Area Report for Board of Trustees

Good day Trustees,

As the crisp air of autumn settles in, Highline College has officially welcomed the start of fall quarter. The energy on campus is palpable—students are arriving with fresh hopes, new goals, and a sense of excitement for what lies ahead. It’s a powerful reminder of the transformative work we do and the privilege we have in shaping futures.

I want to take a moment to recognize the incredible efforts of our executive leadership, faculty, and staff. Their dedication over the past few weeks has ensured that our students are not only welcomed warmly but are also supported holistically as they begin their academic journeys. From advising and enrollment to classroom preparation and student services, the commitment to student success is evident in every corner of our campus.

Opening Week was a resounding success, thanks to the tireless work of our planning committee. Their thoughtful coordination created a week rich in community-building, professional development, and meaningful engagement with our strategic plan. It was inspiring to see colleagues reconnect, share ideas, and reaffirm our collective mission.

As I begin my 8th year as President, I’m filled with gratitude and anticipation. The journey continues, and I’m proud to walk it alongside such a dedicated and passionate community.

Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead.

John R. Mosby, Ph.D (he/him)

President, Highline College

Human Resources

Core Theme 4: CULTURE & CAPACITY, Create capacity for meaningful strategic planning and institutional transformation through intentional development of employees, facilities, and systems that support student success and close equity gaps

We recently had a successful Opening Week where we recognized 78 employees for over 988 years of service to Highline! Thank you to all of our dedicated staff and faculty who continue to serve our institution.

We have successfully TA’d our contract with WPEA which is pending legislative review.

Cariko Brent has been almost single handedly holding down the payroll function for two months now. With the help of Leslea Berg, we have been managing all the function. I am happy to report we have a new hire beginning later this month. I will announce him upon arrival at our next meeting once he is settled in.

Mary Nganga has settled into her role as HR Business Partner and is now managing the ADA and leaves of absence on her own. She has also completed her investigations training. She has refreshed our ADA and FMLA processes and is now working on an HR policy audit. She has also been serving as our representative on the IE committee. Her training will now shift to facilitating training.

Ana Solano has streamlined our employee offboarding process which allows the benefits function to focus on more value-added activities like completing audits and reconciling outdated invoices.

I am very proud of the entire HR team who continue to push forward as a team despite functioning on a smaller staffing model. And I am looking forward to our new addition in payroll.

Information Technology Services

ITS staff across the division have been busy for the month of September supporting the community as new students and faculty start their first fall quarter, and many who were gone for the summer have returned.  The help desk has been busy and we have been ensuring classrooms are ready for the start of fall and that other systems and equipment are fully functional. Thank you to the Trustees for their feedback on our first meeting in the new space; we have made a couple of immediate minor changes to our approach, and are working on additional programming and other adjustments to the system to make these meetings as smooth as possible.

Core Theme 4: CULTURE & CAPACITY, Create capacity for meaningful strategic planning and institutional transformation through intentional development of employees, facilities, and systems that support student success and close equity gaps

• ITS has fully replaced the college’s virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). This system supports approximately 60% of our on-campus computer labs, the Library Information Commons, most kiosks around campus, and some remote-access services for students. This brand new hardware provides a major improvement in speed and reliability for these supported systems. Users will notice a smoother performance whether accessing these desktop through on campus devices or remotely. Additionally, the “thin clients” which provide access to these desktops from on-campus locations are in the process of being fully replaced, and the authentication has been shifted to Okta to provide a more secure and more consistent experience for our users.
• The change in our multi-factor authentication (MFA) options that was announced in August will take place on October 15. ITS has significantly updated our documentation to support users through this change. The response from the campus community has been positive and the IT Help Desk has been helping users through the shift as needed.  We are focusing communications for the last 2 weeks up leading up to the change on students and employees who we know from system data are still utilizing the methods which are being removed.

Report submitted by President John R. Mosby, Ph.D.