By unanimous consent, Dawn Lindsay was named the new Vice President of Instructional Services at a recent Board of Trustees meeting on Nov. 20.

Lindsay’s appointment was consistent with the recommendation from Superintendent/President Audre Levy.

Prior to the meeting, all of the trustees agreed on the decision during a closed session.

Lindsay was ranked by the hiring committee as the number one candidate based on the final interview, as well as her performance and responses at the public forum on Nov. 7.

Additionally, as a part of the interviewing process, several faculty members had the opportunity to visit Riverside College’s Norco Campus, where Lindsay is currently Dean of Instruction.

Board of Trustees President Armine Hacopian expressed the trustees’ delight in offering the position to Lindsay.
“We are looking forward to welcoming Dr. Dawn Lindsay,” said Hacopian.

Shortly following the announcement of the new vice president, two presentations were made: one by the Nursing Department Head Cynthia Dorroh and the other by Glendale College Foundation Head Ann Ransford.

Both presentations aimed to inform the trustees and meeting attendees about their respective programs.

Dorroh’s presentation was intended to give the board information on why the program has grown in numbers, as well as some of the parameters of how students are admitted to the program and the challenges the department faces due to the high demand for nurses in the state.

According to Dorroh, California has named the critical nursing shortage as a “public health crisis.”

In order to alleviate the shortage, many nurses are being brought in from other states and/or countries.

Dorroh explained that many of the “migrating” nurses only fulfill the short-term need, but do not fully ease the shortage. Many of these migrating nurses come to work in the state for reasons ranging from Disneyland to the climate.

She went on to stress the relevance of the nursing programs on the collegiate level.

“Community colleges contribute 70 percent of the new graduates into the nursing field,” said Dorroh.

There are currently 800 pre-nursing students in the pipeline, gearing up to enter the nursing program at GCC.

Dorroh believes that the nursing program contributes to a student’s accomplishments in general education courses and prerequisites due to its rigorous course work and discipline.

“We have such an outstanding nursing program,” said Levy, addressing the members of the board. “I’m sure for everyone sitting on the table, we want those taking care of us to be very qualified.”

Steve White reminded the trustees of the feat that was accomplished last year. “The last class of our students that took the entrance tests to become registered nurses in the state, passed at 100 percent,” said White.

However, monetarily meeting the demands of the program is still an issue, in spite of the program’s successes.

Board of Trustees Clerk Vahe Peroomian said that “until the state doesn’t decide to pay us for nursing students [separately], we’ll continue to have these problems.”

Ransford followed Dorroh in a presentation that illustrated the college’s marketing strategy, outlining the college’s organizational goals and needs.

She said that the college is currently advertising in several local newspapers and high school campuses in order to increase interest and enrollment in the college.

Another way of generating interest in the college is through events on campus which are open to the Glendale community, according to the foundation head.

Ransford credits the college Web site with generating some of this interest.

The GCC Web site gets 34,000 hits on a daily basis. Ransford pointed out that the college’s site is the home page on faculty computers; however, she still believes that the college Web site is a great marketing tool that has taken site visitors beyond campus doors.

Dean of Student Affairs Paul Schlossmann and head of the Student Outreach Program Alen Andriassian spoke about the benefits of having an outreach program and how the program contributes to enrollment at GCC. The goal of this program is to facilitate a transition into the college campus.

The Outreach Program recently put together a “Shadow Day.” The purpose of a “Shadow Day” is to bring students from the local area high schools and have them experience a typical day in college. The students are given a tour of the campus by another GCC student and a basic outline of the various programs and services the campus has to offer.

Andriassian mentioned that the program is currently looking at a variety of ideas to promote the campus to K-12 students. Some of these ideas include increasing the budget for campaigns and advertising.

At the end of the presentation, Hacopian suggested the idea of a campaign consultant which would help in the advertising of the campus. However, Hacopian pointed out that it is currently difficult to sell the campus due to parking shortages.

Interim Vice President of College Services and Dean of Admissions and Records Sharon Combs pointed out that enrollment is down by 17 percent for the Winter 2007 intersession.

King posed a question to the board and those in attendance on how one should approach this enrollment crisis and at the same time promote the campus.

“What am I — faculty, staff, trustee — going to do to get that growth money?” asked King.

King volunteered the services of the trustees “to get out there and really hustle hard” in promoting the college.

“You guys need to keep doing what you’re doing, but we need to open your eyes to where we are and where we’re from and what we can bring to the table,” said King.