CHANCELLOR’S C-DIRECTDecember 7, 2016

Dear Colleagues:

It is difficult to find words to convey the depth of the tragedy that our community has witnessed in the wake of the Warehouse Fire and the loss of so many lives this weekend. Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those who perished in the fire, and we recognized the difficult path of healing that those who survived are now facing.

We are still in the process of identifying those within the Peralta Community who were affected by the Warehouse Fire, but we believe as many as six former, current and new students are among the victims. We mourn their passing.

Even as we are so saddened by this devastating fire in the Fruitvale District, for the sake of the survivors, and in memory of the victims, we must, together, look ahead with a sense of hope that tragedies such as this will never happen again. Together, as a community, we will overcome this terrible loss.

Jamille Teer and Emergency Response to the Warehouse Fire

I received a copy of an email from Jamille Teer in General Services, a portion of which I have included below. It is amazing the extraordinary people we have as colleagues here at Peralta. Thank you, Jamille, for your service to the community.

[F]or the past three years, I have served as the primary Saturday caseworker in the Alameda County Red Cross Chapter Office. As the caseworker on duty this week, I was alerted to an incident in the early morning hours on Saturday, and told that I may have clients. That fire was the Ghost Ship Artist Collective, and our team had no idea of how large incident would grow to be.

Over the past two days, as one of two caseworkers on the ground at the initial response, I have interviewed many of the residents of the Ghost Ship Artist Collective. Many of their stories

have been harrowing, heartbreaking, and in some cases heartening. While casework and direct client assistance have been given to residents; my role as a caseworker and larger the response to this tragedy has not yet ended.

As caseworkers we have been tasked to begin giving direct client assistance to the families of the missing and deceased. As such, I have been asked, and have accepted several shifts this week to continue to assist in Red Cross response to this event. I have in all cases tried to fill shifts that limit my time away from the District.

Dr. Mike Orkin and Distance Education

Since the summer and throughout the fall semester, Dr. Mike Orkin and Dr. Inger Stark have worked with the DE Committee to research new support and resources for Distance Education. The Committee is close to making additional recommendations to move us forward. The progress has been excellent and I am pleased to see that we are heading in the right direction in supporting Distance Education. The final report and recommendations will be shared broadly. Recommendations will be run through the governance process before finalizing.

MLDAP

The Management Leadership Development Academy at Peralta met last week in its ongoing training in effective leadership. Dr. Mary Denise Jackson (Merritt faculty) conducted a workshop on communications, and Dr. Mel King led one on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to an organization (SWOT) analysis concept, a workshop that Kevin Wade will finish up at our February 24th session. Two members of the Academy are helping the District Office on improving our services to all and improving our communication. They will conduct activities to elicit more ideas for continuing to improve services at the District Office.

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Dr. Inger Stark’s Visit

Dr. Stark is a professor of Sociology at Laney College. She has helped us with the design of the new and more supportive approach to Distance Education. She visited with me on a different note, not only to share with me what was of concern, but also to be helpful in moving forward.

She shared with me some instances where there were practices, on my part, that she found questionable; though they did not violate any laws [my interpretation], she believes that they raised serious concerns for faculty and perhaps staff:

Increase of administrative positions at the district office; Use of interim appointments;  Awarding of contracts without bid processes; and Comments I made at open forums from Facebook and Instagram postings.

While I did not hide any of the actions and communicated them one way or the other, I accepted her criticism and agreed with myself that I could have involved more people in the decision-making process and have admitted so for the interim positions. For the contracts, in retrospect I could have involved more people in the decisions. That is a good lesson learned moving forward. Though I have communicated, these are also instances where I could have said things like, “we are not seeking bids and this is the legal ground we have for so…” or “we are not conducting a formal search because of whatever reason.” Some of these issues came up as criticism before, I appreciate Inger taking me at my word when I said to speak to me directly if I fail to live up to the New Peralta Way. I am so appreciative of that and hope other faculty and staff will decide to give me direct feedback to seek greater understandings of things I might have done without violating the spirit of Shared Governance. Thank you, Dr. Stark!

DAS: 10+1

We normally have an agenda for our 10+1 meeting, but we decided to just tackle a few ideas that have arisen:

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Fifth College Talk: As I spoke to the question of a Fifth College in my initial remarks to the District, I have subsequently received a lot of feedback and I have, for a time, not advocated such an expansion. Much research and planning is required before such an addition might materialize. I reassured the Senators we were NOT considering a fifth college, but rather a department, division or a unit called WDCE.

Use of Patten University: As you know I have met several times with Patten University officials as the institution has some buildings we might use to provide training in a variety of areas: Non-credit education, contract education, adult education, training for professionals, etc. Any uses of Patten University do not constitute the formation of a “fifth college.”

WDCE will not take away from the Colleges: WDCE is supposed to add to what the Colleges are already doing and not take away from them. WDCE is supposed to be self-sufficient within two years. There will be an agreement with each college sharing net benefits.

Guiding WDCE: The Faculty and Staff are encouraged to participate in an internal WDCE Board, which will set the parameters for the development of the WDCE and the control of its assets. Arrangements such as MOUs and the designated use of proceeds will be in place to ensure follow-through and accountability.

Campus Life Directors

I convened a meeting with all four Directors of Student Activities last week. This was in keeping with a goal the Board and I set last year to enrich the experiences of our students through Student Life activities. Gary Asbury (Laney), Tiffany Taylor (BCC), Fong Tran (COA), pictured together left, and Herbert Kitchen (Merritt), pictured right, attended the meeting and contributed helpful suggestions:

Exploring the potential of Student Government to be a class in the curriculum. Drawing from Dr. Lilia Chavez’s focus on students’ experiences at Merritt. Highlighting the best experiences at BCC, COA, Laney and Merritt to foster a rich collegiate

environment for all students. Seeking professional development opportunities for the Directors so they may enhance their

programs.

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Building student programs with the aim to develop strong leadership skills will enhance our Student Life activities.

Cleavon Smith’s Play

Congratulations to Professor Cleavon Smith of Berkeley City College and President of the District Academic Senate for the successful performance of the play that he wrote. I hope that many of you got to see the play in November and if not, you will have other opportunities to see it in December. Here is some information from about it:

Cleavon’s play, VS., started its run at Live Oak Theatre in Berkeley in November. Here¹s a link for details: http://theatrefirst.com/vs/”

Cleavon wrote: Let me know if you have any questions. I won’t be attending every

performance, but if you do get a group of students there on a particular date, Ill try my best to make myself available or work with the cast to arrange something to enhance our students' experience.

Sharing Student Stories through OpenIDEO Challenge

Mildred Lewis asked me to share this email from US Department of Education:

The US Department of Education continues our work on behalf of American students to encourage opportunity by ensuring access, affordability, and completion across the higher education system. There are tremendous examples of innovation across the nation, but we know that we must continue to do more to ensure that all students—especially those that are first generation and low-income, and students of color—continue to make gains.

That’s why I’m thrilled that we have partnered with the design firm IDEO to support the

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OpenIDEO Challenge on Reimagining Higher Education: https://challenges.openideo.com/challenge/future-of-highered/brief?utm_medium=email&utm_source=doe&utm_campaign=ed+sponsors+brief. The Challenge is a global effort to gain the perspectives of a diverse array of individuals to both understand the needs for higher education and reimagine what it could look like in the future.

During the current Research phase, we are calling a global community to action – to share your stories and reflections, emotions, perspectives, and other personal contributions related to education after high school and throughout one’s lifetime. Because we are seeking a diverse and wide-ranging set of stories, we encourage students at your institutions to submit their stories. An alternative way to get student stories into the Challenge is by having others interview or shadow students. Please consider how you might best get your student experiences into this design challenge by visiting the Challenge site https://challenges.openideo.com/challenge/future-of-highered/brief?utm_medium=email&utm_source=doe&utm_campaign=ed+sponsors+briefand clicking on “Participate in Research.”

Thank you for the work you continue to do on behalf of our students,Ted Mitchell, Under SecretaryUS Department of Education

Improving Peralta’s Email System

We have all been swamped by too much email, both in our private lives and here at Peralta. In order to alleviate the burden caused by these email messages, I have asked Executive Director of Public Information, Jeff Heyman, to work with IT to make positive changes to our email system. We have not changed the way we use our email system in more than a decade, and the old protocol has not kept pace with the proliferation of emails that impacts all of us. As I wrote last week, Executive Director Heyman will also be presenting the plan on my behalf to various shared governance bodies in the coming weeks.

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The proposed changes will enhance our ability to communicate in an open and democratic manner, while at the same time minimize the number of email messages we find filling up our in-boxes on a daily basis. Moreover, the new system will improve everyone’s ability to communicate important messages, routine matters and topical items that warrant open discussion.

Here is how the new email system is envisaged:

IT will create a District-wide listserv, open to all, to allow the free expression of views. The listserv will be set up as an “opt-in” service, so that only those who wish to receive messages will get them, and others who do not wish to participate, will not received unwanted messages. The District Faculty Development Officer will moderate this listserv.

Important messages that need to be sent across the District to all four colleges and the District Office can use announcements@peralta.edu, which is managed by the Department of Public Information.

We will continue the use of the College FAS lists for College-wide announcements. Each College, through the President’s Office, will manage the FAS list for their campus to ensure that messages are relevant and useful to the faculty and staff at the College.

The current District-wide FAS lists will be discontinued, and those wishing to send a message from one campus to another or to all Colleges can utilize the “Announcements” service detailed above. For vital messages, key administrators, the Chancellor, the Vice Chancellors, Presidents, etc., will continue to have limited access to the District-wide FAS lists.

Please let Jeff knew if you have any input on improving our email system.

JowelJowel C. Laguerre, Ph.D.

Chancellor

If you are building a culture where honest expectations are communicated and peer accountability is the norm, then the group will address poor performance and attitudes.

-Henry Cloud

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