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 Advising Center continues to implement a targeted communication plan to help all students learn about using MAP (MyAcademicPlan) and Plans (a resource within MAP that allows you to plan several semesters at a time) with their academic advisor as available tools for success. Throughout the month of February a series of communications including emails, posters around campus, announcements through television monitors, and items in the student e-newsletter were presented to students. The Advising Center saw increased requests for appointments based on these messages. Additionally, they visited developmental and self- paced math classes to answer questions about MAP and Plans, and to teach students how to access these advising tools. (IE1, IE2, IE3)
- Kristy McDonald and Brandon Everest are the chairs of the Experiential Learning AQIP project. Experiential learning encompasses various experiences where learning is deepened and enhances through the direct application of knowledge both in and out of the classroom. (IE1, IE3, IE4, IE5)
- CIT Faculty members Scott Goethals and John Velis attended the February meeting of the TBA-ISD K12 Counselors group. They presented the new programming for CIT degrees and certificates to the group and also emphasized the steady flow of local IT job postings in the region. Scott and John asked for feedback and offered to come out to each district. (IE2, IE5)
- CIT Industry Night Out on Monday, February 20, was held at Britten Studios. NMC’s CIT students got the opportunity to tour the 300,000 square-foot facility and learn about this local company from an IT perspective. (IE1, IE2, IE5)
- Food Services has made the following adjustment to enhance customer service:
- Opened the scope of operating “The Curve” to continuous service this semester. The results using “pop-up” stations such as Mindful, Bodacious Burgers (Thursday nights), Oodles, pasta tosses and panini sandwiches (Monday afternoons and evenings) have increased student satisfaction and revenue. Revenue from “The Curve” is approaching $15,000.
- Smoothies- Inserted a smoothie bar during breakfast, resulting in very good participation and selling 160 thus far for nearly $1000 in revenue.
- Super Bowl Sunday- Served tailgate type fair at a fixed price of $10 per person. More than 70 students participated.
- Take out pizzas- Continue to see good results with participation, selling 381 small personal pizzas and 145 thin crust 16″ pizzas during spring semester. Pizza revenue is approaching $4000 going into March.
- RH Meals: Re-heat meals have increased to a variety of 28 this semester, selling 172. (IE3, IE4, IE5)
- Food Services has started service to customers through Comfort Keepers, providing Simply to Go products such as parfaits, fruit cups, sandwiches and reheat entree meals. (IE2, IE3, IE4, IE5)
- Food Services was audited by a third party vendor for food safety standards and health and safety standards. Their scores were a 99.5% on health and safety and 91.5 % in food safety. No major discrepancies were reported. (IE5)
- The bookstore increased rental availability by adding more vendors and creating an in-store rental program to add custom rental books. They also developed an hourly or daily rental program for students that feel they only need a book for a short period of time. (IE3, IE4, IE5)
Activities of Note: Tim
- Despite wintery weather we had a great turnout for our Legislative Roundtable Breakfast on February 24. State Senator Wayne Schmidt and State Representative Larry Inman were in attendance; as well as Brandon Fewins, Regional Manager for U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow; Leah McCallum, Regional Director for U.S. Senator Gary Peters; Jamie Callahan, Legislative Director for State Representative Curt VanderWall; and Melanie Collinsworth, Director of Michigan Operations for U.S. Representative Jack Bergman. Trustees Kennard Weaver and Rachel Johnson were in attendance, along with NMC executive staff. Gabe Schneider and I provided our legislators with an update on NMC and our regional impact, and discussed the West Hall Innovation Center project and current state and federal legislative issues impacting the planning process. I look forward to our next legislative roundtable event which will be held in Lansing on Wednesday, May 3.
- Nancy and I attended the annual Taste for Success. Thank you to trustees Kennard Weaver, Michael Estes, and Chris Bott, along with their guests, who were also able to attend the event to support NMC’s culinary program.
- Marguerite Cotto and I traveled to Chicago for the CQIN CEO forum/reps meeting this week. The Continuous Quality Improvement Network is a higher education membership organization that affords CEOs of both colleges and universities, as well as corporations associated with higher education, significant networking and learning opportunities to foster continuous improvement and achievement of performance excellence. Each year, CQIN identifies a group of Learning Partners from across other sectors such as manufacturing, service or health care organizations. These partners all perform at very high levels and willingly share their successful strategies, methods, processes and approaches with CQIN member institutions and organizations to provide implementation ready ideas on how to improve. CQIN members learn directly from the partners at both a CEO forum/reps meeting in the spring and at CQIN’s annual Summer Institute at which time member institutions and organizations have the opportunity to bring teams of academic, operations and administrative people to learn better ways to produce student and business success.
- Architects from Stantec, the design firm working on the West Hall Innovation Center, visited campus this week to meet with NMC executive staff, our campus steering team, and other community innovators. Very thoughtful and productive discussion occurred in all sessions, along with some interactive design activity to explore adjacencies inform the development of diagrams to visually represent the program direction and begin to overlay their findings with the existing building footprint to vet various responses to program placement and context.
Legislative Issues
State Update
- Fiscal Year 2018 Budget deliberations continue to be the focus of legislative activity in Lansing these days. The House Appropriations Community College Subcommittee held its second hearing on Governor Snyder’s proposed FY18 budget this week. The hearing focused on understanding his proposed personal property tax reimbursement mechanism that the governor believes negates the need to provide an operations increase for community colleges. These budget deliberations will continue through next week and we will continue to monitor developments as they relate to NMC.
- We also continue to monitor the Capital Outlay process as it relates to NMC’s FY18 Construction Authorization for our 21st Century Innovation Center. While the Joint Capital Outlay Committee has been focused on planning authorizations for new projects, we are hopeful that they will consider our construction authorization concurrently with the regular appropriations process.
Federal Update
- While much of the national discussion has been focused on healthcare related issues, there are a few federal issues that we continue to track.
- The House Committee on Veterans Affairs reported out legislation that would allow veterans awarded the Purple Heart to receive GI Bill® educational benefits if they were not on active duty for the 36-month period that is typically required. Nationally, this legislation would impact 1,200 to 1,500 Purple Heart recipients eligible for GI Bill® educational benefits and create new recipients going forward.
- The American Association of Community Colleges has sent a letter of support to Senator Hatch in support of the Comprehensive Student Achievement Information Act of 2017 (S. 351). This legislation, sponsored by Senator Hatch, would help to reduce current regulatory burdens on colleges by creating a new, more comprehensive method of detailing institutional performance. Of particular interest to community colleges is a new completion rate calculated at 300% of the normal time to graduate for the vast majority of community college programs. This measurement will enable prospective students to better assess their likelihood of finishing programs.
- The President has not yet released his FY18 budget proposal, but House lawmakers tasked with writing the bill to fund education, labor and health programs are bracing for a budget that calls for massive cuts. Some estimates by lawmakers hint at proposed cuts running as high as $20 billion—a roughly 12 percent drop from the funding proposed in the still-unpassed bill for FY17. Since the President has not released his budget yet it is still too early to know exactly what the impacts on community colleges will be, but certainly something that we continue to monitor.
Miscellaneous
- The Board will have dinner with the Student Government Association (SGA) at the Hagerty Center at 4:45 p.m. on March 20, followed by the 5:30 p.m. regular Board meeting where the SGA make a presentation to the Board.
- Chris Bott, the MCCA Representative for our NMC Board of Trustees, and I will attend the MCCA Spring Board of Directors meeting next week at Jackson College.
- NMC Foundation’s annual Scholarship Luncheon will be on Friday, April 21, 12:00-1:30 p.m., at the Hagerty Center. The luncheon is a unique opportunity for donors to meet the students their donations support.
- The Retirement & Recognition Ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, April 27 at 4:30 p.m. at the Hagerty Center.
- NMC Commencement is on Saturday, May 6.
- NMC BBQ is on Sunday May 21