Goal I. Access to Higher Education
St. Philip's College’s Homecoming Celebration is scheduled for October 19-21. The event is being called a “friend-raiser” and is designed to bring SPC affiliates together, including graduates, former faculty members, community members and friends of the college. The purpose is to provide support for greater access and opportunities for current and future students to be successful. Celebration activities include a "Get Reacquainted" mixer, and graduate and faculty recognitions, as well as musical and dance performances.

Goal II. Student Support
The San Antonio College Service-Learning Office, organized by Coordinator Audrey Grams, held a Service-Learning and Volunteer Fair in the Loftin Student Center Fiesta Room on September 5. The event attracted 40 non-profit agencies in need of student service-learning volunteers as well as 200-300 students — a record number. The Service-Learning program makes it possible for students to complement their classroom studies with relevant community service.

Goal III. Workforce Development
The Westside Education and Training Center enrollment surpassed 600 students for the fall 2007 semester, a 60% increase over the fall semester last year.

Dr. Federico Zaragoza has been invited by Columbia University to lecture on Community College Workforce Development Issues during the Hechinger Fellowship Week Activities for Future Journalist on October 1, 2007 in New York City.

The Alternative Teacher Certification Program at NVC started the new year welcoming 32 students in the fall 2007 cohort. This was the result of a concentrated marketing effort that included invitations to military job fairs and guest appearances by NVC staff on Good Day SA and Des De San Antonio television programs. The net effect is 18 students seeking teacher certification in the area of Bilingual Education and 14 in Special Education. The number of entering students indicates an upward trend, but our key performance indicator continues to be the number of students securing internships with various public and charter schools throughout the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Eighteen students from previous cohorts are now teaching and helping area schools to meet critical needs.

Goal IV. Capacity To Serve
SPC was featured on News4 WOAI prime-time newscast during its Kitchen Cops segment on Wednesday, September 5, 2007. The College’s Tiger Café was presented with the Blue Plate Special Award that is given to eating establishments that receive a perfect inspection score from the San Antonio Health Department. The Tiger Café is the College’s on-campus cafeteria that serves thousands of students, faculty and staff daily.

Luis Mercado, PAC public information officer, has been appointed to serve a two-year term on the Citizen's Oversight Committee of the Advanced Transportation District. The ADT was created by Bexar County voters in the November 2004 general election. The charge of the committee is to advise ATD Trustees on issues related to the expenditure of the 1/4-cent sales and use tax authorized by the election. An estimated $34 million will be generated each year for transportation projects in San Antonio and Bexar County.

Dr. Eric Reno and Mark Hagen are attending the College Consortium for International Studies (CCIS) annual board meeting in Washington, D.C. Dr. Reno is the chairman of the board and Mark has been nominated to serve on the Academic Programs Committee and the Strategic Planning Committee.

ACCD was recognized by Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL) as a Mega Energy Saver at an award ceremony in College Station, Texas.

Goal V. Organizational Communication
The Department of Public Relations, in collaboration with Dr. Jo Carol Fabianke, produced 25,000 postcards to mail to first-time-in-college students to inform them of SB 1231, which calls for dropping no more than six classes during a student’s undergraduate studies. SPC is also initiating the Don’t Drop campaign to inform students, faculty and staff of this recently enacted legislation.

The SAC Public Relations director recently appeared on KABB-TV to explain the college’s smoking policy, including the new regulation that smoking is also prohibited in the parking lots. In addition, the department produced a flyer outlining the policy, which was distributed to students in orientation classes, during registration, and via the SAC website.

Juan Ortiz, PAC music instructor, was invited to represent the United States at the 14th Annual “El Encuentro del Mariachi” Music Festival currently underway in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Ortiz is leading a group of mariachi students from area high schools, colleges and universities (including seven Palo Alto College students) in this International event.

Dr. Leslie met with Judge Pat Tinley, Kerr County Judge in his continued effort to meet and dialogue with area county judges.

Mr. Zárate and Dr. Leslie met with Roddy Stinson of the San Antonio Express News. The discussion provided a good opportunity for the parties to meet and it opened doors for future conversations.

One of our Strategic Priorities is Leadership Development. The Board approved the new leadership program, ALAS (Spanish for wings) in June and it will kick off in October. Sixty faculty and staff applied to the program and the first class of 27 will be named the week of the 17th.

We have an increasing number of events and activities district-wide and are taking the opportunity to showcase such events on Time Warner Cable channel 98 and Grande cable channel 23. This section of the Chancellor’s Weekly Report provides a schedule of the programming for our regularly scheduled times of 12 – 2 pm on Saturday and 9 – 11 am on Sunday. Programming varies due to the timing of Board and committee meetings, groundbreaking ceremonies, etc. The programming for the coming weekend is as follows:

Saturday, 9/22, 12:00 – 2:00 p.m.
The regular September Board of Trustees meeting

Sunday, 9/23, 9:00 – 11:00 a.m.
The LULAC Parent/Child Scholarship Awards Ceremony