President Schilling’s Board Report for June 22, 2021

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 22, 2021

June is National Pride Month, and in commemoration of our LGBTQ students and employees, the college has been flying a Pride Flag all month on our website, and on our Valley View marquee. The DEI Committee will also be hosting a Pride Week in fall featuring activities and an LGBTQ student of distinction will be featured each day during Pride Week.

There will be a Pathways to Private Schools Summer 2021 Virtual College Fair hosted by our Transfer Center on Thursday, July 8 from 4–7 p.m. Students will be able to meet virtually with over 20+ colleges and universities.

The City of Cypress will be hosting their annual Salute to America Celebration at Cypress College for the second year on Friday, July 2. This patriotic celebration will feature food trucks and live music from Electric Vinyl, all leading up to a spectacular fireworks display. Festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. and end around 9:30 p.m. Please join us for this celebration!

Cypress College managers came together for an outdoor teambuilding day on Tuesday, June 15. The purpose of this retreat was to begin building community as we start to come back to campus. Many managers were seeing one another for the first time in over a year, and some for the first time ever. It was a great morning of fun, shared purpose, and friendly competition. My thanks to Kristi Valdez for helping organize the day! Our activities and lunch were funded by Schools First and we thank Kristin Crellin for her generous grant on behalf of our employees.

The First Look Tour of our new campus buildings are currently underway. We have four tours scheduled to meet your schedules on June 21, 24, and 25. If you haven’t yet registered, we hope you will be able to join us to see these beautiful new additions to the Cypress College campus. Only Trustees, Foundation board members, and our Citizen Oversight Committee members are eligible for these tours, but we will be conducting more tours for members of the public beginning in September.

Retiring Dean of Health Sciences, Rebecca Gomez, has been recognized as the recipient of this year’s Educator Award by the California Health Information Association (CHIA).  The Educator Award honors an individual who demonstrates excellence in preparing the next generation of professionals for Health Information Technology (HIT) careers in a field that depends on a continual influx of well-trained new talent. The award winner must demonstrate excellence in all aspects of education and teaching by setting high standards of excellence and high expectations for students, while impacting the student as a role model through the instructor role. Rebecca will be receiving her award the week of June 14-16 at CHIACON21. Please join us in thanking Rebecca for her service to Cypress College the past 15 years and in congratulating her on this well-deserved award.

Athletics Update: The Chargers returned to competition this season on March 24 when women’s basketball hosted Golden West College for the first Cypress athletic event in over a year. With no competition in the fall of 2020, the CCCAA voted to participate in a Spring I and Spring II season. For Cypress Athletics, the Spring I season consisted of seven sports: men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s water polo, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball. Spring II wrapped up in early June, with an OEC Tournament championship for women’s softball, a second place OEC finish for men’s baseball, and a third place finish for men’s golf. Cypress was one of fewer than 15 CCCAA schools to successfully compete in all sport offerings during the COVID modified season. Zero confirmed positive COVID cases in 5 months of daily testing proved the commitment of our student athletes, coaches, and staff to make this season happen. This season was far from normal for each sport, but our coaches and staff were overjoyed to have an opportunity that allowed our student athletes to compete and return to competition to bring a glimpse of normalcy to their physical and mental health. Below is a list of notable accomplishments in the 2021 spring season. Congratulations to all our coaches and to Athletic Director Wesley McCurtis and Interim Dean Colin McPherson for a successful season!

Also, in athletic news, we say thank you and farewell to long-time athletic director Bill Pinkham, three-time OEC swim coach of the year Larry Beidler, and Athletic Training Association Hall of Fame inductee Scott Tucker, who each completed their final season with the Chargers as they head into retirement. Below is a list of student accomplishments:

Notable Individual Student Athlete Accomplishments

  • Softball’s Emily Rush and Alyssa Huerta selected to All-OEC First Team. Paige Shafer and Eliza Sandoval selected to All-OEC Second Team
  • Baseball’s Coby Morales, Andrew Sojka, and Brenden Harris selected to All-OEC First Team. Julian Aguilar, Brett Garcia, and Ricky Lane make All-OEC Second Team
  • Swimmer Ethan Umpornpuckdi placed first in the 200- and 500-yard freestyles at the OEC Championships, while Zachary Sofai placed first in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles
  • Men’s Golfer Luke Bartram finishes second in the OEC with an overall average score of 73.4. Selected to All-OEC First Team
  • Baseball alumnus Tommy Nance makes MLB debut

Our newly formed Native American Faculty and Staff Alliance (NAFSA) held a contest for the best art concepts for a new logo for their group this past May. A $100 cash prize was awarded to the first-place winner, and two $50 prizes were awarded to the honorable mentions. All current and former Cypress College, Fullerton College, and NOCE students were able to submit original works.

Cypress College has received a full IEPI Grant, focused on improving our enrollment dashboards in Tableau and institutionalizing the Guided Pathways best practices identified by our Title V completion teams. The college will be working on a more detailed plan this summer with Academic Senate and college leadership, and we will expect our first campus visit in late fall.

The Community College League of California is pleased to announce the release of A College for All Californians: A History of the California Community Collegesthe first comprehensive written book on the history of the largest and most diverse public system of higher education in the United States. Serving over 2 million students annually—approximately one-quarter of the nation’s community college undergraduates—California’s 116 community colleges play an indispensable role in career and transfer education in North America and have maintained an outsized influence on the evolution of post-secondary education nationally. We invite you to pre-order this book, co-authored by League President and CEO Dr. Larry Galizio. Proceeds of book sales will go toward a League scholarship for California Community College students.

Buen Cypress, We Take This Journey Together!

Details for the 2nd Cypress College/City of Cypress Salute to America Celebrations is below:

Salute to America flyer

Thank you to our Office of Campus Communications for creating our Pride Month logo, currently on our Valley View marquee and our website:

#PrideMonth

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