Fall Commencement

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Preparing for Final Exams

Please click on this link to view the video blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6azZ8HpjkM8

If you have any comments on this blog, please e-mail me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Being Well

I recently spent ten days on crutches after a minor surgery on my ankle.  I gained an entirely new appreciation for my mobility during this period of being so limited. Not being able to go through my day as easily as I wished gave me a new perspective on wellness.

During this period, I occupied my mind with a good book, a few documentaries, and some TED talks. I also came across the following article in the Observer-Dispatch: http://www.uticaod.com/living/x300721118/Promoting-healthy-workers-is-a-win-win-for-local-firms. With the opening of the Robert R. Jorgensen Center this fall, I couldn’t help but picture MVCC in this article a year from now, thanks to the good work of our Wellness Design Team.

Earlier this fall, the Wellness Design Team presented the results of their work and their thoughtful recommendations – http://www.mvcc.edu/design-teams/wellness-2010-2011. After researching best practices related to employee wellness at local organizations (some of which were named in the above referenced article), the design team recommended the following three priorities along with the idea of starting small with quality resources and support:

1. Focus on physical wellness, nutrition and smoking issues 
2. Eliminate the wellness pass fee for full-time employees
3. Create a wellness committee to help with coordinating and promoting wellness programming

The design team emphasized the fact that MVCC has a number of great resources already in place – they just need to be coordinated and promoted into a comprehensive wellness program. An effective employee wellness program will draw upon the talents of our health center, human resources office, employee enrichment, our partners at Sodexo, as well as the wonderful fitness centers at both the Utica and Rome campuses. The recommendation to eliminate the wellness pass fee for full-time employees was immediately accepted and implemented so as to minimize any barriers to participation in wellness activities.

As Team MVCC goes about its work of bringing the College together for community walks and fundraising activities, my hope is that the wellness committee will be able to garner similar momentum in bringing the college together around our individual and collective wellness. Walking that fine line between "incenting" without incensing and motivating without offending, an effective employee wellness program will provide people with opportunities and resources that, based on research and best practices, will increase job satisfaction, civility, productivity, and morale, while decreasing stress, anxiety, negativity, incivility, absenteeism, and turnover. It's not a cure-all solution, but wellness programs have continually proven themselves to have a very positive impact on everyone who participates and the organization as a whole.

Whether a lack of wellness is caused by needing crutches, having a debilitating disease or physical disability, being overweight or obese, lacking financial or mental health, or some other life circumstance, achieving a general state of wellness is important for each of us to rise to our potential and achieve success and happiness personally and professionally. The work of the wellness design team and the future work of the wellness committee provides us the necessary framework to bring all the resources and support together to create an outstanding wellness program for faculty and staff at MVCC. Who knows, with the time on crutches behind me, I might have another Boilermaker race (or even a warrior dash!) or two left in me.

If you have any comments or questions on this post, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

DGV & the Holiday Season

The effects of globalization appear in the news daily. Whether it’s the economy, technology, or politics, globalization is a major factor in society today. As the “Holiday Season” is now in full swing, it’s important to raise our consciousness about what globalization means this time of year. While Thanksgiving is widely celebrated in the United States, it warrants pause to recognize the literary license that led to Thanksgiving as we know it today (e.g., Thanksgiving from a Native-American perspective). If we are to think of ourselves as “modern Americans,” in this age of globalization, shouldn’t we also be more intentional with our language and appreciation for the variety of Holidays that comprise the term “holiday season?”

In addition to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s celebrations, many cultures worldwide, including several within our own community, celebrate Chanukah, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa, Day of ‘Ashura, and several other New Year celebrations that do not follow the Gregorian calendar. As our community becomes more diverse, the ability to recognize and respect other cultures is key to thriving in a flat world.

The Holidays, in all their variety, are a good time to re-emphasize the unique nature and importance of MVCC’s Diversity and Global View (DGV) graduation requirement (http://www.mvcc.edu/dgv/home). For the past three years, all degree-seeking MVCC students must complete one DGV-designated course; four online DGV modules; and confirm attendance at four DGV-designated events as part of our growing Cultural Series. Certificate-seeking students must complete one DGV course along with two modules and two events. We’ve made improvements to the DGV process each year and will continue to refine the processes documenting and assessing the student DGV experience.

When I mention our DGV requirement to colleagues around the country, the most common response is, “that is a commitment like no other.” MVCC DGV is truly a great and unique offering that sprung from the creative minds of the faculty and staff at MVCC who saw the world was changing and were committed to emphasizing the importance of understanding diversity among the student body. It’s a great example of what we can do when we think big, set goals that stretch the experience of our students, faculty, and staff, and then work together to achieve success.

The commitment to MVCC’s Diversity and Global View program inherently implies a commitment to understanding and appreciating others – their beliefs, values, cultures, individuality, circumstances, and humanity. MVCC’s formal DGV graduation requirement is the perfect complement to an ongoing effort we are very interested in here at MVCC – that of increasing the civility with which we interact with each other at every level. After all, the Holiday Season can be a great reminder about the critical importance civility and diversity play in our personal lives, in our efforts to achieve student success, and in our roles as world citizens.

If you have any comments on this post, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Giving Thanks

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches and we reflect on the things we are thankful for in our lives, I’m compelled to reflect upon things at MVCC for which I am most thankful. In these challenging times with such uncertainty in so many parts of our lives and communities, it’s often humbling to be part of such meaningful work as helping advance the mission of this great organization.

I am thankful for our students. This fall we have a record number of individual credit students (unofficially more than 7,600 enrolled for credit) and what’s likely to be another record-breaking year of students enrolled in our noncredit offerings. Our younger students provide such hope as they continue their educational journeys and define and clarify their career paths. Our older students provide tremendous inspiration as they recalibrate their complex lives to integrate a college education into their daily schedules of work and family.

MVCC students eat lunch on the lawn outside of the Academic Building on the Utica Campus.

I am thankful for our faculty and staff. I’m amazed on a regular basis by what I see and hear from everyone who works here. Faculty are continuing to refine the art of teaching to reach students and bring content alive in new and interesting ways. And staff, whether working directly or indirectly with students, seem to be increasingly understanding of the critical role they play in helping to create the student experience as we know (and will know it in the future) today. With the civility project gaining momentum, I’m encouraged and thankful to see colleagues paying closer attention to each other and holding themselves and others accountable for behavior.

More than 150 MVCC faculty, staff and students participated in the 2011 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk in October. Team MVCC raised more than $4,500 for the cause.

I am thankful for our community partners. Together with our partners, we are making great things happen. Working with our partners in government to help meet our operational needs; working with school districts to seal the leaky educational pipeline; customizing training for employers to create capacity in their workforce; collaborating with local non-profit partners that help us make college education more accessible for so many underserved populations in our area; and having the friends and supporters we do through the MVCC Foundation help us bridge that margin of excellence to further realize our potential expands our presence as an anchor institution in this community.

While MVCC hosts most of its courses on its Rome and Utica campuses, the college opened the MVCC Education Center at 524 Elizabeth St. in Utica to make education more readily available to the community. The center is in partnership with the Utica Municipal Housing Authority.

Working at MVCC allows me to plug in to a 65-year storied history that has great meaning and respect. As a member of the MVCC community, I get to be part of something so much bigger than myself – it’s meaningful work. Our community faces many challenges, and I’d be hard pressed to identify a challenge or problem that could not somehow involve MVCC as part of the solution. These are a few of the many reasons I came here to be a part of this – all that’s happening at MVCC now and that which is yet to come. So much of our recent successes sometimes seem beyond my imagination and yet it feels like I’m just starting to understand it all – and that simultaneous feeling of wonder and knowing … for that I am extremely thankful.

If you have questions or comments on this post, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

 

A Tribute to a Longtime Coach

To view the video blog, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR3hRwHzKRA.

If you have any comments or questions on this post, please email me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

The Civility Project

To view the vlog, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkm8CsgbNcE

Team MVCC

View the vlog here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Q8nZZJRCI&feature=youtu.be

If you have any comments on this post, please email me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Offering Help, Hope in Tough Times

To view the video blog, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsMIWom85ao.

If you have any comments on this post, please email me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

A Double Rainbow

What a gift to be living in the Mohawk Valley and experience two amazing speakers in the short span of seven days. Last week, Dr. Maya Angelou shared her gifts with 2,200 of us proudly seated in our new Robert R. Jorgensen Athletic & Events Center on our Utica Campus, and just seven days later, the Herkimer/Oneida County Community Foundation generously brought our community the Mayor of Newark, N.J., Cory Booker, who shared his uplifting message with an energized crowd in the beautiful Stanley Theater in Downtown Utica.

Dr. Maya Angelou speaks at Mohawk Valley Community College on Oct. 12, 2011.

Dr. Angelou’s message came through in her deeply authentic and insightful performance – never stop learning and never stop being kind to other human beings. It is said that one of the hardest things to do is to take the complex and make it simple and crystal clear – that’s just what she did. By encouraging us to take all the good fortunes we have in life and call them rainbows and to imagine our challenges as clouds, Dr. Angelou’s message was centered on the notion that there are rainbows in every cloud – opportunity and blessings exist in every challenge and heartache.

Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker spoke at the Stanley Theater Oct. 19, 2011.

Similarly, Mayor Booker challenged us to see our community not as it is but as it will be. He said we can accept things the way they are or we can take responsibility for changing them. He reminded us that small acts of kindness, love, and generosity done authentically and tenaciously can inspire and create tremendous change in both individuals and communities. Mayor Booker’s presentation spoke to the need for our community to rise above the enormous challenges we face – challenges that communities are facing throughout the country – and come together to focus on a few important and focused priorities that will create momentum for positive change and renewal.

To have these two incredibly inspiring figures speak to our community in the span of one week certainly gives me pause. The power of their messages, in light of growing incivility in society and individual pressures and stress unknown, gives me a sense of renewed hope and personal focus to live more intentionally, and to spend more time in the moment knowing the future will come regardless of my actions – so I might as well stay positive.

As Mayor Booker said, “You can be a weathervane (letting winds that blow determine your direction) or a compass (defining and maintaining your true north).” The similar message from Dr. Angelou about seeing rainbows through your clouds underscores the importance of a positive outlook on life in everything we do. The two of them together certainly made for a double rainbow to shine upon us here in the Mohawk Valley, and for that I am grateful.

If you have any comments on this post, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Bringing Culture to our Campus, Community

To view my vlog on the MVCC Cultural Series, click on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Q-v1sM73Y

If you have any comments on this post, please email presblog@mvcc.edu. 

Go Hawks!

See the video blog at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxv_0MTHlrI.

If you have any comments on this post, email me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

More Than a Competition

Alignment, Assets, and Acceleration are three words that come to my mind when I think of economic development. We can grouse about the “Great Recession” and the substantial economic hits our region has taken over the past two decades, or we can turn our attention to the future and do something about it.

The Governor’s current Regional Economic Development Council competition is something that warrants our attention and effort. The Governor has created ten regions across the state with councils charged with developing a strategic plan to guide economic development priorities for the next five years. The regions will compete for state funding with $40 million awarded to the top four plans and the remaining $40 million divided among the other six regions.

I am honored to be a member of the Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Council and share the mindset of my fellow council members – we are in it to win it. But beyond the initial $200 million, the plan will guide proposals from our region for another $800 million of available state aid dollars. The real victory will be in having a cohesive plan for the entire six-county region.

I chair the vision workgroup, and that experience has reinforced the importance of alignment, assets, and acceleration for me. Our region comprises six counties – Fulton, Montgomery, Schoharie, Otsego, Herkimer, and Oneida. The notion of aligning economic development priorities across six incredibly diverse and loosely connected counties will certainly be a challenge. Yet this process frames a larger discussion for everyone and challenges us all to think bigger than our current daily perspectives. The alignment of regional priorities has the potential to create new dialogue and opportunities that might not happen otherwise.

Through community participation meetings in Cooperstown and Utica (more are scheduled), I’ve been reminded of the many assets of this region and the diverse resources that serve as tremendous building blocks for an overarching economic development strategy. It’s important to keep our lens wide when considering economic development priorities that can account for all the assets and maximize their potential throughout the region.

The final theme for me in this process is acceleration. The regional approach to this initiative is fast-paced, as we began our work on August 11 and must have a plan submitted by November 14. In the meantime, we have multiple processes simultaneously under way, including community town hall meetings to gain insight from all corners of the region. By developing priorities that align the region around the assets that currently exist, our work and progress can be accelerated much more than if we were six counties working independently, leaving the alignment to chance.

They say the formula for success=preparation + opportunity.  I believe this plan will prepare our region to take advantage of opportunities, whether it’s this current round of funding or future opportunities.

When I think about this region as a whole, I’m reminded of the phrase, “Attitude determines your Altitude,” but perhaps that’s a title for a future a future blog post.

For more information on the Regional Economic Development Council initiative, please visit http://nyworks.ny.gov/content/mohawk-valley.  

If you have any comments on this post, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu.

New Campus Dining Options

 

See the video at http://youtu.be/8SnqOeix8uQ

If you have any comments on this post, please email me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

September 11, 2001 ... never forget

A flag flies over a firetruck on MVCC's Utica Campus during the "Tribute to 9/11" event on September 1.

Like most Americans older than our current college freshmen, I remember exactly where I was at 9:00 a.m. on September 11, 2001.  I was in my office and my assistant said, “Hey, did you hear a plane crashed into the World Trade Center?” In disbelief, we thought it was a terrible accident. Then, three minutes later she shouted, “Another plane crashed into the other tower.” Even though we lived in Omaha, Nebraska, everything closed down by noon, and I remember, like most everyone, being glued to the television all afternoon and well into the night – knowing the world had changed, but changed in ways unknown to us at the time.

Exterior aluminum sheathing from the World Trade Center is on display as part of the "New York Remembers" exhibit on MVCC's Utica campus.

Those memories have become even more vivid for me as the 10th anniversary of the attacks arrives.  MVCC is fortunate to have our Utica Campus selected as one of 30 sites around New York state to host a 9/11 exhibit of artifacts from that tragic day. The six artifacts, which include a piece of glass from one of the towers, a fragment of one of the airplanes that struck the buildings, and a piece of aluminum from the center’s façade, is on view from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday in the lobby of the IT Building through the end of September. Every time I’m in that building, I have to pause and reflect – it’s powerful to have such an exhibit right here on one of our campuses.

Lt. Mickey Kross (Retired) of the New York Fire Department speaks during the "Tribute to 9/11" event in MVCC's IT Theater on September 1.

 Beyond the exhibit, we were also able to host a program by the Maynard Fire Department that allowed our community to connect with the memory of the attacks in a more personal way. The packed theater on our Utica Campus allowed the 450 or so people in attendance to hear from two heroes who were at the World Trade Center the morning of September 11, 2001.  Lt. Mickey Kross (Retired) of the New York Fire Department shared his story of helping people from the burning wreckage of the North Tower of the World Trade Center when the building suddenly collapsed, trapping Kross, the firefighters, a police officer and an office secretary under tons of debris in Stairwell B. Miraculously, all were able to escape. It’s one thing to watch videos and see photographs of the devastation of that day on television and online, but it’s another to hear a first-hand account from a true hero.

Staff Sergeant Kevin Hughes, USMC, speaks during the "Tribute to 9/11" event in MVCC's IT Theater on September 1.

We were also joined that night by another hero and MVCC alumnus, Staff Sergeant Kevin Hughes, USMC. Hughes, who was a Wall Street investment banker and tank commander in the United States Marine Corps Reserves, was in his Deutsche Bank office in the South Tower of the World Trade Center during the attacks. He not only got out of the buildings safely, but was among the first U.S. troops to enter Iraq at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003, where he conducted combat operations securing areas up to and including the Presidential Palace in Baghdad. The humility of these men and their courageous stories reinforced for me the magnitude of the attacks and the wars that have followed since.

Hughes and Kross lay a wreathe at the September 11 Memorial on the Parkway in Utica, across the street from MVCC.

In these challenging economic times, it’s easy to take an isolationist perspective – focus on ourselves and let the rest of the world deal with itself. I believe an even more aggressive approach to understand our world, and our place in it, is what’s necessary.  The 9/11 exhibit and activities of the past few weeks have reinforced the significance of MVCC’s commitment to diversity and a global view through our DGV graduation requirements and our increasing commitment to international education. Expanding our own understanding of our world through education and experience is one of the best long-term defenses against ever having an attack such as September 11, 2001, happen again. As Asst. Chief Jared A. Pearl, of the Marcy Fire Department, said just before introducing 11-year-old bagpiper, David Nicola, to close the ceremony, “never forget…we must never forget.”

This bench was crafted by members of the Welders Among Communities club at MVCC as a memorial to the first responders and victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It is on display in MVCC's IT Lobby until the end of the month.

If you have any thoughts or comments on this post, please contact me at presblog@mvcc.edu.