To provide first-rate safety operations we installed digital video cameras throughout the campus and improved the Public Safety office. For our adjuncts, new faculty, and those seeking to improve student learning and their teaching techniques, we now have a Faculty Resource Center with computers, a printer/copier, supplies, private student-teacher conference space, a resource library, and a workshop room in the YADM Building. Also in YADM, we have created a student art gallery space that will be used to complement classroom activities so that the students can have exhibit space during their courses of study and get experience as exhibitors. Not to be left out, our Workforce Training Center now has a completed Welding suite comprised of laboratory and classroom spaces. Whew!

Not to be out done by 2011-12, 2012-13 will be focused on using what we have more efficiently and  effectively to improve student learning and achievement while promoting professional development and employee cohesiveness at the Ybor City Campus. Look for a renewed emphasis on enrollment management to make sure we have the right classes with the right instructors at the right times on the right days and for the right reasons to promote completion and student success. Look for more opportunities to involve yourselves in campus governance through the Campus Advisory Council, Campus Learning Council, Campus Planning Council, and at our first All Campus Planning Day event on October 26^th.

On the campus, there will be many opportunities for students and employees to show their campus and college spirit as well as to interact in meaningful ways. Our Spirit Days remains strong at the Ybor City Campus where everyone is encouraged to wear HCC clothes each Thursday. Please visit the Bookstore on Thursdays to receive 20% discounts on HCC apparel and extra discounts weekly by using your HawkCard Student ID. Student Government will be active throughout the year with great programming focused at developing the student outside of the classroom and to keep them connected to the college. Don’t forget about the HCC Olympics in the Spring which is co-sponsored by the Campus Advisory Council and Student Government. To further the co-curricular theme, the Student Success Seminar Series will continue to diversify its programming to include more issues of importance to students and their success in the classroom and life. For our campus employees, we will be holding a series of Faculty and Staff Success Seminars to develop future campus and college leaders.

As we continue to grow and meet the needs of our students and the community, look for that information to be online at the Ybor City Campus homepage and through the campus news link. If you can’t find your department or news about something on campus, let me know --- I want you to stay connected.

I will close as I have done before. Never settle for less than excellence. I look forward to a great year in which a focus on student learning, student empowerment, teaching excellence, campus and college pride, and camaraderie is what will take the Ybor City Campus to the next level.