Chancellor's Weekly Note: December 14

Dear College Community- 
 
On Friday, December 11, the Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. This is a turning point in the pandemic. Initial roll out of this emergency vaccine started today with distribution to state health agencies, who will prioritize hospitals, health care workers and senior residential homes. The State of California webpage was updated yesterday on the  COVID-19 Vaccine program, timeline and FAQ’s. 
 
Classes at both John Adams and Cloud Hall are finishing up. Dean Edie Kaeuper, the department chairs, faculty, and staff, are to be commended for the work that they have done to help our Allied Health Students get out into the workforce where we need them. It takes a large team to graduate these students and we are cheering for them as they go out into the workforce at this time of great need. 
 
The Office of Online Learning and Educational Technology is busy preparing for another semester of remote learning in Spring 2021. They are leading efforts to bring a new Zoom integration to Canvas called CityZoom, that will streamline Zoom for both students and instructors in all Spring 2020 Canvas classes. Additionally, the team is restructuring the support resources, centralizing information and adding additional materials. With input from faculty and students, they are building three new Canvas trainings: Student Canvas Resource Center, Zoom Resource Center for Students and Zoom Resource Center for Instructors.  They are looking forward to once again supporting instruction in the new year.    
 
The Family Resource Center is continuing to collect donations for the Annual Toy Drive, which is virtual this year. This virtual event is a collaboration with the Ocean Campus Family Resource Center, the Mission Campus Family Resource Center, and the Working Adult Degree Program (WADP). Student parents will be gifted with Target gift cards to provide toys for their children. Close to $1,000 in donations have been collected. Donations can be made on their website and are tax-deductible. 
 
Finally, with the help of 75 campus testers, the IT Team, led by CTO Ellen Rayz, completed the migration of our systems to the Cloud starting late Friday afternoon, until this morning. I want to commend everyone who worked around the clock all weekend to streamline our systems. 
 
And, as always, thank you for all that you do for our community at City College and beyond. 
 
Happy Holidays, 
 
Rajen Vurdien, Ph.D. 
Interim Chancellor