Day at a Glance

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the new academic year! I hope many of you were able to take part in the Opening Week events this week. Fall Convocation provided a wonderful opportunity to reconnect, reflect on our shared achievements, and purposefully build on the future.

Celebrating Our Accomplishments

In 2016-17, we served 10,297 students, an increase of 3%! We awarded 1526 certificates and degrees and are among the top five colleges in the state for completions. We held our first combined domestic and international student orientation – One Student Body, One Community, One College. The College Foundation awarded almost $150,000 in student scholarships. And SIFF confirmed that for the third year, Shoreline will be its northernmost venue for the international film festival.

In just three years, we have been assessing our community’s needs, have purposefully built a plan, and are aligning our work and resources under a common direction. This unified vision and purpose is what we need to sustain the College for the long term. Our progress was accomplished because of your support, belief, and input into the process. And for that, I am most grateful!

Now that we have the foundation of our story, we’ll add more chapters this year to clarify our sense of identity, community, and connection. Here are some important updates and information as we launch into the busy fall quarter.

STUDENT LEARNING & SUCCESS

Student Enrollment and Retention

Our combined, strategic efforts to increase enrollment on the domestic side are continuing to bear fruits. We have surpassed our goal of increasing 100 annualized full-time equivalent (FTE) in domestic, state-supported enrollment for the 2016-17 year, and we are well on our way to adding at least 100 new annualized FTEs in 2017-18. This is an amazing accomplishment, during a time of low unemployment and significant challenges felt by all public colleges around the state. Achieving such increases signifies good success in our initiatives around enrollment, retention, and completion.

While this news on enrollment is truly exciting, we have an additional goal to increase our international FTEs in order to reach budget neutral status, and at this point our enrollments are not going in a positive direction compared to recent fall quarters. We will continue to work to attract and retain international students to Shoreline, and to closely examine even more options and possibilities for recruitment and retention.

Many Voices, One Story

We recognize that collectively, we have many voices, but we share one story. We bring together our many voices into one story by having a unified college identity. This means we’ll be taking steps to align our actions with our promise conveyed in our bold Vision, Mission, Values, and Community Standard. You’ll be learning more about this throughout the year! Here is a video that outlines the importance of our college identity work and how it will help us deliver on the promise our diverse students and communities deserve.

Phin Nation Wednesdays – Wear Your Shoreline Attire

Every Wednesday, show your Phin Nation pride by wearing Shoreline attire. It’s a fun way to connect with colleagues and students each week! Take advantage of your employee discount at the Bookstore. Looking forward to seeing everyone decked out in Shoreline wear.

DISCIPLINED EXCELLENCE

Our Preferred Future

For three years, we’ve been working on shaping our future with strategic planning. If we follow through with our planful actions, how will our college be different? What will our preferred future look like if we remain focused on our actions? Watch this video to see a glimpse of our shared future, thanks to the outstanding work of our Strategic Plan Steering Committees and Student Learning Experience Coordinating Committee.

Steering Committee Applications

The Strategic Plan Steering Committees are entering their second year of operations and present opportunities for all members of our campus community to participate in implementing the strategic plan. Most committees meet two or three times per quarter. For further information, as well as to apply for membership, visit www.shoreline.edu/spsteering. Please note that it is not necessary to check with your supervisor prior to applying. Your Executive Team members will coordinate employee availability.

Capital Budget

The Washington State Legislature has not yet passed a budget to fund capital projects across the state. For Shoreline, this means that we have not received funding for ongoing maintenance and improvement projects or for the design work on our new allied health, science, and advanced manufacturing complex, which is still slated for construction beginning in July 2019. Senior administrators are carefully monitoring progress on the budget and are in regular communication with members of our legislative delegation in Olympia.

Housing Update

Progress on the housing facility has moved into the construction drawings phase, with a permitting submittal to the City of Shoreline expected this fall. At the same time, authorization to finance the project through bonds is caught up in the lack of a capital budget (although no state funds are being appropriated). We continue to work with the State Finance Committee members and the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, as well as our legislative delegation, to explore all options for moving the project financing forward.

ctcLink Project

Management of the ctcLink project, which would replace administrative systems currently hosted on our HP computer (student and course management, finance, and personnel) with a completely new system based on Oracle PeopleSoft, has been taken over by the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. This reflects a shift from using an outside vendor for system integration. The emphasis is still on getting the FirstLink colleges (Tacoma and Spokane District) up and running, in a fully functional manner, prior to bringing additional colleges on board. We do not have a date when we expect to begin converting to the new ctcLink system from the HP, but we will share information as it becomes available.

ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY, SOCIAL EQUITY, AND ECONOMIC VIABILITY

DACA & Financial Aid Updates

Shoreline has affirmed a strong commitment to all of our undocumented students regardless of their immigration status and we continue to look for ways to support our students with updates and resources. For students who are eligible to renew their Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status, we encourage them to make an appointment with Dr. Marisa Herrera, Vice President for Students, Equity & Success, to connect with on- and off-campus resources for meeting the October 5 renewal deadline. Funding to cover the costs associated with the renewal fee may be available.

Here are some additional resources that may be helpful for faculty and staff reference: Shoreline’s HB 1079 information; the Library’s Immigrant and Refugee Resources Guide; Washington Dream Coalition’s Resource Guide for Educators.

Community Standard Signage on Campus

More than a dozen new Community Standard signs have been printed and posted throughout campus. We have also posted two new Freedom of Speech signs in the campus courtyard.

1964 Society: Faculty Professional Development Scholarships

The Foundation Board of Directors has established a new scholarship called the 1964 Society Faculty Professional Development Scholarship. In the 2017-18 inaugural year, it will be specifically for associate faculty who have taught at Shoreline for at least two quarters. The amount awarded will be $1,100. Applications are due on November 3 and will be available on the Foundation webpage next week, along with additional information.

UPCOMING FALL EVENTS – MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Party Like It’s 1985 – Friday, October 6, 6-8:30 p.m.

Come celebrate the new school year with us by partying like it’s 1985 at this family-friendly event! Get into the 80s groove with FREE food, music from all genres, and dancing in the PUB main dining room. There will be prizes for the best costumes, so be sure to dust off your shoulder pads and join us.

 Student Success Community Breakfast – Thursday, November 2, 7 a.m.

The Foundation’s 20th Annual Student Success Community Breakfast will be held on Thursday, November 2 at 7 a.m. in the PUB. The event raises money for scholarships and the student emergency assistance fund. Back by popular demand is Jim Dever from KING5 TV as the emcee, with the band Funk ‘n Groove for the entertainment. There will be three great student speakers sharing their stories. Tickets are $50. Tables are $500. Please join me in supporting this very meaningful cause by buying a table or a ticket!

Fall Campus Update – Friday, December 1, 1:30-3 p.m.

Please join us in the PUB main dining room for a quarterly campus update to learn about our progress on our strategic plan, values, core themes, and internal communication.

I’m eager to work together to write the next chapter of our story. Welcome to another tremendous year together!

With warm regards,

Cheryl Roberts, Ed.D.

President