RSSP - Newsletter - February
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Residential & Student Service Programs Update February 2015 Volume 1, Issue 6 |
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Straight Talk from Associate Vice Chancellor LeNorman Strong In our previous issue of RSSP: News Flash, I updated you on the conversations Vice Chancellor Le Grande has been having regarding a proposed integration of RSSP into central campus services. These conversations are still ongoing and no determinations have been made. Since my last update, the Deloitte higher education consulting group has also been retained to complete the financial analysis and operating efficiency work that started last fall. The consultants have a work office on the third floor of RSSB. We expect their reports to be completed by mid-March. Until then, we’re busy with our budget planning for the next fiscal year!
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New Student Affairs Master Program UC Berkeley has officially approved a Student Affairs Master’s Program in collaboration with the University of San Francisco (USF) to be launched next fall. Berkeley’s University Extension will offer the certificate program focusing on student affairs and higher education. Students who complete this four-course requirement at Extension will be eligible to complete an additional four courses at USF, culminating in a Master’s Degree in Organization and Leadership conferred by USF.
This graduate program will be rigorous, relevant, affordable, and convenient. The inaugural faculty that will be teaching in the Berkeley certificate program are all widely experienced doctorates and teachers. They are:
Extension will begin developing and marketing the program in early February. They hope to enroll the first program cohort by Fall 2015. |
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University Village's Gill Tract As you may know, some of our students and community members have been very interested in the open space near University Village, Albany (UVA) known as Gill Tract. There could be additional protest activities in the area, especially as the weather warms up in the spring and as the development begins. We will keep updating you as developments take place. Thank you to those working at UVA for helping to keep our residents informed.
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Early Childhood Education (ECE) UC System Meeting and Fundraising Update The UC Early Childhood Education (ECE) Systemwide Directors met with UC President Janet Napolitano to discuss the program that provides early childhood services for students, faculty, and staff parents with young children. This meeting aimed to increase awareness surrounding the program and ask for greater system-wide strategic planning, financial support, and policy support for ECE. Major discussion points included initiatives to increase classroom space for infants and toddlers, as well as lowering tuition rates for ECE programs to increase affordability for employees.
President Napolitano was very receptive to ideas discussed during the meeting. She offered to bring the issue up in the 2015-16 budget discussion. The group is continuing to work with sponsors from the UC Office of the President on additional data gathering to fine tune specific recommendations for ECE.
ECE also recently received three gifts: a $150,000 grant from the Bernard E. & Alba Witkin Charitable Foundation, to fund a new Curriculum Development Director; a $1,000 donation from the Wagstaff family, whose child attended Girton Hall back in the 1980s; and a $300 grant from the Lee family, who currently has a child attending Haste. |
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Rumor Has It: A regular section to help settle the latest rumors Rumor: Is the “Culture of Care” just lipservice? No, it’s something we display for our students everyday, and we want to ensure that we are bringing this value to our staff as well. We are part of the Strategic Planning Initiative - Plan Big - to increase efforts in creating a supportive and cohesive workplace culture. RSSP staff members engaged in the project include Chana Bailey, Mark Kinnard, Don MacGregor, Jeffrey Church, Monica Reynoso, Denise DiBetta, Candi Lee, and Krysta Rudnick. However, your input on developing a supportive and cohesive workplace culture is important and we want your suggestions! Reach out to any of our participants, Erin Wixson or Lance Page.
On Feb. 12, a cross section of representatives from Student Affairs will hear a presentation on the proposals. AVC Anne DeLuca is acting as the executive sponsor for the staff initiative, which is being led by Learning & Development’s Lance Page. AVC/Dean of Students Joseph Greenwell is the executive sponsor for the student initiative, which is being led by Associate Dean of Students David Surratt. |
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Early Childhood Education Program (ECEP) Rates Update The Early Childhood Education Program (ECEP), which provides quality early childhood services to University students, faculty, and staff parents, has released new rates. These rates will be effective starting in the new school year (August 2015):
Infant - $2,125/monthly (from $2,060) Toddler - $1,925/monthly (from 1,846) Preschool - $1,600/monthly (from $1,528)
This is the second rate increase in the last five years. This rate increase is meant to offset both increases in labor costs for teachers and staff and increases for the food program. (Tuition does include all food program costs.) Even with these rate increases for the upcoming 2015-2016 year, we are still cost competitive compared to local high-quality programs’ current tuition rates with similar teacher-child ratios. While we would love not to raise rates, we are required to be self-supporting and only receive a modest amount from campus registration fees to help offset our operating expenses for subsidized student parents.
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In the Field - Round 2 The first round of “In the Field” lunch discussions and office hours have taken place, where AVC LeNorman Strong spends time with the staff of each unit for lunch and conversation. The following lunch and discussion meetings took place in December:
December 4, 2014, Unit 2 met at Crossroads December 9, 2014, UVA met at UVA December 12, 2014, Unit 3 met at Cafe 3 December 15, 2014, Dining Group met at Crossroads December 16, 2014, Unit 1 met at Crossroads December 17, 2014, Foothill Staff met at Foothill December 18, 2014, Foothill Dining Staff met at Foothill
Meetings at the Clark Kerr Campus will take place soon. LeNorman reports that the conversations were open and very helpful. Follow-ups are also underway for several concerns raised during the meetings.
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Welcome New Staff!
We’re glad to have you on board.
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Our Mission: To provide the highest quality services and programs that ease a student's transition through the university and in the greater community, and to provide all our customers — students, faculty, staff and guests — with a quality customer experience. |
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