Dec. 09, 2021: Administrative Services

Area Report for Board of Trustees

As we are about to approach the end of 2021, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of the Trustees a safe, joyous, and peaceful holiday. It has been another difficult year with the persisting pandemic, the continuing struggles for social and racial justice, and the challenging economic conditions. I am however optimistic of better days to come in 2022.
Administrative Services departments worked diligently to complete our first institutional effectiveness reports for the next accreditation cycle. All of our departments took a common approach to developing the institutional effectiveness goals based on supporting our respective mission statements, with the focus on data collection.
I had the opportunity to attend a dinner with the Vietnamese Consul General (San Francisco) on November 9^th. The dinner was hosted by several of the businesses in the Greater Seattle area, including Boeing. Sam Kaplan, our Director of Center of Excellence for Global Trade & Supply Chain Management, was also in attendance. Among the topics of discussion were international students from Vietnam and our potential Study Abroad trip to Vietnam early next year.
In an effort to improve collaboration, Vice President Gerstman and I have jointly formed the Campus View Building Operations Committee to better coordinate and support the student housing operations.

Facilities has been working with several cross-department colleagues to draft a new major capital project request report (PRR) for a future academic building. The PRR is due to the State Board on December 15^th for this new round of capital project submission. McGranahan Architects is serving as the project consultant.
Facilities is planning a campus-wide selective tree removal in an effort to mitigate the risk of tree-root intrusion into storm drains and the sewer system, as well as to prepare for the winter storm season.
As part of our return-to-campus plan, Facilities continues to maintain and distribute stocks of Covid PPE to all campus departments.

After several months of struggling with critical vacancies, Finance Department has recently hired Elena Andreeva, as Fiscal Analyst 3, and Thanhloan Tran, as General Ledger Account.
Finance Department is in the process of packing up for our relocation to B-25 at the end of December.
Budget Office is working to update the website with revised ctcLink reference materials.
In an effort to improve services, Budget Office is offering budget and grant training workshops to department managers.

Public Safety provided crime prevention and emergency management training to residents at Campus View in partnership with the Resident Advisors.
Public Safety held a defensive tactics training course on November 19^th for new officers, which included techniques to control an aggressive subject, handcuffing, and escorts. This training assists Public Safety officers in the performance of their job to protect others as well as themselves. All participants were required be COVID-19 vaccinated, as well as having a negative test 72 hours prior to the training, due to the close proximity of the indoor training.
Public Safety and the Emergency Response Team successfully evacuated the campus on Monday, November 15^th after a power outage affecting much of Des Moines. Public Safety staff worked diligently to clear all buildings to ensure the safety evacuation of students and employees.

Given the challenges of the past 20 months with the pandemic, International Student Programs Department is working on developing a new marketing/recruiting plan in preparation for the re-opening of the international travel. Unfortunately, however, the Department has also experienced a wave of staff changes. As of this writing, we are down four positions, including the most recent departure of the Marketing Manager.
Global Programs team met (virtually) with about a dozen faculty and administrators from Foreign Trade University (Vietnam) to discuss holding virtual learning workshops next quarter for students interested in global trade and logistics. Foreign Trade University is one of the most prestigious universities in Vietnam, with numerous international partnerships, including Colorado State University and University of South Carolina.

Report submitted November 26, 2021, by Vice President Michael Pham, Ed.D.