Area Report for Board of Trustees

On behalf of the Administrative Services Division, I would like to wish all of the trustees a happy, peaceful, and healthy holiday season!  With the recent snow storms, we are definitely sending our warmest holiday wishes your way!

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

Facilities: Facilities is working with Public Safety and ITS to replace the old (key) card access system with a more user-friendly system.

Global Programs:  Global Programs team has begun preparing and recruiting for the Faculty Experiential Learning trip to Vietnam for March 2023.  The trip is designed as a professional development opportunity for interested faculty. The trip will be primarily funded by faculty’s annual professional development allotment ($1,500 per full-time faculty). Participating faculty will be visiting Vietnamese universities as well as partaking in student recruitment activities to support Highline’s enrollment efforts of international students.

Auxiliary Services: The Highline Bookstore is refreshing signage and product placement in preparation for Winter Quarter 2023. Textbooks and other instructional materials will be available for purchase on the website in the coming weeks.

Public Safety: In an effort to increase engagement and outreach to ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) students, the Public Safety Office in collaboration with ITS has selected a new emergency communications platform. The new communications system prioritizes sending out text alerts to the entire community within 1 minute as well as providing messaging in multiple languages.

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

Facilities: Our Facilities planning team, in collaboration with McGranahan Architects, presented the Campus Master Plan 2030 draft to Executive Cabinet on November 17^th.  We are anticipating to complete the final draft by late January 2023.

Finance: Several of the Finance staff attended the virtual quarterly Budget, Accounting and Reporting Council (BAR) meeting on November 4^th.  BAR, a state-wide council comprising of all 34 community and technical colleges in SBCTC system, meets regularly to discuss topics and issues common the colleges. These meetings give us an opportunity to share best practices and learn from each other.

Public Safety:  David Menke, Director of Public Safety, attended the Threat Assessment Conference, hosted by the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals, on November 15^th & 16^th. The conference covered topics ranging from mass homicides to managing high risk adolescents. Workplace violence, including school attacks, was also analyzed in different sessions. In addition, David has continued to represent Highline College in our long-term partnership with the Des Moines Police Department, by serving on the oral examination board for entry-level police officer candidates. This partnership provides the opportunity to focus on diversity and prioritizing police officers which represent the community they serve

Global Programs: Global Programs hosted a virtual event with our long-time partners from Yangzhou, China, on November 16^th. The event brought together several administrators, faculty, and staff at Highline College, including Dr. John Mosby and Dr. Elizabeth Chen, a former trustee member. In addition, we had a pre-recorded greeting from the Kent City Mayor, as well as a representative from the Yangzhou-Kent City Sister City Committee in attendance. The Deputy Mayor of Yangzhou also attended along with Yangzhou Foreign Affairs Office Director and Yangzhou Polytechnic College president. The event “reconnected” our partnerships with the signing of two different MOUs focusing on future cooperation in education and faculty exchanges.

Budgets, Grants, & Procurement Office:  With the inclusion of Purchasing, our formerly Budgets & Grants Department is now officially Budgets, Grants, and Procurement Office. Joint training sessions on budget management and purchasing processes were provided to program managers on November 15^th and November 17^th.

Division Honors and Achievements

Facilities:  It is with great pleasure to announce the appointment of Abdullah Harris as our new Custodial Manager. Abdulla has been with Highline College for eight years and had recently served as a Custodial Lead.

Finance:  We are extremely excited for Aseel Hussein, our work-study student and hourly employee, to receive her Certificate of Naturalization on November 11^th.  Congratulations to Aseel on obtaining her U.S. citizenship! It is also with great pleasure to announce the promotion/appointment of Ahmad Amin as our new Fiscal Analyst 2, a position that had been vacant for almost two years. Ahmad has extensive experience within our system, serving in different positions at Highline College for the last three years.

Public Safety:  Congratulations to Alaa Al Jauifari, our Part-time Public Safety Officer, as well, for his becoming a U.S. citizen on November 11^th. Alaa and his family immigrated from Iraq to the U.S. several years ago. Alaa attended English-language (ESOL) classes at Highline College before graduating with an Associate Degree.

Report submitted on Dec 01, 2022 by Vice President of Administrative Services, Dr. Michael Pham