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Presidential Report August 19, 2003Thank You Many thanks to Representative David Simmons, Our Champion and Chair of the House Education Appropriations Committee, and his wife, Alicya, and his legislative aide, Brenda Ajamian, for joining us tonight. We greatly appreciate your efforts in Tallahassee. Specifically, we appreciate your leadership with our new Altamonte Campus and the funding that is needed for that facility. And we will appreciate any help that you can give us this next year with funding for our unfunded enrollment - about one out of every four students. Department Of Education Representative Please allow me to introduce Shaunna Speer, who is the Field Director for Central Florida for the Department of Education (DOE). The call went out to several community colleges to house Field Directors as part of the DOE's and Commissioner Jim Horne's initiative to enhance communication throughout the state. SCC was specifically asked to house a Field Director and we jumped at the chance. Shaunna is an FSU graduate with a degree in political science and international affairs. She has previously worked in the Office of Policy and Budget - Education Unit - in the Governor's Office. Our goal in housing Shaunna is to let her see first-hand the issues and hard choices that community colleges face. Central Florida Automotive Dealers Association On Monday, we met with the Board of the Central Florida Automotive Dealers Association (CFADA) to update them on the recent legislative session and the matching funds that they had requested. We had anticipated that the state would match the $2.5 million that CFADA had donated to SCC to build a new automotive training facility which would have begun construction this year. Instead, the legislature allocated the matching funds in a different manner from any previous year. SCC got a share of the $24 million based not on what we had raised, but on our percentage share of the state budget. In previous years, the facilities match had come off the top of the allocation. SCC got $825,000 this session which can be used for any of our matching purposes: programs, Endowed Teaching Chairs, scholarships or facilities. You may remember that we previously came to you with a recommendation that we allocate the largest share of our funds -- $500,000 - to the automotive project. This, we hoped, would show good faith to the CFADA so that they would not rescind their contribution as has happened at other colleges. In the meeting on Monday, the CFADA determined that they would stay with the project and would expand their lobbying efforts for this project during the next legislative session. Congratulations Congratulations to Dr. Stephen Wright for having several poems published in the book entitled "New Century North American Poets." Student Achievements Congratulations to Ms. Kaleena Thompson who just received a $2500 scholarship from the National Association of Black Journalists. Welcome Back Celebration Please plan to join us for the Welcome Back Celebration tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. in the Fine Arts Theatre. Continental breakfast will be served at 7:45 a.m. followed by the ceremony from 8:30 - 10 a.m. Tomorrow, we will be honoring Superintendent Paul Hagerty and our 30-year employees. Also, tomorrow morning, we will officially introduce our new employees. I met with the new faculty today and they are an impressive group. With academic credentials from Duke, Georgetown, Ringling, Rutgers, Case Western, Stetson and UCF - they are 30 strong and very diverse. Nearly half have served as adjuncts at SCC and several are graduates from SCC including our Adult High School. The Board dinner in October will allow you some personal time with this group as we plan to invite them to meet with you after they have a few weeks under their belts. Enrollment Statistics Enrollment is running well ahead of last year. We planned for at least a 7% growth rate and we may make it into the double digits again. Besides our educational reputation, one of the reasons is the dedication of our Admissions staff. Applications have increased significantly. College credit applications have increased by 14% with a conversion rate that has increased from 49% to 59%. Vocational applications have increased by 18% with a conversion rate that has increased from 19% to 24%. In terms of numbers, we have 4,358 new applications in hand. Association of Community Colleges Trustees Meeting The annual ACCT meeting will be held in Denver on September 17-20. Florida Association of Community Colleges You should be receiving email communication directly from the Trustees Commission of FACC. If you have not, please let us know. Also, the next statewide meeting will be held in Orlando on October 30 with the day dedicated to trustee meetings. Please let Linda know if you plan to attend. September Board Meeting Please be reminded that next month's Board meeting is on September 9 instead of the 16th. |
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