February 13, 2015 | SharkAdmin The February Bragging Breakfast had several different themes to celebrate or not: Friday the 13th being one, Valentine's Day and then Vista's 20th year of being in existence. Vice president Jimmie Bruce talked about the college's accreditation report with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' Commission on Colleges (SACSCOS) and how the college is close to having it finished. He thanked Janie Scott, Lydia Beaver, Sabrina Carey and Julie Pace for making sure the report comes together. He said the compliance certification report is due March 2 and the college's goal is to have it finalized Feb. 25. The SACSOC onsite visit will be Oct. 6-8. Gary Bowling will be making a presentation to the Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees' meeting soon about NVC's Vet 2 Vet program where 18 employees who are veterans help student veterans transition to college. Some of the program's goals are to make the educational experience more meaningful and create a stronger bond and higher retention rate among veteran students. Northwest President Dr. Ric Baser talked about how to strategically increase enrollment. In the short term, about 20 different different classes were added for the Flex II term. He said many of these “on-demand” classes filled up shortly after being opened. In the long term, he said they are going to look at how to keep more of the 6,000 NVC students who take classes at other campuses because they are not offered at NVC. Dr. Baser said they will use Ad Astra to help schedule classes strategically throughout the day where more students can take it instead of in the traditional times. Before announcements were read, NVC's Cluster Byars read a poem that he wrote for the college in 1995. To read the poem, click [file 1]. Announcements: Remind students they have until April 5 to fill out scholarship applications. Getting and Keeping Our Male Students – An interactive panel discussion on how to get more minority males to go to college and stay in college on Feb. 20 from 9:30 am to 11:30 at the Palmetto Theater. All employees are invited and encouraged to RSVP to [email protected] for a seat. Free Microsoft Office software for employees. Check out your email for more information. Kudos to Laura Metzger and Dawna Upshaw, they both presented at the Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts Conference in Houston on Jan. 24. Laura's presentation was called “Out With the Old and In With the New: Using Social Media and PechaKucha to Develop Critical Thinking.” Laura has students create social justice blogs and PechaKucha presentations in her composition and literature courses. Dawna Upshaw adapted this project in some of her SDEV classes to help students create career blogs. To see the Power Point from the meeting, click here [file 2].
