Area Report for Board of Trustees

Update for on-campus instruction Fall 2021

Thanks to the great work of faculty, Department Coordinators, and Division Chairs coupled with logistics and scheduling team Carrie Davidson, Tessa Bowen, Kili Cambra, and Mondi Fournier, approximately 27% of Highline courses will include an on-campus component in Fall 2021. This is slightly higher than the 25% we were aiming for, and represents course offerings across the curriculum. When students register for fall 2021 (a process that begins in mid-May), they will be able to choose these on-campus options which will be clearly identified in the schedule. Depending on students’ enrollment preferences, we may need to modify the fall schedule and the distribution of course modalities. This will require closely tracking enrollments over the summer.

Guided Pathways update

Faculty and staff in Academic Affairs are playing critical roles in the transformation of Highline’s processes and procedures in line with the mandate from SBCTC to implement guided pathways. 

Guided Pathways purpose/elements revisited

Guided Pathways [to careers] provides the necessary framework for a higher education model that advances racial, social, and economic justice. Through changes in how the student experience is structured, achieving equitable student aspiration, access, economic progress and educational and career attainment is possible. The Guided Pathways framework focuses on addressing key momentum areas including:

• Alignment of learning outcomes to labor market and junior level (major ready) competencies for transfer
• Excellent anti-racist, equity-minded pedagogy
• Clear pathways to achieve those outcomes- students know what classes to take when
• Excellent intake and on-boarding processes- fostering a deep sense of belonging for each student
• Informed choices- how students choose a pathway and program
• Holistic supports- how students are supported to stay on a pathway to completion

This requires challenging assumptions and long standing beliefs, practices, and policies, and is an adaptive, transformative institution-wide change process taking place at the colleges.

(SBCTC website)

Much appreciation to the following people who have been playing key leadership roles in Highline’s Guided Pathways work:

Project management: May Lukens

Budget and planning support: Marco Lopez-Torres

Program mapping: Raegan Copeland, Paulette Lopez, & Liz Word, team leads, along with Helen Burn, Renata Cummings, Erich Elwin, Cory Martin, Tim McMannon, Jessica Neilson, Briana Quintanilla, and Blake Stegner

Exploratory sequence in each pathway: Justin Dampeer & Liz Word, team leads, with support from Aleyda Cervantes, Raegan Copeland, Donna Enguerra-Simpson, Rus Higley, Eileen Jimenez, Jennifer Johnston, Laura Manning, Julie Pollard, Wendy Swyt, Iesha Valencia, Krystal Welch, Nicole Wilson

Math Attainment: Barbara Hunter & Shannon Waits, team leads, with support from Khoi-Nguyen Nguyen, Dusty Wilson, Ay Saechao, Rashmi Koushik, Jennifer Johnston, Razmehr Fardad, Emily Coates, Eileen Jimenez, Skyler Roth, Justin Dampeer, Sarah Adams, Karen Steinbach

Advising: Aleya Dhanji & Renata Cummings, team leads, with support from Prairie Brown, Jessica Crockett, Renata Cummings, Jennifer Johnston, Rashmi Koushik, Chase Magliocca, Tarisa Matsumoto-Maxfield, Kathy Nguyen, Cisco Orozco, Shelly Page, Briana Quintanilla, Robert Scribner, Wendy Swyt, Justin Taillon, Bevin Taylor, and Sarah Trimm

Intake: Shannon Waits & Chantal Carrancho, team leads, with support from Loyal Allen, Fawzi Belal, Sarah Mariame Bouanga Macira, Jeff Hsiao, Eileen Jimenez, Lilly Oh, Tim Wrye, and Laura Yanez Alvarez

Scheduling: Gabrielle Bachmeier & Marco Lopez, team leads, with support from Kili Cambra and Justin Farris

Ensuring learning/program & degree outcomes: Shawna Freeman & Aaron Moehlig, team leads, with support from Lisa Bernhagen, Ellen Bremen, Hara Brook, Natalie Hughes, Diego Luna, Jenn Ritchey, Colleen Sheridan (plus students)

Ensuring learning/inclusive pedagogy: Tarisa Matsumoto-Maxfield & Bob Scribner, team leads, with support from Jennifer Sandler

Communications: Gabrielle Bachmeier & Emily Coates, team leads, with support from Marlena Afereti, Laurinda Bellinger, Ellen Bremen, Bobby Dutreix, Jack Harton, Tony Johnson, May Lukens, Gerie Ventura, and Tanya Powers

Research: Skyler Roth & Yay-Hyung Cho, team leads, with support from Eric Baer, Samora Covington, Nicole Filler, Tanya Powers, Austin Roberts, and Jennifer Sandler

Students as stakeholders in learning: Justin Dampeer & Paulette Lopez  (working jointly with Research) and with support from Mariela Barriga, Thomas Bui, Aleyda Cervantes, Erica He, Eileen Jimenez, Rashad Norris, James Peyton, Ay Saechao, and Monica Twork

Technology: Laurinda Bellinger & Tim Wrye, with support from Marc Lentini

Native Student Success Summit

This year, Highline College is virtually hosting their 5th Annual Native Student Success Summit over three Fridays starting April 23rd through May 7th. This year’s overall theme is Be Resilient, along with three sub-themes per each Friday. Various keynote speakers have been invited to speak at the beginning of each day, following by an opening prayer from tribal elders from local tribes. This year, the keynote speakers are; Colleen Echohawk, candidate for Seattle Mayor for our Civic Engagement Day, Mariah Gladstone, producer and host of Indigikitchen, who will speak for our Health and Wellness Day. And Sovereign Bill, the cartoon voice of Molly of Denali, will be speaking on our College and Career Day. Participating as presenters and organizers are Native educators, professionals, and community leaders from various tribes and school districts of Auburn, Federal Way, Highline, Kent, Renton, and Puyallup; Green River College and Highline College; and the Seattle Police Department. Over 120 students registered for our virtual summit, from local school districts to the Yakima reservation in Central  Washington. Supplies and seafood boxes will be given out to registered students and families. Items were kindly donated from Quinault Pride Seafood, Daybreak Star Programs, University of Washington Diversity Department, and Eighth Generation. Many of our native students have been affected by the pandemic of this past year, along with many crucial racial disturbances that have occurred locally and globally. This year, we encourage youth to stay connected to the communities and be resilient amongst all that is happening in our world. 

Citizens Campaign Update

Highline College has partnered with a nationally recognized organization, “The Citizens Campaign”, whose goal is to provide citizens the knowledge and skills needed to work together and make change despite their political differences.

• The Continuing Education department will be offering an online 10-hour self-paced course beginning Summer Quarter called “Leadership & No-Blame Problem Solving”.  The course teaches the 10-steps of No-Blame Practical Problem Solving that has been proven successful with local governments.  The course is offered to all students and community members.
• T.M. Sell will be incorporating their “Power Civics” curriculum into a political science course beginning Fall Quarter. 
• In the future, Highline will host a Civic Trust meeting once a month on campus where community members and leaders who have completed the online Citizens Campaign course and/or the Power Civics curriculum can come together to better their communities with the knowledge they have gained.  

English Department

• The English Department is participating in the three-quarters long Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecology (AWAE) project, led by SBCTC’s (de)Composing ENGL&101 and sponsored by a College Spark grant. The project supports student achievement and the institutionalization of diversity through increasing the number of students who successfully complete ENGL&101 within their first year of enrollment using anti-racist practices. According to the project description, the teams will take “a radical, discipline-specific look at how teachers can partner with students to be actively antiracist.” Faculty teams from colleges throughout the state applied, and Highline was chosen to participate along with teams from six other colleges. The team, consisting of Stephanie Ojeda Ponce, Jessica Crocket, Jayendrina Singha Ray, and Allison Green, is developing a pilot project that will be implemented fall quarter, 2021. For more details about the AWAE project visit https://bit.ly/2CcZoo0
• Greg November is a Jack Straw 2021 Jack Straw Writer with a reading scheduled: Friday, May 14 at 7PM. It’s on online free event.
• Jayendrina Singha Ray has an article on Anti-Asian sentiments in the context of the recent Atlanta shootings. Here is the link to the article. It appeared simultaneously on 04/09/21 in the opinion columns of nine sound publishing papers: Federal Way Mirror, Bellevue Reporter, Kirkland Reporter, Seattle Weekly, Kent Reporter, Auburn Reporter, Covington Reporter, Redmond Reporter, and Courier Herald.

Music Department

• The Music Department continues to develop its relationship with the iBuildBridges music program in Des Moines. Ben Thomas did a workshop about arranging music with their students on April 6. 
• On May 18, the MUSC 101 and 103 students from Highline will meet with the iBuildBridges students over Zoom and exchange the music they are composing.  This will make the fourth meeting they’ve had, and the prospects for collaboration between the two programs after quarantine look better and better.

Report submitted April 28, 2021, by Vice President Emily Lardner, Ph.D.