Standard IIIB

Standard IIIB
Physical Resources

Physical resources, which include facilities, equipment, land, and other assets, support student learning programs and services and improve institutional effectiveness. Physical resource planning is integrated with institutional planning.

1. The institution provides safe and sufficient physical resources that support and assure the integrity and quality of its programs and services, regardless of location or means of delivery.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Institutional planning integrates physical resource planning in a number of ways. The primary planning for the college centers around the Educational Master Plan, which defines the goals and objectives of the college, serves as the guiding principle for facilities planning, and focuses on safe and sufficient physical resources to support programs and services. The college designed the Facilities Master Plan with a focus on specific projects needed to meet the goals set forth in the Educational Master Plan to assure that we adequately provide for and maintain programs and services.

The Facilities Master Plan establishes the funding requirements for utilization of bond measure proceeds and state capital construction resources included in the district's Five Year Construction Plan, submitted annually to the State Chancellor's Office. A combination of these major resources, augmented by state scheduled maintenance and hazardous materials mitigation funding, provide the pool of resources required to implement the Master Plan.

As the college activates the plan and evaluates current facilities, it applies federal, state, and local standards to determine the safety of the facilities. The State Chancellor's Office and the Department of State Architect must approve all new construction and renovation projects. The district's office of risk management and a representative from the district's insurance carrier conduct a comprehensive facilities inspection with members of the college's maintenance and operations staff. The district publishes the results of this inspection, and the college distributes copies to all departments that have received recommendations for correcting safety conditions that need to be addressed (IIIB-1 SWACC Property & Liability Facility Inspection). The vice president of Business Services and the director of Maintenance and Operations follow up on these issues throughout the year, and the subsequent annual inspection validates the status of the corrective actions.

In addition to these efforts, the college and district each have standing safety committees that meet throughout the year and address ongoing safety issues. Copies of recent safety committee minutes may be found in Exhibit IIIB-2. Finally, in 2003 the college, with assistance from the district's risk manager and insurance carrier, designed and implemented a Worker's Compensation Reduction and Improvement Plan to address on-going concerns with employee safety (IIIB-3).

Traditionally, to determine the sufficiency of facilities, the college relied upon the state's space utilization standards to evaluate the available space by category. Also, during the past several years, as a result of budget constraints, the college has become much more involved in the management and assignment of its classrooms, lecture halls, and laboratories in order to optimize enrollment while reducing the number of class offerings. An extensive part of the Facilities Master Plan development included a facilities utilization and space needs study (IIIB-4 Ventura College Facilities Master Plan pages 8.1 to 8.28). The results of this study formed the core of a facilities needs analysis and standardized room design recommendations.

To evaluate how effectively facilities meet program needs, staff involved in the facilities master planning effort has continuously solicited input from all programs since spring 2000. This input resulted in an extensive analysis of facilities utilization and program needs. Implementation of the Master Plan through the use of bond proceeds and state capital construction funding will result in the correction of any current facility deficiencies discovered and a more effective allocation and location of space to support programs and services, thus enhancing the environment for student learning.

Prior to passage of "Measure S," a local bond measure, and completion of the Facilities Master Plan, the college did not adequately meet its facilities needs. With an aging campus, a relatively stable (non-growing) student population and a declining budget, the facilities were deteriorating quickly and the potential for state capital funding proved very limited. Many of the buildings, constructed in the 1950s and 1960s, required upgrading and modernization. Although the college made substantial investments in the maintenance of its facilities from state scheduled maintenance funds, block grant allocations, Instructional Equipment and Library Material (IELM) resources, Foreign Student Surcharge fees, and other non-general fund sources, not enough funding existed to keep pace with the deterioration of the campus. Now, with the support from the bond measure and the design of a rational long-range plan for rejuvenation of the college, the college is adequately addressing the facility needs.

The only off-campus site the college controls is its East Campus operation in Santa Paula . The college currently leases one complete structure, which it has used since 1998, and half of an adjacent building. The college applies the same standards for safety as are applied to facilities on the main campus. Most of the college's growth currently occurs at the East Campus site; however, insufficient classroom and support services space exists for the growing student enrollment, and the budget does not support additional lease obligations at this time. In its longer term planning, however, the college plans development of an "educational center" complex in the area, to be funded from a portion of the bond proceeds.

The college incorporated the facilities assessments and analysis conducted as a part of the overall master planning effort into the Facilities Master Plan and its implementation will, over time, result in the replacement and or modernization of much of the campus. The college will provide funding for the projects from bond proceeds, state capital construction, and scheduled maintenance allocations.

The annual safety inspection referenced earlier includes an evaluation of equipment as well as facilities. Thus, the vice president of Business Services and the director of Maintenance and Operations note any unsafe or suspect equipment conditions in the report, contact the responsible parties of the situation, and request that those responsible parties take corrective action. The Safety Committee and the Workers Compensation Reduction and Improvement plan place similar emphasis on equipment use and safety.

The college understands that the sufficiency of its equipment is questionable. Faced with severe budget reductions the past several years, the college eliminated all equipment expenditures from its general fund budget. In an attempt to address the on-going need to replace and upgrade instructional equipment, the college relied heavily on the use of block grant funding, IELM allocations, Telecommunications Technology Infrastructure Program (TTIP), Vocational and Technical Education Act (VTEA), grants, contracts and other non-general fund sources to address its equipment needs.

Fortunately, the College received a federal Title 5 cooperative grant to develop and expand its distance education program. The college secured many of the equipment needs to support this effort through the Title 5 grant, and has augmented it with IELM and TTIP funds as necessary.

In general, the college meets its equipment needs. However, little to no margin exists for improvement of the status quo. As noted earlier, for the past several years the college has depended completely on non-general fund sources to replace and acquire equipment. As those resources, such as TTIP, decline and/or disappear, no opportunity or plan currently exists to fill the funding gap.

a. The institution plans, builds, maintains, and upgrades or replaces its physical resources in a manner that assures effective utilization and the continuing quality necessary to support its programs and services.

A team provided by Leo A. Daly Architectural Firm developed the Educational Master Plan and Facilities Master Plan. The Educational Master Plan and Facilities Master Plan now integrate resources that reflect shared institutional values and goals for how the physical environment and facilities support achievement of program needs. Departments that would be utilizing the new or renovated facilities prepared individual Project Definition Reports (IIIB-5) to be incorporated in the Facilities Master Plan. The Project Definition Reports set the objectives, scope, budget, and schedule for each project to be designed and built. Thus, the ultimate users themselves take the responsibility to develop their specific needs. The architectural firm will translate these documents into design schemes, which will ultimately become architectural plans for the completion of each project.

In the late 1990s, when the college enjoyed more favorable financing, it annually developed equipment replacement plans as part of the budget development process. Departments provided equipment requests, which business services staff compiled, summarized, and reviewed with the Campus Resource Council, the college's shared governance budget advisory body, the Administrative Council, and the college's management team. These groups made recommendations that were submitted to the President's Cabinet for final approval. Available funding generally existed to satisfy the bulk of the requests.

For the past several years, however, as referenced earlier, the college became completely dependent on non-general fund sources for the replacement, acquisition, and maintenance of equipment. Although the college is currently meeting its equipment needs, little to no margin exists for improvement. The college replaces critical equipment, but almost no opportunity exists, other than the use of non-general fund sources, for securing new equipment to support program expansion.

The facilities master planning effort resulted in an extensive analysis of facilities utilization and program needs. Implementation of the Master Plan will result in the correction of any current facility deficiencies discovered, and a more effective allocation and location of space to support programs and services will be realized. The college also incorporated equipment replacement and infrastructure renovations into the Master Plan.

Like most community colleges, during the morning and early afternoon hours, and again in the evenings, the college operates near or above capacity. From mid-afternoon until about 6:00 p.m. , however, the college is nearly vacant. Although we have attempted to schedule high demand classes and science labs in the afternoon hours, low enrollment generally results. In the past, the college also offered a weekend program, predominantly on Saturday, in order to make better use of its facilities and provide educational opportunities to those who were not available to attend during the week. As a result of budget limitations, however, the college terminated the weekend operation in 2002.

b. The institution assures that physical resources at all locations where it offers courses, programs, and services are constructed and maintained to assure access, safety, security, and a healthful learning and working environment.

The college has accomplished much to assure access to its facilities. Working closely with the Educational Assistance Center (EAC) staff, the Maintenance and Operations Department has used state architectural barrier removal funds and other sources to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Maintenance and operations renovated a number of restrooms throughout the campus to provide accessibility, installed several automatic doors in a number of buildings, installed an elevator in the theater to enhance access, redesigned curbs, installed ADA compliant signage campus wide, and purchased a wheel chair lift so that students with disabilities could participate in the graduation ceremony. Maintenance and operations made evacuation chairs available in all multi-story buildings for evacuation of wheel chair users in the event elevators are inoperable. Finally, the Facilities Oversight Group (FOG) adopted "universal design" as one of the guiding principles of the Facilities Master Plan to ensure continued emphasis on accessibility.

The college maintains complete control over the off-campus facilities it leases in Santa Paula and maintains the same level of safety, security and access at that site as it does for the main campus. The other offsite facilities used by the college include high school classrooms provided at no cost to the college in Ventura , Santa Paula , Fillmore and Ojai. Although the college maintains little control over these sites, they possess a similar level of safety, security and access as the college because the state requires school districts to satisfactorily maintain these public education facilities. To date, the college has received no complaints from faculty or students at these sites.

SELF EVALUATION

The college assures safety of the campus through compliance with various mandated inspections conducted by the Ventura College director of maintenance and operations and the district risk manager, followed by corrective actions. Deans and supervisors/managers receive notifications of any problems and take the appropriate corrective actions. The vice president of Business Services requires that they report back to him when they complete the corrective actions, and the maintenance and operations director and the district's risk manager conduct follow-up inspections.

A comparative analysis conducted in 2003 by Keenan & Associates, the district's worker's compensation insurance carriers, indicated that our clerical staff, food service staff, groundkeeping staff, and students each submitted higher percentages of claims in frequency and severity than the statewide benchmark (IIIB-6). In response, the college developed and implemented a Worker's Compensation Loss Reduction and Improvement plan in December 2003 (IIIB-3). The college held the initial team meeting to develop a project scope and schedule. The health and safety of college employees requires the college to follow this plan.

The primary complaints filed by clerical staff involved repetitive motion injuries. The college Safety Committee conducts ergonomic evaluations of employee work stations and makes recommendations. Unfortunately, no college or district funds exist to implement recommendations that require the purchase of materials or equipment. Additionally, the college acknowledges that some communications between the Safety Committee and employees have not been as clear as possible, and the college has not fully implemented some of the Safety Committee's recommendations, including some that had no associated costs.

A previous insurance carrier for the district provided funds for implementation of preventative and corrective safety measures, but the current carrier has not provided such funds, and the budget contains no funds for this purpose. The college understands the significant need to find resources to use for preventative and corrective safety purposes in order to better protect the health and safety of employees and to reduce costs incurred by the college due to Worker's Compensation claims.

Ventura College is moving quickly and successfully in its mission to provide sufficient, high quality space for its instructional programs and student services. Completion of the new Learning Resource Center in the summer of 2004 will provide state of the art facilities for our library, Learning Resource Center , tutoring program, Assistive Technology Training Center , and many faculty offices. Over the next two years, the college will complete secondary and tertiary effects projects that will provide excellent sites for student services programs and support.

The passage of Measure S in March 2002 enabled the college to make plans to rejuvenate and/or replace aging, inadequate buildings on our campus in order to provide sufficient space to meet the instructional and service needs of our campus for years to come. The Facilities Oversight Group (FOG), with its representation from a wide array of college constituencies, provided an excellent mechanism for broad campus participation in the planning process. The college began the process by refining the Ventura College 's Educational Master Plan and then adopting guiding principles that reflect the plan's mission and values for the entire group's planning decisions.

During the formation of the Facilities Master Plan, the college conducted an extremely thorough evaluation of college facilities. Faculty, staff, management, JCM (the construction administrators for the college), and the Leo A. Daly architectural firm, which produced the Facilities Master Plan, all provided a tremendous amount of input into the master plans. The consultants hired by the college provided detailed and thorough data, excellent professional analysis, and helpful advice. They successfully developed plans that reflected the decisions and desires of the college's Facilities Oversight Group (FOG). The consultants and architects retained by the college understood the dialogue and decisions made by FOG and incorporated them into the college's long range building plans.

The college used the same processes to assure safety and to plan for expansion of facilities as at our off-campus site in Santa Paula . With the acquisition of a plot of land, bond funds will enable the college to build an adequate permanent site in the area closest to current population growth in the parts of the county by Ventura College . In the short term, the college must operate with an insufficient number of classrooms for our evening off-campus program. The East Campus, therefore, must utilize classrooms at local high schools, over which the college has no control.

This academic year, the college implemented a federal Title 5 grant, which provided the resources necessary to expand the college's distance education program. The grant provided funds for equipment and personnel to support growth of our previously small number of distance education offerings. (Please refer to IIIC, the Technology portion of the Accreditation report for more information regarding distance education.)

The college has acquired an adequate amount of computer equipment for staff and students although funding sources that previously allowed us to purchase instructional and administrative equipment no longer exist, making it very difficult for the college to replace aging equipment. However, for the new Library and Learning Resource Center (LRC), the college will purchase equipment that will greatly enhance the computer equipment available for students, including 360 new computers in "the beach," an open computer lab in the LRC, plus a state-of-the-art Assistive Technology Training Center , and computers for the faculty offices in the building.

The adequacy of equipment for vocational programs varies from program to program. The college used Vocational Technology Education Assistance (VTEA) funds to purchase computers for business, architecture, and computer science programs, but other vocational programs must rely on community donations to provide some of their needed equipment and supplies.

The college has been unable to purchase or replace maintenance equipment for a number of years. The newest truck in the maintenance and operations' fleet is of 1986 vintage. All other maintenance and operations equipment, such as tractors, street sweepers, lawn mowers, and carpet extractors need replacement with no funds available to do so. This situation adds to the growing difficulty with maintenance for the campus.

The planning processes for the almost completed Library and Learning Resource Center and for the anticipated bond projects included a diverse cross section of campus constituencies.

Institutional values, with student learning at the center, along with excellent data, analysis, and advice from the professional architects and consultants hired by the college guided the Facilities Oversight Group's decision making. The formulation of an Educational Master Plan, the Facilities Master Plan, and the Landscape Master Plan, which are all interlocked and mutually supportive, serve the college well. When these plans are completed, the college fully expects that it will have not only sufficient space but high quality space to meet the needs of students and staff engaged in the learning process.

The limitation of resources for maintenance of its facilities and equipment presents a major concern to the college. Long-range data from maintenance and operations indicate that the ratio of square footage per custodian will rise from about 20,000 in 1972 to over 40,000 once the LRC is completed (IIIB-7). A similar exponential increase exists for building trades workers (IIIB-8). Over the years, the college steadily reduced maintenance and operations staff, as well as supervisory staff, while huge amounts of additional square footage requiring maintenance have been added to the campus. In addition, due to its older age, a growing need exists for deferred maintenance projects throughout the college. To further compound the problem, the Maintenance and Operations Department must perform a myriad of additional mandated environmental, health and safety inspections over the years (IIIB-9).

In an Employee Survey of the Work Environment conducted in spring 2000, 58.4 per cent of the college staff and faculty indicated dissatisfaction with the working conditions on campus, including facilities, space, and cleanliness (III-10). The limitation in resources for maintenance directly impacts employees' job satisfaction, and most certainly impacts students' satisfaction negatively as well.

Computer maintenance poses another ongoing challenge for Ventura College . The computer maintenance technician, responsible for a majority of the campus, presently needs to address fifty-four requests, some of which have been on his list since July 2003. Although staff should address requests on a first-received, first-served basis, they do not always adhere to this system and do not prioritize requests in a uniform manner. The college expects maintenance issues to be compounded with the addition of almost 500 computers in the new Library/LRC and no funds available for personnel. (Please refer to IIIC, the Technology portion of the Accreditation report for more detailed information.)

Overall, the college will meet facilities needs on campus with the completion of the library and Learning Resource Center and implementation of all of the bond projects. College personnel have proven resourceful in fulfilling most equipment needs at least adequately by supplementing dwindling state resources with grant, categorical, and other funding sources. However, if the state financial crisis continues to worsen, replacement and upgrade of aging equipment will become highly problematic. The lack of resources for adequate maintenance seriously concerns the college, and the expected addition of new facilities and equipment will only serve to make matters worse.

Ventura College provides excellent access for individuals with disabilities. The college completed a number of architectural barrier removal projects over the last several years with funds from the State (IIIB-12 and IIIB-13). Maintenance and operations staff always treats access issues as a high priority. The Facilities Oversight Group adopted universal design as one of their guiding principles, so the college will plan all future buildings with access that exceeds ADA requirements. Equivalent access exists at the East Campus. In addition, the college continues to be proactive in its efforts to provide access to technology and media to students with disabilities. The assistive technology, which will be available to students with disabilities in the new library and LRC, will be a model for the state.

When prioritizing work requests, the Maintenance and Operations Department considers health and safety issues their highest priority. Because of scarce resources referred to earlier in this evaluation, completion of other maintenance tasks that are more visible often must wait.

PLANNING AGENDA

The college will continue to assure safety of the campus through compliance with various mandated inspections that are carried out by the district risk manager and the Ventura College director of maintenance and operations. The vice president presently requires that those inspections be followed up and that a report be sent to his office. In the future, the vice president will require that follow-up reports be more specifically targeted to answer issues raised by the initial inspection. The college will request that the district's risk manager's office more closely review the items cited from the prior year to ensure correction when conducting the annual Safety and Loss Prevention Inspection.

In the past, the district's Worker's Compensation insurance carriers determined that the incidence of claims by clerical and food service staff was higher than the norm for the state. The college, therefore, developed a Worker's Compensation Loss Reduction and Improvement Plan and, after discussion, determined the project's scope and schedule. The college will complete the determination and scope of the project and carry out the plan while in accordance with its scope. College administration will monitor the progress of the project and ensure that the goals are met. Consultations with the district risk manager and the college's Worker's Compensation carrier will be held as necessary. The college will ensure collegewide implementation of the new Worker's Compensation Loss Reduction and Improvement Plan.

The primary complaints filed by clerical staff pertained to repetitive motion injuries. The college Safety Committee conducts ergonomic evaluations and makes recommendations aimed at improving working conditions. The recommendations made by the Safety Committee, however, occasionally reflect a lack of clear communication between the Committee and the staff, resulting in a possible lack of understanding as to what actions administrators or staff should pursue. The college will evaluate the clarity of communications between the two groups and facilitate clearer communication in the future.

The college Safety Committee advances two types of recommendations: those that require expenditure of funds and those that do not. In the case of solutions that do not require funding, the college will implement the recommended modifications to the work environment in order to improve the safety of the workplace. In the case of resolutions that require funding, the appropriate administrators will seek the needed funds to carry out improvements in the workplace to better protect the health and safety of employees. Those administrators will seek funding through the budget process, even if it is at a minimal level, to support safety activities and implementation of the Safety Committee recommendations.

The college has acquired an adequate amount of computer equipment for staff and students in the past, and the addition of a 500-station computer lab in the new Learning Resource Center (LRC) will dramatically increase student access to state-of-the-art equipment. The lack of staff to maintain existing equipment remains a major problem, and the situation will become more problematic with the addition of the equipment to be housed in the new LRC. With little likelihood of hiring technicians in the near future, the college will investigate the cost and possibility of purchasing a three year on-site maintenance agreement for all new computers in order to keep them operational while minimizing the need for additional staff. The college will strive to secure adequate staffing levels to maintain the ever increasing technological resources.

The lack of sufficient discretionary funds in the college budget makes it impossible to create a coherent plan for replacement of aging equipment. Any positive actions at the state level, having to do particularly with equalization of funding for FTES, would provide a positive impact on funding for the college and would improve the ability of the college to create a prioritized list of equipment in dire need of replacement. The purchase of new equipment for the Learning Resource Center will have a positive effect in that new equipment is initially less expensive to maintain than older equipment. Nonetheless, as equipment ages, it will demand increased levels of maintenance. To respond to that concern, the college will develop an equipment replacement/maintenance program.

Ventura College , being older, will continue to experience difficulties in maintaining its facilities and equipment. This situation will not dramatically change in the short-term future. Fortunately, the passage of Measure "S" has brought the dawning of a period of intensive demolition of old, expensive-to-maintain buildings and has opened the door to the design and construction of facilities that will be less expensive for the Maintenance and Operations Department staff to maintain. While buildings that require less maintenance are a positive development, the number of staff in the Maintenance and Operations Department has declined dramatically over the last two decades and now presents a serious problem for the college. The college must secure an adequate level of staffing for the college's Maintenance and Operations Department, particularly in the areas of custodial, grounds, and supervision.

As the college forms planning committees to work with architects in the design of new structures, the faculty, staff, students, and administrators on those committees, along with the architects, will design buildings utilizing finishes and design features that will reduce, as much as possible, the need for constant maintenance. Furthermore, the Facilities Master Plan identifies the need to design and construct buildings that are as energy efficient as possible and which follow, as closely as funding allows, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) principles. The manager responsible for chairing the Facilities Oversight Group (FOG) will ensure that our focus remains on the guiding principles and guidelines adopted by FOG as the Facilities Master Plan is brought to fruition.

While faculty, staff, and managers expressed job dissatisfaction in the past because of low standards of maintenance, the involvement in planning new, more pleasant working environments should ultimately contribute to higher levels of satisfaction. The college will continue to survey the attitudes of its employees, particularly as they move into new working environments, to monitor the level of satisfaction and to fold those findings into designs for buildings yet to be constructed.

The replacement of aging facilities with new ones will certainly reduce the wear on existing equipment, if only because equipment will be operating in a cleaner environment as a result of the installation of modern air conditioning. As with some other issues, the ability of the college to allocate funding for adequate maintenance remains impossible because of fiscal restrictions. Members of the administration will continue to seek funding to meet the needs of the college.

2. To assure the feasibility and effectiveness of physical resources in support institutional programs and services, the institution plans and evaluates its facilites and equipment on a regular basis, taking utilization and other relevant data into account.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

As referenced earlier, the college has traditionally relied upon the state's space utilization standards to evaluate the effectiveness of its facilities utilization. The college reviews these data annually as it updates its Space Inventory and Five Year Capital Construction Plan for submission to the State Chancellor's Office. As the college's financial situation began to worsen, the Administrative Council became more involved in the management and assignment of its classrooms, lecture halls, and laboratories in order to optimize enrollment through more effective facilities utilization while reducing the number of class offerings. Since spring 2000, the college has undertaken an extensive planning process, which has resulted in the development of both the Educational and Facilities Master Plans. An extensive part of the Facilities Master Plan development included a facilities utilization and space needs study. The results of this study formed the core of a facilities needs analysis, which will be reviewed and updated annually as the Master Plan is implemented. The college expects the outcome of this review and planning effort to correct any currently identified facility deficiencies and to provide a more effective allocation and location of space. Taking these actions will allow us to better support programs and services and thus enhance the environment for student learning.

a. Long-range capital plans support institutional improvement goals and reflect projections of the total cost of ownership of new facilities and equipment.

Prior to the initiation of the facilities master planning process and the bond campaign, the college's capital planning was limited to funding sources it might qualify for from the state. Thus, the college carefully reviewed the state's capital funding criterion and annually submitted requests, typically for modernization funding, to improve its aging facilities, since contemporary space utilization standards limited the opportunity for funding new construction.

With initiation of the master planning process in spring 2000 and the subsequent successful bond campaign in spring 2002, the college's long-range facilities planning took on a new character. The integration of the Educational Master Plan, with long-range facility planning and the possibility of securing resources from a local bond issue, stimulated a renewed focus on the rejuvenation of the campus. Realizing for the first time in years that the college had a real opportunity to be rebuilt, the college community began in earnest to evaluate its programs and services, in light of population, enrollment and program projections, and the resultant facility requirements. The college conducted an extensive analysis to determine the current status of the its facilities, equipment, and infrastructure and to correlate current conditions with projected needs resulting from the Educational Master Plan and the project definition reports prepared by the departments that would benefit from the bond measure. Any recognized needs were thus incorporated into the Facilities Master Plan, which will be implemented over the next 10 to 15 years.

To date, the college has not implemented a "total cost of ownership" (TCO) model for decision making. The college, however, makes all facility and equipment decisions in a climate of serious consideration and caution to ensure that any additions do not jeopardize the college's capacity to receive maintenance and operations funding from the state. The college developed its Facilities Master Plan with space utilization as a primary criterion. Furthermore, it placed much emphasis on the construction of low-maintenance, low-operating cost facilities and the incorporation of sustainable design principles into the landscape plan through appropriate plant selection and irrigation techniques. Through the design principles referenced above, the Master Plan attempted to address issues of declining maintenance and operations staff and technical staff deficiencies involved in maintaining the college's computer equipment.

The Facilities Oversight Group (FOG), which is composed of project leaders representing all projects included in the Master Plan and all constituent groups throughout the college, invested over 1400 hours in revising and defining the facility needs of the college in conjunction with the college's Educational Master Plan (IIIB-6 Selective FOG documents). This process resulted in a plan that indicates the location, scale, and relationship between major campus elements, new and existing buildings, open spaces, circulation, parking, support facilities, and landscaping. The college will arrange new buildings on the campus in organizationally compatible zones to better serve student and program needs. The combination of selective demolition and realignment of roadways and new construction provides the campus with improved visibility between core facilities. The college will restructure the circulation framework to reflect these changes and to improve convenience and access for both vehicles and pedestrians.

b. Physical resource planning is integrated with institutional planning. The institution systematically assesses the effective use of physical resources and uses the result of the evaluation as the basis for improvement.

Please refer to the above response as it relates to the work of FOG and the Facilities Master Plan as the outcome of those efforts. The college based the entire Master Plan on institutional needs and improvements that were generated from the Educational Master Plan development and extensive analysis of the existing campus space utilization standards, infrastructure studies and facility needs analyses. The users of these facilities were involved in providing the data that drove this planning effort, and validated that the outcomes of the analyses indeed addressed their program and service needs. Consultants and architects hired to assist in the development of the Educational and Facilities Master Plans responded to the FOG committee, which had broad representation from across campus. While the process included this broad representation and proved highly participatory, more student input and involvement would have enhanced it.

As referenced earlier, as a result of on-going budget limitations, the college has removed equipment acquisition from its general fund budget and become primarily dependent upon non-general fund resources to support equipment acquisition. Perhaps the most critical instructional equipment needs relate to refreshing the college's computer classrooms and laboratories. The college has made considerable progress in this area over the past several years by investing IELM, Block Grant, TTIP and VTEA resources. Because these funding sources are subject to the legislative budgeting process, however, no assurance or predictability of the level of funding exists. This situation will continue to prove problematic until more stable sources of support can be developed. As for all other equipment needs, the vice president of Business Services oversees the small IELM allocation the college receives and has used that resource, augmented by Foreign Student Surcharge fees and Redevelopment Agency funds, to address critical equipment needs as they arise. No systematic equipment replacement/upgrade plan currently exists to respond to on-going needs.

As referenced throughout, the college will adequately meet long-term physical resource needs through the implementation and completion of the Facilities Master Plan. Bond proceeds, augmented with state capital construction funding, will provide most of the required resources to complete that plan. The short-term needs prove more problematic. Although, overall, the college has reasonably resolved the issue of inadequate instructional equipment through the use of categorical and restricted resources, the lack of a systematic replacement/upgrade plan and the lack of stable and predictable funding sources to support that plan could place the college in jeopardy in the future.

As for facilities, the core instructional and support services buildings, although aging, adequately support the college's needs in the short-term. Rather than attempt to upgrade many of the older buildings, the Master Plan calls for the selective demolition of a number of instructional buildings and replacement with modern state-of-the-art classroom facilities. The college will salvage and modernize several of the current buildings upon completion of the new Learning Resources Center (LRC) in summer 2004, including the renovation of the old library and several other buildings throughout the campus as a result of the secondary and tertiary effects associated with occupancy of the LRC. The college's facility requirements will provide a vastly improved environment that should positively stimulate and enhance student learning.

SELF EVALUATION

The consultants to FOG provided extensive and thorough data regarding facilities use, which exceeded data previously utilized by the college in annual reports to the State Chancellor's Office. These data demonstrated that the college did not need more classroom and laboratory space; rather, the space needed to be reconfigured and used more efficiently. The college based planning decisions for new buildings on these data, as well as on input from the staff members who would be utilizing specific buildings. Prior to FOG, the district's management information system tracked classroom usage on campus and the college used that information to make decisions regarding the most efficient scheduling of classes.

The purchase and replacement of equipment, due partly to the shortage of funds, has proven haphazard. The college relied primarily on grant, categorical, or other supplemental funds to purchase needed equipment. When the state made funds available for instructional equipment, the deans and vice presidents-through the Administrative Council-made resource allocations decisions based on input from staff they supervise.

The design of the new Learning Resource Center provided the college an opportunity to undertake reduction of utility costs for the building and to thus improve the general energy efficiency of the campus. The use of more efficient heating and cooling equipment and the use of more expensive glass building materials to reduce passive solar heating inside the building, mark the beginning of a serious, collegewide effort to reduce the cost of ownership of the campus. With the adoption of "LEED" design as one of the guiding principles by FOG, this practice will continue throughout all of the new construction.

The Facilities Oversight Group plays an important role in ensuring that capital projects support college goals. The college organized FOG in such a fashion to assure that there exists a seamless interface between college goals and the capital development program.

PLANNING AGENDA

As with other issues having to do with the maintenance or the purchase and replacement of equipment, the lack of funds make it problematic to create a thoughtful plan for the purchase and replacement of physical resources. In recent years, our operational mode required the college to utilize monies from grant, categorical, or other supplemental sources; however, the college will continue to pursue avenues of possible funding in the future. Should additional state funding become available, the deans and vice presidents, through the Administrative Council and with input from staff they supervise, will be responsible for resource allocations.

Standard IIIB
Physical Resources

List of Documents:

IIIB-1	SWACC Property & Liability Facility Inspection April 2003
IIIB-2	Ventura College Safety Committee and District Safety Committee Meeting Minutes
IIIB-3	Ventura College Workers Compensation Reduction and Improvement Plan
IIIB-4	Ventura College Facilities Master Plan draft December 9, 2003
IIIB-5	Ventura County Community College District Project Definition Booklets, fall 2003
IIIB-6	Ventura County Community College District, Comparative Analysis 1999-2003, October 6, 2003
IIIB-7	Square Feet per Custodian Chart
IIIB-8	Square Feet per Building Trades Workers Chart
IIIB-9	M&O Task List
IIIB-10	Ventura College: Top 5 Areas of Dissatisfaction with Your Job and the Work Environment Chart
IIIB-11	Ventura College Architectural Barrier Removal, April 24, 2000
IIIB-12	Ventura County Community College District, Architectural Barriers Removal, KBZ Project No. 2000-04, April 24, 2000
IIIB-13	Ventura College ADA Signage Project
IIIB-14	Ventura College Facilities Oversight Group