Message From the President

Dear De Anza Campus Community,

It is a privilege to be here as your Acting President, and I have genuinely appreciated the warm welcome from so many of you over these first weeks. I am writing today to update you on two important initiatives: one at the district level and one here at De Anza. 

Somos Uno Task Force

When the district transitioned to basic aid, or community-supported funding, it created both opportunity and a real need to revisit how revenue is divided among Central Services, Foothill College, and De Anza College. 

The Somos Uno Task Force was established to address exactly that: developing a new Resource Allocation Model that serves all three cost centers equitably. I am serving as co-chair alongside Foothill President Kristina Whalen, and our 18-member task force has been meeting throughout winter and spring.

We are currently wrapping up our identification of issues, interests, and constraints and turning our attention to what a new model might look like. To manage risk, we are building in a full year of side-by-side modeling before anything goes live, running the numbers under any new model in parallel with the existing one so we can catch unintended consequences early. This work continues over the summer, and I will keep you informed as it develops.

De Anza's representatives on the task force are: Michele LeBleu-Burns, Ram Subramaniam, Farhad Sabit, Shagun Kaur, Lidia Burlanescu, and Lisa Ly. I am grateful for the time and commitment each of them has brought to this work.

90-Day Priorities

Following President Torres' departure, the Office of Instruction and Academic Senate leadership came together in late March to establish a set of priorities to carry the college through this transition period. These were developed collaboratively and shared with the campus at a town hall on March 24.

There has been meaningful progress across all nine priorities. Key accomplishments include:

• Culture building and improvement in shared governance are in progress.
• Strategic planning conversations are underway, with active exploration of how to consolidate the college's key planning documents.
• The AI infrastructure initiative is expanding significantly for AY 2026-27, building on the foundation established by our AI Fellow.
• The RAPP Council has stood up two new operational subcommittees to support faculty prioritization and program sustainability.
• Hiring for the Vice President of Workforce position is in final stages, with campus forums and interviews scheduled for late June.
• Following broad campus discussion, Contract Education has been identified as the priority direction for De Anza.

A detailed update on each priority is linked here: 90-Day Priorities Progress Update - June 2026.pdf. I encourage you to take a look. I am proud of what this campus has accomplished, and I want to make sure that work is visible. Further, I’d like to express my appreciation to all who have been involved in this important work. 

I look forward to continued conversations with all of you as we move through summer and into the next academic year.

With respect,

David

David Wain Coon, Ed.D.

Acting President, De Anza College