Area Report for Board of Trustees
The division of Student Services operates on 3 Core Functions: Access, Supporting Student Success, and Engagement with a focus on equity.
The goals of student services for the 2020-2021:
- Goal 1: Strategic Enrollment
- Goal 2: Service Delivery Excellence
- Goal 3: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Student Access, Retention, and Success
Advising, Career and Student Employment (CASE), High School Programs and Running Start
Advising Center: In collaboration with Admissions, New Student Orientation support sessions were held on 11/3, 11/10, 11/16 and 11/17. These sessions are aimed at providing additional support with registration or college navigation to students as a supplement to the required online orientation in Canvas.
The Transfer Center offered several opportunities in collaboration with campus and 4-year partners during the month of November. Events included a 4-part Transfer 101 series: #1 held 11/5 – Application Bootcamp, #2 held 11/6 – Scholarships/How Not to Pay for College, #3 held 11/13 – Undocumented students and the transfer process and #4 held 11/20 – Alternative Pathways to STEM. From 11/2 – 11/4 Highline students accessed Transfer Knowledge Sessions through a partnership with the Washington Council. On 11/12 Highline hosted the first UW S.T.E.M. Day which included 17 programs from the three campuses that participated virtually. 22 students pre-registered and sessions were open to all. Finally, in addition to the transfer events, the Transfer Center assisted approximately 170 students virtually via phone, email, and Zoom sessions from the beginning of November through 11/20.
Career and Student Employment Center (CASE) has assisted with employment of 116 students. 60 of these were new hires who used the New-Hire Drive Thru service.
Running Start: Since implementing the new Dual Enrollment Scholarship Pilot program this Fall expenditures on textbook support for Running Start students has increased from $19,146 in Fall 2019 to $35852 in Fall 2020. Additionally, through successful advocacy and relationship-building with high school partners, Running Start students now have three additional courses in Ethnic and Gender studies that will count towards key high school graduation requirements in the Highline Public School District. A process is in place to review courses with other key feeder districts and continue review to expand the course options available to students to meet both high school and college degree requirements.
Veterans Services offered a Veterans Day presentation webinar featuring a panel of student veterans who shared about their experience in the military and transitioning to civilian life as Highline students.
Campus View
Virtual programming is available to the 22 residents. Upcoming programming includes and exploration of learning styles, gratitude, World AIDS Day, identity activity, and academic resources.
Counseling
The Counseling Center is partnering with the Running Start office to provide a targeted outreach program for running start students. The event, Getting to the End of the Quarter and Finishing Strong, will be co-facilitated by counselors Gloria Rose Koepping and Joshua Magallanas on December 2nd at 1pm.
The Counseling Center will be participating in the 25th Annual High School Appreciation event on December 3rd. Counselor Nicole Hoyes Wilson will be speaking with high school counselors on how we can best support the mental health needs of our running start students.
The Counseling department partnered with CCIE and Active Minds for the ICC event Mental Health & You: Prioritizing wellness during COVID-19 on November 23rd.
The weekly Mindfulness, Relaxation, and Reflection Practices Tuesday night event is gaining momentum. Each week a different counselor leads a 30 minute drop-in mediation at 7pm.
Enrollment and Registration
Advising, Transfer and Career Services: As of the 11/20 the Advising/Transfer team has met with approximately 300 students and counting to register for Winter 2021 classes. The first offering of dedicated time set aside for Veteran priority advising was piloted prior to priority registration.
Enrollment Services: Enrollment Services has been working with Academic Affairs in the production of enrollment requirements for ctcLink, which act as a system of checks to ensure students have the prerequisites to enroll in a course in the ctcLink environment.
Enrollment continues for the Winter quarter and we are now in the Open Enrollment period. Registration totals est. 3,537 as of 11/19/20.
International Student Programs
The program continues to explore new ways to recruit during the pandemic. ISP attended virtual fairs in Turkey, Central Asian, China, Taiwan and gave seminars on Highline College for those interested in studying in the U.S.
Developing detailed video series to accompany new agency training packet, augment written material and be used to train new counselors in our partners’ offices, saving us time and energy in arranging meetings and trainings.
Exploring new MOU opportunities with Digipen, WSU, and PLU as Conditional Agreement relationships.
Student Support and Funding Services
The Highline Community Pantry was busy this fall quarter. Mariela Barriga’s on and off campus partnerships allows weekly access for students to receive food and other resources. Upon receiving the King County Food Assistant Grant, Mariela has purchased organic produce from the Alvarez Farm. Every monday, students can use DoorDash to receive organic produce from the Alvarez Farm. On 11/23/2020, $100 Safeway vouchers were issued to about 150 families; On 11/24/2020 about 190 families received $100 Safeway vouchers and additional giveaways will be scheduled in December.
- Receiving the Healthier Here Grant, Justin Dampeer partnered with Mariela to coordinate a giveaway for our ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) where two full pallets of diapers were distributed in an hour and a half for a giveaway that was planned for four hours.
- Financial Aid is finalizing their informational sessions which will allow students, faculty and staff to attend and be walked through the process of applying for aid. Tentative start date is next Wednesday, 12/2/2020.
- In an effort to emulate community and promote Student Services resources, events, activities, which were done in-person with flyers, brochures and word of mouth, the Student Affairs Cabinet has created the first ever “Student Services Blog”. November was the first month of implementation with the theme “Center Student Wellness and Stay Connected”. Serving as a one stop place where students can learn of resources related to the theme, the blog streamlined and centralized a specific set of activities to address student needs.
- Workforce Education Services received news on the approval of the BFET (Basic Food Employment & Training) expansion to transfer programs. Traditionally all workforce grants can only support professional-technical programs and the expansion allows BFET to be the only workforce grant to support students receiving federal food assistance pursuing transfer degrees.
Student Life
The Inter-Cultural Center will be hosting the last Ted Talk Tuesday for Fall Quarter on December 1st.
The CONNECT Program invites students to participate in at least five Thunderbird Thursday workshops to receive a leadership certificate. The monthly leadership workshop is held the first Thursday of each month. The December topic is collective community care and will be facilitated by Doris Martinez and Iesha Valencia.
Professional development
Advising, Transfer and Career Services, Running Start and Enrollment Services
The Advising, Transfer and Career Services, Running Start and Enrollment Services teams are continuing to be heavily involved with the CTC data validation/UAT processes, “pain point” and other training offered through the State Board. Data Validation and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) will continue through December which is an opportunity for users to test business processes that span across departments and also focus on employees’ functional roles.
Running Start has been participating in the Washington State Dual Credit Summit Webinar Series offered by OSPI and SBCTC. The series titled Strengthening Programs and Addressing Equity has been held over 8 sessions throughout Fall quarter. Sessions cover best practices across the state and guidance interpreting and applying state guidelines.
Kendall Evans, Veterans Services Specialist attended training offered by the US Department of Veterans Affairs on 11/20 which covered implications of the recently passed H.R.8337 – Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act, which extends special COVID-19 rules to December 21, 2021. The extension gives colleges the ability to count online courses as in-person instruction for purposes of increased housing allowances under certain conditions.
Student Support and Funding Services
Dean of Student Support and Funding Services, the TRiO Director with Institutional Advancement Staff, Kari Cantey and Dave O’Keefe attended the Council for Opportunity Talent Search Grant Writing Virtual Conference last month in preparation for the submission of the 80+ page TRiO Talent Search grant. The grant submissions deadline is anticipated to be sometime in December to February, and would provide the college around 1.5 million dollars to provide college access services to students at Mt. Rainier High School and Pacific Middle School.
Student Life
The staff continue to remain engaged in ongoing webinars related to the impact of our current pandemics (COVID and Racism), and also a focus towards unique populations such as students with children.
Staff
Student Support and Funding Services
Laquita Fields, Director of Women’s Programs/WorkFirst served as a facilitator for the African American Women Opportunity Circled hosted in collaboration with YWCA-Greenbridge. The goal of the program was to find out how COVID has affected African American families, and to determine what resources would benefit the community. Laquita also presented and represented the work of Highline College WISH program with King County Housing Authority, Highline Foundation and United Way. At the presentation, Laquita and other partners received welcome-home baskets which will be distributed to WISH program participants.
Report submitted Dec. 03, 2020 by Vice President Aaron Reader