Q1 2019 CW Review

Q1: OCTOBER  DECEMBER, 2018 ISSUE #151

CW’S MISSION The College of Westchester graduates individuals who have completed transformative and purposeful educational experiences that provide the foundation for successful, relevant professional careers. As an academically student-centered, culturally diverse college, CW is committed to providing the highest quality of education for all career and entrepreneurial-minded students through the delivery of a carefully constructed and focused curriculum, informed by regional employers. The College supports and encourages academic excellence, career advancement, professional integrity, financial responsibility, and good citizenship through a distinctive and highly personal campus environment.

Inside The President Corner Page 1

Keeping up with the Jones’ Page 5

Touring the Wartburg Page 7

2018 Employee Appreciation Awards Page 9

President’s Corner Mary Beth Del Balzo

EXECUTIVE OFFICE Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season with family and friends, and enjoyed the downtime, relaxed a bit and took care of ourselves. This rejuvenation is so important as everyone works so hard all year, and for that I am truly grateful. At this time, I would like to wish all of you much happiness, health and success in this New Year.

As you will read, we’ve collectively had many accomplishments this past year, which is so pleasing to me. While it continues to be a tough market for almost every college across the country, we have seen enrollment slowly tick up, which is very encouraging. I appreciate that each and every one of us are continuing our efforts to retain the students who choose CW and help to ensure their success.

The consolidations of our Schools was a positive streamlined change. We are delighted to report that this long overdue initiative will give us the bandwidth to focus on curriculum and delivery that are both Page 1

fascinating and responsive to current best practices.

We now have an employee lunch room! I look forward to everyone’s feedback on this much needed space.

We continue to prepare for our pursuit in the nursing program, but don’t expect to launch until sometime late in 2020.

We have now concluded Year One of our 2018-2020 Strategic Plan, which you will also hear about below.

We have hired a new CFO/Director of Administration as Nancy Poli will be retiring come June. Dr. Lou Commisso will start with us in April.

More info on that forthcoming.

I continue to be amazed and proud of all the outstanding achievements our team accomplishes. Thank you for your efforts and dedication.

It is truly appreciated.

ACADEMICS

ADMISSIONS

CAREER SERVICES

2018 Accomplishments

2018 Accomplishments:

2018 Accomplishments:

•Secured NYSED-OP and NYSED-OCUE approval of the Online A.A.S. in Accounting for Business •Consolidated three academic departments into one School of Business and brought staffing and budget more in-line with enrollment •Improved and expanded services and facilities for The Learning Center •Increased Online enrollment by 40% •Established a student chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants

•Delivered CW information sessions to 40 high school guidance counselors and administrators (320 total people) highlighting the unique benefits of a CW education.

•Admissions Lobby TV up and running showing fantastic CW Life and other great information.

(Thanks for all the great work from Media Resources and the IT Department to MIH!) •Professional development and advancement with promotions for both Joan Williams and Lianne Noe. •Immunization October report was 100% in compliance.

•Had 3 students admitted into the 2019 Goals: 2018 i3 Scholars Program and •Achieve CW college goals for CW was a co-sponsor an new student enrollment. presenter at the inaugural i3 BUILD Summit •Implementing strategic professional development plan.

2019 Goals

•Develop a 3-year strategic plan for the School of Health Professions focusing on administrative structure, new program development, and maintenance of program quality •Implement the Quadrennial recommendations for a “refresh” of the Business curriculum •Refocus faculty development efforts and recourses at improving in-class engagement, competency-based assessments, and use of alternative resources •Continue to pursue IMA Endorsement for the Accounting program and DHS-DARPA Recognition for the BS-IT

•Focus on increased enrollment in Day College •Recruit 15 new regional companies to engage with Memorandum of Understanding in our Corporate Education Partnership Program to recruit new students.

BUSINESS OFFICE/HR/BOOKSTORE 2018 Accomplishments

•Continuation of Title IX training for staff, faculty and students.

• Implementation of Diversity Training for staff, faculty and students.

•Streamlined procedures in the Business Office, which has allowed us to do more timely financial reporting and budgeting.

2019 Goals:

•Continuation of Title IX and Diversity training for staff, faculty and students.

•Prepare for Nancy Poli’s retirement in June and train new CFO/Director of Administration

•Placement Rate for graduates in field of study was 88.69% •Coordinated and placed 114 Day and 57 Adult BBA , BBA Accounting and BBA Health Care Administration students into solid Internships •Average starting salary for 2017-18 Associate Degree grads- $38,156; BBA grads $51,800

2019 Goals: •Meet or exceed our in-field graduate Placement Rate of 88.69% •Expand employer partnerships for both jobs and internships in all fields of study. A strong emphasis will be placed on solid internship opportunities for our BS degree students •Introduce Career Readiness Programs to ensure our students/grads are as prepared as possible at graduation to compete for excellent opportunities in their field

INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH 2018 Accomplishments

•Expanded institutional dashboards in response to departmental needs •Made progress in educating the CW community about the amount and type of real-time data currently available to them •All government reporting fully compliant

2019 Goals:

•Continue to centralize institutional data collection, analysis and dissemination process •Proactively conduct research that may help inform policy/program decisions •Continue timely and accurate compliance with all federal, state, accrediting body and all other external reporting

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IT

MEDIA RESOURCES

2018 Accomplishments:

2018 Accomplishments:

•A lot of cybersecurity work! After an extensive internal audit of our cybersecurity governance, we developed new policies, documented practices, enhanced training, and started reporting regularly to the institution. We also formalized the IT Security Council by defining it as a Standing Committee.

•Technology infrastructure refresh: The computers in the Digital Media labs were upgraded, most of our virtual servers were upgraded from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2016, and we researched copier/printer replacements and a new phone system.

•Going mobile: We implemented the new, personalized “CW Everywhere” mobile app, and moved to a new Moodle ‘theme’ which allowed for more effective use of the Moodle mobile app.

We also made the Application for Admissions fully mobile friendly.

2019 Goals: •Cruiser shut down: the Cruiser portal will go offline March 15th (an unexpected bit of news we only learned of late last year) and we have a lot do in a hurry to move required functionality to other systems.

•Campus Nexus web client: We hope to move everyone off of the old Windows-based client to this new interface by the end of the year.

•Technology infrastructure refresh: We started the new year with replacement copiers, later this year we will move to Exchange 2016, and move to a new, hosted phone system. We’ll be replacing the Library laptops, and several aging network switches along with other tech refresh work.

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•Completed mobile friendly redesign to the CW website and all online forms creating a better mobile visual appearance and more efficient experience for the prospective student.

•Increased year over year inquiries from prospective students •Assisted in increasing student activity events and developed budgetary efficiencies

2019 Goals:

•Create more event driven video content •Develop video ads for social media •Develop “CW topic expert” blog stories

STUDENT FINANCIAL SERVICES 2018 Accomplishments:

•Successful completion of the Annual SFS Audit under new revised requirements that were much more restrictive.

•Implementation of the NYS Enhanced Tuition Award for students.

•Reduced default rate for 2015 CDR to 5.3%, default rate for 2014 CDR was 9.9%, National Average 2015 CDR default rate is 10.8% •Successful completion of Federal Direct Lending 2016-2017 and Federal Pell Grant 2017-2018 funds closeout with Department of Education.

2019 Goals:

•Timely FAFSA Refile •Completion of Annual FSA Audit under new regulations with minimal findings •Yearly improvements in the verification process with both continuing and new. Work with NSFA for better streamlining the FA processes of new students

Amazon is Amazing: Help Support the College of Westchester Charitable Foundation Do you like to shop online? If so, chances are you’ve done shopping on www.amazon.com once or twice, or a hundred. Amazon really is amazing. Not only can you find virtually anything you are looking for on this site, but if you’re a Prime Member, you can also have your stuff on your doorstep in two days. Can’t beat it!

Another amazing thing about Amazon is that through their AmazonSmile program, they will donate .05% of your purchase to the charity of your choice. This is a great way to donate to our very own College of Westchester Charitable Foundation. It’s very easy to do. To register your charity, go to www.smile.amazon.com, and you will be prompted to select the charitable organization from almost one million eligible organizations, and College of Westchester Charitable Foundation is one of those organizations. From then on, for all eligible purchases, AmazonSmile will donate .05% to the charity.

AmazonSmile is a website operated

by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices, and convenient shopping features as on Amazon.com.

Thanks in advance for your support of the CWCF Foundation!

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By Angela Smalls and Yoseiry Cabrera On Tuesday, November 27th we had an opportunity for us to experience an up close and personal look into a Long-Term Care Facility, we went to visit Caring, Family Home Care Inc, a relatively new in-home care provider owned and operated

by Veronica Jones and located 85 Lafayette Avenue, Suffern NY. Mrs. Jones, a former Professor at the college was very informative and explained in detail all the formalities, and necessary documents needed to own and operate a health care agency in the dual states of New York and New Jersey. Staying in compliance from one state to another can at times be challenging because one state may require one document while the other state may not.

But state certifications are not the only challenges to jump starting a new in-home care agency. Finding qualified, passionate and compassionate employees can often be even more of a challenge. Mrs. Jones shared with us that she is in the process of searching for competent employees to work for Caring but that it can be a tedious process. It’s very important to remember that these employees will be representing Mrs. Jones and her company. Like many young companies, Caring is just beginning to find its place in the health care

community and it is not easy. Running a company can be exhausting — from being the owner/operator, case manager, receptionist, scheduler, overseer, creator of the mission statement, guidelines and anything else that may come up — but Mrs. Jones made it look very easy.

Perhaps, it was her vast knowledge of what is in front of her that made it look so easy.

Mrs. Jones explained to us what could be constituted as “long term care” and as an agency owner what she needs to keep abreast of when it comes to Medicaid and Medicare. Knowing which agency will provide what services and at what cost is imperative. (Medicare covers only the first 100 days of skilled nursing care, but the care in the nursing home must be the same as in the hospital. Medicaid helps the needy pay for long term care but, you do not need to be destitute to qualify).

Not only was it a lot of fun visiting Caring, it was also very educational. I think that Caring is going to grow into a great institution of caring for those who need its services and that it will be around for a very long time.

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As the Fall Day semester comes to a close, Dr. Pough, decided to engage her classes in student centered learning. Her end of the semester goals were to empower her students by providing them with more ownership in their learning and more real-life hands-on experiences. Through off-site visits and classroom speakers Pough has provided activities where students can actively participate in their learning. Through this facilitation, both her Advanced Coding and Long Term Care textbook pages were brought to life. Various off-visits to facilities such as Caring Families Home Health Care in Suffern and to the Wartburg in Mount Vernon were conducted this semester.

The Wartburg, located at 1 Wartburg Place, Mount Vernon NY is a collection of beautifully restored buildings that in 1860 was an orphanage for abandoned and sick children. The last orphan left the Wartburg in 1970 and shortly after that the metamorphous into what it has become today began.

We were greeted by Mrs. Anne Frey, Director of Volunteers, and given a tour of the campus. Mrs. Frey also gave us a brief, but detailed history of the Wartburg as she navigated us through the different houses and activities that were happening while we were there.

Mrs. Frey showed us their housing facilities which is available to the aged, as well as, the community with subsidized accommodations available to those who may need assistance. We also had the pleasure of having an up close and personal look at the Adult Day Care Center that is also open to the community as well as the residents. This part of the facility is a relatively new addition, open just a few short years ago in 2009, and the Adult Day Care Program is a blessing for those in the community that may not have any other place to go or be on any given day.

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Here are some of the comments the students had to offer: “The Adult Day Care Program provides breakfast and lunch, but more importantly feeds the spirit of the community. I really liked this component of the Wartburg, helping people in the community is one of my personal goals and would be one of the main reasons that I would consider the Wartburg as a place of employment when the time comes!”

Yoseiry Cabrera “The Wartburg is a complete campus for long term care that appears to have considered every aspect for aging in Westchester County. I really enjoyed our time at the Wartburg, I found the history and the information that Mrs. Frey shared with us to be very interesting.”

Angela Smalls “This tour made me realize that you really only live once. It was sad to see the conditions some of the residents were living in. I was interested in working in working in a LTC facility in the administrative part, but I do not think I can deal with going to work every day, knowing that people will die in these facilities. This tour helped me minimize an option for a career.”

Jennifer Alvarado

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2018 EMPLOYEE APPRECIATION AWARDS 5 Years of Employment

Janice Dicker

Cassandra McFadden

Jennifer Sousou

Not Photographed: Christina Pucciarelli, Roman Sierra, Joanna DeLaney Stephanie Pough

10 Years of Employment

Shamva Wright-Shingler

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Kelly Walsh

Andy Capellan

Michael Ryan

Loretta Sinopoli

Not Photographed: Jaime Kahhat, Erica Schacht

Roselle Glick

15 Years of Employment

Charles Hall

Teresa Stefankowski

Michael Sandick

Nancy Poli

Not Photographed: Raymond Giles III

20 Years of Employment

Christopher Mangan

Tracia Best

Esperanza Cruz

Hector Cardenales

Employee of the Year

Faculty of the Year

Krissy Frano

Jason Schoen

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Q4 Highlights 1

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Hispanic Heritage Month Event

Art Expo

Breast Cancer Awareness Adult Appreciation Night Halloween Party

ThankSharing Luncheon

Open Mic Day Portfolio Review Day Holiday Treat Night