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MCC Daily Tribune

Academic and Student Success Master Plan

Greetings MCC community! Today is my nine-month anniversary as your Provost and Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs. In celebration of this day, it feels only natural to reflect on our journey, share what I have learned, and reveal where we are going.   

First and foremost, I am grateful for the welcome and support I have received so far. While transitioning from another state has been challenging, the comfort bestowed upon me from words, deeds, and actions of the MCC community has truly made this transition easier.

I continue to be genuinely impressed with the College’s commitment to excellence. My 30-year career as a community college educator has provided varying perspectives on excellence. MCC, however, takes that sentiment to another level. I am proud to be part of this commitment and proud to be a Tribune!

I continue to learn and grow with every passing day, cultivating a deeper intelligence and acumen. Thank you to all of you who have helped, understood, and supported me in my continued learning.  I am particularly thankful to my fellow Executive Leadership Team for showing me the ropes and aiding me in my growth. I expect nothing less than progress as we continue to learn and grow together.

We are an institution on the edge of great transformation. The foundation poured by Dr. Burt-Nanna, one focused on elevation, renewal, and togetherness, promises a bright future for the College. Academic and Student Affairs plays an important role in this transformation which energizes me as a college leader. Knowing that MCC has an incredibly strong foundation around student success through cross-divisional collaboration, resulting in Vision2027, the Community College Research Center/Aspen Unlocking Opportunity initiative, the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan (SEM), and our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) makes this an extremely exciting time for the College.   

Moving forward, I will be seeking support and participation from every corner of the institution to develop the College’s Academic and Student Success Master Plan. This plan will inform our future in Academic and Student Affairs, yet will have far-reaching impact on administrative services, facilities, information technology, human resources, and of course, our work on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The plan will incorporate our high-priority work with Unlocking Opportunity while scrutinizing all facets of the Academic and Student Affairs units. We will seriously contemplate the budget as the funding landscape is ever-changing. Doing more with less, while raising the bar for our student-related persistence, completion, and post-graduation outcomes, will require creative solutions. We will delve deeper into the relationship between credit and non-credit curriculum, dual credit and early college, and what it means to be a majority-minority institution as we approach this threshold. The work of the Downtown Campus Steering Committee will certainly inform our strategy for downtown. Every student needs to feel like they belong at MCC. This Academic and Student Success Master Plan will fully capture that sentiment.

The plan will have us considering new initiatives in light of understanding what needs to go. Yet, encapsulating our strengths and modeling our success will be an essential part of the plan’s development.  I intend to establish space, both physically and virtually, where folks can anonymously express their thoughts/ideas on student success (if they choose) or openly discuss their thoughts in public conversations. This will be the first phase of development for the Academic and Student Success Master Plan. We will also conduct thorough environmental scans, both internally and externally, that will inform our direction. Consistent communication and collaboration will take place with all shared governance entities. I ask that you check back here for updates, but know that other forms of communication like town halls, department meetings, middle managers meetings, and office hours are also great ways to stay informed.

I am seeking your participation. If any of this sounds interesting and you want to get involved, please let me know. I will be looking for team members and team leaders. We will also need writers and researchers, creators, and analyzers. If any aspect of academic or student affairs is of interest to you, let me know. If you don’t know enough but want to know more, let me know.

The Academic and Student Success Master plan is a critically important piece of a greater vision for the College. I look forward to embarking on this journey with you. Thank you.

Margaret Semmer
Academic and Student Affairs
11/01/2023