Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director (right), moderated the final panel of the day, “What the CVHEC is Happening in the Central Valley,” at the CVHEC Summit held May 9 in Fresno. Panelists were Dr. James Zimmerman, University of California administrator who served with CVHEC’s Transfer Project team; Dr. Lynn Cevallos, founder and president of College Bridge, the lead partner in the Math Bridge Program with CVHEC and the Rand Corp.; and Dr. Kristin Clark, chancellor-emeritus of West Hills Community College District who is now CVHEC’s Dual Enrollment lead.
A spring of productivity in uncertain times
Focusing on our mission to stimulate a college-going culture in the Central Valley
Greetings CVHEC friends and colleagues …
I hope you are all enjoying a well-deserved summer break and that your 4th of July with family and friends last month was a wonderful time. This traditional national holiday is especially important to us all today in these uncertain times.
With the launch of our summer edition of the CVHEC e-newsletter, we reflect on an eventful and impactful spring semester and summer recess as we head into the 2025/26 Academic Year. In this first half of the year, CVHEC colleges and universities engaged in several initiatives and projects that emerged organically in the region from faculty, staff and leaders who are dedicated to student success in all its forms. These productive efforts support our mission to stimulate a college-going culture for the improvement of the lives of our students and their families as well as improving the economic and social well-being of the Central Valley – the very essence of the CVHEC mission.
It is rewarding and heartwarming to see faculty and staff in the CVHEC region from the state’s four segments of higher education — community colleges, California State University campuses, University of California campuses, and our independent partners– all working collaboratively to implement strategies that reach across our ten-county region.
It is especially rewarding to see this power of collaboration through the eyes of an out-of-state partner and observer who joined us at our CVHEC Higher Education Summit in May: Dr. Brandon Protas from our partner organization, Complete College America. In addition to serving on a summit panel regarding the importance of data, Dr. Protas authored this month’s “What the CV-HEC is Happening” Blog where he aptly shares his thoughts on what he has experienced working with CVHEC. I know you will enjoy reading about his national perspective of the unique culture he observes in the CVHEC universe.
Also, in our annual mid-year review, you will see a recap of the great work our intersegmental partners produced in these first six months around such initiatives like a regional transfer project that is a statewide model; and implementation of dual enrollment throughout the valley. This includes collaboration with K-12 partners towards student success in gateway courses like math and English by providing upskilling opportunities for high school teachers to earn master’s degrees in those two subject areas thus qualifying them to teach dual enrollment community college courses at their respective high schools).
We are looking forward to the second part of this year and all that the fall semester promises to bring.
To further strengthen our internal structure and objectives so we can support our consortium member institutions, the CVHEC Board of Directors will meet this summer to strategically plan for the next three years. These valley higher ed leaders will identify and deliberate new initiatives and approaches to serving and continue lifting our student populations as they pursue their academic goals.
The board will also examine how the region can come together to deal with the current national environment that is hostile to higher education and the decades-long mission of universities and colleges in the United States. Stay tuned with our fall newsletters for updates regarding the direction of the consortium for the rest of 2025-26 and beyond.
I truly hope you enjoy this summer edition of the newsletter and find it worthy of your time. We encourage you to forward it to colleagues and urge them to subscribe to become part of the communications network we are building in the Central Valley for higher education professionals and partners locally, statewide and nationally.
Until the next issue, we wish you a productive but restful and enjoyable summer.
