Beginning June 1, 2012, the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) for parking, citations, and the appeal process at Shoreline Community College will be enforced without exception. 

The appeal process is not meant for repeated mistakes or excuses for violations. Parking without a permit, parking in life safety or signed areas, visitor lot parking or providing false information or testimony will stand as a violation.

Prior appeals for the same/similar violation are considered and per the WAC, the supervisor is authorized to let stand, suspend or impose a lessor fine.  Unpaid citations are sent to an outside collections agency.

The appeal process

1. File an appeal within five (5) business days. Be concise; brief, but descriptive. Appeals must include a copy of the ticket and a copy of personal identification (driver's license, student ID).
2. Check on the results. Allow five (5) working days after submitting the appeal to check on the results. The Director Safety and Security has the final authority in fines of $50 or less. It is the appellant's responsibility to contact the Security Office in the 5000 building, Room 5102 (206-546-4633) for the results of the appeal. We do not contact you.
3. If you disagree with the results of an appeal, request an appointment with the Security Sergeant.
4. If you wish to further contest the decision, request an appointment with the Security Director.
5. For contested fines greater than $50, the appellant may appeal the Director of Security’s decision to the Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs within ten (10) working days of the citation date. The appellant must make an appointment to see the Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs by calling 206-546-4651. The decision of the Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs in any appeal is final.

The Citation Appeal Form is available at the links below or at the Safety & Security Office (5000 building; room 5102).

• Citation Appeal Form (.doc)
• Citation Appeal Form (.pdf)

Budgets and the implications of them were front and center for the Shoreline Community College Board of Trustees at their meeting May 23, 2012.

The board voted unanimously to redirect a portion its own reserve account that has been paying the salary of Jane McNabb, Chief Advancement Officer and Executive Director of the Shoreline Community College Foundation. Starting July 1, the $90,000 allotment will be aimed at a new position that will focus on external government relations.

President Lee Lambert said that with increased uncertainty around funding and policy at the state and federal levels, the college needs to have a more consistent presence with those lawmakers. Trustee Shoubee Liaw, who worked in Olympia this past session, noted that while President Lambert and other college staff make frequent trips to the Legislature and have ongoing contact, a deeper presence is needed. Lambert said the new position would also handle his social media communications duties.

The resolution approved by the trustees also included a suggestion that the general college budget include half-time funding for the Advancement/Foundation position held by McNabb. Lambert told the board that McNabb had suggested the change.

Lambert also announced that the college is adding a grant writer, duties that have been parceled out to a variety of deans and directors in recent years. That position has been filled and Brandon Rogers, who held a similar job at Clover Park Technical College, is scheduled to start Tuesday, May 29, 2012. Lambert said the position is needed as the college pursues a variety of federal and private grant opportunities and dedicated state funding for higher education continues to decline.

That decline was made clear by Vice President for Administrative Services Daryl Campbell in a budget presentation during the board’s study session.

Campbell pointed out that the college now receives less than half of its total budget from the State of Washington. The shift in funding from a direct state allocation to state-mandated increases in tuition paid by students is the cause, Campbell said. He also pointed out that despite the headlines of a no-cuts state budget for higher education, the college will actually see about $1.25 million less from state for the coming fiscal year.

Campbell noted the current draft budget for the college anticipates increased spending for the International Education and Virtual College strategic initiatives. He also pointed out that the suggested operating budget spending level includes about a 2 percent deficit. Campbell told the board he is comfortable with covering that gap from anticipated surpluses from the current year budget.

This was a first-look at proposed spending for the coming fiscal year that starts July 1. The board is scheduled to adopt the 2012-13 budget in June.

Other money-related agenda items were centered on various student fees. In the study-session, student government presented a revenue-neutral fee shifting proposal. The regular-session included updates by Technical Support Services Director Gary Kalbfleisch on the first-year experience with a consolidated college technology fee and by Financial Services Director Stuart Trippel on state tuition increases as well as college-requested fee adjustments.

The students propose to reduce the student technology fee and increase the student services and activities (SS&A) fee by the same amount. They would also make a one-time transfer of funds from the student technology fee budget to SS&A. The shifts would increase the total budget, but not actually add any cost to students.

Why the moves? The goal, student leaders said, is to fund a pilot project referred to as Echo. Echo is software that can track students’ involvement in extra-curricular activities such student clubs and service-learning opportunities. Echo can then produce a verifiable, college-endorsed transcript of those activities that students can take with them, along with their official academic transcript, when applying to universities or for jobs. Echo is Shoreline’s implementation of the CollegiateLink product from Campus Labs, Inc.

Student leaders outlined two proposals, one at $1.18 million and the preferred alternative at $1.3 million. The student budget supports a long list of key activities and services at the college, including the athletics, art gallery, concert band and other musical groups, the student newspaper, discounts at the Parent Child Center and student government itself. President Lambert said the college supported the preferred alternative.

Kalbfleisch spoke to effectiveness and uses of the consolidated college technology fee that the trustees approved a year ago and was implemented for the current fiscal year.

The consolidated fee took the place of a variety of individual course technology fees and other assessments. The goals were to provide a stable funding source for computer and other technology replacement and establish a technology initiative fund for new projects. The TSS director said those goals are being met.

The fee has generated about $1.1 million so far this year and has funded a long list of technology upgrades across campus. Kalbfleisch also outlined projects that will be funded for the coming year by the initiative fund, many tied to the Virtual College strategic initiative.

Trippel took on the difficult chore of explaining how a seemingly simple pronouncement from legislators for a 12 percent tuition increase can turn into almost nothing that actually increases by that amount.

The disconnect, Trippel and others told the board, is that while lawmakers authorize the increase, the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges decides how it is implemented. This year, for example, the state board chose to apply one rate of increase to the first 10 credits a student takes and a different rate to credits above that threshold. So, any particular student might see tuition increases that don’t add up to 12 percent.

And, when adding various fees based on student choice to that picture, it becomes almost impossible to see where a legislatively mandated 12 percent tuition increase shows up on a student’s bill.

Trippel went over the fee hikes proposed for next year, including increases for non-students at the Parent Child Center, materials fees for the CNC Machining program and others.

Jim Hills/SCC

Shoreline Community College Trustee Roger Olstad listens during the May 11, 2012 all-campus meeting. More photos

Shoreline Community College will receive less money from the state in the coming fiscal year, is moving ahead with a key strategic effort to better serve students and preparing for an accreditation visit in October.

Accreditation

First up was Norma Goldstein, Humanities Dean and leader of the accreditation preparation effort.

“We will have a mock visit on June 6 in preparation for the real thing in October,” Goldstein said. She is preparing informational meetings between mock-visit reviewers and college employees to help get ready for October. “The mock visit is one day. In October, they’ll be here for two-and-a-half days.”

Accreditation is an intensive process of institutional self-study and peer evaluation. Following this institutional review, a committee of peers selected by the commission conducts a comprehensive onsite evaluation.

Since its founding in 1964, Shoreline has been accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). The commission is instituting a new process for accreditation with the intent of better measuring any particular college’s performance against its stated goals. While not the first, Shoreline will be one of the early adopters of the new process.

Goldstein outlined some of the five chapters or standards in the accreditation process, which include:

1. Chapter 1/Standard One: Mission
2. Chapter 2/Standard Two: Resources
3. Chapter/Standard Three: Planning
4. Chapter 4/Standard Four: Assessment
5. Chapter 5/Standard Five: Mission Fulfillment

Each chapter or standard is applied against Shoreline’s efforts in those areas. For example, the commission doesn’t say what a college mission must be, but rather measures how the college is meeting the mission it sets for itself. Each chapter or standard is completed sequentially, then compiled and reviewed as a whole.

Campus internationalization

Social Sciences Dean Bob Francis and Larry Fuell, Director of Global Affairs, presented an update on the work of the Campus Internationalization Leadership Team (CILT).

Francis spoke of creating a roadmap for the effort. “This is not a top-down directive, this is a shared vision,” he said. “This is an acknowledgment of what we already do.”

Francis said the effort rests on four pillars, including:

• Internationalizing the curriculum
• Deepening student interaction
• Enhancing employee competence
• Building community relations

“We’re doing all these things now,” Francis said. “The goal is to be more intentional about what we are doing.”

Based on a report delivered in April to the college Senior Executive Team, CILT will now put in place an implementation group. The group’s general charge will be to suggest ways to move ahead on the four pillars.

Budget

Yes, the headlines say the Legislature didn’t cut higher education. No, that’s not the case, according to information presented by Daryl Campbell, Vice President for Administrative Services.

The true bottom line, Campbell said, is that the college will receive about $1.25 million less from the state in 2012-13 than in the current fiscal year which ends June 30. And, while it is also true that the Legislature and State Board of Community and technical Colleges have approved a 12 percent tuition increase, not all of that money comes to Shoreline.

“The Legislature says that is an offset,” Campbell said. 

However, statewide data shows a drop in overall college enrollments, attributed to the slowly improving job market and the fact that slashed budgets have left colleges with fewer class offerings. In addition, the State Board is skimming 2 percent of the tuition increase to pay for a new computer system called ctcLink.

The state gives money to Shoreline based on a static number of full-time equivalent students (FTEs), not tied to actual headcount. Campbell said that under the anticipated allocation, Shoreline would get about $3,500 a year from the state for each FTE. With the most recent increase, a full-time student will pay about $4,000 a year in tuition. “We are seeing a significant shift to the backs of students,” he said.

“The truth is, we are getting 4 percent less in discretionary funds and 27 percent less in non-discretionary funds,” Campbell said. “For the coming year, Shoreline will not take general budget cuts. There may be less in some areas, but those decisions haven’t been made yet.”

SCC/Jim Hills

Above:The artist's view of the new FOSS stairs, landings and canopy.
Below: The current FOSS ramp and landings   More photos

Shoreline Community College campus is acclaimed as the most beautiful in the state system with wonderful landscaping, walkways and architecture.

For better or worse, along with those iconic campus images is the ramp to FOSS’ third floor. Starting June 18, 2012, that’s going to change; the ramp is coming down.

“The ramp was built in 1972 and it just doesn’t meet current (American Disabilities Act) slope or seismic standards,” said Director of Facilities/Capital Projects Bob Roehl. A recent facilities assessment also noted the ramp has less than 10 years of useful life remaining, he added.

The ramp, along with both the second- and third-floor landings, will be torn down this summer. In their place will be new stairs, new landings a new canopy above the third-level landing, but no ramp. The major impact is main entrances to the second and third levels won't be possible during construction. Temporary signage will be posted across campus and in key locations.

The project is scheduled to be finished by Sept. 7, well-before the start of fall quarter. However, that means a summer’s worth of temporary access to FOSS and the likelihood of temporarily relocated services. Roehl said access will be via the relatively new outside staircase on the north side of the building along with original the eastside stairs.

That will be fine for most, but doesn’t address access for the disabled. Roehl said the newly upgraded elevator will be in the center of the construction zone, not to mention that until the new landings are built, it wouldn’t connect to anything.

One likely solution could be that some student services could be relocated to the PUB, much the way they were during recent FOSS renovations.  If not a complete move, than at least a student services area to interact with students and then a connection back to FOSS. Roehl said meetings are ongoing on how best to serve students during the demolition and construction period.

Once the project is finished, disabled access to the second and third floors will be by elevator.

The ramp isn’t the only things that will be missing, Roehl said. “This should also take care of those water leaks on the landings that drip down from above,” he said.

SCC/Jim Hills

While legislators cast their votes to approve a state budget more than a week ago, all that means to state agencies such as Shoreline Community College is that the work of understanding and implementing the implications of that budget can finally get started.

“While the general news from Olympia was better than expected and we are very grateful, it takes work by the State Board staff and then Shoreline staff to define and understand the details,” President Lambert said. “We’re fortunate to have (Vice President for Administrative Services) Daryl Campbell and (Budget Director) Holly Woodmansee to make sense of the numbers for us.”

At this point, State Board staff members have shared a draft of the proposed state allocation to all community and technical colleges. That draft gets reviewed before the State Board is scheduled to make a final decision at the May 9-10 meeting at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake.

Like the difference between seeing a smiling face on the moon while viewing from the backyard and finding a dusty, barren surface when jumping off a lunar-lander ladder, the view of the budget changes depending on proximity to it. What’s more, both experiences can be true.

“The statement that there were no cuts to higher education, including the community and technical colleges, can be true when viewed holistically,” Campbell said. “However, a closer look at how discretionary and non-discretionary funds are administered shows we are getting less in the state allocation.”

For Shoreline, that could mean about $1.25 million less in state-allocated funds for the 2012-13 fiscal year that starts July 1, 2012, according to draft numbers.

“However, the Legislature also approved raising tuition for the coming year,” Campbell said. Because the number of students and which courses they take impact tuition revenue, it is impossible to say for sure what that could mean for Shoreline. Additional tuition revenue is hoped to cover at least some of the reduction in state allocation along with other non-state funds such as Running Start payments, grants and contracts and bookstore revenue, he added.

Lambert has cautioned that the current budgetary reprieve shouldn’t be seen as an end to fiscal concerns. “This is just a lull,” Lambert said. “We must take advantage of this time to prepare for the new realities that are surely coming. If we do, we can be in charge of our destiny, not just reacting to cut after cut as we have since 2008.”

SCC/Jim Hills