Area Report for Board of Trustees

This summer we are initiating a program of process improvement for our college catalog.  We are working with Modern Campus on a best practice review of our catalog to utilize the features of the software more fully.  As part of that process, we’ll be providing training to stakeholders who make updates to content and courses in the catalog for clarity and continuity.  This training will also include reformatting our degrees to make them more readable and clearer to students and potential students.

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

Highline College, in partnership with Green River College has been awarded the Hospital Employees Education & Training Program (HEET) grant for the 23-24 FY. The purpose of this project is to develop and implement a part time nursing program at Highline College (“HC”) and Green River College (“GRC”) that will expand nursing education access in the region, while providing a schedule that meets the needs of incumbent healthcare workers. Due to the diversity of both colleges’ nursing programs – e.g., 80-90% of Training Fund-eligible Highline Nursing/pre-nursing students identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and the regional diversity of incumbent healthcare workers, this project takes an important step toward better access and representation for BIPOC nurses.

The Respiratory Care Program has received the Distinguished RTT Credentialing Success award from our accrediting body, The Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care.  This award is given to programs that exceed 90% RRT credentialing success and meet retention thresholds for students for the three years prior.  The class of 2022 is currently at 94% RRT success indicating that we meet all the requirements for the award next year as well.  The program is very proud of our students, graduates, and faculty and the work they all do to consistently demonstrate a high level of achievement of all of our outcomes.

Highline College has been invited to partner with Puget Sound ESD, Federal Public Schools, Auburn Public Schools, and Highline College on an AA pathway to teacher certification. According to staff at PS ESD, the proposal “would be to incorporate the identified needs we have heard over the years we have spent collaborating with Auburn and other Road Map districts to pilot a regional pathway focusing on the needs of rising teachers of color in our region. We believe Auburn is an ideal partner to lead this work in our region because of your demonstrated institutional readiness and commitment to a holistic teacher pathway centered in the needs of educators of color, and hope we can build on your work with additional funding for staffing and tuition support.” This project is modeled after Seattle’s very successful Academy for Rising Educators.  

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

The June 16th Commencement Ceremony was a wonderful celebration of students and their families. Students would not be successful at Highline without the extraordinary efforts of faculty and staff. As we all know, the pandemic had significant impacts on students and their families. 

Faculty supported students as they navigated those impacts, even when it meant investing even more of their own time and energy to help students succeed. Faculty navigated through our enrollment challenges, including the struggle to align class times and class modalities with what students signed up for—no matter what they said they wanted us to offer. Many teachers experienced schedule and modality changes in the face of those unpredictable enrollment patterns. Faculty coordinators have had to make changes to class offerings that impact full-time faculty income and part-time faculty income and benefits. Faculty and staff persisted through the ongoing discussions of the college’s revenue shortfall, a shortfall exacerbated by the pandemic and ways it impacted and continues to impact our students. Just one of these issues—the pandemic, enrollment challenges, a revenue shortfall—can generate significant concerns. Experiencing all three at the same time for this sustained period of time ­­­­­presented a significant challenge for faculty, staff, and administrators.

And yet, faculty and staff in Academic Affairs (and in other divisions) have persisted through these challenges and have helped students thrive. The last two weeks of Spring Quarter were full of those examples:

• The Pure & Applied Science Awards Ceremony, where faculty brought food and students were recognized and celebrated for their academic accomplishments by their friends and families along with their faculty
• The Achieve Graduation Celebration, where students presented their capstone portfolios to a cheering crowd of family, friends, faculty and staff, and faculty members Sam Alkhalili, Ben Thomas, and Jamie Wilson were recognized, along with staff members Amy Goo, David Menke and Josh Gerstman, for playing key roles in Achieve student success 
• The Arcturus Launch Party, where the team of student editors was recognized by faculty advisor Susan Rich, and student writers read their contributions aloud before beaming friends and family 
• The Community of Practice Showcase, facilitated by the Title III team of Erich Elwin, Jennifer Johnston, and Bob Scribner, featuring the innovative and student-centered work of faculty who participated in Title III-connected CoP’s (Anti-Racist, 4 Connections, and English Department) 
• The Climate Justice Teacher Showcase, facilitated by Darryl Brice and Woody Moses, featuring creative and compelling strategies designed by faculty to incorporate climate justice into their curricula 
• The Advisor Awards ceremony, where Fred Capestany, Christie Knighton, Emma Kong, Bruce Lamb, and Justin Taillon were recognized for their outstanding contributions as advisors, based on student nominations 
• The Highline College 2023 Portfolio Show for Visual Communication, Drafting Design, Interior Design and Multimedia Design 
• The 2023 Honors Program Virtual Poster Session, with Honors student posters and videos available for viewing and feedback at https://library.highline.edu/honors.
• The Umoja graduation and recognition ceremony
• The Youth Re-Engagement and Success graduation ceremony
• The Nursing Pinning ceremony

As we celebrate students in all these venues, we are always also celebrating the faculty and staff who helped make these accomplishments possible. Faculty and staff make the difference for students. Thanks to each and every one of you for making this year a successful one for so many students.

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

Highline College is again partnering with Seattle Children’s Hospital in placing 16 pre-nursing students from the University of Washington into our Nursing Assistant Certified (NAC) Summer program.  Seattle Children’s is paying for tuition, supplies, and both the WA State NAC application and testing fees.  After completing the program, the students will be placed in temporary positions at Seattle Children’s Hospital, while continuing their education, with hopes of the majority staying on as permanent CNAs. 

Last year’s pilot program saw 13 students successfully complete Highline’s NAC program, and pass the NAC State exam, with most students continuing to work at Seattle Children’s in a permanent position while still enrolled in school.  According to Aara at Seattle Children’s Hospital, last year “was a very successful experience and we so appreciate your partnership in making it happen”.  

Division Honors and Awards

Stephanie Ojeda Ponce, English, along with Alycia Williams, Women’s Programs, and Patricia McDonald, Education, gave a presentation at NCORE.  Love, Healing, and Pleasure provided a space to lean into loving yourself first, allowing the overflow to love others, all while healing those past experiences and releasing that which keeps you from experiencing pleasure and enjoying life. This experience creates a moment just to be and live your best life. The interactive experience was informed by somatic healing, yoga, love languages, and the wisdom of elders and scholars. 

This work represents a collaboration between different divisions (instructional and institutional). Stephanie and Patricia advise in the education department and both serve students involved with and refer students to Women’s programs and WorkFirst. Alycia’s presentations with Bob Baugher, Psychology, and others on appreciation in the workplace through love languages significantly supported Stephanie’s understanding of inclusive and culturally relevant pedagogies in ways that transformed the way she teaches – leading to greater student well-being and success. 

At the end of the session, participants approached to verbally share feedback such as: 

“This is the best workshop I’ve attended in years of coming to NCORE.”

“This session is helping me get NCORE started in the right mindset.” 

One person who spotted Stephanie after dinner on Frenchmen street tearfully said: 

“You truly changed my life.” 

Report submitted by Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Emily Lardner