How "Wanted: Green talent" caught my eye

"Wanted: Green talent" is what I read on my phone the other day when I was looking at the headlines on SFGate, the San Francisco Chronicle's online website. Truth be told, I was in a meeting and should not have been "checking out" during the meeting and "checking in" to the internet, but I'm glad I did.

David Bank, a vice president at San Francisco's Civic Ventures, was right on target when he wrote in his open forum about the need for workers who can help energy companies and other green industries. There just aren't enough trained people to fill the available jobs. At the same time, however, having the right kind of training programs are still not as widespread or as standardized as they need to be. And, demand is lower than it needs to be to drive these industries to even greater growth than in the recent past.

http://tinyurl.com/yckon47

While Mr. Bank mentioned some nonprofits and government initiatives to help with all of the above, he left out an important piece in how we will find the trained workers needed to help green industries thrive: community colleges, our nation's training institutions.

Within a day of this opinion piece appearing on SFGate, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a equally compelling headline: "Some businesses having a difficult time filling 'green' jobs". Again, no mention of community colleges, though technical colleges appear in the article.
http://www.jsonline.com/business/89312337.html#comments

The article developed from the release of a new report by...COWS. Not the kind that moo, but the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. http://www.cows.org/ The report, "Greener Skills: How Credentials Create Value in the Clean Energy Economy", http://tinyurl.com/y3sb2hy follows an earlier report released two years ago. "Greener Pathways: Jobs and Workforce Development in the Clean Energy Economy".

One important conclusion in the just released report cautions community colleges as they seek to develop programs to train students for green jobs: "Community colleges, for example, shouldn’t simply rush to start their own “green jobs” programs (though many already have,
with offerings that range from important and critical to redundant and ridiculous). While opening a new program may offer a press opportunity and prove your campus is on the green edge, in fact the ways that all schools manage to integrate the green content into existing programs, and the resources they save by doing so in consistent and industry-defined ways are
likely to prove both more important and sustainable."

How does all of this relate to City College? At our January 2009 meeting, the Board of Trustees approved Resolution S7, "Directive to Create Major Green Training Programs and Establish a Green Jobs Industry Advisory Group" http://www.ccsf.edu/Offices/VCFA/January_2009_agenda_items.htm

Two months later, at our March 2009 meeting, our Board passed two related resolutions, "Creation of City College of San Francisco Bridge to Green Jobs Program" (Resolution S1) and "Resolution supporting the creation of a City College Bridge to Green Jobs Policy" (Resolution S2). Both resolutions can be found at http://www.ccsf.edu/Offices/VCFA/March_2009_agenda_items.htm

Vice-President John Rizzo took the lead in convening a Green Industry Advisory Task Force in 2009, and chaired several meetings to discuss how the College might grow how it trains students for careers in green industries. As the College continues to develop Phase 2 of the Sustainability Plan through which curricular elements of sustainability will be laid out and with all of the recent research that analyzes the effectiveness of existing programs and proposes changes for improved training programs, now would be a great time for the College to report back to the Board on the status of all of the resolutions noted above. And, of course, to demonstrate how City College will be a leader in training San Franciscans for "green" jobs.

Cost $aving$ idea contest for City College

Here's your chance to suggest ways for City College to reduce costs and raise additional funds. There have been some great suggestions so far. To review some of these and to find out how you can participate in this contest, please click on
http://www.ccsf.edu/Offices/SavingsContest/

I am submitting two suggestions related to printing from computers (how many printers are there at City College?):

First, join the "Change the Margins" effort by changing the default setting for margins from the standard 1.25 inches to .75 inches. This saves paper and money as more text can fit on every page. See http://www.changethemargins.com/ for details.

Second, select a standard font for City College that will use up the least amount of ink without compromising readability. More on this at http://tinyurl.com/ylb97sa

Even simple things like these can produce significant savings, especially at a place so large as City College. Please visit http://www.ccsf.edu/Offices/SavingsContest/ to offer your suggestions.

Thanks.

Lost opportunities for achievement

One of the myths about a place like City College of San Francisco is that students graduate from high school, spend two years at City College in preparation to transfer to a four-year institution, and then complete their bachelor's degree in the next two years at San Francisco State University. While that may be true for some students in California's community colleges, the unfortunate reality is that many students spend far more time at a community college, some as many as 5 years before transferring.

A number of factors contribute to a lengthier stay at a community college including needing to work to earn enough income, having family responsibilities that take up time, and being unable to register for every class in a timely way due to reductions in class offerings.

All community colleges have financial aid offices and use colleges websites to inform students about financial aid opportunities (see City College's Financial Aid Office's webpage at http://tinyurl.com/yjx5zs4); however, students have other resources where they can access financial aid, including these two websites
http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/and http://www.icanaffordcollege.com/

Given President Obama's recognition of community colleges as a major economic force in this country, the whole debate about how to make community college more affordable has become a topic of increasing coverage in the press. Just today, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story entitled, "Community college students miss out on student aid" detailing how far too many students do not take advantage of all of the financial aid opportunities that they could. http://tinyurl.com/y9akd3j (The article resulted from the release of a report from the Project on Student Debt (an initiative of the Institute for College Access & Success) on lost student aid opportunities http://ticas.org/pub_view.php?idx=583 and http://projectonstudentdebt.org/pub_view.php?idx=584

I found another report, this one from the California Public Interest Research Group (known as CALPIRG), that look at the economic demand on most community college students to work while attending school. The report noted that 80% of community college students work an average of 32 hours per week, and that students who had jobs on top of their course work do not do as well as students who have fewer obligations outside of the classroom. While the report (Working Too Hard to Make the Grade) acknowledge that students who have jobs requiring fewer hours per week actually have a higher retention rate, the unfortunate reality is that too many community college students have a much lower level of academic achievement than they would if they could reduce their work hours and depend more on financial aid. http://tinyurl.com/yabaqtk

As I write this, the House of Representatives is considering health care reform legislation, a major legislative undertaking. In the effort to win over some Democrats who have not yet committed to supporting health care reform, the reconciliation process in the House has now attached reforms to student financial aid to the bill. While the past few days have brought significant hope to community college advocates that college could become more affordable, a late story tonight reported that the reforms have been scaled back. http://tinyurl.com/yef8vlh

During a time in education with a heavy focus on accountability and standards -- sometimes using terms like "student success" and "student learning outcomes" -- finding ways to make college as affordable as possible for as many students as possible will increase the ability of community colleges to improve lives not only of their students, but of their families as well.

Community College Athletes

I listened to this story on The California Report tonight, and thought it was well done. The report lasts for five minutes.

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201003121630/c

The one thing that startled me was the statistic reported that athletes who go to Division I four year schools after high school get their BA, while 65% of two year transfers get theirs.

The reporter, April Dembosky, didn't explain the stark difference. I asked her to give me the background information on which she depended in her report. She wrote to me that "These numbers come from the research department at the NCAA. The NCAA is still analyzing data and won't offer possible explanations for the difference until they've finished."

March 4th Day of Action

Budget reform now at City College

For most of my three terms on the Board of City College, I have been advocating for a more open process for budgeting. Related to the transparency of creating the budget is a clearer way of understanding what is contained within the budget. While the materials the College Board receives in approving the budget for the District have become better since I joined the Board in 2001, they are still inadequate if the Board is going to do our job properly in representing the public interest at City College.

Unfortunately, just as I have argued for a better budget process and documentation, for most of the time I have served on the Board of City College, others have argued against my reforms. The arguments of the majority of the Board (until now) have been that any changes to how City College creates and manages its budget would mean that the College Board is micromanaging, mistrustful of the College's Administration, ignorant that there is limited opportunity for changes to the budget with 92% of the budget going to salaries, etc, etc.

Fortunately, there is now a solid majority of College Board Trustees who reject the arguments of the past. We are prepared to open up budget planning, to create a culture that embraces widespread communication about the budget, and to establish timely and accurate assessment of the past fiscal year's achievements and challenges in setting out the priorities and parameters for the next budget. Those are all things that a fiscally-responsible College Board should have been insisting upon a long time ago.

As President of the Board of Trustees, I have appointed Chris Jackson to serve this year as Chair of the Board's Planning and Budgeting Council. I am recommending to Chris that he look for models of better community college budgets as he sets out to reform how City College does its budgets.

One such model can be found at Lane Community College in Eugene, OR. Lane received awards from the Government Finance Officers Association for a number of years for the way in which it presents its budget. You can see for yourself that Lane's Board and Administration understand the importance of clarity, a transparent schedule, and priorities and assumptions guiding the process from early in the calendar. While there are some things I would change, such as a link to a more highly detailed budget beyond what Lane's Board approves, they have it right in many aspects.

Here's the link to Lane's Budget Office site:

http://lanecc.edu/budget/index.htm

City College is a leader in community colleges and higher education in general. Our Board should lead the way to budget reform at City College that will be recognized in the way that Lane Community College has been. Given the state of the economy and City College's budget, our obligation to the people who elected us to represent them is even greater this year. Let's not let them down.

"What's more important than our education?"