We are on the countdown to Commencement, just two short weeks away. Yearly celebrations began this week with a Cascadia Scholars graduation event Wednesday morning as well as our All Employee Celebration that afternoon.
Congratulations to the 18 scholars who will be crossing the stage on June 7. The number of students we support from their first day at Cascadia until graduation is growing each year, and we are expecting an even bigger cohort this coming fall. As part of our strategic plan, the Scholars program has been one of those initiatives that has helped us demonstrate our mission.
That mission is fulfilled by the good work of ALL of our faculty and staff. As we celebrated benchmarks of 5, 10, 15, and 20 years of service on Wednesday, we also got to celebrate four faculty and three staff for extraordinary work this year.
Faculty members Dr. Victor Begay, Kelley Briles, Sofia Marshak, and Tori Saneda were awarded the Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Service Award.
Staff members Marion Heard, Brandy Long, and Samantha Martin were awarded the Staff Service Awards.
Out in the community, Washington Department of Transportation, Sound Transit, local Legislators and the City of Bothell broke ground on a new Transit Center in the south of Bothell. We celebrated years of work to secure the funding that will help tie the 405 corridor to the 522 corridor. Cascadia and UWB received gracious nods of thanks for our work in articulating the need for such a facility and in helping make an argument for the funding.
Representative Vandana Slatter and Cascadia President Eric Murray at the Groundbreaking.
Finally, an update on parking rates. After discussion among UWB leadership, Cascadia leadership, and the Board of Trustees, the campus will hold one year on raising parking rates for employees and students. During the coming months, campus leadership along with the Commuter Services Task Force will explore options for raising revenue through other means to offset operating costs. However, we can expect a raise in rates next year and we are trying to find a reasonable formula for systematically implementing rate increases in the future. In the meanwhile, I intend to start a lobbying campaign with Cascadia students to help our legislators understand the burden of parking on community college students. Perhaps there is some support there. Thanks to all campus constituents for bringing forward their feedback.
There’s a lot of gratitude out there…please read on.
SHOUT OUTS
Thanks to everyone for attending the Vice President of Administrative Service public forums this week. The last of the forums will be next Wednesday.
From the IN Box:
On behalf of the Outreach & Admissions and Equity & Inclusion teams, we want to send a huge thank you to all of the volunteers for participating in the Lake Washington School District Students of Color Conference on 5/17! They all helped so much in supporting the event and cultivating a welcoming space for over 200 students and staff.
Thank you to the volunteers: Ginny Jackson, Mauli Patel, Kelly Leahy, Stephan Classen, Erin Blakeney, Shannon Bath, Beau Montano, Aylin Asadi, Taylor Kang; and Jaspreet Grewal, Miles Alexander and Shawna Pitts from Facilities; and Luke Bulosan from IS.
AND
The Office of Equity and Inclusion would like to extend gratitude to all our partners in success during our four Student of Color Conferences! Thank you to the amazing volunteers, IS, the outreach team, and the facilities team. We couldn’t have done it without your support and effort.
AND
Brittany and Mark would like to share a special shout-out to our amazing Foundation volunteers. Individually and collectively, our volunteers play such an important role for us. From checking in event guests, helping our student volunteers, serving as greeters and being the first smiling face event attendees meet, to supporting our scholarships program as members of our selection committees … our volunteers simply make our events and programs successful. We can’t thank them enough for their positive energy and generosity of wisdom, skill and dedication to Cascadia’s mission.
Thank you to our Event Volunteers this year: Shannon Bath, Kristina Kellermann, Deann Holliday, Ana Nina, Becky Riopel, Susan Thomas – and Foundation Board Members Alex deGolia, Nate Hill, Deby Rourke, Kelly Snyder, Samantha St. John, and Ross Thomas.
Thank you to our Scholarship Program Volunteers from the last Fall and Spring award cycles: Lisa Citron, Bryan Fauth, Kristina Kellermann, Natasa Kesler, Denise Michaels, Erika Miller, Neda Rabbanian, Linda Richard, Shandy Stomieroski, Gayle Waddle-Wilkes – and Foundation Board Members Alex deGolia, Nate Hill, Jackie Hizzey, Stephanie Lizza, Erin Price, and Ross Thomas.
Shout Outs can be sent to FLShoutout@cascadia.edu
Have a great weekend.
Integrate It! 