From My Desk: A message from President & CEO, Dr. Aisha Francis

This month marks my fifth anniversary as president and CEO of Franklin Cummings Tech and my seventh at the college. With this milestone comes an opportunity to reflect on how fortunate I am to work with such talented faculty and staff, who, through their dedication, make our mission hold meaning every day.

2020, the year I stepped into the presidency, was no cakewalk—neither are the times we find ourselves in today. Over the past half decade, this team and I have worked together to fulfill the Future Forward Strategic Plan (2020–2025), which sunsetted this summer, and to launch the Building Momentum Strategic Plan on its heels.

In moments like these, when we've been working at breakneck speed to make up for lost time for the benefit of the amazing students we serve, it is vital to take stock of accomplishments. Yes, we seek to continually strengthen the college in other ways. Of course there is more to do. No, we are not done yet. And, yes, we do have some things to crow about. Namely:

• Re-establishing financial stability: after years of operating deficits, we've now run in the black and had clean audits for five consecutive years and counting.
• Rebuilding our endowment: after borrowing against it in desperate times, we've since doubled the number of endowed funds established and are clawing back our rainy day fund. We've realized a 446% investment portfolio increase since FY20.
• Raising funds befitting outcomes: through the period of the Future Forward Campaign, $60.7M was raised for scholarships, a new campus in Nubian Square, investments in employee compensation, and new program development.
• Bucking downward enrollment trends: from FY20 to date, the college has doubled enrollment from 550 to 1,040 students, building capacity while retaining our open-access admissions policies and maintaining our best-in-class job placement, earnings, and graduation outcomes. Specifically, we put those funds to use in lasting ways, such as tripling the availability of funded scholarships for students and increasing salaries for full-time employees across the board.
• Aligning our curriculum with industry and workforce demands: we built three new degree programs, including Biotechnology and Business Management; added several concentrations, including Cybersecurity and Building Energy Management; and built capacity in clean tech program areas like HVAC and Practical Electricity, where we are serving nearly 100 students in each program.
• Launching a co-op program that allows students to earn while learning and gain job experience by graduation.
• Creating a unique financing structure that allowed us to build our new, sustainably designed campus in Nubian Square, where FC Tech students will start attending classes this spring.

These are only some of the major highlights of my tenure, of which I am incredibly proud. More than this, I measure success by the 1,100+ graduates of this college who have crossed the stage during my time as a leader. My signature graces their certificates and diplomas, but they earned their credentials. The tech and trade pathways they are still walking along are still unwinding. Franklin Cummings Tech is privileged to have played a role in the personal and professional stories they are writing.

As you will read in the content below, my team anticipates all the good news that stands to come as we Build Momentum heading into this new academic year.

Sincerely,

Aisha Francis, PhD

President & CEO

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