Week of November 22, 2023

Hi Clovis Fam,

Hope everyone is doing well and that you all had a great weekend and are either already enjoying your time off for the Thanksgiving holiday, or are getting ready to enjoy your Thursday and Friday off. Please, as always, take time to reflect on the many things that we each have to be thankful for.

I had a short week last week and will have a short week this week, but I still wanted to provide you with my weekly reflections and activities.

So, as I mentioned last week, I came back in town late Thursday night so that I could speak at the East Fresno Kiwanis meeting on Friday. That went very well. They asked lots of questions about enrollment trends, and about ratio of online versus in-person classes. They asked about our new building and what it was going to be used for. They had, as a guest club, the Clovis Kiwanis Club. Clovis has two Kiwanis clubs, I spoke to the afternoon club back in the summer. The morning Clovis Kiwanis Club was there, and they asked if I would come speak to their club. This is another opportunity to provide our community with information about who we are and how we serve the community.

That evening I spent with Von, Bonnie and her husband, Monica and her husband, Eunji, Houa, and also with Mattew Casarez from Senator Grove’s office. Dr. Saul Jimenez, President of Fresno State University, and I were the only college presidents in attendance. The CEO, Pau Yang, was very happy to see us both at his Fresno Center Gala. It was a wonderful tribute to the diversity of the area. There was dancing from Hawaii, Mexico, and several other places. There was a wonderful fashion show showing the fashions for the various Asian regions. I want to personally thank everyone who was able to join me when we are in the community. It means a lot as we strengthen our position as “this community’s college” It helps to nurture and develop our community partnerships and it builds internal bonds as well. I had a great time dining with everyone.

Saturday morning at 5 am I drove to Bakersfield. I was there from 8 am to 7:30 pm. I was part of a committee of four selected by Congressman Kevin McCarthy to select people from his district as his congressional appointees to go to West Point, The Navel Academy, the Airforce Academy, The Marine Academy, or the Airforce Academy. On the selection committee with me was a CEO of a Bank, a Brigadier General from the Airforce, a Captain from the Navy, and a retired person from NASA. This was one of the coolest things I have ever done. The banker and I represented the civilian oversight of the process. There were over 37 applications that we reviewed, and this part of the process involved the individuals being interviewed in person by us. These high school kids were amazing. The Congressman is allowed to select one person to go to each area of service; only four people received his appointment. The Congressman was in town and joined us for lunch. When he entered the room, he shook our hands in in the handshake he gave us his challenge coin. I proudly accepted it. The Navy Captain returned the shake and gave his challenge coin to the Congressman, We were then allowed to select up to 20 alternates. There were three people from the CUSD and about 5 more from either prep or private schools in Fresno. The majority were from schools in Bakerfield or from Kern County. I was proud to be there to make sure that my kids were not overlooked. I did notice that there were no African American kids in the process. The numbers of women, Latinx X, and Asian American demonstrated nice levels of representation. This is another opportunity for us to provide additional support in educating all of our underserved community to understand the opportunities for them.

Monday morning, I attended the special board meeting where the SCCCD Board ratified the CESEA contract. I was glad to see Tyler speak and to see a unanimous vote. We then had our President’s Council meeting on site where we discussed the news article mentioning Madera and Clovis regarding DEIA.
I returned to campus and attended the special Full Council meeting where the 27 people included were able to work together to prioritize the list of classified and management positions that I will be requesting from the District. I was very proud to see this group having institutional level discussions, determining ways to collaborate and using additional information to reprioritize the list. We will look at additional ways to improve the process on the front end to ensure that everyone had pertain information to make informed decisions for the next cycle. We also talked about ways to improve the form to assist with the prioritization process. I found the conversations valuable as we embrace and expand on a participatory governance culture where we are all looking at issues and personnel needs at the institutional and not just departmental levels. I am hopeful that each person felt heard and walked away understanding how we came up with the prioritization list.

I then returned to the DO for Chancellor’s Cabinet where we reviewed enrollment numbers, looked at first and second reads for the ARs and BPs, and discussed new possibilities for platform improvement s for SharePoint and Board Docs.

I returned to campus to check on a potential situation that I was made aware of as any time there are SCCCD PD on campus I am; all was fine, there was no issue and as always, I am thankful to all of you for being vigilant, aware, and not being afraid to act. Please feel free to contact PD if you feel a need and let them do the assessment and direct our actions. You all did a fabulous job and know that we will always error on the side of caution.

I then had a wonderful pleasant treat from Matthew. He had this huge box of dates. I found this a random fruit to have and also to have so many of them. He offered me one and I took it. I told him thank you because it brought back memories of my childhood; my great aunt had both fig and date trees in her front yard. I would walk from grandmother’s house to her house and pick and eat dates right off the tree. Thanks, Matthew, for the memory.

Tuesday. Was a great day as I actually brought three changes of clothes with me to appropriately engage with all events and stakeholders. I first had the honor of being invited to come to Anna’s Communication class as a celebrity golfer. Her students were placed in teams and had to design a golf hole. I was asked to come and play each hole and select the winning team. I pulled out my not-so used golf shoes (still white because I really can’t play golf), put on my golf glove, and found my Ray Bans. Goal was if I cant make any holes, I was at least gonna look like I knew what I was doing. Ha ha! The teams worked together and created some of the most difficult golf holes I had ever seen. I had a great time spending time with our students and seeing the wonderful work of our faculty in developing their lifelong skills. Every time I get to engage with students, I am more and more encouraged about the future leaders that Clovis is helping to produce.

I left there an immediately got redressed to get ready to have a pie thrown in my face. I was wonderfully amazed to see the number of students, faculty, and classified professional all there to either throw a pie or to just laugh and enjoy. I want to thank, Derek, Rebecca, Nathan, Jeremiah (our ASG president), Nate, and Tari who were all great sports in allowing pies to go in hair, up noses, in mouths. I want to reiterate, here at Clovis we work very hard, and we also play hard. Thanks to everyone for making it a fun event. I know PR had a great time filming and taking pictures.

I then changed clothes and went to Herndon to meet with the Clovis Chamber of Commerce CEO and his team as the brought a donation of several bags of clothes. We gave them a tour and explained the broader scope of the Clothing Closet in terms of them helping with interview and resume skill development. They were impressed, as they should be, Dianna and her team have done a fabulous job in connecting the clothes to the greater economic needs of our area. They also will be looking to see if they can get assistance for us with alterations and dry cleaning.

I came back just in time to see the women’s soccer game start. I was able to be there the entire time, while meeting with the Chancellor via phone and talking to one of our donors. I was there to see them win!!!! with a score of 1-0. They will progress to the next round; the first time in history. They will play here on Saturday at 2pm. Way to crush it team!!!!!

Today, I am in final interviews for the selection of the Student Success Coordinator.

It has been a wonderful week. In the spirit of the Thanksgiving season, I want to tell you how thankful that I am for each of you. I am thankful for your passion for our students and their learning experiences both inside and outside of the classroom. I am thankful for the kindness you show each other, while still holding yourselves and each other accountable. I am thankful for your willingness to have difficult conversations and to handle difficult situations. This is what I have come to expect and value as the Crush spirit.

May each of you have a wonderful thanksgiving, eat lots and lots, watch football and parades and just enjoy family and friends. I look forward to seeing you next week. All a few pounds heavier.

Take care and know that I am proud to serve you.

Kim E. Armstrong, Ph.D.