>> May I call the order, please? The meeting of the Pas City College Board of Trustees and Study Session Meeting, Thursday, February 17, 2011. Roll call please, Ms. Thomson. >> Thomson? >> I am here. >> Mr. Baum? Mr. Martin? Ms. Brown? >> I'm here. >> Dr. Fellow. Dr. Mann. Ms. Wah. >> Here. >> Mr. Pack. >> Here. >> Okay. I guess we do not have a quorum, so we will have to proceed about taking an action on matters, which will not be a problem this evening. Let us have or Pledge of Allegiance. I think I would like to ask Ellen Ligons if she would lead us. [ Laughter ] [ Inaudible Discussion ] >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [ Pause ] >> Okay. Is there a--is there a public comment on items that are not on the agenda? The Brown Act prohibits us from discussing any items--or taking action on them, rather. But if there are people here who would like to address us with respect to items not on our agenda, now is your opportunity to do so. So please--where is the microphone? Yeah--right over there. So just go forward, announce yourself, and we'll be delighted to listen to you. [ Inaudible Discussion ] >> Alright. Then let's move on into our agenda. As I said, this is a study session, and we've got basically two major topics on the agenda; one is educational master plan, and the other is just community questions and answers, and we hope we have a good discussion going with respect to these items. But we're not taking any action this evening. We want to make people aware of what we we're doing, what we're talking about, what we're looking at. We wanna get feedback from all of you, which we will then take into considerations as we move forward. So having said that, the first item on the agenda is our Educational Master Plan which we adapted a few weeks ago. This is what is going to guide as we move through our 90th anniversary, which will be in 2014. And, Dr. Rocha, let me turn the meeting over to you and ask you if you would introduce this topic. >> Thank you, President Thomson. I'll go to the podium and make some brief introductory comments, and then introduce our colleagues who are gonna make a presentation on the connection that we're calling pathways to PUSD. And then we will be brief in these presentations because the main thing that we're here to do is to listen and learn and have more informal discussion and question and answer. So if you [inaudible], I'll go to the podium. >> Part of the reasons we have these study sessions is to get out in different parts of our geographic area, to make people better informed, more aware of what Pas City College actually does, what it offers, and to get a feedback from all of you that we can use as we make our plans to move forward. But the Educational Master Plan is our roadmap, if you will, as we move forward to topics within that we specifically want to talk about this evening with all of you. One is the pathway's project with PUSD, which is we think a major opportunity, something we're very pleased about, something we intend to use a model for other districts within our geographic area as well. And the other is ways to close the achievement gap for Latino students and African-Americans students. And we're working very hard on both of those. So having said that, let me, again, turn it over to Dr. Rocha. >> Thank you, President Thomson, and welcome all. I just have a few comments, and first thing I'd like to do is just--you know, there are many wonderful colleagues in the room, but I do want to, first of all, thank Trustee Berlinda Brown of this--we are in Trustee Brown's area, and she was instrumental in outreach and bringing us out here to the Jackie Robinson's Center. And so, doing and being here tonight, I also wanted to make sure that we thank Jarvis Emerson and all the good people of the Jackie Robinson's Center. We are guests tonight, and we are very, very grateful to Jarvis and all the people here for our partnership, 'cause we actually teach some programs up here. And we intend to connect even more and to listen and to learn how we can do a better job of connecting to this segment of the community. I did wanna make two introductions and byway of some of the programs. I did want to acknowledge the chair of the African-American president--African-American advisory group, Dolores Hickambottom is here today, and let's-- [ Applause ] >> And I have many great colleagues here today who you'll meet during the course of the program, but I wanted to give a special recognition to Professor Chiara Hensley Thomas [phonetic]. [ Applause ] >> And Chiara, you'll recognize is the counselor who is in charge of our Ujima Program. And our Ujima students are some of our best and brightest--[inaudible]--and are you--Chiara are the--is Ujima--did they go to Philly, or they're going to Philly? [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Okay. So you know, so the Ujima students are going to Philadelphia to represent the college at the Dream Conference. Yeah. So a lot of good things happening. This is, you know, an important night for us, but it's also important that across the street, of course, chief Phillip Sanchez is having another community meeting about the shootings that have occurred. First thing I'd like to do is that one of our young men has died as a result of the shooting. His name is Brandon Jackson. If I could just ask for a moment of silence in Brandon's memory and his honor. [ Pause ] >> Thank you. We send up a prayer for Brandon. But it's not--you know, maybe it's not an accident that we're on--you know, we're both on different sides of the street here, because it shows really the connection between what the police department does and what we do here at the community college. I'm very grateful for the leadership of Chief Sanchez who we're working with very, very closely. But you also see, of course, that the police department walks one side of the street, it has one beat. We have another, and what we're talking about today with everything that we do in our Educational Master Plan is about education, 'cause the real solution to what we wanna do to prevent anymore Brandon's from happening is education. So we need to figure out a way and stop worrying about, oh, the money's tight, you know, we're having problems, and you know, all these other kinds of stuff. We've got to get it, done because our children's futures are at stake, and we see in a very, very real way tonight. And that has hit home for all of us. And that is one of the reasons I'm very, very proud of this ed master plan. Make sure, if you haven't already got one, there is one up on the table here. This ed master plan, little red banner, our report is a--is the roadmap for the college over the next three years. And in fact, we even put a report card in it about what we intend to achieve in the major areas of transfer, workforce certificate--very important to train students for the jobs of the 21st century--degrees, and especially degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math--[inaudible]--and then basic skills--what we call basic skills. And this is one of the things that--what we'd commonly call the achievement gap. Two-thirds of our students coming out of our local high schools, two thirds of our students are not college ready in English or math. And so, what we've done here is to develop a plan that will actually address that and make that a whole lot of better, 'cause very few of our students are getting through onto their college level courses. And the other thing that I wanted to point out--again, thanks to--in part to Trustee Brown's leadership. >> You'll see these signatures goals, and in one of those signature goals is--one of the most important ones to me--I'm trying to read without my glasses on--is the first one; guaranteed enrollment for in-district high school students. Okay. And that's what we're here to talk about today. Alright. Pasadena City College serves every human being who shows up at her door. But we have a special responsibility to help the students who lived in this district. Okay? And in the past, we've said, "Oh, well, we've got the ed code in our way, we've got this in our way, and so on and so forth." But there isn't anything in our way except us. And so, thanks to the wonderful faculty and staff that we have at PCC, we sat down at the beginning of the year and started to lay out plans for actually how we could develop a program that would guarantee that every student who enters a special program, a connector program, that we call Pathways. Every student in this--in the Pasadena unified school district who enters this program is not only guaranteed a seat in the college, but guaranteed moving through their program, okay, all the way through. And we can do that. We can do that by law, and we can do that by program. And that's what this document basically says we're going to do. So what we're gonna do tonight is take about 12 minutes, I understand, to kind of lay out our Pathways Connection Program. And this is something that is not an idea. This is something that we've done. We've already done the hard ground game work with Pasadena Unified. We've made an extended presentation on this for the Board of Trustees at our last meeting. We're doing kind of a short form version 'cause we want you to hear about it and get the basic information. But tonight, we also wanna make sure that we leave enough time for questions and answers and thoughts about how we can make this plan better. What you see in it, but what is it that you wanna sure that we get right as we finish this up. So with that, I'll introduce I think my--is it Dean Bob Miller who is kind of the quarterback for the Pathway's Project. >> Thank you, Dr. Rocha. I will make this very short so I don't take up too much of that 12 minutes. I just really wanted to just take a second and introduce, or name the folks who are part of what we call our Pathways and our Portal team, and that will be explained to you in a few minutes. The gentleman who will be making the presentation tonight is Professor Manuel Perea who is a member of our English Faculty, as well as our college's basic skills coordinator. But working with Manny includes Nicko Hoggan [phonetic], a professor of English, Shiela Rose [phonetic], a profession of--excuse me--professor of ESL, Carrie Starbird [phonetic], a professor of Mathematics, Rhea Presiado [phonetic] who is a professor of Geography at International Sciences Department, and then Brock Klein [phonetic] who is the director our Teaching and Learning Center. So I just wanna briefly indicate that there's a lot of incredibly talented skilled faculty who are highly engaged in this process. And tonight, Manny is going to make a presentation that will get the discussion started. Thank you. >> Come on, Manny. Make us proud. >> Thank you, Bob. >> I'm here to make this presentation 'cause I drew the short straw. [ Laughter ] >> We have a great group of people who have--are collaborating and bringing together a lot of the resources that we've had in placed on campus, and some new resources as well. The first year, Pathways Project is a collaboration really between our basic skills initiative on campus, Title V, the Student Access and Success Initiative, and other resources on campus as well. And we are united by the vision of Project 90, and we are guided by the EMP Priorities and Strategies. What we've begun to do is design a program that has multiple components, and I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about that or what that is and how we see it functioning. I'm gonna start by addressing the why of the program though, and I'm actually not gonna address that. I'm gonna let the students address that. I'm gonna show you a video, about the 5 or 6 minutes of a video. It's our students speaking about their first week at College. >> Why did you decide to come to PCC? [ Inaudible Remarks ] >> For me, it was like I just really wanted that diversity, and I know it was the total contrast from what I'm used to back in [inaudible]. Also, I--it was like--it's one of the top 5 community colleges and transfer level. So I was like, sure, I'm going there. [ Music ] >> Can you describe your first experience here at PCC? >> I don't know. It felt--it was pretty cool. I noticed the campus was good and beautiful. My first experience? First, like I was unable to get any classes 'cause I guess I didn't have priority. I didn't know what priority was, so like that was new to me. But then, the only classes I was able to get were all at night. So that kind of sucks. >> [Inaudible] more people, you don't recognize anybody. It's like when you to high school, you know everybody, and then here, it's like I don't recognize anybody, I feel so lost, [inaudible] what to do. >> Lost? >> Okay. >> Lost, confusing. I'm stressed now 'cause I know nothing with that-- >> I came by myself and my car and stuff, and I was lost, no one was helping me on campus. I think it was like lunchtime, so I came, and there was really no one to help, just tell me where to go or anything. Pretty lost at the admissions process, like I was getting in lines and stuff. I was pretty lost. >> A little bit overwhelming trying to find the classes in the buildings, like where is the first floor and stuff, and like just excited to go to class and meet new people. So I was excited. I was. >> I was very excited. [ Inaudible Discussion ] >> I was surprised at how many like different kinds of people are here. It's like somebody from every walk of life is here, so you know, very diverse. >> Well, first of all, I saw many different like diversity which like where I came from, it was like all Mexicans, just Mexicans, like--no like, sort of [inaudible] there was just Mexicans, you know. So I assume everyone here is Mexican or speaks Spanish, but no, it's not like that. It was kind of sketchy. I didn't know anyone 'cause [inaudible]--the one person I knew was my sister, and she was like--she's like old, like 28. [ Music ] >> I'm an AB 540 student, so there is absolutely no resources here on campus for AB 540 students. Up until very recently, this campus has absolutely zero awareness of that. >> What is AB 540? >> AB 540 are students who are undocumented. >> When you first started at PCC, what was the application process like for you? >> I was kind of confused. It was online. And then no one was helping me. I was just doing it on my own, but I think I got through. >>I did it back at home and on the computer, and I'm not familiar with like online applications. So that was clean. And then I found out it was like the first time PCC did like online stuff, and I was like [inaudible], you know, like what? It's like it's so big and [inaudible] to do that? So but, you know, I was like, "whoa. That's crazy." And then, so I started that there, and then I had to come back over here like a couple of times--I think like twice. It took me like about a month to like do the whole thing, 'cause I mean, I can't like come down here like all the time. >> Did you make your stuff on your own? And how did that work out? >> Not too good. >> Not too good? >> 'Cause I actually passed my deadline, then it was just ugly. >> So you can't get classes at this semester? [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Well, I just hope that someone might inform students, like I don't know if there's a better way to inform students how to do things on the first day, or like--there was no--nothing on website very specific to help you with. Even the online orientation was very fast. It wasn't very informative, and then even if it [inaudible] you, it didn't like helped you out that much with all the information that was given within that registration time. >> Did you come on your own? >> No, I came with my friend. So we were both kind of like--we had each other, but like we're still--where should we go, should [inaudible], like what are you supposed to do when you're in a class. >> I came here with [inaudible] friends, so it wasn't that--it wasn't that bad as I thought it would be. >> Okay. Did somebody in that group know what they were doing? >> Yeah. >> Was it you? >> No, no, no. I was [inaudible] about, you know, when you--one of our counselors from high school, he brought us over here and [inaudible]. >> It's really time-consuming. It's an hour and a half over here, so I have to probably be here from sun up to sun down just to get things done as measly as a paper done just to get signed. >> How long did it to take you to get admitted? >> Maybe two weeks to get everything done with the registration. And then after my tests and stuff, it took a long--it took a [inaudible] the computer broke down, so I was confused [inaudible] beginning period. >> How many times did you come on campus before you were completely done? >> Completely done? Maybe three weeks. It took three weeks. >> So how many times did it take you visiting the campus before you were completely enrolled and admitted? >> I would say like--I traveled twice for--and I came like here like everyday for like about two days. So it's probably like four days [inaudible] like, yeah--more or less four or five days. >> I got involved with [inaudible], so a lot of the counseling that I got in my first year was with [inaudible], and I think if that program wasn't there, I would have been a little lost. >> At first, no, I just didn't know what to do [inaudible] in my first year, I was just lost. >> I didn't know where things were, I didn't know where--I didn't know who to ask for help. I came alone, so like pretty much lost at that point, and then I was--I don't know how to get classes and stuff like that, I didn't know what the--how to register, I didn't know what to do on the first day, like how parking was, like no one told me about parking, and that was like the worst thing. I was in the parking lot maybe on my first day of classes. I was on the parking lot for at least three hours. >> And what were some of the obstacles that you were finding? >> Probably, you know, getting [inaudible]-- >> I was able to get into maybe two of what it was required. I was able to get into a required English class, but then [inaudible] to classes, you know, I couldn't get into any other general classes 'cause they were all taken. >> When I was gonna enroll into classes like [inaudible] like get into the classes, I had no class. I only had like one class, and then luckily, I was in math jam, so they gave me all my classes, and [inaudible], so they gave me all the classes I needed. So that's where I got my classes, but I didn't get them by like doing it like online. >> It was just like classes being filled up and not knowing what to take or do because counselors [inaudible] or not enough time to go see a counselor, and so you go, you know. >> I'm very-- >> It will take all my time. It wouldn't be a bad thing actually, but this video is part of a series that we're developing called Lancer Answers, and the videos are available--I don't know if I can get to the website if I close this. Probably not. The video is available in a website pcctitle5.net, and the videos that have students speaking on different issues will be presented on there. There is another interesting video recently posted on communication, how students communicate with the college, how the college communicates with them, how they communicate with each other. And it's really been an eye-opening to hear students speak about these issues. I think some of the key thing--key things of that video, you will agree, were that new students feel lost at college, that they feel as if they are navigating the campus alone, that there's inadequate online support to get them into the college through the front door and then to get them through their sequence or their courses towards completion, that it's difficult to get classes, that they're excited, yes, but they really don't--and then this was maybe my interpretation of it--they really don't have a clear idea about what college is or about what it means to be a college student. And this presents a big--a great need that we have to meet. The project that we're working on, this first year Pathways Project, is attempting to meet all of those needs, and it's trying to address all of those. And we're gonna--we're doing it with two key components. So there's two concepts, I should say, that are really driving what we're doing. One is a--is the Pathways' concept, and another is a portal concept. And if you have the hand out that I brought along, there are definitions for those two terms there in that handout. I should say that these are terms that we, the team that is planning this, really had to define for ourselves because, well, we have examples of pathways, and if you look at the EMP, you'll see Pathways is all over the EMPs as one of our goals. The team that's planning this has to decide what a pathway is and how it's gonna function in easy term so that we can realize it and put in place, bringing together the different components and resources we have. The Pathway's definition that we devised is that a Pathway's curriculum and organizational structure is designed to guide and support students as they move from where they are to where they want to be. And so, it is more than just curriculum. It's more than just saying here are the courses to take, here is the schedule, here is a seat in the class. Because if you don't provide the organizational structures and the support, the students aren't gonna succeed. And, the pathway then is not only the curriculum and the map, but all the tools that they need to navigate that map and to move through. The second of the key concepts that we're working with is first year student portal. And a portal, as you might imagine, is a kind of door. But it's an online door. The definition that we derived is that an online portal--the first year student portal is an online portal linking all of the components of PCC into a personal itinerary to help students succeed in their college experience. Its front door--it's the way that students will probably engaged with the college for the first time as they decide they're gonna go to PCC, work out an application, register, you know, to--enroll, find their classes, and so on. But it also is gonna continue to stay with them and help them navigate that pathway that we designed for them. One thing that we learned is--by looking at other first year experiences is that the pathway and the portal have to develop together, and they really go hand and hand. And what we're currently working on, our planning team, is devising a Pathway Portal Project with beginning cohort of about 300 students and piloting it beginning in the fall. The components of the pathway are listed for you in that handout as well, and I'm briefly gonna touch on them. I won't read the whole description of them there. President Rocha mentioned guaranteed enrollment and how important that is, and with our--students who test in who aren't college ready yet, guaranteed enrollment in the English and Math sequences are extremely important. Our research shows that if they don't begin a Math and English sequence immediately, their chances of succeeding are not very good at all. And so, the project that we're designing, it guarantee students in English and Math sequences. Even if they test into a transfer level English, many of our students will test into a basic skills Math, and the other way around. And some students are in basic skills Math and English. So they're coming to college not college-ready in two key subject areas. The--another of the components is the--a first year experience seminar, and this is the course that we're developing that we hope eventually to be a 3-unit interdisciplinary transfer level course. And we've seen models of this in other first year experiences where the students will receive skills for college success, 21st century skills, and work on some of the effective outcomes that go beyond the cognitive that will allow them to sort of realize themselves as college students, understand what is expected of them, and be able to grow on themselves as resource--a resource to get through where they need to go. We also have--I mentioned the portal as an online front door. There is a supplemental learning component. We're working with different models of that right now. We currently have in our basic skills program a supplemental instruction program. These are student tutors who have successfully completed a course, who returned to the course with the same instructor, they served as model students in the course, they're at every course meeting, and then they lead sessions, study sessions, outside of class with the students who are currently working through the course. It's a highly effective model that's worked elsewhere to great success. We're developing our version of that to serve the students within this first cohort. The--another of the components is a first-year counselor--dedicated first year counselor who will be working with case managers, and case managers, if you're unfamiliar with that term--let me see if I can explain it. We have someone who works closely with the counselor, works as a type of adviser, but also was a type of mentor as well. And that person might have a hundred students assigned to him or her, and we'll have those students communicate with faculty, coordinate the flow of information that they're getting from the college, guide them through the pathway, continue to stay with them as they move through the pathway, and provide intervention as it's needed as the student show that they might be at risk. So it's a really innovative approach I think, and we have used it some success already in the TLC, the--and we seem--want to expand it and make that an integral part of our Pathways Project. There is a PCC PUSD mentoring program that we see coming into place as well. A student at PCC, Cameron White, I believe, he received some money to provide PCC students as mentors for PUSD students, seniors and school, and we're gonna integrate that into our program. We think it's a great idea, that kind of outreach. And so, it will be in place there. And then of course, you need professional learning for all the people who will be putting these components into place, and integrating them into a coordinated program. >> And so, there are professional learning components as well that include ideas to take faculty on their first year experience. So we are looking at all these components, and we didn't look at the PUSD Pathway. And now, we're starting to integrate it with ideas that we have for the supplemental, all of these items beyond the curriculum that need to be in place. And we've been working on this project for a few months now, it's coming along a great, we're moving forward, it seems at a blinding speed sometimes, and we're ready to just continue to go with that. And I wanted to present that to you as what we are doing, this collaborative group on campus, and it open it to discussion. >> Good. Good. Bob? >> Can I just say something very quick? I skipped over one important introduction earlier, and that was Cecile Anderson who is the counseling faculty member who is part of this group as well. And as you could see from the video, the whole student services piece of this is quite critical, and Cecile has been an integral part of our team in that regard. And also, just to mention quickly, that one of the things that's helping to fund this whole effort is the Title V grant that we've recently gotten that is funding a lot of this innovation and this work. So we're thankful to all of you taxpayers for that extra funding. >> So, Bob, you made a great job, and you know, I hope, you know, you see that the things we're working on when we showed you the video, not--you know, not because it was a commercial, you know, but because we--you know, we wanted to show that we're actually working with the real world here. But Bob, or you know, one of your team, if you can put this in plain English, okay, as to how will this help a student who's at John Muir High School in the 11th grade today? >> In plain English, what we are creating is a--two types of pathways--direct pathways; one designed for the "college-ready student" so that when he or she walks from John Muir into PCC, we have a very specific pathway that will get them out of PCC within five semesters, we hope maximum. And they are part of a cohort, and they go--they walk right in. For the other student, the student who still needs some basic skills work, if you will, we are designing another pathway which includes a supplemental learning and the counselor and case manager support and all the rest of that that is necessary so that when he or she comes to us in a--perhaps a six or maximum, seven semester experience, they will walk into PCC, they will be within a year, they brought up the college level with all the interventions that are necessary, and then they will go directly into a specific pathway. Besides this group that is working right now, we have another group at the college that is working on the priority registration aspects of things, that is looking at ways that we can create these very specific pathways. Some of the board members--you remember the last board meeting, we had one model that was shown as just sort of an introductory model. This group is working with the priority registration group to refine and improve upon and to streamline those activities. We are talking about a 300-student pilot effective in the fall that will hit the ground running on. And finally, the other--the final element of this is gonna be the enrolment management element which basically says if we put these pathways in place, we also have to guarantee, as these students were indicating on the video, that we have enough sections of the appropriate numbers of courses that are necessary in order to make these five and six and seven semester experiences successful. And this is something that we are dedicated to, not only because it's part of EMP, because it's the right thing to do in order to serve the needs of our students in our district. And we're--and by the way, this is--the pilot is here with PUSD, but the idea is to roll this out to all of our--the high schools within our community college district. >> Alright. >> I have a question. >> Ms. Brown? >> Yeah, I do. I just need clarification. So the 300 students, the pilot is gonna be for students are actually or doing okay? >> No, and actually, the-- [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Brock, why don't you speak to that, if you would, please, and [inaudible] describe it more specifically. >> The decision to move to 300 is based on work that we've done already with our Math Jam Program which reaches out to high school students in the district, and specifically, PUSD. We had about 150, and so, our decision was to double in size. We're taking any student, whether they're college ready or not, and putting them, as Bob mentioned, into one of two pathways. If they're college-ready, they'll have a streamline version that will lead to either a CTE or a transfer pathway. And for the underprepared student, that year that Bob was telling us, is so essential that you are getting up to speed. Some people call it lightening the fire. I just call it the turnaround moment, where we can get students to help them realize that they can be college students, and they can do the work they needed to do, and then move them as quickly as possible into college level work. >> Okay. >> Can you explain briefly the PUSD portion of this? You both talked about different types of students at John Muir. >> Yes. >> Take for example a John Muir student, and she or he may not be ready--may not be doing as well as they ought to be. What happens within John Muir that gets that student ready to become a part of the Pathway Project? >> The goal is for the portal to become an entry for that student as early as 9th or 10th grade. Our goal is to ask for engagement among the faculty at PCC with the faculty, for example, at John Muir. But also, for that student and his or her parents to interact with the college in a virtual setting as well, because we know students are more than eager and able to go to that area and learn themselves. We have an outreach program that we're going to grow, so that there will be visits to places like John Muir to help students understand the experience that they're going to have. The mentoring program, the pure mentoring program that Cameron is developing will give students the opportunity to work with PCC students before they enter. Our goal is to move those students from their high school after graduation into a summer program, a two-week summer program, Math Jam, which is noncredit, no-cost program to get them ready for college generally, but also to help them address some of their math skills. At this time, they'll meet a case manager who will stay with them throughout their stay at the college. >> And let me also add that--three quick things. We have been engaged in very, very productive and--discussions with Superintendent Diaz [phonetic] and Alice Petrossian [phonetic] who is the Chief Academic Officer for PUSD and a number of their staff. And I was just talking to Alice just the other day and indicating to her that we were ready--or would soon be ready for the next group round of discussions with the folks at PUSD to bring them into this. The plan--the very specific plan--and we'll get into this discussion probably next fall with them--is to begin to develop programs that can actually be implemented in the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, so that as these students continue their journey through their high school experience, they are actually taking curriculum aligned courses as we've shared with you I think at the last meeting. We've got teams of Math faculty and English faculty and other faculty working with PUSD folks right now to develop those pathways. So the idea is to get as many students to our front doors who are college-ready. It--and that's a big part of this plan as well going forward. And I wanted also briefly mention a little bit about Cameron White, 'cause Cameron's name has been mentioned quite a bit. Cameron is the academic affairs vice-president for the associated students, and Cameron has come up with a model for this mentoring program. And because the associate students have resources based upon their--the student service fund that they have, Cameron has been allocated by the AS Board a certain sum of money to start this mentoring program. When Cameron discussed this with me at the last board meeting, I said if I got an opportunity for us, and we got Cameron together with our TLC team, and now, what we're gonna do is we're gonna take the mentoring program that he has come up with and add it to this. So this is an associate student supported venture that's gonna provide resources to allow this case management or this mentoring plan to take place. >> I do have to mention also that we're gonna go from 300--we're starting--actually continuing with 300, we're evaluating, making sure that we have an effective program, make changes as necessary, and then grow it again, like to double in size to 600, and eventually, as Dr. Rocha said, to have all students going through some sort of program to help to make the transition from high school to college, which is so critical. >> I have a question. >> Gentleman right here I think has been-- >> Well, okay. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Well, I'm just trying to get an understanding. It sounds good. When we think of mentoring and I think of cohorts and I think of all of that, I see the need of something in place to measure the progress. With this mentoring program, I'm wondering how much time is gonna be dedicated for us to see whether or not it's effective. >> That's a really, really good question. The TLC has been doing work with first-year experiences for 10 years, and there is a couple of things that we know. We--first of all, we need patience, that the turnaround doesn't necessarily come immediately. But there are two notions here; one is learning, and one is community. Community comes first very often, and that's the affective side, and that keeps students feeling good being in school which is critical. We don't necessarily see achievement right away. But as we've done evaluation work in the--in this art center, we've seen as we've done progression data overtime that students in learning communities program succeed at a rate of about four times that of comparison groups. So what we see happening is students stay. And if we can work with them long enough, that turnaround comes where they see success, not as retention, but as achievement, that they see obstacles that they overcome them and move on to do what they wanted to do. Can we do better? Absolutely, but there is hope in that little kernel of data that we have. And so, the answer to your question is a tough one. We may not see it immediately, but I'm really, really confident that this is an effective practice and this is the way to go. >> Well, I'm good with that, but I'm also--I think if--I understand that if you are able to keep the student a semester or two, it's a good thing, because if they stay engaged, then we're gonna produce. But I'm wondering and would like to probably get an idea if they go to be babysat for three or five years or what is it that we wanna see at the end of the time. >> It's an--it's an empowerment model which asks the students to identify and achieve their goal, specifically with the case manager, our level of successes at the end of the first year, that student no longer needs the case manager. >> Trustee Brown, are you asking how will we know whether the students are progressing satisfactorily? >> Yes. >> Okay. We know because we have the data. Okay. We will measure the 300 students who go in, and we will measure their outcomes and give you a report every year. Okay. And we will compare that against the data that Brock was referring to that we've built up overtime. Alright. The other thing to point out about this particularly the program--and I point this out to our friends in the community--that there is a mutual responsibility here between the college and the community, a key component. This is not something that we're doing for, you know, high school students. This is something that high school students are gonna have to do for themselves with the help of community manners and the kind of--so there's a contractual relationship here. Not all students will come in in this program, because it's not gonna be about tough love. It's gonna be about true love. And true love means you have to open the book, okay, and that, you know, there's gonna have to be a mentor next to that young man or young woman who's gonna make sure that they actually study on Saturdays. Okay. Or else, you're not getting through. There is no way that algebra is gonna just get in here, you know, without opening the book. And Chiara knows that from our great Ujima students. So what I'm saying is that the--as early as the critical point for whether it's John Muir or any of the high schools in the district is the summer, especially for the young men, between the 9th--as they go into the 10th grade, okay, and that's where we lose many of our young men. And they need to be tracked into this program, alright, either on a transfer track or on a workforce track, which we're working on, everyone has to be--not just offered the program, but guided into it almost as a default. In other words, you're in it, and the only way that you're not in it is if you choose literary, you know, not to be in it. And we should think everybody ought to be in it. So that's where we have to work more closely with Pasadena Unified, 'cause we're not doing this for Unified, we're doing this to meet our own mission. >> That's right. >> Alright. And Unified is going to have to, you know, pull the wagon with us on this, and you know, and I'm grateful that Jackie, for her long leadership on this area, and of course, Jackie well knows the folkways of Unified, you know, and how this stuff works. So we will--you know, as we have an Ed Master Plan, we'll be providing you a data report card every year. >> And I think that Brock can speak very briefly to the amount of assessment and research that we do, you know, with our UCLA-- [ Inaudible Remark ] >> So maybe you can just give that a little bit about that part evaluation assessment, how these reports will be generated, 'cause it's all part of the plan. >> We have built a database that tracks every student from the time we first have contact with them through their stay at the college and beyond. So we can do what's called progression data and look up to 13, 15 semesters out to see how well they progressed through the system at different benchmark points compared to students who have not received the intervention. >> Why don't we take some questions now from the audience? >> Let me--I think Mr. Baum wanted to ask one quick question. [ Simultaneous Talking ] >> Are we doing this as an interactive way, [inaudible]-- >> Yeah, we are-- [ Simultaneous Talking ] >> He's been very patient over here. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Would you mind telling us who you are? Just-- [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Great. Thank you. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> We hope to eventually-- [ Inaudible Remark ] >> I think it starts as--what Dr. Rocha talked about before was the--were the challenge of creating a college going community, and that begins early, early on. We're going to reach out to the high schools and have the portal work with students and faculty at that level. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Okay. The answer is two things. Number one, we have to join the counselors, our counselor with the counselor of your son. Okay. That's one thing we need to do, join the counselor. And on the PUSD site, we have to make sure that the young man is taking his proper subjects in high school. Okay. Because not, you know, kind of--they float around and they have to make sure that they're taking all--okay. So that's one thing. In addition, as a lay over on top of that, and especially, in the last two years, in 11th and 12th grade, they will be taking college courses, our courses, in addition to their high school courses, mostly in English and Math. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> It'll actually be on--well, we could do it both, but our idea is to do it out at the camp--at the high school campus. >> Okay. >> Okay. And of course, we teach courses at all the high schools now, so that the students will have their, you know, high school graduation but will have completed all their preparatory College English and Math when they graduate. So, when the come to PCC, they can go straight into their college subjects. Now, as Bob and others were saying, we'll miss a few, you know, especially at the beginning. We'll miss a few. And so, we have what is an affective bridge program, right, so that a student who doesn't have their English and math cleared can get it cleared pretty quickly at PCC. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Well, 300 rolls out this fall. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> That is correct, sir. And I also might point out that in May--I believe in May, right? >> Yes, May. >> --that-- >> Mr. Thomson confirmed that. >> We are having a joint board meeting with PUSD, okay, to talk more specifically about just this. So yes, the answer to your question is this will be done by fall for the first 300. And then we'll be rolling it back grade by grade. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> I'm not sure about that. >> We have piloted case management-- >> Is that it? >> --and we worked--Cecile Davis Anderson, who's the counselor that's on our team, and Cynthia had worked, and the pilot that we've had for the past two semesters in the TLC has shown that a hundred is about right. Some students need the help of the case manager very intensely, and some don't. We're using mobile technologies to keep it--for the counselors to keep in contact with the students so they can provide community building, just in time communications, and the support that they need instructionally and on the student services side. >> So, a hundred. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Who selects the students? Well, I don't think--my conception of it is that we wouldn't be selecting students, that every student--we would insist that every student come in at the program, you know, there's no criteria for coming into it other than that you plan to finish high school and you plan to do the program that we're offering [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Yeah. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Right. [ Simultaneous Talking ] >> How we're selecting the first cohort? >> Well, at--what we're gonna do, we're gonna work very closely with PUSD to develop the plan. And like I said, we've had meetings with them, and again Superintendent Diaz and Ms. Petrossian are very supportive of this. So we're gonna figure out the details, and based upon the pilot nature of things, we might allocate a certain number to each one of the high schools in the district and come up with that. And then as President Rocha mentioned, working with the PUSD counselors and our counselors led by Cecile, we will develop the method by which students will be brought into the program. >> I do wanna add--excuse me--that we have other programs in the TLC, and we have other programs on campus, and we have developed programs so that every student who wants to enter a special program will have access to that program. >> Yeah. >> So if a student doesn't get into the Pathway Program, there are other programs for [inaudible] as well. >> And would a student find that path to one of those other--because if we have outreach-- >> So we're widely-- >> So how would we outreach them? >> We have--two members of my staff are constantly visiting the high schools, explaining those programs. >> 'Cause that's always my concern. What I hear from students is the access to counseling is a real challenge. >> Yes. >> And so, we say we're outreaching to them, but how do--how do they get access [inaudible]-- >> Cynthia, looks like you wanna say something? [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Tell us who you are please, Cynthia. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> But what's exciting to meet too, what--and having this meeting is to see a number of folks in the community participating and doing this. And like Dr. Rocha said, I'm excited about that partnership because each and everyone of--you know people who wanna have access to education through PCC, and they will tell you some of the same stories that I have, that by having a meeting like this--and I hope everyday is hearing it--that there are individuals, and if you have to, I'm gonna say just call the president's office if you hear of a student who says they can't access a program to get on--to get into that will be help--that will help them succeed in their class. But I see [inaudible] Shackleford in the audience, and I know he's been such a great partner in working with the young men at Muir High School, and that if we are--make sure that [inaudible] Shackleford understands enough about the program, because as much I wanna see more counselors, both in the high schools and at PCC, and more PCC counselors in the high schools, but--and just realizing how limited we are in the budget, we're gonna have to depend on people to come to Shackleford to help do counseling about college opportunity like he does everyday. And then we've got George Brumder who's president of that foundation, and we're counting on partnering with the foundation, get those resources to hire some of those positions, or provide those support that we don't necessarily are gonna be getting from Sacramento. >> I think one thing to be emphasized too, obviously--this is the beginning of a program that we hope is gonna grow and be expanded as we go forward with it. But it's not a program where we can go in and say here's what we're gonna do. This has to be a collaborative effort. We all have to get together and push and make it happen if this is going to be successful. And we need the community to be involved, we all have to be involved. And so, we hope that this is gonna grow as we start out with it, and we're gonna start with 300 people this fall, and we'll go from there. But our goal is to make it as large as feasible, and we need the support of everybody in the community, we need adults who are involved with the students to be supportive of this. And without that, we're--it's gonna be very tough to be successful. >> And let me repeat that we have Ujima, 30 students, we have Puente, 30 students, we have excel which will be 60 students, and we have Math Jam. So we're talking about 300 for the Pathway, but for special programs for new students, we're really talking about--more like 450 or 500. >> I have a question on the case management also, because I--it was good to hear that we have some criteria to say that a hundred students for this manager is good. But I am wondering, as we grow the program, are we intending to then add a case manager for every hundred students so that--or--and will this case manager then follow the student all the way through to completion? So I think that kind of springboards a little bit on what Trustee Brown was asking. The other question I had regarding the case management was it talks about that the case manager would get involved in intrusive interventions which seems pretty aggressive, and I was wondering what-- >> The language there-- [ Simultaneous Talking ] >> I'll start a quick response and we'll turn it back over to Brock. But the research tells us that students succeed when there is somebody there sort of providing some of the guidance that Dr. Rocha was referring to earlier, trying to keep them on task, on track, and what have you. And the term intrusive is really meant to me in that, that if somebody needs a tap in the butt or whatever to keep them on the right track, this is what that case manager is gonna help to do. As we do the research, and as we see the efficacy of this work, we'll determine whether 100 is right, 50 is right, 80 is right, how many case managers do we need, how many we can afford to support, where we can get funding for it, et cetera. But we know we have to come up with interventions that include accelerated learning, supplemental learning, case management, whatever it takes to get these students in the frame of mind to be college students. And that's our challenge. And so, in time, we'll know this. But their--this case management models, one that Dr. [inaudible] mentioned some--a couple of years ago, it's been tried in other places, and we've been playing with it for the last couple of years. Brock, I don't if you wanna add anything more to that. >> No. I mean, we've had great success with it with about 4 or 5 hundred students, and we have data to show that those who had worked with the case managers were progressing at a faster rate. The question you are asking is really the challenge of program management and the extraordinary challenge we have now of scaling up and sustaining, which we've--I personally have never had to deal with. I've never had wonderful opportunity to do that. So we're putting together the brightest minds to see what our tipping points, when is a load too big, when is a program too big and the students gets lost, because we do know that the intense and more intimate programs have better results. Unfortunately, you can't have programs anymore for 30 students. You have to have them for all students. And so, the challenge that the team has in terms of program management is how do we do that. And so, we're starting--we're doubling in size as I said, but we plan to double and double again, and we have great support from institutional planning and research, from our external evaluators, and models from other colleges as well that have done this work. And so, your question is a good one. Case managers, we don't--you know, can we afford lots and lots and lots of case managers? So we insert the question what about technologies to encourage communication? How will--what role will the portal play in replacing the case manager and taking on some of those responsibilities? >> I repeat that the case manager model is an empowerment model so that by--so that the case manager is there for the student, as long as the student needs them. Really, our measure of success is that by the end of the first, you no longer need the case manager. >> And as Dr. Rocha said in the meeting this morning, students live by these devices, these Smart phone devices. So more and more of what Brock just was referring to, we are gonna push information to them and receive information back from them via these devices. We have Facebook pages, we've got Twitter pages, we've got all kinds of ways in which we are now communicating to these students. The case managers that we have, by the way, are remarkable group of young paraprofessionals who really relate incredibly well to these students, and that makes all the difference in the world. So we are talking about--and that's the professional learning component of this. We're talking about also training our folks to relate very, very well and then using the new technology and the social ways of which to reach these students which is where they live. [ Simultaneous Talking ] >> But we've quickly moved to a hybrid model, face to face and lots of texting. >> Can I interrupt for just a second? We have a gentleman here who is being blocked. Does anybody have a silver-- [ Inaudible Discussion ] [ Inaudible Remark ] [ Simultaneous Talking ] >> We--our plan is to have-- [ Inaudible Remark ] >> The plan is to have students in graduate school, preferably with--seeking counseling degrees who will be interns who will have about 20 hours a week. Their responsibility will be the students that they meet in the summer and connect with, and they'll have responsibilities with the supplemental learning leads, and they'll have contact with the counselors, and they're really the go-betweens, that they are the eyes and ears for the faculty and the staff and the counselors; why weren't you in class yesterday, which--did you do your homework, you need to see the tutor, remember, you have a counseling appointment tomorrow, those kinds of things. >> Just to provide a little background for this, and then I'll--I recognize more people for the questions. It's not unique to Pasadena City College. In fact, it's not unique to California. It's unique to the--it's all across the country. We find that around 70 percent of the students coming into PCC--I think I'm [inaudible] the number. It keeps going up unfortunately. But around 70 percent of them need training and basic skills; reading, writing, and Mathematics. Now, the things we all learned in high school or grammar school somewhere along the way, we're now providing in community colleges. And in fact, when we were up in Sacramento recently, there was--northern California community college, they said that 90 percent of their incoming students need these training. Can you imagine what that would be like? So the goal of the Pathways Project is to reach in to the high schools and begin to get some of these students at that level and avoid having to have them get the basic school training community colleges. So education is the issue of our times. I mean, we are, as a nation--I mean, we had a presentation by the representative of the Lumina Foundation up there that showed where we are as a nation. We're about in the middle third educationally across the world. Korea, Canada, and Japan are the top 3. And this graph he showed didn't include China and India. So, you can imagine where we might be if they were a part of it. So we've got problems on our hands. We have challenges. And we are trying to reach out working with PUSD to help achieve some of that. So let me recognize first, Charles Nelson, and then I'll get the gentleman over here. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Alright. >> Well, that's exactly why we're here talking to you about that to--among other reasons, to spread the information, the awareness of this project which we believe, if successful, and we believe it will be, will be one significant step, one outreach toward grabbing some of these children you're talking about. Mark, wanna comment on it too? >> Well, a couple of things, and first of all, Charles--I wanna thank Charles, and Charles is also chair of our Measure P Committee, and one of the issues that Charles and I have talked about, and I know it's important to Berlinda, Trustee Brown, is the issue of how we can get more information about local vendors involved in contracting with the college. So on a separate subject, we are working on that. In fact, we hope to have another workshop up here in Jackie Robinson Center on that and to develop a--we are working on text that will be a--what I call a minority contracting policy in the district. So I wanted to--and thank Charles for his service, 'cause the service on Measure P committee is extremely important, service oversight in terms of getting that--our projects built and our beautiful center for the arts which will benefit everybody, and we're gonna start planning on the new science and health buildings. So--and thank you to Charles. A couple of things. You've heard the program here. Okay. So we don't need to kind of drill down into the details of that. But one thing, and I know Dolores is here, and I feel like I saw Adele [phonetic] somewhere. Adele is back there. And then Jackie [phonetic] of course. Those are three of our leaders on the African presidents--African-American advisory group. And I've worked, of course, with all three in the advisory group very closely. What I'm asking the advisory--one of the things we're gonna do--this is not gonna happen unless we have some legs, you know, some real, you know, footwork in the community. So I'm going to ask Jackie and Dolores and Adele, you know, to come to the advisory committee and talk about how specific ways that the community can help to get this program up and running in real ways. 'Cause I think you point out one key ingredient that I think that we struggle with frankly. We don't have the answer. And that is many of the students--and I'm most concerned about our young men, you know, because their [inaudible], you know, that it's tied specifically to the jobs economy, and if there's no hope in the jobs economy, then they're--you know, they're more likely not to graduate in high school. But I think the problem is that it's very, very difficult for our black youth, and our Hispanic youth, to--as you say, hook them into a support group that includes a family. And in many, many cases--not all, maybe not even the majority--but in many cases, and even in my own family--I mean, you know, my dad did not spend a whole lot of time with me, you know, worrying about my schooling. >> He was working and so on and so forth and doing what he needs to do. But I do think there's an important component of bringing the parents and the support groups into the room. But the college can't do that by itself because we have some good relationships, but we're just here trying to start, you know, start going. But the people on the advisory groups, the people on the community and so on are the ones that have the relationships that can build the trust to bring the parents and others into the room. I don't think any of these will succeed unless every single individual is in this program, whether it's a case manager or whatever, but has a mentor, you know, in the community who's guiding that student all the way through, you know--literally as a member of that person's extended family. It's just not gonna work any other way, because there are too many ways, especially a young man, can get off track. And somebody with some strength--and no matter how much money we pour into this, somebody with some strength and with some connection to that young man is gonna have to pick them up and say, you're not going that way. You're going this way, you know. And that's a piece that we've been--that we've always struggled with, because you know, in the school business, we--well, we're in a school building, you come to us, okay. Now, we're trying to, you know, to extend out. The other thing is that I do think that is important, because you know, I am concerned. The Board of Trustees have been extraordinarily--this is happening because of their support. And it costs money. And that's one of the reasons why frequently, these [inaudible] 'cause they stop, they start, they stop, they start, in the budget and so on and so forth. But one of the things that this Board of Trustees understands is that these are not expenses. These are investments. And we have so many students hitting our campus who are taking English and Math, dropping out, failing the course, and we're having to pay to put up more sections so that they can repeat it. Okay. So it just makes good sense for us--we're gonna spend the money anyway, but to make the investment at the--in the area where it can provide the most return. We believe that the most return will be by capturing our in-district, and it's there--it's right there, Charles, number one goal--in-district guarantee, you know, and we've talked about it. But you know, the Board of Trustees strongly approved this plan, that in-district comes first. I have our enrolment management committee working on--and President Martinez--raise your hand Ed. Ed is the head of our faculty. I appreciate him being here tonight. They're working hard on putting in an enrolment management priority so that in-district students come first. That's not a--something that we're talking about. That's something that's going in this fall. Alright. But still, the students can come, but we have to help them to succeed. So you know--so I think some practical steps. First of all, this is happening. Second of all, I think the African-American Advisory group has to be expanded, and it has to be more than an advisory group. It has to be an action group, okay, because those--so that's the group that has the relationships in the community, they can extend the network so that we can--and here, let me--there is no one who's wiser in this than Jackie. So let me turn it to Jackie. >> One of the things I think you may think, okay, so the Math and English, so what? We're training everybody to transfer to a senior institution, what's the [inaudible]? We have an--back to attracting people and keeping our young men interested, we have our career and technical programs. 77 of those programs at Pasadena City College, and we have pathways that will lead--that our students can start in the 9th grade taking subjects, and that will lead them to--probably, it's in our construction program, our architecture, our nursing, dental assisting, dental lab technology, medical assisting, radiologic technology--Ellen Ligons--okay. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> I'll tell--[inaudible]--all of those program. And we--and so--and this is the part that is--I feel that the community does not know about that Ms. Ligons here has worked for years to work on pathways with the tech prep program through the--with PUSD. And so, this is something that we do want you to know about, and the--that we have pathways from our 9 nine credit area over at Foothill, CEC, we have programs over there where people can come and learn basic things, and then, we are transferring in a pathway into the main college on Colorado. So I just wanted you to know--and you will be hearing more about these, but you know, every time we mention programs [inaudible], I didn't know you had that at PCC, I didn't know you had--how many of you know about that we have 77 career type programs at PCC? [ Laughter ] >> Okay. And so--but anyway, I just wanted to mention that, but you will be hearing much more, and we do need to know, reading and writing and Math, these are basics, and these will get our young people into these other programs. They will need to know that. We mentioned, Greg, you were talking about our earliest--some of the things that--when we will start doing this. We are doing some of it already. In Muir, we have--we started last year. Our English 100 at Pasadena City College is actually taught in--at Muir for seniors. So when they take that course, they will not have to take--if they pass it, they will not have to take our English 1A when they come--I mean, they would go into that English 1A when they come to Pasadena City College. They will have to take the remedial course. And we are doing it for Math. Our faculty now are--as of this year, the Math people are really excited, and they are working together, PUSD, faculty, and PCC. So these are things we are doing now, and the Pathways we will continue, but we have started. Yes. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> We can look at it like that. [ Simultaneous Talking ] >> Yeah, careers, not just transferred to the 4-year college, but some that--yeah. But we have careers--because our rad tech person can go out and take our course in two years, and they can go and start at 60,000 or more. So we have programs where they can come in and get jobs after one and two years. >> Okay. Ms. Brown, then the girl at her back. >> I just wanted to add to what Jackie said. My first year as a trustee, I definitely discovered a lot of what Jackie has just mentioned. And it's my intention to help you, parents, kids, and community leaders, so we could disseminate this information. That's my goal, is to see that all parents, community leaders, whomever you want to be, so we can get our kids at PCC if that's where they wanna be. If it's a job that they need training for, PCC is just like a gold mine. Everything is there. We have all your needs. All we need is for the individual, the parent, or the community leader, Joe Brown, all these strong advocates to bind. We, as a group, we can build a coalition, get out there, and motivate our kids. The programs are here. It's no discovery. The only problem I have with some of the program is if the individual, the young man which is what we want to build up, know that they want a career, a trade better yet put, all they need to know is what is it they want, and we can provide them. PCC is here for us. So if it means that we have to go back to churches last year, we had outreach at churches, and I was all excited, I wanted to see, oh, how did this work, did we get more students enroll at PCC. So I said, "Jackie, how many more kids did we get?" >> We didn't get that many. But I'm not discouraged. I'm gonna keep going, because I think a lot of folks don't really understand or believe that we have the programs. But the programs are here. So this is a good night for us to start. Maybe we need to do more community meetings together, just the leaders, and let's get this out there because our kids need an education, they need jobs. We need skillful jobs. We can make all the noise we want that we want jobs, really, really--or as kids want jobs, what they want real jobs. They just don't want a job that minimum wage. They want to be educated. We need an educated workforce. And we are here to do that if they would allow us to. That's all I had to say. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> I think we need to all understand and agree that we're starting something here that is not gonna be the final form of it. You're quite right. A couple of years ago, I did principal for a day program with the Pas Educational Foundation. Then I had the privilege of being over at McKinley School and a principal there. And her approach to things was to grab children at the--in the 7th grade, and within about the first two months of them being in the 7th grade, they looked at the scores of the test that they took, and she assigned each of the young people who got a D, an E, or an F to one of her top counselors, and they worked with those children because her belief was, if she didn't get them at 7th grade, by the time 8th, 9th, forget it, too late. Now, [inaudible] that pessimistic, but the point of it is that we're starting something here, it's gonna be successful, we're gonna build upon it, and expand it as we go forward. But your points are very well taken, so--some other-- [ Inaudible Remark ] >> [Inaudible] I think you had comments, and I think [inaudible]. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> We'll be happy to do that. That's a very good suggestion, and that's a perfect example of why we wanna have meetings like this, is to get input that we can take and make use of. John [inaudible], you had your hand up. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> No. I think the ideas are gonna take the courses after hours at the school. >> Right. I think there is actually two models that are being discussed, and as Dr. Jacobs was indicating for quite some time, there has been joint meetings between PCC, English, and math, our division deans, and our faculty, and PUSD faculty, on this topic of curriculum mapping and aligning the--that which is taught at the high schools with what is expected once they get to PCC. So that would be part of it. The intervention is at--actually in the classes that are being taught right now, they would be taught content or curriculum that would match what their needs are here. And then on top of that, there is discussion about after school programs, before school programs, whatever it might take to help these students get to where they need to be. We've had some excellent suggestions tonight, and I will certainly share that with the PUSD colleague, as with our team as well. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> And that is exactly the model that we are working towards right now. And Manny has spent some time--lots of discussion taking place right now to try to accomplish that. Again, just to make sure that the time that students are spending is well spent towards a goal, and this curriculum alignment issue has been one that we've been struggling with for quite some time that we are now very seriously trying to address it. >> I have a question too, but I do wanna comment a couple of--this is--it's really exciting hearing this--the conversation. And we--and we've talked about a new program, but we also--as trustee Brown mentioned, we also have a lot of programs that are in place now. >> I know Dean Hodge has created a program called Stepping Up that involves the family and the student and getting those most at-risk students an opportunity they'd get back on track with their education. And it turns out some of even the parents, I've--if I recall right, and I've been ruling in programs at PCC to get their skills up to par. And the--what I'm hoping to comes out of this too is I want the community to also hold us accountable for delivering on the--we've talked about one new program tonight, and I don't wanna have the reputation that we start the programs and then they stop because a new aspect that I noticed, the PUS--PCC-PUSD mentoring program, which sounds fabulous and--but they don't wanna put it on the shoulders of one community college student who's here this semester who will then transfer next semester, and then what happens to that program. We have the PCC ambassadors program a few years ago that was supposed to do the same thing, I mean, put PCC students out into the--at local high schools and start spreading the message about what's the--what are the unique opportunities at PCC. Well, I don't know if that program still exists, but I don't wanna get hopes up and not deliver on those hopes. And I really hope that they--the community holds us accountable and speaks up if they see that we're not following through on these pledges, and I wanna know about this mentoring program, how are we gonna make sure that it continues, and it's just not riding on the shoulders of one community college student who happens to be here this semester. >> Right here, gentleman. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Yeah. Well, Mr. Baum, I think, you know--and Del and I have talked about just this. My hope there is that--and I invite you to join, is that we need to take this to the African-American advisory committee which normally--advisory group, which normally kind of has an agenda, and we--you know, we do good things and so on. But we really need to--as Del suggests, a lot of these is gonna depend upon our relationships and actually getting some things done with our colleagues in PUSD and so on. So we've got the questions down, and so, what I have suggest too, and one of the things that I--that will come out of this is that our--you know, this might [inaudible] our advisory group meetings which are--where a lot of the action happens, that no longer happened at, you know, at 10 o'clock at the campus, you know, during the day, but that we have the advisory, not just the African-American, but the Latino, and you know, we have them in the evening out here. And that's really the working group. So my shot answer, Mr. Baum, is that we're gonna give this work to the advisory group to knock it up. Okay. And we'll give you the time of the next meeting. [ Laughter ] >> Other questions or comments, suggestions? Abraham, did you have your hand up a moment ago? Or he disappeared. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Sure. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> That's an excellent question. [ Inaudible Remark ] [ Inaudible Discussion ] >>That's a good idea. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> I'm volunteering our president's notepad right here for anybody to get a--to put their email down. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Exactly, put their email address, and we'll be sure that you get all the information, so [inaudible]-- [ Inaudible Remark ] >> That's exactly what we're hoping to get from all of you this evening, is--that's why we want your email addresses. We will track you down. [Inaudible]-- [ Inaudible Remark ] [ Laughter ] >> Once again, we have outreach within the TLC. We're working closely with other special programs, Chiara and such, as well as with Cynthia. And so, the goal is to have something in place that we can roll out starting April 1st. We're gonna do the best we can. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Essential. And what we're finding--Facebook and the social media are the best ways to communicate now, and we're gonna plan to do that as well. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> They will. We're still--we spent the winter putting the program together, we're now becoming more concrete by putting it down on paper and getting our outreach materials in place, so that when that begins, we'll have tools that we can use. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Not sure about. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> That is critical, yes. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Yeah, and that's-- [ Inaudible Remark ] >> And that is part of the discussions that we're having with them. I think our last meeting was right before the holidays, December 12th as I recall, and we will be getting together again very soon with PUSD to report our progress and to map out the communication and mechanisms that we're all--that we're gonna need for this. >> Nolan, Mr. Pack, our student trustee. >> I'm really glad that it was brought out in terms of accessibility to materials that students can use to help guide them through. I actually worked this last semester as a teacher's assistant at Muir High School and a resident in this district, and it was interesting interacting with high school students in a lot of ways. But mainly, a lot of them were very comfortable with mobile devices and computers. When we would break away from group sessions in the class and ask them to, you know, do a presentation or find information, that was the first place that all of them went. And so, I'm glad to hear that we're working on stuff like Facebook and so forth social networking, and I think in answering a lot of the students' questions at PCC, I think there's a generational consensus that we want to--we want an answer to our question right now, and not necessarily more than that. One of the reasons Wikipedia is successful is because you can go and read about the Declaration of Independence without having to read an entire American History Book. And so, you know, if you have a question that comes up in your head, you can just go on your phone, iPad, computer at home and look at that specific thing. So I hope that we can develop resources for students that are more interactive, user-friendly, and intuitive, so that they can find all that information online. >> Nolan, that's our goal. [ Inaudible Discussion ] >> We don't email our students anymore, because they don't answer our e-mails. We text them. >> Texting, yeah. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Other questions or comments? Yes, sir. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Yes. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> The TLC was created with the Title V grant, which is a Hispanic serving institutions grant. And so, when it began in 2000, our--the focus of our intention was the overrepresentation among Latinos in basic skills and low success rates. So for about six or seven years, our programs were about 80 percent Latino with the rest being a mix. Since to the end of that grant, we have strived to diversify. And for example, we have relationship with Chiara's program Ujima, and MESA, which is a program for Latino and African-American students is right next to [inaudibke] and we work independently with them. And so, all of our students are under-prepared, the vast majority of them are students of color. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> The percentage? [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Almost all of our students are Latino or African-American, probably about 90 percent. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> The enrolment is actually increasing. It's roughly about 10 percent. Right now, we have 31,500 students. We're one of the largest community colleges in the state. About 35 percent of our students, give or take, are Asian-American, about 35--a little bit upwards of 35 percent of our students are Hispanic, about 10 percent of our students are black. The number of black students that--has been thankfully, rising significantly over the last several years. Our challenge has been not getting them in. We've been pretty good on the access. It is getting them out. You know, that's been the challenge, and that's what we're trying to work on here. So I do think we have, you know, a welcoming campus. We can always do better. But I think that's the general numbers. And in fact, one of the students in the video--you know, one of the great things about PCC is that whatever high school they come out of, they're gonna come into like a global multiculture at PCC, which kind of trains them up for the real world. So it's a majority. I think 69 percent--we're a majority-minority campus, you know. You know, some of--you know, some people think PCC is that great white rock over there on Colorado Boulevard. 69 percent of our students are minority students. So we're, by far, a majority and minority campus. So any student from the northwest should feel comfortable there. And that's what our goal. >> Yes, sir? [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Well, okay. Good. And we can get that over to Mr. Miller, and-- >> That might be great. >> And he's our--kind of our quarterback for this. >> Mr. Nielsen. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> We are open to having meetings whenever people would like to have us. I mean, we are intentionally moving around our study sessions. Next one will be in San Marino, mid-March, then the one in April is gonna be in Temple City I believe. They're [inaudible] part of the world. And then May, perhaps Arcadia. But if you put the other community meeting, we may not be able to get the full board here, but I assure you that I'm quite flexible, and we are very willing to come. I'm sure Ms. Brown is, Mr. Baum, Ms. Wah--we'll be here. I mean, it--I really do wanna emphasize that this has to be a community collective effort. We cannot sit here as a board and say, this is what is going to happen. We've got to all work together and pull together to make it happen. So the more we get can get out to the community and become a part of it, the better off we're gonna be. So-- >> But I have Jackie and Dolores and Del especially to work together because to answer your question is that I'd like to reschedule the African-American Advisory Group. We probably can't have a board meeting out here, you know, couple of times a year. But the link in institutionally should be to the president's advisory group that can meet out here much more often. >> But there is nothing to prevent board members from-- [ Simultaneous Talking ] >> That's my kind of-- [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Well, they meet at 10 o'clock on some days, you know, on campus-- [ Inaudible Discussion ] >> Thursday. >> Monthly. >> So I'm working on it, they're working on it. [ Laughter ] [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Ms. Ligons, Ellen. [ Inaudible Remark ] [ Laughter ] [ Inaudible Remark ] [ Laughter ] [ Inaudible Remark ] >> I--we sent a group of faculty from our planning team to allow to the first year experience conference, and one of the things they came back with was that all first year students need help. And four-year universities, some of them very prestigious, were talking about poor retention persistence and success rates among first year students as well. So the problem is shared. So those students coming in strong still needs support, which is why we're planning Pathways, not only for students who are not college-ready, but are college-ready, and some of those things that you were talking about are under consideration too. It's a different kind of student, but it's a student that we recognize that still needs help. >> Cynthia? [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Nice. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Nolan? >> Oh, yeah. I just wanted to express my support as a student for that also. I know one of the things that we consistently hear from students is that the process to get up to college level classes can sometimes be so daunting. And I think it's great that we're looking at that as an option. And we also discussed this on the budget and resource allocation committee as a way to help increase the efficiency, not only in terms of resources, but helping to get students to their goal faster. So I'm really glad that we're explaining that. Thank you. >> Jeff? >> Just I know we're closing that I--I'm hoping also the folks in the community are--they can help the college figure out which communication tools--that seems to be a big issue--are effective. I don't know how many people saw the Shirley Smith column last week talking about the importance of understanding financial aid and how to register for financial aid at PCC. And helping identify those tools that actually get the--this information. I know [inaudible] on the front line with those students everyday to help us say how can we best get the information then. You're gonna be the best one to tell us what actually cuts through all the other stuff to get to them. >> Yes? >> I'm Cecile. I'm a counselor at Pasadena City College, Cecile Davis Anderson. And one of the things I've noticed in workshops that we do, good counseling sessions on our campus, and also, meetings that I've had with high school counselors over the years, there's a disconnect for students about the kind of skills and mindsets that they need to be successful in college that they could be learning as early as the 7th or 8th grade. There's a lot of research out there, and I don't know how much it gets across, but we know that students who take hard classes in high school are gonna have the mindsets to be successful on our campus. I don't know how many times I've heard student say, is this gonna be an easy class? Is this an easy class, and if they take hard classes, and if parents get their children to take hard classes in high school, take the English and the Math four years, you know, somehow push them to do their homework, it's gonna help them be more successful in our campus. When we do group counseling sessions, we asked how many hours of homework are you used to doing, and some are used to doing an hour maybe a week. And in college, there's a huge ramp up in how much homework they have to do every evening. And so, the more that we can get those kinds of messages across--and you know, I love reading research, I can cite a lot of stuff and send it around--the more our students can be prepared when they get to us. >> Thank you. That's a--yes? [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Well, in this, you know, we'd ask you to contact us, okay and to contact PCC, 'cause we're the ones who are kind of the prime mover here. And there's a--you've met some of the contact people, but the prime kind of, you know, mover here is Dean Miller, okay. And so, if you get-- >> I'll give you one of my cards. >> If you get Dean Miller's email address and phone number, anything you get to him will go into this program. >> And we'll send an email to everybody who's left their email with this, right? >> Yeah. I think it's still circulating back there. So pass it on. As we bring this to a close, we've had a group of faculty and administrative and other people here who are unusually silent this evening. [ Laughter ] >> I don't want to have them feel this completely bypassed. If you--if any of you feel you have to say something you would like to, this is your opportunity. So-- >> Anyone? [ Inaudible Remark ] [ Laughter ] >> Extraordinary, but then-- >> I just think it's fantastic to hear the voices of the community, and we really appreciate your input. >> Yeah, absolutely. And as we bring this to a close, let me emphasize that there is no panacea that's gonna solve all the educational challenges and problems we have in this business community in this state and this nation. But what we're doing here is through the Pathways Project is reaching out with one approach to it. It may need to take a number of modifications [inaudible] forward, we realized that, we are very open to that, and we need your help. We need your support. And without that, we're not gonna be very successful. But we've gotta find a way to reach out to gain interest and participation of that young person who may not care too much to get an education. But I think we all understand the challenges, we all understand the needs for it, and we're just very, very appreciative that you are here this evening and expressing interest. Please, give us your email address or some other way of contacting you so that we will not have you--or allow you to leave this evening without our ability to get back and follow up on--with you, and make sure that we hold your feet to the fire. So, good--thanks for all of you--all of you for coming, and I think we can bring the meeting to a close. Thank you. [ Applause ] [ Silence ] ==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====