Area Report for Board of Trustees

Enrollment in Winter 2024 is higher than it was last Winter. State enrollment is up 251 FTE. Running Start enrollment is up 168 FTE. International student enrollment is up 11 FTE. As you can see in the sections below, faculty and staff are hard at work engaging students and connecting with our wider community.

Core Theme 1: ACCESS, Reduce Barriers and close equity gaps to access for all community members

• Deborah Moore (Library and A&H) created a Copyright Library guide. This guide works in conjunction with the Faculty Guide to Open Educational Resources (OER) to help HC employees find low-cost or free course materials which benefit our students.
• The Reflection Room, on the 5th floor of the library just outside the Board Room, has been wildly popular with students. Students from all over campus come to enjoy the room and use it to relax and small groups use it to study and socialize! It is occupied all day long just about every day of the week. Students are using the feedback box in the room to ask for more fidgets, floor pillows, white board and more spaces like this across campus!
• Math Week and Pi Day are coming up March 11^th-15^th. There will be various free events around campus for students, faculty, and staff to enjoy as we celebrate the beauty and usefulness of math in our lives.
• The High School Engagement & Academic Success Team hosted a successful partner breakfast, with representatives from six school districts, a charter school, and three community-based organizations. Thanks to partners in Access Services, Achieve, Cultural Learning Communities, Dual Credit, High School Re-engagement, and Running Start for making this day a success.

Core Theme 2: STUDENT LEARNING, Increase educational success, collaborate to improve

• On January 31, 6 Highline geology students joined Geology faculty Dr. Eric Baer and Dr. Jacob Selander for the second annual Washington State Geology transfer night. They heard presentations from six transfer institutions on the many options for students who want to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Geology.
• Deborah Moore (Library) used her professional leave during Fall 2023 to research typical copyright topics encountered by faculty and staff in order to create a Copyright library guide as a centralized place for copyright information for the campus community
• The Highline College Library recently welcomed 97 students to the library table during the Building 25 Open House on January 24. Students gave insightful answers to 2 questions: One thing I like about the Highline Library is__ and One thing I would change about the Highline Library is__. Students like the helpful library employees, good places to study, and the diverse book collection. Things they would change would be the elevators and more private study rooms
• Achieve students Jayce Rockholt and Victor Wolf Shadow completed a paid fashion design and production internship in collaboration with College Hill. They worked with the College Hill design team to design merchandise for Achieve. To close their internship the students will be doing a pop-up fashion show sales event where the profits from merchandise will be used as a fundraiser for Achieve. Students will be signing up for a public comment to share this news with the BOT.
• First year Achieve student Sadek Hasan has just landed an internship with Microsoft, supported by one of our employment consultants, Max Doggett.
• The Engineering Mentor Night happened on February 8 with engineering students meeting professional engineers to learn about the work they do and the paths they went through to get there. Thanks to the Foundation for their support, and to Cait Cramer and Melissa Moehlig for their leadership with the event.

Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS: Create a more inclusive working environment and a more valued, visible relationship with communities we serve

• Highline hosted 50 students and teachers from Maritime High School (Highline School District) on February 1. The students got a tour and then were able to make sea urchins spawn in the biology lab! This was an important step in our partnership which will bring Maritime students to Highline in the Fall to take science classes as part of the Running Start program.  Thanks to all who made this event possible: The High School Programs office, MaST Center staff, and the Biology program lab technicians. (Photos by Rus Higley, MaST Director)

• On February 24^th, Highline will host the 2024 Kenyon/Hoffman Washington Student Mathematics Conference from 10 am to 3 pm here on our campus.
• The CIS and Computer Science department held a DACUM to get feedback and suggestions for their program from employers on Friday, July 26. Fifteen panelists spent the entire day answering questions about employment needs and skills. The panelists included representatives from Microsoft, Amazon, Palo Alto, Healthpoint, Virginia Mason-Franciscan Health, Kudelski Security, Alaska Airlines, Docusign, T-Mobile, and more. The faculty are now revising their curriculum to make sure their students are well prepared for the job market after graduation.
• The January ‘Bring your Kids to College STEAM’ event brought 100 children and their families to the Highline Maker’s space to learn about Robotics. These monthly science events are open to the public, and sponsored by the Pure and Applied Science Division. The event was organized by Lab Tech Staffers Stephaney Puchalski and Mariola Kulaweic.  These events have now served over 850 participants.

Core Theme 4: CULTURE & CAPACITY: Promote a campus culture which fosters equity and inclusivity supporting employee growth and development, and institutional capacity for transformation

• Darryl Brice (Sociology faculty) has been invited to participate in the Black Men’s Research Institute Symposium at Morehouse College March 27-28, 2024. Per the invitation, “The theme for this year’s Symposium is “Black Male Identities,” which is intentionally broad and open given the complexities of Black boys’ and men’s beings and the multifaceted ways that their identities intersect each component of their lives.”
• Aleya Dhanji (Physics faculty) was awarded the Donald H. Wulff Diversity Fellowship by the POD Network for her work in infusing DEI in faculty professional development. The fellowship is awarded by the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education to recognize individuals for their accomplishments and future potential to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the educational development field.
• Highline is partnering with Mount San Antonio College (CA), Reynolds College (VA), Suffolk County College (NY), William & Mary (VA), and Penn State Brandywine to offer a summer workshop on supporting 2YC Geoscience faculty to develop, write, and submit National Science Foundation grant proposals. This workshop will help disseminate the lessons learned from Highline’s numerous successful NSF grant proposals. More information can be found at the Workshop Website  https://sites.google.com/highline.edu/building-capacity/home.  This workshop is supported by a grant from The National Science Foundation.

Division Honors and Awards

• Greg November’s (English faculty) story “Grapefruit” is published in the 2024 issue of Two Thirds North, from Stockholm University.
• Susan Rich’s (English faculty) new book of poetry, BLUE ATLAS has been published by Red Hen Press (Los Angeles). Many readings coming up!
• Josh Gidding’s (English faculty) new memoir, Old White Man Writing (title and contents are self-deprecating, not white supremacist!), is scheduled to be published by Mascot Books in Fall 2024.