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.