Edmonds Community College President
Edmonds Community College Kick Off
Jack Oharah, President |
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Good morning and Happy Constitution Day! It’s great to see our entire college community gathered together including all those from the conference center, head start, corrections and our business and training center. Welcome everyone.
Before we look ahead to the coming year, let’s take a moment to acknowledge our accomplishments from 2007-08 — a challenging but rewarding year.
Last year, we had a college record unduplicated headcount enrollment of 19,948 students and this allowed us, in anticipation of lean budget years ahead, to proactively spend nearly $1 million in one-time expenditures and purchase some much needed equipment.
Accreditation was a big focus last year. After reading our self-study report and visiting the college in April, our accrediting agency, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, commended us for:
- our entrepreneurial spirit – mature but with the brashness of a new college,
- our focus on diversity,
- our teaching and learning and program approval process,
- our use of information technology in instruction,
- our innovative, student-friendly redesign of the library and our new learning commons, and
- our financial management and ability to avoid layoffs during a long period of reduced revenue.
The recommendations also presented us with two immediate tasks: First, to adopt two monetary policies and a three-year budget-planning model by the end of October. I’m pleased to say we have already accomplished these tasks! Second, we must prepare for a focused visit in the spring of 2009, when our progress on institutional effectiveness, student outcomes, and part-time faculty evaluations will be reviewed. These tasks are important, but we expect to pass with flying colors. (See more at www.edcc.edu/accreditation/.)
Overall, the accreditation review provided an excellent confirmation of our efforts. Commission chair Dr. Ryan Thomas shared with me the team’s general impression that Edmonds Community College is a great college with great people doing great work for our students and community. He said we should be proud of our work — I sure am!
The year ahead is full of opportunities. How’s this for an opportunity? Our Title III Grant application was approved, and we will receive $1.9 million over the next five years. With these funds, we’ll boost our data collection and management systems with goals of more detailed tracking of students’ academic progress ultimately resulting in increased student success. The grant will allow us hire staff to assist with research, assessment, and planning at the college, as well as help fund professional development activities for faculty. The funds will support our efforts to expand current data-driven evaluations of our programs and divisions. Greater student success, and a stronger culture of evidence at our college, will be the results. Congratulations to our Director of Grants and Research, Beth Nichols, Executive Director of Information Technology, Kevin McKay, and computer information systems instructor, Eva Smith, for their efforts in obtaining this grant. You can find out more about the Title III grant at www.edcc.edu/grants/.
Is Title III the only million dollar grant we received this summer? The answer is NO! We also received a three-year, $1.3 million grant in partnership with Whatcom and Spokane community colleges to provide technical training to young professionals from Egypt. These students have work experience but little access to training and education. This grant will allow us to train future Egyptian leaders and provide them with a greater understanding of American society, democracy, and culture. The first students will arrive on campus in the fall of 2009. Kudos go to our Dean of International Education, David Cordell, for his work on this project. It wouldn’t have happened without him.
Now back to enrollment. As I stated earlier, last year’s record enrollment allowed us to make some critical one-time expenditures. In addition, international education had a record number of annual FTEs – 612 — and enrolled 839 students spring quarter. Additionally, grants and contracts totaled more than $30 million once again. These outstanding efforts continue to help us meet our revenue needs. However, maintaining enrollment is critical to our ability to sustain our operation, especially at a time when we can expect to receive fewer dollars from the state.
You’ve probably heard about the proposed state revenue shortfall and the governor’s position regarding hiring, travel, and energy conservation. These issues present challenges, but we have always faced our challenges and met them. We will do so again. We will comply with the governor’s wishes by using the same good judgment we have always used to manage our resources. We will continue to make our needs known to our legislators. And we will continue to succeed with our students.
We may be seeing more students enroll due to our state’s high unemployment rate. (In July it was 5.7 percent -- its highest level in three and a half years.) The Boeing machinist’s union strike may also bring more students through our doors for retraining. Be assured that we’ll be ready to serve the needs of our community.
Meeting student demand is the one way we can ensure consistently strong enrollment. For example, we know more students want online classes. In the past five years, the number of students taking classes online at our college has risen from 1,500 to nearly 4,000 students, from 13 percent of our student population to over 40 percent. We need to be responsive to this growing demand in order to continue to attract students to Edmonds Community College in a competitive market. Thanks to your ongoing efforts, we are offering more than 160 online classes this fall. Please continue to work with your deans, department chairs, and vice president to develop online options for your students in high-demand areas.
We also continue to work to improve facilities for our students. This fall, we’ll see completion of a new student center, bookstore, and chemistry labs and a renovated cafeteria and college cafe. Please stand if you’ve been making do in temporary facilities. I know that includes our bookstore, culinary arts and food services staff! Let’s give them a hand. We appreciate your patience and perseverance.
We also have a new art installation on our campus. You’ve probably noticed it going in between Lynnwood and Alderwood halls. We combined our “one-half of one percent for public art” money from several major construction projects to be able to have Lorna Jordan’s artwork “Reach” serve as a focal point on our campus. Thanks to our college-wide committee for working with the Washington State Arts Commission to make this happen.
New projects this year include a remodel of Meadowdale Hall for our Security office and Art department and construction of a unique on-campus student housing building, Rainier Place. Information about capital projects is available at www.edcc.edu/facilities/capital_projects/.
Some unsung heroes have emerged from this flurry of capital projects: our grounds crew. Never has so much been asked of this dedicated group of employees, and they’ve responded like champions. Take note of the landscaping around Mukilteo Hall. How about the improvements between Mountlake Terrace and Brier and on the campus in general? These folks have performed remarkably well in trying circumstances. I want to personally thank each of you for your valuable contribution and hard work. Let’s give them a hand.
Of course, you all know the downside to these improvements. Due to construction, parking will be limited again this year. Vice President for Finance and Operations, Rachel Solemsaas, and Security Director, Steve Robinson, have developed a parking plan. A key element of the plan is an additional parking lot on 64th Avenue. W between 196th and 200th. Shuttle services from the lot will be provided during the first three weeks of the quarter. A detailed parking map is available at campus.edcc.edu/_parking.php. Please take a look and help make our students aware of their parking and commuting options so that we can all keep our cool and get to class and work on time.
In our work this year, we will continue to build on our initiatives:
- to provide the community with a place for arts, culture, and civic engagement;
- to focus on sustainability;
- to build on our reputation in math and science education;
- to act on our commitment to diversity; and
- to educate our students for a global society.
At the annual Board of Trustees retreat, we also agreed to a number of strategic goals in line with our institutional effectiveness plan and key performance indicators. Learn more at www.edcc.edu/grants/ie.php.
Not the least of these goals is Strategic Enrollment Management – Vice President of Student Services George Smith, will be supported by each of the vice presidents to work on six areas — recruitment, retention and student engagement, online delivery, transitions (from ABE/ESL, GED, and High School Completion to college level classes), advising, and returning adult learners. These efforts will work toward our goals of supporting student success and providing access for educational opportunities.
The state board established an initiative last year—the student achievement initiative—in which colleges earn momentum points for: achievement in developmental education, transition to college, college credit accumulation, and program completion. Earning momentum points increases our funding, but I’ve said repeatedly we will not chase momentum points. Our focus will always be on student success. And, guess what happened? Edmonds CC finished the year NUMBER ONE in momentum points. We earned over 50 percent more points than any other community college in our system. This achievement is a tribute to all of you – faculty, support staff, and administration – for putting students at the center of your professional life. You proved that student success is the key. When our students succeed, we succeed.
Our sustainability initiative will go forward. We will conduct a college-wide energy audit and look for ways to conserve energy on our campus. Vice President of Finance and Operations Rachel Solemsaas leads this effort, supported by each of the vice presidents, and the sustainability council. This supports our goal of fiscal accountability and our measurement of efficiency. Find out more at www.edcc.edu/sustain/.
As part of our goal to be a positive place to work and learn, we’ll focus on employee health and wellness. Organizational Development and Employee Training (that’s ODET to all you veterans) will take the lead in developing an awareness and activity program designed to promote a healthier workplace. Learn more at www.edcc.edu/odet/.
So, that’s the work for the year ahead. It’s a lot, but its all good, productive work that takes us in the right direction working on our priorities:
- providing access for educational opportunities,
- supporting student success,
- being a positive place to work and learn, and
- being fiscally accountable.
These are challenging priorities in a time of decreasing budgets and deteriorating economies. We will see our budget reduced this year- perhaps by as much as $500K - while being asked to educate more students, often more difficult students because of their dire personal circumstances.
How do we manage this scenario? The Board of Trustees has asked that we increase our international student enrollment and contract training throughout the world. We must also move to a new level in terms of institutional assessment and data-based decision-making. We have classes to fill, accreditation dictates to meet, scholarships to raise, dorms to fill, programs to develop and students to recruit.
To make all of this happen, I’m making some organizational changes. David Cordell will be promoted to Vice President of International Education and John Michaelson will become the permanent VP of College Relations and Advancement. We will ask them to tackle critical and difficult tasks in their positions, and to be most effective they need the appropriate credentials.
Like you, I’m ready to get started and get this fall quarter underway, but before we move on, let’s take a moment to meet some of our new colleagues.
If I could have those newly hired since last year please stand…Please take time to give these folks a warm welcome to Edmonds Community College.
And thank all of you for being here, every day, working to make this college a strong resource for our students and our community. This is a great place to work and learn and because of you, I know, Edmonds Community College will keep getting better and better.
THANK YOU…HAVE A GREAT YEAR!
