Sharon Blackman, Ed.D.
We are one week away from celebrating our 40th anniversary as a District! Many dignitaries will be present to help us celebrate this occasion, excellent breakout sessions are planned and you will not want to miss the event titled "It all begins here … our heroes and the journey." This is an exciting time for us to look back and review our past to help us move deftly forward into the future. There have been many changes in the district over the last 40 years and there will be more to come as we continue to grow and develop.
Since we are talking about growth, let’s take the time to think about how each of us in our individual roles as members of the Brookhaven College Community contributes to the growth of our college, the district and student success. March 1 begins the base year of counting our contact hours that is the foundation of our budget for the next biennium. This means that we need to be cognizant of how we recruit, but more importantly of how we retain our students. In the next couple of weeks, more than 6,000 students will be sent an e-mail blast and postcards will be mailed to another 1,100 students who do not have e-mail addresses. These are students who were enrolled in the last academic year but did not return to our college last fall or this spring. Our message is “We want you back!” We are encouraging them to return to Brookhaven to complete their educational goals. Please be aware of this initiative so that when you are approached by a student who may be returning, you can show them that we are very pleased that they are considering their return to higher education, to a better future and especially to Brookhaven. We will be working with all areas of the college to formulate plans about how we can all work together to have these non-returning students come back to us as well as how we can keep more of the students that are currently here. Let’s be realistic, we know that we will not be able to keep all of our current students, but we do want to reduce the number of students who leave us. If they come to us to transfer, but do not do so, or if they come to us to earn a degree or a certificate and do not do so, we want them to be successful by achieving whatever their goals may be.
At the upcoming All-College Meeting on Feb. 17, you will receive an update about other college initiatives, such as the Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count project. I will share with you information about what I have learned from you about Brookhaven College’s Core Values. We will provide information about the upcoming planning and budget cycle.
As I close this letter, let me send kudos to Mildred Kelley for her Heart Healthy Tips that she has been sending to us this month. I have found them very informative and hope that you have too! We all need to stay healthy as we continue to build a learning-centered environment for our students as they strive for success.
