President Chong gave the following report to the Board of Trustees at their March 10, 2015 meeting:

Professional Development Day:

He attended PDA Day and the Tauzer Lecture given by Karen Stanley. She had a group of staff volunteers demonstrates squats on stage, while encouraging attendees to be more active throughout the day. He said that he can already see the effects of her talk at meetings around campus. Brooke Tauzer attended the lecture and was taken with warm reception he received. He said that there were many great sessions for staff including classified, faculty and administrators.

He gave a “fireside chat” on the Bond Implementation Planning Process and Timeline, which was well attended. All in all, he concluded that PDA Day was an overwhelming success based on the evaluations received.

Mi Casa:

He said that the school is getting closer to selecting a location for a Mi Casa site. He said he is working with Juan Arias, Yolanda Garcia and Tony Ichsan to ensure that there will soon be a modern site with the proper facilities for Mi Casa. He hopes to bring a more definitive plan to the next Board meeting.

Community Relations:

He discussed his visit from representatives of the Campaign for College Opportunity, a nonprofit that looks at student success at community colleges statewide. Former SRJC Vice President David Wolfe is a leader there and he interviewed Dr. Chong discuss SRJC’s success as one of three institutions of higher learning serving Hispanic students.

He and Lauralyn Larson also met with the Gates Foundation to discuss transfer model practices. He commended Lauralyn and the counseling department on their daily work to sustain and grow the culture of transfer at the college.

He attended the Small Schools Conference on campus, attended by small high schools that don’t often get attention from colleges.

He went to lunch with Los Cien and discussed how to develop healing and better community relations following the Andy Lopez incident.

He celebrated the Redwood Empire Chinese Association Lunar New Year, which he said was a great event.

He was the keynote speaker at the Rohnert Park Chamber lunch, where he discussed student success.

He went to the “March in March” and was pleased to say that Omar, SRJC’s wonderful student trustee, led an effort represented by many colleges. He thanked Robert Ethington for his support at the event. He also met with Senator McGuire, who pledged his support for community college funding.

He participated in the selection process for Santa Rosa Police Chief.

He met with Reuben Arminana and Socorro Shiels and is working with them to propose a conference doing Student Success to initially be hosted at Sonoma State in fall. This conference would encourage students to participate in the SB 1440 transfer program.