LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD 

We the people of this college, community, and the nation have been impacted by the wave of horrific events of unrest sweeping across the nation, beginning with the COVID-19 global pandemic and now the tragic death of George Floyd in the hands of police officers–those who have sworn to protect and serve the community. As student leaders, we share your grief and uncertainties. Some of us are wondering, why are thousands of people protesting and expressing their concerns in different cities across the nation?  

Therefore, LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD is the theme to explain the reasons for the protests and unpack the long history of injustices that the minorities have been experiencing. 

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD, that our political system has been less functioning to meet the demands of creating a just justice system which has resulted in an exponential increase in incarceration that restoration.  

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD, that the justice department needs absolute change and complete reformation to serve our society equitably.  

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD, that our history has been distorted to reflect the reality of our justice department. 

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD, that there has some reluctance in changing the policies that drive the police department’s priorities when they issue stops, searches, and arrests.   

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD, that injustices have been prone to the minorities due to unconscious biases, economic status, disproportionate representation, lack of adequate legal assistance, and the reinforcement of one race is superior and just than the other. 

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD, that a significant population of the minorities have been incarcerated. 

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD, that the Private Prison System in America is detrimentally impacting the lives of the minorities and those with less economic status.  

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD, that we all as a society has been reluctant to acknowledge the existence of these impacts and take the responsibility to address them and be willing to create change from ourselves, to our families, communities, and the nation. 

RACISM IS ALIVE 

All Lives Matter Vs Black Lives Matter is not the issue but the reactions that are evidenced when injustices are done in the limelight over the Black people due to racism.  

RACISM IS ALIVE when citizens who exercise their First Amendment protesting that BLACK LIVES MATTER are labeled as domestic terrorists. 

RACISM IS ALIVE when it takes protestors to initiate the arrest of those who killed Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Black people. 

RACISM IS ALIVE when BLACK LIVES MATTER Protestors are threatened by the head of state to invoke the Insurrection Act because they don’t matter to the system. 

RACISM IS ALIVE when minorities are perceived as a threat in the stores, streets, cities, etc. 

RACISM IS ALIVE when people of color call for change and are perceived as radicals and troublemakers in our institutions.  

RACISM IS ALIVE when one race is perceived as wrongdoers.  

The roots of racism are historic and systemic; woven into the fabric of our country. As people of color, we experience racism in all its many forms. We want people to acknowledge it and be willing to talk about it, willing to make changes, so we, as one nation, can move forward.  

AS SOMEONE WHO LEANS TOWARD HOPE, I strongly believe in humanity and in the conviction that racism is solvable. Our generation has seen the racial inequalities experienced in our society today—and now those who believe in change are stepping up to voice their quest for reformation. No single instrument can measure our progress toward ending racism. However, I assure you that you have the power and capability to influence others by doing what is just, right, and good for others. We have a long way to go, but we will get there.  

We all possess the virtues of love, respect, and compassion–the determinants of our behavior in treating others. It is through love, respect, and compassion that people from different backgrounds are taking to the streets en masse across the country to demand justice for those who cannot. I believe in these virtues. Together, we can address these challenges. Together, we can create a society in which every individual feels they belong and have a place to exercise their inalienable rights and privileges enshrined in the Constitution. 

Let your voice be heard.   

Sincerely, 

Evans Kaame, ASCC President

Clark College Theatre continues its 2019-2020 season with the musical Bare by Jon Hartmere and Damon Intrabartolo.

Bare is a coming-of-age rock musical that
features a group of high school seniors at a Catholic boarding school who face
issues of sexuality and personal identity. As they struggle to come to terms
with who they are, and who the world thinks they should be, they seek answers
from their church, their friends, and ultimately, from within themselves.

The cast for Clark College’s production includes *Kloe Catchpole, *Sandra Fachial, Pearson Kunz, *Siniva Lee, *Kaila Ludvigson, *Sebastian Miranda-Givens, Aidan Nolan, **Linda Owsley, **Jared Pengra, *Laurence Sinclair, *Trinity Stegall, *Derek Slade Tucker, *Dea Whitley, **Sammy Williams, and *Natalie Worthy:  The director is H. Gene Biby and April Brookins Duvic provides vocal direction. Note: Cast member names marked with a single asterisk are current Clark College students; double asterisks indicate Clark College alumni.

Show Dates: February 21, 22, 28, 29 and March 5-7. All show
times are at 7:30 p.m. in the Decker Theatre, Frost Arts Center, on Clark
College’s main campus.

Ticket Information: Students (with ID) $10; Alumni (with
membership) $10; Senior Citizens $16; General Admission $20. Tickets may be
purchased online at http://www.clarkbookstore.com/site_theatre.asp
or call 360-992-2815. View the entire Clark College Theatre season at www.clark.edu/cc/theatre.

If you need accommodation due to a disability in order to fully participate in this event, contact Clark College’s Disability Support Services Office at 360-992-2314 or 360-991-0901 (VP), or visit Gaiser Hall room 137, as soon as possible.

The Clark College women’s soccer team concluded their 2019 regular season on Saturday, October 26. With the 3-1 win over Clackamas, the Penguins went undefeated in Southern Region play.

This continues a near-historic winning streak for Penguin women’s soccer: They have now gone 64 league games without a loss, dating back to October 17, 2014. With this win, the team has claimed their fourth NWAC Southern Region title in a row and have earned a bye for the first round of the conference tournament.

The Penguins are set to host the NWAC quarterfinal round at Kim Christensen Field on Clark College’s main campus at noon on Saturday, November 9. They will be host to the winner of the Tacoma Community College vs. Columbia Basin Community College game, to be held on Wednesday, November 6 at 1:00 p.m.

Photo: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

We are moving closer to GoLive with the primary ctcLink technology solution – PeopleSoft – on October 28.

KUDOS

Thank you to the Credentials staff! In early August, they worked with a team from the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) ctcLink project to build the rules that allow us to transfer in courses from other institutions into the PeopleSoft database.  When we GoLive, we expect to have over 7,000 transfer-in courses set up in the PeopleSoft databases. This work allows staff to accept electronic and paper transcripts from schools and process them quickly for students.

TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

Teaching and Learning Days offered opportunities to learn more about myClark ctcLink training opportunities, including “ctcLink NEW Orientation Introducing ‘Fluid,'” “What to Expect in PeopleSoft – Student Focus,” and the August 14 keynote address, “What to Expect with MyClark ctcLink.”

The SBCTC is the process of finalizing the training plans and materials for end-user training in PeopleSoft.  (Many of the primary users are receiving training in User Acceptance Testing.)  Most of the end-user training will be available online and many will be offered as a self-paced course. As of today, listed below are the major training categories, schedule, and number of sessions for end-user training. I have included the number of unique training sessions, just to put into context the amount of training time required for some of our colleagues. More to come about this in the next few weeks!

The original version of this message was sent as an email from Associate Vice President of Planning and Effectiveness Shanda Haluapo to all college employees on August 7, 2019.

College community,

On May 22, I shared information about the 2019-2020 budget with the Board of Trustees. I heard the concerns that faculty and staff expressed at the Board meeting about being transparent regarding the budget. To that end, I want to fully share with you the same information that was provided to the Trustees. 

The budget decisions that have been made were difficult. Many of them directly impact our faculty, staff, administrators and therefore our students. I want you to know that these decisions were made with care and consideration. I understand that you didn’t receive as much information as you would have preferred earlier in the process. It was because we wanted to ensure that the employees directly impacted by budget reductions were informed first. Those employees received official notification today.  

In making these budget decisions, Executive Cabinet
operated with the following objectives and understandings:

• Prioritize our employees and their professional
  development first.
• Sustain our commitments to Guided Pathways and
  the Social Equity Plan.
• Be conservative in our projections for student
  enrollment and in our estimates for tuition and Running Start reimbursement
  revenue.
• Consistent with feedback from the Budget
  Committee, be frugal – don’t commit every dollar.
• Set aside a portion of our anticipated new
  revenue for contingency.

Starting from this basis, EC established the following
framework for our budget discussions:

• Leave the 5% reductions in place.  These
  reductions made it possible to not only cover the $1.5 million shortage in next
  year’s must-fund costs but also offset the loss of $800,000 in our base state
  funding due to changes in the allocation model.
• Move ahead only with the additional revenue we
  believe we have now, and not try to guess what may come later from the state.
   This new revenue is currently projected at $1,425,489 and is comprised
  of:
  • $438,009
    in unallocated permanent funding made available by the 5% reductions.
  • $987,480
    from higher-than-expected tuition and Running Start revenue, and from
    un-committing the local funding we no longer need to cover 35% of next year’s
    mandatory state wage adjustments.  

Within this framework, EC made the following budget
decisions:

• Fund the first five requests on the Reallocation
  List as recommended by the Budget Committee:
  • $37,926
    for the Veterans Resource Center Manager
  • $63,043
    for the Instructional Accessibility Tech
  • $30,760
    for the Cybersecurity BAS program
  • $63,043
    for the Enrollment Navigator
  • $147,764
    for the Palo Alto Firewall.
• Support employees and their professional
  development, including funding for two additional requests on the Reallocation
  List:
  • $16,000
    for the annual Teaching and Learning Days
  • $40,000
    for ongoing Power, Privilege and Inequity training (from the Reallocation List)
  • $53,000
    for Teaching and Learning Center programming (from the Reallocation List)
• Dedicate funding for faculty salary
  improvements:
  • $600,000
• Support teach-outs in Instruction
  • $200,000

After accounting for these commitments, $173,953 remains
in unallocated contingency.  It’s a small cushion but will provide some
flexibility should our tuition and Running Start revenue projections fall
short, or if unexpected needs emerge during the course of the year.  We
also haven’t ruled out using this contingency to go further down the
Reallocation List.

We expect to see our initial allocation from the state
board in the next few weeks.  Once we have those numbers I will send out
another message describing not only the amount we received but also any rules
or restrictions on how those dollars may be used.  Our goal remains having
a 2019-20 budget to present to the Board of Trustees for approval on June 12.

I appreciate your patience as we have worked through a
very difficult and complex budget development process. 

Bob Knight

President

Members of Phi Theta Kappa get ready to distribute Thanksgiving groceries to students in 2016.

Every year, members of Clark College’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honor Society collect money to pay for grocery baskets so that Clark students in need can have all the supplies to make Thanksgiving dinner for their families. This year, they have collected the names of 100 students who could use help this holiday.

Each basket costs about $25 and includes a 12-14 pound turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, yams, green beans, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, and a pie.

PTK is asking for donations from the community to help cover the cost of these baskets. Donors may contribute by dropping off monetary donations to the Cashier’s Office in Gaiser Hall or by calling the Cashier’s Office at 360-992-2177. Either way, be sure to mention the account code “VB.” Donations need to be received by Monday, November 19 at 5:00 p.m.

Phi Theta Kappa is the international honor society of two-year colleges.

Photo: Clark College/Hannah Erickson

This article contributed by Alpha Sigma Phi, Clark College’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa

The Penguin Pantry provides Clark students with free food and supplies.

Clark College’s Penguin Pantry will celebrate is first year of serving students with an open house on Thursday, October 25, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

The Open House will be a ‘reverse reception’ — an opportunity for students, staff, faculty, and community partners to drop by, visit the space, and bring donations of unexpired, unopened food items; gift cards; and toiletries.

The Penguin Pantry supports a healthy college community by reducing hunger on campus and connecting students to essential resources. It provides students with a safe, comfortable place to get something to eat, pick up a necessity, and connect with additional resources and services as needed. These include counseling, public benefits, and more connection to local food banks and other local resources.

According to surveys, 43 percent of Clark College students are low-income, and 23 percent have dependent children. The Penguin Pantry has become an important resource to help students stay on the path to graduation.

The Penguin Pantry offer the following types of food/supply services to currently enrolled students:

• Grab-to-go snacks
• Groceries
• Toiletries and school supplies

The Penguin Pantry is located at Clark College in the Science Building Complex (SCI), Room 101. (Closest street is East Reserve. Park in the Orange 2 Lot.)

For additional information, visit www.clark.edu/cc/penguinpantry or call 360.992.2100.

This article contributed by Estancia Cota.

For many Southwest Washington families, the beginning of this school year was particularly challenging, featuring teacher strikes and last-minute scrambles for child care. But one thing remained unchanged: Dozens of Clark College students could depend on Clark employees to purchase and fill backpacks so that their children could start the school year off prepared.

The Clark College Backpack Project is a long-standing tradition at the college. Names of the children are gathered and referred by Workforce Education Services, Financial Aid, Veterans Affairs, Transitional Studies, Child & Family Services, and the Penguin Pantry. Volunteers gather information about each child–grade level, supply list, color preferences, etc.–and send a shopping list to an employee who has agreed to sponsor a backpack. Children receive their backpacks about two weeks before school starts in the fall.

This year, donors provided backpacks to 65 children. All told, the Backpack Project has delivered almost 900 backpacks to children of Clark students over the last 15 years.

“This year has been rough, and without this help my children wouldn’t feel as secure with their schooling,” wrote one student whose children received backpacks. “I appreciate my Clark Family.”

Other parents expressed their appreciation for what the college community has done:

• “Your kindness and generosity will never be forgotten.”
• “Thank you so much for thinking of our family and providing such a meaningful thing for my kids to have. It makes my heart fill with love knowing they are starting the school year off right.”

The children were also very excited about their backpacks, sending messages like:

• “Thank you for my backpack, you did good job.”
• “Thank you I really like the backpack, when I saw it I said it was sooooooooooooooo cool!”

The annual backpack project is coordinated by Cindy Heck, Susan Maxwell, and the Office of Planning & Effectiveness. Thank you to all of the employees who sponsored a backpack this year! These backpacks make a positive start to the school year for our students and their children. Thank you!

This article and photos were contributed by the Office of Planning & Effectiveness.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which is a good reminder that domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking, and dating violence affect many of our students. In order to better support them, Clark College is developing a training and awareness campaign to help boost the reporting of these crimes and to help connect survivors to resources.  

This work has been made possible by a grant from the Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women. Despite the name of the grant, however, remember that these crimes can hurt people of all genders and orientations.  

While most of us are willing to help combat these crimes and support survivors, it can sometimes be difficult to know how to do so. Clark College employees may have questions like, “How do I know if a student is in distress? How do I support them? How do I learn the skills I need to handle these situations effectively?” We’re providing some answers below. 

Identifying the signs of a student in distress 

Students come to Clark each day with a variety of experiences and challenges in their world outside of the classroom environment. Some easy-to-spot signs that could point to something more going on in a student’s world include: concerning appearance, concerning behavior, and/or concerning comments. These changes can be subtle or drastic. While this is by no means an inclusive list, if you notice changes in hygiene, disruptive behavior, becoming withdrawn or quieter than usual, excessive absence, out-of-proportion reactions, isolation, or references to suicide or self-harm–all of these can indicate a change in the student’s life.  

Responding to a student in distress 

What should you do if you suspect a student is in distress? Speak with the student privately, expressing concern and a willingness help; listen to what is causing them distress; and support them to find on-campus resources. If a student comes to you to share what is happening in their life, be mindful of the role you play in reporting. At Clark, the only confidential college resources are the counselors and nurse practitioner in the Counseling & Health Center (CHC). To connect a student with a confidential resource, please call CHC at 360-992-2614 to schedule an appointment. If the situation is more urgent than scheduling a future appointment, call Clark College security at 360-992-2133 or Clark County Crisis line at 360-696-9560.  

At Clark, you are required to report when you hear about situations a student may be involved in that includes domestic/dating violence, sexual assault, stalking or sexual misconduct. To report instances and connect the student to support on campus, visit the Title IX reporting link here: http://www.clark.edu/about/governance/policies-procedures/title-IX/index.php  

Learning skills to help students in distress 

As we move into October, we have put together a training series called Safer Campus, Safe Communities spread out over three sessions, descriptions of the sessions and speaking topics are listed below. We hope to see you at one or all of the upcoming training opportunities.  

Navigating Conversations with Someone Who is Disclosing Incidents of Domestic Violence or Sexual Assault

Thursday, October 11, 10:00-11:00 a.m., GHL 205
Facilitator: Heather Adams
Being able to connect with students and navigate difficult conversations is an integral part of working on campus. However some conversations can be especially difficult or emotional, such as when a student discloses that they have experienced domestic violence or sexual assault. This session aims to provide attendees with a working knowledge of relevant student conduct policies and guidelines around reporting in order to support students without overstepping professional boundaries. Attendees will learn how to spot signs of students in distress and develop strategies for navigating conversations where someone is disclosing incidents of sexual assault, harassment, or domestic violence. 

Minimizing Harassment in Group Work

Tuesday, October 16, 2:00-3:30 p.m., HHL 121
Facilitators: Deena Godwin & Tavish Bell, Clark College
Harassment can impact a student’s ability to learn, feel safe, and often affects their decision of whether or not to continue a class or their academic career. Both anecdotally and in research studies, harassment is known to be a sizable problem in group class activities. This session will discuss common types of harassment in group-work settings and provide practical strategies for how to minimize harassment. Attendees will leave equipped with a working knowledge of relevant student conduct policies and how to report harassment that is happening in both face-to-face and online settings. 

Communicating About Harassment and Assault More Effectively Across Generations

Thursday, October 25, 3:00-4:30 p.m., GHL 213
Facilitators: Deena Godwin & Tavish Bell, Clark College 

Experiencing domestic violence and/or sexual assault is life-changing and requires support. Support is often needed though difficult to seek out because of the shame and guilt that accompany the experience. Couple that with differences among generations, and communication can be non-existent. This session aims to bridge the gap across generations specifically by discussing strategies for a survivor to seek support and strategies for support people to respond. Attendees will leave having practiced both seeking support and responding to requests of support.  

This article was submitted by Tavish Bell.

Members of the Clark College Independent staff show off their Associated Collegiate Press award. Photo: Bradley Wilson

Clark College’s student-run newspaper, The Independent, again placed in the Top 10 in a national contest of two-year colleges, earning fourth place in the annual Best of Show competition in Long Beach, California.

The award from the Associated Collegiate Press honored overall excellence among teams of students who attended the Midwinter National College Journalism Convention on March 1-4.

The Indy, which is funded by the Associated Students of Clark College, has taken home this award for several years under the direction of former student-media advisor Dee Anne Finken. Finken retired in January but oversaw the publication of the Oct. 18, 2017 edition that judges singled out for national recognition.

The Indy won fourth place in 2017, as well.

“Receiving this award for the second year in a row really brought home how much my staff have invested in this program,” said Riley Clarke, editor-in-chief. “It’s been a year full of change, and I couldn’t be more proud to work with such dedicated, passionate people.”

This article was contributed by Beth Slovic.