February 18, 2003

Trustee Legislative Workshop

Many thanks to each of you for attending the FACC Trustees' Legislative Workshop in Tallahassee on January 22-23. We made an impression…and we have been continuing to do that. Many thanks to Sid Miller for testifying before the Senate Education Appropriations Committee last week and to Verdell Pugh and Dr. Charles English for attending the ACCT Federal Legislative Workshop in Washington, DC, on February 8-11 and the respective ACCT committees that they serve on.

National Science Foundation Accrediting Visit

Many thanks to each of you for assisting with the National Science Foundation Accreditation Visit on January 27-29. The iTEC grant and our staff who are associated with it certainly made a great impression!

Dream Auction

I think you will agree that the 19th Annual Dream Auction was INCREDIBLE!!! Many thanks to Pam Weber, Alex Serraes, and the SCC staff and students for outdoing themselves. WOW!!!

PTK 2002 Pinnacle Scholarship Award

SCC's Pi Lambda Chapter has earned the Phi Theta Kappa 2002 Pinnacle Scholarship Award. This program annually recognizes chapters that increase the acceptance rate of eligible students by 10% over the previous year with a $100 scholarship stipend.

Town Hall Meeting

On February 24, at 7 p.m., Senator Lee Constantine and Representative David Mealor are holding a Town Hall meeting in our Board Room. It would be good if you could attend for at least part of the evening. Please let Linda know if you can attend.

Heritage Luncheon

The Diamond Anniversary of the Migrant Heritage Program will be held in the Fine Arts Concert Hall on Thursday, February 27, at 11:30 a.m. Lunch will be served in the Student Center at 12:45 p.m. Please let Linda know if you would like to attend.

Graduations

High School Graduation is scheduled for Thursday, May 1, at 8:00 p.m. College and PSAV Graduation will be held on Friday, May 2, at 8:00 p.m. Please confirm your attendance with Linda.

SACS Reaffirmation

We hosted the preliminary visit from our SACS Chairman, Dr. Anthony Newberry, on January 30. In a conversation with Dr. Nelda Malm, Dr. Newberry indicated that ours was the best Self-Study that he had seen. He pronounced us "ready" to host the visiting team on March 9-12. I look forward to seeing each of you at the Welcome Dinner for our SACS Reaffirmation Team on Sunday, March 9, at 6:30 p.m., at the Heathrow Country Club. Thanks to Dr. Nelda Malm for joining us for dinner this evening and giving our Board a chance to review the questions they can expect from SACS. Many thanks, also, to all of those who participated in the SACS process for making sure that we are ready for the team visit!

Legislative Liaison

Our new Legislative Liaison, Don Payton, will be joining us on March 3rd. Don comes to us from Illinois, where he has been responsible for legislative issues related to the K-12 system for the past 20+ years. Don arrives just in time for the start of our session. I will be taking him to Tallahassee for the first three days of the session. Also, as you know, the presidents have been taking our case for support out on the road. We have presented to the Lake Mary/Seminole Chamber of Commerce, the Orlando Chamber, etc. Sandy Shugart and I will be making our case to local business leadership on March 7th at a breakfast meeting at the Citrus Club. While I have invited Charles and Sid to attend representing the Board, all of you are welcome to attend. It is going to be a very interesting session.

Awards

Dede Schaffner is not with us tonight because she is being honored by the League of Women Voters at the First Annual Outstanding Citizens Awards Ceremony at the Marriott. Sponsored by Channel 13, Dede is being honored as the "Outstanding Professional Educator"!

Did you know?

You can complete a UCF bachelor's degree in select programs at SCC's Sanford/Lake Mary campus.