Week of August 18, 2025

Hi Clovis family,

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for being so kind to me when I returned to serve as your president. Also, thank you for allowing me time to get reacclimated to being back. After this message, I will return to my regular weekly President’s messages.

For now, let me give you a recap of what has happened during my return this summer.

As some of you may know, when I returned, AC1 was closed due to the installation of fiber optics. For my first month, while my office was not available, I either shared an office in AC3 with Desiree, or I was at Herndon. Unfortunately, during this time, I experienced a lot of technical issues associated with getting a new laptop, transferring all signatures and email addresses and login from Fresno City back to Clovis, and for having five (5) computer addresses. Although, this was frustrating and it took over a month to get all technical issues addressed, I am thankful for your patience in my signing and authorizing documents as well as your patience as emails went unanswered again due to the transition issues. However, with all of that being frustrating, it was each of you and your kind words that helped me transition.

I enjoyed Erin bringing me fresh tomatoes. Susan always had a smile for me and Machele helped me to remember Leslie’s birthday. I absolutely loved the ice machine in the AC3 breakroom. I loved it so much that I bought one for my house. Likewise, I enjoyed spending time at Herndon. Michelle, Kaye, Ryan, Kelly, and Scott (who is in Kimberly’s old office) were my suite mates. It was nice catching up with them on how they were and to hear about their summer plans. I learned that Scott mows his lawn every Saturday no matter how hot it is. What dedication.

I enjoyed seeing Stephanie and her team, Kevin and Cindy doing great work in Marketing and Rich and his team in SBDC. I enjoyed seeing and getting to know the counselors and team on the first floor and our new Herndon front desk person, Leslie, is doing a great job directing people and she has the cutest baby girl. Tom and I had great conversations in the evenings. And Juan Carlos and his dog Ray showed me how he is transforming the Mechatronics classroom into a state-of-the-art classroom for our new Ag Tech Program. Herndon is in great hands. My Nico took great care and had great patience trying to figure out all the IT issues associated with my new computer and my return in general. Thank you.

I want to give a special thank you to Sergio and his team, Robbie and Gerald, for working hard to maintain our grounds in this extreme heat while dealing with irrigation issues. Angel and Sandra kept our facilities looking good and took extra pride in preparing our facilities for Opening Day, welcoming the students back for their first day. Angel and Sergio were even part of the welcome back committee on the first day of classes. I saw Dan outside changing light bulbs to make sure that our campus was well lit and Teng and the IT guys (Andrew, Howard, Paul, and Kham) worked extremely hard to get us back into AC1 after the late start to the project.

I had faculty and students telling me welcome back. Having students come up to me or yell from their cars “glad you’re back” in addition to having so many faculty say the same, inspired me to be more and more dedicated to ensuring that I make my service to you my absolute priority. As, I walked back to AC3 from AC2, I had a male student stop me to tell me welcome back and that he was glad to see me wearing Clovis Blue. This student told me that he had just taken a test; he thought he passed. He said that it was his birthday and that the faculty brought cake. I smiled and told him “Happy birthday” and that I was sure that he gave himself an ‘A’ on the test for his birthday. He said that he sure did. Seeing the joy and having the student want to share this with me reminds me of what we embrace here as the “Clovis Spirit” This is what makes everyone and everything here special. We truly live our motto --- Creating opportunities one student at a time.

As a I walked around I saw the new and improved Health Center, Veteran Center, the expansion of our Financial Aid office, the MESA Center and the Pride Center. Thank you all for not losing sight of the plans set forth from last year.

While I was busy finalizing the hiring of faculty , our new Honors Program Coordinator, Von Torres, and our new Interim Dean Kristin Mattox, I also had the opportunity to give welcomes to the first MESA student cohort, the new ASG Ambassadors, our Honors Program students, our new faculty, and our NFI class of Fall 2025. I had the pleasure of joining the women’s soccer team and Coach Olando for the unveiling of their new unforms and in celebration of their 10-year anniversary games between the alumni and our new players. We’ve come a long way in 10 years, and I am looking forward to seeing what this year and the next ten years will bring.

Emilee and her team did an amazing job with Extreme Reg and with our Crush Days orientations. I was able to welcome the Friday evening new students and their parents, spouses, and supporters after an all-day District Retreat where we worked on improving communication and business processes at the DO level. It was refreshing to be able to come back to campus and see us in action. Nothing short of excellence. I had In-and-Out for the first time-not impressed . But Gurdeep and Emilee told me that it was better when you buy it fresh. Verdict is still out 😊 For the Saturday morning Crush Days, we had a surprise visit from a man riding on a horse. I am used to seeing people walking dogs on campus, I know Nico brings his new baby and I’ve brought mine a few times, but to see a horse truly made my day. The horse’s name was Sam, and he was a magnificent creature. A fun example of ALL being welcome here.

I enjoyed spending time with our Extreme Reg team of counselors, financial aid, and student ambassadors. The team is a well-oiled machine and demonstrates our dedication to providing a great student experience. What I also appreciated from being there was the candid conversations about AB19. I feel honored that people feel comfortable to talk to me about concerns and to also coming to me when my decisions or how things got handled were not my finest effort. I will always value your voice.

I invited the Mayor of Clovis to lunch to talk about our working together and the needs of the city. We also talked about the City of Clovis not being designated as a Sanctuary City.

On Mondays after I finish Chancellor’s Cabinet, I attend the Clovis City Council meetings. I was brought up to speed on the Cosco project planned for across the street on Willow.

I also was part of an interview team and listen to the presentations of the architects who would be selected to design our new Kinesiology building. The process included the VC of Operations, our Athletic Director James, Women’s Soccer Coach Orlando, Cross Country Head Coach CJ, Vice President of Instruction James, Vice President Administrative Services Kimberly), the Instructional Administrative Assistant for Athletics Erin and Shannon from the DO. We will present our recommendation to the Chancellor for her final approval prior to submitting to the Board.

I spent time with the other 28 CEOs representing the Central Valley (all community college presidents, chancellors, university, state and private and our medical school CEOs) all met for our strategic planning retreat. How can we all work together for the betterment of our region? How can we maximize collaboration? We decided upon 3 priorities: 1. AI Instruction and Process, 2. Enrollment and Workforce Alignment, 3. Data Sharing.

The SCCCD Foundation Board met (James Ortez represented Clovis as all Presidents were at the CVHEC retreat) to be updated in the 320 report and the status of Dual enrollment.

I have been meeting with my advisory group and the DO legal counsel regarding undocumented students and what our processes and procedures going forward.

I gave a welcome to all of the new leaders to our region, the new SCCCD Deputy Chancellor, the new Central Unified School District Superintendent , and the new FCC President. I was honored to be asked as I have only been in the area or even California for only 2 ½ years.

I provided a welcome for the BBB Women in Industry conference where over 100 women from all over the region came to our Herndon Campus for the conference. I had to leave right after my welcome to attend the VP meeting where the presidents, VPs and District Office including the chancellor discussed how to improve processes and communication between all groups.

I made a personal trip to pick up clothing items for our Clothing Closet from a widower who lost her husband and wanted his suits and shoes to be put to good use. Juan Carlos and Ryan helped me unload my car and place the many bags into the Clothing Closet receiving area.

On August 13th my uncle passed unexpectedly. After losing my father on April 1st this was a little too much too soon. I had to tell both my mom and my sister. It was too much for them. We lost my dad and two of his brothers all within the last 6 months. Thanks to all of you for your kind words during this time.

I think I’ve caught you up on all that I’ve been up to since I returned and how you have helped to get me back on track so that we can continue the great work.

I hope you found our Opening Day and Convocation to be not only informative but one with an emphasis on building community, one where you are empowered to use your voice with the expectation that you will be heard, where the vision for our future is clear and based on continual process improvement and where my dedication to the work using our DEIA lens is unwavering.

Last but not least, thank you to Ryan for helping to prepare my 320 report for the Board meeting. To Monica, Bonnie, Shane and Lilly for making the college highlight of the Child Development Center extra special. The vases made by the kids and having the kids there made the presentation meaningful. I enjoyed seeing Rebecca’s daughter and Rebecca just smiling the entire time she sat behind her daughter.

And a special thank you to Dean Laura and Gurinder and our students for presenting our Crush puppies. They were a big hit. Now the other presidents are trying to figure out how they are going to top that when they host their board meetings. Way to Go! And the custom 10- year anniversary jackets for the Board were a hit. The rest of cabinet and the Chancellor asked for a jacket. I didn’t even get one for myself. Nice work James and Bonnie.

As was evident on the first days of classes, your Deans, VPs, and President will be visible and available to you. We want to hear from you, and we welcome your comments and views. Together we will work to make the next 10 years of this great institution all we want it to be.

If this summer is any indication of what I can expect from my Clovis family, I am encouraged and inspired by you. Together, we can get through anything as long as we always remember to not only be student centered and to put our students first but to do everything well and with heart.

Thank you all and I hope you have a great and productive fall semester.

In service,

Kim E. Armstrong, Ph.D.