I had an opportunity to attend the Governance Institute for Student Success (GISS) this past week with Trustees Biggin and Mathews at Solano Community College.  If you are not familiar with it, the GISS was established as a partnership of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) and Student Success Initiatives (SSI), at the University of Texas at Austin to provide community college administrators and governing boards with resources to promote data-informed governance practices and policies to support student success and completion.

We expected to come back with action oriented initiatives that would strengthen our Board in a way that would help us improve our student outcomes. In my mind, the institute exceeded our expectations.  The institute was a wonderful opportunity for us to discuss national, state and CR student success and equity data. It was also an ideal venue to dialogue and plan with fellow trustees and college leaders from Merced College, San Joaquin Delta College, Solano Community College, Woodland Community College, Yuba College and the Yuba Community College District about effective governance to make deep and lasting changes in how we improve student success and equity.

I believe we left the institute with an increased awareness of how important Board leadership is to focus the institution to advance our student success and equity agenda.  Please go to the GISS website for more information: http://www.governance-institute.org/.