SYNOPSIS:

A report from Superintendent/President Karas is presented as information.

On February 27th, we hosted ACCJC President Dr. MC Powell at the Ukiah campus. Dr. Powell is travelling to member institutions to get to know colleagues throughout the region and to highlight promising programs and institutional transformation taking place. Vice President Polak, Vice President Cichocki, and I met with him. Coincidentally, Vice President Velasco was away on a ACCJC team visit at the time of Dr. Powell’s visit. The meeting ended with a walking tour of campus. We highlighted the Eagles Support Center in Lowery, the automotive remodeling project, and ended at the agriculture department. The visit will be highlighted in a forthcoming issue of ACCJC on the Move.

I had the pleasure of attending a Pianists Benefit Concert on Sunday, March 3rd in Lakeport. Proceeds from the event will be dedicated to the annual scholarship fund of the Lake County Friends of Mendocino College which also supports the summer production of Shakespeare at the Lake in Clearlake and Lakeport. One of the six pianists was Mendocino College’s instructor Elizabeth MacDougall.

Mendocino College Theatre Arts Department

The Mendocino College Theatre Arts Department will present Twelfth Night, the musical March 7-17 in Mendocino College’s Center Theatre on the Ukiah Campus. Originally produced by the Public Theatre in NYC in 2016, this joyous jazz funk musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s beloved comedy Twelfth Night is set in a modern world inspired by the music and culture of New Orleans. This musical comedy about love and mistaken identities will run for two weekends only March 7-17, in the Mendocino College Center Theatre.

Opening night is Friday March 8. Opening night will include a free gala reception starting one hour before the show. The performance on Saturday March 9 benefits the Mendocino College Foundation and student scholarships. A free glass of wine is included with the ticket price for this performance. Following the opening weekend, additional performances are Thursday, Friday & Saturday March 14, 15 and 16 at 7:30 PM, and Sunday March 17 at 2 PM. Tickets ($20 general; $15 students and seniors) are available at the Mendocino Book Company, online at www.ArtsMendocino.org and at the door as available. The performance on Thursday March 14 is a special discount night, with all tickets costing only $10. Audiences are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance.

40th Annual Women's Celebration Mendocino College instructors and Loreta Rojas were honorees at this year's 40th Annual Women's Celebration of Mendocino Women's Political Coalition for our work advocating for Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity in our radio program on KZYX (Mendo Latino and Making History: Latinos in Mendocino).

Making History Project has a promo, first episode of podcast Nuestro Norte/Our North that features another Mendocino College faculty, Instructor Teresa Rodriguez.

MESA Field Trip

The attached photo is from a MESA field trip in May 2023 to the SETI Institute (we also visited SLAC National Laboratory). The photo depicts: Peter Jenniskens, MC instructor Tim Beck, MESA Director Eric Hoefler, Adjunct Instructor Morgan Jones, 8 MESA students and a carboard cutout of Frank Drake. We are standing in front of the Drake Equation, used to estimate the number of active, intelligent and communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy.
In 2016, instructor Tim Beck became involved with the SETI Institute's Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance (CAMS) using equipment funded by the Mendocino College Foundation and installed at the Ukiah Latitude Observatory. The project uses video cameras to record the night sky looking for meteors and uses software to triangulate trajectories and calculate orbits of meteors.

Several Mendocino College students helped with the commissioning of the Ukiah Latitude Observatory station, and to help analyze ten years of spectral data collected by the CAMS station on Sunnyvale.

Food Insecurity Support

Our Food Pantry continues to grow and offers a variety of different items for students. The Food Pantry is open Tuesday through Friday (9:00am - 5:00pm), on Monday the Food Pantry is open from (9:00am - 7:00pm). Fresh Produce is now being offered every Wednesday (Avocados, Potatoes, Broccoli, Jams, Apples, Oranges, etc.). The Emergency fund is available for students experiencing hardship. Students are encouraged to reach out to Naoto Horiguchi in the Eagle Support Center to apply.

Dream Center

The Dream Cener continues to serve Undocuments Students. Counseling is available to students every Monday (5:00pm - 7:00pm). Mendocino College Dream Center is awarding a $250 scholarship for the Spring 2024. The scholarship is intended to relieve some beginning of the year stress. The scholarship will be awarded to a student who is enrolled in at least 6 units, presents a financial need, and has an educational goal.

Black History Month

"African Americans and the Arts" The Eagle Support Center celebrated Black History Month with color and love! On February 21st and 22nd, students were welcomed to participate in Handprint Art History in the Lowery Student Center, and they could take a paper handprint and write about three of the following options:

1. An individual they would like to honor.

2. A word or quote that expresses Black History Month.

3. Their feelings towards Black History Month.

Students took the time to memorialize, celebrate and express themselves. The Eagle Support Center plans to continue celebrating and elevating the Awareness Months throughout the year in partnership with Admissions and Records, the Library and other departments.
Transfer Center

Mendocino College has begun partnering with Sonoma State for regular visits at our Transfer Center. As part of SSU's Educational Pathways K126 program, we are hosting Christine Samaniego from SSU regularly in the Transfer Center spaces to promote the Liberal Arts programs offered to students.

Student Support Tool

The Counseling and HSI offices are leading the work with Starfish implementation. A soft launch planning is currently underway and cohorts of programs to include in the soft launch have been identified as Athletics (Women's Basketball), Disability Resource Center, Pomo Pathways, and the Puente Program.

Vision Aligned Reporting

A team of 10 Mendocino College managers, faculty and staff attended a training in Sacramento on Vision Aligned Reporting. VAR will be a new process to collect and report data that directly aligns to student outcomes. Expected to launch in Fall 2024 for data collecting, the first report will be due in Fall 2025, but due to impact on multiple areas, work has begun this semester to ensure Mendocino College is ready for this new reporting expectation.

Professional Development

As part of our HSI grant, we conducted the first of three trainings this semester for student-facing staff. As part of a partnership with Career Ladders Project, the training series kicked off on March 1st. Colleagues from all Student Services offices with other student-facing staff took part in this training that provided a foundational view of Mendocino College students, their demographics, and the funding and programmatic landscape for our community college.

Financial Aid Application Delays

The Financial Aid office has encountered various obstacles, including FAFSA delays and a lack of transparency from the US Department of Education (ED) regarding FAFSA data and related matters due to FAFSA simplification. Financial aid staff have been conducting their yearly outreach to high schools in our district to help students complete the 2024-25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and California Dream Act Application (CADAA). While some students have successfully submitted their complete application, others, such as students with undocumented parents, are still facing challenges. ED has stated that a solution will be available to students by the first half of March. The continued challenges and elays disproportionately affect students who depend on financial aid to attend college.

As a result of the delays, the California Student Aid Commission's Cal Grant March 2nd deadline has been extended to April 2, 2024. The financial aid office will continue to hold workshops to assist students in completing their application by the April 2nd deadline. Workshop days and times can be found on the financial aid office website at https://www.mendocino.edu/financial-aid.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES AGENDA - REGULAR MEETING

Meeting Information

Supporting Documents