CHANCELLOR’S C-DIRECT
April 20, 2016
Dear Colleagues:
Aviation Center
I often refer to the fact that College of
Alameda – and by default, the rest of the
Peralta Colleges – has an Aviation
Program. It is located at 970 Harbor Way
in Oakland, north of the Oakland
International Airport. Classes are taught
late afternoon to evening five days a week.
The Program has several key staff
members led by Professor Hoi Ko and
supported by Esther Cheng, pictured with
Trustee Bonilla. The Port of Oakland
donated the property to us. The Program was suspended for a short time, due to staff
attrition. It is now doing very well and enrolls over seventy students per semester, with
another seventy wanting to get in. We are challenged not only in renovating the
facilities and keeping them well run, but also in accommodating students who want to
enroll in the Program. The Aircraft Maintenance Technology Program is a real asset to
all our Colleges and the community.
Association of American Community Colleges (AACC) Conference
I spent a couple of days at the annual AACC Conference in Chicago last week. CEOs from
the over 1200 community colleges in America, and the growing number of colleges
from the rest of the world, attend this annual event. The Conference’s activities featured
recognition of PTK scholars from the Coca-Cola Foundation at a gala breakfast. The
incredible stories of students who have overcome difficulties in their lives to become
scholars and technical professionals made everyone cry. There was a dinner gala as
well featuring all categories of recognition – my favorite was the faculty heroes for
innovation. I look forward to nominating one or two of our programs and our faculty for
this award next year, and am seeking feedback from you on programs and faculty we
can nominate.
Additionally, educators, staff, faculty
or administrators are recognized for
their service to community colleges.
This year, former Los Rios and
California State Chancellor Brice
Harris, pictured, was recognized for
his long and outstanding service,
along with John Roueche and others.
Then, there are all kinds of other great
programs that take place. The different ethnic groups have events that are shared
among them. There are great keynote speakers and workshops. You discover things at
this kind of the conference that blow your mind. For example, I attended a workshop on
global education. While I was not surprised at the great work being done at the
community colleges in Canada, I was shocked to learn that France is doing work in
transfer from community colleges. This movement is brand new and not widely known:
Very intriguing for a Francophone.
Then there is this: “The Federation is a membership organization for associations,
institutions or individuals who work in the professional and technical education and
training (PTET) sector. The WFCP began out of a desire to have a forum for those in
PTET to talk on a regular basis, learn from each other and share experiences. Today, the
Federation’s membership spans over 60 countries, with just over 50 members. The
WFCP acts a conduit to link our members, offering them quality services, networking
and collective action. This is done in a number of ways; the two most common being our
Affinity Groups and bi-annual World Congress.” Exciting stuff!
The exhibit hall presents a rich array of vendors and associations for almost everything
you need: retirement products, transfer institutions, welding vendors (I took something
for our Welding Department), and the one that interested me the most this time around
– enrollment management products. They featured everything we could need to bolster
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our enrollment management efforts. Oh, one last favorite: A company that has helped
colleges and universities take their student orientation to a higher level.
Next year, I look forward to having some of my colleagues also attend the conference
with me. In addition, it is my hope and sincere desire that we have a PTK Coca-Cola
scholar, as well as some faculty who could be recognized. I would like us to present a
couple of workshops, too. We have 12 months to make it happen. The venue will go
from freezing cold Chicago to New Orleans. It was so cold in Chicago this year that
someone from Siberia noted it.
Meeting with Josie Camacho
Ms. Camacho is the Treasurer and
General Secretary of the Labor Council
of Alameda. This was our first meeting,
made possible by some of our Trustees.
We discussed a variety of issues related
to the support of the Labor Council by
the District. Of particular interest to us,
is the access to jobs and work
opportunities for the unions that can
benefit our residents in Alameda
County. We discussed some active
steps that will enable us to be better
connected to our Unions.
Meeting with Biotech Executive Director, BCC and Laney
Doug Bruce, Leslie Blackie, Barbara DesRochers, Denise Richardson, Peter Crabtree,
Krista Johns, Pat Stanley and I met with Lynda Grayson, Executive Director of Biotech
Partners. We met once with all Colleges, but decided to break it down and meet with the
two Colleges where a stronger partnership has already existed. Bayer has funded this
partnership in order to tie high school students (primarily Berkeley High and Oakland
Tech) to the community Colleges (BCC and later Laney) and to industry. The Program
provides support for the students from high school to college. Our discussion supported
making the Program a true partnership and taking ownership of students’ success. We
agreed to ensure that the students are incorporated into the Colleges. The Bayer
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Program can strengthen our equity efforts, as the participants tend to fit the categories
of low-income and students who are historically underrepresented in the field of
science and higher education and are least likely to succeed.
We identified several next steps for the partnership:
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Working together to help students fully understand the reality of the science fields, so
they may apply themselves.
Working with high schools to help them support the students’ understanding of the
field, and what it takes to succeed in higher education.
Reforming tutoring support the students are receiving and incorporating the college
tutoring support into the academic support of the Colleges.
Holding an orientation and summer bridge program for students, as well as including
their participation in the biotech/science boot camp at BCC.
Exploring other aspects of the biotechnology industry for the students to participate in.
You may refer to the discussion with Dr. Kehm and Ms. Ostrander from two weeks ago.
Reaching out to officials of the participating schools for greater recognition and policylevel support of the Program.
Connecting the College with high school faculty.
Designing a support system for students that would incorporate their parents: Many
have to skip classes to support their relatives.
Investigating a reform of the internships supported by Biotech Partners.
A smaller number of people from this group will meet on April 26 to continue the
conversation and will include support systems with counselors Douglas Cobb (Laney)
and Hermia Yam (BCC). The meeting will be co-hosted by Leslie Blackie and Barbara
DesRochers. It was the type of meeting that makes you happy to have the opportunity
to support the work of the faculty that leads to student success.
Meeting with Presidents
Our last meeting with the Presidents featured an action item to deal with – very
seriously – the issue of the achievement gap. Reducing the achievement gap was an
issue that was prominent in the interview for the selection of the current Chancellor.
My response to the question, which, by the way, was an oral presentation, was that
resolving the achievement gap requires the leadership of the College Presidents
supported by the Chancellor. We took a step in that direction last week when we
examined what we were doing and how the sum of the parts does not equal the whole.
The Presidents took this our recent discussion to heart and are looking at a more
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methodological way to bring together all the support services available for our students
(first-years, African-Americans, Latinos, low-income, etc.). This approach would include
reports to the District and the Board every semester regarding what is being done and
the direction of the indicator (the “needle”) on these efforts.
CiviCorps Partnership Meeting
CiviCorps is a community-based organization that attends to the needs of youth who
have dropped out of school and lack the proper background to move forward. The
organization places the students in jobs and provides additional courses for them to
catch up with their credits in order to graduate from high school.
The organization has partnered with Merritt College in the past, but for whatever
reason, the partnership has dissolved. Drs. Crawford and Webb and I met with their
organization’s executives, Joseph Billingsley and Gregory Vaughan, to rekindle the
relationship. I must say that they were very grateful that we would allow their students,
and our potential students, to take courses like “College Success.”
They felt honored to be considered for the opportunity to work with our faculty and
staff, so their students can eventually become ours. I did, at some point, share with
them that it was our duty to welcome the young people they are working with. This is a
clear case of the community showing us their gratitude, which we ought to emulate.
They have as an ultimate goal, a desire to work with our Basic Skills faculty in order to
ensure that they help students to matriculate at the college level when they come to us.
Their partnership requests spans all four of our Colleges. I feel privileged to have this
organization as a partner.
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Rick Putz of Local 39
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Putz, who represents our engineers, grounds-keepers
and custodians. We discussed some probable changes and agreed to dialog about them
during the summer. We expressed mutual support for the well being of the members of
the unit. We both agreed that, to the extent they want or need, I would meet with the
stewards of the union from the District and the Colleges. I am looking forward to
greater communication with these professionals, who are key to the success of our
students and our image in the community.
Meeting with Wellington Jackson
Mr. Jackson has been working with Merritt College to provide
Emergency Service training for students at Merritt. Sean Gasciè
runs our Fire Academy. Their work has been featured in a
documentary, and the Department of Justice visited them three
weeks ago to learn of the effectiveness of their Program. The
Program targets youth who have ventured away from the norm
and are in contact with law enforcement and the courts. The latter
take a special interest in the Program as it has transformed many lives already. We
scheduled a follow-up meeting with administrators at Merritt to provide greater
support for the Program and to develop our outreach even more.
Meeting with AS Presidents
I had a very productive meeting with the executives of the DAS. The topics revolved
around activities to move the District forward in a way that contributes mightily to the
lives of the most vulnerable of our students. An opportunity for those who had no hope
of going to college, through our non-credit offerings, especially in CTE and ESL, can
transform lives. Our aim is to have them continue to college or to have the necessary
skills to improve their employment potential. We want to organize and motivate around
these concepts in order to bring together disparate activities to form a coherent whole
that will enhance the intelligence of all the activities. A fundamental aspect of the whole
Program is to help individuals enhance their earning potential and go from poverty to
sustainability. As I mentioned to our colleagues before, we MUST find ways to not only
enhance our enrollment, but to increase our income. The focus needs to be on both
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pushing for the state to take better care of our students through enhanced funding, and
developing a mechanism where we can to improve our self-sufficiency. In a crass way,
we should try to convert every dollar we are given into $1.25. In that sense, our
activities with a Workforce Development unit will include powerful organization of our
faculty, staff, students and Trustees for advocacy at the national, state and local levels.
Our second topic at the 10+1 meeting revolved around the establishment of the
Academic Affairs Office. The overall goal is to have an academic leader who can
EFFECTIVELY facilitate the work of the faculty. She/he will engage faculty and support
their innovation, not hinder it. Furthermore, she/he will work with the academic
administrators to ensure processes, policies and activities make sense and are reviewed
routinely for effectiveness.
We discussed the need to take care of some of our current issues. To that end, I want to
remind everyone that Trudy Walton-Keys is working with Mike Orkin to evaluate the
effectiveness of our Student Services units, to ensure that we are meeting the needs of
our students. We will also have some conversations based on the resources I identified
at AACC in Chicago. They will help us streamline our processes and thoroughly evaluate
how we are handling our students’ interaction with our staff.
Dr. Donald Godbold Visit
Former Peralta Chancellor Donald Godbold
stopped by for a short visit. It was my first time
meeting him. He shared with me his experience
during his career at Peralta and the District
Office.
I was happy to see one of my several
predecessors and hope to welcome more of them,
as well as former Board members. If anyone has
contact information, Dr. Riley and I would
welcome it, especially information regarding
past Board members.
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Meeting with William Highsmith
Mr. Highsmith is the lead custodian at Laney. We visited about the needs and the hard
work of his group. He explained to me, in clear terms, the challenges of Laney as an
open campus and how they are not able to stay ahead of our needy students and the
homeless population in the neighborhood. What breaks my heart, though not new, is
the fact that many of the homeless people are our students. We discussed various things
the District, the City and Laney can do to support our homeless students first, and the
homeless population second. I intend to visit the custodians at Laney, and at the other
Colleges as well over the next few months.
Heather Sisneros and Title 9 at Laney
Professor Sisneros, a Kinesiology faculty member at Laney, paid me a visit regarding
some facilities’ issues the College has been dealing with for the past few years. Her
greatest concern was the involvement of key stakeholders in our plans to provide
appropriate facilities for our female students, as well as the general student population,
that are taking Kinesiology courses. We plan a tour of the facilities in order to better
understand the needs that we should address and the incorporation of the stakeholders.
PTK Induction
I had the
privilege of
attending the
PTK induction
ceremony that
took place at
Laney College.
Brandi Howard,
the advisor,
pictured in the
center,
surrounded by
this year’s
Inductees, did a great job with the Program. She was awarded a beautiful advisor’s pin
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from PTK’s headquarters. I hope we can bring together all the PTK chapters from the
District so that we can make a powerful statement about students’ scholarly and
academic achievement, as well as service. Dr. Crawford will work with the VPSS’s from
all the Colleges, as well as the Student Activities Directors, to bring the chapters to a
greater level of recognition.
Jowel C. Laguerre, Ph.D.
Chancellor
“Participating in Phi Theta Kappa programs constantly reminds me that, as I serve
others, I receive much more than I give, which is the true power of service.”
- Michelle Davis, 2014 All-USA Community College Academic Team member
“I almost dropped out of college until I learned about Phi Theta Kappa. It gave me a
reason to continue school.”
- Ian Rogers, recent alumnus and student at the University of Mississippi
“Individuals like to be a part of success, and the aim of Phi Theta Kappa is all about
success and excellence in scholarship, leadership, service and fellowship. It is more
than a membership; it can be a very rewarding life-long experience.”
- Dr. Kim LaFevor, advisor to the Athens State University Alumni Association
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