Apr. 09, 2020: Administrative Services

Area Report for Administrative Services

This past month has been an extremely busy for all of our staff. All efforts have been dedicated to ensure the health and safety of the Highline College community during the COVID-19 crisis.
Due to the nature of responsibilities within Administrative Services, many of our staff are designated critical-service employees and are on the front-line to provide support to college in transitioning to on-line instructions for spring quarter, as well as participating in incident command system.
I am extremely appreciative and proud of the work that Administrative Services personnel is performing in this very uncertain environment to support Highline College and student success.

Highline College was completely closed during the week of March 24th, in order for the Custodial staff to do deep cleaning the entire campus. The goal was to sanitize heavily trafficked areas, classrooms, offices and common spaces to halt the spread of the virus.
Facilities has purchased and stocked up additional cleaning supplies, including increased sanitizing stations, bleach, hand sanitizer gel, paper towels, and toilet tissues.
Facilities has been a part of ongoing campus-wide emergency planning efforts to promote safety, cleanliness, social distancing, and continuity of operations.

Finance is preparing the fiscal section of annual IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) Report.
Finance has also been heavily involved in continuity of operations planning including identifying essential finance duties and personnel.
In order to comply with the Governor’s directives, most of the Finance staff have been tele-working for several weeks in March.
Despite the challenges of working remotely, budget planning efforts are still on-going.
A revised FY Budget 2019-20 is being submitted to the Board to reflect the reality of declining enrollments and revenues.

Public Safety continues to provide physical security of the campus through the Governor’s Stay Home, Stay Healthy order. The Department is maintaining the current staffing schedule of 24/7 to ensure protection of the entire Highline College campus, including the Campus View student housing.
Public Safety continues to establish social distancing best practices and work with department supervisors to implement them across campus. During their patrols, when and where necessary, the officers have reminded students, staff, faculty and community members to observe proper social distancing measures for self protection.
Public Safety/Emergency Management Team has activated the Incident Command System (ICS) to enable effective and efficient management of the COVID-19 response. The ICS team meets weekly, via Zoom, to report area updates with executive leadership and ensure incident objectives are being met and provide strategic planning. A separate communications team has been established to help coordinate communication to students, staff and faculty.

In an effort to comply with the health recommendations, Conference and Event Services have cancelled all internal and external events through the end of April. We are also providing flexibility for external renters to cancel events through June.
Highline College Bookstore is working on different operational plans for spring quarter in order to protect the health of students and staff. One plan includes providing bookstore services in an alternate location to limit physical access to the bookstore, if and when students are allowed back on campus. The other plan involves moving the entire operations online for spring quarter. The Bookstore however will provide free shipping for all textbooks and course materials beginning the week of March 30th.