CHANCELLOR’S C-DIRECT
September 7, 2016
Dear Colleagues:
I was honored last week for the opportunity to provide remarks for the Convocation of the new University of Kansas School of Languages, Literature and Culture. This School combines all forty languages that are taught at the University. As the Dean was sharing his thoughts about the reorganization to bring the languages together, I could only tell him I felt his pain, as a presidential candidate said several times. We discussed several lessons we have learned, one of which is a way to use the strengths of teaching and learning a variety of languages to broaden opportunities to engage more people in the common good and to bring people together. Learning languages is also a great way to involve Americans and English-speaking people who want to serve in areas where other spoken languages are rare. The concentration of the languages in the new School affords opportunities for those who want to major in one language and minor in another. Of course, the convocation was about languages and cultures. The speakers, including me, had great examples of life-changing opportunities we gained from speaking a few languages or at least one more language other than our mother tongue. The University is also in a great position to concentrate some good majors and recruit students from community colleges who want to earn a Bachelor’s degree in one of the available languages.
Participating in this event reminded me that a skill, like speaking more than one language, can be transformed into one’s vocation.
Time in Kansas
My time in Kansas was very engaged. I had the opportunity to reconnect with some of my former professors. The visit brought back home for me the role faculty play in the development of a student, even at the Master’s and Doctoral degree levels. Some of my professors came to my talk to support and hear me. The School of Education wanted students to hear from me and had a faculty gathering to seek my feedback and advice on what the University does in training future leaders. I also had the opportunity to speak to Honors Program students. The administrators and I discussed potential partnerships and they were very interested in the idea of multiple ways to serve the community better.
Transformation Taskforce Presentation
A taskforce of Academic Senate and administrators met over the summer and engaged in a series of discussions. They will share the results of their work with the Colleges and the District Office next week (July12-July16). The District’s Office session is Friday, September 16th. The focus is on student success and the different stages and steps needed to assist the success of our students. Come and hear how the taskforce has put the Student Success philosophy into practical terms. Your Senate Presidents will apprise you of the day and time of your presentation. If you miss yours, come hear the presentation with your District Office staff on Friday, September 16.
California Promise Conference
There were over 200 people in attendance from across the state at the Oakland Hilton. The new State Chancellor of the California Community Colleges addressed the conference participants and shared the success Long Beach City College has experienced as a result of hard and creative work to find creative solutions to send more students to College. Mayor Libby Schaaf, Superintendent Wilson and I shared our participation in the Oakland Promise. The presentation was well received.
Accreditation Report
Submitted by Dr. Annette Dambrosio
Dear PCCD Accreditation Stalwarts,
This past week, all four Colleges completed their final drafts of their respective ACCJC Follow-Up Reports, to include the 130-page final draft section of all 8 District responses to the ACCJC Recommendations.
Planning, writing, reviewing, and editing this body of Accreditation work was an enormous and complicated undertaking. The overall project necessitated frequent critical dialogue between the Colleges and the District and close collaboration among a multitude of PCCD constituents.
On September 13, all four College ACCJC Follow-Up Reports will be presented to the Governing Board for review, so we ask that any comments/questions about these Follow-Up Reports are sent to the Colleges (for College Recommendations) and to me (for District Recommendations) by this Friday, September 9. After the Governing Board has approved these final draft Reports, we will do one final editing for formatting, grammar, syntax, as well as final evidence review (by the way, the most difficult task for me with regard to reviewing evidence has been to ensure that each piece of evidence has an accurate title, so let’s pledge to clearly label all documents going forward).
All four Colleges currently have posted their respective Follow-Up Reports online (again, these Follow-Up Reports include the 130-page District response document). If you wish to review the District evidence, please visit the District Accreditation Web page (Blue button, right hand side). After the September 13 Governing Board review, live links will be created in the District section of the Follow-Up Reports.
Special thanks go to Antoine Mehouelly, Director of Instructional Technology, for transferring the District Evidence from our District Accreditation Dropbox to the District Accreditation Web page. The District has 207 pieces of evidence that include the District Staffing Plan, TCO Guidelines, and District Functions Matrix—no small task to post!
As you know, many PCCD individuals have put in much time to review the work of our District and Colleges and to report on our progress to meet the ACCJC Standards. Our work is not over, but we are getting close to the finish line. Please assist in verifying the accuracy of our work.
As always, I invite anyone to contact me at with questions, huzzahs, or criticisms pertaining to Accreditation.
You can also visit the District Accreditation Web page at http://web.peralta.edu/accreditation/
Success Greenspan Reminder
We received this email from Rick Greenspan at CoA:
Over the years, the COA Auto Dept. has accumulated numerous 80's and 90's vehicles, donated by former students and Peralta faculty and staff.
But we currently find ourselves short of post-2000 vehicles to use in our program.
If you have a post-2000 vehicle which you're thinking of donating to a charity or trading in on a new vehicle, we'd love to talk to you about donating the car to us, instead.
We are especially interested in hybrids and vehicles with "smart keys" (push button ignition), navigation systems, and all the other bells and whistles that didn't exist 20 years ago, but are now standard issue on many vehicles. It's much easier for us to teach these systems if our students can get hands-on experience working on vehicles that have them.
While we can't give you an official appraisal of the value of your vehicle (most people just use Kelly Blue Book), the Peralta Foundation can acknowledge your donation for use in a Peralta program. Assuming the vehicle has a valid registration and pink slip, we can take care of getting the vehicle out of your name in the DMV registry and can even tow the car if necessary.
If you have a car which fills the bill, please contact Candido Mejia, 510 748 2267, or . Candido can answer any questions you might have and work out the details of the transfer.
Thanks in advance for considering the College of Alameda Auto program for donating your vehicle!
Please support our auto program with your vehicle donations.
Building Trades
Trustees Bonilla and González Yuen, Mel King and I met with Andreas Cluver and Christine Garrett from the trade unions to discuss steps Peralta and the unions can take together to leverage our students and the training and opportunities for employment presented by the trades. Several follow-ups from both sides will occur with the intention of getting something done in January.
Douglas Bruce on Orton
Here’s an email I received from Douglas Bruce, Biomanufacturing Instructor at Laney College:
I was very interested to read in your C-DIRECT today about your and VP Yu's meeting with Orton Development regarding the Kaiser Convention Center redevelopment. I was wondering if Mr. Orton mentioned the 80,000 square foot basement in the Kaiser and the potential "community uses" they have in mind. The City of Oakland called for community uses in their RFP. I talked to Mr. Orton ("Eddie") at one of his listening tour meetings at the Oakland Museum last fall. I also got a tour of the Kaiser Convention Center with Kelly Kahn (City of Oakland) and Carole Bradley (Orton Development) back in February. Cynthia Correia of Carpentry and Danny Beasley of the FabLab were on the tour. I brought up the idea of a STEM incubator or joint advanced manufacturing space in the Kaiser basement involving CTE departments at Laney College. The idea was well received both by Mr. Orton and Kelly Kahn.
Additionally, I think a space designated as a biotech incubator would be an excellent proposal to pursue with Orton Development. As was mentioned in your May 11th C-DIRECT, the biomanufacturing program at Laney has started partnering with startups from Indie Bio (http://sf.indiebio.co/), a startup accelerator in San Francisco. My students worked with scientists from Ardra Bio in our lab in A-237. Since the work was done at Laney, it allowed other students in the program see a "real" project in action with the fledgling company. Furthermore, most of those students who participated got jobs with biotech companies or academic labs. The Chief Science Officer of Indie Bio, Ron Shigeta, is interested in partnering more with Laney College. The biggest obstacle I see in expanding partnerships with startups is available lab space at Laney. Having usable lab space next door at the redeveloped Kaiser Center would solve that problem, as well as free the program from having to schedule around chemistry classes (as we currently do).
Incubator labs like Indie Bio's in San Francisco are set up much like our labs in the Peralta District. They have lab benches, electrical, plumbing, and maybe a chemical fume hood or two. The individual startups or incubator organization purchase the specialized equipment needed for the projects. So, the setup costs may not be much.
I will look forward to Mr. Orton's presentation at Laney in September. If you are interested in pursuing this idea further, I could set up a meeting with the CSO of Indie Bio, Ron Shigeta.
Thank you for your time and have a great long weekend!
If you see something in C-DIRECT that can benefit your work, your program or our students, please let us know.
Football Success
The Laney (Peralta) Football team had great success over the weekend by beating the City College of San Francisco 18 to 13. City College is currently ranked first in the area. Congratulations to Coach Beam and the Coaching staff and most importantly to the young men who represented Peralta well. Here is an email from Coach Beam thanking the staff:
Chancellor Laguerre and Dr. Stanley:
I would like to take this time to acknowledge the hard work and enthusiasm that our support staff provided for our first home game. Without the tireless effort that these people put in, there is no way our first home game against City College would've been as successful as it was. It was the largest crowd that we've had here in over 10 years, and it was a huge success with a fun and exciting environment. Those people were Sakai Metcalf, Robert Crowley, and Kevin Evans, who got the programs created and stadium ready for the game, and Glen Pace, who provided security, ticketing and overall general supervision of the stands during the game. Thanks to Gary Albury, who in his first month on the job acted as our game administrator and made sure that both teams were well taken care of and the officials were well accommodated. I would like to take a chance to thank the Alameda County deputies that were here to provided security and make sure everybody felt safe coming to and from the game. Without all of your support this event wouldn't have been as successful as it was. Thank you all. JB
Jowel
Jowel C. Laguerre, Ph.D.
Chancellor
To celebrate the return of football:
Football combines the two worst things about America: it is violence punctuated by committee meetings.
-George F. Will
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