Chair Hamilton Calls for motion on Dates and location of regular BoT meetings are set.
Resolution passes, dates are set.
Public Comments:
Hamilton: we have several opportunities for the public to speak. Speakers have 3 minutes. We will try to answer your questions. If you need more than three minutes please make arrangements in advance.
Laura Reigle: Erin Birt, Diane McGuire and Joe Wozniak. You three are on the wrong side of history. The voters spoke for a mandate for reform. Your best friends were defeated. The taxpayers do not want your ideas. Diane McGuire when you spoke about Nazi tyranny, you showed what side you are on. Joe Wozniak your silence is deafening. Erin Birt you were the Chair when all the wrongdoing was going on. If you had been on the ballot, you would have had the same results as the incumbents. Resign now.
Carol Davis: Founder of West Suburban Patriots, 750 plus members of the largest branch of the Tea Party. Congratulations to the new Board members. To the old members, this is your opportunity to change your ways. The Tea Party holds public officials accountable.
There have been lies about the Tea Party. We began not while the first Black president came to power, but rather when George Bush was President and began bailing out the big banks.
To the faculty and students of COD. We have been fighting side by side to bring integrity back to COD.
We know that even when we put good people in power they can get sidetracked.
We invite faculty and student leaders to get together from time to time to discuss how well the new leadership is doing.
Maybe we can break down some stereotypes.
Kathy Wessel: Good evening. I have lived in 502 for over 40 years. Served 12 years as a trustee at COD for 12 years. Over 5 of those were as Chair. I am here to thank Kim Savage and Nancy Svoboda for their work. They have been ethical board members. They both have tremendous knowledge of higher education and they share that. They have been active and involved members of the ICCTA. They have spent countless hours honing their skills. Thank you for sharing your special skills with all of us.
Ed Fraunchowiak. Lifelone resident of DuPage county. Three sons graduated from COD. This is the third time I have spoken at BoT meeting. I am encouraged that the Board is starting to listen. Congratulations Charlie, DeAnne and Frank on your victory. DeaAnne — you asked about the data being searchable. That applies to everything. The BoT packet — the first three pages are searchable. But not the rest of it. The website isn’t searchable. Make it all searchable so we do not have to FOIA the BoT for information.
Prudy Widlak: Resident of District 502. I thought I was signing up for the Special Meeting. I have comments about proposed changes to Board policy.
Hamilton: I’ll put you on the list for that special meeting.
Joe Snyder:not here
Kirk Allen: co-founder of the Edgar County Watchdogs. I’s like to thank the new BoT for their service. You took an oath of office. An oath of office has meaning. If we can’t stand by our words and obey the laws that we have, where are we as a society. This community college has become and example of how citizens have rights and have a voice and need to be heard. You took an oath to abide by the community college act. Some of those Board meetings have failed miserably. The act says that citizens have the right to ask questions and get information. Miss Birt — you never did answer those questions. I am asking you to read the law and follow it.
John Kraft: I’ll be quick. Congratulations to the new Board members. I hope you strive to be more transparent and be more open to the public. Put everything that is releasable on-line in a form that is reachable and searchable.
Roger Kempa: Resident od Darien. 56 year resident of DuPAge County. A high power PR firm was hired at a cost of up to 250,000 to address the misinformation given to the public. That was very sad. COD already has a PR person who is a full-time employee. Questions: Is COD’s great financial position unique? OF a group of a 7 local community colleges, 6 of themn have the save good rating. All 7 have had unqualified clean audit reports. All are recipients of distinguished budget presentations. So we all have a lot in common. How does COd compare to other cc’s in the nation. 3 of the 7 peer colleges are Oakton 174 elgin 172 Harper 410 COD is not ranked in the top 500 colleges. CNN’s rate of community colleges has COD at 167 Oakton at 101 Harper at 155. He continues to give comparisons. (Hamilton thanks him, as his time has run out)Chair Birt — please resign. Save the public the time and inconvenience of having an election.
Karol Sole — Thanks to those of you who have bought seats on this election.
Hamilton — Please do not scream. I will have you removed.
Sole — I hope you are here for the good of COD and its students and the community. I am curious as to who set the agenda for tonight’s meeting. Tonight’s public grilling of an employee was inappropriate. Why the Edgar County Watchdogs are here after stirring up so much trouble in their own communities are here now. I remind new trustees that the previous trustees were also duly elected . Please do not resign.
Glenn Hansen:
Good evening, I’m Glenn Hansen, President of the Faculty Association and Faculty Senate.
Tonight, I’d like to thank all who have served and will serve our students as Trustees. On behalf of the faculty, I would like to congratulate our new Trustees and welcome you to College of DuPage. Congratulations to Kathy Hamilton on becoming new chairman of the Board. Additionally, I’d like to say thank you to Chairman Hamilton for your persistence and dedication to changing the Board and caring deeply about College of DuPage and our students.
What I have experienced in the continual effort by you and our new Trustees to communicate with faculty bodes well for the future of CoD. For many years I have offered the willingness of the faculty to meet and work with the Trustees along with all constituencies to move the college forward. I again offer our help to create a new story for COD. This time I am confident there will be a response to our offer.
It is a cliché and understatement to say we are faced with tremendous challenges and opportunities; but it is very true. It will be very hard work going forward. Success will take the efforts of all constituencies inside and outside of the College to correct the damage that has been done. As much as we hoped it would not happen, there have been questions raised and doubts created that affect our reputation. It is everyone’s responsibility to restore confidence in College of DuPage.
Our work begins tonight.
James Benko — Student at COD and member of Students for a Democratic Society reads a statement sent by Alan Canfora, survivor of the Kent State Massacre. “Sisters and brothers– I have read about the abuses and corruption by your former president at COD. It has been inspiring to learn of the struggles by the Faculty Association and the Students for a Democratic Society. It takes courage to stand against an administration such as yours. In addition to spending millions on himself and his cronies, Breuder denied faculty their role in reviewing their programs. He turned the student newspaper into aa mouthpiece for his administration. He even fired an advisor an advisor and teacher when she spoke out. Early on in his tenure, Breuder used the campus as a staging area for the police forces and military forces assembled to repress the protests against the summit of NATO in 2012.
In a move that brought COD to my attention he wanted the college’s Homeland Security Education Center named after him. The center was built on the site of a memorial constructed in the early 1970s to the student protestors who were shot at Kent and Jackson State. I am a survivor of the May 4th massacre at Kent . We were opposing the Vietnam War and the oppression of African-Americans. And like your struggle, Kent and Jackson State means that freedom of expression is a just cause. Congratulations on the victory in removing that administration. I am confident that your continued struggle to restore education rights at COd will be victorious. Alan Canfora.
Richard Jarman:
Six years have passed; six summers, with the length of six long winters!
Unlike in Westeros, winter is ending in DuPage.
Permit me a little scene to savor the moment. Could I have possibly imagined at graduation last year, when the then governor made his curiously unpublicized appearance, and hasty exit, what would transpire in the coming months. Shortly thereafter, the 20 million dollar email was revealed and unleashed a sequence of events that has brought us to this momentous evening. I believe I am not overly optimistic in saying this is a whole new day at COD. I heard the same in 2009 but that proved to be a false dawn. Your individual statements have been encouraging as to how you wish to proceed in repairing the damage wrought on COD’s good name. Your interest in inclusion and collaboration moving forward in transition is valued. I trust, and I am confident, that you will prove in your actions to be as good as your words have been; but you know that we will be vigilant, as we have been during the last six years.
I want to take this opportunity to say that the faculty leadership, and the more than 180 members that voted in favor of the Vote of No Confidence last August, have been vindicated. There was substantial risk in taking that historic step; what if it failed? Some urged us to join together to “fight the Tea Party” (I think they may have been including some of you) and that Dr. Breuder was the “best man for that job.” Many questioned what effect the vote would have. I wondered at that too but knew it would be a longer game; April would provide rare opportunity. And it did.
Of course many players had their roles. There was OpenTheBooks; the Watch Dogs; growing media interest, thank you Stacy and Jodi; concerned citizens; state representatives horrified by the excesses unearthed, thank you Jeanne Ives. And, of course, one champion on the board who, from the beginning, had the courage to say “No’, who took the hits (I note that the infamous censure has vanished from the COD website), who invested the time to recruit fine candidates, who has expended the energy in the fight. So, Chair Hamilton, I congratulate you and your three Slate Mates on your well-deserved success and we, the faculty, look forward to working with you on behalf of students, for let us not forget that, amidst all this business of audits, house accounts, and internal controls, we are here for them.
New Business for approval:
Ratification of personnel actions for all employees.
McGuire so moves. Seconded by Napolitano.
Hamilton : Does any member wish for discussion.
McGuire: I would like to welcome Donna Stewart back. She was here and then she was gone, and now she is back.
Chair Hamilton calls for approval. Unanimous yes.
Calls for motion for hearing date of June 25, 2015 hearing to approve the 2016 budget.
McGuire: We don’t have a copy of the new budget. I would assume we will have a copy before this meeting.
Hamilton: Glaser, what is the timing of getting the new budget out?
Glaser: May 21st meeting. By law it has to sit for 30 days. That’s why we have asked for a meeting in June.
Vote: Unanimous yes.
Chair Hamilton: Tonight we have resolutions of thanks for outgoing trustees Savage, Svoboda and O’Donnell. And student Trustee Omar Escamilla. We are going to combine that into one motion tonight. We have certificates of appreciation we would like read out loud.
Chair Hamilton asks Joe Moore to read the certificates out loud. He reads the certificates for all three outgoing trustees and the outgoing student trustee.
Outgoing Trustee Escamilla — thanks the BoT members and reminds everybody that students love coming here every day to learn.
Trustee Savage: I am proud of the many achievements of the last 6 years due to the hard work of faculty, students. (She lists a lot of COD achievements over the last years)
Ttustee Svoboda– thanks and applauds present people of COD. Students and employee groups.