College Update

From: Sanford Shugart
To: All Faculty and Staff
Date: 02/05/03 11:28 AM
Subject: Update 2-5-03


1. Politics I'm in the early throes of representing Valencia and the community college system to the legislature, giving testimony to the House and Senate appropriations committees Friday and Tuesday. I won't elaborate here, except to say that Ill be sharing a letter I have sent to the central Florida legislative delegation outlining my deep concerns with the Governor's proposed budget. Many of you will want to express your concerns, as well, I think. Though the situation is bleak at the moment, this is still the "pre-game warm-up." The session doesn't even begin until March. It is vital to let our concerns be know to our legislators in the next couple of weeks.

2. Start Right The "post mortem" on Spring registration has been done with a focus on the "start right" principle. Areas of progress include:

• enforcement of prerequisites after grade posting
• immediate entry of test scores for advising and placement
• better alignment of schedule to student needs
• strong encouragement to students to have a draft education plan using Atlas before advising
• extended hours and services during and just after the break
• Atlas registration through the break with little to no technical difficulty
• bookstore lines and errors significantly reduced
• "fast track" problem resolution for students
• enforced application deadline to assure time for orientation and advising
• nearly all of the technical glitches from the fall were corrected for the spring
• decreased wait times in most offices
• WebCT classes were successfully built before the semester began
• applications for admission, financial aid, etc. were processed much more timely

There are also some areas still needing work:

• some prerequisite and corequisite issues still need attention
• the ways that schedules display for students need improvement
• in general, some Atlas interfaces could be more friendly
• transcript review and transmission still gets clogged up
• the whole process of fee payment deadlines and purges needs to be evaluated

Congratulations and thank you to the many staff and faculty who are laboring very diligently to make the systems work for student learning. Press on...

3. NISOD Excellence Awards With excellent faculty leadership, the process for selecting NISOD Excellence Awards has been significantly revised this year, with a nomination and peer review process. From the nearly twenty who were nominated for this award, five have been selected to represent Valencia as NISOD Excellence Award winners this year. They are:

Colin Archibald, Professor and Lead Instructor, CIS

Chris Borglum, Professor of English and Discipline Coordinator (also Brain Bowl Coach of the Century)

William (Will) Johnson, College wide Prep Mathematics Coordinator

Julie Meers-Phelps, Professor of Mathematics

Joyce Romano, Assistant Voce President, Educational and Student Services

Linda Speranza, Professor of Nursing and Pathways into Nursing Director

I know you all join me in congratulating these distinguished leaders for the way they represent the very best in teaching and learning that we cherish at Valencia.

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