CHANCELLOR’S C-DIRECTApril 27, 2016

Dear Colleagues:

Saturday was a busy day in the District, especially at Laney College. Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson hosted a major event, “Making Connections 3.0,” and brought together people from throughout the community interested in making our communities better and celebrated the successes of our past. There were over 500 individuals registered for the event, and it was a huge success by all accounts. At the same time that Supervisor Carson’s event was taking place, the Laney Career Technical Education (CTE) Open House was also happening. Busloads of students came to see the programs we offer, and many others came to participate in the numerous activities. The CTE Open House was a tremendous success based on what I saw. As I greeted the attendees of Making Connections 3.0, I invited them to call loved ones in need of a life-changing experience join all of us.

Cleanup at Laney

Amy Marshall, from the Laney College Business Office, has asked all of us to participate in activities that will not only improve Laney’s image, and that of our entire District, but most importantly, provide a nicer place for our students. Here’s her email:

Greetings,

Please join us for the Laney College clean-up day which will take place on Saturday, April 30, 2016 from 8 AM – 3 PM.

We will meet on the Laney Quad (located in the center of the theater, the student center, the library and gym). Feel free to come and participate as you are able. Our efforts will be focused on:

PaintingGraffiti removalCleaning windowsTrash pick upPlantingWe’ll have all the supplies, including gloves. Family and friends are welcome! Refreshments will be served. Please register by entering your contact information

and what time you/your group plan to participate: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CleanUP43016.

Should you have questions or need additional information, please feel free to phone or email. See you on the 30th!

Visit to Aviation

Trustee Bonilla and I took a tour of the Aviation and Maintenance Technology Program at the College of Alameda, and Esther Cheng provided us with an in-depth guided tour. The Program Chair, Hoi Ko, gave us some additional information about the Program. We were impressed with the possibilities for careers for our students and the need that exists for their skills in many trades, in addition to Aviation. For example, BART hires them, elevator companies hire them and small manufacturers are interested in hiring them as well. However, as I mentioned before, our Aviation’s facilities have major needs and lack the resources to make the Program function at its peak, but despite our challenges, we continue to serve our students.

Eco-Fest

Congratulations to the Sustainability Committee for hosting a very good Eco-Fest Program. Many people on the Committee worked hard to make the event a success. To Eric Smith with the Star-Spangled Banner, Charles Neal, Chandevy Eng and others who organized the Program and recruited speakers and vendors, and to the entertainers and different booth representatives, I say thank you. Several Academic Departments and Programs were on hand from different Colleges. Thank you all, and thank you to those who contributed to the success of the event. Trustees Handy and González Yuen were on hand to support the event as well.

Port of Oakland Conversation

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Our Presidents, supported by key staff, met with the Port of Oakland Director for Social Responsibility and Community Outreach, Amy Tharpe. As a follow-up to the meeting at the Port where we learned more about what the Port does, we helped to inform the Port staff about what Peralta does. The presentations were a rich example of our workforce development capabilities.

Our latest meeting will be followed up by the Port’s request for Peralta Colleges to enter into conversations with selected Port operators to develop partnerships for our students’ continued education and employment: Internships and apprenticeships. As I stated in my August 20th Flex Day Address, the Port of Oakland is a valuable opportunity for our Colleges. I am happy we are getting closer to finding the path to mutual benefit between the Port and Peralta.

Association of American Community Colleges (AACC) Convention

As a follow-up to the AACC Convention, Dr. Crawford and I are continuing to interact with partners I met there to help us in a variety of ways, including energy efficiency and enrollment management. On the enrollment management front, I want to express my appreciation for the developmental work Dr. Herb Kitchen and Dr. Mike Orkin are doing by working with our College recruiters. One of the basic tools we lack is a way to capture prospective students’ information: name, address, email, and phone numbers. Executive Director Jeff Heyman recalled that there was an unused module in PeopleSoft to track student recruitment, and they are all working with Frank Downing from the Ferrilli group, so that the prospective student information can be input into our system. Such a system helps us follow up with the prospective students we meet during our recruitment outreach activities.

Alliance Of Schools For Cooperative Insurance Programs (ASCIP)

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ASCIP is a company that is made up of an association of community colleges and public schools that provides insurance for our buildings and liability coverage for our institutions. Several of us met with some of their administrators to learn more about what they have done for us and what they are capable of doing. As we engage in training for our administrators and leaders in this area, they have agreed to work with us to help develop the competence of our employees in ways that will help serve the District better.

Kaiser Partnership

A group of us sat down with a team from Kaiser to discuss their goals, how they are tied to the community, and how the Peralta Colleges can be involved. While many conversations with Kaiser could or should involve our Nursing Program, this conversation was more about mental health, student achievement,

embracing the Peralta Colleges, finding ways to give students meaningful experiences, the upcoming Social Justice Institute, the MLK Freedom Center, and the Center for Civic Engagement, etc. We are planning some next steps, which Dr. Webb will coordinate with the rest of our colleagues. We are anticipating BIG TIME involvement of our students in a variety of internships with Kaiser. We intend to work hard to have the Peralta Colleges involved in a Transfer Program with Kaiser University.

Tour of Laney Biology and Chemistry Labs

Stephen Corlett and Amy Bohorquez took me on a tour of the Laney Science Labs, joined by Dean Denise Richardson. I must say, in the middle of the tour I developed a terrible headache because of the Labs’ needs that I experienced. As our Science classes continue to be more popular, the only option for our students, faculty and lab assistants is to share space and squeeze into every inch they can find. We have some very simple fixes: Ones that should take place to make the labs more hospitable to our students and faculty As we plan for better days for Laney Sciences, my appreciation and gratitude to the faculty and staff are not sufficient. From lack of Smart Classrooms, to insufficient labs, Laney’s needs require serious planning, execution and implementation. I can only

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dream of a better day for Laney. Hats off to the faculty, staff and students who find ways to concentrate on the essentials of education and still thrive! Better days ahead for our largest College!

Deep Ocean Exploration and Research (DOER)

Drs. Webb and Blake and I had the opportunity to visit this marine operations manufacturing company in Alameda, which specializes in underwater instrumentation and equipment. DOER is relatively small in size, but powerful in concept. They deal with submarines and coordinate their efforts with the Navy. DOER is interested in partnering with Peralta for manufacturing, internships, apprenticeships and a range of other possibilities with all kinds of Programs, including Auto, Diesel, Aviation, Machine Tools, etc.

MLK Freedom Center

Roy Wilson and Royl Roberts are the administrators in charge of the MLK Freedom Center based at Merritt College. The Center, which serves the entire District, hosts a lecture series named after Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Peralta’s former Chancellor, Elihu Harris. We discussed integrating their work with the similar activities going on or being planned at Peralta. They already have cooperation from the Africana Center. I have encouraged them to reach out to the Center for Civic Engagement at Laney, with Professor Alicia Caballero-Christenson. We discussed the different ethnic studies opportunities, and the tie in with the yet-to-be-developed Social Justice Institute. They are planning a major service-learning opportunity this summer, where our students and high school students will have the opportunity to do some voter registration and education in the region or, possibly, out-of-state. The next lecture will be May 14, at Oakland’s Allen Temple. Watch for their announcement. I had the opportunity to see the high school students the Freedom Center works with. They are impressive and well developed. I hope you can catch one of their upcoming lectures.

Cypress-Mandela Project Implementation

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Several Laney administrators, including President Stanley, Vice Presidents Celhay and Nolden and Dean Crabtree, joined Associate VC Adela Esquivel-Swinson and me to review Laney’s agreement with Cypress-Mandela, and to work to ensure that implementation goes well. Cypress-Mandela is a pre-apprenticeship program that teaches 50 students every six months. The agreement, which the Board approved a couple of months ago, will continue the practice of students receiving credits for the classes Laney sponsors. It is a great service we provide to the community, and to some diverse students for whom a College education might not have been part of their future. It is a way for us to serve our community in a positive and affordable manner, all the while transforming lives. Our gathering was to ensure we provide the right support for the prospective students and link them up to Laney.

BCC President’s Award Luncheon

I want to thank Interim President Krista Johns for honoring several faculty and staff at BCC this year. I have met and interacted with many of the honorees and believe that they are well deserving of the awards. Some of the honorees said this was the first time they were acknowledged publicly. The award’s luncheon was a nice event for these deserving individuals:

Administrators Antonio Barreiro, Int. Dean, Academic Pathways, Workforce Development & Student

Success Dr. May Chen, Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness

Counseling Faculty Denise Jones, Counselor Christina Taing, Counselor and Learning Communities Coordinator Hermia Yam, Counselor

Instructional Faculty Jennifer Braman, Instructor, Art Carol Copenhagen, Instructor, Humanities and Spanish Daniel Najjar, Instructor, Mathematics Adán Olmedo, Instructor, English

Classified Staff Ramona Butler, EOPS Coordinator Nancy Cayton, Staff Assistant, Office of Instruction and ASL Interpreter Natalia Fedorova, Lab Coordinator, Science Department Allison Green, Library Assistant Dolores Harshaw, DSPS Staff Assistant Javier Lopez, Storekeeper

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Joanna Louie, Senior Staff Services Specialist/Fiscal, Business Office Jasmine Martinez, Staff Assistant to the Vice President of Student Services John Pang, Supervisor, Business Office Cynthia Reese, Executive Assistant to the President Kwisuk Sanchez, Evening Custodian Karen Shields, Duplicating Center Coordinator Alejandria Tomas, Curriculum and Student Learning Outcome and Assessment Specialist Andrea Williams, Front Desk Staff, Counseling Center

Students Brianna Rogers, President, Associated Students of Berkeley City College (ASBCC) David Ivan Cruz, Student Worker and ASBCC Senator Samantha Rushing, ASBCC Secretary and Council Member

Induction and Presentation to Rotary

I have been a member of Rotary for many years. As I transitioned from Solano County to here in Northern Alameda County, it took me a little while to get going again with the organization. This past Thursday, I was inducted into the Oakland Rotary Club that meets on Thursdays. President Ambriz-Galaviz and Romeo Garcia made my introduction to the club possible. I had the privilege of being the featured speaker, as well, on the day I was presented for membership to the Club. The leadership was interested in knowing more about community colleges, so I took them on a national tour, then a California tour and, finally, a Peralta tour of our Colleges. The talk was well received, based on the feedback from our constituents. Most important to me, we connected with alumni from all our Colleges, and people who are proud of the

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education they received. There were employers, as well, who have been involved with our advisory committees, and who expressed their pride in their association with us. It was a great display of appreciation for the Peralta Colleges.

Operation PUSH, Reverend Jackson and the Digital Divide

I almost forgot about Operation PUSH. It has been a long time since anyone had mentioned the name, but here in the Bay Area, Reverend Jesse Jackson continues his work focusing on societal divide. Dr. Webb and I had the opportunity to be part of a gathering that is working to close the Digital Divide and to help folks understand the issue, and be part of the solution. Joining Reverend Jackson was our Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

Jowel C. Laguerre, Ph.D.Chancellor

In memory of Prince Rogers Nelson, departed from us this past week:

"A strong spirit transcends rules."

- Prince

"Compassion is an action word with no boundaries."

- Prince

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