CHANCELLOR’S C-DIRECTAugust 24, 2016

Dear Colleagues:

What a week it was! The week debuted with a great partnership meeting with Alameda Health System and ended with Super Saturday and a Citizenship Registration program (photo at right). Classes started Monday, and we were ready to welcome students back. I witnessed much good work being done by everyone to make things ready. This is an important year with much on the docket to be done: The launching of WDCE, an increase in international interaction, the hiring of three College Presidents and the development of a Facilities Master Plan to name a few. We will have one new Trustee, with three incumbents running unopposed. As you may know, Trustee Gulassa will not be running again. Trustees Brown, Gonzalez Yuen and Withrow had no opponents and thus need not appear on the ballot. Congratulations to them.

Super Saturday at Our Four Colleges

Super Saturday events have documented that the Colleges have seen hundreds of students. At Laney, for example, over 50 students saw a Counselor – with only a very brief wait period – and overall more than 350 students were served at our four colleges. Though there were some glitches, many students were served and many Faculty and Staff members were on hand to support the activities. According to Clifford Gibson in A&R, there was a steady flow of students attending the Laney event until the very end, and three Counselors were on hand. At Merritt College, orientation sessions were held and at Berkeley City College, group activities were in place; additionally, Testing Centers were abuzz. I overheard a parent saying that her daughter did not want to do her orientation on the computer at home, but that she was perfectly fine attending orientation with a bunch of strangers at the campus. Mom was right. I observed a large group assembling for orientation at Merritt, for example, and they seemed to be having a good time.

I ran into Professors Metcalf Tobin and Lightfoot, pictured, from the Art Department at Merritt. Since the restriction on repeatability has been imposed, some of our Programs are hurting for enrollment, including Art at Merritt. This new repeatability restriction is making it harder for classes in some disciplines to run. That is pretty common around the state. We brainstormed ideas and I asked them whether they had all found a way to serve the students.

I then had the “aha moment” that the Art faculty and those from other affected disciplines could partner with PCCD’s new unit of Workforce Development and Continuing Education (WDCE) to help serve these students. That is the ideal role of WDCE. It exists to support the faculty and our Programs, and to encourage innovation. Finally, I connected the faculty members with Associate Vice Chancellor King to explore possibilities. We should explore options for other disciplines at all of our Colleges.

Flex Days

The Fall Flex included good presentations by Shared Governance leaders and great remarks by Judge Trina Thompson, pictured right, who wants us to view students with open minds when they come to us and to acknowledge that our students have a variety of personal, as well as academic needs, to be met. The keynote speech, presented by Pat James, Executive Director of the CCC Online Education Initiative, pictured left, was focused on innovation in

Distance Education. As most of you may already know, Peralta is in the minority among the California Community Colleges and not nearly involved enough in the Distance Education movement being funded through the state and the legislature.

Twenty-six faculty and staff were recognized at the Fall 2016 Flex event. Each honoree received a gift basket containing chocolate, a bottle of wine, a certificate of merit, and an

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invitation to dinner at the Chancellor’s house. The recipients of this Fall’s Chancellor’s award were (pictured below):

Faculty1. Barbara DesRochers BCC2. Isela Santana Merritt3. Louis Quindlen Laney4. Richard “Rick” Greenspan COA5. Juana Alicia Araiza BCC6. Helen Curry Laney7. Robert Brem COA8. Hermia Yam BCC9. Cynthia Correia Laney10. Cynthia Mahabir Laney11. Bill Love Merritt12. Marty Zelky Merritt13. Fabian Banga BCC14. Stephen Corlett Laney

Staff and Administrators15. Socorro Taylor DO16. Chi Au DO17. Amany ElMasry DO18. Cynthia Reese BCC19. Suzanne Kunkel DO20. Maisha Jameson Laney21. Robert Smith Merritt22. Ava Lee-Pang COA23. Toni Cook COA24. Loan Nguyen BCC25. David Yang DO26. Patricia Rom Merritt

College Flex Days

Jason Holloway, Professional Development Chair at Merritt, invited me to provide greetings to the faculty and staff at Merritt. I made several points that are worth sharing:

Merritt, being very historic, has a lot of unique educational opportunities to offer to the world!

I encouraged them to think that the role of the community college is viewed in some circles, as a reverse graduate school. Many students with Bachelor’s Degrees return to community colleges to get additional skills for work.

When we look at academics, it is no longer the core value for those who teach in Liberal Arts, but all of us who teach in the trades. This concept is an important shift to make long-term.

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The other Colleges also held a myriad of activities from curricula development workshops to distance education discussions to classroom technology training. It was a busy week around the Peralta Colleges.

Student Health Clinics

Indra Thadani, Dawn Williams and I met with Vice Chancellor Largent to discuss the possibility of expanding our health clinics at all four Colleges and using, on a rotating basis, graduates from our Nursing program to staff the clinics. A plan like this would give at least four of our graduates an opportunity for employment and additional education under the supervision of Ms. Thadani, who teaches Nursing at some four-year institutions in the area. The concept is under review and we would be able to start (if everything works out) no later than next fall. Using our own graduates would show confidence in our Program and in our faculty.

Urban Strategies Council CEO

Recently, I met with David Harris, the CEO of the Urban Strategies Council. In preparing him for the meeting with me, the staff was eager for him to draw our organizations closer as there are multiple areas for potential collaboration. Associate Vice Chancellor King will follow up with him.

What Are 30-Day Projects?Contributed by Dr. Sadiq Ikharo, Vice Chancellor of General Services

30-day Projects are short-term projects as specified in the Collective Bargaining agreement between the Peralta Community College District and International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 39, which allows for the District to contract with outside contractors for work that is routinely performed by Bargaining Unit employees.

The Local 39 Collective Bargaining Agreement, page 3, paragraph 1.3 reads as follows:

Short term projects of limited duration allows for thirty (30) working days for each college per fiscal year to perform work routinely performed by bargaining unit employees, subject to paragraph 2. However, the parties agree and recognize that

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under certain conditions contracting out work may be necessary to prevent cost overrun, to minimize disruption to students, and/or to meet the educational needs of the community.

The District, on an annual basis, works with the Colleges to identify and implement short-term projects. These short-term projects include, but are not limited to, the following scope:

Deep cleaning classrooms and floor waxing; Exterior window washing; Power washing Quads and pathways to the Colleges; Light- painting of interior areas, such as restrooms, hallways, and other public

areas; Parking lot stripping and, if necessary, curb-side touch ups; Landscaping projects, such as tree trimming, weed abatement and pruning Minor plumbing repairs to fixtures and leaks; Minor repairs to HVAC systems, which may include equipment replacement

parts; and Minor repairs to elevators.

It is the goal of the District to provide an enviable facilities environment for teaching, learning and working, and to prepare the Colleges to receive students for the first day of classes. In addition, these short-term projects are designed to beautify the Colleges and to make the utilities functional.

Meeting With Delvecchio Finley and Key Administrators

You may recall that in Spring 2016, I reported on a meeting with Mr. Finley to iron out some issues Merritt was facing when placing clinical students at Highland Hospital and in other health care facilities run by Alameda Health System (AHS). Our meeting was fruitful in that we both had our key players in attendance. Facilitated by Associate Vice Chancellor King (WDCE), we established the importance of Merritt College to the community and the need for Merritt’s students to do clinicals and to be hired in the system. Nursing Director Dawn Williams and Faculty Coordinator Lynn Bratchett will continue that conversation.

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We also explored other possibilities, including the establishment of a supervisory program modeled after the one being run at Laney, and Associate Vice Chancellor King will initiate that conversation. Furthermore, Assistant Vice Chancellor Tamika Brown will do further follow-up to recruit potential students at AHS. We agreed to move the conversation forward by the end of September.

Accreditation NewsContributed by Dr. Annette Dambrosio

Last week’s 2016 Fall Flex offered opportunities for all of you to attend sessions pertaining to some of the District’s Accreditation work and we thank you for attending (although we hope to increase the number of participants next time we host similar sessions).

As you know, the Accreditation Flex sessions were headed up as follows: V.C. Largent (PCCD’s District Staffing Plan), V.C. Orkin (Delineation of District Functions), V.C. Ikharo (TCO Guidelines), and V.C. Little (Recommendations for BAM revisions). All Vice Chancellors reported that sessions went well and that the dialogue was truly useful. One participant observed that one session had “too much information.” I am confident, however, that PCCD changes are all aimed at improving education and, yes, there is much unavoidable, new information to absorb with the introduction of TCO Guidelines, BAM revisions, A New Staffing Plan, and in revisions to the District’s Delineation of Functions’ Map. Finally, some comments expressed the desire of the Colleges to be more involved in District Planning, which seem to be reasonable observations in a large District like PCCD. As an observer in PCCD’s PBC meetings over the past academic year, I would note that there exists concerted efforts to ensure that greater collaboration between the District and the Colleges will be taking place during this new academic year as PBC concentrates on strengthening its shared governance function, e.g., the Chancellor will be reporting directly to PBC from time to time to discuss decision making, and the PBC asked that written shared governance documents be distributed to allow more time for careful reading, etc. etc. Overall, we should be pleased that our evaluation of ourselves (Accreditation) is manifested in the exchange of so many ideas in sessions such as those presented at Flex.

Other Accreditation news: (1.) TCO draft Guidelines are posted on the Accreditation Web page. Please read them and send comments to me and/or Dr. Ikharo. The TCO Guidelines will be brought back to DFC and PBC this semester. (2.) The District’s Delineation of Functions Interactive Map has been temporarily removed from the Accreditation Web page as V.C. Orkin has redistributed the document to the District leadership for review in order to ensure that revisions are accurate. The document will be revised once again and reposted

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soon to reflect changes. (3.) District Organization Charts are currently being reviewed again for accuracy. Here Dr. Crawford has been putting this large document together to reflect the Reorganization changes that happened during the past academic year. She plans to post the District Organization Charts this week.

Finally, by September 1, I will be sending once again to all four Colleges, the District’s final draft of our Accreditation responses. Currently, the District’s responses are already embedded in the four Colleges’ Accreditation Follow-Up Reports that are available for your review. The final District draft will incorporate suggestions and questions that I am receiving currently and, once again, I intend to solicit your critical comments, your questions, but, MOST OF ALL, your solutions to what might not be presented accurately. Here we need to amend any errors and to ensure that our Reports are reflective of what we have done to meet ACCJC Standards. As I said to you at Flex, Accreditation work urges us to reflect on our strengths and our needs. Accreditation urges us to come together to record what we do to uphold ACCJC standards and to put into action our best plans to continue to uphold Standards (not merely ACCJC Standards) to better serve our students.

As always, I invite anyone to contact me at adambrosio@peralta.edu with questions, huzzahs, or criticisms pertaining to Accreditation. You can also visit the District Accreditation Web page at http://web.peralta.edu/accreditation/

Retention SurveyA group of your colleagues from the Management Leadership Development Academy (MLDA) is working on Enrollment Management, specifically retention. Their focus is on understanding--from our students’ perspective--what factors are contributing to their inability to complete their education.

For their MLDA project, your colleagues have created a survey that they need your assistance in getting our student body to complete. The survey is scheduled to be e-mailed to every student’s Peralta address during the week of September 12th. During that same week, a “Let your Voice be Heard” booth will be set up on a specific day at each campus to promote the survey and allow students to fill out a hard copy or online via laptop. Representatives from the group will gladly accept an invitation to attend your class and to discuss the survey and assist students in

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filling it out. On average, the survey should take about 10 minutes to complete.

Along with surveys, the group plans on conducting one student focus group per college to also obtain feedback on the issue of retention. The target date for this aspect of the assessment will be the week of October 3rd. In addition, your MLDA colleagues will examine the success of several support programs already in place on each campus. The goal is to identify best practices that can become institutionalized.

We appreciate any assistance you can provide on this Enrollment management project that centers on retention.

Facilities Improvement

Several people from Laney have noticed the difference in the appearance of the PCCD facilities, especially the restrooms. Dr. Ikharo has taken the time this summer to lead all personnel to improve and maintain a certain level of cleanliness for the facilities. He will continue the momentum as we go. A big thank you to all of the Facilities personnel who made sure that our students, faculty and staff returned to cleaner facilities.

JowelJowel C. Laguerre, Ph.D.

Chancellor

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

- Martin Niemoeller

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