HCTC Board of Directors | HCTC

Leadership

HCTC Board of Directors

November 7, 2024 Minutes

Present: Chair William "Bill" Weinberg, Secretary Dew Gorman (TEAMS), Chuck Davidson, Amelia Prater (TEAMS), Derrick Bowling, Don Barnes,

Guest: Dr. Jennifer Lindon, Dr. Deronda Mobelini, Andy Nguyen, Charlene Fugate, Robert Higdon, Donna Roark, Jackie Hall and Sandy McIntosh

Chair Bill Weinberg called meeting to order at 6:00 pm. Chair stated to make 2 changes to agenda before approving. Under IV it says Presidents Report but that's not what is there. Under V, Chair requested to add "Board" to Open Discussion, makes that clearer. Don Barnes moved to approve the agenda. Robert Higdon seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously passed, with edits.

Swearing in of newly elected Board Member-Student Representative

Chair called to swear new board member Brian Blair, but he was not available to attend due to Nursing exam. Chair proposed to swear in Brian at the next Board meeting.

Approval of the Minutes from 8/22/2024

Chair noted Dr. Lindon has a change to make on page 3. The wording was misleading- strike through the whole line of wording referring to HCTC to become a 4-year college. It lead the reader to believe that we are not looking at becoming a 4 year college. It was trying to say that we would not be merging with Southeast of Big Sandy Community College. Chuck Davidson made the motion to approve the minutes. Charlene Fugate seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously passed. Chair made the motion to delete the line "Dr. Quarles and the Governance and OrganizationalStructure recommends that HCTC will stay HCTC, meaning we would not leave KCTCS" from the minutes. Don Barnes seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously passed.

Recognition of our outgoing Student Member

Dr. Lindon gave a brief presentation of the departure award to Robert Higdon in honor of his service as Student Representative with the HCTC Board of Directors. Dr. Lindon also let it be known that Robert was recently elected as Student Representative for KCTCS Board of Regents.

Robert voiced his appreciation for serving as Student Representative on the Board. It allowed him to have a different perspective as a student at HCTC and he appreciated the opportunity to serve on the Board. An award was presented to Robert for his service to the Board.

Presidents Report

Review of the Bylaws and Code of Ethics

Dr. Lindon stated that we would take a review of the Bylaws and Code of Ethics, KRS 164,600. Chair asked if there are changes anyone wishes to talk about. Starting with Page 1, Don Barnes brought to attention a couple of editing issues. HCTC needs to be included rather than the placeholder "<name>". Under A, "under our duties as a Board recommend one candidate for College President Chief Executive Officer from 3 Candidates provided by KCTCS" but it doesn't say that we have a current President when we do so. Doesn't say in the event of vacancy, just states that one will be elected. Chair agreed wording needs to be changed in the event of a vacancy. Part B Don wanted to clarify if a correction needed to be made -Evaluate the college president and advise the President of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System of his or her performance. The President of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System has final authority of the appointment and termination of the college President/Chief Executi_ve Officer- The wording is indeed correct. Don questioned the wording in C that says Approve budget requests. He asked if there are particular ones that we are to approve and send to KCTCS or is that recurring non-recurring budget. Dr. Lindon answered it is for recurring non-recurring budget needs list. Don stated the vagueness of the wording may not be suitable due to there being a lot of budget requests from Faculty, Staff, different departments. Chair asked Jackie if she was comfortable with the wording. She asked if Dr. Lindon was ok with it, she went on to state that we do need to specify because we do have a lot of different budget requests. Therefore, it should be changed to say budget needs lists instead of budget requests. No changes to page 2. Page 3, Dr. Lindon and Robert began the discussion of student member shall be elected by secret ballots from the student body of the college to serve a term of one (1) year. Robert stated that clarification was needed as it wasn't clear if that meant the student can only serve one year or if they can run again. The legal term was discovered that it means they can serve one time, and they can run again. No wording of reelection is included as it is staff which was brought to the Boards attention by Charlene Fugate. Dr. Mobelini also questioned that as well. Dr. Mobelini suggested that the same student not have the chance to run again but give the chance to another student. At the same time, everyone needs to be given an opportunity to run, it can go either way. Dr. Lindon reiterated that same thought, she understands both sides. She feels the same way about giving other students the opportunity to run for the position. Dew asked what has happened in the past, has there been the same student multiple years in a row and the answer was no, not yet. Chair stated he doesn't see an issue with a student not running again. It would be a depend upon if the student thought they had done a good job. Dr. Mobelini stated in years past there has been the issue 'that there wasn't anyone but one student that was running. The discussion was that then a recurring student could go bacl< into their office of Student Representative again. It was decided that the line should be added student members shall be eligible for reelection. Chair stated voting will be completed after all items listed has been discussed. Chair asked Board if Page 3 of any changes that need to be made, no issues to be discussed. Chair stated that there is a line on Page 4 that seems contradictory. The first sentence states that the Board shall decide at the Fall meeting the dates of meetings to be held for the following year. It goes on to state that the Fall meeting shall be considered the Annual meeting and shall occur in August, which is not during the Fall season, nor is a Board meeting held in August. That part "and shall occur on a designated Thursday in August needs to be tal<en out. It is stated that it would be the first meeting in the Fall to be the Annual meeting, being that there are 2 meetings held. There should probably be a period to be added at the end of the Board of Directors and leaving it open as to when that first Fall meeting should be is the Chair's recommendation. All agreed. Instead to say; "The Fall meeting shall be considered the annual meeting for the Board of Directors." Page 5, Chair stated that he is not happy with D, it's not transparent enough. He doesn't feel that if the public wants to say anything at a Board meeting, they shouldn't have to go through a lot of steps. Don Barnes stated in his experience on a School Board, the community would sign in at the beginning of a meeting that they would like to address the Board. That should be plenty of notice for us. Don suggested that the sentence stating "individuals must submit a written copy submitted to the President" to be deleted. Replace with our own wording something to the effect of "must sign in with the subject". Dr. Mobelini brought up the fact that a subject could be brought up and everyone would be there til midnight. Don stated that it is up to Chair, they can speak up and say that the discussion needs to end. Reading from the By-Laws the Chair and Vice Chair shall allow the opportunity for someone to speak. They can decide if there is a person that wants to speak, if they will be able to. Whether it is via a sign in sheet or personal discussion. Chair stated first paragraph to stay the same, for the second paragraph put a period at the end of open meetings law. Then say to address the Board of Directors, individuals must sign in at the meeting with name, address, telephone number and email address, requesting permission to speak. Comments shall be limited to three minutes. The remaining part of the paragraph be cut removing: "The college President shall communicate the request to the Chair and Vice Chair. The Chair and Vice Chair shall determine whether or not to allow the opportunity to speak. The College President shall communicate that the decision to the requestor at least three (3) business days prior to the meeting. The Board of Directors shall be notified of all denials". Board in agreement. Page 6, Chair stated in regarding Power to Vote we need to change it because we are allowing people to vote by Zoom, electronic mail. At the last meeting we discussed the issue of voting if you don't have a camera. We need to decide on this last sentence, how we want to alter that, what we want to allow and not. It is too restricted as it is written now. Don said at least take out by mail and Charlene also brought up by telephone, each restating the issue of the Board cannot see the face of the one casting the vote. The Chair asked if someone sent in a vote that was notarized, would that be ok? As Don stated in response to the Chair, what if there is discussion made and the motion is amended, the Chair was in agreement. It was agreed to change the statement to read vote may be cast video conference call, with the camera on the person voting. Take out: "tfl absentia, by proxy, by mail, by telephone, or by eleetrnnie mail". Page 7 changes - at the end of 4.9 "Members are considered in attendance who are participating by video conference". No further changes to be made.Page 8 changes- Remove 7.2a and b. Page 9- no changes. Chair asl<ed the Board if the changes need to be restated or is everyone ready to approve? Chair made a motion to approve the changes made to the By-laws. Derrick Bowling moved to make a motion to approve the changes. Dew Gorman seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously passed. Code of Ethics next to be reviewed. No changes to be made to Page 1. Page 2, A- Chair stated that this section is too restricted, should a company offer a product at a cheaper price, someone would need to resign from the Board. Don Barnes brought the Chair's attention to Part D that may possibly cover that situation. Dew Gorman stated a similar situation that he was involved in with another setting. He made the st.atement of the price being cheaper but did not participate in the decision by casting a vote as it was involving his personal insurance company. Don Barnes mentioned that the bottom part of C needs changed to College, not university. Final page - no changes to be made. Chair entertained a motion to approve the Code of Ethics. Don Barnes made the motion to approve. Charlene Fugate seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously passed.

President's Report

Dr. Lindon began by introducing Peer Mentor Andy Nguyen. Andy talked about the role of a Peer Mentor is to guide students in the right direction that will help them to graduate. He explains that other students mentor students that are in need. Andy also works with the Success Coaches from the Library, Austyn Caudill and Eugene Combs. He also plans to work with Dual Credit students from the high school. He will be contacting online students to make sure they have what they need for their classes such as course material, if there are issues with internet to be resolved. Should a student need to get in contact with a Success Coach or an Advisor, he assists the students with that as well. Charlene Fugate asked Andy to tell the Board about himself, where he is from and how he ended up at HCTC. He was born and raised in Eastern KY. He is familiar with not having the best income, so he strives to help those in need. Andy attends the Tech Campus, majoring in the Welding department. He states how he keeps in mind anything that he does as a Peer Mentor, keeps the students in mind and how he can think as a student thinks. What info is most important to them and how it can be useful to them. Dr. Lindon asked Andy to explain the training that he attended. He explained that there was a lot of initial paperwork involved. He participated in a role play scenario of how a student with classes and not knowing what to do. Maybe they have finished a semester and are not sure if they want to go bacl<. A Peer Mentor will reach out to them, relating to them and know what kind of language to use. During the week previous of the Board Meeting, Andy attended a conference in Lexington. He had the opportunity to meet with new people and all the programs they are associated with. Robert Higdon asked Andy if he has interacted with quite a few students yet? He answered that he has assisted the students in his immediate class as a lot of them are first time students. He has helped them with accessing resources online such as Starfish and Blackboard. Dr. Lindon informed the Board that there will be other Mentors hired to assist the students. Lucy Langdon is supervising the Department.

Budget report

Jackie Hall, Acting Chief Business Officer/CFO discussing a report that was run November 4. The report showed the total tuition assessment of Fall 2024 was about 4.5 million, which was over $300,000 more than what was budgeted. The budget was set for 4.2 million. As we look to the Spring enrollment, the numbers will be changing. Expenditures for the first quarter of the fiscal year, everyone seems to be staying within their budget.

Some of the fund balance has been utilized - KCTCS $1 million carry forward. A 12-passenger van has been purchased and used to transport students to the Toyota plant from the Tech campus. A cargo van has been purchased and is expected to arrive next week for Technology Solutions and Maintenance & Operations will use van to transport items among campuses. Jolly Classroom building has received updates. The student lounge is in the process of renovation. The flooring is being redone, and new furniture has been ordered. The student lounge is used on a regular basis, especially in the evenings for students attending night classes. The lounge has also been painted, and LED lights has been installed.

Fund Balance was also used to pay for the security door lock system, which has been a tremendous help to Maintenance & Operations (M&O). At any point, place and time they can use an app on their phone to lock down the campuses. A safety measure that has been added is going extremely well. Dr. Lindon explains just how useful the new system has been. Jackie made mention that if there is an emergency situation, Technology Solutions also has the capability to loci< down the campus as well. Jackie said that there are plans to go to other campus locations and look at their student lounges. Don informed the board that there are doors that lock/unlock but classrooms doors are not affected. Just an oversight but if it could be brought to someone's attention.

Enrollment Report

Dr. Mobelini stated that HCTC exceeded the Fall enrollment goals for student head count, student credit hours. She goes on to say that there may be many students, but they may not be taking the full amount of credit hours. The credit hours are tied into the tuition.

Dr. Mobelini refers to the report included in the handout to the Board members. The report states that the enrollment numbers exceeded the goal by 102. The goal was 3050 and the number ended up being 3152. She goes on to say that the credential seeking students persistence rate has gone up. This can be credited to the work of Success Coaches. Continuing to build on that by bringing in Peer Mentors. That's another phase that Drs. Strong and Mobelini are working on moving forward and improving student support services. Target is set for Spring semester, that of course is expected to change. We have hopes the numbers will go above our goal. Dual Credit Navigators will be in the high schools, we hope that will show up for the good in our numbers for next year.

Don Barnes asked Dr. Mobelini about the study of non-academic needs of the students the System Office has been doing. She replied there is a couple of things going on. One of her concerns is the mental health issues coming out of Covid and the flood. The System started the study about a year or year and half ago initiated a work group. One group focused on mental health issues. The tragedies seem to be non-academic barriers. For some they may not even have a home anymore. The survey from the.System called Basic Needs Survey in regards to mental health, food insecurities, transportation issues and childcare. The survey was included in the Admissions application. From there we can pull and identify a student who is having housing or transportation issues, or childcare. An issue realized early on is if a student checks in the survey, they have mental health issues but they are not addressed right away. The college then finds out too late and it is not very helpful to the students. The college's Record Facilitator has made sure that we have access to the survey answers on a daily basis. Bill posed the question to Dr. Lindon when will we hear something in regards to the 2025 Aspen Prize Submission. She stated that we have to be invited, and we should hear something from Aspen around December, with a quick turnaround of a month or so. As stated in the minutes from the Board meeting in August, there are 8 bullets listing why we were not chosen last year. Bill asked when can we have an update of where we stand on reaching those 8? Dr. Lindon replied that we do a couple of check-ins with Lois Puffer. I believe she has that scheduled for February to start looking at the current semester and what we need to start working on. The Chair is concerned that preliminary information needs in hand early January. Dr. Lindon will speak with Lois to have preliminary data for the Board to review. Dr. Mobelini stated it is possible to pull some solid data from a couple years ago and see that we have added them since then and how it has been beneficial. The Chair would like to see data from the year 2023. Andy mentioned to Dr. Mobelini how that there are some students that will not ask for help out of fear that they will be seen as weak. She answered that it has been an issue they have noticed and promoted through student services and the advisors. Just ask buttons is something they have worn in the past. We also deal with age differences in our classrooms, being a 35 year old and a 19 year old both in the same class. The 35-year-old feels intimidated.

Presidents Update

Dr. Lindon talks about the celebration of HCTC's ACEN (American College Education and Nursing) Accreditation . .Our RN nursing program has never been accredited before. This applies to our Lees Campus in Jackson as well as HCTC in Hazard. When our students are transferring, that next college wants to see this accreditation. It goes on to help our students as they seek employment, specifically out of state.

President's Report Topics

  • ACEN Accreditation
  • Revenue and Enrollment Goal Met for Fall 2024!
  • Lees Meeting November 9
  • Influencer Events, Esports Event, Fall Bashes, Movie Night, Etc.
  • Field of Flags, November 8
  • SJR 132
  • SJR 179
  • ARH SOAR Grant - $40 million, HCTC is a partner
  • Nuclear Medicine Program Approved - $50,00 CPE Grant
  • ARH LPN, Nuclear Medicine, Scholarship Dollars - $140,000
  • Fuson Family Endowment - $230,000
  • Telford Foundation - $117,000
  • Lees Inc. Meeting November 9

The Chair begins the discussion of the status report of SJR 132. Next two pages are the Executive Summary showing the economic impact analysis of what would happen in the event of a 4-year school of HCTC. The impact is quite significant and needs to be looked at by everyone (referring to the Board). The Chair asked, is this all of the report or is there more pages? Dr. Lindon continued the discussion to say there is more of the report. In conjunction with the study of Ernst and Young, we have partnered with LightCast to perform our own study of an economic impact analysis to be used in our Advocacy efforts. The LightCast study was generously paid for by the Hazard Independent College Fund. Dr. Lindon stated that the study is not quite finished yet, but I have the executive summary to present to the Board. The total impact of a 15-year time period, a conservative amount of $1.7 billion was prospected for HCTC. That is for our 13-county region. If we were to become a 4 year, our service area would expand. Not only do we have our 7 counties but also have Harlan, Bell, Knox, Letcher, Clay and Jacl<son. This time frame and dollar amount includes transition work to be done, paperwork and curriculum to be written. Which will have to be approved and have government structure. Will need time to offer 4-5 bachelor's degrees. There is the possibility of a drop in enrollment as our brand changes. The term "polytechnic college or institute" has been mentioned as that what it will be for us. The term defined is what we offer, technical degrees in manufacturing engineering technology to healthcare and finance. Liberal arts to be offered as well. We would be offering Certificates, 2-year Applied Science degrees and the bachelor's degree. The UCM model is being discussed as well to transition us out for a period of 7 years with a contract with KCTCS. We would pay a set fee for services determined by KCTCS. We could pay fees for Blacl<board, PeopleSoft, etc. So, a couple of options proposed to us were expand UCM or we would become the Polytechnic College and transition away from KCTCS over a 7 year period. There are no finals details, so there would need to be negotiations with KCTCS and CPE. In the impact analysis each item is broken down from short term spending to the 23-million-dollar facility built to house our students to student spending, to long-term spending and our alumni. The Chair brought the question to Dr. Lindon is there validity to nursing instructors high turnover rate at HCTC due to the competitive pay elsewhere? She gave confirmation that is correct. Other KCTCS colleges are facing this as well. It is from what we are to adhere to within KCTCS of the pay that we have to offer. We have tried to supplement and offer stipends in some areas. But we do run into compression quite a bit. It is difficult that we have instructors that have been here 30 years and someone comes in with 2 years' experience and they are offered 20,000 more than what the one with the seniority is making. Dr. Quarles is aware, and the Presidents are hoping that we can come some type of an agreement of what we can.offer, if not we're going to l<eep having a high turnover. How does this affect our students and their NCLEX rates? Students cannot perform well with high turnover of instructors. Robert posed the question does the ACEN Accreditation stand for all colleges across l<CTCS or just HCTC? Dr. Lindon replied that it is only for our program at HCTC. There are separate programs and accreditations, which would have to be addressed to those Boards. Should we become a 4-year, I would say we will have to go through it again unfortunately. Robert posed another question is there a reason why we can't go on our (HCTC) own and have our own thing? Melissa Vermillion had discussed how it would be easier and cheaper to have our own software to use rather than paying for Blackboard and Peoplesoft. Dr. Lindon answered that KCTCS said it would be less costly if we move at a slower rate to transition out from KCTCS. Donna Roark, IT has worked on getting pricing from vendors for things such as the software we use. The Leadership Team has spent many hours to pull data for the requests from Ernst and Young. We have had numerous conversations as to what type of partnerships that we could forge forward with.

SJR 179

Many of our faculty and staff serve on various work groups and teams. This is the Senate Joint Resolution that required KCTCS to conduct a study upon themselves and to look at 11 key points outlined in the handout. Several work groups are conducting this work and this is a massive undertaking. Everything from Academics to Government structure. The Student Pathways Team will create a strategic workforce plan.

Open Discussion

Don stated that the Faculty, specifically those at Lees Campus are not aware of events happening at the Lees Campus. Don feels that the Marketing Team is deciding on what is important to the Community. We need to expand beyond social media for advertising. Things get lost and are hard to follow or know when things are happening. Dr. Lindon stated that she will discuss this with the Marketing Team.

Other items

Next year's Board meeting dates

  • February 20
  • May- TBD with a tentative date of May 1st
  • August 21
  • November 6- Fall annual meeting with election of officers

Chair requested motion to approve the tentative dates. Chuck made the motion to approve. Dew seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously passed.

Chair requested motion to adjourn the Board meeting. Don made the motion to adjourn. Chuck seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously passed.

Respectfully submitted.

Dew Gorman, Board Secretary

Forwarded by Sandy McIntosh, Senior Administrative Assistant

8:20 pm