Board welcomes Sheila Patterson as new trustee

By David Hudson

Staff Writer

            It’s about 6:15 p.m. on March 10, which is 15 minutes before the meeting of the JCC Board of Trustees is scheduled to start. The board gathers in a room on the second floor of the Potter center. They eat a small meal because many of the members did not have time to eat dinner after a previous meeting on a different matter.

            The current members of the board are: trustees Christina Medlar, William Lambkin and  John Christ. Phillip Hoffman is the secretary. Serving as vice-chairperson is Edward Mathein. Dennis DaPra serves as chairman and president of the group is Daniel Phelan.

            After the light meal, the group proceeds into the main room where the meetings are held. The first major issue discussed is the need to fill the spot opened up when Trustee Charlie Anderson resigned. The board had been considering appointing a new trustee, and then the appointed would officially stand for election in November 2008.

The only female on the board at the moment, Christina Medlar, nominated a woman named Sheila Patterson to serve as a fellow trustee. Patterson said that she was willing to accept the nomination and gave a brief speech about why she believed that she would serve as a good trustee for JCC. Patterson, 39, said that she was born and raised in Jackson, graduated from Lumen Christi, serves on the Jackson Public School board, and has other family members that are serving in the district.

A few members of the board agreed that Patterson is an exemplary citizen and would make a good trustee. Lambkin praised her and  DaPra said that he knew her and had seen her work in the past and liked it. He said that she had great leadership skills and has been involved in community work and education for years. She is elected as a trustee unanimously.

Next, DaPra says that the board needs to appoint a new secretary. Trustee Christina Medlar volunteers and is appointed as the board secretary unanimously.

The group discusses the idea of incorporating a rule about ethics and professionalism into the group’s meetings from that point on. The chair asks for a definition of ethics and William basically says that ethics are very subjective. The president said that it would be very difficult to define ethics and professionalism. In the end they decided that they would handle what was defined as “ethical” as it arose and the motion was passed with four yays and two nays.

After the discussion of ethics, the board reiterated on their past meeting for those who hadn’t attended the meeting. They had passed the motion to build another dormitory for students and an estimated 96 beds will be opened up for students when the building is finished. They also intend to create an additional 200 parking spaces on campus to help alleviate traffic during the morning and afternoon rushes.

A serious issue is discussed after this. Hoffman says that risks to the taxpayers (from the costs of building the dorms) are limited because the students of JCC will be paying the heft of the costs, particularly the ones that rent rooms at the dormitories. A saddening 14% of college funding is all that the community gives to the school.

On a lighter note, Phelan said that they are doing all they can to reduce class sizes because they want to make it easier for students to achieve their dreams at JCC. They plan on reducing the cap from 30 to 24 students per class, and will now be requiring a mandatory learning seminar for all first students as well.

Near the end of the meeting, the board discussed enrollment. It is increasing and went up by 6% over the winter semester. There was a large gain in full-time students though gender ratios remain largely the same with the student population being about 62% female and 38% male. Additionally, a soccer team will now be fielded (pardon the pun) beginning in fall of 2008.

About two hours after the meeting started, the board made a motion to conclude the meeting and it was passed. Members met up with newly appointed trustee Patterson and shook hands, and then returned to the dining room to eat again before leaving.