ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´

I will be on vacation tomorrow, so posting this Thursday afternoon.

Pride in our Community

On Monday, UWB Chancellor Kristin Esterberg, Bothell City Council Member Carston Curd, and I raised the campus Pride Flag that will wave throughout June. The month of June offers solidarity to the LGBTQIA+ Community, similar to many of our recognition months. Our campus and our city (with 3 queer council members) is a shining example of this diverse leadership. Last year, I had a discussion with facilities about adding a flagpole to campus; currently there is only one. I have the intent to make sure we honor multiple communities throughout the year via the display of flags. A second flagpole would make that possible. As we set out on construction with the Gateway Building (formerly CC5), I hope we can steer funds to make that happen. I appreciate the efforts of the Inclusion and Advocacy Center for their programming around Pride. The Center has consistently offered great programming over the last few years to help us celebrate all of our identities.

I also want to offer thanks and say how proud I am of our Northshore Rotary. On Monday, about 100 people gathered to play Bingo at Copperworks Distillery in support of Rotary’s efforts to raise money for student scholarships. It was a western-themed night, as you can see from my photo below. Community partners have become more and more important to ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´â€™s journey and we appreciate those organizations that partner with us for student success.

Another of those partners is the Northshore School District (NSD). This week, with ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ and Northshore at the helm, we gathered 7 additional community stakeholders to discuss data around enrollment trends. NSD has some well-researched data on the coming decline in our area’s number of young people. This wave will hit ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ in about 8 years and we want to be prepared for it both at our campus and in the school district. There are other factors at play here, like the economy, regional growth, and housing. For the time being, we want to make sure we can all adapt to the changing demographics. Thanks to Superintendent Justin Irish for being such a great partner in this work and fully embracing ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´.

Finally today, I am proud of our College Advisory Council. The Council’s members include:

• Bryan Fauth,
• Emily Dvorak,
• Kelly Leahy,
• Kris Panton,
• Megan Luce,
• Muskaan Grewal,
• Dr. Richard Lewis,
• Robyn Ferret,
• Samantha Martin,
• Stephan Classen,
• Zuzana Regan

This week was the last meeting of the year and we had a robust discussion about Artificial Intelligence. In addition to the good discussion, I watched how all members of the group talked in a collegial manner, affirmed each other, and were willing to discuss in a healthy way even if opinions differed. Many of our college’s learning outcomes were modeled: thinking critically and reflectively, interacting in a complex environment, and communicating with clarity. I couldn’t have been more proud of these ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ employees.

And what was the outcome of the discussion? Well, there were some common themes:

• Using A.I. as a summative, knowledge-gathering tool. We get that it can be important and time-saving.
• Using A.I. as a generative tool to replace one’s own investment into the critical thinking process…not ok. In fact, the consensus was that A.I. undermines the learning outcomes of our college.
• And, using A.I. infrastructure has a huge impact on environmental sustainability and environmental racism.

With that said, the recommendation is to create a Task Force representing all employees (not just faculty or just staff) to continue advising how we shape our institution’s use of A.I.

We have a lot to be proud of on our campus and in our community as we celebrate Pride month and approach Commencement next week.

Shoutouts

On Friday the 29^th, ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ welcomed 230 students from the Lake Washington School district (including a group from Orcas Island) for the fifth year in a row! An event of this scale truly takes a village. A massive thank you to all of our incredible campus divisions and teams who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make the day a seamless success. A special thank you goes to Facilities (Miles & Jaspreet), Outreach (Kira, Kayleen & Zarea), ITS (Luke), Sustainability (Stephan) and of course our phenomenal volunteers…. We appreciate you all.