“The first thing I’m going to do is listen.”
Incoming College President Cheryl Jensen assigned herself a bit of homework during this year’s President’s Breakfast! Cheryl, who officially begins as President on Monday, told the over 1,100 employees gathered in the Marketplace Food Court – and the dozens tuned in online – that she is committed to hosting twenty employee feedback sessions in the coming months. She also pledged to continue hosting the popular President’s Council Town Halls started last year.
“You—Algonquin employees, community members, corporate partners. What opportunities do you see for our College?” she asked. “What fresh ideas do you think we should be pursuing? What’s the best way to continue Algonquin’s tradition of excellence?”
The President’s Breakfast is an annual employee event, bringing together Algonquin College employees from all campuses for a presentation that sets the tone and direction for the coming academic year.
The tone was set early, with the distribution of a very special button at each seat. Sporting the “Here 2 Help” logo, the buttons form one part of a new campaign encouraging employees to volunteer in College orientation activities. This is one program designed to help the College achieve its goal for the 2014-15 academic year—boosting term-by-term retention at the College from 86 to 87 per cent.
“When I was doing my masters, I wrote a paper on retention and came across a comment that has always stuck with me. It was a quote from a student who said, “I dropped out because no one noticed I dropped in,” adds Cheryl. “We want to make sure that doesn’t ever happen at Algonquin, by keeping our students engaged and excited so they get the education they deserve. It’s our job—and our responsibility—to do everything we can to help students transform their hopes and dreams into skills and knowledge once we have opened our doors to them. ”
To help us get there, Cheryl announced plans to create a Student Success Strategy. She highlighted several key focus areas related to student success where Algonquin already excels: Community, Partnerships, International, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Employees. Though she highlighted provincial belt-tightening as a challenge, Cheryl pledged to, “…be a strong advocate on our behalf, working with Colleges Ontario, our friends in the provincial government and our community partners to stress the importance of college education to Ontario’s economy.”
“In listing some of these opportunities and challenges, I don’t want to give the impression for a moment that the agenda is fixed,” Cheryl added. “As I said earlier, I’m looking to you for your input to help define the way forward. We need to keep moving, evolving, adapting. The status quo will get us nowhere: we need to be proactive, together. Each of us has a role to play in contributing to the success of our students. I am asking for your efforts and participation—for example, in campaigns like Here2Help, which supports new students and their transition to a new life over a particularly vulnerable first few months.”
Highlighting the important role employees play in student success was also a main focus of Christina Miller, President of the Algonquin Students’ Association. In her remarks, Christina praised employees for ensuring Algonquin College students, “…succeed and learn, not only in the classroom but throughout their entire student experience. We could not do this without you.”
Other highlights from this year’s President’s Breakfast included a look back on summer accomplishments, including A and B building renovations, Convocation, wireless improvements, and the 50th Anniversary preparations along with the unveiling of the four anniversary themes of Pride, Connection, Giving Back, and Diversity.
To see the whole Breakfast presentation, visit algonquincollege.com/live.
If you attended, leave us a comment with your thoughts!
