May 25, 2018 District Newsletter
Note: The District Newsletter is intended to share updates from various participatory decision-making groups, Board Policies and Administrative Procedures, updates from Cabinet, District Services departments, and excerpts from the Chancellor’s monthly Board Reports.
District Consultation and Coordination Council (DC3)
At the May 1st DC3 meeting, the Council reviewed and discussed the draft May 10, 2018, Board Agenda. Council members asked questions about various items on the agenda including positions and funding sources.
Mazie Brewington, Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services, presented information on the Tentative Budget. The Council discussed the information that included enrollment trends, the new funding formula, budget timeline, and more. DC3 is scheduled to receive additional information on the District’s Tentative Budget at a special meeting on May 29th. A final review of the tentative budget will occur again on June 5th before it is reviewed by the Board’s Finance Committee on June 6th and the full Board on June 14th at its regular meeting. The agenda for that meeting is to be published to DC3 members on May 25, 2018.
DC3 continued discussion on Automatic Email Distribution Lists as part of an assessment regarding AP 3721 Electronic Communication. Chief Technology Officer Devin Crosby presented information on the email lists and received input from Council members. The Information Technology section below in this newsletter provides more detail on this topic.
Interim Director of Institutional Effectiveness Kristin Gates sent an assessment tool to DC3 members who were asked to encourage constituents to participate. The information in that survey will be discussed at a future DC3 meeting.
Chancellor’s Report
The Chancellor’s Report to the Board is published monthly with the regular Board meeting agenda. The May 10th issue highlighted the Board’s celebration in honor of newly tenured Yuba College Professors Kiara Koenig, Meredith Selden and Jan Ponticelli. Other items covered in the report, including a 2018 Legislative Update, can be found in the Board Agenda for May 10, 2018.
Cabinet
Cabinet held four meetings in the month of May. Discussions included preparation and board agenda development for upcoming Board meetings. This recurring discussion allows Cabinet members to gain deeper understanding of their responsibilities in preparing monthly board agenda items. The next regularly scheduled Board meeting, as noted above, is scheduled for June 14th. A two-day planning session and regular meeting are scheduled for July 11th and 12th.
At the May 8th meeting, Chief Technology Officer Devin Crosby and Chief Human Resources Officer Donald Grady updated Cabinet on efforts to re-engineer staffing processes in the Human Resources Department and received input on a proposed workflow diagram. Cabinet also discussed various projects for an Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Resource Team Visit. Along with other possible projects, automation of services through Human Resources is one of those under thoughtful consideration.
District Services Updates
Information Technology
The Enterprise Hardware Group has completed work on the YCCD data center upgrading from a traditional Storage Area Network (SAN) to a state of the art Datrium system. The Datrium system is significantly faster, easier to scale and requires less administration than the previous SAN.
The Lake and Colusa County Campus WiFi upgrades for Phase III are under way and will be completed by June 15th with site coverage analysis completed by the end of July.
Important system maintenance on key servers and network gear will be taking place starting on Friday June 8th. While we will make our best effort to reduce system outages the nature of this maintenance may result in either server or network downtime.
Working toward a secure and compliant technology infrastructure, the IT department is in the middle of completing a Personal Credit Information (PCI) Data Security Standards Audit and will be working with CCC Information Security Center to conduct a full baseline Security Assessment over the summer. Addressing 508 compliance concerns, the IT team has been working with DSPS to implement proactive alerts for students with approved accommodation plans and improved complaint procedures. The websites have been assessed for 508 compliance issues and work has already begun to correct accessibility concerns.
The Enterprise Software Group rolled out the latest version of Colleague User Interface (v5.5) in early May. This new HTML 5 version brings a major enhancement by removing the dependency on Silverlight and therefore browser specific access requirements. To try out the new system you can utilize the Colleague 5.5 Test environment or start working today in the new Colleague 5.5 Production environment. Unfortunately, Image Now integrations don’t work in UI 5.5 so Colleague 4.6 will remain available until the new Image Now upgrades are released and implemented this summer.
Over the holiday weekend May 26-28 the All YCCD email distribution groups will be modified as requested through DC3. Be aware that during this three day period the old lists will stop working and may produce undesirable results if used during that time. When everyone returns to work on the 29th there will be a New Email Distribution Groups list on the two college websites under Faculty and Staff Resources.
IT has been consolidating the many various websites from their aging stand-alone versions to the multi-site WordPress content management system. This allows departments/programs who need a separate look and feel to maintain their own image sliders while still promoting the overall brand of the college.
User Support Services working with Inland Business Systems over the last six months has completed the district wide inventory and analysis of printer location and utilization across the district. Using this information, a bid process is currently under way to evaluate the cost of implementing the proposed printing solution. As part of the process, finalists will be asked to conduct onsite demonstrations on June 11th and 12th to obtain for user feedback, details will be sent out as plans are finalized.
Maintenance and Operations
The Solar Array Phase II projects are in progress at Woodland Community College and Yuba College. At WCC the “Eagle’s Nest” triple modular building at the front of the campus will be used as a contractor’s construction trailer for the project. There are no available construction trailer electrical services on the WCC campus, so this will be a perfect application for the old modular units. At Yuba College where there are existing electrical services for a construction trailer, the contractor will place one near the old abandoned tennis courts scheduled to be set on May 29th.
OPTERRA provided a proposal to be reviewed to replace/upgrade the transformers, switchgear, and some of the underground high voltage cabling at buildings 700 and 1000 at Yuba College.
No updates from the following departments were received at the time of publication:
Human Resources and Personnel Services
Vice Chancellor Educational Planning
Upcoming Grant Opportunities
Congratulations to all on this Commencement Day! Trustees, the Chancellor and members of the Executive Team will attend ceremonies at Lake County Campus, Woodland Community College and Yuba College.
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