President Schilling’s Board Report for April 23, 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 April 23, 2019
Campus News
Each year, UC Irvine partners with SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union to hold the Educator Recognition event, in which our most academically successful transfer students identify the faculty member or counselor from their community college who played a critical role in their successful transfer to UC Irvine. This year, we are honored to have one manager and three faculty honored: Yongmi Han, International Students Director, music adjunct faculty Jim Simmons, and astronomy adjunct faculty, Jessica Asbell, and full-time political science faculty member, Gloria Badal. Congratulations to all!
The college will be sponsoring a Homelessness 101 training from OC United Way on April 23 at 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in HUM-136. This training, similar to the training previously hosted at Fullerton College, is a two-hour workshop meant to elevate awareness about the costs, challenges, myths, and misconceptions about homelessness in Orange County. If you were not able to attend the previous training, please join us for this enlightening workshop.
Date Change! The Cypress College Foundation Scholarships (previously scheduled on April 23) will now be held on May 8 at 4:30 p.m. at the Campanile. We decided to change the time and date for this year’s celebration in order to accommodate the large number of applicants due to our new online application, and to ensure the attendance of faculty, families, and students. This year we had over 500 applicants – triple what we usually receive! We are looking forward to honoring our excellent students and hope you will be able to attend.
Our students services are sponsoring “Don’t Cancel that Class” presentations to be held when faculty are absent from a regular lecture or as requested by an instructor. The idea behind this great concept is that before a faculty member cancels a class due to illness, they first reach out to our students services teams in financial aid, counseling, food bank, EOPS. and even campus safety to provide a presentation to students about how to access resources on campus in our various areas.
On Saturday, April 13, Cypress College hosted the first annual Ideathon, a competition sponsored by Modo Labs allowing our students to create a new interface to be included in the Cypress Connect mobile app. The winning team won $2000 fort their sustainability function, and will attend the Kurogo Mobile conference in June on the campus of MIT. Thanks to judges Cheryl Marshall, Peter Maharaj, and Henry Hua for their support!
For the second straight year, Cypress College has been named the 2019 Readers Choice Favorite Community College by readers of the Long Beach Press-Telegram. We are proud to be an annual favorite and grateful our students think Cypress College is doing a great job serving them. Thank you Long Beach Press-Telegram!
Construction Update: Construction is actively progressing on the Science, Engineering, and Math building, and the Veteran’s Resource Center. The pond has been drained, and the pile driving testing begun during spring break while students and faculty were not on campus. After the testing, we will be able to set a schedule for the real pile driving, which can be quite disruptive. Our goal is to start this portion after final week, but we will know better after the testing is completed this week. One way or another, there will be no pile driving during finals week. We will be doing what we can to help mitigate any discomfort during this construction phase. Letters have also gone out to all residents within a mile radius of the campus warning them of the occasional noise disruption. If you hear any complaints, please refer them to Dr. Schilling’s office and we will do our best to listen and reassure!
This year’s Commencement will take place on Friday, May 24 at 6 p.m. This year, for the first time, a Presidential Scholar of Distinction will be named for each division/meta-major. This scholar will be chosen by division faculty and honored as one who has persevered and succeeded under adversity. They will have the honor of leading their division in the processional, and their story will be shared from the podium. We are looking forward to honoring all our graduates who are scholars of distinction. Please join us at the pre-reception at 4:30 p.m. in CCCPLX-419, followed by our commencement celebration.
Cypress hosted a Guided Pathways Summit on April 5, featuring keynote speaker Jessica Hurless from Skyline College. It was a great day focused on data, great discussions on how we can better serve our students, followed by table work groups of counselors and faculty working together to create course mapping for our 32 AD-Ts which will migrate into our new Program Mapper. Our hope is all our AD-Ts will have a clear pathway that students can easily follow semester by semester for a 2 and 3-year plan. Please see our progress on our Guided Pathways initiatives below:
That’s our Board Report from Cypress College. Buen Cypress!