Welcome Madera Community College!

The state’s 116th community college
celebrates accreditation, CCC  approval

Madera Community College made its official debut July 21 with a ribbon-cutting celebration after the California Community Colleges Board of Governors voted unan­imously the day before to recognize MCC as the 116th campus of the state’s community college system.

In June, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges granted accreditation to what until then was known as the Madera and Oakhurst Community College Centers affiliated with Reedley College of the State Center Community College District.

With the new designation, the  Madera Community College (4,780 enrollment) is no longer a satellite campus and will now receive funding for additional programs and staffing.  Over 80 percent of Madera Community’s students are from historically underrepresented populations and the school has been recognized as a Hispanic Serving Institution.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”President Ángel Reyna” link=”” color=”#33ACFF” class=”” size=”18″]“As a new college we want to be an institution that is student- and community-centered, and provides equitable outcomes for each of our students.”[/perfectpullquote]

President Ángel Reyna takes a place on the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium board of directors, joining 27 other Central Valley presidents and chancellors.

“This accomplishment is something that our community has been waiting for a long time and much needed,” Reyna said in a CCC Board of Governors article.

“It has been a collective and collaborative effort, and we look forward to the continued work to better serve our students as a college,” he said. “As a new college we want to be an institution that is student- and community-centered, and provides equitable outcomes for each of our students. To that end, we commit towards transforming ourselves into an anti-racist institution while producing the future workforce our community needs.”
 
See the July 21 ribbon-cutting video.
 
News coverage of Madera Community College:

Board of Governors Recognizes Madera Community College as the 116th Community College in California — California Community Colleges (07/20/20)
Madera Center becomes California’s newest community college — Fresno Bee (07/21/20)
The Central Valley’s Madera Community College becomes California’s newest community college — Ed Source (07/20/20)

UPDATE: CHSU College of Osteopathic Medicine kicks off first week

 

Following last month’s successful ribbon-cutting, California Health Sciences University welcomed students to orientation July 21-23 and posted this video.
Dr. John Graneto, D.O., M.Ed., dean of the CHSU College of Osteopathic Medicine, told the inaugural cohort of student doctors: “I am proud to know each of you and thank you for making this a memorable and historic event!” Classes began July 27.

DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE (June 2020): CVHEC e-Newsletter Inaugural Issue

Sharing highlights and successes

of our CVHEC member institutions

Greetings! I am happy to welcome you to the inaugural issue of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) digital newsletter.

CVHEC represents 27 colleges and universities in the nine-county region of the Central Valley from San Joaquin County in the north to Kern County in the south.  I am delighted that we can use this forum to share highlights and successes of our member institutions with you as planning for the 2020-21 academic year is underway.

As we approach the fall 2020 semester, our member institutions, led by dedicated and committed leaders, have been contemplating and planning opening the fall semester in the midst of a national pandemic, a state budget negatively impacted by the pandemic and the civil unrest in many parts of our country due to the tragic deaths of African American citizens George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks.  Students, faculty and staff can expect to experience an opening that will ensure a high-quality educational experience that will also provide for the safety of all.

As you make your way through our newsletter, we take the opportunity to introduce you to Dr. Juan Sánchez Muñoz, the newly appointed Chancellor of the University of California Merced.  Dr. Muñoz comes to the Central Valley from the University of Houston, Downtown Campus and is returning home as a native Californian.

We also ask that you join us in congratulating CVHEC member California Health Sciences University (CHSU) for the historic opening of its College of Osteopathic Medicine on July 21, 2020, with an inaugural class of 75 medical students.  CHSU has a mission to recruit and train Central Valley students in their university.  Of the initial cohort of students, 28% are from the Central Valley and 35% speak Spanish, both important for our valley.  Thank you CHSU for your commitment to our region and its communities.

Finally, we highlight work of highly talented faculty and administrators in the Central Valley region surrounding the benefit of dual enrollment to Central Valley high school students and offer a glimpse of that effort through a report titled, “Dual Enrollment in the Central Valley, Working Toward a Unified Approach for Equity and Prosperity.”

In addition to this work, we want to thank AT&T for its generous contribution to advance our dual enrollment efforts with a $25,000 donation to benefit CVHEC’s dual enrollment work to increase post-secondary completion in Fresno County.

I hope you enjoy this issue of our digital newsletter and those coming in the months to come.

Benjamin T. Duran, Ed.D
Executive Director

Dr. Benjamin T. Duran, President-Emeritus of Merced Community College District (2005-2012), has served as CVHEC executive director since 2015.
Contact Us

  • cvhecinfo@mail.fresnostate.edu

  • 559.278.0576

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