I hope everyone had a relaxing four-day weekend in honor of Presidents Day. As you all know, we return to campus on Tuesday, February 22. I am very excited to be back on campus and to welcome everyone back. I understand there may be some anxiety about returning to campus, and I want to reassure our staff, faculty, and students that we are taking every necessary precaution to keep everyone safe. Let’s all work together to create a welcoming positive environment for our long-awaited return. A big thank you to Student Life and Leadership who will be hosting Comet Together on Wednesday, February 23 (see attached). The entire Executive Team will be present at this resource fair along with several departments. The event will take place from 10:00am to 1:00pm at the Student Union Quad
HWY 78 Math Fields Day
Palomar, MiraCosta, and CSUSM will be hosting the third annual HWY 78 Math Fields Day competition (see attached). The event will take place on Saturday, March 5th, 2022, from 9 am-1 pm. Please promote this opportunity to our students. The competition is FREE for all students, and the registration link can be found here! Students taking algebra and above can participate.
- The first 100 early registrations get free T-shirts (shipped).
- There will be two tests, one solely on precalculus and below knowledge, and another solely on Calculus 1. Students can register to take both or just one of the tests. There will be Math talks for any students that choose not to take one of the tests.
- Every student participates as an individual
- Prizes will be awarded for the top places in each test
- This is a virtual event
The Week in Review
Campus Engagement
In honor of Black History Month, the Palomar Black Faculty and Staff Association (PBFSA) continued hosting the workshop series entitled Black History: Wellness of Spirit, Strength of Will. This week’s thought-provoking line-up included, “How to Improve your Diversity IQ” and “The Demise of the Black Language and Those Affected by It”. For a list of upcoming events please click here or view the calendar of events on our website.
I was invited to the Academic Senate meeting this past week where I heard concerns regarding the number of face-to-face classes tentatively scheduled for the fall semester. We also discussed marketing concerns and how to reduce enrollment barriers and increase enrollment incentives. Also, this week our Governing Board held a special meeting to conduct their mid-year review of goals and tasks.
Community Engagement
On Monday, I attended the monthly San Diego Imperial Counties Community College Association (SDICCCA) for the monthly gathering of CEOs, Public Information Officers and Trustees. We discussed the enrollment challenges the region is experiencing and indoor masking requirements. In attendance for the first hour were representatives from Pacific Coast Athletic Conference. We discussed Senate Bill 206 and the need to give community college student-athletes the same protections that 4-year degree-granting institutions provide to their student-athletes. We also talked about the return of spectators and the future of public sporting events for community colleges. I was then joined by Governing Board Vice President Roberto Rodriguez for the Board Alliance portion of the meeting. He reported on Palomar district updates and joined the conversation regarding the role of the alliance.
This week I virtually attended the first Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) Spring 2022 webinar titled Annual Reporting and Annual Fiscal Reporting. Each spring, ACCJC accredited institutions are required to submit both an Annual Report and Annual Fiscal Report to the Commission. ACCJC, as part of its role, monitors institutional performance. ACCJC staff provided an overview of the recently revised reports and made themselves available to answer questions.
I also attended a legislative briefing with a representative from Darrell Issa’s Office. Alongside the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District Chancellor and other representatives, we had the opportunity to advocate for resources that support our colleges. Thank you to our students who spoke and for the support of Trustees Christian Garcia and Kartik Raju who were present to support.
During the California Community College’s 2022 Student Equity and Achievement Plan 2.0 meeting, I learned about the intent behind the redesigned upcoming Plan. Discussion regarding the new questions, disproportionate impact data, and best practices took place. As you may recall, the Plan is focused on boosting achievement as measured by specific “success indicators” (access; course completion; ESL and basic skills completion; degrees and certificates awarded; and transfer rates) and requires each college to develop detailed goals and measures to address identified disparities.
Trustee Mark Evilsizer and I virtually attended a special presentation hosted by CSUSM Professor Dr. Joely Proudfit. The event, Confronting Anti-Indigenous Racism and Colonialism in California provided historical context for the current state of education, and ongoing barriers to equal educational access Indigenous Peoples are still facing today. It was well attended and sponsored by the Alliance for Regional Solutions that includes members from over sixty North County nonprofit organizations, eight North County cities, and the county. These types of events are a great reminder of why we must continually invest in equitizing our educational institutions.
COVID-19
On Thursday, we held our COVID-19 Return to Campus Update meeting. The meeting was focused on our return to onsite work and learning on February 22, and Governor Newsom’s new SMARTER plan. SMARTER is an acronym for the plan’s seven areas of focus: shots, masks, awareness, readiness, testing, education, and Rx treatments. The SMARTER plan is designed to begin treating the COVID-19 crisis as an endemic rather than a pandemic. You can review Governor Newsom’s new plan here. Please also review VP Montoya’s February 17 email to all employees to read our health and safety precautions for our safe return to onsite work and learning. The correspondence has been added to the Employee Communications Library on the COVID-19 website. Facial coverings will continue to be required indoors despite vaccination status. Additionally, antigen test kits will be distributed to employees and students during the week of February 28. If you missed the meeting, please view the recording at this link.
Accreditation
Our site visit is one week away! The accreditation writing leadership team is working to gather additional evidence and schedule interviews as requested by our visiting team. For more information on the site visit, please visit the accreditation website here.
Two open forums are scheduled for students, faculty, staff, and administrators to share their perspectives with the team on our efforts to meet Accreditation Standards. Registration is required to attend. You can register on the accreditation webpage here or through the 3PD portal. Below are the dates and times of the forums:
- Tuesday, March 1 from 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
- Wednesday, March 2 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Since our visit is virtual, the Accreditation Steering Committee is requesting that everyone show their Palomar College spirit by using one of our new 75th Anniversary backgrounds. These backgrounds have been loaded into your zoom background collection. You can also access them here.
Finally, ACCJC asks that participants engaging in the virtual site visit keep their cameras on and include their name in their profile, so the team can easily interact with each attendee. You can access more information on our virtual site visit and tips for engaging with the team here.
Accreditation is a continuous improvement process. The report developed by our visiting team will provide an authentic review of our Institutional Self Evaluation Report (ISER) and document the outcomes of their visit. Once submitted, ACCJC will review the report of the visiting team and our ISER. We will receive both commendations and recommendations to address areas of improvement to either meet specific standards or strengthen institutional effectiveness. As part of this continuous improvement process, we will address our own self-improvement plans documented in our ISER and those identified by the ACCJC. Thank you to all who have participated in this process! We are looking forward to our visit, engaging with our peer review team, celebrating our successes, and continuing to improve to best meet the needs of our students.
Comets of the Week
Our Military Leadership (MIL) program continues to expand due to the dedication of Dr. Jack Kahn, Nichol Roe, Candace Rose, and Victoria Haynes. As of last week, the program expanded from the initial launch in Camp Pendleton and Twenty-Nine Palms to Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia and Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. The team enrolled new students and met with leaders who are extremely excited about our MIL program. We are projecting that this program will continue to grow rapidly. Thank you, Team!
Have a great upcoming week. Go Comets!
For pictures of the various events, follow:
Twitter: @palomardrstar
Instagram: @palomardrstar
