President's Monthly Report

President’s Report November 2020

Dear Campus Community,

I am grateful to share another season of thanks with each of you. As we close out the month of November, we received an update from the Central Office regarding our financial outlook for the coming year. Additional reductions are expected for FY 22. I anticipate and hope that with the transition to the new presidential administration in January that there may be federal relief in sight, but we have no word on that as of now. As you know, all members of the Executive Compensation Plan will be furloughed for 5 days, January through June 2021. Furlough days cannot be taken consecutively and ECP staff are only allowed to take one day per week. Please know, that we will work to ensure that both academic and business operations especially during critical periods/days are not affected by the absence of any ECP member.

This past month we hosted the November Community Chat: Faculty Edition. Thank you for your feedback and for bringing concerns to the attention of the Senior Staff. Based on your feedback, and following the Chat, we were able to address/rectify several issues including: adding the link to the Everbridge Screening app on the homepage and links to the Bookstore under Quick Links. VP Todmann provided a more comprehensive list of updates in her November 17 email to the campus. Notably, we understand how multiple emails not only overwhelm all of us, but overwhelm our inboxes. As such, the Communications and Marketing and Information Technology Services (ITS) teams are actively reviewing options for a more efficient and informative calendar of events. Note that IT has also issued multiple communication to the campuses regarding requested and needed improvements to services and resources. A limited number of hotspots are available to faculty and can be reserved via INSIDE KCC. In his November 18 email to the campus, AVP Hussain shared additional updates including a joint project with Communication and Marketing to develop a subject matter expert list that will allow faculty/staff to add information about their expertise and allow visitors (like the media) to our site and be able to search through the database. In addition, we have made video conferencing available in a number of labs and classrooms to facilitate hybrid and distance learning. As indicated, in an effort to increase communication and transparency, all senior staff members are sending regular updates on activities in their division. Please save the date of December 8th for a special college-wide Community Chat. More information will be forthcoming.

Tomorrow marks CUNY Tuesday, our annual day of giving. We have not yet met our target of $50,000. If you haven’t already donated, or if you are inclined to make another donation, please do so at: Kingsborough.CUNYTuesday.org. A special thank you to Interim VP Sutton-Young and her team for all their tireless efforts in helping us to raise funds and simultaneously raise our spirits. This month as we continued to ‘Go for the Gold in Our Giving’, a number of you actively participated in or were spectators at our virtual KCC Olympic activities. From what I have been told (as well as personally experienced through my own participation), these activities have not only helped to raise needed funds for our students and strengthen the bonds of community among each other, but also gave us an opportunity to let our hair down after what has been a difficult year.

Unfortunately, COVID positivity rates are on the rise. Know that your safety is important to me. I ask that you all continue to remain vigilant during this period. If you do not need to come to campus, please do not. We are actively trying to ensure that campus density remains at a minimum. Continue to practice social distancing and wear your mask. The college’s protocols and reopening plan can be accessed at: kbcc.cuny.edu/campusentry/index.html. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact any member of our COVID Response team (Karen.Sthilaire@kbcc.cuny.edu, Tasheka.Sutton-Young@kbcc.cuny.edu, Eduardo.Rios@kbcc.cuny.edu and Mickie.Driscoll@kbcc.cuny.edu). We will continue to share information with the campus as it becomes available.

With all the focus on academic and business continuity over the past few months, I could not imagine how we would maintain the incredible community spirit that defines KCC. But I have been delighted over the past few months to know that the lack of an in-person presence does not dampen our community spirit. This month was no exception. There was not a dry eye on the packed Zoom as we celebrated Shelly Benjamin as our Employee of the Month. We couldn’t gather for our 2nd Annual Seasons of Thanks to our essential employees, but my office was still able to arrange breakfast bags for the morning shifts and boxed dinners for the evening shift as a token of the college’s appreciation for their hard work. And although we couldn’t meet in person to thank our student and staff veterans for their service on Veterans Day, we were able to design and mail t-shirts to each veteran and honor them during a virtual program earlier this month. This past month, we also celebrated our first-generation college students with the Proud to be First Conversations program. As you can see we had an active month. Plans for a college wide holiday celebration in December are underway.

The Spring semester will be offered similar to this current semester with the majority of classes being held online and limited/smaller-sized classes on campus. Registration is underway and the Divisions of Marketing and Communications and Enrollment Management will be launching new marketing and recruitment ads. We, along with our CUNY peers, continue to experience enrollment declines especially as it pertains to new students. While we will continue with aggressive marketing and recruitment efforts, we also need to focus on retaining our continuing students. I understand that the college did have a Retention Committee. However, in light of our new challenges, I will be convening a new Retention Taskforce to review and refine existing high impact retention practices and develop needed measures to support retention efforts. More information will be forthcoming.

This coming month, you can also expect an update on the work of the Climate Committee and completion of the Annual Faculty and Staff Satisfaction survey. Survey feedback in addition to other measures helps us to address areas in need of improvement. For example, in 2018, satisfaction (satisfied or very satisfied) with campus communication was 39.7%; by 2019 it increased to 50.5%. I believe this is due in large parts to our efforts to increase transparency and improve the flow of information to the campus. Also, in 2018, satisfaction with communications and marketing was 30.2%, but by last year it rose to 44.8%. As you know the division has engaged in more coordinated efforts with a number of areas to market the college and improve both internal and external communications.

The instructional environment is a perennial area of concern. There continues to be great concerns with the physical condition of classrooms. Although satisfaction has risen from 23% in 2018 to 31.5% in 2019, we will continue to address these issues as we have this past year. Please be on the lookout for the upcoming survey from VP Fox, your feedback is important to us. We will also continue to vet potential consultants for our governance review so that we can commence this critical process in the spring.

I enter this last month of the year grateful for this village of Kingsborough Community College, hopeful for successes in our fight against COVID, and even more purposeful in my efforts to safeguard your health and safety and support the success of all members of our community