President's Updates
May 2025
Dear FRCC Community,
The Countdown to Commencement is ON and festivities celebrating our students’ accomplishments are already underway. From the badging ceremony for our Law Enforcement Academy graduates to our nursing pinning and TRIO graduation celebrations, May is the time we get to honor the achievements of our students.
I am so proud of the support you all give students every day. The time, effort and heart that you put into working with our students is the reason they know they belong here at FRCC. Your dedication helps them to achieve here. And you, the college community, are why they thrive here.
We have made it to May—congratulations! Now let’s get ready to celebrate our students at commencement on May 10 (Denver Coliseum) and May 13 (Blue Arena)!
Top Stories
Student Heading to Harvard for Summer Research
One of our TRIO SSS students from BCC was offered a position in the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian Solar Physics Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program for the summer of 2025. Leah Shipley is a first-generation student who was homeschooled her entire life and discouraged from pursuing a college education.
She has found her way to achieve and thrive here at FRCC. Leah spent last summer doing research at the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration in Boulder. At Harvard this summer, she will help study solar eruptions—and upon successful completion of the summer program, she will get to travel to present her work at a research conference of her choice. Thank you to the TRIO team for helping Leah get on the path to her dreams!
First Cohort of Broadcom Employees Completes FRCC Certificate at Their Workplace
Five Broadcom employees are celebrating a major milestone this spring as they successfully complete their Basic Electronics Certificate—at their workplace. Through FRCC’s Center for Integrated Manufacturing, these students are part of the first cohort working toward an Associate of Applied Science degree in our electronics engineering technology program. This innovative partnership between FRCC and Broadcom is designed to bring industry training directly to employees.
These employees have taken all their classes in an onsite lab at the facility where they work. By integrating education into the workplace, FRCC and Broadcom have created a seamless learning experience that allows employees to immediately apply new skills in their day-to-day roles. The success of this first cohort demonstrates the impact of employer-education partnerships in developing a highly skilled workforce. Providing hands-on training within their work environment has been key to making education accessible and relevant for these employees.
The FRCC-Broadcom partnership reflects the growing demand for work-based learning opportunities that align with industry needs. Thank you to the teams who have made this possible—they took a collaborative, future-thinking approach to meeting our learners where they are (literally), while supporting industry needs.
Employee Spotlight
Mark Hussey Presents on AI, Open Pedagogy at Innovations Conference
English faculty member Mark Hussey was selected to present at the League for Innovation’s Innovations Conference this spring on his open pedagogy work with colleague Kae Novak (FRCC’s assistant director of learning design and technology). Their presentation, Savvy Arguers: Shaping the Future with Open Pedagogy, explores how open pedagogy enables students to become authors (literally) of their own courses.
This approach uses reflective collaboration with AI technology to help students research, write and publish in more advanced ways than we might have previously thought possible. The concept of open pedagogy was originally put forward as a means of “opening” curricula and pedagogies to a more diverse body of learners. This approach to teaching seeks to empower students by providing them with the tools and resources necessary for becoming active creators of knowledge, rather than passive recipients.
Mark shared his experiences in his own open pedagogy English course at FRCC. By working on authentic and non-disposable assignments, he says students leave open pedagogy courses with valuable and real-world artifacts of their learning achievements. The future of open pedagogy provides a framework for adapting to—rather than resisting—emerging technologies like AI, and it empowers students to create knowledge while employing relevant and marketable technological skills in the process.
Open pedagogy challenges students to leverage AI technology in the process of authoring their own course materials and invites students to become owners of their learning experience. By exploring ways to effectively adapt and respond to recent fast-growing developments in AI, Mark and Kae’s presentation outlines how open pedagogy can empower students—not just to meet, but to shape and define, the future.
Spread The Word
New Programs for Fall 2025
FRCC has several new programs launching just in time for the fall 2025 semester. Not only are we offering our fifth bachelor’s degree—in integrated building design—but we’re also now offering an AAS in dental hygiene and for-credit certificates in behavioral health.
All of these new programs are critical for tackling workforce needs across Colorado and training skilled professionals who can support our communities. In fact, the first cohort of our new dental hygiene program is already full for the fall!
These programs will also help our students prepare for rewarding careers with family sustaining wages. Creation of a new program is a heavy lift for everyone involved—many thanks to the teams who spent years making these offerings come to fruition.
College Updates
Summer/Fall Registration
As we’ve discussed in recent College Conversations, FRCC’s financial stability is supported by enrollment. (We are working on providing more robust enrollment reports for the upcoming fall semester. More to come on that soon...) The more students we serve, the more opportunities we have to help them achieve and thrive.
With that in mind, every FRCC employee can play a role in boosting enrollment and retention. I hope you’ll join me in encouraging students to register early for their next semester of classes. You can help by reminding students about registration and supporting them in planning their next semester. And be sure to follow the college on social media (@FRCCedu on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X) and share our posts!
Strategic Plan Update
FRCC is moving full speed ahead on developing our 2025-2030 Strategic Plan. Hundreds of members of the FRCC community have participated in workshops to review trends in higher education and define the critical elements of a student's experience. To date, we have led an interactive process, engaging the college community in a multi-staged and innovative process that promises to deliver a dynamic plan that will serve as our North Star through 2030.
Our team has collected feedback through a survey and focus groups to inform a SWOT analysis—detailing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. To amplify our impact and become future-ready, the college is using a data-driven approach for guidance—in order to inform our work and bolster our efforts to strengthen Colorado’s economy and workforce.
The Future Summit
The information collected thus far has been used to develop themes that were explored during our Future Summit in April, an in-person event that took an exciting new approach to engaging the college community. More than just an event, the summit was an opportunity to expand the frontiers of our knowledge, advance student success and continue to challenge and transform the status quo.
The event included an outstanding lineup of subject matter experts who delivered “Ed Talks” on the themes that have emerged from our information gathering efforts, which include:
- Becoming a college of choice
- Creating a tailored student experience
- Advancing workforce development
- Building for operational excellence
As a community of lifelong learners, FRCC and our stakeholders are working to prepare for a bigger, better, bolder future—and the Future Summit was a culmination of the first phase of our planning process.
Operations Updates
As we continue to work on making our physical campuses more accessible for all learners, the college recently acquired new emergency evacuation chair lifts and deployed them in areas with stairs. These are a critical tool to ensure we can better evacuate disabled individuals in emergency situations.
All of our campus safety officers recently completed instructor certification for Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events, which prepares them to teach this training to the college community.
FRCC’s IT team began work on a collegewide upgrade to our WiFi network—a major undertaking that should produce very positive results for the entire college community.
And last but never least, our facilities team completed LED efficient lighting upgrades to the Little Bear Peak building at LC over Spring Break. They also disseminated personal first aid kits for employees to use in their office and classroom spaces.
Reimagining Impact
Strengthening College Governance Through New Department Chair Model
The launch of FRCC’s new department chair model reflects the college’s commitment to reimagining how we lead and support academic excellence across the One College model. This initiative highlights how collaborative decision-making and intentional redesign can simplify processes, align resources with strategic needs and build momentum for lasting impact.
Developed by chairs, for chairs and shaped through cross-divisional input and institutional vetting, the new model introduces a flexible structure that allows schools to request 11-month chair contracts based on clearly documented departmental needs. These may include robust summer course offerings, specialized program oversight, accreditation responsibilities or other complex initiatives. Additionally, small working groups are developing an improved orientation for new chairs, a manual for existing chairs, mentoring and a process for supporting chairs to return to faculty.
By elevating department-level leadership while streamlining how support is allocated, this model exemplifies how FRCC is strengthening college governance and rethinking systems to better serve students, faculty and the broader college community.
As I wrap up, I encourage everyone to keep lifting each other up—we’re in the home stretch of the semester. As we do this important work, don’t forget that FRCC’s brightest commencement celebrations yet are coming up. Don’t forget to RSVP to attend one (or both!) of our commencement ceremonies.
And if you haven’t already, please register to volunteer at graduation and help send our students off with true pomp and circumstance! I’m looking forward to seeing all of you there and celebrating with our students and their families.
Happy May Day,
Colleen Simpson, EdD
President
