
October 28, 2015 Dear Colleagues: It was quite a week for us. A major water leak has made it hard on employees in the District Office. LaNiece Jones arranged for me to tour West Oakland and get acquainted with some of Oakland’s leaders. The week ended with a short visit to Laney College by the First Secretary of the Cuban Embassy. Conference Call with Morehouse College Last week I had a conference call with Drs. Melenia King and Clarissa Myrick-Harris to discuss initiatives of interest between the Peralta Colleges, Morehouse College and the Andrew Young Foundation. There are some activities we want to plan between faculty at Peralta and Morehouse to open up opportunities for community college students both here in the East Bay and across the country. Morehouse is not known to accept transfer students, but we are working on a way so that Peralta’s faculty can have an opportunity to make it happen. We envision a couple of face-to-face interactions between our two institutions, culminating in a full-scale agreement if everything goes well. More details will be forthcoming. Meeting with Supervisor Keith Carson One of the most visible and known members of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors is Keith Carson. His constituents reside mostly in the cities served by the Peralta Community College District. We have seen each other in public, but had not had the chance to delve into issues of interest to the County and our Colleges. When we sat down together, it was evident that we have a lot in common that we want to work on together. One of our common goals is the welfare of citizens in our area. Here are some of the areas we touched on and will follow up on: • Economic development and training; • Workforce development and training for County employees; • Foster youth education and educational concerns; • Homeless students and the need for affordable housing; • Affordable housing for newer faculty and staff; • Mental health services for students; • Access and transition of students from government assistance to job training and employment; • Incarcerated youth and education; • Public safety; • Training to support Civil Service testing; and • Participation in the Gateway STEM Network. It was an hour packed with interaction, connection and commitment to engage the County and the Peralta Colleges. Discussions with Jeff Heyman on Publications From my August survey, I learned that faculty, staff and administrators want us to communicate to our external community. We need to let our community know about our progress and successes and our goals for improvement. Jeff Heyman, our Executive Director of Public Information, Communications and Media, has proposed some avenues for getting our message out. They include an occasional Chancellor’s column and op-eds in newspapers, and occasional appearances on radio and television. There will be a more direct communication with our electronic mailing list. Using some of the contents of C-DIRECT, we will design a publication to go out to the public on a monthly basis. Such continual and regular communication will allow the public to find out more about the great things we have going on at the Peralta Colleges and our work with the community. Visits to 860 Atlantic and Microscopy We truly have amazing high-level activities going on in the District. A lot of the activities are not as visible to our employees, because they have not been shared internally. I am not making a promise that this will change dramatically, unless we challenge ourselves to make it happen. That is the case for our Genomics and 2 Microscopy programs, the former at 860 Atlantic Avenue, in Alameda, and the latter on the campus of Merritt College. Last week I visited both programs, and was overwhelmed. I wish I had scheduled these two visits on different days. Trustee Gulassa introduced me to Hank Fabian, Gisele Giorgi, Brian Rowning and Robert Macey. The Genomes program and project at 860 Atlantic collects specimens from around the world to work on genes. There are students from all ages and degrees of education that participate in the project. Industry and research entities use the lab and its equipment for research. Students from as far as UC Santa Cruz come to the lab to do research. This program has an opportunity to really grow and contribute much intellectual capital to the community. Berkeley City and Laney have different aspects of biotechnology. Taken together, these three programs are going to make Peralta a force in the life sciences. We just need to put the pieces together. Microscopy also involves research, skills development and workforce preparation. When I visited, for what I thought would be an hour, I was dazzled after several hours by the students’ depth of commitment to the sciences and devotion to one another. One knows a program is making strides when alumni are hiring students – or opening employment opportunities for students – in the program from which they graduated. Both Genomics and Microscopy have some of the latest and most sought-after instruments and equipment for both academia and the industry. When students graduate from the programs, they are ready to enter the workforce with all the knowledge they need for success. With the Barbara Lee Science Building opening on November 6, there is a real opportunity to highlight these programs. A couple of television programs, including our own Peralta Matters, are interested in sharing more about these programs with the community. And to the topic of communicating our programs more, the forums at BCC and CoA addressed internal marketing of all our programs. Open Forums at BCC Last week I spent half a day at Berkeley City College. I had the opportunity to meet separately with students, faculty, staff and administrators. The time of the forums did not allow for enough faculty to attend the session dedicated for them. This is a situation I must remediate and will work with the BCC Senate President to make it happen. These forums are meant to share with our internal community the feedback from my survey. This time allows me to hear directly from our colleagues what is on their minds concerning the District. I gathered valuable information from BCC. One of 3 their major issues of concern is the safety and security of the campus. The students expressed concerns with parking and access to nutrition. The staff is concerned about professional development resources and training. Everyone seems to agree with the results of the survey that the District should be more effective, efficient and responsive. Working as a team is a priority for our colleagues as well. I want to thank Dr. Budd and her staff for welcoming me warmly to BCC. Open Forums at COA I visited the students, faculty, staff and administrators at the College of Alameda. The turnout was excellent for administrators and staff. The turnout from faculty was not as good because of the schedule. I will endeavor to schedule another time for both BCC and COA to visit with faculty. There were some good suggestions and thoughts shared at COA. Recognition of staff efforts was expressed as a need. There was also concern expressed about letting students into mathematics classes two or three weeks after the start of the semester. The low number of first-aid kits came up as a concern. One student leader expressed concern over support needed for undocumented students. He suggested that we have a General Education Curriculum requirement that is common across the Colleges for the number of students we have taking classes at all institutions. My visit to COA ended with a tour of a couple of programs, Automotive and Ship Repair. I met John Peterson and Bill Andrews at the shops. The combination of Auto Body and Auto Technology seems to be working well. The faculty are able to share not only expertise, but also resources. The auto faculty have worked to introduce smart classroom technologies to the program, and I congratulate them on that. The Ship Repair tour was very educational, as I learned what our students are doing to enrich the workforce. 4 There is an interest in increasing our participation with the ship building industry, especially in welding. That is where teamwork is essential at COA and Laney to work together in this instance. I want to thank Dr. Blake and her team for welcoming me to COA and for allowing me to visit some of their programs. I intend to go back not only to meet with the faculty, but also to conclude with visiting other programs offered at COA. An idea that emerged from the survey and was verified during the visit is the need for our Colleges to advertise and visit one another highlighting all our offerings. Oakland Serves Meeting A group of individuals from the community led by a former professor from UCSF is working to provide support for youth in the Oakland Unified School District who are on the verge of dropping out of school. Kay Lawson, the leader of the group, met with me to investigate the potential for a partnership with our Colleges. There are two components to the group’s plan, mentoring and paid internships. The mentoring would connect the students to higher education and the internships would tie them to potential resources to attend college. Her efforts for mentors are paying off well, and her next venture is to find agencies and community organizations that will take students as interns at $750 per student. DAS Meeting I met with the District Academic Senate and we discussed a variety of issues. Two issues of great importance are processes and a calendar for program review.
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