Dear Faculty and Staff:

On Wednesday, September 15, students were welcomed to the new Workforce Technical Center in Wentzville. Located at 209 W. Pearce Blvd, this leased facility is home to our welding program. We look forward to adding more technical training programs to this location in the near future. Kudos to Amy Koehler, Amanda Sizemore, Scott Kearns, Rich Waligurski, Ken Bray, Bob Ronkoski, Tim Davison and many others for their excellent work in preparing this facility for fall classes.

I am pleased to report that we have 100% occupancy in our Campus Lake Apartments for the fall semester with 25 students on a waiting list. We are thrilled to see such strong interest from students and appreciate the collaborative partnership with the owner/manager. This has been a successful approach to meeting the housing needs of many of our students. Two major projects funded by Proposition Community College bond proceeds will reach the construction bidding process this week. Bids from contractors for the Student Services remodel project in the
Administration Building and the science lab construction in the former Café/Bookstore will be due in October. Construction for both projects is expected to start in November. As a reminder, you can find all the latest information, including photos and schematic drawings on Proposition Community College projects at the following link: https://www.stchas.edu/lp/prop_cc/index

A restructuring plan was implemented for our Information Technology departments. Don Popham is the new Executive Director for Information Technology. He will oversee Administrative Computing, Network Operations and Technology Support. Nikki Ruckman is the new Assistant Director of Administrative Computing. She will provide managerial support for projects and staffing. Congratulations to Don and
Nikki! There have been a few organizational changes and new administrators who have joined our team during the past six months. Our Marketing Department is finalizing the design of SCC’s updated organizational chart. As soon as this work is completed, I will distribute to all of you. Thanks to Jay for his good leadership over this project.

I am pleased to introduce two new leaders at SCC. Angela Kang has been selected to serve as our next Director of Student Life and our own James Bratcher will assume the role of Manager of Student Activities. Vice President Leenhouts will be sending out additional background information on Angela and James.

Last Wednesday, our new Office of Multicultural Student Engagement (OMSE) hosted its first “mixer” in the College Center. The event drew a large number of students, faculty and staff who came together to enjoy refreshments and play a challenge game of Jenga. On September 29, OMSE will host a Game Night from 5:00-7:00 p.m. in the College Center.

My appreciation is extended to Chris Cross who has done an amazing job providing leadership to this
new department and identifying opportunities for engaging and supporting our students. Thanks Chris!

For those of you who could not attend all of the Democracy Days presentations, you can view each session at the follow website: https://www.stchas.edu/lp/scc-democracy-days. Thanks again to everyone who was involved in another successful year of offering informative and engaging sessions.

My appreciation is extended to those of you who provided feedback following our President’s Council discussion on COVID-19. Although we are back in person, masks secured, students fully engaged, these are still difficult times. Our Service-Learning and Civic Engagement program sponsored a donation drive to collect items of need for refugees and immigrants. The items will be donated to the International Institute of St. Louis and the Immigrant Home English Learning Program of St. Louis. This one act demonstrates how as a community of educators we can come together to serve others, despite the challenges we face. I continue to be inspired by your commitment to our students and to our community. We have the best faculty and staff at SCC. We are well-prepared for accomplishing all of our goals and
advancing our mission – and we will do so together.

Best wishes for a wonderful week.

Barbara