President Schilling’s Board Report for March 12, 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 March 12, 2019
Campus News
Cypress College participated in the Temple University #RealCollegeCalifornia survey on hunger and Housing Insecurity. The survey results were released on March 7 at 12 noon in Sacramento, showing that 7 in 10 students across California Community Colleges have experienced basic needs insecurity. At Cypress we are seeing that 44% have experienced food insecurity, 55% have experienced housing insecurity, and 14% have experienced homelessness. We are looking forward to having our full report so we can share this with the board and begin focusing on how to address our students’ basic needs in a real and compassionate way.
KPCC, NPRs station in Pasadena, interviewed Dr. Schilling, Dr. Rick Rams, and David Okawa on Cypress’ participation in the #RealCollegeCalifornia survey and to discuss our efforts addressing food insecurity. The interview is scheduled to air at 10 a.m. Thursday, March 7 and will be repeated online at www.scpr.org/.
CCAP grant awarded: Cypress College received a $1.43 million grant to facilitate a new K-12 dual enrollment pathway at Cypress College in the field of cybersecurity. Cypress College is one of six recipients — and the only one in Orange or Los Angeles counties — of the California College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP) STEM Pathways Academy Program grant from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. The college will use the four-year grant to develop a cohort-based group of students from neighboring Magnolia High School enrolled in cybersecurity coursework at Cypress College. Students who complete the program will earn certifications qualifying them for entry-level career positions in the field and benefit from a preferred pathway partnership between Cypress College and Orange County’s two public universities — California State University, Fullerton, and the University of California, Irvine — along with other four-year institutions. Congratulations to Dean Henry Hua and Dual Enrollment Special Project Manager, Stephanie Teer, for their work successfully obtaining this grant.
Jack Kent Cooke Scholarships: Cypress College students Madison Morris and Raymond Pi Oliver are semifinalists for the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation announced that the pair were selected from a pool of nearly 1,500 applicants representing 369 colleges across 45 states and the District of Columbia. Madison is seeking a career in the medical field and Pi is a member of our STEM(2) program – you may remember him as one of our student speaker at our recent SEM groundbreaking ceremony. Finalists will be announced in April.
Ideathon: In partnership with our app vendor, ModoLabs, Cypress College is hosting a competition for students to present their technology and business ideas via a mobile platform. This competition includes a prize of $2,000 for the local winner. The winning idea from Cypress will be sent to the national competition, in Boston MA this June. The winner will have the opportunity to compete for a prize of $10,000. We invite all board members to attend the final presentations on Saturday, April 13, 2 to 5 p.m.
DSS First Steps Program: Our DSS program is introducing a summer experience program to introduce and support Guided Pathways for our DSS students. The program is in collaboration with special education departments from Kennedy HS, Savanna HS, Cypress HS, Magnolia HS, Western HS, Katella HS, and Pacifica HS and runs from June 17 to July 11.
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 a.m. and then our annual Veterans 5K run will begin at 11 a.m. Please join us for all or part of the day!
Charger Experience Program: Charger Fridays will begin on March 8 with graduating seniors from Western High School visiting Cypress College to complete the matriculation process (orientation, assessment process, and educational planning with a counselor). As part of this full day event, they will engage in Career Exploration (by academic pathway), have lunch with student ambassadors and current Pledge mentors, tour the campus and participate in a student services resource fair. In preparation for Charger Friday, students have completed the CCCApply and FAFSA applications at their campus. Other AUHSD and local feeder high schools will be coming to Cypress College for Charger Fridays through the end of the spring semester and over 700 students are expected to participate.
The Financial Aid Office just completed over 51 visits to local high schools in order to present and assist students and their parents complete the FAFSA for 2019/2020. With the California priority deadline on March 2nd, the Financial Aid staff also held a series of on campus labs to assist students in applying for FAFSA and Dream Act.
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.
The college will be holding a Guided Pathways Coffee Forum in CCC-414 next Tuesday, March 12th, from 2-3:30PM to discuss the implementation of Guided Pathways at Cypress College. Led by Academic Senate President, Craig Goralski, and past president, Bryan Seiling, this forum will also include VPI, Carmen Dominguez, Nic Perry, and the members of the GP Taskforce. We appreciate their leadership on this important discussion. This event will be followed by our Guided Pathways Summit on April 5 which will be an all-day working event for faculty, staff, and managers.
Dr. Schultz and Dr. Schilling attended the annual CEO Symposium on March 1-3 in San Diego. This convening of the presidents and Chancellors of the 115 California Community Colleges provided an opportunity to meet, learn, and discuss the important issues going on in our state.
Disposable Camera Project: Keeping students engaged while on campus, promoting social connectedness, and providing a sense of community has proven to positively impact persistence. With this in mind, our communications department, led by Marc Posner, implemented the Disposable Camera Project, where disposable cameras were placed around campus for students to use. We invite you to take a look at a quick snapshot of campus life as seen through the lens of our students.
That’s the Board Report from Cypress College. Buen Cypress!