President's Office
May 29, 2025
(1) RSLS: An Unparalleled Success
Congratulations to everyone involved in making the 2025 Research and Service Leadership Symposium, held on May 21st, a resounding success. This event was a dynamic showcase of student achievement, featuring research, service, themes of courage and conviction, alongside creative art projects. The classroom was gloriously expanded to the entire campus. The day was filled with engaging presentations, lively Q&A sessions, an inspiring keynote address by Regina Jackson, and vibrant performances in music, spoken word, and poetry. The hybrid format, with both on-campus and virtual elements, allowed for broader participation and fostered a true sense of community among students, faculty, and guests alike.
This achievement would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of the RSLS coordinators, Allison Herman and Lisa Schultheis, as well as the invaluable support from marketing and outreach, club advisors, our ETS staff, and student volunteers. Special thanks to our educational partners at Palo Alto Unified School District who funded the food and beverage at the event and the FHDA Foundation for their continued support of student achievement. The whole collaborative effort ensured that every aspect of the symposium ran smoothly and that students were empowered to shine. Thank you to the 49 staff and faculty that served as mentors for the students and their projects. Your dedication for creating an event that truly celebrates academic curiosity, service, and creativity is one of the reasons we continue to be a catalyst for change.
(2) Honoring Mike McCusker
As you heard above, the collective community commitment to mentorship, deep student-powered learning, as well as career connected learning, make RSLS a special event. It was especially poignant to end the day honoring Mike McCusker, one of RSLS’s original organizers. The day before RSLS I attended a special mass for Mike and had a chance to meet Mary, Mike’s wife, his son Mac, life-long friends, the students and staff that Mike touched with his own brand of magic. His love of Foothill College was mentioned several times. In partnership with the Foothill Foundation, we continue to fundraise for Experience Foothill, a campaign to support RSLS and other experiential learning opportunities. Per the family's request, if you would like to honor Mike’s legacy, we are organizing with the foundation to enrich the awards given to students through our Experience Foothill donations as a special tribute to his legacy. You can contribute through the link at the Experience Foothill website.
(3) Foothill Innovation Challenge TODAY, May 29th!
Another annual and powerful experiential learning event takes place today. I am traveling for a professional event and regrettably will miss the final round. But, I join this year’s organizers, Angie Dupree and Michelle Wu, in warmly inviting you to the Challenge. If you can, view the poster presentations from noon-2 in the Campus Center Plaza. Or, watch the top six student teams present their innovative ideas in “Shark Tank” style to a panel of professional judges. That happens from 2-4 in the Dining Hall and will be hosted by ASFC Student Body President Paulo Verzosa and Joshua Chin, VP of the Inter-Club Council (ICC).
(4) BANNER OUTAGE May 31 - June 2
The Banner system—and all connected services—will be taken offline starting at 8:00
AM on Saturday, May 31, with full service expected to resume Monday afternoon, June
2. This necessary maintenance will temporarily disable all registration, application, and related services. Please
note that this shutdown will not impact access to MyPortal, Microsoft Office 365,
Canvas and other non-Banner related applications. You can access them through MyPortal
as usual. However, all Student Services offices (including Admissions & Records, Financial
Aid, Counseling, EOPS, DRC, VRC), with the exception of our Welcome Center and Belonging
Centers, will be closed to students on Monday, June 2. During this time, all staff
in these areas will participate in a full day of on-campus professional development
activities.
Key Details:
- System Downtime: Begins at 8:00 AM on Saturday, May 31
- Registration & Applications: Fully offline—students will not be able to register or apply during this time
- Application Uploads: Resume in the late afternoon on Monday, June 2
- Welcome Emails: Applications submitted during the outage will receive a Welcome Email beginning Tuesday, June 3
We will be alerting students about this downtime, but we would deeply appreciate your
support in reinforcing this message. Please let your students know in advance that
they will not be able to register or access services on Monday, June 2. This will
help alleviate pressure on our staff’s inboxes and phone lines during the outage.
Thank you for your understanding and partnership in supporting this temporary disruption
to ensure long-term improvements.
(5) MIPC Meeting, June 6th
The penultimate Mission Informed Planning Council (MIPC) meeting of the academic year will take place June 6th in 1901 and via Zoom from 1-3 pm. On the agenda is the first read of Institutional Learning Outcomes recommendations, Foothill 2030 Blueprint for Success, an evaluation of shared governance (MIPC), and a report on the methodology to disaggregate Asian student population data. And more! If these topics are of interest, MIPC is open to all.
Yours in service,
Kristina
Dr. Kristina Whalen
President