Chancellor S C-Direct

CHANCELLOR’S C-DIRECT July 20, 2016

Dear Colleagues:

From a news clip Trustee Brown shared with me I learned that one of our former students, Jarrett Wright, pictured, was among a group of UC Berkeley students in Nice, France, during the recent attack. The students were planning to attend the Bastille Day celebration in Nice, but Jarrett decided to stay back at the dorm instead. Three of his fellow Cal students were injured in the tragic attack and one was killed.

There is no doubt that the risks involved in sending students abroad are increasing, but I contend that we cannot give into fear. I believe that in the face of ever frightening and tragic world events, we must redouble our determination that education is the ultimate antidote to these global maladies.

Meeting with USF President

Board President Dr. Bill Riley and I recently paid a visit to Father Fitzgerald, the President of the University of San Francisco (USF). It was the second time President Dr. Fitzgerald and I had met and the first since his inauguration. A graduate of the University of Santa Clara, President Fitzgerald completed his doctoral studies at La Sorbonne and speaks French at the level of a native speaker.

Our common language bonded us at his inauguration a couple of years ago. At our most recent meeting, President Fitzgerald and I discussed the diverse composition of our respective institutions and other characteristics that makes them unique.

We discussed several topics of potential collaboration:

 Student housing: The University has a shortage of housing for students and we have no housing thus far;

1  A joint program in Business where students would complete their Junior year at one of our campuses and then attend their last year at USF in downtown San Francisco;  Increased cooperation in teacher education;  The possibility of offering access to the Baccalaureate Degree for our Nursing students;  The transfer of students both domestic and international;  A more strategic approach to the joint recruitment of international students to secure greater access to higher education.

President Fitzgerald and his staff will tour our Peralta Colleges during the next academic year.

Keynote Address to Executive Leadership Program at Berkeley

The BCC Vice President of Student Services and Director of the Executive Leadership Center invited me to provide the keynote address at its Leadership Dinner Night. Most of the attendees were from four-year institutions. I took the time to share the joy of working at a community college and how to transition from a four-year institution. It appears that the talk was well received, as a couple of participants were happy to explore the possibilities of making a switch from a university to a community college when the time is right.

IT Update

Vice Chancellor Little and I met with the Ferrilli Group to ascertain the progress they are making to improve our IT services. While some surprises, such as problems with our VoiP phones, have rearranged some of their priorities, they continue to focus on the essence of our IT needs (i.e., student success and safety and security). Overall, the Ferrilli Group addressed our questions and are delivering some satisfactory results. Management Leadership Development Academy at Peralta

2 Lilia Chavez, Chioma Ndubuisi, Sui Song, Chanelle Whittaker and Jennifer Seibert represented their colleagues who were participants in PCCD’s recent Management Leadership Development Academy (MLDAP) and shared with me the plan they have for a thorough PCCD employee orientation and introduction to Peralta. Their plan, (to be shared later) is comprehensive and when implemented, will make a major difference in the successful introduction of new employees to Peralta. In fact, this group has such ambitious plans that they wanted to start a pilot program this summer.

Additionally, at a recent MLDAP session, the class was treated to a rare joint appearance of two icons of Peralta: Bill Love and Mark Greenside. These men told the history and stories of Peralta from the perspectives of a faculty member and an administrator. Dr. Love was an administrator prior to becoming a faculty member. The participants learned a lot about the culture and the historical role Peralta has played in California education.

East Bay MUD

A recent meeting of East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) and some PCCD administrators was the best attended meeting and yielded the most in-depth discussion we have had with an organization in a year. Owing much to the fruitful conversation was PCCD’s Interim Associate Vice Chancellor King. Our dialogue revealed a variety of areas where East Bay MUD and Peralta can support student success through gainful employment.

The following is a partial list of the vast array of needs for employment candidates and current employees:

 Training for entry level jobs in all categories;  Basic skills, especially in reading and mathematics;

3  Higher technical level needs to encourage current employees to strive for upward mobility;  Recruitment of employees who can use tuition benefits to advance;  Supervisory management for managers;  Language training for supervisors and front line workers;  Student, staff and faculty field trips to the operation center of EBMUD;  An interest in serving on advisory committees as well as being guest speakers in classes.

Assistant Vice Chancellor Brown and Associate Vice Chancellor King will follow up on this promising partnership.

China Partners Visit

Two partners from our outreach to China visited Peralta Colleges this past week as a follow- up to meetings we held with them in China. Mingli Wang from Wuhan came to follow up on partnerships with the three Chinese universities represented by the Dansai Group. She learned a lot about our Colleges and took a tour of our institutions. Margaret Aung visited us to get more information, pictures and a first-hand look at our institutions.

Student Housing Discussion with Patten University

Patten University has had a student dorm for 12 years. Since the University converted itself into an online institution, thereafter diversifying its existence, the dorm has been unoccupied. Ann Volt from the Scion group and Peralta Foundation Director Kevin Kosik joined several of us to explore the possibility of Peralta and Patten working together to provide housing access to some of our students. The dorm looks brand new and there are some good amenities for

4 the students. Patten also has a library that could be used to serve our students. We are exploring the feasibility of such a venture.

East Bay Foundation Discussions

I approached the East Bay Foundation for a partnership to provide funding for a celebration of our faculty, staff and students. This funding is to help us establish means to support students who are homeless, hungry, and deprived of the necessities of life to complete their education. It is also funding to support the different initiatives around social justice for our students and to support faculty and staff working with scarce resources. We are also seeking funding to provide incentives for faculty and staff development for innovation and creativity. The Foundation is studying our proposal and will let us know soon what they are able to do. Jowel Jowel C. Laguerre, Ph.D. Chancellor

A quotation about summer vacation:

A vacation should be just long enough that your boss misses you, and not long enough for him to discover how well he can get along without you. -Author unknown