Quiet before the next thrilling rush

It is the Monday morning following the May 14 commencement and the campus is eerily quiet and still. I know there are people here, silently working in their offices. Final grades are due soon, so faculty members are here as well putting the finishing touches on the semester's work. The campus is as beautiful as it was for graduation activities. The grass is green and manicured. The trees and flowers are in full bloom. But, something is missing. There is a void: The students are gone. The campus pulse is slower and calmer. I can almost hear the college collectively exhale and relax, just a bit. We have a moment to savor the change of pace and briefly reflect on the year past.

If I hesitate, I will miss the opportunity. That moment of calm and peace will not last long. Soon, our summer schedule of athletics camps will fill the residence hall, athletics fields and gym. Summer school is just around the corner and we expect another record enrollment. Our advisers and counselors are already scheduling orientation sessions for new students. And just after commencement, NIC hosted more than 1,200 middle school students to give them a glimpse into what college is like during the XPLOR NIC program. So let me grab this moment and talk, very briefly, about the past year.

I can truly say that this past year has been a great one. And, as it should be, it is all about our students. Graduation this year was one measure of the success of our efforts. The class of 2010 had more than 700 graduates receive their degrees or certificates. This is nearly 200 more than last year. Even with significant cuts in our state revenue, we served more students than ever before. Our enrollment has seen double digit increases over the last four semesters and it appears this trend may continue into this coming year. As an open access institution, we have purposely not limited enrollment, nor do we plan to in the future. Rather, we will continue to find new and imaginative ways to provide a quality post secondary education to any and all who wish to attend NIC.

I want to publicly applaud our faculty for the great work they have done to meet this enrollment challenge. Class sizes were voluntarily increased and almost every faculty member is teaching additional class sections. Faculty also embraced the practice of offering classes in the evenings and on Saturdays. This serves us well in two ways. It opens up more sections to handle the increased enrollment and provides opportunities for students who cannot schedule classes during the daytime. The concept of expanded and flexible scheduling has been so successful that we are working to make them ongoing options for the future. With flexible scheduling and expanded Internet offerings, we will be able to offer courses and programs that fit the lifestyles of more and more students.

The staff has been amazing as well. Every office and function has been impacted by the rapid increase in enrollment and loss of state funds. Staff is working smarter, creating new systems and procedures to be more efficient and pushing themselves to use existing resources to the maximum. Throughout my career in community colleges I worked in many great organizations and I most certainly consider NIC's faculty and staff to be among the best of the best.

At the end of May, the classes of 2011 and 2012, and all the other students we serve, now become our focus. Next year will remain challenging as we will have nearly $1 million less state revenue than last year. We'll continue to watch our spending and be good stewards of the taxpayers' and students' money. I'll challenge faculty and staff to continue their outstanding efforts and we will provide a quality education to all who choose to attend. We are YOUR community college.

Priscilla Bell, Ph.D., is president of North Idaho College. For comments on this column, e-mail her at PresidentsColumn@NIC.EDU.