Accreditation Reaffirmed for Business Programs

In November, the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) Board of Commissioners granted full reaffirmation of accreditation for the five associate degrees and the twelve specializations of the Business Unit (Administrative Office Technology, Business Administration, and Information Technology). In October, three peer reviewers visited the campus that evaluated our documentation to ensure that the self-study we submitted in August was accurate and met the ACBSP standards. We received full reaffirmation with no conditions, notes, and one opportunity for improvement. The next review will be in 2019. I want to thank all the faculty for their hard work: Edie Dille, Gwen Wilson, Regina Clawson, Brenda Freeman, Jackie Knight, Mina Williams, Ivan Lowe, Chris Ardis, Anita Leslie, Dane Loflin, James McDermott, Doug Parker, Jyron Baxter, Dexter Harlee, Toan Tran, and Steve Ward.

Phi ThanKs

Saturday, I joined twelve of our Phi Theta Kappa students from our Alpha Alpha Iota chapter, along with Karen Hedgepeth and Mark Ulseth, as we cleaned Springsteen Road. It was a great encouragement to me for so many of our students to come out and participate. The students who were there were:

Doris Kasprak
Stacey Hill
Jamie Boone
Jennifer Bell
Vicki Pennington
Elizabeth Palmisano
Joe Green
Shannon Gardner
Stephen Medlin
Patricia Celley
Diane McBride
Darrell Hyatt

They were enthusiastic about the roadside cleaning and their work at the College. My thanks go out to all of them, their sponsors Karen Hedgepeth and Bill Bass and all the members of our PTK. I had a chance to catch up with Patricia Celley who was PTK president last year. She went through a tough time recently with the after effects of a car accident and had to withdraw for a while. She told me she was in a good place now and on track to graduate this spring. I also had a chance to talk with our current PTK president, Jamie Boone. Jamie has volunteered to participate as a learning coach in a project led by Taunya Paul to help students with learning skills. Jamie blew me away with her insight into the paradigm many of our students are in who are failing but don’t seek out assistance. My time with all of them reminded me how thankful I am for York Tech and all the people who make it happen. You are doing amazing things every day in a real, bold and better way.

Faculty Recognition

Mary Anne Laney, Department Manager for Nursing and Health Careers, will graduate in December with a Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership from the University of South Carolina. She began her journey taking courses through the Higher Education Leadership certificate program, offered through the technical college system, at the University of South Carolina. Upon completion of the certificate program, she then applied and was accepted to the USC Higher Education Leadership Ph.D. program. All course and dissertation requirements are complete. Her dissertation topic: An Investigation of the Relationship between Program Assessment and Curriculum Change in Accredited and Non-Accredited Associate Degree Nursing Programs. Congratulations, Mary Anne, on your achievement!

If there are other faculty and staff that deserve recognition for their accomplishments, please email the information to Jacquelyn Nesbitt.

Congratulations Nursing Faculty!

The National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC) reaffirmed accreditation for our practical nursing program earlier this year. The nursing faculty began developing their self-study over two years ago by updating curriculum and processes to ensure the NLNAC standards were met. The next evaluation visit is scheduled for spring 2017. Congratulations to the Nursing Department (Mary Anne Laney, Jane Fleischer, Julie Hamilton, Gina Misle, Amy Newton, Denise Roberts, Ann Scott, Jan Sinfield, Sue Tatro, Brenda Weatherington, Suzanne Williams, and Karen Worthy) for their outstanding achievement.

SC Technical College System

The SC Technical College System legislative priorities for 2010 include Lottery Tuition Assistance, Allied Health Initiative, Center for Accelerated Technology Training and readySC, and Lottery Technology funding. LTA (Lottery Tuition Assistance) provides access to affordable education for many of our students. For 2008-2009, York Technical College LTA disbursements totaled $2,315,965 which benefited 2,195 recipients.

In addition to the legislative priorities mentioned above, the System Office has worked over the past year on a new branding strategy with the help of Chernoff Newman. The objective of developing a new logo and tag line is to elevate and differentiate the SC Technical College System’s positive brand attributes. As you will notice on the legislative priorities page, the new logo and tag line, Think Jobs, focuses on what the SC Technical College System is all about – jobs. Using this tag line, Think Jobs, we are emphasizing the vital role we play in preparing the state’s workforce for real jobs as well as our ability to drive future economic development and attract new companies.

I’m sure many of you are interested to hear about the results of our branding efforts. I plan to unveil our new logo and tag line at our meeting on December 16.

They Like Us, They Really Like Us

As I read the following article “POV: Be Careful What You Wish For: You’re About To Get It”, it reminded me of the great journey we are on to Maximize Student Success. If we are to achieve great things, we can’t wait for perfect conditions. As von Goethe stated, “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”

Values

At our fall 2007 beginning-of-the-year meeting, we worked in teams to list those values that were most important to us as a College. These values were shared and discussed in our planning and “What We Believe” sessions, College blog, and other College-wide meetings. I listened to your feedback, gathered input from our Commission and other stakeholders, thought about the criteria for shared values, and compared our current values to the input you provided. Keeping our values simple and memorable was important. While reviewing the list of values, I began to group them according to their similarities. For each group or family of values, I looked for words or “parents” that best described each list and came up with the following.

(Parents) (Values in Action)
Authenticity and Empathy = BE REAL

Be Real doesn’t mean telling people whatever is on your mind or being unprofessional, but rather, helping real people navigate through the real world. Real people care, are appropriately vulnerable, and separate themselves from the noise to focus on the goal.
I try to better understand students, fellow employees, and myself in an effort to help us all improve.

Proactivity and Commitment = BE BOLD

Be Bold means taking personal responsibility and being a value-added part of the whole. Thoughtfully stepping up to solve problems and exemplifying what we represent.
I take personal responsibility for adding value.

Interdependent Achievement and Legacy = BE BETTER

Be Better means striving to continuously improve. The very core of our mission is about helping people learn, grow, and achieve. We desire that for our students and ourselves as we seek to better the community we serve.
I believe we should be better than we have to be.

At the conclusion, Be Real, Be Bold, Be Better summarized best your feedback and met the criteria for shared values. Too often values are passive platitudes that fall short of inspiring outcomes. I have attempted here to take our collective values and suggest action that challenges us toward the next level. This simple phrase (or slogan, or mantra) encompasses our values, is easily remembered, and sends the message that we are serious about what we do; that we care about each other and the people we serve; and that we strive for continuous improvement.

New Commission Member

I am pleased to announce that Mr. Paul Basha recently joined the York Technical College Commission. Since 2003, Mr. Basha has served as Chief Executive Officer of York Electric Cooperative, Inc. He began work at York Electric Cooperative, Inc. in 1989 as a planning engineer and served as manager of engineering from 1994-2003. He graduated from Clemson University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He serves as the Chairman of the Board for Westminster Catawba Christian School and is a board member for York County Economic Development, York County Regional Chamber, Red Cross, and Clover Community Bank. Mr. Basha is a deacon at Westminster Presbyterian Church.


The other ten governing board seats are held by:
Mr. Bruce “Tony” A. Vaughan, Chairman, Retiree
Ms. Carolyn B. Carpenter, Vice Chairman, Retiree
Mr. Edwin “Ed” L. Barnes, Comporium Communications
Mr. James “Jim” C. Hardin, III, Attorney at Law, James C. Hardin III, PLLC
Dr. A. Douglas “Doug” Marion, Ophthalmologist, Eye Associates of Chester, PA
Mr. Robert “Bobby” B. Meek, Owner, Century 21 Palmetto Homes Realty
Mr. G. Thompson “Tommy” Myers, Jr., Retiree
Mr. Charles Z. Robinson, Human Resources Consultant, Prosperity Resources, LLC
Ms. Geri H. Rucker, Regional Vice President, Founders Federal Credit Union
Mr. Jeffrey C. Sigmon, President, JEFCO Communications

We are grateful to Mr. Basha and the other Commission members for volunteering their time to support York Technical College.

Budget/reVIEW

Last week, York Tech’s state allocation was reduced again by 4.04 percent ($278,410). Measures are in place to deal with this cut. The College had $500k budgeted for contingencies. We have a remaining balance of $221,590 left in the contingency account. We could absorb an additional cut of 3.3 percent from the remaining balance. With this 4.04 percent cut, our state allocation is $6,617,547. As a reminder, in 2007-2008 our state allocation was $8,576,868. That is an approximate $2 million loss in state budget allocation within the past two years. The state allocation represents 18 percent of our total budget with tuition and fees being the primary source of revenue.

How do we continue to pursue student success when faced with regular cuts in state funding? We must find more efficient and cost effective ways to do business that will ultimately improve net profitability. We do this by examining our processes and possibly changing how we do things or eliminating unnecessary steps. Hopefully as we do this, we not only cut costs, but we improve how we do our jobs.

One of the tools we will use to help us examine our work processes is reVIEW (Realizing Exceptional Value in Everyday Work). You may remember that I gave an overview of reVIEW at our beginning-of-the-year meeting. reVIEW will help us learn to analyze processes, identify steps we may need to change or eliminate, and to recognize waste (activities that cost us time or money but add no value). We will have a stronger grasp of root-cause analysis and methods to redesign processes that do not rely on “layering” fixes onto existing work. The layering approach eventually makes work time-consuming (in relation to the value added for the students) and frustrating for employees.

Thirty-two employees are participating this fall and another 32 will participate in the spring. In-house coaches and trainers will be developed over the next year and will assist in training others in the future. As employees go through training, their assignments will involve observing processes, so they may ask to observe you working on particular processes in your job. At this point, they are observing for the purpose of learning how to analyze a process. They are not observing to criticize or make judgments on what you do.

The wonderful part of the reVIEW process is that each of you will have the primary role in analyzing and identifying items or steps that need to change. No one knows your job better than you. The kind of self-examination we’re pursuing will help each of us look at our work with a new perspective and can be valuable motivation for creating change. I look forward to seeing how reVIEW will change, not only the way we do our jobs, but empower us to create a culture where each person is highly valued in an environment that promotes ideas, input, and problem-solving at all levels of the College.

Kick-off for Benchmark Fridays

The Center for Community College Student Engagement has become a hub for the national student success movement. The Center serves more than 730 community colleges and has surveyed more than 1 million students. The Center is known nationally for its work and research and has received attention from media such as USA Today and The Chronicle of Higher Education. USA Today dedicated a new website featuring CCSSE data to communicate the importance of student engagement and to illustrate how community and technical colleges are addressing the learning needs of their students. The Center has also received support from researchers such as Dr. Vincent Tinto, Distinguished University Professor at Syracuse University. Dr. Tinto, a CCSSE National Advisory Board member, has written extensively on the topic of student success.

Dr. Kay McClenney, Director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement, will speak to us on Friday, September 11 at 8:30 a.m. in the Baxter M. Hood Center. You may recall Dr. McClenney’s segments in the Discounted Dreams video that we watched during our spring 2008 “What We Believe” sessions. One of her most notable comments refers to the truth that many of the reasons for student failures are due to their complicated lives. She states that “The problem is – community college people have all too often hidden behind that truth. With that truth as our shield, we have been able to defend ourselves against this massive reality that we simply don’t get enough of our students through to successful outcomes.”

The purpose of us gathering on September 11 from every area of our college – faculty, staff, Commission, Foundation – is to recognize the national significance of the journey we are on and that what we are attempting to accomplish in Maximizing Student Success is critical and doable.

I strongly encourage everyone to attend. The meeting will begin promptly at 8:30 a.m.

The dates and topics for future benchmark Fridays include:
· September 25: Active and Collaborative Learning
· October 9: Student Effort
· October 23: Student and Faculty Interaction
· November 6: Support for Learners
· November 20: Academic Challenge

New Cabins at Camp Cherokee

Earlier this year, the College partnered with the YMCA to help build and outfit three new cabins at Camp Cherokee in Kings Mountain State Park. Our Building and Construction Trades students and faculty built two sleeper cabins and wired them with electricity. In addition, they helped build a cabin that is ADA compliant and installed it with plumbing and electricity. Jason Ghent, BCT faculty member, spent a great deal of time at Camp Cherokee with the students and personally installed controllers for on-demand water heat. The hands-on experience for our students was invaluable.

A ribbon cutting event for the new cabins was held at the end of July where the College was presented with a plaque for our dedication and service to the project. I especially want to thank Jason Ghent, Richard Butler, Ed Moore, and the BCT students for all their hard work.

(left to right: Jason Ghent, Greg Rutherford, Richard Butler)

Take A Deep Breath

Tomorrow begins a historic fall semester at York Technical College. Our enrollment is tracking 20% ahead of last year, which was 8% above the previous year, which was 12% above the previous year . . . wow! Who knows how it will end up, since we have a twelve-week session and an eight-week session left to go. People are looking for answers and they’re looking to us.

Student services personnel have already seen most of this increased number. Obviously we don’t have more personnel than we did last year, so there is an increased demand for “person time.” The folks we are seeing are from all walks of life. Some are more accustomed to navigating a college than others, but few are fully prepared to approach us in the best possible condition. And while there is capacity for vast hope for improved lives, there are also infinite opportunities for confusion.

For those who’ve been here awhile, this may be hard to believe, but potential students are nervous even if they don't show it. Many are a bundle of nerves. Perhaps they are out of work or afraid they soon will be. Perhaps they are feeling threatened by bankruptcy, foreclosure, or by being dependent on someone else at a very stressful time. Then again, maybe they act like they don’t have a care in the world but we know they should.

I walked outside my office last evening and there was a man looking confused. He asked where the “XYZ” (fictitious and unoriginal name) class was. He said he was told that it was in the “next building down.” I asked him if the person he spoke with gave him a room number. He was holding a number of papers and anxiously going through them looking for clues. I asked to see them and he handed them to me. There was lots of information, along with a list of about 20 colleges (one was YTC with the main number and fax), and a matrix containing dates and times.

I finally walked him to the front drive and asked which building he went in; he said it was “C.” I confirmed that he walked in the entrance we were facing and up some steps and spoke with someone at a desk. He said “yes,” so I took out my mobile and called Continuing Education. I did not reach anyone, so I asked him to follow me and we walked down to CE.

I asked the ladies at the front desk in CE if they recognized the gentleman with me. They did not and he then let me know these were not the same people who had helped him. I then realized he did not go to “C” building that evening but had been here at some time in the past. I asked for the room number for his class and was told A252. I walked the gentleman back up to A252 to find it dark and realized the class did not start until 6:00 p.m. and it was now 5:35 p.m. I told him it appeared he was early and would have to wait a little while. He said he came early to register, and when I told him I did not realize he was not registered, he said he had mentioned it to me earlier. Now he had to go back to “C” building, pay and then come back to “A.” He seemed to be okay with that and we parted ways.

Why am I making you suffer through yet another of my home movies? Because I want you to know that I only get a glimpse of how tough it can be for you and for them and I empathize. I felt frustrated that he wasn’t more precise; that he had not called ahead and thought through the process; that he just showed up and expected it to all come clear, somehow. I also felt frustrated that we could not design this sort of confusion out of our system. I was frustrated by my own assumptions in how I perceived the situation. Then I realized that although we must try to continuously improve our processes, “WE ARE THE FAIL-SAFE.” You see, this gentleman could have nailed all this down before he got here, but he simply did not have a framework for managing it. He did not think like me. And he probably does things on a regular basis that I do not have a framework for either.

So I took a deep breath and kept marching.

Quality Enhancement Plan

As most of you know, as part of our college accreditation, we developed a Critical Thinking initiative to meet the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) requirements. Information about the QEP can be viewed at www.yorktech.com/qep. This is an effort to help support the maturation of students and to remind ourselves of the value in thinking critically. At the same time, the critical thinking initiative is not intended to create additional barriers for students to reach their goals. We must demonstrate high expectations but equally important we must demonstrate high support in order to give our students the tools to succeed. In spring semester, colleagues worked to develop a number of pilot critical thinking rubrics and activities. Full implementation for the QEP will begin this fall. A summary of the implementation plan outlines the critical thinking activity options, methods for reporting, and fall QEP Implementation workshops. We will report our progress to SACS in 2011 as part of our accreditation interim report. Thank you for helping improve critical thinking and for fulfilling our accreditation requirements.

CCSSE and Benchmark Fridays

We continue to make great progress towards maximizing student success! I am grateful for the work and creativity you provide in support of this effort. We are reviewing many of our processes and making changes as we move forward. As you are probably aware, students may no longer register for classes after the start date due to the recommendations of a team of faculty, staff, and administrators. Another team is researching placement scores and their connection to success rates. The Quality Learning Council is reviewing our attendance policy. We look forward to establishing a culture where every class meeting is valued and 100 percent attendance is the norm, rather than the exception.

All of these opportunities and many more are being pursued to help students be more successful, not to promote rules or an authoritarian atmosphere. On the contrary, I hope the atmosphere is more than ever, one of genuine concern for the well being and ultimate success of the number one impact on our future . . . students.

In support of our work, I want to provide more useful information, resources and data to help us improve our efforts. One of those resources is the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE). We have participated in this survey for five years but it appears our knowledge is limited. I want us to learn more about the survey, the five benchmarks that it measures, the significance of that information, and how we can use it to improve student success.

On Friday, September 11, 2009, Dr. Kay McClenney, Director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement, will be on campus to speak with us about CCSSE and the connection with our work and goal of maximizing student success. I would like all College employees to attend this session. In the months following Dr. McClenney’s visit, we will have a series of Benchmark Fridays, dedicated to professional development around the CCSSE data. The Professional Development Council will provide leadership to involve you in making these five Fridays a value-added experience. Please join in, and thank you for your commitment.

Year-End Meeting Follow-Up

At the conclusion of our end-of-the-year meeting, I played a series of videos that highlighted some of our programs. These videos are posted in the left sidebar under “WCNC Videos.” I want to thank Joe Polinski for partnering with WCNC to develop the Quick Job videos. They did an excellent job of presenting a variety of our programs that are designed to train and employ participants within a short timeframe.

I also shared with you a brief overview of our budget. If you wish to review our Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports to obtain a deeper understanding of our budget, please visit http://www.yorktech.com/businessoffice/default.asp.

I recently added a new section, Leadership Articles, to the left sidebar of the blog post and will periodically add new articles that relate to our discussions, meetings, etc. Please read at your convenience.

Citi Foundation Grant

In January, the College was awarded a $30,000 grant from Citi Foundation to help strengthen small business and entrepreneurial efforts in the community. The College will use a portion of this grant to host events aimed at providing mentoring opportunities for entrepreneurs. In addition, the grant will support Continuing Education programs and courses, such as Core Four Business Planning and Fast Trac Growth Venture, designed to help small business owners expand their businesses.

The Expo of Entrepreneurs, held last week, was also supported by this grant. Mr. Tony Berry of The Berry Company was the featured speaker and panelists included successful entrepreneurs such as Jill Watts of Mary Kay; Phillip Dibrell of Allstate Insurance; Eleanor Childers, former ownerof Eleanor’s Bridal Shoppe; Kirk Leslie of Kirk Leslie Painting, Inc.; and Stephen Cooley of Keller Williams Realty.

The Entrepreneur Network (EN) hosted an event February 17, with 20 year-old entrepreneur and writer, Ben Casnocha, who spoke on the topic of “Entrepreneurship as a Life Idea – Becoming CEO of Your Own Life.” In 2006, BusinessWeek named Casnocha one of America’s best young entrepreneurs.

In recognition of National Small Business Week, the Entrepreneur Network and York County Regional Chamber of Commerce's Small Business Council will co-sponsor a Small Business Expo on May 19 at the Baxter Hood Center.

I especially want to thank Edie Dille, Kimberly Herndon, and Susan Brackett for their hard work in making these events possible for aspiring entrepreneurs.

LTA Rally

Eighteen York Technical College students boarded a bus early on the cold morning of Tuesday, January 27 to attend an LTA (Lottery Tuition Assistance) rally at the State Capital in Columbia. These students were among 300 other technical college students who stood on the steps of the Capital to show their appreciation and support for the LTA program. The students wore t-shirts that stated “1 in 3 Technical College Students Receive Lottery Tuition Assistance,” to emphasize the fact that Lottery Tuition Assistance has become an increasingly important source of financial assistance for nearly 40,000 SC technical college students. Two York Tech students who participated in the LTA event are highlighted in the following news release: http://www.yorktech.com/collegenews/02032009.htm.

I appreciate Kelli Dawkins and her staff for all their hard work in making the day such a great success!

Student Success

Last week, I met with three divisions to discuss their student success initiatives that were included as part of their Institutional Effectiveness (IE) Plans. Afterwards I realized that I should share my own initiatives with you. My IE Plan documents part of what I hope to achieve by June 30. I will continue to meet with divisions over the next few weeks to learn about each department’s student success initiatives. The purpose of these meetings is to informally share the goals that have been set, to hear what you are discovering and to hear how you are overcoming obstacles to improve student success. There is great power in each of you and the impact you have. With all of us focused on one college goal of Maximizing Student Success we are bound to make a significant difference.

My Agency Head Evaluation, as required by the State, also outlines my objectives for the year. I am working with many others to achieve these objectives for the College. The results will be the basis for my performance evaluation by the York Technical College Commission.

Thank you for all your hard work and for your commitment to our mission!

Food Service

During our planning sessions, some of the 650 inputs related to providing food services to faculty, staff, and students. I included those under the theme of campus environment. As a result, I asked that a team of faculty and staff develop a survey and gather perspective to help determine what needs exist. The team has completed their work and provided me with suggestions.

All commuter colleges are challenged in providing food services, because we do not have the same level of “captive customers” as residential colleges. A decision about how we can best provide the type of service that campus stakeholders will support will be influenced by several factors including the campus master plan and a potential high school partnership with Rock Hill schools. I will have more information to share in the coming year about how we will proceed. I appreciate the work of the review team. If you have additional suggestions, please contact Velma Simmons.

The campus master plan, branding plan, and food services are a few of the “global” initiatives that impact us all. I appreciate you reading about them and, as always, welcome your input. As we proceed, I will continue to look for ways to involve faculty and staff in the process.

Campus Master Plan

Much of the feedback you provided during the planning process included buildings, landscaping, traffic, safety, etc. All of these categories fall under the theme of Campus Environment. Although the College last reviewed our campus needs in 2002, a comprehensive review and plan has never been completed. Despite the current economic conditions, our College continues to grow and when conditions improve there will be opportunities to fund needed additions and changes to our campus. We want to be as certain as we can that those decisions are part of a comprehensive strategy to best utilize our property and resources and that our Campus Environment, from parking and pedestrian flow, to signage and landscaping, supports an optimum campus work and learning experience.

With that in mind, a Campus Master Planning Team of faculty and staff came together to select a consultant to work with our college in developing that plan. Watson Tate Savory Architects, Inc. was selected and will begin engaging our campus in this process beginning this month. I appreciate the work of the planning team in getting us to this point. Whether or not you are personally involved in the related focus groups, feel free to contact Dr. Gribenas or Robby Brown with your suggestions for improvements to our campus.

Branding Initiative

In response to your inputs related to marketing, advertising and general communicating of who we are and what we offer to our target markets, we have launched a branding initiative. The process began by forming a Branding Team that worked with Joe Polinski on the design of two components: a perception study and a brand development plan. The purpose is to understand how our targets view us, compare that to how we would like for them to view us, and develop a strategy for better communicating that through strategic messages and mediums. The value is that we hope by improving this communication:

· we are more effective and efficient in the expenditure of marketing dollars,
· we will appeal to a deeper portion of each target,
· students who we enroll are more committed to their educational goals,
· and the general public understands and supports our mission.

We completed the perception study piece in July and the data was initially analyzed by the branding team. The data was broken down into five survey areas: high school students, parents of high school students, high school counselors, non-attending prospective students, and current York Tech students. We then asked five teams of faculty and staff to review each section and provide their collective thoughts as to what was most significant. The branding team selected Carolina PR to use this input to design a branding strategy for the College that would drive future marketing and advertising. Additional faculty, staff and students will be asked to provide input to this process in the coming months. I am grateful to the branding team for their commitment to this process. Whether or not you are part of a focus group, feel free to share your ideas with Joe Polinski.

Welcome Back

We are off to another great start this semester with lots of activity, new and returning students and new faculty and staff. I hope you had a restful and enjoyable holiday break and that you are having a good beginning to this new year. We have much to be proud of as we look back on 2008. Great progress was achieved on many fronts including the following:

· Strengthened efforts to Maximize Student Success.
· Increased credit course enrollment 12 percent between fall 2007 and fall 2008.
· Expanded dual enrollment offerings.
· Developed a new partnership with Encompass Machines.
· Completed the Chester Center.
· Installed a new phone system.
· Expanded articulation efforts with Winthrop University and College of Charleston.
· Phi Theta Kappa received numerous awards for their community service.
· Celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the College Foundation.

Throughout 2009, our goal of Maximizing Student Success will continue to be at the forefront of all that we do. Our retention goals are provided in the left sidebar. Click on the picture to enlarge for better viewing. I have also provided links to student success related websites for your review. Over the next few months, I plan to meet with each division to discuss progress on Student Success initiatives and will specifically discuss the strategies and measures you have set to improve student engagement and/or persistence.

We will continue to make progress this year on the other five themes that support Student Success: Organizational Development, Partnerships, Branding, Campus Environment, and Programming. Improvement efforts in each of these areas are underway. Just as a reminder that these themes were developed to represent the 650 ideas that you shared with me along with input from our many other key stakeholders.

Stay tuned for details on three specific initiatives that came directly from those inputs.