Glendale Community College

President's Corner

GCC sent a full contingent for the College’s annual lobbying efforts in Sacramento where decisions by state lawmakers and agencies can have a significant impact on our ability to carry out GCC’s mission. Those joining me for this year’s trip at the end of January included the following:

• Trustees Desirée Rabinov, Yvette Vartanian Davis, and Ann Ransford

• Faculty members Roger Bowerman and Cameron Hastings

• Frankie Strong representing classified employees

• Brittany Grice/VP Human Resources from the college administration

• ASGCC student leaders Elin Gharibian, Ani Chaglasian, and Tommy Nuno

Photo of ASGCC students (left to right Tommy Nuno, Elin Gharibian, Ani Chaglasian

Glendale Community College has sponsored a bill (SB 971) in partnership with Senator Anthony Portantino that will lessen educational barriers for those being displaced by war and conflict. The measure would make higher education more affordable for low-income refugees by exempting them from paying the nonresident tuition fee. 

The College brought the bill idea to the Senator after he attended a recent fundraising event on the Verdugo Campus to support students from Artsakh. SB 971 would exempt from the nonresident tuition fee a nonresident, low-income student who is a resident of a region impacted by war or other regional conflict and registers for lower division courses at a community college. Click this link to read a news release regarding the bill. We’ll keep you posted on the bill's progress in Sacramento.

Board of Trustees Retreat
On Friday, January 26, the Board of Trustees held its bi-annual retreat to gain insights and plan for future priorities. The day long work session included:

• A review of fiscal systems in the college with recommendations from a team of experts from PPL.
• Reports on IT Security and Systems with a scaled plan for developing maturity in both areas.
• A presentation on marketing efforts over the last six months which included expanded ad buys, detailed evaluations of current efforts, research into the community’s view of the college, a Latinx community survey to support a larger scale outreach effort, and the introduction of GCC’s new tagline which will be making its way out to other groups in the near future.

The Board ended by providing staff with concrete priorities geared toward assuring fiscal sustainability and maintaining our commitments to students, the community, and our employees. Details for the retreat can be found on Boarddocs here.

Strategically Planning GCC’s Future Facilities
The College is kicking off its Facilities Master Planning this month with our governance groups. This will be an opportunity to assess needs on campus. Please be on the lookout for opportunities to provide input as we progress toward a final plan.

GCC Awarded Accreditation Again
We are pleased to announce that GCC has been awarded Reaffirmation of Accreditation for a seven year period, the highest level of accredited status.  As a result of the findings of GCC’s comprehensive evaluation, the peer review team and accrediting commission have determined that the college met all 127 standards of quality of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC).  Additionally, unprecedented in the history of our college, the commission issued GCC no recommendations for improvement.  After a rigorous, multi-year evaluation process, this level of accreditation is the best possible outcome for any college and is assurance to college stakeholders and the public of the quality of GCC’s programs and services. Each person on campus should be proud of their work and how it contributed to this successful reaffirmation of our accreditation. To meet each of the accreditation standards, it requires every segment of the College to exhibit excellence, and we are exceptionally proud of your work and the manner in which you represented the College and its commitment to our students.

In their Team Report, the external peer review team praised GCC’s instructional and student support services and was notably impressed with collaboration across departments and areas of the college that have resulted in innovative supports for students.  Through comments shared in open forums and meetings, the team learned of GCC’s strong tradition and culture of supporting underserved students.  The outcome of the comprehensive accreditation evaluation celebrates the exemplary work and effort of the college’s classified professionals, faculty, and administrators to educate and improve the lives of GCC’s students in a fiscally responsible manner. This praise is fitting, given the tremendous work and ingenuity that each of you exhibit on a daily basis.

GCC in the News

Image courtesy of Brian Feinzimer/LAist

Six GCC Media Arts students recently attended the Sundance Film Festival in Utah and had access to panels and screenings at the largest independent film festival in the U.S. They were featured in LAist here and here.

Big thanks to Media Arts instructors Geri Ulrey and Deb Diehl who have worked diligently to promote the program through media outreach and creative marketing efforts.

Board of Governors Recognizes GCC Ethnic Studies

Image courtesy of California Community Colleges

GCC was among four colleges that have been honored by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors with 2023-24 Exemplary Program Awards for outstanding efforts in promoting and advancing ethnic studies programs. Check out the Glendale News Press article here.

Fast Track Fridays

Fast Track Fridays is a new option for students to schedule their classes outside traditional hours Monday through Thursday. Agnes Eguaras, Dean of Instructional Services, explains how it works: “Fast Track Fridays is a scheduling option for our students to take two to four classes in one day on Fridays in person and complete the rest of the course materials and projects online with their instructors and classmates. In the spirit of guided pathways, our division chairs collaborated together to intentionally provide Fridays/Hybrid class schedules that will give our busy students opportunities to take courses to complete their degrees or transfer to a four-year university. We’re very excited to provide this option to our students, and hope that our students will take advantage of it.” 

Added Division Chair/Instructor of English Sarah McLemore, “back in the early 1980s, both my parents attended community college at Merritt College in Oakland, CA while working full time and raising me when I was a toddler.  They would have loved a program like Fast Track Fridays that would have allowed them to better balance their work, school, and home schedules while maintaining a full course load!  We hope that Fast Track Fridays shows our community that GCC knows that students want in-person classes to connect and learn while also maintaining flexibility.  Not everyone can make it to campus several days a week. We hope that more programs like this can be implemented at GCC as we design schedules and opportunities to meet students where they are to get them where they are going.”

Other scheduling options include Saturday classes and evening classes. Listings for each option can be found at glendale.edu/options.

College Corps Assembly

The College Corps program held its Fellow Assembly on December 15. Nearly one hundred GCC College Corps Fellows were in attendance for the culmination of their fall semester in Social Science 145, a course on community volunteerism taught by Professor Michael Dulay. The course is a prerequisite for the College Corps program and the event featured the presentation of the students’ final assignment, the Community Service Project Poster. See photos of the students with their posters here.

Go Baby Go!

GCC student workers, under the supervision of Engineering Instructor Nareh Manooki and funded by a BIEN in STEM Title III grant, modified a car for two-year-old Charlotte. This is the third car adapted for a child this year through Go Baby Go, a nonprofit that provides modified, ride-on cars to young children with special needs so they can move around independently. Charlotte's car was designed with her preferences in mind!

Go Baby Go internships at GCC provide an opportunity for students to get paid while working to build mini ride-on cars for children with special needs.  Through the 10-week internship program, students develop their problem-solving skills while working as part of a multi-disciplinary team.  This program is ideal for students interested in pursuing careers in health care, engineering, kinesiology, physical therapy or social work. 

Geology Honors Students Conduct Mineral Study 

Six dedicated students from the Honors Geology 101 and 111 classes participated in an intriguing project centered around the captivating suite of rocks nestled in the Verdugo Mountains, stretching from Glendale to Burbank. In the Fall 2023 semester, Anna Gevorgyan, Arlette Hall, Alana Milanese, Mary Najaryan, Gregory Prusalian, and Daniel Xu were unraveling the secrets of these rocks and they were aided by equipment from Caltech! Physical Sciences Division Chair and Chemistry Professor Sevada Chamras provides the details here.

Images courtesy of Arlette Hall