Vol. XXXIV, No. 1

January 10, 2005

This Week at Valencia.

Final week: Selected Fine Arts faculty works exhibit, Anita Wooten Gallery, East Campus.

Monday, January 10: Spring term classes begin

Tuesday, January 11:
West Campus Faculty Senate, 1-151, 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday, January 12:
College Executive Council, East Campus, 3-113, 8:30 a.m..

College-wide Curriculum Committee, West Campus (location TBA), 2:00 p.m.

Learning Evidence Team, Osceola Campus (location TBA), 2:30 p.m.

Alumni Association Board Meeting, DTC, 5:30 p.m.

Thursday, January 13:
East Campus Faculty Senate, 3-113, 1:00 p.m.

Meeting Summary available next week

The summary of the December 21, 2004 meeting of the Valencia Community College District Board of Trustees will be published in the January 17 edition of the Bulletin.

Significant Changes to the Strategic Budget Initiative Process Announced

Some significant changes have been made to the Strategic Budget Initiative (SBI) Program. If you are interested in applying for SBI funding, it is particularly important that you be aware of the changes, which are described as follows.

Background: In the fall of 2002, the College designed a Strategic Budget Initiative process that encouraged individuals/departments/campuses to submit proposals for funding of special projects, pilots of innovative programs, and/or purchases of products for improving learning and that were linked explicitly to Valencia's Strategic Learning Plan. In fiscal year 2003-04, twelve SBI's were awarded for a total of $422,848. In fiscal year 2004-05, eight of the twelve SBI's were continued and nine newly funded SBI's were awarded for a combined total of $701,419.

Rationale for Change: During the past year, as the College Planning Council led a college-wide review of the Strategic Learning Plan (SLP) resulting in a "refresh" of the SLP, the need to refine the SBI process was voiced by many people college-wide. A number of suggestions were made regarding the need to refine the purposes of the SBI program to clarify 1) the types of efforts that it is intended to fund, 2) the application process, and 3) the decision-making process. The College Planning Council commissioned a work group to review the SBI purpose and procedures and make recommendations to the CPC. The Work Group included members from faculty, career service, and professional staff, and was facilitated by Louise Pitts and Shawn Robinson.

The Work Group's charge was to redefine the SBI purpose as a funding process to provide support for promising innovations that may be scaled to reach large numbers of students. Also, the work group was asked to help clarify the sources of funding available for ideas at different stages of development, so that faculty and staff would have a clearer understanding of the appropriate sources of funding available to them for their ideas, with those sources varying depending upon the stage of development of the idea (ranging from a new idea that has not been tried at Valencia, to an idea that has been tested on a large scale and is ready for full implementation). The Work Group was asked to consider a means of assisting faculty and staff in determining the best source of funding for their ideas.

In response to the charge, the Work Group presented the following revised purpose statement, which was approved at the December 2004 College Planning Council meeting: "The purpose of SBI funds is to provide support for promising innovations that may be scaled to reach large numbers of students. Strategic Budget Initiative proposals should have already been tested on a smaller scale (e.g., either on a volunteer basis, with other college dollars, or through grant support) and provide evidence that the pilot project was effective. The intent of the Strategic Budget Initiative is to move innovations beyond the original trial to 'venture capital' investment by the college. At the conclusion of an SBI the college would expect to have the evidence needed to make a decision regarding full institutionalization of the effort."

In order to be considered for funding as a Strategic Budget Initiative in 2005, a proposed project must:
. be likely to advance progress on one or more of the goals of Valencia's Strategic Learning Plan
. align clearly with one or more of the high priority action items identified through the annual update of the Strategic Learning Plan
. show evidence that the project is scalable to a larger college population (department or college-wide)
. Show evidence of success of the prior trial project

The Work Group also made recommendations regarding revisions to the application materials and the scoring and ranking process for the SBI program, in order to bring them in line with the revised purpose and guidelines. The recommendations were approved with some edits by the College Planning Council. Copies of the revised materials will be available by February 1, 2005 at http://www.valenciacc.edu/budget/ under the Strategic Budget Initiatives Resource Material subheading.

At the January College Planning Council meeting, recommendations regarding a process to assist faculty and staff in determining the most appropriate source of funding for their ideas will be discussed. Once approved, it will be shared college-wide. If you have questions about these changes, please contact Louise Pitts, Susan Kelley, Shawn Robinson, or Mark Guillette.

Leadership Valencia Task Force Members Wanted!

Leadership Valencia offers professional development programs designed to enhance job performance and career growth for Valencia faculty and staff. The Leadership Valencia Task Force, which meets once each term, is made up of four committees who develop and implement workshops. The task force meeting to plan for Summer Term is scheduled for Monday, January 24, 2:45 p.m. on the East Campus, Room 3-113.

If you are interested in joining the Leadership Valencia Task Force, please contact Donna Dudash, extension 3128 or Heather Coxe, extension 3126. If you are unable to participate on the Task Force but have a topic you think might be addressed through Leadership Valencia, please forward the topic with a brief description to Heather or Donna, DTC-1 or email hcoxe@valenciacc.edu

News from Procurement

Need to order a signature stamp? Rubber stamps are $8.80 each and a Self-Inker Stamp is $13.00 each. To order a signature stamp, create an Oracle requisition to Mark Master along with a PDF file with the signature ordered. Send the PDF file to valenciaprocurement@valenciacc.edu. Procurement will send the Purchase Order and file to Mark Master for processing.

Lower Daily Rates from Enterprise: In December 2004, an addendum was made to our Enterprise Rent-A-Car agreement with lower daily rates. This contract is now available to include all Florida Community Colleges, Universities, County and State Agencies. Please visit our web-site at: http://valenciacc.edu/procurement/facultystaff.asp for an updated version.

Approved CW Equipment List: When sending your approved Equipment Request form for ordering, please send the form electronically to the GroupWise address: StrategicEquipmentRequests@valenciacc.edu. Use the address book to find Strategic Equipment Requests for proper routing. Also include any quotes you may have from suggested suppliers.

Kudos

Maureen McFarlane, Coordinator of Financial Aid Training, earned her Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Stetson University in December.

Submissions to the Bulletin are encouraged, so please e-mail your achievements, awards, recognitions, and relevant information for the college community to Mary Jane Jones, Staff Assistant in Marketing and Media Relations. Deadline for submission is 5 p.m. on the Tuesday preceding each Friday's distribution. Mary Jane can be reached at ext.1017, or mjjones@valenciacc.edu.