President’s Update 9/22/08
Good morning!
Here we go with another school year. Welcome to everyone. It’s energizing to have everyone back on campus. The return of faculty, staff, and students creates new energy, enthusiasm, and excitement. And, yes, some apprehension considering all that we know will be happening and have planned to happen. And then there’s the unexpected!
To say the least, the year ought to be interesting. You’ve heard about the number of new college initiatives, which alone can create some sense of anxiety and bewilderment. And when you add the backdrop of an historical national election with a struggling national economy, increased gas prices impacting our lives beyond what we might have expected, continued natural catastrophes such as Hurricane Ike or the recovery of the Midwest flooded communities, the changing state economy and an anticipated very close and important gubernatorial election, with all the local legislative contests and the continued life changing tragedies of the war in Iraq, and, closer to home, the continued concerns about campus security, it’s no wonder we experience feelings of ambiguity, uncertainty, frustration, and the continued need for reassurance that things will be okay and that what we do here at Everett Community College is, indeed, very important to the well-being of our students, communities, and yes, even everyone of us on campus. The obvious continues to grow about how important for all of us that we work with one another, communicate frequently, and support each other both in our work and in our personal lives, because of the stresses that we are confronted with daily.
It also is quite obvious and important, that we can laugh now and then and enjoy our success and our accomplishments.
The College is focused this year on “looking in, looking out.” For me that has created a wide variety of possibilities. My biggest question is, how do I survive turning 60 this year? Better yet, how does Janelle survive my turning 60 this year? Actually, we are both turning 60 so that may help both of us. We can enjoy this milestone birthday together.
Another concern! Will Tom graduate as I expect this year. And will he be able to get a good paying job considering the economy? We need for him to get a good paying job! Or will he end up in grad school like I did right after graduation because employment for new grads was so challenging. I’ll be anxious for an answer.
Looking at the College and sharing with you several thoughts about two years ago when my tenure began at EvCC. We were feeling very happy about this opportunity and about the area and meeting new people. Then, there were the floods of 2006 that began with our first fall term, some winter snows and a record number of college closures. The College’s budget crisis came within the first six months, no new hires and budget reductions, the impossible and awful budget controls, and an enrollment shortfall where we miss our target and are not eligible to receive growth dollars for 2007-2008.
But you know, we all came together and while we may have disagreed at times on reasons and solutions, we did succeed in this past year of improving our financials (thanks to all of you for the extra efforts in managing budgets and getting the necessary things done), of securing enrollments and exceeding our targets, of implementing some new initiatives like international education (that will bring a new level of global understanding to students and employees as well as new revenues) and corporate education that will build new relationships with our partnerships in the business community. And, that will be very important to the College for a number of reasons including implementing a major fundraising campaign should we chose to do so.
Then, we have also grown our commitment together to place greater value and importance on student and employee diversity, understanding the anticipated changes in our growing community populations. We’ve increased marketing and promotional activities to increase awareness about access to EvCC. We continue to build on increasing our presence in outlying communities like Monroe, Marysville and Arlington. We will be there with more classes and activities in the next several years! We will open Grey Wolf Hall this next March (the University Center of the Puget Sound is moving forward aggressively and successfully in the continued development of new BA programs) and begin classes in our second new facility. We are opening the expanded Early Learning Center today. And we successfully completed a very important and critical collective bargaining agreement with our quality faculty. We’ve successfully hired 12 new faculty members and a number of deans and other staff members to join the EvCC family.
We are very well positioned and poised to initiate several important efforts during this year. The College’s self study for ongoing accreditation, which will be very informative and critical to better understanding ourselves and what we do well and where we need to improve. We need to continue to evaluate our progress with respect to the strategic initiatives. We are committed to campus sustainability and will move forward with this wholeheartedly under the leadership of Pamela, Peg, Molly and many others. You’ve heard about the first year experience and emergency management. We are beginning our second leadership academy which cultivates and nurtures leadership skills for members of our campus (only one of three cc’s). And we will break ground on a new athletic complex during summer 2009, for completion in 2010.
There remain challenges. The Governor’s request to contain costs through travel, energy and personnel savings. We are working through this and will have more information later this week. Our budget development and planning during the next year will be more participatory and transparent. Then we need to better understand and work with the changing workforce that has abruptly come upon us this past year. Retirements and longtime employees leaving our institutions creates uncertainty and concern. What is going on? We need to continue examining turnover and find answers.
So you know, when I look at the EvCC mission statement and strategic directions, I think we can feel some pride and sense of success. We are making progress and moving ahead.
With all of these challenges, actions and discussions I am reminded of thoughts I shared with everyone two years ago. “Communication and trust are important to all of us. Treating one another with dignity and respect is equally important. I am committed to working with all of you as well as the Board of Trustees and our stakeholders in creating a trusting, supportive and innovative organization that promotes success for students and many others. I invite all of you to participate and to become more engaged in challenging and exciting opportunities to advocate for our common goal…the success of our students.”
Have a fun and fulfilling school year!