Presidential Fitness - It Takes a College

OK. Enough of the serious stuff for the moment. With apology to Hilary Clinton for the play on words of the title of this entry, I'd like to seek your support by challenging me to lose a few pounds by walking the campus on a regular basis to come and visit you. I've begun a series of scheduled and impromptu meetings around campus to continue to learn the fullness of all that we do collectively (OK, and to enjoy the approaching spring weather).

Inertia being the objective natural force that it is, it cares little whether it contributes to forces remaining at rest or in motion. In my case, like for many of you, inertia can keep me in my office in meeting after meeting. But that is not the commitment that I've made to you or to myself as your colleague and president. I need your help to establish and maintain some 'in motion' inertia.

We have received a draft report from Rickes Associates regarding best strategies for long range planning. After discussion with Cabinet and receipt of the final report I will set up some meetings with various groups to discuss the recommendations of the report. In addition to this type of interaction I'd like to continue to come by and visit you where you work to learn more about your joys and challenges and about our collective hopes for the future.

So, feel free to send me an invite to come by to visit and to join in your work here in whatever way seems fitting. Regardless, I plan to begin to schedule time out of my office as we move through the spring semester. I'll hope to see you out and about.

Learning for Life

As we continue to think about and plan for our future here at SCC I wanted to share the article below from this week's Chronicle of Higher Education.

http://chronicle.com/article/Tools-for-Living/130615/

The article describes the growing importance of hands-on learning in higher education, taking examples chiefly from four-year environments (e.g., the so called 'work colleges,' such as Warren Wilson, College of the Ozarks, and several colleges and universities in Vermont with which I am very familiar).

This op ed piece appropriately points out that there is nothing new under the sun with regard to the importance of applied learning, dating as it does to the seminal work of John Dewey (another Vermonter) more than half a century ago.

As we move forward in our own long term planning I would ask us to keep in mind the value of applied, hands-on learning - something arguably done best in the community college setting and of which we have many examples of here. There is no hidden message here of a massive revamp of what and how we teach at SCC; rather, food for thought about how to further strengthen an existing strength of the college.