This is posted on behalf of Michael Vargo, VP of Academic Affairs

Hello, everyone!

It’s sunny this morning as I write this, which is SUCH a welcome change.  This is just a quick note to say that I hope your first week of the new term has gone very smoothly.  It’s really energizing to see all of the students on campus, and they seem so excited to be here.

I hope you also saw the fantastic news from our office of Institutional Research and Reporting, that our enrollment for winter term was up significantly as the term began, with our reimbursable FTE up nearly 9% (8.7%) compared to the same point last January.  My sincere thanks to each of you who connected with your students during the fall term and encouraged them to enroll for winter, or just connected with them at some point during the term and sincerely encouraged them on their educational journey.

Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) is about recruiting new students, certainly, but an exceptionally important piece of SEM (probably even more important, frankly…) is the retention of our current students, from term to term, and year to year.  The literature on retention points directly to the importance of creating a shared sense of community with our students.  Connecting with students in your classroom or service area, helping them get connected with others in the classroom through learning activities, or on campus through clubs and events, are integral aspects of this.  (We saw a really terrific example of this from our Student Activities Office last week with their Welcome Back Taco Lunch — over 400 enthused students took part!)

The relationships that we form with students, and encourage them to form with each other and this college, are just SO important in helping our students feel connected and stay motivated as they do the difficult work needed to achieve their educational goals.  These are the connections and relationships that will help our students persist, and will also help us rebuild our enrollment.

Thanks for all you’ve done and will continue to do as we strive to meet the essential educational needs of this community.

Here’s to a wonderful winter term for each of you!

Mike