Welcome back, Foothill College faculty!
There are lots of great opportunities to advance your professional repertoir this fall. Please keep reading to find out what's coming up both on- and off-campus.

Strengthen your teaching through Peer Online Course Review!

Enhance accessibility, equity, and engagement for diverse learners while collaborating with colleagues across disciplines to support student success. Strengthen your online or hybrid course by aligning it with nationally recognized quality standards. Faculty participants can choose between 36 hours of Professional Learning credit or a $1,500 stipend upon successful alignment. Open to both full- and part-time faculty. The next cohort begins soon—view the timeline and learn more at the POCR Showcase. Contact Sally Baldwin Sally Baldwin to learn more and sign up!

Travel and Conference Fund Application Workshops

Thursday, September 25 from 11 to 11:50AM via Zoom

Thursday, October 2 from 1 to 1:50PM via Zoom

As a Foothill faculty member you are eligible to apply for up to $2,000 per academic year to travel to and participate in professional conferences! (Thank you, Faculty Association!) We don't want any faculty member to shy away from accessing funds because the application and reimbursement process can be confusing, so this workshop will walk you though.



If you're thinking about applying for funding anytime soon, this workshop is for you!

For Administrators and Full-Time Faculty:

J1 Evaluation Tool Training

Wednesday 10/1 from noon to 1:30PM

Foothill room TBD

Thursday 10/2 from 2-3:30PM

De Anza MLC 243

Friday 10/10 from 9-10:30AM

On Zoom with link: https://fhda-edu.zoom.us/j/85650570818

*participants are required to keep their cameras on throughout the training in order to earn credit for participating

The 2022- 2025 Agreement included revised J1 tools for faculty evaluations. The Faculty Association and district negotiation teams agreed that all faculty and administrators need to attend a training before using the new J1s. This session will provide an overview of the use of the new evaluation tools effectively. Anyone who will do a faculty evaluation (tenure, PT, admin or peer) needs to attend this training.

This is a repeat of the J1 training session offered in 2024-2025..

No advanced registration needed

Ignite! Foothill Equity Program Fall 2025

Kicks off Friday, October 12 from 10AM to 2:45PM at Neutra House

Facilitated by the college Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

We're excited to announce the official launch of Foothill College's in-house diversity-equity-inclusion training, "Ignite!" The program kicks off with a one-day in-person retreat on October 10 where we'll discuss Foothill's definitions of important equity-related terminology and role-play using those terms in discussions you might hear at the college. We'll also discuss and apply the Cycle of Socialization and the Cycle of Liberation within the context of higher education. You'll leave with some juicy questions to ponder before regrouping for two 1-hour Zoom sessions on November 7 and November 21 for case-study discussions. 

To create the best experience for you, the cohort size is limited to 14 participants. 

Who should participate? 

If you are a Foothill College employee interested in collaborating with others to further the work of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging at the college, this is for you! Content and discussion prompts are designed to challenge you to deepen your skills and understanding regardless of where you currently are in your equity journey. 

Participating in this training is helpful but not required for participation in Ignite! Part 2 programming coming up in Winter 2026. 

What will you walk away with? 

• You'll hone your skills to effectively participate in equity-related conversations at Foothill College 
• You'll practice applying equity-related terms to real-life scenarios within the context of education with intention and purpose 
• You'll dive deeper into how our beliefs and worldviews are shaped by our families, communities, and institutions we grew up with. 

We ask that registrants commit to participating in-person for the duration of all three sessions, which are: 

• Friday, October 10, 2025, 10AM to 2:45PM at Neutra House in Mountain View 
• Friday, November 7, 2025, 11AM to 12PM, and 
• Friday, November 21, 2025, 11AM to 12PM  

Friday SLO talks are back! Facilitated by the California Outcomes Assessment Coordinators Hub (COACHes), they're every Friday from 10 to 11:30AM. These are weekly gatherings of higher education practitioners to discuss and learn about issues concerning equity and assessment of student learning outcomes. COACHes is a faculty-run SLO community for CCC faculty. These meetings are a fantastic place to connect with other CCC faculty AND to stay up to date on effective learning and assessment strategies.

This Friday, September 26:

(10-11:30AM)

Addressing the Challenges of Assessment in HyFlex Courses Using Custom GPTs

Designing assessments for HyFlex courses brings unique challenges as students participate both in person and online. We’ll highlight strategies for creating fair and consistent assessments across modes aligned to formal SLOs. We’ll explore how emerging tools like custom GPTs can help overcome assessment hurdles, sharing resources both for students and teacher-designers.This session will be led by Dr. Brian Beatty is professor of Instructional Design and Technology in the Department of Equity, Leadership Studies and Instructional Technologies at San Francisco State University

Tips to Build Engaged, Future-Ready Classrooms

Wednesday, September 24

10–11am PT

Kick off the semester (or quarter!) with strategies designed to make your courses more engaging, impactful, and future-ready. Join Hypothesis for a special Back to School webinar where we’ll explore how social annotation can spark student engagement from day one, strengthen academic outcomes, and prepare learners with the collaborative skills they’ll need beyond the classroom.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

• Boost Student Outcomes: Create interactive reading assignments that increase comprehension, retention, and participation.
• Navigate the AI Era: Use text annotation to encourage critical thinking, authentic engagement, and academic integrity in an age of ChatGPT and generative AI.
• Support Workforce Readiness: Build real-world skills—like collaboration, communication, and problem-solving—directly into your courses through social annotation.

Why Attend?

• Start your term with ready-to-use strategies and reading assignment ideas.
• Gain insights into how social annotation addresses today’s biggest teaching challenges.
• Access resources you can share directly with students to ensure a smooth launch.
• Connect with the Hypothesis team and leave with answers to your questions.

💡Don't forget, faculty can use these towards your Professional Development Requirements! Staff can also apply to use these workshops toward the staff Professional Growth Program.

Strengthening Student Success Conference 2025:

Co-Creating a Liberatory Future

Presented by the RP Group for CCCs

October 8-10, 2025 in Burlingame, CA

Strengthening Student Success Conference is CELEBRATING! It’s our 20th anniversary and we hope you will join us this year as we explore together Co-Creating a Liberatory Future for our students and our communities. Paulo Freire, one of the most well-known and influential educational theorists of the 20th Century, states, “Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferals of information.” Highlighting transformational approaches to teaching and learning is the heart and soul of the Strengthening Student Success Conference, and this year is no different. In fact, now more than ever, there is a strong sense of urgency to frame our teaching and learning in a way that co-creates with students a more just and equitable institution where students are given agency and leadership in their own learning; where learning environments are actively inclusive and honor the differences among people; and where campuses value and actively advocate for equitable treatment of all who come to learn.

Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) 50th Annual Conference
The Bend in the Arc: Activist Praxis & Justice Through Scholarly Creative Expression

November 12 through November 15, 2025

Denver, Colorado Sheraton Hotel

This year’s theme is inspired by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s quote, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” The concept of an arc mirrors the paradoxical nature of what’s rhetorical and reality. It is a continuing storyline paralleling the arcs, two sides of the same coin -- rhetoric and reality. The story of our society has been one of progress. The broader narrative of advancement often shared reflects a more elusive idea of the strivings of humankind. Notwithstanding, during this convening, we will consider the arc of campuses as microcosms of larger society and the role the association has played as we work toward progress in our field. ~written by ASHE President Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher

The Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Annual Conference is a premier gathering of scholars dedicated to advancing research in higher education. Held each November, the conference features research presentations and symposia discussions that address critical issues impacting colleges and universities. It serves as a vital platform for shaping the future of higher education scholarship and practice.

COLEGAS 2025 Conference

Unidxs Podemos: Uplifting Through Education, Democracy and Change

November 12 @ 8:00 am - November 14 @ 5:00 pm in Sacramento, CA

This year’s conference theme, “Unidxs Podemos: Uplifting through Education, Democracy, and Change” centers the collective power of our communities to advance equity and justice. Rooted in the belief that education is a force for liberation, this theme calls us to reimagine systems, champion inclusive democracy, and drive transformative change. Together, we rise—uplifting voices, disrupting inequities, and building a future where everyone thrives

We welcome faculty, classified professionals, trustees and administrators in the California community colleges, system partners, practitioners, researchers, and community members that align with the conference’s goals.

Assessment of What Students Can Do: Making Learning Visible

Fully online, January 30-31, 2026

Hosted by Fresno City College

The expected audience includes faculty, academic leaders, SLO coordinators, researchers, administrators, research analysts, academic deans, and deans of institutional effectiveness from across higher education. The last few years, the Symposium has had a worldwide audience!

This year’s Symposium invites presentations for breakout sessions addressing the assessment of student learning as observable behavior. Preference will be given to topics focused on pedagogical models such as experiential or project-based learning, strategies for engaging students in the assessment of their own demonstrated learning, Competency-Based Education (CBE), accreditation guidelines and accountability, equity-focused assessment practices, grading aligned with learning outcomes, faculty learning communities, record keeping and data analysis, and the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in shaping or evaluating observable learning outcomes.

Part-Time Faculty Orientation

Thursday, December 4, 2025

9AM - 12PM via Zoom

https://fhda-edu.zoom.us/s/88575133051

This is our Spring new faculty orientation session. It's geared for new part-time faculty AND for veteran part-time faculty who'd just like a refresher. Please note that per Article 7 of our FA Agreement (7.26.1), all part-time faculty are able to participate once a year and be you'll be reimbursed for your time at a rate of $50/hour*. Participants will be asked to have their cameras on for the session in order to receive the stipend.

No registration needed - just show up!