Foothill College

Infobox_University
name = Foothill College
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type = Community college
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city = Los Altos Hills
state = California
country = United States
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affiliations = De Anza College
website =http://www.foothill.edu

Foothill College is a community college located in Los Altos Hills, California and is part of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. It was founded on January 15, 1957 by Founding Superintendent and President Dr. Calvin C. Flint.

History

In July 1956, Henry M. Gunn, superintendent of the Palo Alto School District, called a meeting of local school superintendents that led to the creation of Foothill College. [Roberta Couch, Tom Jamison, Doug Stine, Susan Johnston, Rene Lynch, and Judy Sisk, "Foothill College: 25 Years" (Los Altos Hills: Foothill College, 1981), 10.] Calvin Flint, then President of Monterey Peninsula College was hired as the first District Superintendent and President; he started work on March 1, 1958. [Couch, 10.]

Candidates for the new college's name, besides Foothill, were Peninsula, Junipero Serra, Mid-Peninsula, Earl Warren, Herbert Hoover, North Santa Clara, Altos, Valley, Skyline, Highland, and Intercity. [Couch, 11.] At first the name was Foothill Junior College, but because Flint insisted that his new college would be "not junior to anyone", the Board dropped the "Junior" in September 1958. [Couch, 10.]

Foothill held its first classes in the old Highway School campus on El Camino Real in Mountain View on September 15, 1958. [Couch, 11.] It was accredited by March of the next year and was the first school in the state to ever reach full accreditation in less than six months. [Couch, 11.] The owl mascot originated from a concrete owl that was a decoration on the Highway School's bell tower; it was later moved to the new campus. [Couch, 130.]

Today, Foothill College is regarded as one of the most beautiful and successful community colleges in the United States. Its unique neo-Japanese architecture is well-known among architectsref|downey; the campus was designed by architect Ernest Kump and landscape architect Hideo Sasakiref|raver.

Traditionally, it serves the communities of Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, Mountain View, East Palo Alto and Palo Alto; together these communities form the northwest corner of Silicon Valley. The college sits next to Interstate 280, at the interchange with El Monte Road.

The college's student store, its cafeteria, Paint Room Graphics (Internal Design Center) and SmartShop (photocopy center) are the only commercial facilities in Los Altos Hills. The entire town has been zoned as residential.

In 2003, the college began the most dramatic construction project ever attempted since its founding, to accommodate the fact that a campus designed for 3,500 is now serving 19,000. It is renovating nearly all buildings, tearing up and rebuilding its potholed parking lots, demolishing several unsafe buildings (including the campus center), and constructing several replacement buildings. Two of the new buildings feature sod roofs (part of the lower campus complex).

The new Campus Center opened for students' use in Fall Quarter 2007. The lower campus complex is expected to be ready for Winter Quarter 2008.

Culture

Foothill College has a very tolerant culture. The large number of international students on campus has brought an incredible influx of diversity. Annual activities like the International Night (where students perform traditional ceremonies and wear traditional clothes from their home countries) are commonplace.

Heritage Months series

Foothill, following the example of the national Black History Month, has combined a series of celebratory months starting every year in January, organized completely by students and funded by the student government (ASFC).These months are filled with cultural activities, speakers and art exhibits tied with the culture of each month respectively.

* [http://jewishheritagemonth.googlepages.com January is Jewish Heritage Month]
* February is Black History Month
* March is Women's History Month
* April is Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month
* May is Latino Heritage Month
* June is Gay/Lesbian Heritage Month

More details available on:http://www.foothill.edu/news/releases/heritage.html

Organization

Presidents

* Dr. Calvin C. Flint (1957-1973) ^{[http://www.latc.com/1998/03/09/community/communit2.html]}
* Dr. Hubert H. Semans (1967-1973)
* Dr. James S. Fitzgerald (1973-1982)
* Dr. Thomas H. Clements (1982-1994)
* Dr. Bernadine Chuck Fong (1994-2006)
* Dr. Penny Patz (interim President) (2006-2007)
* Dr. Judy Miner (2007-Present)

Divisions

* Adaptive Learning
* Biological & Health Sciences
* Business & Social Sciences (BSS)
* Computers, Technology & Information Systems (CTIS)
* Fine Arts & Communication
* Language Arts
* Physical Education & Human Performance
* Physical Sciences, Mathematics & Engineering (PSME)
* Student Affairs

Administration

The community college district's headquarters are located in one corner of the Foothill campus. The district also administers De Anza College in nearby Cupertino.

Controversy

The campus serves a large number of international students who are attempting to earn associate's degrees as the basis for transferring into prestigious American universities; according to a "Community College Week" survey in 2001, Foothill had the 12th highest population of international students out of all community colleges in the United Statesref|lane.

The school was harshly criticized in 2002 by the "Wall Street Journal" for its aggressive recruitment of such students (who are a lucrative revenue source because they must pay the higher tuition required of all out-of-state students)ref|bartindale.

Miscellaneous information

Facts

* Founding Date: January 15, 1957.
* First Classes Offered: September 15, 1958.
* Foothill College Opening: September 5, 1961.
* Campus area: 122 acres (494,000 m²).
* Enrollment (Fall 2003): 17,493.
** Full Time Students: 4,572 (26%).
** Part Time/non-credit: 12,920 (74%).
* Full Time Employees: 378.
* Enrollment (Fall 2006): 18,342.
** Full Time Students: 3,730 (20.3%)
** Part Time/non-credit: 14,612 (79.7)
* Associate Degree Programs: 70.
* Certificate Programs: 39.
* On-site Foothill Observatory.
* [http://www.foothillglobalaccess.org/main/programs.htm Online Degrees Available] : 12

Athletics

Foothill is a member of the Coast Conference of the California Community College Commission on Athletics and NorCal Football Conference. The school mascot is an owl.

Famous alumni

Chris Robinson, hip-hop/pop music video director.

Steve Sampson, All American soccer player at Foothill, member of 1976 California state championship team from Foothill, coach of Santa Clara men's soccer team (1989 NCAA co-champions), coach of the United States men's national soccer team at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, coach of 1995 Major League Soccer championship team Los Angeles Galaxy

Brad Gilbert, All American tennis player at Foothill, former pro player ranked as high as #4, and coach to Andre Agassi

Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies

Adrienne Barbeau, actress in the TV series "Maude", and former wife of the film director John Carpenter

Jon Nakamatsu, famous Japanese-American pianist

tudent Government

tudents' involvement

Foothill's student government, officially "ASFC" (Associated Students at Foothill College) is recognized as one of the student governments that are the most influential, active and involved in decision making process out of all community colleges throughout the United States.Most former student leaders have transferred to UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Cornell or Stanford.

Unlike other community colleges, Foothill students serve in almost all of the shared governance committees.
* Round Table
* Curriculum
* Board of Trustees
* Academic Senate
* President's Cabinet

Presidential Search

During Winter Quarter 2007, two students (Amir Mesguich and Anika Dodds) served as voting members of the Presidential Search Committee, conducting interviews for the future president of Foothill College. The two students were appointed in "Campus Council" (open student forum). Memorably, Foothill students would have helped to choose the president of their college, by being a 20% of the members of the committee.

tudent Senate for California Community Colleges

The Student Senate for California Community Colleges (SSCCC) was established in conjunction with local associated student organizations, as a means to represent the students in all community colleges at the state level. Further the Student Senate for California Community Colleges is recognized as the representative community college-associated student government organization before the Board of Governors and Chancellor’s Office in accordance with Title 5, Section 50002.

From the Student Senate constitution.

The senate is compromised of 30 members, 2 from each of the 10 regions in the state and 10 which are elected at general assemblies. Since it's formation, SSCCC has had a Foothill College student serve, the only college in the state that has done so.

*Confiance Dukunde (2006-2007)
*Steven Anderson (2007-2008)
*Stell Bahrami (2008-2009)

ASFC Presidents

* Louis Cullen (1996-1997)
* Woei-Wei Khek (1997-1998)
* Joseph Francis (1998-1999)
* Ryan Pistochini (1999-2000)
* Dimitra Tzimopoulos (2000-2001)
* Michael Kwan (2001-2002)
* Javad Aghamiri (2002-2003)
* Rodolfo Vazquez de Mendoza (2003-2004)
* Kee Hoon Chung (2004-2005)
* Adrian Diaz (2005-2006)
* Hanna (Abbey) Brown (2006-2007)
* Anthony Gooran (2007-2008)
* Steven Anderson (2008-2009)

ASFC Vice-Presidents

Activities

* Asya Sorokurs (2006-2007)
* Anna Shusterman (2007-2008)
* Rachel Siliki Mbassa (2008-Present)

Finance

* Andrew Horng (2006- Mid-2007)
* Kelvin Ng (Spring 2007)
* Dennis Mok (2007-April, 2008)
* Antinea Chair (Appointed) (Remainder of 2007-2008)
* Pratha Sangar (2008-Present)

Administration

* Confiance Dukunde (Appointed) (2006-2007)
* Kelvin Ng (2007-April, 2008)
* Calvin Ip (Appointed) (Remainder of 2007-2008)
* Gilbert Chan (2008-Present)

enate

* Gianni Rosas-Maxemin (2006-2007)
* Christopher Leung (2007-December, 2007)
* Amir Mesguich (Appointed) (Remainder of 2007-2008)
* Fatima Traore (2008-Present)

OBD (Organization Board of Directors)

* Andi Bae (Appointed) (2006-2007)
* Devi Boda (2007-2008)
* Jada Ko (2008-Present)

Intramural

* Khanh Nguyen (Appointed) (2007)
* Frances Chiu (2007-April, 2008)
* Yat Pong Ho (Appointed) (Remainder of 2007-2008)
* Yat Pong Ho (2008-2009)

References

Bartindale, Becky. "Foothill Denies Report Of Inaccuracy: College Accused Of Exaggerating Transfer Stats." "San Jose Mercury News", 3 April 2002, sec. B, p. 6.

Downey, Kirstin. "A Discerning Look At The Valley: Architects Assess Our Area's Aesthetics." "San Jose Mercury News", 29 May 1986, sec. E, p. 1.

Lane, Kristin. "World-Class Export." "Community College Week", 20 August 2001, 6.

Raver, Anne. "Hideo Sasaki, 80, Influential Landscape Architect, Dies." "New York Times", 25 September 2000, sec. Arts, p. 9.

External links

* [http://www.foothill.edu Foothill College official website]
* [http://www.fhda.edu Foothill-De Anza Community College District]