Committee on Finance and Administrative Services + Board of Trustees

You can follow along with the live stream here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-3qnkkWO56CA2NsBXoHk6w/videos

You can find the agenda here:
https://www.ccc.edu/departments/Documents/Board%20Office/BOARD%20MEETING%20AGENDA.pdf

You can find members of the mayor-appointed board here:
https://www.ccc.edu/menu/Pages/Board-Members.aspx

The agenda listed above is for the Board meeting at 2, just to clarify.
Here is the Finance and Admin agenda for 12:30:
https://www.ccc.edu/departments/Documents/Board%20Office/FIN%20Committee%20Agenda.pdf

Looking forward to the Urban Agriculture and Cannabis Education presentation from @OliveHarvey_CCC
https://www.ccc.edu/departments/Documents/Board%20Office/Committee%20Presentation%20-%20OH%20Urban%20Agriculture%20and%20Cannabis%20Education%20Program.pdf

March 2021 CCC Academic Affairs and Student Services Committee Meeting began at 12:01 pm.
CFO Rodriguez says that the 1st round of CARES Act funds for students were made available, $12.7M.
Now CCC has $13M in additional funds for the second round, accessible soon.

President Hollingsworth of Olive Harvey College introduces her school’s Cannabis Education program.
The program has an equity-focused mindset in cultivation, extraction, analysis, and retail sectors of the cannabis industry.

In the future, Olive Harvey hopes to partner with 4-year universities on this program, such as Chicago State University and more.
They already have some private partnerships with companies like PharmaCann.
An on-site greenhouse is slated to be completed by July of 2021.

Next Olive-Harvey’s Cannabis program is looking to work with the Mayor’s office to prevent violence by providing services and free cannabis education certification to those with “violence involvement who have cannabis records”

Olive Harvey plans to create a new department, Urban Agriculture, to grow their credit course offerings for cannabis research as well as social equity in cannabis.

Hollingsworth asks about the CPS high school that focuses on agriculture (@ChicagoAgHS) and if they’ve been in contact. Exec Dir Gettes says yes, they’re in conversation.

Trustee Lopez asks about the career opportunities for those who pursue this Cannabis Education program at Olive Harvey.
Exec Dir Gettes admits many entrepreneur paths are unknown right now, but students will get a widely-applicable skillset.

Now Provost Potter is talking about Resolution 1.00 which adopts revisions to academic and student policies, including how long certain placement test scores stay valid.

Item 1.01 includes new programs: BASIC CERTIFICATE IN AVIATION MAINTENANCE TECHNICIAN, and
ASSOCIATE IN APPLIED SCIENCE IN AVIATION MAINTENANCE

1.02 rescinded a resolution with a vendor that no longer works for the CCC.

CCC submitted a grant for $500,000 with National Artificial Intelligence Institute Possibility which if granted will include a new AI focused-curriculum in advanced manufacturing and applied sciences.

4.00 renews the contract for plumbing and piping repair work with T&J PLUMBING CORE MECHANICAL INC.

4.01 renews EMSI, LLC contract for labor market skills mapping.

4.02 authorizes ACENTO ADVERTISING contract for media services. Not to exceed $3.5M per year.
Chair Massey asks about origin. Company is out of LA, but has a large Chicago office.

4.03 asks for $75,000 for “TRUTH, RACIAL HEALING, AND TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM SERVICES” from Chicago Community Trust.

4.04 seeks $75,000 for Daley College’s program with Inner City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) regarding students dealing with interpersonal violence.

4.05 asks for $132,460 for SOLAR PV INSTALLER TRAINING from MILLENNIUM SOLAR ELECTRIC TRAINING ACADEMY at WiIbur Wright College.

5.00 Monthly Job Order Contracts from listed contractors asks for $184,999.69.
5.01 asks for 35,370.24 for electrical low voltage job order contracts.

6.00 asks for $207,539.76 for the Payment of Legal Invoices

The minutes for the February 4th Committee On Academic Affairs and Student Services and Regular Board meetings were approved.

The meeting adjourned at 1:17 pm.

Come back at 2 pm for the Regular Board Meeting!

1:59 and the Regular Board Meeting is underway!

Chair Walter E. Massey is giving his Welcome to the Board.

Student Trustee, James Thomas Jr., is giving his Report. He says the Black History Month programming was a success, and now Women’s History Month programming is underway.
There are a lot of interesting events available to CCC students in honor of this month.

Chancellor Salgado gives his Update. He mentions the Seven Strong series about why City Colleges matter, as well as the work CCC’s Black Excellence and Equity Fund has done.
Sunday May 23rd will be the virtual conferring of degrees this year.

He talks about the Cannabis Education program at Olive Harvey, and the Aviation programming that the board will vote on today.
Malcolm X also saw enrollment growth this Spring despite pandemic, so congrats to them.
Adult Ed/GED enrollment up too, by average of 17%.

Public Comment time!
3 speakers today, 3 min per speaker.
1. Mr. Markovitch is a Union Rep for security officers, and an officer himself at Harold Washington. He polled officers from Washington and CCC, overwhelming feeling of underappreciation.

CPS security officers make an additional $6/hr (~$50/day) more than CCC security officers. Security officers are “first line of defense.” CCC officers are armed, while CPS officers aren’t. Markovitch Asking for a pay raise from the Board.

Speaker 2: Tony Johnston, President of Cook County Teacher’s Union. 366 members have been working at CCC since the pandemic started last year. They have been risking their lives, and CCC has not offered them the COVID-19 vaccine being administered at the 7 city colleges right now

He’s disappointed that employees have not been prioritized for vaccination, and he will push for access to vaccinations for staff before a full reopening.

Apparently the third public speaker isn’t present, so that concludes the public comment portion of today.

Now Professor Keith Sprewer is giving the Faculty Council Report.
He is concerned with the way CCC will prioritize maximizing face-to-face course offerings.
Prof Sprewer asks that professors themselves be able to decide if they want to teach in person or remote, not admin

Prof Sprewer says it could be coercive to other faculty members (usually adjunct) who feel forced financially to resume in-person work before they feel safe enough to do so

Prof Sprewer mentions again the conflict of interest that Vice Chair Swanson has by being on Partnership for College Completion and the Board of Trustees for CCC. Says this isn’t a rhetorical comment or question. Chair Massey says he heard the concern.

Now a presentation by Dr. Gregory Thomas, President of Kennedy King @KK_College.
Wants to emphasize the lens of equity.
Dean of Enrollment Management Tonishea Jackson begins the presentation.

Some equity challenges:
- Declining Enrollment and Retention with a 56% drop in African American students (2008-2018)
- Significant student Remediation needs
- Students without technology access
- Students w food/housing insecurity
- Students needing behavioral/mental health

Kennedy-King now wants to strengthen student retention, expand academic offerings such as film and TV, increase marketing efforts, cultivate community and corporate partners

The Center of Equity for Creative Arts (CECA) at Kennedy King has a lot of course offerings, and even more plans for future courses https://t.co/CrA993EWrA

The KKC Soundstage was announced as a Production Facility with the IL Film Office in February 2020.
This will be the site of many future film and TV projects, including currently filming the entire 2nd season of a Showtime comedy “Work in Progress”

Now Dean Jamison is presenting Dawson Technical Institute (DTI) Construction Overview.
DTI offers instruction that leads to unionized programs in an industry that is growing fast.

An interesting breakdown of trade industries and their racial makeup, which emphasizes the importance of DTI providing training to people of color in the trades: https://t.co/72Algz0NnQ

DTI provides Workforce Equity Initiative Grants to help more students complete programming through tuition coverage, upgrades to tech, job training, transportation assistance, and more.

Now VP Phillips will present The Tech Launchpad, which has a number of initiatives to provide students especially women and people of color, with access to academic and training experiences in IT and other industries

Tech Launchpad has partnered with Amazon, Google, and more companies to train students in IT fields.

Massey asks about young people wanting to go into a trade, Dean Jamison says a lot of kids are focused on a 4-year college degree, but spreading the word about union wages and benefits has increased interest from young people and women of color specifically.

Trustee Telman asks about the enrollment numbers for different programs at Kennedy King.
CECA has grown numbers, Tech Launchpad is anticipating larger numbers with new course offerings, and DTI has full courses with waiting lists for everything but welding.

President Thomas of Kennedy King says all their corporate partners share the CCC focus on equity.

Trustee Williams gives his Committee Report. It summarizes the Cannabis Education presentation that we heard from Olive-Harvey College at the 12:30 meeting earlier.

Chair Massey begins the review of the March 4, 2021 Board Reports.
Secretary Davis asks for separate actions of items 1.02 and 4.03.
The agenda is unanimously approved via role-call vote without these two items.

Sorry, Secretary Davis recused herself from voting on 1.02 and 4.03, everyone else voted to approve.

Now the Board is going into closed session.
They will return to formally adjourn, so I’ll wait around until they do.

And the Board members are back at 4:18 pm.
The Board adjourns at 4:19 pm.
See you next month!