President Schilling’s Board Report for August 10, 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 August 10, 2021
Enrollment continues to be a challenge, despite the excellent efforts on the part of our Communications team, our Cypress Cares Campaign, our researchers, and our academic deans. The enrollment percentages continue to fluctuate and the challenges students are facing due to the COVID virus is impacting our enrollment. Interestingly, our online classes are filling faster than our on-campus classes, so we will continue to monitor this trend and adjust our schedule where we can.
Please join us for our Opening Day virtual convocation on Friday, August 20. It is hard to believe this will be our third virtual Opening Day, but we appreciate the efforts of Marc Posner and his team to pre-record, produce, and continue to make this event engaging. This year we will begin at 8:30 a.m. for a pre-show featuring interviews with three faculty members who have published books, and a brief update on our new construction projects. At 9 a.m., our program begins with greetings from our constituent leaders and Dr. Dunsheath, introduction of our new employees, the celebration of our three Faculty of the Year awardees, and the winner of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award. This year we are honored to have Anthony Ray Hinton as our keynote speaker. Mr. Hinton is featured in the movie Just Mercy, and has written his own book, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row about his experience spending 27 years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. We look forward to a fabulous morning and hope our Board members will be able to join us.
Our campus welcomed back our employees and managers during the week of August 2-5 and their presence and energy is already transforming our campus into a more vibrant place. Our Welcome Back Week provided an opportunity for employees to mingle, reconnect, and reengage. We are grateful for everything our employees have accomplished this past year and look forward to welcoming our students back to campus very soon. Great to have our team together again!
We are also reminding everyone of our upcoming Vaccination Days on August 10 and August 31 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. each date. These events will be open to our entire District and local communities. Please spread the word so we can encourage more people to receive their vaccinations and keep our campus and local community safe. Get the scheduling link here; we encourage you to share.
Cypress College will be hosting a Bystander Training for all employees on September 30 from 2:30 – 4:30 p.m. Bystander intervention training will equip allies with specific strategies to intervene on behalf of others who are targets of harassment, disrespect, and other racist attacks, either in person or online. Individuals who undergo the one-hour interactive training will learn the five D’s – distract, delegate, document, delay, and direct; and how to prioritize their own safety while intervening. The training will also provide opportunities to practice with this toolkit of options to safely intervene and make a difference. This training has been customized to speak to the AAPI experience in the southern California region, especially as it relates to this spring’s spike in anti-Asian hate incidents post-COVID. Thank you to Dr. Paul de Dios, Gisela Verduzco, and Pryscilla Truong for organizing this training for our campus community.
On July 30, Cypress College, Magnolia High School, and AUHSD partnered to present our annual White Cap Ceremony. In 2019, Cypress College received a grant offering a CyberSecurity pathway from high school to a bachelor’s degree. The CS3 Program provides a pathway from Magnolia High School to Cypress College, and then completion at UCI. Thirty students were accepted into the program in 2020 and 45 students are getting ready to begin in 2021. Thank you to Dr. Henry Hua, Stephanie Teer, and Sandra Rocha for leading this program partnership with Magnolia High School and UCI.
As announced at our last board meeting, alumna Amanda Fama made Cypress history as the first softball alum to represent the Chargers at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Amanda took the field in Tokyo, representing the Italian Softball National team. Amanda spent three seasons with the Chargers from 2008-2010 before transferring to Concordia University, Irvine. In addition, Charger baseball alum Alon Leichman (’13), was selected to Team Israel for this year’s Tokyo Olympics. Leichman pitched for the Chargers in the 2011-2013 seasons before moving on to become a scholar athlete at UC San Diego. Go Amanda and Alon and Go Chargers!
The Cypress College deans held their summer retreat in our new Student Activities Center (SAC) conference room on August 5. Dr. Frank Harris joined us for the morning to discuss how we continue to lead the way in support of our students and employees of color, as well as a discussion on how to engage all employees on the important issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our new Director of Institutional Research and Planning, Bryan Ventura, jumped right in as he joined senior researchers Eileen Haddad and Kristina Oganesian to present new Tableau reports on enrollment management. Thank you to our deans and presenters for participating in an engaging morning.
Dr. Schilling will be participating in the 2021 Look Who’s Dancing competition and fundraiser with Pathways of Hope. You may all recall that Dr. Greg Schulz and Fullerton College’s Director of Communication, Lisa McPheron, gamely stepped up to raise funds for our community partner, and now it is Cypress’ turn. The event will be held at Fullerton College on October 21. Please support us as we raise money for a worthy cause and come see Dr. Schilling stumble…uh, dance her way to support the work Pathways of Hope accomplished to fight hunger at our colleges and in our community.
Our campus communications team has been sending weekly briefs to our students and employees about enrollment, our safe campus reopening, public health information, and resources we are providing. To review this student outreach, the links below provide a sample of what has been sent to our students. Thank you to Marc Posner, Marcie Kagawa, and Cari Jorgensen for their excellent communication across our campus.
Student Communication
7/12 – What to Expect When Your Returning to Campus
7/12 – Safe Reopening of Campus
7/13 – ESC Open for Business
7/13 – Pre-Semester Laptop Survey
7/13 – Time for Registration (July 19-23)
7/14 – Fall Registration Fair
7/15 – Reminder: Learning Resource Center Open This Summer
7/20 – We’re Here to Support You
7/22 – Pre-Semester Aid Survey
7/27 – On-Campus Vaccination Clinic
Buen Cypress, We Take This Journey Together!