Dear SRJC Community,

I am pleased to share with you the District updates that were provided to the Board of Trustees at the November meeting last night.

As a reminder, you will receive these updates from me following the monthly Board of Trustees meeting to celebrate the accomplishments and successes of our colleagues across the District for the previous month. These updates are a chance for you to learn more about the excellent programs, services, initiatives, events, and work we undertake in support of our students. You will find all District Monthly Updates on our News site at https://news.santarosa.edu/.

 

Office of the President 

• SRJC Voices Listening Sessions were held with Public Safety Training Center, Older Adults, Shone Farm, Disabled Student Programs, Workforce Development & Business, and Petaluma Campus: Student Support Programs, Academic Affairs, Student Services. 
• Visited the SRJC Oak Leaf class/newsroom with Professor Ann Belden- my first unofficial press conference. 
• Attended the following events/meetings: 
  • LFSA Bienvenida with faculty, students, and classified professionals 
  • Pepperwood Preserve Board of Directors Meeting 
  • Becoming Independent Olympics- Celebration of our community partnerships 
  • Cafecito with the President in the Student Activities Center 
  • Foster Youth Jacket Ceremony, where over 60 foster youth were recognized for having earned a 3.0 GPA in any semester since Fall 2020.  
  • Community Preview Breakfast for the Roseland Regional Library- Celebrating Roseland Rising
  • Trustee Mariana Martinez received an award for her commitment to equity in Sonoma County through the North Bay Business Journal Diversity Awards. 
  •  

Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Research and Planning 

• The office collaborated on several requests and research projects including: 
  • College Council Survey on Shared Governance 
  • Guided Pathways Plan 
  • Clipper BayPass Survey  
  • DRD Student Survey 
  • DRD Employee Survey 
  • Vice President of Student Services Feedback surveys 
  • Publishing our Fall 2022 Student Survey Report 
  • Two IRB approvals  
• Provided analysis on Student Equity Plan Disproportionate Impact 
• We welcomed a new Research Analyst, Kelli Woodard, who will support our AB705/AB 1705 efforts and the Avanzando program. 
• We also conducted a presentation on how to use CTEOS survey data to define student success at the fall CCCAOE conference. 

 

Office of Marketing & Communications 

• In collaboration with the Rosco Redesign Workgroup, a survey was set out to the SRJC community inviting them to provide feedback for the redesign of Rosco. The feedback will help inform the design contest and provide direction to graphic designers and artists in creating a new image of Rosco.  
• In support of the Office of the President and the SRJC Foundation, the MarCom team provided media, graphic design, logistics, planning, and other support to host a successful Investiture Ceremony and Celebration.  
• The design and rebrand for the Older Adults Program was finalized with support from Design Guild. We are looking forward to unveiling and launching this new name and growing enrollment in this program. 

 

Academic Affairs 

• As part of the Avanzando (HSI STEM) initiative’s efforts to foster professional development for employees and students, Daisy Cardenas, STEM Student Success Coordinator, and Lucero Jimenez Ceja, Student Support Specialist, accompanied 4 students to Chicago where they attended HACU and the Adelante Leadership Institute in Chicago.  The leadership conference spanned 3 days, where the SRJC students had the opportunity to network with over 700 other undergraduates from across the country, delve into enriching presentations, dynamic workshops, and meet with potential employers and internship providers. 
• Over 2,500 attendees spent a wonderful Fall afternoon at Shone Farm for the annual Fall Festival on October 14th. Activities included u-pick pumpkins, corn, and sweet potatoes.  Additionally, guests were able to do hay rides, see sheep shearing demonstrations, pet other farm animals, wine taste, buy vegetables from the Sustainable Agriculture program, plants from the Environmental Horticulture Program, and flowers from this year’s student entrepreneurship program. Huge thank you to all the staff, faculty, managers, and students who contributed to this phenomenal event – especially Connor Murphy, Shone Farm Manager, and Lynn Ellerbrock, Coordinator for Shone Farm Sales & Marketing. 
• The day after hosting the President’s Investiture, Shone Farm was privileged to host the first annual Queer Farmer Field Day. Approximately 50-75 individuals attended, networked, and built community through activities such as floral crown construction, roasting peppers, and apple tasting.  
• The move is on for the Lindley Center for STEM Education! Thanks to efforts from Capital Projects, IT, the Warehouse staff, and multiple classified staff in STEM, the first phase of moving instructional equipment and supplies from Chemistry, Physics, and Engineering & Applied Technology took place at the end of October as part of the multi-stage plan to furnish and equip the Lindley Center for STEM Education. Over 500+ boxes, dozens of pallets and carts, and large sized items were moved from multiple locations across the District as equipment had been staged for over a year to occupy the Lindley Center.  
•  A large contingent representing Career Education at SRJC attended the Fall conference for CCCAOE and learned about the new changes from the Governor's and Chancellor's offices, especially regarding Title V and Work Based Learning. Attendees presented at a panel  on the new revisions of Title V – Work Experience with the California Internship Work Experience Association Board of Directors and Sandra Sanchez, Vice Chancellor of Economic and Workforce Development. 
• Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 ADN program students had a 100% pass rate for the National Council Licensure Exam (NCLEX), an amazing achievement. In recognition of this accomplishment by the students, Congressman Jared Huffman’s office gave Dr. Katherine Magee, Director of the ADN program, a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition.  
• SRJC Women’s Cross Country Team won the Big 8 Conference and the SRJC Football team sponsored Domestic Violence Night on October 14th. 
• Music Department Studies held a public recital on October 27th and the Bennett Friedman Jazz Quartet was on November 2nd, featuring Bennett Friedman who has been teaching at SRJC since 1979. 
• Theatre Arts will be presenting the musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Tickets are on sale now. https://theatrearts.santarosa.edu/2023-2024-season-Christmas 

 

Finance and Administrative Services  

• We continue to collaborate with the City of Santa Rosa on the bike and pedestrian overcrossing that will connect the east and west sides of the 101 and is anticipated to land on the District property at the corner of Elliott and Armory. The city continues to secure the last amounts needed to fund the unification project while we work on the easements and property transactions needed. We anticipate bringing updates to the Board of Trustees in January for further information and discussion.  
• With the approval of the District Strategic Plan, the Planning and Budget Council has charged the Sustainability Committee with creating the District’s inaugural official multi-year sustainability plan that achieves the Presidential Climate Commitment and the CCCCO Climate Action and Sustainability Goals.  
• Various members of the Finance and Administrative Services team worked with Student Financial Services and the Foundation to create compliant and consistent processes for using grant funds for student support, including gift cards/incentives and student payments. A special thank you to Restricted Programs Accountant Stephanie Dirks for her tireless work on this project. We have been piloting them with a few departments and will roll out district-wide later this month.  

 

Student Services   

• SRJC hosted over 120+ high school counselors and community partners on Friday, Oct 6th in its annual High School Counselor Conference.  The event, organized each year by the Student Outreach Team, strives to bring together and strengthen our K-12 partnership with local high schools.  This year the event was held at our Santa Rosa Campus and showcased the new Polly Hall and STEM buildings. Also highlighted was the participation of Sonoma State University highlighting the recent MOU for guaranteed admissions.    
• Inter-Club Council (ICC) and Student Services hosted the first Club Day of the Fall semester on October 25th, and it was a massive success! Hundreds of students passed through the Bertolini Quad during the event, where they met student leaders from the more than 35 official clubs at SRJC. Students went from table to table to learn more about the wide variety of clubs they can join, and stayed to enjoy some trick-or-treat candy, drink some hot beverages, get a free haircut, play lawn games, get a flu shot from Student Health, and listen to some spooky music. To top it all off, the event culminated with an awesome lunch spread featuring a free Nacho bar for all in attendance, courtesy of Student Services. By the end of the event, club leaders were excited to report that their recruiting efforts were very successful, with several clubs adding more than 50 new members and two clubs adding more than 100!    
• Mental health sessions are up in Student Psychological Services by about 6.3% and number of students seen is up about 10%. Not only is there an increase in quantity, but an increase in acuity, which means the cases are more severe. There has been an increase in the first ten weeks of the semester compared to last year.  

 

Year	Clients	Sessions
2022	179	492
2023	196	523

  

• On Wednesday, October 25, 2023, the College to Career program held an information night open to the public to over 100 attendees. SRJC is one of nine similar programs in California that gives educational and employment opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities and autism. Supported by the Disability Resources Department, this competitive program is a collaboration between SRJC and the Department of Rehabilitation. Prospective students are required to apply for the program, go through the interview process, and are either accepted or deferred. This program is highly sought after as C2C at SRJC has been ranked number one out of all programs for the past five years.   
• During this past summer, Student Services partnered with the Office of Marketing & Communications and a company called Motimatic who specializes in using motivation science to do outreach to students. Together we developed a social media campaign using the college’s branding to reach out to “stop-out” students, between fall 2019 and fall 2022, and “applied but not enrolled” students, between spring 2022 and spring 2023. We recently received the final data on the success of the program. We are proud to say that we had 789 unduplicated registrations for a total of 4890 units enrolled. All of these students stayed enrolled past first census.    
• The SRJC Roseland Student Services team has been busy getting students fully matriculated to gain priority registration for spring 2024. To this end, two full-time and four associate counselors are providing services to develop educational plans and facilitate orientations this fall. We have added evening hours to provide more services when students need it most. The rest of the team focuses on providing registration services and guidance on navigating the Student Portal through workshops at the Welcome Center.  

 

Human Resources  

• SRJC’s Courageous Leaders Academy was recognized with the DEIAA Champion Award at the ACHRO (Association of Chief Human Resources Officers) conference. SRJC was one of two colleges recognized with the other recipient being MiraCosta College. The next Courageous Leaders Academy kicked off on Friday, October 27th with a new cohort of SRJC employees.  

 

Foundation 

• The SRJC Foundation partnered with the President’s Office to plan and organize the Investiture of Dr. Garcia. The October 20th evening Investiture Celebration at Shone Farm was hosted by the Foundation. Thanks to our sponsors, the event netted $36,000 for the Student Housing Endowment. We recruited 84 individuals to join the Host Committee for the Investiture. These individuals and couples donated $1,000 and attended a Pre-Investiture party on October 19th in Healdsburg.  
• The Foundation participated in the planning and organizing of the October 20th community conversation hosted by Los Cien, highlighting LGBTQIA+ and Mental Health within the Latinx Community. Several SRJC students participated.    
• The Foundation Chair and Vice Chair joined us in Palm Springs October 4-6 for the annual CASE Conference on Community College Foundation Advancement.  
• Golden State Lumber & Building Materials is our newest partner in supporting programming in the new Construction Trade Center in Petaluma. They will donate $40,000 and name the Courtyard and the Construction Technology Lab. The Foundation has raised $440,000 for programming in the new Center.   

 

In community,

Dr. Garcia

Angélica Garcia, Ed.D.
Superintendent/President
707-527-4431, angelicagarcia@santarosa.edu