On Friday, February 26, at 11 AM in the theater at Wright College, President David Potash hosted The State of the College Address towards the concerning crowd. After presenting a multitude of challenges and successes with CCC, Potash outlined a foundational issue at Wright College: money, or rather the lack of it coming in. Potash stated “There was an expectation of money coming from the state, about 60 million, that money hasn’t come through. The challenge compounding this is when the money will show up. It’s kind of hard to go through and figure things out without the money.”
Some of the major issues facing the state of the college include a need for more tutoring sources, sustaining Reinvention, unfilled — yet crucial — faculty positions, and so many more of Potash’s ambitions that need to be brought to life. That being said, the condition of Wright College is actually doing fairly well.
According to Potash, Wright College is seeing a “new curriculum for IT.” One famous example of a Wright College student success with the IT program is Jelena Zunic, Potash commended her at The State of the College Address for receiving the Fifty for the Future award. With one student success bringing joy to the crowd at The State of the College Address, Potash considered how he might help the rest of the students see similar results.
One of Potash’s major goals for improving Wright College is to make the college be more “welcoming, so students spend more time here.” Potash feels that the more time students spend on campus, the better they will perform in classes. This is very true, but what can Wright College add to the campus to make students stay longer and feel at home? One answer could be strong faculty to student relationships. Strangely enough, the key to student success could be as simple as happy teachers roaming around. Potash made it very clear that he wanted to Point out to the incumbent staff that he feels “very, very proud” of Wright College teachers and other faculty.
There are, however, some areas where teachers feel unsatisfied, and unfortunately these areas may not be addressed in the near future. Several teachers spoke out on true feelings regarding Chancellor Cheryl Hymann, one teacher stated that “Nearly every faculty member voted no confidence,” in the chancellor. To this, Potash reassured stating that he “saw commitment from the chancellor […] about student success.” He expressed his “tremendous respect for [his] boss, which is the chancellor.”
Despite any downfalls facing Wright College, Potash described the state of the college as “really, pretty strong.” Going into detail, he explained that the college has seen “more student success in terms of transfer,” there had been a total of ‘140% increase in associate’s degrees’ being earned, and a “14% increase in Adult Education transitions,” also “more STAR scholarships than any other city college.” At this point, Wright College deserves a round of applause, and that is exactly what it got at The State of the College Address, by the many staff members in attendance.
Wright College has come a long way over the past few years, and it definitely has a long way to go. Luckily, President Potash’s door is always open. Whether a student or staff member has questions, concerns, or suggestions, now is the time to voice them. With a spotlight on Wright College as the STAR’s of ccc, chances are that funding is on its way.