President Schilling’s Board Report for October 11, 2022
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 October 11, 2022
Cypress College has been recognized by Campaign for College Opportunity as a 2022 Equity Champion of Higher Education — for the second year in a row. This award recognizes our campus’ exemplary work in implementing the Associate Degree for Transfer for Latinx students, supporting at least 65% of Latinx associate-degree earners on our campus, as well as providing support to perform as well or better in this metric compared to the entire student body. Cypress College will be recognized at the 2022 Champions of Higher Education Celebration on Tuesday, November 1, 2022, from 10–11:30 a.m. via Zoom.
The Cypress College Dual Enrollment program, led by Stephanie Teer and Sandra Rocha, presented Leading with Equity in Dual Enrollment at this year’s CCEMC Dual Enrollment conference. The presentation highlighted the program’s strategic efforts to expand equitable access, while providing a supportive infrastructure to ensure successful student outcomes, as demonstrated by the program’s 92.5% overall success rate since 2017. The program started with only eight courses in 2017 and since then has offered 523 sections of 79 different courses with over 4,800 students enrolling. The overall principles behind the program’s success stem from creating a collaborative guided pathways approach with each high school, developing guided transfer and CTE pathways, providing high-quality instruction, and connecting students with Dual Enrollment counselors to ensure that each student has an education plan throughout their academic journey. This fall, the program reached an important milestone with 1,023 enrollments, comprised of over 900 students enrolled in 25 embedded and 16 afterschool classes.
The women’s softball team was honored by the OEC as the Academic Team Champion for the best cumulative GPA in the Orange Empire Conference. We are proud of our athletes who maintained their academic excellence while also ranking 3rd in the state last year. In addition, our softball, baseball, and women’s tennis teams all qualified for the CCCAA Scholar Team of the Year. Congratulations to all our coaches and athletes, and kudos to coach Brad Pickler and our women’s softball team for their excellence.
Lex Nettles, a graduating student in the photo department, will be exhibiting his work, “Proximity,” a showcase of the artist’s creative path as a photography major at Cypress College. The work included in the exhibition is a mix of alternative photographic processes as well as modern digital imagery. Lex says, “I want the viewers to feel as though they are looking into my own room.” The exhibition runs October 10 – December 2 in the Cypress Photo Gallery. The opening reception will be Thursday October 13, 6-9 p.m.
OCTOBER is DISABILITY & INCLUSION Month: Individuals with disabilities intersect all pathways of life — across religions, gender identities, ethnicities, races, religions, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic status. Join DSS throughout the month of October to celebrate individuals with disabilities and embrace disability as a natural part of our diversity. The college will be providing purple ribbons to acknowledge and celebrate all individuals with disabilities.
The Cypress College Foundation is sponsoring the 37th Annual Golf Classic at the Black Gold Golf Club in Yorba Linda on October 20, 2022. Last year’s golf classic raised an historic $80,000 toward scholarships for students and we are aiming even higher this year. Please join us by registering or donating today!
Cypress College will be holding an All-Campus retreat at the UCLA Conference Center in Lake Arrowhead October 27-28, 2022. The focus of this retreat is Reimagining Our Future: Flexible Work and Learning. Our facilitator, Regina Stanback-Stroud, will be guiding us through our priorities for serving and engaging our students equitably in this new post-pandemic world. We expect over 100 employees and students to join us for this important discussion and opportunity to reconnect, reimagine, and create the environment we want to sustain at Cypress College.
The college will be conducting a vaccination clinic on Wednesday October 26 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in NOCE Room 118. The clinic is free and open to the campus and local community. Vaccines and boosters will be offered as well as flu shots. Everyone who is eligible to receive any of the above are strongly encourage to attend.
Cypress’ EOPS/CARE, CalWORKs & Guardian Scholar programs served more than 850 students during the spring 2022 semester and over 1,000 unduplicated students thought the 2021-22 academic year. The program continues to support, engage, and connect with students by providing counseling, textbook assistance, priority registration, workshops, and services virtually and in-person. This spring 2022 graduating class was the largest to date, with over 200 students graduating and transferring. Thank you to our staff, Eva Palomares, Alan Reza, Leena Acosta, Jackie Garcia, Teresa Cuara, Jonatan Robles, Lili Perez, Ashley Berry, Leilani Matanguihan, and Lisa Hoang, led by Director AnnMarie Ruelas for their dedication to, and support of, our students.
As we get ready to support and honor our veterans during Veteran’s Week, November 7-10, we will be conducting a Green Zone Training, offering an Open House, providing our first Military Women’s Celebration, and culminating in a VRC BBQ for our military-affiliated students and their families. Thank you to Juan Garcia, Nick Gutierrez, and Esmeralda Martin for their continued support of our veterans.
In recent weeks, Cypress hosted Senator Josh Newman, Congresswoman Michelle Steel, and the Military Officers Association of America who visited our VRC and toured our campus. Senator Newman was so impressed he named Juan Garcia, with special mention to Esmeralda Martin and Nick Gutierrez, as Citizen of the Month. Congratulations to our exemplary veterans support team.
Cypress College hosted our annual High School Superintendents/Principals Breakfast on October 6, welcoming our district partners from Anaheim, Los Alamitos, Fullerton, Garden Grove, and Placentia-Yorba Linda School Districts. It was a great morning of conversation and ideas as we enjoyed the opportunity to discuss dual enrollment, mental health, K14 partnerships, and how we come together in support of our students.
The college also hosted the Cypress City Council Candidate Forum on September 29. Sponsored by the Cypress Chamber of Commerce, over 50 attendees had the opportunity to hear from six candidates, who answered community questions and shared their platforms for serving our city and community.
In honor of Undocumented Students Week, Cypress’ Grad to Be program will be hosting a week of workshops and activities the week of October 17-21. Our Grads to Be program, which offers services and support to our undocumented students, served over 50 students this past year, by providing counseling, free legal aid assistance, financial aid and scholarship assistance, mental health referrals, and workshops.
Buen Cypress! We Take This Journey Together!