CHANCELLOR’S C-DIRECT
July 13, 2016
Dear Colleagues:
We are all saddened by the unfortunate situation befalling us as an American society. As we witness senseless murders of African-American young men and the acts of violence against police officers, we cannot be quiet and ignore such acts and attitudes. These senseless acts will divide us further and hold us back from doing the much-needed work of transforming lives – the good work of education where we strive to change lives that need to be changed. As change agents, let us strengthen our faith in one another and treat each and everyone one of our students and us with a pure lens of love and support.
I was touched by what Ramona Butler, EOPS/CARE Coordinator at Berkeley City College, wrote to me:
Although the recent tragedies were televised for the world to see, our Bay Area communities also have unfortunate incidents and situations that affect each of us in different ways. In our diverse District we have an opportunity to reflect on our own thinking and attitudes toward each other, learn about each other from a place of knowledge, and not fear, and teach each other how best to treat each other, and then work together to make positive changes.
Meeting on July 11 at Merritt
I met with Merritt Faculty, Staff and Students to share a few District and College updates:
· My recommendation to the Board to appoint a Director of Student Life: Dr. Herbert Kitchen.
· My recommendation for Dr. Tina Vasconcellos to be appointed Vice President of Student Services at the College of Alameda.
· My recommendation to appointment Dr. Siri Brown as Interim Dean of Liberal Arts to replace Tina.
· My request to transfer Dr. Norma Ambriz-Galaviz to serve as Vice Chancellor for Student Services (see below).
· My assurance that I will have a candidate to replace Dr. Ambriz-Galaviz within two weeks.
· My appointment of Vice President Cedillo to serve as administrator in charge at Merritt until a President is chosen no later than July 18th or 25th.
· My pledge to replace Dr. Audrey Trotter with a College person to help finalize the Accreditation Follow-Up Report.
By July 25th Merritt will be completely staffed with no administrative vacancies, though some interims will be in place.
Strengthening Student Services
I learned that the District once had a Vice Chancellor for Student Services. I reviewed the prior job description and updated it as we have a need to reform services to students throughout the District.
Because our students attend multiple Peralta colleges, our schedules and activities should be in sync to better serve the students. Strong leadership at the District level is necessary to help improve our services while at the same time respecting the different cultures and realities of the Colleges. We are fortunate to have Dr. Ambriz-Galaviz, an experienced administrator from one of the PCCD Colleges – with a deep knowledge of Student Services – to take on this important charge.
Time Well Spent at COA
As I shared in previous communication I am acting as COA President until July 18th when Dr. Dr. Fran White takes over as Interim President. The time at College of Alameda has been very good and I am looking forward to more of it, though it my tenure will be short. Serving as the COA President gave me a chance to interact with the senior staff as a group last week. Each leader is doing good work. In particular, COA is reaching out to underserved schools in the community to provide dual enrollment opportunities. Their outreach and follow through is working well. I am getting to know our colleagues at COA more.
Congratulations Laney Carpentry!
I received this email from Dean Peter Crabtree at Laney College about the attention that Laney’ Carpentry Program has been getting recently:
Congratulations, Cynthia. Laney/Carpentry is cutting edge in application of new technology, in community partnership with the City of Oakland, and in helping develop a solution for an urgent community need for low cost housing for the homeless!
Here’s the latest article: http://www.fastcoexist.com/3061682/can-these-tiny-flatpack-houses-help-shelter-the-homeless. For more news stories on Laney’s low cost housing efforts, see Peralta News on our Website and our social media feeds.
A Fruitful Discussion With Committed Colleagues: Examining Resources Needed to Support Our Mission
A recent gathering of individuals was only a beginning conversation that may morph into something broader. The topic was to brainstorm ways to advocate for resources for community colleges.
Those in attendance were:
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· Chris Weidenbach (Laney faculty)
· Robert Brem (COA faculty)
· Nona Claypool (Laney student ASLC)
· Craig Flanery (Laney faculty)
· Trent Hanible (Laney student ASLC)
· Peter Brown (Laney faculty)
· Jowel Laguerre (Peralta Colleges Chancellor)
· Patrick McCallum (lobbyist for PCCD; McCallum Group
· Mark Macdonald (lobbyist; McCallum Group)
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Here are some excerpts from Peter Brown’s notes:
PROPOSALS AND AGREEMENTS
1. Discussed amongst all, and seemed to have agreement: a proposal that the Chancellor, faculty bodies PFT and Faculty Senates, Student Senates and McCallum Group lobbyists will explore working collaboratively to develop and execute strategies & activities toward achieving full public funding for public education, specifically community colleges. (NOTE; this in no way represents any collectivized agreement of the groups listed; merely a commitment by individuals present to take this discussion back to our respective bodies.)
2. Agreed by all present that we will reflect on these discussions, feedback openly and constructively with each other and our colleagues whether student, faculty, administration or staff toward resolving the major challenges we face.
3. Proposed by Peter Brown, but neither accepted nor rejected by Chancellor Jowel Laguerre, that since the Chancellor is mandated to lead the Peralta District and to coordinate activities in the interest of the District and its Colleges, Chancellor Laguerre would agree to take the lead in reaching out to the students, faculty & classified senates, Peralta Federation of Teachers, and PCCD lobbyists, and play a coordinating role toward collaborative implementation of the above agreements.
4. No further meetings were scheduled at this time, but future meetings were left open as a possibility.
Professor Peter Brown has expressed some thoughts about public funding not being enough to support public institutions. The absence of such resources has resulted in more public-private partnerships. At least one more faculty member has expressed the same view and I suspect that there are more faculty, staff and students with similar thoughts. As we know, however, thoughts are often not productive if they are not expressed and shared. The two meetings we have had (this was the second meeting) have been opportunities for our colleagues to express themselves and to dialog about issues of funding and adequate support to lead, manage, run and take care of our facilities and students as well as to provide faculty the optimal environment to work and our students to learn. The resources that are required to meet those needs are not always available given our current funding sources.
My intention is to support the continuation of these conversations and to invite more people to be involved in them. We will also seek to learn from others and to develop collective ideas of what our next steps may be to make our institutions attractive places where people want to attend and be groomed for tomorrow.
Visit to Washoe County Education Alliance
Rebecca Lacocque, East Bay Career Pathways Director, arranged for a group of us representing different education segments to meet in Reno, Nevada to learn what the Washoe County Education Alliance has done to make a difference in students’ lives and to move all education segments and business in a positive direction.
The visit was outstanding. The information the Washoe County educators shared with our East Bay colleagues was well received and useful to our own thinking. We spent the time to sketch the beginning of some questions to assess whether our group should work together. The impetus for the idea of an East Bay Collaboration is to sustain the Career Pathways Trust beyond its current existence and to show a lasting impact of the grant. The foundation of the Washoe County Alliance centers on data that are used to question the steps all should take to support success of students. Here is the list of those who attended:
East Bay Career Pathways
Executive Study Visit to Education Alliance of Washoe County
Thursday, July 7th
East Bay Team
· Jowel Laguerre, PhD, Chancellor of Peralta Community College District, East Bay Career Pathways Co-Chair
· L. Karen Monroe, County Superintendent, Alameda County Office of Education, East Bay Career Pathways Co-Chair
· Bernard McCune, Ed.D, Deputy Chief of Post-Secondary Readiness, Oakland Unified, East Bay Career Pathways Executive Steering Committee Member
· Rebecca Lacocque, Director of East Bay Career Pathways Consortium
· May Chen, Interim Director of Institutional Research, Peralta Community College District
· Dr. Jannett Jackson, Chancellor of Chabot-Las Positas Community College District, East Bay Career Pathways Executive Steering Committee Member
· Krista Johns, JD, Vice Chancellor of Educational Services & Student Success, Chabot-Las Positas Community College District
· Fred Brill, Ed.D, Superintendent, San Lorenzo Unified School District, East Bay Career Pathways Executive Steering Committee Member
· Navdeep Purewal, Ed.D, Director of Assessment & Analytics, Alameda County Office of Education
· Yashica Crawford, Ph.D., Chief of Staff, Peralta Community College District
C-DIRECT’s First Anniversary
Happy one-year anniversary to the C-DIRECT! Thank you all for your feedback and comments and encouragement. We have started our second year and will continue to keep you informed.
Jowel
Jowel C. Laguerre, Ph.D.
Chancellor
Here are a few quotations in support of a more peaceful and loving America:
The world needs soldiers of Peace, soldiers of Love, and soldiers of Hope! Not soldiers of war and hate! Hate kills but Love heals, let’s love, heal the world and live together in peace!
- Prem Tihan
We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not yet learned the simple art of living together as brothers.
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
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