Excellence in Teaching

On November 4, I had the pleasure of attending the Governor’s Professor of the Year Award luncheon in Columbia with Jyron Baxter, Department Chair for Information Technology, and his wife, Aramis. As the 2010 recipient of the York Technical College President’s Award for Instructional Excellence, Jyron and thirty-six faculty from other SC institutions were nominated for the Governor’s Professor of the Year award. Congratulations to Jyron who was recognized and presented an award by Mr. Craig Garner, President, SC Higher Education Foundation, and Ms. Betty Davidson, Office of the Governor (pictured above). Last year, Dr. Janie Sigmon was recognized as our nominee for the Governor’s Professor of the Year award. She was presented an award by Ken Wingate, Chairman, SC Commission on Higher Education (pictured below).

I am grateful to all of our faculty for their hard work and dedication to helping our students reach their goals! Thank you!

Campus Master Plan

In fall 2007, we held “listening sessions” where you shared your perspective on things that were most important for the future of the College. The input received formed the College’s six strategic themes: Student Success, Programming, Partnerships, Branding, Organizational Development, and Campus Environment. Based on your input, we embarked on a Campus Master Plan process that would address future building locations, parking, traffic flow, landscaping, etc. Watson Tate Savory was selected as the firm to complete our College’s Campus Master Plan. Throughout 2009, employees, the Commission, and the Foundation were all invited to participate in visioning and design meetings. Thanks to your input, we have a comprehensive Campus Master Plan that supports our efforts to provide an engaging and inspiring place to learn and work. Copies of the Campus Master Plan will be available in the division offices and the library.

Mission Statement

Earlier this year, I solicited your help in reviewing our current mission statement. Our goal was to update and condense our mission statement and to develop a one or two-sentence statement that best captures the essence of our mission. Based on your feedback, we have updated our mission statement and developed a one sentence statement that is both concise and compelling while best summarizing what we do: “Building Our Community Through Maximizing Student Success.” The new mission statement was approved by our governing board in April and was then submitted to the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (CHE) for approval. We received an approval letter from CHE last week. Thank you for your input!