And to my left is the newly appointed interim president. She'll introduce herself. And that was held yesterday, you know, as stewards of the city some of the unfortunate situation we found ourselves in, but we feel like we're coming out of it in a positive way. And part of that positivity is the appointment of Dr. Alycia Marshall, as our interim president. And I'll let her say more about her background. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Councilmembers. My name is Dr. Alycia Marshall and I am pleased and humbled and honored to be serving in this interim role as the president at the Community College of Philadelphia during a time where I think there's a lot of opportunity. And I am deeply humbled to serve in this way and help the institution move forward during this transitionary period. I have years plus experience in higher education. I started my career as an adjunct faculty member in the mathematics department at Anne Arundel Community College, a large campus in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. And I've went up to full professor tenure in mathematics and the first African- American female mathematics department chair at a predominately white institution. I went on from there to be an associate vice president of Learning and Academic Affairs. And I found my people at the Community College of Philadelphia several years ago, when I started there as vice president of academic and student success. And now provost and currently now interim president. So happy to be here looking forward to working collaboratively with you to move the institution and the city forward. Thank you.
You're welcome. Congratulations on your appointment.
No, that's it. Just state your name and begin your testimony, please.
Again, Harold T. Epps, chair of the board. And so Mr. -- Council President Johnson on behalf of the Board of Trustees and the College Community, we appreciate and I want to stress we appreciate the ongoing support of Community College of Philadelphia and look forward to working with you as we continue to advance the city's college. Also, in attendance are members of the cabinet. If you would raise your hand who have worked cohesively in recent weeks as the college has experienced a transition in leadership. I am grateful to them for the collaboration and guidance during this very important time. Today we are eager to share information about successes and accomplishments related to the college including increased enrollment and retention of the city college for municipal employment. Our upcoming commencement ceremony, by the way, that is this coming Saturday and we invite any and all of you to be there. We more than willing to share information with you about that. And the finalization of a four-year contract with our faculty and staff federation. And let me also stop and say that many of you were involved in helping us get that across the finish line and we we very much thank you. We remain grateful for the funds provided last year. And of course, this conversation will not be complete if we don't already state that we'll continue to need funds for this year and the future given the challenges that we face along with the ones you face. And those will be helpful in covering the cost of this contract. And we're happy to answer any questions you may have after we conclude our testimony. We are not going to read everything that's in the book we sent to you. We recognize that you can read, but we want to get to the Q&A as soon as possible. You've already met Dr. Alycia Marshall, don't need to reiterate that. But let me just say that the board -there are a few board members in the audience, if you would raise their hands. We are in full confidence in support of her and let me say that she was approved by the board unanimously on Monday morning. You've heard her background. And with that since Dr. Marshall has already introduced herself, I'm going to stop and say that Dr. Marshall is going to give you some headlines, just headlines on five to seven of the categories we deem most important. We'll stop then and and go straight to Q&A. Mike, I was pointing to you. I was saying hello. Good to see you.
Good afternoon again, everyone. At CCP we've always been more than a college we're a powerful engine for economic growth equity and opportunity anchored right here in Philadelphia. Everyday we see that difference our work makes in our classrooms, in local businesses, in homes and in communities across the region. Our impact goes beyond our campuses from adult education workshops to cultural events to lifelong learning opportunities and we are deeply woven into the fabric of this community. As our students graduate many of them go on to serve as the educators, nurses, first responders and civic leaders the city depends on. They give back to their neighborhoods that have shaped them and build careers that make a difference. One recent example I just want to share with you is what's possible when talent meets opportunity. David Johnson, a 2025 graduate of our Art and design Program just received a fully funded scholarship to the California College of the Arts. His tuition and living expenses in San Francisco are completely covered. This prestigious award isn't just a celebration of David's talent, it's a powerful endorsement of the quality of our programs and the creativity we foster right here in Philadelphia. While many colleges across the country are struggling to retain students Community College of Philadelphia is bucking that trend. We've now seen three consecutive years of enrollment growth. This year we led all 15 community colleges in Pennsylvania with more than 18,000 credit students a four-and-a-half increase. Spring enrollment has rose by 8%, our summer sessions jumped by 17% and 20% and early fall registration already is up nearly 47% year-overyear our dual enrollment programs which allow high school students to earn college credits continue to grow now serving over 1,700 students. And the Octavio Kado Scholarship launched in 2021, just enrolled its largest cohort bringing the total up to 3,350 students supported. Yes. At our Northeast Regional Center enrollment surged 32% this spring showing real momentum across the city. What's more is that our students are staying. Our full- time, first time retention rate has risen to 60% a threepoint increase from last year. This reflects both our academic quality and the holistic support services we provide. Single Stop which provides financial support including resources for housing and food insecurity. Scheduling for Success, our center for male engagement. I Am More for justice involved students. Our Women's Outreach and Advocacy Center and the Veterans Resource Center are all examples of support services that we provide to ensure all our students receive what they need for their ultimate success. In collaboration with the city of Philadelphia, as the Mayor has mentioned, we've recently launched the City College for Municipal Employment, also known as CCME, to train residents for vital public service jobs. In just its first year of implementation we exceeded expectations enrolling over 100 students and creating direct pipelines into careers in public property, fleet services and other critical roles. We are currently working with the city on expanding our program offerings. Into the next year we're looking at offering public safety, behavioral health and human services opportunities, paramedics, and other high priority areas for the city. We look forward to continuing to increase enrollment and opportunities for city residents in CCME in the coming years. We are also excited to celebrate the graduates with the Mayor in a special ceremony this month. At our Career and Advanced Technology Center in West Philadelphia, we shine as a regional model for workforce training. Enrollment there is up 36% and we're now serving more than 1,100 students. S. Navy we are launching a groundbreaking Navy welding and non-destructive testing program this fall preparing students in high demand opportunities to build submarines.
Our students are currently being hired by top employers such as Holtech, Roads Industry and SEPTA. Having the only two-year program of its kind in conjunction with our collaboration with the Navy will allow the Community College of Philadelphia to be set up as a training center for upscaling Philadelphia residents for rewarding careers in building submarines. We're also leading the way in transportation technology at our Career Advanced Technology Center. We have the Toyota T10 program which is a work and learn program. We also have a new degree in medium and heavy truck technology and certifications in electric and hybrid vehicles. In healthcare and STEM we've expanded our programs to meet urgent regional needs. We've added accelerated nursing tracks, a new community health and wellness certificate and we're introducing an associate applied science in electrical engineering technology as well as a clinical trial certificate this fall to support this growth the college has invested. In making major facility upgrades including a new respiratory care lab, physics lab, a renovated dental hygiene clinic and soon to open healthcare simulation lab to provide hands-on and interdisciplinary training. Our innovation continues with a wide arrange of new programs including a paraprofessional partnership with the School District of Philadelphia to provide a pathway for paraprofessionals to receive associates degrees in education and work towards addressing the teacher shortage for the city. Additionally, I'd like to share that this Saturday as Chair Epps indicated, we'll be celebrating the culmination of all of this hard work at our 2025 commencement ceremony. We expect to graduate approximately 1,800 students at the Liacors Center. And we're honored to welcome Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis the youngest and first black Lieutenant Governor in Pennsylvania's history as our keynote speaker. Among our graduates is Fotimata Saka, a mother, an immigrant and a semi-finalist for the Jack Kent Cook undergraduate transfer scholarship. And CCP has five semi-finalists for this scholarship this year more than any other college in the state. Their stories reflect the grit, the heart and the ambition of this city and the power of public investment in education. To sustain this progress we've reached a new four-year agreement with our faculty and staff federation securing competitive wages smaller class sizes and continued access to the best in-class benefits that we can provide. These agreements help us to attract and retain the people who make CCP such a strong institution while staying fiscally responsible. We remain committed to sound financial stewardship and maintaining our 25% reserve in line with the accreditation standards for our institution. And now with that I'm going to turn it back over to Chair Epps. Thank you.
Thank you, Dr marshall so I will close by saying a question that many of you have asked and we find ourselves In constant negotiation with the administration about the question that is what is the dollars needed to make certain goals achievable and where's your shortfall. I will say that at this point where negotiations are incomplete with the mayor's office and negotiations incomplete with to the amount of money that we need to maintain certain thresholds that keep our accreditation avoid tuition increase which we have not done in seven years. And to meet the goals and objectives that have been approved through through the negotiations we need an incremental total of $8-million of additional funds. And we will then leave it to you and the administration to hopefully negotiate in a way that gives us the ability to make those goals. So that's where we are today and we are hopeful that we can answer any questions that will help you get comfortable with that reality. But no, as this college is celebrating its 60-year anniversary this year and we will do something next year to really culminate that, it's in solid shape. We believe that there's so much upside potential to this college. We are proud of the fact that all of our numbers are stable and going in the right direction, but the board, the faculty staff get tired of me saying the following: And that is we are -- yes, we are going in the right direction, but we think we've got another gear or two to go to deliver what Philadelphia needs and that is a more trained workforce and more skills and more education to take advantage of this attrition that's taken in the workforce as us baby boomers step out of it. So all that being said, I'll stop there and answer any questions that you may have for us. But, again, we want to thank you for your prior support and having talked with many of you, we are confident and hopeful that we can continue to count on your support. So thank you.
Thank you. Just a couple brief questions and then we will turn it over to my members. You talked about -- did you say you need 8-million?
This one and and for a few years into the future. The answer is yes.
Let me just say and the driver of that are two. We serve a low wealth community and we do everything we can to provide them the skills, the education for as little cost as possible and as much free as possible i.e Kato is one example of that. We have not raised tuition in seven or eight years, our budget says we don't raise it for another two. But in '26, '27, '28, we do have plugged in a 3% year- over-year increase because we don't know where else to get the money from.
Yeah. And I asked that question because in FY25 to FY26 from 56-million in his current proposal to 54-million in his current proposal. That's the Mayor's five- year plan and it remains flat to FY30, which mean the administration's proposal there is no increases from now into FY30. But however the numbers are showing that you are growing in terms of enrollment. And so elaborate on that.
Well, that is where we said that -- that we've not yet completed negotiations. We are part -- we are partially privy --
It seems like from the Mayor's proposal there's an investment --
We are partially privy to what goes on in this building not completely. And in our last conversations with the finance people they said we have heard you and we will be back to you with further input as to what we can do.
So for the record, what you're saying we're proposing a five-year plan, which is to remain flat, right, until FY30, you have had conversations that there's a possibility that that flat number will change based upon your conversations.
That is what we're hopeful of, yes. When we -- so yes, as we digested what that five-year said and we signed the contract negotiation deal, it affirmed that the price tag was rising. We went back to the administration and said we will hope that we will need more flexibility. We now find ourselves in front of you making the same statement that the affordability issue is -
I asked that question because if the five-year plan for CCP as it is proposed right now is a state flat and and there's a decrease from 56-million from last year to this upcoming budget to 54-million, which is a decrease in $2-million, but yet you're growing. And then also there's a $15-million investment on the workforce side. But I guess to me that don't make sense because if we're investment -- if we're investing 15-million for a workforce program, but we're not investing on the enrollment side of the young people that's coming into the program, then who are we investing for, in terms of the $15-million, in terms of the workforce initiative of the CCME program.
Let me just make one other comments so everybody is operating from the same -- look, you know, if you've got a credit score you have to maintain certain thresholds. Well, in the college, the Community College there are certain accreditations we have to maintain that require certain thresholds be maintained, and that is the other guiding principle, it's 25% of your annual budget.
Oh, we agree. I'm just saying if we talking about investing in CCP and we being fiscally responsible and investment-wise, it just boggles my mind why the funding for CCP in terms of the five-year plan is one decreasing by 2-million. And then it stays flat which means ultimately the investment is in the workforce program, which you are going to get $15 million for, but it begs the question, what about the actual children that are actually attending CCP, which will benefit from the actual CCME program. That's all I'm saying, for the record. So that's not really for you to make a response, but it should be on the record in terms of this is how the plan looks in terms of a lack of investment, if I could say so, in terms of on the enrollment side versus the workforce initiative. That's all I --
As I said, we have raised the issue with the administration and they have said to us, let's continue to talk so we can figure it out.
And at the same time make sure we all understand we believe that there needs to be -- inspite of the great growth, there needs to be more growth. And so the issue of affordability is going to continue to challenge us because we still got 20% poverity in this city.
So there's more of an issue of affordability as it relates to um supporting a population most in need, that's how you start out your conversation. Which means that as opposed to decreasing, we should be increasing because you're doing your part in terms of the increasing of enrollment at CCP. That's all I just wanted to state, for the record. If there's anything other than that, let me know, because we're not investing going in the direction of growth when it comes to supporting.
If I may add I know you all just finished with the School District which is K through 12. Well, K through is great, 5 but that is just the beginning. 6 You've got to have some license 7 certificate degree education beyond 8 that, and we are the best and most 9 affordable game in town. 10
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jim Harrity, then Councilmember Dr. Phillips, Councilman Jamie Gauthier, then Councilmember Nicholas O'Rourke.
Yeah. Council President, I get you on that. It's -- it's -- if we notice we should be raising, is what he was getting at, instead of staying stagnant. If we know that the effects are helping our children and we're getting bigger enrollments, then of course, the number is going to go up to run it. But I got a couple just quick questions because I don't want to beleaguer everything. What does the current enrollment look like? And what trends do you see that give us insight into the next five years? Can you provide a brief update on the Kato Scholarship Program and how it has supported students? And given the federal policy environment, what is your strategy for keeping tuition costs affordable? Actually you kind of answered that it was going to have to go up eventually. I'd be remissed if I didn't mention my little co-ed that I have at home, my wife Marne, is enrolled in Community College. She is six classes away from her degree, parallegal degree, so very proud of her for that. But part of the reason she was able to go back was the affordability. As you said, you are the best game in town in terms of that stuff for certifications and others. So if you could just give me those three questions quick, brief, you don't have to really --
Well, you know, the good news is that we have a president who will answer the majority of that. But I will say that Kato is, I don't know, they're about year six or seven, and every year it sets new records of enrollment. Dr. Marshall can give you the exact numbers. We have not raised tuition in six or seven years. We'd like not to, but at some point we're going to have to.
Our total currently active Kato scholar enrollment is 1,650. The total number of Philadelphians served to date is 3,358. And our total number of Kato scholars that are going to graduate or have graduated to date is 322. And then just to give you a snapshot of the enrollment, we currently have 21,067 students for total enrollment 24-25, that includes non-credit students. If we look at our credit students for 24-25 we're at 18,326 students. And you can see that our trend has been increasing steadily.
That -- that's -- that's good stuff. Just one more followup because I don't see my colleague Quetcy Lozada here yet. What is the number of Latinos enrolled in CCP now?
So that's been steadily increasing if we look at our 24-25 enrollment by race, we're at 18.34% for Hispanic Latino students. And that is up over the past few years. We were about 16% last couple years, so it's steadily growing.
Let me also add to what you are inquiring about Congressman -- Congressman, I just gave you promotion.
Councilmember Harrity. And that is we have a breakdown and if it's not in the book, we'll get it to you, about the number of enrollees by each of your districts, those of you who have a district.
And what we want to do is to partner with each of you to have a person in your office that will help us go deeper into your districts to make the case why Community College. Again we got to dig deeper for the gyms because we all know that one of the best possibilities not a guarantee, but one of the best possibilities to change a lot in life is an education. And again with the example just shown including a road scholar you can come to this Community College and do anything you want in the world, you just got to have the gumption to go do it, but we're there to give you a start. And we want to -- we will need your help in every district such that that enrollment continues to go up so that poverty continues to go down.
Yeah. I know in this body here Community College is a sense of pride for us the fact that we're able to help so many other people like you said, have a come up, is good stuff. So thank you. Thank you for your service. And, doctor, congratulations and welcome to the game, I guess, or back to the game.
Before Councilmember Richardson leaves, so I just want to make this comment. Look, in spite of all the good stuff, I'm a numbers guy, the graduation number out of community college for the last 10 years has fluctuated between 1,800 and 2,000. The city needs that number to be 4,000. And so until we all lean in to figure out to get more people into the education pipeline, we're not going to impact that poverty number.
Thank you. And I just want to also acknowledge that y'all have one of the best, if not the best, nursing programs in the region. I think --
I think it's under the radar that most people may or may not know, but I know that that's one of the best nursing programs in the region.
One of the reasons I wear my CCP pen everyday and would encourage many of you, when you do that you will see people come up to you, many of them nurses and say I went through CCP that. And that's all over. But let me also say about it is an expensive--
Mr. Chairman, but I think the new president wants to chime in I'm going so can she have an opportunity to have the mic. You the chair, like we know you here, but you got a new you got -- a new president that people want to hear from.
It is it is one of our most expensive programs, but I will say our recent class had 100% NCLEX passing rates. So we continue to be an outstanding excellent example for nursing. And we are looking forward to improving on that when we have our renovations with our sim lab that we've also done for our students as well. And so we've modeled that after Miami Dade Community College which is a stellar place for healthcare. And we will have real life mannequins that the students can work on with crying and bleeding and all of that and a simulation technology lab. So that's coming online probably in the fall. So we're excited about that and that's going to just help us improve our outcomes which are really great for that program.
Thank you very much. MADAM CHAIR GILMORE- RICHARDSON: Thank you very much, Council President. I must concur with his assessment regarding the nursing program. When I worked at Pennsylvania Hospital, as a staffing coordinator, we frequently hired many nurses from Community College'S nursing program, which was one of the best in the region. So thank you very much. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Phillips.
Thank you to Majority Leader Richardson. I just want to say thank you to Chairman Epps, and also congratulations to you, new interim president. This is an exciting time, I believe for CCP, and I want to thank you all for the work that you've been doing to for the best of the students. Just a couple questions that could help advance the student population in the city at this Community College. Question No. 1: How does the college intend to fulfill the bargaining commitment to free SEPTA passes for CCP students? So how do you intend to get that commitment. And how is the college approaching faculty hiring this year in light of the new contract that just took place? And also, I'm also curious, this is the third question. The 9th District is the host of the former Northwest Regional Campus. Can you just talk about plans for that as well? And my last question, I'm put them in all at once. I am concerned about capital improvements for the college. The times I've been there with the exception of the new buildings, the lights are dim, they're not as bright inside. There's -- I'm hoping that with this new leadership, there could be a lot more vibrancy and joy, a lot more excitement about the idea of going to Community College within the interior. So I just would like for us to see if there's any plans to work on that in this new vision. And hopefully with you, you can work more closely with government offices because that wasn't as present with the previous president, but we can also find ways to, you know, connect better with students to be more student-friendly in that way. So those are my questions SEPTA, hiring, lighting, capital projects, Northwest campus.
It's going to take all three of us. And Dr. Marshall, why don't you go first.
Okay. We are working with a cross -- I guess you could say cross-divisional team where we have representation from the federation, as well as administration that's working on and working with students actually our student government leadership with a committee that's looking at how can we make this possible for our students. So we're working with -- we had a meeting this past week already with SEPTA to see how we could possibly do that. We're looking at opportunities to possibly use financial aid in some way to support that or a transportation fee. But we are really cognizant of the fees and the cost to attend college. And as Chair Epps mentioned before we are always thinking about how can we keep costs down for students. So we're kind of going through all the different scenarios and thinking about how we can approach that and we do have a working group that's meeting regularly to look at the SEPTA passes. In regards to faculty hiring, we are hiring new full- 19 time faculty this year. The faculty 20 that are being hired in regards to the areas that we are hiring in are reflective of what the MOA said in the trans -- in the tentative agreement with the federation and the final agreement. So we're working towards that. I'm pleased to say that we have hired -- this is the second year we've done a large hire number of faculty. Last year faculty starting in fall were a part of 8 faculty that were hired in last year 9 for this year. One of the things 10 that we're trying to do is to be 11 intentional around diversifying our 12 faculty. So having an opportunity 13 to hire these larger numbers of 14 faculty, hiring 20 last year which 15 were more reflective demographically 16 of our student population. We have 17 implemented some strategic 18 initiatives around what we do in 19 terms of recruitment and what we do 20 in terms of diversifying the opportunity for our diverse pools to come to the table. So we are happy about the 20 new lines that we are going to get. This gives us another opportunity to diversify the faculty. And those numbers are reflecting the areas that were indicated with the agreement with the federation. And then I'll let somebody else do Northwest.
Yes. I do agree that we have to do a better job of lighting up the buildings. So we have three projects. One is the Mint front lobby, the historic renovation to the main entrance to the Mint Building. So that project is being designed right now. The second is Mint lighting, to enhance the lighting of the Mint Building on Spring Garden. Again, it's an historic building and we need to do a better job of lighting up that building. And we did a smaller project is the skylights. We have completely changed the skylights that is connecting the Mint building to the Bonnell Building so that project is completed. I hope you get an opportunity to visit us and I'll definitely take you around the building to show the improvements we have done in the library and the Bonnell skylights.
Yeah, and I see the -- I see the new flags, that's wonderful. I'm hoping you could do some more painting with the colors outside of the buildings, similar to what Temple has done to make some sort of more unification showing like, oh, you're at CCP. Like larger signs, poles that can show, you know you're at CCP. And the colors, you're like, oh, this is CCP. But thank you.
So we started a conversation with the School district how we can partner together to have a lease purchase agreement with the School District. So that's being worked on and they are interested in having follow-up negotiations on that.
Okay. Thank you so much the point I I'd like to make so you hear it from a member of the board is all things lead back to affordability. Right now Jacob, correct me, I think we're sitting on somewhere around $80-million of deferred maintenance. And so everyday he and his team have to make the choices as to what we do to maintain and resolve. I'm sitting on a bench yesterday and water leaks down on me and I'm inside. So we have to make those kinds of choices because we only got so much money.
Is it because most of your students are online now, right?
No, most of them are not online. And Dr. Marshall can say to you why that is not the best path or process for them to gain the knowledge, if you would.
So initially post-- post COVID, we did have a large number of our students taking online courses. And obviously they were used to that or they had been doing that. We slowly got more interest in in-person classes and we are moving in that direction. Particularly there's some areas and some classes where it's hands-on and that's required in order for them to learn. Our nursing classes, our biology, our STEM labs and those things, so we're definitely maintaining the in-class presence. We're also offering now HyFlex and I don't know if you're familiar with that, but HyFlex is an opportunity for a student to choose how they attend a class so it allows them to attend in-person the same class in person or asynchronously online or synchronously online, and that's the same class. So we've done that in certain situations which allows us to provide access to students who would not otherwise be able to take classes, but we continue to maintain that we will have in-person classes particularly in the areas and disciplines where it's required for the learning outcomes.
Thank you. CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you, Councilman. Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass.
Good afternoon. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. So I had a couple of questions. Number 1, welcome. Welcome. I had a couple of questions and it's, you know, it's I think sort of like the elephant in the room, I'll say. Because CCP looks like it's doing really well based on everything that's presented today. So I think a lot of us are confused as to the change in leadership, the recent change in leadership. And, you know, we're hoping that you can give some sort of explanation that makes sense. Because you know someone did call me yesterday and tried to explain it. You know, it didn't make any sort of sense that I could, you know, figure out or no common sense. But I just didn't seem to really have an understanding as to, you know, what happened to the last president?
That is the elephant in the room and I knew at some point we would get to this point and I will do the best I can within the limits of the law that will allow me to respond. And that is every four years or so, you all have to go before your board to decide whether you will be re-appointed and that's called the electorate. In this case like many others there is a contract in place that requires either party to decide whether they will renew the relationship. And this board gave intent, a possible direction to the sitting president back in December that after two renewals we thought it was time for a change. And we were in the process of negotiating that in an amicable way, quietly and discreetly with a celebratory pathway to transition and the other side decided they wanted to take it to the public. We were surprised as you were surprised. We had no idea, no knowledge, no pre-signal that it was going to end up this way. We are saddened, disappointed, upset, frustrated by it had to end this way. Dr. Generals did a solid job --
But that has nothing but that has nothing to do with other factors that you would not see that we will see as the board because that's what we appointed to do. And we evaluated all of that and concluded that it was time for a change.
You know, again, based on what is presented here it doesn't seem like -- you know, it's almost like you know when the Eagles won the Super Bowl, and then it's kind of like, there's all these changes and it's like, why are we making these changes? You know like we just won. You know we're at the top. We're No. 1. When I look at what was presented here, you know, it's all glowing, it all looks great. I, you know, for the life of me, I can't really understand why this would suggest that there was time for new leadership because this seems to be everything that a Community College would want. And I have no doubt that our new president is going to do a phenomenal job. But I just think you know the way we do things matters. The idea that we, you know, ended this relationship I think at this point when the end of the semester is here, graduation is here, we have all summer to you know try to figure things out. There's a lot of you know conversation, you know, like in in the neighborhood or on the streets, I should say, that in terms of what actually happened. And I won't go into the details here because I don't have a nickel in this dime. You know, I'm not a CCP student, I'm not, you know, vested except that I am a member of council and I care about what my constituents care about. And so, you know, it's very glaring, you know, this sudden change without any sort of reason or rationale. And I understand what you said that you felt like it was time for a change as a board, but it doesn't connect to what you have presented here today. And I would say that for whatever the successes are just like the board takes credit for it, you know, the leadership gets credit for it, too.
That is correct. You know, you talk about the streets and I will only say this, that on the streets one of the sayings is everything that glitters in gold. And so what I would say to you is you are we -- 15 of us were appointed by the Mayor to be the stewards of the college. And you talk about timing, we both were operating under a time bound contract that mandated through a certain period that we make certain decisions and we honored that contract.
Understandable. At the same time the contract did not -- it wasn't a term limit, so it's not as if that a decision had to be made --
And that period, right, no, I understand that, but I'm saying we had an option to renew or an option not to renew.
So we decided not to renew and, again, based on everything that's here it looks great. It looks like --
Councilmember, there are other factors that go into a human resource decision that what you can't put on a sheet of paper.
Okay. Well, you know, I'm not exactly sure, you know, where we are. Like I said I think Madam President will do a phenomenal job, our new president coming in. But it does uh trouble me to some degree that, you know, Dr. Generals was someone who seemed to be very thorough and effective. And, you know, you produced the results this is what you gave us that said that he was you know like doing a, you know, a phenomenal job. This report looks fantastic. And so to say that you know this isn't, you know, that this person wasn't doing a good job it's just really hard to understand. And I'll just say that one of the things that I heard during the conversation about, you know, some of -- some of the faults of Dr. Generals included, you know, like that he hadn't really reached out to members of council effectively, you know, during his tenure. And I have to say I represent part of Temple University which has a, you know, like a huge footprint. I talk to them when I need to. I don't like -- we don't need to be in conversation every single day. Now I don't know if that's was the expectation of the board and if that was communicated effectively to the leadership, but I just think that it just, you know, something here seems amist to me. It just -- it just doesn't -- it doesn't seem to jive. So thank you, Mr. President. CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Bass. I appreciate your remarks and I would ask the board chair that maybe you take some time to have a conversation with the councilwoman off the record to clarify some of the questions that she had here today.
Happy to do so. CHAIR THOMAS: Yeah, I encourage that. So thank you, sir The Chair recognizes Councilmember Young.
So you've answered most of my questions from our briefing that we had, but a couple of years ago the college instituted a new CRM system that was supposed to increase enrollment and revenue. Can you talk to us about that? I believe it was called Slate or something like that.
That would be that would be Slate. I'll ask Dr. Rooney to speak to that. Dr. Rooney is our vice president over enrollment management, marketing communications and institutional research as well.
Hi. Good afternoon. It's nice to talk to you. We did implement Slate as a new CRM a few years ago, and I think it's part of why our enrollment has risen over the last eight consecutive parts of term. Part of what it was able to help us do was smoothen the way in which our students are able to go through the the application process. It's become a little bit more straightforward in the way that we're able to directly communicate with students who are part who have applied. And once they've applied to kind of pull them through that funnel and make sure that they make it to metriculation. We are still in the process of implementing it right now, but we're probably about 50% of the way there. And right now it is only in process for our credit students. Our plans are to expand it to include our non-credit students and also to bring it to a two-way texting platform as well.
Thank you for that. And one more question about some of the other programs that CCP offers. I know, you know, I offered, my office to help you with marketing, but can you talk to us about how you market some of your more hands-on programs not necessarily just, you know, the, you know, the English degree, right, but some of the other programs that CCP has how you are getting that word out to our Philadelphia residents?
Sure. So in addition to the overall visibility marketing that we do for the college, we do a significant amount of social marketing and Google keywords ad by so that we are targeting residents all over the city who do not have other educational credentials, specifically pointing them toward many of the non-credit, I think those are the programs that you're referring to. Many of the programs that happen in the CATC, for instance. And they are directing students to either interest forms where then somebody at the college directly reaches back out to them to make sure they're able to come out, do a tour, take a look at what the application process would be like. We also do host information sessions and do direct outreach to all of the Philadelphia high schools to make sure that counselors are aware of the programs that are available and can be on-hand to answer any questions that students might have. I would be happy to connect with you and make sure that you have any literature to Chair Epp's point earlier to make sure that you've got literature in your office to make sure you can help us in that regard.
No, thank you. I just, you know, I took a tour of the facility out West Philly. And you know those students particularly in the Toyota program are guaranteed a job working for Toyota once you finish that program. And so I think those are the types of programs that we need to highlight to let our, you know, future students know that there is a job opportunity at the end of the tunnel. The machine -- machinist program is there. It's awesome, like you're going -- you're almost guaranteed a job when you finish that program. And I think that that's a a disconnect that we have with our young people. And people in general, they want to make sure that there is a job at the end of the tunnel. You know I wouldn't go to law school if I didn't think I was going to get a job, right? So we want people to know that there is a there is a path to a life-sustaining career if you do decide to go to CCP. So thank you, Mr. Chair. CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you, Councilmember. Very much appreciate and agree with everything that was said there. A couple things. So first congratulations and welcome. Thank you for your service and the work that you're deciding to do with the children in the city of Philadelphia. When listening to some of the questions from the Councilwoman, can you take a minute to go on the record to communicate what your plan of communication will be to both City Council, as well as our state partners because I'm sure that they have questions, too, as it relates to the status of the leadership at CCP. And what we can anticipate as it relates to, I guess you could say, future outcomes based on the separation that took place?
We have a communication team led by Ms. Rooney at this point. Right now it's augmented by Co Mercardo, they're sitting in the right-hand corner. And so through this transition through press releases and announcements on a timely basis we have done and will continue to do. We've made phone calls and special reach out to those that have inquired, we will continue to do that. As it relates to the search, that search will start in June and it will take whatever it takes. Until the interim Dr. Marshall will be in charge and it is our job to ensure that you and all other stakeholders are proactively communicated with on key milestones. We will from today's learnings continue to be proactive in reaching out to City Council. Your office has been one that we've reached out to as Chair of the education committee, but others We will ensure that you are communicated to. And if there's any special needs that one has please reach out to us let us know and we we will ensure that it takes place. CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you, sir. I might have missed this earlier, but talk to us a little -- well, first of all, the transition that's happening talk to us a little bit about graduation and things of that capacity, do you anticipate any hiccups in traditional end of school activities because of the leadership transition. Not you, Board Chair, please.
So immediately. I mean, of course, this is an unfortunate and unplanned situation. And immediately when this happened in terms of the separation the communication that I had with my team and my division has been that we are going to continue the good work that has been done. There are students that are expecting to graduate, there are students and community members that need us to do our work. And despite what's happening at the leadership level, that does not take us off of what we're trying to do and what we need to do for our students in the city of Philadelphia. So I was happy to step in. Before this appointment was made I was asked to facilitate over graduation and I agreed to do that prior to even being selected in this position and I would have done that if the need had been there. I want the students to graduate. My colleagues are all here, they've stepped up in different ways and we're going to continue the work. So I don't anticipate any delay. We have some strong teams and we have faculty and staff that are committed to our students and people have leaned in and I appreciate that and I know the board and Chair Epps appreciates everything that everyone is doing. But we're going to have a wonderful day on Saturday and that's the goal and the intent. So outside of Council President, I know Councilmember Nina Ahamd has brief questions and you as well Councilmember Landau. Okay. So we're going to try to wrap this up real quick. Before we wrap up, I want to just give you an opportunity just to -- we don't do this often, but you're new. What do you anticipate being better? What do you anticipate being different? What changes do you anticipate? Give us an opportunity for what your vision will be as the new person leading the charge at CCP. And then after that we'll go to Councilmember Ahmad and we'll close out with Councilmember Landau.
So I would say day two as Interim President, I have some ideas and some goals about ways we can expand and build on our partnerships particularly in the areas of workforce development. Part of our efforts are going to be grounded in our strategic plan we are in the process of refreshing that plan and finalizing that plan. We have an aspiration to be one of the top tier community colleges not only in this region, but in the nation. That will require us to really push the needle towards our graduation numbers as well as our career placement numbers and employment numbers for our students, whether they're in the traditional programs or they're in our non-credit programs. Have had a conversation already with John Fry looking forward to strengthening some of our articulation agreements with Temple University which there's areas of opportunity for that. The other piece of that, I think is thinking about how can we build and so I want to underscore that over the past few years our graduation rates have moved. We're at 24%, but we need to be better. But since I've been here we've gone up 8% in a few years, a couple of years. So the momentum is there. For me it's about continuing to build and expand the work that means we're probably going to go into new programming and opportunities particularly with this Navy project, that's an opportunity we've never had. We're going to execute on that and be successful and possibly have more opportunities to build in that space additional other programming spaces as well. So that's the short piece of it. I'm looking forward to working collaboratively with this board. It is a collaborative effort where we are talking about where we want to see the institution go and my job in the interim is to make sure that we're executing on that vision. But nothing has changed in regards to success, completion, retention and placement and opportunity and employment for our students in the city.
But I'm sure some areas you you would say this is great that Dr. Generals was doing, but if I'm the new person, I would do these things differently. Anything else in terms of your vision that you would tweak and change and adapt to? Because if everything he did was great, I think he'd probably still be here.
So I think that it's important to recognize the seat that I have been in as the provos and vice president of academic and student success I had a certain lens and scope and area of responsibility being in this seat is a different lens. And so I did have opinions and thoughts about what I think should happen in the president's seat. There may have been things I agreed with may have been things I disagreed with, but I do think it takes a due diligence for me to sit in the seat in the time frame that I have and to talk to people in this new seat with this new lens and to get a sense of the whole institution, not just academic affairs, workforce development, student support, the whole entire institution which involves the areas of responsibility of my counterparts and colleagues and to understand where they see things moving where I see things moving in this new seat where I have a new lens, and then make some recommendations that the board can reflect and possibly support in moving forward.
I know post COVID the world has changed including academics and the role of the leader of an academic institution has changed requiring much more collaboration public partnerships and that is not something we do very well today. So it is one of the areas that we will have to get much more creative much more proactive with. We have a retreat in the fall and we will further reconcile giving the new president time to get with her cabinet and get her vision, but we will then reconcile that together with the board in the fall. But if you want to talk about one area that we will be calling upon, and then we will be calling upon you to help and that is to build stronger bridges with institutional partners in and around the city. And that's something that we don't do well today.
I know you do have Rhoads Industry, that's in my district so I'm familiar with --
-- of that partnership. I will say I think that the board made a smart decision for looking from within as opposed to without at least as we are right now at the interim president. A lot of times we look around, do national searches and so forth, but sometime I look at the individuals from within the actual institution that's actually doing the work that knows the culture as an added value and an added benefit to the position, at least for myself looking at it from the outside in. And so with that being said, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau, then Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Good afternoon. Thank you so much for being here and I apologize for a bit of the popcorn effect we are having on you today. But we're happy to see you and so great to hear about CCP's accomplishments. I wanted to keep very focused on the issue of SEPTA. Students, faculty and staff need access to SEPTA to make campus and college-related activities more accessible. What SEPTA benefits are currently available to students, faculty and staff? What does it cost us per year? And what would you need to offer access to more people? And then the follow-up question is how does a college intend to fulfill the bargaining bargaining commitment to free SEPTA passes for CCP students?
You don't see anybody volunteering to answer that question, do you? I'm a little levity. I'll start and then turn over to Jacob, and then give Dr. Marshall the last. We -- this is something that we would love to do, we struggle with it because it is another component of cost in its present form that we have to resolve for. Prior to further negotiations, I don't know the number, but it ends with millions. Jacob and a team had a meeting yesterday trying to -- and we had the student representative and the collect -- collective bargaining reps in the room with us trying to negotiate and find a path forward. We will leave no stone unturned, but again, we sit there having to manage the lever of rising costs, the labor negotiations, tuition increase and SEPTA. So all of those have got to be factored into a way. We want to figure it out, we're not there yet.
So yesterday we had a meeting with SEPTA we included the union leaders, as well as the student leader and we started the negotiations. So we don't have a commitment to give transpass to the students or to the employees, but we have a commitment to make it work. So that's the first part of the negotiations. We're planning to meet with her again and continue the negotiations to come up with what is a feasible solution without really impacting the dollars of the college.
Thank you for that. Do you -- what SEPTA benefits are currently available to students? Any?
And correct me if I'm wrong, over the last few years some of the benefits that other more well endowed universities have had have been reduced. So it is an expensive benefit, everybody wants to have it done, but it's tough to pull off.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad, then Councilman Jamie Gauthier, Richardson, and then we wrapping up with Harrity.
Thank you, Council President. Thank you all for being here. Congratulations on your interim position. This was a question I asked last year as well about foster youth at CCP and students who are either just finishing, you know, they're aging out of the foster care system. And when we I had met with them their concerns were about housing and resources while they were at CCP. I wanted to know if there are any provisions made to accommodate those students who really have no one and they are being aged out of a system with very little support. And so I wanted to know if CCP has any pathway to specifically, you know, look at their needs and how those needs are met? And if there's a budget allocation in here for that?
I'll speak to that. We currently don't have any programs specifically focused on foster youth students, but we do have connection to students for housing insecurity and we ensure that we go through our single stop program to accommodate that. But I'd be interested in looking more at that more closely and looking at some issues around that. That hadn't risen up to my level about that specific.
We'll follow up with you on that. And my second quick question is I'm very happy to see that as part of the career and advanced technology center it includes an electric vehicle and hybrid proficiency certificate. Can you tell me what -- about this certificate, what jobs or careers this certification prepares these participants for? And I also wanted to know if there is a pathway for them to be in apprenticeships in IBW, for example?
So this program does provide an opportunity for students to learn how to work on electric vehicles and it does allow them an opportunity once they gain the certificate and they gain the training that they can be employed directly, but I don't believe we have a specific relationship with that so we could talk about that.
Yeah, there's some requirements for them and I wondered if the certification prepares them for being able to need meet those requirements in order to be in the industry. We are looking to make Philadelphia hopefully in the in the nation a place where EV is democratized so that it's not just for the few, it's for everyone. And we, you know, this is a -- this is an environmental justice issue. So the more people engaged in this sector the more people who are ready to do this, this is a job creator as well as addressing our climate issues. So I just wanted to maybe we'll follow-up to have more conversation about what exactly this does and what could it do more in order for these folks to have good living wage jobs and contribute to our environment.
Before I give it to Dave Thomas to go back to your child care -- foster care. I think what you just said is a perfect example of the need for the public/private partnership between the college council and other and other legislators who affecting the outcome and the private sector. That's perfect example of where we got to be at the forefront and not at the back of the bus. Dr. Thomas.
Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Council President. Good afternoon, Dr. Ahmad. Great to see you. I'm so glad that you asked the question around foster care youth. Several years ago we started a program in partnership with the Philadelphia Housing Authority to create a shared housing program for housing insecure students. Those individual students who have preference to those 16 units are students who have been in the foster care system. And the reason why we started that program is because several years prior to that we started working very closely with the Achieving Independent Center knowing that we had the line share of youth who are aging out of the foster care system in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that were attending CCP. We were part of a collaborative organization and cross-sector collaborative that was happening at the University of Pennsylvania out of the children's policy practice and research center that focused on supporting students who were in the foster care system. When we created that shared housing program we received dollars from the college's own foundation, our own 501c3, as well as Sprinpoint partners under the leadership of Simron Sudu to support that work. We're looking to expand those program partnerships with the Philadelphia Housing Authority just recently I reached out to some folks over there to see how we could potentially identify additional units because we do not have enough units to meet the needs of all of our students who are in that space. And in addition to that we also created an on campus support program called Fostering Caring Connections. We literally have trained individuals in various departments across institution on the specific needs of young people aging out of the foster care system. We actually have foster care young people create an actual emblem so now it's on the doors for students, who if they go and see that emblem on the door of an office or an cubicle, they know that that individual has been trained to support students around the need for foster care support. So they can go in and have a friendly voice and an understanding voice to help them navigate their challenges.
Excellent. We can have an expansion of that. You know, they're at their most vulnerable at that time. All to 22-year-olds are vulnerable, 5 but to be coming aging out of the 6 system with no support is really 7 extremely vulnerable time. So I 8 appreciate anything and everything 9 you can do in that regard. Thank 10 you, Council President. 11
12 Thank you. 13 Councilman Jamie Gauthier, 14 Majority Leader Gilmore-Richardson, 15 Councilman Jim Harrity and wrapping 16 up with Council Quetcy Lozada. We 17 out at 4:00. 18
Thank you, Council President. Thanks to you all for being here today. Congratulations, Dr. Marshall. I've been very impressed with you during your tenure and I was really excited to hear that you were going to be the interim president and I look forward to working with you in this new capacity. The CCP initiative that I am most excited about is the Career and Advanced Technology Center or the CATC in my district. I had the chance to tour the facility and was very impressed by the various hands- on training facilities and the thoughtful way that you are creating a classroom to workplace pipeline. I think it is a model for workplace -- for workforce development. And I'd like to hear how things have been going since the grand opening. So first how many students do you have the capacity to enroll and how many are enrolled in your courses? Do you know how many students are from the immediate area in my district and how many are from broader areas of the city? Do you have information on successful program completion rates and on-the- job placement -- placement rate and do you continue to collect data about students after their graduation?
Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm gonna have Dr. Powell who oversees the programs at the CATC speak to those questions. You might have to repeat. Dr. Powell --
Okay. Dr. Powell is currently serving as our associate provost right now.
Good afternoon. The CATC Center has a variety of programs that are serving the city. We have the advanced manufacturing emphasis that is the welding CNC and electromechanical, but in addition we have nurses aid and we also have the clinical medical assisting and dental assisting programs. These numbers -- we're running classes constantly. We also help with the Philadelphia Department of Transportation for their safety emissions. We're helping with Safe Serve in regard to food safety. So we're -- we're constantly running at any one moment in time we have a variety of classes going. Last numbers I looked at which probably I shifted out there's a new associate provost. We were well over 500 students that were enrolled at that moment in time, that was maybe about two weeks ago.
And how are we doing with completion? How are we doing with job placements? And um I'm going to channel my colleague Dr. Nina Ahmad, what kind of data are we tracking after people graduate?
The college has purchased software so that we can do some data analytics in regard to these students. The health and wellness side specifically have the students go through accreditation and they dealing with examination upon completion. So looking for placement in our local health care is part of the responsibilities of the employees at CATC. We have hired someone out of the Philadelphia School District about a year and some ago who has been taking the leadership in advanced manufacturing. There is very high placement in the industry areas that have been already previously recognized. And the students are going to be coming up on the ceremony when they have actual recognition by the employers that are hiring them. That is almost like an NFL draft that they they're picking their students and they're pulling them in. So it's been amazing.
My time is up. It sounds like we have some work to do on the data tracking side. I'm going to encourage us to put that in place when you do something groundbreaking. It's important to track the success of it so that we can grow it and and keep it going so I look forward to continuing that conversation with you.
Thank you. The Chair recognized Councilmember Majority to Gilmore Richardson and Councilmember Jim Harrity and wrapping up will be Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Council President. And thank you, to Board Chair Epps and the entire board for your work during the contract negotiation process. And kudos and congratulations to you, Dr. Marshall, and welcome to your new leadership role at Community College of Philadelphia. We look forward to working with you. The President already put on the record my question regarding the funding increase based on the proposed budget that we received in council, and so I look forward to receiving additional information as we move forward in that process.
Point of information. That was a funding decrease.
Yes, yes. Agreed Mr. President. So that's going to walk me right into my next question. I think you were going here, Mr. President. Relative to the CCME program, you know I care deeply about workforce development and am very excited about the possibility around really expanding this work as it relates to city government and our internal positions, as well as external to the city of Philadelphia. So can you all provide us with an update regarding CCME, how you all are working directly with the district on the program? What is the current enrollment or projected enrollment for the program? And how the program would potentially be impacted, if at all, by the budget reduction or if that's okay based on the additional $15-million workforce development investment.
Thank you. Always great to see you, Councilwoman. So CCME has been a yoeman's job, right? We had a very short runway to get it up and running, but we successfully got it up and running in about three months. In our fall semester we had to essentially backwards engineer our enrollments because the ultimate goal for CCME is to ensure that individuals who successfully complete land jobs primarily in the city, right? You all understand how the city works. So very often the hiring department may only have their window of hiring open for a certain period of time, so we have to do a lot of backwards engineering. Which is why we established in partnership with the city of Philadelphia realistic goals in the beginning, right? So our goal all overall was to enroll 100 students in the first year, which we exceeded that number slightly. We also did a significant amount of outreach to the School District. Right now we have roughly 55 to 60 students in the school district who are taking classes with us under CCME umbrella. They're taking what we call our Career Readiness Power Skills courses. Those students are represented across six charter schools, as well as about three of the traditional public schools.
And that's separate from the dual enrollment students, correct, right? That's separate.
That's correct. And those students while they're having their connections directly to CCME high school we also work with them to look at the various pathways that they can go into that are career specific. We work, I think we probably meet weekly um with the city of Philadelphia on the progress of CCME, our goals, outreach, completion, you name it. The first semester, which was last fall, We had four students complete because they were on a pathway that could actually complete in one semester. Other completion pathways take much longer, but those four students were the only ones who were in that pathway. It was the office administrative professionals pathway. All four of those students successfully completed. All four of those students are in the process of getting jobs. As a matter of fact one just started on Monday and she's working with us at CCP. She's actually office administrative professional associate rather for CCME. So she's actually the front facing individual for the actual initiative. So we're excited about the opportunities again we are working with the city of Philadelphia to identify additional pathways based off of job needs. And we have also recently hired a manager of career and employment pathways. That is one job that will be in charge of actually tracking employment. Traditionally as an institution we have not really done job development. Career services is one thing, career readiness is one thing. Job development and job placement is something completely different. We've only done historically in my years under 15 our keys program which is state funded for TANF and SNAP, you can imagine why job placement is a priority there. So we're looking to do that as well for CCME to really track placement and count those numbers, and then also follow-up with students once they've been once they've secured employment to ensure that they can come back for additional training as well.
Okay. I heard the bell, I'm going to honor the clock, but I appreciate that response. And I just wanted to add here Because I did meet with the administration regarding this issue last Thursday. If there's an opportunity for you all to work with the city directly for individuals who are completing the program to adjust the job specification description under the city of Philadelphia, to ensure that that particular certification meets the requirement for the job, then you want to make sure that you all are doing that as well. Because we have a ton of job specs that need to be updated anyway. And finally, I just wanted to put on the record, relative to the School District of Philadelphia students and I mentioned this at the hearing earlier to Dr. Watlington, who are enrolled in a dual enrollment program particularly at Community College of Philadelphia, if you all could figure out a better way to work with the School District to ensure that when, as an example fall grades are available, that they go right over to the district so they can incorporate them in their grade or in their GPA, that would be helpful for young people who are applying to college. Because that actually happened to my daughter last year. She was dual enrollment at Engineering and Science and Community College. And because the grades were not updated between the district and the Community College she had a 374, I think she needed a 375 to apply to the honors college at North Carolina ANT. After her community grade updated her GPA was a 376, but it didn't matter she still couldn't apply because there was no communication as far as getting the grade in quickly with CCP and the district.
Okay. Yes, ma'am. I just let you know I'm well aware of that situation and I was on it. Yes, ma'am.
Thank you, Majority Leader. Chair recognizes Councilman Jim Harrity, then Councilman Lozada.
Thank you, Council President. Just real quick, I only actually have one question left, Council. My leader got a couple answers for me. Just trying to figure out what are the actual programs and skills that we're offering for the city employees for upskilling?
For upskilling at CCME, we offer I believe three programs. We have a surveyor program, we have industrial maintenance mechanic, and I believe there's one other one that's currently under workforce. I'm not too sure which one that one is.
Maybe customer support specialist, so those are the three for upskilling specifically.
Yeah. Thank you. That's that's all I had. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.
Thank you, Council President. I know that my colleague earlier asked about Latino enrollment. I'm glad that it is consistently going up. My question is the reason that it has gone up is because there was very specific Latino engagement outreach happening at CCP by individuals like Gale Gonzalez and others. Now that that leadership has changed, is there a plan to continue with that same outreach and what is the strategy that you guys are going to use to continue to engage students if that initiative is not going to continue?
I can speak to that a little bit. My mother was from Panama so I'm a Latina as well. And I'm interested in supporting and growing that Latina population, the Latino population. And part of the efforts that we have been looking at particularly is thinking about how to create a safe space and how to create support that's targeted to that population of students. At my past institution we had a program called Adilante and that program was an opportunity to create support structures wraparound holistic support, as well as community for our students, and that provided an opportunity for them to thrive and grow. And we also connected them with a Latino and Latina professors as well, who were interested in developing and supporting that population of students. So we know that things are happening in Washington, it's difficult to secure funding particularly for a certain demographic populations so there's a struggle with that. But I've talked a little bit with institutional advancement about how we might have a donor that might be willing to support something like that. I definitely see a need, as well as thinking about our continued growth in that population. We're at 18% now and that's been growing over the past few years. I think a couple years ago we were at 15% for that population. So I definitely think there's an opportunity there that we need to lean into and I'm looking forward to leading that effort.
Councilmember, if I could just add, I was in your district recently at Espiranza.
Espiranza, I was just about to say the same thing.
I was there with the Cortez brothers and walked away as Chair of the Board saying, there's got to be better ways to collaborate between ourselves and the great work being done to leverage your community to a higher level. And so as Chair, you could get a word that we will be adding that to our list of questions to get the answers to is how do we maximize the potential in your district between Community College and Espiranza.
And Espiranza have a state-of-the- art nursing program as well.
Is that nursing or pre-nursing, but I do know they have a state-of-the- art program that I visited some time ago. So I think y'all can figure out they have a partnership with Eastern, but we're CCP so, and we're homegrown. And so I just think that would be great. Rounding up for today is Councilmember Rue Landau.
I had one final question that I just want to clear up. I know that in your settlement agreement with your contract negotiations you agreed to increase staffing in certain departments. I just want to confirm that you are not freezing the hiring of the folks. I want to say this properly. Not freezing the hiring process for new faculty lines for the next academic year. The folks you've already given offers to or are very far along in the pipeline. I want to make sure those aren't stopped because of the increased staffing in certain other areas.
I'll speak to that. That's not happening at all. We had some faculty that were in progress and those were continuing to move forward and we've accommodated by adding the new positions in. So any faculty that had been made offers to are going to continue in the hiring process.
Thank you. We'll thank you for your presentation. We wish you much success. Mr. Chairman, as always good to see you, Mr. Epps. With that being said, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Majority Gilmore-Richardson for -- you are dismissed.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Majority Gilmore- Richardson for a motion regarding the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolution before the committee today and stand in recess until Wednesday, April 30th, 2025 at 10:00 a.m.
It has been moved and properly seconded that the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolutions before the committee today stand in recess until Wednesday, April 30th at 10:00 a.m in room 400, City Hall. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying. Those opposed? The ayes have it. The motion carries and this committee stands in recess until Wednesday, April 30th at 10:00 a.m. Thank you all for participating today. (Public hearing and meeting on bills and resolutions concluded at 4:00 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence are contained fully and accurately in the notes taken by me of the above case, and this copy is a correct transcript of the same. _______________ Samanda J. Rios