Goal I. Access To Higher Education
On May 3rd, Dr. Eric Reno, Dr. Beth Lewis, and Debbie Hamilton visited The University Center (TUC), a multiple-institution teaching center, in The Woodlands, Texas. TUC is a partnership between the North Harris Montgomery Community College District and Sam Houston State University, Prairie View A&M University, Texas Southern University, the University of Houston, the University of Houston-Downtown, and Texas A&M University offering a variety of bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees. The NLC administration met with Penny Westerfeld, the Associate Vice Chancellor of TUC, and Dr. Steve Head, the Executive Vice Chancellor of NHMCCD.

Northeast Lakeview College established its third endowed named scholarship, the Jordan Ford Founder’s Scholarship Endowment for $5,000. These funds will be used to award scholarships to future Northeast Lakeview College students.

Achieving the Dream has awarded NLC a $9,600 grant award to implement Best Practices in Developmental Education: Facilitating Instruction & Assessment in Open Entry/Open Exit Competency Based Developmental College Reading Courses which aims to improve the rate at which college developmental/remedial reading students successfully complete their courses. The objective of Best Practices is to increase the success rate of developmental/remedial reading students to 75% (a 10% increase from 2005) by implementing an innovative teaching approach which increases student motivation to accelerate learning. Best Practices will be implemented at NLC during the 2007-2008 academic year.

Goal III. Workforce Development
Dr. Cindy Griffith, Dean of Workforce Development and Continuing Education, met with Rob Tobias, Director of Economic Development for the City of Live Oak, and Jim McAden, CPS Energy Economic Development, last week to discuss collaboration on a Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) program for the local community. The program is designed to assess the assets and opportunities of individual companies through periodic surveys, interviews and visitations by the partnership team of CPS Energy, the City of Live Oak, and Northeast Lakeview College. A number of visits to large area employers are planned for dates in June to introduce the partnership team and BRE initiative.

Goal IV. Capacity To Serve
The NLC Public Relations Department facilitated a staff and faculty web training and information session on May 4th. Facilitated by Kathleen Johnson-Hodge, College Director of Public Relations and Tom Raymond, Sr. Multimedia Specialist, the training’s purpose was to streamline the web process. Participants learned the policies, guidelines, and procedures for developing departmental and faculty web pages.

Goal I. Access To Higher Education
Dean of Performance Excellence Julie Pace and Biology Instructor Jose Luis Egremy served on a review board for the John Jay Science and Engineering Academy Senior Presentations. High school seniors in this program completed a service learning project and gave a 15-minute presentation, after which they answered questions from a Review Board panel.

Goal II. Student Success
Northwest Vista College’s Fine and Performing Arts area will offer exciting new courses in music and dance as a part of its first annual Maymester Institute of World Music and Dance. Music Improvisation, a course that explores traditions in African music, will be taught by West African musician-educator Adolphe Yacè, who is currently in the U.S. on a Fulbright scholarship at Boston University.
The dance course will be taught by Brazilian dancer, choreographer and instructor Rosangela Silvestre. During her visit to San Antonio, Silvestre will also teach classes at Palo Alto College and the Carver Community Cultural Center. She will be joined by Northwest Vista College dance students in a closing performance at the Carver on June 1.

Goal V. Organizational Communication
Last week, Northwest Vista College began a series of meetings to discuss possible options related to the college’s organizational structure. The Strategic Leadership Team provided feedback on Thursday, May 3. Town Hall meetings are scheduled for May 10 and May 11.

Goal I. Access To Higher Education
PAC’s Mariachi Program, in conjunction with the Mexican American Business & Professional Women’s Club of San Antonio, is hosting a two-day Mariachi Educational Workshop May 18-19 for local area middle and high schools. Educational workshops and music competitions will highlight a traditional “Garibaldi Mariachi Festi-val” which will feature strolling mariachis, food and novelty booths.

Goal II. Student Success
PAC students enrolled in a Photography II course held an exhibit and opening reception at the Jump Start Theater Blue Star Arts Complex, May 4 to showcase their course work. The exhibit, entitled “Capturing the Spirit,” will be on display at the complex throughout the month.

Goal III. Workforce Development
PAC is advertising new courses in A+ Computer Certification Courses for computer support professionals. The program is conducted in two parts and features extensive, hands-on training in both hardware and software aspects of computer support. The program is designed to provide the student with all the necessary skills and knowledge to pas the CompTIA A+ hardware and software certification test.

Goal V. Organizational Communication
PAC’s Fine & Performing Arts/Speech Communications Chair Karen Mahaffy participated in two program grant review panels for the Houston Arts Alliance, May 3. Mahaffy reviewed applications from visual and media arts organizations seeking financial support from the City of Houston.

Goal II. Student Success
The St. Philip’s College Chapter of the National Society of Leadership and Success inducted 44 new members on Thursday, May 3. To be eligible for induction, members completed several activities, including attending three leadership presentations, participating in the Success Networking Team, and attending a Leadership Training Day.

The Department of Student Life and the Campus Activity Board hosted an awards reception for student leaders on the campus. The event featured Campus Activity Board volunteers, San Antonio Educational Partnership Scholarship recipients, First Time in College awardees, Men’s Intramural Basketball participants and Student Life student staff.

A total of 14 students applied for summer, 2007, internships with the Disney Corporation; all of the students have been offered positions.

Members of the “Breaking Through” initiative attended the Peer Learning Meeting in Portland, Oregon, on April 24th – 27th. Mary Cottier, Chair of the Mathematics Department, presented at the session entitled “Understanding the Process of Contextualization”. Her presentation was well received and the President-Elect of the California Community College Association for Occupational Education has requested that Cottier and other members of the initiative present at their annual conference in October. Later this month, Dr. John Carnes, Dean of Applied Science and Technology, Dr. Janet Flores, Associate Professor of Developmental Reading, Lauri Humberson, Instructor in English, and Renita Mitchell, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, will present at the NISOD conference on the same topic.

St. Philip's College has been identified as a “Learning College” for the “Breaking Through” initiative. The initiative seeks to make colleges stronger, smarter and better to allow low-skilled, low-income adult students to successfully rise through the ranks of higher learning toward a brighter future socially, economically, and personally.

The SPC Baldrige Red Team follow-up activity was facilitated by Dr. Adena Loston to discuss the next steps for deploying and implementing the Baldrige Criteria to the greater College community.

Goal III. Workforce Development
Dr. Adena Loston addressed the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce’s Aerospace Industry Council to promote SPC partnerships with industry in order to enhance the Aerospace Academy and to strengthen levels of participation with the various school districts.

Alamo Tech Prep is partnering with St. Philip's College (Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Arts and Continuing Education) and Region 20, to sponsor local high school teachers to receive ServSafe Training this summer. The Business Information Solutions Department is partnering with Tech Prep and Continuing Education to conduct Microsoft Office and Microsoft Network for high school and college teachers.

Through Project QUEST, the Workforce Training & Development Department has received approval to conduct two welding classes, one HVAC class, and one Electrical class. Project Quest has requested additional Electrical, Plumbing, and Homebuilding classes to be conducted.

Goal IV. Capacity To Serve
The Instructional Innovation Center (IIC) held Web Migration training and IIC staff assisted faculty and staff in other web based applications.

The SPC Web Site Committee made a presentation of the new SPC Web site to the President’s Council on May 1. The site will begin its rollout on May 21, 2007 with work to convert all departments to the new templates continuing through the summer and perhaps into the fall semester. The Web Site Committee is putting the finishing touches on the Web requirements and procedures. The College Webmasters are developing a “SPC Web Toolkit” to provide resources to the College Web authors.

SPC had agreed to participate in a grant project, submitted last year by the University of Texas at Austin to the National Institutes of Health, to investigate the use of tobacco by vocational college students. Dr. Alexandra Loukas from the UT Department of Kinesiology and Health Education has been informally advised that the grant will be funded.

Work is underway on a proposal in response to a RFP from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for a Summer Bridges Program for graduating high school seniors who have not passed the TAKS. The proposal is expected to be aligned our existing summer program for First Time in College. The objective would be to add 100 students from schools in the San Antonio Independent School District. The grant will provide up to $75,000 and is due in Austin on May 22.

Goal I. Access to Higher Education
Jan Starnes received a Superintendent's Award for serving on the College and Career Awareness Taskforce of the Northeast Independent School District this year. The group developed a college and career awareness curriculum to be used throughout the district from preschool to high school. She also arranged a meeting with key administrators at NEISD and San Antonio College to develop together closer relations and programs. As a result, their dual credit programs are increasing and all graduating seniors will apply to college. "This was a successful venture, and many relationships were developed between NEISD and SAC through this endeavor," said Starnes.

Goal II. Student Success
At 7 p.m. on May 10, San Antonio College held its 79th Annual Commencement Exercise at Freeman Coliseum. More than 800 students graduated, receiving an Associate’s Degree in Arts & Science or in Applied Science or a certificate. Speakers included Outstanding Former Student Ward Allen White III, an Assistant District Attorney in the Office of the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney, who is believed to be the first full-time African-American student to attend the college when he registered in September 1955. He went on to earn his J.D. from Yale Law School. Also, student Brittney Knouse spoke. She was awarded the Texas State Champion and Regional Champion in Communication Analysis and Informative Speaking as a member of the SAC Speech Team. Other speakers included Chancellor Bruce H. Leslie and Board Chair Roberto Zarate. Trustees Charlie Conner, Gary Beitzel, Jennifer Ramos, Denver McClendon and James Rindfuss also attended the ceremony. Other participants included the ROTC Honor Guard, the Sign Choir, and the San Antonio College Brass Ensemble.

Goal IV. Capacity To Serve
San Antonio College English adjunct faculty instructor Ellen Walroth and History Professor Carol Keller made arrangements for San Antonio College to secure a free copy of the DVD "Discounted Dreams: High Hopes and Harsh Realities at America's Community Colleges" (a documentary by John Merrow for PBS). They invited faculty, staff and administrators throughout the district office and the Alamo Community Colleges to attend a free advance screening of this video on Tuesday, May 8 in the Moody Learning Center.

Goal V. Organizational Communication
San Antonio College President Robert E. Zeigler made a presentation on Monday, May 7 for the college’s community CIP Committee regarding the status of construction projects, related parking issues, and more general information about the college.