Week of September 22, 2025

Hi Fam,

Hope you all had a good weekend. The weather went from summer to fall and is beginning to be quite pleasant. I reflect on the number of students who were sitting outside on campus enjoying the weather and made me think about how the small things in life give us joy. When I got to campus, Monday morning, I saw a mother dropping her daughter off and the daughter hugged and kissed her mom before exiting the car. The young lady and I talked about the special bond between a mother and daughter as we walked to AC1 together. It was going to be a good day.

I had my weekly Presidents’ meeting, and we talked about funding and campus climate concerns. I then went to the District Office for my weekly Chancellor’s Cabinet meeting where we received training on immigration action. We were the first to receive the training in hopes of helping the lawyers to structure the training for the VPs, executive teams, and the colleges.

As a result of the training, one of the actions suggested was the reminder that there are allowable barriers for institutions of higher education. Specifically, we have always had the right to restrict access to certain areas at our colleges. This is like academic freedom where faculty have the right to not allow people who are not registered in their classes from being in the classroom (inclusive of parents who want to sit in class with their students and extends to trustees wanting to come into a class when they were not invited). In addition to the signs (non-public spaces) you have the right to lock your doors, thereby controlling who you want to enter your classrooms and offices. Additionally, your classroom and office spaces are free from protesters and flyers on walls not authorized by you or the college. These are rights that all colleges and universities have had the right to enforce for decades. I want to remind you to exercise your right to ownership of your spaces. We do have several spaces which are public spaces, bookstore, café, bathrooms, open computer labs, lobbies, outdoor spaces, sporting arenas, graduation ceremonies to name a few. There are ways to define sporting arenas and graduation ceremonies as nonpublic spaces, which we will look into implementing.

In addition to reviewing our rights to publicly identify all nonpublic spaces, classrooms and office spaces (spaces where we control what flyers and posting go up and have the right to restrict protesting) we were updated on the several new laws that the Governor signed. He signed SB 98 into effect on Saturday, September 20, 2025. All colleges and universities were to put into place how and when we notify all constituents when ICE agents are on our campuses. We already have emergency notification protocols in place since 2019, and these systems are what we will use while we look for additional methods. No federal, state or college dollars were used to implement this new law as we currently have systems in place. We also reviewed AB 21 which is Access to Higher Education. The Blue cards are being updated to provide verbiage and steps on what to say and to do if approached by an ICE agent. We also discussed the Governor passing the law regarding ICE agents wearing masks and the concerns over state enforcement of federal agencies.

In President Cabinet, Tuesday morning, I updated my VPs and direct report on these and we started developing college specific protocols. The current method is to bring the ICE agent directly to the President’s Office and to notify PD. We have identified processes for who will be responsible for reviewing ICE warrants in my absence. If the protocol is to bring the ICE agent to my office, I will also be developing and communicating protocols of how to contact me if I am on campus but not in my office. I am also the only person, who is authorized to verify that ICE is on campus and to deploy the notification system.

Last week I sent out several communications on these protocols as it is my responsibility to keep you updated as we proactively plan for these situations. There will be scheduled on campus trainings where you all will have the opportunity to ask questions and express concerns.

In between meetings, I had the pleasure of being graced with the angelic voices of our students who were practicing a song as they sat in the lobby of AC1. There were about eight female students sitting with the sheet music practicing their parts. Harmony was on point. I was so impressed with them that I stayed and listened while they sang the entire song. I started clapping and said bravo when they finished. I think I surprised them as they were so intensely focusing on following the sheet music. I had time to visit with Tony and see pictures of his precious new baby girl. Congratulations to Tony and his wife. I am waiting to see if she is going to be a ginger. I found out that Brent’s son didn’t have to lose the 3 lbs. and that he did quite well in his wrestling matches and that Nathan did well in his pool tournaments. The small joys of the world and music is way to bring absolute joy; I smiled the rest of my day. I ended the day by attending and cheering on the men’s soccer team. They looked strong but took a heartbreaking 1-0 loss.

I started my Wednesday with Cindy at Herndon reviewing the program for the October 8th groundbreaking ceremony. I went directly from Cindy to visit with Jami De La Cerda to tour her magnificent new 60,000 square foot facility. To see her vision for LIFE (earning is for everyone) demonstrated in her facilities reminded me of how proud I am to have her as a major donor, supporter, and friend. We reviewed the program and then I returned to Cindy to go over the changes. Cindy has a talent second to none. She captures a visual representation of who we are. We are lucky to have her tell our stories.

I met with Max and Bill for our regular Academic Senate meeting. We talked about updates with Canvas, College Council, Communications Council, Governance Handbook and communications with the Deputy Chancellor. I ended my day with my President’s Asian American Advisory meeting. In attendance were Trustee Ikeda, a representative from the Fresno Center, and a businesswoman. I want to thank Von and Diana for presenting the Ethnic Studies Framework at Clovis. Trustee Ikeda was impressed as was I. The intentionality and the dedication to being more than just a class or program was heartwarming as they laid out the vision, values, student learning outcomes, and pedagogical commitments and how they align with the College’s mission and ILO was a demonstration of the importance of aligning everything that we do and not operating in silos. Gurdeep gave updates to the state grants in place to support our Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) students. Also, Trustee Ikeda said that she was glad to see the non-public space signs up. Thank you, Leslie, for printing and getting them up so very quickly.

On Thursday, we had Small Council where we reviewed the mini grant applications and were able to prioritize our list to submit to the Foundation for our 20-$1500 grants. The deadline is the 30th. The Foundation Board will review and let us know after the November Board meeting. Ryan provided a presentation of the CCESSE (Community College of Entering Student Survey of Engagement) survey which all community college conduct across the country. We will be assessing the types of questions that are best for Clovis and review the data in comparison to past years and against our like college cohorts to determine approach for the upcoming survey cycle. The CCESSE is administered in the Spring.

We met with the Architecture firm selected for the Kinesiology and Wellness building and started the process of determining the concept and design. This is the first of several meetings as there is a milestone that we must meet by December be incompliance with the state.

I had the pleasure of stopping by a full room at the TRiO Paint night. I walked in and was surprised to see so many students and their kids painting with mini easels, and seriously painting an autumn pumpkin scene. You would have loved watching the brush strokes and technique used. As a person who can’t even draw a straight line I was in awe of this activity. I will be back. Our TRiO team is doing a great job supporting our students in helping them feel welcome on campus.

I ended my day with my President’s LGBTQIA+ Advisory Group. Thanks to Leslie, Kirt, and Clayton for attending with me. We had Trustee Johnson and a businesswoman join us. The discussion about the dead names and live names was important and we talked about several ways we can improve our implementation and make changing names easier for our students. We talked about intersectionality and climate on campus. We had the opportunity to take them to the Pride Center so they can see the space where students can come, be safer, and feel supported. I explained to them that this space is the result of a grant that required us to provide a dedicated space. We also have Renee and Leslie who are in the area to provide additional support. Trustee Johnson work on the puzzle and they just sat and felt comfortable in this space. We talked about the bathroom signs and the issues with removal of the signs. We talked about Kirt’s window getting broken. And Trustee Johnson also remarked on the non-public safe signs and was glad to see them.

On Friday, I did my welcome video for the VPI search. I then went directly to the Districtwide Immigration Enforcement training. I was proud to hear all the questions that Clovis asked. Several were about what to do around athletics. As I mentioned earlier, these are public space, but we can limit access to only those who have tickets. This is not our current process. We had a game later that afternoon and were given guidance on how to proceed. The lawyers were glad to see the non-public spaces signs up and reminded us of the responsibility to empower faculty of their right to restrict access to their classrooms, even to trustees. After the training I attended the District VP meeting. It was good to sit in so that when things come back to Chancellor’s Cabinet and it is said that this was discussed in VPs meeting, I will have a better understanding. Dr. Buckley and I attended both the trainings and VP meeting.

I came back to the office and worked on the Kresge Foundation grant interim report. I want to thank Ryan and Kimberly for all their hard work in providing the information for the report and to the AtD lead team for putting in the work this past year. And I had my first , in office meeting with our ASG President and Maricarmen. It dawned on both of us that we had been meeting informally around campus and in other committee meetings but this was our first official meeting this semester. We talked about Pizza with the Presidents. We talked about all the events they are planning; the increase in the number of college sponsored clubs, ongoing funding since the removal of the ID fees and we talked about climate. I am looking forward to a great year as Maricarmen is providing excellent leadership opportunities and skills for our students and this year’s ASG leadership team including Student Ambassadors are eager to serve.

I ended my Friday by attending the Teachers Fellows Annual Gala. James attended with me and I was pleasantly surprised to see our logo on the front cover of the program as an exclusive and platinum sponsor. Next thing I know, Clovis Community College sponsored the game of the night. The questions were:

Way to go Stephanie, I don’t know what she did to get us top billing, but it was impressive. Reedley was a table sponsor so was Lemoore College. They had full tables but we with only two people were the sponsors of the evening. We talked with the new superintendent at Central and FPU representatives about partnerships. It was a good night.

Saturday, I was honored to have been able to attend the Celebration of Life for Stephanie’s father. It was nice to see Cindy and Roseanne at the celebration. The military ceremony was heart touching and beautiful. This was the first time that I saw them unfold the flag and then refold it prior to lovingly presenting it to Stephanie. They then presented her with the Bullet shells. I stayed and talked with her husband and mother. It was a beautiful tribute to her dad, and you could see Stephanie’s hand in the program, the selection of pictures and the food. It was a beautiful celebration of her dad’s life and legacy. Please continue to keep her and her family in your hearts and prayers.

On Sunday, after church, I went to Reedley’s River City Theatre Company to see our very own Anna and her daughter Megan perform in Puffs. This comedy about a group of young people attending a school to become wizards had me laughing hard the entire show. Anna was magnificent in the several roles that she played. Her daughter was equally as talented. I would encourage you to go to see the play. Crystal and her husband were there also. I found out that they were expecting! It was a great way to end the weekend.

I hope you all had a great weekend and are ready for the week. I look forward to seeing you and continuing to serve you.

In service,

Kim E. Armstrong, Ph.D.