Evolution is the theme at All-Campus Meeting

Shoreline Community College Trustee Tom Lux listens during the All-Campus Meeting, May 9, 2014. MORE PHOTOS

Charles Darwin might’ve been comfortable with the concepts at the May 9, 2014 All-Campus Meeting at Shoreline Community College.

“This is about evolving,” Interim President Daryl Campbell told the attendees at the PUB Main Dining Room and more than 50 others watching the live-stream webcast. “And we are precisely where we should be.”

First, Campbell addressed the transition from his year as interim president to the tenure Cheryl Roberts, who was recently chosen to be the incoming president and will take over on Aug. 18. Campbell said that he and Roberts have spoken and met and will continue to do so through her arrival.

The meeting agenda then shifted to Ann Garnsey-Harter, Executive Director of eLearning, Virtual College and Resource Development. Garnsey-Harter presented a draft of a “Virtual Campus Initiative” that outlines a possible next step for the Virtual College.

“It has been three years since we wrote the Virtual College Blueprint,” Garnsey-Harter said. “This is a good time to take stock to ask ourselves about the evolution of that initiative and ask ourselves where we want to go.”

Garnsey-Harter said that with three years of data and experience, along with external changes, now is a good time to reassess. One of the most obvious changes in the draft is changing form Virtual College to Virtual Campus. “The change is trying to reduce the confusion I’ve heard around the term ‘college,’” Garnsey-Harter said. “’College’ sometimes gave it a feeling that it was an outside entity. So, we’re using the term ‘campus’ … to be clear that this is part of and an extension of the bricks-and-mortar campus.”

Garnsey-Harter went on to say that the Virtual Campus draft also ties to and supports the core themes of the college.

Campbell came back to discuss the current financial state of the college along with some anticipated year-end budget projections and how the college is using strategic action plans to prepare for the future.

“The college is fiscally very strong,” Campbell said. There are challenges, he said, citing items such as: reduced health-care costs, but potentially larger health-care reimbursements from the state; uncertainty around directed spending by the state; a roughly $100,000 budget cut, and impacts from inflation.

Campbell said that while the college may end up with some surplus this year, those items add up to projected deficit next year. “This is a problem we have every year,” Campbell said.

As for planning, he noted that this is the second year the college has used the strategic action plan process in an attempt to align spending with planning. This year, 59 plans were submitted, totaling $2.65 million. Campbell noted the process developed and applied by the Strategic Planning and Budget Committee.

“We’re very intentional about broadening and increasing the transparency of the process,” Campbell said. He added that he is now reviewing the proposals, asking for additional information where needed and approve selected requests in the next several weeks. Those requests and the rest of a proposed budget for 2014-15 will be rolled up and presented to the Board of Trustees in early June an advance of anticipated approval at the June 25 board meeting.