Welcome to 2025!

As we step into a new calendar year and a new semester, I hope you are ready to welcome our students back onto campus.  Even our returning students may bring with them fear and anxiety next week as they prepare to return.  Nevertheless, they've elected to enroll in our programming because they trust us, as a college community, to help them become the best version of themselves.  

That's an awesome responsibility, but I couldn't be more confident than I am right now in KCC's capacity to transform students' lives.  In the fall, the peer review team from HLC noted their impression of KCC as a “welcoming educational environment and a respectful, inclusive campus climate.”  Let's continue to demonstrate this quality next week when our students arrive.

As I noted in my All-College Address this week, KCC is in a very strong position and poised to make even greater achievements in the near future.  That said, we still have improvements to make, and I hope you'll accept the invitation to be a part of “something bigger.” Collaboration is among our institutional core values, and it will take all of us working together toward the same goals if we aim to make the improvements which will propel KCC to “Aspen eligible” status.  As we collaborate, too, we create shared vision for our future.

Starting this spring, then, I'll be hosting a regular “Afternoon Coffee Break.”  Don't worry if you aren't a coffee drinker; I'll have other options.  We'll spend an hour together in a small group of 5-7 enjoying refreshments and informal conversations about the work we do, our college culture, and the strategies that will enable success for our students.  Everyone is welcome to participate because we all play a vital role in KCC's success.  Look for an invitation soon, and I hope you'll respond if you'd like to be a part of an informal chat about our future as a college.

For many of our students, the spring semester represents the final leg of a personal journey toward completion of a college degree.  It's also the part of the journey that presents the greatest challenge, but our students have the support of a college community which exhibits a “culture of respect and care for students.”  I know we'll be with our students until we see them walk proudly across the commencement stage in May.