Sharon Blackman, Ed.D.
Summer seems to have arrived early this year. With not much of a winter, a three-digit degree day in April, and no rain for many, many weeks, we seem to be heading for one of those long, hot summers. I hope that you all are preparing yourselves for this season that is known in academe as the time to take a break from your usual activities. ’Tis the season to enjoy, to relax and to rejuvenate.
We are off to a sluggish start with enrollment for our summer semesters. If you have been keeping track with the daily enrollment updates sent to us by the Institutional Research Office, you have noticed that we are a little short of where we were last year in contact hours and in headcount. It seems that Summer Term Two is headed in the same direction. This is in a base year that will set our funding for the two-year cycle of our budget and is a topic of discussion that I’m having with our college leaders. However, I’m taking this opportunity to have this discussion with you as well.
We all need to keep in mind the roles that each of us has in recruiting students and especially in retaining students. I have shared with you during this academic year the importance of first-touch experiences with prospective and new students, as well as engagement with our students once they are enrolled in our classes. Each of us plays an important role and everything that we do has an impact on our students. I have heard from students that one of the best things about Brookhaven College is that first feeling that they get when they step foot on the campus. There is an air that is inviting and welcoming. We need to maintain that feeling. If you see students wandering or looking as if they need some assistance, then offer to help, extend a greeting or at least remember to smile.
In conversations with faculty members, they have shared with me the enjoyment they have about their discipline and imparting knowledge to others. Faculty, please encourage students to continue their studies and come back to Brookhaven to do so. If you are teaching a first-level course, encourage the student to take the second-level course. If the student is a discipline major, then talk with him or her about how to progress through the program to complete the curriculum, whether it is a discipline program or the Core Curriculum.
Our mantra, “Success: dream it; achieve it!” has meaning, and that meaning starts with us. We need to help those students that do have a dream to achieve it. We need to help those that have not quite developed the dream to develop it. We are here to help students receive an education so that they can become productive and responsible contributors in our communities.
As one of the first steps for us to reach out and to assist our students, we will be reinforcing the six-hour registration work assistance by all employees. You will hear more about that in the coming weeks. Everyone will have various opportunities to assist in some capacity during fall registration.
Another step is for each of us to become familiar with using our college Web site, especially our intranet site, to remain abreast of information about our college and to learn how to maneuver the site to find helpful information. Make sure you have the correct place before passing a student on to the wrong office.
Each of you is integral in the college’s success. Next month, we will be asking for volunteers to serve on college committees. We will have some new committees; one is the Faculty Professional Development Committee. I am asking five faculty members to serve on this committee to work with Linda Lee, director for professional development. This is to be a one-year commitment by faculty members to assist with the development of professional development activities for faculty. If you are interested, please send an e-mail to me by July 14.
On June 15, Brookhaven hosted a data forum that shared information about data and institutional effectiveness from national, state and local perspectives. Teri Walker did an outstanding job leading this forum that had more than 80 participants from the college and throughout the district.
We are continuing to make progress with the 2004 Bond Program initiatives. We are expecting the architect selected for the Science and Allied Health Building to be approved at the July meeting of the DCCCD Board of Trustees. We are in the midst of the architect-selection process for the automotive technology building addition and renovation. The classroom addition and continuing education building team continue to meet.
Things are looking good for the beginning of the Early College High School. In just a couple of months we will have our first group of freshmen students beginning classes. We continue to meet with principal, Adriana Gomez, and other members from the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District. At last count there will be 92 students in this first class – the class of 2010. More than 250 students, parents and family members attended a kick-off meeting in May at the EMGI. I wish all of you could have seen the excitement of the students and their parents that evening. Talk about dreams – these students and their parents have great dreams for this venture; and so do we. Stay tuned for more to come.
Congratulations to Lynne Levesque, who was selected as the 2006 National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators Junior College Administrator of the Year. Congratulations also to Johnny Castro who received the Pat Kennedy Educator of the Year award from the Dallas Association of Education of the Young Child. Brookhaven employees continue to excel in their professional fields.
As you continue to enjoy your summer, let me remind you to read and/or view at least one article, book, or video from our Brookhaven summer reading list as we prepare for our strategic planning session scheduled all day on Sept. 29.
I know this is a long corner, but we have a lot going on and much to do! Keep up the good work and remember to take some time for the three Rs.
