Dear Colleagues,
Welcome back! This has been a busy summer at the College. We are excited to have the opportunity to share with faculty and staff the changes that have happened since the end of Spring semester. While several d-lists have gone out over the summer sharing big picture changes in our organizational structure, I know that there are lots of questions and I look forward to addressing those during our General Session.
As you have heard in previous communications, the College will be adopting a One Door approach where students enter the college, are advised, and are enrolled through a singular process whether the program that best meets their needs is credit or non-credit. In addition to revising our enrollment processes, our workforce service will be moved under the academic structure of the college to better facilitate collaboration so that the programs that we offer create pathways that are clear and meet student needs.
This reorganization is in the initial phases. We have created a business plan and organization structure that has been approved by the VCCS and have started to put the functional pieces in place. This process is not going to happen overnight. It will take time to implement. For that, I ask your patience. However, I am extremely excited about the model that we are creating. We are already seeing positive conversations and progress forward. This is a new day with tremendous opportunity for us.
Will this be easy? No. Will there be speed bumps along the way? Yes. But I firmly believe that as we approach this in the spirit of teamwork, that we will be a much stronger college in the future and will be moving in a better direction to fulfill our mission of empowering students for success and strengthening communities.
It is with great excitement that I welcome you back for Fall In-service. Attached is the agenda. Please note that because August 16 (the first day that faculty are back on contract) falls on a Wednesday and our classes start the following Monday, that this will be a very quick yet busy in-service.
We will kick In-service off with a campus breakfast at 8:00 on August 16 in the Campus Commons, followed by the General Session at 9:30 in Whitman. This will be an in-person meeting unless permission is requested of me for a zoom link. We will then proceed with faculty meetings, school meetings, and senate meetings for the remainder of the week. There are several “lunch and learn” opportunities to explore new programs, such as our Great Expectations program, or to learn more about being a club advisor. We will culminate by bringing us together with a campus picnic on Friday the 18th.
I look forward to seeing all of you on August 16!
Sincerely,
Robert H. Sandel, Ed.D.
President
Virginia Western Community College