Week of August 7, 2023

Hello Clovis Family,

Last week I received a request through the new Communication Audit to consider sending out a weekly email with my thoughts and reflections for the week. To that end, I am sending you a recap of my thoughts and review of my week.

I hope everyone had a great first week of the fall semester. I will start my review with a deep thank you to our outreach team for providing an incredible Crush Days orientation program on Friday morning, Friday evening, and Saturday. I saw them take the time to provide information in Spanish to include parents and other family and friend support systems into the conversation about college. I had the opportunity to welcome our new students and to also engage with parents during the family and friends break-out sessions on both Friday and Saturday.

Also on Saturday, I had the opportunity to meet with the President and Vice President of Soroptimist International of Clovis. This organization is an international organization committed to empowering and educating women. They came to campus to look at the facilities and to see how we could partner with them to host about 60 young women next spring. Soroptimist provided 20 Clovis female students scholarships in the spring 2023.

Monday morning, I had the opportunity to see and experience, firsthand, all of the excitement of the first day for our new and returning students and faculty. I saw student support services teams, student ambassadors, ASG officers and Ambassadors, and Deans greeting students at 7:00 am on Monday and 7:30 am on Tuesday. I enjoyed greeting and helping students on their first day of the fall semester as well.

As I was excited to greet new students, I also was met with the Self-Service issue that impacted our students’ abilities to pull up their class schedules and our ability to add and drop students. It was a major issue for both Monday and Tuesday; I called and emailed the Chancellor and he Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to inform them of the issue and to seek solutions. It appears that this is an issue that has been so for a few years and is a Districtwide issue. I just got off the phone with our CTO to provide him with some workaround that we used in Arkansas that may be helpful. The VPs worked diligently to develop alternative plans to provide classroom and waitlist management. Even with the issues with Self-Service, I continued to see the Clovis spirit as people kept working to make sure that our students were served.

I also had the opportunity to see the parking lots full at the main campus, and when I visited Herndon on the first day, I saw that their parking lot was full as well. I saw the dual enrolled students and I had the opportunity to visit and speak to Matthew Graff’s Mechatronics class. I stopped in and provided a welcome to the SBCD business conference that was also held at the Herdon campus on Monday. Monday night, after I finished our first day, I attended the Clovis City Council meeting where members thanked me for inviting them to participate in the Integrated 2035 Community Listening Sessions we held at the College on July 19th.

There was no President’s Council or Chancellor’s Cabinet meeting to provide information this week.

Tuesday, I met with Christina Wells and Von Torres about expectations and possible plans for this upcoming year with regards to the DEIA Council.

On Wednesday night I attended the Soroptimist Business and Planning Meeting where we discussed the upcoming program meeting on August 30th. Myself, Dr. Chahal, Dean Gurdeep He’bert, and Dean Kira Tippins will be presenting on the programs and resources that are available at Clovis Community College. Several of the members had never been on campus and were not aware of the program offerings that are available. This will be an opportunity for the college to continue its outreach and its mission to be the “community’s college”.

I was out of the office all day on Thursday assisting with interviews for the Chief Information Officer for the District.

Today, I gave a welcome to the new faculty during their first New Faculty Institute meeting. I also received the following exciting news: Clovis is one of 18 colleges in the nation that has been selected for the NSF-supported Project Vision. This is a program to support smaller 2-year colleges in their ability to pursue NSF/STEM funding. Our faculty are doing a fantastic job with the high level of research and STEM instruction and preparation. This is a most deserving honor and congratulations to Dr. Chahal, Dr. Dormedy, and all others for putting in the work to provide this opportunity for our students.

My highlights of the week were seeing all the students. Having them come up to me and tell me about how great and caring their instructors were, was rewarding. Seeing parents of students drop them off and say” I know they are in good hands here”. Having a first-generation student, here by herself, tell me that she was scared, then come to my office later to tell me that she loved it here, that her teachers were great. She took the time to let me know that not only was she going to be okay but that she was glad she came.

I enjoyed my nightly reports and updates form Maya and Taylor, our evening coordinators. It is refreshing to see the care and passion they both put into taking care of our evening students and adjuncts. Glad to have them back. They make the evening experience welcoming for all who are here in the evenings.

I also had several of you , both faculty and classified professionals, send me or tell me innovative ideas to advance the learning culture. Your excitement is/was contagious, and I was genuinely excited by your ideas. I am looking forward to finding a way to provide you with support. I look on the walls and it says, “Community, Equity, and Innovation”. To see the post-COVID spark in your eye makes all that I do worthwhile.

Most importantly, I want to congratulate Bonnie Boonthavongkham for taking on a new role and following her passion for teaching our little ones. And last, but not least, I want to thank Leslie King for stepping up and taking on the role of Interim Executive Assistant to the President. She will be filling that role while, at the same time, maintaining her duties as Executive Assistant the Vice President of Instruction.

Thank you all for a great first week. I wish you all a restful and wonderful weekend.

See you Monday,

Kim E. Armstrong, Ph.D.