President’s Update, April 2018

April 20, 2018

Good morning, CF Team,

We are down to the home stretch. This is my favorite time of year as we have so much to celebrate.

On May 4, we will honor our students in two graduation ceremonies at First Baptist Church of Ocala. The 3 p.m. ceremony will celebrate our bachelor’s degree, Associate in Science and certificate students. The 6 p.m. ceremony is for Associate in Arts students, the largest group. In addition to two student speakers, we will have a commencement address by Tom Ziesemer, Criminal Justice faculty who has received the inaugural Dale P. Parnell Distinguished Faculty Award from the American Association of Community Colleges. Luther Drummond, chairman/CEO of Drummond Banking Company and 1963 graduate, will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Also on May 4, we will celebrate you. Our annual Employee Service and Recognition Awards program will recognize retirees, service anniversaries, Patriot PRIDE honorees, faculty advancements and more. The program will culminate with the CF Foundation Gabor Awards. We will begin with breakfast in the Patriot Café, 7:30-8:45 a.m. Our program starts at 9 a.m. in the Dassance Fine Arts Center.

I am pleased to share that the college has been the ranked No. 5 community college in Florida by Schools.com. The website uses a 10-point scale to calculate each school’s score in six categories: percentage of students enrolled in distance education, total cost of attendance, student-to-faculty ratio, graduation rate, acceptance rate of transfer students into the State University System and flexibility.

Please take a few minutes to complete the Employee Satisfaction Survey, which is available at this link. This survey provides a valuable measure of your satisfaction as an employee of CF. We use the results to help us continue to make CF a great place to work and learn. The survey will be open until May 16.

We are still waiting for final information on Performance Funding from the state to set our budget for 2018-2019 and expect the results in early May. While we had a slight increase in funding from the state for the coming fiscal year, the increase is almost entirely non-recurring. That means we only get it for one year. We will keep you posted as soon as we know more.

We will begin our summer schedule the week of May 7. I am pleased to say that the College will once again maintain an 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. schedule during the four-day work weeks, which will end Aug. 3. Enjoy the extra time with family and friends.

On a personal note, some of you know that I have been on a low net carb diet since last fall. My family genetics were leading me to Type II Diabetes and I already had high blood pressure. I am pleased to report that my permanent dietary changes have allowed me to eliminate all medication for blood pressure, eliminate any risk of Type II Diabetes, and lose 30 pounds. I followed the work of Dr. Joseph Mercola through his book “Fat for Fuel.” Supporting personal wellness is important to us at CF, so please let me know if there are other wellness activities and/or information that you would like the college to provide.

Looking ahead, please mark your calendars for Convocation, which will be held Thursday, Aug. 16. It will be here before we know it. Thanks for all you do for our students and community!

All the best,
Jim