Chancellor S C-Direct s2

CHANCELLOR’S C-DIRECT

July 14, 2017

Dear Colleagues:

This is almost the middle of the summer already, and I want to give you an update on our activities. I will endeavor to be back in touch around the second week of August. Much has been happening, as the summer is still a vibrant part of our academic life. For example, the Governing Board’s robust retreat was held in early July.

Our tentative budget is developed and, as we promised the PBC, a small group of faculty and staff will be meeting this summer with the Finance team to review the budget. Some important items they will be looking at are:

·  The current use of funds;

·  The use of new funds that have come as a result of the new budget;

·  The use of parcel tax; and

·  The allocation of College budgets based on the new Budget Allocation Model (BAM).

The Senate Presidents continue to work hard on your behalf and will continue to meet with us to review and finalize some issues and, most importantly, to prepare for the upcoming academic year.

PBIM Review Committee

The PBIM Review Committee (Summer Work group) held two meetings this June to continue work on refining our overall Planning Budgeting Integration Model (PBIM). Three subcommittees have been working on the following:

August Summit Planning, to include training and workshops

Decision Making Model, to include a graphical depiction of Decision-making

PBIM Manual and Bylaws, to include Calendar for Meetings

The Summer Work group is chaired by Yashica Crawford and includes the following participants: Anna O’Neal, Cleavon Smith, Fed Bourgoin, Evelyn Lord, Marybeth Benvenutti, Iolani Sodhy-Gereben, Barbara Des Rochers, Jason Cole, Jeffrey Lamb, Joseph Bielanski, Laura Leon-Maurice, Tim Brice, Annette Dambrosio, Tram Vo-Kumamoto, Windy Franklin, Rochelle Olive, and Mario Rivas. Participants will continue to refine the PBIM over the next month or so. A date will be established for our current Planning and Budget Council to convene a special meeting prior to the August Summit to affirm this year-long revision effort.

Visit to East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC)

In the heart of Oakland is the East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC), which has been led by the same President, Regina Jackson, for over 20 years. There are two main programs there: The regular daily program during the school year and a summer program. The summer program is led by youth leaders who are either current participants in the program or who graduated from the program, and are in college or have graduated from college. The regular program has 1,500 young people and the summer program has 400. A number of the regular staff are graduates from the program. Young people who participate in this program have a college graduation rate of 86%. Just about all of them are prepared for college. Some young people start attending EOYDC at the age of 5.

EOYDC also offers a GED program for those who did not complete a high school diploma. The program is led by a graduate from Laney. Ms. Jackson wrote, “Students stay with us into careers. Our pathway to college and career program boasts an 86% college completion rate in 4 years. These days more of our students are pursuing graduate degrees. We help them get into college and careers and mentor them along the way. For our high school equivalency rates after graduation, 50% go to junior college and 50% head straight to work.”

Last year, one of our counselors from the College of Alameda (who participated in the program) taught a College Success class at EOYDC. Ms. Jackson is forever grateful to Peralta because, after high school, COA was the place that welcomed her and helped her be where she is today. Vice Chancellor Brown and Associate VC King will be working with the EOYDC to provide opportunities for more classes at the facilities for the good of the community. EOYDC is located at 82nd and International Boulevard. It is a community educational oasis.

MLDAP End of Year Celebration

Several members of the first MLDAP program attended the end of the year gathering. It was the last session for the class. They spoke of the success they had during the year. The greatest benefit was the connections they were able to make throughout the District. They feel that this knowledge alone made a big change in their lives. They were proud of the projects they pioneered: Employee orientation, training for existing employees, research on retention and a developing proposal for universal First Year Experience; the adoption of a three-system process to make our students’ experience less hectic, and the theme “Your Successful Peralta Journey.”

As President of Solano Community College, I started a leadership program that was very invigorating. We had a great consultant who ran it for us. My initial assessment of Peralta was that we needed a new direction in leadership development. Starting with discovering that employee Sui Song held an MBA, I started wondering who else had talents we were not tapping into at Peralta. I designed the Academy as an effort to exploit these leadership talents. I was joined by Chief of Staff Crawford and Interim Associate VC King to make the Academy a real success.

We will not claim that all MLDAP participants were successful at one high level, however, many took advantage of the opportunity to learn. The number of individuals who received new assignments or promotions does not tell the full story of the actual growth some of the participants experienced, as well as what we learned from them in turn.

This first class was very special. A group of them will continue to help facilitate the new group. The new participants are putting forth their own efforts and taking what the first group did to a new level, a side effect of the Academy I never envisioned. Hidden leaders are being discovered to continue to lead Peralta.

Just as Siri Brown became our newest Vice Chancellor, we hope to have the potential to staff other leadership positions from within and to continue to strengthen leadership stability. The more stable we make the administration, the easier to focus consistently on student success and student learning, as well as institutional success.

Meeting with Charise Fong from EBALDC

I met with Charise Fong, Chief Operating Officer at the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC). The organization serves the whole community. She and I discussed partnerships with Peralta, following a conversation she had with President Bonilla. We discussed support for their local activities for self-sustainability. A couple of the areas we discussed were procurement, especially in the areas of food service and food supplies, and contracts for small businesses. Ms. Fong will develop a proposal for us to discuss in detail with our Purchasing Department and others.

World Refugees Day at Laney

A huge thank you to Associate Dean Jackie Graves and Community Liaison Atiya Rashada for hosting the World Refugees Day at Laney this past Friday. The event was a major success. Many community-based organizations were on hand to provide opportunities for the refugees. Thanks to the new focus we have on outreach, the participants were able to receive information about attending our institutions. More than anything, the refugees were linked to the one resource that can change their lives: A Peralta education. I shared that hope with them.

Remembering Marion Martin

Professor Martin was buried on Friday. Many Laney and Peralta colleagues attended the funeral. Some students, faculty and staff spoke at the funeral to show how much she cared for her colleagues, their families, and our students with disabilities. I had several interactions with Professor Martin and was able to share some observations about the loving person she was. She told me she was watching me to make sure I was doing good things. We know we have lost a kind and caring member of our faculty.

Royl Roberts, Sadiq Ikharo On Emergency Preparedness

Following a productive discussion on emergency preparedness I had with Trustee Weinstein, I met with V.C. Sadiq Ikharo and Risk and Safety Programs Manager Royl Roberts to get a briefing on our emergency preparedness. We have a District Safety and Security Committee and all the Colleges are represented. They work together to discuss the issues we face and to coordinate common activities. Dr. Weinstein pointed out some resources to make a website for Emergency Preparedness, once it is developed, more user friendly. (User friendly webpages is an issue, though, with our entire website, as borne out by an audit.) To address this issue of safety and security awareness for our employees, however, there are several activities being planned for the coming academic year. I have asked V.C. Ikharo and Risk and Safety Manager Roberts to present our plans to the Governing Board at our October meeting.

Meeting with Rector from Buenos Aires

Ernesto Villanueva, the Rector of the Universidad Arturo Jauretche (UNAJ) came to San Francisco last week and met with some of us to discuss a potential relationship between Peralta and UNAJ. This introduction was made possible by Fabian Banga, a native of Argentina and Professor at BCC. He met the Rector two weeks prior in Buenos Aires during his trip to his home country. Rector Villanueva enjoyed learning about our system of education and was intrigued with how we educate. He is very interested in student exchanges (perhaps a summer program in Buenos Aires for our students) and/or sending some of their students here as international students. UNAJ is also very interested in distance education. This visit fit perfectly into the new vision VCAA Siri Brown has for the International Education Program at Peralta.

Enrollment Management Retreat

Assistant VC Tamika Brown recently held a work session retreat on Enrollment Management. The theme of the Retreat was to increase our enrollment through coordinated efforts and to have all employees play a role in the effort of enrollment. A serious point discussed was the need to provide technological, logistical and financial support for the frontline staff. Often they are left alone to deal with multiple issues and with an abundance of students that challenge the resources available to help them. This need to provide temporary help through regular and seasonal employees is obvious. We will be looking for volunteers to help during the month of August to support students who desire to enroll.

Meeting with Lori Fogarty, Executive Director Oakland Museum

Laney President Gilkerson and I met with the Oakland Museum Executive Director last week. It was a first meeting for us with Ms. Fogarty. She expressed her interest in partnering with Laney since we share the neighborhood. There are many opportunities here, including internships for our students. Our faculty and staff could also have access to the museum as partners. President Gilkerson will schedule a special tour and meeting for the other Presidents to ascertain the full range of partnerships Peralta could have with the Oakland Museum.

Science Jam

Science Jam is not going to happen this year. It is, however, a program with a lot of potential to introduce Oakland science students to STEM in a rewarding environment. Due to lack of support, however, Merritt Chemistry professor Jennifer Shanoski was not able to generate the 30 students she needed to make the program work. She will nevertheless start working on outreach this summer for a successful launch in the summer of 2018. The program will bring the students to the Merritt campus with much support along with a stipend of $1,000 for each student.

Statement on Retention: Roles of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs

In my recent budget message, I stated that the role of faculty in retention is even greater than that of Student Services. That prompted a Student Services professional to object to what appeared to be the minimization of the role Student Services plays in the retention of students. We had a very frank discussion on the role Student Services personnel play in the success of students. We discussed also how critical the faculty member is in the process, but that we have not accentuated that point. We both agreed that Student Services has no match regarding student access to college. Finally, let me simply clarify that faculty and student services both are vitally important in the activity of student retention.

First Steps Toward 20,000 FTES

Summer classes start of our efforts toward a much larger enrollment than we have had. We are calling on all to contribute to that achievement. We negotiated with the Unions that if we reach 20,000 FTES, we will make the temporary raise permanent. While it is a daunting task, it is one that challenges us to be at our best. So far, responses are encouraging. For example, SEIU leaders took our message to heart and sent communications to all their members to remind them of the goal and to let us know the things we could do to improve. The Assistant VC for Enrollment Management has organized some staff that have stepped up their efforts and creativity to move us forward. The summer enrollment numbers, are our first indication of where we are, counting on next summer as well, will give us a better picture of our enrollment prospects.

Meeting with Stephen Baiter

Mel King and I met with Stephen Baiter from WIOA to discuss the effect of the WIOA budget cut. The cut would zero out the funding for Merritt College. While Merritt has struggled to make good on the investment in WIOA, the cut is a major blow to the relationship. I am working with Mr. Baiter to see what we can do about the cut. He has promised if there is augmentation from the General Fund, that he would make the restoration of funding to Merritt a priority.

Campus Vote Meeting

All four Presidents, Trustee González Yuen, and I met with Bob Brandon, the co-founder of Fair Elections Legal Network (FELN), a nonpartisan advocacy organization focused on improving election administration and removing barriers to voting. We discussed the possibility of engaging our students in more voting activities. As you may know, less than 10% of college age students voted in the last election, according to some reports. Yes, the youth vote can make a big difference in elections. Look at the Obama elections or the youth vote that helped Jesse Ventura become Governor in Minnesota. We will be working with faculty and students to see how active we can help our students become.