President's Message to the Community
September 9, 2012
Dear Colleagues and Fellow Members of the COM-FSM Community,
The academic year is off to a great start! I want to thank faculty, staff and administration for efforts to ensure our students were properly advised and subsequently registered for correct courses. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge faculty who accepted additional students into course sections, and teach overload courses to ensure students were able to enroll in needed classes. As well, the student services and business office staff are commended for providing a one stop process for students to register and receive important financial aid services. Further recognition and thanks to student life administration for addressing compelling needs in the students’ residence halls. Such actions have resulted in immediate improvements to the campus environment.
While we acknowledge areas for improvement, together we remain committed to ensuring that our students and their education, health and safety always come first. Let me thank all of you for your shared attention to providing quality services and care for our students, regardless of whether it is inside or outside of the classroom, they are resident or commuter students, or the campus attended.
As a community, we continue to make significant progress to meet expectations in many areas. Academic and non-academic program reviews and assessments continue. The cycle of program assessment and the use of these completed assessments serve to improve academic and non-academic programs. These assessments will also be used to inform the development of the FY 2014 budget and in conjunction with the Integrated Educational Master Plan, the allocation of resources.
Within the week, the summary report from the August 8th and 9th Visioning Summit should be released. The participation of so many of you and of our external stakeholders contributed to a robust discussion about the mission of the college, its communication with constituents, and its future. The outcomes should serve to support the work to be continued in phase II of the Visioning Summit conducted at Chuuk State, Kosrae State and Yap State campuses in October and November.
The Mid-Level Management Team comprised of directors and deans representing all departments and campuses has met twice since its establishment and recently elected its leadership. The team will meet at least twice each month and has been charged with related communications, problem-solving, and non-academic program review responsibilities.
Warm wishes are extended to the 2012-2013 Faculty/Staff Senate representatives. An exceptional amount of goodwill has been and continues to be extended by faculty and staff. It is with great optimism, mutual respect, and shared commitment to transparency that I and my colleague administrators look forward to working closely with faculty and staff to strengthen the college.
As a learning community we are most fortunate to have such talented and committed faculty, and dedicated and hard working staff. While we continue to face many challenges together, let us celebrate the exceptional relationship established among and between all college constituencies, a relationship not to be taken for granted.
In part to celebrate being a learning community, but more importantly to deliberately recognize and honor the special place and responsibility that faculty have at COM-FSM, we will gather together on Friday, September 14, 2012 at 1pm in the practice gym at National Campus for our first convocation. It is my sincere hope that all faculty, staff, administration and students who are able to attend, join us.
It remains apparent that we continue to make extraordinary progress, especially to address the issues for which the college is on probation. It is equally apparent that we have experienced a transformation in our thinking, approach and response to accreditation. Our embrace of the accreditation process as a framework for integrity, our embrace of ACCJC Accreditation Standards as a framework for purposeful dialogue and continuous improvement, and our commitment to sustained constructive engagement is being fully realized. Yet, we must remain diligent, committed, and focused to ensure we stay on this sound path toward improvement, complete work to demonstrate full compliance with Accreditation Standards, and resolve all issues by March 2013.
I trust you have pride in the progress we continue to make. Together we strengthen this institution of higher education for our students, our citizens and our country.
It is a privilege for me to serve you as president.
Warm regards,
Joe
Joseph M. Daisy, Ed.D, President
