Shoreline Community College President (left) and Andy Chin, Director General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle, swap documents as they sign a letter of intent between the college and the Taiwan Academy.

An agreement signed on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, by Shoreline Community College President Lee Lambert and Andy Chin, Director General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle, opens new cultural and scholastic channels.

“This agreement will enrich campus internationalization at Shoreline,  and highlights the college’s global engagement mission and reputation in Washington state, the nation and the world,” Lambert said.

The agreement, a letter of intent, is between the college and the recently established Taiwan Academy. The academy was created in October, 2011, as a public diplomacy program by the Taiwan Foreign Ministry. To date, the University of Washington is the only other college or university in the state to participate in the program.

“We welcome this partnership and look forward to strengthening the relationship with Shoreline Community College,” Director General Chin said. Chin has served in a variety of diplomatic positions since 1992, representing Taiwan in Sweden, Latvia and Dominica. Chin took over the Seattle post on Jan. 17, replacing Daniel Liao who has moved to another diplomatic position. Chin

For Shoreline students and faculty, the agreement means the chance to study and do research in Taiwan. The Taiwan Academy tie brings access to historical and diplomatic archives. Opportunities to learn the Chinese language will also be enhanced.

Priority opportunities for applicants to the Taiwan Fellowships and Scholarships Program are also now available.

The agreement may also ease the way for cultural exchanges, including art, music, literature and other opportunities.

For its part, the college will become a “Contact Point of the Taiwan Academy,” disseminating information on the various academy programs and working on other activities through mutual cooperation.

State Rep. Larry Seaquist listens to testimony Monday, Jan. 30, 2011.

House Bill 2717 is the brainchild of committee chairman Rep. Larry Seaquist. The Gig Harbor lawmaker took his committee on the road this past summer for a series of meetings, or chautauquas, across the state.  “This bill emerges from our summer’s work,” said Seaquist, noting that he and committee members saw many examples of innovative approaches. “And we saw how many more people we ought to be educating than we are educating right now.”

Shoreline Community College President Lee Lambert and faculty member Amy Kinsel testified at the hearing.

Lambert shared examples of how Shoreline is innovating to get better outcomes for students in remedial math and holding down the cost for those students. Lambert said the programs reflect the college’s focus on four core values, including: affordability, accessibility, accountability and outcomes.

“We look to see if they are accomplishing one of those four broad principles,” Lambert said.

Kinsel spoke of the collaborative support between faculty and administration at the college. “... being an incubator of ideas at the faculty level, it’s great to have the support of the administration,” she said.

Kinsel is also the faculty union representative at Shoreline and a legislative liaison for the Washington chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. AFT-Washington and Kinsel submitted suggested language that would specifically include faculty and students in discussion about innovative approaches. Seaquist offered an amendment to include the suggested language that was approved by the committee and included in the bill as passed.

Also testifying was Michelle Andreas, Director of Student Services & Transfer Education for the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. Andreas noted the many innovation projects already being undertaken by colleges across the state. She suggested that the bill’s reporting requirements overlap with an ongoing efficiencies study and that the two could be folded together. The only vote against the bill was Rep. Chris Reykdal, a former state board staff member.

Others testifying included Zach Johnson of Blackboard, Inc., which provides Shoreline’s learning management system and other online services, as well as representatives from the University of Washington and Western Washington University.

Just prior to the committee vote that pushes the bill along to the House Ways & Means Committee, Rep. Seaquist said, “Sometimes we are so focused on budget, it is important to remember we have an important agenda to foster innovation.”

SCC/Jim Hills

That’s what Shoreline Community College students, faculty and staff - and everyone else in the state - are waiting to see when the Washington Legislature is gaveled into regular session, Monday, Jan. 9, 2012.

The top priority is clear: Fill in the rest of a $2 billion hole in the state budget identified in September by Gov. Chris Gregoire. Lawmakers already had one crack at it, but only got a quarter of the way there. In November, Gregoire proposed an all-cuts supplemental budget and then called lawmakers to Olympia on Nov. 28, 2011 for a special session.

On Dec. 14, legislators passed a supplemental budget that included a package of financial moves designed to save the state about $500 million. The rest, they said, would come in the regular session.

What they didn’t say is how it would come.

As passed, the supplemental budget doesn’t include any general decrease to community and technical college budgets. It also preserves funding for the State Need Grant and Work Study programs. The supplemental budget does not contemplate any savings from additional furloughs or changes to employee compensation in the current fiscal year that ends June 30, 2012.

Based on the supplemental budget, Shoreline is not required to make any reductions to its current operating budget for this fiscal year.

However, the special session left approximately $1.5 billion worth of work for the regular session and little beyond the Governor’s proposal to indicate just how that work might get done.

“The Legislature could impose cuts for the current year when it returns in January,” said Vice President for Administrative Services Daryl Campbell. “We have no indication that they plan to do so, but it is always a possibility.”

While Gregoire’s plan was largely sidestepped by lawmakers during the special session, it does offer one possible scenario. If adopted, it would reduce funding for Shoreline and the rest of the community and technical colleges, but not until July, 1, 2012. The Governor’s proposal would:

• Cut state funding to Community and Technical Colleges by approximately 13 percent.
• For Shoreline Community College, a 13 percent reduction could mean between $2 million and $2.5 million in 2012-13.
• Suspend the State Work Study program for fiscal year 2012-13.
• Leave State Need Grant funding intact.
• Impose no additional furloughs or pay cuts. However, Classified staff would be subject to a 3 percent wage/salary reduction previously negotiated at the state level with Classified union representatives. Also, Shoreline President Lee Lambert has said that Shoreline’s administrative employee contracts would also sustain a 3 percent reduction, effective July 1, 2012.

The $2 billion target is based on September and November revenue projections that suggest the state will be $1.4 billion – perhaps more - short of budgeted expenses. Gregoire proposed a little more than $2 billion in cuts, leaving the state with about $600 million as a hedge against further economic uncertainties. The next state revenue projection is scheduled on or before Feb. 20, 2012.

While Gregoire presented a balanced, all-cuts budget as required, she also separately proposed a revenue package titled, “Revenue Alternatives for Building a Better Future.”

The core of the revenue package is a half-cent increase in the state’s portion of the sales tax that would end in 2015. Of the $494 million in projected revenue from the sales-tax increase, Gregoire would use $411 million would buy back the bulk of the cuts she proposed for education. For community and technical colleges, that could include avoiding the 13 percent general reduction and reinstating Work Study.

The sales-tax increase would have to be approved by voters and, if the Legislature passes it, could appear on a ballot perhaps as soon as March.

Gregoire also proposes to raise new revenue from business-tax increases and eliminating tax exemptions. Those increases could be imposed by the Legislature, $59 million-worth with a simple majority vote and another $282 million requiring a two-thirds supermajority approval.

Although not part of Gregoire’s proposal or the Legislature’s supplemental budget, there are six pages of bills that the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges is monitoring for the possible effects on community and technical colleges. Here are just two:

• Differential tuition – In 2011, the Legislature gave the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges the ability to charge differential tuition rates for various programs. However, a 12 percent cap on the overall tuition increase was left in place, making use of differential rates of no use. It appears that the Legislature may revisit differential tuition, and Shoreline is preparing for that possibility.
• Remedial math – There may be legislation focused on improving outcomes for pre-college math students.

SCC/Jim Hills

Actually, there are two apps and more on the way.

Shoreline Community College is going mobile in an effort to meet students where they are, wherever they are. Shoreline is the first community college in the state to launch full-featured “apps” for Apple and Android mobile devices. A Blackberry option is on the way and a Windows version is anticipated. The college also has a new mobile Web site.

In the coming weeks, the college will launch a new communication service, Connect–ED, that sends emergency and other important messages via e-mail, texts, voicemail to cellular and land-line phones and even to TTY-TTD devices for the hearing impaired.

And, they all tie in with the college’s existing learning management system that can allow students to go to class on their smartphone, iPad or other mobile device.

“These are big steps for us, but they are just first steps,” Shoreline Community College President Lee Lambert said. “Students have an expectation of this kind of service. We all have that expectation in our everyday lives, it shouldn’t be different when you go to college.”

The new apps were created in partnership with Blackboard, the same company Shoreline uses for its online learning system. Both the Apple and Android apps provide:

• Directory – Look up contact info for Shoreline faculty and staff, save contacts and e-mail to a phone or mobile device.
• Courses – Access the class schedule for the current term, and the next term as soon as it is published.
• Learn - Check in on class assignments and other information posted in Blackboard and even go to class in some cases with Blackboard Mobile Learn.
• Videos – Tune in to Shoreline’s YouTube channel.
• Images – See a sampling of photos from campus events on Shoreline’s Flickr feed.
• Get Help - Emergency phone numbers and other contact information.

Connect–ED - a communication service that provides college officials with the ability to reach students, faculty and staff with time-sensitive information within minutes - is also being implemented through the partnership with Blackboard.

“Statistics show Shoreline to be a safe campus, but we must prepare for situations that we hope never happen,” Shoreline President Lee Lambert said. “The ability to have immediate communication during emergency situations plays an important role in the safety and security of our students, employees and the surrounding community. This new tool gives us that ability.”

Contact information for about 10,000 current students and employees is already loaded into the Connect-ED system. The college is sending a test e-mail and phone message on Jan. 17. A second test, a text message, will be sent Jan. 23 to students and employees who provide a phone number for texts.

It is important that all current students and college employees go to www.shoreline.edu/connect to confirm, change or add contact information and preferences for Connect-ED.

“Depending on the service plan, receiving a text message can cost the user money. So for that part of the service, we’re asking students and employees to go to our Web site and choose their preferences,” said Jim Hills, special assistant to the president for communications, marketing and government relations. “No system is perfect, but the more ways we have to communicate important and emergency messages, the better chance we have of keeping people informed and safe.”

The new mobile Web site was created in partnership with Hearst Seattle Media, the sales arm of www.seattlepi.com. The site includes mobile versions of pages about programs, cost, enrollment, online classes, photos and contact information. The mobile site also includes a link back to the main college Web site. “Hearst has been a big help in quickly getting the college into the mobile environment,” Hills said.

For students, the core is the Blackboard learning management system.

Blackboard Learn is Web-based software that provides students and instructors a set of tools to post class materials online and easily communicate with each other. Shoreline uses Blackboard to deliver its online and hybrid courses and to provide Web-based resources for many on-campus classes. Students can access Blackboard from anywhere they have Internet access.

In addition, Shoreline adds Blackboard Mobile Learn, giving students and faculty access to their courses, content and organizations on a variety of mobile devices including iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and Palm smartphones. Initially, Mobile Learn was available only for Sprint customers, but through an agreement with Blackboard, it is now available regardless of carrier.

There is no additional fee from the college to students for any of the online services, although cellular phone companies may charge for data services and text messages.

Ann Garnsey-Harter, director of eLearning for Shoreline, said the steps support all students regardless of how and where they attend classes. “While we offer four degrees completely online and one more mostly online along with eight certificates, these additional online services are available to everyone,” Garnsey-Harter said.

President Lambert has previously announced that Shoreline would move ahead with a virtual-college initiative.

In March, 2011, a 64-page “Blueprint for a Virtual College: Report to the President’s Senior Executive Team” was presented to Lambert and other college officials by Garnsey-Harter and Stuart Trippel, acting director of financial services.

The blueprint concludes the college should take an “approach that will build upon the College’s existing strengths: offering high quality online instruction at an affordable price. … Using this incremental approach, the immediate recommended goal is to improve existing online instructional offerings and to package them comprehensively, and – equally if not more importantly – to address internal process barriers in the area of student services.”

“The mobile apps we’ve launched are milestones, visible evidence that we’re making progress,” Lambert said. “We’re following the blueprint, taking the steps necessary to make sure we’re meeting the needs of our students and the community.”

An exuberant group of 26 nursing students celebrated with family and friends at their graduation ceremony on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 in the PUB.  Prof. Hermien Watkins welcomed all and was emcee for the joyous event.  SCCANS co-presidents Raelynn Cameron and Donna Benson congratulated the graduates before student speakers Maura Shirey and Stacy VanEssen brought tears and laughs with their fond memories of their journey with their fellow graduates.  Faculty speaker Lynn VonSchleider spoke of the hard work and commitment of the graduates and expressed her admiration of all they had accomplished.   

See slideshow.