Chancellor S C-Direct s2

CHANCELLOR’S C-DIRECT March 29, 2017

Dear Colleagues:

Prelude to Summer

Half of the semester is already gone. Spring break is around the corner. Hang in there! We are now finalizing our plans for the summer. One decision we have negotiated is to have our Colleges and/or Offices open during the summer from Monday through Friday. Some employees will work from Monday through Thursday as part of a Four day-ten- hour week or Tuesday through Friday. There were many potential students looking for classes or services last year on Fridays, but they were disappointed that we were closed. This new schedule should help us provide better services to our students. Exit Interview with Dr. Levy

I want to thank Dr. Audre Levy for admirably holding Laney together for us until the arrival of our new Laney President, Tammeil Gilkerson. Dr. Levy gave a good description of her experience at Laney. While she acknowledged the challenges Laney has in both culture and infrastructure, she admitted that it is a diamond in the rough. As I spend a bit more time at Laney during the transition and look at its infrastructure, I agree that Laney is an institution with great promise.

ACE Campaign Workshop Achieving Communication Excellence (ACE) is a campaign the District Office is supporting to improve services to the Colleges, so as to enhance the work environment for all. Mary Denise Jackson and Chioma Ndubuisi, members of the Management Leadership Academy at Peralta, joined others to form a dedicated committee to work diligently on the campaign. The promise of this work is to promote a healthy and more holistic organization. Public Safety Training Center

Several Public Safety agencies are interested in partnering with the Peralta Colleges to build a jointly managed Public Safety Center. The group is beginning to gather potential participants from fire, police, probation services, etc. They held a meeting last week at Merritt College. Much work needs to be done before any real action happens, including broad buy-in regionally, but this meeting was a very good beginning. Technology Celebration at Laney

There was a celebration of the report out on the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) wireless project completed at Laney. The VOIP contractor gave a presentation on the work that has been accomplished. The amazing thing is that this project was done over the Christmas holiday break. The Laney IT team was present as were several members of the District IT team and a half dozen students. They spent most of the holiday break preparing the infrastructure for Laney faculty. As the Laney infrastructure was crumbling, it is now greatly improved, giving faculty and everyone else new capabilities for communication. Adult Education Consortium

Six of our East Bay school districts and Peralta form the Adult Education Consortium. The Consortium voted, at its last meeting, to admit the Alameda County Office of Education. Earlier this month, the Executive Director of the Consortium and the District

2 held a mini-conference for the community-based organizations in the East Bay. This was a positive step in strengthening Peralta’s relationship with these entities. Oracle Executives

Four executives from Oracle paid us a short visit last week. While the VP was in the area traveling from the East coast, he took the time to visit us to understand where we are with our technology issues and to assess how Oracle may be of help to us. The VP showed us steps Oracle is taking to manage the accounts in the Cloud. I pushed for the company to be a good corporate “citizen” with us, by supporting the training of our employees and faculty, as well as providing PAID internships for our students. Visit to The Way Church

Last Sunday I spent time at Berkeley’s The Way Church. Pastor McBride used an interview format to have me share with the audience what we have to offer at Peralta, and Assistant Vice Chancellor Tamika Brown was present to provide information about our Colleges. We were very well received, and the assembly was quite interested in Peralta Colleges’ educational programs. Jowel Jowel C. Laguerre, Ph.D. Chancellor

How I felt when Kansas lost in the Elite Eight: