Area Report for Board of Trustees

The First Quarter Financial Report (FY24) is being submitted to the Board for review.  The FY24 First Quarter Financial Report provided some relatively good news for our finances with a reported net gain of approximately $1.4M (difference between revenue and expenses).  Although most of the net increase is due to the timing of the state allocation draw, a slight increase in tuition and fee revenue also helps with offsetting higher expenditures.

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

Global Programs – Create opportunities for students and employees to experience an internationalized education and understanding:

• Our Study Abroad “consortium” of Highline College, Tacoma Community College, Wenatchee Valley College, and North Seattle College have begun to recruit student participants for the next “Follow the Supply Chain to Vietnam” program. In addition, our consortium has also invited Shoreline Community College to participate as part of the next cohort.
• The planning for the next Faculty Experiential Learning program, scheduled for March 2024, is already underway. Seven faculty and one staff have been selected to participate in this next program.
• Dave O’Keefe, Sam Kaplan, Ahmed Fahad, and I met on Oct 27^th to brainstorm an IDEAS Grant application to expand our study abroad program to Indonesia. IDEAS (Increase and Diversity Education Abroad for U.S. Students) Program is a program of U.S. State Department.

Facilities – Create accessible, fiscally & environmentally sustainable, and productive work & learning environment:

• The College Way main entrance construction has been substantially completed – with re-opening expected by Dec 1, 2023.
• The renovations of B-23 third floor (faculty offices) and B-21 (new general classrooms) are scheduled to be completed by the end of November – with furniture installation taking place in December.
• We are putting together two committees to start the capital and vision planning for the future Welcome Center for Student Success and Student Activity Center projects.

Core Theme 2: STUDENT LEARNING, Increase educational success and close equity gaps; collaborate to improve.

Global Programs – Create opportunities for student learning to develop a global community:

• International Education Week is scheduled for November 13^th through November 16^th. The current schedule includes workshops on women’s health, study abroad, faculty experiential learning, henna (tattoos) around the world, and a ping pong tournament.

Public Safety – Serve as an educational partner by enhancing community awareness for crime prevention:

• David Menke facilitated a verbal de-escalation workshop for Financial Aid staff on Professional Development Day Training.
• Public Safety has fully deployed the ReGroup Emergency Communication System (a new multi-language emergency notification system). We formally utilized it during the Great Washington Shakeout Drill on October 19^th.  We are continuing to work with the vendor and our campus community to enhance and ensure accessible communication to all students and employees.

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

Public Safety – Engage internal and external communities to support maintaining a safe and secure working and learning environment at Highline College:

• David Menke proposed a revision to the Des Moines Police Advisory Board to revise a provision in the police officer written test in order to promote/encourage more diverse applicant pools.
• Public Safety hosted our annual on-campus “Coffee with a Cop” event on October 4^th. The event was attended by 12 local police officers and drew participation from over 75 students, employees, and community members.
• We hosted a meeting between the Kent-Kangley business owners and Des Moines/Kent Police Departments to discuss safety concerns in the surrounding business district, including Highline College campus.

Core Theme 4: CULTURE & CAPACITY, Promote a campus culture which fosters equity and inclusivity supporting employee growth and development, and institutional capacity for transformation.

Finance, Budget, Grant, & Procurement Services – Build department’s infrastructure and capacity:

• Budget & Grant Services is in the process of updating our websites (purchasing and budgets) with the goal of completion by end of December 2023.

Administrative Services Strategic Goal:  MAINTAINING FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

All Administrative Services departments will focus on maintaining financial sustainability as a key work plan goal for FY24.

Auxiliary Services (Conference Services & Bookstore) – Identify opportunities to enhance revenue:

• Eric Ho attended the Northwest College Bookstore Association conference in early October to learn about new ideas to enhance sales. In addition, he visited Centralia College and Evergreen College to research bookstore designs/layouts and merchandise marketing.
• Conference Services is seeing a steady increase in the number of space rentals – with most of the conference space reserved every weekend through the end of December 2023.
• The Fireside Bistro, staffed entirely by Highline College students, reported to have a 25% increase in customers this Fall Quarter compared to last year. We are averaging service to over 1,000 customers per week.

Budget, Grant, & Procurement Services – Manage institutional budget effectively and efficiently:

• We offered 2 budget training sessions (Oct 5^th and Oct 12) with a total of 38 attendees.
• We offered 2 grant training sessions (Oct 5th and Oct 12^th) with a total of 19 attendees.
• As part of our charge to manage the institutional assets and resources effectively and efficiently, we will be conducting random P-card audits throughout the fiscal year.

Facilities – Manage energy usage sustainability:

• Per state requirements, we have successfully input and updated the campus energy usage into Energy Star system as of October 2023.

Finance – Manage and safeguard institutional resources and assets:

• We have completed the campus (resources and assets) risk assessment, as required by the State Auditor’s Office per our annual financial statement audit. The report will be finalized and provided to the Board for review.
• The State Auditor’s Office has temporarily paused our current financial statement audit due to conflicting audit schedules.  The auditor team has been re-assigned to conduct work on a more urgent Washington State (government) audit.

Public Safety – Maintain and sustain departmental financial resources to support institutional mission fulfillment:

• Public Safety is in the process of evaluating all data to draft a proposal on a new Transportation Management Fee.  The Department is currently facing a shortfall in parking revenue to fund half of its operations.

Division Honors and Achievements

• Cinthia Velez-Regalado (Public Safety) and Kharmyn Williams (Budget & Grant Services) attended the Faculty & Staff of Color Conference in Vancouver, WA on October 25^th-27^th.

Report submitted by Vice President of Administrative Services Dr. Michael Pham