‘Foundations of Excellence’ representatives praise College during November visit

Representatives from the Policy Center on the First Year of College gave high praise to Pellissippi State last week when they visited the campus as part of a study to develop better ways to support and retain first-year college students.

Randy Swing, co-director and senior scholar of the center, and assistant director Kathy Morley toured the campus for two days and met with several College groups and officials, including the Foundations of Excellence Taskforce, Learning Council and members of various Dimensions committees and program coordinators.

Swing and Morley also met with College President Allen Edwards; Ron Kesterson, vice president of Business and Finance; and Jerry Bryan, vice president of Information Services.

“They were extremely impressed with the level of involvement of faculty and staff with the Foundations of Excellence effort,” said Jim Bruns, vice president of Academic and Student Affairs. Pellissippi State has about 110 people on various Foundations of Excellence committees.

The representatives also were impressed with the College’s appearance and structures, he said, and “the attitude of faculty and staff and the level of cooperation between departments.”

Pellissippi State is the only college visited so far that had “all positives” as observed by center representatives, Bruns says.

The College is one of 10 “Founding Institutions” across the country that will help shape a national model for two-year institutions to develop and refine their approach in helping freshmen get through their first year of college.

The Policy Center is studying ways to enhance the learning and retention of students who are starting the college experience. The center’s Foundations of Excellence project originated 2 ½ years ago with four-year institutions across the country and is now being developed for two-year colleges.

Pellissippi State was the only Tennessee community college out of 87 two-year colleges that participated in the first phase of the project earlier this year. The initial phase involved developing ideas for improving new students’ experiences and drafting a set of standards for excellence in a variety of areas.

"Inside Pellissippi" is a bi-monthly electronic publication produced by the Community Relations Office for the faculty and staff of Pellissippi State Technical Community College, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, P.O. Box 22990, Knoxville, Tennessee 37933-0990. All suggestions and comments should be sent to Julia Wood (jwood@pstcc.edu).

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