Northern Essex Community College Board of Trustees
Minutes of Meeting (OFFICIAL) – November 2, 2022
A meeting of the Northern Essex Community College Board of Trustees was held in room TC103A&B in the Hartleb Technology Center at the Haverhill Campus on November 2, 2022 at 5:00 PM.
PRESENT:
Ms. Borislow
Ms. O’Rorke (Via Zoom)
Mr. Cox (arrived at 5:11PM)
Ms. Pachano
Ms. Fernandez (arrived at 5:10PM)
Ms. Paley Nadel (Via Zoom)
Mr. Gomez
Mr. Hamm
UNABLE TO ATTEND: Ms. Quiles, Ms. Sanchez, and Ms. Worden
ALSO, PRESENT: Acting President Michael McCarthy
CALL TO ORDER: Chairwoman Borislow called the meeting to order at 5:03 PM with a roll call of attendance and a quorum present.
Chairwoman Borislow welcomed NECC’s newest Trustee, Mr. Lloyd Hamm, President and CEO of Newburyport Bank. Mr. Hamm provided a brief introduction of himself and noted that he is excited to serve at a community college to support education and career orientation for NECC students. Mr. Hamm also serves on the NECC Foundation Board.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Chairwoman Borislow asked for a motion to approve the October 5, 2022 meeting minutes.
On a Motion presented by Trustee Gomez and seconded by Trustee Pachano, by roll call vote, the Board approved the October 5, 2022 minutes as presented (5-0, with one abstention).
CORRESPONDENCE: Chairwoman Borislow welcomed Acting President McCarthy to the meeting and thanked him for his leadership during President Glenn’s medical leave.
Acting President McCarthy noted that on Tuesday, November 1st, he had forwarded to the trustees a copy of a communication from the MCCC union related to the current contract negotiations, but noted that he would not be commenting any further as negotiations are ongoing. He thanked trustees for their continued support.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
a) Introduction of Newly Hired Employees (Verbal)
Mr. McCarthy introduced one new employee. Marjorie Campbell is NECC’s new Tomfohrde Executive Director of Healthcare Pathways. The board welcomed Ms. Campbell to NECC.
EDUCATION REPORT:
a) STEM Week 2022 (ADM-3760-110222)
Dr. Paul Beaudin, Provost, introduced Dean of STEM, Dr. Carolyn Knoepfler who would be providing the education report.
Trustee Fernandez arrived at 5:10PM.
Provost Beaudin noted that later in the evening, Acting President McCarthy will be talking about our continued growth in enrollment at NECC and how colleges can overcome enrollment challenges when students believe in the real value of their education (and not just the cost).
Trustee Cox arrived at 5:11PM
Dr. Carolyn Knoepfler, he noted, has been at NECC for 19 years serving as a tenured faculty member prior to assuming her role as Dean. She will provide a presentation on the STEM Week activities which will provide insight into not only the science and technology programs at the college, but also the amazing quality of our faculty and members of our local community.
Dr. Knoepfler thanked the trustees for the opportunity to tell them about NECC’s recent STEM Week activities. She noted that the programming is developed with a goal for it to be engaging and to allow students to think outside the box. She noted that she always tries to do something a little bit different each year, and provide students with an opportunity to deeply engage with STEM faculty. With that said, Dr. Knoepfler noted the following activities during STEM week:
1) Professor Ken Thomas provided a photographic safari entitled “A Visit to Botswana.” Professor Thomas spent 10 days in the African safari and provided students with a presentation of beautiful photos of his trip, engaging them with information about the animals he saw, and explaining what the eco system is like in Africa.
2) A Visit from an Oyster Farmer – Students were provided with a fascinating aqua agriculture session on how oysters are farmed. Students learned that the ecosystem of New Hampshire has about 200 miles of coastline if you include all of its inlets, and the waters are rich for oyster farming. After the presentation, the students and faculty in attendance were welcomed to feast on the 100 oysters provided by the farmers and were shucked/chilled by NECC’s culinary arts students.
3) A Visit Dispensary – The owner of a local cannabis dispensary in Haverhill met with students to talk about what is involved in terms of running a dispensary. The presentation noted the growing, harvesting, cataloging, inventory, and the selling of cannabis in Massachusetts. He also noted that compliance is a key component of this industry and important to maintain your license.
4) Math Olympics – Organized by NECC’ Math faculty, more than 80 students competed in teams to solve a variety of math problems. The math problems would be shown on the screen, and while timed, the teams would work collaboratively to get the answer. Team acquired points by the number of correct answers, and the top three teams won prizes and pizza was served.
5) Building Guitars and Beautiful Music – Students were exposed to the science of music and the art of building guitars. The first part of the presentation focused on building guitars, types of wood, strength, and sound, etc. The second part of the programming discussed the dynamics of music, the physics of sound, and the opportunity to experiment with string and sounds.
In closing, Dr. Knoepfler thanked the Trustees and Dr. Beaudin for his continued support of STEM Week at NECC. Chairwoman Borislow thanked Dr. Knoepfler for her report.
BOARD CHAIR UPDATE: Chairwoman Borislow noted that she had a very brief report this month, but wanted first to personally thank Trustee Cox for his willingness to continue to serve as Trustee until his successor is named. In addition, she noted that she had spoken to President Glenn and he is recovering very well and very much appreciates and is grateful for all of the emails, notes, and kind thoughts during his recovery. She thanked Mike McCarthy for his leadership during President Glenn’s absence and noted that Mr. McCarthy was recently appointed to the Board of Directors for the Community College Business Officers. The board congratulated Mr. McCarthy on his appointment.
REPORT OF BOARD COMMITTEES:
a) Audit and Finance Sub-Committee (Verbal):
There was no report.
b) Alumni Advancement Sub-Committee (Verbal):
Sub-Committee Chair Fernandez noted that the committee met for the first time this academic year and started with a great brainstorming session to help the team to set its goals. The Committee will focus on two areas: 1) assist in engaging larger corporations for our advancement team; and 2) working to organize several small group gatherings.
The committee is planning to launch both of these beginning in 2023, utilizing the next few months as planning time and perhaps also hosting/floating other smaller options around it. The plan is to ask trustees to cohost some of these events in different communities within the Merrimack Valley, and committee members are really excited to do this at different levels and include both older and new alumni. Trustee Fernandez noted that committee members will be approaching folks on a one-to-one basis and to gauge interest.
Ms. Fernandez also noted that the committee really wants to engage and stay connected with our alumni network and support those initiatives. She noted that there is great energy, sharing, and thinking about different outlets. The would really like to focus on curating small group gatherings and launching those meeting groups in early spring.
Vice President of Institutional Advancement Allison Dolan-Wilson also noted the college’s Endowment Goal. She noted that the college was fortunate to have a couple of state matching opportunities, but there is still quite a bit of work ahead of us. “We need to raise $1.3M this year (last year we raised $900K), and now is the time to be thinking of those endowments and making connections. We will continue our fundraising, and I want to extend many thanks to Pati and the committee for their wonderful work and support.”
Chairwoman Borislow applauded the committee’s work and theme of engagement, and encouraged all trustees to participate in any way that they may be able to.
c) Equity Imperative Sub-Committee:
Sub-Committee Chair Marianne Paley-Nadel noted that the committee just met. After welcoming NECC’s new Chief JEDI in September, the committee is helping to lead NECC’s involvement in the Racial Equity Justice Institute. The Institute will provide guided events for college members on racial equity, and as part of that programming, there will be opportunities for board members to participate beginning in the spring. Over the course of the next meetings, team members will engage with the board more directly on what is going on within the campus community, and will focus on our own approach from the board’s perspective. Paley-Nadel said that committee members will engage with board members about shared terminology, what they think they know vs. what they do know, establish an advisory board, and present concrete goals of the advisory board at a future board meeting.
d) Nominating Sub-Committee (Verbal):
There was no report.
REPORT OF ADMINISTRATION:
Before providing his report, Acting President McCarthy thanked Chairwoman Borislow and all of the trustees for their support during President Glenn’s absence. He noted that the college’s leadership team is a strong and cohesive unit and has come together to support the President and the college during this time. He also extended a personal warm welcome to Lloyd Hamm, and noted that he is looking forward to working with him in the future.
Also, prior to providing his report on the agenda items, Mr. McCarthy noted several items:
1. Enrollments are going in the right direction, and the college is finding that the 8-week sessions are very successful with over 700 students enrolling this year vs. 400 last year, and we also have 200 more Early College students than last year;
2. Today was “I Stand with Immigrants Day” and he thanked NECC’s Chief JEDI Officer, Francellis Quinones and Dr. Noemi Custodia Lora for their work on programming on our campuses and for providing awareness of and for our DACA students;
3. The college has signed the Higher Education Presidents Commitment to Full Student Voter Participation as part of the “All-In Campus Democracy Challenge” to promote voting and civic engagement for the upcoming election.
a) NECC Strategic Plan (Verbal)
Mr. McCarthy introduced Vice President of Institutional Advancement Allison Dolan-Wilson who provided a brief update on the college’s strategic plan. She noted that the plan has been approved by the Department of Higher Education and so the new focus has now been on really making sure that everyone at every level of the college will focus on the goals and rubrics over the next 5 years. The rubric will help ensure that everything we are doing to is strategic and focuses back to the plan.
Also, she noted that the team is working on a strategic plan “planner” which will be a workbook (of sorts) that will really enable everyone to engage fully in the planning and budgeting process going forward. For each goal, guiding coalitions are being established, and those folks will come together to make sure that each goal will stay on track and will provide quarterly and yearly updates to the college community.
Mr. McCarthy thanked Ms. Dolan-Wilson for her report.
b) Haverhill Campus (Verbal)
Mr. McCarthy noted that the college hosted over 120 police and educators for Reunification Training last week. Reunification training involves reuniting children with families after a traumatic event, and he thanked Provost Beaudin for attending and providing his story/ perspective after reuniting students with families after the 911 tragedy in New York. Also, Mr. McCarthy noted the first annual NECC Turkey Basketball Classic will occur on Saturday, November 26th and Sunday, November 27th. And lastly, the Baseball World Series Ring Ceremony will be conducted at the half of Saturday’s game.
c) Lawrence Campus (Verbal)
Mr. McCarthy reported that the college has added more Liberal and Creative Arts offerings in Lawrence including Music, Art and Honors courses. He also invited trustees to attend the November 15th Lawrence Art Gallery opening which will be held at the Fournier-Haffner building on Amesbury Street from 4-6PM.
Lastly, Mr. McCarthy provided the trustee with an advance preview of an upcoming Health and Wellness proposed project. He noted that the college has been working on the feasibility of a health and wellness center for some time now. Tomorrow, he is scheduled to meet with DCAMM and the state’s Asset Management Board to have an initial discussion about this public/private partnership.
The project would address a $9M deferred maintenance backlog on the 44,800sf Sports and Fitness Center and its outdated systems and accessibility shortcoming as well as outdoor facility upgrades to address the poor drainage on the athletic fields. The goals of the project are to better serve our students and mission by expanding the health and future wellness of our students and to explore opportunities to reduce operating costs. The plan, he noted, is for this to be a collaborative project with another partner with a similar mission/vision. That non-profit partner should also have the financial capability and significant development experience.
A feasibility study was done to support this approach for NECC. This project will offer better facilities and campus community needs for our students which will hopefully impact/improve student retention, and put more growing demand on campus facilities from the community which could be a significant revenue stream for NECC.
In conclusion, Mr. McCarthy hoped that the project would be approved to move forward. The project has an approximate 3-year timeline (2022 to 2024) and will include seeking state and local support, a public review stage with public engagement, engaging with the students and community, etc. and then looking at those written comments to best determine how we can make this a sustainable project for our community.
Chairwoman Borislow asked if the 2024 final date for completion was firm. Mr. McCarthy responded that once we know our partner and approvals are obtained, he can better answer that question, but for now the 2024 estimation holds. Chairwoman Borislow thanked Mr. McCarthy for his report.
NEW BUSINESS:
a) Grants:
Chairwoman Borislow noted there were two (2) grants slated for approval and totaling $195,000. They are:
1) Massachusetts Department of Higher Education: ARPA Food Security Grant (ADM-3761-110222)
2) Massachusetts Department of Higher Education: Community College Career Pathways in Community Leadership Pilot Program (ADM-3762-110222)
On a Motion presented by Trustee O’Rorke, and seconded by Trustee Cox, by roll call vote, the board approved the two grants (ADM-3761-110222 and ADM-3762-100522) in the total amount of $195,000 (7-0, 1 abstention).
It was noted that second grant listed on the agenda (agenda item 9a2) was mislabeled and should have been ADM-3762-110222 (not 110221). The change was noted/corrected.
OTHER BUSINESS: There was none.
ADJOURNMENT: With no other business, Chairwoman Borislow adjourned the meeting at 5:54 PM.
