Goal IV. Capacity To Serve
The Unified Staff Council Annual Retreat was held at Northeast Lakeview College on July 19, 2007. The theme of the retreat was “Providing Assistance and Balance.” Invited guest speakers were Dr. Bruce Leslie, Chancellor, discussed the Alamo Community Colleges’ Strategic Plan, and Mr. Ken Drayden, Compensation Manager, gave an overview of the newly approved compensation study.

Goal V. Organizational Communication
Northeast Lakeview College held its first Summer Leadership Retreat on July 17, 2007. Topics discussed were: Reflections on the 2006/2007 Academic Year; Three-Year Budget / Staffing / Programs Projections; SACS Accreditation Assignments; Academic/Student/Fiscal Services Calendar; Location Transition Issues; NLC Fall 2007 Convocation.

Goal IV. Capacity to Serve
Over the past year, NVC’s E-Team (Executive Team) has been meeting with various groups, identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement and looking to prepare organizationally for future growth that will come with the opening of new facilities in 2008 and 2009. In the spring, we identified possible models and took them to the Strategic Leadership Team and to Town Hall meetings for feedback. Following this process, we identified one model and worked with a representative group of 18 faculty and staff members for further feedback. During that process we identified how functions would align in the organization and issues to be addressed in each major area over the next year. I then took the proposed structure to the Chancellor for approval. The Chancellor has now approved the structure, and we are ready to begin some of the realignment and implementation. Some of the significant changes include:

• All credit and noncredit workforce education will be aligned under a Dean of Workforce Development (position to be advertised this week) who will report to the Academic Vice President.

• The Chancellor has asked each college to create a Vice President for College Services; for NVC, all performance excellence functions, budget operation, IT and liaison to District and District-managed functions will fall under this area.

• Recruitment will move under the Student Success area.

• A new Community Development area is being formed to include community education classes, partnership development, fundraising, off-campus site development and support, and event planning.

Goal I. Access To Higher Education
PAC, in conjunction with Texas A&M University—Kingsville System Center—San Antonio, held a “Registration Bash” in the Student Center, July 25. More than 100 students received one-on-one assistance in the application, testing, advising, financial aid and registration process. Plans are underway to host another registration drive on campus in early August.

Goal II. Student Support
PAC’s Scholarship Support Services (SSS) met with 42 students requesting scholarship information last week, along with processing approximately 200 applications for various ACCD scholarships such as the Trustee Scholarship (71), Frank M. Tejeda Memorial Scholarship (57) and the Gambrinus Scholarship (31).

Goal IV. Capacity To Serve
PAC’s Recreation and Sports Department lead a group of student, faculty and staff volunteers on a Habitat for Humanity—San Antonio service project in south San Antonio, July 20. Despite the wet weather, the volunteers made a progress toward the construction of a house in an area where 300 more houses will be built.

Goal V. Organizational Communication
PAC’s Natatorium is hosting the 2007 Speedo Long Course Sectional Championships, July 25-28. More than 700 swimmers from throughout Texas and Louisiana are participating in the tournament sanctioned by USA Swimming. The Express-News Area Boys Swimmer of the Year, Jimmy Feigen, of Churchill and Reagan’s Lily Moldenhauer, are some of the top participants competing in the event.

Stacey Johnson, PAC’s Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs, successfully defended her dissertation, "What Works: Factors Influencing Community College Hispanic Female Academic Achievement and Persistence to Graduation" at the University of Texas at Austin, July 19th.

Goal I. Access To Higher Education
The Department of Student Life hosted a Fall 2007 Registration Event on Wednesday, July 25 at both campuses. More than 13,000 invitations were mailed encouraging former and past students to enroll at St. Philip’s College. Students enrolled in Fall 2006 and Spring 2007, who have not yet registered for Fall 2007, were invited to re-apply, get registered and/or apply for financial aid in advance of the August registration rush.

Goal II. Student Support
The Fine Arts Department presented the play, “The Two Stories of the Three Little Pigs.” The delightful and entertaining production starred middle and high school students in a modern day interpretation of the children’s classic story. More than 1,300 people attended the performances.

James Wright, State Director for SkillsUSA at our Southwest Campus, conducted campus tours for three families (students and parents) from the San Antonio Independent School District. The students have been selected to participate in the Fall 2007 Phoenix program at St. Philip's College’s Southwest Campus.

Goal III. Workforce Development
St. Philip’s College received a $200,000 grant from the Port Authority of San Antonio to train workers for aircraft giant Boeing. Boeing plans to build a new 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The project expects to employ about 400 people with an economic impact of more than $40 million dollars. Through the aviation program at St. Philip’s College’s Southwest campus, students will be trained to build that aircraft.

Goal IV. Capacity To Serve
The special book purchasing day for the Quest Program is set for August 18th. This eliminates the lines during regular purchasing times. A large number of Fall semester books are in. The balance is arriving daily. The college cafeteria, the Tiger Café, will soon purchase a merchandiser. This will aid in the delivery of products to the student/customer. Comments are positive about the salads and fresh vegetables being prepared in the cafeteria. Another vending machine was placed in the Campus Center. These banks of machines are the most heavily used on campus. There also is now an enclosed bulletin board near the ATM machine. This is an ideal spot to convey information about the college to community members.

Representatives with Institutional Advancement and Development met with the ACCD Foundation to review and improve recordkeeping for scholarship gifts and simplify information sharing between Foundation, Financial Aid, and the colleges’ development offices.

Goal V. Organizational Communication
The Office of Community and Public Relations released guidelines for disseminating campus information to the public. St. Philip’s faculty and staff were informed about deadlines, requirements and how to make requests for advertisements, brochures and other publications. This will allow for conformity and unity when creating documents and releasing them internally and externally. Also, the College’s new logo was unveiled and posted on the website.

Popular urban/hip-hop radio station, “98.5 The Beat” broadcast live at St. Philip’s College. The promotion was part of the station’s “Back to School” bash. St. Philip’s College received more than an hour of radio airtime. During the broadcast, Dr. Adena Williams Loston explained the various programs and events at the college. Students and faculty on campus that day received promotional prizes and registered to win a car, sponsored by the radio station.

Goal I. Access to Higher Education
Forty 10th and 11th grade students from Jefferson, Fox Tech, Lanier, and Edison high schools enrolled in and graduated from the Summer Bridge Program, which was held June 11 – July 20 and funded for the first time by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The purpose of the program is to provide early assessment of students' placement levels, recruit them for dual credit at the high schools or remediation in the Senior Summer Program, and eventually enroll students in college courses. Program Coordinator Daniel Sustaita, in the Evening, Weekend and Distance Education Division, and Distance Education Director Helen Torres worked with Dean Ruben Flores and division staff to implement the program, in partnership with faculty and staff from the Writing Center, English Department, Math Department, Admissions & Records, Assessment Center, Internet Skills Center, and the San Antonio Independent School District. Dean Flores said, “One of the most impressive things about the program is that these students are from rival high schools, but during the program they were all SAC students.”

The Early Development of General Engineering (EDGE) Program held its graduation this week for 28 high school students, 10th – 12th grades. The summer program offers instruction and a special environment for students interested in engineering. The program, which serves as a bridge between high school and the college freshman year, drew media attention twice this summer, for the robotics competition and the class’ final project “Bridge Design, Construction, and Testing.” Dr. Kris Clark, Executive Vice President, Dr. Dan Dimitriu, EDGE Director and Coordinator of the Engineering Program, and students Kelly Rada and Franc Castro spoke to students and their families at the graduation ceremony. The students came from 15 high schools throughout the city.

Goal II. Student Support
The Department of Theatre and Speech Communication recently held its SummerSet Theatre Production of “Lost in Yonkers,” by Neil Simon in McCreless Theatre.

Goal IV. Capacity to Serve
Service-Learning Coordinator Audrey Grams has announced that the Service-Learning Office will award $2,000 Learn and Serve mini-grants to faculty who wish to incorporate service learning into their curricula in the Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 semesters. Full-time and adjunct faculty who have not previously incorporated service-learning into their curriculum or have only utilized service learning for one semester are encouraged to apply by the August 3 deadline.

Goal V. Organizational Communication
The Staff Council has announced its annual drive to collect school supplies for neighboring Travis Elementary School. A list of supplies and 11 drop-off points have been circulated to all employees through email.

Dental Assisting student Tricia Chapa, who won the Gold Medal at the SkillsUSA national competition, was featured in the July 25 issue of the San Antonio Express-News’ Neighbors Spotlight section.