Planning for Opening Week 2015 is underway and get ready for a new day.
The Opening Week Planning Committee has been meeting and working since June, starting with a clean slate for imagining the five days leading up to the opening of fall term and the 2015-16 academic year.
“Opening Week is a critically important time to come together as a college,” President Cheryl Roberts said. “This is an opportunity for us to learn how we can focus and align our efforts on students and what they care about. Whenever we focus on student success, great things happen for our students, the communities we serve and the college.”
To take full advantage, one significant change is being made to our opening week schedule for Sept. 16-22:
Fall Convocation will be one full day of discussion and learning for faculty and staff and it will take place on the first day of Opening Week, scheduled for Sept. 16.
“In looking at the structure and sequence of Opening Week, and with input from the committee, the Executive Leadership Team, and Dean Team members, the thought is to hold Convocation on the first day, Wednesday, Sept. 16, to set the stage for the entire week with energy and excitement about the major directions for the college,” Roberts said.
In addition, Convocation will be a day-long event for faculty and staff.
The day will be modeled like a conference with an opening plenary session, lunch, an afternoon session and a closing plenary session followed by a reception/social time. Sessions throughout Opening Week will relate to what was shared during Convocation on Sept. 16.
“We know that the week before classes is also an important time for our students,” Roberts said. “Those key services will continue to operate with hourly employees so we can serve students, yet have time for our college community to learn together.”
The Opening Week Committee is continuing to meet and solidify the schedule. More details regarding the full schedule will be available in early September and posted at www.shoreline.edu/openingweek.
Day at a Glance 
It’s now 2 weeks before the start of opening week. Believe it or not, I’m getting quite a few requests from various parties (including students) who want a meeting during that week but I have little idea of what’s scheduled. And, I suspect I will have no time to prep for my courses, given what I’ve heard about events that week, but have no idea how much free time I’ll have. When can we expect the schedule to be posted, so that we can arrange our planning time and appointments?
Thank You for a prompt response.
Judy Penn, Professor
Hi Judy,
Details are still being finalized. It’s my understanding that publication of the schedule is imminent and that some folks are working hard to get that done asap.
-Sean
Judy,
Details are still being sorted out, but the schedule has been populated now!
http://intranet.shoreline.edu/calendar-opening-week.aspx
On the day of convocation last year, we closed the advising and counseling office for that event because our full-time faculty advisors and staff were attending.
This year, full-time faculty advisors and staff are asked to attend convocation but we are told we cannot close the office. This means we need to find guest advisors, who are not as efficient as the general advisors. In addition the guest advisors will not have access to the knowledge of the full-time faculty advisors as unique questions arise. This leads to long wait times for students to be seen.
I think students would prefer to be told in advance that services are not available on one day rather than come in for limited help with very, very long wait times.
Pam Francisco, secretary lead, Advising and Counseling
Hi Pam, Thanks for the feedback. We’ll do what we can to ensure students are given knowledge of this change as well in advance as possible. Thanks!