LAS POSITAS COLLEGE VACUUM TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY BOARD MONDAY, APRIL 4, :00 PM, ROOM 1603

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1 LAS POSITAS COLLEGE VACUUM TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY BOARD MONDAY, APRIL 4, :00 PM, ROOM 1603 PRESENT: Michael Ansell, Chemistry Instructor, Las Positas College; Michael Benapfl, Vacuum Technology Instructor, Las Positas College; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Peter Biltoft, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Peter Dusza, President, Process Physics, Inc.; Neal Ely, Dean of Academic Services, Las Positas College; Donald Milanese, Vice President, Academic Services, Las Positas College; Richard Osburn; Retired; Donald Pellinen, Senior Scientist; Bechtel-Nevada; Thomas Stec, BOC Edwards; GUEST: Dr. Ted Kaye, Director, Las Positas College Foundation AGENDA I. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS/REVIEW OF MINUTES OCTOBER 4, 2004, MEETING A. CALL TO ORDER / WELCOME / INTRODUCTIONS: The Spring 2005 meeting of the Las Positas College Vacuum Technology Advisory Board was called to order by Mr. Donald Milanese at 5:02 p.m. on Monday, April 4, 2005, in Room B. REVIEW OF MINUTES: Mr. Milanese briefly reviewed and commented on the Minutes of the Fall Semester 2005 meeting held on October 4, Highlights included: 1. Career Educational got skills Forum/TEC: Mr. Milanese reported that the first got skills trades forum, sponsored by TEC, had been well attended and Vacuum Technology was wellrepresented by Mr. Benapfl and Mr. Biltoft, but that there had not appeared to be a great interest in the Vacuum Technology presentation. 2. Vacuum Technology Program for : For the first time in the nearly 40-year history of the Vacuum Technology program, courses were canceled for both Fall 2004 and Spring Mr. Osburn recommended that the students who had enrolled for Fall 2004 receive a special letter from the College with information about the Fall 2005 schedule; Mr. Milanese will follow through with Mr. Osburn s recommendation. 3. Revision of Vacuum Technology Associate in Science Degree: Curriculum changes proposed by the Advisory Board were approved in Fall Semester by the Curriculum Committee; the revised degree requirements will appear for the first time in the

2 Las Positas College Vacuum Technology Advisory Board Page Catalog Addendum. The revisions have been planned to provide students with a broader array of options to fulfill their degree work. 4. Physics 10 online: Having this degree requirement online now provides students the opportunity to complete this requirement for the Vacuum Technology degree. 5. Table of Organization: The College Website provides the current organizational structure of the College, with major update occurring annually. II. LAS POSITAS COLLEGE FOUNDATION: Mr. Milanese introduced Dr. Ted Kaye, LPC Foundation Director, to speak about the role of the recently established Foundation. Describing the activities planned to celebrate the 30 th anniversary of the College and distributing the booklet, Las Positas College produced in collaboration with The Independent newspaper for this month s festivities, Mr. Milanese spoke of the role of advisory board members in becoming advocates for the College and programs since many persons even in the Tri-Valley are unaware of how many educational needs can be met at Las Positas. Dr. Kaye explained that the LPC Foundation has been created, not as the fundraising function of the College, but to effectuate a community awareness of what Las Positas College brings to the Tri-Valley and the communities of Dublin, Pleasanton, and Livermore. Even though Las Positas College is celebrating its 30 th anniversary, there is still a need to bring information and awareness of the relationships between the College and community, such as internships, partnerships, equipment loans or gifts, staff to become lecturers and teachers, scholarships. Dr. Kaye asked the Advisory Board members to be particularly helpful as ambassadors of the College to communicate what a community asset the College is and how important community support is to the College, particularly in a time of restricted budget. Board members discussed with Dr. Kaye the possibilities of the Foundation assisting in increasing attendance at the College, sponsoring a Science Fair or providing other opportunities for the community to come to the College and to become more interested in attending. Dr. Ely commented on the Science Bowl, already regularly scheduled and hosted in partnership with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory a number of high school students from the Bay Area have gone on to the nationals in Washington, D.C.; the College sponsors the annual Go Figure Math Challenge in which there is good involvement. The AVS (American Vacuum Society) sponsors several student opportunities, and Mr. Osburn raised the possibility of College involvement. Dr. Ely informed the Board that the Tri-Valley is attempting to get Expanding Your Horizons for next year, and the College is involved. Mr. Milanese also spoke of the advantages the College will have in such projects when the Multi-Disciplinary Building comes online in the relatively near future. Mr. Pellinen wondered why he does not see more publicity in the newspaper about the College, for example, placing in the newspaper that the Vacuum Technology program would be featured at the major AVS show. Mr. Milanese said that bringing the College more to the awareness of the community

3 Las Positas College Vacuum Technology Advisory Board Page 3 is the intent of the insert booklet in The Independent, and Dr. Kaye said that as the community becomes more aware of what the College has to offer, it will also become much easier to get the publicity. Mr. Milanese spoke of his hope that there will be more stories of student success, and Mr. Biltoft agreed, citing the success of LPC student, Betsy Zajac, now president of the local AVS chapter. Dr. Kaye was very supportive and said that the Foundation would be working to let the community know what LPC has to offer. If we can get people here, they will be as impressed as I was. III. REPORTS TO THE COMMITTEE/DISCUSSION/RECOMMENDATIONS A. College Enrollments: Mr. Milanese reported that most community colleges are experiencing a downturn in Spring Semester enrollments although enrollment at Las Positas College is holding. There is some evidence that the high cost of textbooks and materials has become a significant prohibitive factor. Mr. Biltoft recommended thinking outside the box, such as creating a book co-op. Mr. Milanese explained that the College Bookstore is independently run by Follett s, which has its procedures, such as the book buyback program. Additionally, the College has a textbook fund to assist students. Dr. Ansell described how the College s Chemistry, Biology, and Mathematics faculty are working to select books that can be used for an entire year or more, if possible. Also, if faculty submit their book selections by the Bookstore deadlines, Mr. Milanese reminded that this enables the Bookstore to get better prices for used and new texts. Mr. Pellinen also reminded that there are companies, such as Kurt Lesker, that make free instructional materials available. B. College Building Update: With the new Physical Education Complex coming online for Fall 2005 and the Multi-disciplinary Building going into the building phase very soon, Mr. Milanese spoke about the Phase II future expansion of the Science/Technology Center, which will double the size of the space available for Science offerings and will allow the College to bring the Laser Technology program to the campus. C. High School Seniors and Parents Night: Mr. Benapfl reported that Dr. Bill Molander, Laser Technology, Mr. Terry Johnson, Automotive Technology, and he had presented their respective programs at the annual High School Seniors and Parents Night in October. As had been done the previous year, each made two presentations because of space limitations, but Mr. Benapfl commented that the attendance at his particular group was poor and that his presentation appeared to be far more interesting to parents than to the high school students. Mr. Milanese spoke of the difficulty the College is experiencing because of the higher attendance at this event and severe space limitations and that the College had attempted to arrange the sessions by high school; Mr. Milanese will attempt to discover why there was a lower interest in the Vacuum Technology presentation. Dr. Ely added that the College is working toward finding a large enough venue to avoid divided sessions and multiple presentations. Members of the Advisory Board discussed ideas to make the presentations more interesting to students, such as providing thin film displays or demonstrations of the uses for vacuum technology, e.g., in the mirror finish that coats the inside of potato chip bags. Mr. Stec reminded

4 Las Positas College Vacuum Technology Advisory Board Page 4 that students can be amazed at the nearly unbelievable applications of the vacuum process. Mr. Dusza and Mr. Osburn supported having an actual display set up for the next High School Seniors and Parents night in the Fall. They also recommended that an attractive and informational brochure be created for the Vacuum Technology program. D. AVS Exhibition March 21-22, 2005: Mr. Osburn asked why Mr. Milanese had not responded in a timely manner to the AVS offer of display space for the AVS exhibition in March; he said that because Mr. Milanese had not responded early enough, the College did not receive a very advantageous location to attract interest. Mr. Osburn also commented that the materials sent by the College did not invite much interest, having been reworked from previous publicity. He stressed the need to generate interest through having interesting materials and called attention to the Minutes of the Fall 2004 Advisory Board meeting which had promised that better publicity materials would be created by the College. Mr. Milanese agreed that there had been a lack of follow through with the new brochure for the AVS show, and he will work to have this accomplished by the Fall High School Seniors and Parents Night, if possible, but certainly for the next AVS Exhibition. Mr. Biltoft recommended that some human interest stories of LPC student success be featured. Mr. Osburn also requested that Mr. Milanese respond right away to the AVS Exhibition paperwork which the College will be receive in September. Employers attending the show should be made aware of the Las Positas College program possibilities for their employees, and this is a good opportunity to do recruitment for the Fall 2006 program. Mr. Biltoft and Mr. Benapfl, as well as others of the Advisory Board, will represent the LPC Vacuum Technology Program. E. TEC Educational Forum got skills II : Nearly 400 high school students and parents attended the first trades educational forum. Mr. Benapfl and Mr. Biltoft represented the Vacuum Technology program; Counselor Gilberto Victoria was available to talk to the parents and students, in English and Spanish, about attending the College. For the upcoming forum, Mr. Biltoft said he hoped that Betsy Zajac could also attend; she would be a very good additional person at the booth as a successful LPC Vacuum Technology graduate. He had found, however, that it was very difficult to engage people for any kind of an in-depth discussion of the Vacuum Technology program; most appeared to be attempting to visit as many tables as possible, and it is difficult to be as succinct as is necessary in so short a time. All agreed that it will be important to put together more attractive, effective materials and displays for future presentations. B. Physics 10 Online: The Spring 2005 distance education section of Physics 10 has 40 students enrolled. Although Mr. Milanese did not know how many of these were Vacuum Technology students, this opportunity removes one of the barriers to students completing the degree program. C. Vacuum Technology Schedule Fall 2005: Mr. Benapfl requested that the Vacuum Technology 60A course be scheduled for a night other than Monday evenings in Fall The Spring course, VACT 60B, should be scheduled Mondays and Wednesdays. In terms of publicity, the Class Schedule will be mailed to all Tri-Valley homes. Mr. Osburn asked for a

5 Las Positas College Vacuum Technology Advisory Board Page 5 version that can be ed by the Advisory Board members to potential students or employers. Mr. Biltoft and others will work to get the information to the national AVS website, to trade organizations or trade journals. Those who have names of contacts will send that information to Mr. Milanese. D. Design Technology Special Studies [99] Course: This new Design Technology course is an opportunity for students to learn more about the Auto-CAD program, and could be helpful for Vacuum Technology students. Mr. Stec thought that unless the course included vacuum defaults, it would be unlikely to attract the Vacuum Technology student. E. Revision of Associate in Science Degree in Vacuum Technology: Mr. Milanese reported that he had been surprised to learn of the difficulty in obtaining Division III approval for the revisions to the AS degree in Vacuum Technology; he said that without the advocacy of Dr. Ansell, the revisions might not have been approved. He also expressed gratitude for the work done on the curriculum proposal by Mr. Biltoft and Mr. Benapl. The revisions will appear in the Las Positas College Addendum. F. Employment Opportunities: Mr. Dusza reported no employment opportunities. Mr. Stec said that on the general vacuum side, industry and chemicals, the industry is holding its own, but semi-conductors are not doing well. Mr. Osburn reported that 400,000 jobs total have been lost in Silicon Valley, and none of these are expected to return; included in this large number also would be vacuum technology jobs. Mr. Pellinen reported that manufacturing has been lost to outsourcing unless for very specialized equipment, which is very costly. G. Equipment Donation: Mr. Benapfl and Mr. Biltoft reported on a generous donation of equipment from Schafer Vallecitos Laboratory, in Sunol, California. They requested the assistance of the College to pick up the equipment; they will surplus or move some equipment that will no longer be needed. They plan to accomplish most of the move this week. Mr. Milanese will work with Mr. Vigil, Laboratory Technician to arrange assistance. H. Recommendation to the College: Mr. Biltoft recommended that the College work to improve community relations by removing the parking system and absorb those costs, if possible, into student tuition. Mr. Milanese explained that this would not be possible, that parking costs are not allowable as part of tuition and that the State provides no funding for parking lots or security. Because of these limitations, the Board of Trustees has established the parking policy. Dr. Ely also reminded that parking fees are important to the College s Security staff, who respond to every need and emergency. V. ADJOURNMENT/NEXT MEETING DATE: Meeting was adjourned by Mr. Milanese at 6:35 p.m. The preferred date for the Fall 2005 Advisory Board meeting would be to meet the first week of October, and specifically to avoid the last week of October. Recording Secretary: Martha Konrad