Area Report for Board of Trustees

Dear Trustees,

Last week our colleagues came together for Opening Week 2023. Faculty, staff and administrators spent time both celebrating their commitment and contributions to our community while also strengthening connections and their understanding of strategic planning at Highline College. I personally want to thank everyone involved in the planning and implementation of the week’s events. It was a success! If you are curious about the worksessions offered I encourage you to visit https://openingweek.highline.edu/.

Throughout the week several helpful resources were shared across campus and used to drive conversation. I encourage you to read through the following documents as you have time as they are just a highlight of the deep level of learning that occurred throughout the week.

Strategic Planning Session Slidedeck_Sep. 20, 2023

Highline College Student Achievement Report

Student Success Council’s 2022-23 End of Year Report

In support of the work addressed in the linked documents, Lisa Bernhagen and Emily Coates facilitated two opportunities for staff to connect with each other on their Institutional Effectiveness (IE) Planning aligned with the strategic goals on behalf of the Institutional Effectiveness Committee. The ‘Strategic Plan and YOU’ session was offered twice to allow as many staff as possible to attend. The session outcome was for attendees to leave with an idea to collaborate with another area on a strategic goal and/or to leave knowing more about what other areas on campus are doing for IE planning. Between the two sessions, 46 staff attended.

Attendees were grouped with other departments working on the same strategic goal. Each department shared an IE goal and related strategies with the group. Attendees were able to find connections across departments and divisions. They were asked to identify potential ways to collaborate or reduce overlapping work. Attendees shared that they appreciated having time to hear about other IE Plans and to share ideas and resources with areas that they don’t often interact with. Several teams made plans for cross departmental collaboration throughout the academic year.

I’m very excited about the upcoming year. There is much momentum and positives to focus on – especially our enrollment growth. As I’ve said, our campus still has goals and work ahead of us, but in my 6 years, I felt the energy on campus like it was my first day/opening week. Lastly, I want to personally recognize two of our campus community members – Trustee Chair Travis Exstrom and Dra. Jimenez. Trustee Exstrom gave a wonderful, honest and heartfelt opening to our campus and I heard from many community members how much they appreciated his words and felt that our board is truly supportive of Highline College. And Dra. Jimenez facilitated our Student Success Council (SSC) retreat recently, a half day affair that represented a shift in culture and capacity for the group and hopefully, the college as well.

Report submitted by President Dr. John R. Mosby