Message from President Roberts: Support During Difficult Times

Dear Colleague,

In recent days and weeks, there has been an overwhelming amount of news about racialized violence, police violence, and mass shootings. We are experiencing a challenging time in our nation, as we also persevere through a pandemic and many other concurrent social and economic issues. I want to acknowledge the distress, grief, fear, and pain many people in our campus community are feeling right now.

This is a time for us to recommit to taking care of ourselves and to seek support and draw strength from others around us. If you are feeling overwhelmed or in need of additional support right now, please know students can access free services from the Counseling Center (206-546-4594) and employees can access services through the Employee Assistance Program (877-313-4455). 

May we continue to come together as a campus community to provide support and care for one another.

With care,

Cheryl Roberts, Ed.D.

President

Shoreline in the News, Dec-Mar 2021

Here is a collection of some of the media coverage featuring the College in the past quarter.

Got an idea for a media story or want to see a particular article in our news blog? Send in your ideas to Communications & Marketing (email to pio@shoreline.edu).

Notice of Positive COVID Case in Residence Hall

Dear Colleague,

Late last week, the College was notified that a tenant in the residence hall tested positive for COVID-19. The 7000 Building’s response protocol was activated, and the tenant was moved to an isolation unit in the building, where they are recuperating. The individual’s two roommates are currently symptom free but are following quarantining procedures within their unit. All three residents are being cared for and monitored daily, with food delivery and laundry services provided. 

Building residents were notified of the positive case and contact tracing has been performed to assess if anyone may have been potentially exposed on campus. (If you have not been contacted, it means you were not considered within close contact of this student.) As a precaution, the common areas of the residence hall, the PUB, the mail pickup area, and the other identified areas on campus have been sanitized.  

The risk to employees and students remains low, and we will continue to keep the campus community apprised of any developments, in alignment with current public health guidance. 

As a reminder, any students or employees who feel ill are asked to stay home, contact their health provider, and are encouraged to complete the COVID Exposure Report Form to aid the College in assessing any transmission risk. You can learn more about campus resources on the COVID-19 web page

With care,

Cheryl Roberts, Ed.D.
President

Waves of Gratitude, April Edition

Submit a Wave of Gratitude to recognize an individual employee you’re grateful for.

Waves of Gratitude for Derek Jorgensen of eLearning

Respect and student engagement.

Before the pandemic, I had taught at SCC for 24 years without ever even learning to post my syllabus on Canvas. In March of 2020, I was dragged, kicking and also screaming, into the vortex of the virtual e-vironment. The tutorials offered on the Canvas website mostly assumed a certain familiarity with Canvas and online resources. They hadn’t prepared for Luddites such as myself.
Enter Derek. I don’t remember what first prompted me to seek help from eLearning, but from my first interaction with Derek, I knew it was going to be okay. He is an excellent teacher: always explaining clearly in jargon-free language that I can easily turn into problem-solving action. I have probably contacted him a half dozen times in the course of the past year. He usually gets back to me within an hour, sometimes having already gone into Canvas and fixed my glitch of the day.
He is always cheerful, friendly, respectful and informative. I don’t know how many beers I will owe him by the time we return to campus.
Derek has literally made it possible for me to keep my job during this difficult time. He has helped make online teaching actually enjoyable for me. This guy deserves a raise. Jeff Junkinsmith, Music.

Waves of Gratitude for Tigist Stanghor of Financial Aid

Inclusive Excellence, Respect, Student Engagement, Community Engagement and Leadership.

In the midst of a pandemic and working remotely our beloved director of many years retired. While we entirely supported her retirement, it was a hard time to be without a director. We needed a leader with compassion, dedication, tenacity, and understanding; someone willing to take on a difficult interim position with an unclear future and motivate us to keep being our best. The Financial Aid Office has been so lucky to have had Tigist Stangohr to take on that responsibility.

She is the type of manager who is warm but also professional, with a clear and comprehensive understanding of Financial Aid and how it works both for staff and students. Though she has been at the helm of our Financial Aid team she has also been working alongside us to make all the elements of getting funding to students as fast and efficiently as possible. She has supported us all through a very complex time at the college, standing for our needs and those of our students.
We want to make sure she knows how thankful we are for her diligence, direction, and humanity -we couldn’t have done it without her!! The Financial Aid Team via Holly Burton.

Waves of Gratitude for Bonnie Madison of TSS

For going above and beyond. We handed Bonnie a couple of what turned out to be challenging account setups. She went above and beyond to find the solution and kept in contact with us throughout to let us know she hadn’t forgotten us. We, and our new contractors, really appreciate Bonnie’s cheerful service, dedication, and thoroughness.  JoAnna Buxton International Education

Waves of Gratitude for Ric Doike-Foreman of TSS

Ric is always responsive – and full of good humor and patience – when I need help with the peculiarities of working with a Mac. Being a Mac user at Shoreline comes with its own quirks and adaptations and Ric is my go-to person. He goes the extra mile and I trust him completely.  Anonymous

Waves of Gratitude for Jim Schulz from Nursing

Respect.

Jim took the time and effort to help a man who has come to the 2300 building weekly for the last three weeks with the impression that he is in the nursing program. Jim walked across campus with him trying to find him resources. He connected the man with someone that can speak with him, along with someone who can be an interpreter. Jim took an hour out of his day to help this confused, but earnest, potential student! Mary Burroughs

Deadline Extended for Commencement Survey!

The survey will now close at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, April 14. If you haven’t already provided your input, please do so today!

Hello! The Commencement 2021 Committee is hard at work planning this year’s ceremony which will take place on Saturday, June 19th. 

This year, our Commencement ceremony will be hosted virtually, and will either be pre-recorded or presented in real time. We are also exploring the possibility of hosting an additional socially-distanced drive-thru celebration around one of our campus parking lots. Precautions, such as the use of face masks, would be taken to reduce risk to all participants in adherence with local, state, and federal health guidelines.  

As we embrace this opportunity to center the achievements and voices of our 2021 graduating class, we would like to invite faculty and staff to respond to two brief questions (<2 min. to complete) about our proposed options for Commencement 2021. All responses will be collected anonymously. Your feedback will help guide us in our planning and is greatly appreciated!  (Students also received an invitation to participate in a student version of this survey.)

Please contact the Students, Equity, & Success Division at vp-ses@shoreline.edu with any questions about this survey.

Take the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ShorelineCommencement21FacStaff

Warmly,

Alexander Mitu
Executive Assistant
Students, Equity, & Success Division