Area Report for Board of Trustees

The Equity, Diversity, and Transformation (EDT) Division is charged with embedding equity in everything we do at Highline College. Below are updates of the ongoing work.

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

• The CLC’s and Moving to Serve hosted a Family & Orientation Night for the Juntos student cohort.
• At the request of the Washington State Legislature, the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges partnered with LISC Puget Sound, ECOnorthwest, Bora Architects, and DCW Cost Management to explore the future of low-income student housing across Washington. Excerpt of Highline Support Center program highlighted in report: “To meet broader demand for housing and reduce housing barriers beyond campuses, colleges should: ¨ Expanding partnerships with housing authorities, nonprofit developers, and nearby institutions to share operational and financial responsibilities. Highline College’s collaboration with King County Housing Authority (WISH program) is a promising example of education linked vouchers for students.” (p.7)

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

• Institutional Research and other leaders from EDT, Student Services and Academic Affairs kicked off the first meeting of the Belonging Taskforce on October 7. This Horizon Grant supported initiative will draw from campus data, consultant advice and draw inspiration from HBCU models of connectedness to recommend culturally responsive improvements to our current campus advising model.

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

• The Highline Benefits Hub hosted the King County Basic Needs Coalition meeting with members from various CTC’s and United Way King County.

Core Theme 4: CULTURE & CAPACITY, Create capacity for meaningful strategic planning and institutional transformation through intentional development of employees, facilities, and systems that support student success and close equity gaps

• Institutional Research assisted SBCTC’s data team in deploying a process to help colleges track STEM enrollment and transfer patterns consistently across the system
• IR also continued to build data literacy on campus with a well-attended PDD session on using multiple sources of data to support decision making and by launching a Highline Data Skills Academy Canvas course.

Report submitted by Vice President of Equity, Diversity and Transformation, Dra. Maribel Jimenéz