November 18, 2025

RAPP Meeting Minutes 

Hybrid Mtg. 10am-11:20am 

Tuesday Nov.18, 2025 

The meeting began with an overview of the draft minutes from Nov. 4th followed by a presentation by Farhad Sabit, Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services, of the 50% law requiring community colleges to allocate half of their unrestricted general fund to classroom instruction, discussing historical context, compliance challenges, and potential consequences of non-compliance. The group then reviewed personnel requests and discussed the funding allocation of available positions, focusing on instructional and non-instructional faculty needs while considering enrollment trends and program growth. Finally, the committee outlined a process for ranking faculty positions through constituency group meetings and agreed to create a spreadsheet for voting on preferred rankings by the following week.

Next steps
Determine the split between instructional faculty versus non-instructional faculty positions out of the 14 total available positions by next week
Mallory: Email out the Excel document with tabs for each constituency group by end of today for groups to fill out their bucket recommendations
All constituency groups: Fill out their respective tabs in the Excel document with 3 buckets of 5 instructional faculty positions each, plus one bucket for non-instructional faculty and one bucket for classified admin positions by 11:59 PM on November 24th
Faculty representatives : Meet with each other and then with their broader faculty constituents to discuss position rankings before next Tuesday Nov. 24
Classified representatives: Meet with their classified constituents to develop unified bucket recommendations
Affinity group representatives : Meet individually with their respective affinity groups to develop individual bucket recommendations following the same process as previous year
All voting members who will be absent next Tuesday: Send an alternate from their constituency group to represent them at the meeting
RAPP Committee: Meet next Tuesday Nov. 24 from 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM to review and discuss all constituency group recommendations. In person attendance is encouraged.
Summary
50% Law Compliance Challenges
Vice President Sabit presented on the 50% law, which requires community colleges to spend 50% of their unrestricted general fund apportionment on classroom instruction. He explained the historical background, current requirements, and challenges of compliance, noting that Foothill-De Anza's percentage has dropped from 52% to around 50% in recent years. The presentation highlighted that the law's narrow definition excludes many instructional expenses, such as technology and non-classroom work. VP Sabit also discussed the process for seeking exemptions and the potential consequences of non-compliance, including reduced apportionment funding. The conversation ended with Vice President of Instruction Subramaniam presenting information on available positions to fund, noting that the total number of positions available this year is 14, with the split between instructional and non-instructional faculty still to be determined.

Personnel Allocation 
Personnel hiring requests for Fall 2025, Spring 2025, Fall 2024, and Spring 2024 total 47 positions; however, RAPP will move forward with 14 hiring requests. They clarified that all positions listed were unfilled, with some departments having already filled previous requests. 

Faculty Position Prioritization Process
Discussion centered on the prioritization of faculty positions into three instructional and one non-instructional bucket, with 5 positions each, totaling 20 positions. They agreed to develop a process for ranking positions by taking the list back to constituency groups for input, similar to the previous year's approach. The next meeting was scheduled will be scheduled for Tuesday at 9 AM, with a longer duration of 9-11:30 AM, though some members expressed concerns about attendance due to the Thanksgiving break. After the reconciliation process concludes, RAPP will prepare proposals for College Council to meet January hiring deadlines.

Attendees: Ram Subramaniam, Mallory Newell, Veronica Acevedo Avila, Sam Bliss, Michele LeBleu Burns, Adrienne Hypolite, Caitlan Lam, Christina Wright, Alicia De Toro, Erick Aragon, Eric Mendoza, Felisa Vilaubi, Ryan (Garam) Yi, James Nguyen, Kim Palmore, Michelle Hernandez, Nazy Galoyan, Zander Blackman, Farhad Sabit, Debbie Lee, Kristin Skager

Absent: Jayme Brown, Sushini Chand, Martin Varela

RAPP Voting Members: Ram Subramaniam, Mallory Newell, Veronica Acevedo Avila, Michele LeBleu Burns, Sam Bliss, Nazy Galoyan, Garret King, Augustin Espino Diaz, Erick Aragon, Adrienne Hypolite, Eric Mendoza, Michelle Hernandez, Felisa Vilaubi, Christina Wright, Alicia De Toro, James Nguyen, Zander Blackman, Caitlan Lam, Jayme Brown, Sushini Chand, Kim Palmore, Ryan Yi, Martin Varela