Good afternoon, everyone. It’s time for some Extremely Biased Reporting™ and Unofficial Minutes from the BOT meeting, for those who could not attend. The video should be available within about 72 hours on the Highline youtube, if you want to watch the whole thing yourself. However, I am a skeptical bitch, so even though I didn’t film, I still took notes.

If the information is available as text or in the video elsewhere (department reports, etc) then I have not included the information here.

The meeting started with Penn giving me suspicious looks over her coffee. Ah, she’s learning.

There was one public comment from faculty member Diego Luna. He expressed faculty concerns regarding the VPAA search and hiring a VPAA before a new President.

He also expressed concern over recent DHS actions in south King Co., and encouraged the board to voice vocal support for our most vulnerable community members.

Luna also mentioned that HC will be hosting a Policy Fair on 3/4, and he is seeking community resources for the students on how public policy is made.

HCEA report, present by the new president, Doug (I did not catch his last name). He supported classified staff, and supported local bargaining. He also quoted the Bible, but I’ll let it slide in context. He used it to reference how marginalized communities should be treated, and that HC is currently marginalizing classified staff. Among his statements (I’m paraphrasing here) were that we “can’t fight injustice in the world and promote it at home,” and that we can’t serve marginalized students without showing fairness for staff. Got to say, he’s a very elloquent speaker.

Faculty senate report–basically read a summary of the last two meetings, minutes should be available somewhere? Also voiced concern about hiring a VPAA before the president.

Our excellent student representative spoke next, Jasmine. She reported that HB 2550 has just been proposed as a direct result of the Legislative Breakfast here at HC. It proposes free transit for all enrolled college students. Also related, HB 1495 and 1568 aim at making 2 year programs cheaper, since about 33% of students have struggled with housing stability and there has been a 16% drop in enrollment statewide.

SNA–reviewing student work guidelines

Foundation–standing report, a few comments on MLK day significance

Rolita followed that up with a standing report and a few more comments on MLK from the email she sent out earlier in the week.

EDI–standing report, pointed out that King Co. Promise is on campus today, and the role those students have played in securing higher wages (she did not specify for who (whom?)).

AA–standing report by Marco

IT–IT is moving out from under the President’s office, there’s supposed to be communication to come on that. He said it was supposed to have already happened but hasn’t.

There are changes to how students and others activate accounts and change passwords, which is now through Okta. The change was made due to some outdated back end software, and to make things easier for new students (perhaps as a response to the concerns mentioned at the listening sessions, about the lack of computer literacy new students have).

HR–Melanie was actually in person. Report stands, said she’s “excited” for the next labor management meeting with WPEA.

Institutional Advancement–standing report, says they promoted WPEA employees at the Legislative Breakfast.

Another new face, Tony Garcia, is in place for Student Services. Report stands, but he mentioned that it was written by Penn because he just got back from medical leave and vacation. Further comments by Penn indicated that she hand picked him and he was approved by the board/EC.

President’s comments: report stands, she is grateful for students getting involved and attending board meetings (no mention of staff getting involved ) Her office has now moved to BLDG 12. She and other EC members are trying to be more visible on campus, which I’ve heard is true? (my office is a cave, I wouldn’t know.) She says across the board colleges are facing funding challenges because legislators don’t understand the cost of running a college (anything to do with that $26k raise the president just got? or the cost of flying in our HR person?)

Legislators are discussing consolidating college campuses to save money, but nothing has been decided.

She stated that more changes on campus are coming as a result of the listening sessions, but again gave no details or timelines.

Concluded by pointing out the GPA achievements of Campus View residents, with at least 35 achieving a 3.5 or higher (I believe she said 14 had 4.0). And apparently they had no heat for a while, but that has been fixed.

Here concludes your Extremely Biased Reporting™ . If these are helpful, let me know and I’ll keep doing it.

• Sheena