Trust Memo Update #5 

Good afternoon folks,  

It has been a couple of months since the last trust memo, and this will be the final one before the end of the academic year. The question for me as we round out this year both in general, and as my first year at the college, is did we increase trust this year? While my first day on campus was in July, my goals as president will not be reviewed by the board until October. However, this memo certainly represents some of what we have accomplished over the past year. 

This memo isn’t intended as a summary of all the things that happened this year (nor a summary of progress, changes, challenges) but rather to review the items most relevant to this communication. As a reminder (or an introduction for those of you who are new to Shoreline)- when I first arrived as President, we asked the community for items they most wanted to see progress on, or those that would increase trust.  

Here is an update on Trust items from the last memo.  

1. After a very successful College Council meeting where we brought in three colleges from California, Oregon, and Washington to present their governance models, the Council has approved a process for us to move a participatory governance model forward at Shoreline Community College. This work will begin this summer with a goal to have a completed model by Fall 2024. 

2. The DEI strategic plan process is well on its way! Thank you so much to everyone who has participated in its creation so far. The plan is to have this completed and presented to the board by December! 

3. Professional Development (Pro-D) Update:  Highlights from the past year include: 

1. Opportunities for folks to attend DEI conferences,  

2. Trainings offered throughout the year on important topics (Title IX, safety etc.), 

3. CTC link trainings in our Admin meetings,  

4. Budget trainings for the campus, 

5. A new foundation for the Professional Development committee to organize and publicize future opportunities 

6. The Executive Team underwent a Cultural Competence training (which we just completed this week)  

We are now planning to hold two summer trainings via Crystal Hess:  

Session 1: Healing-Centered Leadership  

Session 2: Decision-Making for Racial Equity.   

Starting this summer, I hope to see more movement from our Pro-D committee with a goal and vision for organizing and supporting a calendar for these types of opportunities and events, as well as fostering more pro-active engagement with all groups to determine what further work is needed. I also wanted to do more to support some of the classified staff’s request for training that will help us be more inclusive with our decision making. I intend to work on this throughout the summer and into next year. 

4. The remote work policy process was approved and applied. It still has some kinks to work through, but I’m very pleased that we were able to take the first steps in creating and adopting something so valued by many here at Shoreline. 

5. Ok, this one is really exciting, and I’m thrilled to share it with you! I know it has been a long time coming, but we are bringing Coffee back to SCC, and it’s from Black Coffee Northwest! We will have a summer welcome and plan to have an official launch this fall. We can’t wait to have more coffee options on campus and look forward to finding other ways to we might be able to partner with them across programs and initiatives.  

6. My revised outcomes (with your recommendations) were approved by the board of trustees and now provide the “backbone” to the President’s Goals and our planning process.  

7. You may recall that when we created the list of new faculty to recruit for next year, we said that we would review our budget situation later in the year and determine whether we might be able to bring additional faculty to the college. Due to the good news with the governor’s budget, our fiscal office determined we could go out for two more faculty members in addition to the 10 we originally planned. The two new faculty members will be in History and Math. 

8. Our last memo also outlined plans for a DEIA-focused Vice President of instruction. This position closes August 1st, and I sent a memo last week summarizing where we are with changes and hiring.  

While we still have a lot of work to do, particularly given our DEIA goals and aspirations, I would like to share with you a wonderful summary that Theresa Harrington created highlighting what we accomplished in College Council this year. I don’t want to speak for that group, but the sentiment was that we accomplished a lot this year through a collaborative process which was somewhat unique for this council. 

In summary, while it is clear that both the College and I have more work to do to reestablish a foundation of trust, in my opinion we have moved in a very positive direction. In spite of fire, smoke, a bomb threat, and ransomware we moved forward. I hope that resonates with you as well, and if not, I am glad to discuss! 

There will be a lot of work going on this summer, and a lot of opportunities to participate in recruitments, planning etc. For faculty who are off-contract and wanting to get involved—Jessica Strickland and LJ Bothell will be your faculty reps during the summer- please feel free to reach out to them with any questions or ideas. 

Thank you for all you do for our students and our community. Looking forward to next year’s progress. Have a great rest of your week and enjoy your summer.   

College Council Year in Review 2022-2023 

November 

• Approved creation of a campus wide Professional Development (Pro-D) Committee. 

December 

• The College Council approved the following goals for the 2022-2023 Academic Year. 

• Adopt a new governance structure for the college. 
• Create an Onboarding Process for College Council. 

• Council made a commitment to increased transparency, 

•  Agenda and meeting announcements to be sent out campus wide prior to meetings with an open invitation to attend. 
• Individual council members reach out directly to their constituents between meetings to share information and get input.  

January  

• Telework Policy – Reviewed and recommendations sent to executive team. 
• Council Meeting Frequency increased to 2 times monthly. 

February 

• Shared Governance Panel Discussion  
• Creation of the Accreditation and Institutional Effectiveness Committee reporting up to College Council. 
• Creation of the Pilot Facilities and Technology Committee  
• ASG Student Survey Results and Discussion 

March 

• Approval of Policy and Procedural Analysis with an Equity Lens 

April 

• Voted to support MLB Legacy project partnership. 
• Voted to approve the participatory governance development plan. 
• ASG Student Feedback Report 

May 

• Voted to recommend the proposed antiracism framework for adoption to the ET 
• Voted to approve the indigenous naming plan for campus land feature and buildings, approved additional funding to incorporate updated signage for the Tree USA project into the wayfinding project, and approve the exploration of a living history project to preserve campus and regional history.  

June 

• Voted to recommend in concept to the Executive Team the proposal for co-location of CECO, workforce, identity centers and wrap around services for students.