In your leadership role at SJC, what would you like to focus on in 2016?
Christopher Frost: Re-envisioning each of our academic programs, to ensure that we offer every student academic programs that will prepare them for the future; increased opportunity for every student to participate in high-impact practices, especially study abroad, undergraduate research, service learning and internships; and extension of our mission into online learning and via residential housing.
Shantey Hill: As previously announced, for 2016 Men’s Volleyball and Men’s Lacrosse will be added to the lineup of sports programs at SJC Long Island. We hope to get these programs off to a successful start so that they will remain on par with the other 31 sports programs we offer over two campuses. Our focus is to stay on task with our athletic department mission of building strong, competitive athletic programs while remaining dedicated to developing diverse, educated and well-rounded individuals.
Rose Mary Howell: Since I joined SJC, I have and will continue to focus on collaborating with all members of the college community while working closely with the offices of Student Development and Leadership, Multicultural Student Life, Campus Ministry, Career Development and Engagement, and Counseling and Wellness Services to ensure that the intellectual, social, psychological and spiritual needs of students are supported through extracurricular, co-curricular and service-oriented experiences that enable them to reach their fullest potential.
Gigi Lamens: There is incredible talent at the College among faculty and staff. I look forward to a team approach of working together to support and augment excellence in our academic, co-curricular and service experiences. As vice president of enrollment management, I specifically look forward to trumpeting our students’ successes and the successes of SJC and to continuing to build our enrollment of talented and spirited undergraduate, graduate and online students.
Christine Murphy: Since I joined the College, in July 2015, I have been very clear—in my words and actions—that one of my primary focuses is to introduce and/or leverage technology to improve the operational efficiency, with respect to all enrollment functions at the College. Some of the ways that we have begun to make progress toward this goal include:
Last summer we introduced the College’s first self-service Online Transfer Evaluation System and published it to the SJC Brooklyn admissions website. In enrollment management, we have noticed that this new feature has proven to be a valuable tool for our prospective transfer students and also our academic partners (at SJC and other institutions), who are working on academic articulation agreements. We have also leveraged this tool to create a more streamlined and thoroughly audited process for establishing new transfer credit equivalencies between SJC and other institutions.
Also last summer, with the support of Dr. Calareso, I engaged my colleagues in a discussion about implementing a new integrated admissions system, which will allow the admissions office to convert to paperless process and better support collaboration between the admissions office and other campus stakeholders. This new system will allow all admissions functions, such as prospect management, application management, communication, event management, online application review, reporting and others to all be generated and managed out of one integrated system. This implementation is now scheduled to be completed in 2016.
Michelle Papajohn: In my position, I am responsible for the strategy, architecture, implementation and operation of all of our information technology investments. The architecture and operations are the fundamentals — keeping the network and systems functioning and available and providing software and tools that our staff, faculty and students need to be successful.
Strategy is the area of focus for me and my ITS team for 2016. We are engaged with the College community as partners to enhance and grow our technology to be able to support and grow the College into the future. Now, more than ever, we are communicating on a higher level with our constituents — faculty, staff and students — to ensure that we are providing them with the tools needed to move forward. We will continue to promote a culture that embraces technology, improves efficiency and increases satisfaction. We have also initiated a security campaign to increase awareness and accountability for faculty, staff and students.
There is a focus on providing the training, data and analysis to campus leadership necessary to support data-driven decision-making and assessment. We also look to cultivate innovative use of technology at the College in the future (i.e., evaluation of new technologies, integration of new technologies in the enterprise, pilots and professional development).
J. Rehmann: Since I will be returning to my faculty position in the Chemistry Department in July, my focus will be to prepare for a smooth transition in the Office of Academic Affairs, while continuing to make progress on the initiatives that have been my focus while in this position.
J. Roth: To have SJC continue to have one of the lowest tuitions at a private college in New York State; to meet a balanced budget with expanding programs, facilities and technology; and the continued discussion of housing at both campuses.
Sherrie Van Arnam: Student Life will be focused on evaluating and improving programs and services for targeted student populations such as veterans, international students, transfer students and off-campus housing residents. In celebration of the centennial, we are planning events that feature women in leadership. Additional programming will highlight current issues, as well as reflect the diversity of the College community.
