President's Update

continued President's message
   

Special celebrations and congratulations go to these recent outstanding accomplishments and all who made them happen:

  • SkillsUSA Automotive Tech, Welding and Construction Tech students and faculty Gary Villa, Bob Davidson, Rob Thoresen, Pete Lagomarsino and Tech Prep Coordinator Sabrina Robertson. The Construction Tech team was so good that they will represent the State of California in the National SkillsUSA Competition on June 22 in Kansas City, Missouri.
  • Architecture student David McFadyen and faculty David Fernandez and colleagues for the selection of David’s corrugated cardboard office chair, which placed among the top six in the nation out of 93 finalists in the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS)/International Corrugated Packaging Foundation(ICPF) Chair Affair competition – right along with the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, University of Oregon, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Yes, you can sit, swirl around and tilt in a corrugated cardboard chair if it is made by the right person!
  • Women’s Softball Team and coaches Allison Merzon and Sara Clarin for making it all the way to the State finals!  Celebrate you awesome women!
  • Celebrate the creative talents of the art students and faculty as seen in the Student Art Show, the grace and beauty of the choral groups, and the jazzy inspiration of the jazz groups as they moved and excited us in chorus and concert.
  • Muse with the poets and authors as you enjoy the latest edition of Tellus and thank Steve Leone and Dennis Baeyen for serving as the faculty.
  • Give a “bravo!” to Anna Davies and Mary Parker for successfully getting the Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) program developed and approved at all levels.
  • Congratulate Toni Sommer and colleagues who kept the Small Business Development Center going without a director until the State Chancellor included $50,000 to support Cuesta’s SBDC program, which means a new director can be hired.
  • Hallelujah! The “2006 Update to the 2001 Educational and Facilities Master Plan” is done and on our web site.  You can view this document at http://academic.cuesta.org/president/.
  • Celebrate all those other special accomplishments too numerous to list in a short article; you know about them; they illustrate excellence in the classroom, on the field and court, in the pool and gym, in the classroom and the community.

Appreciation goes to those who made the changes they thought couldn’t be done, put together a bond education program never undertaken, and reached negotiated settlements on contract issues that seemed too full of conflict:

  • The Emerald City phenomenon – who said a “city” couldn’t be built in a week?  With Maryanne Zarycka’s sharp organizational talent, Dan Chacón’s patient determination, hours of packing and moving, not to mention countless hours of wiring and troubleshooting on the part of Janice House’s amazing staff, the whole Student Support group moved into portable buildings behind the Cafeteria in April.  They will continue to serve students there until January 2007 when they move into new spaces in the expanded Library building.
  • The Project Oz show became reality when the Board took the calculated risk of borrowing the funds to buy SCT Banner when the price was reduced.  Janice House, all of Computer Services, and the Project Oz Team kicked off the learning, planning, and doing of a major new integrated software system for Cuesta College.  When Banner is implemented, we can actually register and add/drop students, run payroll, prepare enrollment reports, do research, teach on-line classes, and correspond by email without the system coming to a crashing halt.
  • Let’s appreciate and congratulate all those who are retiring. Join me in telling the six faculty, two managers, and three classified staff “Thank you for giving Cuesta College 266 years of skilled, dedicated, and passionate work.” 
  • Thank you, Paul Bauer, Lee BeDell, Victoria Bursey, Richard Johnson, Bob Marshall, Pete Pedersen, Karen Robert for your tireless work with students, preparing new courses, keeping on top of your discipline, taking care of administrative tasks, being good colleagues, helping lead your division and the College, and always staying true to the joy of teaching and learning. Individually, you have each achieved distinction; together, you have made an awesome impact on thousands of students over the last two to four decades.
  • Thank you, Sid Bartholow, Margie Goldstein, and Leon Carver for your dedication to keep our facilities maintained and operational, the students’ records in order, and the students computer learning focused.  Thank you for being supportive colleagues and dedicated employees.
  • Thank you, Mimi Naish and Mary Parker for being strong leaders. Mimi, while your career at Cuesta was shorter, you so ably and compassionately led CalWORKs and related programs.  Your former students are among today’s employees. Mary, is there a more forceful yet compassionate nurse educator/nurse leader anywhere?  You have been heroic in keeping the RN and Allied Health programs strong and thriving even when students and standards kept changing and growing and funds kept shrinking and costs rising. Thank you for your outstanding leadership of Nursing, Psych Tech, CNA, ACNA, Medical Assisting, EMT; your championing of new programs such as Paramedic Service, LVN and Dental Hygiene.
  • Retirees, we thank you, applaud you, and wish you fun and fantastic days ahead!

Finally, to those who graduate we say, “CONGRATULATIONS GRADUATES, WE ARE SO HAPPY FOR AND PROUD OF YOU!”

It has been a doubly full year, a year of academic achievements, planning for a facilities bond, and preparing for a vote on Measure G on June 6. To all who helped with the educational and facilities master planning, who participated in community education about the college’s needs, and who contributed in some way to the bond campaign, thank you. What we do today, we do for tomorrow’s students, their children, and their children’s children. What we have done together this year is solid, good, effective work.  What we have started this year may have far-reaching and long-lived impact.

No wonder we are tired. Let’s take a summer break and enjoy the beach, the hills, the waves, the books, the friends and family we love.