Adopted Meeting Minutes
Special Meeting
November 5, 2002

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 8:07 a.m.

Roll Call

Present: Heywood, Holden, Jeffries, Patterson (present telephonically), Pelleran
Absent: Canady, Rasmusson

Trustee Rasmusson arrived at 8:09 a.m.

Trustee Canady arrived at 8:10 a.m.

Limited Public Comment Regarding Agenda Items

There were no comments from the public.

Finance

Approval of Bids

President Cunningham presented the two bids and lease for the Board's approval. The first bid is for Prometric Tests and it is a sole source bid. She reminded the Board that last fall a new course started under the direction of the Business and Media Services Division. The course was to have industry certification in Cisco, Novell, Oracle, CIW, and Microsoft IT. Enrollments in these courses have gone extremely well. Part of the course was a final exam, which was an industry certification. Enrollment has been so strong that more tests are needed prior to the end of this semester. The only vendor that has tests for all of these different certifications is Prometric. The total amount is $179,999.

Chairperson Jeffries asked if there were any questions and since there were none from the Board, he asked for a roll call vote.

Roll call vote:
Ayes: Heywood, Holden, Jeffries, Patterson, Pelleran
Nays: None
Absent: Canady, Rasmusson

The Board approved the bid.

The second bid President Cunningham presented was an award for Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone system. This is in phases, but it is being brought to the Board as a multi-year project. If the pilot program is not successful this award will not continue, but as the College moves forward with the M-TEC building and other facilities, this will allow the College to replace the current telephone system with a web-based telephone system that will offer more capabilities.

There was discussion regarding power outages, minimizing cabling costs, and salvaging the old phone equipment. If there were a power outage, the phones would not be affected because it is powered by an uninterrupted power supply. In salvaging the old phone system, a bid process would be followed, but it is estimated that the phone system will not have much salvage value.

Chairperson Jeffries asked for a roll call vote.

Roll call vote:
Ayes: Canady, Heywood, Holden, Jeffries, Patterson, Pelleran, Rasmusson
Nays: None
Absent: None

The Board approved the VoIP bid.

President Cunningham presented the lease of Lansing Parkview. She reminded the Board that many of the College's services will be moved off campus and temporary housing is needed. A proposed agreement has been reached with Lansing Parkview to lease their facility for a minimum of 30 months. The annual lease rate will be $267,681.36 in addition the College will be leasing the 37 parking spaces behind the building for an annual cost of $13,320. The College will pay property taxes on the building as well as all utilities. The annual cost to the College will be $321,001 plus the utility costs.

Trustee Pelleran asked why is the College not purchasing the property. Since she has been on the Board, they have said that they want to purchase property rather than leasing it. She felt that the cost is very expensive to lease the building.

President Cunningham responded that when the facilities master plan was brought to the Board for their approval, we stated that this property was not needed. This building is not efficient for the College's long-term use.

There was discussion regarding the purchase price for the building and the 38 parking spaces located behind the Academic Office Facility.

Trustee Pelleran proposed that the Board postpone this lease and that negotiating a land swap with the owner be researched between the 38 surface lot spaces that the College owns south of Shiawassee Street for the whole package. She would like the College to do a land swap with the owner of the Catholic Conference building along with the 37 spaces that they own for the 38 spaces that the College owns. Trustee Pelleran would like the College to own the property versus leasing it.

Chairperson Jeffries asked the Board if there was any support to Trustee Pelleran?s proposal.

There was discussion regarding Trustee Pelleran?s proposal and the current use of the 38 spaces the College owns. The Board also discussed the condition of the building and costs the College is responsible for while occupying the building. It was made clear that the College is only responsible for the utility costs and any damage incurred during the College's use. President Cunningham stated that there would be no permanent changes to the infrastructure of the building.

There was no support for Trustee Pelleran?s proposal.

Chairperson Jeffries asked for a roll call vote on the lease of the Lansing Parkview property.

Roll call vote:
Ayes: Canady, Heywood, Holden, Jeffries, Patterson, Rasmusson
Nays: Pelleran
Absent: None

The lease was approved.

Public Comment

Dr. Willie Davis - I sent a letter to the Board involving some issues. I've since that time revised it, couple of typos and so on, but the issue is academic freedom and racism. Over the past 15 years I have suffered from a series of harassments from losing money or being sick by manipulation from the Dean?s Office, discrimination over jobs, and many career threatening events. Currently I have been retaliated against for contacting this Board through a previous letter alleging academic freedom and lack of courses to teach in my field. This must have had some impact because I was finally offered an education practicum in my field of education. This must have caused a great deal of anger and the response was sending the administrator of the Social Science Department to tell me five minutes before my class, in my office, that a considerable portion of my income would not be forthcoming by taking a course which I have been teaching for 21 years and scheduled to teach next term would be given to a teacher with an overload assignment. This untimely event caused me to be late for class, interrupted my final preparation for class and caused such dishevelment, I lost track of the normal procedure of the class. I was in a state of shock at this untimely disclosure. In my previous correspondence to you I cited academic freedom because they wanted to change the student outcomes of the course, which linked the course to a client/provider role. At this time it was stated that because I had experience in the Human Services, I could add this component to the course whereas the other Sociology teachers could not especially the instructor who was given the class had not such expertise. Again a white individual with less experience in the field and in teaching the course was given the course. Has this happened before? Yes, throughout history. I suppose the posture is that a majority individual should teach about minorities. Under intense pressure to the academicians on staff I acquiesced to their suggestions to modify the course for core adjudication. The move to remove me from teaching the course will affect my future retirement, my current financial situation has caused mental anguish, a hostile environment with my colleagues, embarrassment in front of my students, will affect my organizing the virtual version of the course and is impacting my health. Though I have taught Sociology and the Human Services I have been denied the ability to sub in Sociology and also Education. In 21 years I have proctored only one test. My livelihood has been impacted. I am convinced that this issue is a racial issue and is institutional. The department thought so little of me as a black man that they thoroughly disregarded a professional acumen to ?put me in my place.? I have won grievances and settlements of grievances from this posture and contacted this body thus this retaliatory strike has taken place. My course Sociology 260, Minority Groups, explains this entire scenario. I can use my experiences at LCC in my course as a current and continuing example. I demand an investigation, back pay for lack of being offered additional Sociology and Education courses as well as the hours for my retirement and the course which I was assigned to reach as is reflected in the spring catalog, the opportunity to finish constructing the virtual course and additional courses in Sociology and Education. Thank you. My name is Dr. Willie Davis.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 8:27 a.m.