President Schilling’s Board Report for June 25, 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 June 25, 2019
Campus News
The Charger Experience Program will be holding orientations the week of June 24 to inform students of the requirements for free tuition for all Pledge/Promise students and to prepare them for the registration process in July. July registration events will be held the week of July 15. We are expecting over 900 students to participate and enroll in 12 units or more during the registration events this summer.
For the first time, Cypress College will host the annual City of Cypress Salute to America Celebration on July 3. This Independence Day event will be held in partnership with the city and will take place from 4 to 9:30 p.m. on our campus. This is a free community event and the fireworks display begins at 9 p.m.
Our winning Modo Lab team attended the Kurago 2019 Tech Conference at MIT on June 15-18 and was the only community college to make it to the finals. They were competing for a $10,000 prize and chance to have their low cost book app featured in all new Modo Lab applications. They ended up as the runner up to UC Berkeley. Nice company! Thank you to Peter Maharaj for implementing this competition at our college, and for attending the conference with the students. In addition, they had the opportunity to tour the MIT and Harvard innovation labs, providing a window to the future for these future entrepreneurs. We are so proud of their accomplishments!
Cypress College women’s basketball coach, Margaret Mohr, is hosting her 21st annual “MohrHoops” summer basketball camp. This year’s June session (June 17-21) is already SOLD OUT, but there are still limited spaces available for the July session (July 15-19). Boys and girls ages 7-14 can participate in either Monday-Friday session. All camp participants will receive a camp t-shirt, jersey, basketball, player evaluation, and other prizes.
Beginning in the summer session, all new students will be using the Guided Self-Placement Tool to guide them in which math or English class they should take. All incoming students will be placed into transfer level math regardless of their preparation. There will be no more assessment tests, saving students money, time and challenges caused by placement below college-level math and English.
This week, Cypress College is hosting the Cypress Boys and Girls Club for our second annual Camp Cypress experience. For four days, 50-60 young teens and pre-teens come to Cypress College from 12:30-4:30 p.m. to experience college through activities focused on science, psychology, cybersecurity, art, literacy, a college knowledge scavenger hunt, and physical activities each day. We appreciate the efforts of our faculty and student service team in making this happen.
Our spring/summer DOM Appreciation Luncheon will be held on June 24. This once a semester luncheon is a time for our hard-working Division Office Managers (DOMs) to discuss challenges or needs with the president and vice presidents, and to enjoy one another’s company.
The next monthly meeting of the Orange County Hunger and Housing Taskforce will be on June 28 at 8:30 a.m. This taskforce features representatives from all the OC community college districts, and is focused on sharing resources and, potentially, funding, to address the growing food and housing insecurities facing the students who attend our colleges. Drs. Schilling and Schultz are serving on behalf of NOCCCD.
Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk Silva’s Open House, showcasing her New District Office Grand Opening will be held June 27 at 5 p.m. Cypress will be represented by Dr. Schilling, Marc Posner, and Dr. de Dios.
In celebration of June Pride month, the Library will be featuring displays in honor of our LGBTQ history. In addition, the college is developing a Safe Zone training for all employees to help create awareness of the challenges our LGBTQ students face on daily basis. We anticipate this curriculum will be ready by the fall semester, and have identified multiple initiatives to create a warm and welcoming environment on campus of our LGBTQ students.
The Cypress College Foundation Board will be hosting its End of Year Celebration on June 26 at 5 p.m. Location is still to be determined, but this annual event is an opportunity to provide an overview of the many successes the college has enjoyed due to our strong Foundation support, and to celebrate these important accomplishments.
We are happy to report that Cypress will be wrapping up the final hiring of 25 new faculty members and two new managers in the next few weeks. Our new group of faculty are diverse in all ways are solidly focused on assisting our students succeed. We are looking forward to welcoming this new class of colleagues to NOCCCD in August and thank the board for their support.
That’s our Board Report from Cypress College. Buen Cypress!