Photo of Wilbur Wright College's President, David Potash, speaking at the State of the College Address on October 21st, 2016. Photo taken by Toma Talpa.
Teachers took over the theater for the state of the college meeting on Friday October 21st. The topics that were addressed included Title IX training, the State of the College, AQIP updates, academic planning, and lastly breakout sessions on academic planning.
The title IX training matter was just a short preview of what it means and a little bit on how teachers should respond. Title IX was established so that there would not be any discrimination in school programs or activities that are receiving financial assistance based on sex.
There will be, more in depth workshops on training in the near future. The State of the College was presented by Wilbur Wright College’s President, David Potash. He went over Wright’s enrollment statistics and explained they’re decreasing and then continued to speak about the measures that would be taken to try to increase enrollment. He then discussed the need for safe spaces mentioning, "Awareness and sensitivity need to be raised", and highlighted the importance having and open discussion, and making sure everyone in the college feels safe and comfortable.
For the AQIP or the academic quality improvement program, the update was presented by Gabe Estill Dean of Instruction and Professor Noah Marshall. President Potash discussed the budget issue, being concerned that the 2017-18 year will be harder, as the administration will continue to go without money until there will be an external change. He gave a massive thanks to all those involved in AQIP and pointed out that is what makes Wright a unique and outstanding college -- It is the environment where teachers and administrators are working collectively together, despite the fact that the budget has even less money.
President Potash announced that in November of this year, Nicole Reaves, Vice-President of Academic and Student Affairs, will talk at the White House. He is also grateful to all of the students participating and organizing events such as Hispanic Heritage Month and the upcoming event celebrating the Polish Culture. However, Wright College’s students are not only active in only cultural events, but also in the election process. He said, “We had the highest numbers of students in voter’s registration”.
Gabe Estill, the new Associate Dean of Instruction, talked about the system appraisal and its strategic analysis, giving also insights on the new AQIP projects on how to implement the academic plan to improve the educational outcomes.
The AQIP update was followed by Academic Planning which was introduced by Vice President Nicole Reaves. The State of the College served as the kickoff to the academic process and Vice President Nicole Reaves is working with the college to develop this plan.
An academic plan is a “comprehension vision that guides academic development for the future”. The plan should be used to inform other where resources are allocated and these resources being money, space, and human resources. The academic plan also recognizes the value of faculty guidance and input in decision making at the college and resource allocation.
In order to answer why academic planning is important the PowerPoint slide that was used for the State of the College presentation, showed a picture of Wright College students. As faculty become engaged in this process Wright College’s student learning and success will be the forefront of the academic plan.
With this plan, Wright hopes to clearly define the college’s values, their distinctiveness, and develop a comprehension vision for academics.
To start the plan an academic planning committee will be organized and several sessions will take place to identify goals and priorities and to start the drafting process. President Potash has given Wright until the end of the upcoming spring semester to complete a draft of the academic plan in which he will approve the final plan which is set to launch in the fall 2017.
James Howley Dean of instruction, conducted the breakout sessions on academic planning. The breakout sessions were meant to hear the faculty and staff’s input, visions, and direction as far as academic planning is concerned. Faculty and staff worked together to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of Wright, how to maintain them, and ways to make positive changes.