Office of Instruction Update - March 2025

You'd think this would be a quick and easy update as the month only has 28 days, but, OH MY, if this has not felt like the longest most grueling month ever. So let me get to the highlights:

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), which officially opened its doors on January 13th, is now in full swing:

Tracy and Jenna collaborated on a plan for DE training sessions for this and future semesters.

• Diana and Tracy reviewed DEIA courses offered by the Online Network of Educators and discussed adapting these resources for our own campus.
• Ann met with Brooke, our librarian, to brainstorm additional strategies for engaging students during library information workshops.
• Crush Coaching is re-starting
• Faculty have been stopping by to say hi, get support with Canvas, and to chat about engaging course strategies, grading tips, and more.

Please visit the CTL folks at HC-110 (Herndon Campus, Building A).

New Folks were hired (though they are starting in March):

• MESA Coordinator – John Loera (previously Sr. Program Specialist, FYE at FCC)
• PODER Project Director (Adjunct, Interim) – Jose Soltero Jr (previously Academic Success Counselor-Salesforce Liaison at UC Merced)

A big WHEW! on both hires. We are all very excited to have them join our campus and hit the ground running on these two very important programs for our STEM students.

All sorts of activity occurred in Curriculum in the first 7 weeks, including the approval of our competitive courses for Volleyball and Tennis (coming soon to a court near you!), a fully non-credit version of our AgTEC courses, and a rebranding of Mechatronics, now Automation, Robotics, Mechatronics (ARM) - looking forward to the new Crush ARM swag; and Phase III course list of Common Course Numbering was released (all 47 of them) – which is a GREAT REMINDER that our Crush Curriculum Conquerors (still workshopping that moniker) – Anna, Kelly, Stacy, and Christina - are getting primed for the work on Phase II which will start as soon as the templates are ready (any day now).

I was invited to our CAPP (California Academic Partnership Program) partnership meeting with Clovis East High School. This partnership was an offshoot of an early Guided Pathways idea, stemming from a Leading from the Middle session seven years ago. A little seed money and a lotta sweat and commitment from our Math faculty and Student Services team has led to an amazing program where we are seeing students who were ending their math classes after their sophomore year, start to consider taking Math all 4 years – the ultimate gateway to college. Clovis East students take INTDS 50 in the Summer on our campus, learn about college, learn about life (heck, anything Nate Saari is teaching, you know there is learning going on). Then the students take our college Math class (taught by one of their high school instructors who was mentored by our faculty). It was such a great experience to see how much the program has grown, and to have Clovis High School in the room asking for a piece of the partnership because it works. Kudos to Roger, Brandon, Emilee, and Ryan for all their work with the program. And the guiding force of the CAPP/Clovis East program, through the 7 years: Gurdeep Hebert. Relentless, tireless, continuously moving the program forward.

Hmmm, something else happened this month…something related to something else that also happened 7 years ago…

Oh yea, we had our Peer-Review Focused Site Visit for the reaffirmation of our Accreditation from ACCJC, February 19-20. In case y’all forgot, the Peer-Review team visited our campus, for a full day on the 19th, starting with an exceptional campus tour by student ambassador Angel Campa (if you have in your class be sure to thank him, he may have single-handedly swayed the team with his poise and confidence (and a dash of charm)), to four interviews based on their Core Inquiries to our campus, followed by an Open Forum, that was pretty well attended for a Wednesday afternoon. The Core Inquiry meetings went very well and gave the invited faculty, staff, and administrators the opportunity to provide context and share challenges and goals associated with the questions posed in each inquiry.

On Thursday morning, Dr. Dyrell Foster (Chair of the peer-review team/President, Las Positas College) met with President Chahal to share the team's findings, and then the entire team addressed our campus during the exit report. While our college will not receive official word of reaffirmation of our accredited status from the Commission until late June/early July, our peer-review team shared their praise and suggested that we continue our efforts in the way of integrating DEIA within our curriculum and course development process, data collection that extends to areas of the college beyond course level, and creating opportunities for student engagement on campus. Overall, our college earned one Commendation, and did not receive any Recommendations (which is a very good thing). Once the report is completed and we have concrete detail of the findings, we will release that information to the campus. Overall, we are so proud and pleased by the team's review of the work we do for our students. A big bag of thanks to the Accreditation Steering Committee – phenomenal work, conversations, guidance and support. And Leslie King and Jaclyn Rowley: Wow. Simply crushed it.

Ramadan started February 28 and goes through March 29. Ramadan is an occasion to focus on faith through fasting and prayer and is one of the most important Muslim holidays. Ramadan is notable because the Qur'an was first revealed during this month, and Muslims see the Qur'an as the ultimate form of guidance for mankind. The night that the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad is called Lailat ul Oadr, and standing in prayer this one night is thought to eclipse months of worship. For each day of Ramadan, fasting consists of abstaining from eating or drinking, including water, while the sun is out. Once the sun has set, Muslims eat dinner, a meal called “iftar” in Arabic. Iftar is generally a community-focused meal, where family members and friends come together for the blessed occasion. Afterwards, eating and drinking during the night is allowed until dawn of the next day. During Ramadan, it is customary for Muslims to pray extra nightly prayers and participate in other religious practices throughout the day and night, when possible. They will often wake up for or stay up until “suhur”, a pre-dawn meal. While Muslims are expected to meet their daily schedule obligations for school and work, some accommodations might be needed to be able to be successful while fully engaged in the various aspects of Ramadan. Students may reach out to you to request accommodations during Ramadan. Accommodations could include moving the time of an exam or assignment and/or allowing more time so they can schedule it around suhur, iftar, prayer, etc. Some students may prefer to take an exam earlier in the day when they feel more energized, while others would rather take it at night. While students are responsible for requesting accommodations, you can put them at ease by acknowledging that it is Ramadan and that you know it may affect some aspects of their schedules. Your support will allow your students to fulfill the requirements of the class while being spiritually engaged in the rituals of the month.