Friday, April 18, 2008

Conversations About What We Believe

In the fall, I met with over 400 faculty, staff, students, business/industry representatives, public school officials, Commission and Foundation members, and others to obtain input in the College's planning process. On April 24, we will continue this process with a Recognition Dinner for Advisory Committee and Deans’ Council members.

Six themes were identified from the sessions: student success, programming, partnerships, campus environment, branding, and organizational development. Of all the themes, none is more important than ensuring success for every student. But what does student success mean to you? What is our philosophy towards students? How should we work together? How should we support each other? Those questions and more are important in helping us better define our values, philosophy towards students, and how we will execute the strategies and initiatives to support our goal. Your input is a key part of this process. Therefore, I would like to meet with you to discuss your thoughts and ideas in a format called Conversations About What We Believe. The idea for this title came from the National Public Radio project, “This I Believe.” Here is a sample of one that I feel has relevance entitled Presumption of Decency. If you discover other relevant stories, please share them.

I'm providing a few reading materials for you to review for discussion at these sessions. The readings include Starting Right: A First Look at Engaging Entering Students, Committing to Student Engagement: Reflections on CCSSE's First Five Years, and Learn and Earn Not Churn and Burn.

Your input is vitally important to this process, so I hope you will join me in one of these four sessions. Please sign up.

April 25 9am-12pm
May 2 9am-12pm
May 14 9am-12pm
May 21 9am-12pm

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