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Dear colleagues,
First, let me say how excited I am to have received the appointment as president
on a permanent basis (subject to Board of Trustees vote next week), and how much I
am looking forward to working with each of you to move this amazing institution forward.
I wanted to share with you the report submitted by the Middle States Commission on
Higher Education peer review team while we await formal notification of our re-accreditation.
Middle States requests that we limit access to the team report, which is not a public
document, so we have placed it on Inside KCC; when you log in, you will see a clearly marked Middle States icon with links to
the team report and the formal KCC response, as well as the self-study. We will share
the official communication from Middle States once we have it. Our college Middle States web page has also been updated to include our self-study.
I encourage you to read the document; it has a lot to say about what is already strong
at KCC but also many suggestions regarding how to make the college better and more
effective. It will be especially valuable as we develop and implement our 2025-2030
college strategic plan.
We will hold an online Town Hall session to respond to any questions or feedback you have regarding the team report
on Monday, June 9 at 3 p.m. Here is a link to register. While we will take questions during the Town Hall, I encourage
you to submit them in advance. Here is a survey link to submit questions and comments – the survey will close on Wednesday, May 28 at 5 p.m.
As I said at our last College Council meeting, I’m working with the strategic plan
executive leadership team to plan for creating a sixth strategic plan goal focused
on operational excellence. In addition to responding to the Middle States requirement
to address our structural deficit, we will focus on developing systems and structures
for long-term planning and more proactively managing the college’s operations, finances
and staffing.
Finally, I am so excited to share with you that Kingsborough is now a federally-recognized
Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI)! So many different individuals and units within
the college contributed to getting us to this point – Student Affairs, Institutional
Advancement, Communications and Marketing, Office of Institutional Effectiveness,
and, of course, our Enrollment Management team, whose hard work and focus recruited
and enrolled the students who brought KCC’s student population above the minimum 25%
threshold required to become an HSI. While the designation itself doesn’t come with
resources, it is our hope that it will lead to future opportunities to apply for additional
public and private funding.
I look forward to seeing you at various graduation-related events over the next weeks,
culminating with our 60th Commencement on June 18 at the Coney Island Amphitheater.
In the meantime, best wishes for a good remainder of the spring term.
Regards,
Suri Duitch
President
Kingsborough Community College
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