Message from Dr. Belinda S. Miles: What We Do and Who We Are
August 13, 2021
Colleagues,
This summer, we celebrate close to 350 students who have applied for August graduation. We applaud the work of our students who are achieving their dreams and preparing for transfer and joining the workforce. We thank the faculty and staff members who have been helping these students find their way to finishing their degrees and certificates. Our work with every student makes a difference for them, their families, and our community. It is especially noteworthy to celebrate these accomplishments while we all learn and work under modified circumstances necessitated by our ongoing and vigilant response to the pandemic. The balancing of self-care, care for others, and the myriad activities that you are doing to keep our students engaged and on track toward successful outcomes is noticed and highly appreciated.
August is a mission-critical time to focus on activities that enroll new and continuing students, some of whom will be on campus for the first time in just a few weeks. National data continues to show that community colleges are experiencing declines in persistence and retention rates. In this Community College Daily piece, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center Executive Director Doug Shapiro states, “We can now add increased attrition of 2019 freshmen to the severe impacts of the pandemic… These losses erase recent improvements that colleges have made in keeping learners on track early. They will ripple through higher education for years.”
We’re doing our part to keep learners on track through various activities like the highly praised New and Transfer Student Orientation hosted by the Office of Student Involvement this week and through targeted efforts to contact students and ensure they have the information and resources they need to take classes this fall. More than 2,000 Viking VIPs (Valued…Informed…on a Pathway to success) have received their orientation and are excited and prepared to begin their journey at WCC. This is the time of year when many hands truly do help make our work lighter as we rally together to support students and the college. Please join this effort by emailing Ruben.Barato@sunywcc.edu to volunteer to call continuing students who have not yet enrolled for the fall 2021 semester. Dr. Barato provides a brief script and other information that will be helpful as you talk to students. This is what we do and who we are – we help students achieve their academic and career goals.
Dr. Belinda S. Miles
President