October 3, 2025

I am in Vancouver (WA) for the first WACTC meeting of the year. If you are unfamiliar with this acronym, it stands for the Washington Association of Community and Technical Colleges. The members are the Presidents of the entire Washinton CTC system and we meet monthly to review policy, move forward committee work, and advise the State Board. The committees consist of Budget, Capital, Education, Equity, Legislative, and Technology. I am currently chair of the Capital committee. And, with that responsibility, I also sit on the Executive Committee. I was President of this group in 2020-21…the world was in a different place then.

I’ll report more on the meeting’s outcomes next week as we are just about to head into our Business Meeting this morning. As well, next week I’ll report more on the reception I am attending tonight with the new UW President, Dr. Robert Jones. Thanks to Chancellor Esterberg for always including Cascadia in the UW world. It’s appreciated.

For the rest of today, let’s have a show-n-tell…

A picture from Vice President Sean Poellnitz by the West Garage, near the Truly House, with two of our beautiful deer. Although I’m not sure the grounds folks appreciate the nibbling of their gardens.

And a picture of the Inclusion & Advocacy Center Grand Re-opening this week, with Chari Davenport and me cutting the ribbon, and Sean Poellnitz, Alia Mahdi, and Ifrah Mohamed joining in the celebration.

Shoutouts

From the IN Box:

During a busy period of aiding students, one student approached me, acutely flustered, trying to find the lab pickup station. At first, I tried to assist to the best of my ability, but the student was becoming more panicked and irritated. To quickly de-escalate the situation, I suggested we head to the student learning office to check in and see if they had any information (and also to remove the student from a public space). Without being able to give Mika any warning or context, I dropped the student off and rushed back to continue helping the students I was assisting. Once I finished, I went to check in with Mika and the student. Mika had the situation completely under control by that point. She got in touch with the instructor and found out that the lab kits were scheduled for pickup next week, not this week. However, thankfully, some lab kits were already ready, and Mika was able to give the student the lab kit, avoiding the need for the student to try again for next week’s lab kit pickup. Thank you so much, Mika, for going above and beyond for our student in a moment when they really needed that extra support.

Shoutouts can be sent to FLShoutout@cascadia.edu.

Have a great weekend.