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