Annual State of the College speech reports improvement and optimism
By Christina Lieffring
President Sopcich delivers his state of the college address in the Polsky Theater in the Carlsen Center. Photo by Valerie Velikaya.
In this year’s State of the College presentation, President Sopcich gave an overall positive report on the current state of the college and highlighted some of its achievements.
Sopcich said the college saw improvement in eight out of nine of the college’s key performance indicators, which includes graduation rates, student satisfaction ratings and transfer student performances.
The college has also addressed its budget concerns this year. Line items such as salaries and benefits declined by 1.7 percent even with raises and the increased cost of benefits.
Enrollment is still down, but only by one percent, which Sopcich attributed to the initiatives the college put into place this year: the new Welcome Center, adjusted course scheduling, faculty involvement in recruitment and efforts to reach non-degree seeking students. The presentation opened with a two-minute video “anthem piece,” titled “Change Your Life” that will be used to further promote the college.
Andy Anderson, vice president of academic affairs, said he believes audiences may want more details pertaining to some of these issues.
“These sorts of events you always have to touch the highlights,” said Anderson, but pointed out that by going to the Board of Trustees page on the college’s website, “one can pretty much get into the meat of issues pretty quickly.”
The college extended its reach this year by hosting events such as the National Benchmark Conference, the SIM Symposium healthcare seminars and the women’s NJCAA National Basketball Tournament. With the Diversidad Conference, the ongoing partnership with the Sukkar Institute of Business Administration in Pakistan and the service-learning initiative in Uganda by the Nursing program, the college collaborated with outside communities this past year. Anderson said he would like to see the college do more.
“Something I would like to see the college continue to expand upon is making sure that that international experience is integrated across the entire curriculum,” said Anderson. “I think every student that leaves here, frankly, should have had some sort of deep encounter with the international community and realizing that we’re, that Johnson County, that their own lives will always be part of a much broader community than we generally experience between College Boulevard and 103rd [street].”
The second half of the presentation was hosted by Jean Cantero, a student activities ambassador, and presented awards to the college’s baseball, debate, Model United Nations and culinary teams; all of which won regional or national competitions this past year. It was a spoof of televised award shows and included ball gowns, a list of competing teams and jokes.
For many attendees, such as foundation board member George Semb, the student-led segment was their favorite part of the presentation.
“That was a class act,” said Semb. “His puns were not too bad either.”