CHANCELLOR’S C-DIRECT
May 4, 2016
Dear Colleagues:
May is here, and together with spring, the close of the academic year is near. This month
of May will be both busy and exciting as multiple recognition programs take place, as
well as the culmination of our students’ work towards graduation. The commencements
are listed below. We look forward to your participation in as many of them as possible:
May 21
May 25
May 26
May 27
May 28
African-American Graduation
Merritt College Graduation
BCC Graduation
COA Graduation
Laney College Graduation
Cleanup at Laney and a Lesson in Leadership
Thanks to the efforts of Amy Marshall and the
members of the organizing committee, Cleanup
Day at Laney went very well. Over 40
employees and members of their households
were on hand. The first people on the scene,
beside Amy, included new Facilities Director
Bruce Shapiro, and several members of the
Laney administration, led by Window Cleaner
and President Pat Stanley. Cosmetology
Professor Elena Curry (no relation to Steph) brought students (pictured). Mrs. Laguerre
woke up some young people from her household to come help. Chief of Staff Crawford
brought her two little ones and everyone gave the quad a pretty good facelift.
At the Laney Cleanup, I had the opportunity to discuss the grounds and maintenance
staffing with Vice Chancellor Ikharo. I must admit that we have challenges. With the
high and visible usage of the campus, more needs to be done to keep it clean. I want to
thank all the volunteers and appreciate those who would have liked to participate but
could not. But we will provide multiple opportunities in the future to contribute to the
improvement of the grounds. The City of Oakland provided tools and supplies for the
cleaning, which was much appreciated. We encourage anyone who feels like organizing
a group for cleaning to do so and to coordinate it with Amy Marshall at the Laney
Business Office.
Speaking of Amy, I would like to share this communication from her that demonstrates
the spirit of brotherhood/sisterhood, and the whole principle of non-violence that has
its base in the love of humanity (all races):
You're probably familiar with the many things that happen in a college setting, but I
still find myself surprised and dumbfounded by the actions of some. Someone was
passing a flyer of sorts discouraging people from participating in the cleanup. While
at first I took it personally and felt quite downhearted, I realize that some people are
just that way. It did, however, make me realize just how hard your job is when it
comes to trying to work with all the different constituents (students, faculty,
administrators, vendors, board members, etc.). Turning the ship around from
"pejorative to positive" is not an easy task. I thank you for all of your efforts to try to
make the Peralta District a better, more positive place. Thank you for all that you do.
It certainly requires courage to take the high road and to be at one’s best even when
confronted with a lack of understanding and an attitude of meanness. Amy’s message
gives real meaning to the issue of working together that elevates all of us.
Swing Space for Student Center at Laney
Much has been shared and expressed about swing space for the rebuilding of the
Student Center at Laney College. Initial drawings showed that the swing space would
displace the current Laney gardens. These gardens play a critical role in the overall
environment of the campus and provide learning experiences for students. One of the
ideas espoused is moving a part of the garden to a different location during
construction and then returning the garden upon completion of the construction.
However, there might not have been enough discussion at the campus level on this
issue, so I have asked VC for General Services, Dr. Ikharo, to meet with the architects
and Laney Administration to further clarify the proposal.
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This meeting is to be followed by a meeting with the Laney Facilities Committee. Next
should be a meeting with the constituents of the gardens, then a meeting with the
individuals who will occupy the swing space and the new Student Center. Feedback will
be gathered throughout this process to give opportunities for input in the site selection
and alternative sites. Until these discussions are held, no work will be done on the
swing space or the gardens.
Visit to Morehouse College and Morehouse School of Medicine
I had the opportunity last week to spend a couple of days in Atlanta to explore a
potential partnership with the Morehouse Institutions. I visited the Civil and Human
Rights Center. I will not share much about it, except to say if you happen to go there (I
hope you do so), bring tissues or handkerchiefs and be ready to learn a lot and to be
transformed.
Additionally, my visit with officials from the Morehouse School of Medicine was quite
interesting and successful. The School has several emphases. Of interest, perhaps, to us
are the health policies, community health and training at the Continuing Education level.
Morehouse College presented some interesting possibilities for our students and the
community; I sat down with several faculty and administrators to explore opportunities,
such as:
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Some of our students on the West Coast could earn a Morehouse experience at
less than half the cost of their normal tuition.
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Formal transfer agreements that would allow our students to matriculate as
juniors into Morehouse College. Professors at Morehouse are interested in
working with our faculty to make students’ transition seamless.
Students who are enrolled in Dual-enrollment courses would have their college
credits transferred into Morehouse, saving time and money.
the possibility of Morehouse offering the last two years of a Bachelor’s Degree at
Peralta.
A Peralta/Morehouse College/Morehouse School of Medicine could serve as a
pipeline to the medical field for local students.
STEM experience offerings at Peralta that can be coordinated with Morehouse
Institutions.
The Provost has charged his staff to mobilize their resources to pilot a program in the
near future. At Peralta, we will start the conversation on how we can support our
students’ efforts. You may recall, this was one of the wishes I expressed during my
initial speech to the District on August 20. There remain many conversations to be had
internally as we explore moving forward.
Chancellor’s Cabinet Meeting
At the Chancellor’s Cabinet meeting last week, we spent a good amount of time
discussing our outreach efforts. We were joined by Maria Spencer, a recruiter at Merritt,
who came in place of President Ambriz-Galaviz. The gist of our conversation was the
importance of effective recruitment practices and capturing potential students’
information for proper follow-up.
We agreed to have recruiters team up so we may have more than one person at a time
during recruitment activities give greater attention to prospective students. Recruiters
will represent all Colleges, though promoting the campus they represent first.
Recruiters will need materials from all Peralta programs. An interest card is being
developed to capture students’ information and PeopleSoft is being adjusted to process
the information. We are going to need faculty and additional staff involved in the
recruitment efforts as the outreach is more formalized. Dr. Herb Kitchen and Dr. Mike
Orkin serve as the primary players in this endeavor.
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Tour of Patten University
I had an opportunity to visit Patten University. I was struck
by the beauty of the campus and the potential for success
and development, from student housing and classrooms to a
well-equipped kitchen and administrative space.
I will explore some opportunities with Patten for
partnerships in the future. The University has had a huge
enrollment decline.
Roundtable on Technology with Congresswoman Barbara Lee
Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and two other members of Congress representing the
adjacent East Bay Congressional Districts, met at Merritt College last Monday with
leaders from Science and Technology to discuss what needs to happen to maintain
America’s edge on innovation. Regional labs and universities were also represented. Dr.
Ambriz-Galaviz and Dean Dahlia Moore shared Merritt’s perspective and what the
College has to offer. The session was for the Members of Congress to gather information
they can use to set policies.
They heard from a variety of individuals on what has to happen in order to foster
innovation in the scientific and technological sectors. For community colleges, it is the
continuing recognition that we play a critical role in developing the workforce, not only
for innovation, but also for the implementation of innovation. The Federal
Administration has provided community colleges with a platform that is well
understood. We have reason to be anxious about the next administration and its
support for community colleges. We have reasons to advocate to ALL candidates Local,
State or Federal the importance of community colleges. We believe that the
government investment in educations and especially at the community college level is a
great investment and an important ingredient to an education for all.
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National Park Service ‘Parklet’ Architectural Realization at Laney
I hope you can experience Laney College’s ‘Parklet’ in person in the lobby of the Laney
Tower. Ron Betts, Chair of the Laney College Architectural Department, and his
students really put together an inspiration piece that the National Park Service
celebrated in an event last week at Laney. There was a big turnout and celebration for
the first Parklet at one of our colleges. The Laney Tower rand a news story about it, and
Jeff Heyman and his team helped with the PR for the event. Peralta TV produced a video
about the Parklet that you can watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOW0IziEY1M
Professor Betts wrote me about the project:
[…] It is a project that myself and my other instructor and our combined
Architectural Design studio students have been working on for the past semester
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plus. It is a rather large and complicated project which I accepted to do thinking that
we would have had access to our Fablab Shopbot in time for us to complete the
daunting task of cutting almost 90 sheets of 4 ft. by 8 ft. plywood sheets. […] The
project is a celebration of the National Park Service's Centennial anniversary, and
focuses on the De Anza Expedition of 1776, of which the Peralta family was an
original party of. It is intended to be an experiential exhibit and will be assembled
and displayed in the Tower lobby from April until the end of the year […] [I]f you
were to look at we have done up to this date and then see and experience what we
will have accomplished I believe you would be pleased[…] The individuals I have
been working with at the National Park Service and The Peralta Hacienda are all
equally excited and will be inviting people they know as well - possibly the Mayor of
Oakland and others, so I hope we can pull it off and be proud of what our students
and our Dept. have accomplished.
Professor Betts added in a subsequent email:
[…] As for the exhibit that we did, it will ultimately end up at The Peralta Hacienda
Historical Park here in Oakland - they will be developing an outdoor museum and
will have the exhibit on display for the public. Their website
is: http://www.peraltahacienda.org/pages/main.php?pageid=1&pagecategory=1
We are definitely proud of what our students and dept. have been able to accomplish
and believe we will continue to not only improve our program and develop exciting
opportunities for our students but will also continue to prepare our students for
transfer to a 4-yr. university program - I was just informed yesterday that at least 7 of
the 8 students […] were accepted to UC Berkeley Architecture program […] Teaching
is an honor. […]
Meeting with Academic Affairs Staff
Following my recent reorganization of some District Office departments, I held a
meeting with Academic Affairs staff to get their input on the changes. They offered
several suggestions on areas for improvement ranging from curriculum to the Website.
I engaged them in a brainstorming session on the development of the job description
for the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs. They were very helpful.
Chancellor’s Discussion with PBC
I had a productive conversation with the District Planning and Budgeting Council. PBC
serves as the consultative body for Peralta. It has a large membership. At play is the
clarification of the role of Cabinet vis-à-vis PBC. Furthermore, the Council was
interested in knowing what happens to resolutions and recommendations it makes to
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Cabinet or the Chancellor. We discussed a variety of ways to formalize both
recommendations and resolutions passed by the body and how to hold both the
Chancellor and the Council accountable. The meeting afforded a nice review of the
procedures of PBC. We agreed to meet again on May 27 to discuss several items:
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The potential for a reformed PBC, with the Chancellor chairing the Council as a
participatory governance council;
An evaluation of the work of PBC, and,
A sharing of overall plans and activities from the Chancellor’s Office,
and discussions on how to work more closely on our planning process
in the future
Community Outreach
This past Sunday started our effort to reach
out to the faith-based community. The
churches will be giving me time to present the
Peralta Colleges to their congregants, and I
encourage the audience to provide their
children, grandchildren or themselves the gift
of higher education. One of our recruiters
stays after the church service to provide
information on how to apply and enroll. This
week, I was at Brookins MAE Church and was
also joined by Carolyn A. Cornelius. It so
happened that one of the pastors is also the
principal of the Carl B. Munck Elementary
School near Merritt. We discussed potential
partnerships with Merritt College.
Vice Chancellor Ron Little and AAA Rating
This announcement by Vice Chancellor Little does not adequately tell the story of how
he has revolutionized the ratings for public schools and community colleges. While the
rating agency Moody has not fully accepted his wisdom, the agents for Moody
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acknowledged that they are convinced and have adjusted their rating accordingly. Here
is Ron’s announcement:
Congratulations! Our trip to NYC was uber-successful.
In addition to being the first CCD with a AAA GO rating from Fitch under their
special tax methodology, we share the distinction of receiving the highest Issuer
Default Rating (IDR) for any K-14 district in California at AA (!). Berkeley USD also
received AA earlier this year. It is worth noting that at the AA IDR, Fitch has rated
you higher than both Moody's and S&P (Aa3/AA-) even when factoring the general
fund and your pension and OPEB obligations.
[…] Still waiting to hear from Moody’s.
Ron also provided me with a copy of this email from Erwin Tam at KNN Public Finance:
Congratulations. PCCD is officially the first CCD to get to Fitch AAA.
Fitch Ratings has assigned a “AAA” rating on the District’s upcoming issuance of
Refunding and New Money General Obligation Bonds. The “AAA” Rating takes into
account the strong local economy, tax base and the District’s overlapping debt, as
well as the District’s statutory lien on tax revenues. Along with the rating, Fitch has
assigned the District a “AA” Issuer Default Rating. This rating takes into account the
District’s operations and management, additional financial liquidity in addition to
the local economy, tax base, and overlapping debt.
Baseball Team Wins Championship: We are
Number One in Baseball as Well!
By Scott A. Strain, Adjunct Journalism Instructor,
Laney College
The Laney College baseball team defeated Los
Medanos College 4-2 Thursday afternoon in
Pittsburg to win outright the Bay Valley
Conference championship for the first time since
2012. The Eagles' final regular season home game
is Friday at 2:30 p.m. against College of Marin.
Laney has won nine straight games. The Northern
California Regional will be played next weekend.
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Merritt College Achievement and Service Awards
Merritt College held its achievement and
recognition event last week. It was a nice gathering
for the end of the academic year. Several faculty
and staff were recognized for their achievement
and years of service to Merritt. Congratulations to
everyone who was recognized.
Unionist of the Year Award
This activity recognized the many people who contribute to the Labor Union movement
in Alameda County. Assemblyman Rob Bonta was recognized for his support. The
Nursing Association also received a service award. This was a great gathering of
individuals who work to make our community thrive. I had the chance of sharing time
with the President of the Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners, Earl Hamlin. He
agreed that our Aviation program should make a presentation to their Commissioners
in the near future. It was a great place to connect and network with a lot of individuals.
Drs. Blake, Crawford, Stanley and Webb were also in attendance.
Accreditation Report
This week, I received the following Accreditation Report from Dr. Annette Dambrosio:
This past Friday, I presented to PBC “rough working drafts” of responses to each of the
8 District ACCJC Recommendations. The purpose of this presentation was to continue
to further widen the readership of our draft Accreditation documents to assure that
our work elicits broad critical dialogue.
As a reminder to all, the “leads” are: V. C. Little, responses to Recommendations 1, 2,
and 8; V. C. Ikharo, response to Recommendation 3; V. C. Orkin, responses to
Recommendations 4 and 6; V. C. Largent, response to Recommendation 5, and,
Chancellor Laguerre, response to Recommendation 7. In addition to the leads, each
response represents contributions from many stakeholders. I have to say that we are a
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hard working crew; our aim is to thoroughly address each ACCJC Recommendation
and to demonstrate our commitment to meeting the ACCJC Standards.
As I told the PBC, there is no doubt that we Accreditation writers have inadvertently
omitted important information, or may have included erroneous information in our
current drafts, which is why a thorough critique is key to the authenticity of these
rough drafts. Additional content will be integrated as it arises and in some cases,
information may be deleted and/or moved. In fact, we will all review the documents
again when they are completely edited and refined over the summer. Everyone will
have the opportunity to critique the final Recommendation narratives once again at
August Flex.
I assume that the PBC members have distributed the rough working drafts to all
constituents. What is most important is that the documents are critiqued with great
care, and those areas that might need substantive improvement, are identified as soon
as possible.
On Monday, May 2, I met again with representatives from each College who are
actively involved in coordinating and writing the Accreditation Follow-Up Reports
from their respective Colleges. Our small Accreditation group is dedicated to ensuring
that District Reports are integrated smoothly into the College Follow-Up Reports and
will continue to meet throughout the summer. My thanks again to T. Karas and W.
Wilson (COA); A. Trotter and M. Kelly (Merritt); M. Chen and T. Vo-Kumamoto (BCC); L.
Celhay and M. Whalen (Laney) –all for serving on this important task (thanks to D.
Richardson from Laney for joining us too). We pledge that our Accreditation Reports
will be in good shape (much broccoli has been consumed in the process)!
As I work to coordinate the District Recommendation narratives, I am struck with the
enormity of the educational planning inherent in the coordination of four Colleges and
the District. I am impressed by some of the structures that have been instituted and
am pleased to assist with ideas to refine those structures where needed. I enjoy the
work here and appreciate the work so many of you have put forth when I have asked
for information and explanations.
If you want your own set of the District Recommendation working drafts, please send me
an email: adambrosio@peralta.edu
As always, I invite anyone to contact me with questions, huzzahs, or criticisms
pertaining to Accreditation.
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Meeting with Chemistry Faculty
I had a meeting with several Chemistry faculty members last week. They shared with
me how they have worked together in the past (Laney and Merritt) to ensure a good
flow of Chemistry courses for all students. They have synchronized their courses to
make all of them viable. With BCC now offering some of the same courses, they have
expressed interest in coordinating with BCC. We are looking at bringing everyone
together to coordinate these efforts. I was impressed with how faculty have coordinated
their work and the level of collegiality that exists around this issue. I encourage faculty
to continue to work together to provide access to students, but also to ensure the best
educational outcomes for our students and the enhancement of our programs across
the District.
Jowel C. Laguerre, Ph.D.
Chancellor
In Honor of Cinco de Mayo, I present these quotes
(borrowed from a poster in a science lab office at Laney College):
Never reply when you are angry.
Never make a promise when you are happy.
Never make a decision when you are sad.
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