Area Report for Board of Trustees
ITS Staff across the division have been busy this summer performing maintenance and upgrade work on classrooms and staff machines, networks, virtualization platforms, software systems, and a host of other technology components across campus. We are looking forward to welcoming faculty and students back to campus for fall quarter in a few weeks. A few highlights of our summer work are below.
Core Theme 4: CULTURE & CAPACITY: Become an anti-racist college through intentional development of employees, facilities, and systems that support student success and close equity gaps.
- This year’s annual statewide Data Summit was held at Centralia College on August 10. Pat Daniels was on the event’s planning committee and collaborated with others across the system to plan the event. Topics this year focused on AI, Data Governance, and Data Visualization Tools. This event drew 165 registrants, with 89 attending in person; with representation from all college districts and the State Board. The audience was made up of IT, Research, and ctcLink leaders from across the Washington CTC system.
During the summit, Tim Wrye presented on behalf of the Strategic Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) AI Task Force on their recently released AI Policy Toolkit, and discussed Highline’s own AI Workgroup activities as one example of how to move forward with implementation actions. The AI Policy session was the highest scoring session for overall value in event feedback. Pat Daniels led an open discussion for Local Security Administrators across the system, which was the second highest scoring session for value. - Working with an outside AV partner, ITS has completed major AV improvement projects in Building 7 and the Mt. Townsend meeting space in Building 8. Building on work completed last year in Building 2, these improvements include updated projection, audio, permanent camera installations, and built-in captioning. In both locations, the previous standing lectern has been replaced with an ADA-compliant, wheelchair-accessible presentation station featuring a touch-panel control system designed to match the user experience in Building 2. ITS will be scheduling training opportunities for employees to learn how to more effectively operate the systems in these three spaces this fall. Thanks to ITS employees Peter Ferrell and Viktor Orabey for their work and coordination with our vendor on this project, including Viktor’s work painting the display wall in Building 7 with a fresh coat of reflective paint to best work with the new projector in that space.
Additionally, in parallel with classroom improvements Facilities is performing in Building 10, ITS is coordinating technology upgrades that support both in-person and hybrid learning. Enhancements across all 12 classrooms include:- ADA-compliant instructor teaching stations equipped with new computers, dual-monitor configurations, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) connectivity.
- Fully integrated HyFlex teaching and conferencing systems, including PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras and wireless microphones in every classroom.
- New laser projectors that provide brighter, higher-quality image projection.
- Upgraded audio systems to improve sound distribution and speech intelligibility throughout each classroom.
Improvements are also being provided in the Thunderword Newsroom to better facilitate Journalism instruction that occurs in that space.
Facilities has been working on Building 10 all summer, and AV installation work began this week. The AV vendor is working aggressively to hopefully complete all classroom upgrades in time for the first day of the Fall Quarter.
The upgrades in Buildings 7, 8, and 10 represent a significant investment in accessibility, instructional technology, event support, and hybrid engagement capabilities. The enhancements standardize user experiences across key campus facilities while improving audio, video, and conferencing quality for students, faculty, staff, and community partners.
Report submitted by Chief Information Officer, Tim Wrye