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Published on 06/08/1998 All articles from this issue

Foothill chief: Stress 'academic and monetary' value in earning degrees

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By Linda Taaffe / Town Crier Staff Writer

Students at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills can expect more educational opportunities, improved programs and more access to classroom technology.

Foothill president Bernadine Chuck Fong presented the annual "State of the College" at two public forums, June 1 and 3.

Fong said Foothill will continue the legacy of its founders who recognized the importance of academic rigor, innovation, individual student dignity and diversity.

She said about 65 faculty, staff and students met last September to set five strategies to attain that mission:

Fong said the college will focus on the scholarship and pedagogy of teaching.

"It's important to continue to market and emphasize degrees. We need to stress the academic and monetary value in earning a degree," Fong said.

She said studies show that Foothill students who have completed more than 24 units or have earned a certificate or degree, more than doubled their incomes.

Fong said providing programs to enable "educational opportunity for all" is a second college goal.

"Businesses say education is key to their own success," she said. Fong said the college still needs to set up more partnership career programs. She said Foothill currently has partnerships with several local corporations, such as Lam Research, as well as medical centers and industrial trade unions. She said the college is currently developing programs with Oracle and Cisco.

Fong said the college needs to increase the attractiveness of its retraining programs and establish certficates for students who already have a bachelor's degree.

"We want individuals to consider us vs. a UC extension. We have to figure out a way to capture and bring them back," she said.

She said about 28 percent of the college's current study body hold bachelor's degrees.

Improving the performance of all students is another goal, Fong said.

Fong said the college needs to "strengthen our transfer program so that our students' GPA performance at CSU and UC is equal to or better than the statewide community college average."

Fong said the college will work to establish an Honors Institute to compete with selective admissions and unviersities.

"We need to market (the college) as prestigious, so people will seek to come here for our programs," she said.

Fong said the college will continue to strive to provide a "climate for learning," which will include completing phase two and three of the Technology Plan - installation of wiring in the classroom buildings and faculty offices to allow campus-wide network and Internet access and installation of faculty office computers."