January 2024

President McIff 

Hello, everyone!

The semester is off to a great start, and I am grateful for the work you’re doing to support our students and one another.  This time of year is especially busy in our office with the legislative session in full swing, and we want to keep you updated on what is happening at a state level.  We shared an overview of our requests during our recent Town Hall meeting, and I presented the information to the Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee yesterday.  I invite you to watch these recordings.  I also invite you to reach out to legislators and thank them for their support.  They fund roughly 80 percent of our budget and are, therefore, our largest “donor.”  Our local legislators, Senator Owens, Representative Albrecht, and Representative Lund, are advocating for us – as are many other friends we have on the Hill.  Please express your appreciation to them – and hold on for the next 37 days!!  The session ends on March 1, and we will report on what happens at the next Town Hall meeting.  Plan to join us for that meeting on Teams on Tuesday, March 12 at 12:30.

Ours is an easy story to tell because of you and our students.  The Cadence Choir opened the session by singing three beautiful numbers, and a string quartet has been invited to perform at the Senate President’s Dinner next week.  When others personally experience what we do here, they too can see the good that is happening.  Thank you for your daily contributions to the Snow College story.

Go Badgers!

Stacee

Finance and Administrative Services

The Finance and Administrative Services team has been busy. As you’ve probably noticed, there are lots of new programs/services/enhancements that have recently rolled out. If you’re confused about where on a map you can find the Chrome River or what kind of animal is a Kuali, this update is for you.

Chrome River is our new pcard software. One of the big complaints we heard in the past is the need to keep all the receipts for one month as you reconcile your pcard. This new software integrates with our banking system and makes it easy to reconcile from anywhere. You can take pictures of your receipts with your phone and upload them into your digital wallet. Supervisors can easily approve transactions from their phone. For training, please reach out to the Procurement office.

Kuali is our paperless forms platform. Think of this like Docusign. Forms can be easily created and routed for approval. When you get a notification from Kuali, it could be for any number of things (vehicle request, budget transaction, etc.). You have a dashboard to keep track of your action list or check the status of your items. This is a helpful bookmark to keep.

Technical Education and Industry Connections

Snow’s Technical Education news for the next few months will feature a Technical Education program.  Diesel Technology is a foundational program at Richfield having been in existence since the 1970’s as a Sevier Valley Technical Education Center program. The program is a “bumper to bumper” training and certification program that is accredited by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE).  

Diesel Technology is vital to our economy and way of life. Students earn a certificate of Diesel Technology which is stackable into an A.A.S. in Diesel Technology. Students have hands-on experience in courses covering engines, brakes, suspension/steering, hydraulics, transmissions/drive trains, electrical/electronic systems, fuel/emissions systems, and heating/air-conditioning, and complete the program with all the skills needed to pass the Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) exams becoming a licensed diesel technician.  Students who complete the program are getting jobs with companies like Caterpillar, Kenworth, White Trucks, and many of our local heavy diesel shops, including UDOT. It is not uncommon to have a student start at $30 to $35 per hour with full benefits. A shout-out and thank you to our new Diesel Technology faculty Jay Moosman, hired August 2023, and Richard Ivory who was part-time for the past few years and is now full-time.  

External Affairs

Our first annual day of giving was very successful with contributions of over $15,000- great work by our advancement office led by Cameron Brooks.

Housing in Richfield continues to expand with options for more beds as decisions are made as to how many we will be able to fill. This has made a big impact on that campus as we continue to build in Richfield.

We encourage all to sign up for the meal card available to all- a great deal for your lunchtime meals. You can get 12 specials of the day for only $50. Happy New Year! To purchase a meal card, simply visit the cashier's office.

Student Life

Student Life and Leadership has been focused on increased leadership development opportunities. Under the direction of Caden Birch, the Snow College chapter of the National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS) is flourishing.
 
Since we partnered with the NSLS in 2021, we've had 531 members join the program. Over the past year we had about 150 members join that began working towards induction. As an inducted member they have access to additional scholarships, a job bank, letter of recommendation and several other benefits. Over the past three semesters we've steadily increased our induction rate until this semester we achieved 52%, which is 12% higher than the NSLS standard of success. 
 
Our second leadership initiative is starting the first cohort of the Leadership Certificate comprised of 20 sophomore students from the various Leadership Teams on campus. Cohort members are working through additional leadership training and experience, along with committing to over 50 hours of extracurricular leadership work throughout each semester. Students that successfully complete the certification will be recognized for their achievements at graduation and will be awarded leadership micro-credentials from Snow College. 
 
This first group is paving the way for the certificate to become a Certificate of Proficiency, recognized by Utah System of Higher Education and eligible to be recognized on a student's transcript. 

Highlights from athletics include our team GPAs for fall semester. The volleyball team led the group with an overall GPA of 3.8. The men’s basketball team was close behind with a 3.7 GPA and a national ranking of number 5--the highest the team has been rated for several decades! Softball was third with a 3.6 GPA. Each team did a great job with the overall GPA for all of our 300+ athletes an impressive 3.3.