Wednesday Message from Ed Bonahue

October 4, 2012

Dear Everyone,

I write from Overland Park, Kansas, where I'm on a two-day visit to Johnson County Community College, one of our sister institutions in the League for Innovation in the Community College. Twice a year, representatives from the 19 League Board colleges (of which Santa Fe is one) meet to share news, compare significant challenges and best practices, and discuss national trends in community college programming.

In my estimation, Santa Fe engages with this national leadership group from a position of strength. Although we're nowhere near as huge as Miami-Dade, or the Dallas, or San Diego, or Maricopa (i.e., Phoenix, AZ) Community College Districts, our commitments to rigorous and engaging student learning, economic development, equity, and community partnerships are well known nationally. The success of our students who transfer to university education and who go on to employment is outstanding, and our recent recognition by the Aspen Institute is a welcome endorsement of our work. Talking with colleagues from other League schools is also gratifying in another way: the things we sometimes find challenging as an institution-for example, internal communications and coordination, organizational development and innovation, maintaining a strong college-wide culture of evidence-are challenges in virtually every institution in the country. We're by no means a perfect institution, but even among the League colleges, I think we stand out as a great school, with a great culture, and I gotta say, there's nowhere else I would prefer to work.

Also, a few additional items to note for the week ahead:

Unit visits

I've begun meeting with faculty in their units and our conversations have ranged from SACS to loading to which way the ceiling projectors are pointing. I've enjoyed them tremendously, but I'm conscious that not all of our faculty are housed in the units in A, B, K, and L. So if you "live" somewhere else on campus and would like me to come by-either for a casual drop-in or to visit a class or departmental meeting-please just let me know.

Music and Art

This Thursday evening, October 4, the Department of Fine Arts presents The Santa Fe Winds in concert. Directed by Dr. Steve Bingham, the wind ensemble will perform favorites by Host, Grainger, Bernstein, Mozart, and others. Tickets are free to everyone with a SF id, and the festivities begin at 7:30 in the Fine Arts Hall. Be sure to check out the exhibit of artworks by Santa Fe visual arts faculty in the lobby too!

Fulbright Presentation and Tweet-Up!

Next Tuesday, Dr. Regiani Zacarias, our Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, will offer a talk on preparing for job opportunities outside the United States, including advice on personal attitude, resume development, job searches, interview procedures, attire, and cultural difference, from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. in S-29/30. Later that afternoon, there will be a "tweet-up" (no, I didn't know that expression) from 3:30pm – 4:30pm as a follow-up to Dr. Zacarias's presentation. During the tweet-up, students can ask specific questions about the job search process and international etiquette, and there will also be general discussion questions. Students will need to log on to X (fka Twitter) and use the hashtag #GlobalSF to participate. For more information or questions, please contact Prof. Jorie Scholnik in the Student Development Instruction department at x.5320.

That's all for now. More next week.

Cheers,

–Ed