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Seminole State College
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Sanford, Florida 32773-6199
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Presidential Report June 22, 2009

Legal Assistant/Paralegal Program ABA Approval

SCC’s Legal Assistant/Paralegal Program has been recommended for approval by the American Bar Association. This means that the program is in full compliance with ABA guidelines and will be recommended to the ABA House of Delegates at their meeting in August. Congratulations to Dr. Jonathan Green, the Legal Studies staff, and Dean Kersenbrock!

Student Successes

We have had some great athletic successes with our Women’s Softball and Golf Teams. On the softball side, Hope Bitzer and Ashley Frost, both graduates from Lake Mary High School, were named to the All-South Region First Team and the All-American Third Team by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. Hope was also named to the National Junior College Athletic Association All-American Third Team as a utility player. She is only the fourth player from SCC to be named to the NJCAA All-American Team.

Hope finished the year 20-9 on the mound for the Raiders, striking out 176 batters. Ashley hit .368 with 36 runs batted in and led the team with 7 homeruns. She also had a perfect fielding percentage of 1.000. Congratulations to our talented students and Coach Courtney Miller!

SCC’s Women’s Golf Team finished third at the National Junior College Athletic Associations’ (NJCAA) National Golf Championship. All four Raiders finished in the top 20, with Suzanne Ervin leading the team in Third Place with a score of 75. Rio Milord placed Ninth; Fabys Barreto placed Seventeenth; and Eva Rogers came in Twentieth. Fifteen teams and more than 100 golfers from around the nation competed.

Equity Report/Diversity Efforts (Williams)

This year, the College's Annual Equity Update is being placed on the Consent Agenda. As you know, the Equity Update is the plan that addresses our compliance status concerning equal access/ equal opportunity and diversity. The Update assesses the data based upon the demographic characteristics of both students and employees. This year, the decision was made to place the Update on the Consent Agenda because much of the information that has been requested involves developing strategies for student groups that may no longer be here – in other words, the data is dated. In reading through the report, I am sure you noted that the College is in compliance in all demographic categories except "Other." This Category has always presented a challenge because the definition has changed and more people are electing not to self-identify. Also, we need to pay particular attention to employee demographics since so many of our Faculty of Color will be retiring.

The Offices of Diversity & Equity and Institutional Research have been working on a Diversity Scorecard. The Scorecard provides real- time information about our student and employee populations. It addresses student success in particular courses such as College Prep Math, English and Reading, as well as, student re-enrollment rates by demographic category. This Scorecard provides a more accurate depiction of the College's success and will provide more timely information. The Scorecard will be presented to you at the July meeting.

Potential Name Change Process

This is phrased as a “potential” name change, since we don’t have any preconceived ideas about a new name. As I have discussed with each of you, the Legislature has renamed the Florida Community College System as the Florida College System and has given each college the opportunity to change their name, particularly as it relates to expanding our mission to include baccalaureate degrees.

With the conversion of the Sanford/Lake Mary Campus to an academic village and the new signage that will accompany this renovation, plus the anticipation of offering our first baccalaureate degree in 2010, it would seem that now is the time to consider changing our name. We have developed what we believe is an inclusive process that will involve our faculty and staff, our students, and our community over the next few months with the anticipation that the Board would vote on a name change in September. Michael Garlich will review the process and timeline with you so that you can suggest any changes before we begin the process.

Banner Center Grant

SCC has been selected for the second year in a row as the 2009-2010 Digital Media Banner Center by WorkForce Florida Inc. The contract award for $300,000 brings the total awarded to SCC to $950,000 over two years (2008-10).

Banner Centers are specifically designated institutions which serve as a catalyst to develop workforce talent for the State of Florida. Banner Centers are designed to be where industry and education intersect to promote economic development in targeted industry sectors. There were 10 Banner Centers selected for 2009-10.

SCC's Digital Banner team is comprised of Angela Kersenbrock, Lenny Portelli, Jud French and Betty Maldonado. Special thanks go to our grants team -- Angela Albert, Suzi Ball and Concetta Duran -- for their assistance.

UCF Baccalaureate Degrees

Recently, UCF announced that they may be closing several of their baccalaureate programs. Since a few of those programs parallel our current offerings and we have students in the pipeline who were expecting to transfer to UCF and pursue those majors, we have begun talks with UCF and the other regional community colleges about migrating some of those degrees to SCC.. This is very much in the exploratory phase and I will keep the Board posted on the discussions.

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Site Visit

A three-member SACS Team will visit SCC on July 15th and 16th. Their goal is to determine whether the institution has adequate personnel, facilities, and resources to operate the Altamonte Campus. The visitors will also be making sure that we demonstrate sufficient comparability of student learning outcomes at that site with similar programs at the Sanford/Lake Mary Campus. What this all means is that we have had a team of folks, led by Dr. Christine Robinson, who have been preparing all kinds of documents for our visitors. We expect that the visit will go well and that SACS will find that we are in full compliance with all the Standards of the Principles of Accreditation. Many thanks to Dr. Robinson and her team for getting us ready!

Meeting with US Department of Commerce

On June 16th, we met with representatives from Congresswoman Kosmas’ office and Mr. Phil Trader, the Regional Economic Development Director for the U.S. Dept. of Commerce regarding potential federal funding for Phase 2 of our Altamonte Springs Campus and the serpentine portion of our law enforcement driving track. We are hopeful that we will get at least one project funded through special funding that has been allocated to Counties that were impacted by Tropical Storm Faye.

Education Economic Stimulus Summit

Congresswoman Corinne Brown will be hosting an Education Economic Stimulus Summit on June 29 at 9 a.m. at the Educational Leadership Center at the Orange County Public School Board Office. The Congresswoman has invited our Board members to attend. So far, Scott Howat has indicated that he will attend.

Media Campaign

I have been asked by the Chairman of the Florida College System Presidents Council to chair an effort this next year to “brand” the new Florida College System and also develop a strategy for our legislative marketing efforts. There is concern that with the change in our mission and names that the general public doesn’t really know what the system of 28 colleges represents anymore. This could be interesting trying to please 27 other college presidents…and the general public. Stay tuned...

2009-10 Salaries

The Board Packet includes the 2009-10 Salary Schedule which does not provide salary increases or step advancements for any College employees. As we told our employees in the budget workshops, we will re-examine raises for 2009-10 -- probably in a January timeframe -- dependent on our financial condition and enrollment patterns. As President, I am also asking the Board to suspend my raise for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.