President Schilling’s Board Report for February 26, 2019
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 February 26, 2019
Campus News
Black History Month: Black History Month continues with our theme “A Celebration of Collective Community Through Education, Faith, Politics, Culture, and Race Relations.” On February 21, from 6-9 p.m. in HUM-131, there was an excellent movie and panel discussion of I Am Not Your Negro, an Oscar nominated documentary about James Baldwin. Our final event takes place on February 27 – A Day of Expression, from 12-2 p.m. in the Fine Arts Atrium, where students take to an open mic to express their thoughts, feelings, and creativity. My thanks to faculty organizers Regina Rhymes, Danny Lind, Steven Estrada, Maha Afra, Annett Letcher, and Virgil Adams, and Dean Eldon Young, for their excellent work planning the events this month.
Groundbreaking Ceremony: Our second building project, the Veterans Resource Center, will hold its groundbreaking on March 15. The program will be held from 9:30-10:30 am and then our annual Veterans 5K run will begin at 11 a.m. Please join us for all or part of the day!
Athletics
- 2018 Men’s Golf Team was selected as the CCCAA Men’s Golf Scholar-Athlete Team of the Year. This honor recognizes excellence in overall team GPA and puts the exclamation point on our Championship season with recognition for success in the classroom as well as on the course. Kudos to Coach Dana Bedard and the Men’s Golf Team.
- 2018 Softball alum, Sydney McCollum (now at CSULB) was selected as a CCCAA student-athlete scholar for her athletic success and will be recognized in Concord, CA at the CCCAA Annual Convention in March 2019 for her academic and athletic excellence as a key contributor to our State finalist team.
- It is my honor to share that Wes McCurtis has been selected as the Brass Top Award winner for 2019. This award is the top honor voted on by the membership of the California Community College Sports Information Association (CCCSIA). Wes will be honored and accept his award at the CCCAA Convention in Concord, CA on March 27, 2019.
- Don Johnson, the long-time Cypress College basketball coach, passed away on Feb 6, 2019. Coach Johnson retired as the all-time winningest coach in California Community College men’s basketball history, with a record of 588-259, and is now fourth on the CCCAA men’s basketball all-time wins list. Cypress College named its main basketball court in his honor in 2009 — a fitting tribute for an original faculty member who was later inducted into the college’s Athletics Hall of Fame. The campus is remembering this inspirational man following his passing at age 88. We will be sponsoring a memorial on March 3 at 2 p.m. in Gym II, for all who wish to attend.
Save the Date(s): Please join us for the spring musical! Tickets are on sale for Legally Blonde which runs from Friday, March 8 to Sunday, March 17.
Guided Pathways: The Guided Pathways Task force met on February 25 to to identify the next steps in our progress. Some of the activities this semester include a Guided Pathways Faculty Forum in late March to help communicate to our full and part time faculty what Guided Pathways will look like as we reorganize our institution across campus. In addition, there will be Guided Pathways Leadership Summit on April 5 for faculty, students, counselors, and managers. Please take a moment to read the Guided Pathways blog which is now posted on our website and can be found under the Presidents Blog site. This installment provides an update to the campus community on our progress towards becoming a Guided Pathways College.
And speaking of Guided Pathways, we have taken a big step forward with our Cypress’ Program Mapper project. Cypress College is one of three colleges piloting this mapping software, The program areas have now been created and we are loading the curriculum data. Right now students can see data such as salary and focus; before the end of the semester, there will also be preliminary course mapping developed by faculty ad counselors to help students map out their time and courses at Cypress. To see an example, go to this link: https://cypress.preview.programmapper.ws/academics. and click on the CTE pathway, then go to the Administrative Justice AS-T to view the data we will be sharing with students. Kudos to Dean Kathleen Reiland, Articulation Officer, Jacky Rangel and the many staff and faculty who have working to get this up and running!
CY Professional: This month’s employee focus is on Peter Maharaj, Cypress College’s Manager of Academic Computing. Since arriving on campus in 2017, Peter and his team have transformed the focus of technology on campus, developing our mobile app, reinvigorating our production center, printing services, and assisting with our website navigation process. Peter exemplifies the “Dream Big, Get Stuff Done” aspirations of our managers and we are grateful for his leadership of our Academic Computing operations on campus. Peter is also part of the NOCCCD Leadership Academy this year.
Community Events
Our annual Americana Award ceremony was held on February 23 at the Disneyland Hotel and Resort, Our annual fundraiser sold almost 500 seats and we are optimistic we were successful in bringing in a record number of donations to support our student scholarships. Congratulations to new Foundation Executive Director, Howard Kummerman, Special Project Manager, Gail Taylor, our Foundation Board, and our team for organizing a wonderful night of funding for our worthy students, and acknowledgement for all our Citizens of the Year!
Cypress School District’s “Every Student Succeeding” breakfast was held on Thursday February 21; this annual event celebrates children and young adults across their district who have overcome challenges in life and their education. It was an inspiring event and Cypress College is pleased to participate each year.
Dr. Schilling has been asked to represent the community college industry sector on the OC United Way Leadership Council. This group, made up of industry leaders across Orange County, serves as an advisory work group focused on the growing hunger and housing challenges across the county. Dr. Schultz, Dr. Schilling, and managers Celeste Phelps, AnnMarie Ruelas, and counselor Lili Perez, attended the Homelessness 101 training at OC United Way on February 13.
That’s the Board Report from Cypress College. Buen Cypress!