President Schilling’s Board Report for August 28, 2018
The following is a report to members of the North Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees.
Presented by Cypress College President JoAnna Schilling, Ph.D.
on August 28, 2018
Enrollment: We are moving forward with our fall enrollment. Currently we are gaining momentum each day, picking up over 100 FTES in week one. Currently we are projecting a 1% increase in fall 2018 v. fall 2019. The good news is that we have increased enrollment while decreasing sections and appreciate our faculty support in increasing our efficiency while still meeting student demand.
Campus News
- Cypress College has been designated a Center for Academic Excellence for Cyber Security by the National Security Agency – only one of two community colleges in California, and only one of a handful of community colleges in the nation. This is a great honor and will allow us to attract students, employers, and industry to our campus. Thanks to Faculty members Ben Izadi, Mike Hannah, and Deans Henry Hua and Kathleen Reiland for their efforts this past year applying for and creating a culture of excellence that helped us receive this important designation.
- We enjoyed a well-attended Opening Day on Friday, August 17. The event featured three inspiring student speakers, several student performances, awards to outstanding faculty of the year awardees, Cindy Shrout (Math) Wayne Chang (Biology), and Regina Rhymes (Sociology), as well as our Diversity Award winner, Cliff Lester for his outstanding work documenting the stories of Holocaust survivors. All attendees received a Buen Cypress Thank you to Trustees Blount, and McClanahan for attending, to Trustee Bent for his excellent words of welcome, to Dr. Marshall for her keynote address, and to District employees, Irma Ramos, Victor Manchik, Nicola Perry, David Soto, and Simone Thunder-Brown for joining us.
- We welcomed over 600 students and 100 parents to our Welcome to College Night on Friday, August 17 – a record. Highlights were a student panel featuring our AS President Robert Mounce and former Student Trustee Tanya Washington, as well as breakout sessions and campus tours. The students were in the bookstore purchasing their books and finding their classrooms for the start of the semester.
- Our fall semester has gotten off to a positive start as we see more students enrolling and getting involved. This year we surprised students by showing up to classes on their first day and sharing our Buen Cypress cookies. We also purchased over 20,000 Buen Cypress granola bars which have been placed in all division and support offices, as well as welcome booths across the campus. Students have been grateful for the welcome and all granola bars have details about our Food Bank and how to access food on campus. In addition, we are developing a feature in our Mobile App to send alerts to students when we have food available after various events. Finally, a counselor shared with me that during her Counseling 100 class, a student brought up the issue of hunger; the counselor immediately went out to grab a box of granola bars, shared them with each student, and spoke about our Food Bank. She said it was a wonderful moment when she could help a student right on the spot, while also teaching them about our services across campus. After this week, we plan to stock our Food Bank and division offices with the remaining granola bars as part of our Grab and Go campaign.
- Our M&O staff re-opened Lot 4 this week, creating almost 400 new parking spaces for students. This is in anticipation of the decrease in parking spaces in Lot 7 when we begin construction on our new SEM building. We also welcomed our new Director of Facilities, Philip Fleming, who comes to us with over 17 years of experience at Fullerton Union High School District. Phil began on August 15.
- Cypress Connect, our new Mobile App seems to be a hit with students. We are still building more features, but so far our students are using it and accessing many search features to get information. We are optimistic for the many ways we will be able to engage our students.
- Come check out our My Cypress Story wall on the first floor of the Humanities Building! This Buen Cypress installation greets students entering the college from Lot 9 by sharing the inspiring stories of 17 students who attend our college. The stories featured here share the journey to college from many perspectives. We will soon be adding My Cypress stories from staff and faculty. Please visit this special commemorative wall!
College Events
- Civil Rights activist, Sylvia Mendez, will be on campus on Tuesday, September 4, to share her stories and experiences as a civil right leader. The event is from 5-7 p.m. in our Humanities 131 Lecture Hall
- Please join us on September 19 as we celebrate the opening of our new Anaheim Pledge Center. This event will be held from 4- 5 p.m. and will introduce a new center to welcome and facilitate the success of students in our Pledge program. You will be receiving an invitation with agenda and details very soon.
- Our STEM 2 program has a new home in our Fine Arts Building. The Stem staff has moved into new STEM Center equipped with new offices and space to provide focused counseling, peer mentoring rooms, events, and meeting facilities for our STEM 2 students. This new center will also allow us to grow the program to 700 students this year.
Community Events
- Dr. Schilling will be the keynote speaker at the West Orange County Women’s Conference on September 26, 2018 at 8 a.m. at the Cypress Community Center. We hope you will be able to join us!
- Schilling has been named to represent Region 10 on the statewide Food Insecurity and Hunger Awareness Task Force. The first meeting will be at San Diego Mesa College on August 31. We are looking forward to ensuring NOCCCD is a leader in the state on this important issue.
That’s the Board Report from Cypress College. Buen Cypress!