Message from President Tracy D. Hall

Dear Faculty and Staff:

We are having an outstanding semester!  Enrollment and retention rates are up 10 percent and 7 percent, respectively, as well as the number of credentials awarded earlier this year was higher by more than 20 percent.  We are truly Achieving the Dream (ATD)!

Our ATD efforts for the past 18 months have focused on strengthening our institutional capacity to better serve our students, community and business and industry partners. We began by concentrating on improving the student experience through the reorganization of our Student Affairs division and implementing what Vice President for Student Affairs Jacqueline Faulkner describes as a “high-touch” approach to enrollment management and advising.  The numbers don’t lie:  ATD is bearing the fruit we hoped and planned it would.  And we are moving forward.  Our next focus will be on Academic Affairs where we will examine teaching and learning.  As before, we will not dance around the edges, but will dive deeply into assessing and addressing our students’ needs as they relate to courses, programs and credentials offered and more.  I am looking forward to this process. Thank you to the members of the ATD team who are helping Southwest improve and increase its impact as an integral member of the Mid-South higher education landscape.

Speaking of the Mid-South, when the Tennessee Board of Regents visited the College for its quarterly board meeting in September, the regents bestowed high praise, describing the two-day meeting as the “Gold Standard”.  Thank you to the entire committee for such outstanding work—from the business meeting to the tours of our campus and Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Memphis (T-CAT Memphis) to the concert/party/tour at the National Civil Rights Museum, everything was smooth and polished. Teamwork was further on display when I, with TCAT-Memphis President Roland Rayner, presented “Together Mid-South” where we shared a video and provided insight into how our two institutions collaborate to educate Mid-Southerners.

The saying “teamwork makes the dream work” is true at Southwest.  Two new members joined the senior staff in recent months. They are Dr. Richard Plott (Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness) and Daphne J. Thomas (Executive Director for Communications, Marketing and Community Relations). We also have brought on board new deans, executive directors and other team members throughout the organization who are listed in this month’s publication.  Please join me in welcoming all of them to the Southwest family.

Best wishes for continued success!
With Saluqi Pride,