Dr. Sharon L. Blackman
The beginning of classes is just a few days away. It seems as though it was only yesterday that we were all preparing for the advent of summer. Now that we are at the end of the summer season, its slow pace and the break associated with summer that we all long for, it already seems to be a short memory.
Today, we have the return of full-time faculty and next week we will be in full swing of the new 2007-08 academic year. I hope all of you are as excited as I am about the beginning of the new school year. We have new people, new goals, and a few physical plant changes, but, most importantly, we have the same mission - "Student Success!"
As we apply our good spirit and dedication into the new academic year, we also set forth new goals to help our students succeed. The following are the goals that have been established by the Extended President's Cabinet for the 2007-08 year.
We welcome the many new employees who have joined our college community over the last several months. To get us in the spirit of a new year and to welcome new employees, reacquaint with old friends and to make new friends, we will have a "Welcome Back Luncheon" Aug. 20. It is my hope that you will be able to make it, if not, please take time during the next few weeks to welcome our new staff members into the Brookhaven community. Some of our new members are as follows:
We would like to congratulate Roslynn Almas and Cornelius Caldwell, students who won awards over the summer. Roslynn won the Campus Compact 2007 Frank Newman Leadership Award which carries a $5,000 scholarship. Campus Compact is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting community service, civic engagement and service-learning in higher education. Cornelius was one of the $1,000 Coca-Cola awardees.
Congratulations also are in order for Jane Rowe, who received the "Pat Kennedy Educator of the Year" award from the Dallas Association for the Education of Young Children.
Lynne Levesque, director of athletics was awarded the AstroTurf Athletic Director of the Year Award by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
The Early College High School at Brookhaven College will begin its second year Aug. 27 with 176 students. We will welcome 94 new ninth-graders and 76 continuing in 10th grade. Principal Adriana Gomez will have a staff of 11 to operate the school. Tenth-grade classes will be taught in Building T Annex and the ninth-graders will be in the temporary buildings. Last year, students were enrolled in more than 14 sections of dual credit courses for more than 16,000 contact hours. Twenty-five percent of the students passed the reading assessments during the first round. Approximately 30 students were enrolled in skill-building classes during the summer where they successfully completed the reading assessment or made significant progress with their skill development. We send wishes for a second successful year to our ECHS students and the staff.
Brookhaven Head Start will open its doors Sept. 17 for students beginning their educational journey. Brookhaven College Head Start, a first-of-its-kind-in-the-nation collaboration between Head Start and a community college, provides a family-oriented program that encourages parents to obtain an education that leads to economic independence while their children build the foundation of skills needed to be successful in school. The center will serve 160 children in eight classrooms. Brookhaven College will provide support services for parents including mentoring, career development and counseling, financial aid counseling, tutoring for college courses, and college success strategies. The Brookhaven College Head Start Center will be open for college community members to tour the new facility Friday, Aug. 24, from 10-11:30 a.m.
Brookhaven College Bond Projects were presented at the August Work Session of the DCCCD Board of Trustees. The work on the Science and Allied Health building is scheduled to begin in October with the demolition of the Building G and be completed in July 2009. This project includes an additional 350 parking spaces and a mechanical infrastructure upgrade that has a new physical plant as part of the Science and Allied Health Building and will serve the new facilities on the north side of the campus. This facility will house the departments of biology, chemistry, and microbiology and emergency medical services, radiological technology, and nursing. The Science and Allied Health building will total 141,700 square feet.
The Automotive Expansion is a 10,080 sq. ft.-project. It will add 12 new bay spaces, a tool room and alternative-fuel vehicle qualified facility. It will include remodeling of classrooms, general supports areas and outside storage. Work will begin in February 2008 and be completed in February 2009.
The Workforce and Continuing Education Building is in the design phase. It is expected to be a center to service business and industry clients, provide workforce grant research and support, and serve as the center for corporate and community programming and staff office space. The expected timeline is to begin construction in June 2008 and be completed by July 2009.
Please reserve Friday, Oct. 5 from 8:30 a.m.-noon, in the Gymnasium, on your calendar for the All College Achieving Inquiry Summit II. Our second summit will focus on the vision statement for the college. The Visioning Committee worked during the last academic year and this summer to bring forth its recommendation to the college community. Please prepare to be present as your involvement is needed for the final development of the Brookhaven College vision statement.
The Brookhaven College Strategic Planning Committee will pick up its work from last year this academic year. This committee will be reporting to the college community on a regular basis in the new year.
The Quality Enhancement Plan, QEP team, kicked off its work at the beginning of summer and will continue its work during the academic year. Dr. Richard McCrary will be leading this 15-member committee to develop a topic and plan for the college, and there will be work for all sectors of the college in the implementation of the plan. Look for information on the status of their work throughout the academic year.
Our Achieving the Dream, ATD, initiative continues as we enter our third year with this grant awarded to help Brookhaven College achieve its mission. During the last two years, members of the college community have participated on teams to address issues in the areas of developmental education, student services, professional development and the learning environment.
The pilot program, Future Achievers Succeeding Today, has provided good data that will help us continue to formulate good practices for student success. All of the FAST Cohort I students except for a couple have completed an associate degree. Cohort II members are expected to complete by the end of fall 2007 semester. Some students completed a degree this summer. This year we will be scaling up some practices, such as the linking of developmental and human development courses. We also will have additional sections of learning communities. We are initiating a new "Success Coaches Program." This program will need volunteers from across the campus to help our students connect with the college so that they can realize their dreams. You will be hearing more about this program in the near future. The work done with ATD aligns well with the DCCCD Board of Trustees' focus on the state's initiative called "Closing the Gaps by 2015, the Texas Higher Education Plan," which was adopted in 2000.
As with any well-developed grant project a good evaluation system is planned and implemented. Last year we had site visitors who met with several members of the college community about the ATD initiative. In the upcoming weeks you will be receiving an electronic survey regarding the ATD initiative. Results of the survey will be aggregated with the other Round I ATD colleges, however, we will be able to receive our individual college results as well. We do not have all of the particulars.
Many of you have heard by now that a SUBWAY(r) restaurant is coming as our food-service vendor. Unfortunately, this service will not be available until the spring 2008 semester. Although it may not sound like a good thing, it is. We will be renovating the cafeteria area and this will coincide with the work that must be done for SUBWAY(r). We hope to have architect renderings in the near future, which will do a much better job of describing the changes. As it stands now the renovated area will resemble a "coffee cafŽ" with bar-high tables, table rounds and other comfortable seating arrangements. As with other parts of the Student Services Center, it will have wireless Internet service.
The district has decided to participate in the 50 Best Companies survey. This is one way to benchmark the climate of the district, something that the trustees have requested in the past. Three thousand six hundred full- and limited full-time employees will participate in the survey. The 50 Best Company group will randomly select 400 of the surveys to use for its assessment. Sometime in the near future you will receive more information about the survey and how to participate.
District Conference Day will be Friday, Feb. 8, 2008, at the Hilton Anatole. As you may know, Brookhaven is the college host this year. Heading our committee is Monica Taliaferro as chair and John Williams and Deanie Martin as co-chairs. The change in date could not have been prevented as no venue large enough to hold more that 3,600 people was available during the February/March time period. We are working with the offices of the vice chancellor of educational affairs and the chancellor to finalize arrangements for the credit class schedule during the spring semester. You will receive more information as it develops.
On Sept. 4th and 5th, members of the League for Innovation in the Community College's Board of Directors will conduct a site visit to DCCCD for reaffirmation of its membership. DCCCD board members and members of the executive cabinet will have dinner with League board members on Tuesday night after the DCCCD September Board meeting. On Wednesday morning, Sept. 5, district and college executives will present unique district innovations to the visiting team. Although the DCCCD was one of the original members of the League the guidelines state that each member college must go through a reaffirmation process each time there is a new CEO. I am positive that the district will be reaffirmed.
Commendations are in order for the Professional Development Department. It conducted a successful "Camp Brookhaven" with the support of many campus staff members. The information presented was great and the goodies and the spirit of the "Camp Counseling Team" made it even better. Thanks to all those who helped plan and implement this program.
The Professional Development Department has developed a wonderful program for "Return Week," Aug. 20-24. If you have not taken the opportunity to register for one or more of these professional development sessions, please do so now. However, if you don't get in, do not fear, as many sessions will be offered again during the academic year.
I also want to thank the members of the "Fun Factor Committee." They planned some great activities designed for all of us to meet new people or just spend a little quality time with those we know. You did a great job and I cannot wait to hear what you have planned for the fall!
As we all prepare for another academic year, this is the time for us to think about the goals we have set for this year. We must remember that our Number One Goal is for our students to be successful. We know that can happen in a number of ways. Over the last couple of years, I have shared with you information about changes that are taking place on campus, locally, at the state-level and nationally. The DCCCD Board of Trustees has made it a point for our district to focus on the state's initiative, Closing the Gaps. They are concerned about our retention rates and our graduate completion rates. These are not foreign topics to us at Brookhaven.
We must continue to work toward improving retention rates of our first-time-in-college students. We can do better than 50 percent. We can do better than having six hundred students receive a degree or certificate. We can assist more than 287 students to complete the Core Curriculum. The goal that about 70 percent of our students mark as their goal when they enter at Brookhaven is to transfer to a four-year institution. We can and we will make it our business for our students to be successful. We will begin by "Building Bridges and Building Community." We will work together to create the educational environment that our students require to be at the top of their game. We work with each other to improve ourselves so that we will be at the top of our game and maintain our edge. So, I am inviting you to begin the "building" this Thursday, Aug. 23, at our annual Convocation. We have a wonderful program planned for you that includes Dr. Belle S. Whellan, president of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Afterward please come to have more fun at the fourth annual Grilling for Greenbacks benefiting the Employee Emergency Fund!
I'm looking forward to seeing you. May you have a great year!
