Area Report for Board of Trustees
We have just nearing the end of the third and final quarter of the year, the seventh quarter (not counting summers) of the pandemic. Our faculty and staff continue to show tenacity, resiliency, and a deep commitment to our students and our community.
Enrollment
Enrollment continues to be a concern for the campus at large. Summer quarter enrollment is marginally better than this same time period last year, which is encouraging. We are developing strategies for continuing efforts to expand enrollment with the help of the Strategic Enrollment Management Team as well as working with partners in our surrounding school districts.
Supporting Student Success through Degree Pathways
The Spring Quarter Degree Pathways Blog provides an overview of the significant accomplishments made this year in our campus-wide student success project. Among them is Strengthening advising is one of those accomplishments. Over 80% of full time faculty have engaged in professional development activities focused on advising this year. Thanks to the hard work of the Champions for Advising, Persistence, and Engagement (CAPE) team, which built upon the previous work of the Advising Task Force and the Advising Council, representing years of work by both faculty and staff, we are in the process of negotiating a plan to implement consistent faculty advising for all credential-seeking students. Faculty Senate also approved the inclusion of College 101 in our AA-DTA degree to be sure students have opportunities to explore their interests and their educational opportunities at Highline in an inclusive and welcoming manner.
Tenure
Last month, the Tenure Review Committee met with our current probationers. I had the unique opportunity of listening to the faculty member’s experiences both with students and their colleagues. I continue to be amazed at our faculty and their innovation on behalf of our students. I’m excited to see what the future holds for our campus.
Hiring Update
Highline has received a legislative increase with the goal of hiring more full-time faculty and decreasing adjunct numbers. To that end, we have hired new tenure-track faculty in the below departments:
- Accounting
- Business
- Counseling
- Criminal Justice
- Early Childhood Education
- Education
- Engineering
- Math
- Nursing (two positions)
- Political Science
- Psychology
Advisor of the Year Awards
On Monday, June 6th the Learning & Teaching Center hosted our first Outstanding Faculty Advisor of the Year awards ceremony. Faculty were encouraged to nominate a colleague or self-nominate for outstanding performance in areas including: Exploratory/Advising undecided students, in-class advising, professional technical advising, transfer advising, or advising of ELCAP students. The event was hybrid with the in-person event taking place in Mt. Constance/Olympus. Congratulations to all our nominees!
Faculty in Residence Fellows
Educational Technology has completed their selection of faculty fellows for the 2022-23 academic year. They will be welcoming two new Faculty in Residence: Jodi White (education) and Sherri Chun (business technology). The continuing faculty in residence are Maurea Brown (ELCAP), Tarisa Matsumoto-Maxfield (English) and Avery Viehmann (English). We want to thank the departing faculty in residence for their work over the last year(s), Sue Frantz (psychology) and Sarah Adams (math).
The Learning and Teaching Center also completed their selection of Faculty in Residence for the upcoming year. Syeda Nizami (computer information systems) will be supporting faculty advising; Sangeeta Sangha (philosophy) and Monica Twork (reference librarian) will be supporting new faculty, teaching and learning, inclusive pedagogy/anti-racist work, assessment, and guided pathways/student success work. Sangeeta and Monica begin their work this summer and Syeda’s role begins in the fall.
Report submitted June 2, 2022, by Vice President Dr. Emily Lardner