Community Colleges of Spokane

Happy New Year As the calendar turns the page, we wish you the very best in the year ahead.

Professional Mall II 1260 S E Bishop Blvd Ste C Pullman, WA 99163 509-332-1564

Greg Bloom

Financial Advisor

Ryan Hamilton

Financial Advisor

Calendar

Jan 4: First Day of Winter Quarter ‘21 Jan 14: SFCC Pullman Honors Student Recognition Feb 9, 10am: Community Chat (all welcome) Feb 12: Financial Aid Priority Funding Spring ‘21 Feb 22-26: SFCC Intercultural Week Mar 9, 10am: Community Chat (all welcome) Mar 15: New Student Admission Deadline for Spring ‘21 Mar 25: Final Day of Winter Quarter ‘21 Apr 5: First Day of Spring Quarter ‘21

ABE/GED/HS+

Join our Adult Basic Education or complete your GED or high school diploma with us now! High school completion is a competency-based program for adults 18 years or older, which credits you for previous education, work experience, and a GED score. Our high school completion courses are available online and each student has an individualized study plan. With our open enrollment, you can start today. Call us 509.279.6458.

Campus Matters

We inquired with Patrick Forster, Assistant Dean at the Pullman Center of Community Colleges of Spokane, about the current state of and outlook for instruction and operations at our organization. Here is an excerpt of what we learned (full version at bit.ly/ pullmancenter0121):

What are you looking forward to in the new year at the CCS Pullman Center?

Leaving the public health crisis behind! Soon, we will have been operating exclusively online for a year. And while I am proud that we did not lose a single instructional day on our academic schedule, Patrick Forster I am keenly aware of the hardships many of us have suffered. We have had to keep ourselves, our loved ones, and our organizations going and shoulder the strains in our personal, educational, and work experiences. We are ready to reopen our doors to the community and throw a big party!

Ok, and until that party date at the CCS Pullman Center?

First and foremost, we need to ensure continuity of services and do so at the highest quality possible. We want our current students to move to program completion on their preferred schedule, and we want new students to embark on their path of study without any delay in the coming months. Thanks to our fantastic faculty and broad support from our CCS district offices, we have been able to deliver up to this point. Second, we want to integrate certain developments thrust upon us by the public health crisis, but which have the potential to, or already did improve, our operations. In the recent fall term, we had three STEM faculty working with grant support on our science courses' development and design.

What in particular are you suggesting?

Something that most seasoned educators have long known, but that the past months have driven home time and again: The relational essence of teaching and learning and, indeed, of the entire educational system. Education doesn't merely consist of information sharing and knowledge validation. Just curating content and putting it online doesn't suffice; that's available with AI, Google Scholar, and an internet connection. Putting relationships and engagement at the core of our online instruction and services has helped translate, rather than simply transfer, our operations to the online realm. (…)

How is this going to mesh with the role of a community college?

I see these developments as a renewal of the community college mission. In most respects, we have achieved broad access to higher education; now, we focus relentlessly on timely completion of meaningful credentials and degrees, attention to viable career paths and lifelong workplace skills, and responsiveness to community development and workforce needs. (…)

You are in your third year with CCS; what stands out to you about the Pullman Center?

I think my previous responses illustrate the quality and ambitions of the people at our Center. But I also want to mention the extraordinary context in which our Center operates. People in Pullman and around the Palouse know and deeply care about their educational institutions. Mayor Glenn Johnson is a leading advocate for education regionally and state-wide [Dr. Johnson currently chairs the Board of Trustees at CCS and serves on Washington State Association of College Trustees (ACT)]. Finally, our connections to the Pullman and other School District and, especially, our partnership with WSU allow us to serve Pullman and Whitman County communities we could not achieve by ourselves. Maintaining and deepening that connected and, often, collaborative approach to educational services and operations nourishes our Pullman Center. I believe it strengthens our partner organizations and amplifies the collective impact the education community has and will have in our region.

Patrick Forster joined Community Colleges of Spokane in August 2018 and leads the Pullman Center operations as Assistant Dean. Patrick has over twenty years of organizational evaluation and development experience for higher education and community education non-profits. He and his family enjoy the Palouse and spend much of their time in the great outdoors of the region. Patrick claims to make and serve the best (office) espresso on the Palouse, a claim he looks forward to putting to the test as soon as the public health context permits a resumption of operations at the CCS Pullman Center.

185 Veterans Way, Pullman WA, 99164; just east of WSU’s Daggy Hall

Email pullman@sfcc.spokane.edu; Phone 509.322.2706; Web pullman.sfcc.spokane.edu