The Southeast Community College Student Senate convened in the Student Center at 3:30 on Monday, May 14, to discuss the upcoming Higher Learning Commission visit.
The HLC will be sending a team of consultant evaluators to observe the college and ensure that it is fulfilling all criteria necessary for accreditation. In addition, they will be confirming a self-study conducted by the Southeast Community College Steering Team.
The criteria for accreditation has five sections, labeled as “Mission and Integrity,” “Preparing for the Future,” “Student Learning and Effective Teaching,” “Acquisition, Discovery and Application of Knowledge,” and lastly, “Engagement and Service.”
Tri-chair member of the Steering Team Glen Pasho came to the senate meeting to advertise the HLC visit.
“For three days in October, we’re going to have a peer review at Southeast Community College,” he noted. “What we need to do is raise awareness among the students about the self-study.”
He further suggested that from August until September, there are plans to get representatives into the classroom to enlighten students about the visit.
He asked the senate, “How do we get to most of these students?”
A suggested method was through the SCC Email. As all SCC communication is supposed to go through the SCC email, the senate predicted that this would reach as many students as possible with minimal effort.
The senate further suggested that it might me more uniformed if SCC provided a short video to be showed in class. Instructors would be responsible for showing the video during class.
Pasho finished up, stating that SCC was “having another meeting in a week, and we’ll start compiling these.”
After the HLC business, Activities Chair Heidi Spier reported on movie night, which showed “The Land Before Time” on Friday, May 11.
“Movie night was disappointing,” she said, “because we only had thirty four people.”
Afterwards, Vice President Candy Hemmer stated that membership also could use an attendance boost. “Membership has been lacking – seeing as how we have thirty senators out of a possible 150 seats,” she observed.
The senate also noted that the stickers on the back of the SCC ID cards will become obsolete this summer. The senate purchased two scanners and software to scan ID cards at events. The cost of the hardware and software totaled about $9,700.
Senate meetings take place every Monday at 3:30 p.m. in the Student Center. Guests and prospective members are welcome to attend.