Dear Faculty and Staff:

It is difficult to believe that the last day of the semester is next week – December 11. To help celebrate the end of the semester and the beginning of the holidays, I would like to invite each of you to attend this year’s Winter Social on December 13 beginning at 11:00 a.m. and ending at 2:00 p.m. The event will be held in our new Field-to-Table Center on the Dardenne Creek Campus. There will be delicious food prepared by our Culinary program students and faculty with lots of activities and entertainment. I look forward to seeing you on the 13th.

Hopefully you had a chance to participate in the Zoom meeting I held on November 30 to share initial feedback regarding the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) team visit. If not, the following provides a brief summary of some of the feedback we received from the visiting team.

Many positive comments were shared by the Chair and his team. It was stated that we have “a great institution” filled with passionate and engaged employees and that we have “great students.” The team was very impressed by our ability to see where we are, where we want to be, and recognized that we have many exciting opportunities for growth. They appreciated our efforts in meeting the workforce needs of our community and said that we “were progressive,” and “clearly demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit.”

The team recognized our excellent faculty and acknowledged their good work with program review and assessment. They also had many positive comments to share about our students. Several evaluators pointed out how impressed they were by our Men of Color Program.

As with most accreditation visits, the team will likely identify a few areas for improvement for us to work on; however, overall, the visit with very positive and successful. Thanks to everyone who participated in producing our Compliance Report and organizing the site visit.

On December 3, SCC hosted the Superintendents Meeting at our new Field-to-Table Center. This group includes superintendents from our entire service area. At this meeting I had an opportunity to share a college update and to present information on the location of our new property in Wentzville. The group was impressed by the progress we are making in meeting their needs and the needs of the community. Particularly, they were excited to learn about the purchase of our new Freight Farm and the efforts put in place to expand dual credit to workforce/technical programs.

I participated in a meeting with Missouri Community College Association Presidents/Chancellors on December 3. At this meeting we received a legislative update from John Bargett and his team.

John shared that the 101st Missouri General Assembly regular session will begin on January. 5. Bargett predicts that some of the key issues associated with this year’s session includes:

• Prohibiting vaccine mandates
• Initiative petition reform
• Gun laws
• Missouri political redistricting

John also shared that Senator Eigel (St. Charles County) intends to file the same bill he put forward last year related to the elimination of personal property tax in our county. I will keep you updated as the legislative session progresses.

I wanted to share two exciting events that will be hosted by our Performing Arts Department:

• On December 9 & 10, the department will host an Opera Workshop in the SSB Auditorium. The workshop will present scenes from Act 1 of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Così fan tutte.
• SCC’s Young People’s Theatre will present “Elf, the Musical.” Show times include:

12/10/21 at 7 PM
12/11/21 at 2 PM
12/11/21 at 7 PM
12/12/21 at 2 PM

Best wishes for a wonderful week.

Barbara