University of San Diego Hosts Conversation on Community College Leadership

Leaders from community colleges and universities from around the state will gather at the University of San Diego on March 19 and 20 to explore the current and future status of community college leadership development. The Community College Leadership Summit will serve as a platform for dialogue among top leaders and result in the identification of strategic directions for community college leadership development programs, as well as goals and outcomes to be achieved in partnership with the University of California, the California State University, the University of Hawaii, and independent colleges and universities. Sessions will be held in Mother Rosalie Hill Hall and are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 19, and from 8:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 20.

Conference speakers include Charles Reed, chancellor, The California State University; Mark Yudof, president, University of California system; Jack Scott, chancellor, California Community Colleges; and Mary Lyons, president of the University of San Diego; among others. Reed, Scott and Lyons will take part in the opening panel for the conference on March 19 at 10:15 a.m.

The summit’s focus on community colleges is important to all of higher education, according to organizers, because community colleges educate half of all undergraduates in America. Further, more than two-thirds of minority students who enter postsecondary education begin at a community college.

“The Leadership Summit will produce a much needed dialogue between all of the higher education systems in California, public and private, at a time when citizenry educational attainment is the number one key to a strong California economy,” said Doug Treadway, president of the Community College Leadership Development Initiatives Foundation (CCLDI), which is hosting the event.

CCLDI, a nonprofit center hosted by USD’s School of Leadership and Education Sciences, offers a number of programs to “prepare and train current and future classified, faculty and administrative leaders for the California Community College system.” Programs offered include a week-long, residential Leadership Academy, doctoral fellows program, policy seminars and the development of non-degree programs.

The Summit is open to the public. Registration is $100, with discounts available to CCLDI member institutions and students. For more information, go to www. sandiego.edu/ccldi.

About the University of San Diego

The University of San Diego, a Catholic Institution of higher learning chartered in 1949. The university enrolls approximately 7,500 undergraduate and graduate students and is known for its commitment to teaching, the liberal arts, the formation of values and community service. The inauguration this fall of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace brings the university’s total number of schools and colleges to six. Other academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences and the schools of Business Administration, Education, Law and Nursing and Health Science.

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About the University of San Diego

Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.