Edmonds Community College President
Quarterly Update: Steptember 2, 2009
We are heading into this year with great motivation and great challenges. In the tumult of a perfect storm of shrinking budgets and skyrocketing enrollment, we’re committed to doing our best work to guide all of our students through this recession toward their educational goals.
Last year, we served a record number of students — more than 21,000 people took classes here. The trend continues. Compared with last fall, this fall quarter’s current FTE count has increased by 17 percent.
Despite our challenges, we must remain a safe harbor for students, continue to fulfill our mission, and work toward our goals.
In last year’s similar cycle of tight budgets and high enrollment, we were able to:
- achieve our goal to be fiscally accountable with two outstanding accomplishments. We reached:
-- a current fund balance of $2.8 million when our original goal was $2.2 million; and
-- a student-instructor ratio of 24:1 winter and spring quarters, due to a commendable effort by our faculty that was a key component in maintaining the college’s financial security; - open a new student center and bookstore (the grand opening of the Triton Student Center will be 11 a.m., Thurs., Sept. 24) and build a new residence hall on campus — Rainier Place opens this fall. The ribbon cutting ceremony will be 2:30 p.m., Fri., Oct. 16);
- create 25 new videos to promote the quality of our professional-technical programs (these will be posted on the college Web site, our social network on Ning, on iTunesU, Facebook, and YouTube; and
- save $190,000 for the general fund through painstaking management of budgets as well as freezes on hiring, travel, and equipment purchases last year.
- hosted the Northwest Regional conference for environmental technology educators — the Partnership for Environmental Technology Education — on preparing curriculum for the green economy (70 educators attended, one from as far afield as Maine);
- signed a new five-year agreement of cooperation with Keimyung College University in South Korea to provide short-term training and ESL instruction;
- welcomed 17 students from Egypt to our college to pursue professional certificates in Business, Information Technology, Construction Management, and Allied Health as part of The Northwest Colleges Egypt Initiative (They have posted some great photos on the college’s social network.)
- engaged in global exchange.
--Business Management instructor Marie Johnson and Hospitality and Tourism instructor, Beth O’Donnell, led a Global Citizenship and Cultural Immersion class to Vietnam;
--English instructors Hayden Nichols and Greg VanBelle visited an orphanage in Kenya and prepared curriculum for a composition class they will be teaching this year on current issues in East Africa; and
--Business Management instructor Claudia Levi led a group to France to take an Introduction to French Culture and Society class at the University of Lille; - signed an agreement with the Aerospace Futures Alliance of Washington to establish a statewide aerospace training center at Paine Field in Everett. The college will coordinate the delivery of training to serve the aerospace industry, working with Spokane Community College, Everett Community College, and other key educational partners across the state.
- finished construction of our public art project, “Reach” by Lorna Jordan, located East of Lynnwood Hall (A ribbon cutting ceremony will be 11 a.m., Wed., Sept 16.);
- hired staff for key new positions. Jim Mulik is our Director of Evaluation and Assessment and will assist faculty and staff with instructional and institutional assessment, research, and planning efforts. Rebecca Hartzler, our Director of Grants, will help us apply for federal grants (already the college has worked with a wide array of community partners on numerous grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). Diane Dalton is our Database and Software Support Specialist. She will be working to implement better access to data throughout the college; and
At kickoff, I’ll talk more about some of the challenges for the year ahead and how we plan to meet them. I invite you to “Ask Edmonds” on our social network at edmondscc.ning.com. Post your questions or topics on the comment wall of the Ask Edmonds group by September 14. I will attempt to address as many of these as possible in my remarks. I look forward to hearing from you.
Our students greatly appreciate the time you devote to education — as do I.
Thank you for all that you do.
Sincerely,
Jack Oharah
