COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT 9

HIGHLINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

 

MINUTES OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES’ MEETING

March 20, 2007

 

STUDY SESSION

Executive Session

Enrollment

Legislative Update

MaST/Capital Campaign

Africa Projects

Board Retreat

 

MEETING

 

Call to Order

Elizabeth Chen, Chair, called the meeting to order at 10:20 a.m. 

 

Roll Call

Members Present:                              Elizabeth Chen

Rita Creighton

Ed Davila

                                                            Mike Regeimbal

                                                            Karen Vander Ark

 

Attorney General Representative:       Derek Edwards

 

Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees Meeting on February 15, 2007 were approved.

 

Correspondence

The State Board has named Highline as a Center of Excellence for International Trade, Transportation, and Logistics.  Alice Madsen, Dean for Professional Technical Education Programs, described the background of the Centers of Excellence process that the State Board has developed to highlight programs that a particular college has to be the state of the art flagship institution that promotes programs that are related to the strength areas of that college. 

 

There are currently ten centers of excellence and Highline has been selected from an application progress as the eleventh Center of Excellence.  Alice explained that other colleges applied for this Center and described the criteria used to evaluate an institution that is selected to maintain a reputation for innovation and responsiveness in educating and training industry members, existing industry members, as well as new students for pre-service and in-service training.  The Center acts as a broker of information and resources related to the targeted industry.  Thanks were extended to those who were instrumental in giving support and in writing the application including Jack Bermingham, Raegan Copeland, Mary Averett, Jeff Wagnitz, Lisa Skari, Marie Zimmermann, Carrie Joliceour, Jeff Ward, John Lindsay, Chris Brandmeir, Nancy Warren, and Meg Ryan.  To be named a Center of Excellence is a great accomplishment for the College and reflects the internationalism strengths which is central to Highline.

 

STANDING REPORTS

 

Associated Students of Highline Community College

Daniel Nordstrom reported.

  • The Refugee and Immigrant Legislative Day on February 19 in Olympia was a huge success with 64 students participating and many more Highline students who chose to attend the event through their own community groups with the Refugee Women’s Alliance totaling an estimated 1000.
  • The Student Leader of the Month is Chariya Thach who worked on the Refugee and Immigrant Legislative Day and is involved in several committees on campus.
  • S&A Budget Committee Chair Renee Reiche has reported that progress is being made for next year’s S & A budget.
  • The Clubs Staff has planned Spring Club Fair on April 5.

 

Washington Public Employees Association

Lydia Bracco reported.

  • This month the WPEA district meeting will be held on campus tonight, March 20.
  • February 19 WPEA had their annual member action day in Olympia drawing members from across the state participating in a morning training session and meeting with legislators discussing important issues affecting public employees.  Participants from Highline included Lydia, Jeff Grogan and Cheryl Carino-Burr. 
  • Highline’s WPEA Chapter held its first brown bag chapter meeting last month on February 21 with 20 campus employees attending.  The next meeting will be held March 21.

 

Highline College Education Association

Ruth Windhover reported.

·         Thanks were extended to Jack Bermingham and the College in general for their support of faculty and to the Trustees for their support of the increment bill.  She reminded the Trustees that if the increments and COLAs are fully funded this only keeps the faculty at status quo and doesn’t move them ahead as a system in terms of the national partners and also within the eight global challenge states salaries in which Highline is ranked sixth. 

·         Thanks were also extended to Marie Zimmermann for her responsiveness to faculty as well as to Larry Yok.  The faculty has a very good relationship with the administrators on an on-going basis and HCEA leadership has another meeting tomorrow with Executive Staff.

·         WEA Higher Ed and the AFT Washington are holding a bargaining conference next month and representatives from Highline will be there sharing their contract which is a lighthouse among contracts in Washington State.  The contract is very well thought out and serves the purposes of the College and the faculty very well. 

 

Faculty Senate

Phil Droke reported.

  • Several issues are in progress having to do with academics and degrees and results are expected spring quarter.

 

ACTION ITEM

 

No Action Items.                                                                                 

 

REPORTS

 

Critical Moments Program

Yoshiko Harden-Abe, Director Multicultural Services and Student Programs, Natasha Burrowes, Associate Director of Student Programs and Diversity, and Thressa Alston, Counselor, gave a report on the Critical Moments Project at Highline.  The Critical Moments Project is a retention awareness and change project for students of color and other under-represented and under-privileged groups.  This project prepares students, faculty, and administrators to respond proactively to campus and classroom events and forums that involve issues, gender, class, and other differences and similarities through the sharing of their stories.  The interviews and stories focus on describing situations that caused students to drop out of college, feeling silenced, being misunderstood, and feeling isolated, these are critical moments. 

 

The Critical Moments Project in Washington State is a collaborative initiative sponsored by the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education which highlights the critical moments in students lives. 

 

They explained the goals of Critical Moments/Untold Stories to increase the contributions of culturally diverse students on the college campus and to find common themes, issues, similarities and differences that effect students to ease feelings of isolation and provide support for academic success.  This helps to understand and recognize the reflective process in critical moments, the choices, decisions, and players that made a difference in their lives. 

 

AREA REPORTS

 

Student Services

Toni Castro reported.

  • Kate Bligh, the new Associate Dean of Enrollment Services and Financial Aid, was introduced.  She started at Highline in October and has almost 30 years of experience in financial aid and enrollment services and has worked in a number of community colleges in the state.  Kate was invited by the Washington Association of Financial Aid Administrators to be a trainer and she will be on the state and national scene, training people on ethics and financial aid and administration and disbursement of funds.
  • Highline has successfully funded all of the spring financial aid applicants who met the priority deadline for spring and the entire financial aid staff was commended in ensuring that this happened which is seen as a strategic enrollment strategy.  They have also secured over 500 loans totaling $2,043,000. 
  • Services and Activities Budget Committee is meeting.  The Committee represents faculty, administration, students, and the business office looking at funding about 54 proposals which include the Early Childhood Learning Center, athletics programs, instruction programs, and leadership development programs to name a few. 
  • There have been many contributions of the Women’s Programs and WorkFirst Services staff and they have many community partnerships.  Marie Bruin, Director of the Women’s Programs and WorkFirst Services, co-chaired the Federal Way Chamber of Commerce Advancing Leadership Program’s Diversity Day.  Marie is also a graduate of the 2006 Advancing Leadership class.
  • This Friday Highline is hosting on campus the annual Expanding Your Horizons Conference expecting almost 400 seventh and eighth grade girls to inspire them to look at math and science as professions with a number of workshops and activities planned.  This conference is a partnership with the American Association of University Women.
  • Student success stories – Melissa Mojica and Ashley Robertson were Washington Achievers who are under-represented students supported by the Washington Education Foundation now called the College Success Foundation.  Melissa started at Highline in the fall of 2005 and plans to transfer to Central Washington University this spring pursuing a law and justice degree.  A graduate of Kent Meridian High School in 2004, she has had setbacks and had to drop out for one quarter, will graduate from Highline with a 3.3 GPA.  Ashley Robertson graduated with an Associate of Arts Degree with an emphasis in business in 2002 with a 3.47 GPA.  She transferred to Xavier University in New Orleans to pursue her goal of a bachelor degree.  She received an internship in a management and training position at the W Hotel in New Orleans and was promoted to Assistant Manager a month before Hurricane Katrina struck.  She left New Orleans a few hours before the hurricane leaving all her belongings in her dome room.  She returned to Seattle and enrolled in Seattle University in 2005 and found a job at the DoubleTree Hotel.  In 2006 she graduated Seattle University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and is currently working as a manager at the Lexus Hotel. 

 

General Administration

Shirley Bean reported.

  • Danette Lale, Budget Director, was hired from a community college in Montana and started at Highline in the middle of February.  Jonathan Koehler has been hired as the new Director of Auxiliary Services starting March 26 coming from Peninsula College.  He was the Bookstore manager at Highline in the 1980s and 1990s. 
  • Commencement will be held at Key Arena on June 14. 
  • Thanks to Ruth Windhover for mentioning the good partnership that Administration has with faculty.  Administrative Services managers are examining their customer service in supporting faculty and students and will be working on that through spring quarter.

 

Instruction

Marie Zimmermann reported.

  • Thanks to Ruth Windhover for the work she has done in working with her, Larry Yok, Pete Babington and Cesar Portillo to find a resolution in getting two classrooms in building 4 on line to hold classes spring quarter.  There will be another meeting with Labor and Industries tomorrow to discuss recommendations for that space.  This has been a cooperative effort to resolve those issues.
  • Thanks to Nancy Kent, web manager, for getting the Quarterly on line on Highline’s website.  The listing of classes allows students to see if the classes are full and how many spaces are left in a class which is within 30 minutes of being up to date. 
  • On February 9, there were two showings of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”.  The faculty involved had a follow-up session on Saturday March 10 called a community roundtable held at 10:00 a.m. with more than 60 people attending.  Representatives spoke to the issues of global climate change and various other perspectives.  They were very well received.  This is another example of how the faculty at Highline share the passion around their discipline and consider a part of their responsibility is not only educating students in the classrooms but to spread the educational role out into the community.  These activities stemmed from issues in Federal Way regarding the showing of this film and deciding this as an effort to be of service to the community.
  • The Highline Chorale gave a performance last evening that was wonderful.  This group under the direction of faculty member Sandra Glover is going to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York next month as well as other groups around the country. 
  • The final screening is taking place with the applicants for the faculty tenure track positions for next fall and interviews are being scheduled.

 

Institutional Advancement

Rod Stephenson reported.

  • Highline sponsored an advertising contest in the Federal Way Mirror newspaper insert for Literacy Month for newspapers in education.  A copy of the insert was distributed.  There was a submission for Highline as well as for businesses in Federal Way. 
  • May 5 is the Highline Community College Foundation Gala at Cedarbrook with great food and auction items and the hope is to raise over $100,000 for student scholarships and student emergency funds. 
  • June 15 will be the annual Athletic Department Golf Tournament at Elk Run.

 

Discussion

Dr. Bermingham recognized and thanked Natasha Burrowes, Yoshiko Harden, and Thressa Alston for the great work they are doing.  He indicated that this is another example that shows a sense of the passion and collaboration at the College that is behind so many projects.  Some of these initiatives come out of a similar area but pull in many other people from other areas and are a reflection of the collaboration and teamwork that cuts across areas.  Most importantly they reflect some of the deepest values of the institution.  Teaching and learning on campus is not only in the classroom but is also in the environment and the interaction that is created with the students in the community. 

 

He also extended thanks to Alice Madsen in her leadership in the success on the initiative for the Center of Excellence. 

 

Recognition was given to Daniel Nordstrom and the students for advocating for the College in Olympia with the legislature.

 

Birthday congratulations were extended to Sandy Moser. 

 

Unscheduled Business

None.

 

New Business

None.

 

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 11:50 a.m.

 

Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting of the Board of Trustees

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Trustees will be Thursday, April 12, 2007.

 

              8:00 a.m.       Study Session             Building 25, Room 411

            10:00 a.m.       Meeting                        Building 25, Board Room

 

ORIGINAL SIGNED APRIL 12, 2007

 

______________________________            _________________________________

Elizabeth Chen, Chair                                     Jack Bermingham, Interim Secretary