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Academic Achievement Center – Lindsay Laney:Cram Night: The AAC, ASCC, and the library are cohosting Cram Night on Thursday, December 5,from 4:00pm to 8:00pm. Faculty and tutors will be on hand to help students before finalsweek.Finals Week Schedule: The AAC will be open 8:30am-4:00pm Monday-Thursday of finals week.Spring 2020: We are planning to hire a handful of new tutors for the spring semester. Havestudents come by the AAC, if they are interested in becoming a tutor!Tutor Training: We will have tutor training on Wednesday, January 8, for all tutors (new andreturning).Admissions & Records Area Update – Lesley Michtavy:Nothing to report.Articulation Area Update – Elizabeth Pfleging:Nothing Reported.CalWORKS/GED – Jill Olson:Nothing to report.Career Transfer Center/Job Placement – Mary WattsAll 20 of our Transfer Day Representatives joined us on November 7 for a lively event in UpperManzanita, complete with nine back-to-back Transfer Workshops.

The workshop topics were: CSU Applications, UC TAG, Online Bachelor Programs, Study Abroad,Student Life/Career Prospects, Tips for Success after Transferring, UC Applications, andTransferring to a Private College.The participating universities were: Academy ofArt University, Air Force ROTC – CSUS, ArizonaState University, Brandman University, CogswellCollege, CSU Chico, CSU Sacramento, CSUStanislaus, Humphreys University, NationalUniversity, Notre Dame de Namur University,Orbis Education, Simpson University, UC Davis, UCMerced, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, and theUniversity of the Pacific.So far, the confirmed dates for universityadmissions representatives to return in the springare:February 4: CSU Stanislaus – 9am-3pmFebruary 6: Arizona State University – 10am-3pmFebruary 25: UC Davis – 9am-3pmMarch 3:CSU Stanislaus – 9am-3pmMarch 26:UC Merced – 9am-2pmApril 7:CSU Stanislaus – 9am-3pmApril 16:UC Merced – 9am-2pmCareer Update:The job bell has been ringing quite a bit the last week! Stay tuned for photos and more detailsin the fall newsletter, but students and alumni have secured some of the following positions:legal assistant; surveying intern; advertising and finance assistant; court intern; behavioralhealth peer specialist; and accounting intern.Counseling Area Update – Kirsten Miller:Panic Room: Counselors and Special Programs are partnering to offer The Panic Roomworkshop on Nov 25th from 12pm-9pm in the Career Transfer Center, helping students withtransfer applications prior to the Nov 30th deadlines for CSU and UC for next fall admission.

Nursing Program Selection Process: Counselors welcomed MJC Nursing program director, KellyButler, and instructor, Sally Chaffee, to inform us on updates to their program pre-requisitionsand processes of selection for the upcoming season of nursing applications. There are quite afew, including a shift in application season to February instead of May, so if you know anynursing students who are not aware of these shifts, please send them our way!Dual Enrollment is growing at Columbia College – from 180 two years ago to over 400 now!High school students are enrolling in college courses either on their campus or ours—or both—through CCAP, Middle College, or the regular Special Admit process. To address some of theworkload issues and processes that having such an increase in numbers has created, weconvened a Dual Enrollment committee that has been meeting throughout the fall with somegreat outcomes so far. Special thanks to the committee: Brandon Price, Kirsten Frye, Mike Igoe,Michelle Walker, Kelsey Halstead, Lesley Michtavy, and Kirsten Miller. Current work includes:1) Reconstruction of Special Admit paperwork to a single 2-page form for all signaturesneeded, including the minor’s health consent, and putting it online in a fillable format(live now!).2) Elimination of the CCPG (Fee Waiver) form, unless the student wants more than 11 units(or 15 if they are a CCAP student).3) Hosting a webinar series for high school partners to help understand the opportunities,challenges, and requirements for dual enrollment and the students we serve this way.4) An updated dual enrollment website with easy links to all of the forms, instructions onapplication steps, a high school staff support page with all the webinar recordings, andcontact information.DSPS Area Update – Sean Osborn:Nothing Reported.EOPS Area Update – Matt Fox:EOPS Conference Presentation: The EOPS Team presented a workshop at the statewide EOPSconference in Palm Springs. The topic was “Work from Home – Implementing Virtual Counselingand electronic forms to meet the need of online services for students!” We presented to apacked room and are now receiving follow-up requests for campus visits as other campuseshope to implement similar digital files and virtual services.

Virtual Counseling: Utilizing a soft roll-out, EOPS is now offering virtual counseling sessions. Inthe past week, we completed 5 virtual counseling sessions. Some of the sessions werescheduled in advance. In other cases, students called to cancel their appointment (carproblems, sick children, etc.) and when informed about the option to complete the counselingsession online, happily accepted the opportunity. It has worked very well for us – and we lookforward to sharing at an upcoming all-counseling meeting to share what we have implementedand learned from our experiences.Enrollment for Spring 2020: We continue to accept applications for EOPS; we anticipateaccepting 60-70 students into EOPS for the Spring. We have orientations scheduled in bothDecember and January. Thank you for continuing to refer students to our program!Priority Registration event: Our appreciation to the Foundation, Financial Aid, Special Programs& Counseling for partnering on the Priority Registration event! Over a 2-hour period, wehelped 29 students learn about scholarships, check their Financial Aid status and completeregistration for Spring. We plan to continue this event in future semesters.Financial Aid Area Update – Marnie Shively:Financial Aid Outreach – October and November was a busy month for us trying to ensure asmany new and continuing students as possible submitted their 2020-2021 FAFSA or DREAM Actapplications.Off-Campus Outreach Our office, with help from the MEOC staff, have completed multiplehigh school Financial Aid Workshops. The team assisted students and parents with hands onassistance with the completing the FAFSA or DREAM Act application. Student were alsoencouraged to complete the Columbia College Foundation Promise Application as well. I wantto give a big shout out to the MEOC staff. Thank You Tira and Tiffeny! We could not have servedover 75 students/parents without your help.On-Campus Outreach - On November 20 and 21, the Financial Aid Office held a Financial Aid“Fall”ow-Up event on the Tamarack Patio. Students stopped by to get financial aid questionsanswered or check on their financial aid status. Everyone who stopped by was entered in anopportunity drawing for two Day-O gift cards. Hot cider, hot chocolate, and coffee were servedto top off this wonderful fall event.Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) Outreach – The Technicians are busy this semesterattempting to contact each student who is on a financial aid SAP warning or will being reachingtheir max-unit disqualification to encourage them to appeal prior to the Spring semester. Thisearly intervention was intended to minimize the number of students who are disqualified for

the spring term or to prevent those that see an interruption to their financial aiddisbursements.Additionally, we were a guest at the October Counseling Meeting where we educatedcounselors on the difference between Academic SAP and Financial SAP.Follow up on Instagram - The Financial Aid Office now has its own Instagram account.Community Outreach Project We are currently working on a community flier with a QR (quickresponse) code that goes directly to the Columbia College Financial Aid webpage. This will givepotential students a quick and easy way to access information about funding sources atColumbia and directions on how to apply for aid. Check it out with your phone for yourself.We are LIVE on Etrieve The Financial Aid Office along with the Admissions and Records Officeat both Columbia and MJC were the next phase of the district wide implementation of Etrieve(Softdocs) system. The transition went smoothly and staff are quickly adapting to the newprocess.We Are Available! - Contact us if you would like us to do a presentation about Financial Aid inyour classroom or if you have a group of students coming on campus for a tour. We would lovethe opportunity let student know that college is affordable and we are here to assist them withthe process. Call the Financial Aid Office at Extensions 5105 or 5272 to take us up on our offer.Who’s your Technician? - Remember when directing students to the Financial Aid Office;please connect them with their Financial Aid Technician. Students with last names A–L areserved by Brooke at nielsenb@yosemite.edu or by calling 588-5105 while students with lastnames M-Z are served by Christa at bartelsc@yosemite.edu or by calling 588-5272.

Foster Youth Area Update – Stephanie Beaver:Nothing reported.Health Services Area Update – Laureen Campana:Flu vaccine remains available and free to students/staff and community members. I will havevaccine through flu season which is March/April 2020, but the earlier the better for a vaccine. Ihave drop-in clinic hours each day when I am not obligated to meetings or out of office housecall care.Food Security Program: Melissa Raby and I presented at the 11/13 YCCD board meeting 11/13on the Columbia College Food Security Program – we were able to highlight our PonderosaPantry, Grab and Go Bowls, Survey Research and more. The Food Security Committee (MikeIgoe, Doralyn Foletti, myself and a ASCC representative) continues to meet and plan.Columbia College will be presenting at the #RealCollege Basic Needs Summit at Laney College12/6 on our food security program.Statewide Medical and Health Tabletop Exercise: I attended the Tuolumne County version ofthe Statewide Medical and Health Tabletop Exercise with a Wildfire Scenario 11/14. Multiplecounty agencies were represented: Law, CalFire, Adventist Health and other health careproviders, County Schools, Childcare Centers, MiWuk Black Oak agencies, all public andenvironmental health agencies and more. This is obviously an immensely important topic andthe scenario presented a way to assess the readiness of your organization. I debriefed TrevorStewart on the day and gave my overview of our strengths and weaknesses. He will take this tothe already active fire safety coalition of Dr. B’s.Smoking/Vaping QUIT DAY: A student led smoking/vaping QUIT DAY is planned for November21st. A table will be outside the Tamarack entrance. Free turkey sandwiches will be given tostudents who quit for the day, and as possible to those who complete a survey.A Smoking/Vaping task force comprised of college and county staff and nonprofit agencies isworking to increase knowledge around smoking and vaping and quitting. This is especiallyimportant in light of the newly emerged VAPI – Vaping induced pulmonary injury, which hascaused dozens of deaths and thousands of hospitalizations in the nation.Wellness Central was a featured entry in the November Foundation of California CommunityCollege newsletter. Take a look https://www.cccstudentmentalhealth.org/