September 2018 Board of Regents Meeting Report

The September 2018 TCC Board of Regents meeting took place in the TCC Southeast campus Chatroom last Thursday.

The meeting featured campus construction updates, changes to various TCC policies, IT infrastructure improvements, and a student presentation about the Community College Aerospace Scholars program.

Meeting Highlights:

• Construction will resume on the Southeast Campus Student Success and Career Center.
• Work toward the Conference Center sale and move is ongoing, but there is nothing substantial to update.
• The Board unanimously approved TCC’s new Institutional Review Board policy. The policy meets Federal regulatory requirements and reflects best practices of national peer colleges and universities. This was not a change to an existing policy, but rather the creation of a new policy to document the College’s practices and oversight.
• The Board approved the purchase of a new wireless networking infrastructure, anti-virus/malware protection services, and the Starfish retention and advisement software for use on all campuses.

As a direct result from a request received from the College Staff Council, the Board approved the updated Employee Education/Tuition and Fee Waivers for Full-time Employees policy, which included increases in the number of hours employees and/or their families can take free of charge.

“The College will waive one hundred percent (100%) of the cost of tuition and fees for full-time employees up to a maximum of nine (9) credit hours in the fall and spring semesters and up to six (6) credit hours in the summer semester. The annual total of twenty-four (24) credit hours of tuition and fee waivers may be used by a full-time employee, spouse, or dependent child of the full-time employee up to the semester limit each year.” The previous policy allowed for reimbursement for 8 credit hours in fall and spring and 5 hours in the summer.

TCC student Jerrycore Anyanwu shared his experience in NASA’s Community College Aerospace Scholars program this past July. Anyanwu credited his TCC professors, in particular, Associate Professor of Science and Mathematics Mary Wells Phillips, for bolstering his confidence to apply and participate.

“She encouraged me, provided support, and told me I could do it,” said Anyanwu.

President’s Highlights

During the President’s highlights, Suzanne Reese, assistant professor in health sciences, and Melissa Steadley, director of concurrent enrollment programs, were recognized for their recent accomplishments.

Reese had an article published this month in the Journal of Physical Therapy Education. The article is focused on the Nate Waters Physical Therapy Clinic and discusses the value of self-contained learning spaces in Physical Therapy Assistant education programs.

Steadley was named a Community Partner for Charles Page High School for creating opportunities and removing barriers for concurrent students at TCC. For the first time this fall, the College coordinated block scheduling allowing students to come to West Campus to take concurrent classes during the day resulting in a huge increase in participation. We tripled the number of students to 63 and doubled the number of credit hours.