President's Update: May 17, 2023

To the Shasta College Community:

We are at the end of another year – Shasta’s 73rd. I am looking forward to the commencement ceremony this Friday at 7pm. The speaker is Dr. Lizette Navarette, Interim Deputy Chancellor for our system. Thanks to all involved in planning and preparing for this wonderful day of celebration.

Success Stories
Please join me in congratulating the 2023 Excellent Educators, selected by their peers through a process managed by the Academic Senate:

Scott Gordon, Full-time Excellent Educator 
Laura Ecklin, Part-time Excellent Educator

Also, congratulations to our classified professionals who were recently recognized for their outstanding service:

Keri Mathews (Administrative Services 
Brianne Brichacek (Instruction) 
Cindy Silva (Student Services)

And the classified employee of the year:

Courtney Vigna (Office of Instruction)

Next, we are being recognized by the Campaign for College Opportunity for excellence in placement – among the colleges for supporting 100% of Black students enrolling directly in transfer-level English. See the following link for details https://collegecampaign.org/events/2023-excellence-in-placement-awards

The greatest overall success story this month is, of course, our many, many students completing and graduating. It takes all of our efforts to support student in the pursuit of their educational goals, and I want to express my gratitude for all you have done over the past year to help make this happen.

A little business...
The Governor's May Revise came out last Friday, and while it is better than expected in some ways, there are parts that are not helpful to us. In general, it seems to be signaling that the next couple of years will be more austere. Here are some highlights of the proposal:

• Fund the statutory calculated COLA of 8.22% to the funding formula as well as to select (but not all) categorical programs
• Fund $100 million one-time to help retain students and restore enrollment
• Take away $452 million of the $840 million one-time allocation to our system in current year for scheduled maintenance – basically, take away money they have already given us
• Take away $345 million of the $650 million one-time allocation to our system in current year from the COVID-19 block grant – again, taking away money they have already given us

The last two points are very concerning, and not typical policy of the state – to take back current year funding already distributed to the colleges. We will see where this ends up in the next 6 to 7 weeks as the budget gets adopted through the normal state processes. It will be, in some ways, a welcome relief that we do not have a handful of new initiatives being imposed upon our system. The last few years had plenty of those for use to handle, I think.

I wish you all a great end of the term and a summer that provides you some periods of refreshment and relaxation. Thanks to each of you for all you bring to the college so that together we can help make a difference in the lives of our students.

Joe Wyse
Superintendent/President
Shasta College
11555 Old Oregon Trail
PO Box 496006
Redding, CA 96049-6006
Ph: 530-242-7510