CHANCELLOR’S C-DIRECT
April 13, 2016
Dear Colleagues:
Let me thank you all for reading C-DIRECT and providing corrections for what I might
have missed, offering congratulations for a point well made or asking to be involved in
activities or programs.
The latest edition had to do with participation in the Workforce Development and
Continuing Education, potential opportunities for ESL in China or for visiting Chinese
students or professionals and more. One of the new pieces of information I received had
to do with PTK, an honor society for community colleges that recognizes student
achievement. I was very pleased to learn that we have at least one more chapter at
Peralta, in addition to the one at Merritt. This chapter is at Laney College and here is the
communication from the chapter sponsor:
Good Morning Chancellor Laguerre,
I hope you are experiencing a pleasant morning.
It brings me joy to see your acknowledgement and support of the Phi Theta Kappa efforts
taking place on each campus. Alpha Chi Theta is our Laney College chapter and I am the
Advisor and Dean Chuen Chan is our lead administrator. With some additional support
and consistent effort, I am sure Laney will be represented at the next national event.
If you are able, please join us at our Induction Ceremony on April 15 th. I’ve sent calendar
placeholders to our administrators here at Laney College and an official invitation (which
includes a copy of the program) is coming today. Please feel free to RSVP below via the
survey monkey.
Sincerely, Brandi
So, I will join the celebration of the Chapter and encourage faculty and staff to join in to
recognize the achievement of our PTK scholars. More will be shared later in regard to
PTK.
Bonds Rating
Vice Chancellor Ron Little and I spent a good deal of time reviewing our bond
expenditures with Vice Chancellor Ikharo. We identified needs for the next couple of
years, as well as long-term commitments. We were able to take that knowledge to New
York with us for the bonds rating meetings, which went well. We presented information
about the District and the great things happening at our Colleges. Ron presented our
budget and financial condition. Johanna Bowes from KNN prepared us really well for
the meetings. We met with Fitch Rating and Moody Rating. We will hear in the next
couple of weeks what our ratings are, and then will proceed to sell some bonds for
some of our major projects at COA and Laney.
Biotech Partners
The Biotech initiative started over 20 years ago as Bayer’s commitment to the City of
Berkeley for its support of Bayer’s location. The program is designed to benefit
Berkeley City High School students and Peralta students, and includes eight paid
internships for our students. Due to many factors, including lack of leadership, the
Biotech program has languished. However, now we are in the process of revamping it.
While Merritt and COA were included in the early agreement, we are exploring ways to
more formally include both in the program. The short outline below gives you an idea of
the nature of our meetings over the next few months. This outline is based on our many
conversations with our faculty and industry:
Biotech Partners Meeting
Refocus
April 2, 2016
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Part I.
Differentiate between Laney and BCC Biotech programs to include emphasis with Biotech
Partners. The meetings will take place in the sequence listed below.
Meet with BCC and Laney and Partners (April 12)
Meet with Merritt, COA and Biotech Partners (to be scheduled)
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Meet with Merritt-BCC-Laney and COA to have a Peralta organized and disciplined
approach to working with Biotech Partners (to be scheduled)
All four Colleges meet with Biotech Partners (to be scheduled)
Part II.
Develop or modify or upgrade the Biotech Partners and our programs to effectively meet
the needs of students and industry.
Strengthen the relationship between high schools and Colleges. Chancellor will engage
Berkeley Unified Schools Superintendent in supporting our efforts.
Set standards and expectations (Colleges will do).
Propose the redesign of student experiences: internships versus fundamental learning.
Take a Ladder approach to Biotech Partners workings: some students ready while others
learn to be ready.
Focus on older students with post-baccalaureate experience for greater results and
industry satisfaction.
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Part III.
Circle with industry and Bayer to share what we have accomplished and start planning for
the future.
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Part IV.
Explore other aspects of the industry not directly connected to the Life Sciences, but with
Industrial Maintenance.
Health Services Program
Indra Thadani, pictured, Dr. Crawford and I met to discuss the
Health Services Program at Peralta. Indra shared the history of
the Program with us, and the partnerships that have or have not
worked out. We agreed that having the appropriate health
services available at each College makes sense. We also
discussed District-wide coordination and oversight of the
Student Health Centers. Furthermore, we intend to engage the
Peralta Nursing Program to provide ongoing, affordable and
competent health services to our students. We are energized by
the potential to do great things in the healthcare fields for our
students and our internal community.
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Meeting with Robert Brem
Robert, pictured, is a faculty member at COA and ran the
Public Services’ program. We met in order for me to
learn about his programs; he was interested in knowing
more about my commitment and my interest in
achieving it. We left with the hope that we will work
together to move the District to a new level. I
appreciated the frankness of our conversation, and the
commitment we each have to help our students succeed.
Robert also provided me with some thoughts in an email. Here’s what he wrote:
Choosing Greatness: Vision Matters
Robert J. Brem 4-11-2016
A great institution of learning is one which is grounded and active in the community and
wherein students interact with those dangerous, passionate, possessed beings who eat ideas
and who live thought. And once you’ve caught the smell of that, even if you reject it and say, “I
want something quite different out of life;” you’ll never again be uneducated.
Me thinks these are precarious times for people who dare to think great thoughts and have
great dreams. When we roll the dice to open up our "Life Chances" on the roulette wheel
within which the modern world system shapes us to "play" (framing life as a game!); we need
to remember our chances are greater or lesser depending upon that which happens at the
confluence of our ligatures and options. The profession of being educators is about liberating
one another from ligatures and opening options.
Too many people at all levels of life - and in our profession - are consumed by small minded
obsessions with the mundane details of what they believe people must say and do at the level
of bureaucratic minutia. They live within the limited options space with which their perceived
(or even actual) ligatures have left them.
And still more people are hobbled by average minded worries of possible prices entailed in
risk taking in their endeavors (and therefore they dare not take risks!). They grasp caution as
their only hope – as if a life preserver - and thereby render their lives and their organizations
mediocre. Life has no life preservers! People who assign themselves the label of "managers"
often nurture timidity of disposition.
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Small and average minded timid souls unconsciously - as if asleep - extinguish would be
innovative fire starters...
As Gurdjieff declared: We need to be in a war against sleep! This takes great minds.
Great minds are obsessed with ideas and take risks pursuing these reflexively as a habit of
mind. They eat ideas and live thought and in so doing magnify the potential of fire in the guts
and innovation of teams and learning organizational potentials! (Learning organization theory
that. See Peter Senge.) Great minds surround themselves with like-minded souls and nurture
greatness in rising stars (who as yet know not they might shine). Great minds derive joy in
igniting starlight in "the eyes" of those with whom they associate; whilst magnifying their own
internal fires in the company of the teams within which they associate ~ comprised of partners
(they see partners, not subordinates!) who see the path to more... "More" than merely the path
of the expected.
Great minds never respond to the world as expected.
There are three kinds of future: possible, probable, and preferable. To seek merely "openness
to possibility," while sounding nice, is the path of unwitting (again: sleep!) powerlessness. In
this context, "Nice" is a four letter word. People who would seek to be great minds have within
them an ignited fire towards a vision of a preferable future (vision matters!) and take lessons
from the past (letting go of the past) and apply those lessons in the present - and from this
crucible of agonistic tensions (praxis!) emerges a substantively real shot at that preferred
future.
Herein we ask ever: who is it we say we want to be? Who and what do we here at Peralta say
we want to be? And are we willing to pay the price? Great minds know the price of leadership
is risk! Leaders do not call themselves leaders. They simply are leadership!
Greatness is a choice; Mediocrity is a default.
Robert Greenleaf talked of being servant leaders in the pursuit of greatness; greatness is where
it is at according to Jim Collins. Greatness is a choice made by being fully awake; Mediocrity is a
default brought on us by being asleep. We need be in a war against sleep! .
Community Colleges are the unique Contribution of the American Ideal to the idea of
institutions of learning in the world. Other civilizations gave us universities. America gave the
world community colleges.
Peralta is in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. The people whom we serve have
great needs. When they contemplate (even if unconsciously): is this all that I am? They come to
us with their dreams of more than what the fates have to them assigned. These people whom
we serve need us to be great at serving them. They have the right to expect it. When we choose
the paths of small dreams and average minds and ligature bound action within the mere
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realms of the merely expected; we betray the public trust. We betray the people whom we
serve. This is administrative malpractice.
To me the goal here is to choose greatness. We do this by embracing the notion of
"community" in being a community college. We do this by becoming learning. We become
learning by "being" a **Learning Community - Community College** and in so doing we serve
the people who come to us with their dreams of more...
You and I talked of why we're here. We noted legacy. We noted that in the end, we are what we
leave to others. We should want ever to leave more... to give more... to be more...
Project Labor Agreement Meeting
Andreas Cluver, Ericka Curls-Bartling, Marie Hampton and I met to go over the Project
Labor Agreement (PLA). We resolved most of our differences and are ready to move
forward pending the Labor Council attorney’s opinion. We feel that we are in a very
good place with the PLA and will accomplish our goals. Once the Union has done its
work, the agreement will be presented to the Board of Trustees for action.
Jowel C. Laguerre, Ph.D.
Chancellor
“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by
obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”
-Booker T. Washington
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