Week of June 10, 2024
Hi Clovis Fam,
How is everybody? I hope you all had a wonderful week. I hope you were able to stay cool during these two extremely hot days. I missed those days because I have been in New Orleans where the humidity was only in the 90’s all week. Granted it was more humid, but none the less, I escaped the heat. Unfortunately, I am still out of town at the Achieving the Dream Orientation meeting with Gurdeep, Max, and Ryan. So, this week’s reflection will be short.
I had the opportunity to spend time with my model airplane group as I came to campus after church purely because, although I routinely come to the office on weekend to work, I had not stopped by to visit with them in a while. They were glad to see me, and I was glad to see them. I stayed about an hour talking and watching them fly their planes.
Monday, I had my usual President’s Council and we primarily talked about the Ag Tech grant and board presentation and the leaving of Dr. Pimentel from FCC. I worked on my 4th quarter newsletter as I wanted to have this finished so that Bonnie and Stephanie could work on it in my absence. I then went to Chancellor’s Cabinet where we reviewed Ars and BPs, talked about the upcoming Convocation, new health insurance and timelines, and vacation schedules.
On Tuesday, I left for New Orleans. Unfortunately, Max, Ryan, and I experienced a 6-hour delay in our departure from Fresno. We were first told that we would not be able to leave until Thursday. Our flight was delayed, and all flights after that were full. Well, about an hour later, they informed us that we may in fact be able to leave that same day. I thought the issue was due to weather as it is hurricane season, and Dallas and Texas in general have been getting slammed with bad weather. However, we were delayed because they had a flat tire! Turned out that there are no tires in Fresno or even California (flying on American), and no crew to change it locally. So, we had to wait for a tire to arrive, and then they had to change it. I’m thinking, “A Nascar pit crew can change a tire in record speed, why can’t an airline crew?” So not the case. We were originally scheduled to arrive in New Orleans at 6:35 pm. We arrived at 12:45am. Bonnie was trying to assure that we were not going to miss our constantly changing connecting flight. And Gurdeep, who came to New Orleans earlier, made sure that the hotel knew we were not a NO SHOW and physically went to the registration desk to let them know. She also took care of our conference check-in, not knowing what time we would actually arrive. Oh, also there was a slight interaction with the Federal Bureau of Prisons while still in the Fresno Airport.
Wednesday morning, we were all at the conference on time. We started the day having breakfast with our data and leadership coaches. We attended the Opening Plenary on Initiating Transformational Change to Propel Access, Student Success, and Economic Vibrancy. This was key because our ultimate goal is for people to graduate/complete and have livable wages that lead to a great quality of life. We met with our coaches during team time and discussed our data. Ryan provided them with our data and they also researched our website to gather data so that they can provide individualized coaching specific to our college. We attended the second plenary session on leveraging faculty engagement in Student Centered Redesign. We were provided best practice examples for other community colleges on the importance of faculty in the work of student success. Success in this work requires the integration of student services and faculty to truly have a student-centered focus. We are unique in this area whereas our faculty are very much engaged in assuring student success. We played the AtD Finish Line game which really brings to the forefront the barriers and challenges of our students. They gave each college a copy of the game. It is similar in practice to what poverty simulator demonstrate; I will make the game available for everyone and will incorporate it in some professional development opportunities.
On Thursday, we started our day with Plenary Session number 3 on building pathways to mobility using data. Here we talked about the power of data and practices to leverage the data to enhance our strategic and equity plans. We went to team time with our coaches and did a deeper dive into our data and we even provided them with our KPI data as well. Following team time we went to sessions on:
- Centering Equity in Student Success
- Centering the Student Voice in Whole College Transformation
- Implementing High Impact Teaching and Learning Practices to Increase Student Outcomes
- Setting a Bold Agenda for Students from K-12 to Adult Learners.
- Telling the story with Data.
I then had networking time with the other Presidents and Chancellors and Ryan also had a designated networking lunch with other IR people across the country. Gurdeep and Max had a joint networking luncheon. We ended our day with team time with our coaches where we focused on Student Success by Design. Here we talked about aligning and strengthening external partnership and defining concepts and words so that we are speaking the same language. We talked about barriers to our ability to do work due to the 50% law and State Budget issues. We talked about our strengths- student centered and passionate for our students from classified professionals and faculty.
On Friday, we started the morning with team time focusing on planning for our first year. When will our coached come to campus, Strategies for them to frame the conversation. And as it falls perfectly into our participatory governance and inclusive culture, who else needs to be at the table to be part of the work and designing opportunities for the coaches to meet with all stakeholders and how to assure that everyone has a voice in the design of how clovis will take advantage of this opportunity to make intentional growth in success rates for all students, with a focus on our underrepresented students; thereby strengthening our Equity minded culture.
As this week involved other people, I asked Max, Ryan, and Gurdeep to provide their insights into their experiences this week.
Max- “I am excited to see that Achieving the Dream shares our commitment to data-driven decision making and connects us to a network of over 300 community colleges that share our passion for innovation. Most importantly, the work centers around equity as we seek to close gaps in student success at our college. I was proud to celebrate our faculty and the powerful ways that you support students! I am confident that our partnership with ATD will streamline what we do, reduce initiative fatigue, all while moving the needle on student success for key student groups. This movement relies on a concept which I think Dr. Armstrong said best:
“Equity is not a word; it is an action.”
I’m excited to take action with you for our students!”
Gurdeep- “Being a part of Achieving the Dream is an opportunity for us to refine and synthesize the work we are doing.”
Ryan- “There are few things more inspiring than seeing people from all around the country come together to collaborate and tackle the issues (which are more common than you think) that we all face as we all strive toward our common goal of helping our students achieve their goals, and yes, their dreams. The value added from the conversations and interactions at this convening are immeasurable. “
Kim- “This framework will allow use to use data effectively (creating a culture of inquiry) to help us intentionally move the needle of student success for all students, especially those from underserved groups while assuring that we continue to stay true to our commitment in creating opportunities one student at a time.”
I am looking forward to having this opportunity to strengthen our participatory culture and use the guidance and experiences of our coaches to help institutionalize the strong Clovis Spirit that I have come to value. I also heard you talk about the importance of maintaining our foundation. This journey will allow us to embed your desire to give honor and respect to the principals which is the core foundation that was formed while at the same time allowing for innovation. This journey will allow us to be more purposeful in what we intentionally do for the success of all students. This journey will empower you in designing what Clovis Community College will be for decades to come. You will be provided the opportunity to use your voices to intentionally craft who we are and who we are to become. This journey will allow us to assure that the Clovis of tomorrow will pay homage to the Clovis of yesterday regardless of changes in leadership. It will allow us to intentionally link all plans around the culture of inquiry and equity. This journey will ensure that your voices are heard and will have a significant impact on the future of Clovis.
We will map out the first year and will have the coaches give an overview of the work (via Zoom) on opening day in the fall and will have them come on site in September to meet with meet with and talk with many groups to begin our year of discovery prior to starting the work. This will allow all our diverse voices to start framing who we are and what we see as gaps, opportunities and strengths and priorities for us, uniquely us. In addition to where we see ourselves for the long journey, faculty and Classified Professional all have ownership in not only the process, but also the developing the intended outcomes.
Now while we were working, we also ate 😊. We had alligator, Crawfish pies (Hank Williams song Jambalaya on the Bayou crawfish pie, jambalaya and fillet gumbo cause tonight I’m going to see my chers ami-o….) jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, Creole gumbo, catfish and grits, turtle soup, grilled oysters, oysters on the half shell, Oyster po boys, Pork po boys, snow crabs in garlic sauce, beignets, and chicory coffee. Couldn’t find any rattlesnake to eat. There was great live music on the streets, in the hotel, and everywhere. We still were able to do our homework somehow.
I also had the pleasure of having both my daughters fly in from Atlanta and New York City to visit with me and have dinner with us. After the meeting I am going to Baton Rouge to spend Father’s Day with my Dad. This is my daughters’ first Father’s Day without their dad, as he passed away from liver cancer last year on June 18. We will celebrate his life together.
As always, I am looking forward to getting back to Clovis and seeing you. I send prayers that each of you has a great and safe weekend. I am more excited than ever to serve you, take care and see you Tuesday.
Proud to be in service,
Kim E. Armstrong, Ph.D.
