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Grossmont President Dr. Sunny Cooke contacted the chair of the accreditation team, whose members already were arriving at the Doubletree Hotel in Mission Valley.

“The ACCJC (Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges) asked the visiting team to move ahead,” Dr. Cooke said. With that, the president mobilized her own team to turn the Doubletree into Grossmont College West.

“Plans immediately began,” she said, “to move the room full of evidence from Griffin Gate to a room at the Doubletree to facilitate the team’s access to materials. Tim Flood’s crew worked on campus and in transportation and Pam Amor and Bonnie Price worked at the Doubletree to ensure a complete transfer of materials and equipment needed.”

The key element, a massive collection of more than 600 pieces of evidence cited in the Self-Study, had already been moved from its assembly station in the library to Griffin Gate, which was to have been the visiting team’s headquarters.

“Sang Bai, Walter Sachau, Bob Herald, and I moved the evidence down to the Doubletree and set it up for the team on Monday,” said Tim Flood, who also on Monday was bringing in and breaking out materials, equipment, and plans to deal with the demands of the fires. As in 2003’s Cedar Fire, the campus became the region's Incident Command Center for Law Enforcement, at the request of County Sheriff Bill Kolender. Law enforcement vehicles assembled for briefings in both parking lots 1 and 7 at the beginning of each day.

Grossmont College West at the Doubletree, meanwhile, was developing a friendly, slightly informal/Bohemian feel appropriate for a college campus.

“The Doubletree was serving not only as the host hotel for our visiting team, but also as an evacuation shelter,” said Dr. Cooke. “So there were beds set up in the ballrooms for those needing the space, there were dogs of all sizes and shapes in the hotel and lots of barking. People milling around and many glued to TV sets in the bar and lobby area.”

She also said the hotel was completely accommodating to the needs of a stressed-out relocated college constituency seeking crucial approval of exacting examiners.

“The hotel did a wonderful job of not only opening up to those that needed space but were amazingly responsive to our dynamic needs,” she said. “We moved the entire visit to the Doubletree and needed additional work rooms, and spaces and they were extremely accommodating to our needs. We couldn’t have asked for more from their staff.”

The rest of the week went “literally hour by hour and day by day,” Dr. Cooke said. “Pam Amor, Bonnie Price, Chuck Passentino, Tim Flood, Kats Gustafson and all the team leads and many others went way above and beyond the call of duty to be sure that the team was well set up at the Doubletree and that they had everything they needed. Wendy Hutson of the ASGC and Agustin Albarran, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, were instrumental in getting hold of students and ensuring that the voice of students could be heard by the visiting team.”

Throughout Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, evidence was examined, administrators, faculty, staff and students were interviewed, question after question was asked and answered. Finally, late Thursday afternoon, the committee delivered its exit interview to nearly 100 assembled faculty, staff and students. And then they were gone.

“There was never a moment to say, ‘Whew, we made it!’ until the very end of the exit interview,” said Dr. Cooke.

She said she had long ago scheduled an off-campus celebration for Friday following the visit, for all those on campus involved in writing the Self-Study document, preparing for the site visit and participating in the visit.

“But given the week’s events,” she said, “that did not seem like an appropriate celebration.” Instead, she created the midday, on-campus Halloween-themed barbecue, in the Administrative Quad, celebrating “survival of the fires and accreditation visit,” as “a simple way to mark the end of a challenging week for our college and our region and to say thank you to all those that helped to get us through it.”

“Getting through it” also included more than 153 hours of clean-up labor by Flood and his crews in order to accommodate students, faculty, and staff to the campus again on October 29.

The accreditation team members, meanwhile, took home some stories to tell. Their process will produce a written document submitted to the AACJC who will provide a written report, and accreditation status, to the college. That report is not expected until late January, but everyone knows Grossmont College has already earned an A for Adapting.

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