Page 8 - De Anza College Catalog 2018-2019

CAMPUS OVERVIEW
De Anza College is an institution dedicated at its core to diversity and to a multicultural learning environment.
After extensive discussion about what a De Anza graduate needs to be successful, the college in spring 2014 updated its mission statement as part of its Midterm Report to the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. In particular, the college focused on updating one of its Institutional Core Competencies (ICCs) to "Civic capacity for global, cultural, social and environmental justice." e revision of this ICC more clearly articulates student learning goals and allows for quanti able outcomes. e mission statement also distills the results of strategic planning begun in 2005 and updated in 2014, with commitments to Outreach, Individualized Attention to Student Retention and Success, Equity and Civic Engagement.
De Anza College o ers 70 degrees, 95 certi cates and more than 1,600 courses.
HISTORY
De Anza was established in Cupertino on Sept. 11, 1967, as the Foothill Junior College District worked to meet local community demand for a second campus. Planning for De Anza began soon after the district’s rst campus, Foothill College, launched in temporary quarters in 1958 and lled to capacity after moving in 1961 to its permanent location in Los Altos Hills. Just four years after approving a $10.4 million bond measure for Foothill, community members readily voted in favor of a second bond measure, in the amount of $14 million, to build De Anza College.
De Anza was constructed on 112 acres of what was once a turn-of-the-century wine- producing estate that the district purchased for $1.1 million. Guiding principles for the new college called for creating an
“open door” institution to serve students with a wide variety of abilities, aptitudes and interests; an atmosphere of “friendly informality between faculty members and students”; and a campus that conveyed a sense of “quiet dignity” and “higher learning.”
De Anza's enrollment has grown from 3,000 students in its rst year to almost 21,000 today. Students, faculty and sta reflect the highly diverse ethnicities, cultures and backgrounds that comprise contemporary Silicon Valley.
Since its earliest days, De Anza has embodied a set of fundamental values that remain embedded in its culture. A deep concern for equity and social justice took root during the college’s formative years, in uenced by the sweeping social and political changes of the 1960s and 1970s. In intentionally cultivating a new educational community, the founders of what became the Foothill-De Anza Community College District placed a premium on excellence and innovation, and searched out faculty with a passion for teaching.
ese foundational values continue to shape De Anza’s institutional character today. ey are evident in De Anza’s deep commitment to providing a learning environment that is inclusive and welcoming to all students, and the college’s concerted e ort over the past decade to achieve educational equity across racial and ethnic groups.
STUDENT SUCCESS
All De Anza students can nd support through the Student Success Center, which can help them connect with a supportive community of instructors, counselors, advisers, tutors, peer mentors and study groups. e center can also direct students to study skills classes, and workshops on critical thinking and time management. In addition, Learning Communities provide many students with a network of support as they take classes and participate in other activities as a group.
Since 2014, the college has used funding from the state’s Student Success and Support Program (SSSP) to provide counselors within instructional divisions and Learning Communities, in which they can work closely with students and o er assistance tailored to their eld of study and their educational goals. De Anza
also has expanded its O ce of Outreach and Relations with Schools to provide core services in high schools and work with new students on campus to assist them in completing their comprehensive educational plan and provide counseling and advising, peer support, follow-up and connection to campus resources for increased student retention and success.
These support systems are among the reasons De Anza has one of the highest university transfer rates among community colleges in California. A 2008 case study by the California Community Colleges Research and Planning (RP) Group concluded that De Anza’s high transfer rate is attributable to its strategic approach to institutional development; its encouragement and support of academic excellence and achievement; its tradition of innovation; and its experimentation with ways to integrate student services with instruction. e college consistently ranks at or near the top statewide in transfer to four-year institutions, according to the state Chancellor’s O ce Velocity Data Mart.
De Anza’s commitment to historically underserved students also is seen in its long history of programs for students with disabilities, which date to 1973. In 2017- 18, the college served 1,403 students with disabilities.
SUSTAINABILITY, LEARNING FACILITIES AND BOND MEASURES
Just as the civil rights movement shaped De Anza in its early days, the environmental movement has galvanized a wide range of activities on the campus among students, faculty and sta . De Anza’s commitment to sustainability as a core value is evident in daily improvements ranging from 100 percent biodegradable containers and utensils in the cafeteria to drought-tolerant landscaping and weather-responsive irrigation on the grounds.
In 2016, De Anza became the rst community college to be certi ed as a Bay Area Green Business. e program distinguishes organizations that protect, sustain and preserve the environment. e city of Cupertino also awarded the college with a GreenBiz certi cation, an o shoot of the Bay Area Green Business program.
Through the work of its College Environmental Advisory Group (CEAG), De Anza in 2007 became the rst community
2O18-2O19 DE ANZA COLLEGE CATALOG
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