Director's Cut
December 2011- As the year rapidly comes to a close, I would like to thank you all for another year of serving lots and lots of students, helping them figure out their issues and challenges, and making it a little more likely that they ultimately see the light at the end of their education tunnel. Best wishes for the holiday season, and I look forward to seeing you all and working with you all again next semester! -GR
Technology Clips

  • Computer Use Statistics. A recent report generated by Barb Durland in the CTC has given us a fascinating look at computer use in the various learning centers and labs. The report contained the numbers of unique students who logged on to a computer in various centers, giving a sense of how many different students were using the computers in a given semester. Looking at Fall 2010, the largest numbers were generated by the largest centers, not surprisingly: the library (3,088), the Aptos CTC (1,957), the Watsonville CTC (1,077), the Watsonville ILC (578), and the Math Learning Center (509). Our current registration figures are around 4,800 full-time students and 11,000 part-time students, with about 2,500 students taking one or more classes in Watsonville. So, we can infer that a good percentage of full-time students are using the library's computers, and probably over half of the students taking classes in Watsonville use either the ILC or the CTC computers there. That's an awful lot of students being served!

Library Clips

  • FLEX Library Division Meeting. Mark your calendars - the Library division (including Tutorials) FLEX meeting is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 3, at 9am, outside my office. The all-staff portion is 9-10:30 or so, the librarians portion is 10:30-12, with an all-comers potluck at noon. Should be another good one to start our next semester!
  • Statewide Database Purchase. Beginning January 1, the California community college system joins the UC and CSU systems in arranging for a statewide online database package that will be available to all colleges in the system. Several vendors competed for the contract, and EBSCO submitted the winning bid. This is great news for Cabrillo, since EBSCO is the source of our primary database package, and we won't have to subscribe to them separately as of January. The statewide package includes most the EBSCO databases we currently subscribe to (exceptions: Alt HealthWatch, Vocational & Career Collection), and several additional databases we don't currently subscribe to (America History & Life fulltext, Auto Repair Reference Center, Book Index with Reviews, Consumer Health Complete, Regional Business News). CINAHL has always been subscribed to separately, and we will continue to do so. Look for potential new databases next year, once we know how much our EBSCO credit will be!
  • E-Books Webinar. Several of the collection development librarians attended an online ALA webinar on the current state of E-Books for libraries. Very, very interesting, and very, very confusing. The industry is in a total state of flux, in terms of content, rights management, ownership options, technology requirements, operating systems, delivery formats, delivery devices, etc. The information definitely confirmed our cautious approach to seeking out a replacement source for the netLibrary e-books deals we were previously getting from the Community College League. I did learn a new word, however: Bibliopocalype. Nuff said. Our education will continue next Wednesday with Part 2 of this webinar - hope the snacks are as good!

Campus Clips

  • Budget Update. Latest figures for the projected deficit for 2012/13 are $3.2 million, down from $3.5 million at the beginning of the Fall due to an abundance of retiring full-time faculty. This is still a very hefty amount, and all campus departments are being asked to look at their carry-over & one-time funds, to either confirm critical need to spend the money, or offer it to help cover the deficit for next year. This is serious, folks. It is very, very likely that we will see either significant layoffs, or significant adjustments to negotiated expenses. In addition, the new instruction department study that was just released will be used starting next year by individual programs and divisions as they plan for their future. We will be seeing teaching units shift from some departments to others, as we adjust our TUs away from declining or non-core programs to growing and core programs. And then there's the wild card of Jerry Brown's new budget that will be released early next year, which he has intimated will be even worse than the current year's budget. Changes are coming, and we need to start getting our heads and our hearts ready to grapple with them...
  • Learning Centers Meeting. We had another very good meeting of reps from the Building 1000 learning centers on November 18. Students and staff are very happy about the upstairs doors being open again, no issues have come up. All our cellphone policies are consistent: we all tell students to take their conversations outside, and we all mostly ignore the unobtrusive quiet users. Lots of past (and future) stories of sharing each others' spaces, and good general mindset among attendees that this is a good thing. Most learning centers have sufficient space for regular activities, except for the MLC, which, like the library, is bursting at the seams.
  • Building 800 Moves. Some of the departments currently in Building 800 will be moving in January, with others moving later in the semester and in early June. I've asked that we update at least the online campus maps before the beginning of next semester, so we can refer students and others to the correct location for Student Employment, the President, several VPs, and others. The campus maps on signboards around campus may not get updated til summer, but we might get lucky and see at least temporary updates on the signs by February.
  • Power Outage on Nov. 30. The campus shutdown on Nov. 30 due to the loss of power went very smoothly, with most participants doing pretty much what they were supposed to. Coincidentally, the Emergency Planning team was meeting at the time in bldg 800, so it was very easy to obtain status information and locate decision-makers. Hopefully the next one will go just as smoothly!
  • 4th Graders. Planning for the S4C (Santa Cruz County College Commitment) program is moving along on several fronts, including the element that promises to expose every SC county 4th grader to college. Early planning ideas are to bring these students to campus sometime next May, with details still being worked on. Dennis Bailey-Fougnier (VP Student Svcs) is coordinating this effort, and has already received commitments from UCSC faculty & staff to join us in this process. Should be interesting! Noisy, but interesting.
  • Bookstore Name Change. Coming sometime next year, the bookstore will be leaving the Hawkshop label behind, and returning to the original Cabrillo College Bookstore. Another suggestion from Casey Coonerty - which seems like a good idea to me.