Sopcich discusses the progress of current budget reductions

By Stephen Cook

President Joe Sopcich has been working toward his goal of reducing the college’s budget by $3 million over the course of the fall semester. Looking ahead to next year, Sopcich hopes to make more progress in the reduction process.

Could you tell me where you are in the process right now? 

The first step was for the cabinet to bring reviews of their areas and try to evaluate those areas and then the second step was the creation of this budget discussion team in which that information was shared, in which they were invited to provide their own, to go back to their areas and collect insights and ideas and recommendations and things like that, which they’ve done. So now the cabinet has all this information and it needs to review it very closely and to see what kinds of ideas and suggestions perhaps can incorporate into the ultimate planning so that’s kind of where we’re at. It was kind of very compressed as we need to execute and get this through and I think we got a little compressed there but because a lot of things are going on and this is all, obviously this is very important to me, but time, we need to be able to meet a schedule and things like that.

Have you just been collecting information at this point? 

Yeah, we really don’t have anything down and we kind of need to start turning that around so we need to come up with some tangible ideas.

Going into next year, do you know when those decisions might start being made? 

There’s a budget calendar and if you look at that budget calendar that will tell you kind of when things fall because all that has to be loaded into the budget and then you get what the budget looks like and the trustees have to approve it. Keep in mind that the sooner we can get that done, the better off we’ll be because the year starts on July 1, so that budget calendar is very important.

Are you on track right now? 

Yeah, we are and then you never know what can come up that kind of throws you off a little bit and potentially can push things back but you just got to keep on going when it comes to the budget, you can’t push it off forever, right? You’ve got to get it done, so that’s the challenge that we have; it’s a tough one, it’s a tough one for every institution and especially this year we’re trying to make some adjustments.

I remember you talked about department evaluations, how do you think that’s been going? Feedback received from people involved? 

Well, it’s been interesting because some of the things that when we do it again, we’ll strive to do a better job of it, we can always do better. We need to look at greater consistency throughout the whole school with regards to some of the metrics, with as far as some of the service areas, some areas do a pretty good job of looking at that, we need to kind of perhaps model ourselves after some of the strong areas that do a good job in that and then other areas, I know on the instruction side they did quite an elaborate collection of information that they put together and that was all very positive. All of this –keeping in mind is just one data point, it’s one piece of the puzzle and just because it says something like that on a spreadsheet doesn’t mean you take it and run with it but it certainly is a good opportunity to kind of focus on those areas and ask questions as ‘Well why is this like this?’ and ‘What can we do to strengthen this or make it better?’

What’s it been like getting those people in the departments involved? 

Well, it starts at the cabinet level and then as we reached out you believe that all the areas have been involved; certainly a lot of areas have been involved as far as putting information together.

It’s actually been very positive I think in the response from the different areas throughout campus and in a very encouraging way, but it’s always challenging to do, it’s always challenging for people. We’re very good at looking at other people’s areas, the challenge is to look at our own and try to perform some analysis on it and I think people are doing that, it’s very encouraging.

From your perspective, how do you think the budget reduction is going? 

Well keep in mind that that is part of a plan a five year plan and it’s a five year plan that’s based on some very rosy projections over the next five years and so hopefully those things will come through. So this little step here, this adjustment, is significant for us and also I don’t think historically we may have never looked at it like this so that is, it’s something you can always look back and say you can always do better, right? I mean you can always do better – if the Chiefs had done a little bit better [at their game] they would have won, so it’s no different from this and that’s part of this process as we’re looking forward to next year on how we can strengthen certain areas with regard to the process itself.

Going into next year, what challenges you are facing? 

When you look around at things – and you should be following the state issues – that’s $20 million [about 17 percent] of our budget. If that gets jeopardized then you really have to start thinking, ‘Ok how are we going to accommodate for that?’, [if] property evaluations don’t grow at 3 percent every year as we projected, what do we do about that? We have 2 percent growth for enrollment every year over the next five years, so that’s a big deal. That’s really the only thing we have control over is that growth in enrollment and so we need to do everything we can to try to make that work because that’s the only area of the revenue side of the budget that we have any real impact in – can’t do much about the property evaluations and as far as what’s happening on the state we can try to defend what we have, but we’re one piece of a much larger puzzle at the state level and so that’s a tough one so we try to hold on to what we have and go from there.

Anything else you’d like to add? 

No, I think that the whole college, hopefully can feel good about how they’ve approached this and the information they’ve put together. I think the faculty has done a very fine job of collecting information and analyzing everything else that’s been out there, I think Dr. Korb is trying to marshal all this information and deal with that, the budget discussion team, which we’ve never had before, so that’s a positive too. So I think there’s a lot of positives and there’s a lot of things we can do better – kind of sounds like Andy Reid doesn’t it?

Contact Stephen Cook, editor-in-chief, at scook35@jccc.edu.

College adjusts policy regarding pets on campus

By Farhin Lilywala

Walking around campus, you may have noticed a few furry friends amongst us. Here’s the secret: they’re not just pets, they are service animals.

In March 2013, an “Animals on Campus Policy” was placed into effect, an official alternative to the once unwritten rule that animals were not allowed indoors on campus without special permission.

After two separate incidents, according to Greg Russell, interim police chief, with employees bringing their pets to the college, the police department, in consultation with the Office of General Counsel and Student Access Services, created this new bylaw. This policy applies to all students, employees and visitors.

“We had to make sure that it was in compliance with the school’s policy,” Russell said.

The clauses of this policy include requirements such as keep your pet on a leash, make sure he/she has all proper vaccinations, and cleaning up after the animal under all circumstances. Also, service animals cannot be left unattended at any time.

“Taking care of the animal or restricting the animal to a certain area would go against the Americans with Disabilities Act,” Russell said. “Therefore, it is something that we would not even entertain.”

The policy also elaborates that animals are not permitted in college buildings, unless the service animal is assisting a disabled individual, accompanied by a qualified handler or trainer, used for authorized research projects or experiments, or part of an academic program.

“In alignment with the recent policy, every dog should be under the control of the handler, especially those dogs that have the predisposition to be aggressive,” said Julie Pitts, program director, International and Immigrant Students, who has a service dog. “My service animal needs to respond to me even while let go for toileting.”

As far as the process to bring a service animal on campus, Russell and Pitts agreed there is no formal procedure or application. However, these animals must meet certain requirements.

The basic campus requirements are outlined by the policy and tested by service animal certification agencies. Once the animal has completed certain activities, the agency will vouch that the public and the owner are safe from the animal.

“Activities include downstay, when a dog must stay still while a person walks over him without being able to see you, and maneuvering on command on all sides of you and around obstacles,” Pitts said.

Although there is not an official manner to keep track of the number of animals in the system, if the college has reasonable doubt that the animal is not a service animal, it may ask the owner if the animal is required because of a disability and what work or task the animal has been trained to perform.

However, service animals have also been requested by those seeking psychological comfort.

“That doesn’t fall under anything that is within the policy, as these service animals are trained, so that is something that we cannot approve,” Russell said.

According to Russell, the safety of all humans and animals on campus alike is a priority for the Campus Police.

If you see an animal on campus that seems to be mistreated or a danger to others, contact the JCCC Police Department at 913-469-8500 ext. 4111 for emergencies or ext. 4112 for non-emergencies.

Contact Farhin Lilywala, news editor, flilywal@jccc.edu.

College may allow weapons on campus in four years

By Stephen Cook

At the monthly Board of Trustees meeting on Nov. 21, trustees voted to unanimously approve a four-year exemption from House Bill 2052 at the college regarding concealed carry of weapons.

The board had voted to approve a resolution on June 20 to temporarily exempt all buildings at the college for a period of six months from the adequate security measure requirements of the new concealed carry legislation that became effective on July 1.

In order to proceed without the exemption, there would be certain expenses to prepare and properly secure the college’s buildings. The building cost estimate for three buildings on campus – the Carlsen Center, the CLB and the ATB was $4.4 million, not including additional staffing. An estimate for the entire campus, as well as off-site locations, is not available at this time.

Trustee Jon Stewart also brought up the point that there was an aspect of how the college’s insurer would respond to concealed carry and potential incidents in the future.

“The deciding factor for me was the fact that we would be uninsured and if there was an incident on this campus, you know what kind of multimillion dollar lawsuits could be brought against us,” Stewart said at the meeting. “If we cannot insure against that I think that’s just too high of a risk for us.”

The cost to prepare all of the buildings on campus under the unfunded mandate would cost the college dozens of millions of dollars, which is multiple mills on taxpayers, according to Trustee Stephanie Sharp.

“The argument will be made to just allow concealed weapons on campus,” Sharp said. “The reality of our campus is that we have 22,000 s t u d e n t s coming and going and how does our police department know who the shooter is – the original shooter, the perpetrator – and who the defender is and how many people get caught in the crosshairs, intentionally punned.”

However, it is not unconstitutional for the college to change the ability to bring weapons on campus, Trustee Greg Musil said.

“Our constitutional rights that people talk about in the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, they’re all limited, none of them are absolute,” Musil said. “This is not a constitutional issue, it’s a policy issue and it’s a political issue.”

Musil said if the college was to change their decision, he would want to know that the campus would be safer than it is now.

“We have 29 people who are trained 40 hours a year as professional certified law enforcement officers to keep us safe,” Musil said. “Our history has been very good, I would rather keep that solid professional law enforcement as our security – it’s never going to be perfect.”

I n t e r im police chief Gregory Russell said, at this point, although campus police is prepared and trained, concealed carry is not a good thing for the college.

“We will continue to do extensive training to prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Russell said.

Sharp also encouraged the audience to contact their state legislators about changing this law.

“It’s our job to serve the public,” she said. “Are we doing that by allowing our students that come here to get an education, our adults who come here to get an education, those who come to our performing arts series, those who come to the museums, are we endangering them?”

Deb Williams, of the Faculty Association said it is important that the campus comes together to be a force for legislative change.

“I think if you ever would have an opportunity to achieve a one college one community one goal is to invite that kind of a communication collectively,” Williams said. “We certainly do not, on behalf of the faculty, I can state definitively that we do not want guns on this campus.”

Also, if concealed carry is hoped to be continued to be limited at the college, the law will have to be changed within the next four years as there’s no provision in the law for a second extension, according to Stewart.

“I think that the writing’s on the wall,” Stewart said. “That eventually, unless the legislation is changed over the next four years and I’m not confident that will happen – we will have concealed carry on the campus in four years.”

Contact Stephen Cook, editor-in-chief, at scook35@jccc.edu.

Bookstore retail buyback and textbook rental check-in runs Dec. 4-14 

The college’s bookstore retail buyback and textbook rental check-in dates are Dec. 4-14. Check the bookstore website for daily buyback hours. The last day for textbook rental check-in without penalty is Saturday, Dec. 14.

Model UN team receives awards at conference 

The college’s Model United Nations team received four awards for policy positions papers of Tanzania and Zambia at the 2013 American Model United Nations Conference held in Chicago Nov. 23-26.

The team received a set of awards for each nation that they represented. The awards recognize pre-conference preparation. In order to resolve issues as the Model UN team, these papers are required as they cause the team to negotiate and compromise to create feasible solutions.

New AED installed in Student Center 

Due to traffic flow and feedback, an additional Automated External Defibrillator (AED) life-saving device has been placed at the base of the stairway on the second floor of the Student Center. This AED is ready for use.

In the past two months, 26 people attended CPR/AED training classes on campus and are now trained in both.

If you wish to join your Building Emergency Team, contact Alisa Pacer, emergency preparedness manager at ext. 7622 or apacer@jccc.edu.

United Way update: Final total tops $27,000 

The JCCC United Way workplace campaign ended with 97 employees donating a combined total of $27,009.49

Compiled by Farhin Lilywala, news editor, flilywal@jccc.edu. Illustration by Alyssa Jolitz.