College Update

From: Sanford Shugart
To: All Faculty and Staff
Date: 3/9/04
Subject: College Update

Sorry for the long delay since the last message, but here are a few items of interest:

1. VP for Student Affairs - We have begun the process of seeking to fill this position, currently filled on an interim basis by Dr. Joyce Romano. It has been redesigned a bit with input from the student affairs staff. Joan Tiller has agreed to chair the recruitment team and we will follow the now familiar process of a paper review, perhaps some telephone contact, on-site interviews and a forum, and a final discernment process. We should be in a position to complete the process by early summer.

2. Sabbatical Policy and Procedures - For the past several months, Lisa Armour has led a team to develop the procedures and policies associated with providing paid sabbaticals. These were recently approved and will be disseminated shortly. They essentially provide for sabbaticals at full pay for a semester or at half pay for two semesters. The application and selection process will begin soon to select the first couple of sabbatical classes for the 2005-2006 academic year. Early selection will help the sabbatical participants to line up plans and resources for exceptional renewal experiences.

3. Career Placement Innovation - The Career Services office has recently expanded services for students in a very innovative way, negotiating partnerships with six private staffing/placement firms to serve our students at no cost. This will greatly expand the reach and the depth of services our graduates receive. All of this will be web-enabled and provide tracking data we need to evaluate our programs.

4. Politics - I continue to work with the House and Senate leadership to secure their commitment to funding the Governor's budget proposal. This is by no means a "slam dunk." The first budget each released involved a 3.5% cut in all agencies' budgets. I certainly don't expect that to be the final outcome, but it serves as a wake up call that we still have work to do. I remain very encouraged and expect a good budget. We'll know more in about six weeks.

5. Valencia Enterprises - We have implemented a modest reorganization of our corporate and continuing education division and related programs. These include the Valencia Institute, Inside Learning, the Global Languages Institute, and Scenarios. Joe Batista was hired as Chief Operating Officer of these combined programs, now called collectively Valencia Enterprises. He is working closely with the staff to roll out a new business plan to scale these businesses to a much higher level and bring them all to a level of profitability that will contribute back to the larger college some millions of dollars per year. More to the mission, however, this effort connects to the seventh goal of our strategic plan, Learning Works. Our real objective is to substantially expand the learning workforce in our region, giving us an economic advantage based on knowledge. We are completing negotiations now for a leased campus on Sand Lake Road near John Young Parkway and will consolidate the staff and programs at this site for expansion. Training programs will still be made available on all of the campus sites, but the new campus will give them dedicated space.

Dr. Ruth Prather led the college to build the foundation for these programs in recent years. She and I have been dreaming about this step for some time. Now she is handing the reins to Joe for the next phase so she can concentrate on the very interesting opportunities for expansion at Winter Park. Many thanks to Ruth for her visionary leadership.

6. Summer Schedule - Most of you know that this summer's class schedule involves something of a bold experiment. In an effort to provide a little more time between terms to work with students, the calendar committee recommended a compressed summer schedule. The benefits include: more time to deal with issues of prerequisites, especially for students who do not successfully complete them, but register early for the next level course; more time for faculty preparation between terms; more time prior to spring term to deal with student issues of add/drop, advising, placement, and payment; and preservation of the two week break between summer and fall semesters. Many of us are a little nervous over the summer experiment, but I believe we have to be willing to try things like this, and measure their impact, if we are to continue to shape the college's "deep architecture" toward better learning. If the compressed schedule doesn't work, we can always adjust again. Thanks for your willingness to try new things and measure their impact using the two big questions...

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