West Hills College chancellor named new chair of Central Valley Higher Education Consortium

November 20, 2019

West Hills College chancellor named new chair of Central Valley Higher Education Consortium

Monday, November 18, 2019 – 11:22am

The top administrator at West Hills Community College District was recently named to a key Central Valley higher education board. Dr. Stuart Van Horn, Chancellor of the West Hills Community College District, is the new chair of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Board.

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium is a non-profit organization made up of members from private colleges, universities, and community colleges.

“I’m honored to serve in this role,” said Van Horn. “The consortium board does important work and has moved the needle on regional collaboration among and between two and four-year colleges, including private and independent universities, in the Valley. I’m looking forward to working with everyone on important initiatives that are designed to increase student success and completion for all valley communities and residents.”

The 27-member strong consortium brings together members serving over 250,000 students in the Central Valley.

Van Horn has been a part of CVHEC’s executive team since 2016 when he started serving as treasurer.

Dr. Benjamin Duran, Executive Director of CVHEC, said Van Horn brings a breadth of knowledge and experience to the role.

“We are delighted to have someone like Dr. Van Horn, with his experience and reputation in higher education, to serve as Chair of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC),” he said. “He has the full confidence of the presidents and chancellors of the 27 member institutions to lead CVHEC, which is recognized as the organization in the Central Valley and the State that speaks with one voice for higher education in our region. Dr. Van Horn will bring much to the dialogue about improving the well-being of our students in our Central Valley colleges and universities.”

Van Horn has served as the Chancellor of the West Hills Community College District since 2017. Before taking on the role, he served as the district’s Vice-Chancellor of Educational Services and Workforce Development.

He has an extensive history in higher education, including serving as Dean of Instruction at Folsom Lake College from 2005 to 2013 and as Associate Commissioner of the Community College League of California’s Commission on Athletics (COA) for nine years. Other experience includes serving as Director of Public Information Services of the California Association of Community Colleges (known today as Community College League of California), Director of Community Relations at Mt. San Antonio College, and Senior Vice President of The Resource Group, an economic development entity, where he consulted 42 community colleges in California in program development and labor market acquisition projects.

The original post can be found at http://www.mylemooreleader.com/167669

Giving children of farmworkers an education like that offered to children of doctors

September 24, 2019

I grew up in a family of migrant farmworkers, working in the Central Valley fields with my parents and seven brothers and sisters. But since elementary school, I only ever wanted to be a teacher. My own teachers helped make this dream a reality. They believed in my potential and paved the way for me to become an educator and eventually Merced College president. They also inspired my lifelong mission to advance educational equity.

I’m heartened that a new report, Getting There, shows that changes underway in the Central Valley will help make sure children of doctors and children of farmworkers have the same shot at succeeding at a community college.

Getting There examines colleges’ progress in implementing Assembly Bill 705, a law that addresses the poor outcomes and inequities of traditional remediation. In the past, most California community college students were required to take remedial courses based on their performance on a standardized placement exam, and just 18 percent of students would complete a transferable, college-level math course in a year. Among students required to take remedial English or math, only 41 percent would transfer or complete a degree in six years, compared to 70 percent of students not required to take those classes.

AB 705 is overhauling these awful statistics because colleges must now employ multiple measures instead of a standardized exam, so as to place students into courses that give them the best chance of completing the gateway English and math courses required for a bachelor’s degree. The law is already doing more to close the achievement gap and bring equity to higher education than any public policy I’ve seen in decades, but to achieve its promise, colleges must implement AB 705 in the fullest possible spirit of the law.

That’s because students’ initial placement in English and math is the largest driver of racial achievement gaps in college completion. It is estimated to account for 50 to 60 percent of equity gaps in students’ completion of long-term goals like earning a degree, completing a certificate program, or transferring to a four-year university.

Among the three regions studied in Getting There, the Central Valley has the highest proportion of colleges deemed “strong implementers” of AB 705, meaning that remedial classes make up less than 10 percent of our introductory English and math offerings. Porterville College is offering 100% transfer-level classes in both English and math. At Reedley College, just 2 percent of introductory English and math offerings are below that level. West Hills, Lemoore and College of the Sequoias eliminated remedial English and are close to doing the same with math.

This is a big change from two years ago, when AB 705 was signed into law. In fall 2017, almost half of the region’s introductory English classes were remedial, with college composition comprising only 52 percent of introductory reading and writing courses. Fast forward to today, and that number has jumped to 93 percent.

These are incredible gains, but there’s more to do.

Central Valley colleges are still offering too many remedial courses, especially in math. Non-transferable courses make up 24 percent of introductory math across the region, and at a couple of colleges, they make up more than 40 percent of the schedule.

This matters — research shows ALL students are more likely to complete their coursework when they enroll directly into college-level courses than when they start in remediation. Plus, when colleges put their limited resources into maintaining so many remedial classes, there won’t be enough seats in transfer-level classes for the students who are legally entitled to take them.

Instead of continuing to hang onto ineffective remedial classes, Central Valley colleges need to continue their efforts to ensure that their course schedules meet the AB 705 standard of maximizing student completion. If we can’t identify any students who actually benefit from taking remedial classes, we shouldn’t be using our limited public dollars to offer them.

When we set high expectations for students, students will meet them. When we set low expectations, students will meet those, too. As a young boy, I was able to make my dreams come true because people believed in me enough to open the doors of opportunity. Let’s put our faith in our students’ capacity on full display — let’s go all-in on AB 705, and offer classes that give students the best chance of completing their degree and reaching their goals in a timely manner.

Dr. Benjamin Duran is the executive director of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium, and president emeritus of Merced College.

Read Full Report Here | CAP Report v8

The original post can be found at https://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/article235281187.html

Getting There: Are California Community Colleges Maximizing Student Completion of Transfer-Level Math and English?

September 17, 2019

Getting There: Are California Community Colleges Maximizing Student Completion of Transfer-Level Math and English?

September 2019

A new law, Assembly Bill 705 (Irwin), is driving dramatic changes in how California Community Colleges place students into English and math courses. Beginning in fall 2019, AB 705 requires the colleges to use students’ high school grades as the primary means of placement; restricts colleges from denying students access to transferable, college-level courses; and gives students the right to begin in courses where they have the best chance of completing the English and math requirements for a bachelor’s degree.

This report—a collaboration of the Campaign for College Opportunity and the California Acceleration Project—analyzes early AB 705 implementation efforts at 47 community colleges in the Central Valley, the Inland Empire, and greater Los Angeles. We examine fall course schedules and websites to identify bright spots and problems in implementation, with particular focus on the extent to which college course offerings are aligned with the AB 705 standard of “maximizing” student completion of transfer-level math and English courses.

Read Full Report Here | CAP Report v8

The original post can be found at https://accelerationproject.org/Publications/ctl/ArticleView/mid/654/articleId/76/Getting-There-Are-California-Community-Colleges-Maximizing-Student-Completion-of-Transfer-Level-Math-and-English

Preparing the Way for a Central Valley Renaissance

June 12, 2019

JUNE 04, 2019 BY STUART VAN HORN, ED.D.

Preparing the Way for a Central Valley Renaissance

Recently, Governor Newsom announced his new “Regions Rise Together” initiative. Launched in partnership with California Forward and the California Economic Summit, this initiative is in recognition of the fact that the substantial economic and job growth that the state has experienced since 2010 has been concentrated in the state’s coastal areas and has largely passed over the state’s inland regions.

In fact, by the Governor’s own calculations, residents of California’s inland regions have seen their per capita income drop dramatically while 70% of job growth in the state during this same period has occurred in the state’s coastal regions. With the Regions Rise Together initiative, Governor Newsom intends on turning his “California for All” slogan into a strategy to design a comprehensive economic plan that will ensure sustainable and inclusive growth across the state and benefit all parts of California.

The announcement of the Governor’s new initiative is welcome news for those of us who live and work in the Central Valley. West Hills Community College District covers nearly 3,400 square miles of Central California, primarily in the western portions of Fresno and Kings Counties. The District serves over 8,000 students with two accredited colleges: West Hills College Coalinga and West Hills College Lemoore. In addition to its main campus location in Coalinga, West Hills College Coalinga also operates the North District Center in Firebaugh, and the Farm of the Future located at the north end of Coalinga. We are very proud of our students and our graduates and we have an 87-year history of serving students in efficient, innovative practices such as Prior Learning Assessment that promote student success and completion.

We also know well that our students face more social, economic, and structural obstacles to student success. Many of the students that we serve are first generation college students that must balance work and family obligations with their educational goals. They are hindered by the region’s higher unemployment rates, fewer jobs, and one of the highest poverty rates in the country. While Fresno County is California’s single most productive agricultural region and one of the most productive in the world (providing more than half of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in the United States), Census data show that it is also the poorest metro area in the state and the second most impoverished region in the nation.

This data also show that Valley areas (Fresno, Modesto and Bakersfield-Delano) are among the top five U.S. regions with the highest percentage of residents living below the poverty line (one of every four). In Fresno County, median income fell from $46,479 to $42,807 during the last Census period while unemployment rose to 16 percent. In addition, food stamp use climbed to nearly 18 percent.

Beyond these economic statistics, our students also suffer from the lack of broadband internet in much of rural Fresno County. This broadband inequity makes distance education impossible, severely limits tele-health and tele-medicine opportunities, and significantly hinders educational attainment and economic growth in the region. The inequity of broadband access is a key reason why poor communities stay poor, chronic illness manifests, and social mobility is stunted. This fact is borne out by statistics. Our district has 12% of the state’s population but only 6% of the state’s bachelor’s degree holders. In addition, only 11% of the population ages 25 and above possess an associate’s degree or higher. This compares to 41% statewide.

West Hills is not intimated by these statistics. We are working every day to close these achievement gaps and increase educational attainment in our region. We offer Career Technical Educational programs that build a skilled workforce for our regional employers. We assist our students financially through our President’s Scholars program and by offering free Open Educational Resources (OER) textbooks. And we are helping eliminate the broadband inequity and ensure that reliable, high-speed broadband service is available in our region by ensuring that broadband infrastructure is built throughout the West Side and by raising funds to augment the monthly internet subscription fees of our student-led households.

The Governor’s initiative promises to build on existing locally driven initiatives in our state’s diverse regions while also leveraging the investments and policy priorities of the state. West Hills looks forward to representing our students’ and our communities’ needs in this conversation and working toward a future in which educational attainment soars, infrastructure supports growth, skills gaps are eliminated, and the quality of life increases for all residents in Fresno County.

Stuart Van Horn is chancellor of the West Hills Community College District.

Original post can be found at https://caeconomy.org/reporting/entry/preparing-the-way-for-a-central-valley-renaissance

COMMUNITY VOICES: BC, CSUB positioning Kern County students for decades to come

February 1, 2019

July 5, 2017

California needs 1.1 million more workers with bachelor’s degrees by 2030 to keep up with economic demand, PPIC research has found. Three regions will play an especially critical role in addressing this challenge: Los Angeles County, the Inland Empire, and the San Joaquin Valley.

Improving college enrollment and graduation rates in these regions could help close more than half of this projected statewide skills gap, according to a new PPIC report, Meeting California’s Need for College Graduates: A Regional Perspective. It analyzes the challenges ahead and recommends ways to meet them. At a Sacramento event, report coauthor Kevin Cook summarized the findings and a panel of experts described promising initiatives already underway in these regions. Report coauthor Hans Johnson, director of the PPIC Higher Education Center, moderated the panel discussion.

Panelist Benjamin Duran, executive director of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium, said his group has created a partnership of public and private colleges and universities, as well as community college districts, from Kern through San Joaquin Counties. One of the consortium’s projects involves improving remedial education, which has traditionally consisted of non-transferable classes that delay—and all too often end—students’ college careers. Under the newer approach championed by the consortium, students deemed underprepared for college work are able to enroll in college-level courses right away but also get supplementary support.

The Central Valley consortium is also working to encourage more students—particularly those in the community colleges—to take 15 units per semester or 30 per year so that more of them graduate on time. “When you’re able to go to school full time, the research is showing that you’re far less likely to drop out—you’re going to finish quicker,” Duran said.

Alma Salazar, senior vice president of the Center for Education Excellence and Talent Development at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, said, “We do what all great organizations do—we take someone else’s idea and try to make it better.” The result, she said, is the L.A. Compact, modeled after an effort in Boston. It is a collaboration among area organizations, educational institutions, unions, and local government leaders. The focus is on three goals:

All students graduate from high school;
All students have access to and are prepared for success in college; and
All students have access to pathways to sustainable jobs and careers.

Ken O’Donnell, associate vice president of the Student Success Program Integration and Assessment at California State University, Dominguez Hills, talked about his campus’s success in improving its six-year graduation rate from about 30% to 42% in a few years. O’Donnell echoed the PPIC report, which finds that improving success rates for those already in college will have the greatest impact on the statewide skills gap. “You’ve already improved capacity without adding a single additional seat,” he said.

Original post can be found at:

https://www.ppic.org/blog/regional-action-boost-college-success/

COMMUNITY VOICES: BC, CSUB positioning Kern County students for decades to come

January 20, 2019

Bakersfield is home to two major institutions of higher education — Bakersfield College and Cal State Bakersfield. Each has a rich history and tradition of serving students and meeting the needs of the Bakersfield community. Since opening its doors to 13 students in 1913, BC has grown to serve more than 33,000 students annually. And since its founding in 1965, CSUB has grown to serve more than 10,000 students annually, with more than 70 percent of its 50,000 graduates remaining and working in the Central Valley. Though each institution has a different focus, both share a common goal: to position Kern County students for success that will advance the economic vitality and the health of our community.

The challenge is clear, however. According to data reported by the California Department of Education, Kern County’s educational attainment rates are below state averages, with adults over 25 years of age earning bachelor’s degrees at half the rate statewide, and in some surrounding rural communities, rates drop to below 2 percent.

And yet, as presidents of your community college and state university in Bakersfield, we believe that we are living in the best of times for higher education serving the Bakersfield community.

We have statewide support

At the state level, each of our systems are seeing major reforms designed to advance timely completion. The CSU’s ambitious Graduation Initiative 2025 aims to increase graduation rates, while the community college system is implementing a new funding formula that incentivizes completion, particularly of the Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT). Senate Bill 1440 legislation guarantees students who complete an ADT at BC can transfer with 60 credits to a CSU with junior-level status. These reforms have positioned each college to maximize the dollars that flow to our community from Sacramento.

We have an award-winning collaborative model

After launching the Kern Promise and later the Finish in 4 project with fully-mapped four-year transfer programs from BC to CSUB, both have received statewide accolades and secured additional funding to strengthen our partnership. In December 2017, CSUB earned recognition as a transfer champion because of the increase of the ADT degree holders it was enrolling and graduating, most of whom are BC ADTs. In September 2018, Bakersfield College earned the California Community College Chancellor’s Student Success award for our work with CSUB on transfer pathways. As a result of that collaboration, CSUB also has received national recognition for the social mobility of its graduates and its quality education at an affordable price.

We have local support

Just last year we received an outpouring of support from business and industry leaders, community leaders and political leaders for the co-location of a BC facility on the CSUB campus. These letters were publicly presented to the Kern Community College Board of Trustees at its December 2018 meeting.

Now is the right time to implement our bold vision for a BC-CSUB co-location.

A co-location model is a smart move for our students and our community. By creating the conditions for BC students to enroll in BC courses on the CSUB campus, we will streamline transfer pathways and create efficiencies that result in savings for the student and the taxpayer. Imagine 1,000 students per term each take one less three-unit course to earn their degree due to lower waitlists, less wandering through non-degree-applicable courses and a clearer focus on their end goals. That savings equates to $370 per student, or $370,000 per term for those 1,000 students. Over a 20-year period, that’s a savings of $14.8 million.

A co-location model is a model of opportunity for leadership among faculty, staff and students to become a model of quality education for the state and for the nation. This will be a model through which students learn the 21st century skills of creativity, innovation and problem-solving that will serve them well in our quickly-evolving, automated work. These tangible skills will serve them well as we diversify the industry base we attract to our region.

This partnership is essential to make the San Joaquin Valley an economically booming, vibrant community. By expanding educational opportunities and focusing on completion of the baccalaureate, we will bring communities out of poverty to engage in active citizenship and lead healthy, productive lives.

It is a great time to be in Bakersfield.

Sonya Christian, Ph.D., is starting her sixth year as Bakersfield College’s 10th president. Lynnette Zelezny, Ph.D., in July 2018 began her tenure as Cal State Bakersfield’s fifth president. Christian can be reached at president@bakersfieldcollege.edu, and Zelezny can be reached at 661-654-2241.

Original post can be found at:

https://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/community-voices-bc-csub-positioning-kern-county-students-for-decades/article_a5d16c62-185c-11e9-842b-331edcf7537d.html

Having a plan crucial to finishing college quickly

December 26, 2018

A national educational movement that started in 2009 is becoming more powerful and widespread each year, extending now from coast to coast. Complete College America is an initiative encouraging college students to earn their degrees as expeditiously and conscientiously as they can.

In the last decade, studies have shown students who create an aggressive educational plan and follow it are more likely to graduate than those who slowly and gradually move toward graduation. Perceptive educators have taken notice, and collectively have developed a movement that is becoming a wave.

I am fortunate to participate in this wave in several ways. I am part of a Central Valley consortium which is a strong proponent. I recently attended a national CCA conference in Chicago. And I have a granddaughter whose recent college graduation exemplifies this initiative.

Complete College America supports a number of approaches to help students advance toward their degrees in a timely way. It encourages college students, including those at community colleges, to take at least 15 units each semester. It creates new avenues for students to take university-level English and math in their first semesters, without going through remedial courses.

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC), with members from Stockton to Bakersfield and comprising some 20 community colleges and universities, shares best practices from CCA among members to help students complete their associate and bachelor degrees expeditiously.

One young woman, who attended college in the East and exemplified the theme of completing college promptly, is my granddaughter, Hanna Spevak. Last month I attended her graduation from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., well within four years – in fact, at the midpoint of her third year.

Hanna told me that while attending a public high school in Reno, she was encouraged by her parents to enroll in advanced placement (AP) courses. By scoring high enough on the AP exams, she had accumulated 42 college credits – including 11 in Spanish – before graduating from high school. She also took a summer class before her first fall semester.

But then Hanna told me something I found even more crucial. “Once I got to college,” she said, “because I enjoy scheduling and organizing, I did a lot of planning – reading carefully the college catalog and each semester’s course schedule.”

Hanna made it a point to know exactly which courses were necessary in her major (sociology), her minor (Spanish) and her general education requirements. “I was constantly creating potential schedules for the upcoming semester,” she said, “so that when I met with my academic adviser, I knew exactly which classes I needed to take.”

Hanna credits her dad, Mike, an alumnus of Los Banos High and a graduate (in four years) of UC San Diego, for “constantly asking about my plans, schedules and classes. His persistence guided me to stay on track.”

She is also grateful to her mom, Karen, who supported her every step, including many trips from Reno to Rock Hill. Hanna said both parents encouraged her to fully enjoy her college experience.

Hanna’s story has some instructive points.

1) Success in college planning begins with planning in high school. Any student who can take AP or “dual enrollment” courses (in which they earn both high school and college credit) can get a big jump on college and a leg up on a timely graduation.

2) Students must take responsibility for their own education planning. That means knowing the college catalog and precisely which courses fulfill specific requirements in their majors.

3) College students need moral, academic and psychological support. Hanna was fortunate to have parents who had successfully navigated their way through college. Her academic advisers double-checked what she was doing and offered additional guidance.

Many high school and college students don’t have such advantages; others have different advantages. Complete College America offers proven ideas to help, encouraging colleges to work with parents of students and to provide mentors to students whenever possible.

I’m proud to be a part of the Complete College America movement.

John Spevak is a resident of Los Banos; he wrote this for the Los Banos Enterprise. Email john.spevak@gmail.com.

Original Post – https://www.losbanosenterprise.com/opinion/article223585590.html

CHSU Now Offers the First 4-Year Medical School in the Valley

December 17, 2018

CHSU Now Offers the First 4-Year Medical School in the Valley

December 2018

California Health Sciences University (CHSU) is proud to announce that our College of Osteopathic Medicine (COM) now has approval to accept applications from students for Osteopathic Medical school!

“We are exceedingly proud to hold the distinction of being the first, 4-year medical school in the Valley,” exclaimed Dr. John Graneto, Dean of the CHSU College of Osteopathic Medicine. “We are now recognized as the 3^rdOsteopathic Medical school in California and students can apply to our program starting May 3, 2019, when the application cycle opens.”

Our College of Osteopathic Medicine at CHSU is the thirty-fifth in the Nation.

The CHSU College of Osteopathic Medicine will admit 75 students in our program the first year with the total student body growing to 600 students in the program at one time.

CHSU will accept medical school applications beginning May 3, 2019 through the AACOMAS website hosted by the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine.

Construction of our new CHSU campus is underway and the College of Osteopathic Medicine building will be the first to be completed in time for classes to begin in July 2020. Check out the latest drone and time lapse construction progress on our website.

The new three-story, state-of-the-art College of Osteopathic Medicine building has an expansive, 21,000 sq.ft. Simulation and OSCE Lab, Clinical Skills Lab, and two large classrooms designed for our team-based learning curriculum.

We have also designed a Teaching Kitchen to ensure our students and patients understand how to prepare healthy meals and the importance of proper diet in relation to good health.

Osteopathic medicine had its genesis in holistic care and now boasts an impressive track record of producing primary care physicians.

The next step in COCA accreditation comes in fall 2019 with a comprehensive site visit once our new medical school building is nearer to completion.

We encourage Valley students, physicians, and other partners to join us in our mission to remedy the deficit of health care providers in our community and help fulfill the medical needs of local families, especially the underserved population.

Sincerely,

John W. Graneto, D.O., M.Ed.
Dean, College of Osteopathic Medicine
California Health Sciences University

Higher education leaders and legislators will convene to revisit policy and legislative action that will have a great impact on higher education at the annual CVHEC Policy and Legislative Summit

November 2, 2018

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 10/25/18

Contact:Angel Ramirez, Communications Manager

(559) 698-4665 or angelr@csufresno.edu

Higher education leaders and legislators will convene to revisit policy and legislative action that will have a great impact on higher education at the annual CVHEC Policy and Legislative Summit

(Fresno, CA – October 26, 2018) – The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) will hold its annual Higher Education Policy and Legislative Summit on Friday, October 26, 2018 from 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel in downtown Fresno. The nine-county regional consortium from San Joaquin to Kern counties brings education leaders, legislators and policy advocates together to address the central valley’s higher education needs. The strength of the consortium is drawn from working collectively to encourage policy and legislation to support post-secondary goals. This year Assembly members Dr. Joaquin Arambula (District 31) and Adam Gray (District 21) will share a discussion with UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland on collective challenges faced in higher education.

“The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium is a critically important and unique group because of its unified voice that brings together all of the higher education institutions in the Central Valley,” said Ellen N. Junn, President of California State University, Stanislaus. “The members come together for the sole purpose of enhancing student success and access to high quality baccalaureate degrees and beyond for everyone across the Central Valley. Educational attainment is especially precious for the economic vitality of the Central Valley and indeed the entire state, and CVHEC joins with our region’s state elected officials to make that promise a reality.”

Joining the valley’s higher education leaders will be partners from the Public Policy Institute of California, California Futures Foundation, Community College League of California and The Campaign for College Opportunity. Participants will also hear from Valley students who will share personal experiences as a result of the transformative policies.

“Jointly, CVHEC member institutions are working to implement student success initiatives brought about through blockbuster legislation and policy that has drawn the attention of state leadership. CVHEC member institutions in the Central Valley nine county region are working collaboratively to make strides that will lead the rest of California,” said Dr. Benjamin T. Duran, CVHEC Executive Director. “This year, CVHEC member institutions have chosen to emphasize that ALL MEANS ALL in the Central Valley. The strategies showcased this year are designed to close equity achievement gaps.”

The summit will showcase the work the consortium of central valley institutions has committed efforts toward for the collective goal of increasing persistence and certificate and degree completions. Over 130 intersegmental education leaders from throughout the Central Valley are expected to attend. For more information about the summit, please visit: http://cvhec.org/cvhec2018summit/.

###

About Central Valley Higher Education Consortium

Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) is a 501(c)3 incorporated non-profit organization

comprised of 27 accredited public and private colleges, universities, and community college district

members. CVHEC was founded in 2000 by then Fresno State President John D. Welty along with 18

college and university leaders. Jointly, the consortium serves over 250,000 students in California’s Central Valley, a nine-county region. Its focus is to increase the region’s higher education attainment rate. www.cvhec.org

COC Brings Leaders Together for ‘Doing What Matters’ Institute

May 6, 2018

More than 50 presidents, CEOs, college chancellors and board of trustee members representing more than 30 colleges attended the “Doing What Matters” CEO Institute at the Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook University Center Thursday.

Hosted by College of the Canyons, the one-day symposium, which also attracted representatives from various Economic Development partnerships throughout the state, focused on what it means to lead campuses and make a positive impact in surrounding communities through the DWM initiative.

Doing What Matters for Jobs and the Economy is a California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office initiative and statewide program that invests more than $200 million dollars annually into career education among the state’s 114 community colleges.

“The conference created the perfect opportunity for college chancellors and CEOs to learn about major influences and shifts to the state economy and labor market, as well as how community colleges can work with business leaders to help meet the needs of employers now and into the future,” said COC Chancellor Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook.

“We look forward to seeing how we can work together to move forward strategically and advance workforce and economic development through innovative partnerships strategy development and collaboration,” Van Hook said.

After opening remarks made by Van Hook, Jim Mayer, president and CEO of California Forward, spoke about the need for partnerships and the integration of government agencies to adapt to an ever-changing world.

“Even in booming times, we have to learn how to do more with less,” Mayer said. “We need the ability to anticipate changes that are happening so we can respond. This will be easier if we have a robust set of partnerships.”

Other speakers at the conference included Bill Allen (President/CEO of Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation and Co-Chair of the California Stewardship Network), Kish Rajan (Principal of KRPA), Bill Scroggins (President of Mt. San Antonio College), Paul Granillo (President/CEO of Inland Empire Economic Partnerships), Ben Duran (Executive Director of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium).

Each presentation was followed by a facilitated dialogue session to encourage the exchange of ideas among attendees.

Original post can be found at:

https://scvnews.com/2018/05/04/coc-brings-leaders-together-for-doing-what-matters-institute/