Category: From the dean

As one of our development day events last week, we held a session concerning CoReq-ing (including a delightful and informative presentation by Dr. Sonya Armstrong), so I thought I’d take a moment to share a few thoughts about my relationship to HB 2223.

First, I must ask you to resist the temptation to write “co-wrecking,” even though that is the pronunciation. In fact, for reasons I will explain, I think — however we got here — CoReq-ing is good for student success. But before we get to that, what’s HB 2223 all about?

Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed a pleasant winter break and that you’ve returned rejuvenated and revved up for another semester!

Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed a pleasant winter break and that you’ve returned rejuvenated and revved up for another semester!

I’d like to take a moment to offer a few reminders and outline my priorities for the spring. Let’s start with nudges.

• Check your rosters! If students turn up in your classroom who are not on the roster, please refer them to an appropriate office to make things official. We have new Registration Liaisons at each campus to help!
• Submit your Attendance Certification by the deadline. (And remember that Attendance Certification is a per student function, not per class. Students who add your class after you submit Attendance Certification won’t automatically be certified.)

There’s a lot going on in our division. Here are our priorities for this Spring:

• IntFest2019, Friday, March 29
• Vision+Voice
• Badging project, including these pilots
  • Critical thinking component skills
  • “Soft” Skills in LA
  • Leadership Skills
• LAHC Internships (Anne-Marie)
• English Proficiency assessment (ESOL partnering with ABE and CE)
• Liberal Arts Institute 2.0 (with Sam and LASMS)
• LA Co-Req Oversight workgroup
• Honors
• Enrollment Management Self-study (one part of which is our Gateway Courses study)
• Dual Credit initiatives (including new dual credit coordinators for English!)

If one of these projects sounds exciting, be in touch — there’s plenty to keep us busy. I’m looking forward to working with you in pursuit of our mission.

I’m looking forward to Spring semester, including a bit of teaching. I’m teaching the second iteration of Logic for Game Design course.

Have a great semester!

Today is the traditional birthday of philosophy, May 28, 585 BCE. It’s a great story, so I’ll tell a version of how philosophy was born.

Thales of Miletus (died c. 546), one of the first people to be recognized as a philosopher in the western tradition, used previously collected data to predict an eclipse that occurred — you guessed it — 28 May 585 BCE. When the eclipse came on the day he predicted, people praised him, saying he was “favored by the gods.” Thales, however, told everyone that the gods had nothing to do with it, and explained how he had used math to work out the date of the eclipse.

So, Thales’s explanation of his prediction came to represent the separation of philosophy, which relies on evidence and arguments, from the Greek religious tradition.

Since the core of philosophy is what we can work out with our own reasoning ability, I’m going to encourage everyone to celebrate the birthday of philosophy by doing some serious thinking. 😉

I recently read “Part-time students receive attention” on the TCCTA site. I want to share this article with you if you haven’t seen it, and I’d like your indulgence to raise two issues, for reflection.

First, we’ve all heard the claim that full-time students tend to graduate. Reactions to this range from a broad yawn to injunctions to sign everyone up for a full-time load the next available opportunity. Of course, we are not merely interested but also committed to student progression and completion, but I see taking comfort in this dictum to be a bit one-dimensional. After all, my Inner Philosopher urges me to say, the causality might run the other way: Graduating may cause you to take 30 hours a year.

Continue reading “Part-time equity is a full-time job”

I wrote this a while ago for another blog, but — in this season of conflict that we call the last week of the term — I thought I’d share it with you.

“We’re having a conflict, and we need help resolving it.”

This familiar sentiment often brings people in to see therapists and counselors, (and even philosophers!), and most people start off seeking conflict resolution. Let’s think about this notion of conflict resolution.

First, some preparatory observations. Suppose I ask you, What is the absence of conflict? Is it peace? Harmony? Equanimity of mind? While there’s some truth to responses in this vein, if you look a little harder at conflict, you might begin to suspect that the absence of conflict is . . . death.

Continue reading “Conflict and inquiry”

Last week, I had the good fortune to attend an end-of-the-term dinner with Fahim Idais and forty or so of his Arabic students. The company was great, and the food was magnificent — we practically took over the Phoenician Resto Café. Other than the baba ganoush, one of the highlights of the evening was that I got a crash course in Arabic greetings when Fahim had all the students go around the table and introduce themselves. How’s this:

مرحباً
اسمي ماثيو

I’m proud of our Arabic program, and of the department of foreign languages that supports and sustains it. Not many community colleges can boast about offering so many languages. The central image for our recent International Festival features most of them: Russian, Spanish, Japanese, French, Chinese, German, Italian, and Korean. ACC also teaches ASL and Latin. And English. 😉

Did you know we offer Arabic I through IV? We have an AA in Arabic, too.

Why do we teach Arabic at ACC?

Because people first started talking about the concept of zero in Arabic.

Because it’s one of six official languages of the United Nations.

Because it was a major artery of culture in the Middle Ages.

Because Arabic is spoken by 313 million people today.

Because Aristotle’s works were preserved in Arabic.

Because it’s the lingua franca of the Arab world.

Because it’s the language of the Qur’an.

Because Arabic grammar is sweet.

Because ACC is happening.

Because it’s there.

Why not?

As dean, I get to experience pretty amazing things, but this time, it wasn’t just a dean thing. Rather, I was invited to this party, by one of the Arabic students. Let me  put it like this:

أنا والد لويزا

Thanks, Luiza!

And thanks to you, Fahim, for everything you do for our students!

Administrative professionals:

Each year since the beginning of Vision+Voice five years ago, I have looked forward to the reception. We unveil the posters that unite our V+V poets’ work with ACC art student creations. We hand out the coveted anthology of the year’s poems. We’re treated to our poets reading their poems, to congratulations and addresses by dignitaries like Dr. Rhodes and Dr. Cruz, thank-you’s to parents and teachers. And we have really, really good food.

This year’s reception was especially lovely, with a return appearance by Brad Richard, whose reflections on the V+V poems brought tears to my eyes. (And I wasn’t the only one.) Brad has done so much for poetry that it’s hard to know where to begin a thank-you note. Maybe this will be a start?

Continue reading “A special treat”