End of Year Speech 2003-04

I am always impressed by the creativity and dedication of the BCC family. You have made this college one of the best in the nation, and sustained and grown that reputation over many years. Every year, I think that we cannot possibly outdo what we have accomplished the previous year, but when I look back at the year's accomplishments I yet again in awe by what we have achieved.

When I welcomed you all to the beginning of the 2003-2004 academic year, I likened the year to a chapter in a good book. Well, this year has certainly been that. As in any good book, there have been many surprises, some interesting turns of plot, danger, sadness, laughter and inspiration. We may not be able to describe this past year as a page-turner, but it certainly has kept us engaged and actively involved.

While we have all been through some challenging times this past year – especially with our budget, there have been many more satisfying accomplishments along the way. I want to express my personal and heartfelt thanks to all of you, for maintaining your balance, your sense of humor, your fortitude and most of all your humanity throughout the challenges of the year. I am so proud to be one of the many characters in our unfolding story!

Again looking back to my opening speech, I remember this comment: “There is no reason why this year can't have a perfectly fabulous ending.” And, in fact, we have realized that promise.

I don't think there has ever been a year when the college staff and faculty have shown greater resolve and resiliency – even with a backdrop of diminished resources in a state with economic challenges. We all know that big work happened this year—college wide work that involved each and everyone one of us. It has been a true testament to dedication and commitment to our mission and goals. That's why I view this year as one of the most inspiring yet for me personally. In spite of obstacles in your way, you continued to reach new heights, explore new opportunities and present fabulous learning opportunities.

You kept your focus on some truly huge projects that required the involvement of every member of the campus community this year. One of these was the development of a comprehensive strategic plan for BCC, and a work plan to bring our strategic goals to reality. And while working on our new ten year plan, yo u completed work the final year of the Board of Trustees three-year initiatives.

The accreditation process kicked into high gear with a comprehensive institutional self-study. If you were not in some way involved in a committee this year, you should have been, and certainly will be in the coming year. If only we could show Congress how to work together as effectively and for the greater good of the whole organization as the accreditation committees did this year, we could solve this country's problems!

Your support and participation in the budget process, and the many people who provided input along the way and at our final hearings, helped to shape a fair and balanced budget.

We also accomplished some major work on student assessment of learning. I am very grateful for the number of faculty members who have come aboard this important work of the College and thank Robin and her team for their intense dedication to this task. In addition, we tackled a new online assessment process with the support of Art Goss and the i-BCC team for tracking individual students' progress on general education requirements. It promises to be a national model that is sure to be replicated at other colleges.

I am very proud of the work accomplished this year by the diversity caucus, the pluralism committees and the others who participated in the many superb events they produced. I am feeling the positive results on our campus and hope you are, too. We are becoming a more inviting place for staff and students alike. Our respect and appreciation for each other grows every year and we are breaking ground in race dialogues, through courageous conversations, that has certainly heightened our collective consciousness. This is important work and we must keep with it.

Of course, no college story is complete without our students -- we wouldn't have a plot without them! They demonstrated, once again, that excellence and achievement are the hallmarks of why BCC is number one! Let's take a look at some of what our students achieved this year.

At the Delta Epsilon Chi international marketing competition in Nashville in April our marketing students received first place in the advertising campaign event, third place in National Management Institute event, and were in the top 15 for Sports and Entertainment Marketing.

Our “mathletes” placed first in our region and second in the nation on the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges' annual testing. Thanks to our crack Math department and Jennifer for monitoring and reporting our progress.

Our Radiation Technology graduates averaged a score of 92 on their national credentialing exams, which placed them in the top 5% of the country, and three grads scored 97, which is in the top one-half of 1% of examinees.  You go, Julius and Sally!

Our nursing graduates did quite well too, posting the highest scores in the state on their board exams. Kudos to our great nursing staff.

The vocal jazz ensemble, Celebration, under the direction of Tom Almi, won first in the Reno and Lionel Hampton jazz festivals again this year, beating out some notably big name universities. Way to go!

ASBCC President Angel Kelchev inspired me this year. He is the embodiment of what our community college offers individuals. He came to the United State for the promise of a better future. He is dedicated and has worked hard, working in the math lab, serving as ASBCC president and president of Phi Theta Kappa, while maintaining a 4.0 GPA. His sacrifice and hard work have paid off; he was one of our two All Academic Team scholars and he also won a prestigious – and generous – Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship, one of only 27 recipients out of more than 800 nominated. The great news is that Angel has been accepted at Stanford next year and plans to be an international attorney. Leaving a dynasty, his sister will be our ASBCC president. What a story!

The vice president of the BCC chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, Chris Franz, won the Distinguished Chapter Officer Award at the 2004 Phi Theta Kappa International Convention in Minneapolis in April; Chris was the other All Academic Scholar for BCC. He, too, is one of those memorable students who will go far.

Gin Bridwell, the new advisor for Phi Theta Kappa, has done an amazing job. PTK added 362 new members to the chapter. I love her enthusiasm for working with these students. She has indicated that this has been a pure joy since the students have been so stimulating to work with.

We had so many students this year who were exceptional. Obviously, your deep commitment to providing quality educational experiences for the students we serve has helped them to achieve greatness. Congratulations to you on their accomplishments.

And of course, every good book needs a little humor, and we were not without our moments this year.

The science faculty organized the third annual BCC Hawaiian Shirt Day, which lifted our spirits on a gloomy winter day.

And our inimitable newspaper, the Jibsheet , after misspelling the name of our new vice president for administration – calling her “Klug” and “Flug,” they posted this reminder for themselves: “Her name is PFLUG.” On the plus side, however, the Jibsheet , is looking better than ever, don't you think? That's due in large part to the leadership of advisor James Torrence. According to publisher Roger George, the paper is receiving more compliments than ever from the campus community (the recent emails about the student “lost” in Italy notwithstanding).

But perhaps most telling, we held a very long e-mail discussion of some rather sensitive and personal matters relating to our feathered friends, Jean and Floatin, and not one participant resorted to “fowl” language.

The burning question is whether Jean will soon have a brood?

Some wag posted this sign – FOR RENT -- on room D104, just recently vacated by the Business Division.

Perhaps, like me you have noticed just how much can change in one short year. Remember this guy, your wild and crazy faculty association president. In one short year here he is again, almost married, and with a new aura of respectability – Gee, Jim, while we congratulate you on your new station in life, we don't want to think that we will stop seeing that other Jim once and awhile.

In all these ways and more, you have shown an incredible ability to work together, with a positive attitude, for larger ambitions than just your individual roles. You have shown that you have remained undeterred from the pursuit of our mission and goals, undaunted by short-term obstacles. Even the surprise snowstorm on the first two days of winter quarter didn't faze you, and it certainly provided one of those “learning moments” for the administration that we are so fond of providing for our students!

So, how did our chapter unfold this year, and how will our story end? Since our three-year Board initiatives will be replaced in June by the new strategic plan, it seems appropriate to look at this year's achievements in light of those initiatives - student preparedness and student success; effective teaching and successful learning; and recruiting, retaining and developing staff.

I must acknowledge that what I cannot capture in any list is the full texture of Bellevue Community College reflected by your daily commitment to service and teaching. More than facilities or plans or a budget book lined with revenue and expenditures, the heart of our College is the people who come here to learn and to work. Every hour of every day, you, the collective BCC, make a difference in the lives of students and in the quality of life in our communities. I thank each one of you for making Bellevue Community College an excellent and important institution and ask for your understanding that I can not possibly begin to capture everything you have done this year in this next hour. So, please forgive me in advance if I omit something I should have included.

Student Preparedness and Student Success

Your many notable accomplishments this year in the arena of student preparedness and success have helped our students become ready for college-level work and helped them persevere in their studies.

The biggest project in this area is the receipt of a $1.6 million, three-year Title III grant, which we received due to the hard work of instruction, student services, information resources and institutional advancement. The grant began this year, under the direction of Norma Whitacre , and will assist with general education competencies and related activities for assessment, degree audit, and faculty advising. Great work, everyone.

A second area of enormous impact for BCC students is the development of OSCAR – the Online Student Credit Audit Review . Kudos to Mike Talbott and the OSCAR development team -- David Grundler, Kevin Lewis, Tika Esler , Carol Robinson , Julia McCallum, and Chequita William-Cox!!! These folks competed for a national RFP and won the statewide contract to become the official degree audit provider for the Washington Community and Technical College system. This was a major win and a true testament to the quality product that BCC developed. The state CIS department will also enter into a collaborative agreement with BCC to market and sell the product nationally. BCC's Educational Planning and Transfer Center initiated OSCAR this year and began new-student sessions in collaboration with faculty.

In addition, Student Services created and implemented a new strategic plan and created interdepartmental staff groups called ‘PODS' in several areas. PODS stands for People Organized to Do Stuff -- and they have been established to improve the intake process and orientation sessions, support front-line staff, review staff configuration and smooth out work flow between staff sectors as the workload ebbs and flows. Great idea!

Developmental Education and English as a Second Language implemented new state-wide standardized pre- and post-testing of ALL their students to satisfy federal requirements. Dev Ed also recently purchased a small publication called Northwest News, which they will now publish using items written by and for ABE and ESL students as an instructional tool.

During the year, the state announced that through the great efforts of Darlene Molson and our great BCC Worker Retraining team our program produced the largest number of work-ready graduates among all western Washington community colleges last year, and ranked second state-wide in median annual earnings after training – at nearly $28,000. In addition, the program served 697 students – an 8% increase over last year!

The WorkFirst program -- which provides students with educational planning, assistance applying for federal financial aid, and assistance with tuition, fees and books – assisted 362 low-income and working parents this year. They also helped 149 low-income students to receive Customized Job Skills Training, involved 19 WorkFirst students in Service Learning experiences, and placed 27 students in internships.

MultiCultural Services , with kudos to Ron Taplin and crew, using funding from the Title III grant, started a mentoring program for 80 “at risk” students , and hosted on-campus visitations for at-risk high school students.

The Career & Women's Centers staff strengthened community connections to the college by visiting 159 companies to develop job and internship positions, and involved company representatives in mock interviews and classroom presentations. They also assisted employers and students by posting 1,894 jobs and listing 501 students and alumni in their eRecruiting system, and held very successful Internship and Job Expos, with strong student participation.

The Center helped students obtain significant funding from scholarships from local and nation-wide organizations. They also developed a new Résumé and Interviewing Strategies course that brings local employers into the classroom to offer students industry niche-specific job search advice.

Finally, the Center managed distribution of $150,000 in state work-study allocations this year; compared to just $35,000 four years ago. All of these things help our students to become more successful.

Disability Support Services, a small but powerful staff piloted having textbooks taped for blind students by inmates at the Purdy women's correctional facility. The pilot was very successful and should help to contain costs for the future – and that's always good news.

Through the work of International Student Programs staff, thanks to each and every one of them, BCC continued to be one of the top 40 2-year institutions in the U.S. with the highest number of international students. For last year, BCC ranked #32 with 646 international students. The ISP International Business Program established new relationships in Taiwan and Korea , which will lead to more students from those countries attending BCC in the near future.

Student Programs had a very active and successful year, establishing a Leadership Institute and Leadership Retreats for student leaders. They also supported 51 chartered Student clubs on BCC campus, which we believe is the highest number ever, and published the Student Handbook ion compact disc. In addition, with help from College Relations, they sent out 2000 newsletters to recent alumni, with news of the college and ways alumni can continue to be involved.

The Evaluations department also was quite busy as a result of BCC's growth with 17% more graduation applications than last year. Similarly, Assessment and High School Programs handled a record number of applications for fall entry into the Running Start program.

At Financial Aid, over $10.9 million in aid was awarded to students, about 20% more than last year.

At the Counseling Center , counselors had nearly 8,500 student contacts this academic year.

The Northeast Tech Prep Consortium developed over 75 new articulation agreements between 5 community/technical colleges and 30 area high schools.

This spring, Interior Design held its 20th annual departmental open house, known as Showcase – and if you had a chance to see it, you know that the student work displayed was outstanding.

The ELFCC completed its first full year of operation in its new facility, and provided care for more than 200 children, making it possible for BCC parents to attend school without worrying about their children.

The Go-BCC bus-pass program, with over 1000 passes sold per quarter, helped students get to school in a cost and energy efficient manner.

Effective Teaching and Successful Learning

The second Board initiative is in the area of effective teaching and successful learning. One of the areas in which BCC has always excelled is in the area of continuous improvement in our pedagogy. And, this year was no exception. Our faculty and instructional units accomplished great things this year.

We were delighted to welcome nine newly tenured faculty members to the ranks of our exemplary faculty and to the heart of our institution. They are:

• Beatrice Bongiorno—Arts and Humanities/Foreign Languages

• Brian Bridwell—Business/Media Communications

• Margaret Harada—Arts and Humanities/English

• William Iverson—Business/Computer Science

• Dale Lindman—Arts and Humanities/Art

• Kent Short—Science/Environmental Science

• Mary Slowinski—Business/Web Multimedia

• Trevor Tate—Social Science/Political Science

• Andria Villines—Science/Mathematics

Working in collaboration with Eastern Washington University , BCC established two baccalaureate programs on the BCC campus. The EWU degrees are a Bachelor of Science Degree in Technology, and a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies. This is a great step toward expanding the baccalaureate degree options for students in our area, particularly those who are place-bound.

BCC's new Health Science Education & Wellness Institute was launched in January and already has developed two new entry-level health career programs and nine new course offerings, including Medical Coding, Clinical Lab Assistant, Hormone Replacement Therapy, and Bone Densitometry, among others. Six additional new courses will be added this summer. These are great options for students, and will help resolve the lack of health care professionals in our region.

Working with this new unit and other programs, Continuing Education launched or gained approval for seven new programs this year: Bioinformatics, Communications Assistant, Database User Specialist, Intermediate Applications Developer, Medical Transcription, Phlebotomy, and, Medical Informatics (for which the college received a grant of $125,000 for development).

Rob Viens and the Science Club led a very successful Earth Week -- the largest Earth Day event in the Puget Sound region! Over 900 students participated in the lecture and film series , over 80 students participated in the restoration project and at least 60 registered to vote ! (And, in a blind taste test, 78% said that the organic fruits tasted better than the conventional produce.)

Instructors Robert Hobbs and Brian Scott s uccessfully designed an instrument using the latest technology to allow physics students at BCC to measure the fundamental units of electricity, replicating the historical work of R.A.Millikan. And, Doug Brown s tarted a long term program of pre- and post- testing for Physics 114 and 115. The data will allow us to make critical comparisons between different curricula and pedagogies, stimulating faculty to share and borrow ideas. In addition, Mark Plunkett d esigned a new Biology-150 course in Marine Biology.

Under Kim Pollock's vision and leadership -- and I might add, operating on a shoestring budget -- the College established a new Ethnic and Cultural Studies Program. It was approved by Curriculum Committee in the Fall term and has already offered its first classes.

Art Goss, working with Rick Mahaffey of Computing Services, developed and implemented an automated curriculum submission, approval, and record-keeping process, which is streamlining that process significantly.

Andrew Johnson developed Advanced Studies in International Business and traveled to London with 20 General Business Management students as part of the course.

The English Department and the English Language Institute furthered their cooperation, with three ELI full-time faculty teaching partial loads in English this year. Next year, an English faculty member will teach a partial load in ELI. Another splendid example of the sort of cooperation and team effort that makes this college so great!

In a great model of collaboration within the BCC family, Continuing Ed's Computers and Technology department worked with the main-campus Business Division to provide more cost-effective solutions to student education needs. Examples include dual marketing and delivery of credit and non-credit Cisco classes at North Campus, as well as refinement and development of a Fast Track dot-NET Applications Developer training path for career changers.

Continuing Education also adopted a new classroom assessment method and model for online evaluations. This has not only saved staff time and resources but also increased convenience for students and instructors. More than 2,300 surveys have been completed since January, with the average overall rating of 4.23 on a scale of 1 – 5, with 5 being the top. Great results!

The Center for Liberal Arts doubled campus and community participation in the BCC Reads! program to 2,400 students, instructors, staff and community members this year. The Center also planned and received approval for a new Honors Program at BCC – another splendid contribution to the quality of education at BCC. In addition, the Center led an integrated Hands-On Democracy program reaching 1,200 people and featuring semi-monthly talks on political and social justice issues, a student-driven voter registration drive and a year-long professional development focus on teaching civic engagement. It also collaborated with Coffee Tea & Politics and instructor Doug Brown to organize two well-attended forums on Iraq policy which teamed BCC faculty with distinguished members of the faculty of UW's Jackson School of International Affairs. I have heard that the Director of the Jackson School has gone out of his way on several social occasions to say how impressed he was with the questions posed by BCC students and with the faculty who shared the podium with him and his colleagues.

And perhaps most important, the Center for Liberal Arts successfully completed the second year of the scholar-in-residence program with first-time funding from the US Fulbright program. The funding allowed us to host Fulbright Scholar Dr. Stella Williams on our campus this year, who wowed us with her contributions. At the end of my presentation, I would like to further acknowledge Stella's great contributions to BCC.

Next year's scholar will be from Latin America , with expertise in one of the social Sciences – history, political science, economics or international affairs.

Recruiting, Retaining and Developing Staff

The third Board initiative focuses the College's attention on recruiting, retaining and developing our employees. Throughout the challenges that this year presented, we were made stronger by holding close to our commitment to value each other while providing diverse experiences that enriched our lives and those of our students. These values manifested themselves in many different ways.

The Pluralism committees and Diversity Caucus produced some fabulous events this year, among them the spectacular American Indian Film Festival and a BCC Living Treasures dinner to promote diversity. They also held a series of dialogues on the BCC pecking order, as well as a very successful second annual Taste of BCC. They continued the productive Courageous Conversations workshops; I attended the conversations this year and must say that the experience was life-changing for me. I understand white privilege and how it plays out in our work and personal lives. I encourage everyone to participate in this extraordinary program. If any process holds the promise for creating a more accepting, appreciative and pluralistic society, where every person, irrespective of race, gender, sexual preference, religion or ethnicity, has free and equal access to every day activities, employment, and other opportunities, it is this one.

Congratulations are also due to Multicultural Services that presented not only an inspiring Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration, but also a highly successful multi-faith conference.

Each of these efforts advanced BCC's pluralistic goals, while simultaneously creating a receptive and welcoming climate for diverse people that advances our recruitment and retention efforts to achieve a more diverse college staff and faculty.

Adding greater teaching capacity to our full-time ranks, this spring, the College opened 16 full time faculty positions, and committees are busy screening and interviewing applicants for these tenure track positions.

Professional development continues to be a top priority for BCC. We know that faculty and staff innovation and creativity are directly related to our investment in professional development. The College hosted very successful faculty and staff development activities this year, including the teaching institute under the direction of Becky Baldwin and the Professional Development Committee. The Faculty Resource Center completed detailed statistical retention and grade point comparison studies. You may want to ask Suzie about this if you want to know more about it.

Faculty Accomplishment

Our faculty, as always, have achieved so much, both at BCC and away, that I wanted to mention just a few notable examples.

Diagnostic Ultrasound Instructor Joan Baker -- who was one of the primary movers in establishing Ultrasound, or Sonography, as a medical profession – has agreed to write a book on the history of ultrasound. She also received recognition in the Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography for her work mentoring students wishing to enter this field, and earlier this year was selected by the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography as the first recipient of the Distinguished Educator award.

Debi Griggs was a finalist in the prestigious AACC David E. Pierce Faculty Technology Award and was asked to reapply next year.

Instructor Leslie Lum won the National Award for Service Learning and Civic Engagement in the Business and Industry category for her course on “Multicultural Entrepreneurship and Consulting” -- which connects consulting teams of BCC students and advisors from large corporations with underserved minority- and women-owned small businesses.

Congratulations also to Media Communication and Technology Instructor Phil Lucas, who won a CINE Golden Eagle Award for “Native Tongues,” a PBS-TV documentary he co-directed.

Mike Caldero won more international distinction for Administration of Criminal when he was asked by the Mexican Government, who is trying to stamp out corruption, to give a speech on Police Reform at the University of Mexico . He also traveled to the National Academy in Canada where he gave a speech on Ethics, and has been asked by the U.S. Attorney's office to come to Quantico , Virginia , to share his expertise with the FBI.

Harlan Lee, the Director of Counseling, coached Stevenson Elementary to first place in the Washington State WA State Scholastic Chess Championship, held on the BCC campus in April. Did you know he was a grand master?

At International Student Programs , the staff collaborated with others on proposing BCC for inclusion in the International Associate of Student Educators book called “Profiles of Success in Internationalizing the Campus.” BCC was chosen as one of only 5 schools in the nation to be profiled for the year 2003-2004. This is a real honor, as the recognition is sponsored by the US Department of State.

Athletics also had a very productive year. Several of our athletic teams had excellent years, with women's tennis and women's volleyball both finishing second in the conference.  Men's soccer didn't place in the championship tournament, but they did finish with an excellent 16-and-2 record. Congratulations to our athletes and coaches!

We had a marvelous group of Margin of Excellence award winners this year. Our commendations go to Barbara Wright, Part Time BE/GED- Mathematics faculty member; Debra Griggs, Full Time Business Technology Systems faculty member: Deanna Tiplin, classified staff, Business Division: Connie Wais, Full Time Faculty and department chair of Interior design; Rick Mahaffey , Classified Staff in Computing Services.

I also want to single out and acknowledge our heroic media services. You see Larry thundering down the corridors pushing media carts with impunity. Nothing stops Larry! Thanks for your dedication!

Congratulations to all of you for these very significant accolades and accomplishments.

Infrastructure Accomplishments

No year-end report would be complete without a look at BCC's physical changes and program accomplishments. You know, when the College was built, almost nothing changed for twenty-five years, and now it seems like not a day goes by that we aren't changing something, somewhere!

The new campus entrance off 148th Street was completed and opened in time for classes in the fall of 2003. We anticipate that this summer it will connect directly into 148 th with the traffic revisions for entering from i-90 moving to 24 th street . That will be changed when you return.

The 764-space parking garage was completed and will be dedicated on June 7. In addition, design has been completed for the addition of a 5th floor to the garage that we hope to add during the summer of 2005. Design also has been completed for an overhead walkway that will go from the new garage to the L Building. This summer, we will rework our staff and visitor lots to add capacity to each –which should be a welcomed improvement for everybody.

The renovation of the A Building was completed, and a new modern Green House was constructed for the Science Division.

The D Building renovation plans are complete, along with the design for a four- classroom addition to the N Building and both projects are scheduled to begin construction. The library has already begun moving and will be working out of the L building until their new home is complete.

Pre-design work has been completed for a new Science and Technology Building , set to begin construction in 2007. Our new Vice President, Anne Pflug , who has assisted in the design of many buildings in her career, touted this experience with our science faculty as the best and most collaborative process she has ever seen!

Special thanks to BCC's capital crew for keeping us moving on out!

The College adopted and gained Board approval of the 2004-2011 BCC Strategic Plan. In conjunction with this, the College worked with strategic-plan work plans on a college wide basis to guide the balancing of the 2004-05 budget. This was a BIG job and I thank all of you.

The Public Safety Department answered 5,500 calls for service this year. They also launched a new Emergency Dispatch Center , created a Campus Emergency Response Team (CERT), and began the first phase of proactive Campus Crime Prevention campaign, working with the Bellevue Police Department to reduce vehicle-related crimes on campus.

Facilities Events handled nearly 8,000 individual bookings of facilities, for non-academic use. There was an accumulated attendance at these events of nearly 53,000! Way to go Jamie and crew! They also provided employees with a Web-based entry point for booking facilities, making that process much more efficient.

Continuing Education, which has been significantly impacted by the ongoing recession in the region, had to make many infrastructure changes this year. They reorganized with f our directors absorbing the work previously done by eight, which reduced overhead by $380,000. I really appreciate all the efforts and sacrifices that have improved the financial situation of Continuing Ed. We are on the upswing now.

Admission and Registration processed 22,220 applications this year, about 2,400 more than last year – yet another indication of rapid growth. 73% of those were on-line applications, compared to 67% last year, so they are making great strides in efficiency. Also contributing to efficiency, this year they supported 24,934 on-line credit card transactions, compared to just 16,800 a year ago.

I would like to express special appreciation to Computing Services staff, who maintained a very high level of service to the campus community even under very difficult times with the sudden death of Director Isbel Trejo. I know we all very much appreciate their commitment and dedication under this most emotionally devastating loss.

The department developed and implemented an on-line request center, which expanded the previous Help Desk on-line request process to now include the ability to request services from Campus Ops. They also constructed a Personnel Information Tool and a Curriculum Proposal System, among other projects, and improved our administrative E-mail and AntiVirus system -- significantly reducing virus and worm attacks on our system. Their ability to protect our system from viruses that affected hundreds of thousands of computers world-wide has been remarkable. Thanks for saving us from some really severe headaches!

In addition, the IT department helped the college successfully complete its required IT Security Audit. Nine new policies were created, and 57 new security standards were created. Thanks for your work on that extra big job.

Distance Education, part of the IT department, had 11,777 enrollments this year, equal to 1,264 FTE's. That's a 14% increase over the previous year. More rapid growth! Distance education is now infused within college departments and is more integrated with the overall instructional program, as a result of negotiations last summer.

Web Services completely redesigned and vastly improved the college's website. As part of that, they designed and released new web identity bars for department home pages, to encourage a more consistent look to pages within the web site, and supported over 25 departments with web production help. The web site looks and works a lot better now, doesn't it!

Television Services, meanwhile, completed a 22-part series for Marine Biology called the Water Web, in addition to numerous productions for the campus community – one of which we will see in a few moments – and several productions for the City of Bellevue.

In addition, Radio Stations KBCS -- which if you haven't already, you all should check out at 91.3 FM -- increased its audience to 45,000 listeners, more than double what it was in 2001. As part of that, they reinstated and improved the streaming of their productions on the web – which enables them to reach a worldwide audience.

The Institutional Advancement department worked to sharpen our image in the community by developing and rolling out a new logo. They also produced a new brochure – Discover BCC – to highlight all of the college's best bragging points.

In addition, they worked directly with news media on 33 additional stories, resulting in coverage that is equivalent to more than $50,000 worth of free “advertising” for BCC. I like that word, “Free.” As part of that, the college received positive media mention in such national publications as New York Times, Washington Post and Sports Illustrated, as well as local publications.

The BCC Foundation held a very successful fund-raising luncheon in April, bringing together 300 community leaders and raising $136,000 -- a 34% increase over last year. Great progress!

The Foundation also implemented a Mini Grant program for faculty and staff, which this year provided funds to 20 projects across campus and promises to be a continuing source of support for new ideas and activities.

In addition, the Foundation Board has completed phase one of the planetarium fund-raising campaign, and funds are in place to purchase the Digistar II projection system that the Science Department has requested.

The National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies spent this year regrouping and strategic positioning. They revised their strategic vision and direction in alignment with the college's vision. They also restructured the organization to line up responsibilities with project and program goals and implemented better financial planning and reporting processes to provide visibility and accountability across all budgets. They worked to eliminate internal barriers, resulting in improved effectiveness and team morale, and improved relationships between NWCET and the college. I'm looking forward to having the NWCET more involved in the daily life of the college.

Finally, although I'm not sure I can count this as an improvement, we consumed 46,000 orders of French fries, and not coincidentally, 46,000 ounces of ketchup! I guess we're not all on the Atkins diet. By contrast, we only consumed 2,600 low-carb wraps!

Seriously, this has been quite a long encapsulation of our accomplishments, and there is so much more that I didn't have time to mention. You might say, what we have done this year reads more like a book than a chapter! Obviously, everyone's achievements didn't diminish just because we faced extra challenges this year.

And that is exactly why I have found this year – and your efforts – so inspiring. It's because you care passionately about our mission: to advance the lifelong educational development of our students. As we go forward, I know our students can count on you to provide them with challenges and inspirations as you always have.

Let's listen to how we have affected some of our students….

[Play Video]

If you ever doubted the importance of what you do, that should convince you. Our work is important to thousands of deserving students, and we can all take pride in the way we touch their lives. Thank you to Rick Otte and his crew for this inspiring video.

I stand here today and say without reservation that we have every reason to be proud of this great institution we call Bellevue Community College .

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., once said, “I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. . . we must sometimes sail with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must sail and not drift or lie at anchor.”

We at BCC have good wind filling our sails, a strong compass and navigational plan, outstanding hands on deck, and we are carrying the most precious cargo there is—human potential. And with what we have seen here today, I am confident that we will continue to sail forward. We will do that by continuing to keep in mind the importance of what we're here for. As contained in the core of our strategic plan, we are here to provide education to all who seek it, to create a teaching and learning environment that promotes student discovery and success, to be a College that makes a difference in people's lives and that builds a strong and economically vital community. Together we are achieving these goals.

As we recollect this academic year, we savor the richness of this chapter in the life of the College. It was a full year, a year with an abundance of opportunities for students, a year when students reached for aspirations and dreams, a year when ambitions were achieved.

You, the characters in this plot hold many threads of the BCC story, which when woven together formed a very satisfying and successful year. There were a few of you characters that held some brilliant threads in our tapestry that I want to mention before we round out the year.

Every great book has an intriguing protagonist whom you want to always remember. I think you will agree that for this year that was Dr. Stella Williams , who charmed her way into our minds and hearts. Stella had a tremendous impact on students, who named her one of the 15 most interesting instructors on campus in The Jibsheet's “Best of BCC” poll.

Stella was busy this year. In addition to her assigned teaching duties, she ran workshops for BCC faculty and staff, and guest-lectured in the International Business Program as well as Media and Communications within BCC, and also at other institutions such as UW Bothell. She also was invited by Rotary, the Soroptimists, and several middle and grade schools in Bellevue , Kirkland and Seattle to give talks on Nigeria . Moreover, she participated in various culture programs in many Bellevue schools. Stella delivered well-received keynote addresses to BCC's ESL Volunteers, to thank them for the good work they do to help immigrants in the community, and at the Winter TRIO Award Ceremony. And, she helped celebrated BCC's Earth Week by publishing on campus a compilation of students' environmental journals, book reviews and special research topics.

Stella, you have truly been an outstanding addition to our family this year. Would you please join me on the stage to accept a small token of our sincere thanks for your outstanding contributions to our campus. We will miss you, Stella, but we will always remember you. I hope you will come back and visit us again soon.

Our joy was matched by with sorrow this year. We lost several beloved members of our BCC family. As you know, Isabel Trejo and her husband, Herbert, died tragically in Venezuela last fall. Margaret (Markie) Miller, who worked at the Sandwich Bar in Food Services, died in March, as did language faculty member Terry Weston. Arthur Haines, a former Botany and Oceanography instructor at BCC passed away last October. Each of these passages touched us in its own, unique way. While we mark the end of the year, we also need to remember and commemorate these esteemed colleagues for all they have contributed to us personally and professionally. Please observe with me a moment of silence in their memory.

Thank you.

We also have a number of retirees that I want to acknowledge. They have contributed their careers to the transference of knowledge and culture to the generations who have come behind them. Theirs was noble and fulfilling work. We can truly say that our society has benefited from their contributions as has our college.

Let's recognize these 21 retirees.

•  Shirley Baenen, Director in the Continuing Ed. Real-Estate program

•  Joan Baker, full-time faculty in Diagnostic Ultrasound

•  John Wesley, Instructor in Art

•  Elise Erickson , my long-time executive assistant.

•  Frank Femling, an affiliated instructor in Paraprofessional Accounting

•  Gael Foote, an affiliated instructor Parent Education

•  Dale Gleason, Music Instructor

•  Rob Jackson, Drama instructor and program chair

•  Daniel LaFond, Counselor

•  Cheryll Leo-Gwin, Director of the Art-Zones in Continuing Ed.

•  Willa Mathison, of our Student Health Services staff

•  Harriet Newton, instructor and program chair in Health, Phys Ed. and Recreation Leadership

•  Carole Peterson, of our Student Programs staff

•  Susan Quattrociocchi, Director of the Tech Prep Consortium

•  Julianne Seeman, English instructor

•  Bob Southard, Food Services Director

•  Marilyn Ann Tober, an affiliated instructor in Math

•  Vern Travaille, an affiliated instructor in Programming

•  Bonnie Wallace-Hoffman, Drama instructor

•  Jon Wulff, Jon, Philosophy instructor and program chair. And

•  Nellie, our only canine employee.

If any of our retirees are here today, would you please stand? Our appreciation and gratitude goes to you for all you have done to help students fulfill their hopes and dreams and advance our college. Please join me in a round of applause for all of these folks.

I also want to acknowledge the great leadership we have had this year from our associations. I thank Melissa Sitzenstock and Glenn Davis for the very complex year they had working through the impacts of the collective bargaining bill and the affiliation decision. Frank Lee , I thank you for stepping up to the leadership role for the faculty association and for all of your work with the faculty this year. Angel Kelchev has been an inspiring student leader and is someone we expect great things from in the future. Would you all come forward? Please accept this certificate for your leadership this year.

At this point in the program, I usually present some selective “President's Awards” awards but I will forego that this year. This year was built on the hard and solid work everyone contributed. Every one of you worked extremely hard to accomplish the large college wide initiatives as well as your own full -time jobs. What I want to do today is to thank each and every one of you. I want you by administrative unit to come join me on the stage, where we can recognize the good works of each department through applause as I present a certificate to the unit head.

I want to call first on Ron Leatherbarrow . Would Ron come forward and the office of instruction staff please stand. As Ron winds his way here, I want to acknowledge that Ron successfully turned 60 this year and “visited” a very fine college that confirmed very dramatically for him that his future will entail working at an even better one. Please accept this token of my appreciation for your solid work this year.

Next would Tom Nielsen, for the Arts & Humanities Division please come on stage? Arts & Humanities Division please stand. Tom, please accept this acknowledgement from me in celebration of the many, many accomplishments of your division. The largest and most diverse division, Arts and Humanities offers excellent college wide leadership on every major college initiative. Thanks for all you do.

Since Margaret isn't here, would Jim Bennett accept my appreciation on behalf of the business division? Would the business division members please stand? To you and the division, I thank you for all of the accomplishments and accolades that your division has won this year. Congratulations for all of the work that was done on pluralism, curriculum revisions and award-winning connections with the community.

Maurice McKinnon come on down! Would members of Health Sciences, Education & Wellness Institute please stand. Congratulations for all of the new programs, a new division chair, and for the launch of your new institute. Good work, every one.

Jack Surendranath, would you join me? Members of the science division please stand. Thanks for all the pedagogy and curriculum innovations this year, congratulations on the scholarship shown by your students, especially the mathletes, and on your new planetarium equipment. Way to go!

Would Tom Pritchard join me? I congratulate you on the leadership your division has shown with PTK and Faculty Development, as well as the excellent teaching you are noted for.

Myra Van Vactor , for the Library Media Center . You knock our socks off with your work on creating an engaged and informed community, for diversity efforts and leadership. I also appreciate that you have a well-honed service unit that performs wonderfully every single day. Thanks!

Anne Pflug , please step forward. And all of Administrative Services please stand. This unit is so diverse—from printing to budget, from custodial to new building, from maintenance to grounds, and from events to public safety, bookstore to cafeteria –and everything in between-- you all do it all. Thanks for all you do to make our campus hum. You have important jobs.

Diane Douglas , for the Center for Liberal Arts. In two short years you have helped coordinate and facilitate many wonderfully enriching programs, like our scholar in residence, hand-on democracy, BCC reads, among others. Thanks for adding this enrichment.

Lucy Macneil come on down and the small but mighty Human Resources staff stand. You get us hired and paid, negotiate and mediate and help solve our problems, and process so many different records, it makes our heads swim. Thanks for the thousands of things you do every day.

Mike Talbott, please come on down. Information Resources, please stand. This unit deserves special recognition. They have had quite a year – security audits, OSCAR sale, SAGE, HSC, refocusing distance ed, the tragic and untimely death of Isbel, you all have hung in there and supported each other without missing a beat. Thanks for all you do.

Gaynor Hills . Institutional Advancement, please stand. This unit is staffed up and ready to roll. They have topped all financial targets, strengthened the Foundation, gotten more press coverage, rolled out a new logo, raised money for the planetarium, funded mini grants, etc. In all, a very satisfying year!

John Lowdon . NWCET, please stand. John was on loan to us this year from CIS. He has been a steady force in our program, strengthening our internal operations and helping us to reposition ourselves for the future. This crew has done fine work this year and galvanized as a high-performance team. Thanks!

Student Services—stand. Matt, please accept this award for Tika. I am so proud of you all. You took the strategic plan, pulled together and have developed into a well-oiled machine. I love the new intake process, I love that students are so involved in college life, I love that you are getting students into the college and helping them to stay. Great work. Bravo!

Paula Boyum . Would Workforce Development staff please stand. This was the year that it all began to click. In addition to a very wonderful marriage, I want to note, I thank you and your staff for adding so any new programs, bringing continuing education into alignment, securing lots of money and helping so many students prepare for and find jobs. Workforce development rocks!

And there you have it-- While I've handed the award to your unit leaders, these awards are for each of you who make things work on a day-to-day basis. Thank you again for all you do for BCC. Let's give everyone a resounding hand!

Before we leave, I want to acknowledge those who helped with today's production.

•  Deans and directors

•  Bob Adams

•  Debra Ross

•  Kyra Olson

•  Molly Stanford

•  Elise Erickson

•  Rick Otte and David Bruckner

•  “Agnes Dei” and tech support

•  The countless others who provided photos and inspiration. It takes a city to do this event!

And so we turn over the last page on this year's chapter. Like with any good book, you don't want the story to end. Fortunately, we will start with a fresh new chapter next September. From the bottom of my heart, I commend and thank you for another wonderful year. We have every right to be proud of our College and of ourselves. Savor these and the other thousands of daily accomplishments that make BCC such a fabulous place.

Congratulations on a great year! Please join me now in the lobby for refreshments but let's give ourselves one last great round of applause.