WOW! Women on Writing Conference 2004                      

Building on the success of WOW! 2003 and again celebrating International Women’s Day, Saturday March 6, 2004, this one-day conference will bring together faculty, staff, students and community members with culturally diverse writers and artists who will introduce new ideas and pedagogies associated with women’s studies curriculum in colleges and universities. The program will include a major author as the keynote speaker, morning workshops for both writers and readers, a reading by Skyline students, and afternoon workshops, including film.  A reception in the Gallery Theatre will feature an exhibit of women’s art and will honor both writers and artists.  WOW! will raise awareness of Skyline course offerings, services and programs for women while highlighting the talents of Skyline students and faculty in literature and art.

Permanent Collection of Skyline Student Artwork                                   

Through the purchase and display of Skyline student artwork selected from the annual juried student exhibition, the visual experience of the entire campus community will be enriched.  The artwork selections would be both 2-dimensional works (painting, drawing, photography and printmaking) and 3-dimensional works (sculpture and ceramics).  The displayed works will raise the level of awareness of the college community in regard to the fine work produced by Skyline students. 

Sports Information Director Internships                                                                       

Two internships for men and women’s programs will continue the collaboration between the Athletic Department and the Public Information Office to promote Athletic Programs as well as move the college towards compliance with Title IX.  The Sports Information interns will serve as internal agents to create publicity as well as create the 2003/04 Media Guide focusing on promoting Skyline’s women’s sports programs, pocket schedules for each sport, a reinstated Athletics Hall of Fame, and materials to assist coaches in their function to matriculate graduating sophomores and recruit new student athletes.

Learning Communities:  Learning communities are powerful ways to deliver instruction that have been shown to significantly raise student success by helping students integrate their knowledge, making success in one cluster of classes more likely to lead to success in others.  A variety of approaches are used to build these learning communities, with intention to restructure the student’s learning experiences to build community among students, between students and their teachers, and among faculty members and disciplines. 

• Common Ground:  Bridging Community and Ideas

The mission of Common Ground: Bridging Community and Ideas is to offer the community the opportunity to come together, inform, discuss and educate each other not only about local issues, but also about national and global concerns.  Every community that has meaning to its members provides some common ground where they can meet to express their shared values and resolve some of their differences.

Objectives in establishing Common Ground:

• It will be a place where pertinent and controversial issues of the day can be discussed in a safe environment

• It will give ‘life’ to the goals of the Mission Statement of SMCCCD.

• It will expose students and the community to the many challenges and triumphs that our evolving global community is experiencing

• It will lead to an enlightened and engaged citizenry

• It can act as a “clearinghouse” for campus groups, such as Museum of Tolerance Alumni (MOT) and Cultural Events Committee, to coordinate activities.

• Stone Carving: Teaching/Learning Videos

Development and creation of a complete library of videotapes that will teach students the art of stone carving which compliments the existing video library of stone carving in Italy.  The tapes will document basic elements of working in stone, using local artists and artisans.  Students will be able to see what the community around them is doing, that they can visit them in person, and that the tools and processes used, as well as the stones themselves, are readily available to them.  The tape library will be used in Anthropology, Geology and Art History classes as well as in Sculpture classes.  In Art History the use of the tapes will give students a better understanding of carving and the artistic process; in Anthropology the tapes will expose students into the labor involved with the original making of artifacts which are “modified things that people have done” as well as the purposes to which materials can be used; and in Geology, a basic geology lecture will be taped, bringing students into the sciences through the arts. 

• Kababayan Program – Mentorship and Community Support

Kababayan is a new transfer and support program with the goal of increasing proficiency in English skills in college, work and life.  Kababayan focuses on the Filipino/Filipino-American student experience.  With English 846, Reading and Writing Connections, as the instructional anchor in Fall 2003, a section of English 100 will also be set-aside in Spring 2004.  The English classes will provide instruction that is culturally relevant by focusing on fiction and nonfiction readings to the Filipino/Filipino American community thus increasing the likelihood of student success by generating lively and timely discussions about the students themselves and the community around them.  The development of a mentoring component will provide student participants with information about what is needed to enter and succeed in a variety of careers; it will also introduce students to established business and professional networks. 

• Improving Student Success through Technology for Students with Disabilities

This project will establish a Kurzweil 3000 Loan Program to serve the educational needs of students with disabilities by increasing their access to and use of assistive technology within their home setting.  The loan program will enable students with a verified print disability to access and use an assistive technology tool for completing their reading assignments, which will increase student success including improved grade point averages, successful completion of courses involving intensive reading assignments and degree completion.  Tutorials will be developed for the installation and configuration of the loaned software on their home computer systems. 

• Fifty years of Brown v. Board of Education                                               

Part of Skyline’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that officially ended segregation in the public schools, a class, SOSC 680, Fifty Years of Brown v. Board of Education, will be offered in Spring 2004.  Discussions will focus on the historical, social, economic, psychological, and artistic climate both before and after the decision.