Message from Dr. Belinda S. Miles: Together We Make the Difference – July 31, 2020
July 31, 2020
Colleagues,
As an action-oriented community that supports our students and each other, all of us are needed to connect with students and help them enroll for the new academic semester which begins in just a few weeks. Students are still adjusting to academic planning during a pandemic and your outreach is helping them understand what is required and how they can persist. My message this week reiterates the call to action from Dr. Ruben Barato and the Strategic Enrollment Management Team sent earlier this week.
Our data shows that we are making a difference with every personal outreach to a student – a phone call, an email, text message, video, or event. Students are responding and gaining confidence that they can succeed in new remote learning modalities and that we are here for them. Despite this, we still have a considerable way to go to reach our fall enrollment goal. Every enrollment is directly tied to sustaining the programs, positions, and operations that enable us to fulfill our mission of serving our students and our community.
If you have not yet done so, please respond to Dr. Barato’s request for assistance in calling students. The Strategic Management team created a thoughtful and brief message for callers to use letting students know that we care about them and we are ready to help them with next steps in the enrollment process. We need to contact approximately 3,500 continuing students and 4,000 prospective students. We’ve helped students in the past, and we can make a difference for these students now.
When students were hungry, we stocked our food pantry. When the digital divide threatened to halt learning for many students last spring, we provided loaner laptops and WiFi support. When our students needed financial assistance, you responded with support for the Foundation’s COVID-19 Student Emergency Fund which WCC Foundation Board Chair Joanne Landau recently announced has reached more than $300,000 thus far to support technology and learning. Your tremendous commitment and support is helping students persist, continue their studies, and finish what they started. They need us again.
We are a community that cares and takes action. I ask that you schedule time to reach out to students who may need that moment of human contact to encourage them and keep them on track toward their academic goals.
Please email Ruben.Barato@sunywcc.edu to get your list of students and let’s get this done!
Dr. Belinda S. Miles
President