CLC board seats newly elected trustees; selects officers
After canvassing the results of the April 7 election, the College of Lake County Board of Trustees on Thursday night seated the three top vote getters, incumbents Richard Anderson of Grayslake, William Griffin of Lake Forest and Amanda Howland of Lake Zurich, all to serve six-year terms. Anderson has served on the CLC board since 1974, Griffin since 1995 and Howland since 2009. Judge Margaret Mullen, who also teaches at CLC as an adjunct, administered the oath of office to the trustees.
Following the seating of the newly elected trustees, the board conducted its annual reorganization, selecting William Griffin to serve as chairman, Philip Carrigan to serve as vice chairman and Richard Anderson to serve as secretary. Griffin replaces Howland as chairman, Carrigan replaces Jeanne Goshgarian as vice chairman and Anderson replaces Carrigan as secretary.
Speaking after the meeting, Griffin pledged "to foster a spirit of collaboration in leading the board."
In addition to his role on the board, Griffin serves as an associate member of the finance and audit committee of the Association for Community College Trustees. A CLC graduate, Griffin earned B.S. and M.B.A. degrees from DePaul University. In 2011, he earned an Ed.D. from National Louis University. Griffin is a full time business faculty member and business department coordinator at Triton College, River Grove, where he received an outstanding faculty member award in 2014. He also taught at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, Carthage College, and University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Recently, he accepted an appointment to teach in the Doctoral of Education in Higher Education and Organizational Change Department at Benedictine University.
In accepting the chairman's gavel, Griffin thanked Amanda Howland for her service as chairman, citing several major accomplishments during her leadership of the board, including launching a major student success initiative and starting construction on projects in the Sustainable Campus Master Plan.
Howland is an attorney with the Children's Law Group in Chicago. She earned her law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology. She has a bachelor's degree in education from Central Michigan University and master's degrees in psychology from Michigan State University and educational administration from Northern Illinois University. She served as the board's chairman for the last two years.
Incumbent Trustee Richard Anderson was first elected to the board of trustees while attending the college as a full-time student and has since served continuously on the board, several times holding the board chairman position. He has been active in community college trustee organizations, previously serving as president of the Illinois Community College Trustees Association and in 2014 receiving the organization's Ray Hartstein Trustee Achievement Award. An attorney with a practice in Grayslake, he is a member of the Illinois, Wisconsin, Chicago and Lake County bar associations. He also previously served on the Village of Grayslake board of trustees.
In other action, Yesenia Mata, a graduate of Round Lake High School, was seated as the 2015-16 student trustee, succeeding Annabella Tidei of Lake Villa. Mata is pursuing a business degree and currently has a 3.75 grade point average. She is active in the Phi Theta Kappa honor society and Latino Alliance.
Nominees for state-wide awards
The board approved the selection of CLC nominees for several Illinois Community College Trustee Association (ICCTA) awards. Students selected English professor Jenny Lee as the college's nominee for the ICCTA Outstanding Full-time Faculty Member award and Penny Steffen, English professor as the nominee for the Part-time Faculty Member award.
Caitlyn Sinclair was selected as the nominee for the Paul Simon Student Essay Contest and read her essay at the board meeting.
Dean DeBiase was selected as the nominee for the Distinguished Alumnus Award. He is a nationally known speaker and author and chairman/managing partner of Reboot Partners of Chicago. DeBiase was a CLC student in the late 1970s before attending Northern Illinois University and Keller Graduate School of Management.
Third quarter fiscal report
David Agazzi, vice president for administrative affairs, presented a report on revenues and expenditures under the Fiscal Year 2015 annual operating budget of $101.2 million. Agazzi said at the end of the third quarter the college had received $60.6 million in revenues and expended $60.9 million.
Both revenues and expenditures were less than projected, he said. As of the end of the third quarter, tuition revenue was $300,000 less than projected because of lower enrollment, and the college received one fewer payment than expected for state apportionment.
Human resources
The hiring of six new full-time faculty members was approved by the trustees, effective Aug. 17, 2015. The new faculty and their disciplines are Steven Accardi (English), Nolan Chessman (English), Janice Edwards (engineering), Jennifer Hulvat (criminal justice), Maricruz
Ramos (counseling) and Jeanine Seitz-Partridge (biology).
Four faculty members were granted sabbatical leaves during the 2015-16 academic year. Nedra Adams-Soller (communications) will conduct research on how to reduce speech anxiety as part of her doctoral program at Northern Illinois University (NIU). Kelly Cartwright (biology) will conduct research on conservation gardening for her doctoral dissertation. Joyce Gatto (English/ESL) will work to improve the teaching and learning of oral skills for English learners. Robert Remedi (biology) will conduct case a study analysis of superior community college faculty to complete his doctoral studies at NIU.
The board approved FY 2016 employment contracts for 172 full time and 41 part time specialist employees.
Additionally, the FY 2016 holiday calendar for administrative, professional, specialist and non-bargaining unit classified staff groups was approved, providing 13 college holidays.
Medical benefits approved
The board approved premiums for several medical benefits for FY 2016, including employee health and dental insurance. A Network-Only HMO Illinois plan and a standard PPO Plan will be offered, with the overall cost for medical coverage increasing by 3.9 percent.
Contracts and grants
The board approved a no-fee service agreement with Global Cash Card, a sub-contractor of First Midwest Bank. Starting May 1, 2015, employees will have the option of depositing their payroll funds to a payroll card.
The board also extended two professional services agreements supporting the Illinois Green Economy Network (IGEN) Career Pathways project at CLC. The professional services agreements are a grant requirement, and the services have been extended through Sept. 30, 2015, when the TAA grant ends. One agreement is with SRI International at a cost of $233,744; the other is with Research Triangle at a cost of $170,622. The Career Pathways project is developing educational programs to train workers for the green economy.
Policies
The board approved revising Policies, 411 and 412, which deal with grades and academic standards. The changes affect the grade terminology used when students stop attending classes and are withdrawn by the college for non-attendance. Such students will receive an "FW" grade-failing at time of withdrawal.
Purchasing
The board approved the following bids:
A contract for $1,861,000 with Boller Construction of Waukegan to build a chemistry lab addition and renovate the adjacent patio at the Southlake Campus.
A contract for $188,800 with Valor Technologies of Bolingbrook to complete two of five phases of asbestos abatement for the Grayslake campus A and B Wings.
The board approved the following non-biddable purchases:
An amendment to a contract awarded to M.A. Mortenson Construction of Elk Grove Village to provide construction manager services for Sustainable Campus Master Plan projects. Under the amendment, Mortenson will guarantee that costs for constructing a new café and renovating the Main Lobby, the checkerboard court, connecting link and atrium, all on the Grayslake Campus, will not exceed $25,184,926.
A contract with I-Lead of Lake Zurich for $175,000 to provide certified project management training for employees of two clients of CLC's Workforce and Professional Development Institute, Medline and W.W. Grainger.
A technical services consulting agreement with XPAND Corporation of Reston, Va., $152,241.33. The company will design a Virtual Career Network. The contract is funded by a U.S. Department of Labor Trade Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant.
A contract with Lewis Paper of Wheeling for $65,500 for paper for copy machines. The award is being made under the Governmental Joint Purchasing Act and CLC's procurement policy.