September 2012 Insider - South Piedmont Community College
September 2012 Insider - South Piedmont Community College September 2012 Insider - South Piedmont Community College
Community input SPCC wants to know what public thinks Next page Also inside ... • Dr. Sidor’s column • Jill Millard on SACS • Getting students on TRAC • Convocation kicks off school year • Employee awards presented • Early Childhood national certification • College and Career Transitions class • Student accepted for mentoring • New chiller for Martin Tech • New music event debuts Friday • Employee news • Iron the Shirt award • September birthdays • Brain Teaser
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<strong>Community</strong> input<br />
SPCC wants to know what public thinks<br />
Next page<br />
Also inside ...<br />
• Dr. Sidor’s column<br />
• Jill Millard on SACS<br />
• Getting students on TRAC<br />
• Convocation kicks off school year<br />
• Employee awards presented<br />
• Early Childhood national certification<br />
• <strong>College</strong> and Career Transitions class<br />
• Student accepted for mentoring<br />
• New chiller for Martin Tech<br />
• New music event debuts Friday<br />
• Employee news<br />
• Iron the Shirt award<br />
• <strong>September</strong> birthdays<br />
• Brain Teaser
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
SPCC seeks community’s input<br />
For a week in late August, President<br />
Stan Sidor and other SPCC officials<br />
kept a busy schedule in seeking<br />
input from the community in the<br />
school’s effort to continuously<br />
improve and serve Union and Anson<br />
counties.<br />
During the last week of the month,<br />
a series of eight meetings – four<br />
for the public, two for employees<br />
and two for students – were held at<br />
various times on both campuses and<br />
at the Lockhart-Taylor Center.<br />
The meetings were held to help the<br />
college fulfill its mission of “learning,<br />
student success and workforce and<br />
community development.”<br />
Participants in the employee listening session on the L.L. Polk Campus ponder<br />
their answers to one of the sets of questions.<br />
During the meetings, participants<br />
were asked to answer nine questions concerning the college’s future by attaching their suggestions on sticky notes to a<br />
poster with each question. Some of the questions, for example, were “What do you think is our community’s perception<br />
of SPCC and the quality of our programs?” and “What activities or initiatives should SPCC initiate or join to support<br />
economic development in our region?” Others were more school specific, such as “What services and programs do our<br />
students need in order to be successful?”<br />
On the cover<br />
Continuing Education Program<br />
Coordinator Deb Caudle and<br />
Union County Board of<br />
Commissioners Chairman Jerry<br />
Simpson post their answers at<br />
one of the sessions in Monroe.<br />
Additionally, an environmental scan has been developed that will be used by the<br />
college’s senior leadership and other stakeholders to evaluate key external variables<br />
that influence state and local workforces, and corresponding educational needs. In<br />
reviewing the impact of external factors such as the economy, learning, politics and<br />
technology, along with internal demographics, a strategic plan can be developed<br />
that will move the college forward.<br />
The environmental scan can be viewed online at http://tinyurl.com/cpuru3a.
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
Year off to successful beginning<br />
Last week I wrote to you about our successful start to this new year.<br />
Enrollment is stabilizing and FTE is trending up. Unfortunately, this<br />
is not the experience of our similar-sized sister colleges. Many are still<br />
experiencing significant enrollment declines because of personal and<br />
company relocations. A recent study by a regional economist suggests<br />
that this trend will continue as people move to larger cities to find work.<br />
Like you, I hope the havoc of this recession will soon end.<br />
Over the next few weeks we will be focusing on our upcoming SACS<br />
on-site visit through review and training. Please make those events a priority.<br />
Next week the preliminary results of the listening sessions will be posted on the website. My quick review provided some eyeopening<br />
suggestions from our community as to how we can add to our programs and services.<br />
You all will have one last opportunity to comment.<br />
I want to again thank everyone for placing our students first. We have a remarkable institution that is highly regarded by our<br />
students and community.<br />
See you in the halls this month,<br />
Stan Sidor<br />
______________<br />
SPCC President
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
SACS site visit coming in October<br />
Greetings to everyone! As you all know by now, SACS is coming!<br />
SPCC will be visited by a team of 10 people from Oct. 22 – 24. This<br />
is the third phase in the process of reaffirmation of accreditation for<br />
the college. The first phase was the submission of the compliance<br />
certification in March. The second phase was submission in late August<br />
of the focused report on the eight items in question, along with the<br />
QEP and other required documentation, to the site visit team. Now it<br />
is time for the site visit, which allows the SACS team to see that we are<br />
reporting openly and honestly about our procedures and practices at<br />
the college and that we are providing appropriate and effective support<br />
services to facilitate student learning.<br />
Jill Millard<br />
______________<br />
SACS Co-chair<br />
What will be reviewed during the site visit?<br />
• The eight Focused Report items<br />
• Faculty Credentialing – The team will spend time in HR going through files. It is imperative that we have official<br />
transcripts and “otherwise qualified” documentation such as copies of current certifications, licensures, previous<br />
employment verification, etc. in each faculty member’s file<br />
• Distance Learning – This includes our policies, procedures, and capacity to deliver DL courses; manner in which we<br />
guarantee quality of our DL courses and programs; parity of online vs. on-campus for each of the following: student<br />
services, course learning outcomes, and student outcomes and performance levels<br />
• The QEP<br />
o EVERYONE should know the acronym (TRAC), what it stands for, and what it hopes to achieve for our students<br />
o The current QEP team will be interviewed extensively about goals of the plan, learning outcomes, proposed assessment<br />
of the plan, and college resources dedicated to the plan, including the proposed budget<br />
• U.S. Department of Education – specified requirements and standards as seen below:<br />
o Number of full-time vs. part-time faculty<br />
o Student Services (our Student Success Division)<br />
o Qualified administrative officers
o Institutional effectiveness and assessment for academic programs and support units<br />
o Admission policies<br />
o Academic program coordination (Qualified chairs)<br />
o Financial Aid audits<br />
o Physical Facilities - Are they adequate and appropriate to support learning and programs at the college? Facilities<br />
Master Plan will likely be reviewed.<br />
o All nine federal requirements listed in the SACS Principles of Accreditation<br />
Who will be interviewed during the site visit? The SACS team will interview a number of faculty, staff and students about<br />
a variety of subjects. Anyone on the campus could be interviewed to see if they are familiar with the QEP. Faculty could be<br />
interviewed about student learning and core skill outcomes assessment and the improvements that have resulted from those<br />
activities. Everyone could be asked about student support services available at the college. In preparation for the interviews<br />
during the site visit, a number of training sessions will be held, along with mock interviews of staff and faculty in order to help<br />
all of us feel more confident about what we might be asked. Information gathered from the mock interviews will be used to<br />
finalize training sessions for each group. Keep in mind that Dr. Sidor has prioritized this preparation training as mandatory. If<br />
you are a faculty member who is teaching during the faculty training session, please see your supervisor or Jill Millard about<br />
getting copies of the training materials.<br />
This is an exciting time and gives us an opportunity to showcase our college, students, faculty and staff. We have a lot to be<br />
proud of and our site visit planning team is doing everything we can to conduct a smooth and efficient site visit designed to<br />
show the great things our college does for our students.
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
QEP designed to get students on TRAC<br />
After many months of preparation, <strong>South</strong> <strong>Piedmont</strong><br />
<strong>Community</strong> <strong>College</strong> has announced its Quality<br />
Enhancement Plan, or QEP. This plan, titled “TRAC:<br />
Teaching Responsibility, Readiness and Resourcefulness<br />
through Advising Connections,” focuses on the college’s<br />
efforts to improve student advising.<br />
SPCC’s QEP was developed as part of the requirements<br />
for its upcoming accreditation visit by the <strong>South</strong>ern<br />
Association of <strong>College</strong>s and Schools Commission on<br />
<strong>College</strong>s, or SACSCOC, in October. Once it gets the<br />
required approval from the SACSCOC, the QEP will<br />
be implemented over a five-year period. Surveys given<br />
to students, employees and faculty, as well as research<br />
conducted by the QEP team, led to the topic of academic<br />
advising as SPCC’s area of most-needed improvement.<br />
TRAC will focus on five key advising strategies: (1) placing<br />
an organizational emphasis on advising, (2) restructuring<br />
the advising process to create intentional partnerships,<br />
To emphasize the TRAC theme, the QEP team got a TRAC train<br />
going during convocation.<br />
(3) integrating technology into the advising process to increase efficiency, (4) fostering a culture where “advising is teaching”<br />
through professional development, and (5) redistributing advising loads to strengthen advising connections.<br />
The art of advising will be tackled from several angles, including pre-advising for new students through new Advising Centers<br />
and program workshops that teach students the ins and outs of their chosen program of study.<br />
“The QEP puts the focus on student learning,” QEP Co-Chair and Reading Instructor Jennifer Chicosky said. “Learning how<br />
to develop an academic plan puts students on ‘TRAC’ to reach their educational goals.”<br />
Makena Stewart, QEP co-chair and Student Success counselor, noted that students are frequently uncertain about what<br />
is expected of them in the advising process. “Oftentimes students are not aware of their responsibilities in the advising<br />
partnership,” she said. “This plan clarifies the student’s role and connects them with available resources pertinent for their<br />
success.”<br />
For more information about SPCC’s Quality Enhancement Plan, contact Jennifer Chicosky at jchicosky@spcc.edu or Makena<br />
Stewart at mstewart@spcc.edu.
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
Convocation kicks off school year<br />
SPCC’s new school year kicked off with a two-day<br />
convocation Aug. 6-7 on the Old Charlotte Highway<br />
Campus. In addition to hearing updates on various<br />
things, employees engaged in a number of hands-on<br />
activities. Above, balloons -- representing students<br />
-- float in the air as employees try to get them to the<br />
right place. At right, Al Odom, Gerald Millis, Todd<br />
Morris and Kathy Moore work on a QEP team project<br />
that wrapped up the event.
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
Employee awards presented during convocation<br />
Adams<br />
Baucom Berger Brock Broome Chicosky Clodfelter<br />
DeVitto Douglas Flake Frizzell Geddings Haney Jackson<br />
A number of <strong>South</strong> <strong>Piedmont</strong> <strong>Community</strong> <strong>College</strong> employees were honored for their work in the past year during the first day<br />
of the school’s convocation Aug. 6. The two-day event was held on the Old Charlotte Highway Campus in Monroe.<br />
Director of Vocational Trades Dennis Baucom, EMS Coordinator Robby Smith and Masonry Instructor Terry James were<br />
honored as Innovators of the Year after they stripped down a donated ambulance and rebuilt it inside a classroom to create an<br />
ambulance simulator for EMT and paramedic students.<br />
Other winners were Assistant Director of Facility and Property Services Mike Napier, Staff of the Year; Massage Therapy<br />
Program Director Mary Berger, Continuing Education Faculty of the Year; Counselor Makena Stewart, Administrator of the<br />
Year; and Printing Services Technician Mary-Ellen Frizzell, Outstanding Customer Service of the Year.<br />
Also, a large group shared the Collaborative Team of the Year award for their work in preparing for SPCC’s re-accreditation<br />
visit from the <strong>South</strong>ern Association of <strong>College</strong>s and Schools later this fall. Those who shared that award were Jill Millard,<br />
Elaine Clodfelter, Vicki Geddings, Mark Little, Suzanne Rumble, Lori Starnes, Rita Adams, Charlene Broome, Susan Flake,<br />
Lauren Haney, Stuart Wasilowski, Michelle Brock, John DeVitto, Lynn Gambon, Marci Jackson, Mark Lupton, Lauren Sellers,<br />
Makena Stewart, Hayne White, Sheilita Douglas, Ernest Simons, Jason Thomas and Jennifer Chicosky.
James<br />
Little Lupton Millard Napier Rumble Sellers<br />
Simons Smith Starnes Stewart Thomas Wasilowski White
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
Early Childhood Ed certified nationally<br />
<strong>South</strong> <strong>Piedmont</strong> <strong>Community</strong> <strong>College</strong>’s<br />
Early Childhood Education program has<br />
earned national accreditation from the<br />
National Association for the Education of<br />
Young Children (NAEYC).<br />
Program Director Sharon Little was<br />
ecstatic after SPCC President Stan<br />
Sidor made the announcement during<br />
convocation on Aug. 6. She had not<br />
expected to hear anything until late<br />
August. “We are beside ourselves,” Little<br />
said. “It has been a process.”<br />
The accreditation, which came with no<br />
conditions, is good for seven years. SPCC<br />
is one of only 16 community colleges in<br />
North Carolina to currently hold NAEYC<br />
accreditation.<br />
Maria Lander, Sharon Little, Carilyn Raymond and Trinisha Dean pose with<br />
the certificate signifying the Early Childhood Education program’s national<br />
certification.<br />
“For our program, it means we are meeting<br />
national standards as far as teacher preparation for early childhood professionals,” Little said. “These are the highest standards<br />
that any early childhood program could meet.<br />
“Having accreditation is going to do several things,” she added. “It opens up opportunities for us to receive more grant funding<br />
in other areas that will enhance our program. Now that word is getting out nationally about accreditation … I think students<br />
are going to be looking for programs that are accredited. This is just a great opportunity for <strong>South</strong> <strong>Piedmont</strong> to be in the<br />
forefront of this. It’s just been wonderful.”<br />
Little, faculty member Carilyn Raymond, Smart Start Program Director Trinisha Dean and Dean of Applied Science and<br />
Technology Maria Lander did much of the work on the self study and preparation for the site visit. Because of the number of<br />
other departments involved in the NAEYC site visit, however, Little said that “this is, to me, everybody’s accreditation because<br />
everybody worked so well with us to provide what we needed. ... I’d like to thank everybody at the college who helped us<br />
prepare.”
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
<strong>College</strong>, Career Transitions class begins<br />
<strong>South</strong> <strong>Piedmont</strong> <strong>Community</strong> <strong>College</strong> has launched its first <strong>College</strong> and Career Transitions class.<br />
The class is an Adult Basic Education/General Education Development class for students interested<br />
in curriculum programs in Early Childhood Education, Medical Office Administration or Computer<br />
Information Technology. Mechanical Engineering will be added as an option next spring.<br />
“The goal is to prepare students to be lifelong learners, to do well on the tests necessary to get into college,<br />
and when they get into college to compete and be successful,” said Kelly Stegall, SPCC’s Accelerating<br />
Opportunity coordinator.<br />
The class is being funded by an Accelerating Opportunity grant that was announced in December. SPCC Stegall<br />
will receive $75,000 a year for three years to fund the program. The grant is funded in part by the Bill and<br />
Melinda Gates Foundation and Jobs for the Future. SPCC is one of nine community colleges in North Carolina to receive<br />
grant funding for the project.<br />
While enrolled in the class, students will receive direct, contextualized instruction in their chosen pathways; intensive math<br />
tutoring; CPR training and <strong>College</strong> Placement Test preparation. The class will include components from the Human Resources<br />
Development Department and students will learn strategies for success in college.<br />
By the time the class ends, students should be prepared to pass the GED, place into college level courses on the <strong>College</strong><br />
Placement Test, be fully informed regarding college expectations and prepared to succeed in their entry-level college courses.<br />
“The whole point of this is to kind of revamp or shake up the way that Basic Skills is taught,” Stegall said. “Oftentimes, Basic<br />
Skills is taught in a lab type situation where students come in and work individually on whatever they need to work on. This is<br />
based more on a direct teaching model. Everyone’s going to be learning the same thing at the same time, which is very different<br />
from the way we do Basic Skills now. It’s not only holding us to a higher standard, but it’s requiring more from the students as<br />
well.”<br />
Stegall predicts that this is how basic skills classes will be taught nationwide within five years. “While there are other states that<br />
have been doing this for a bit, this is something new for North Carolina,” she said. “By piloting it in North Carolina, we can<br />
act as models for other community colleges in North Carolina.”<br />
Students will be tracked over a three-year period to determine their successful completion of a college-level certificate, diploma<br />
or degree.<br />
Because of limitations in space the number of faculty available, the class size will be capped at 20, but a new class will begin<br />
every semester.
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
Patton accepted for inaugural mentoring program<br />
Nefer Patton, a second-year Medical Sonography student, has been accepted as one of<br />
three mentees in the inaugural group chosen for the North Carolina Ultrasound Society’s<br />
new mentoring program.<br />
“When the opportunity came up, I thought why not do it and have contact with<br />
professionals who have been in the field for a while,” Patton said. “I don’t like to be<br />
stagnant. I like to learn something new.”<br />
Patton’s mentor will be Diane Reed of The Women’s Hospital of Greensboro. “I don’t have<br />
a medical background, so to be able to have someone to e-mail or call is great,” Patton<br />
said. “It’s cool to have a mentor of your own.”<br />
Patton<br />
Bradley<br />
Patton, 27, is a native of Caracas, Venezuela, but moved to the United States when she was 7. She moved to Charlotte from<br />
Florida three years ago. In Florida, she did account transfers for a brokerage firm and general customer service for a real estate<br />
broker.<br />
Her mother was the first to suggest to her that medical sonography might be a good field for her. But, it wasn’t until she moved<br />
to North Carolina and was taking a physics class where she had to give a report on ultrasound that she really began to take that<br />
idea seriously. “The more I researched, I thought it was cool that you could look into people’s bodies. It’s like superhero powers.”<br />
“Medical ultrasound is a great field,” she added. “When I’m with a patient and see that heart beating, it’s like ‘Oh, my God,<br />
that is so cool!’ And, you’re helping people.”<br />
SPCC Associate Dean of Allied Health Alice Bradley, who was Medical Sonography program director at SPCC before being<br />
promoted to her current position, was instrumental in the creation of the NCUS mentoring program, along with Cathy<br />
Godwin of Johnston <strong>Community</strong> <strong>College</strong> and Laura Currie of Cape Fear <strong>Community</strong> <strong>College</strong>.<br />
“Three years ago as vice president of the NCUS, I introduced the idea of allowing students to participate in the annual<br />
meetings as ‘trainees’ – and possibly even allowing stellar student speakers,” Bradley said. “As president, two SPCC students<br />
got to give case study presentations as a kickoff for the mentoring program in spring 2011. From there, the mentor-mentee<br />
program was developed. It took several years to develop the guidelines and role of both the mentor and the mentee.”<br />
Bradley’s goals in helping create the program were to mold outstanding sonography students into valuable NCUS board<br />
members, give the board diverse representation and provide it with assistance during busy meetings. The mentees will be<br />
required to submit case studies for publication in the NCUS newsletter and, upon graduation, could be well-equipped to serve<br />
as full board members.<br />
Bradley also serves as a mentor for the program.
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
New chiller arrives for Martin Tech<br />
A new chiller was delivered for the Martin Technological Complex on Aug. 22. Air conditioning in the building had been<br />
out of commission for several weeks after a lightning strike took out the old chiller, foreground. This caused all classes in<br />
the building to be displaced for the first weeks of class, but the new chiller’s arrival allowed things to return to normal a<br />
week earlier than expected. Mike Napier, director of facilities for Anson County, said the new chiller requires 100 fewer<br />
amps than the previous one.
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
New music event is Friday night<br />
Preacher Stone, an up-and-coming<br />
<strong>South</strong>ern rock band from Charlotte,<br />
will headline <strong>South</strong> <strong>Piedmont</strong><br />
<strong>Community</strong> <strong>College</strong>’s first Carolinas<br />
Emerging Music Festival on Friday<br />
on the Old Charlotte Highway<br />
Campus in Monroe.<br />
The free outdoor concert, scheduled<br />
from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., will also<br />
feature Brandon Kirkley and the<br />
Firecrackers and Steel Standing.<br />
The Carolinas Emerging Music<br />
Festival replaces the Night Owl<br />
Carnival, an event that was held<br />
annually in the spring.<br />
With a sound reminiscent of Lynyrd<br />
Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet,<br />
Preacher Stone also adds a countryrock<br />
touch to such classics as The<br />
Beatles’ “Come Together.”<br />
Preacher Stone will be headliner for the first Carolinas Emerging Music Festival on<br />
the Old Charlotte Highway Campus.<br />
A review on puresouthernrock.com says that “Preacher Stone songs feature topics close to their hearts, such as love gone bad,<br />
drinking, <strong>South</strong>ern hospitality and friendship. The band’s undeniable ‘bread and butter’ is their live show. … I guarantee they’ll<br />
make a fan out of everyone in ear-shot.”<br />
In addition to the free concert, several SPCC student organizations will have food for sale. Those who attend will want to bring<br />
their lawn chairs.<br />
The Carolinas Emerging Music Festival is sponsored by SPCC’s Student Government Association.<br />
Battle of the Bands postponed again<br />
The Battle of the Bands was postponed by rain a second time on Aug. 17 and will now take place sometime in the spring. The<br />
event was originally scheduled for last April.
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
Employee news: lots of changes<br />
Bishop Brock Castle Duncan Ekis Flake<br />
Communications Instructor Carl Bishop has been named Social Sciences and Arts Department chair.<br />
Michelle Brock has been promoted from director of Financial Services to assistant vice president of Finance and<br />
Administrative Services.<br />
Levi Castle is a new Biology instructor on the L.L. Polk Campus. Originally from Paintsville, Ky., he taught biology for<br />
the last two and a half years at Big Sandy <strong>Community</strong> and Technical <strong>College</strong> in Prestonburg, Ky. He earned his bachelor’s<br />
and master’s degrees in biological sciences at Morehead State University in Morehead, Ky. He is single and has been a semiprofessional<br />
musician for seven years. He plays guitar, keyboards, bass and trumpet, and also sings “everything from country to<br />
jazz.” He is also a Western movie buff and his favorite book/movie is “Lonesome Dove.”<br />
Geri Duncan has been promoted from director of Professional Programs to associate dean of Professional Programs.<br />
Sarah Ekis has been promoted from Human Resources coordinator to director of Organizational Development.<br />
Susan Flake has been promoted from director of Human Resources and Payroll to assistant vice president of Human<br />
Resources, Payroll and Organizational Development.<br />
English Instructor Tammy Frailly has been named English Department chair.<br />
Karen Grantham has been promoted from assistant director of Financial Services to director of Financial Services.<br />
Marci Jackson has been promoted from administrative assistant to the dean of Learning Technology and Accountability to<br />
Institutional Effectiveness analyst I.
Jason Jones is a new Chemistry instructor on the L.L.Polk Campus. Previously, he taught chemistry at Francis Marion<br />
University in Florence, S.C. He earned his B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, and his Ph.D.<br />
in Physical Chemistry at Middlesex University in London. He has been married for 11 years and has a 4 ½-year-old son.<br />
Outside of work, he enjoys home improvement projects, chess, following soccer and tennis, and road cycling “to keep in some<br />
sort of condition,” he said.<br />
Mathematics Instructor Susan Lauer has been named Mathematics Department chair.<br />
Leo Maganares has switched from Basic Skills recruitment/assessment/retention coordinator to Mechanical Engineering<br />
faculty.<br />
Katie Mayer is a new Communications instructor on the L.L. Polk Campus. She recently moved to the area from Milwaukee<br />
when her husband, Brady, was transferred to Charlotte in February. Prior to the move, she was communications specialist for<br />
Roundy’s Supermarkets and also was an adjunct Communications instructor at Concordia University. She earned her B.A. with<br />
a major in Communications Studies and a minor in Human Resources at Marquette University, and an M.A. in Organizational<br />
Communication, also at Marquette. She has a 14-month-old daughter and is expecting the birth of son in November. Outside<br />
of work, she enjoys cooking and yoga.<br />
Katrina McClain is the new liaison for the Anson County Early <strong>College</strong>. Previously, she was an assistant professor in the<br />
General Education Department at the Art Institute of Charlotte. She has a B.S. in Sociology and an MLA in Cultural Studies<br />
from UNC Asheville, an Ed.S. from Walden University and lacks only her dissertation to earn an Ed.D. from Walden. A native<br />
of Kings Mountain, her interests include writing poetry, playing trumpet and managing two bands. She also plays for one of the<br />
bands, as well as for her church, The Park Ministries in Charlotte.<br />
Susan Miller has been promoted from Institutional Research analyst to Institutional Data coordinator.<br />
Ginger Pope is a new Psychology instructor on the L.L. Polk Campus. She worked in public schools for 34 years in <strong>South</strong><br />
Carolina – teaching grades two through eight, school psychologist, principal – and had been retired for seven before working<br />
last year with a company in Cabarrus County that works one-on-one with special needs students. A native of Lancaster, S.C.,<br />
she earned her B.A. in Elementary Education at Erskine <strong>College</strong> and her master’s in Education at Clemson. She and her<br />
husband, Mike, moved to Union County four years ago and he coaches football at Wingate University. Outside of work, she<br />
enjoys volunteering for Union Family Services as a rape crisis companion and at the Tree House (for abused children), and as<br />
a literacy coach for the Literacy Council of Union County. She is active at Lakeview Baptist Church and also enjoys following<br />
Wingate football.<br />
Amanda Secrest has been promoted from Admissions evaluator to assistant director of Admissions.<br />
Lauren Sellers has been promoted from assistant director of Human Resources to director of Human Resources.<br />
Karen Elizabeth Smith has been promoted from Continuing Education lead program coordinator to Continuing Education<br />
registrar.<br />
Basic Skills Instructor Kelly Stegall has also taken on the job of Accelerating Opportunity coordinator.<br />
William Truett has been promoted from director of Facility and Property Services to assistant vice president of Facilities.<br />
Biology Instructor David Wheeler has been named Natural Sciences Department chair.
Andrew Young is a new developmental math instructor on the Old Charlotte Highway Campus. He recently graduated from<br />
East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn., and before that earned a B.S. in Applied Computational Math at<br />
Appalachian State University in Boone. A native of Greensboro, he and his wife, Ada, are expecting a son in December. In his<br />
spare time, he likes to swim and run, and in March ran the 50-mile Land Between the Lakes ultra-marathon in Kentucky. “I<br />
was debilitated after that,” he said. “I can barely run five miles now.”<br />
In addition to these changes, several employees not listed have had their job titles change without a change in responsibilities.<br />
Frailly Grantham Jackson Jones Lauer Maganares<br />
Mayer McClain Miller Pope Secrest Sellers<br />
Smith Stegall Truett Wheeler Young
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
Iron the Shirt<br />
This month’s winners of the Iron the<br />
Shirt award are Jeff Wood, coordinator of<br />
skilled trades for the Facility and Property<br />
Services Department, and Nadine<br />
Burckhalter, a systems analyst II in the<br />
Information Services Division.<br />
Wood was nominated by Student<br />
Activities Director Mike Maffucci for his<br />
work in refurbishing the Helen Goodman<br />
Amphitheater on the L.L. Polk Campus.<br />
Maffucci wrote that “Jeff has taken the<br />
project of rebuilding the amphitheater<br />
to a whole new level. When the Battle<br />
of the Bands scheduled for April was<br />
rained out, he quickly became involved<br />
with rebuilding the amphitheater. The<br />
old, brown, three-separate-stage venue<br />
has been transformed into one beautiful,<br />
bright blue stage, conducive for Battle<br />
of the Bands and many other events we<br />
hope to have there.<br />
Jeff Wood<br />
Nadine Burckhalter<br />
“Aside from installing new wood throughout, and connecting the three stages into one, Jeff was also responsible for adding new<br />
lights, repairing existing lights, running four new electrical circuits from the panel box to the stage, and creating a temporary<br />
partition for the stage, which is a very nice, king-size blanket material, handmade by his girlfriend.”<br />
While appreciative of the award, Wood noted that many others in his department, as well as security guards who kept a check<br />
on tools that were left at the amphitheater while the work was ongoing, also helped with the project.<br />
Burckhalter was nominated by Health Admissions Technician Joy Pope, who wrote, “Saturday morning I was having my<br />
morning cup of coffee and catching up on Facebook news. While scrolling down, I saw one of our returning graduates, who<br />
is taking classes with SPCC for her BSN in Nursing, was very unhappy because she could not log into her Moodle class. She<br />
named SPCC in her message and wished that she were back at her ‘other school,’ which is one of our neighboring community<br />
colleges. I immediately sent her a message and gave her the format to log in. She responded that she had tried that with no<br />
success.
“I called Nadine and she told me to send the student a private message on Facebook and give her cell phone number to the<br />
student so she could help her. The student called Nadine and everything was worked out and the student was very happy that<br />
she could get started in her class after a 3 ½-day delay.<br />
“Nadine did not have to give her private cell phone number on a Saturday morning to a student and help her out, but she did<br />
because that is the kind of customer service that Nadine gives our students.”<br />
Burckhalter noted that others in her department have also worked on Saturdays.<br />
About Iron the Shirt<br />
The Iron the Shirt award is named after an interaction in a Raleigh clothing store where a clerk helped a man who was buying<br />
a shirt by offering to iron his shirt for him. At SPCC, the award has been presented to employees who demonstrate exemplary<br />
customer service. To nominate someone for the award, e-mail Jim Muldrow at jmuldrow@spcc.edu with a brief description of<br />
a specific action deserving recognition.
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
<strong>September</strong> birthdays<br />
Sept. 1: Sharon Little<br />
Sept. 2: Grant LeFoe<br />
Sept. 3: Miriam Sallee<br />
Sept. 5: Tracie Boone, Terry James<br />
Sept. 6: Carl Bishop, Cindy Crenshaw, Emily Jarrell<br />
Sept. 7: Vickie Cameron<br />
Sept. 11: Diana Gagné<br />
Sept. 12: Tim Goosch<br />
Sept. 22: Nathan Shepherd<br />
Sept. 23: Maureen Little, Debra Winkler<br />
Sept. 24: John Hill<br />
Sept. 25: Dawn Hildreth<br />
Sept. 26: Christy Winfield<br />
Sept. 28: Pam Runkel<br />
Sept. 30: Steve Ennis, Al Johnstone, Lynn Raye
The <strong>Insider</strong> <strong>September</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
Brain Teaser<br />
A woman who lived in Germany during World War II wanted to cross the German/Swiss border in order to escape Nazi<br />
pursuers. The bridge that she has to cross is a half mile across, over a large canyon. Every three minutes, a German guard comes<br />
out of his bunker and checks if anyone is on the bridge. Anyone caught trying to escape the German side is shot. Anyone<br />
caught crossing from the other direction without papers is sent back. She knows it takes at least five minutes to cross the<br />
bridge, in which time the guard will see her crossing and shoot her. How does she get across?<br />
E-mail answers to Jim Muldrow at jmuldrow@spcc.edu. All correct entries received by noon Sept. 13 will be placed in a drawing<br />
to determine the winner. Be sure to put “Brain Teaser” in the subject line.<br />
Last month’s winner<br />
Nadine Burckhalter poses with her prizes – an SPCC apron and a $25<br />
gift card to Longhorn Steakhouse in Monroe – after her entry was<br />
drawn at random from among all the correct answers to last month’s<br />
question. The question, from Lew Powell’s “The Ultimate North<br />
Carolina Quiz Book,” was “Although best known for his television<br />
series, Andy Griffith won applause from movie critics for his role in<br />
what 1957 drama?<br />
A) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn<br />
B) Come Back, Little Sheba<br />
C) The Three Faces of Eve<br />
D) A Face in the Crowd”<br />
The correct answer was D) A Face in the Crowd.