CCCSAA Newsletter June 2017

6/12/2017

Pro Conference Wrap-up

Thank you to the participants who attended the 2017 Professional Development Conference in Burlingame, CA. This conference truly inspired us to look at our work with a social justice lens.

Please take a moment and complete the Conference Program Evaluation.

Picture Gallery

Check out the picture Gallery. Add your own pictures to the drive or download the pictures for your keeping.

Hot Topic Discussions: Add and Review the Notes

The ACLU Presentation for Know Your Right for Immigrants (Raquel Ortgega)

Wanna Bring Dance Floor Theory To Your Campus

As a follow-up, I wanted to share more info on our 5x award-winning leadership program, Dance Floor Theory. Funny name, but serious learning outcomes. You can learn more here > https://swiftkickhq.com/school-training. Let me know if there are any leadership/orientation/staff programs we can support you with!

Swift Kick trains college studnet leaders to create a culture of connection where everyone feels welcomed, connected, and engaged. Fun Fact: We've been voted APCA "Best Leadership Speakers" five times.

((((HUGS))))
Melissa Ruiz, Lead Facilitator
Office: 877-479-4385 | Cell: 630-890-3489 | Socials: @SwiftKickHQ

Why Wait?...
Renew your CCCSAA Annual Membership FY18

Renew Membership

CCCSAA connects student affairs related professionals in California Community College to each other, making California a bit smaller. Joining this state-wide network for individuals interested in community development opens up many membership benefits.

There are several programs CCCSAA sponsors each year: Professional development workshops; Student Leadership Conference in each fall for approximately 500 student leaders and advisors; multiple Professional Member and Student Leadership Scholarships; participation in the Student Services Summit consultation processes; consultation role with the Community College Chancellor's Office, etc.

CCCSAA Membership Benefits

Access to the CCCSAA Listserv, which offers a forum for sharing information to post questions or survey fellow colleagues;
Access to CCCSAA informational database;
Opportunities to participate in study visits and other face-to-face learning events;
Be on the for-front of new updates from the CCC Chancellor’s Office or State Legislation;
Conference registration discounts for advisors and student attendees to the annual student leadership and professional conferences;
Opportunity to apply for professional development scholarships;
Opportunity for your students to apply for regional student leadership scholarships;
Professional development experience by leading workshops, hosting webinars, or planning drive-ins and conferences
Support in sharing stories about your work with colleagues;
The right to a vote at CCCSAA Business Meetings;
The right to nominate yourself or someone else to CCCSAA Board of Directors;
Opportunities to connect with others and to shape the direction of CCCSAA and California Community Colleges by joining one of our committees or working groups;
And much more…

Prof Dev Conf Speaker: Financial Literacy

What ever happened to 99 cents tacos? Jeanne Denton was our financial literacy presenter at the conference and brought to our attention that everything goes up in price, even tacos. And inflation is only a part of the big money picture in our lives.

She is the founder of Learn and Thrive Co., and strives to educate audiences on all things money. Young adults who are ready to embark on their independent lives will walk out enlightened. Her storytelling combined with experience in financial marketing yields an entertaining and educational presentation. Students gain the confidence and know-how to make sound financial decisions from the mundane, everyday transactions to the extremely important retirement accounts.

Contact her about presentations on your campus:
Jeanne Denton, MBA
Learn and Thrive Co. - Revolutionize Financial Literacy
213-200-1173
www.learnandthriveco.com

CA Community Colleges Branding Survey

The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office is undertaking work to better associate system branding with the initiatives and programs that it sponsors, administers and oversees. This is being done to better communicate the state Chancellor’s Office role within the system, and to establish publicly how and where the state Chancellor’s Office and Board of Governors provide resources for state mandated and state supported initiatives and programs. We are asking for your participation in a brief web survey (10-12 minutes) to help the Chancellor’s Office make decisions on a revision of its current seal/logo and on the creation of a wordmark to be integrated into the branding strategy. Participation in the web survey is voluntary.

The web survey can be accessed at: https://www.interactresearch.com/index.php?survey=cccco_brand

Access to the web survey is open until June 15, 2017.
We hope that you will consider participating as your input is valuable and important.

Meet the FY18 CCCSAA Board

Click here to visit the Board of Directors.

Leading with Aesthetics:
The Transformational Leadership of Charles M. Vest at MIT (Review)

Adapted from Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning Message #1577 by Rick Reis

In an era of drastically shifting paradigms for institutions of postsecondary education, Mahesh Daas offers a novel approach to leadership: leading with aesthetics. At once both a text on leadership theory and a quasi-presidential biography, this book redefines the traditional understanding of aesthetics from a philosophical appreciation of beauty to an integral component of institutional reform, campus planning, and optimistic thinking. A narrative highlighting the second-longest-serving president of MIT, Charles M. Vest, Leading with Aesthetics offers insight into Vest?s ability to push beyond transactional leadership (Birnbaum 1992) into the realm of transformational leadership. Sprinkling his work with a collection of quotes from those who worked closely with Vest as well as Vest himself, Daas helps the reader track the 14-year presidency [1990-2004] that changed not only the visuals of the MIT campus but also the spirit and character of a community.

Tempting the reader with a cover that features the controversial architecture of Frank Gehry, this work begins with a quick review of leadership theory paired with a brief lesson on leadership?s ties to Vitruvian principles of architecture in Part I. Daas launches into the discussion and discovery of how leaders can leverage a refined definition of aesthetics as part of an overall transformational leadership strategy by starting with his central theme: aesthetics are ?foundational to our experience as human beings and essential to how we encounter the world in a way that defines our identity and affirms our existence? (p. 2). It is with this definition that Daas is able to construct his story of the MIT experience during Vest?s tenure.

At the conclusion of Part I, Daas has set the stage for the more engaging Part II. Moving from a campus nicknamed the ?Gray Factory? to one that would garner world recognition for its ?starchitecture,? Vest?s legacy lies not only in the buildings he successfully erected but also in the transformational leadership he mastered in steering MIT into the 21st century. So evocative were the changes to the MIT campus under Vest?s leadership that it sparked John Silber (2007), past president of Boston University, to pen his own response, Architecture of the Absurd: How ?Genius? Disfigured a Practical Art, a critique of contemporary architecture and what Silber saw as the drift from practical applications of architecture in favor of the absurd.

Why focus on aesthetics and specifically the architecture of a campus for his investigation of leadership? Daas cites the research of numerous earlier studies in creating his own foundation (Broadbent, Bunt, and Jencks 1980; Eco 1979; Giedion 1967; Jencks 1991; Preziosi 1979; Rykwert 1982; Strati 1999c, 2010) and concludes, ?the architecture of an organization is a fundamental organizational artifact that provides the most tangible, spatial, and material continuity for an organization?s mission, identity, and meaning? (p. 5).

As a reader, Daas?s discussion of leading with aesthetics left me wanting a stronger and more applicable operational definition of aesthetic leadership and yearning for more images of the MIT campus, particularly ones rendered in color to counter the impression of the Gray Factory nickname. At the same time, anyone who has had to rally financial or emotional support for the physical campus will be spirited by the narration of Vest?s approach to assembling a leadership team and struggling with donors, alumni, and community alike. Without proclaiming the success or failure of Vest and his endeavors, Daas concludes, ?as the single largest investment and asset for any institution, the physical plant and architecture encompass all aspects and all stakeholders of an institution, which presents a president with an opportunity?if understood well?to advance the institution?s mission and evolve institutional identity through enduring change? (p. 135).

References:
Birnbaum, R. 1992. How Academic Leadership Works: Understanding Success and Failure in the College Presidency. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Silber, J. 2007. Architecture of the Absurd: How ?Genius? Disfigured a Practical Art. New York: Quantuck Lane Press.

Author Biography
Daniel J Harper, MA, MID, NCIDQ #014453, currently serves as assistant dean of facilities and IT for the College of Fine Arts at Ohio University and also teaches in the interior architecture program. His research explores the intersection of technology and design and design education. He has been a practicing interior designer for over 20 years, and he can be reached at harperd1@ohio.edu.

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