Dr. Sharon L. Blackman
Yesterday we celebrated with our 2007 retirees: Claude Caffee, Ed Garcia, Avis Jamieson and Ellen Whitaker. Many of you came out to honor them for their years of service and contributions to our college. We want to wish them well as they take the next step in their “new careers. ”
Many of you were present at the recent “All College Meeting” where plans and a model of the new Science and Allied Health building were unveiled. The architectural firm, HDR, has been working with faculty and staff to design a building that will facilitate the 21st century learning experience for our students. If you are interested in seeing the model please make your way to the library where it will be on display for the next few months. The model will move to other high traffic areas, such as buildings S, C and J.
At this same meeting, I shared with you the plans for North Lake’s North Community Campus in Coppell that will be very close to Brookhaven College’s top three enrollment zip codes. Given the fact that we consistently lose 50 percent of our freshmen class enrollment from the fall to the spring semester, we must plan now for how we will offset the possible further loss of enrollment.
We began the year talking about retaining our students and this issue is becoming even more important as we plan. We all must be ambassadors for our college in a variety of ways. Oftentimes, we have simultaneous events for recruiting new students. We have a limited outreach staff and we need the help of other members of our college to assist with some of these events. During the upcoming year, you will have the chance to provide assistance in this area. I hope that you will volunteer and respond to the call.
We can continue to help our students reach their goal of acquiring a higher education degree by participating once again in this springs semester “Take Care of Business Week” scheduled for April 9-13. Although we will not have informational tables in Building S this time, everyones help is needed to encourage students to return to Brookhaven in the fall to continue their higher education goals. Now is the time for students to apply for financial aid for the next academic year. Take time to speak to the students in your class or in your office and encourage them to apply for graduation. Take the time to say “We do Want You Back” this summer or in the fall to complete what has been started.
We all need to be thinking about what is unique about Brookhaven. What do we have that will make a student choose Brookhaven instead of another college? Concerns have been raised about students who are talking about going to other colleges because of the illegal immigration ordinances that are being considered by the City of Farmers Branch. Talk to students about the reason they chose Brookhaven and the experience they are having now. Help them to separate the laws being enacted by the city from the “haven of learning” provided by our college. In my recent talk with student leaders, I learned that they are encouraging these types of conversations with their fellow students and with our college instructors. Most of our students have a positive experience at Brookhaven and we need to build on that experience.
I would like to commend Bob Burchfield and the Financial Aid staff for their outstanding work with our first Financial Aid Awareness Day. More than 400 students participated in this event and I hear that lenders were pleased with the engagement of our students.
Congratulations to the Alpha Delta Pi Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. Our chapter won the Texas Top Chapter Award at Regionals last week. Kudos also go to our Brookhaven Courier staff members who won 20 awards at the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association last week. Five members of the Courier staff were escorted by Larie Engles, advisor, and John Neal, professor of journalism. Editor Shreeya Ran a received a $400 scholarship and Nadia Galindo was elected secretary of the student TIPA.
As we move forward toward the end of the spring 2007 semester, may you continue to have success in your work with our students.
