09-02-2025

From the office of Dr. James Ortez, Vice President of Instruction:

Welcome back for WEEK 4!  This is my first update of the Fall term covering Instruction during the sometimes-blistering hot month of August.  I will do my best to not mention “Canvas” or “Ad Astra” and keep this message positive.

We started the month in a non-growth/high efficiency mode, and we accomplished exactly half of that.   While our deans worked tirelessly at making sure schedules were complete and classrooms were filled, our Counselors and Student Support Services partners were meeting the ever-growing needs of our students.  We grew by over 6% and, as of the end of August, we have over 3000 FTES and over 11,000 unduplicated students.  I won’t bore y’all with all the geeky enrollment stats, but I will say, we set the standard for our District, and it sincerely takes every single one of you and what you each do for our students to make this happen.

Some other cool things that happened in the first three weeks:  

  • The MESA Center opened (AC1-118).  There are now over 75(!) students signed into the program (and many more who applied).  Students have been using the space for counseling, homework sessions, signing up for field trips to CHSU, and so much more.  Go visit John Loera, John DeFore, and Brandon (Beat LA) Huebert - lots of cool stuff to see and do.
  • Professor Gurinder Khaira, Declan Doss (former CCC student, now TC staff), Cruz Babb (1st year student), and Dean Laura Hill stole the show at the August Board meeting with the “Crush Puppies”, demonstrating our robotic dogs and their incredible features - walking, standing, jumping, and dancing -  (I think they “speak” too) and the impact they will have across disciplines in ARM, Engineering, and Computer Science. Our two students worked the controls, and the Board took pictures and videos and were very impressed with the whole program.  ( Big shout out to the DJ for queuing George Clinton’s Atomic Dog!)
  • Welcomed five new faculty:
    Vanessa Valencia, Candice Cortney, Jessie Bridgewater, Anna Ingels, and Arron Ridenour; Interim Dean of Instruction for Humanities & Athletics - Kristen Mattox and IAA Castine Tumoine (who are both crushing’ it!); and new Honors Faculty Coordinator Von Torres!
  • Lauren Schiebelhut was quoted in a science article about marine pathogen; Nader Inan co-authored a publication entitled “At the Edge of Uncertainty: Decoding the Cosmological Value with Bose- Einstein Distribution; and Bill Kerney was elected as the President of ACM2Y (Association for Computing Machinery-2 Years), an organization that advocates for a diverse group of computing students and educators by building a targeted and resourceful community for faculty of two-year, higher education programs.

Cool Item Highlight

( technically, this happened over the summer, but I’m counting it for August):  Derek Dormedy’s Chem 10 is a foundational level course that is typically offered to students who have never taken a chemistry course before.  It is usually offered online.  This summer, he decided to offer it to students while backpacking in Yosemite National Park in conjunction with Fresno Pacific University’s Wilderness Studies Program.  FPU provided gear and equipment, food, permits, guides, and housing, and PODER (our Title V) provided the funding to pay for our student expenses so that any student could enroll and participate.  Derek’s class had a few days of on-campus instruction before and after the backpacking that was used to plan and run some instrumentation exercises.   The class started the hikes with a 4-day trip to Ostrander Lake, had 5 days at a base camp in Wawona, then hiked another 6 days (about 45 miles) from the southern boundary of Yosemite National Park, over Isberg Pass (10,500 feet in elevation) and then down into the Yosemite Valley.   Derek took 6 students, conducted lab experiments and discussions on course topics like altitude and air pressure, colored flames in the campfires and efficiencies of backpacking stoves that were boiling water that they were using to cook with.  They also collected water samples from various high-country lakes and analyzed them for pH, metals, and extractable organics.  Derek and his students have submitted an abstract to present the results at the Western Regional ACS meeting in October 2025.  Maybe more impressive is that no one got lost, and everyone returned healthy and unscathed.  Derek crushed it!

Second Cool Item Highlight:

Clovis Community College was recognized for our strong implementation of Guided Pathways (GP) and the outstanding student outcomes we have achieved to participate in a GP case-study collaboration between the Gates Foundation and Head & Heart Philanthropy.  We were one of eight institutions nation-wide selected to participate, the only college in California (the others are in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas).  Alicia Diaz Wrest, Ryan Feyk-Miney, Rachel Moring Garcia, Gurdeep Hebert, Kirtley King, Teresa Mendes, and myself were interviewed last week and the case study will be presented to the Gates Foundation later in September.  Here’s hoping it turns out well!

Finally, if you see Coach Mark Rosen on campus, give him a fist bump/high 5/pat on the back/maybe a cigar!  See, the Crush Women Volleyball team won their first two matches - ever - over Cerro Coso (25-9, 18-25, 17-25, 25-11, 15-12) and Rio Hondo College (21-25, 23-25, 25-21, 26-24, 15-12) on August 27.  Two days later, at the West Hills Challenge, they beat Santa Rosa 3-2 and lost to host Lemoore.  If you are not at the Scholarship Celebration this Friday, go check them out at Valley Athletics, 5097 E. Dakota Avenue, 6p v. Cerro Coso.

https://gocloviscrush.com/sports/wvball/2025-26/schedule

It is still hot out there folks.  Please remember to keep cool and hydrate.

Go DaWgs.  Go Niners.