Vol. XXXVII, No. 22, June 23, 2008

This Week at Valencia

Monday, June 23

Student Affairs Leadership Team, 10 a.m., West Campus, HSB-211

Wednesday, June 25

DOT Deans, 1 p.m., West Campus, 7-107A

District Board of Trustees Meeting Summary

Reports

East Campus - Ruth Prather, East Campus provost, introduced Ralph Clemente, director of Valencia’s Film Production Technology program to the college’s trustees, and congratulated him as a recipient of the Film Florida Legends Award on June 10 at the Enzian Theater. The awards gala was hosted by Film Florida to honor pioneers in the film, television and production industry who have made a significant impact on film in Florida. Valencia’s trustees were shown a compilation of film clips highlighting Mr. Clemente’s work and the work of Valencia film students from the last 20 years. Mr. Clemente presented each trustee with a copy of The Way Back Home starring Julie Harris and Ruby Dee, which had just received its first royalty check and features a song written and performed by Valencia’s president, Sandy Shugart. Valencia’s film program began in 1988 as a certificate-granting program at Disney MGM Studios and soon expanded to a full Associate in Science degree on the East Campus with Mr. Clemente as the head of the program. Mr. Clemente provided highlights of the feature films that are credited to the program including The First of May, a circus film starring Mickey Rooney, Julie Harris and Joe DiMaggio, Florida City, about the seven days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor which has now been shown in 23 countries, and Silver Wings & Civil Rights: The Fight to Fly, a documentary feature film about the Tuskegee Airmen that won numerous awards. Believing that it’s important to give up-and-coming filmmakers the opportunity to use their trade for the good of others, Mr. Clemente said that they had done half a dozen projects for philanthropic organizations that help the homeless and terminally ill children. “We’re like a mini studio,” Mr. Clemente said in describing the program. “We make it possible for students to work with real pros using other people’s money. Good deal, huh?” Mr. Clemente said that they’ve done movies with budgets from $10,000 to $1.2 million. Dr. Shugart credited Ralph with building the program, and though it was in conjunction with a lot of different people, he said it takes his (Ralph’s) passion and focus to sustain it for 20 years. 

East Campus Student Government Association Report - East Campus Student Government President Allistair Smith said that the group’s focus this year was on striving for unity with students and Valencia administrators. Student-led projects include working with the Lynx System to get a bus route established between East and West campuses, and bringing about the adoption of a smoking policy on East Campus as a result of student requests.

Strategic Indicators - Kaye Walter, executive vice president and chief learning officer, and Jeff Cornett, director, Institutional Research, gave a briefing on the Strategic Indicators for 2008: Selected Trends and State Comparisons. New additions were made, Dr. Walter said, that combine benchmarks from the proposed strategic plan and existing performance indicators. Mr. Cornett started with an overview of trends in FTE, which has been growing steadily over the last few years, outpacing the state system’s growth with a 10.8 increase in FTE vs. a 7.3 percent state average. Trend data in enrollments is also showing an increase. He said that while the share of high school graduates fluctuates, currently (using 2006 data) we track a little bit above the state average with more growth projected in the future. He said that Valencia captures just over 50 percent of Orange and Osceola County high school graduates within four or five years after their graduation from high school. Credit enrollments by ethnic mix data show that Caucasians are now a minority in an increasingly diverse student population. Measuring persistence, in recent years we are setting new records in retention from fall-to-spring and fall-to-fall. The data, however, shows an increase in students enrolled in heavy prep, defined as reading, English and math remediation combined. Explaining this increase, Dr. Shugart said that the fact that the state has created a way for high school students to graduate without a standard diploma was a likely contributor to this. The president also said that while we have a way to go with heavy prep-mandated students, the students who were moderately ready for college in the past are now more ready than before. Mr. Cornett said that according to the latest graduation statistics tracking A.A. enrollments, 77 percent of students who graduate from Valencia attend UCF. According to Dr. Shugart, one out of six of UCF’s undergraduate students is a Valencia transfer student.

Construction Report - Keeping his comments brief, Keith Houck, vice president, Administrative Services, said that Building 10 is coming along well and that the joint-use building groundbreaking would take place next month.

New Campus Update - Mr. Houck said that at the last board meeting, the trustees had asked for update on campus expansion plans. He then showed them an aerial view of where the college is looking at property for a southeast campus. The property, a short distance from the 417, sits just north of where Orange County is planning a high school and is at the gateway to Medical City in Lake Nona. Dr. Shugart said that we are looking at establishing a new urban or area campus inside a town center location, which would meet educational needs in that area for the foreseeable future. For the short term, he said, we’re looking at partnering very closely with Orange County Public Schools who would provide access to a building at the new high school for a number of years before the construction of our own building. The high school opens in the fall of 2009. Within a week or two of its opening, Valencia would open on its own operation to include a collegiate academy: a school-within-a-school in partnership with AP and dual enrollment, with the charge that a forth of the senior class would graduate with their A.A. degree and another quarter would graduate with 30 credit hours of college-level work completed.

Continuing, Mr. Houck said that Valencia currently has a 13,444-square-foot building (McCoy Center) and they are looking at a land swap of seven acres. He said that the college had discontinued classes here four years ago and the building is currently used for storage and rented out to a pre-K program. A land swap would give us the potential to provide training for the airport. Dr. Shugart said that this is an economic development deal to support the aviation cluster in that area. He said that the college’s leadership would bring it to the board later for evaluation.

Switching gears, Mr. Houck provided another aerial view, this time of the large rolling community of Poinciana in Osceola County. The college is looking at site identification for a land purchase of 17 acres for a small area campus in a location that is currently pasture land in Poinciana.

Internal Auditor Report - Undria Stalling, internal auditor, provided a follow-up on the last two audits by the state’s auditors. She said that between the last two audit reports there were nine findings and all but two have been resolved.

Faculty Council Report - Michael Shugg, president, Collegewide Faculty Council, briefly reported on three initiatives that the council is collaborating on right now: a revision of the withdrawal policy for students; student engagement hours policy (office hours) to make sure faculty members have tools they need to communicate with students in the manner students are expecting and allow deans to have the tools to manage their departments; and the evaluation instrument used by deans to evaluate faculty.

Valencia Foundation Report - Raymer Maguire III, trustee, reported that at the recent Taste for Learning event, $623,000 dollars were raised including the state match to fully fund the First Generation in College program. Dr. Shugart said that the Taste for Learning event will be expanded next year to include UCF and provide scholarships for students enrolled in Direct Connect.

President’s Report - Dr. Shugart invited the trustees to a groundbreaking ceremony on July 28 for the Valencia/UCF Joint-Use Facility on West Campus. Next, he announced changes in the dual enrollment program, where the University of Board of Governors has agreed to treat dual enrollment with the same weight as Advanced Placement (AP) courses in their calculations for evaluating incoming freshman. In essence, he said that this has leveled the playing field with AP so that the best program for each student is prescribed. The president closed his remarks by saying that next month the board will meet at Valencia’s Criminal Justice Institute so that the board can meet on West Campus in September. He also announced that the next meeting will be Donna Haskins’ last, as she is retiring from the college.

New Business

Strategic Plan 2008-2013 Approval - The board approved the Strategic Plan 2008-2013 as presented at the May 20, 2008 District Board of Trustees meeting.

Annual Operating Budget, Salary Plan and Unexpended Plant Budget – FY 2008-2009 - Mr. Houck reviewed the college’s budget design priorities including maintaining a high learning environment. He emphasized a graph that showed that beginning this year, less than 50 percent of Valencia’s financial support comes from state tax dollars. Therefore, he said, we have now moved from being a state-funded college to a state-supported college. He said that we’re probably the first community college in the state of Florida to cross this threshold. A revenues summary chart showed state funding down 2.78 percent ($1.8 million drop), tuition up by 6 percent, enrollment increasing by 5 percent, and special fees increasing 38 percent. Of the latter, Mr. Houck said that lab fees are one of the expenses that the college has subsidized for many years, but must now be borne by student. Some fees will jump as high as four or five fold, representing a $500,000 increase to the college. Other highlights in the budget include an increase in faculty and staff compensation by 1.893 percent and adding 15 new tenure-track positions. The state has advised the college to maintain 4 percent as a hold-back pending further budget cuts at the state level. Mr. Houck said that initiatives we’ll continue to fund include Achieving the Dream and Take Stock in Children, among others.

Consent Agenda - Approved under the consent agenda were: Educational Plant Survey; Delinquent Account Write-Off; Lab Fees; Florida Equity Act Report; Osceola Campus Land Lease; Resolution Certifying the Valencia Community College Foundation as a Direct Support Organization; 2007-2008 Annual Fire Safety, Casualty Safety and Sanitation Inspection; Additions, deletions or Modifications of Courses and Programs; CJI Courses and Fees; Valencia Enterprise Courses and Fees; Human Resources Agenda; Submission of Grant Proposals; Property Deletion.

Take Stock in Children Initiative

We are still recruiting mentors to participate in the ‘Take Stock in Children’ initiative. Fifty Orange County Public School low-income, academically successful students applied and were interviewed for the possibility of obtaining a 2+2 Florida Pre-Paid scholarship when they graduate from high school. In collaboration with Orange County Public Schools, we will track these fifty students and support the student's educational achievements. Students must maintain good grades; good discipline records, and stay drug and crime free. Students also have to commit to meeting with a mentor once a week.

You can change a child's life by becoming a mentor. One hour a week of your time can make a lasting impact in the life of a child. By showing a child that someone cares, you will help that student become a productive citizen.

For an application please e-mail Elisha Gonzalez-Bonnewitz at egonzal4@valenciacc.edu. If you have any questions, or would like more information please call 407-582-3120.

Good health begins with you! The following are some great health tips provided by Dr. Roizen and Dr. Oz from the Real Age website at www.RealAge.com. Take a tour of your body, test your knowledge of how it works, and discover the best ways to maintain it, improve it, and fine-tune it. Take the Real Age test today!

Foods to Calm You Down Fast - Work pressures got you tearing your hair out? Holiday to-do list expanding too fast? Regardless of the cause, when we’re stressed we often counter-intuitively turn to diet-busting goodies for comfort. Instead of soothing our frayed nerves, many of them ultimately make us feel worse. Take the classic - curling up with a pint of ice cream. It's a total backfire. Why? Sweets are insidious: After the initial rush, the body's insulin response kicks in, causing a sudden blood-sugar drop that triggers the release of stress hormones. Soon you're feeling more jangled than you were before you inhaled that whole container of Chunky Monkey. And alcohol, of course, is a wolfish stimulant in calm sheep's clothing.

But true comfort foods do exist:  

• Berries, any berries. Eat them one by one instead of M&Ms when the pressure's on. For those tough times when tension tightens your jaw, try rolling a frozen berry around in your mouth. And then another, and another. Since the carbs in berries turn to sugar very slowly, you won't have a blood-sugar crash. The bonus: They're a good source of vitamin C, which helps fight a jump in cortisol, a stress hormone.
• Guacamole. If you're craving something creamy, look no further. Avocados are loaded with B vitamins, which stress quickly depletes and which your body needs in order to maintain nerves and brain cells. Plus, their creaminess comes from healthy fat. Scoop up the stuff with whole-grain baked chips - crunching keeps you from gritting your teeth.
• Mixed nuts. Just an ounce will do. Walnuts help replace those stress-depleted B vitamins, Brazil nuts give you a whopping amount of zinc (which is also drained by high anxiety), and almonds boost your E, which helps fight cellular damage linked to chronic stress. Buy nuts in the shell and think of it as multitasking: With every squeeze of the nutcracker, you're releasing a little tension.
• Oranges. People who take 1,000 milligrams of C before giving a speech have lower levels of cortisol and lower blood pressures than those who don't. So lean back, take a deep breath, and concentrate on peeling a large orange. The 5-minute mindfulness break will ease your mind, and you'll get a bunch of C as well.
• Asparagus. Each tender stalk is a source of folic acid, a natural mood lightener. Dip the spears in fat-free yogurt or sour cream for a hit of calcium with each bite.
• Chai tea. A warm drink is a super-soother, and curling up with a cup of aromatic decaf chai tea (Tazo makes ready-to-brew bags) can make the whole evil day go away.
• Dark chocolate. Okay, there's nothing in it that relieves stress, but when only chocolate will do, reach for the dark, sultry kind that's at least 70% cocoa. You figure if the antioxidant flavonoids in it are potent enough to fight cancer and heart disease, they've got to be able to temper tension's effects.

Accounts Payable Updates

Congratulations to Jenelle Conner for being the first to submit the correct answers to the last quiz. The correct answers were:

                Quiz # 7 – a) within 30 days

                Quiz # 8 – b) June 30

Thank you all for participating and keep using our forms.

Leadership Valencia

Session III of IV: Picking Your Investment - After you determine your risk tolerance and asset allocation, we will utilize Morningstar to determine which mutual funds fit into your allocation perfectly. We will discuss when you should consider cutting loose your mutual funds due to poor performance, etc. Additionally, you will have an opportunity to view the Morningstar report on your current mutual fund holdings. Sponsored by the Valencia Chapter of American Association for Women in Community Colleges. A box lunch and beverage will be provided. June 25, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Winter Park Campus, Room 108, Registration Code: GPYI

Estate Planning: What Everyone Needs to Know – Estate planning and procrastination often go hand-in-hand. This session will provide tools to help you understand the benefits of estate planning; including maintaining estate control, how this helps your heirs, ways to avoid or minimize probate, and methods that save on estate taxes. We will briefly discuss special needs trust and spendthrift trusts for those special family members. You will be introduced to the four basic estate-planning documents: will, health care surrogate, durable power of attorney and living will. In discussion, attendees will weigh the costs and benefits of a will versus revocable trust and explore the multitude of charitable planned giving strategies that establish you an income stream today and benefit your favorite charity tomorrow. Bring your favorite beverage; a free box lunch will be served. Sponsored by American Association for Women in Community Colleges. June 26, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Osceola Campus, Room 3-229,. Registration Code: GEP-O

Student Affairs Summer Institute – A week of workshops, July 14-18. Please see the online Leadership Valencia planning calendar for workshops offered and the registration code to use for each workshop you wish to register for.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Training, Part I - Planning to conduct a study involving Valencia students or employees? Not sure if your study needs to comply with Valencia's new mandatory Institutional Review Board (IRB) process for research projects? The Valencia IRB process is designed to encourage faculty, staff and student research while protecting the participants, the college, and even the researcher. Part I will provide an overview of human search protection, and how our IRB works with an aim to be as unintrusive as possible while complying with Federal regulations. (Note: Completion of this workshop satisfies the IRB training requirement for investigators of Valencia projects that have been approved through expedited or full review.) July 17, 9-11 a.m., East Campus, Room 3-113, Registration Code:PIRB1-1

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Training, Part II - Planning to conduct a research project that will require completing the application for Valencia's new Institutional Review Board (IRB) process? Part II will walk through the Valencia IRB application process through interactive discussions, including questions and discussion of examples. (Recommended pre-requisite: IRB Training, Part I) July 17, 11 a.m.-12 p.m., East Campus, Room 3-113, Registration Code:PIRB2-1

Session IV of IV - Wrapping Up - Complete an analysis based on your personal income and expense information that we have compiled throughout this series of workshops. You will know if you need to save a little more to reach your perfect retirement or if you can actually retire earlier than thought. Sponsored by the Valencia Chapter of American Association for Women in Community Colleges.  A box lunch and beverage will be provided. July 23, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., East Campus, Room 5-112, Registration Code: GWUI

Reading Circle: Balancing Career & Family: Overcoming the Superwoman Syndrome - (Limited Seating) This book looks at realistic strategies for the woman who wants a career, a family, and a life. The 70's gave us "Superwoman" the have-it-all, be everything-to-everyone, perfect wife, mother, and successful career woman who could have her cake and eat it too. She could single-handedly raise a family, keep a perfect household, rise to the top of the corporate world and still find time to relax and enjoy herself. Unfortunately, millions of women bought into this myth, becoming consumed with guilt when they found they couldn't live up to the media image. This handbook explodes that myth and at the same time offers real-life, workable strategies for balancing home and work without getting stressed out. Sponsored by American Association for Women in Community Colleges, August 8, 3-4:30 p.m., Winter Park Campus, Room 123, Registration Code: PREAD

Are You The Sandwich Generation - Do You Need Help? - An informational workshop to explore the both sides of the sandwich - college planning for your children and elder planning for your parents. We will discuss the differences in college funding vehicles - FL Prepaid, 529 Plans, Educational IRAs, and what are the features and benefits of each plan. Additionally we will try to discover the secrets of the Expected Family Contribution calculation and how this effects your financial aid application. Then we will travel into the dark and mysterious realm of Elder Law - a subject that most adult children don't seek information about until it is too late to do proper planning. Let's explore it together in the bright sunlight! We will discuss real estate benefits for "Mother-in-Law" additions, Veterans Administration financial assistance for wartime veterans or their Widows, Medicaid requirements and any possible planning you should consider on behalf of your parents. Sponsored by the Valencia Chapter of American Association for Women in Community Colleges. A box lunch will be provided. August 13, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., East Campus, Room 5-112, Registration Code: GSG

How To Say It: Difficult Conversations - Part 3 - These are the conversations that we all find so difficult. Conversations about discipline or correction, complaints, and disagreements with a co-worker or student all tend to leave us looking for places to hide. This workshop will offer sound and appropriate advice on how to have these sensitive conversations. August 14, 2:30-4:30 p.m., East Campus, Room 5-112, Registration Code: LHTSI-3

Kudos

Elisha Gonzalez-Bonnewitz, director of Take Stock in Children has been chosen by Orlando Business Journal for the 2008 "40 under 40" awards, recognizing Orlando's top 40 young business professionals who are influencing their industries and the Central Florida community.