Message from Dr. Belinda S. Miles: Meeting our Mission
February 11, 2022
Colleagues,
Enrollment management and academic advising teams continue to focus on growing our spring enrollment in the face of a decline in enrollments of 13% at community colleges nationwide for the fall 2021 semester. Their dedicated efforts have led to robust registration for the spring’s 12-week session, a result that invites greater scrutiny as to what factors are bringing these students back to the classroom.
Students can still enroll in the 7.5-week session that begins March 21. Please alert them of this opportunity to earn additional credits during the spring semester, especially those on track to complete in May or August. Information, including available courses and their modalities, is here: Spring Semester web page.
Crunching the enrollment numbers reminds us that we have access to tremendous amounts of data that can inform our decision-making to best meet our mission and serve our students. Here is an Inside Higher Ed podcast that further explains how we can all utilize data as a powerful tool: The Key Podcast | Ep. 63: We Are All Data People. In this podcast, Amelia Parnell explains how all faculty and staff members – whether they consider themselves “data people” or not – can contribute to important campus conversations with data and information at their core.
Many thanks to the Black History Month committee and others who have organized a very powerful and varied slate of events found here. If you missed it, here is a link to a moving opening ceremony. This month’s observances remind us that recognizing and engaging diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) best principles are an important and necessary foundation for our campus community. We are an academic community where everyone has value. Our individual dreams and ideas combine to create opportunities for new cross-cultural engagement and experiences each day. Our robust programming allows us all to engage, learn, and share ideas in a safe environment where we build community and dynamic connections to the college.
Our VIKING Community also includes compassion and support for one another and taking time to celebrate our individual and collective accomplishments. We are a vibrant community of empathy, diversity, and excellence!
Dr. Belinda S. Miles
President