President's Update: July 23, 2024

Dear Shasta College community,

I hope you are doing well in this crazy heat wave we've been having in Redding. Feels a bit like fall at my house with all the dead leaves the heat has created. Fall can't come soon enough!

I'm happy to report that fall enrollment is still doing well - up 6.7% over this time last year. Hopefully we will continue to trend upward as we get closer to the semester's start. Also, growth is strongest in good old-fashioned full-term, in-person classes - up 21.2%. Summer Session is wrapping up, and while I don't have the current numbers on that, as of July 8 it was at +13.2%. 

In the fall we are scheduling some monthly, informal "Coffee with Frank" meetings, open to all faculty and staff. These will probably be held at the Bistro or perhaps the Board Room. Varied days and times. The idea is for me to meet folks I've never met before and/or to listen to whoever is able to be there. More on this to come.

Also, in the fall we have an accreditation focused site visit scheduled for Oct. 2-3. We are creating an agenda now, and the site visit team will include the ACCJC liaison and 4 other team members. The focused site visit will include an open forum for you all to participate in. That will likely be mid-afternoon of Oct. 2. In the afternoon of Oct. 3, there will be an exit report from the team where they report out on what they observed. This will also be open to the campus community. Again, more on this to come.  

If you get a chance, come see the Goat Brigade doing its work on campus. The 600 goats are munching their way along the southern and western campus perimeter, starting at the Campus Safety building and moving north along Old Oregon Trial. It's pretty remarkable how thorough they are. Not only are they helping ensure better fire resilience, but they are also improving the perimeter's appearance - our "curb appeal." Thank you to Campus Safety for putting up the caution tape for the electrified white fence. Here are some pictures:

If you time it right, you might see the shepherd tooling about on a QuadRunner, border collie perched on the back.  

Please enjoy the rest of the summer and hope to see you for the group photo on Welcome Back Day, August 16.

Best,
Frank

Frank Nigro, Ph.D.
Superintendent/President