Area Report for Board of Trustees

It’s great to be back on campus, even if we all need raincoats. Around 56% of our classes this quarter have an in-person component and around 35% are fully online. Many students are choosing to learn in-person, and most faculty have at least one class with an in-person component. We anticipate a similar pattern in class modalities for Winter 2023.

We held our Professional Development Day last Friday which was well-attended. The morning session, which was fully in-person and filled the large space in B8. Dr Tylir McKenzie, a new tenure track faculty in Psychology, facilitated structured yet playful table conversations that created opportunities for Highline staff and faculty to get to know each other in new ways. The exercise ended with each of us writing a note of  appreciation to the other people at our table. The vibrant community spirit that activity engendered carried through the rest of the day.

Faculty continue to work hard teaching classes, advising students, and fulfilling myriad service obligations. At this time of year, Department Coordinators have already submitted schedules for Winter Quarter classes. Applications for Teaching and Learning Enhancement Awards are due. Applications for column advancement for purposes of advancement are due. The tenured faculty evaluation process has started for the quarter, tenure working committees are scheduled, and everyone is learning how to follow the new contract.

Core Theme 1: ACCESS, Reduce Barriers and close equity gaps to access for all community members

On October 11, Highline College hosted Dr. Jim Hansen, Superintendent of the Marine Meteorology Division of the US Naval Research Laboratory. Dr. Hansen toured the MaST Center, Highline’s main campus, and connected with students, faculty, and staff. Dr. Hansen briefed everyone about paid internship opportunities for students in STEM and described the process of being working for the federal government. He shared stories about missions and how STEM connects to all of the pieces of the lab’s mission. The Highline students, faculty, staff, and administrators that were able to connect with Dr. Hansen have positive feedback about the visit.

Justin Dampeer, Dean of College and Career Readiness, attended and presented at The HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) Faculty Development Network Conference on behalf of Highline College. The presentation focused on national, state, and local data about community colleges and the joys and challenges we share with our HBCU partners. Learning objectives of the workshop presentation were: Community Colleges and HC as viable career options for HBCU grads, the need for faculty and staff of color to create a sense of belonging for students, and innovative ways HC is engaging with students of color in the community. https://www.hbcufdn.org/

The Pure and Applied Science Division had a strong showing at the Student Clubs Fair including the MaST Center, Physics Club, and the Geology program.

Patrick Kwon (Mathematics) is using anti-racist grading techniques in his Business Calculus Class that were developed from a Summer institute at the Washington Center he attended with several other faculty.

The Bring Your Kids to College STEAM Workshops Team, including Stephaney Puchalski, Mariola Kulawiec (PA&S Division lab technicians) and the Physics Club hosted an outreach activity for families “DNA: Blueprint for Life!” on Saturday, September 24th from 11 am to 1 pm in the ThunderLab Makerspace (16-106).  Kids from 2 to 20 had fun extracting DNA from strawberries, learning about Roslyn Franklin, and more.

The Highline Science+ book club (led and initiated by Aleya Dhanji of the physics program) will be reading “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Core Theme 2: STUDENT LEARNING, Increase educational success, collaborate to improve

Wendy Swyt (English faculty) gave a presentation at the National Conference on the Humanities for Community Colleges: “A Pedagogy of Counterstory in the Humanities” — the presentation was about how insights from critical race theory can and should inform the texts we use in our courses and the interpretive approaches to art, film and literature that we are teaching.

Aaron Ottinger (English faculty) received a $1,250 mini-grant from the Northwest International Education Association (NIEA) to “substantially [revise] an existing course to make it more global.” The class is DGS125: Media Matters: Race, Class, and Gender.” The revised course will offer four tracks for students to choose from, including studying news media about American-Southeast Asian relations, American-Central American Relations, Black liberation in the US, and Women’s and LGBTQIA2+ rights in the US.

Accessible Technology is creating training material for several upcoming professional development sessions for Highline faculty related to the new accessibility language included in the recently ratified collective bargaining agreement.

Fall Quarter Professional Development for faculty

1. Development and recruitment of faculty for a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) accessibility learning community for the 22-23 school year
2. Four sessions on creating accessible documents and course materials
3. Two sessions on requesting VPAT’s (voluntary product accessibility template) and developing EEAAP’s (equally effective alternative access plans)
4. 1:1 faculty drop-in support

This fall, History seminar returns to campus.  This is a one-credit class and the presentations are open to the public (Wednesdays at 1:30p in 3-102).  This quarter, the topics are:

• October 5: Tim McMannon – The Early Years of College Football
• October 12: Lonnie Somer – Vikings in the New World
• October 19: Jennifer Jones – The British Raj in India
• October 26: Rachael Bledsaw -“Premonition, Possession, and Payments – Oh My! The Evolving Story of the Salem Witch Trials”
• November 2: Diego Luna – The History of Video Games
• November 9: Justin Taillon -“Fishing WAS a Way of Life: A Case of Ecological Modernization, Sustainability, and Market-Based Socio-Cultural Conservation”
• November 16: Teri Balkenende – The Manhattan Project
• November 23: No Seminar
• November 30: TBA – TBA

The CIS/Cybersecurity program at Highline was redesignated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (NCAE-CD). Emma Kong (CIS faculty) attended the ceremony in Charlotte, NC, and participated in a forum to discuss the future of Cybersecurity education and research.  The National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C) program aims to create and manage a collaborative cybersecurity educational program with community colleges, colleges, and universities and is managed by NSA’s National Cryptologic School. Federal partners include the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)/National Initiative on Cybersecurity Education (NICE), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense Office of the Chief Information Officer (DoD-CIO), and U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM).

Eric Baer, Pure and Applied Sciences Division Chair, presented (with Katje Kraft of Whatcom community college) “Washington Earth Sciences Summit: Examining The Transfer Process Through An Equity Lens” at the Annual meeting of the Geologic Society of America in Denver, CO. There was great interest from a variety of geoscience educators in applying this model for reducing barriers in other states. The project was supported by an NSF grant to Highline and Whatcom Community College.

On October 23, the chemistry program (especially instructor Lauren Wugalter) celebrated Mole Day.  This is the holiest of holidays for chemists, when they celebrate Avogadro’s number (6.022 x 10²³), which is the number of “things” per “mole of things” (AKA “the chemists’ dozen”) at 6:02 am on October 23 (10/23). They celebrate by thinking about, dreaming about, and doing chemistry!

Geology has restarted the one-credit field classes after the COVID pandemic. On October 15, students traveled to the Ginko Petrified Forest, Frenchman Coulee, and other geologic wonders of central Washington State.

Natalie Bjorge (Chemistry faculty) has been developing differentiated assignments, where students are guided to focus on their areas of need to support improved achievement based on how they have performed on tests, homework, and other assignments.

Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS, Create a more inclusive working environment and a more valued, visible relationship with communities we serve

Susan Rich (English Faculty) Susan was a featured poet at the Skagit River Poetry Festival the weekend of October 7-9th, reading with Terrance Hayes and Jane Hirshfield.  Her poems are also being published in Poetry Ireland Review and she is up for semi-finalist prize for the Pablo Neruda Contest of Nimrod Journal.

Zanetka Gawronski’s (Fine Art faculty) Core Gallery will present new paintings on puzzles by Zanetka in November. Zanetka says: “This all began as a well-meaning adventure to the toy store…and realizing the pandemic is stripping society of aesthetic possibilities. …Rediscover how delicious it is to engage all your senses.”

Community & Employment Services’ (CES) competitive bid to the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) in August was accepted and awarded with a contract for up to $300,000 for Future Launch, a partnership with K-12 students with a disability 14-21 years old, to provide workplace readiness and career exploration instruction through a 3-phased approach, including: School-based Job Clubs, a Summer Career Readiness Academy, and Summer Internships.

Our CES Employment Teams have over the past few months assisted and supported multiple students through pre-employment preparations such as resume building, interview practice and preparations, completing the job application process, and participating in job interviews. These efforts yielded a total of 10 job offers in the following industries:

• Education (Seattle Public Schools and the Experimental Education Unit at the University of Washington)
• Retail/Customer Service
• Hospitality
• Warehouse/Manufacturing
• Early Childhood Education

Woody Moses and Nate Means faculty in the LOGS department are working on a partnership with WSU’s Pullman extension center to introduce a student research project looking at tree disease and the impact of climate change.

Aleya Dhanji faculty in physics put together a panel on Women in Engineering on Oct 19^th at 4pm featuring three wonderful engineers including our very own new engineering faculty, Cait Cramer. The event was not just for students who have declared engineering but also for students exploring or undecided who want to get an insight into careers in STEM. Students learned what it’s like to be an engineer and what the day-to-day job looks like; got a glimpse into the many career paths and options within different engineering disciplines; Listened to women in the industry share how they’ve overcome challenges and what they have found to be the most fulfilling parts of their careers and got advice on how to succeed both in their STEM degree and in their future career.  Besides Highline’s Cait Cramer, the panel included Laura Bernhagen (English faculty), Principal at ESM Consulting Engineers, and Eve Burkhart, an engineer with Boeing Research & Technology.

The Engineering Dept., led by coordinator Melissa Moehlig, is hosting an Engineering Transfer Fair on Wednesday, Nov 2^nd from 1-3pm in Building 8 (Mt Constance/Mt Olympus). Recruiters/Advisors from several different engineering programs across the state will be here to provide students about admission requirements, financial aid, and more!

Katie Baker, new lecturer in the LOGS (life, ocean & general science) department has enrolled in the ACUE Certificate in Effective Teaching program. Over the summer, she completed the first course, Designing Learner-Centered and Equitable Courses, and is looking forward to completing the remaining 3 courses (Inspiring Inquiry and Preparing Lifelong Learners, Creating an Inclusive and Supportive Learning Environment and Promoting Active Learning) to receive her certification in June of 2023. In addition to this work, Katie has spent the past 9 months working as a member of the Title III Design Team to create the upcoming Anti-Racist Communities of Praxis project and piloting a related grant-funded project incorporating The Evergreen State College’s Native Cases Project into her biology courses. Katie is looking forward to learning more about how Anti-racist pedagogy and equitable teaching techniques can be used in STEM courses, sharing this information in her upcoming Community of Practice and applying these ideas in her anatomy & physiology courses.

Coral the giant Pacific octopus graduated from Highline College on October 12th and headed back to Puget Sound.  For those that haven’t met or seen Coral, when she arrived at Highline’s MaST Center Aquarium last September, she was 18 inches across and weighed about a pound.  Now, a year later after a steady diet of crab, quality coursework, and advising from Highline, she’s 7 ft across and weighs approximately 12-15 lbs. and is ready to take on her next steps in life.

The MESA Center is having a Halloween party MESA on 26 Oct from 1:30pm-4pm with games, movies, light refreshments, and a costume contest.

Division Honors and Achievements

Cait Cramer (Engineering faculty) attended the National Conference on Workforce Engineering conference. She connected with educators and educational support folks to discuss various ways to support student readiness for industry. One particularly interesting workshop was a discussion about Human Skills: what non-technical skills do employers look for and how to teach and assess these often-nebulous ideas of integrity, work-ethic, and attitude. She also interacted with an amazing augmented reality package from zSpace that allowed for visualization of abstract concepts as well as 3D interaction with both mechanical and electrical components.

Woody Moses (LOGS faculty) and Darry Brice (Sociology faculty) presented a workshop at Highline’s PD day “Climate Action + Social Justice = Climate Justice.” In this workshop, participants explored not just how climate change is changing the fundamental systems on which our societies are based, but those changes are not being felt equally, with historically marginalized populations feeling more of the burden than more privileged groups. The participants talked about the issues, how people are being affected, and most importantly, what we can do about it at Highline.

The MaST Center is hosting a photography contest to engage the public with the connection between art and science.  Submissions are due October 31.

Report submitted on October 27, 2022, by Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Emily Lardner