The consideration of approving the recent updated operating agreement with Follet Higher Education Group Inc., new Student Affairs Assistant hires and the recognition of the championship teams and rosters were discussed at the Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 21.
Men’s soccer head coach Benny Artiaga (left) recognizing his roster and coaching staff on Jan. 21 at the Board of Trustees meeting.
Follet provides Cerritos College with educational tools, services as well as print and digital content.
The revisions include approximately a $200,000 annual increase in commission revenues for ASCC; adding to a total of $550,000.
It also included a one-time commission payment for goodwill of $112,000 and a two-percent reduction of textbooks costs for most of the textbooks that are purchased by students.
Despite the allocation toward increased revenue, students and faculty members voiced their opinion toward the pending agreement questioning the margin number for which Follet prices its textbooks at the Cerritos Bookstore.
History professor Walter Fernandez shared a conversation he had with a colleague about the semantics of the actual contract.
“The contracts I’ve seen in my experience have examples, with an actual scenario, specific scenario. It’s difficult to understand; in certain cases it seems that Follet can charge just about anything, true there is a two-percent discount…we encourage you to ask some questions,” said Fernandez.
Vice President of Business Services David El Fattal, who did most of the negotiating in the second amendment of the Follet contract, explained the confusion in the terminology, specifically the distinctions between ‘margin’ and ‘mark-up’.
“There’s some industry terminology, we’ll add a glossary of terms in there to help with that but I think overall it’s difficult for students that are coming new to college to understand how that process works and people that don’t work in bookstores,” said El Fattal. “It’s difficult to understand bookstores and how they earn their money and so on, that comes with the territory.”
ASCC President Miles Aiello and Vice-President Charles Caguioa were each hired as a Student Affairs Assistant, being paid $14.32, as part of the work-study program until June 30.
Also, members of each championship team, men’s and women’s soccer team as well as the wrestling team, were recognized and congratulated by each member of the Board of Trustees.
President Linda Lacy, Carmen Avalos and Bob Arthur were each given a jersey by the women’s soccer team commemorating their title-run.
The next regular Board of Trustees meeting will be on Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 6:30 p.m.
