Campus Updates 6/29/23

Events and News 

Good evening all,

I hope all is well. I suppose this is the first official week of summer, but it has not slowed down yet! This week I have spent much of my time with planning items and interviews, and less out in the community.  We have had some great progress on community projects though which you can see in my June video update. 

One highlight this week was attending the Healing Centered Leadership / Decision Making for Racial Equity Workshops developed by Dr Hess. They were both inspiring. I learned a lot and have some very specific takeaways to use in the future. It was nice to see some of you all there as well, and I look forward to further discussion about these topics, especially about how to lead from a place of care, and with intent to disrupt systems that prohibit our DEIA goals. 

Well as you know, next Tuesday is Independence Day- I hope you all will have some relaxing time with friends and family and can celebrate in ways that rejuvenate you. As it turns out my parents will be visiting over the Holiday, and I will be introducing them to some of the great things WA has to offer. On a related note, many of you upon meeting me have asked what I prefer to be called and I often have this corny response “Jack, but if my parents are visiting you can say Dr Kahn.”   

This is your chance people! 

Have a great weekend 

Best, 

Jack 

Summer Quarter Updates 

Accreditation: 

Human Resources 

Do you know someone who wants to join our team? Visit: Job Opportunities at Shoreline Community College.  

Intro to Title IX  

Shoreline employees are required to complete annual training on Title IX, the federal law that prohibits gender-based discrimination in education. In this training we will discuss what Title IX is and how it protects all students and employees at Shoreline. By the end of the session, you will understand what our responsibilities are under Title IX, both as individuals and as a college.   

Join us virtually on July 12th from 10 am – 11 am. 

Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/my/tricialovely

Marketing and Communications 

Take me out to the Benefits Hub! As many of you know we were selected as recipients of a Major League Baseball All Star Legacy Project. You can read more about it here.  

  • Next Friday July 7th at 10am we will be having a grand re-opening and ribbon cutting ceremony in front of the Benefits Hub in the PUB building with members from MLB, the Mariners, and United Way King County.  
  • This is a huge honor for Shoreline so if you are on campus that day, we hope you come check it out!

Foundation and Advancement 

Summer scholarships awarded! Thank you to the scholarship readers. Fall scholarship applications will be available in a few weeks.  

Events and Updates 

Follow Shoreline Community College on social media! 

Shoreline Community College MISSION – Our Purpose 

We serve the educational, workforce, and cultural needs of our diverse students and communities. 

Campus Updates 6/15/23

Events and News 

Did any of you get to the Pride event last week? It was so much fun! There was tasty food, hanging out with staff and students was great, and the band was amazing! Can we please have live music outside every week?!? Gender Equity Center really brought it here! So thankful for this event and for creating this spirit of pride.  

Last week I was also able to attend the retirement event for faculty in the Business and Social Sciences area. I really enjoyed chatting with current and retiring faculty. Great food was eaten, tears were shed, and connections were made. We will miss these folks for sure (though I did tell at least two I’d be bugging them for future projects!!).  

It’s always great to see the hard efforts of our students paying off. I had the pleasure of attending the Music Technology student showcase. The students shared their audio portfolios with such passion for their work, and a deep appreciation for the instruction they received from our faculty. It was really inspiring. I can’t wait for the nursing graduation tonight! 

This past week, in terms of community events, I met with representatives from the Center for Human Services, and the North Urban Human Services Alliance to see if we can provide some new connections to our community, and perhaps with our great counseling center. I also attended Goodwill’s 100th anniversary and met some folks there as well with hopes of connecting us to their great work. 

I hope that you are as excited as I am about the announcement that we will be bringing Black Coffee Northwest, our Shoreline neighbors to campus! As Cat said in a memo this week: Their mission is to provide “proactive and innovative community building through youth leadership development. We do this by integrating creativity, exemplifying excellence, and meeting the needs of the community.”  We love their mission and feel like it is in complete alignment with ours, and we look forward to working with them. 

I hope you all have a great rest of the week, and that finals week isn’t too stressful! See you at graduation! 

Best, 

Jack 

College Council updates 

The PEACE Institute (PEACE is a methodology and not just a name) 

After getting unanimous approval from both College Council and the Executive Team, we are exploring the creation of a PEACE Institute—a space for co-locating, supporting, and elevating BIPOC/QTPOC and other underserved communities. The PEACE Institute would be both a physical space and a methodology that centers those in the margins and creates an ecosystem for underserved communities to thrive by coordinating core programs, resources, and groups, and developing a love-centered space of innovation, connection, and care.  

This was conceptualized by Melanie Dixon (former DEIA VP), Guru Dorje (CECO Director), and Aisha Hauser (Acting DEIA VP) as well as the faculty, staff, and students who shared in an understanding that we are the culmination of the ancestors and are planting seeds for the future generations. The PEACE Institute would co-locate the Multicultural Center, Gender Equity Center, ANNAPISI Center, CECO program, Workforce Education, and Integrated Basic Education Skills and Training (I-BEST) as well as develop future space for a Native Student Center, Latino/a Success Center, Black Student Success Center, Women’s Resource Center, and Community Engagement Center. Critical to this space is an embedded methodology to train, teach, root/ground, and create accountability so this can be a space expressing a PEACE methodology rooted in love and compassion. As a cohesive and collaborative center, this is not just ‘sharing space’ but a community of care focused on those on the margins and bringing that learning to the whole. This is a space for exploration/experimentation, modeling, teaching, learning, to take advantage of the existential opportunity to support student learning, access to college, increase persistence, and enrollment. Now that the concept has been approved through the college’s governance system, next steps would be to engage stakeholders to flesh out details and a formal timeline in summer and fall with the hopes of identifying a space and a move-in plan by winter 2024.

 Accreditation:

  • Area Reviews should be complete by Friday, June 16, 2023 (see multi-year schedule to find all Area Reviews).  
  • We want to improve the Area Review form and process for the next cycle, which starts in September (see timeline). Please give feedback here. Changes, based on the feedback, will be shared during Opening Week. 
  • Area Reviews demonstrate to our accreditors, and ourselves, that the College engages in data-informed planning, assessment, and resource allocation in service to our mission:
This green and gold graphic shows the area review process.

ctcLink 

FACULTY: Drop-in Support Grades in ctcLink: Join Heather Munsell, ctcLink Faculty Lead, to have your “grading in ctcLink” questions answered Tuesday, June 20, 11:00AM-12:00PM Via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81837734259

Human Resources 

Summer Hours  

  • During the 2023 summer quarter, the College will move to public operating hours of Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with the campus closed on Fridays.  
  • These summer operating hours will be in effect Monday, July 10 through Friday, September 1, 2023. Please note the campus will operate on regular Mon-Fri business hours during the first week of Summer quarter (July 3 – 7).   
  • Supervisors remember to update your employee’s schedule in CTC Link for the summer! 

Personal Leave 

  • Classified Staff- Please remember to use personal leave for this year by June 30th  

Who’s Who in HR 

  • Not sure who to contact for what in HR? We have created a helpful document to show you where to go. 

Do you know someone who wants to join our team? Visit: Job Opportunities at Shoreline Community College. 

Events and Updates 

Follow Shoreline Community College on social media! 

Shoreline Community College MISSION – Our Purpose 

We serve the educational, workforce, and cultural needs of our diverse students and communities. 

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. 
  1. 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! 
  1. Professional Development (Pro-D) Update:  Highlights from the past year include: 
  1. Opportunities for folks to attend DEI conferences,  
  1. Trainings offered throughout the year on important topics (Title IX, safety etc.), 
  1. CTC link trainings in our Admin meetings,  
  1. Budget trainings for the campus, 
  1. A new foundation for the Professional Development committee to organize and publicize future opportunities 
  1. 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. 

  1. 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. 
  1. 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.  
  1. 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.  
  1. 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. 
  1. 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. 

Virtual Open Office Hours with President Kahn

Virtual Office Hours

  • Wednesday June 14, 2023 11:00am-12:00pm
  • Monday June 26, 2023 2:00-3:00pm

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/s/81163852655

Hope to see you there!