In February, the new CSEA officers attended Officer Skills Training in Visalia. Each officer received training in their respective job in CSEA.

Classified Employee Staff Development Day was a success. Most of the classified staff were in attendance and received good training and breakout sessions.

Scott Sutherland, English instructor in Coalinga, graduated from the Building Strong Locals Academy on Saturday, February 7, at the Community College Association of California (CCA) Winter Advocacy Conference in Costa Mesa. This was the third graduating class of the academy, the brain child of former CCA President Carolyn Inman. The academy was designed to educate members on the relationship between the National Education Association, the California Teachers Association, CCA and the local associations as well as how it all works. Academy enrollees commit to a full-year of training at the three annual CCA conferences.

After completing the academy, Scott has a better understanding of WHCFA and how it fits into the state and national network. He has also volunteered to become our membership chair and has relieved the executive board of that responsibility.

The Farm of the Future has been doing great things. Some members of Chapel Grace Church came out to the farm and harvested vegetables for their food pantry. Due to the troubling economic times, the church’s food pantry now provides food for about one hundred fifty families a week in the Coalinga area. The farm was honored to be able to give back to the community that has supported us through the years.   

 

Last month, the rodeo team held a rodeo for high school students in our new arena. Approximately 150 to 200 kids participated in the rodeo, representing most of the school districts from the San Joaquin Valley. Contestants and families had nothing but glowing remarks for the rodeo facility and for the West Hills’ students running the rodeo. Events like this provide West Hills College with a great recruiting opportunity and they are a significant fund generator for the college’s rodeo team.

 

The Farm of the Future had a booth at this year's World Ag Expo in Tulare. The booth highlighted the current and proposed programs of the Farm of the Future.

The financial aid department is pleased to announce its newly formed Financial Aid Liaison Team (FAL).

 

The purpose of the FAL is to be a representative of the financial aid office to assigned department(s).  The liaison shall be responsible for reporting activities of assigned department and shall bring to the financial aid director issues that require financial aid advice or recommendations.  The liaison shall be responsible for reporting activities of the financial aid office and to inform the assigned department of various policies, procedures and deadlines throughout the year.

 

Benefits

• To provide financial related information to internal departments to ensure information/deadlines are being communicated to students in a uniform and consistent fashion.
• To empower inter departments with the tools necessary to inform students of various financial aid opportunities.

Campus	Department	FAL
CLC & LMC	Business Office	Dolores Smith
LMC	Bookstore	America Bryant
CLC	Bookstore	Leticia Lopez/Sheila Pappas
CLC	Athletics/Residency Hall	Hillary Davis
LMC	Athletics	Karen Stieve
LMC	Deans & Instructions; Counseling; Admission	Dolores Smith/America Bryant/Rebecca Riddle/Tiffany Hernandez
CLC	Deans; Instructions; Counseling;  Admissions	Dolores Smith/Leticia Lopez
LMC	Counseling & Admissions	America Bryant
LMC & CLC	Veterans Office	Rebecca Riddle & Sheila Pappas
LMC & CLC	Scholarships	Karen Stieve & Leticia Lopez
CLC	CalWorks; EOPS; DSPS; SSS	Leticia Lopez/Hillary Davis
LMC	CalWorks; EOPS; DSPS; SSS	Rose Denberg
CLC	Library/Career Center	Kira Tippins
LMC	Library/Career Center	Karen Stieve/Tiffany Hernandez
CLC	Marketing	Leticia Lopez/Kira Tippins/Hillary Davis
LMC	Marketing	America Bryant/Rose Denberg/Rebecca Riddle
CLC	Outreach	Leticia Lopez/Kira Tippins/Hillary Davis
LMC	Outreach	America Bryant
CLC	ASB	Dolores Smith/Hillary Davis
LMC	SGA	Dolores Smith/Rose Denberg
LMC	Adult School	Tiffany Hernandez
NDC	Camp	Rebecca Bumpous
NDC	General	Rebecca Bumpous/Lydia Silva

 

The implementation of the advancement system for the foundation office continues to move along.  The Wellness Center project in Coalinga is ramping into full gear.  We are working on bringing a card access system and a video system (including surveillance) to the Coalinga campus with this project.  We are also working on a district-wide plan for the implementation of card access and video systems. 

February was a busy month!  The big news this month was directing our main web page links for email, online courses and My West Hills service to the portal log in.  While it seemed that there was a lot of initial concern by both staff and students, things have settled down significantly.

Last month, I attended President Warkentin’s WHCL Town Hall Meeting.  The conference room was filled with students ready to share successes and concerns of their experience at West Hills College Lemoore.  This was not only well-attended, but the feedback from students and staff was truly beneficial.  We all came away with a wealth of knowledge and next steps to serve our students in ways only they could express.

What’s next? Our area is very busy.  Dennis Gallegos, a consultant for the district is working with Web Services to help identify all of our web pages that need to be updated or removed—and there are a lot.  In the next few weeks, we hope to welcome a new web administrator.  When that person arrives, we expect to have our pages current and ready for a web re-design.

All but three or four of our online courses scheduled to start on March 16th are full.  This is good and bad news, clearly the economy has an impact on education.  Our staff will be working closely with faculty and students to meet both technology and learning needs in the online environment.

Direct mail has once again proven to be a successful way of reaching potential students.  The LVN to RN program did a targeted mailing to LVNs in the Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties area and had a couple of hundred phone calls within a matter of days.  Their applicant pool increased significantly.  Please keep direct mail in mind as you promote your programs.  Our mailing consultant can provide targeted lists based on demographic information you provide.  Depending on the number in the mailing, we can frequently reach potential students for less than 50 cents each. 

 

In the past, Dialogue has been altered to meet the needs of the district in communicating with our communities in a variety of ways.  We are now working with a consultant to take a close look at Dialogue and see how it can be improved.  If you have thoughts, please don’t hesitate to share them.  The same consultant is also reviewing the website to offer suggestions.  There are many pages that are outdated or under construction.  While the Web site isn’t part of the marketing department, we work closely together and I would like to encourage you to take a few minutes to look at pages for which you have responsibility.  Much of what we do in marketing is aimed at getting people to visit our Web site.  If the information there isn’t current, it doesn’t present the district in a positive light.  Please do your share to help keep us looking good.

 

We’re wrapping up the Coalinga annual report.  Look for it in your mailboxes in the next few weeks.

 

Portal updates are being done on a regular basis and we need your help with pictures of the week.  Please email them to either me or Felicia.

College Educational Master Plans – Lemoore's educational master plan (EMP) has been approved by all college governance committees and has been forwarded to the board for final approval. Coalinga's EMP is still being reviewed and modified by its governance committees.

 

ARCC Report - The 2009 Accountability Report for Community Colleges (ARCC) draft was released on January 27, 2009. As a district, we are at the top of our group in the area of basic skills success and completion rates. We performed low in the area of vocational courses success rates. Both colleges are currently reviewing vocational courses success and retention rates and will be developing a self-assessment that identifies issues and solutions to improve success rates in this area.

 

National Student Clearing House - We now have access to the National Student Clearing House that provides a reliable source for tracking student transfers to in-state and out-of-state institutions. The Clearing House provides information on student's enrollment, persistence, major and degree completion at two and four year institutions. Please contact our office if your program would like a custom report on student transfers.

 

Online Orientations – The online orientation will help us increase the number of students who complete the orientation and matriculation process. This was a two year project that was started by Lenore Simonson and then picked up by our office and finalized with the assistance of Sandy McGlothlin and Angela Tos. Below are the links to the online orientations.

Coalinga Online Orientation

Lemoore Online Orientation

VTEA Student Survey – Last semester we assisted the office of Workforce Development to administer an online version of the VTEA survey. About 70 percent of students taking vocational courses completed the online survey. This semester, we are aiming for a 90 percent participation rate. At the end of February students taking vocational courses received an email with instructions on how to complete the survey. Thank you instructors who teach vocational courses for reminding your students to check their WHC student email accounts and encouraging them to complete the survey.

 

WHCIST – The West Hills Customer Information Support Team is a committee whose purpose is to prioritize and coordinate resources for technology projects throughout the district. During 2008, the committee coordinated the completion of 15 technology projects and during the past four years the committee has coordinated the completion of almost 100 projects. Currently, the committee is handling the prioritization and coordination of resources for 26 active projects. If you have suggestions on how we can modify or implement technology to improve our services, please forward them to your college CIO or CSO as they are the college representative for WHCSIT.

 

District Strategic Planning – We recently completed our third district strategic planning cycle. The results of our strategic planning efforts are summarized in our district “Score Card”. To see the WHCCD Score Card, click here.