Mission, Vision & Priorities

As a comprehensive college preparing students for academic, professional and personal success, our value is dependent on how well we assist students as they choose to attend, arrive on campus, gain from experiences in the classroom and out, and move to, through and beyond graduation.

On a more practical level, our budget and enrollment challenges — driven by regional demographic shifts, declining area high school graduation numbers and more — are equally tied to how well we do.

To focus on and strengthen student experience and success, greater holistic and organizational attention has been paid, and must continue, to the whole student experience and retention.

To better serve students today and prepare for the leadership we seek to attract in the future, we re-aligned some administrative areas at the end of the 2019 fiscal year.

These changes had been under discussion for some time, these included renaming the Student Affairs division the Division of Enrollment and Student Success.

Also over the course of 2018–2019 year, conversations took place about rebranding the Housing and Residence Life office to better reflect the work, mission, and vision of the office. At the start of this fiscal year, the office became Campus Housing and Community Living.

The college has given public presentations of its overall budget, revenues, expenses, and reserves. It is actively taking measurable steps toward aligning our expenses with our revenues while staying equipped to meet our mission and growing in-demand programs, through implementing the Financial Stability Plan developed in the 2017–2018 fiscal year.

The college will continue to follow the financial stability plan to guide budget decisions, monitor, update, and communicate the plan as necessary, and use new budget software to increase capability.

The college implemented a Campus Climate Action Plan in 2018. Some accomplishments of this initiative included a new Bias Response Team, new Student Code of Conduct, and the appointed Social Justice Advisory Council, which is continuing its work.

As we implemented these changes, the addition of Dr. Michelle Cromwell, vice president for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Dr. Cromwell will lead the college in understanding how integral this work is to our entire community and how we each contribute.

The DEI office will also help establish and nurture collaborative partnerships with college leadership, faculty, students, staff, collective bargaining units, the greater Plattsburgh community and other SUNY institutions.

• Implemented Starfish, rebranded as Cardinal Star. It provides tools and modules enabling faculty and staff to monitor student progress and connect earlier in the process where academic challenges may be in play.
• Enhanced mental health support services, including a partnership with Behavioral Health Services North, a local nonprofit, and Bettermind, an online tool that supplements on-campus resources. Also worked with the counselor education clinic to enhance referrals and access to services.
• More directly targeted Career Development Center resources, through both online tools and options and through on-campus seminars, coaching and open houses, to students.

• Instituted a broad-based process to update institutional student learning outcomes. Support for assessment includes a Campus Assessment Fellow, attendance at assessment workshops and sponsorship of professional development opportunities.
• Began Common Problem Pedagogy project. Approved by SUNY, it enables wider cooperation among faculty and other institutions to the benefit of students.
• Supported the Center for Teaching Excellence as a tool for professional development. This has led to increased participation by faculty. Also increased work by deans to identify appropriate mentoring relationships for faculty members.

• Added documentation to annual departmental reports of applied learning experiences sponsored by departments, including student research and faculty interactions with students.
• Grew student-run volunteerism opportunities through the Project HELP clearinghouse. Created an app called Helper Helper to enhance such connections.
• Developed additional funding streams and added application cycles to support students in unpaid and underpaid internships, as well as assistance toward transportation costs. Further outreach to alumni has also been advanced.

• Built on track record of success in active recruiting and support for international students through the Global Education Office, remaining the top comprehensive college in the system. Partners in Cross-Cultural Learning program connects students and local community members.
• Created new scholarship opportunities for underrepresented students, including a new endowment to support leaders in matters of diversity and inclusion.
• Established faculty fellows program to encourage faculty to offer more study abroad opportunities and worked with Global Education Office to improve course evaluation process for study abroad courses.

• Grew Dean’s Advisory Council in the School of Business and Economics to advise on curriculum development, area opportunities for building connections and more.
• Several 2+2 programs have been advanced with SUNY Adirondack and Clinton Community College, growing campus and student connections beyond campus boundaries.
• Opened new Center for Neurobehavioral Health, bringing together in one centralized location the clinics that serve the North Country population while at the same time providing hands-on training for undergrads and graduate students going into fields that deal with autism, Alzheimer’s and traumatic brain injury, among others.
• Nurtured several new initiatives to build connections with alumni and, in turn, connections between them and students. These include the Alumni in the Classroom Experience, Career Nights in metro area locations, and Educational Opportunity Program CareerEdge weekend.

• Launched an array of online forms to improve campus efficiency. Division of Administration and Finance includes all of its forms online.
• Broadened membership on the Capital Planning Committee. The reconstituted group helps to inform, identify, and prioritize capital projects that are sensitive and responsive to comprehensive needs from all areas on campus.
• Reorganized the Office of Institutional Effectiveness to enhance data-driven understandings of campus matters. Department chairs are taking a more active role in data activities of departments and are provided with additional tools to do so.