Dear Faculty and Staff,
At this very busy time of year, I want to pause to thank each of you for all you’ve done to make the 2009-2010 academic year such a success. We’ve had a remarkable year highlighted by what I and many others see as a growing sense of engagement and spirit of community among our students, faculty and staff.
NEW COLLEGE PLAN
The new college plan I discussed at last week’s meeting is now on the JSC Web site. This document is the result of nearly two years’ work by JSC faculty and staff to establish long-term priorities and identify specific steps we can take to reach our goals. Please read it and think about what we can each do to help realize this vision. I invite and encourage your questions and comments.
CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER TO CLOSE
As I announced at last week’s community meeting, we have made the very difficult and painful decision to close the Child Development Center (CDC) at the end of the fiscal year. The CDC is a wonderful resource and we have been proud to subsidize this fine center for 20+ years. However, for a number of years enrollment has declined while expenses continued to rise, requiring an ever-larger subsidy from the College to operate. We tried different approaches to turn things around, but to no avail. When looking at the need to balance our budget without compromising our central mission – high-quality education for our students – it became apparent that we could no longer afford to continue this program.
We are working with CDC staff and families affected by the closure to make the transition as smooth as possible. Thanks to all for your concern and your understanding of this difficult decision.
PREPARING FOR COMMENCEMENT
Commencement will take place Saturday, May 15, starting at 11 a.m., on the South Lawn under the tent as usual. Complete details are on the JSC Web site. We will be conferring 381 degrees, broken down as follows:
- MFA: 7
- MA: 69
- BS: 46
- BFA: 13
- BA: 241
- AS/AA: 5
THE COW HAS DEPARTED
The fiberglass cow painted in a beautiful plaid design by art students Amanda Hallock and Matt Carrole (a work in progress in the Dewey Hall lounge for the past several weeks) is now in Burlington. It will be displayed in various locations (starting with the Church Street Marketplace) from May 10 to Oct. 11. Potential regional areas for display include entry points to Chittenden County and Burlington, and interstate rest areas (Guilford, Williston, Georgia, Alburgh). The cows will be auctioned off from October through November to raise funds for the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger.
Special thanks to Leila Bandar for coordinating this project and to Woody Dion and staff, notably painting guru Edson Jones, for “shepherding” this project along. More information is available at
WRAPPING UP
Thanks again to all for a wonderful year. I look forward to seeing many of you at our final events of the year, and at our 143rd Commencement exercises May 15. As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions.
Posts
2 comments:
I would like to say that Barbara Murphy has done NOTHING to support the children, parents, staff or students of the Johnson Development Center. She has refused to return phone calls, not attended meetings, and is avoiding any contact with parents. The town of Johnson supports the college in a number of ways, and Barbars lack of compassion and dedication is sickning
Just to correct some facts: I confirmed with President Murphy that she has returned every phone call received on this topic and attended every meeting to which she has been invited or informed of. She also has met with several parents and community members, and I suspect she will continue to meet and talk with anyone who contacts her about this matter. I would encourage people to not merely repeat what they believe to be true.
Post a Comment