President's Update: January 22, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you had a lovely weekend and had the opportunity to honor in your own way one of the great leaders in our history, Dr. Martin Luther King. And I hope your Spring 2025 semester is starting off well.

First some good news:  I’m delighted (and relieved!) to finally inform you our accrediting agency, the ACCJC, has reaffirmed our accreditation for seven years, noting we meet all compliance requirements. We also received a commendation, which is as follows: Standards II.C.3, III.B.2 (Commendation 1): The Commission commends the college for its deep understanding of its student populations and their unique needs, providing equitable services to ensure their success. This is exemplified by the Shasta College Attainment and Innovation Lab for Equity (SCAILE) program aimed to reduce regional educational attainment gaps, as well as by the construction and implementation of the welcoming Veterans Support and Success Center built to effectively support student veterans and their families.

Congratulations to those called out specifically here: our SCAILE team lead by Dr. Kate Mahar; our Student Services team (including the Veteran’s Support and Success Centers in both Redding and Tehama) led by Dr. Tim Johnston; and the Bond Team lead by Theresa Markword, who helped bring these centers into existence. I believe the commendation is inclusive of all of you who work so hard every day toward ensuring student success.

Many thanks to all of you who participated in one way or another in the writing of the ISER, the gathering of evidence, and/or the focused site visit. And thank you once again to AVP Will Breitbach for his invaluable leadership as our Accreditation Liaison Officer. It should be noted, a 7-year reaffirmation is about the best outcome possible – we did it twice in a row now! Such a reaffirmation is not guaranteed, but I think our success is a testament to your hard work. One part of this is the number of Shasta College employees who have become savvy on the whole process through participation in peer evaluations of other colleges. This includes two of our instructors, Dr. Ramon Tello and Jim Crooks, who have both done peer evaluations in recent years. The ACCJC is always looking for faculty to participate in the process, and if you are interested in serving on a team, you can complete the Commission’s Peer Reviewer Interest Form. 

We’d like to celebrate our great accomplishment by inviting you to an Accreditation Celebration lunch next week on Thursday, Jan. 30 in the 100 building Board Room from 12-1:00 p.m. It’s the same day as the spring Welcome Day, so stop by there and then stop by for some food. Also, we will be posting the final report on our accreditation website within the next 6 days, as required by the ACCJC.

But the work on accreditation is never over. Standard 1 of the ACCJC standards has to do with our Mission. And according to our self-established review process, our own Mission Statement is up for review this spring.  We’d like you to be a part of that process. AVP Breitbach sent out an email with a survey to gather your input.  Our current mission reads as follows: 

"Shasta College provides a diverse student population with open access to undergraduate educational programs and learning opportunities, thereby contributing to the social, cultural, creative, intellectual, and economic development of our communities. The District offers general education, transfer and career-technical programs, and basic skills education. Shasta College provides opportunities for students to develop critical thinking, effective communication, quantitative reasoning, information competency, community and global awareness, self-efficacy, and workplace skills. Comprehensive student services programs and community partnerships support student learning and personal development."   

The question to you: How well does the current Shasta College Mission Statement reflect our core purpose, current needs, and future direction? What elements should remain, be changed, or added? To respond, please go to this survey by February 14, 2025. Please note there is only one question. College Council will review responses along with associated ACCJ Policies and Standards and draft a new Mission Statement for further input. 

A bit about enrollments. On Welcome Back Day, I reported the Spring 2025 enrollments were up 5.1% vs. the same day in Spring 2024. And then last Monday, they shot up to 10.2%. And then this week, they were back down to 5.4%. What’s happening? In part, our IT and Admissions staff are working hard to identify fraudulent students who are enrolled by bad actors into our classes just long enough to claim a financial aid payment. A large number of fraudulant enrollees were caught early this week, hence the lower enrollment numbers. Just a reminder that our Associate Dean of Student Services Alexa Zaharris sent a note about the role faculty can plan in detecting fraudulent enrollments. She will shortly send another message out. Please read the messages carefully. In addition to depriving real students places in your class, fraudulent students hurt us financially: the district is on the hook for any financial aid we pay out to fraudulent students. So it hurts us all. Thank you for your help with this! I do think when Spring 2025 is over and done, we will again show a healthy increase in enrollments. 

That’s it. Have a wonderful start to your semester and hope to see you at the Accreditation Celebration next week!