Flex Day 2026 · Tuesday, February 17

Early Alert Essentials: Strengthening Student Success Through Early Intervention
Location: LH 101
Facilitator: David Rodriguez, Early Alert coordinator, counseling programs and services 
Audience: Open to all employees

Join us for an engaging and practical session designed to help faculty and staff strengthen student success through Citrus College's Early Alert system.

This workshop will provide step-by-step guidance on submitting Early Alert referrals in both Canvas and Wingspan, ensuring attendees feel confident and supported in using these tools effectively. Participants will also gain an inside look at what happens after a referral is submitted.

We will explore how the Early Alert team uses proactive, relationship-centered support strategies to reach out to students through personalized communication and connect them with a wide range of campus services.

Attendees will learn how Early Alert fosters meaningful collaboration among faculty, students and support programs. This network includes counseling, student success workshops, athletics, STEM, EOPS, DSPS, veterans services, the library and more. By understanding both the referral process and the comprehensive network of follow-up resources, faculty and staff will gain valuable insight into how Early Alert helps students build solid foundations for stronger academic futures.

This workshop equips educators with practical strategies to intervene early, communicate effectively and support student persistence every day.

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Finance Self-Service Banner Basics
Location: LI 118
Facilitators: Marie Noriega, associate director of fiscal services; Daniel Medina, buyer, business services
Audience: Open to all employees

In this workshop, we will review some of the processes available in Finance Self-Service Banner, with a focus on the requisition process.

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Immigration Enforcement Protocols
Location: LH 102
Facilitator: Maryann Tolano-Leveque, dean of students, student affairs division
Audience: Open to all employees

This workshop provides guidance and resources on how to respond to immigration enforcement activities on campus.

Participants will learn the step-by-step protocols for interacting with immigration enforcement officers, including required notification procedures, proper responses to law enforcement requests and employee responsibilities.

The session covers the differences between administrative and judicial warrants, the importance of protecting student and employee privacy, and the chain of reporting in the event of an incident.

Attendees will leave prepared to handle immigration enforcement scenarios in compliance with both college policy and state law.

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Navigating Difficult Conversations in the Classroom: Creating Inclusive and Supportive Learning Spaces
Location: LH 103
Facilitator: Peter Rodriguez, ethnic studies professor
Audience: Open to all employees

In this interactive and reflective workshop, participants will explore practical tools and strategies for facilitating and managing challenging classroom conversations around sensitive or controversial topics.

Drawing from principles of equity-minded pedagogy, this session will help educators and campus professionals create environments where all voices can be heard respectfully, without silencing or isolating those who feel marginalized.

Through real-world scenarios, dialogue prompts and collaborative discussion, attendees will practice how to respond when conversations become tense, reframe moments of conflict into opportunities for growth, and build classroom norms that promote mutual respect, safety and understanding.

This workshop welcomes educators from all disciplines and staff from all areas who wish to strengthen their ability to foster inclusive, courageous and compassionate dialogue in their work.

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On Camera and Captioned: Tools Available for Creating Video Content
Location: CI 158
Facilitator: Senya Lubisich, history professor
Audience: Faculty *LIMITED CAPACITY*

This is a session that demonstrates tools available for creating video content.

Faculty will learn which tools are available inside Canvas and additional tools that can be accessed through Citrus College's Single Sign On (SSO). Additionally, an explanation and overview of the DECT captioning grant that can be used to caption videos used in asynchronous instruction. Faculty will learn how to load their files into Studio or YouTube for seamless captioning.

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Spring Cleaning: Course Policy Clean-up (Regular Substantive Interaction)
Location: CI 159
Facilitator: Becky Rudd, English professor
Audience: Faculty

This session will focus on the importance of clear, student-centered policy language within orientation modules. It will include the launch of a Canvas template that incorporates supportive language for course policies, navigation and design. Participants will receive access to the templates along with guidance on how to customize them to meet their individual course needs.

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The Big "Easies": Fixing Alt Tags on Images and Adding Headers (Accessibility)
Location: SS 109
Facilitator: Amanda Konya, photography professor
Audience: Faculty *LIMITED CAPACITY*

This is a hands-on, bring-your-own device session in which faculty will be guided through their accessibility reports and learn how to write accurate, compliant alt tags.

The session will also include hands-on remediation of documents and Canvas pages to ensure proper heading structures.

Assessing SLOs
Location: LH 101
Facilitator: Catie Besancon, SLOA coordinator
Audience: Faculty 

In this session, we will discuss:

• the role of student learning outcomes (SLOs),
• how to pick an assessment for your particular SLO
• how looking at and sharing our assessment data on SLOs can help us identify ways to improve student success and retention.

After a short presentation and questions, faculty will be broken up into groups to discuss their own assessments, data and provide space for collegial dialogue and exchange of ideas.

Faculty are encouraged to have a phone, tablet or computer to be able to access their program's Pad let to add any insights that come from this discussion.

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Better Feedback: Leveraging Canvas Tools (Regular Substantive Interaction)
Location: CI 158
Facilitator: Nichole Ary, communications professor 
Audience: Faculty

This is a hands-on bring-your-own device demonstration of the rubric tool in Canvas and the options for editing, adding and sharing rubrics for individualized feedback to students.

In addition to showing faculty how to use rubrics, the session will review annotation tools, video and audio to give students more robust feedback on assignments.

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Bu-Bye File and PDF Attachments
Location: LI 118
Facilitator: Jack Beckham, dean of social and behavioral sciences and online education
Audience: Faculty *LIMITED CAPACITY*

This is a hands-on, bring-your-own device demonstration of tools that can be employed to eliminate linked files and PDFs in digital content.

Faculty will be guided through converting documents into Canvas pages.

Additionally, there will be a demonstration of how to create a Google account, upload files and convert them to Google docs. Faculty will learn how to publish those documents, scan for accessibility issues and embed them into a Canvas course. Editing in the Google drive will push edits to all embedded docs.

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How Does New Legislation Impact the Courses We Offer?
Location: LH 103
Facilitators: Claudia Castillo, counselor; Michelle Plug, counselor; Lisa Villa, counselor; David Rodriguez, counselor
Audience: Faculty and managers

This session will take a practical look at recent updates such as Cal-GETC and the Course Program of Study (CPOS) requirements, and how they connect to financial aid. Together, we will explore how these changes influence course planning and scheduling, and why decisions about course offerings and section counts are increasingly tied to student progress, compliance and shared institutional goals.

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"I know who my teacher is!" Establishing Presence in Online Courses (Regular Substantive Interaction)
Location: CI 159
Facilitator: Senya Lubisich, history professor
Panel Members: Denise Kaisler, astronomy professor; Alfie Swan, mathematics professor; Jennifer Miller-Thayer, anthropology professor; Theresa Villeneuve, communications professor
Audience: Faculty

A discussion-based presentation focused on strategies for facilitating and managing discussion board activity that establish instructor presence without being overly burdensome.

Faculty will learn how to use announcements on the course home page and the comment tool to create opportunities for student questions and interaction, strengthening presence in online courses.

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Stronger Futures, Zero Costs: Insights from Our ZTC Journey
Location: LH 102
Facilitators: Sarah Bosler, public services librarian; Elizabeth Cook, instructional design librarian; Darren Hall, systems/technical services librarian; Anthony Delgado, research analyst, institutional research and planning
Panelists (In-Person): Toros Berberyan, mathematics professor; Kathy Harker, biology professor; Alfie Swan, mathematics professor
Panelists (Pre-Recorded): Nichole Ary, communications professor; Tracy Nguyen, mathematics professor
Audience: Faculty

Discover how Citrus College is helping lower financial barriers for students by offering Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) pathways.

This workshop will share updates on the ZTC Degree Pathway Grant, provide an overview on ZTC course impact at Citrus, and highlight faculty who have adopted or created OER.

Participants will gain practical insights into how ZTC supports equitable access, reduces financial barriers and strengthens our students' foundations for success.

Join us to learn, collaborate and explore next steps in expanding ZTC across campus.

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The New Citrus College Welcome Center
Location: SS 109
Facilitators: Nilda Chavez, director of outreach, and Mariana Rodriguez, professional expert
Audience: Open to all employees *LIMITED CAPACITY*

The Welcome Center serves as Citrus College's hub for student support, onboarding and general campus guidance.

This workshop will introduce participants to the Welcome Center's services, workflows and best practices for delivering consistent, student-centered assistance.

Attendees will explore common student scenarios, learn how to provide accurate referrals and practice communication strategies that enhance service quality across departments.

The session will also highlight how the Welcome Center uses technology (e.g., Element 451, appointment systems, referral processes) to streamline support and strengthen collaboration with student services.

Ideal for classified professionals, faculty and managers, this workshop builds essential daily skills that reinforce a coordinated, welcoming environment for all students.

Finally, this workshop will provide the opportunity for staff and faculty to get their Citrus College ID!