Reflections from last week
As fall quarter moves forward, I hope yourclasses and programs are going well. We continue to watch enrollment to see theimpact on the college of both the economy and the improvements made to ourenrollment processes. (Fall to-date totals: 7,350 FTES and 11,446 studentheadcount.) There continues to be decline based upon this morning’s enrollment reportof -1% than what we have projected in this year’s budget. It is more importantthan ever to focus our efforts on retention and completion strategies to keepstudents enrolled who have chosen to study here. I appreciate all the work you aredoing to provide our students the supports they need to thrive at Clark.
Recently,I joined the Clark Team at the American Association of Community Colleges’Pathways 2.0 Institute (Dr. Sachi Horback, Bill Belden, Shanda Haluapo, Dr.Judith Hernandez-Chapar, Jill Darley-Vanis, and Board Chair Jane Jacobsen). Weworked with Dr. Chris Hill (our new Pathways Coach) to address creating aculture of teaching and learning at Clark. One of the session highlights fromOdessa Community College described the “Caring Side of Guided Pathways”:creating a culture of caring by interacting with students by name, closelymonitoring student progress, and scheduling one-on-one conferences withstudents outside of the classroom. I look forward to supporting a culture of teachingand learning and moving this important work forward while I am here.
Thispast week the Executive Cabinet worked with a consultant to improve how we leadthe college. We had honest conversations on how we lead as a team during thisintense retreat. I look forward to continuing to work with this team oftalented and exceptional individuals to lead Clark College into the future.
Ispent the end of the week with the other college presidents at the WashingtonAssociation of Community & Technical Colleges (WACTC) at PeninsulaCollege’s beautiful Longhouse, where we discussed the System’s Vision andStrategic Priorities, ctcLink’s implementation, and the 2020 SupplementalCapital Budget Request (Clark College’s North County Satellite building is No.5 on the New Appropriations list) among many other topics facing our statesystem right now.
Thisnext week I look forward to convening the Clark College Equity AdvisoryCouncil. This includes over 25 community leaders whom I’ve invited to “buildand maintain community connections; inform about what Clark College is doingaround diversity efforts; and have the community provide counsel as the Collegeengages in purposeful, institutional-level change that fosters social equityand eliminates systemic disparities among students, faculty and staff.” Iam continuing my “Listening Tour” by attending unit meetings this fall. TheSTEM Unit is up next on my calendar. And, I’ll will look forward to an engagingconversation with donors at the Foundation Conversations event. Finally, I’llproudly represent Clark College at the WSUV ScholarshipRecognition and WSUV Advisory Council this week.
ctcLink– countdown 21 days!
Theentire state is watching us to successfully goLive. Our most important trainingis this week. We’re setting aside time on Friday October 11. Clark College will be closedto the public and to internal customers for the day. October 11 is anin-service day for faculty so there will be no classes. You have two optionsfor training.
Option One:In-person training at the Student Center in Gaiser Hall.
- 8:30 a.m. – fundamentals for all staff
- 9:30 a.m. – fundamentals for all managers
- 10:30 a.m. – financials for anyone who travels or submits expense reports
Pleasewatch for Shanda Haluapo’s email this week with details on all the sessions forFriday October 11.
Option Two: Aself-paced Canvas course
Accessthe course via the following link: https://www.sbctc.edu/colleges-staff/it-support/ctclink/ctclink-training-registration.aspx. (Registration forself-paced courses is available on the right side of the page.)
Youshould have all received an email from “SBCTC Canvas” for the Fundamentals andEmployee Self-Service courses. If you have not received the email, pleasecontact Jennifer Ward.
Facultymembers (any status, as long as you teach a class) will receive an invitationto complete CF100: Faculty Self-Servicefrom SBCTC Canvas.Questions? Please contact Jennifer Ward.
ctcLink and Students
We are sending messages out to students asto how the changes impact them. I want you to be aware so you can help studentsas they navigate through the change. Here’s what we’re asking them to do thesenext few weeks.
- Change their student information (online or in-person) by Thursday, October 17.
- myClark will not be available from Friday, October 18 until Thursday, October 31.
- Learn how to access their new and improved myClark by going to www.clark.edu/faculty-staff/ctclink/student.php.
- Access the new and improved myClark on Thursday, October 31.
Veryimportant – they can email ctcLink@clark.eduwith questions. Thank you to the teams across campus who are making this theirNo. 1 priority to help our students make the transition.
ctcLink and stress
With this major transition, it’s notuncommon to feel overwhelmed, stressed or anxious. We always want to encourageyou to seek out assistance through our Employee Assistance Program.Do you want to know more about how to use your EAP? Here are three upcomingorientation webinars.
| October 9, 2019 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m | Register Now | ||
| November 13, 2019 10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Register Now | ||
| December 11, 2019 10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Register Now |
Iencourage you to check out your EAP benefits and collectively we’ll keep an eyeout on our teams and peers supporting one another.
President Search
New this week, an opportunity for you toweigh in on the college president search. As you know, I am serving in theinterim role for this academic year only. I won’t be a candidate for the nextpresident. The search firm (Gold HillAssociates) that is working with our college islooking for input from you as we develop the job description for the president search.
We have an open house underway now (Monday,October 7) until noon in GHL 213. But we also have time set aside ThursdayOctober 10t from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Click herefor more information.
We’ll have announcements over the nextseveral weeks about the process as it gears up. We’ll have numerousopportunities for you to engage and be a part of this process. We need allvoices to be heard. Dr. Preston Pulliums of Gold Hill Associates will be oncampus all week soliciting feedback to inform our process in selecting the nextpresident.
Faculty award
Congratulations to Instructor Donna Aase,who will receive the Excellence in Teaching Award from the WashingtonAssociation for the Education of Speakers of Other Languages at their annual conference coming up this month. Donnateaches ESL students. She’s been directly involved in the curriculum design ofnearly all Clark’s ESL offerings. She’s designed an On-Ramp to Business classfor ESL students. She’s helped pilot ESL Foundations, Fast Track 1, and classesin IELP.
I’ll share with you a quote from hernomination. Colleague Catherine Johnston wrote, “Perhaps the mostremarkable aspect of all of Donna’s achievements and contributions is that shedoes all of it with such quiet pride. She is somehow calm yet enthusiastic,organized yet flexible, and self-confident yet receptive. Her dedication to herstudents, colleagues, and profession is unsurpassed. I am fortunate to haveDonna as an outstanding colleague, and I am enthusiastic in nominating her forthe WAESOL Excellence in Teaching award.” Well said, Catherine, andthank you, Donna, for your exceptional service.
B.U.I.L.D Training Program Success
Thank you everyone at Clark who expressedinterest in the B.U.I.L.D Training Program. The response has been overwhelmingand positive. It appears we have our first cohort ready to begin the year-longprogram. That’s exciting!
The purpose of the B.U.I.L.D.Training Program is to build intercultural competency and equity leadershipin Clark College staff, faculty and students. This program will provide power,privilege, and inequity opportunities through listening, learning andpracticing social equity, in alignment with Clark College’s Strategic andSocial Equity Plan.
Thank you to RashidaWillard, Interim AVP of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and yourteam for developing this new program. It recognizes that we will all makemistakes along the way but we are committed to build culturally humbleemployees and broaden understanding, intercultural leadership,and development around social equity
Clark College Grants
Yourgood work has resulted in three new grants awarded to Clark College. Here arethe latest awards.
WorkforceEducation Services (WES) was awarded $75,000 from SBCTC to expand resourcesto support students in maintaining eligibility for Basic Food Assistance. Thisfunding supports a Community Resource Liaison, located within WES, who providesindividualized support to help our community members navigate the publicbenefits system, including connection to activities to meet public benefitsrequirements. With almost one-in-five students reporting food insecurity, thisprogram will ensure that students have the support they need to maintaineligibility for basic food assistance.
WorkforceEducation Services (WES) was awarded $706,878 from SBCTC to help removebarriers and provide low-income students with access to education and skillstraining opportunities. The Basic Food, Employment, & Training (BFET)Program provides students with assistance with tuition, books and mandatoryfees; childcare payments; eligibility for federal food benefits, if previouslydenied; and educational advising and personal support. Serving 556 studentsduring 2018-2019, this program provides individualized support to help studentsachieve their educational and professional goals.
EconomicCommunity Development (ECD)has been awarded five Job Skills Training Grants toprovide specialized training – for a total of $238,445. Providing trainingin Lean Six Sigma and Quality Management Systems, these grants support ECD’swork to provide companies with training for their employees to meet regionalworkforce needs.
Student Job Support
CareerServices has supported 247 student visits for resume and/or cover letterassistance for student employment in the last two weeks – that’s 25 studentsper day! Thank you for work helping our students be successful in their jobapplication process for student employment. Because of the ctcLinkconversion, this process has been condensed into a shorter window of time.
Additionally,Career Services handled 145 visits for Institutional Hire referrals, and mostof those folks requesting more than one referral for each visit. Whilemany students were able to find work-study positions as part of their financialaid package, we are happy to report that 42 students (without financial aid)were hired into on-campus Institutional Hire positions.
Students at Penguin Pantry
The food you donated to Penguin Pantry atOpening Day is already in students’ homes – thank you for your generosity.Penguin Pantry served 60 students on our first day of classes, September 23.That’s up 25 percent from the average daily visit last year.
It’s a powerful reminder of the challengesour students face and our commitment to help them along the way. You may haveseen the story in the Columbian last last week on the rise of homeless studentsin Washington State. Here’s the link to that story. For me,it underscores for me, the importance of our work in providing resources andsupports for our students. Please remember that you can refer students who areat risk of becoming homeless to our Homelessness Prevention Program at www.clark.edu/cc/housinghelp.
Walking on Campus
TheWalktober Challenge is underway! Clark College, Lower Columbia College, andWashington State University Vancouver have challenged one another to see whichschool collects the most steps in the month of October. I’m all in! I hope youwill join me in walking on campus and tracking our steps.
HOW: Participants can use a fitness tracker or a mobile app to track steps.Use the Walktober daily log to indicate how many steps you take each day (youwill submit the log at the end of the challenge). The Walktober log is afillable form and will calculate your steps as you enter them. For yourconvenience, the log is attached and is also located on the Walktober Challengewebsite. Also, all types of physical activity can be converted to steps. Viewthe step equivalencychart on the challenge site or click the attachment.
PRIZES: Individual prizes will be awarded to the top three (3) participantswith the highest steps! We will also announce the department with the moststeps.
LEARN MORE: Clark CollegeWalktober Challenge (scroll to the bottom to view frequently asked questions).
HappyWalking Penguin Nation!
