Area Report for Board of Trustees
In this season of celebrations, one event that stands out for me is the Pure and Applied Science Division’s annual potluck awards banquet. Faculty brought wonderful food and drink to share with students and their families. As faculty presented awards to students across the disciplines in that division, their passion for teaching and students’ pride in their accomplishments were palpable. Sitting with students and their parents and friends, and listening to faculty talk about students’ accomplishments was inspiring.
We are close to completing the tenure track hiring process for positions starting in September. Roughly half of these newly hired faculty will fill positions that have become vacant through retirements. The remaining positions represent the College’s commitment to increasing the percentage of credits taught by FT faculty members as expressed in the HCEA-HC negotiated agreement.
Core Theme 1: ACCESS, Reduce Barriers and close equity gaps to access for all community members
Library Director Gerie Ventura and ELCAP Department Coordinator Laurie Stusser-McNeill led a pilot effort to bring ELCAP classes into the Library on evenings and weekends. In this one-week pilot, 196 ELCAP students from 10 classes visited the library. Close to 100 books were checked out, and a project to create picture dictionaries using Pressbooks (see below) in additional languages has emerged.
The Bring Your Kids to College science outreach group will have a workshop “Tinkering with Circuits” from 11am to 1pm in the ThunderLab Makerspace (16-106) on Saturday June 17th. As you might guess from the title, the theme for June is the science of electrical circuits and tinkering. Remember, you don’t have to bring kids to participate – all ages are welcome. As usual, there will be stations for younger participants – squishy circuits with play dough – as well as stations with some challenging projects for more advanced learners. Don’t miss it!
Librarians Deb Moore and Hara Brook partnered with Educational Technology Systems Administrator Mattias Olshausen to offer a Pressbooks Write-In on Friday, May 19. Pressbooks is an authoring platform for open educational resources (OER), which allows faculty to easily provide free, openly-licensed course materials in an online book format. There were 8 attendees at the 3-hour session, including faculty from the Music, English Language Learning, Library, and English departments. Each attendee started at least one book during the event.
In collaboration with Dr. Tanya Powers, Seattle University received a Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Proposal (“MHSP”). The MHSP Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, provides competitive grants to support and demonstrate innovative partnerships to train school-based mental health services providers for employment in schools and local educational agencies (LEAs). The goal of this program is to increase the number and diversity of high-quality, trained providers available to address the shortages of mental health service professionals in schools served by high-need LEAs.
As part of the grant, SU agrees to:
1) Ensure that Highline BAS graduates receive prioritized applications for entrance into SU School Psychology and Counseling graduate programs in the College of Education (COE) at the University.
2) Provide financial relief on application and entrance costs to Seattle University.
3) Provide grant funds directly to qualifying students who are currently enrolled in the University’s COE (i.e., currently underrepresented mental health service providers in Washington state; or people of color, male-identifying, Native American, LGBTQIA+ and additional minoritized groups for the field).
4) Provide both professional development (PD) opportunities and program information sessions on mental health service provision in schools in addition to recruiting for our graduate programs in the COE directly to Highline.
5) Track the sustainability and success of Highline students in our graduate programs to ensure we are providing high-quality training for future mental health professionals in school systems. Report on the retention of Highline students with the express purpose of strengthening the connection between programs to better meet the needs of incoming and enrolled students.
Significant work has been underway on the Adult Learner Recruitment plan, led by Dean Gabrielle Bachmeier with support from colleagues across divisions. Outcomes of this work to date include the development of five microsites in high wage, high demand fields (BAS programs, CIS/Cybersecurity, Business, STEM and Paralegal), the launch of marketing campaigns to drive traffic to those sites, and the development of a response plan to be follow up on those contacts. We are also working on strategies that address known barriers for adults returning to school, including child-friendly study spaces, evening offerings, student-facing technology support, and dedicated navigators who serve as a single point of contact as students navigate into the college.
Core Theme 2: STUDENT LEARNING, Increase educational success, collaborate to improve
Faculty Librarians Allison Reibel and Ian Porter hosted workshops on spotting and responding to misinformation and disinformation on TikTok and other social media platforms as part of this year’s MisinfoDay events winter quarter. MisinfoDay was created by UW’s Center for an Informed Public and WSU’s Murrow School of College Communication.
Several math faculty, including Dusty Wilson and Shane Kibler-Trimboli attended the Washington College Mathematics Conference in May.
Lauren Wugalter (Chemistry) was awarded the coveted “Rock Star” award by the Pure and Applied Sciences Division for her exceptional work in creating a community of practice (or “fellowship”) between pre-allied health instructors and allied health instructors to reduce the barriers for students and to make sure they are ready to begin Highline’s Respiratory Care and Nursing programs.
Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS, Create a more inclusive working environment and a more valued, visible relationship with communities we serve
Bob Baugher (Psychology) gave a talk at the Issaquah Senior Center on “Getting Grief Out” on April 30th. He also volunteered with his daughter to serve as an escort for people seeking dental work at the Seattle/King County Clinic on May 13th. Bob also facilitated a widowed group training at the Greenwood Senior Center
Tim McMannon (History) has shared that this quarter is the first one since COVID began that we have our History Seminar (Wednesdays at 1p) open to the public. The schedule has been shared with the campus community and announcements to off-campus folks are now being sent.
Portfolio Show for Drafting Design, Interior Design, Multimedia and Visual Communication will be held on June 7th from 12:00pm to 7:00pm in Building 16 room 115 Student Art Gallery.
Division Honors and Achievements
The Pure and Applied Science Division held its annual award banquet on May 25th. With the faculty providing the pot-luck dinner, 19 students received awards for academic excellence in the Physical Sciences, Mathematics, Engineering, Life Sciences, and Computer Sciences.
Woody Moses (Biology) presents the Pre-Allied Health excellence award to Lillian Stone
Eric Baer (Geology) presents the excellence in Geology award to Samantha Baker
Cat Cramer (Engineering) presents the academic excellence award in Civil Engineering to Romeo Yang
Dr. Lydia Garas (LOGS department) was interviewed by Oregon Public Broadcasting for an article about gene editing pigs. https://www.opb.org/article/2023/05/07/washington-state-university-researchers-win-fda-approval-for-gene-edited-crispr-pork/?outputType=am
Zanetka Gawronski (Fine Art) has a solo show at CORE gallery in Pioneer Square, this August. The opening is August 3rd, from 6-8pm.
Susan Rich (English) had a poem “Single, Taken, Not Interested” published in the Gettysburg Review.
Report submitted by Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Emily Lardner