During the president’s report for the Navajo County Community College Governing Board meeting, President Chatto Hazelbaker discussed the completion of the strategic plan and visions for Northland Pioneer College.
“We needed to make some decisions this fall as a campus about what are the initiatives that we’re actually going to move forward. What are the projects that we are actually going to take on to move the college forward towards those three strategic goal areas that you set about.” The three strategic goal areas set by the board were to increase enrollment, increase student success and improve sustainability.
“We decided on seven strategic initiatives and what strategic initiatives are, are specific projects with a beginning, middle and end, tied to what would get us to reach those broad goals that you set.”
President Hazelbaker also explained that these strategic initiatives are an attempt to get the broader initiatives solidified into discernable projects. He then went on to add that each of the seven strategic initiatives will have someone acting as a lead while also having an executive sponsor from the President’s Cabinet. “Each project will have a specific communication and feedback plan to ensure the entire college knows about the project and where shared governance needs to happen.”
The seven projects include, improve student intake and onboarding, develop a student one-stop-shop, restructure advising with the “Ask-Connect-Inspire-Plan” principle, complete construction of the Show Low Skills Center, re-envision the human resource’s function, develop a healthy culture/climate via training and mentoring, and develop criteria for evaluating new enterprise resource planning systems. These initiatives are currently underway, with some potentially continuing into the 2022-2023 academic year.
President Hazelbaker also addressed the necessity to plan for the future. “We really need to start to think about how we are going to come back in the fall. And I know that’s a particularly difficult conversation at the moment because of (COVID) case counts, though we’ve really got to start evaluating that and that starts with evaluating our remote positions,” stated President Hazelbaker. “We do have a new remote telework procedure that was sent to the college and the policy and procedure meeting will happen on Feb. 4.
It was also stated that during the spring semester there will be a location-by-location analysis to figure out the individual needs each place has in order to be successful. He clarified that the college will not be shifting to purely remote and telework, just for those situations it is best suited for. “I want to be exceedingly clear that the very first principle that the Cabinet developed was that Northland Pioneer is not nor will be online college. That’s not who we are.”
For the rest of the report, President Hazelbaker discussed the empty President’s Cabinet positions. “Probably the most important thing I’m working on right now is solidifying the President’s Cabinet,” said President Hazelbaker, adding that there are three positions currently open, which are Associate Vice President of Human Resources, Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Learning and Support Services.
President Hazelbaker also stated that a building on the Silver Creek campus was flooded due to a faulty pipe. Only one class had to be relocated and the building will not be usable until early April.
