Reports to the Board of Trustees
Each month, President Torres gives a report on college activities, honors and achievements during the regular meeting of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District Board of Trustees.
For previous reports, please see the board reports archive.
Board Meeting of Oct. 6, 2025
This month's report includes items on
- Great Start for Fall Quarter
- College Opening Day and Welcome Day
- Innovation Grants
- New Hub and Roary’s Market
- New Career Center
- New Beach Volleyball Facility
- UAA-CNC Achievement Ceremony
- Haas Foundation Scholarship Funding
- KPMG Donation for Accounting
- CalWORKs: "Impactful and Caring"
- Kern Family Foundation Retreat
- Hispanic Foundation Ball
Great Start for Fall Quarter
It’s been great to have so many students, faculty members and classified professionals back on campus since fall quarter began two weeks ago. The Main Quad is bustling, our Village Centers are busy, and students even lined up for the opening of the Library on the first Monday morning. Our unduplicated headcount for this quarter is over 18,500, or about 1% higher than this time last year. Course enrollments are up 0.8% and FTES has increased nearly 2%.
Our Office of Communications produced new flyers and A-frame signs to help new students find information about adding classes and accessing services.
During the first week, classified professionals staffed information tables as part of the Caring Campus program, while several vice presidents and administrators took turns assisting students at a table in the Main Quad.
We also hosted some representatives from the city of Sunnyvale and the NOVAworks workforce development agency, who visited our Automotive Technology and Design and Manufacturing Technologies (DMT) facilities, as well as our Kirsch Center for Environmental Studies, on the first day of the quarter. Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens, our former trustee, dropped by the campus as well. Many thanks to all the classified professionals, faculty members and administrators who assisted with the tours.
(Above right: President Torres with Asssemblyman Ahrens. Below: Caring Campus volunteers at information table; DMT chair Mike Appio with visitors from city of Sunnyvale and NOVAworks)
College Opening Day and Welcome Day
Before the quarter officially began, we hosted two big events for employees and students – the college Opening Day program on Thursday, Sept. 18, and the Welcome Day for students on Friday, Sept. 19.
I think everyone enjoyed seeing their colleagues at the VPAC and on the Campus Center patio during the college Opening Day program. In addition to celebrating employee anniversaries and welcoming new employees, we announced the recipients of De Anza’s annual Innovation Grants and reviewed a number of initiatives and opportunities for the coming year – including our new draft strategic plan for 2027-2030. We also had a large audience in the afternoon for our guest speaker, Trudi Radtke, who gave a talk on “AI Literacy, Equity and the Future of Higher Education.”
Then on the following day, we hosted nearly 2,000 students, along with friends and family members, for the annual Welcome Day program on campus. Students were able to learn about our six Guided Pathways Villages and visit the Village Centers; speak with faculty members, counselors and student service representatives in the
Main Quad; tour the campus; and enjoy refreshments in the S Quad. Thanks to the Office of Communications, Guided Pathways teams, College Operations crews and many, many others who made Welcome Day a success. Our students tell us
they appreciate this campuswide effort to make them feel welcome.
(Above right: Guest speaker Trudy Radtke at college Opening Day; Roary the Mountain Lion with new friend at Welcome Day)
Innovation Grants
As mentioned, we announced the recipients of this year’s Innovation Grants for 2025-26 during the college Opening Day event. These are grants to fund entrepreneurial ideas that will advance student equity, retention or increased enrollment at De Anza. The awards are funded by the Foothill-De Anza Foundation in concert with the De Anza President’s Office. For this year, we had seven recipients for the maximum of $2,500 each:
- Auto Tech Department – for professional development in best practices for recruiting women students
- Cross Cultural Partners – promoting friendship and communication by partnering ESL students with non-ESL students
- International Studies Peace Mural – to be painted outside the Multicultural Center
- Mental Health and Wellness Peer Support – for peer outreach and resources to support students’ mental health
- Pride Scholars – providing support and incentives to increase LGBTQ+ student success
- Red Wheelbarrow Inmate Artists and Writers – providing a paid editing internship for a Rising Scholar student, and other support for publishing work by incarcerated writers and artists
- Dual Enrollment Outreach – targeted efforts to promote dual enrollment for students attending high schools in key districts across the region
You can learn more about these grants and the individuals who conceived these ideas by visiting the "Innovation Grants'' section of our website at deanza.edu/president.
New Hub and Roary’s Market
De Anza has opened a brand new center for our food pantry and basic needs programs, enhancing our support for students who need assistance with food, clothing,
toiletries, transportation and other resources. The two programs are now located in
one space inside the Baldwin Winery Building, and have been rebranded with new names: The food pantry is now called Roary’s Market, which is located inside what’s now called the Hub – a welcoming space where students can get assistance and referrals for a variety of resources.
We are promoting the new space in emails, social media and flyers around campus, so students will know where they can get help. Congratulations to Nazy Galoyan, Casie Wheat, Grisel Vasquez and Raquel Perez, along with the student workers who helped get the center ready to open in time for Welcome Day!
New Career Center
Also just in time for the start of fall quarter, De Anza has a new Career Center on campus, operated in partnership by the Occupational Training Institute and our Career Technical Education Division. This new center is located in the Seminar Building. It will be a place where students can obtain
career counseling, get help with resumes and interviews, connect with jobs and internships, and access a variety of specialized tools for career exploration.
The center also has a computer lab and will offer career workshops and other events throughout the year. Congratulations to Randy Bryant, Sabrina Stewart and everyone else at OTI and CTE who are working on this project!
New Beach Volleyball Facility
Construction is nearly complete for "The Beach" – the beautiful new Beach Volleyball competition facility on campus, which was made possible by funding from Measure G. Although contractors still need to finish some work on the scoreboard and other
items, we have one class using the facility this fall – and our volleyball team has already done some training practice there.
We are making plans for a formal opening ceremony later this fall and we’ll share more details about that soon. In the meantime, the contractor recently shared some impressive photos taken from an aerial drone, which you can view on the “Board Reports” section of our website at deanza.edu/president. (Click to view in larger size)
Uniquely Abled Academy CNC Program
De Anza hosted a special achievement ceremony on Sept. 26 for nine students who completed our first Uniquely Abled Academy CNC Operator program for young adults with autism. This intensive, 11-week training program was designed to prepare students for entry-level jobs as Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine operators.
The program is offered through our Design and Manufacturing Technologies Department, in collaboration with the Business, Computer Science and Applied Technologies Division, our Community Education Division, the California Department of Rehabilitation, Jay Nolan Community Services and the Uniquely Abled Project. Congratulations to the students, and to Mike Appio and Robert August of the DMT program, and Margarita Hawthorne of Community Education, for helping to make this program a success!
Haas Foundation Scholarship Funding
Our Design and Manufacturing Technologies program is also celebrating $28,000 in new scholarship funding for De Anza students in our CNC technology and machine-based engineering programs.
The money comes from the Gene Haas Foundation, established by the founder of Haas Automation, which makes precision CNC machining equipment that is used by leading manufacturing companies. Our DMT program trains students on the latest Haas equipment.
All told, the Haas Foundation has provided nearly $130,000 in scholarship funding for De Anza DMT students, along with a $1 million grant in 2018 that established the Gene Haas Center for Design and Manufacturing on our campus. Thank you to department chair Mike Appio for building a strong relationship with the Haas Foundation.
KPMG Donation for Accounting
De Anza's Accounting program received a generous $15,000 donation from KPMG, a leading accounting and professional services firm, through its Two-Year College Network Sponsorship Program. The money will support our Advancing Accounting Preparedness initiative, which promotes student engagement, academic readiness and support for accounting students whose goal is transferring to a four-year program. Thanks to instructor Catherina Wong for pursuing this funding!
CalWORKs: “Impactful and Caring”
Our CalWORKs program drew recent praise from the Santa Clara County Social Services Agency, which completed its annual review of the program’s contract to provide support and resources for students who are parents with limited incomes.
The CalWORKs program, which helps students gain job skills and work experience while earning an academic certificate, is operated through OTI, the Occupational Training Institute at De Anza and Foothill. In a recent notice that found the program in full compliance with its contract, a county official called our program, “an impactful and caring service provider and advocate for student success.”
Kern Family Foundation Retreat
I’m honored to be invited to a three-day leadership retreat in Wisconsin next month, hosted by the Kern Family Foundation for selected community college leaders from around the country. The retreat is designed to catalyze fresh thinking about student success, faculty formation and community building. It’s part of a yearlong fellowship program for new college presidents – which I'm also participating in – that’s offered by the Kern Family Foundation in partnership with the Aspen Institute. The fellowship program is focused on leadership and character in higher education. I’m looking forward to the retreat and to building on some of
the ideas and concepts that may be relevant to our work at De Anza College.
Hispanic Foundation Ball
Several members of our leadership team attended the Hispanic Foundation Ball with me on Saturday. This annual event raises money for STEM workforce development, providing opportunities for Latinx students to gain high-demand job skills. (Last year's event raised more than $1 million for these programs.)
I was recently honored to become a member of the board of directors for the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, which organizes the ball. Vice presidents Michele LeBleu-Burns, Farhad Sabit and Ram Subramaniam joined me on Saturday for a great event.
(From left: Ram Subramaniam, Ryan Webster, Michele LeBleu-Burns, Omar Torres, Farhad Sabit.)