Area Report for Board of Trustees

Core Theme 1: ACCESS, Reduce Barriers and close equity gaps to access for all community members;  Core Theme 2: STUDENT LEARNING, Increase educational success, collaborate to improve & Core Theme 2: STUDENT LEARNING, Increase educational success, collaborate to improve

• Our Follow the Supply Chain Study Abroad students are getting ready for their travel to Vietnam. In preparation for their September departure, Sam Kaplan, Director of Center of Excellence for Global Trade & Supply Chain and I led 19 students to visit the SSA Marine port in West Seattle and the Brooks Sports headquarters in Fremont in late August.  In addition, I conducted two pre-trip briefing workshops to provide students with essential trip information prior to their leaving.  Due to a variety of factors, I am unable to physically lead the actual trip this year to Vietnam but have already made all necessary logistical arrangements to ensure a successful program for all participants.
• In collaboration with Public Safety, Facilities, ITS, and Center for Leadership and Service, we are working on a plan to upgrade the access control in Building 8. This will include replacing the old mechanical legacy key system on all exterior doors, as well as on some interior doors, with an electronic access system, allowing for enhanced system control, cardholder management, and emergency lockdown.
• The Bookstore continues to expand our digital inventory of e-books to lower our physical inventory costs. As of August 31^st, we have 247 e-book titles on file out of 518 textbook/courseware adoptions thus far for Fall Quarter 2025.

Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS: Create a more inclusive working environment and a more valued, visible relationship with communities we serve; Core Theme 4: CULTURE & CAPACITY: Promote a campus culture which fosters equity and inclusivity supporting employee growth and development, and institutional capacity for transformation

• Administrative Services Division held our annual retreat on August 7^th to develop our work plans for the year. Our priorities will continue to be supporting the strategic plan of Highline College, especially in terms of physical facility improvements and financial sustainability.
• I also helped facilitate our International Student Programs department retreat on August 21^st. The team focused on developing the annual institutional effectiveness plan during our retreat.
• Finance team will be launching a new collaborative initiative to dedicate one day each academic quarter to visit one of our peer colleges to learn about how each of our institutions functions within ctcLink.
• Facilities has submitted a $1M budget request to the state to fund our Decarbonization Plan (10-year plan). The budget request is intended to fund the initial phase of designing and engineering.

FISCAL & BUDGET

• The Fiscal Year Budget 2025-26 is being submitted to the Board for approval. Despite some on-going uncertainty, we are cautiously optimistic about our overall financial position for the year.
• We have successfully closed the FY24-25 books by SBCTC deadlines. Great thanks to our Finance and Budget teams.

Report submitted by Vice President of Administrative Services, Dr. Michael Pham