 So let's, before we get into this, and first off, much thanks, folks. For those that have not had the privilege of meeting, my name is Diego Luna. I'm currently one of the three tri-chairs for the Equity First Strategic Planning Corps team. And my fifth year in Highland College, I'm currently faculty in Epic Agenda Studies as well as in our Ed program in history. So before we get started today, just want to give a shout out to folks that, and acknowledge that, you know, it's really hard to get stuff scheduled. I know there was a lot of folks like, yo, I'm teaching in the middle of this and I get that. You know, I'm going to be taking my class to the soon form in a bit because I teach at noon. But just rest assured, and there will be more information on this at the end of our time together, that there will be multiple ways to engage with this MVV, the new mission vision value statement, or the draft of the new mission vision value statement that we'll be discussing. And there'll also be some follow-up time next week, where folks can come through staff and faculty and students can come through and talk about, you know, because you know, some of us are processes, right? Like we maybe got a lot of ideas. We don't get it out now. Rest assured, there'll be plenty of opportunities in the coming weeks to have your voice heard, okay? As you heard, this segment of our time today together is being recorded, okay? And we are going to make this recording accessible as soon as possible. More information about that recording and ways to stay involved will be coming out on campus with email this Thursday in time for our PD on Friday. But when y'all go into your breakout rooms in a bit, and when we come back together there's a larger group to talk through what we were thinking about, this draft of the mission vision and values, that will not be recorded, okay? So there's, we all recognize that there's some variable reasons why a lot of folks don't want to have, you know, their lived experiences, where they're coming from, the trauma that they are currently enduring, right? That many of us are enduring aired on something that potentially gets put on the campus YouTube, okay? So we are very cognizant of that, but just know that when we get into that nitty gritty, it's not going to be recorded. And as you'll see with our amazing facilitators in the breakout rooms is that we thought very deeply about how to create spaces that are transparent, but also safer, right? Not safe, because is there ever really a safe, entirely safe space, but safer? Folks that have the conversation they need to have and be able to talk through this MVV in a holistic, authentic, real talk way. So we want to get you into the breakout rooms. We want to get us into this draft, okay? So first off, the agenda. So first we're going to go over, we already did the welcome. We're going to go to the community guidelines in a second. We're going to talk through the equity first cortine, the purpose, the process, the product, what we've been up to, and then we're going to unveil our draft, right? Of the mission, vision, and values for 2022, okay? And then after that, most of our time here today together is going to be really just getting into those weeds, right? Every group's going to have a copy of that. We got Google Docs ready. We're just going to jump into it like, okay, what's here? What shouldn't be here? Does this make sense? What can we change? Okay, with the goal that everything that we get from y'all today and in subsequent days, right? Because this isn't going to be the only time that y'all can interact with this document and give feedback that we are going to be incorporating and taking to cabinet and the board of trustees, board of trustees at the end of this academic year, okay? So, yes, and Ed Mubarak, yeah, much thanks, Jan. Yeah, throw that in. Yeah, so much going on, man, for all our peoples. Today is a day of celebration. And that's the other reason why we're also recording it because a lot of our Muslim brothers and sisters are very much, we cannot be here right now, but we definitely want their perspectives, their words, their power in this process. So, let's keep this going, keep this going. So, again, it's going to be, today's town hall is going to be an opportunity for the Highland community to share their experiences, vision and voice and develop in the next set of the mission, vision and value statements for the institution. In addition, we're looking for y'all's input on what actions are necessary to make Highland College a more equitable institution, right? I know, you know, keep it real folks. We've been talking about this for a long minute. We're going to keep talking about it. Folks were talking about this 10 years ago. We're going to be talking about this 10 years from now. And at the same time, you know, there's a lot of stuff going on on our campus, like no joke, right? We're all tired. We're all dealing with in various ways. We're still in the pandemic, right? There's a lot going on our communities on and off campus. Our hope is that for our 90 minutes today, we can really focus in, not to take out everything that's going on with this, but to use that to really focus in on this new mission, vision and values, okay? You know, what I was, you know, when the court team were thinking about this, like how do we engage a committee on this in an authentic way? All the same type of acknowledging that we're all like a bit punch drunk, right? Right? For lack of a better term. And for me, you know, I think at the end of the day, once something is out in the open, right? Once the receipts have been paid out, once we are able to, as a community, say what do we want in this new MVV? It gets really hard to throw that under the table. It gets really hard to say that's not what it is, right? Once people have named and tied their lived experiences to what they hope for this college, people, if someone don't like that, they have to actively exert energy to do downplay, right? So in this time of stress, in this time where we all have a lot going on, it's more important than ever that we come together as a community and authentic like what do we want to see how in college be in five years, 10 years, seven years, right? We need to get that in open. We need people need to know our stories. You need to know our experiences and they need to know how we're incorporating all that into our vision, collective vision for this university, right, this college. So, you know, again, folks, this is not to say that hold the phone, everything that's going on, but that is to say that let's take this time right now as a community to really think about, okay, what is going on, but then how can we envision something better for the future? How can we make that our vision crystal clear in these new mission, vision and values, yeah? So in other words, I'm not, you know, don't leave the stuff at the door, bring it into those conversations, right? So let me check the chat real quick. Thanks. So quick go to these guidelines is, you know, many things you all have chosen to be here. So I humbly ask that you all choose to be present and whatever ways that comfort you, your facilitators when we get to the break rooms are gonna be breaking down how we envision folks being able to do that. Folks will have an opportunity to contribute to discussion in a multitude of ways. And then we come back together as a larger group. One of the things each breakout room is gonna be doing is talking through as a group how you collectively want to bring back what you talked about to the larger group, okay? So maybe the facilitator is the one that speaks for folks that don't wanna speak from the larger group. Maybe folks write the document. Maybe everyone's like, we all cool. We're gonna three throw in whatever that group decides that's how you want to bring what you talk about in those groups back to the larger group. How you want it to be documented is going to be entirely up to you, okay? Cause again, we recognize that there's a lot of stuff going on and there's a lot of exception legit reasons why folks would not want to air their lived experience in relation to what's happening on this campus, okay? But at the same time, those stories are powerful. And so we envision and endeavor to have a space where folks can share those stories even if it's like, I'm not gonna say brother, sister, family can you say this on my behalf, right? I keep it anonymous, but keep it real. However we wanna do that, that's what we're all about today and we wanna encourage everyone to participate as much as they feel comfortable. So to that said, right? Everyone is free to speak, no one is required. You will be able to have the option of picking your own breakout room and leaving that breakout room, taking time away, whatever is come for you. Please do our best to do some active listening, listen respectfully and listen actively, right? Something that I do no joke and many of you who know me know that I talk way too much is I do that count to 10, right? I do that count to 10, right? If I got something like, man, I wanna talk, I count to 10, sometimes even 20, sometimes even 30 and then I'm like, okay, then I'll come back around, right? And as academics, as educators, we're all taught to talk. So let's practice those listening skills today as well as our gift for gap. Be open to the ideas shared. Okay, single biggest reason why a lot of folks don't like going in these breakout rooms are like, man, is this person gonna torch me the moment I turn on my mic? Okay, so again, be respectful, just acknowledge that we're all going through stuff, folks, you really are. And the more we can practice empathy, a hard thing to do on Zoom, I know, I know, the better we all will be. Criticized ideas, not individuals, right? Like hate the game, not the player, right? We all got different, we all are educators here. We all care about our students. We all care about this institution, right? Let's get that out of the way. Let's be clear that we would not be here today if we did not care about our community, okay? How we best serve our communities, that's where sometimes we have differences, okay? But let's really keep in mind that we're all here because we're all educators, whether we are staff, whether we are faculty, whatever the name, whatever our title is, we're here because we're educators, we're leaders, we want our community to be better, to do their best work, to go on and do all the amazing things that all our communities need and want. So if you hear something that you disagree with, please try to keep that in mind, okay? That's okay, this idea I may disagree with, and I'm gonna talk to this person about their idea, but don't really work hard not to take it personal and really work hard to talk about the ideas and not go after folks, right? Again, biggest reason why folks in breakout rooms is because literally you feel claustrophobic and it's like I'm feeling attacked and what do I do, right? Do I just log out? So again, let's try to focus in on the ideas, not the folks. And the last thing is commit to learning, not debating, right? It should go without saying at this point, but a lot of us, particularly all those of us that are teachers, to keep it real, we are actively encouraged to always debate, to always be the smartest one in the room. And so let's focus in on how do we bring out all the smarts in the room versus being trying to be the smartest person in the room, right? One of the great things about I like being on the core teams is whenever I come to the core team and I acutely know in many, many ways that I'm nowhere near close to being the smartest person in the room and I very much appreciate that. My colleagues on this team keep me humble, keep it real. And that's what I hope to, for all of us to be able to cultivate in this space today. Okay, so the equity first core team, the purpose, the process, the product, let me check the chat real quick. Not much thanks for folks dropping stuff in here. So the project purpose is to support how my college to develop and sustain an equity first strategic plan, okay? That sets the vision for more equitable institution for students, colleagues and the community, all right? And you're gonna see these three things playing a lot in our proposed draft for the MVV, right? It's not just about students, right? It's about the teachers, the staff, right? It's about the families of those students, right? It's about the larger community, okay? So over the intimate process, we have worked to engage campus stakeholders, establish a campus-wide equity imperative, examine meaningful data to identify institutional and equities, which we've used to inform not only the work we've done around policy, but also this draft of the MVV, to create goals and milestones to mitigate equity gaps and to revise the mission, vision and value statement, okay? So this latter one is what we're focusing on today. But again, just wanna remind folks that, this is one piece of a larger picture. Bring in the larger picture into those conversations, but let's at the same time work to keep the eye on the prize and really focus in those experiences, what we're all dealing with to collectively create a new MVV that's gonna take us forward in the next seven, 10 years, right? So, and by the way, this PowerPoint is gonna be made accessible to larger community in Fall, be on Thursday. So I know I'm going fast right now, but also feel free to bring those questions, follow up questions into the breakout rooms, okay? So as you see in the spring to 2021, when this group was convened, we spent a lot of time like building, right? We spent a lot of time working out of in all, like the conversations, core team knows, the conversation we had to have in that area to get to a place where we all could be here today, like not of one mind, but of many minds, collectively moving forward on a goal, on some deliverals that took work, y'all, took a lot of work, yeah, we still doing that work, yeah? So this first thing we did is we started going that foundation from there moved into the learning, right? That's when, you know, we all started having those informal, formal conversations with folks on the community, right? What works, what doesn't work, right? Policy folks are going out and talking to folks that, yo, like, what are some policies that need to be here? The policies we have are, how are they working for staff, faculty, and students? How are they not, right? What do we need to do to create an assessment tool? Right, the rubric that's going to allow us to move on policy, create policy, inform policy from equity first perspective, all right? Right now we are engaged in what we call like the crappings thing. Our policy folks are hard at work. They've done a tremendous job of doing, I mean, the amount of policy, it's not so much policy they've been reviewing, right? And we're now in the process of taking a lot of that brain food and incorporating to the strategic plan. And the communications with the data folks of both some crunching numbers. And then one of the things we're doing today, right, is part of that crafting process, right? Is getting feedback from y'all about this draft of the mission, vision, and values. I'll say that five times fast. That we can use to create a final draft of the MVV to take to the board of trustees at the end of the academic year, right? Which is that kind of final piece to commit. So let's keep it going, keep it going. So again, I kind of already talked about this, but we wanted to be as clear as possible. And again, this piece is being recorded. So I know I talk fast folks, this recording is being made accessible to folks larger campus for those who want to review it at their leisure at a later time and for those who couldn't be here today. So internally, we review the WSBCTC strategic plans. We've exploring the conditions at Highland College and falling from a waste. We've been interrogating the HEMission statement, the current one that we've had since 2013. And we've collectively worked to reimagine the more actual Highland College, right? So that's where that having to build that foundation that we did as a core team to make that happen, right? Externally, right, we had an opening conversation. Many of you present there, we're present there. Much thanks for being there. We were part of professional levelment day this last November, October, my bad. We've hosted a series of community conversations for faculty, staff and students this last December. We hosted a series of equity coalition meetings with various affinity groups on campus, right? And then now we have this town hall. And then as I mentioned, more information forthcoming at the end of our time today together. We're also gonna be hosting a series of informal salon style moments in the coming weeks for students, staff and faculty, for folks to come back through, right? It's like, oh, I got questions or I got concern or I pulled up the MVB and I don't, this pieces don't work for me, right? Let's talk about it, right? And again, these will be kind of open door, coffee time hours folks and come through, chat it up, right? See what's going on, throw in your two cents. So again, more information on that will be forthcoming. Okay, so, so let's get to the meat of what we're talking about today. The draft of the mission, vision and values, right? So we looked at the old one, right? Long story short, some of the stuff that we came, we collectively came away with, right? Is that there's a lot of buzzwords, right? I mean, you're like, okay, the academy, right? Really the academy lot too is all it is is blood words. Yeah, I mean, we academics, whether we are student facing, whether we're in the classroom, right? We have a gift at taking something that could be said in two so was when we do it in 10 and it makes less sense than it did when we started. So even though this is just a manual that big, we found there's a lot of buzzwords here, right? And buzzwords are great to really, to reach a broad amount of people, but it really doesn't help us get to how are we going to use this mission, vision and values, right? As a promise, as an expectation, yeah? We found that a lot of the current mission statement really is decontextualized, removed from the larger community, right? Not only in terms of how things are being talked about, but really doesn't get into what the Highland College community is about, right? You know, this gets to one of the other points is that some folks were looking at saying, yo, this could be a statement from any college. And in fact, we put this up against mission, vision and values that other colleges and some of it was almost word to word the same, okay? You know, Highland College, all of us have heard it and it's true, we're one of the diverse college campuses on this country for years, two years don't matter, right? And so we need to have a mission statement that reflects our college community, right? That talks about how we are exceptional, right? How we're working, we come a better place, where are we gonna go in the next seven, 10 years? We also found to that end, right? A lot of passive verbs, right? You know, and again, you're just gonna see in this new draft, we're really working towards, okay, some things that we aren't quite there, we're not quite at yet, but where we want to be, okay? We saw a lot of old outdated language, right? And this kind of goes, this kind of circles back to the buzzwords. The statement was often singular sentences, so it didn't have a lot of meat. It's like something's thrown on there, but it's like, okay, what does that mean? A lot of buzzwords are listed, but what does that mean? What's an example, right? You know, as educators, like it's all about examples, that's how we learn, yeah? So as you're gonna see, we really worked hard in this mission, vision and values and this draft to not only, you know, bring in what we're about, what we're striving towards, but also to tell a story of our institution, right? As a way to highlight what we're doing. You know, and then this other piece, and I know there's gonna be talk about this in the breakout rooms, I'm really excited to be told to see what people think about this, but one of the things that the court team came back with is that this old Mr. statement focuses in on diversity and globalism, right? I wanna spill the beans too much on that, but you know, because I'm really excited to kind of see the ground of conversations that come from this, but we'll leave that be for now. And the last piece again is, who's the statement for, all right? Is it for students? Is it for employees? Is it for the Broad and Highland College community? Where can someone from the community, where can someone who's an employee, whether they are in the classroom or working directly with students, right? Working on the grounds, where do they find themselves in this statement or not find themselves? Who is being intentionally erased, right? Who is being watered down? Who is an explicit and implicit being told if they look at this Mr. statement that I'm not a part of the space. I'm not a part of the vision, I'm not a part of the values, right? I'm not a part of the seven-year goal to 10-year goal, okay? So again, and I'm giving us the cliff notes, if you will, but these are kind of the general themes that we took talking to folks out in the community, reviewing the mission, the MVV for ourselves, and these, not critiques, but these challenges directly impacted the new draft that we're gonna be bringing in for you all to look at in a second. Okay, so this takes us to re-imagine, right? A working draft. So, just to give a little bit insight into the method, right? And I gotta give a shout out to our co-conspirators Nani and Eric for helping us take through this. So essentially, one of the first things we did as a core team in beginning to unpack the MVV, the current MVV is they asked us to think big, right? They, we literally did like a padlock, a dollar padlock, right? Where it's like, okay, you know, pine in the sky, what needs to change, right? What do we, you know, what five years from that tension, what do we want to see? How do we want to see the larger community, both in the local, on an international level, right? How do we want to see people talking about Highland College, right? So you can see on the left-hand side, we were asked to create a newspaper headlines or something that happened in Highland College, right? So we see here, Highland College now offers the top five degrees that local employees require, right? Thunderburbs achieved the highest completion rates for student parents in the state, yeah? So again, pine in the sky, you know, kind of the future, the future is bright. And then subsequently in the rest of the pad that we broke down, okay, what will it take to get there? What needs to change at Highland College in order for us to see this future, right? To bring about this, this, this future, yeah? And from that conversation, we're like, okay, so in terms of what needs to change, how do we bake this in, set a roadmap in these new mission, vision and values, okay? So, and this is some of the stuff that we really want you to think about today. So think big folks, really think that you're literally gonna have an opportunity to go into the draft and put stuff in there to right to critique, to break down, to unpack, okay? Because again, this statement is gonna be guiding for the next seven, 10 years. And so there is no risk in thinking boldly, right? At all, okay? And at the end of the day, we all know that it's better to aim high, right? Because then inevitably when there's pushback at the very end, you're still like up here as opposed to starting low and then being down. You all know what I mean. So again, let's shoot high, let's think creatively, let's be bold. And so actually, I was gonna see if someone wanted to read this out loud, but I think I'll just keep us going to get us through this real quick. So this is the mission statement. I'm gonna go through the mission statement, the vision and then go take us through the values. There will, you will have this in front if you're going to the breakout room, so no worry. But the draft of the mission statement as we have right now is as follows. So as an anti-racist institution, Highland College provides equitable access, opportunity and success for students learning and living on and around the unceded traditional village sites in Duwamish from local shoot and Puyalli tribes. Highland College staff, faculty administrators are committed to continually developing and maintaining anti-racist, culture responsive and inclusive curriculum, support services and community partnerships. We partner with our students as they envision, plan and achieve their academic and professional goals through collaboration across campus and with local and global partners. We seek to achieve and sustain a campus environment rooted in social justice that appreciates, serves and supports all employees as they create the conditions for student success in and outside the classroom. All right, you know, let's just take, let's just take a second to let that sit. And again, we're gonna be jumping into the breakout rooms in a second and folks will have a chance to be like, what does this mean? I see myself here. I don't see myself here. Let's switch this up. Let's add, let's stretch. Let's unpack. All right, so the company in this, we got this draft, this first run at a new vision statement. At Highland College, we accept people as they are and honor the life experience they bring. We are cultivating a collaborative community that is equitable and anti-racist, centers the wellbeing of the whole person and envelops a sense of belonging. Our community events its success and empowers dreams to be achieved. We highly regard the families and support systems that enable our success and acknowledge that by working together, we are boundless. All right, so just take a second. And again, you know, you're gonna see all these front and center when you go into the breakout rooms. And then lastly, we have the values. We don't have, if you look at the current mission statement the values have like definitions, but we want to, that's some of the work we want you all to help us with and also add or pull in or whatnot. But as it is right now, Highland College seeks to live out these values in everyday practice through authenticity, through belonging, through collaboration, through environmental sustainability, through equity, through inclusivity, through representation, through respect and through transparency, okay? So again, this draft of the MVV comes from a lot of conversation both within the quarantine with the larger campus community, looking at our current MVV, looking what other campuses are doing, what looking at other campuses have done and really thinking critically around what we envision, what we hope for our college in the next seven years, in the next 10 years.