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Colleges Share Their Caring Campus
Stories From The Field
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Fifty seven colleges across the United States are reaching out to their students as part of their Caring Campus efforts, making sure they remain connected as colleges continue to work remotely. Increased connection equals increased success. Faculty, staff, and administrators, even during these novel Covid-19 times, are all playing important roles in this effort. Many are sharing their success stories. We are sharing them with you and hope you are as inspired and energized by their experiences as we are at IEBC.
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Brad C. Phillips, President & CEO
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Jordan E. Horowitz, Chief
Operating Officer
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Maysville Community and Technical College Shares its Spirit of Caring With The Community
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The Maysville Cares Day 2020 helped create a culture of caring
extending into the community.
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When Maysville Community and Technical College experienced the benefits of the Caring Campus program, the college wanted to extend its message of caring to the entire community beyond the limits of the college campus itself. The college created a community services program called "Maysville Cares Day 2020."
Jessica Kern, Chief Officer of Enrollment and Student Services, said "We quickly realized creating a culture of caring extends beyond our relationship with our students. Ultimately, how do we interact with the people in the communities we serve? Ninety employees went out to 25 organizations including food pantries, high schools, hospitals, nursing homes, hospices and animal shelters. It was a great team building day for everyone. Everyone was so excited when they came back to campus... that's what our students want to feel from us."
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Caring Campus: In Their Own Words
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"I'm a locksmith. One day I was working on a lock and noticed a young woman in the parking lot very upset. I walked over to her and introduced myself, and asked if I could help. She was crying and said she couldn't get the parking permit meter to work and she was late to her final. So I helped her get her permit. Then I asked her if she wanted a lift to her final, which was in a building across campus. I put her in my cart and drove her over there so she wouldn't be even later. Before Caring Campus, I would have looked over my shoulder and thought, '
Wow, she's upset' and gone back to work. But it was great to know I helped this student succeed, and I felt great about it too.
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"I work in academic counseling. After Caring Campus, we decided to open the door to the suite during the first few days of each quarter and put up a handwritten sign saying to come in if you need any help. We usually get about one student each quarter walking in and asking for some assistance. But now, we had five to ten students each day coming in asking for help finding their courses, making sure they were registered for the right course, and some were even there because the college course schedule isn't written in a way that's easy to understand. Just opening the d
oor helped a bunch of students.
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"Like most colleges, our faculty have office hours. One day I was talking with one of my students who was not doing well in the course. I asked why she didn't come to me during office hours to get some help. She said she thought office hours meant the teacher was in their office working on things, and wasn't supposed to be bothered. We changed the name from 'office hours' to 'student hours.' That little change made a difference. We forget sometimes that students, especially first-generation students, are not aware of the language and ways of colleges."
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Caring Campus Helps Students Navigate Online Education in the Pandemic Environment
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"One benefit of this pandemic is the mass realization that online campuses are real, and they exist. It was nice for me to see a training program redirecting all ideas for Caring Campuses to the care for students enrolled in online campuses.
"The authors of the Caring Campuses used SMART design to train employees on how to support students who are everywhere at all times. Soft skills required for helping students online are not obvious. The authors used a discovery method to allow the participants to act like researchers of a pilot study.
"Having the framework and the indicators of success, the rest was up to us."
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IEBC President Brad C. Phillips:
IEBC COO Jordan E. Horowitz:
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