News from around the VCCS
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Chancellor’s Statewide Syllabus with logo
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
In this issue:
• VCCS Chancellor Glenn DuBois announces retirement plans
• Covid-19 surge prompts vaccination mandate for state workers, including us, and mask-wearing directive at our colleges
• Chancellor’s Retreat launches VCCS strategic plan
• VFCCE celebrates Advancement VP at Reynolds
• Deadlines loom to nominate and present at HireEd conference
• Va. Lawmakers honor memory of SWCC faculty member
• Reynolds revamping automotive training
• Relevant summer reading is at your fingertips
• Chrome River training opportunities
• Other higher-ed news of note
• VCCS events calendar link
After twenty years at the helm, VCCS Chancellor Glenn DuBois says he will retire at the end of next June. DuBois is the eighth person to lead Virginia’s Community Colleges since the system was founded in 1966, and the longest-serving Chancellor to hold the position.
The announcement came during the Chancellor’s Retreat last week in Roanoke. The VCCS State Board will conduct a national search to find the next Chancellor.
(https://www.vccs.edu/news/dubois-announces-retirement-state-board-to-conduct-national-search-for-next-vccs-chancellor/)
Prompted by a surge in coronavirus cases caused by the highly contagious Delta variant, Governor Ralph Northam has announced that Virginia will require most state employees to show proof of vaccination, or undergo weekly COVID testing if they refuse. The governor’s vaccination order takes effect September 1st and it extends to community college faculty, staff, part-time employees, and contractors who enter the workplace or have public-facing duties.
In addition, VCCS Chancellor Glenn DuBois has announced that everyone is now required to wear facemasks in public indoor spaces on our campuses and at other VCCS facilities, including the system office and Shared Services Center. The mask mandate applies to both vaccinated and unvaccinated persons.
(https://www.vccs.edu/blog/surge-in-coronavirus-prompts-mandates-for-state-workers-to-be-vaccinated-and-mask-wearing-indoors-at-virginias-community-colleges/)
National Experts: To meet the needs of our current and future students, Virginia’s Community Colleges must embrace the commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the VCCS’s new six-year Strategic Plan, Opportunity 2027.
That was the clear message to system and college leaders during last week’s VCCS leadership summit in Roanoke.
(https://www.vccs.edu/blog/we-need-to-become-comfortable-doing-uncomfortable-work-leaders-at-virginias-community-colleges-gather-to-kick-off-ambitious-plan-to-achieve-equity-in-access-and-outco/)
The Virginia Foundation for Community College Education (VFCCE) paid special tribute during last week’s Chancellor’s Retreat to Elizabeth “Bess” Littlefield, VP of Institutional Advancement at Reynolds Community College. In recognition of Littlefield’s outstanding leadership over the years to boost student success at Reynolds, the Foundation conferred its Kathleen Smith Distinguished Service Award, named for a trailblazer whose selfless devotion and inspiring achievements in the field of institutional advancement helped elevate the profession while positively impacting the Commonwealth.
Pictured above, Reynolds President Paula Pando, Littlefield, VCCS Chancellor Glenn DuBois, and Smith. Nominating Littlefield for the award, Dr. Pando wrote that Littlefield is “fearless in her willingness to challenge the norms of what can be done, by whom and for whom. She brings a potent mixture of realism and aspiration to her work.”
(https://vfcce.org/vfcce-honors-elizabeth-bess-littlefield-with-the-kathleen-h-smith-distinguished-service-award/)
You still have a couple of months to register to attend this year’s Hire Education conference, our annual professional development gathering of workforce leaders and practitioners, November 3-5 at the Hotel Roanoke. But there are a couple of important deadlines looming this month for Hire Ed: If you want to present at one of the conference breakout sessions, you have through August 27 to submit your proposal. Learn more here (https://www.cvent.com/c/abstracts/2d00b601-6eaa-4ec4-80f3-37262e312acd) .
And if you want to nominate people or organizations to be recognized through awards at Hire Ed, your deadline to do so is August 30. Learn more about award nominations here (https://vccsedu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9ssXWCwWvNTrgP3) .
Virginia lawmakers have honored a Southwest Virginia Community College instructor who enriched the lives of thousands of students over his 37-years of service at SWCC. English professor Jereial Byron Fletcher died of metastatic cancer in March. He was 67.
SWCC President Tommy Wright says Fletcher’s legacy will live on in the students he taught. “In addition to being a poet, a lover of nature, and so many other things, he was a friend. Jereial will be missed by anyone who had the pleasure of knowing him.”
The Virginia Senate adopted a resolution last week in Fletcher’s memory, calling him “a respected educator who touched countless lives over the course of his distinguished career.”
(https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?213+ful+SR707ER)
Reynolds Community College ceremonially broke ground in July for a new automotive training facility that will prepare students for family-supporting careers and help an industry that is starved for trained workers. Reynolds is teaming with Toyota Motors of North America to offer their T-TEN program in the new facility on the college’s Parham Road Campus.
“This is the day we’ve been working towards for two years,” said Reynolds President Paula Pando. “One of the top recommendations in this journey with our automotive partners was about making sure that our program was centrally located so that people could easily access it.” The new facility is set to open in Fall of 2022. To see a video of the groundbreaking, click here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_RdHGzpatw) .
Reynolds Community College partners with Toyota for new facility
Top-notch summer reading is at your fingertips in the latest edition of the VCCS scholastic journal, Inquiry. With articles on the needs of nontraditional students, analysis of corequisite instruction, blended learning, and more, the issue is highly relevant to Opportunity 2027 (https://www.vccs.edu/opportunity-2027-strategic-plan/) , our system’s new Strategic Plan, which aims to “achieve equity in access, learning outcomes, and success for students from every race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic group.”
https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/
Looking forward to the time when pandemic restrictions start lifting and travel opportunities open up, this could be a good time to brush up your skills with Chrome River, the VCCS online system for submitting travel expenses for approval and payment.
Folks at the Shared Services Center will be hosting training sessions designed for end users and expense approvers starting this Thursday, August 12, with additional training opportunities in the weeks and months to come.
(https://www.ssc.vccs.edu/travel-and-expense-training-opportunities/)
Other Higher Ed News of Note:
• A national poll shows Americans are evenly divided on whether universities should require students to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. The poll found that 48 percent of U.S. adults favor the idea; 49 percent are opposed. -Chronicle of Higher Education (https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/live-coronavirus-updates/quinnipiac-poll-finds-divided-opinions-on-covid-vaccine-mandates-at-universities?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_2689371_nl_Academe-Today_date_20210806&cid=at&source=&sourceId=&cid2=gen_login_refresh) (free signup required)
• George Mason university law professor Todd Zywicki has filed a lawsuit challenging George Mason University’s coronavirus vaccine mandate, arguing it is unnecessarily coercive and unconstitutional. -WUSA TV (https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/vaccine/lawsuit-george-mason-professor-todd-zywicki-mandatory-vaccine-policy/65-11dc2203-6ad7-4e60-b22f-79b553deccb3)
• “I don’t think most Americans have a good understanding of African American history.” With his term ending as the University of Richmond’s first Black president, Ronald Crutcher says he would have changed the way UR handled changing names of campus facilities. -Richmond Times-Dispatch (https://richmond.com/news/local/education/mental-health-issue-are-rising-on-college-campuses-but-virginia-has-a-shortage-of-child/article_7f4653a5-cc78-577e-88ab-fb6398ce8ddd.html)
• The White House has announced the moratorium on federal student loan payments will be extended until January 31. The pause was about to expire at the end of September. -NBC News (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/student-loan-payment-pause-extended-jan-31-white-house-announces-n1276230)
• Mental health issues are rising on college campuses, but Virginia has a shortage of service providers. -Richmond Times-Dispatch (https://richmond.com/news/local/education/mental-health-issue-are-rising-on-college-campuses-but-virginia-has-a-shortage-of-child/article_7f4653a5-cc78-577e-88ab-fb6398ce8ddd.html)
• For adults returning to college, “free” tuition isn’t enough. States and colleges are pressing to get more adults to complete degrees, but many programs are not structured to serve them. -Hechinger Report (https://hechingerreport.org/for-adults-returning-to-college-free-tuition-isnt-enough/)
• A look at how some colleges dodged predictions of doom and actually prospered during the pandemic. -Chronicle of Higher Education (https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-colleges-that-prospered-during-the-pandemic?cid2=gen_login_refresh&cid=gen_sign_in) (free signup required)
To see the VCCS Events Calendar, clickhttps://www.vccs.edu/news-and-events/#event-calendar here (https://www.vccs.edu/news-and-events/#event-calendar) .https://www.vccs.edu/news-and-events/#event-calendar
With thanks to the sponsor of VCCS Special Events and Conferences
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Have an idea for a story, a question for the Chancellor, or an item for the Meetings & Events calendar? Please send to statewidesyllabus@vccs.edu (mailto:statewidesyllabus@vccs.edu?subject=Feedback) . Thanks
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