CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at
4:09 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Present: Brannan, Laverty,
Pelleran, Proctor
Absent: Canady, Murray, Rasmusson
Trustee Rasmusson arrived at 4:10
p.m.
Trustee Murray arrived at 4:34
p.m.
LIMITED PUBLIC COMMENT
REGARDING AGENDA ITEMS
Dennis Richardson - Good
afternoon. I am Dennis Richardson. I grew up here in Lansing. I had
a paper route here. I am also the head coach for the LCC Volleyball
program. I am here on behalf of the Volleyball Program. I understand
that it is part of the budget cutting process. The Volleyball Program
is under review and may potentially be eliminated. I want to
highlight facts and things that you may not know about this quality
program, its community involvement, and its influence. GPA - these
are the guidelines that were set up when I came in. For the first
time ever in any sport on campus this team was all American and all
academic in 2002. We've had numerous individual all academic and all
Americans. One hundred percent of our players were eligible and are
eligible to play in the sport of volleyball in the last four years.
In the last four years LCC has a ninety-eight percent retention rate
in this sport; in this program. We have come in under budget every
year. We've worked hard to do that. Within the last four years the
Greater Lansing area schools have employed fifteen of our star
volleyball student athletes. That equates to forty-seven percent of
our past and present volleyball players coaching at local high schools
around this area. Kaci Forman-Thompson, a recent volleyball student,
LCC student and assistant coach, is currently coaching with the United
States Volleyball Program in Colorado Springs representing Lansing
Community College. Community involvement: LCC Volleyball Stars are
involved everywhere. The Lansing Area Volleyball Association is a
program based out of Lansing Community College and is designed to
promote female involvement in the sport of volleyball and reaches out
to approximately 500-700 females per year. Volleyball student
athletes have worked with these girls in building volleyball skills,
leadership skills and coaching experience on their own. They have
also been involved in the river clean up, team charity walks for
cancer, and many (inaudible). The LAVA program stars as coaches: LCC
has exposured to literally hundreds of young students and potential
future students here at LCC a direct contact with LCC volleyball
player influence in Lansing Community College. This program has shown
strong character building and role models which have helped make this
program and this College successful. This program has followed the
guidelines as presented to me as the coach and the performance
measures set up and we have excelled and exceeded them. We as a
group, together, must find a way to keep this program alive in this
year and in years to come. Thank you.
Chairperson Laverty asked if Coach
Richardson had what he stated in writing.
Coach Richardson stated this was
just presented to him and he has scrambled and talked with people to
get support and it wasn't hard to do, but has taken up a lot of time.
He is a part-time coach and full-time teacher in Charlotte working
with Special Education and children with special needs. He stated
he?d get the information as soon as possible.
Chairperson Laverty asked that
Coach Richardson get the information to Rich Howard or the Board
Secretary.
Trustee Pelleran thanked Coach
Richardson and asked how many volleyball students are involved in the
program.
Coach Richardson stated there are
twelve verbal or signed and there are girls that have come in as
walk-ons trying to make the team and there is a group of fifteen
student athletes that make up the team.
Trustee Pelleran asked what the
annual budget has been.
Coach Richardson stated it was
between $30,000 and $32,000.
Trustee Pelleran asked how many
games they play and are the games played in Michigan or out-of-state.
Coach Richardson stated they have
cut back on going out-of-state. Most of the tournaments are now
in-state.
Trustee Pelleran stated it was
significant that the women are such terrific role models for other
young female athletes and females in general in the area. She is
committed to looking at other alternatives.
Thomas Kane - Good afternoon, my
name is Thomas Kane and I have a great deal of interest in Lansing
Community College. I went to school here, I taught here, my daughter
attended here. I participated in the construction of some of the
buildings here in my other life. I want to make an observation. I
received a call the other day, actually yesterday afternoon, that the
elimination of certain sports was being considered. I want to come
forward with the observation about the importance of the student
athlete and the coaches and trainers and the assistant coaches that
assist them. One of the things that this program has done is they are
the ones who take the study hall; they are the ones that set the
standards for academic performance of the student athletes. Currently
I know of no less than five students who are ambassadors for LCC,
who?ve won academic (inaudible) from the volleyball team. All five of
those young women are currently coaching volleyball at the high school
level within Lansing Community College district. My daughter is one
of those head coaches at Everett High School. She was here Saturday
grooming a marginal student, perhaps marginal player, I don't know,
with the possibility of walking on but she was telling this young lady
to just get into college. My daughter felt she?d never get into
college because she had difficulty with academics. (inaudible) she?s
currently at Michigan State University and her part time job is she is
coaching in a Lansing area volleyball association. I think the
support that this college has given my family and my daughter, I very
much appreciate it. To come here today I just left the doctor?s
office, I have a dislocated collar bone, I've got to go back and get
it fixed, so I'm not doing very well right now. This is a very
important program. People need to understand the relationship between
athletics and scholarship and things that the coaches and assistant
coaches and trainers bring to the table. Thanks for listening to me.
Lisa Messner - Good afternoon, my
name is Lisa Messner and I'm here to support the Women?s Volleyball
Program also. I am a former high school coach at the Lansing School
District. I coached varsity volleyball for twenty years and was like
Trustee Pelleran - a first time sports in high school and played at
MSU and the benefits have stayed with me for a lifetime and unless you
have been through it, it's difficult to put a price on that. More
importantly, many of the kids they are talking about today have been
fortunate enough to coach and some of those have gone back in the
schools in the Lansing School District coaching. My husband was a
teacher in the Lansing School District also. We are no strangers to
budget cuts in Lansing. So, we know what it takes to be creative and
think about ways to keep such a valuable program running and we are
more than willing to step in and help in anyway that we can. I?d just
like to mention, that Mr. Kane mentioned the kids being ambassadors
and that is exactly what they are. They are phenomenal when going
back to the schools. They are pushing LCC and two of the kids that I
coached played here two or three years ago were both valedictorians at
Lansing Eastern High School. Phenomenal student athletes who chose
specifically to go to LCC because they wanted to continue their
volleyball career and it's something where they didn?t have the height
or refined skill to get into a college, a division I, II, or III
college, but they had the opportunity to continue at the college level
and they are so grateful. Especially grateful for coach Dennis
Richardson?s leadership. Being a high school coach, I've been around
a lot of people, my husband is a high school coach for 25 or 30 years
now and we are familiar with good coaching and good programs and poor
programs and this is a phenomenal program. We are fortunate enough to
have had our daughter was on the team in 2002 and 2003 and it was a
tremendous, tremendous experience. Helping the community, required to
help with coaching, and she has also coached in high school for
several years and has also coached with the LAVA program. I am
willing to step in and do whatever needs to be done. I think this
program brings in so many kids into LCC who seem to benefit from this
wonderful community college. As a former instructor here also, we
love this place and we want to be able to bring?so for the Lansing
School District this is a great jumping off point for many, many of
those students. We promote it constantly and the Lansing volleyball
program and Coach Richardson and what he has done with this program,
and the kids that come out of this are great ambassadors and literally
touch hundreds of kids each year with that. Maybe they are in fifth
grade or maybe they are in sixth grade but they are remembering and
equating quality with Lansing Community College.
Nanette Frechen - Good afternoon,
my name is Nanette Frechen. My daughter Monica plays currently for
the LCC Stars. She is currently the assistant captain for the team,
the 2004 team. I come to you today as one of many concerned parents.
I have watched my daughter, along with the entire team this last year,
excel as young adults in their athletic field with Coach Richardson.
In choosing colleges early on in 2004, my daughter was approached by
many colleges. She investigated all with road trips, inquiries and
tours; coming to a decision on LCC for many reasons, one of which was
the coaching. Part of the (inaudible) of LCC was the community
service in which appealed to her working with LAVA and Special
Olympics and being able to take those skills and bring them back to a
community. I laughed at her at one point and said, ?I see you
coaching when your career is done academically.? She said, ?Oh,
yeah.? Recently back in December, January after their season had
closed they had come back to our small community of Fowler, which is a
class D, both she and a few of her teammates met with about 20-25
young high schoolers and they played in an open gym. I had the
opportunity to supervise this open gym and what they brought to them
and what they had learned was invaluable. The kids were so excited to
have them there. She also assisted in coaching the varsity at Fowler
this year. Recently she spent the day with channel 6 news and sat
side by side with Jane Aldrich, for the 5:00 and 6:00 editions. She
was introduced to Fred King, the local sportscaster, in which she
plugged LCC women sports in general and invited him to come to the
2005 season along with that she has been covered in the Clinton County
news by Jim McCloud who we saw this Saturday and he inquired about
her. He was asking about the 2005 season saying he wanted to come, he
said there is not many young adults, especially women from a class D,
that get such recognition and small communities like to hear about
that. I was very proud of the ladies success this year in the LCC
program. As I went to every game but one, and at each game that I saw
more and more people coming in because of the success these ladies
were having. I would like to thank you for your support both in
women?s athletics and with the LCC program. Thank you.
Monica Frechen - Hello, my name is
Monica Frechen, you just heard from my mom. I also sent the e-mail
and I basically just want to state what I wrote in the e-mail. First
of all, I just want to say what a great opportunity for me to play
volleyball here at LCC. It's really hard for me to get up here and
talk about how I feel about something so important and how much, I
just can't express to you how much I love it and how much everybody
else on my team loves it. I know it's going to be hard for them to
talk about it tonight. My reason for attending LCC was not just
because they have good academic programs but also because we have a
volleyball team. Coach Richardson and Mary Jo Hardy have worked very
hard over the last years to bring success to LCC and that is exactly
what they?ve done. We had a very successful season last year and this
year we are looking for an even more successful season. Not only have
I grown as an athlete but also as an individual here at LCC. I've
learned dedication, commitment, discipline and those aren?t things I
am just going to have during the season of volleyball. I'm going to
continue to carry those with me for the rest of my life. We also get
to give back to our community here at LCC. We get the opportunity to
help coach LAVA and various camps and clinics. We volunteer to help
at the Michigan Senior Olympics and these are not things we are
required to do, we do them because we want to. We want to be there,
we want to help. I?d also like to talk about maybe a solution. Maybe
we can all have the athletic teams do some sort of fundraising event.
Maybe instead of cutting something out, bringing money in. It's just
a shame that we are trying to eliminate something that seems to be
doing so much good in our community. Thank you.
Mary Jo Hardy - Hi, I'm Mary Jo
Hardy. I want to give you a little historical outlook on the
program. The team started in 1978. We got approved on something like
August 1st and we started practice a week later so we put
an ad in the paper and twelve girls showed up. So that was our first
team. We went ten and nine so I thought that was pretty good. I am
also one of the first timers club. In my high school I was one of the
first to be able to play on a sports team, so I think we know that
this really affects you and that is one of the reasons I want to
provide this opportunity for a lot of these women. The goals that I
started out with for this team are the goals that they still have and
Dennis does a great job of carrying through and (inaudible) always had
been and have been to emphasize the educational opportunities they can
get by playing sports and by having that additional focus in their
life. To emphasize their personal growth and when you see these young
ladies up in front of their team of young kids and the kids are
looking up and them and the players are very confident and mature and
secure in their knowledge because they have been taught very well at
their practices. They know how to run a good practice and the young
kids really respect that and enjoy learning from them and it is really
something that benefits the players just as much as the young kids.
I've always emphasized and Dennis emphasizes hard work, commitment and
persistence and that is something that is sometimes lacking among our
young people. Obviously they are willing to work hard when you look
at their class schedule, their work schedule; most of these kids also
work at regular jobs as well as having the commitment to working with
the junior volleyball teams and volunteer themselves. Their
persistence is being demonstrated by their willingness to speak up and
fight for their program. It's also been my goal to always to have a
big emphasis on community building because within our community it's
very important that the kids get to know each other. I've always
enjoyed spending my time with the team and watching the team. We get
kids from every school here. We get kids from Okemos and Sexton and
Grand Ledge and Everett and you know the first time they get together
they're?a lot of them know each other from LAVA because they?ve played
junior volleyball together but it is always, when they first get
together it's always, ?Oh, all your kids don't carry knives??, ?Oh,
all your kids don't drive Mercedes?? and they start to (inaudible) we
all have the same goals and the same dreams. that's been a big thing
that I think Lansing Community College has been able to provide is
that community building and having the kids get together and learn
from each other. What I?d like to do is just to ask for an
opportunity for the LCC community, including the athletic department,
LCC as a whole and the other members of the volleyball community,
including LAVA and other interested groups to be given the chance to
explore some solutions. There are a lot of ways to solve this problem
and a lot better solution than cutting. That is all I?d like to do is
ask you to give LCC the opportunity to keep providing these
opportunities. We need to retain this positive program for our
students and our community. Thank you.
President Cunningham commented
that it was the intent of Athletic Director Turowski and Dean Cardenas
to meet with people personally to discuss the program. She apologized
to the people affected and stated they did not just put the
recommendation out there with the intent of not discussing it openly.
Trustee Pelleran stated she
appreciated the fact that Monica Frechen and Mary Jo Hardy offered
solutions. Fundraising was mentioned and she offered to work shoulder
to shoulder with them on fundraising activities.
Trustee Rasmusson asked what the
marginal costs were for the program. He wanted a line item breakdown
on the costs for the volleyball program.
President Cunningham stated
information could be gathered and distributed to the Board as
requested but they would need time to respond to the requests for
information. There are $2 million in cuts proposed and they do not
have every minute detail in front of them at the workshop but it is
something that can be gathered and distributed after the workshop.
BUDGET WORKSHOP
President Cunningham thanked all
people at the College involved in the budget process. She further
thanked the Board for their due diligence. They have discussed the
budget two or three times over the past few months and the budget
proposal is based on all the input. The budget decision will not be
made until the May meeting. She said now is the time to ask
questions.
President Cunningham stated there
is a $4.8 million deficit and it has been explained to the Board many
times in the past how LCC got the deficit. The budget proposal is
designed to address the deficit.
Vice President Barbara Larson gave
a budget presentation. (A copy of the presentation is on file with
the official budget workshop meeting materials.)
PUBLIC COMMENT
There were no comments from the
public.
ADJOURNMENT
IT WAS MOVED by Trustee Pelleran
and supported by Trustee Murray that the meeting be adjourned.
Ayes: Brannan, Laverty, Murray,
Pelleran, Proctor, Rasmusson
Nays:
Absent: Canady
Motion carried.
The meeting adjourned at 5:50 p.m.
