Mary Rees: Good afternoon and welcome to Moorpark College
campus update for December 13. We'll give everyone a couple of
minutes to come and join us. We're so glad you're here.
Amanuel: Mary your on mute. We can't hear you. I'm
sorry. You're still on mute.
Mary: Mary: Thank you for joining us at the Moorpark
College campus update for December 13. This will be our
last update for the year. So thank you all for joining us.
Good afternoon, Julius. Or I should probably say today, the
update is being recorded. It will be posted on the
President's webpage. It is all being closed captioned. If
you're interested in seeing it closed captioned, please click
the CC at the bottom of your screen. Today we're going to go
over some of the kind of an update on things, a little bit
of reflection from a most unusual semester. And with a
focus on mental health, spotlight on our professional
development, and then some acknowledgement of some of our
retirees. Good afternoon Julius.
Julius Sokenu: Good afternoon, Mary. I hope everyone can see me
now. Oh, yea. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining
us today. As Mary said, it's been a long semester with a lot
of highs and some lows, but we've made it and I appreciate
you're joining us today. We're going to go directly to an
update on our COVID dashboard. Allison, would you take it away
please?
Allison Barton: Well, I'm trying to oh, there we are. Okay, so as
you can see, we've had a little bit of an uptick in the cases.
We sort of expect that because of people traveling over the
holidays, getting together and family and friend groups. The
three active positive cases that we had are all related to the
exposures and the quarantines here on campus. I do want to
stress here that it's important to check if you have students in
class still, by the end of the semester, and through next
semester to check their wristbands. Some students have
been using the visitor pass to get around testing requirements.
They would have an orange wristband, and they should be
sent back. They shouldn't be on campus if if they're regular
students and aren't testing or been vaccinated. Okay. And then
as you can see, though, we have tons of people vaccinated. We're
well over 6,000. There's even more today than there were when
I put this together. So some really good trends happening and
most people are doing a great job of complying and doing
exactly what they're supposed to be doing to keep each other
safe. And we all appreciate that. So thanks for that. Next
slide, please? I just wanted everybody to see that we're
doing super well with our percent of verified vaccinated
on campus. Last week was actually kind of odd for the
last few weeks. We've had over 90% each day on campus. So and
each day is a little bit different from the one before
it. Different people on but anyway, just good to know that
we are heading into very high vaccination percentage
territory, and I appreciate everybody's efforts to upload,
etc. And I think that's it if there are any question, oh, "How
many of these were exempt?" Right now we have a total of
about 100. We have 70 students with exemptions and 30 employees
with exemptions. So all right, and I think I'll turn it over to
Julius now. Thanks.
Julius: Thank you Allison. I appreciate the work
that you're doing. So as you all know, the Chancellor charged to
me and Laura Barrosot. And we pulled in Dan Watkins and then
we could get together from each of our campuses, colleagues and
faculty and staff and administration to serve on a
VCCCD remote work group to examine and make recommendations
on working remotely. As I think I mentioned previously to you,
we made recommendations already sent to the chancellor. We made
recommendations for the spring semester only. And then
indicated areas for further review and research and for the
spring semester. And then during the spring semester, we will be
going ahead and making recommendations for more long
term future of work at the college district. I want to
thank our representatives from this college, Linda Resendiz,
Monica Garcia, Dan McMichael. Who am I forgetting? Hopefully,
I'm not forgetting anyone. I think we had four people from
the campus. And Jodi Dickey. Jodi, our representing faculty.
And the committee then spent about three weeks, where we
discussed, we looked at research, we identified
questions that are helping us with operations, but also with
policy. And we sent a set of recommendations to the
chancellor on Friday. Recommendations, good
assumptions that we're making, or values that underline our
recommendations. And then we look at the remote work
assignment itself. We look at the professional development
that's necessary to sustain remote work. And then we look at
technology. And then we looked at issue of safety, remote work
safety, and then came up with a list of areas for future
exploration. Chancellor Gillespie has received the
document. We discussed it at Cabinet this morning. He will be
sending an email out to the rest of the district either on
Thursday on Friday this week, with his acknowledgment of our
recommendations and what he is planning to do moving forward.
You will also note that he had sent out an email last week
articulating that for the first few weeks of the semester that
everyone is expected to be back working on campus. And that
remote work will only be done in exceptional cases, with the
authority whether there's approval, the recommendation of
the supervisor, and the approval of the college president. So
that's where we will be to start off the semester. But our
recommendations are a little bit more broad based. And the
Chancellor will be sharing his response to that with the
college district later on this week. Just to let you know, that
our recommendations, tried our very best to make sure that we
are flexible. That we give managers the authority to make
decisions within the campus setting. And that we recognize
that there's too much work needs to be done, so that folks can do
remote work at the most safest ways possible. But also knowing
that this is an ongoing conversation about the nature of
work, and that we need to continue that. So that's where
we are with the remote work committee work group. And those
recommendations have been made to the chancellor. And he will
be sharing with the college district his decision around
those recommendations by Thursday or Friday this week.
I want to thank the folks who worked on our Aspen application. those recommendations by Thursday or Friday this week.
I want to thank the folks who worked on our Aspen application.
And as you all know, we were identified as one of the top 150
colleges eligible for the Aspen Prize. And the same as we were
last year. And this time around we have a group of folks who
worked with K&M which is a company that we hired to write
the application responses. So I want to thank Michael Hoffman
for his leadership on this and his work on this. I want to
thank the vice presidents for their work on this. I want to
thank the Academic Senate and the Classified Senate presidents
for their feedback on this. And I also want to thank our IE
Office, particularly our research folks, for providing
the research that has gone into that application. That
application should be reviewed and we expect to be hearing back
from Aspen if we make it to the next round, which would be the
the top 30 colleges, sometime in the early spring semester. With
that, if we make it to that round, there will be an
application interview that's conducted with the college. And
from there, they will then select the top 10 colleges. And
from there, the finalists. I do want to call attention to the
fact that we are struggling with enrollment. We are as a district
about 20% down. At the college about 11% down in headcount as
well as in units. As you know, we're the largest college in the
district. So we keep working with your outreach to students,
and with your reminder to our students that they should
register for the spring semester. But our enrollment is
down. And as you know, we're held harmless right now. But
whatever our enrollment ends up being this time next year, will
be what we end up funded for in 23-24. So even though we're held
harmless right now, being 11% down as a college, does not
serve us well for our funding for the future. So I appreciate
any work that you can do to get students registered and
enrolled. Any outreach you can do. Kudos to our marketing
folks. And kudos to our outreach folks as they continue to do the
great work of reaching out to the community. But we are all
responsible for enrollment. So thank you. I'm going to move on
and pass it on to our Vice President.
Mary: Julius? We had several questions, if you
wouldn't mind.
Julius: Sure.
Mary: They're asking if you can repeat about remote work,
what the exceptions are to work remotely for spring 2022 for
managers making decisions.
Julius: There have been no exceptions. What you said,
repeat exceptions?
Mary: I'm not sure. I think we need to just redefine and
then the second one asks whether we can assume that they can
continue working remote with the managers approval.
Julius: So what we can assume at this point is that we
have an MOU that expires on Friday with the union. So we
need to update that MOU. Until that is done, we don't have a
formal agreement with SEIU or AFT on how we could move on
forward. What we have is the authority right now for each of
the institutions to work and figure out what schedule best
serves their community, and then put that schedule into place
with of course, authorization on the college president and me
making the college as the Chancellor aware of what that
context is. But there are no prescribed exceptions at this
point in time. We are working with an MOU and we'll continue
to between now and when the next MOU is ready, make decisions
that are best for our college community.
Mary: Thank you. So the assumption that we'll probably
would go with is that people need to be on ground at the
beginning of, until a new MOU is worked out officially. So as of
Friday, people need to be on ground is what I'm hearing. And
unless anything new is worked out with an MOU or unless they
specifically, newly work through and get a new approval from you.
Julius: Yes.
Mary: Okay. Thank you. Hopefully that will clarify.
There was also a question asking about whether the low enrollment
is connected with the mandate. And to save your voice Maybe
I'll just mention that we speak with colleges across the state
and across the nation. The community college population is
a group that has been hit very, very hard. And for multiple
reasons, those students are slower about returning to
college. We have a different pattern than the four years and
our pattern is better or the same as those with and without
mandates throughout the state and the nation. Would that be
consistent Julius?
Julius: Thank you, Mary. I'm struggling with a cold for
some. Sorry, I can barely speak but I appreciate Mary very much.
Very concisely. Yes. Thank you.
Mary: Thank you. Jennifer. I think you're on next?
Jennifer Clark: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Mary. Thank
you, Julius. Just a couple of quick updates from Business
Services. The first has is our next slide, please? The first
has to do with just clarification and a reminder for
everybody and our campus screeners. So we will have the
screeners on campus as normal all the way until next
Wednesday.Thursday and Friday of course are holidays. So the
whole campus will be closed. So again, normal screening
operating hours until through next Wednesday. They will be
closed between Christmas Eve, the observed Christmas Eve and
New Year's Day. So you can see 12/23 to January 2, there will
be no screeners on campus. We do have some students coming in at
the EATM location of course, to feed the animals over the break.
They will be sort of self sustaining. They will be
screening themselves, but no sort of screeners for the sort
of the general campus population. Beginning the
following Monday. So Monday January 3, when classified staff
and administrators are coming back onto campus, if they're not
on vacation, we will resume normal screening hours. Monday
through Friday, the normal times that they have been there this
semester. As far as the testing is concerned over the break, we
do have COVID clinics that will continue to be on campus in lots
D and E. They will be open Monday through Friday as normal.
They are open currently Monday through Friday 9:00 to 5:00.
They will continue to be open Monday through Friday, 9:00 to
5:00. They do have special holiday hours. However, there
are special holiday hours on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day,
New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. They are open, but the
length of time is a little bit shorter. So if you want
specifics on which holiday they're open, which hours, the
link is right there, and Michael just posted the link in the
chat. If you want to have a quick look, it's actually at the
bottom of that webpage there holiday hours. Lab link will
continue to be in the parking structure for the days that
they're on campus during the break. And as well into the
spring semester, they'll continue to be in the parking
structure again. They will continue to be on campus every
day through this week, as normal. Next week, so beginning
next week, the week of December 20, we will be shortening the
days, right, because now we're getting into the holidays. So
next week, Monday and Wednesday, they will be on campus. Again,
Thursday and Friday are holidays. They will not be on
campus Tuesday. So Monday, Wednesday 9:00 to 4:00. The
following week, same. Monday, Wednesday, 9:00 to 4:00.
Thursday and Friday are also holidays. Beginning the week of
January 3, the following week, they'll be here Monday through
Friday. Their hours though, will be shorter than they are now.
Hours starting next fiscal year, January 3 will be 10:00 t0 2:00.
We will be having far fewer people being tested on a regular
basis. So they'll still be here every day, but just shorter time
period. Next slide please? And this is just a reminder, we do
still have the federal stimulus program from HEERF monies, the
$1,000 in the spring semester. This, like the fall semester
will be for students, six or more units. We did have some
very interesting data come forward that about 30% of our
current students, our enrolled students have fewer than six
units. So 30%. That's almost a third of our students are
carrying less than six units. So we have some big campaign going
on right now to try to reach out to those students that have less
than six units to encourage them to take an extra class or take
an extra few units so that they qualify. And the second bullet
there just reminds everybody that
the students do not have to have a completed FAFSA or CADA on
file. However, priority is given to those students with
demonstrated need. So those that have filled out the FAFSA, CADA
have demonstrated need will get the funds first. And funds of
course will continue to be available until they run out. So
that is it from the Business Services Department, unless
there are questions.
Mary: Jennifer, just a clarification, if a student got
the $1,000 In the fall, are they eligible for spring?
Jennifer: Absolutely, yes. Great question. Any other
questions? Is that it? Is there a question about exemptions next
semester? What is considered an exemption next semester?
Kristen? I'm looking at Kristen's question, do you think
there'll be committed permitted to do the twice weekly testing
in lieu of? Okay, so I will repeat what I'm sure Allison has
covered many times. That is that starting next semester, so
starting in January, students and employees as well, for that
matter, must have an approved exemption to be on campus.
Whether it's a medical exemption or a religious exemption. If
they do not have an exemption, and they are not verified
vaccinated, they are not permitted to be on campus. So
that will be doing serial testing in January will be those
folks that have approved exemptions on file.
I hope that clarifies. Thank you.
Mary: Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you, Jennifer. Just a few I hope that clarifies. Thank you.
Mary: Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you, Jennifer. Just a few
updates. On the next slide. One, it's just congratulations to
everyone. It has been a most unusual year, a most unusual
semester. And we have made it through the semester. Our
students, you see them around campus. I see the activities
going on. And we're almost finished with final week this
week, we'll finish that up. Congratulations and thank you to
everyone for all of their work, helping the students get
successfully through the semester. So just a huge and I
know everyone is anxious for the holidays. But, you know, a well
deserved vacation, a break because of all of the really
working trying to help support the students. We have a great
picture here of the study hall competitions. So the athletic
teams, in working with the TLC and Counseling, set up a
competition for which group could use the study hall or use
the tutoring center the most, It was down to the wire between
men's volleyball and baseball and they both got to be
celebrated at the last November end of November basketball game.
I am happy to announce that the men's volleyball team were the
big winners. And this is truly the winners and hopefully they
really reinforced the value of the tutoring center, the
studying, studying in groups, all of those best practices that
will truly carry them through. So a big thank you to everybody
involved in that. It was a fun and hopefully a very worthwhile
project. So thank you all. Another project, it's grades,
right? Everyone is very busy with grades this time of year.
Setting for doing the grading, submitting. Just a huge reminder
of how important it is to get the grades submitted on time.
The grades need to be within what, 48 hours after the test?
If we even be more lenient on that, if we go with after all of
the tests, they have to be in by December 20. Students are
waiting on pre-reqs clearance, on getting into their transfer
school, they've got financial considerations, financial aid
that are all tied to those grades. So it is a busy time.
But it is really critical that the grades get turned in. If
someone is having trouble, reach out to your dean. So that we can
hopefully either provide some help or can alert anybody that's
going to be negatively impacted, because it's really important
for the students. Another thing other than grades that needs to
be turned in this time of year, December 17, your SLOs each of
the classes needs to be submitted. We need all of the
SLOs submitted this year. And then again, next year for our
accreditation documents. It's something that we're going to be
doing every year, but it's critical for this year and next
year, as part of our accreditation. So we really are
relying on everyone to get the grades in, get their SLOs in,
and a huge thank you for wonderful semester. We have lots
of new technology things coming our way. Over the break or the
beginning in January, anyway, we'll be moving away from Skype
onto Teams. There are some really good resources. Michael
Ashton has helped, in fact, there's one there in the chat
now to help little videos, workshops to try to help us get
more comfortable with Teams. So it's not a big surprise to us
when we come in and we've got new phones and new systems
rather than using Skype. So we're going to be all on the
same Teams, for next semester. So please look into that. We're
also going to be having a new portal either over break or
beginning of January. So when you log into the computer, it
might look a little bit different. Everyone says it's
going to be much smoother and just obvious what's going on. So
please, you know, just
bear with it, if it looks a little bit different, takes us a
little bit longer to get used to the portal. It's being updated
much more, it'll be much better, much more user friendly, and all
that. So we're looking forward to that. We also are working
towards getting a new scheduler which will be coming out
probably early semester, which will make it much easier for the
students for scheduling for classes in the future. Rather
than just kind of going through and writing down one class that
they're going to take or looking for a particular instructor,
they're going to be able to basically like shopping on
Amazon. "I want an English, I want an accounting, I want
this," and move them into their cards. And then they can click
and they can go ahead and register right from their
shopping basket. It'll really help the students because you
can put down what timeframe you want the class to be in. It will
look for classes that fit within your schedule versus having to
just do it on your own. And so, hopefully will make it much
easier for students to take additional classes and to really
work out a schedule that will work for them. We're also going
to be having some new software by the end of the semester,
which will help us with looking at auto grads, helping the
students go through and if they've completed all the
classes that they need for graduation, how closely are two
different certificates or degrees. And we'll hopefully be
doing some additional work on getting transcripts into our
systems. So we've got a lot of new technology things coming our
way. So I think it will be really exciting. Hopefully
better for the students, faculty and staff as well. So will be
interesting times, right? Thank you so much. On the next slide?
Okay, there were some questions.
Let me go through these. And we'll let you, Amanuel, then
we'll come back to questions. Oh, this is mine. Dear. Let me
go through that. I did want to just update everyone. Just as a
reminder for students, I'm going to send this email out, but this
was put together from Allison. Thank you. Just to remind our
students for spring, as you prepare for the upcoming
semester, please be aware that VCCCD has mandated vaccinations
on all campuses. This means you will need to be fully vaccinated
in order to come on campus and you will need to upload proof of
vaccination in the My VCCCD app. This app can be found on the App
Store. If you have vaccine exemptions, you will need to
take two PCR COVID-19 tests each week and upload them to the My
VCCCD app. The upload will need to be done by noon on Sunday in
order to come on campus, the following week. No exceptions.
We need to make sure that this information is out to our
students. The ones that have been here as well as new ones
coming in for the spring. I think we saw from an email or
question in the Q&A from Kristen that students are not clear that
they need to be vaccinated or have an exemption in order for
spring. So the best way to get information out to the students,
we're going to be trying social media, emails, but one of the
best ways is for faculty to send emails out to their students
before the semester starts. You've got the list of students
on your rosters. And before the semester starts, if you send
them this or some kind of an email that just reminds the
students, so that they can have a smooth transition to coming
onto campus in the spring. So I think that will be really
helpful. We're going to do our part trying to reach out to the
students, but I'll send this out to the faculty. So if you choose
to use something like this, it'll make it easier for you to
reach out to them before the semester starts. Thank you.
Amanuel and then we'll come back to the questions.
Amanuel: Thank you, Mary. Good afternoon, everyone. Just a
few reminders to reiterate what Mary mentioned. I want to
emphasize, we're having Registration Rocks to help with
our enrollment efforts starting on Tuesday, December 14 at
9:00am. And then again, on Wednesday, December 15 at
4:00pm. We'll put the links in the chat so you can have access
to them. But also, to let all of our students know we're really
trying to encourage as many students to take advantage of
the support that our counseling support services are providing
for our campus community. Also, in addition to that, Raider
Central has been focal and really supporting our community
and our students with food. Raider Central will be closed
from Friday, December 17 till Monday, January 10. They will
resume services on Tuesday, January 11. We'll put that
information on there also. But in addition to that, Ruben
Castro Charities will be open for a grab and go groceries on
the following Tuesdays on campus in lot E. And those dates are
December 21, from 2:00pm to 5:00pm, December 28, from 2:00pm
to 5:00pm, and then also January 4, from 2:00 to 5:00. So we'll
still have food grab and go opportunities for our students
as well. And just another reminder, a friendly reminder
about final grades for fall 2021, as Mary emphasized, would
encourage you all to please post your grades by December 20. Just
a reminder from our Admissions and Records folks, we want to
get the grades submitted for our students that need them. And
then before I go to the next slide, I just want to say a huge
thank you to all our faculty, staff, and administrators for
everything that you do this semester. It's been a heck of a
year and we appreciate you in every way. And a big thank you
to our student support team for being on the front line and
really supporting our students through the registration,
counseling, and all the support services. Thank you. And kudos
to all of you. And hope you have a happy holidays in the next
couple of weeks. And now in terms of professional
development, we have some activities planned for that
week. So I will pass it on to Brian Burns, who will do a
highlight of our professional development activities. Oh, I'm
sorry. Is it Allison first?
Before?
Yes, sorry Allison.
Allison: That's okay.
I get to introduce Brian later. Alrighty. So next slide, please?
So always over the break, especially since the Student
Health Center is closed the whole time, we just want to make
sure that everybody understands particularly, the mental health
resources that are available to everyone, not just students or
staff. So Ventura County Behavioral Health is a great
place to call or visit their website. Substance Abuse
Treatment number is great. They have a lot of really good levels
of support for community members. Excuse me, as well as
the Ventura County Mental Health Crisis team. Again, anybody
living in Ventura County can utilize these services, not just
people on our campuses. The Crisis text line is great. It's
really nice, because it's staffed with trained volunteers
24/7. And it's really nice, because a lot of times people
don't have mental health concerns or worries or
anxieties. You know, during business hours, they have them
at 3:00 am. And so they can just text, whatever concerns they
have at that time. The other thing is it's quiet. So you
don't have to get on the phone and talk to somebody and disturb
other people or let other people know that you're calling. So
that's a really good one. And of course, the National Suicide
Hotline. That number is right there. They have a special sub
line for veterans, and that's good to know too. Additionally,
there are just some really great kind of preventive mental health
practices that one can take advantage of. One of those is
mindfulness training. And what I thought we would do right now is
just do a little one minute mindfulness training practice
just so that everybody can kind of get an idea of really how
simple it is. And then you could go to our Student Health Center
website, and you could look at all the different wonderful
practices that we have there. We have a whole eight lesson kind
of curriculum that you could use yourself or you could share with
your classes. We have several professors that actually make
that an assignment for students. And I think that's a great idea.
There are even worksheets for each lesson. So just so you
know, that's there. Also mindful movement. And, you know, little
movement bites that are in there. So there are just lots
and lots of different resources available for you or your loved
ones or your students. Alright, so our one minute mindfulness is
going to be the STOP technique. And we use this a lot for test
anxiety, but it's good for any kind of anxiety. So if you
could, want you to sit up as nice and tall as you can in your
chair, or if you're standing, stand so that the weight is kind
of on all four corners of both feet at once. So no kind of
rocking back and forth. And then roll your shoulders back. So
STOP means, it's an acronym, meaning stop, take a breath,
observe how you feel and proceed, right? So the first
thing is to stop what you're doing. So if you're checking
your email or whatever, just stop doing that. And then take a
slow breath. And if you can breathe through your nose, right
now, you're not a stuffy nose person, you can breathe slowly
in and out through your nose. If your nose is stuffy, purse your
lips and breathe in and out through your lips, and you want
to count slowly to five in and out. So let's do that together.
And exhale
Kinda check out how your body feels right now. And it's good
to do this periodically during your day, from day to day,
because that'll help you recognize what feeling good
feels like. And also what not feeling good feels like. And
doing this practice and then proceeding back to whatever it
was you were doing. Unless you were checking email, then stop
that right now. You want to go ahead and really get kind of
used to what that feels like in paying attention to your body. A
lot of times, we're super stressed out, it's really easy
to forget about checking in with yourself. So just so you know,
that is on our website, and lots of other awesome techniques. And
I hope you give them a try. All right, and I'm going to pass it
on to Brian.
Brian Burns: Thank you very much, Allison. So welcome,
everyone. Thank you for joining. So I will try to keep this
concise because then we have other things going on. In just a
moment, I'm going to preview our professional development
activities that we have planned for January 6 and 7. Either
later today or tomorrow, I will send out the more descriptive
booklet. And that will give you more detailed information about
the session, including Zoom links as applicable and, you
know, facilitator information, and all of that. So if we can
have the next slide, please? So here you see, well obviously you
can't click on this one, but in the chat and moment, we'll put
this link right here. Here's the link to RSVP for the meals. So
as usual, we will have breakfast and lunch on each of those days.
So if you could take a moment to fill out the information there.
It's very helpful for us just in terms of knowing how much food
to order and that sort of thing. And if we could have the next
slide, please? So here's our first day on January 6.
Obviously, we have quite a lot going on. What you'll notice is
that there are three different delivery modes. The majority of
material will be in HyFlex format. There are a couple of
sessions that will be entirely online and a few that will be in
person, mainly because the nature of those particular
formats mean that it would make sense to have that one in
person. It wouldn't really work to do it in an online
environment. So that's why there are a few that will be 100% in
person. Otherwise all the sessions will be in HyFlex. And
then a few online and those are all noted here. And again, this
information will be sent out. You know, I'll post it to our PD
website. I will send out the link either later today or early
tomorrow, once I get all of the blurbs put together. So you can
take a look at we have going on. We have our first session about
the spring curriculum audit. So inviting more faculty and staff
to come in and have conversations about curriculum
and curriculum planning. This is multi-disciplined,
interdisciplinary, cross campus conversations about our
curriculum and thinking about our curriculum, especially
through an equity lens and how are we best serving our
students. Then we'll have sessions on intersectionality,
thinking about identities, identities of our students, of
our faculty, of our staff. How do we build connections,
community, in thinking of multiple ways of understanding
what makes us who we are. Then we'll also concurrently have a
session with Chrome River training. If you don't know of
Chrome River, it's a new program for inputting a lot of
accounting information. This is for faculty, staff, I think
everybody could benefit from this one. Anybody who's worked
the Chrome River right now understands there is a bit of a
learning curve. So it's something to look forward to.
We'll have folks in the district running this one. And then
lunch. Then this will be cool. We'll have a presentation
primarily from the students in this club, Delta Alpha Pi club.
This is a club for high functioning students with
disabilities. And they'll be talking about some of their
experiences navigating through college, and especially, working
with accommodations and how has that been beneficial to them,
what are some challenges, what are some learning opportunities
for us as faculty and staff, hearing from the student's
perspective. And then we'll have a presentation also about our
Zero Textbook Cost program. And this will be fun too. We were
thinking about having a session, this we got in person, this one
about crafting. We'll have a room set aside. And it's a
project just kind of as a mindfulness activity. It'll
mostly, you know, some hands on stuff, some sewing or some
knitting. Some other activities just to get us thinking about
things from a hands on kind of point of view. And then finally,
a session on grading for equity from folks involved in our CHESS
program. And then a HyFlex training, that'll be 100% in
person a HyFlex training, because we have to show you the
actual equipment. And could we have the next slide, please? And
I'll pick up the pace for the next group here.
So we have some some Canvas training. Student Services,
that'll be cool. That'll be talking about our Raider
Central, our Student Health Center, and our EOPS program. So
this is important, again, for faculty and staff to all be
involved in this. I say it every time we talk about student
services, but it's worth reminding students who make use
of our student services, vast majority of them, we ask them,
you know, "What brought you here? How did you know to come
here?" And almost always, they say, because my faculty member
told me to come here. So it's really important, I think, for
everyone to be involved in the student services. We will have a
session on Microsoft Teams, as we were talking about earlier,
another HyFlex opportunity. Some creativity and teaching,
continuing that series from Beth Megill and Claire Sadnik. And
then some writing opportunities at MC Write and reimagining our
campus, thinking about articulating ourselves and our
visions through writing, and then how do we enact that in
real life. So those are our sessions. Those are our
opportunities for PD coming up. And again, more detailed
information coming out very soon, including Zoom links and
blurbs in the sessions. Thank you
all for
thank you all for participating on this one or for tuning in,
and I look forward to seeing you all soon.
Mary: Thank you, Brian, that looks really exciting. Lots
of great opportunities. Julius there was one big question
that...One big question that I do see would probably need just
asking if there'll be a staff meeting to talk about exemptions
and that or if this needs to be, at this point, if people are
still waiting to hear about any exemptions, they need to reach
out to HR.
Julius: They need to reach out to HR.
Mary: Thank you,
just wanting to verify that. And we will send a prepared the Mary: Thank you,
just wanting to verify that. And we will send a prepared the
document I mentioned but we can also put a reference in to the
board policy, which is the reason for doing the
documentation behind the vaccine mandate. So we will send that
out to all faculty. So you will have that resource available.
Thank you. Okay. Okay, I think we're on the next slide then?
Jennifer: We are at the celebratory part of our campus
update today to celebrate first of all, the classified
professional retirements. Folks who've retired in the last few
short months. So we've got a few of them. We have several of them
actually. Next slide, please? So first up, Conni Grizzard, who
recently will I don't know I'm trying to remember when she
retired, probably about August-September. She was a
senior administrative assistant 22 years of service. She worked
most recently in Mary Rees' office. I know she's worked in a
number of offices over the years. So congratulations to
Conni. She was not able to join us today. But again, we wish her
very well in many, many happy returns for her retired years.
Next up is Mickey Howell from the theatre department, who was
also a part time instructor. He was with us, oh my gosh, 39
years at Moorpark College. So congratulations to Mickey and
many happy returns to him as well, in his golden years or in
retired life. Wonderful. Next up is Peggy Kinney from the
Admissions and Records office. 22 years of service. Wow, I
haven't added all these up, but it's a lot of years just between
four people. So congratulations to Kinney, or I'm sorry to Peggy
Kinney on her retirement. And last but not least we have Kerry
Mehle from the graphics department. And we had Kerry, of
course, with us for 30 years. He left us I think September. He
retired the beginning of September. So congratulations to
Kerry. Many happy returns to him as well. It's just between the
two of I haven't added it up but it's 44 plus 30 is 70 plus 39 is
like 109 years. Is that right? 109 between all four Wow. Next
slide, please? And then not last but not least, we have Tommy
Arellano, our Athletics Equipment Manager and Tommy is
with us today. So we are super happy to be able to celebrate
with Tommy, and thank him and wish him well for 39. Wow. 39
years of service. I'm going to hand the mic over to Matt
Crater, our Athletics Director, who is here to help us celebrate
Tommy's retirement.
Matt Crater: Thank you, Jennifer. It's an honor to
introduce Tommy. I've been here for almost a year now. And to
think that he's been here for almost 40 years and all the
students that he's impacted is truly an honor. So I'm gonna
read a short little thing that we have on Tommy. Words do not
do him justice, but I hope that we'll get to see him over the
next few years as he comes back to some of our games. So Tommy
has served the Moorpark College Athletics Equipment Manager for
nearly 40 years and has become an iconic member of the Moorpark
College Athletics community began at the age of 18. Tommy
has served every student athlete at Moorpark College since the
March of 1982. It's tallying well over 10,000 student
athletes in his career. Tommy has set the standard for what it
means to be a member of Moorpark College Athletics with his quick
wit, relentless work ethic and serving heart. While his title
is equipment manager, he is a true jack of all trades. He has
dedicated countless hours to helping our coaches, faculty,
staff, and especially, student athletes achieve their goals.
Tommy's office was the unofficial hangout of student
athletes. And the reason countless alumni would return to
the college to say hello. While there will be no replacing
Tommy, we are excited for him in his next adventure. And the
impact of our students will serve as the foundation of our
athletic department for years to come. So with that, Tommy, do
you have a few words?
Tommy Arellano: Hello, everyone, how's it going? The last couple
months have been and I try to put in perspective what I've
done for Moorpark College. And it's kind of hard to really say
much what I've done and because I've, I'm kind of humbled by all
this attention that I'm getting. I mean, I didn't set out to do
this to become what I am right now. How I ended up but it's
just, you know, it was time, it was time for me to go. And I
just, you know, it just it's hard right now for me to even
put into words what I need to say that. But I just want to
thank Matt Calfin. He's been pretty supportive for the last
couple of months through this process, and then, of course,
just want to thank Matt, Leanne, Robert, Cherisse and Mariel. I
kind of didn't want a big celebration to go out. I wanted
to slide out really easily and didn't want to a big
celebration. And I know they were that crew, you know, it
was, I don't want that burden on them to put a party for me. So I
just wanted to, you know, slide out quickly. I did ask, I have
been asked, am I going to miss it? I'm not going to miss the
job itself. I am going to miss the relationships that I've
built over the years. And I'm going to miss the knocking on
the window training room window door, signify my arrival and my
departure from work. I'm going to miss what Robert gets for
lunch. And I'm going to miss Leanne's voice down the hall
when she's barking at Matt. It's kind of funny to hear with the
new renovation, you can kind of hear everything. So and couple
of times, right? I need to go over there and help Matt out.
The question I get is, what am I going to do? Well, first thing
I'm going to do, I'm not going to drive out to Moorpark every
day, because I still live in Carpinteria. But what I am going
to do is I'm just going to sit back and relax, take it all in
and then over the next few months decide what I'm going to
do. So just once again, I just want to thank everybody for all
the congratulatory remarks and the support over the last couple
months. And but thank you again.
Mary: Thank you Tommy, we're really gonna miss you.
We'll miss all the people that are recently retired from the
semester. We do have one additional person on the next
slide that we want to acknowledge. Pam Kennedy Luna is
going to be retiring this semester as well. After 21 years
here at Moorpark College. I think you all know the impact
our counselors have, and Pam does a stellar job, and her
students always love her. The faculty, the staff, all very
much appreciate. Anytime you have her on one of your
committees, you know, you're in good shape on that. So we will
very much miss Pam and we wish her well. And know she's going
to miss us, but she's going to have a great time in her
retirement in that. So I did want to put one additional
announcement on the retirement. The position for the Vice
President of Academic Affairs position is open and I am not
going to be applying for that position. I am going to be
retiring the end of June. So I will be joining this list at the
end of
spring semester.
So Julius, I think we have you next.
Julius: Thank you, Mary. And of course, Mary throws this
bombshell out at the very end, right before I have to say
something like, "Well, what the?" But anyway, we have Mary
for the rest of the spring semester, and we certainly we'll
celebrate Mary at that point in time. But until then, she's
still here. And we are so grateful for her continued
service to the college. Really I wanted to use these last few
minutes to just thank you all for your resiliency. I know we
all know it's been a very tough semester. It's been a tough
couple of years. But really, we have been successful when you
think about it. Or you think about it, we have held students
lives together because we've provided them a place to go,
whether virtually or hybrid or HyFlex or on ground. We have
held students lives together even moments where there was a
lot of challenge for us. We kept the campus open so that students
can come and utilize our Wi Fi, our Grounds folks kept the
campus going clean and really the pristine oasis that it is in
our community. The faculty and the staff and the administrators
continuously invest in the success of our students through
going the extra mile every day. And I thank you for that. I know
that this has been a challenging year. The country's divided in a
lot of issues. And for us vaccines is one of them. And
we're on various sides of that argument. My hope is that at
some point we will move beyond being on various sides of an
argument and just come back to being who we are in our Moorpark
College community. And that requires healing. And that
requires an awareness that we need to be respectful of one
another. And my hope is that we'll continue to do that. I'm
very proud of this campus community. This is a place where
I know so much good happens. And I thank each and every one of
you for doing that. There is so much to come ahead, as you see
that we have retirements that have happened, that are
happening. We have positions that we'll be filling in the
spring semester, and the college continues and the community
continues to grow and shape itself. And that is because of
each and every one of us. That we make this community what it
is. So I hope that you will take some rest, some much needed rest
over the following weeks, that you will enjoy time with family
and friends safely, and that you will come back in January to
serve and support and motivate and challenge and inspire us as
we do this work moving forward. Have a happy holiday season.
Wishing you the best of health and well being and thanking you
for all that you continue to do. Have a great rest of 2021.
Looking forward to all the 2022 brings. Take care. Our next
update is on January 10, 2022. It's the first day of school. We
shall be meeting at the same space, which is right here
virtually, and continuing to celebrate the Moorpark College community.