SOCCCD Sept. 28 Board Meeting

The Board of Trustees of the South Orange County Community College District met on Monday, Sep. 28, in the Ronald Reagan Board of Trustees Room at Saddleback College. They discussed several important issues within the SOCCCD, including reports and updates on construction projects, committees, etc.

In late September, President Tod Burnett shared his goals and priorities with more than 100 elected officials and community leaders in his State of the College report, “A Culture of Excellence,” at the annual breakfast.

One of the areas of “excellence” Burnett wrote about is the “excellence in Economic and Workforce Development,” in which Saddleback has made remarkable progress over the past year.

“An EWD work-group spent more than a year to identify and define the role that Saddleback will play in responding to the technological advances,”  Burnett reported. “Globalization of markets and demographic changes that are transforming our regional and state economies and labor markets.”

The EWD plan is designed to help cultivate highly skilled workers to be competitive in the new job market. Saddleback has brought on new faculty members to aid the implementation of the EWD plan for the next two years.

This plan includes building partnerships with employers in the area, supporting the college’s academic and career technical education programs, making a “one-stop” career placement center and advanced business consulting.

Another point that Burnett makes in his report is excellence in student success. The honors program added new courses to its 2015-16 class schedule, and added three new transfer partners to increase Saddleback students’ transfer opportunities.

The acceptance rate for honors program students this past year was 91 percent at UCI and 92 percent at UCLA. Many students were also admitted to schools like Colombia University and the UC campuses of Berkeley, San Diego, Santa Cruz, Davis and Santa Barbara.

The nursing students at Saddleback have continued their outstanding performance on the nursing licensure exam, with a pass rate of 99 percent in 2014.

Saddleback has also expanded internship opportunities and study abroad programs.

Burnett provided an update on the goals for 2014, and stated that Saddleback was very successful in accomplishing their objectives for the past year. Burnett also offered a report on the top 10 projects for the upcoming year.

These projects include:

• Plans to increase enrollments at Saddleback for “the long and short term.”
• “Create an Office of Institutional Effectiveness that supports teaching and learning and college wide efforts for improving student success outcome,” Burnett wrote.
• Complete the initial report for accreditation due in December 2016.
• Start the implementation of the 2015-2020 EWD program.
• Develop written directions “for instruction, student services, and administrative services that provide improved clarity, communication and effectiveness for all faculty, staff, management and students,” says Burnett.
• Create a Title IX Coordinator by working with district services.
•  Reinventing student services to increase student access.
• Employee training and development survey
• Train for disaster preparedness.
• Update Saddleback’s “governance and organizational manual to reflect current college and district planning and decision making processes, participatory governance and organization structure.

The next SOCCCD board meeting is Monday, Oct. 26, in the Ronald Reagan Board of Trustees Room.

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