The next several years are bringing exciting changes to the Skyline College campus. A number of major capital improvements will ensure we continue to meet the ever-changing needs of our students, faculty and staff with state-of-the-art facilities.

Join us for an Informational Open Forum on Wednesday, February 7, from 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. in the Fireside Dining Room to learn more about each of these projects.

The open forum will feature tabletop displays and detailed presentations by SMCCCD planners including Director of Capital Projects Chris Strugar-Fritsch, and Construction Campus Manager Glenn Claycomb. All students, faculty and staff are encouraged to attend.

The new facilities include a new Environmental Science Building designed to capitalize on Skyline College’s unique location overlooking the Pacific Ocean and a new Social Science and Creative Arts Complex that will establish an inviting gateway to an expanded central quad.

These projects will inevitably have impact in terms of parking, road closures, office relocations and construction noise. The Town Hall will cover the latest news on these impacts.

Please attend the Town Hall to learn about the next generation of educational facilities, as we work to provide the best possible education for Skyline College students.

Consulting firm Kennedy and Company continues to guide us through the discovery phase of our technology implementation to determine exactly what technologies we need as part of our college’s comprehensive redesign. They’ve already embarked on exploration by holding forums with campus stakeholders, asking questions about key needs and identifying existing holes in our capabilities that need to be filled.

Recently, Kennedy & Company invited four Customer Relationship Management (CRM) vendors to present their products to groups from all three campuses. This allowed individuals to get an initial sense of what these products could potentially offer, both from a staff and student perspective. The vendors invited to present to the district were Engage2Serve, Salesforce, Ellucian, and Enrollment RX.

About Technology & The College Redesign

Technology is a critical and integral part of every piece of our comprehensive college redesign – it will reshape how we interact with students, and how students interact with the college. The focus of the technology redesign is to architect a suite of well integrated solutions that will empower our students and campus community to support student success at scale. The combination of the College Redesign (Meta majors, Guided Pathways, and Promise Scholars Program), the technology redesign, and dedicated faculty and staff will allow us to achieve student success rates of 75% or higher.

Tykia Warden has been serving for the past several months as the Interim Executive Director of the San Mateo County Community Colleges Foundation. Skyline College extends a warm welcome and the college looks forward to working together to benefit our students.

As the Interim Executive Director, Tykia is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction, operations, financial management, and community relations of the San Mateo County Community Colleges Foundation. Tykia is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) and directs SMCCC Foundation’s fundraising campaigns for the benefit of scholarships and special programs.

Previously, Tykia was Director of Advancement for the Smithsonian Institution and has ten years of experience in fundraising, government relations, and nonprofit management. Tykia received her bachelor’s degree in communications and African-American studies from Indiana University, Bloomington and a master’s degree in communications from Bowie State University. Tykia is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

Article by Connor Fitzpatrick

Skyline College is firmly committed to sustainability, a fact recently recognized in an international ranking. In the latest Universitas Indonesia (UI) GreenMetric World Universities Rankings 2017, Skyline College stands out as being the #1 community college in the world!

The UI GreenMetric Rankings is an international ranking that measures and scores an institution’s sustainable educational programs, facilities, and practices.  Scoring categories include: Setting and Infrastructure, Energy and Climate Change, Waste, Water, Transportation, and Education.  Globally, Skyline College ranked #360 out of 619 international participants from 75 countries.

Skyline College’s leadership and commitment to sustainability contributed to the college’s scoring and ranking.  Notable Skyline College sustainability initiatives included numerous educational programs and courses offered, public transportation and shuttle service, implementation of energy efficiency strategies, green building practices for renovation and new construction, greenhouse gas emissions inventory, Zero Waste Program, and Water Efficiency Program.

“The dedication of faculty, staff, administration, and–most importantly–students to making campus more sustainable is how Skyline College earned this recognition,” said Mary Thomasmyer, the Sustainability Coordinator at Skyline College. “The results further establish this college as a frontrunner in sustainability, which means students here have many opportunities to learn about sustainability in order to become well-rounded leaders.”

Skyline College continues to innovate and improve strategies to establish a sustainable culture on campus for our current and future students, faculty, staff, as well as the wider community.

Visit the UI GreenMetric website to learn more about this incredible accomplishment.

Article by Connor Fitzpatrick

The way students approach our admissions portal is changing. In an effort to tailor the admissions experience for the wide variety of students who apply to Skyline College, the admissions process has been broken down into segments that allow students to self-identify. The result is that students will be able to avoid doing admissions steps they do not need to do, and their admissions sequence will be tailored to the kind of student that they are, including new students, returning students, international students and high school students.

This new approach is still in initial launch, and changes will continue to be made as we roll this system out. Please feel free to try the new approach out and provide any feedback you may have to Connor Fitzpatrick or Dean Will Minnich.

We hope this new approach will safe students time and streamline the process for Admissions staff.

Article by Connor Fitzpatrick