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Santa Barbara City College — The Bridge — July 2021

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SBCC The Bridge

Santa Barbara City College’s Community Newsletter

JULY 2021

Dr. Utpal K. Goswami resigns as Superintendent/President

Dr. Utpal K. Goswami resigned as Superintendent/President of the College effective July 12, 2021. Dr. Peter Haslund, President of the Board of Trustees, stated “The Board of Trustees extends thanks to Dr. Goswami for his service to SBCC and the substantial contributions he has made to the success of the College. We wish him well in his future endeavors.” Read the full press release…

Dr. Kathy Scott to temporarily serve as Acting Superintendent/

President

Following Dr. Goswami’s resignation, Dr. Kathy Scott, who recently joined SBCC as the Interim Executive Vice President of Educational Programs, was selected to serve as Acting Superintendent/President until the approval of an Interim Superintendent/President is finalized by the Board of Trustees.
Read more about Dr. Scott in the story under “CC | Announcements” below.

Dr. Helen Benjamin to serve as Interim Superintendent/President

At its July 14 board retreat, the SBCC Board of Trustees announced a board motion to appoint Dr. Helen Benjamin as Interim Superintendent/ President pending final approval at the July 22 board meeting. The appointment is for six weeks. Dr. Benjamin came out of retirement and previously served as interim Superintendent/President at SBCC in the Spring, Summer and Fall of 2019. Read the full press release…

SBCC and the SBCC Foundation announce largest gift in 112-year history
SBCC and the SBCC Foundation recently announced that the college has received a $20,000,000 gift from MacKenzie Scott. As a community college dedicated to the success of every student, SBCC will use this unrestricted gift to advance its mission in bold new ways. In her post announcing the gift (one of 276 totaling $2,739,000,000), Scott wrote, “Higher education is a proven pathway to opportunity, so we looked for two- and four-year institutions successfully educating students who come from communities that have been chronically underserved.” Read the full press release…

SBCC hosting COVID-19 vaccination clinics to vaccinate students and the community

The County of Santa Barbara will be administering a number of free COVID-19 vaccination clinics at SBCC’s Physical Education patio during July and August. No appointments necessary, parking is open to the public and face coverings are required. 
Click for more information and dates in July…

Career Center Student Program Advisor Janna Mori

Career Center Advisor describes today’s job market

Last month, the SB Independent published an interview with SBCC Career Center Student Program Advisor Janna Mori, where she discussed the latest trends in the modern job market. With the county and state reopening, she notes that there is a scramble among local employers to find the help they need. Fortunately, the type of support the Career Center provides lends itself to be successful in shifting economies.
Read the entire interview here…

SBCC to offer data science course developed in collaboration with UCSB and UC Berkeley
Last fall, SBCC issued a press release announcing our participation in the Central Coast Data Science Partnership – sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). SBCC’s part in the project is to initiate a pathway that facilitates community college student transfer, participation and success in the field of data science. With the addition of a new data science course to SBCC’s fall 2021 schedule, the goal of offering a transferable course to UCSB and other four-year institutions has been achieved. Taught by Andrea Cullinen from the Math department and Nathalie Guebels from the Computer Science department department, “Data Science for All” uses a unique interdisciplinary teaching perspective that intersects the points where math and computer science meet. 
The course, modeled after “Data 8: Foundations of Data Science” at UC Berkeley, is meant for anyone interested in working with data, and also serves as a foundational course for students interested in transferring as data science majors or majors such as applied mathematics, statistics, computational biology, actuarial science, cognitive sciences, geographical data science, business analytics, etc.

Adult High School/GED and Bilingual GED students persevere against the odds
Friday, June 25, saw the culmination of years of hard work, perseverance and dedication when the School of Extended Learning held a virtual commencement ceremony for the 2020 and 2021 graduating classes of Adult High School (AHS), General Education Development (GED) and Bilingual GED.

Student speaker Greigary Fingerle gave an inspiring address, describing his amazing journey, which began the day after he was released from state prison and went to the Wake Campus to inquire about the AHS program (he was enrolled that same day). That first step led to his earning his AHS diploma and becoming a student in SBCC’s credit program, majoring in Communications where he received straight A’s his first semester. His future career plan is to become a criminal justice attorney and work toward instituting positive changes in the criminal justice system.

Bilingual GED student Yazmin Laviale was the second student speaker. She too has faced – and overcome – many difficult challenges, and is currently enrolled in the Cosmetology program with the goal of starting her own business.
The ceremony concluded with instructors, teaching assistants and advisors expressing their congratulations and felicidades to all of the students for achieving their goals and wishing them every success for the future.

You can watch the bilingual ceremony on YouTube.
Special thanks to Noncredit Coordinator Sachiko Oates, Technical Services Specialists Orin Fails and Clyde Nelson, Administrative Assistant Erin Coulter, Office Assistant Alejandra Rangel, Citizenship Center Director Jose Martinez and Program Director for the Santa Barbara Adult Education Consortium Corlei Prieto for their participation in organizing the event.

Welcome Dr. Kathy Scott, Interim EVP, Educational Programs

On July 6, Dr. Kathy Scott officially joined SBCC as the Interim Executive Vice President, Educational Programs. She brings impressive experience to the college, having served in various administrative positions at Long Beach City College, Pasadena City College and Ventura College. She holds an M.A. in Literature and an Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership from Cal Lutheran University. Read more about Dr. Scott…

La Playa Stadium turf project may finish ahead of schedule
The new artificial turf project for La Playa Stadium was originally scheduled to be completed by Aug. 21. But according to former Athletic Director Rocco Constantino, things are moving along quickly and may finish a week or two early – just in time for a Vaqueros football scrimmage against Ventura College. Read the Noozhawk story…

Noncredit ESL program featured in a nationwide remote ESOL case study
The School of Extended Learning Noncredit English as a Second Language (ESL) program was featured in a nationwide case study conducted by World Education as one of the innovative remote ESL program models. The program, offering both low- and high-intensity courses, was selected as one of the eight exemplary programs nationwide. On June 18, Noncredit Coordinator Sachiko Oates, in collaboration with the Career Skills Institute/Back-to-Work Program, presented the open entry/open exit Conversation Learning Circle model as well as the Integrated Education and Training Program at a national webinar. SBCC’s Noncredit Program was one of the four selected agencies for this event. The case study includes critical program design ideas and policy implications as we navigate the post-COVID adult education. The case studies can be found here.

This was accomplished thanks to the dedication of faculty and staff, the administration’s support and the entire SBCC and School of Extended Learning teams’ collaboration.

Leatrice Luria
Apr. 29, 1928 – June 10, 2021

Generous supporter of Santa Barbara City College Leatrice Luria passed away peacefully at the age of 93 on June 10, 2021.
Leatrice, known as Lee, was a pillar of the Santa Barbara community. As a generous supporter of local art, music, culture, and education, she was magnetic, positive, witty, curious, and sharp as a tack. She was predeceased by her husband, Eli Luria, who was the first president of the SBCC Foundation, an SBCC Board of Trustees member and an instrumental figure in the building of Luria Library and other buildings on campus. Read more…

Upcoming SBCC Board of Trustees Meetings – July 22 and Aug. 26

Beginning July 22, the SBCC Board of Trustees will resume meeting in person. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. on the main campus in room A211. For those wishing to attend in person, face coverings are required in all indoor public areas, regardless of vaccination status. In addition, social distancing is recommended in indoor public areas, regardless of vaccination status.
Public comment will also be available via Zoom.
To watch via Zoom, you can find the link after 1 p.m. on the day of the meeting posted on SBCC Official social media channels:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

The Board meeting will be captioned and if there are any other accommodations required, contact jtuazon@pipeline.sbcc.edu by 4:00 p.m. of the day before the Board meeting. The agenda for Board meetings can be found at least 72 hours prior to the meeting on the Board webpage. Past meetings can be viewed here: www.youtube.com/user/SBCCBoardofTrustees.

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