5 Things to Know Weekly Update
Dear Colleagues,
The weather report PROMISES that this will be the last day of extraordinary heat, which I know has been worse for everyone living farther inland. Some of our practices have (rightly) had to be cancelled and we’ve all been dragging a bit – but fall is almost here. With fall comes the start-up of our participatory governance committees, such as Academic Senate and DEIA Committee, and all of them have critical projects over the next few months. So let’s try to stay cool for one more day and then break out our sweaters.
Meridith
This weekend, don’t miss the special one-woman theater event called Every Brilliant Thing, showing Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday at 2 pm. The description mentions the “quest to rediscover the simple joys and tiny miracles that make up our daily lives.” Tom Amen directs and Amanda Zarr is the sole performer – and it takes place in the recently repainted Theater, so bright that you might need sunglasses some days.
Congratulations to our student-athletes and their ability to perform well in this recent heat, and thanks to the coaches and athletic staff for keeping them hydrated. While some contests were postponed, women’s water polo and volleyball had wins last week and the football team eked out a victory this weekend in steamy Bakersfield. Men’s water polo and soccer will see action this week too.
Last Friday, we had an excellent workshop open to all that focused on evaluating our 2021-25 Strategic Plan and starting preparation for our next plan. Led by Dean Lauren Sosenko and Jeannette Jaramillo, the session reviewed the dashboards that have been created to track our goals and the strategies to achieve them. You can find all the information at the Research, Planning and Institutional Effectiveness website. One takeaway: when we put resources behind a strategy, we see success – sometimes incremental, sometimes dramatic. So resource allocation connected to goals can work!
