Area Report for Board of Trustees

Enrollment

As of January 15, Winter Quarter State funded enrollments are 4157.7 FTEs.

Core Theme 3

Build valuable relationships … within Highline College’s communities.

This year, one of Highline’s major community initiatives is the start-up of its Federal Way higher education partnership with the City of Federal Way, University of Washington Tacoma (UWT), and Federal Way Public Schools (FWPS). Despite delays in facility acquisition, the timeline remains on track to utilize the legislature’s $500,000 allocation to open the site during the current fiscal year. The education partners have identified three primary emphases for initial offerings ― healthcare, information technology, and teacher education ― in alignment with FWPS’s corresponding academic pathways. Highline plans to offer a range of general education courses that meet Running Start needs, as well as degree requirements for a variety of majors. Additionally, UWT and Highline will offer continuing education and professional development courses onsite. Final lease negotiations are currently underway for an accessible, visible, and secure location near downtown, within reach of transit. The facility will feature two classrooms, a student study and gathering space, offices, and a reception area. As soon as the site opens, student support resources will be ready to serve both current and prospective students. To gear up for that day, Highline has hired a program manager and a reception/clerical position. UWT has hired an academic case manager/advisor to serve both the Federal Way and main Highline campuses.

Faculty and Staff Honorees

• In 2018, Bob Baugher (psychology) published four magazine articles and gave 23 workshops and lectures on coping with grief to 16 community organizations.
• English instructor Susan Rich’s poem, “Dear H,” appeared in the winter 2019 “Western Humanities Review.”
• Luckisha Phillips (education) was recently appointed to the Federal Way School Board.
• Justin Taillon (hospitality & tourism management) presented his research on worldwide lodging trends at the Hospitality Financial & Technical Professional’s (HFTP) HITEC conference in Dubai last month.
• Aaron Ottinger (English adjunct) published a chapter entitled “Astral Guts: The Nemocentric Self in Byron and Brassier,” in “Romanticism and Speculative Realism” this month.
• Adrienne Cochran (philosophy) presented her paper, “Clark’s Predictive Processing, Emotion and Stereotypes” at the Northwest Philosophy Conference in October.
• James Liner (English) published a reference article, “Multitude,” in “The Bloomsbury Handbook of Literary and Cultural Theory” last year. James also contributed the headnote, bibliography, and annotations for Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s “Symptoms of Passage” in “The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism” in 2018.
• Jeremy Quiroga (American sign language) presented on two topics, “DeafSpace in the Medical Setting” and “Medical Classifiers” at December’s SoCal Interpreting Conference.

Report submitted Jan. 15, 2019, by Vice President Jeff Wagnitz, Ed.D.