Hartnell President Willard Lewallen honored by Salinas administrators

Hartnell College Superintend/President Willard Lewallen was presented with the "Forbes Impact Award" during the Forbes AgTech Summit in Downtown Salinas on July 14.

Lewallen was recognized for his leadership in education, as exemplified by the Computer Science in three years program in partnership with CSUMB.

The Forbes Impact Awards are granted each summit to individuals who are leading, innovating, and pushing boundaries in their given field. Previous recipients of the Forbes Impact Award include Malala Yousafzai, Bruce Taylor, Liz Scott, Alex’s Lemonade Stand, Veronika Scott, The Empowerment Plan, and Brian Antle.

This is the second year the Forbes AgTech Summit is held in Salinas. This year, it drew more than 600 attendees from all over the globe and offered a number of talks and seminars, Innovation Showcase, tours, film screenings, and more.

As it's the case of meany great leaders, Hartnell's a Leo

Hartnell Community College officials are celebrating today the 95th anniversary of the college.

On August 18, 1920, the Salinas Junior College opened its doors as California’s 13th junior college serving 28 students, according to the local newspaper, The Battery. Salinas High School principal E.L. Van Dellen was the main promoter, Hartnell College officials said in a statement.

“The junior college is no longer an experiment; it has been successfully conducted in many communities in California and other states and is part of a nationwide movement to give an equal opportunity for education to all the children of all the people," The Salinas Daily Index said.

In 1948, the school was renamed Hartnell College to honor William Edward Hartnell, who is credited with bringing the first educational institution to California in 1834, El Colegio de Hartnell (which translates Hartnell’s School). It became Hartnell Community College District in 1949.

“For 95 years, Hartnell College has been actively engaged in ensuring that students have the opportunity and support to fulfill their dreams. During this time, the college has gone through various chapters and over the years many stories have unfolded,” said Boar
d President Erica Padilla-Chávez. “From the student who wanted to take a PE class to the student who returned to complete their AA degree in their 7th decade of life, Hartnell has been here to support one and all, and it will continue to do so.”

 A community celebration is being planned. For  a visual history of Hartnell, click here.

The Salinas Junior College, Circa 1920

Hartnell College tops California for transfers to UC system

Hartnell College is leading in transfers of underrepresented minority students to the University of California, Hartnell officials announced Thursday.

The top three community colleges in the state to transfer minority students to UCs are: Hartnell College, Rio Hondo and West Los Angeles College, according to an analysis by UC.

“We are being asked by other colleges about our successful practices,” said Superintendent/President Willard Lewallen. “We have many, but the first thing I tell them is this: at Hartnell College we believe that our students are UC material. We lift them up in small and large ways.”

Lewallen was invited to moderate a panel in Los Angeles this week to talk about best practices Hartnell has implemented to have higher percentages of minority students transferring to UCs.

MPC's Walter Tribley to talk about community college challenges

Monterey Peninsula College President Walt Tribley will talk about the community college mission and the significant changes that are changing the way colleges operate.

In the last decade, higher education has faced severe funding cuts and the implementation of very prescriptive policies controlling how higher education (colleges and students) will be funded. From limits on the amount of federal financial aid a student receives to the so-called national completion agenda, this presentation will highlight the challenges and opportunities for community colleges and the students and communities they serve.

This is around the time college administrators also present their budgets, so chances are Tribley will also address the college financials. It should be a presentation worth attending.

The presentation will take place at 1:30 p.m. on Jan 21., at the Lecture Forum #103 of the main campus, 980 Fremont St., Monterey.

High school students welcome to Hartnell College night

Hartnell College and the Transfer and Career Center will host the 29th Annual Transfer Day and College Night in the Student Center at 411 Central Avenue, Salinas, on Thursday. More than 40 university representatives are expected to attend to meet with students and answer questions regarding the transfer/admissions process.

Transfer Day, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

College Night, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Representatives from CSUs, UCs, privates, and out-of-state will be providing information. Some of the schools attending include: Academy of Art University, Brandman University, CSU Monterey Bay, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Fresno State, Holy Names University, San Jose State University, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, and University of New Mexico. Last year 54 institutions participated.

This year Hartnell is expecting over 500 high school juniors and seniors to visit the campus during Transfer Day. Gonzales High School will bring a group of 50 students during College Night.

College Night is geared toward promoting the various university programs with high school seniors and their families. This is a great opportunity for them to survey different college options and learn about specific programs and their student support services offered at each campus.

Dolores Huerta coming to Hartnell College

Civil and farmworker rights icon Dolores Huerta will visit Hartnell College on Wednesday as part of celebrations for Women's History Month.

Huerta will focus her talk in celebrating women of character, courage, and commitment. The celebration will feature musical and dance performances by students and guests.

The event is open to the public and will start at 12:00 p.m. in Building K Room 125.

Huerta is a national figure recognized by her leadership as a union organizer, a women rights advocate, and a spokesperson for non-violence organizing.

In addition, the month-long celebration includes a pictorial display at the Student Center celebrating accomplished Women throughout history, an interactive online exhibit from the National Women’s History Museum, a short film festival, and an art exhibit featuring female artists.

Hartnell provides report on Measure H bonds

If you want to get a rundown on how Hartnell's been spending bond funds, administrators have just posted the 2012-13 annual report on their website.

You can find it here. It even has a cool rendition of what the science building will look like.

Residents of the Hartnell Community College District voted in 2002 to pass Measure H, a $131 million general obligation bond measure. The purpose of the bond measure was to address education facilities needs within the Hartnell. Over the life of the bond measure, the district has built many new buildings and has renovated and modernized many others, including the Alisal Campus and the King City Education center. 

The final facility to be built with Measure H funds is the 56,000 sq. ft. science building. Construction on this project is scheduled to begin soon.

Incidentally, Hartnell administrators recently re-financed a portion of the bonds that carried an average interest of 5.3 percent to an average of 3.32 percent, reducing the community’s tax bill by $2,280,289 over the next 16 years.

No calculations were available as to how much that translates per home.

The refinance was not of Series D bonds, which are capital appreciation bonds that carry a higher repayment ratio and are usually more expensive. The earliest Hartnell will be able to refinance those bonds will be in 2017-19, President Willard Lewallen said.

Hartnell Speech Team earns awards

The newly formed Hartnell Speech Team received multiple awards on November 4 at the Mustang Invitational Tournament held at Sacramento City College. The tournament included 24 schools from Arizona, California, Oregon and Utah. The team brought five awards to Salinas!

The team was coached by Jason Hough, professor in Communications at Hartnell.

Here's a list of the winners:

Andrea Cervantes, First Place, Dramatic Interpretation
Andres Aranda, First Place, Poetry Interpretation
Karina Neeley, Third Place, Oral Interpretation
Marc Dover, Fifth Place, Oral Interpretation
Ariana Valencia, Fifth Place, Poetry Interpretation

Other teammates and participants include, Julia Felice, Maria Hernandez, Daniel Ibarra, Angelica Jubane, Richelle Mendez, Miguel Padilla, and Alyssa Rendon.

Sounds like the team did a wonderful job on their inaugural performance. I can't wait to see what other triumphs lay ahead!

Anti-abortion group "Project Truth" to visit Monterey Peninsula College

Students from the Monterey Peninsula College received this email from Martin Johnson, interim vice president for student services:

Our campus was recently contacted by an organization called “Project Truth” informing us that they will visit our campus on September 16 & 17 , 2013, to practice free speech. Project Truth is an organization that will be handing out information to students and others “who are interested in discussing our issue of the sanctity of human life.” The organization has expressed that they “will be quiet and respectful, and will not hinder any foot traffic in areas open to the public.” Project Truth will set up displays that are considered by some to contain extremely graphic images that might upset those who see the images. Some images are of unborn fetuses in different stages of development.

While the images may be upsetting, the organization has the right to show these images as a matter of free speech. The group will be on campus from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on each of the days. It is important to note that they are acting within the boundaries of the Time, Place, and Manner Policy of the college. The First Amendment protects their right to engage opinions which may differ and they may confront those beliefs aggressively. It is important to note that our Time, Place, and Manner Policy does not permit the violation of lawful college regulations or the disruption of the orderly operation of the college. Security personnel will be observing the activities to ensure that the policies are adhered to by all parties.

If concerns need to be expressed, please forward them to my office by e-mail, in person or by calling 646-4190. Also, please refer to me any inquiries that you may receive from the media.

Another story that may be interesting to report on. Stay tuned.

Hartnell to update community members on accreditation status

Hartnell College administrators will host two town hall meetings to update the community on efforts to address the 12 accreditation recommendations by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges.

The meetings are open to the public and will take place:

From 3:45 to 4:45 p.m., Thursday, September 12, at Hartnell King City Education Center, 117 N. Second Street, King City.

From noon to 1 p.m., Monday, September 16, at Hartnell College Main Campus, Steinbeck Hall, 411 Central Avenue, Salinas.

The town hall meetings will provide community members with an opportunity to answer questions or express concerns. Presenters will include Hartnell College Superintendent/President Willard Lewallen, Vice President of Academic Affairs Lori Kildal, and Academic Senate President, Tony Anderson.

For the second time in six years, Hartnell College was put on probation by the Western Association of School and Colleges earlier this year after a recommendation by an independent team of educators.

A probationary statue is issued when the reviewing team finds the college is not meeting all accreditation requirements. Hartnell remains accredited while on probation .

For more information on accreditation status, visit Hartnell’s website.

Hartnell hires VP of Academic Affairs

Lori Kildal has been named the new vice president of academic affairs at Hartnell College. Kildal takes on the role as the college strives to overcome its probationary status as determined by the Western Association of Schools & Colleges.

Kildal previously worked at Victor Valley College in Victorville, CA, where she started as dean of science, technology, engineering, and math in 2006, and most recently served as dean of instruction.

Incidentally, Hartnell President Willard Lewallen worked at Victor Valley College from 1999 to 2007, when he was named president of West Hills College.

Kildal has also worked as the executive director of the San Diego regional campus of Azusa Pacific University, and as associate dean and athletic director at Grossmont College.

Kildal has taught health and physical education, has advised students, and has coached at the high school, community college, and university levels.

We should expect Hartnell will soon become one of the healthiest colleges in the California Community College system, as Kildal is the second top administrator -- next to Lewallen -- with educational background in physical education. A gym nearby is waiting...

Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges in the hot seat

Oh oh. It looks like the tables have turned for the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, the group in charge of reviewing whether schools and colleges have good practices in place to make sure students have a fruitful educational experience. Now it turns out the U.S. Department of Education notified the commission on Wednesday that it is out of compliance in several areas related to its sanctioning of City College of San Francisco.

The accreditation commission voted recently to strip City College of San Francisco of its accreditation. It also decided to put Hartnell College on probation, the second time in six years to do so.

According to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education, the commission must take “immediate steps” to avert the suspension or termination of its federal recognition as an accrediting body, according to a report in Inside Higher Ed.

It is unclear what this letter means for City College of San Francisco, and even muddier what it means for Hartnell. We should find out...

Hartnell's Dustin Lance Black honored by California Community College System

Dustin Lance Black, who attended Hartnell College before transferring to UCLA, was recently selected by the Community College League of California as a distinguished alumnus of the California Community College System. He will be honored at the League’s annual convention in November 2013.

Black credits his experience at Hartnell College and with The Western Stage as helping him to find his voice and his passion, according to Hartnell's Spokeswoman Terri Pyer. After Hartnell, Black attended UCLA and graduated with honors from the School of Theater, Film, and Television, and he has gone on to write influential plays and screenplays.

Black received an Academy Award for best original screenplay in 2009 for “Milk,” about the late civil rights activist Harvey Milk. Black also wrote the screenplay for the film “J. Edgar.” In July of 2012, he was the guest of honor at Hartnell College for the showing of "8," his play about the federal court case that successfully challenged the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, an amendment that had curtailed the rights of same-sex couples to marry. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the case cleared the way for marriage equality in the state.

Former Monterey Peninsula College trustees spoke, and Marina listened

If you missed the controversy of the week, three former Monterey Peninsula College trustees (namely Charley Page, Jim Tunney and Lynne Davis) urged current Marina trustee Margaret-Anne Coppernoll to either not run or for Marina residents to step up and find someone to run against her.

You can find the Herald's story here, an editorial on the topic here, and a rebuttal from current Marina City Councilman Dave Brown here.

Well, it looks like at least one Marina resident will heed the Peninsula folks' advice. Former Marina Mayor Gary Wilmot has taken out papers to run for the MPC seat. His paperwork is not complete, but neither is Coppernoll's, so anything can happen between now and August 9. Maybe another candidate will throw his/her hat in the ring?

Stay tuned.

Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges visits Hartnell

Barbara Beno and Susan Clifford, president and vice president of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, will make a presentation to the Hartnell Board of Trustees at 5 pm. today, July 16.

Beno and Clifford will focus their presentation on accreditation standards and the role the trustees play in the accreditation process. The meeting will take place in Building B, room 208 of Hartnell, 411 Central Ave., Salinas. 

Hartnell was placed on probation earlier this month by the ACCJC. The college community will have to address 12 recommendations in the upcoming two years to have its probationary status lifted. While on probation, the school remains fully accredited, so the students education is not in jeopardy.

The college has put together answers to frequently asked questions. You can see them here and here.

High school students: wanna know how much more you can make with a community college degree?

In this day and age of "job satisfaction," I hear professionals advice students to follow their passion when choosing a career -- instead of letting the potential earnings be the guide.

While probably many students are following their bliss these days, for those who want to learn more about their potential earnings, the  California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office has just put out a nifty tool. It's called the "Salary Surfer" and it provides an estimate of how much students could expect to earn before and after they complete a program. Say, for instance, you want to learn how much you'd make with an administration of justice degree: median annual salary before $20,000; two years after receiving the degree, about $35,000; five years after, about $42,000.

The tool could provide a good incentive for high school graduates who are on the fence about going to college. Check it out here. I didn't find it very user friendly because it's grouped by area of study, not by community college. Thus, if I want to find a specific area of program at Monterey Peninsula College or Hartnell, I'd have to find the majors at the community colleges first, then find them in the salary surfer. Still, it's fun to check it out. 

25 young women earn a spot in Hartnell's Women's Education Leadership Initiative

The Hartnell College Foundation's Women's Education Leadership Initiative has named a new crop of WELI scholarship recipients. Each WELI scholar will receive a $2,000 scholarship after completing a leadership skills workshop this summer, and will be matched with a career mentor before starting the Fall 2013 semester at Hartnell College.

The 25 WELI Class III scholars are: Blessing Anih, Sonia Avila, Maria Berber, Anita Casarez, Tammy Curtiss, Artemia Martinez DeJesus, Anjelene Esteban, Nancy Farfan, Shannon Hernandez, Jin Kim, Elia Martinez, Rocio Mendoza, Nancy Nuno, Nonna Quizon, Samantha Rico, Alicia Rivera, Diana Rivera, Nadia Rodriguez, Andrea Ramirez Sanchez, Stephanie Sanchez, Stephanie Sanchez-Flores, Cossette Surye, Edna Valdez, Daria Villasenor and Kristina Webster.

WELI is a program designed to increase the leadership capacity, workforce skills, college enrollment, and college completion rate of women, single parents, and re-entry students in Monterey County. The program provides three keys for success: Resources, Knowledge, and Mentorship.

For further information on the WELI program contact Karen Hagman at 831-755-6810 or khagman@hartnell.edu.

Hartnell to decide fate of child care center

Hartnell trustees are scheduled again to vote on the fate of the Alisal Child Development Center at a special meeting Tuesday.

Two weeks ago, the board was scheduled to vote on a set of recommendations for dealing with their child care center -- located in the most populous part of Salinas -- that administrators say is losing $200,000 a year. California has sharply reduced its subsidies for child care services, and many places throughout the state are feeling the pinch.

At a meeting earlier this month, the board failed to meet the number of votes required to outsource the services of the child care center to another operator. With the return of Trustee Erica Padilla-Chavez, administrators are going to take another bite at the apple.

Stay tuned.

Beccie Michael to lead Monterey Peninsula Foundation

Beccie Michael will be the new executive director of the Monterey Peninsula College Foundation, the arm of the school tasked with raising extra funds.

Michael, 33, previously worked as director of development at Columbia College in Sonora, Calif. Under her leadership, the Foundation tripled their annual donations and successfully completed a scholarship fundraising campaign, MPC officials say. Michael has worked as a resource development professional in the California community college system for the past eight years.

Michael attended Santa Barbara City College and earned a B.A. from University of California, Santa Barbara in 2001. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in community development from Kansas State University.

She's scheduled to take on her new position May 13.

Accreditation team visit to Hartnell College completed

A team from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges concluded a visit to Hartnell last Thursday, and before departing, they issued five commendations and 12 recommendations, according to Spokeswoman Terri Pyer.

The college was commended for its cooperative spirit in making necessary changes, for offering unique and innovative programs, for providing architecturally interesting and inviting learning spaces, and for the innovative use of physical resources in King City and at the Alisal Campus. Its foremost commendation went to the president of the college, Willard Lewallen, who was praised for assessing the institution's needs immediately upon arrival on July 1, 2012.

Among the team's recommendations to the college were to develop processes to evaluate its mission regularly; to develop comprehensive planning processes, including strategic and annual plans; to standardize student learning results, service learning results and program-level results, and provide training for staff on how to accomplish this; to improve staff evaluation processes; to develop and implement a stable administrative structure; and to evaluate its participatory governance model. The team noted that much of this work has been started at the college, but that the college must continue this work and complete the planning and assessment cycle.

Over the next few months, the team will provide its commendations and recommendations to the college in a written report, inviting the college to respond to any factual errors. Then the report will be forwarded to the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. The commission will meet in June to consider all of the evidence submitted to it, including the college's self-evaluation and the report of the visiting team, and will issue its decision on the college's accredited status.

Accreditation is a voluntary system of self-regulation of schools and colleges developed to evaluate overall educational quality. The process provides assurance to the public that each accredited college meets the standards for a degree-granting institution of higher education. Every six years, institutions renew the process, which includes completing a self-evaluation and being reviewed by a visiting team to determine whether the college meets standards related to institutional mission and effectiveness, student learning programs and services, the effective use of resources, and leadership and governance. The accreditation cycle requires reaffirmation of accreditation every six years.