Area Report for Board of Trustees

In June, IA staff provided significant support for a record breaking commencement at Accesso Showare Center, saluting the 800 plus graduates and 2026 Distinguished Alumni. News of two funded grants came and the web team was able to launch the latest of 19 academic sites on Modern Campus. Team members stayed active in the community, getting ready for the upcoming Southside Leadership Conference on 7/10 and Shark in the Park on 7/12. And Highline got into the spirit of Global Soccer competition by running an ad en Espanol throughout the tournament telecasts on Telemundo. 

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

• Grants team provided support for two grants: 
  • Grant Award: Aleya Dhanji’s NSF grant, “Team Learning in Two-Year College STEM Classes: Designing Effective Teaching Interventions for Different Institutional Contexts and Class Modalities in the amount of $489,156. Given the changes and cuts at the National Science Foundation, this award is testament to Aleya’s hard work and grant writing skill. 
  • The college also received a Workforce Development/High Demand State Board grant developed by Reagan Copeland and Jennifer Johnston for $150,000. The Workforce grant builds on strategies begun with Title III SIP and High Demand Enrollment projects, the primary goal of which is to “increase enrollment by improving gateway course completion and decreasing attrition in Highline College’s two highest wage, highest demand programs: Computer Science/Computer Information Systems and Nursing/Competitive Entry Healthcare Pathways. Project deliverables are, 1)Implementing Supplemental instruction to improve pass rates in gateway courses, and 2) Strengthen PLA awareness and access in both pathways, a continuation of the current year’s efforts.
    
• The web team just launched the new Art and Design Department Site, bringing the total to 19 academic department sites that have transitioned to the Modern Campus platform. 
  • There are five academic sites in the review process. Nine more sites are in development. The Public Speaking Center, Equity, Diversity and Transformation department site, and the Presidential Search site are also under development at this time.
  • The new academic catalog was published, requiring edits and the creation of new links for the program, degree, and course changes. 

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

• On June 4th the Highline College Foundation hosted the Jeannette Rankin Foundation and King County Housing Authority as we celebrated our WISH (While in School Housing) students who graduated this spring.
• The Highline Advertisement on the Telemundo World Cup broadcasts was scheduled to run 96 times. The 30-second ad can is available to view: Telemundo World Cup Ad.mov 
• Highline College is the site host for the 3rd annual Southside Leadership Conference on Friday, July 10 from 9 am to 2 pm in Building 8. 
• IA has provided support for the 2nd Annual Shark in the Park on Sunday, July 12 from 11 am to 4 pm at Redondo Beach. 
• Highline College is the planned site host for a legislative town hall sponsored by Congressman Adam Smith on Saturday, 7/18 from 1-2 pm in B8; and later on 7/18 the Highline will participate in the Waterland Parade in Des Moines.

Core Theme 4: CULTURE & CAPACITY: Become an anti-racist college through intentional development of employees, facilities, and systems that support student success and close equity gaps

• Members of the IA leadership team joined colleagues from across campus in participating in conflict management training on June 29 and 30th. 

Division Honors and Achievements

• IA gives shout out to the 800+ Highline graduates who participated in commencement on June 18th and joined the ranks of Thunderbird Alumni, and an extra shoutout to Distinguished Alumni Tim George and his daughter for attending commencement at the accesso Showare Center.

Report submitted by Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Joshua Gerstman