Edmonds Community College President
Edmonds Community College Kick Off
Jack Oharah, President
September 19, 2007
Good morning. Welcome everyone and a special welcome to all the newcomers to our college. Please stand if you are attending your first fall kick off to the new academic year. Also, will all those who worked through the summer please stand and be recognized. Thank you.
We have three new additions to our team I'd especially like to introduce. Would Cathie Agor, Joan Penney and John Michaelson please stand? Cathie Agor takes on a new position in human resources helping us recruit and retain a more ethnic and racially diverse workforce. Joan Penney is our new dean of humanities and social sciences and John Michaelson is our interim vice president of college relations and advancement. Thank you and welcome Cathie, Joan and John.
It's always good to see everyone gathered together. Thank you all for being here. Let's begin with a few words from our students. For the past year, we've been asking students to tell us about their experiences at Edmonds Community College on our Web site Your Story. Those are all the faces you see in our college publications.
One of the questions we asked students was this: Was there an instructor or service at the college that you found particularly helpful? Here's a sample of what our students said:
Students mentioned many, many names. Some of them got right to the heart of the matter. They had trouble singling anyone out — instructors or staff. They said:
Feels good, doesn't it? Our work here really touches the lives of our students. Each interaction is a chance to support student success. That's why we are all here ready to start another academic year at Edmonds Community College.
It pays to listen to our students. They have many good ideas for innovation and change. You can read some of them in the accreditation self-study report – more about that to come —and you'll see some student ideas implemented on campus this year. For example, students wanted more quiet space to study and now the library has a computer-free quiet study area as well as a new Learning Commons.
That's just one of many changes — but before we go into what's ahead, I'd like to celebrate some of our accomplishments from last year.
But what's ahead right here on campus? First of all, Mukilteo Hall opens this winter! This means more classroom space for our students and a new home for the Learning Support Center, math labs and International English as a Second Language program. At last, our Developmental Education can move out of those relocatables! Let's give a big round of applause for that.
You'll be hearing a lot of that sound in Mukilteo Hall because it is also home to our new on-campus theater — a great performance space and room for more theater arts classes and other activities.
There are more projects underway. Next fall, we'll be talking about the reopening of Brier Hall, with a new bookstore and student center, and a remodeled Culinary Arts kitchen. We'll also be installing a new piece of public art on the lawn between Alderwood and Lynnwood halls. And, we'll be renovating classrooms in Meadowdale Hall and building a residence hall on campus. A big thank you to Paul Doherty, Stephanie Teachman and Kao Saeteurn in facilities for handling all the details and keeping us on track. It's a big job!
As I mention these capital improvements, this is a good place to point out that Steve Robinson, Director of Security, has been leading emergency preparation on campus. We have an emergency plan, 33 employees trained to respond and evacuation plans for seven buildings.
This is also a good place to talk about the budget. On the capital side, our statewide system of prioritizing building requests to the state legislature is still working. A proposal for our science, engineering and technology building is being redone. We should know by February if it makes the priority list — we're hopeful!
We continue to struggle on the operating side. For years, we've been telling the legislature we need more funds to continue to provide access to high-quality educational opportunities. It felt for the longest time like they just weren't listening, but we persisted and this year, due in part to our leadership in a statewide communications campaign, we were funded for more FTEs. We didn't get everything we asked for though including sufficient funds for services for students with disabilities, equipment and electronic library access. So, we continue to rely heavily on our creativity and innovation and our ability to build community partnerships to meet the needs of all our students with limited resources.
Recently, we received grants from Bank of America, to support tutoring for students with disabilities; from Microsoft, to provide information technology skills training to low-income adults; from Verizon, to teach community literacy; and five $1,000 scholarships from The Tulalip Tribes. We also have a dynamic volunteer board of community leaders working with Executive Director Anne Cassidy and her team for the Edmonds Community College Foundation. The Foundation's "Imagine. Invest. Inspire." campaign is helping fill in the gaps caused by years of under-funded operations and it has already raised more than $100,000 each for science equipment and scholarships. This year's focus will be to raise funds to equip our new theater in Mukilteo Hall and to buy up-to-date equipment for our culinary arts program. In addition, the Foundation awarded $205,000 in scholarships— twice as much as last year — to 175 students and $52,913 in grants to faculty and staff. And you are definitely helping to make all this possible. The employee giving campaign in February raised more than $26,000.
So, now, let's talk about another college-wide effort — accreditation. Would everyone who has been involved in working on accreditation so far please stand and be recognized. Thank you all for your good work.
We are now moving on to the Get Community Comments phase of the self-study. Let's make it official. Now, at this stage, we really need your ideas and input! It is critical that we get a dialogue going. That means hearing from all of you!
Today, we roll out the self-study report put together by the members of our nine accreditation standard committees and project management team led by instructor Eva Smith. You now all have the opportunity to read and comment on the self-study report drafted by instructor Susanne Meslans. Every member of the college community should take the opportunity to influence the revisions. And, I strongly urge you to make time to attend the Self-Study forum today at 1:30 p.m. in this room.
The college absolutely makes changes based on the accreditation self-study as those who have been through the process before can attest. Ten years ago — the self-study identified weaknesses in staff development, campus-wide use of instructional technology and research. The college used that information to obtain a Title III grant and today we have Organizational Development and Employee Training, the Technology Resource Center and the Office of Grants and Research.
From our self-study so far, we've identified the need to raise the visibility of our critical institutional effectiveness work and the key indicators we use to evaluate our progress toward our college-wide goals:
Beth Nichols, director of grants and research, and instructor Donnie Kristof-Nelson are leading the effort to take this ongoing work to the next level. Take a look at the data provided to the Board of Trustees around the key indicators and see if you can think of ways to move us toward our goals.
Just a thought about key indicators and benchmarks — in these days of data-driven decisions and targeted-funding, it all goes back to be the work we do with students, many times individually, to help them succeed. My favorite key indicator is when a student returns to say, "Thanks!" We need the data though to show others how well we serve students so that the resources will be there to educate more of them.
The self-study process is already shaping the future of our college. Contribute and help us prepare for the accreditation visit. Also, please plan ahead — any new programs, requirements, courses or name changes need to get in the next two-year catalog. It will be handed to the accreditation team on April 25.
I have yet to say the word enrollment?! Is that unheard of? Let's get to it. We were not as adversely affected as some of our neighbors during the past couple of years of soft enrollment across the state. Up and down the I-5 corridor our numbers were among the strongest. But there is still work to do.
George Smith, vice president of student services, is leading efforts to create a Strategic Enrollment Management system so we can follow each student from their first contact with Edmonds Community College through their progress on our campus and begin an alumni project. We're also working with a consultant to obtain more data about how to reach and recruit high school students.
Retention and student success will continue to be a focus for the coming year. Retention is our best enrollment builder and it is absolutely at the core of our mission. It happens in the classroom with faculty who are both inspiring and attentive to their students' needs, and it happens with good support and intervention programs.
As we head into fall thanks go to everyone across campus who made extra efforts to add classes where needed and to call students to encourage them to enroll and finish their degrees and certificates now. That's the kind of excellent, responsive work we do.
To date, we have 8,303 students enrolled. Let's welcome them, engage them, teach them well, help them get the resources they need, and let's see them at graduation.
This fall, we have 883 employees at the college. We are all critical to the success of our students. Let's keep sharing ideas, successes, challenges and information. There are some new communications tools available on the PRtools Web site.
Thank you for doing great work creating opportunities for our students, supporting them and for being such a committed community of educators. We have an exciting and dynamic year ahead of us. There's a lot of work to be done, but we're more than up to the task. Get engaged and keep making this a "can do" college.
A few of you had questions for me and asked them on Edmonds Community College Ning. Ning is another way we can raise the visibility of our college online, create community and share information.
With all our construction on campus, we are down about 80 parking spaces for the school year, Sabrina Spellman wanted to know what we are doing about that. I encourage everyone to try alternatives such as carpooling and Community Transit. The EdPass office is applying for a state grant so we can even offer you some cash incentives: more news on this in January. I hear there's a sweet spot on 196th near the Beresford Building. See the parking Web site.
Beth ODonnell shared a concern that all the construction might effect enrollment.
It's true that the campus isn't at its most attractive "under construction," but it's also true that we're building more opportunities for students. We'll keep talking about those and draw positive attention to our campus when the buildings open.
Kristyl Drew wanted to know if we're doing anything special for the opening of the Mukilteo Hall. Yes, we are! Join us for a grand opening 11 a.m., January 31 and see what's available for students in the new building!
Lastly, I'd like to bring your attention to a few of the workshops that are happening tomorrow morning:
Sincerely,
President
