October 5, 2005

Founders Learning Grove of Trees wins Beautification Award: The President's Innovation Fund project, "The Founders’ Learning Grove of Trees," is the recipient of the City of San Bruno's Beautification Task Force 'Beautification Award.' The Skyline people responsible for dreaming up this wonderful project are our Biology faculty Nick Kapp and Ed Wodehouse, and the people responsible for working with them on the installation itself are Richard Inokuchi, Diego Zarco, Sheikh Hussain, and Larisa Cosmineanu. The award will be presented at the San Bruno City Council meeting on October 11. We are indebted to the President’s Innovation Fund for the funding, and to Carolyn Livengood, charter member of the President’s Council, for nominating this project for the award.

Hurricane Katrina relief event planning: As I have been noting, there is a group of students, faculty and staff planning for a Katrina relief fundraiser. It is led by ASSC Vice President Peter Monrroy, and it will meet again on Wednesday, October 19, in Room 2305 at 2 pm. If you are working with a group of students that is or might want to participate in this event, please urge them to email Peter at petermonrroy@yahoo.com and Amory Cariadus, Director of Student Activities at cariadusa@smccd.net. They are attempting to include in the publicity for the November 2 event as many of the groups who are involved as possible. Meanwhile:

SAVE THE DATE!

Madri Gras Festival
Wednesday, November 2
11 am to 2 pm, and 5 pm to 8 pm on the Quad between Buildings 2 & 3
Join us for music, food and fun
All proceeds will benefit the victims of Hurricanes Katrina

Program Review at Skyline: Program Review is a vital element of our efforts to ensure the quality and currency of our programs and courses and it is strongly connected to important decisions such as the allocation of new faculty positions and instructional equipment funding, not to mention our longer term planning relative to our facilities needs. It is also a critical part of our efforts to assess our service to students systematically. Program Review has long been a part of accreditation standards. The program review instruments and processes are in the process of being reviewed to include the SLOAC (Student Learning Outcome Assessment Cycle) component as well as to improve the program review process itself. And this is a particularly important time of the year at Skyline in terms of Program Review. Several different phases of it are all taking place about now:

• Programs are undertaking their work on program review as part of the six year cycle.

• Other programs are presenting the results of their review work to the college and inviting feedback on it.

• And another group of programs have completed the process and are about to have their final meetings with the vice presidents on their programs.

I am involved personally at this last point as I read and comment upon the reviews. It is clear that it takes serious, thoughtful work to complete an effective program review. I mention it here to acknowledge that valuable effort and thank everyone involved in it. The schedule for the reviews is available on our website at this address: http://www.smccd.net/accounts/skycurr/PROGREV.HTM

Skyline students present original research at conference: Eight Skyline students presented their original scientific research in Denver at their SACNAS convention (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science)(Sept 29-Oct 1). Students undertook their research in Biology 230 and Biology 690. Our students presented along side Harvard, Cornell, MIT, several UC campuses, and a host of other universities. The students and their projects are:

• Microbial Analysis of Indoor Air Quality at a Community College. Rona Silva (with Charles Havnar).
• The Effects of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether on Growth of Aquatic Primary Consumers. Sandra M. Goins and Nhuquynh Tran.
• The Effect of Secondary Sewage Effluent on the Growth of Euglena. Paul Adler and Gilbert Huang.
• The Potential Effect of Chloroacetic Acid on Aquatic Food Chains. Gordon Lam.
• The Effect of Lead on an Aquatic Primary Consumer, Paramecium caudatum. Narmen Hanhan and Marwan Jubary.

Please stop by to congratulate the students and view their work at this time:
Friday, October 14th
12 noon
Room 7207 MESA Center
(Refreshments will be served.)

It is time for All USA Academic Team nominations for students: The All-USA Academic Team is a prestigious award ($2500 plus All-California Team Awards and additional recognition). Skyline can nominate two students for the Team. Only 20 students nationwide make the team. Since 2000, two Skyline students have been on the All-USA team, one Skyline student was the California New Century Scholar (there's only one per state), and nine students have been on the All-California team. Nominees must have a GPA of 3.7 or higher, be eligible for an Associate degree between December 1, 2005 and August 31, 2006, and demonstrate a commitment to community and college through service. Please send possible nominees to see Chris Case (7301) as soon as possible. The applications must be completed by November 10.

Shop for the Cure at Skyline Bookstore: In partnership with Skyline College’s Health Center, Skyline Bookstore is joining the fight against Breast Cancer. Purchase selected items at Skyline Bookstore in the month of October and we’ll donate 20% of the price of those items to the Susan G. Koman Fund for Breast Cancer Research.

Victoria P. Morrow, Ph.D.
President, Skyline College
650-738-4111
morrowv@smccd.net
3300 College Drive
San Bruno, CA 94066