. >> Maybe trustee Soto, our student trustee, mentioned the integrity of our young people and we're so proud of them, but you know one of the things that's part of that is that we have a transportation program that reduces car trips to campus. So, maybe student trustee Soto could just briefly describe that. >> Sure, I was just about to. One of the other things that we're doing sustainability is actually we offer students a low-cost metro ITAP card. So instead of bringing their cars on campus they can take public transit and use the metro to get to school and to get around and run their errands and just to your point on having student organizations and sustainability with students as well, we actually have the vice president for sustainability for the associate students here as well, Hannah [inaudible], in the audience. If you could raise your hand, Hannah, just really quickly. And she's in charge of our sustainable gardens on campus. So, maybe we could put you in contact with her so we could see what with could do in that area as well. >> Chairman: Good. Thank you very much. Others? >> Hi. My name is Diana Marmut. I'm a South Pasadena resident and parent of a newly matriculating freshman. I'd like to comment on some hits and misses. The hits. I so appreciate the outreach that this board has undertaken in recent memory. It is very reassuring to the parents to be able to see because as any of you who have children probably can relate getting the information from the child and is not as easy as one would think. Yeah, mom, I'm on top of it but, you know, as a parent, you just don't trust them. Also I was very appreciative of the change that I saw this summer where the entering freshmen were given priority admission for in district. That's very much appreciated and I'm very pleased to say that my son actually ended up with too many classes and had to drop one. [laughter] So, thank you so much for that. On some areas of improvement I was very surprised when he told me that the men's restrooms are not what one would expect at an institution of higher learning and that's something that frankly I think you absolutely need to pay attention to. There's no reason why our young men have to hold it until they come home because of the condition of the restrooms. The second thing is we were talking about his ability to contact one of is professors who was a part-time instructor. I understand that this may be tied to a labor issue but apparently part-time instructors have very limited office hours or at least that's what he was told and it makes it very difficult for the students to contact the professors with the limited office hours. So to the extent that this can be addressed in a more positive manner that would be very much appreciated because the students need to be able to contact their professors. The final area is the community outreach. I'm a boomer, I'm looking at you, many of you are boomers also. [laughter] I suspect that probably most of us in the room are boomers. We're going to be retiring and frankly I've been disappointed at the offerings in the community program because there's an awful lot of classes that are offered that I will characterize as more or less advanced basket weaving and I think many of us boomers would like more of an academic or an intellectual alternative offered in the community programs and I see it as a win-win, you know, certainly Elder Hostel has been extremely successful in developing similar programs, seniors pay for them. And I see it as a potential viable alternative for the community college to earn some additional funds in addition to providing more of an academically engaging alternative for boomers. >> Chairman: Those are excellent points. Dr. Mann wanted to comment. >> I'd like to respond to your last comment. There is a, community colleges cannot offer through extended learning or unless you're a regular student credit classes. You can only, we can only classes for which there aren't credit. >> Right. >> This is very different, for example, from the UC or the CSU both of which you can go through extension and complete a whole degree. One of the twenty-two recommendations, I'm not going to bore you all to death with all 22. I've given you 1, and I'm going to give you another one. One of the recommendations is that the, now what it is there's a class and it's either a credit class or it's a non-credit class or extended learning. That instead of tying this with the class you tie it with the student. So, for example, a community member who wants to take say a class in geology because they are going hiking, they would get a lower enrollment priority because we let the kids go first but they would be able to enroll and if there's a space they could enroll in that class but they would be expected to pay the full amount. So, that it would in a sense it would justify having the students in the class because the college does not get any state appropriations for these students and it wouldn't be costing the district anything and I know that's kind of complicated, but if this is the way it works, for example, in the CSU. If there's 20 spaces, 15 are regular students and there's 5 extra spaces, community people can come in and you do get the same academic instruction, you write the same papers, you take the same exams, and it's a very good system and we're recommending that something like that be extended to the community colleges. >> Chairman: Trustee [inaudible]? >> Sure, first off thank you for those comments and I'll let Dr. Rocha or Dr. Van Pelt address I do believe there's a plan to upgrade a lot of the restrooms on the campus and I've been in some of those so know what you're talking about, but and you don't have to stand. I was just going to say something about the outreach and the comments about the outreach. I live right across the [inaudible] in Southwest Pasadena, but my first home with my wife was on Rango and Moxley and I brought my daughter home from the hospital on Grand right next to Trader Joe's. So, South Pas is such an important priority to me and I know to others and it's so gratifying to see the number, the folks in the community that came out for this meeting tonight I think it demonstrates a real interest in partnership and commitment to Pasadena City College and the Pasadena area community college district and South Pas is so important to our district. You have no more vocal and fierce an advocate for this community than trustee [inaudible] who has made it a real priority for this outreach and you've seen the fruits of that with outreach at the farmer's market on Thursday nights, these meetings and others, and I'm really excited to see that the level of community interest and looking forward to supporting that. Oh, I forgot to also mention our starting quarterback for the Lancer football team last year was South Pas Tiger Jonathan Troast. He was quite, he made quite an impact and is now playing a scholarship quarterback for Prairie View I believe. So, there's so many important ties and connections in this opportunity to hear directly from the folks in the community is important and I apologize for being tardy, but I do want to convey how much I appreciate hearing directly from the parents and others and the other priority that I have that I agree with is students' access to counseling and getting the advisement for the classes that they need and those types of requests and comments that really underline where we need to focus the limited resources we have so that we best serve our students. So, I'm just really delighted to get that kind of direct feedback from the community. >> Chairman: Okay. Other people? Again, don't be bashful. >> Yeah, I just wanted to tag on a little bit to Diana's comment about the offerings for this baby boomer generation because Area 5 is a population and as Vice President Miller pointed out when we were in South Pasadena, we're trending towards the traditional student age so we have younger kids who are coming into the college as opposed to the older kids that we were seeing, but I think Area 5 is comprised of a population that has not only young people who are high academic achievers and are wanting to get early college access. So either on-line education concurrent enrollment, but we also have an aging population and I think Diana's point is not so much maybe that they wanted to be in the same classes but maybe we would offer more robust extended learning curriculum, and I do hear that throughout the Area 5 community and so I hope it's something that we do look at. So thank you very much for that comment, Diana. I also wanted to acknowledge trustee Joe Lu who also just came in and Mr. Ben Figueroa from the Cal State LA Provost Office who also came in. So thank you for being here. >> Chairman: Good. Thank you for coming. Other comments or questions? Again, come on up. Don't hesitate. Trustee Brown? >> Actually I do have a question but this actually is not related to, it's related to the career technical presentation. Are we going to go back to that or should I do my question now? >> Chairman: Sure. Go ahead. >> Yes? Okay. So, first of all this is an excellent meeting. I really appreciate all of you that are here. You brought forth some very, very good points that I'm sure not only this area will benefit from but the entire other trustees, which we are 7 we will benefit from and share the resources that we have at PCC for the different areas of the trustee board, but what I wanted to ask I'm not sure who this question should go to but when Dr. Jacobs gave the presentation about their career technical pathways and I was looking at the amount, can you guys hear me? From the amount of certificate programs that we offer at PCC. I was wondering, I know we talk about the fast track concurrent enrollment, and I know there are students that attend high school that pretty much know that they may not want to go to a four-year college but they want to fast track if you please and get that career certificate so they can go and work. Now, we have nursing and we have radiology technology and all of those require certain specific classes. So, I'm wondering if we have anything in place for students that are actually in high school that want to go to the nursing program, for example, or dental hygienist there are certain programs that are required. Are they able to? Is there something in place to meet the needs of these students so they also could move first when they get to PCC there's some classes already with credit that they can achieve their goal? >> Trustee Brown, yes, there is and I'll ask Vice President Jacobs to fill that out a little bit. >> We have what we call articulation agreement and so working with the counselors in the high schools this plan is made out and so whatever career they're interested in then some of the courses we talk about the courses they should take in high school and when they come to PCC, they don't have to take the pre-reqs because they will have taken the courses and they're ready to go right into the main courses for that particular program. >> So we do have that in place? >> Yes, we have articulation agreements. >> Chairman: Great. Thank you. >> You know, in tagging on to that again we have many, many people apply to our most popular programs like in health, for example, but our number one priority because of your support and policy is that we will see to it that every high school student in our district whether they wanted to go for a transfer or workforce for a career technical education that they are seen to, that they have a guaranteed spot even if they have to take some preparatory courses to qualify. So, that's our goal, we're making it happen. We've got, you know, we made quite a bit of progress with it this year, but we have a ways to go. >> Thank you so much. >> Sure. >> Chairman: Joe? >> I didn't want to forget to give Dr. Rocha an opportunity to talk about the plan to upgrade restrooms another time. >> Rick and I will be getting a mop after this. [laughter] And we will be having a cleaning party with the entire staff, you know, we appreciate the input. Every amount of that input is an opportunity to improve and we take it in and believe me we'll see to it tomorrow morning. >> I have a question on that. We have a couple of brand new buildings. Are the restrooms in these brand new buildings problematic or is it just the old buildings like the buildings built 1936 or do you know? >> Well, you know, I think we're on top, maybe, you know, in fairness to Rick and the facilities crew that have, you know, do work pretty hard and they're actually at work at the college right now as we're over here. Maybe Rick, you can fill us in on how we actually execute the maintenance. >> I think that Dr. Mann is correct. Certainly the new restrooms on the campus are up to snuff. We do have 30,000 students and it is a job for the custodians to keep up. However, there are particularly in the older buildings, U building, R building, V buildings in substandard areas, but those are either being demolished in terms of the U building or in the case of the R building we're about to go out to bid on the restroom improvement. >> That's what I thought. >> Chairman: Okay. Thank you. Other comments, questions? Yes? >> Elizabeth [inaudible]. I'm on the school board here at South Pas. It's wonderful to have you here at our board room and I have learned so much this evening. I'm delighted to have been here to hear your presentation. I haven't run these ideas past our superintendent. I'm just in the back of the room brainstorming so I don't really know how viable some of these ideas might be, but I'm wondering if you could bring more or if we can be in dialogue about how to bring more classes to our campus and that would really increase the number of students that would participate and maybe increase the number on the fast track program. So I don't know how that could be done whether actually during the 8 to 3 school day if that's possible that may not work with unions and this and that and the other but maybe as early in the afternoon or evening and increase those classes if that would be an option? >> It's an important point. In fact, part of first of all we need to continue this dialogue and we will need to come together directly with the schools and the parents. The 2 plus 2 Plus 2 Program is designed to actually move the courses that students need to take in order to get ready for college wherever they might go back all the way to the end of the 10th grade. So, that's our goal and so that every student in South Pas High would be able to take the courses that they need to get ready if they do need to get their basic skills and so on, you know, and get those in the classroom. We in the South Pas High out here. We started this year with the 12th grade and now we're rolling it back, you know, we're going to be rolling it back to the 11th. So we're hopeful that will be working on doing just what you're asking for. >> Thank you. >> Bob, did you have a? >> Yeah, let me just quickly add I want to acknowledge the hard work of our faculty and some of our deans who for many years now have been supporting a high school bridge program where we bring as many of our high school sections onto local high schools as we can. South Pasadena High School has taken advantage of the idea is to encourage 11th and 12th graders who perhaps don't have a full amount of the normal school day if you will particularly in the 12th grade to take some college credit classes and we bring those sections onto the high school. So we have been doing a little bit of that, we need to do more and we need to tie those very specifically to the pathways. Also up here can I mention something about the adjunct faculty? One of the things in our recent contract with our faculty we are now providing all of our adjuncts and, of course, our adjuncts number 700 to 1,000 faculty members, six hours a semester for conference hours and this is paid conference hours and due to the great work of our facilities people and our information technology people, we now have two significant adjunct faculty labs and conference areas on campus. So, students can come, they can meet with our adjunct faculty in these very, very nice facilities which have computers and have conference area and privacy and what have you. So, this is part of the negotiations with our union. Thanks to many people we are now able to do that. So we are working to improve what that parent said it was an issue that we had and we're trying to work on it. >> Chairman: Thank you. Dr. Mann? >> Yes, you're going to get to hear a third recommendation. If we stay here long enough, we'll get all 22 of them. [laughter] But actually it's the first recommendation and it's one of the most important. Probably most of you are not aware that in order to graduate from high school you need to be proficient at 10th level English and 8th grade level math. To graduate from high school you are not college ready by those definitions but the Office of Education, the State Office of Education, is developing a curriculum which high school students would make high school students college ready and faculty and administrators and leaders in the community colleges are working with them for I think the first time to make sure that everyone agrees on what does it mean to be college ready not only in English and math but actually in some of the career technical programs. If this, this may take a long time because it's being done on the state level, but this will also I think address this problem because not just the courses that we're working with but all the courses the curriculum and standards will be changed so that the students will be college ready after completing them rather than 8th grade level of math and 10th grade English. Most people don't know that and I think they find it kind of shocking. >> Chairman: Other questions or comments? >> I just have one question. >> Chairman: Okay. >> Do we currently offer any courses at South Pas High? Because we have offered community college courses at districts throughout. Did we already review that? >> We do. >> I can't recall off the top of my head [inaudible]. >> Including some language courses that we're teaching and our Mandarin program and so on that we want to expand so. >> [Inaudible]. >> Chairman: Other questions, comments? Again don't hesitate don't be bashful. Come on up and volunteer to help us if nothing else. Who were you pointing to? >> No, I was doing [laughter]. One thing I might suggest one thing well first of all this has been enormously helpful and we want to stay to listen but Mary Thompson is over there, Mary, raise your hand. Okay. And normally do you have your famous yellow sheets there for public speakers? Normally we have those yellow public speaker sheets, but one of the things that I know sometimes when I go to a meeting I didn't get a chance or I had some kind of input, you know, that I wanted to make sure was put directly. So, if any of you have any kind of input at all, just jot it down on one of those yellow sheets and give it to Mary and put your email address I promise that we will run it down and respond so that we can make sure that we cover everybody's issues tonight. >> Chairman: Okay. Other people who want to come and say something or ask a question? Okay. >> Hi. My name is Karen Hisell [phonetic]. I'm a resident of South Pasadena. I came to this area and became a student in South Pasadena High School in 1973 and finished up there and went straight to PCC and graduated there in '76. Now I have a 12th grader that I need to figure out where she's going to go and my first thought was, well, why don't she just go to PCC? And come to hear all this bad mouthing around from my other kids that, you know, you don't want to go to PCC, mom, no, that's just not cool. So, as a former graduate of PCC, I came here tonight to get some ammunition to take home because I was very proud to go to PCC and I just can't believe what the kids, what they're saying. I want to know firsthand what are they talking about. So that's why I'm here. I also want to mention there's an economic reality going on that parents have to afford their kid to go to college and at this point I have a very good job and I make a good salary and I'm sorry but we don't qualify for scholarships. So, we're caught in the middle and however I know we can afford PCC and I know she'll do great there. It's just a matter of getting over this initial transition and so I appreciate you being here and giving me all the ammunition I need to take home. Thank you very much. >> Chairman: Well, thank you, and one thing that Dr. Fellow was emphasizing earlier is that every year we have students transferring to the very best private and public universities. This past year one example I just like to refer to often is a young man who grew up in what we would all probably agree is less than ideal environment. He came to PCC, got his life turned around. He has transferred to MIT on a full scholarship. Now that's pretty doggone good and that's just one example. Tony was saying we have students transferring to USC, UC, UCLA, the Cal State system, all the top private schools, Harvard, Yale, Princeton. >> Stanford. >> Chairman: Stanford, Georgetown, all up and down the line. So, yes, I can understand that high schools probably there would be a lot of pure pressure to go directly to a four-year college, but as you point out it's expensive. I mean right now the tuition at PCC is $36 an hour. If you go to a private university, tuition and board will cost you in excess generally speaking of $50,000 a year. That's a lot of money for most people. So, there are many, many advantages that come into PCC. We have a terrific transfer rate, we're trying out very best to give not only guaranteed mission to in district students but enrollment in the classroom that they need to be able to qualify to transfer within a 2- to 3-year period of time and that's critically important and we're working hard on that. So, that's some ammunition hopefully you'll be able to use with your daughter and your family and I'm sure that the administrative and faculty members here will be delighted to talk with you and give you more ammunition. So, great question. Thanks for raising it. Others? >> I'd like to say as somebody who also works at USC instruction -- >> Chairman: -- we won't hold that against you. [laughter] >> The instruction that students get at PCC is without peer in this area. You're going to have smaller classes taught by an instructor devoted to teaching and teaching students and that's something and what we found by the statistics is that more and more traditional aged college students are seeking their first higher educational experience to the community college. The number of students 18 to 24 at PCC is growing as well as across the state. People are recognizing especially in these economic times the value of an investment in a community college education and working with the students we're providing a lot of additional resources that will also enhance the co-curricular opportunities for students at PCC whether it's through student activities, clubs, special events. We're a comprehensive community college in the best sense. We have an active set of activities and training and other opportunities in a career office. We just want to get some more resources to provide more counselors and have more sections available. >> Chairman: Speaking of counselors, I think it would be good to introduce Dr. Cynthia Alevo and maybe recognize she's the head of our counseling department and would you comment about counseling and what we have available at PCC? >> We're very fortunate to have 21 academic counselors. We just hired four brand new counselors and I will be doing the advocacy work along with Dr. Bell to see that we can replace some of the retired counselors' positions that will be upcoming this year. >> Chairman: Thank you very much. There was a hand up back in the back there? Someone was starting to raise their hand and come forward? Okay. Other questions? Other comments? Yes, come on up. I want you to come to the microphone so people can hear you and broadcast. >> Just speaking to the concern about the perception of PCC or the stigma that may be attached to it. I would say as a parent having walked around the campus on a number of occasions, I notice the banners that are up, which recognize some of the distinguished alumni of the school and I had no idea and was shocked I mean in a wonderful way. I would say I would utilize that to market the school if you will because my son had no idea, I don't think most people in this district have any idea some of the graduates from Pasadena City College. >> Chairman: And that's one of the very reasons that we're so intensely embarked on this outreach program meeting in different parts of our area because I would venture and I make this comment a lot, too, that if you took the citizens of Pasadena where PCC is physically located I would bet you could go to the overwhelming majority of them and say what happens there and they'd say, oh, it's community college and that's about as much as they could tell you. So, we're trying out very best to get the message out and our motto, our slogan if you will is proud past global future and so the proud past is in part recognition of the distinguished alumni from the college and everything. So it's a good point and we appreciate you bringing that to our attention. Other? Alex? >> Sure, and then just to carry on the perception thing maybe I could give some added perspective as a student. I would say that as a student I chose to go to PCC. I'm very, very thrilled with my choice right now especially considering the fact that many of my teachers have been either teachers that formally taught at UCs very recently or just teachers that probably could teach there right now and I know that with the classes I'm taking right now I'm probably getting a much better education than some of my friends are even going to some of those four-year colleges right now just because of the real level of dedication our teachers have and the experience they have in teaching overall. >> Chairman: Thank you. Others comments or questions? Should we call it an evening, Ms. [inaudible]? Is it satisfactory to you if we adjourn? >> Yes. >> Chairman: Any trustees have further comments? Ms. Brown? >> No. >> Chairman: Dr. Mann? >> Just one little housekeeping thing. I know some of the future board meetings the meeting October 19th I think we agreed at the retreat that that would be in Sierra Madre. That's what the notes say. >> Chairman: Yes. >> And just to make sure we don't lose sight of that. Is that not correct? >> Chairman: Yes. That's correct. That will be in Sierra Madre. I think Dr. Rocha and the staff are working on the location and logistics and everything. >> Yeah, we are. So you can all come and five us feedback next month on October 19th. >> Chairman: For that matter you can show up at [inaudible] Lounge at PCC on October 5th and give us feedback there or ask questions or whatever. So, you don't have to wait for a study session. Come to one of our regular meetings and we would be delighted to see you. Jeff any other comments? >> I love South Pasadena and it's great to see everybody here. >> Chairman: Alex, anything else? Dr. Fellow? >> I just wanted to say I'm a university professor and I have since I've been on the board the past two years I am so impressed with students at PCC and especially the student government leaders. I would [inaudible] on the same plane as any university student in the nation I think. They're just outstanding. It was brought up tonight that many of you want to do something and I would just like to suggest you write your state legislatures because this state unfortunately has a mentality of spending more on prisons than they do on education and it's only going to be the voice of the people that changes that. So I would encourage that. It's very nice to be here today and thank you for a good meeting. >> Chairman: Good. Okay. Anything else? Then our next meeting is October 5th, regular business meeting, starts at open session starts at 7:00, closed session is 6:00; that's in [inaudible] Lounge on the PCC campus, on Wednesday, October 19th, the study session at 6:00 and Sierra Madre location, specific location to be announced. So. If nothing else, we are adjourned. Thank you very much for being here.