The PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Review
Q3: APRIL - JUNE, 2017 ● ISSUE #144
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CW WAY CORNER PAGE 5
MIDDLE STATES PAGE 6
CYBER CRIME IS A PEOPLE PROBLEM PAGE 8
101ST COMMENCEMENT PAGE 12
Photo captured from CW’s 101st Commencement Ceremony Read more on page 13
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. This is a confidential document for internal use only.
President’s Corner Mary Beth Del Balzo
I
t’s nice to finally be in the midst of summer, and I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful days we’ve been having. Our summer here at CW has certainly been busy as we kicked off the month of June with Commencement and then our Middle States Self Study Team Chair Visit with Dr. Christopher Cyphers. (See Joann’s and Stacy’s update on this on page 6.) Both events were very successful, thanks to all of your efforts; I very much appreciate your ongoing dedication and hard work. Together we are changing students’ lives! In the Fall you will be hearing more about new and additional retention efforts we are putting into place now. You will also hear more about results of the college wide Strategic Planning Process that began in November, 2016. While it takes quite some time to develop a Strategic Plan, it is an essential part of any organization’s wellbeing. The one big event that took a different spin this Summer was our Sharing Our Success event and Presentation. While I was truly disappointed that I couldn’t have that face to face interaction with everyone, I am glad that I will still able to share our successes electronically, and I hope that everyone will find the presentation with voice over easy to follow and informative. You should receive a link via email from me shortly, if you have not already received it. As always, I welcome any feedback/questions you may have regarding the presentation. Since this information is so important, I wanted to take a moment here to recap the key areas: Employee Development Growth KPI 81.6% of employees have taken advantage of professional development opportunities.
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Academic Effectiveness KPI Our faculty have set, as the college wide expectation, that a minimum of 80% of our students will be assessed as either meeting or exceeding or program specific learning outcomes and general education core competencies. We continue to exceed this goal year after year, with this year’s rate being 85.91%. Regulatory Compliance KPI We hosted a successful Preliminary Visit with our Team Chair. We are in 100% compliance with Dept of Education Title IV and annual audit findings. Additionally, our current default rate draft is 5.5%, and the national average is 11.3%. This rate indicates that we are doing an excellent job of helping students understand how to repay their investment in themselves and their student loan payments. Graduation KPI Graduation rates for 2013 (the last complete year) closed at 42.20%, which is lower than last year (44.44%), but slightly higher than 2011, which was 42.00%. Retention KPI The current 2014 cohort, is running 13% higher than the 2013 cohort at this same point last year. Our active 2015 cohort is pretty much flat with the 2014 cohort at the same point in time. However our 2016 cohort is currently 5.5% behind where 2015 was at this time last year.
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We believe there are several reasons for this including increased competition, mixed messages in the media, as well as the need for more focused student services engagement. Student Satisfaction KPI Student Satisfaction% in 2016 dropped to 84.8% from 86.3% in 2015. In 2014 the Satisfaction % was also 84.8%. It should be noted that the current %, as measured by this year’s survey, is still the second highest Satisfaction score since we began administering this survey well over a decade ago. Student Satisfaction2 KPI The In-field placement rates for students graduating between 7/1/2015 6/30/16 cohort is 88.8%. This is an increase of 2% over the prior year cohort. It should be noted that 136 students out of this graduating cohort of 349 indicated an intention of continuing to pursue their education. Employer Satisfaction At the Allied Health Career Fair 4/4/17, 100% of employers said student knowledge of the field was excellent. We began gathering employer information at the end of career fairs in summer of 2016, as trying to reach employers who have direct contact with students and asking for performance info about specific students was a real deterrent to employers. Through this method, we have become aware of their overall satisfaction and desire to hire, as well as specific strengths and weaknesses, which we can then feedback to career services as well as specific academic departments. This lets us take action on particular learning outcomes in order to strengthen our grads’ employability. Further, feedback has been more complete among employers who participate and are most likely to hire our grads.(KPI: ES)
of you would recommend CW as a good place to work. Thank you! (KPI:ES2) New Student Enrollment KPI At the end of 2016, NSE enrollment was down 4% over 2015. While I never like to see such an important KPI trend lower, it is important to put this into context as we are currently facing a difficult and competitive enrollment environment. The most recent data available at the NY State web site indicates current enrollment at degree granting schools in the proprietary sector of higher education in New York State is down 12.3% since 2013. This trend is due to several factors. Colleges in our immediate area are competing head to head for students who are our sweet spot with bigger scholarship offers of typically 45-50% for a 2.5 GPA student who passed their regents exams, and colleges outside of our immediate area encouraging our applicants to board at college, which ultimately will have them incur more debt. Also, enrollment across the US is down 6% for traditional students (HS seniors continuing their education) and down 10% for adults coming back to college, so our 4% is also above the curve, which is better than many. (KPI: NSE)
Thank you, once again, for all you do!
Employee Satisfaction KPI The 2016 IPS score is 77.2%. The 2016 result trended 5% below the 2014 administration of the IPS. As you know, this has been a challenging time for CW and the entire proprietary sector. I was pleasantly surprised by the gentleness of the decline in this metric. I thank you all for your continued commitment to CW and look forward to seeing this trend line begin reversing itself back to the levels we are accustomed to seeing. Over ¾ Q3 REVIEW | 3
Please join us in welcoming the following new employees to the CW Family: Anne Yousef & Basty Ramirez By Krissy Frano Administrative Assistant - Executive Office Basty Ramirez is the new Administrative Assistant to the Provost. Prior to joining CW, Basty was working for the University of Miami where she served as the Senior Administrative Assistant for the English Composition Program. She holds a Master’s in Education from Saint Peters University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Nyack College. Basty is a New Jersey native and moved back to Northern New Jersey earlier this year. Some of her current interests include reading, traveling and photography. Any free time that she gets, she likes to stay informed on current events by watching recent documentaries or reading news articles. Basty said that she wanted to become part of the CW family because of the amazing hands on programs and opportunities that students are exposed to in their small sized classrooms. She says that she is impressed by how hard CW works to make its students meet every academic standard and expose them to outside regional employers. Having been an educator herself, Basty understands the importance of the more personalized approach to learning that CW offers and she is very excited and looking forward to the days ahead for us at CW! When we asked Basty about her experience so far at CW she said, “CW is such a great place to work! The faculty and staff are so friendly, dedicated, and helpful. I am amazed at how much I am learning and growing within only the few weeks that I have been here and this is all due to my amazing colleagues and supervisors, especially Anna Bravo. Everyone has helped make my transition be a successful one.”
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Anne Yousef is our new Admissions Assistant. Prior to joining CW, Anne worked as a Medical Assistant at WestMed while simultaneously managing a The Limited clothing store. Anne is a CW graduate from our Allied Health program and she received her Associate’s Degree in Medical Assistant Management. Anne is a New Yorker born and raised! She currently resides in Yonkers with her boyfriend, who is away on active duty in Cuba, and her puppy, Wade. When we asked Anne about her experience so far as an employee at CW she said, “I absolutely love working at CW, it’s a wonderful environment and everyone has been so nice and so welcoming.”
CW Way Corner
WE MAKE IT HAPPEN
By Jessica Muller Manager of Business Operations With the help of the Commencement Committee members, Commencement Marshals and Helpers, and CW’s staff and faculty, the Westchester County Center was transformed once again on June 1, 2017 into CW’s wonderful 101st commencement ceremony! The County Center becomes the place where we all come together as one to share in the proud moments of our CW Grads. It is a truly inspiring event that is a perfect example of The CW Way in action. But it would not happen without the hard work, planning and dedication of so many CW employees, from across all areas of the college, working together behind the scenes to make magic happen! So to everyone involved we would like to recognize your efforts and say:
THANK YOU! How have you or a colleague put The CW Way into action, or what does The CW Way mean to you? Has someone in your department made you or a student feel especially valued? Has someone gone out of their way to help you or a visitor? Have you noticed a particular colleague inspiring success in others? Please share your thoughts and stories with the CW Community by emailing them to Jessica Muller for inclusion in a future CW Way Corner!
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Middle States Update
By Joann Mulqueen and Stacy Larson, Co-Chairs of the Self-Study Committee
GREAT PRELIMINARY VISIT FROM TEAM CHAIR DR. CYPHERS! As most of you know, CW had a preliminary visit on Tuesday, June 6, from Dr. Chris Cyphers, who is serving as the Team Chair for CW’s MSCHE Self-Study Evaluation Team. It was a very successful day! Whether you were actively involved with Dr. Cyphers, by participating in the steering committee and working group meeting, by volunteering to meet as a faculty representative, by being a friendly face on campus, by informing your students of his visit, or by assisting in preparations, thank you so much for everything you did to make Dr. Cyphers’ visit a great one. Dr. Cyphers also met with two Board members and a group of students (who of course made us proud). He was very impressed by the level of participation, commitment and awareness that you all have of our Middle States Self Study process. He felt that we were very well prepared and in good stead.
Dr. Cyphers had a number of excellent recommendations as we continue to prepare for the team to visit this October. We will now commence updating the Study to be sure we address a few more challenges, use some more charts to visually describe our processes, include a few more recommendations, and begin to organize all these materials on Moodle. This revised Study will be made available to all when ready.
So, while we continue to have work to do to prepare properly, we are well on our way!
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Exciting Bookstore News! By Joanne Lepore, Bookstore Manager As many of you are already aware, CW has been working diligently to find ways to reduce the cost of textbooks for our students. Many people have been working to review courses and syllabi to see which courses might lend themselves to using free online books, rather than a traditional textbook. These free online books are offered by vendors such as Amazon, OpenStax and Sybex, to name a few. In addition, some classes are also using the Internet to bolster classroom learning instead of using a traditional textbook or free e-book. However, there are still many classes where a traditional textbook remains a valuable learning tool. For classes such as these, we are instituting another cost saving initiative that we are very excited to announce! Beginning with the July Adult and Online start, the CW Bookstore will begin offering Used and Rental textbooks!
What does this mean for our students? This will help drive down the cost of student textbooks even further. Having the opportunity to purchase used books and to be able to rent books directly through the bookstore will help to defray shipping costs incurred when using a third party vendor. It will also enable our students to get their course materials immediately, rather than waiting for their shipment to arrive. Perhaps the best thing this will do is to allow our students the opportunity to purchase many of our custom books at a much reduced cost! Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about this new service for our 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! Q3 REVIEW | 7
Cyber Crime is a People Problem By Kelly Walsh, Chief Information Officer
Resources to Raise Awareness and Help to Protect You, Your School, Your Students, and Your Family Here's a selection of resources that can be helpful for learning more: • How Can I Protect Against Social Engineering Hacks? from LifeHacker • Why Phishing Works And How To Avoid Becoming a Victim from Security Week • Password Do’s and Don’ts from Krebson Security • 10 Tips on How to Identify a Phishing or Spoofing Email from ReturnPath • Cyber Crime Prevention Tips from NortonThis is by no means an exhaustive set of resources. There are countless others, but none of them will do you any good if you don’t take some time to read them and learn. Take a look at the image above. Here we have a real example of social engineering – someone created this form and distributed it to lots of students, and not surprisingly, some of those students gave up their user names and passwords. People are tricking other people into giving up secure information every day. One of the best defenses we have against this vulnerability is education. Learn more and help others learn what they can do avoid falling prey to the many ways we can be duped by cyber criminals.
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I guess Smokey Bear wouldn't be too far off the mark if he said, “Only YOU Can Prevent Cyber Crime!“ Go start learning and raising the awareness of your colleagues and your school's students! Help to prevent security incidents at your school and in your life be being aware and taking care.
Traveling? Don’t Use #Awayfromhome By Roman Sierra, Public Relations & Social Media Coordinator
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acation is that wonderful time of the year when you are supposed to be relaxing and enjoying yourself. It’s also a great opportunity to let your friends know just how much fun you are having. In the past that meant postcards, then emails, now it’s all about “Checking in.” It seems to be easier; however, you need to take extra precautions. With technology you can instantly share your travel joy with your friends via Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram. Unfortunately, that sharing can extend beyond the boundaries of friends to those you probably don’t want knowing you are out of town. The last thing anyone wants while away is to worry, especially when it comes to the safety and security of your home. Unfortunately, one simple post no matter if it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other social site, can give burglars clues about your home, location, and belongings, making it easy for them to plan a break in. To make sure you have fun and stay safe while on vacation, here are a few tips on what you should avoid on social media:
Don’t discuss your vacation plans and dates online
Social Media platforms are not your Outlook auto-reply message, so you don’t need to specify when you’re leaving home and when you’re coming back. It’s difficult to know who sees what you post in Social Media at all times, so when in doubt, don’t post anything.
Limit posts about your trip to friends only Facebook for instance, offers its users the ability to limit the information you share to specific groups of people.
Wait until you return to post photos One thing everyone loves about social media is its immediacy. Being able to share a moment in real time has its advantages, but when traveling, it offers a signal to would-be criminals that you aren’t at home. If nobody will be home, you should not post those photos or videos just yet.
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Out of the Class and Into the Real World
By Paula Cancro, Assistant Business Chairperson
2017 has been a busy year so far, not just in classes but what’s been going on outside of classes. This year, six of our students have had the opportunity to expand their horizons in a couple of very different environments. In both cases, the sponsoring institutions for both programs cover the student expenses. Jennifer Mitchell and Malcolm Bennett, both graduating BBA students went to Clemson University at the end of May to attend the Moral Foundations of Capitalism Student Conference. During the last three years, CW students have applied, been selected and able to attend this three-day conference. The Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism (CISC) hosts the student conference and a faculty conference annually. The mission of CISC is “to examine and to increase public awareness of the moral foundations of capitalism. In pursuit of this mission, we teach numerous courses, offer unique scholarship opportunities and host engaging public events.” During the student conference, Malcolm and Jennifer had the chance to connect with other students from institutions around the country, engage in discussion sessions with speakers, professors, and business leaders, plus have a little fun along the way.
We also had four students, representing Business and Accounting, apply for this year’s (University of Pittsburgh) i3 program. All four were selected to participate. The students are Kelly Gomez, Courtney Cochancela, Kadeem Pitkin, and Tommy Tolentino. Only 25 students from around the world are accepted into the program each year.
“The iSchool Inclusion Institute (i3) is an undergraduate research and leadership development program that prepares students from underrepresented populations for graduate study and careers in the information sciences.” So what have some of our participants done? Ryan Pink, a past CW student was part of a team that presented their i3 project work at a conference in Berlin, Germany. David Guerrera, a 2017 i3 participant has been accepted at University of Pittsburgh for graduate study. Darnell Dixon, another 2017 i3 participant is currently working in the Office of Bachelor Studies at CW. We’re proud of these students for doing the work to apply, get accepted, and participate in these programs. Dr. Judith Lilleston and Jyoti Ruta, Associate Professor of Business were instrumental in recruiting the students and helping them present their best in the applications and essay process. At The College of Westchester, business students have the opportunity to go beyond 325 Central Avenue in White Plains, NY.
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Q3 Highlights Spring Career & Internship Fair
Day Students of Semester
9th Annual Charitable Foundation Scholar Recognition Event
Sisters United Donates to My Sister’s Place
Students filled the Student Center, scanning over the booths where companies were recruiting for different positions and reviewing the skills students had to offer.
The Foundation strives to further involve and educate the community and employers regarding the outstanding work of The College The College of Westchester and its student scholars. Scholarship recipients: Felicia Conte, Jamisha Gill, Nicole Mercadante, Jennifer Mitchell, Alejandra Rojas, Shawn Cobb, Alyssa Garon, Michael Fusca, Ashely Rose, Olga Fernandez, Claudia Cherrington, Salvador Andeme, Jazmin Patino, and Antonio Sassano
Spring Honors Ceremony
CW honored and inducted 24 students from Phi Theta Kappa, 18 students from Sigma Beta Delta, and 7 students from the CW BBA Honors Program.
BBA student Shawn Cobb and AAS student, Kimberly Caceras were recognized.
Sisters United drops off needed items to the organization My Sister’s Place. The items were purchased through proceeds from a raffle the club held back in March.
Spring into Wellness
The Allied Health Club hosted their annual “Spring into Wellness” event which is a fun and interactive way to inform students, faculty, and staff on various health and wellness opportunities within the community.
Cap Night
Students decorated their Graduation caps!
“In Our Own Voices” Presentation
JDC Spring Showcase
Student Art showcase sponsored by the Digital Media Club, and performances by the Just Dance Crew and Brothers United. Food and snacks were also available for purchase sponsored by the Caribbean Student Association. A great collaboration between clubs!
CW hosted “In Our Own Voices,” presented by our local NAMI chapter (the National Alliance on Mental Illness). Ron and Joanne shared their personal stories and discussed the five stages every person goes through when dealing with a mental illness: 1. Introduction & Dark Days 2. Acceptance 3. Treatment 4. Coping Skills 5. Success, hopes, dreams
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Congratulations Class of 2017!
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We fought against odds, we fought against fear, and the desire to quit. We are stronger, wiser, and better than we were when we entered CW.
Christina Ramirez
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Student Speaker BBA Degree Graduate Representative
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I believe in the importance of being well-educated… developing values and skills, opening one’s mind… and embracing the excitement of knowledge.
Alejandra Rojas
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Student Speaker AAS Degree Graduate Representative
Life will be full of twists and turns, ups and downs, trials, and tribulations, but I’m here to declare that you are strong enough to prevail, you are worthy enough to overcome, and you are blessed enough to succeed.
” Tommy Barnes
CW Spirit Award Recipient
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