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Jul. 28, 2022: Academic Affairs

Home/Area Reports, Division: Academic Affairs, Meeting 07-28-22/Jul. 28, 2022: Academic Affairs
2022-07-25T20:49:13+00:00 Print Page

Jul. 28, 2022: Academic Affairs

Area Report for Board of Trustees

The College and HCEA continue to engage in weekly open bargaining sessions, with additional subcommittee work in between the large sessions. We appreciate the dedication of both teams.

Over twenty departments in Academic Affairs completed Institutional Effectiveness reports for the 21-22 academic year. As we look to the year ahead, we are committed to improving our collective work in this important area through focused professional development and coaching so we ensure that our processes and services are supporting our students, staff, and faculty in alignment with our mission.

Instructional modalities for Fall 2022:

  • 27% fully in-person
  • 29% hybrid/in-person
  • 31% online
  • 5% hybrid/virtual
  • 2% hybrid/in-person/virtual
  • 3% internships
  • 2% fully virtual
  • 1% optional

Full-time Faculty instructional modality for Fall 2022:

  • 58% mixed modalities
  • 28% fully in-person
  • 11% fully online
  • 2% hyflex
  • 1% virtual

Increasing access & strengthening community partnership

Muslim American Youth Foundation (MAYF) Update:

This summer 2022, in partnership with Highline College, MAYF will be working with the male and female identified youth to run a recreational program made possible through the Youth and Amateur Sports Grant the college secured through King County’s Parks and Recreation Division. The plan is to bring both basketball and table tennis programming in a structured and fun way to community members attending the MAYF for various summer services. This programming will be led by Oussama “Sam” Alkhalili, our very own faculty from Business Technology, and former Highline employee Fawzi Belal, now representing MAYF as a community volunteer. We’re so excited to work with MAYF and the youth this summer and this will be the start of many future events we hope to do in conjunction with our partners. Special thanks to Dave O’Keefe for working with us to secure the grant, and to VPIA Josh Gerstman for his leadership and support in identifying the needs of MAYF and its community.

High School Partnership Updates

  • Highline Public Schools
    • The Sparks Grant MOU and related components have been signed and returned to HPS for their review.
    • A College Con planning meeting was held June 27th.
  • Federal Way Public Schools
    • An AVID coordinator has been identified and will be recruiting interested students from the district as a whole.
    • All non-AVID seniors in the district will be invited to a signing day with Highline in the fall and should complete Highline College applications before they graduate.
    • An Open House will be held in August and we’ll invite FWPS’s college and career team.

Continuing Education Highlights

  • Continuing Education (CE) was recently awarded funding to host an additional 7 Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) trainings for the 2022-2023 fiscal year. These trainings will be free of cost and focus on Youth MHFA and Adult English/Spanish MHFA. We are also partnering with the Area Health Education Center for Western Washington (AHECWW) and the Lummi Boys & Girls Club to offer a customized Youth MHFA training to the Lummi Boys & Girls Club staff in July. We also just recently completed a customized Adult MHFA training in partnership with the Puyallup Tribe – Community Domestic Violence Advocacy Program.
  • Continuing Education was recently awarded the Exemplary Program Award for our Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program by The National Council for Continuing Education and Training (NCCET). The award is only one of five awards conveyed this year and is in recognition of the outstanding results and contributions in the areas of Workforce Development and Continuing Education.

Supporting Student Learning

Workforce Grant awarded to Business Technology Department

The Business Technology department was awarded a state Workforce Grant to lead a multidisciplinary effort to develop new and innovative curriculum to support changing industry demands for office administrators.  Traditional business technology instruction prepares students to work in brick and mortar offices. Covid-19, combined with advances in technology, has changed the skill set required for office administrators. Office administrators must now be skilled in cloud-based virtual technology such as Google Suite, Zoom, MS Teams, SharePoint, Google Meet, WebEx, Adobe Connect, GoTo, and other cloud-based applications.  The team also received funding to implement a state-of-the art “HyFlex” classroom where students will be able to experience the technology expected of them in the workforce.  The team will also develop a robust “on-ramp” to advanced technology classes to address the digital literacy barrier, and improve retention and completion for all students.  Partners for this effort include the ELCAP department, Educational Technology, and Instructional Computing Services.

MESA Updates

  • MESA hosted a STEM Showcase on 1 June in Building 8 and teams from Microsoft and Blue Origin participated. They gave presentations and interacted with students about mentorship programs, networking, and advice about STEM Careers. (52 attendees)
  • The MESA Program will have 19 graduates/transfers for the Spring 2022 Quarter
  • MESA had two additional students get internships this summer, one with Pacific Northwest National Labs and the other with Expedia for Software Engineering.

Honors and Achievements

BAS Program Earns National Recognition

Highline is featured as one of 20 community colleges in the @CCBAssociation’s groundbreaking new eBook that highlights promising practices implemented by baccalaureate-conferring colleges across the nation. Learn more at: https://bit.ly/3uMOc9H. In particular, Highline is commended for removing bias in admissions.

Physicists of Highline—Association of Thinkers & Tinkerers Earns National Recognition

PHATT (Physicists of Highline – Association of Thinkers & Tinkerers), has been recognized as a Distinguished Chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) for 2 years in a row. Fewer than 10% of chapters nationwide, and very few community college chapters, receive this honor. PHATT was the only SPS chapter in the Pacific Northwest Region to get the designation in 2021.

Two years ago, PHATT started using the ThunderLab, which previously was used mainly by Engineering students, to sponsor multiple community projects. One project resulted in 3D printing of more than 3500 face shields that allowed classes to meet F2F on campus safely throughout the pandemic. The Face Shield Project was a major factor in PHATT receiving Distinguished Chapter status from SPS – two years in a row! This designation is not achieved by many.

PHATT continues to be the main user of the ThunderLab and invites the Highline community to join them:

  • The lab, located in 16-106, will be open from 12-3 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays through the end of Summer quarter.
  • The lab has fabricating equipment including a laser cutter/engraver, three 3D printers (pictured below), and more that you can (learn to) use during open hours.

Faculty Publication

Michael Girvin has published a new book!  “The Only App That Matters: Microsoft 365 Excel.”  Michael has been a Microsoft Excel MVP since 2013, Highline College faculty since 2002, and the creator of a highly successful YouTube channel.  This is not Michael’s first book!  He has authored several successful books and DVD’s on Excel, and has won numerous awards for teaching.

Report submitted July 14, 2022, by Vice President Dr. Emily Lardner