Thank you all for everything you do in pursuit of “Keeping Learning at the Center.”
Notable Accomplishments provided by Faculty and Staff
This section recognizes the good work being done and linkages to the Strategic Directions (SD) and Institutional Effectiveness Criteria (IE) are provided where possible.
- The NMC Foundation was at Pine Palooza 2016 asking students to guess what percentage of individual donors to the NMC Foundation give $50 or less per year (answer: 55%). While talking to students about the impact of small charitable gifts on campus, the NMC Foundation let students know how they support students and campus life at NMC. The NMC Foundation booth was strategically located next to the Student Financial Services booth to show students the link between philanthropic giving at the NMC Foundation and the distribution of scholarship gifts through the Student Financial Services office. (IE2)
- Several engineering students approached instructor Chris Coughlin asking to compete in the VEX-U robotics competition (http://www.roboticseducation.org/). It is a national level competition between universities on designing, building, and testing advanced robotics. An entry level kit to get started is approximately $1,000.00. The students conducted research and discovered there is an anonymous donor in Michigan that writes grants to any new VEX program that shows promise and commits to at least one competition a year. The students and Chris applied for the grant, and were awarded it last week! The grant provides the school with the entry level kit for only the cost of shipping (savings of approximately $1000!). The group is extremely excited to be competing this year in the program, with the intent to compete at both the regional and national levels. Great success story for the engineering club! (IE1)
- Rebecca Richardson, mathematics adjunct, spent the summer recording class lectures and is now running her class as a flipped class where students watch lectures at home and work on projects and homework during class time. (IE1)
- Mark Nelson, mathematics, learned about the light board that Educational Media Technologies (EMT) developed in August during the area training days. Since then, Mark has been regularly using the light board to record mini-lectures for his students. (IE1)
- The NMC Foundation, in collaboration with Admissions and Financial Aid, hosted the 2016 Commitment Scholarship Induction Ceremony. This year’s event reflected a new approach to focus on the students and their families, as well as to effectively acknowledge the charitable support that makes this program possible. (IE1, IE2, IE3, IE4, IE5)
- Professional Development Day was October 18. The theme was Increasing Student Success.
- Highest headcount in the sessions was 167.
- Faculty and staff gave positive comments about being able to collaborate with each other (as opposed to this just being faculty).
- We had 57 session leaders—55 internal, 2 external.
- The video received positive reviews in support of student success (IE1, IE2).
- The Office of Admissions reported that College Application Week has now been changed to College Application Month. This October NMC received 1500 applications that fell into this category. These numbers are increased from 1325 last year. (IE2, IE3)
- The Office of Records and Registration reports that new articulation agreements have been signed with Ferris State University (Early Childhood Education), Heartlands Institute of Technology (Culinary), and North Central Michigan College (Dental Assistant Program). In addition, new transfer guides have been signed with Lake Superior State University (Engineering). These agreements have been added to the Articulation Agreements web page. (IE1, IE3, IE5)
- Deb Maison, Academic & Career Advisor, has partnered with Sean Ruane from the Social Science academic area to offer Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a widely used personality assessment, to help students explore career and personal development based on their personality type. Students in Sean Ruane’s Psychology of Personality class took the assessment and Deb Maison completed class activities and interpretation of the indicator with students. All professional advisors in the Advising Center are MBTI certified and frequently use this, and other assessments, to help students through the career decision-making process, a crucial step in helping identify a future career and college major. (IE1, IE2, IE3)
- Kim Schultz, Academic & Career Advisor, in partnership with Jason Smith from Admissions and Meredith Schmidt from the TBA Early College program, met individually with more than 125 students during the month of October in preparation for Spring 2017 registration. Using the new DegreeWorks Plans А3 tool, Kim assisted students in creating a semester-by- semester plan for completing their NMC educational goal. Each Early College student in 11th grade and above in the TBA-ISD and TCAPS program meets with their advisor, Kim Schultz, twice per year to review current progress, create success strategies, access support resources, and move through the career decision-making process, in addition to creating their academic plan. New to this process was the use of the Google calendar appointments feature, which allowed students to go online and schedule their own appointment with Kim. (IE1, IE2, IE3).
- Members of the Advising Center team shared their expertise during several local and state professional development conferences for Student Services professionals.
- Kim Schultz, Taylor Nash, and Lindsey Dickinson developed a presentation, given at the Michigan Center for Student Success 2016 Summit in Lansing, based on the Advising Center’s work to help identify students’ level of career and major decidedness. With this identified, the Advising Center targets specific communications and interventions for students to help them move through the career decision-making process. The Advising Center’s website has also been redeveloped to exemplify this process for students.
- Further exploring elements of student success, Lindsey Dickinson, Director of Advising, in cooperation with Kristen Salathiel, Director of CIE, and Joy Evans, Executive Director of Research, Planning, & Effectiveness, have begun a study of students’ sense of belonging at NMC. Using survey data from NMC students, focus groups, and background research this team is working to identify best practice for improving students’ sense of belonging, which is directly tied to their overall success. The progress and findings of this new project were presented at the annual Michigan Community College Student Services Association Conference in Petoskey, as well as during the NMC Professional Development Day for faculty and staff.
- Also during our Campus Professional Development Day, Kim Schultz partnered with Lisa Wilmeth, from Records & Registration, to present a session on “Keeping Students on Track with MAP (My Academic Plan) and Plans.” Taylor Nash presented “How to Support Student Success Inside and Outside of the Classroom” with Marcus Bennett and Cortnie Thompson from Residence Life, where he discussed special advising in East Hall for on-campus residents. Lindsey Dickinson presented with other members of Student Services and Enrollment Management during a session titled “Walking In Their Shoes” which reviewed each step a student goes through from inquiry to sitting in their first class session at NMC. (IE2, IE3, IE5)
Activities of Note: Tim
- The first session of the Michigan Community College Leadership Academy was held in Lansing in September. I presented at one of the sessions on the president’s role and responsibility for engaging in effective advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels. I was also asked to share my perspective on the future of the community college, and how new presidents can best leverage their advocate role to position their institutions to innovate and thrive.
- Toward the end of September, I toured the Camp Pugsley correctional facility with a group of regional leaders for the purpose of exploring opportunities for the repurposing of that facility. I was unable to attend a follow-up meeting due to my China travel schedule, but will keep you informed as I learn more.
- At the beginning of October, I had the pleasure of introducing Diana Milock as she accepted a Benefactor Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) on behalf of herself and husband Richard. The award ceremony took place at CASE’s Conference for Community College Advancement in San Diego, CA. The Milocks giving has ranged from supporting student scholarships to their most recent and generous gift of $2,000,000 for a major expansion of the Dennos Museum Center. The Milocks embody the highest ideals of philanthropy, and we are very grateful for everything they have contributed to our college, our city, and our region.
- The 2016 Commitment Scholarship Program Induction Ceremony took place at Milliken Auditorium on Thursday, October 13, and I was honored to lead the students, and their parents and guardians, in their pledge to graduate high school and succeed in college. Since 1993 the Commitment Scholarship Program has helped over 1,000 students reach their dreams. The program exemplifies what NMC is all about—helping students become college graduates with the education, experience, and skills to make our global community a better place. This is just the beginning for these NMC Commitment Scholars. I’m excited to see what the future holds for each of them!
- I would like to thank trustees and executive staff who spent half a day at the October 14 retreat at the NMC Hagerty Center. It provided for more in-depth discussions on the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) accreditation process, Guided Pathways initiatives and results, NMC’s emergency management and preparedness, among other discussion topics.
- Marguerite Cotto, Hans VanSumeren and I had a very productive trip to China for approximately 10 days. The purposes of the trip included preparing curriculum with partner Yellow River Conservancy Technical Institute (YRCTI), representing a consortium of colleges at a conference in Beijing, and initiating new partnerships at two additional Chinese technical colleges. I was invited to speak at the China Annual Conference for International Education on “Paths to the Cultivation of Talent for Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Partnerships of Schools, Businesses and Society.” I spoke on “Best Practice and Experiences of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Education in American Community Colleges, and Marguerite was on a discussion panel about “Models and Best Practices of China-US Cooperation on Training Innovative Personnel. Our visit with YRCTI included working on curricular offerings and meeting the first group of students that will take the courses. We also had the opportunity to visit the American Embassy. Please see attached news release about the trip for more detail.
- I spoke at the TC NewTech event at the ECCO Event Center the evening of November 1. I gave a short presentation on our piece of the puzzle in talent development, and shared about NMC’s credentialing options, existing place, space and resources for better community integration and leveraging; and an update on the upcoming West Hall Innovation Center complex with living learning space.
Legislative Issues
- Both the House and Senate reconvened the week of October 18, with the Senate engaging in considerably more activity than the House of Representatives. The two legislative chambers will meet again on Wednesday, November 9. It is unlikely that they will move any bills of substance at this time. However, we will continue to watch carefully as a legislative agenda for this period is developed.
- The United States Congress is also on recess until after the election. Instead of passing a FY17 budget by the start of the new fiscal year (Oct 1), congress passed a short term funding bill that funds the federal government until December 9, 2016, at last year FY16 levels. The Continuing Resolution (CR), as it is known, extends the FY16 funding levels for the federal government including for the Department of Education and for the Perkins loan program. Unfortunately, the agreement includes a .496 percent across the board reduction (needed to meet sequester budget caps), which will impact Perkins Basic State grant advance funding from FY16 that is available for allocation to the states beginning October 1. It is yet to be seen what the final FY17 education budget will look like and it is expected that Congress will take up this issue in their lame duck session.
- Prior to adjourning, the U.S. House also passed their version of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) bill that authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Senate had passed their version earlier in September. Unfortunately, neither of these bills included language that the Great Lakes Maritime Academy and other state maritime academies had pressed for, which would have allowed the Army Corps of Engineers to complete additional needed infrastructure repairs to the Great Lakes Campus harbor. Both Senators Stabenow and Peters had offered an amendment to the Senate version of WRDA that would have allowed for these repairs to be made, but ultimately the amendment was not adopted. We will continue to work with the other state maritime academies on this issue and look toward the next WRDA bill as an opportunity to include this amendment.
Miscellaneous
- Reminder to exercise your right to vote on Tuesday, November 8.
- Mariner’s Memorial at 12:00 noon on November 10 at GLMA
- NMC Veterans Day Honor Ceremony on Friday, November 11—8:30am Breakfast for veterans; 9:20am Walk of Honor; 9:30am Flag Ceremony; 10:00 am–12:00pm coffee and cake