Bart Board Meeting Live Stream

[Marine Farinha]

Allpast Board of Trustees agendas and minutes are accessible to the public. Materials from the current year are available below and copies of past materials are available by request. Please email Eileen Hughes at [email protected] or Dr. Virginia Melndez at [email protected] request past board materials. Thank you.

Also Present: Dr. Lester Sandres Rpalo, President; Dr. Victoria C. Ukachukwu, Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs; Dr. Victor Anaya, Vice President of Finance and Administration; Aida Rosario, Vice President of Advancement, Communications and External Relations; Dr. Irene Delgado, Chief of Staff; Dr. Virginia Melendez, Confidential Assistant, Office of the President; Brian Sondey, Executive Director, Enrollment Management; Purysabel Uregar, Executive Director, Human Resources; Dr. Kristopher Baker, President, RCC Federation of Teachers; Eric Magaram, President, Faculty Senate; Corry Spring, Vice President, RCC Federation of Administrators; many members of the campus community.

MOTION

A motion by Trustee Rand, second by Trustee Valentine to approve Resolution 1-2024, Approving the Appointment of Dr. Tinny Cheung, Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs (EMSA)

We fail to understand the rationale behind much of what was presented in the Board Packet. We can recognize that there are critical positions that may need to be hired including a Controller to replace a recent vacancy and a Dean of Workforce to meet grant requirements. We hope that the VP of Economic Mobility and Workforce Innovation will not be replaced to assist with any associated costs of hiring a new Dean. However, the same cannot be said for the remaining roles.

The Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs offers a substantial pay raise from what the predecessor received. The President has given justification for pay increases in what is offered to Cabinet-level roles, stating that the College needs to remain competitive with salaries. However, the predecessor was hired only 2 years prior and the salary offered then was also competitive. Additionally, it is concerning that it is an institutional priority to remain competitive in its salary offerings to only certain individuals while it asks its student-facing staff to take furloughs and have no contracted raises for the undetermined future.

The College eliminated the Enrollment Management Assistant position that served International Students because it had determined that this area could function without additional support. It is then entirely inconsistent to create a Director of Global Opportunities that would also serve this same area.

Was it because I had to advise the President that he violated college policy twice by approving use of the facilities without protecting the college from liability by securing Certificates of Insurance. One was his own private event held on 7/14. The other event had approximately 3500 people in the Fieldhouse. Both events had no COI in place.

You should also look at the Myriam Martinez-Murphy lawsuit and see how HR backed an Administrator that came under a false discrimination attack from a few housekeepers, that sounds familiar. The college had to settle that lawsuit.

Have you been getting updates about Facilities & Operations issues. Did you know the entire 20 million dollar Operations Division was advised by the Executive Director of HR in Nov. that we were reporting to Belinda Kodgis. So Belinda Kodgis represented a 20 million dollar operation in the Executive Cabinet. Did she also defend any cuts to the Operations area as well while representing us at those meetings.

The President has spent tens of thousands of dollars on equipment and office upgrades in his office alone. Through the regular budget and the association account. His priorities now are getting his cabinet custom made parking signs for the parking lot and completely renovating his office bathroom.

You should know a very large percentage of the campus community believes the President is not a truthful man. It is also not lost on a number of employees that the new crop of Executive Administrators is downright nasty to employees. I heard one VP recently had her secretary sobbing.

WHEREAS the resolutions adopted by SUNY, and the Rockland County Board of Supervisors created the Rockland Community College Charter, and the Rockland Community College Board of Trustees; and

WHEREAS the Board of Trustees has been granted powers to oversee Rockland Community College and to be responsible not only to govern the College but to be fiduciarily responsible for the College as well as good stewards of public funds; and

WHEREAS the Board of Trustees, with input and final recommendation from the President, adopts a budget it feels is the most responsible budget each fiscal year and presents this budget to the Rockland County Legislature for approval; and

WHEREAS the Board of Trustees has the responsibility to approve all matters related to the operation of the College, including but not limited to expenditures, maintaining appropriate levels of staffing, keeping the facilities in good operating and working conditions conducive to the business of the college, receiving and disbursing grant or aid related funds, being responsible to our accreditors, as well as maintaining the appropriate levels of cash flow and fund balances needed for normal operations of the campus as a whole; and

WHEREAS over the years the Board of Trustees has designated the Rockland Community College President to fulfill many of these responsibilities including but not limited to hiring, non-renewing and terminating employees, entering into or canceling College contracts (provided the Board of Trustees was informed), and running the day-to-day operations of the campus; and

WHEREAS Rockland Community College now finds itself with an inadequate fund balance, contracts that have not been fulfilled which cost the campus tens of millions of dollars that the college cannot afford, a negative cash flow, and a deficit of approximately 3.5 million dollars; and

WHEREAS due to the fiscal mismanagement of Rockland Community College, the College President has recommended, and the Board of Trustees has approved, the termination and furloughing of hardworking campus administrators, faculty and staff which undermine the ability to deliver high quality curriculum and services to our students; and

WHEREAS the Rockland Community College Faculty Senate expects that all avenues have been considered in earnest, including a hiring freeze of all employees, before the College takes steps that may undermine our mission and negatively impact individuals who were not responsible for the current fiscal state of the College; and

BE IT RESOLVED the Rockland Community College Faculty Senate insists that the Board of Trustees adopt and present new policies and put measures in place to ensure prudent fiscal oversight of Rockland Community College that include members of the campus community (Faculty, Administrators, Staff, and Students) as a check and balance for future concerns no later than February 26, 2024; and therefore

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the Rockland Community College Faculty Senate shall continue to engage the Board of Trustees and work together through shared governance to ensure the overall fiscal health and wellness of the campus is improved through transparency and clear lines of communication to ensure confidence in the current Board members.

Also Present: Dr. Lester Sandres Rpalo, President; Dr. Victoria C. Ukachukwu, Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs; Dr. Victor J. Anaya, Vice President of Finance and Administration; Dr. LaToya Blount, Executive Director, Student Success; Dr. Irene R. Delgado, Chief of Staff; Dr. Virginia Melendez, Office of the President; Aida E. Rosario, Vice President of Advancement, Communications and External Relations; Melissa L. Roy, Chief Diversity Officer; Purysabel Uregar, Executive Director, Human Resources; Dr. Kristopher Baker, President, RCC Federation of Teachers; Eric Magaram, President, Faculty Senate; Elizabeth Troutner, President, RCC Federation of Administrators; many members of the campus community.

Also Present: Dr. Lester Sandres Rpalo, President; Dr. Victoria C. Ukachukwu, Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs; Dr. Victor J. Anaya, Vice President of Finance and Administration; Dr. LaToya Blount, Executive Director, Student Engagement and College Life; Dr. Irene R. Delgado, Chief of Staff; Dr. Virginia Melendez, Office of the President; Aida E. Rosario, Vice President of Advancement, Communications and External Relations; Melissa L. Roy, Chief Diversity Officer; Purysabel Uregar, Executive Director, Human Resources; Dr. Kristopher Baker, President, RCC Federation of Teachers; Eric Magaram, President, Faculty Senate; Elizabeth Troutner, President, RCC Federation of Administrators; many members of the campus community.

Chair Wortendyke announced that there were 27 people signed up to speak. He requested that speakers keep their comments to under three minutes, and to please refrain from repeating what earlier speakers have said.

I am also a long-standing adjunct in the Visual and Performing Arts, having taught and created myriad courses in the department including most of the Cinema Studies courses and all of the popular Theatrical Stage Combat courses. Together with SUNY Distinguished Professor Patty Maloney-Titland, we also created the in-house Rockland Shakespeare Company that has been running non-stop at the college for nearly 30 years.

Therefore, for this record, the Cultural Arts Theatre is most certainly being rented out to paying clients on a regular basis. (Even with a skeleton crew of two). During my tenure, revenue has increase over 1000%. Our biggest challenges are twofold: 1) There are simply not enough weekends on the calendar, especially during certain months. Those are the most popular days to rent the space. It pains me to turn paying clients away, but I always make every attempt to offer alternative dates, when possible, to maximize our rentals and revenue.

3a8082e126