Area Report for Board of Trustees
On behalf of the Administrative Services Division, I would like to welcome our newest trustee, Jesse Johnson, to Highline College. We look forward to working with the full Board of Trustees in advancing student access, student learning, and student success.
In early September, I, together with the Global Programs team leaders Dr. Jennifer Jones and Sam Kaplan, led a group of 12 students on the Study Abroad trip to Vietnam (Follow the Supply Chain to Vietnam program). While in Vietnam, the students visited a shipping port and an apparel factory, both of which are owned by local Washington State companies. In addition, we also led five faculty/staff on the same trip as part of our very first Faculty Experiential Learning in Vietnam (for professional development). The faculty/staff along with the study abroad students had the opportunity to participate in several presentation and exchange sessions with Vietnamese faculty and students from Foreign Trade University, HCMC International University, and Dong An Polytechnic College. The faculty/staff also assisted with international student recruitment efforts by participating in our Student Recruitment & Alumni Reception event in Vietnam.
Core Theme 1: ACCESS
Auxiliary Services: The Bookstore has been working hard to provide all students with the educational resources they need to succeed in their classes this quarter, as well as assisting students with purchasing eBooks right through the website, inputting course schedule info into the Bookstore Website and answering customer queries.
Facilities: As part of our continuing planning for the upcoming Welcome Center major capital project, we are finalizing the space designs to relocate faculty from B-15 to the third floor of B-23. In addition, the former Physical Fitness Training Lab is being re-designed to accommodate two general classrooms.
Global Programs: As reported earlier, each participating student in the Study Abroad trip to Vietnam paid only $500 for the entire trip, with the rest of the costs funded by donations from various sources, including the University of Washington. The faculty participating in the Faculty Experiential Learning trip was able to utilize their annual professional development allotment fund of $1,500 toward the trip.
Core Theme 2: LEARNING
Public Safety: In an effort to increase engagement and outreach to ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages), the Public Safety Office created posters, in multiple languages, to promote safety and reporting crimes on campus.
Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY
Facilities: The East parking lot expansion project has been completed, resulting in an additional 85 parking spaces to the campus overall. This project is the first phase of a three-way partnership of Highline College, Sound Transit, and City of Des Moines. The second phase of the project will involve the creation of a new three-lane College Way, leading from the light rail station, across Pacific Highway South, to the new college main entrance with a round-about. The second phase is being planned from summer 2023 to summer 2024, approximately.
Finance: The State Auditors have finally completed our FY2020-21 financial statement audit. Aside from five minor exit items, all of which have been resolved, this is another successful audit for the Finance team, despite all of the challenges with ctcLink conversions and staffing issues of the last year. Our sincere appreciations to Trustee Travis Exstrom for attending the exit conference on the board’s behalf.
Global Programs: This year’s study abroad trip was made possible through a partnership among Highline College, North Seattle College, Tacoma Community College, the Center of Excellence for Global Trade and Supply Chain Management, the University of Washington, and various local companies, sponsoring the trip. Additionally, our special thanks to Foreign Trade University, HCMC International University, and Dong An Polytechnic College (Vietnam) for hosting our visits. Several of their (Vietnamese) faculty, staff, and students participated in various parts of our trip, providing overall valuable cultural experience to our own faculty and students.
Public Safety: The Public Safety Office continues to engage in mutually beneficial partnerships with local city governments (Kent & Des Moines) and law enforcement offices to help reduce community crime. On Tuesday October 4th, 2022, Director David Menke participated in the Des Moines Police Department advisory board. The meeting focused primarily on discussing issues affecting the city of Des Moines, with the intent to create transparency and accountability of the police department.
Division Honors and Achievements
Facilities: After thirteen years of service at the college, Rebecca Pinney, Facilities Department front-desk program assistant, also known as “the kind voice for the Facilities helpdesk”, has retired effective Oct. 3rd.
Finance: Dianna Thiele, Purchasing Manager, and Cathy Cartwright, Interim Director of Finance/Accounting Faculty, were recognized with service awards during Opening Week 2022. Dianna is celebrating her 40th year at Highline College and Cathy has reached her 20th year mark. Congratulations and thank you to both Dianna and Cathy for their service to our students!
Global Programs: Jenn Ritchey, Global Programs Manager, has accepted a full-time faculty position in the Political Science Department at Highline College, effective fall quarter 2022. Dr. Jennifer Jones, Geography faculty, will be supporting the Global Programs on a part-time basis as part of her 1/3rd time release from her teaching duties for this academic year.
Public Safety: Annually at the end of the summer, the Public Safety & Emergency Management team recognizes one of their peers as Employee of the Year. For the year 2021-22, the team awarded the honor to Officer Hiroki Tsukamoto, for his tireless efforts in working with the international student population at Campus View Student Housing to ensure they feel safe and welcome.
Report submitted Oct. 6, 2022, by Vice President Dr. Michael Pham