Week of September 8, 2025

Hi Clovis fam,

I hope everyone had a good and restful weekend.

I want to continue to thank you for sharing your voices. Please know that I do hear you and I take into consideration and reflect upon all that you say. I reviewed the survey on Opening Day and Convocation. Thank you for your input. I want to apologize for the delay in getting the survey out this semester. There were some content and logistical items that I wanted changed prior to sending it out.

Once the survey results were reviewed a few key themes resonated with me and I want to share them. The first theme was that the keynote on AI did not meet your needs. The AI keynote was selected prior to my returning, and I was surprised myself by the specificity of the topic: Emotional Intelligence(EI) AI. I recall thinking that Clovis must have been ahead of most in terms of professional development on AI to be delving into EI AI. I was excited to have you go to the Open Lab to get hands on tools to help you navigate AI in the classroom, specifically. During the afternoon, I heard from several of you that the session in the Open Lab was not to your standards. As AI is still an important topic and you stated that you want more professional development and training on tools on how to use AI in the classroom we will be researching for a more appropriate presenter. The District is working to develop AI processes for both faculty and business processes utilization. They will be having Academic Senate and Classified Senates work together over the next year to guide the plans.

We also heard that faculty wanted more information on available student resources. As you are truly a passionate student centered and student first community of professionals, I was proud to see this request. We will gladly include a session on services and resources so that you can proactively continue to support our students.

You also commented on the questions after the Achieving the Dream presentation. The questions shifted to the concerns around fraudulent students and Bots in the classrooms. This continues to be a concern for faculty, and we will look into providing you with more information on how to directly handle reporting when you suspect that you may have a Bot in your class. Thank you for letting us know that this is something that we need to spend more time in providing assistance.

We will also be talking about ways to provide Classified Professionals with an opportunity to have a couple of sessions during this dedicated time as well. Thank you for letting me know that you appreciated the Zoom option and the more relaxed format. We will continue to listen to you and make adjustment and address gaps to make the experience better for the spring and subsequent Opening Days and Convocations.

I started the week interviewing the finalists for the Executive Director of Strategic Communications. I am hopeful that one of the finalists will rise to the top and a permanent person will be hired. I ended my day attending the Board Special Meeting on Project Labor Agreements ( PLAs) as this decision will have implications for our future buildings. We did not have Chancellor’s Cabinet due to the special Board meeting.

The DO, President’s and our executive teams discussed and will continue to discuss the impact of the removal of funds from MSI’s, as we are an HIS institution, will have on us as a college and as a district. As, you recall the Board approved setting aside funds. As we continue to assess our needs, I will keep you informed. We also, for the second time in two weeks, flew our flags at half-staff. Several of you kept me informed of the impact this had on not only our students but you. Thank you. I want to assure you that we have systems in place to keep us safe here. I have discussed with the VPs and Deans and have developed a plan and executing process to not only keep us safe in large events but when any high-profile person comes to speak to individual classrooms. Your safety is most important to me.

I spent some time meeting with FSU and FPU to talk about developing MOUs and transfer agreements to help our students with smooth and seamless transfer to their institutions. I want to thank James, Kira, and Kimberly for meeting with the team from FSU. I met with the President of FPU to initiate the discussion of a transfer agreement that meets the needs of our students interested in attending FPU.

I met with our newly appointed Committee Co-Chairs and provided them with their charge and we reviewed their responsibilities. I want to thank everyone who will be serving as co-chairs this year as it is in our committees where participatory governance is most impactful. And, I had my monthly meeting with Classified Senate where we talked about ways to build engagement and community for our classified professional family. We also talked about strategies and processes to determine hiring ratios.

I had the pleasure of attending the FUSD College night, where I must say that we had the best booth hands down, Emilee and here team did a magnificent job in setting us apart from the other institutions. The new pop ups with our students (not AI generated people) stood out. I am always proud when I come to our booth because I see our outreach team, faculty and students enthusiastically and competently talking about not only what programs we have to offer but why you should come to Clovis. Gurdeep was deep in constant conversations with students. I went around hi-fiving everyone who was there and made the mistake of asking for a high five from our newest Interim Dean Kristen Maddox. So, it is because of her that I will never ask for a high five ever again. If I had jumped, I would have never hit her hand. Maybe I’ll ask for just a five. She was just wrong for doing that. I had to chase Ryen down for my high five 😊. It was great night seeing all the students crowding around our table and walking around with our beautiful lime green Clovis bags. Way to go team!!!!!

As I drove into work on the morning of 9/11, as I was waiting to turn onto the campus, I saw a row of fire trucks and other EMS vehicles, I blew my horn continuously to show my respect and remembrance. I was inspired by the display that our student put up in front of the bookstore. May we never forget the sacrifice made for our freedom.

Additionally, I spent a lot of time working on completing the classification surveys which are due September 19th. We started the review of proposals for the selection of the Foundation’s $30k grant. We would like to encourage you to submit proposals for the $1500 mini grants. Each college will be awarded up to 20 grants.

I ended my week with attending the reception for President Whisenhunt and Deputy Chancellor Holt-McDonald, the CASA fundraising event, the Fresno State versus Southern University football game and the brunch reception that Southern University hosted for our students at FCC. This was the first time that FSU has played an HBCU team, and the home team dominated; score 57-7.

Hope all of you come back this week rested and inspired to simply keep giving our students and each other your best. I am looking forward to seeing you this week. And thank you.

In service,

Kim E. Armstrong, Ph.D.