Campus Update: February 2017
Office of the President
Good afternoon,
On Monday, many of you may have seen the Fresno Bee FRONT PAGE story about the Ram Pantry. If you get a chance to give Interim Dean, Sean Henderson, a High Five, do it! He told the story of the creation and expansion of the Ram Pantry efforts beautifully. A special thanks to all of you who have donated time and money to help this worthy effort. Not only are we helping students, we are helping ourselves. How are we helping ourselves you ask? Research has shown that when students are hungry, their ability to study or even want to go to school are compromised. A recent study conducted by the RAND Corporation showed pantry programs, like ours, have the potential to improve persistence and success rates by at least three percentage points. That’s why the Ram Pantry and other efforts like Brain Food and the PASS tutoring program are important. Click here to read the Fresno Bee story online.
More news…you may have heard…
Yesterday, the Old Administration building was evacuated due to a fire alarm … a false alarm. While it is still being investigated, we have cause to believe the pulled alarm was intentionally set. Luckily there was no damage and no one was hurt.
This event was quite valuable for many of us. We learned quite a bit about our emergency preparedness. One of the things that stood out the most was that all staff, faculty and administrators came together to clear the building in a calm and orderly manner. That type of team effort is to be commended.
Another lesson I learned is that there was a little bit of confusion as to where to go. While we are compliant with fire guidelines as it relates to signage, we may need more. To that end I have asked Vice President Cheryl Sullivan along with our acting director of marketing, Kathy Bonilla, to work to get evacuation maps into all of our classrooms and offices on campus. Currently, evacuation maps are in the buildings and we are within parameters of fire safety code and regulations. It was agreed that additional information in each classroom would be helpful.
Later this week the FCC leadership team will be meeting with SCCCD Police Chief Jose Flores and Associate Vice Chancellor of Business & Operations Christine Miktarian to debrief. It is my hope that this event will lead to additional improvements regarding emergency response as well as improved communication.
I will continue to keep you all informed of this and other topics of interest. Have a great rest of your week!
Dr. Carole Goldsmith President
Fresno City College
Phone: (559) 489-2212
www.fresnocitycollege.edu
