President Schilling’s Board Report for July 23, 2019
The following is a report to the North Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees.
Presented by Cypress College President JoAnna Schilling, Ph.D.
on July 23, 2019
Summer enrollment is almost completed and the college is up 1% from last summer. Fall enrollment has begun and, after the priority enrollment period, the college is showing positive signs of growth, despite the challenges posed by our construction projects. We are optimistic that our fall enrollment will be on par or slightly ahead of last year. The report below reflects all the work being done this summer to enhance the student experience and ensuring our students start the fall on a positive note.
Campus News
The Charger Experience registration week for all Pledge/Promise students was held the week of July 15. Over 1000 students participated in the week’s activities and enrolled in 12 units or more during the registration events. Counselors and Pledge mentors and ambassadors were on hand to assist students identify their meta majors, enroll in classes, and obtain the books needed for fall. Thank you to Paul de Dios, Gisela Verduzco, Kassandra Abreu, and their teams for organizing, communicating, and implementing this important student focused event.
New Twin-Engine Motion Flight Simulator: Cypress College has added a new Twin-Engine Reciprocating & Turbine Motion Simulator, and we will soon be installing four more FAA certified simulators to enhance student technical skill attainment and increase completion rates. These unique flight simulators enable instructors to train beginning pilots on the ground for the initial private pilot certificates. This capability saves students 30 to 60 hours of flight training time which equates to a $7,500 to $15,000 savings. The new simulators will further enhance our program by reducing FAA required flight training times of 20 hours for the instrument rating and 50 hours for the commercial certificates, which will also benefit students with a significant cost savings. Instructor Ed Valdez has volunteered to provide a demo for board members interested in seeing this new technology on Friday, July 26. Please let Dr. Schilling know if you are interested in attending.
Personalized e-Brochures: Cypress College students have downloaded more than 500 personalized e-brochures since they became available in February as part of the new Career Education website (careers.cypresscollege.edu) and marketing campaign. Each program website has a “Get Info” button where students can select just the programs they are interested in, along with any support services information such as counseling and financial aid. Within 30 seconds, an information packet is generated with the students’ name at the top and essential information they need to get started, including program options, career details, department contact, and pathway maps. These PDFs, generated by Clarus, can be printed, emailed, or saved. The college receives the students’ names, email addresses, and areas of interest to enable follow-up by the specific programs as well.
We are getting ready to launch phase two of our implementation of Cypress Connect, our mobile app. Our Cypress IT team, led by Peter Maharaj, the District IT team, and ModoLabs, are in the process of implementing the student schedule of classes and Financial Aid award notification through the app. We are working to have this ready by August. Also planned for August is a long-awaited feature which will allow us to customize messages to targeted student populations, including meta major groups, clubs, and cohort groups such as Puente, Legacy, Honors, and STEM 2. This is the all-important “nudging” technology to help remind our students how to succeed at Cypress. Thank you to our District and campus teams for taking this next important step to serve our students.
The Cypress College Foundation Board will be hosting its annual board retreat on August 1 at Stanton Central Park. The purpose of this retreat is to establish goals for next year, update our by-laws, discuss board composition, and plan for our fundraising for the coming year. We appreciate the leadership of Executive Director, Howard Kummerman and our outstanding Foundation Board for the many hours they spend raising funds for our students.
The college will be hosting its annual Management Retreat on August 5 at Park Newport in Newport Beach. The focus of the retreat will be on team building, budget, and establishing our college goals for the coming year. We are looking forward to preparing for the upcoming school year on a positive path.
Our students now have access to two important new features as part of our Guided Pathways implementation. Roadtrip Nation: Roadmap to Careers! is a pilot collaboration with the CCCO and will provide a dynamic, interactive, user-friendly career exploration platform offering options to help students identify their area of interest, career goals, and the academic programs that will help them get there. Thank you to Deann Burch, Belinda Allan, and Zola Aponte for their vision in offering this new career assessment to students.
The other new implementation is our Program Mapper, which is now live on the college website. Please take a look at this new program mapping feature to help students envision their path and identify the schedule of courses they need to take to complete their degree. Thank you to Kathleen Reiland, our faculty and counselors, and VPI, Carmen Dominguez, for their work getting our degrees mapped and implemented in this new software.
Along with Fullerton College and NOCE, our exciting new collaboration with Pathways of Hope has been finalized and will be implemented on campus in mid-August. Cypress’ food bank will be open five days a week to serve students, and our PoH staff member will be providing additional resources for housing, new food partnerships, and assisting us serve the basic needs of our students. We are grateful for this collaboration, the support of our sister institutions, and Dr. Marshall for assisting us with the funding to make this happen. I am proud to work in a district that cares for the health and welfare of all students.
Below is an update of the progress we are making in our degree and certificate completion, with special attention to the progress being made by demographic group. We are very pleased to see that the focused attention on guiding students on their path is showing positive results; this doesn’t happen without major collaboration across the campus. Thank you to Institutional Research and Planning Director, Phil Dykstra and researchers, Kristina Oganesian and Eileen Haddad for providing the following report.
2018-19 Awards Data for Cypress College
The number of degrees and certificates awarded this year is more than any prior year in the history of the college.
| 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | |
| Bachelor Degrees | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 9 |
| Associate Degrees | 952 | 1,202 | 1,145 | 1,385 | 1,595 |
| Certificates | 819 | 677 | 1,008 | 1,105 | 1,839 |
| Total | 1,771 | 1,879 | 2,153 | 2,494 | 3,443 |
The number of degrees and certificates awarded to Hispanic students has increased dramatically since last year. This increase in awards since last year has been most pronounced among ethnic minority students who all had increases over 30% compared to White students at 6%.
| 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | % Change
2017-18 to 2018-19 |
|
| African-American | 72 | 87 | 77 | 107 | 140 | 31% |
| Am. Indian/Alaska Native | 15 | 6 | 18 | 8 | 24 | 200% |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 315 | 361 | 452 | 580 | 771 | 33% |
| Filipino | 111 | 125 | 147 | 158 | 254 | 61% |
| Hispanic | 679 | 807 | 970 | 1,056 | 1,614 | 53% |
| White | 542 | 463 | 462 | 542 | 577 | 6% |
| Not Reported | 37 | 30 | 27 | 43 | 63 | 47% |
| Total | 1,771 | 1,879 | 2,153 | 2,494 | 3,443 | 38% |
That’s our Board Report from Cypress College. Buen Cypress!