"First Wednesday" Update - April 2, 2008

Budget Update

The Legislature has approved and Governor Crist has signed legislation making more than $500 million in further reductions to the 2007-08 budget. This translated into a final reduction of about $650,000 for SCC which we already had set aside, thanks to our prudent financial planning last summer and fall.

The concern now is with the 2008-09 budget. State revenues have continued to drop significantly each month. And state economists now believe that Florida won’t see the start of a recovery until late 2009. However, both the House and the Senate are indicating they recognize the value of our community colleges, our surging enrollments, and the critical role we can play in assisting Florida's economic recovery. Therefore, both House and Senate budgets right now are trying to protect Florida's community colleges from drastic cuts. Also, a possible tuition increase is being discussed. At this time no one knows exactly what the end result will be. Once we have a clearer picture from Tallahassee later in April, we will advise everyone of further 2008-09 budget developments.

Emergency Plans/Safety On Campus

The Executive Team and SCC's Emergency Response Team (ERT) have been meeting with emergency officials from Seminole County, SCPS, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, and Valencia Community College in order to learn more about the emergency preparedness/response efforts of other large regional institutions. As a result of these meetings, the following decisions have been made:

• A new SCC Emergency Manual is being crafted with updated content and new components reflecting SCC's multicampus infrastructure.
• Campus Security staffing at each SCC site is being assessed, and SCC Security Staff will undergo new emergency response training.
• The capability to "lockdown" SCC's variety of buildings in an emergency situation is being explored.
• SCC will partner more closely with SCPS to learn from their extensive emergency-related processes, procedures, and experiences.
• Joe Sarnovsky and Dick Hamann will now be SCC’s liaisons with Seminole County’s Homeland Security team in order to receive emergency-related intelligence reports.

Annual Retiree Celebration

The 13 SCC faculty and staff who have retired since last April's Retiree Celebration will be honored from 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. on Friday, April 25 in the SCC  Fine Arts Theatre, followed by a reception in the Fine Arts Lobby. This year's group of retirees includes Gary Belcher, Sharon Cannon, Neal Graham, Elaine Greenwood, Dorothy Holtgrefe, Johanna Jordan, Linda Lescallette, Ellen Paul, Julio Pintado, Ruth Poe, Suzanne Tesinsky, and Susan Weinman. Sara Daspin will also be honored posthumously.

PeopleSoft System Upgrade

The final stage of the PeopleSoft system upgrade to MySCC applications was successfully implemented over Spring Break. Many thanks to all of the SCC constituents who worked tirelessly to facilitate this upgrade.

Weldon Boulevard and A Building Parking Lot Closing May 2

A new timetable has been determined for permanent closure of a portion of Weldon Blvd. on the Sanford/Lake Mary Campus and the entire parking lot in front of the A Building in order to begin construction of the Joint Use Facility and the new loop road. Beginning the morning of May 2, the current 90-degree portion of Weldon Blvd. directly in front of the Gym will be permanently closed and a construction fence will be erected around this portion of Weldon Blvd. as well as the entire Visitor/Faculty/Staff parking lot in front of the A Building. The intent is to move current Visitor parking to the South hillside parking lot by the flagpole, directly across from the Admissions entrance. Because Summer enrollment is lighter and because faculty/staff have four-day work weeks throughout the summer, there will be no reserved faculty/staff parking near the A Building for the Summer Term, but dedicated faculty/staff parking will be determined and allocated by August 1, in advance of the Fall 2008 Term. Many more details about these major changes in traffic and parking will be communicated as they are determined in the weeks ahead. Please look for continuously updated information and for construction status in the SCC Today and the SCConnection.

Geneva Center Classroom Building

Furniture has been installed in the new classroom building at our Geneva Center and the project will be presented to the Board of Trustees for acceptance at their April meeting. Attached is an aerial photo showing the new classroom facility, the new parking lot, and the new driving pads that have been added over the past year.

Did you know?

SCC is just minutes from metropolitan Orlando.