December 2022

President McIff 

Welcome back to another semester!  I hope you enjoyed a wonderful holiday with friends and family. Our Snow College family has experienced a heavy start to the semester. As we heard the devasting news of Paige’s death, I felt such sadness for her family, her team, her classmates, her peers, her teachers, and all of you who know her. Anyone who knew Paige — from faculty to teammates to coaches to classmates — can’t say enough about her light, her kindness, and her capability. Faculty have commented on her noticeable absence in class, even after having been together for only a week. A tragedy like this impacts all of us because we are a family, and there is no better work family in the world. Like any supportive family, we are here for one another in good times and hard times.

Jane Howard, an English novelist, said, “Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." We do need one another, and I want to thank you for what you do. Over the past few days, the individual and personalized Snow College care we often talk about has been evident. Employees stopping to help at the accident scene without knowing who was involved, staff working on a holiday and subsequent evenings to support students, leaders opening their homes and feeding the team, grieving softball players delivering flowers to their coaches, and faculty discussing the fragility of life with students are just a few of the acts I know about personally. I offer my sincere appreciation to all of you.

We recognize there are several who are hurting and reflecting this week. We love you, and we support you. Our Wellness Center is ready to help anyone who would like to talk. As you read about all of these exciting happenings in the newsletter (which was compiled before Monday’s accident), we hope you are proud to be part of the Badger Family. There is a lot of good happening here; thanks for being an important member of the family.

Stacee

Finance and Administrative Services

It’s always nice to have the students returning to campus. During the break, many offices have been updating things to ensure that processes and systems are improved. IT has improved some of the backend servers that will result in more stability and hopefully faster speeds. The finance team continues to improve the new chart of accounts. The teams in the Finance and Administrative Services area want to help all departments across campus be successful. If there are issues with a service (IT, human resources, finance, risk management, Title IX, safety, purchasing, facilities, institutional effectiveness), please reach out. We don’t want people to feel like they have to suffer in silence. I also want to give a big shout-out to our facilities team. During the break, this team worked hard on evenings and weekends to make sure that campus was cleared and safe. Snow College’s success is a team effort, so take time to recognize those that often work behind the scenes. The same advice that Chief Walk would give, goes for all services: if you see (or don’t see and yet need) something, say something.  

Technical Education and Industry Connections

We want to highlight industry partnerships that Snow’s Tech Ed programs have in our service area. Industry partnerships connect our students to work experience, and employment opportunities, provide current employees with upskilling for increased employment opportunities, advise program and shop/lab equipment for relevancy, equipment and supply donations, and are solid partners for successful grant work.

• Industrial Mechanics: Great Lakes Cheese, Bronco Mine, SUFCO Mine, Owens Corning  
• Composites: Fierce Firearms, ACT Aerospace, Christensen Arms, General Atomics, Klune
• Machine Tool: Fierce Firearms, ACT Aerospace, Christensen Arms, Klune, Floserve, Mad Dog Knives, Ash Grove Cement, Design Line Tool 
• Welding: Nielsen’s Arc Service, Aurora Welding, Mountain Country Equipment, Design Line Tool, Ash Grove Cement, CO Builders, Barclay Mechanical, SFC Welding 
• HVAC/ACHR: SR Mechanical, Hills Heating and Air, Utah Duct Sealing
• Diesel: Eaton Transmissions, Cummins, Kenworth, Barney Trucking, Hales/Staker Parsons, Wheeler
• Auto: Jorgensons, High Country Auto, Midstate Jeep, Brian Auto, Mikes Auto Clinic
• CIS: Networking and Cybersecurity, Jones & DeMille Engineering, QA Automation Engineering, and beginning a partnership with SUU to establish registered apprenticeships for numerous employment opportunities. 
• Health Professions (Nursing, CNA, EMT, MA): all medical providers throughout the area for work-based learning (clinicals, hours) for all students.

Academic Affairs

When we introduced Foundations into our GE curriculum, we knew the course was innovative and something few institutions could attempt. We did not anticipate some of the responses: faculty claim it is one of their favorite courses to teach and that it has changed the way they look at their own discipline; colleagues at other institutions are envious and want to know the details of “how.”

The “how” is tricky, and we are continually trying to improve the course. This interdisciplinary, multi-teacher approach is new for us too, and we have recently updated outcomes and created guidelines to ensure more consistency. Most exciting, though, is the addition of the Foundations Fair, and the inclusion of micro-credentials. Of the course, students regularly claim that it helps them understand the value of GE, make connections between disciplines, and establish a foundation for being a lifelong learner.

Snow’s Foundation program will be featured prominently at the National FYE Conference in February. Four sessions focus specifically on our Foundations courses. Two teams have previously presented at national conferences and both received overwhelmingly positive responses.

Because Foundations is illustrative of the innovative and personalized work we do as an institution every single day, it is easy for us to miss the impact. We often minimize the groundbreaking and important work we are doing as a small institution in Central Utah, but the response at these national conferences reminds us that the work we do is extraordinary.

Enrollment Management

The Office of Admissions has been working diligently to implement our Student Search and Engagement contract to help us effectively reach more students and parents. With this contract, we have access to several best-of-breed solutions, such as ZeeMee and Campus ESP. These two services allow us to reach out to students and parents in various ways and use automation to make it happen! While it is a lot of work at the beginning, we will reap the benefits of better and more frequent communication with the students AND parents in our funnel!

Student Life

During fall semester Student Life conducted a series of activities and programs to help students become acclimated and active on campus. Also, Student Body Officers and Advisors organized and executed recreational and academic activities in a safe environment. This semester, Student Life was able to fulfill the goal of providing the student body with 2 activities per week. Not only this, but data shows that students participated more in activities than the previous year. As a result, we are proud to mention that Student Life has successfully maintained and increased student engagement.

This semester Student Life has the goal of not only maintaining student engagement but encouraging them to become the leaders of tomorrow and bring positive change to our campus. We plan to accomplish this by providing students with the necessary tools to represent their voices. Student Life wants each student to know they belong and there is no better path to success than being a Badger.