Office of Student Services Update - September 2024

Good afternoon and happy September!

August was incredibly busy with beginning-of-year activities and meetings. It was great to see all the foot traffic on campus and feel the energy! I have to give a huge thank you to the Outreach and Student Activities teams, especially the student ambassadors. We had a record number of students attend our Crush Days orientation sessions the Friday and Saturday before school started, and then our team assisted with cleaning AC3 to make sure it was as ready as possible for students. Our ambassadors were stationed at every entrance to AC3 the first week of school, in addition to the welcome tables in AC1 and AC2 and did a fabulous job helping students (and employees) navigate the new building to find classrooms.

The Saturday before the start of the semester, I had the opportunity to give a welcome at the first session of a Pre-Nursing Workshop which our Counseling team led. Over 800 potential students from around the Central Valley signed up for the information sessions that focused on academic advising for college and career options related to nursing. A huge thank you to Ryen Hirata, Lee Vang, Martin Medina, and Tuyet Quach for coordinating with multiple colleges and medical facilities in the Central Valley to host this growing event at California Health Sciences University.

I also attended the CCC President’s LGBTQIA+ Advisory meeting, Asian American Advisory meeting, Business Industry/Community Advisory meeting, and Hispanic/Latinx Advisory meeting where we shared the great things we are working on, acknowledged where there is still more work to be done, and received feedback from community members.

We kicked off New Faculty Institute this past Friday. We have a great group of new faculty and an exciting agenda planned for the semester.

Lastly, I started my doctoral program in August and am now contemplating my choices. I am excited for the very busy year ahead and look forward to working together to serve students.

Financial Aid

  • Financial Aid payments are in full swing! We have already disbursed over $2.4 million to 1,745 students for the Fall semester!
  • We received word that the 2025-26 FAFSA will be delayed again. They are anticipating it to be open no later than December 1.
  • We will be hosting the Annual Scholarship Ceremony on September 12, at 6:00 p.m., at the Regency Event Center. We will be honoring 158 students with 203 scholarships, totaling almost $150,000!
  • We have emergency aid to award this Fall 2024 semester. If you are aware of a student experiencing an emergency hardship, please refer them to Financial Aid.

Title IX

Required Sexual Violence & Sexual Harassment Prevention Training was assigned to all students as part of AB 2683. All enrolled students received an email last week with instructions on accessing the new annual required training. If students or employees have questions, please direct them to Deputy Title IX Coordinator, Renee Garcia.

Counseling

  • Data on Number of Students Seen through General Counseling:
    • Summer 23 – total student contacts, duplicated was 5,554
    • Summer 24 – total student contacts, duplicated was 6,621
    • Fall 23 – first two weeks of the semester, total student contacts, duplicated was 1,730
    • Fall 24 – first two weeks of the semester, total student contacts, duplicated was 2,395
  • September is our fall semester Student Educational Plan (SEP) CAMPAIGN MONTH! September 27 is the deadline for current students, who are in good academic standing and with less than 90 districtwide units, to obtain their SEPs to maintain priority registration. Our counselors will be busy working with our students to ensure they have their SEPs completed.

Veterans Resource Center (VRC)

We had 49 visits the first day of school compared to last semester of approximately 20 visits per day at its peak. We are up to 152 VA certifications, which is about a 22% increase from our highest pre-covid term.

DSP&S

We had 889 Faculty Notification Letter Requests the first three weeks of the Fall 2024 semester.

EOPS

The EOPS application is now closed! We will still be accepting students that are eligible for CARE or NextUp through the semester. Our application will re-open in November for Spring 2025. This was a much bigger undertaking for EOPS this year because there are new program regulations requiring additional eligibility verifications.

TRIO

The TRIO Office has been busy with Fall 2024 orientations for current students and new intakes. We are still actively recruiting for the 24-25 cohort through classroom presentations and campus referrals.

Thanks,

Kira Tippins
Vice President of Student Services