Message from Dr. Belinda S. Miles: Focus Forward – September 28, 2018
September 28, 2018
Colleagues,
Faculty Convocation is a great occasion to focus forward on the year ahead, and in the case of remarks this week, the next several years leading up to the college’s 75th anniversary in 2021. What poignant and timely comments from new SGA President Ava Marie Tapia! Remarkably, neither she nor Provost Morest knew that each other would speak so definitively about course scheduling. Both issued a call for action this year in identifying ways that scheduling could create new or faster pathways for students to complete their programs. All of our work to date has converged at this time and place to move from discussion to implementation.
In addition, Staff Council President Al Seward challenged us to aspire to have the highest completion rate of all SUNY community colleges. Incidentally, Clinton Community College has SUNY’s highest completion rate at 36.8% (outside of FIT, an outlier that also offers bachelor’s degrees). Achieving this goal would require major effort from us and is worthy of serious planning as part of our vision for high performing, 21st century community colleges.
The Strategic Administrative Leadership Team (SALT) met today and walked through an assessment exercise that started to look at what specific characteristics might describe a high performing, 21st century community college. We intentionally considered our unique circumstances and the growth opportunities that might be advantageous for both managers and staff. Focus on professional development was a major outcome of the 2016 Student Success and Academic Excellence Summit, and today’s exercise contributes to work in that area. This discussion and ones like it will continue as our strategic planning year continues. We will have more to say on that topic after next week’s President’s Communication Council meeting.
As we end this week, I offer congratulations to our Native Plant Center on their 20th anniversary! Kudos to Carol Capobianco, Susan Palmer, and all who make our gardens a welcoming space to explore native flowers and plants.
Dr. Belinda S. Miles
President