Fall 2026 Opening Day
Thursday, September 17
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Designing for What Matters
Opening Day is an opportunity for the De Anza community to come together and reflect on what matters most: helping our students reach their educational goals.
Our theme of Designing for What Matters builds on the districtwide theme of Designing the Future, while naming our collective work of this year: Reaching clarity on our priorities in our new context of transitioning to a basic aid funding model.
With this in mind, the day will focus on student timely educational goal attainment. Together we’ll explore how the work each of us does helps students access college, succeed in their courses, stay on track and achieve their goals.
It will also be an opportunity to:
- Launch a year-long focus on the five student success areas:
- Access
Course success- Retention
- Term-to-term persistence and
- Completion of an educational goal
- Celebrate what De Anza does well
- Learn from one another, share ideas and build connections across the college
- Help employees connect their daily work to student success
- Spend meaningful time together before the quarter begins
Schedule for Opening Day: Designing for What Matters
|
Time |
Activity |
Location |
|
7:30-8:45 a.m. |
Optional breakfast |
VPAC Patio
|
|
9-10:45 a.m. |
Plenary: Designing for What Matters
|
VPAC Theater |
|
10:45-11 a.m. |
Break |
|
|
11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. |
Community Conversations |
Multiple locations (see below) |
|
12:30-1:30 p.m. |
Community Connections lunch |
Buffet in Conference Rooms A&B
|
|
1:30-3 p.m. |
Division meetings |
Multiple locations |
Community Conversations
For this exercise, we'll split into smaller groups to discuss topics introduced by moderators. You will be assigned a room number generated by inputting your CWID below.