Dear Cayuga,

I’ve started my semester late, and I have gone to my classes early.  I have gotten lost in the hallways, and I have sat down in the wrong classes. I have walked into classrooms scared that I would have no one to sit next to. I have sat up front, and I have sat back in the corner. I have raised my hand with answers to questions, and I have hid in hopes that you would not call on me. I have read chapters of poetry, and pages of cliff notes.

I am your student…

I have arrived early out of respect, and late from hangovers. I have lost my homework, and I have begged for extra credit. I have aced my tests, and left some of t blank. I have studied endlessly in hopes that I do not disappoint you…. I have skipped class because it was sunny, and I have come to class during a blizzard.  I have changed my major a hundred times, and I will probably do it again…I am your student.

I have walked into your office in tears, and I have left in laughter. I have talked during lectures, and fallen asleep during movies. I have scheduled, rescheduled, and missed appointments… I have asked myself a thousand times if I would be able to make it, and you have answered me a thousand times that I would. I have given up, and you have pushed me. I have slammed doors, tipped-toed in hallways, dropped my books, tripped up the stairs, and spilled my coffee…I am your student

I have given you attitude, interrupted your meetings, and I have stomped down the hallways. I have written your papers, dissected your cats, orated your speeches, broken your beakers, and solved your equations.  I have asked myself a million times why algebra is necessary, and why my brain ticks the way it does. I have broken my pencils, and dropped my calculator.  I have sat in on meetings, and I have also walked out on them. I have slept in hallways, and eaten on the floor. I have been wheeled out, pulled up, and pushed forward… I am your student…

I will graduate knowing that I did the best I could do, and that I will continue to do better. I will where my cap and I will wear my gown, I will sweat, and I will cry. I will clap for my friends, and I will clap for all of you.  I will walk across that stage knowing that you have forever changed my life …and I am your student.

On Monday evening, the Board of Trustees continued its productive discussion of finding a collaborative solution to the budgetary challenges now facing the College.  Several factors contributed to how we got here – a combination of enrollment lower than projected, lagging student retention, stagnant state aid and local funding, and increased fixed costs.  But, we have the opportunity to learn from this budgetary shortfall and to examine how we, as an institution – as a family, if you will – can improve.

Innovators and entrepreneurs see such moments as opportunities. They shift from deficit-based thinking into asset-based thinking.  I believe the College community is shifting into this latter mindset.  Our students have turned out in support of the exceptional faculty and staff who guide and help them complete their degrees and encourage them to take next steps to successful futures.  Our employees are focused on the primary concern of their work – students, and their success.  We move away from the “blame, shame, and gotcha game” to the one purpose that drives us all – helping students.

Having been quoted recently that retention is a primary faculty responsibility, I would like to address that issue.  Retention is, of course, an issue that involves the entire College community.  From faculty members, who have immediate, direct, and daily contact with students and who can sound early alerts when students stop coming to class or are struggling with personal issues, to the maintenance workers who stop a visibly upset student and ask how she can help, retention is an issue for all of us – an issue that requires the engagement of the entire family.  We have different roles, from the faculty with direct student contact to staff and administrators who expand student learning opportunities through academic programs and services, co-curricular activities, and projects such as athletic fields, student housing, and new campus buildings.  During the past few years, retention efforts have become central in our priority, with fine progress made due to the efforts of our dedicated faculty and staff.  We now have a retention plan, and it is being implemented.  These projects and activities come from our strategic plan, adopted by the College community and approved by the Board of Trustees several years ago.

However, current demographic trends do not favor us.  According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, high school enrollment in our service area – like most of the nation – is expected to decline through the end of this decade.  We must remain competitive because we lose too many students in not having athletic facilities, student housing, and campus facilities.  Part of that approach involves rigorous, challenging academic programs, in career-technical areas like Nursing, Telecommunications, Computer-Aided Design, Geographic Information Systems, and the like, that provide clear pathways for our students to obtain jobs and careers.  Another part is similarly rigorous, challenging academic programs in the liberal arts and sciences that allow students to transfer successfully to four-year colleges to complete their undergraduate degrees.  Our capital projects are ambitious, but they help to secure the future of the College so we do not, as one Cayuga County legislator recently said, “die a slow death.”  New York State law prohibits the College from using capital funds for its operating budget, and yet, we must reconcile this physical growth while trying to wrangle in the costs of nearly 80 percent of our operating budget being employee salaries and benefits.

We are trying to mold the future of the College, even as we become ever more dependent on student tuition dollars.  This year, 48 percent (the highest in College history) of our operating budget comes from student tuition, so fluctuations in enrollment hit us harder and more quickly than ever.  As we continue to move forward in discussions with our bargaining units, I hope that the shift continues from deficit-based to asset-based thinking.  We have tremendous assets and capability in our employees, and no one wants to see that diminished.  A family is as strong as the members who comprise it.

This column first appeared in the May 8, 2013, issue of The Citizen in Auburn, N.Y.

Rebecca Johnson is interning with the Cayuga Chamber of Commerce in the Finger Lakes Grants Information Center. Rebecca is assisting community organizations that are looking for grants, conducting research on potential funding options from their database of national foundations.

Caitlin Owens, a student in the Honors program at CCC, did her internship at Union Springs High School with Nina Darnell. “Being allowed to do my internship was the best thing that has happened to me in my college career. I was able to see what it is really like to have a job as a school guidance counselor, and it also has impacted me in such a strong way. Doing this internship validated my decision to pursue a career as a guidance counselor.”

Jess Alberici is an Americorps member volunteer.  Pictured here far right, Jess conducts recreational programs for youth at Champions for Life and reads to 4^th graders at Owasco Elementary School in Auburn, NY. “I thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to help make their day a little brighter as they can come to a safe environment and enjoy some physical fitness and recreation at Champions for Life.”

Michelle Del Favero is an Americorps Member and conducting her field work for her Early Childhood degree at the Cayuga/Seneca Action Agency’s Head Start Program.  According to Michelle: “My experience working in the field of early childhood has been absolutely fantastic. I have been able to learn so much this year, strategies that I want to use during my career. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experiences in the early childhood education field.”

Business intern Benitta Martin, (pictured left with Rita Trenti, Director of Sales) is working at the Hilton Gardens Inn, Auburn, NY.  She is assisting in Sales department, following up with inquiries for group sales and catering events.

Jared Downing is an Honors Program candidate conducting a community service project for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.  Pictured here with fellow student Tyler Downing, Jared was recruiting volunteers to participate in the Oswego County St.  Baldrick’s  Foundation fund-raising event held in March.  St. Baldricks Foundation is volunteer-driven charity that works to raise awareness and  funding to support childhood cancer research and fellowship.

Maurice Mobley is a student in the Business Internship program.  He is working at the Booker T. Washington Community Center in Auburn, NY assisting them with their business operations.  The community center offers educational, recreational, and developmental programs for the elderly, families and youth.

Rebecca Thoreck, is pictured right teaching a sink and float lesson with 3 and 4 year olds, has been conducting her field work at the Head Start program in Oswego NY. Rebecca is a Liberal Arts student with a concentration in Early Childhood Education. She is transferring into SUNY Oswego in the fall 2013 for a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education.

As is true of higher education generally, when the economy turns around and job opportunities increase, the college experiences enrollment decreases. This counterintuitive trend often results in budget adjustments necessary to match enrollment, which we, like our peers across New York state, currently are doing. These adjustments began last fall as senior administrators and budget managers identified more than $778,000 in savings through employee retirements, operating budget reductions and reductions in part-time employee hours. These were not easy dollars to find — they represent sacrifice from across the college.

Recently, college administrators met with bargaining unit leaders to seek their input about additional cost-saving measures. They generated a good number of ideas that have been costed out, and with several being implemented immediately. Still others require further discussion and revision. Already, executive and management confidential staff members are taking furlough days to help close the budget gap. Community colleges always have been bootstrap organizations, requiring them to be flexible, responsive and innovative to budgetary issues as they arise. True to our middle name, college employees are pulling together to help resolve these budget issues and to brainstorm and share suggestions for future improvements. One challenge is to help ensure that our students will complete their academic programs, rather than transfer after just a semester or two, or stop out due to family, work or financial pressures. Retention is an important issue for us, as it is for our community college peers across America. We need to ensure that every student matters, each student counts! This is more crucial when, this year, student tuition generates 48 percent of our operating revenue. Our primary stakeholders are our students.

As we work to balance our operating revenues with expenses, we continue to move forward with strategic capital projects — funded through separate state and local sources that cannot be used for operational expenses. These projects, such as the Schwartz Family Performing Arts Center, not only will help to stabilize our student enrollment but also will help to support regional economic growth. For the theater project, the college is maximizing the $3.86 million in local share funds raised entirely by the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival with the $3.86 million in matching capital funds from New York state. The project will result in the college having its own professional theater-in-residence, leading students from a variety of academic programs and majors to obtain hands-on experience — whether they are working the box office, publicity, marketing, technical aspects, or on stage. The potential impact on travel and tourism should be major for our community, as indicated by the theater festival feasibility study. Related strategic capital investments, in projects like our new Fulton campus, on-campus student housing and outdoor athletic fields, support the long-term mission and viability of the college, as well as providing community assets. To remain current in the increasingly competitive environment of today, we must invest to ensure our continued viability for the future.

Our lobbying efforts with state lawmakers are having positive effects — New York state restored $150 in base-aid funding per full-time equivalent student for each of this year and next year. While we still remain short of the entire $2 million that was cut from our state funding in 2009-10, we are hopeful that the original approach for SUNY community colleges, stipulating that operational costs be borne one-third each by the state, by the local sponsor and by students, is returning to balance. The shared funding model helps to protect SUNY community colleges from feeling dramatic effects in economic variations and ensuing enrollment fluctuations, and it helps the college remain an open and accessible choice for higher education and training to everyone in our community. That is our mission and our guiding principle — it takes all of us to accomplish it.

 This column first appeared in the April 10, 2013, issue of The Citizen in Auburn, N.Y.

Some recent events we have been working on include our Entertainment Coupon book fund-raising.  We are selling coupon books for discounts at local businesses plus access codes to many more coupons on-line.  Our goal is to sell 50 coupon books and we are almost there!

Spring break begins next week and we have a great way to end your break.  Mark your calendars for April 7th! PBL is joining the Event Planning class to help with the S.P.C.A  ”Cause for Paws” fundraiser from 1-6pm at the Polish Falcons club.  Last year students help to raise $4100.  There will be food, entertainment and raffles.  Last year, everyone had a blast at the event.  Look for the fliers on Campus or visit http://www.flspcaofcny.org for more information.

Still looking for more activities?  We are also hosting an Earth Day clean up that the club is organizing on April 20th at Montezuma Wildlife Refuge.  For more information, come to our next meeting on April 10th from 11-12pm in room T-312.

We announced the elections for the 2013-2014 school year.  Elections are being held on April 24th.  At this point, our candidates are:

President: Max Appleby

Vice President:  Natalie Krone

Treasurer:  Gillian Sears, Kelly Ross

Secretary/SGO Rep:  Gillian Sears, Jim Granger

Parliament: Dylan Kearns

Historian:  Mindy Fedele

Reporter:  Tammy Brady

If you are interested in running for an officer position, please contact Amy Valente at amy.valente@cayuga-cc.edu or come to our next club meeting.  Good luck to each candidate!

We are gearing up for our state wide competitions this spring against other FBLA-PBL members in New York.  Qualifying members are eligible to compete in the National Leadership Conferences held in California this summer!  Check back for our member updates on the events and competition news.  As always, new members are welcome to come to our meetings.  Again, our next meeting is on April 10th from 11-12pm in T-312.  Hope to see you there!!

The Student Technology Fund enables the College to provides upgrades and new services to students, such as computerized, simulated mannequins for our nursing labs.

When people consider how technology has changed education, many are likely to think of online courses. In recent years, the ability to host online courses is a major change to education. MOOCs, or massive open online courses, are the latest innovation, one that allows thousands of students to take online courses through large-scale participation and open access. The majority of Cayuga courses, even our campus-based courses, use our SUNY Learning Network online learning platform to share resources, submit assignments, and continue classroom discussion. But, technology affords us the ability to do a lot more than just host courses online.

Nathaniel Thomas, one of our Psychology instructors, recently attended a Kaleidoscope Project workshop with a pilot group of educators from across the country to help build an online network of open education resources. Initially, the project sought dramatic reductions in textbook costs. For example, the textbook used in our introductory psychology course costs about $120. Through the work of Kaleidoscope, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a textbook that covers the same material was developed at a cost of $39 for students, a savings of 68 percent. By reducing these costs, students are able to purchase their textbooks and succeed in their college courses.

Now, the Kaleidoscope Project is expanding efforts to create a platform for faculty from across the country to share and build course content. The project helps embed assessments of learning outcomes into assignments so faculty members can see their effectiveness in helping students learn particular concepts or lessons. Based on these data, faculty members can adjust their assignments, lesson plans, examinations, and papers to deliver content more effectively to the wide range of learners and learning styles. Primary and secondary teachers have been building and sharing these online teaching tools and lesson plans for years, and now, Cayuga is helping develop a similar platform. Professor Thomas is collaborating with Amber Gilewski, psychology professor at Tompkins-Cortland Community College, in building content for introductory psychology courses to be piloted at each campus this summer.

Research indicates that 70 percent of students prefer to take courses enriched with technology and multimedia assignments and lessons, as opposed to the traditional faculty lecture with textbooks and note-taking as primary learning methods. To help explore these possibilities, this spring, Anne Herron, our Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, convened faculty members to serve on the Innovation in Teaching and Technology Committee. Its charge is to consider the relevancy of current and future technological developments as they relate to teaching and to recommend a strategy that will allow us to leverage them.

Faculty members today look for ways to connect with students in a variety of media. Some encourage students to “tweet” via the popular social media Twitter or to post on Facebook about coursework during class. Others encourage students to create videos and multimedia presentations that showcase what they are learning. While generation gaps exist between learners and technology adoption, a recent report from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement indicates that more than half of “traditional” and “non-traditional” students use social networking tools multiple times each week, and that both groups are becoming more likely to use these tools for academic purposes.

The report shows that students prefer on-campus orientation to online orientation, but they receive similar satisfaction levels in online and campus-based tutoring. This distinction means that our new committee will examine which uses of technology will be effective in teaching and supporting students, and which technologies or tools might not
be. Another challenge is to ensure that all students have access to these technologies and Internet connections. The digital divide does exist, and access to technology and the Internet becomes more significant as we engage students in these active and collaborative learning environments. Although we can provide them with the tools and access on campus, they are very limited if they do not have similar access outside of the College.

With the establishment of the Student Technology Fund in 1998, we have increased student access to technological resources, such as enhancing our local area network and Wi-Fi, upgrading computer laboratories, and purchasing digital video recording and editing equipment. The entire College community has a voice in how these funds are
distributed and in which projects are important for our learning environment. We know that our students help to inform our future path, and we welcome their input. As student learning styles change and as technologies continue to develop, we will evolve as an educational institution equipped to engage our students and to support them toward successful futures.

Today, I was on my way to the alumni office, when I passed three classrooms. I recognized the teacher in the classroom, so I slowed my pace to peek in. I was walking with my face to the students, and it was amazing what I saw. I swear on my life I am not exaggerating. EVERY STUDENT was paying rapt attention to the professor, smiles on their faces. Perhaps best of all, no one was self conscious about enjoying learning, something I saw in high school frequently.

Now, you might be thinking that that is what a school environment should be, and I agree. But if you look at my earlier posts you already know that CCC has far surpassed what a school should be.

Nevertheless, it was refreshing to think that, if someone had been making a commercial for CCC, it would have been real people really enjoying themselves in front of someone who has devoted his/herself to teaching.

That’s my kind of a commercial.

Information on the organization can be found here: http://www.flspcaofcny.org/ at their website.

The event is taking place on April 7 from 1pm-6pm at the Polish Falcon. See flyer below for details.

We hope that you will join us for the fun!

I didn’t quite know what to put this post under, so I’ll call it a “Happening”. I wasn’t able to finish my calc 2 course, and I tried going through the book by myself and finishing the last few chapters. Despite all the courtesy, help, and leniency of Prof. Gross and all of my supporters at the Academic Support Center, Registrar, Student Development, and elsewhere on campus, I could not do it by myself.

I thought I knew a thing or two about college, but this was a huge lesson to learn. I understand the appeal of online classes and independent study, but–at least for me–there is no substitute for a warm body teaching in front of the room. Call it old-fashioned or call it silly, but I think we have all had teachers that have made the difference. Could you imagine getting a college degree by yourself? The idea of teaching something I don’t know to someone who doesn’t know it (also me) turned out to be too much. I am not discrediting independent study, but I couldn’t do it.

Now comes the best part of the story. I am meeting with Prof. Gross tomorrow to discuss how we can get this done and out of the way. Because, I know what’s next: linear algebra. Huzzah!

We currently have 27 paid members in our chapter here at CCC who receive all of the benefits of the national organization:

•  Scholarships – PBL and FBLA-PBL partners also offers thousands of dollars in scholarships each year.
• Membership Discounts – FBLA-PBL has partnered with companies to provide hotel discounts, car rental discounts, shopping discounts, and other benefits.
• Education – The national association partners with various organizations to create and promote educational programs and curriculum, and to provide members with unique opportunities to practice the skills and knowledge that they are learning in the classroom.
• Membership Awards – Members and chapters have the opportunity to compete and win awards on the local, state, and national levels.
• Competitive Events Program – FBLA-PBL’s National Awards Program recognizes and rewards excellence in a broad range of business and career-related areas. Through state-based competition at the spring State Leadership Conferences, students compete in events testing their business knowledge and skills. Top state winners then are eligible to compete for honors at the National Leadership Conference each summer.
• National Leadership Conferences – FBLA-PBL members have the competitive edge, as the best and brightest of FBLA and PBL convene to compete in leadership events, share their successes, and learn new ideas about shaping their career future through workshops and exhibits. This four-day conference is considered the pinnacle of the FBLA-PBL experience, especially for those running for national office. FBLA-PBL has forged partnerships with industry leaders to underwrite competitive events and scholarships for students achieving national ranking.

In addition to the National membership perks, our club offers:

• Personal development
• Networking opportunities
• Building your resume
• Meeting new friends
• Community service opportunities
• Having fun

We are currently doing a fundraiser to help raise money for our next National Leadership Conference over the summer.  Please help us by purchasing an Entertainment Coupon book (customized for our club and the Auburn area) for $20.

To find out more, please contact Amy Valente at amy.valente@cayuga-cc.edu or stop by my office in T-307.  Join us at our meetings:  we meet every other Wednesday from 11-12 in T-312.  Look for the BLUE flyers.