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Presidential Report February 28, 2005SCC Brain BowlMany thanks to Bonnie Tensen, Lisa Valentino, Jeri Rogers and David Greek for their dedication and hard work with SCC's Brain Bowl Team. They have done a phenomenal job!!! SCC's Brain Bowl has earned first-place honors for the second straight year at the East-Central Regional Brain Bowl Championship. The Team then competed at Valencia Community College on February 12, qualifying for Fourth Place at the National Academic Quiz Team Sectionals. Although this finish wasn't high enough to qualify for nationals, SCC was placed first on the waiting list. VCC declined their bid because of eligibility problems. So, for the first time, SCC will be competing in the NAQT national tournament at Tulane University in New Orleans. We will be in a division that includes Harvard, Yale and Swarthmore. We look forward to their continued success!! And special congratulations to student Brenda Ruch who was the high scorer at Regionals, exceeding the next highest score by over 200 points. Also, many thanks to Lisa Valentino, SCC faculty and staff who made the 11th Annual Battle of the Brains such a huge success. Seventy students from Seminole County high schools battled it out at the Oviedo Campus on February 11. Seminole High School's Orange team emerged the victor. After seeing the students in action tonight, I think you will agree that they are awesome! By the way, we are hosting the State Brain Bowl competition at the Oviedo Campus on March 4th. SCC Forensic SocietyIn their first speech tournament, hosted at Central Florida Community College this past weekend, SCC brought home the State Championship in Informative Speaking. Carmen Rios, a freshman with no previous competitive public speaking experience, faced competition from gold medal winning students and schools from throughout Florida. She won and received a standing ovation from the other competitors and coaches. Congratulations to Carmen Rios and Laura Dickinson, Individual Events Forensics Advisor, and Michael Artiaga, Debate Coach. SCC Softball - Lady RaidersThe SCC Lady Raiders defeated Brevard CC and are now 14-1 for the season. Congratulations to Coach Courtney Miller and the team for their efforts! SCC Men's BasketballThe Men's Basketball Team has advanced to the Florida State Basketball Tournament with their BIG WIN Wednesday night over the #10 ranked team in the nation defeating Santa Fe Community College by 61-59. The win gave the Raiders the Mid-Florida Conference Championship and an automatic seat in the State tournament to be held in Marianna on March 9-12. I have conference information in case any of you want to attend. Closer to home, the Men's Basketball Team will play its final home game on Tuesday, March 1, at 7 p.m. This game will determine the #1 and #2 seeds in the state. Congratulations to the following SCC Men's Basketball Players:
Many congratulations to Coach Stan Cromartie who was named the Mid-Florida Conference Men's Basketball Coach of the Year! Coach Cromartie has also been nominated for the Florida Community College Activities Association Men's Basketball Hall of Fame. SCC Women's BasketballAnd not to be outdone by the men, the Lady Raiders defeated Santa Fe Community College last Wednesday to finish the season with a 21-8 record, securing a berth in the State Tournament and also the runner-up spot in the Mid-Florida Conference. Congratulations to the following Lady Raiders:
Many congratulations to Lady Raiders' Coach, Lisa Nuxol! Florida Collegiate Honors ConferenceSCC was well-represented by five of our Honors students at the Florida Collegiate Honors Conference in Gainesville. SCC Honors' student, Misty Pierce, presented a paper on the under-representation of minority actors in popular movies. Misty was also elected to the Student Executive Board for next year's state conference. Many thanks to advisors Laura Ross and Beverly Bailey! Student AchievementsTiffany Flowers, freshman soprano, won second place in the National Association of Teachers of Singing contest on January 22. Tiffany is a voice student of adjunct faculty member Debra Hogan. Congratulations, Tiffany! Eight SGA members recently attended the Florida Junior College Student Government Association conference in St. Petersburg. They emerged victorious winning second place in Scrapbook competition and first in the Roll Call competition. The Roll Call required them to do a skit, song, rap or cheer. The SGA members from the Oviedo campus performed their rendition of "I want to be in A-mer-i-ca" from West Side Story. However, their version was, "I want to be here in O-vied-o." Congratulations to Gail Agor, Student Activities Specialist, and the students for this achievement! If you didn't see the recent production of "Trojan Women," you missed an incredible theatrical event at SCC. Many congratulations to our acting students and to Bobbie Bell, Richard Harmon and Paul Luby for an outstanding production! And just this past weekend, Danielle Marino, an Interior Design student, was crowned Miss Seminole County and will be awarded a scholarship to SCC thanks to the efforts of Trustee Verdell Pugh, who is active with this group. Faculty AchievementsCongratulations to Vicki Ackerman, Sandy Keeter and Melinda White who have had their proposals accepted to the NISOD 2005 conference. Faculty member Trent Tomengo will be presenting a slide show entitled "Faces of Christ" at the Maitland Art Center on March 17 at 7 p.m. The presentation serves as a rationale for revitalizing Christian narrative painting, specifically the usage of Christ's face. 2005 Governor's Summer ProgramI am pleased to report that SCC's application, titled Generation to Generation: Wisdom through the Ages, was recommended for funding as part of the 2005 Governor's Summer Program. Congratulations to Dr. Pat Fitzgerald and Bill Schmidt for securing both the top ranking in the region and an overall ranking of #4 in the state for their $24,614 proposal. Sad NewsOn a sad note - or perhaps a joyous note - we now have the sole custody of Rick Lee. His term ended on the UCF Board of Trustees and he has been replaced by a lower profile person, Al Weiss, President of the Walt Disney World Resort. SCC Foundation Board RetreatMatt Hodge has been hard at work planning his first Foundation Board Retreat, scheduled for Friday at Tuskawilla Country Club. Dede Schaffner, your representative to this group, and approximately 29 other top business leaders will be setting the future direction for this group which helps to provide financial support to the College. Diversity RetreatOn February 3-4, we had an excellent Diversity Retreat, facilitated by Michael Freeman. Approximately 40 of us worked for two days to fashion initiatives designed to help us lead the diversity effort not only within our College, but also in our community. I think we all agreed that there is much work to be done. Many thanks to Yolanda Williams and Barbara Potter for supporting this initiative. Strategic Planning ProcessAs you will recall, Dick Alfred and Pat Carter, our Strategic Horizon Consultants, have been meeting with the various SCC stakeholders. They have now issued their Consultants' Final Report, which is at your seat along with a cover memo which Carol Hawkins prepared and which explains the next steps in the process. Working with an internal Strategic Plan Framework Task Force, it is our goal to finalize the report and then hold a series of campus Open Forums from March 9-11 with a report to the Board at the March meeting. This is a document in process. Tallahassee and Our LegislatorsMany thanks to Verdell Pugh and Sid Miller for making an early morning (6:30 a.m.) journey to Tallahassee last Wednesday to represent you and lobby for more resources. The Wednesday afternoon session featured State Board of Education Chairman Phil Handy who addressed four issues: Funding, Governance, Teacher Prep Institutes and the Four-Year Issue. He was candid in recommending that Bright Futures be de-coupled from tuition and that a higher standard be set. If Bright Futures is not revised, within 3 years, it will consume all of the lottery funds generated in Florida. He recommended that community colleges make a choice to be under the State Board of Education as opposed to the Board of Governors. In response to this, the community college presidents have asked for a legal opinion on the ramifications of reporting to one board versus the other. He encouraged us to apply for the funds that will be available for the Teacher Institutes and advised all to engage in a realistic debate on four-year degrees. He is seeking a coordinated and systemic response and not the one-by-one conversion to four-year colleges that is taking place among community colleges. On Wednesday night, Lake Sumter, Valencia and Seminole Community Colleges hosted a joint legislative reception which was very well attended by nearly all the members of our delegation. They each addressed the audience and pledged their support for more funding. On Thursday, the Trustees visited each member of our delegation. The current need is to increase the Governor's recommendation of $20 million in increased FTE funding to $58.9 million. This needs to happen in the next two weeks so that this amount is in the initial legislative allocation. It will then be up to us to lobby for how those funds are "equitably" distributed. I am passing out a copy of the minutes from the Presidents' Council Policy and Advocacy meeting last month. As you will see, I am fulfilling your directive of being very vocal about our case for equity either within or outside the funding formula. (This was a discussion that I started with the presidents last October.) This was discussed with all of our legislators and then was brought to the attention of the Presidents' Council on Thursday and Friday at their meetings. The next step will be a March 17th workshop in Tallahassee that will be attended by the presidents and our business officers to attempt to correct any inequities in the formula. Also, I am taking the liberty of distributing a copy of the lawsuit that has been filed by the Board of Governors against the State Board of Education. It is anticipated that this "turf" issue will not be resolved in the immediate future. The other issue of importance is the Class Size amendment and the Governor's attempts to save Florida billions of dollars. Each Board of Trustees is being asked to indicate their opinion related to this issue and to pass a resolution, if so warranted. A sample resolution is being distributed. As you can see, this legislative session is going to be an incredibly important one for us. If our figures are correct, the funding formula has benefited colleges with little or no growth and has penalized those who have been trying to meet the needs of their communities. Don Payton is doing an excellent job in Tallahassee. We have great support from our community. Now is the time for you to call your legislative contacts and encourage them to place the $58.9 million in the community college budget to cover both our growth, hurricane losses, and equity. March Board MeetingJust a reminder that our March meeting is on the 24th, Thursday, at 7 p.m. PTK AwardIt is my great honor to tell you that our Phi Theta Kappa Chapter nominated me for PTK's prestigious Shirley B. Gordon Award of Distinction. The students wrote the application form and submitted it to the national office. I am thrilled to tell you that we will be bringing home this award from Dallas in April. A luncheon, which will be attended by our PTK students and advisor Ruth Reis, will feature Rudy Guiliani, former mayor of NYC, followed by the presentation of the Gordon medallion at 2 p.m. This award is an incredible honor and I can't tell you how pleased I am that this was initiated by our students. ACCTMany thanks to Dr. Charles English and Verdell Pugh for representing Seminole Community College at the recent Association of Community College Trustees Governmental Workshop in Washington, D.C. |
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