Skyline College is in the final stages of hiring a new Vice President of Instruction (VPI). As part of the College’s hiring process, we have invited the two finalist candidates to participate in an open forum where they will be able to present their vision for college.

This forum is also a chance for you to pose any questions, comments or concerns you may have to the VPI finalists. Below, you’ll find event details and a brief bio of each of the candidates. We look forward to seeing you at the forum and hearing from you.

Please fill out this online survey if you have any questions or concerns about the open forums.

Student Open Forum Details:

Days: Wednesday, March 1 (Ken Sherwood) and Thursday, March 2 (Mary Gutierrez)

Times: 11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.

Location: Bldg. 6, Rm. 6-202

Public Open Forum Details:

Days: Wednesday, March 1 (Ken Sherwood) and Thursday, March 2 (Mary Gutierrez)

Times: 1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.

Location: Bldg. 6, Rm. 6-202

VPI Finalist Biographies:

KEN SHERWOOD

Ken Sherwood became Vice President of Academic Affairs and Student Learning at Oxnard College in July of 2015 after serving two and one-half years as Dean of the Liberal Studies Division. Prior to his tenure at Oxnard College he was the Ralph Bunche Distinguished Professor of Speech Communication at Los Angeles City College where he was also Director of LACC’s nationally ranked Debate program.

From 2007-2011, Sherwood served as President of the LACC Academic Senate and spent two years as director of the LACC Honors Program. From 2011 until his departure in December of 2012, he served as coordinator for LACC’s participation in Achieving the Dream (a national student success initiative) and faculty chair of LACC’s Accreditation Team. Prior to joining the faculty at LACC, he taught Public Speaking and Argumentation at various colleges including Mt. San Antonio College, East Los Angeles College, Cerritos College, Pasadena City College, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Los Angeles, Occidental College and Miami University (OH).

Ken currently serves on the boards of three non-profit organizations (Ventura County Leadership Academy, HOBY CA, Teatro de las Americas) and is Chair of the Ventura County Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Commission.

Ken earned his B.S. in Organizational Communication from California State Polytechnic University-Pomona, and his M.A. in Speech Communication from Miami University (OH).

MARY GUTIERREZ

Mary Gutierrez has served as the Dean of Language Arts at Skyline College since 2012. During that time, she has provided student-centered leadership to the Language Arts division, the English Language Institute, and the Middle College.

As lead administrator for fifteen learning communities, Mary has collaborated with faculty, staff, deans and directors to scale learning communities and advance their effectiveness. And as Skyline College’s administrator for the Adult Education Block Grant, Mary has built and extended relationships with adult school faculty, administrators, and college faculty to create bridge programs that align Skyline College and feeder adult schools.

Mary has 18 years of college teaching experience, having chaired the English department and served as chair of Academic Programs and Policies, the committee responsible for oversight of curriculum, academic programs, program assessment, and academic policies. In that role, she led development of program review and revision of the general education core. As the Associate Dean of Student Learning at Cascadia College, Mary conducted part-time hiring and faculty support for all academic departments in the college.

Mary earned a BA in English Education and an MA in English from Virginia Tech. She will complete an Ed.D. at SFSU in Educational Leadership in August 2018.

The San Mateo County Community College District has been awarded a one-time, $1.5 million grant to support College Promise programs across all three colleges. The District was one of 14 selected by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office to participate in the California College Promise Innovation Grant Program after a competitive application process. Funding is pending Board of Governors approval at their March meeting.

“The California College Promise Grant Program is a testament to the vision and students-first mentality of the California Community Colleges Board of Governors and the Chancellor,” said Skyline College President, Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud. “This grant is a huge win for Skyline College and our District. We are already seeing the positive impacts of the Skyline College Promise, and these funds will help us to expand our Skyline College Promise Scholarship and continue to build programs that enable students to get in to college, get through and meet their educational goals on time.”

Approximately $750,000 of the grant funds will support the expansion of Skyline College Promise programs, which launched in 2016 that are part of the College’s commitment to students that they can “get in, get through, and get out on time.” This expansion will include the Skyline College PREP Program which will expand high school outreach across ten feeder high schools in a year-long programming model, the Summer Scholars Institute which will be expanded from 60 students to 210 students in Summer 2017, and the Promise Scholarship Program Lending Library which will be expanded to meet the needs of the Promise Scholarship Program.

The other $750,000 of the grant funds will support the districtwide Promise Scholarship expansion. This will allow for all three colleges within the District to offer the last-dollar scholarship that Skyline College implemented in Fall 2016. Skyline College is aiming to provide scholarships to 500 students by the 2018-19 academic year, an increase of over 350 students compared to the 2016-17 pilot year. The College of San Mateo and Cañada College will launch Promise Scholarship pilot programs for the 2017-18 academic year.

California College Promise Innovation Grant Program applications were reviewed and competitively scored based on meeting minimum required objectives and criteria including project need, response to need, work plan, project management, budget, overall feasibility, and sustainability of the project.

Fifty-one districts applied for funds. The San Mateo County Community College District received the maximum grant amount of $1.5 million. A full list of the California community college districts recommended for funding is available on the Chancellor’s Office website.

About the California College Promise Innovation Grant Program

Assembly Bill (AB) 1741 (Rodriguez) was signed into law in September of 2016 by Governor Brown establishing the California College Promise Innovation Grant Program. This provides financial support to districts interested in implementing new or expanding existing College Promise programs. Generally speaking, College Promise programs are partnerships which align local K-12 school districts, community colleges, and public university segments to provide clear pathways for students to follow in order to achieve their educational goals. In addition, a successful program should also improve college readiness, access, and the overall success and completion of its participants.

The 2016-17 State Budget appropriated one-time funding in the amount of $15 million, to be distributed by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s office, to applicants selected to participate in the California College Promise Innovation Grant Program.

 

Skyline College is preparing to launch an innovative program that has been proven to help students graduate at higher rates and more quickly than most community college students. The Accelerated Studies in Associate Program (aptly referred to as ASAP) will launch in fall 2018 with 500 full-time Skyline College students. ASAP consists of financial support, intensive academic advising, expedited course scheduling and other advantages for students.

“Skyline College is looking for ways to ensure that students get into college, get through and get out on time,” said Skyline College President Regina Stanback Stroud. “The ASAP model has been proven to improve graduation rates and student transfer rates into four-year universities, so we want to bring this benefit to Skyline College students.”

ASAP was developed by the City University of New York (CUNY) in 2007, featuring a package of scholarships, intensified academic advising and other supports that more than doubled the graduation rate of its students. It has been able to sustain these remarkable results in the years since, and it has been replicated at community colleges in Ohio.

Now this innovative program is being piloted in the San Francisco Bay Area at Skyline College. The College will replicate CUNY’s ASAP program with an initial cohort of 500 full-time students in fall 2018. This will be the first ASAP program in the nation to operate at scale, serving all new full-time students.

ASAP at Skyline College is supported in part by an $836,607 grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which is funding the replication process through staffing and technical assistance from CUNY over a period of two years. The program is expected to cost about $750,000 per each year and will be funded through a variety of state and local grants, College funds and private donations.

ASAP consists of four critical components:

Enrollment

• Students must enroll full-time
• Students are limited to two developmental education courses (remedial courses designed to bring the student up to college-level work)
• Optional summer and winter sessions

Student Support

• Priority registration
• Intensive academic advising (including two mandatory meetings per month in the first semester)
• Career services workshops
• Student peer mentorship program

            Academics

• Block course scheduling and consolidated schedules
• New meta-majors and guided pathways with general education courses that satisfy requirements for multiple majors
• Mandatory tutoring for developmental education courses
• Online learning community

 

Financial Incentives

• Skyline Promise Scholarship (pays up to the full fees for the first year of college)
• Monthly food voucher
• Free textbooks and materials from lending library
• Laptops and tablets available

ASAP is part of the Skyline College Promise—a comprehensive strategy of scholarships, academic programs and a restructuring of majors and curriculum designed to remove barriers to student success. Highlights of the Skyline College Promise are:

1. The Promise Scholarship, a “last-dollar” scholarship that covers tuition and provides books for the first year of college
2. Summer Scholars Institute, a five-week accelerator program that includes counseling in doing college-level work, as well as college-level math and English courses
3. ASAP (beginning in fall 2018), a package of financial support, academic advising and support services designed to improve three-year graduation rates

Skyline College’s ASAP is in development and planning during 2017-18 and will be available to any incoming full-time students beginning with the fall 2018 semester. Details on ASAP will be available on the Office of Admissions website in spring 2018.

Article by Richard Rojo

Skyline College’s Rock the School Bells (RTSB) hosted their first cocktail fundraiser at 111 Minna Gallery in downtown San Francisco on January 21, 2017. The RTSB Benefit honored a decade of Hip Hop, Education, and community by thanking educators, artists, administrators, and community members for their contributions to the RTSB conference since it began in 2007.

It was a night full of dancing, a silent auction, and great music! The RTSB Benefit served appetizers from local caterers such as Hana Hou, Skyline College’s very own Guardian Scholar Hood Wraps by MK, Whipt Bakery, and Romeo’s Chocolate. On display at the 111 Minna art gallery was beautiful artwork from students and community members such as CIPHER’s Webster Cruz and Alejandro Castro, and community artist, Samantha Requilman. The night wrapped up with an amazing performance from San Jose’s very own Left University and Legacy Awards to RTSB founding community members such as the Kababayan Learning Community.

Thanks to donations and ticket sales, the RTSB Benefit raised $3,000 and succeeded the Advisory Board’s initial goal! All proceeds and donations from the RTSB Benefit will go directly towards scholarships to support students who are involved in RTSB and the CIPHER Learning Community at Skyline College.

Rock the School Bells 10 will be on Saturday, March 11 at the Skyline College campus for both our Educator’s Conference and Youth Conference. To register and celebrate Hip Hop Education, please visit www.rocktheschoolbells.com.

 Check out this RTSBX Benefit video!

Article by Kim Davalos | Photography and Videography by Shane Menez

The Skyline College Art Gallery hosted a very well-attended opening reception Wednesday, February 15 with three hundred visitors in attendance. Everyone enjoyed viewing the exhibition and taking part in the festivities. Be sure to come by the Gallery to check out this wonderfully diverse Art Exhibition!

The exhibition invites viewers to investigate the wide range of artistic practice done by all of our current Art Faculty. You can see everything from Eileen David’s photorealist paintings of San Francisco city streets to Tiffany Schmierer’s whimsically complex ceramic sculptures, to the mysterious Buddha Selfie installation by Amir Esfahani.

The Art Faculty Exhibition is on view in the Art Gallery through March 10. The Gallery is open Mondays through Fridays, and is located on the ground floor of Building 1.

For more information and viewing hours, please visit our Art Gallery website or our Facebook page.

Article by Paul Bridenbaugh

On February 14, TRiO and the Black Student Union hosted a Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) Enrichment Tour teach back in the Multicultural Center. Participants from the fall 2016 HBCU Tour in New Orleans, LA, served on a student panel to reflect on their experiences from the trip. They discussed the differences they noticed between touring Predominately White Institutions (PWI) versus HBCU campuses; along with much excitement around the different cultural enrichment activities that took place in during thei time in New Orleans.

The group visited Dillard University, Southern A & M University and Xavier University. On each campus, students were able to observe a variety of lectures including mass communications, hip hop culture and politics, a pharmacy lab, attend Financial Aid and Admissions presentations, participate in campus tours, and had the opportunity to meet with the President of Dillard University.

During the panel, attendees were shown a video of the trip and asked the panelists questions about their experience, the colleges and New Orleans. Overall, the students left from Louisiana feeling empowered and inspired to attend an HBCU.

Article and Photo by Brianna Clay

As an educator, you already may be familiar with Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson’s timeless “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education,” which bases its principles on 50 years of research on college teaching and learning. We can gain some insights about how Skyline College fares on four of those principles from Skyline College’s spring 2016 administration of the Community College Survey for Student Engagement (CCSSE), which provides information on institutional practices and student behaviors that are highly correlated with student learning and retention. The four principles are:

• using active learning techniques,
• developing reciprocity and cooperation among students,
• encouraging interaction between students and faculty, and
• giving prompt feedback.

This CCSSE brief focuses on students’ responses to a question that relates to active learning techniques. Students need opportunities to think about and apply what they are learning; Chickering and Gamson explain it best, that “[students] must make what they learn part of themselves” (4). In response to a CCSSE question pertaining to active learning, students were asked how often they asked questions in class or contributed to class discussions. When compared to the 2016 cohort, which consists of all community colleges that took the survey from 2014 – 2016, Skyline College students were 15% less likely to “often” or “very often” ask questions or contribute to class discussions. Their response to this question was among the lowest relative to the 2016 cohort.

Assuming that active learning enhances learning, what do you make of this survey finding? In your own teaching, do you think that you should provide more discussion opportunities, whether during or outside of class? What are the obstacles to having more discussions in your courses? How can you address said obstacles?  You may want to consider how such changes may impact course content and classroom activities, how to structure such discussions to yield the most benefit, and other means to facilitate discussions outside of class, such as via online vehicles such as Canvas.

As instructors, we’re constantly engaged in self-reflection in order to strengthen our teaching. Hopefully this brief provided some food for thought, and perhaps a topic for discussion with your colleagues.

If you’d like to find out more about students’ responses to the CCSSE, please join us at the March 16 Academic Senate meeting or the April 13 Classified Senate meeting, where Skyline College’s Planning, Research, and Institutional Effectiveness staff will highlight main findings. The 2016 CCSSE results also are posted at http://skylinecollege.edu/prie/studentfeedback.php. For more information about the CCSSE, visit www.ccsse.org, or for a copy of the actual survey, see http://www.ccsse.org/aboutsurvey/docs/CCSR_2005.pdf .

Article by Karen Wong