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The Campus Connection - January 2024




Office of the President

Chinese Zodiac Signs

2024 Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year begins after winter solstice (December 21) on the date of the second new moon. In 2024, Lunar New Year starts on Saturday, February 10. As you may recall, 2023 Lunar New Year started on January 22. You may be asking, 'Why does Lunar New Year commence on different dates'? Great question! It is because Lunar New Year is based off a lunisolar calendar, which is established on the Sun’s position in the sky and the Moon's phases.

The year 2024 is the year of the Dragon, specifically, the Wood Dragon. According to The Times of India, Those born in the Year of the Dragon possess captivating demeanor, distinct personality, and strong leadership abilities. The Wood Dragon year, combined with the nourishing Wood element, brings evolution, improvement, and abundance, making it the perfect time for rejuvenated beginnings and setting the foundation for long-term success.

While each Chinese zodiac sign is associated with a fixed element, each year is associated with an annual element as well:

The Fixed Elements

Metal: Monkey and Rooster
Wood: Tiger and Rabbit
Water: Rat and Pig
Fire: Snake and Horse
Earth: Ox, Dragon, Goat, and Dog

The Annual Elements

Metal: Solidity and willpower
Wood: Imagination and creativity
Water: Responsiveness and persuasion
Fire: Passion and bursts of dynamic energy
Earth: Down-to-earth qualities that encourage focus and commitment to achieve goals

To figure out which element is associated with your birth year, look at the last number of your birth year:
0 or 1: Metal
2 or 3: Water
4 or 5: Wood
6 or 7: Fire
8 or 9: Earth

Spring Convocation Day is January 26, 2024!

Flex Day Agenda

Public Relations & College Foundation

2024 Winter Session & Spring Semester Schedule of Classes.

Spring Semester Registration is Open – Registration for the 2024 spring semester is open. Remind students to register early to get the classes they want and need. Look for the schedule in your home mailbox or online.

Stay Connected: Now that we are in the beginning phase of the winter season, it is a good time to make sure you are signed up and receiving messages from the College's communication system, COS Connect. This is a free system used to notify students and staff of emergency-situations, campus closures, or general information. To sign up click on the COS Connect button located on the COS homepage and follow the directions to get signed up.

2024-2025 Foundation Scholarship Applications Now Available: Scholarship applications for academic year 2024/2025 are now available for Siskiyou County high school seniors (graduating spring 2024) and current COS students who plan to attend COS during the 2024-2025 year. Scholarships range from $250 to $5,000. The application is due March 31, and can be found on the Scholarships page.

Upcoming Activities & Events: Event dates, times, and locations based on information available at the time of publication and are subject to change.

January 2024

  • Registration for Winter Session & Spring Semester Classes Continues
  • January 1: Campus Closed
  • January 2: Winter Session Begins, COS Campuses Reopen
  • January 9: Mt Shasta High School vs Weed High School, 4:00 pm (JV Girls), 5:30 pm (JV Boys), 7:00 pm (Varsity Girls), 8:30 pm (Varsity Boys) - Gym
  • January 15: Martin Luther King Holiday (Campus Closed)
  • January 16: Monthly Board of Trustees Meeting, 4:00 pm – Board Room
  • January 17: Basketball vs. Butte College, 5:00 pm (Women) and 7:00 pm (Men) – Gym
  • January 20: Basketball vs. Lassen College, 1:00 pm (Women) and 3:00 pm (Men) - Gym
  • January 24: Poetry Contest, 2:00 to 5:00 pm – Theater
  • January 25: Winter Session Ends
  • January 27: Basketball vs. Feather River College, 1:00 pm (Women) and 3:00 pm (Men) - Gym
  • January 29: Spring Semester Begins
  • January 29 - February 2: Week of Welcome – various activities planned (TBA)

February 2024

  • February 7: Auditions for Spring Theater Production "Sponge Bob the Musical," 5:00 - 8:00 pm – Theater
  • February 8: Auditions for Spring Theater Production… Call backs, 5:00 - 8:00 pm – Theater
  • February 8: Basketball vs. College of the Redwoods, 5:00 pm (Women) and 7:00 pm (Men) – Gym
  • February 9: Lincoln Day Holiday (Campus Closed)
  • February 9: Mt Shasta High School vs Weed High School, 4:00 pm (JV Girls), 5:30 pm (JV Boys), 7:00 pm (Varsity Girls), 8:30 pm (Varsity Boys) - Gym
  • February 10: Basketball vs. Shasta College, 1:00 pm (Women) and 3:00 pm (Men) – Gym
    • Special Recognition – Naming of the Basketball Court, between games. Post-Game Celebration at Mount Shasta Brewery, 5:00 pm
  • February 19: Washington Day Holiday (Campus Closed)
  • February 20: Monthly Board of Trustees Meeting, 4:00 pm – Board Room

Follow us on Social Media:

  • Facebook – College of the Siskiyous (COS) & COS Foundation
  • Instagram – @siskiyous_eagles
  • LinkedIn: college-of-the-siskiyous
  • Snapchat – @siskiyous_eagle

Research & Evaluation

Recently the Research Office has been working on a special project in order to investigate the impact of procrastination on class registration and students' success rates in the fall 2023 term and wanted to share our findings with the broader campus community.

Our goal was to determine if there is a correlation between students who register early for a term and their success rates, an undertaking we called the Procrastination Project. For the purposes of this project, success is defined as a grade of C or better. We examined different student types such as first time students and continuing students, which resulted in varying levels of success rate, changes the closer to the start of a term.

The data was categorized into buckets based on days since registration began: 0 - 29 days, 30 - 59 days, 60 - 89 days, and 90 - 124 days. The individuals falling into the last group, registering within 90 - 124 days since registration began, were identified as the primary procrastinators.

First time and returning students demonstrated some of the most significant decreases in average success rates approaching the start date for the term we evaluated (Fall 2023). This can be seen in the graphs shown below.

For first time students it was fascinating to see such a significant difference of 37% from the first 0 - 29 days and the period of 90 - 124 days. Similarly, returning students experienced a decrease of 18% from 30 - 59 days and 60 - 89 days. In comparison, continuing students, and K-12 students saw less significant results. This is illustrated in the graphs below.

Continuing students exhibited an intriguing consistency from 0 - 124 days, with minimal fluctuations observed in the initial three months and only a slight 7% decline in the final 90 - 124 days. For the K-12 students there appeared to be only minor decreases throughout the 0 - 124 days since registration began, which culminated in a total difference of only 12% between 0 - 29 days and 90 - 124 days.

Overall, the data showed varying levels of significance in success rates from the beginning of the registration period until day 125 and after. We hope to continue gathering more details on these findings and uncover some other factors that may have played into the results.

This report is another excellent example of Pillar 4 work (Ensure Learning) that can be used as a valuable tool in the counseling department to promote early registration, given its demonstrated link to improved success rates for both first time and returning students.


Charts - Success Rates for different types of students

Athletics

Please join us to celebrate the naming of our basketball court after our very own Tom Powers. The presentation will be at halftime of the Men's game vs Shasta College.

Saturday, February 10: Women's Game at 1:00 pm, Men's Game at 3:00 pm

Post-Games (around 5:00 pm) Celebration: Mt. Shasta Brewing Company, 360 College Ave, Weed, CA. Join us for appetizers and good stories about Coach Powers!

Tom Powers Court

Congratulations to our Women's Basketball Team for having the highest Team GPA for the Fall 2023 Semester (3.55 TEAM GPA). Other noteworthy achievements by our students:

  • 95 - Students Earned the Scholar Athlete Award – Earned a 3.00 or higher GPA and passed 12 or more units
  • 13 - Students made the Dean's List – Earned a 3.50 - 3.74 GPA
  • 41 - Students made the President's List – Earned a 3.75 - 4.00 GPA
  • 28 - Students earned a 4.00 GPA

Fall 2023 - Team GPA

Team Students GPA Units Quality Points GPA Scholar Athletes President's List Dean's List
Women's Basketball 14 189 672 3.55 13 7 1
Men's Basketball 19 255 849 3.32 13 7 3
Women's Soccer 12 166 549 3.30 11 3 1
Baseball 36 490 1554 3.17 22 12 2
Volleyball 14 185 581 3.14 8 2 3
Softball 18 243 741 3.04 10 6 0
Men's Soccer 17 220 602 2.73 7 3 1
Football 54 699 1680 2.51 15 3 2
Track & Field 4 53 128 2.41 0 0 0
All Athletes Unduplicated (Totals) 183 2397 7068 2.95 95 41 13

Congratulations to our Fall Sports Student Athletes on being selected to the All-Conference team for their sport.

Women's Soccer

First Name Last Name High School City State Award
Asia Hendrix Mt. Shasta Weed CA 1st Team All-GVC
Elyssa Harrison Mt. Shasta McCloud CA 2nd Team All-GVC

Men's Soccer

First Name Last Name High School City State Award
Alfie Snow Middlesbrough Middlesbrough UK Attacking Player of the Year
Oliver Gregory Hall Cross Academy Yorkshire UK 1st Team All-GVC
Agustin Mateos Instituto Orsino Buenos Aires Argentina 1st Team All-GVC
Hunter Hill Yreka Talent OR 2nd Team All-GVC
Lewis White Horndean Tech Portsmouth UK 2nd Team All-GVC

Volleyball

First Name Last Name High School City State Award
Jade Crawford Independence Bakersfield CA 1st Team All-GVC
Isabella Colombo Naselle Naselle WA 1st Team All-GVC
Ashley Quizon D'Evelyn Denver CO Honorable Mention All-GVC

Football

First Name Last Name High School City State Award
Niel Kniefel North Salem Salem OR 1st Team All-PAC 7
Andrew Bouska Glencoe Hillsboro OR 1st Team All-PAC 7
Dre Williams Reynolds Troutdale OR 1st Team All-PAC 7
Saxon Farkas Chico Chico CA 1st Team All-PAC 7

Men's Soccer 2023 Golden Valley All-Conference
Football 2023 PAC-7 All-Conference
Women's Volleyball 2023 Golden Valley All-Conference
Women's Soccer 2023 Golden Valley All-Conference

Student Services

Vice President, Student Services

Happy New Year and welcome to the spring 2024 semester. We want to welcome back Amyanne Groppi to Student Services. Amyanne will be serving as our Transcript Evaluator in Admissions & Records. We are excited to have Amyanne back. We currently have a vacancy in our Director of Financial Aid position as Chris Nordin has moved on from COS. We want to thank Chris for his service and wish him well in his new endeavors. We hope to fill the vacancy as soon as possible but ask for your patience, as we are short-staffed at this time. A short-term interim person will be joining us soon while we fly the position.

This semester we will roll out our new Mental Health 24 hour a day service, Timely Care. More informational/promotional materials will be coming soon. In addition, we will be starting to implement ConexEd across Student Services and some other departments as well. We are excited to provide these valuable services for our staff and students.

Administrative Services

Welcome back from the holiday break!

Campus Gift & Book Shop

As we have been gearing up for the Winter Session, and eagerly awaiting the Spring Semester starting January 29, your Campus Gift & Book Shop has some exciting updates to share!

Our dedicated team has been diligently at work, ensuring all instructional support textbooks have been ordered, priced, and are ready for our students. Whether a 'seasoned' student or just beginning, the Bookstore has got you covered.

That is not all. Our concessions are up and running during all home athletic events; so be sure to swing by and grab a treat as you cheer on our Eagles as we are defending the nest. Let us make this semester unforgettable, both in and out of the classrooms.

Stay tuned for more updates, promotions, and spirited finds at your one-stop destination for all things academic and lively – the Campus Gift & Book Shop located at the Weed Campus. We wish all our students a successful intersession and looking forward to seeing you at the games cheering for our Eagles!

Concessions and Staff


Business Office

Shannon Donaldson

Please join us in welcoming Shannon Donaldson to the Business Office team. Shannon will begin her new position as our new Cashier on January 17. Please help us to welcome her by stopping by and saying hello. Until she begins her new position, the Business Office continues to be short-staffed and we ask for your patience during this time of transition. Adela has been assisting the Business Office on a part-time, temporary basis (please say hello the next time you stop by the office), but the Office will continue to have shortened hours (temporarily). Thank you to all for your understanding.

The Budget development process will be starting up again soon. We will be having a training for the Budget Managers in the near future. Stay tuned for dates!

Food Services

Thomas Longworth

Please join Food Services in welcoming Thomas Longworth, our new Cook.

The Eagle Café will be serving soup specials daily, a different soup each day of the week. Beginning the week of January 15, there will be a daily rotating menu (although there will be some days that we will have to substitute a menu item due to inability to get the product required).

Facilities & Maintenance

Here comes the SNOW (finally)! This winter, remember to watch for debris and ice on campus walkways and parking lots. Facilities checks walkways first thing each morning, but windy and freezing days can create trip and slip hazards quickly. Please report hazards to Facilities at extension 5233.

All Office of Civil Rights corrections are complete and currently being reported to the State for final review.

Upcoming projects:

  • Removal of dangerous trees on the Weed Campus is scheduled for February 21 through March 11 (weather permitting).
  • Servicing of the Science Building fume hood will take place on January 24. The contractor will be on site for most of the day.

Technology Services

The College has entered into a lease for new copiers with UBEO (formerly known as Ray Morgan). The new copiers will be deployed to departments during the month of January.

The Client Services Team recently completed the installation of a customized Zoom room in the Discovery Child Development Center (DCDC). Also on the task list is to implement the workstation standard on all workstations in Academic Affairs in first half of this calendar year.

The Enterprise Application Team continues to implement existing customizations to Self-Service Banner 9 in the test environment and expects to have these customizations in-place so departments can begin in February. The EA Team is also working to implement a new process for importing applications from CCC Apply that will include new fields needed for MIS reporting. If no major issues are encountered during the testing, this may be deployed in February.

On January 22, the Infrastructure Services Team will be implementing a new circuit between the Yreka and Weed Campuses that will upgrade the network bandwidth from 100MB to 1 GB.

Academic Senate

Hi Everyone.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a festive holiday season. For me, the holiday season is one of the few times during the year I get to spend time with my family. With the passing of my father in August, it was especially nice to spend time with loved ones this year. I hope you all have taken time or are taking time to unplug and relax over the Winter Break so you can come back to the spring semester replenished and refreshed.

Below is a brief update regarding the hiring of new Faculty. Please keep in mind some details may be missing, so consider this a tentative summary:

  • Ethnic Studies/History Instructor – We have extended the job posting for this position until early March.
  • Physics/Math Instructor - Although we are currently advertising for a combination Physics/Math Instructor, we may need to pivot to hiring these disciplines separately depending on the applications we receive.
  • EMS Instructor (Mendocino) - We are currently advertising for a full-time EMS Instructor for our Mendocino site.
  • Kinesiology Instructor Positions – The Athletic Trainer position has been reclassified as a faculty position. At the December Board of Trustees meeting, the job descriptions for an Athletic Trainer position, as well as Interim Head Baseball Coach and Interim Assistant Football Coach were approved. These positions will be advertised and hired soon.
  • LAS Instructor positions – We will begin advertising for faculty positions in Art, Communication Studies, and English soon. It is my understanding the hiring committees for these positions may meet during the winter break to establish job announcements and timelines.
  • Nursing Instructor positions and SAS Director/Counselor – These positions are currently being advertised but are difficult to recruit.

I hope that we can hire qualified and dynamic faculty instructors for the Fall Semester.

Thanks for listening.
Andrea Craddock, Ph.D.
Academic Senate President


No other reports received.