Vol. XXXVIII, No. 13, April 13, 2009

This Week at Valencia

Tuesday, April 14

Foundations of Excellence Steering Committee, 2 p.m., Go-to-Meeting locations - West, HSB-211, East, 3-113 & Osceola, 3-319H

Thursday, April 16

Faculty Council, 2:30 p.m., East Campus, 3-113

Friday, April 17

Student Affairs Supervisor's Workshop, 8 a.m., East Campus, 8-101

41st Commencement Ceremony

Commencement ceremonies will be held on Saturday, May 9 at Silver Spurs Arena, Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee. The commencement ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. Please allow adequate travel time. All ceremony participants are to wear full academic regalia and report to room 157 between 9-9:30 a.m. Staff will be available at the main entrance to direct you.

Please remember that a ticket is necessary for each family member, including children, regardless of age. If you wish to obtain tickets for guests, please contact Krystal Cortez, administrative assistant, Admissions and Records, ext. 1506.

Financial Services News

Under the Finance and Budget tabs in Atlas there is a Financial Services Contact Report which alphabetically list functions and the associated contact information. Please use this list as a resource whenever you have a finance related question, so we may be able to serve you better.

Updated travel forms, instructions and checklists are now available under Valencia Forms in Atlas. These forms include Authorization for Travel or Absence from Campus, Per Diem and Other Local Mileage Voucher, and In-District Travel Report Voucher. The checklists serve as a step-by-step guideline to aid the user in completing the travel form and are not required for travel reimbursement. 

To reinforce the necessity of closing travel advances in a timely manner, a revision to the travel advance process will be implemented starting April 6. Any employee who does not submit their Per Diem and Other than Local Mileage with supporting documents within 30 days after returning from a trip will forfeit the right to any future advances for one year from the date of official notification sent by the Vice President of Administrative Services or designee to the employee and employee’s supervisor. After the one-year suspension, an employee may receive a travel advance. This revision has been approved by the College Operations, Faculty, and Learning Councils.

The checklist included with the Per Diem and Other than Local Mileage form is provided to ensure that all the supporting documents to substantiate the travel advance are provided. In addition, the accounts payable staff will continue to follow up with employees on travel advances, so they are aware of the information needed to close out a travel advance before privileges are suspended. 

AAWCC Professional Development Day

The Valencia Chapter of the American Association of Women in Community Colleges invites you to its Annual Professional Development Day on April 23. The keynote speaker will be J. Lenora Bresler, a creative and dynamic speaker who will inspire, inform and challenge everyone in attendance. This year's event will be in the new Signature Building, Room 111, West Campus. A continental breakfast will be served starting at 8:30 a.m., and the program is from 9-11:30 a.m. Admission is a donation of a gently-worn business suit/dress, purse or accessory(s) for the Dress for Success organization. Reservations are a must so please RSVP to Natalie Ferenc at ext. 3338 or AAWCC@valenciacc.edu.by April 20. For more information visit the AAWCC website at http://www.valenciacc.edu/AAWCC/.

News from Procurement

VCC Procurement hosts FMSDC Chapter Meeting - On April 28th Procurement will host the chapter meeting for FMSDC (Florida Minority Supplier Development Council, Inc) on West Campus in Building 8. FMSDC is an organization that helps promote the use of local, minority owned firms in our area. Valencia has been a member of FMSDC since 2003. All are welcomed to attend. The meeting will start at 9 a.m. and adjourn by 11 a.m.

Important PCardholder Reminder - Although your credit card limit is based on your budget, the two systems-Banner and PaymentNet-are separate entities. You may have credit available on your PCard, but there can be insufficient funding in your budget.  Always check your budget in Banner prior to each download. The form in Banner to use is FGIBAVL.

Interoffice Envelopes - Courier Services kindly requests that all departments send back any unused interoffice envelopes to the mail room. Please put them in your outgoing mail box so the couriers may pick them up during their next mail run. This will help us save precious dollars as we can recycle our used ones back in the system and we won't have to buy new ones.

Paperless Society - Sounds great, but unfortunately we are not there yet. There are ways you can help go in this direction. Scanning documents on your multi-functional device can eliminate making copies. Once scanned, you can either store the electronic file on your network drive or e-mail the file to someone who is requesting the information.  Meeting agendas can be displayed on a projector or computer screen found in most conference rooms, instead of being printed. Think before you print-you may save a tree.

Sick Leave Pool Election Results

The winners of the 2009 Sick Leave Pool Board of Directors elections were Michael Bosley, Administrative & Professional; Patrick Murphy, Faculty; and Peggy Johnson, Career Service.

The Sick Leave Pool Board of Directors for 2009 are:

• Administrative & Professional: Michael Bosley, Mariann Swenson & Sherri Dixon
• Faculty: Patrick Murphy, Wendi Bush & Julia Gagne
• Career Service: Petty Johnson, Jerry Cochran & Remy Ansielo

Leadership Valencia Offerings

Podcasting 101 - LTAD 3241- There is a required online orientation for this course. The remainder of the coursework will be completed online using WebCT. Your facilitator will send an e-mail with orientation details five days prior to the course start date.Note:This is an introductory course.Faculty and staff new to podcasting are strongly encouraged to attend this workshop. April 14, Online, Registration Code:TPC101-1

Resume Writing: Making Sense of Your Career Credentials - An introduction to effective resume writing and interviewing like a professional or not. Sponsored by the East Campus Career Staff Associates. April 14, 1-2 p.m., East Campus, Room 8-101, Registration Code: PRWCC

Dynamic PowerPoint Slideshows-LTAD 2281 - Make a Flash photo slideshow in PowerPoint the easy way. In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn to make a photo slideshow in PowerPoint using the Photo Album tool. Topics covered will include animation effects, image editing, background music, and looping options. The workshop will then demonstrate how the slideshow can be saved in PowerPoint or converted to Flash and uploaded to a website using iSpring, a free software. participants are encouraged to bring their own photos for use in the workshop. April 24, 1:30-3:30 p.m., West Campus, Room 6-221 (ROOM CHANGE), Registration Code:TDPS-1

Banner Finance for Beginners - Learn how to look up your budget, create budget transfers, create requisitions and research your budget and spending. April 24, 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Winter Park Campus, Room 219, Registration Code: TBFB-4

Collaboration at the Learning College Workshop - Join Valencia's leaders for a conversation about our habits of collaboration. Questions to be considered include: What is collaboration at a learning college? Why do we collaborate? What are some characteristics of authentic versus inauthentic collaboration? What are the preconditions for effective collaboration? How do we balance our collaborative process with the need to move work forward? What level of collaboration is appropriate for what types of decisions? April 29. 2-4:30 p.m., West Campus, Room 6-202, Registration Code: PCALC-1

To register for all classes go to http://valenciacc.edu/leadership/. Please be sure you have the approval of your direct supervisor prior to registering for a workshop. If a workshop is canceled, only those registered can be sent a cancellation e-mail. To view the status of a particular workshop and to see a full listing of the Spring workshops check the Leadership Valencia calendar located online.

Wellness News

The next brown bag workshop is April 16. Blue Cross & Blue Shield will present Sleep Deprivation, Get some ZZZs. Presentations will be 11 a.m.-12 Noon on East Campus, room 3-113 and 1-2 p.m. on West Campus, room 1-212

All the current Wellness classes will end the week of April 20th. The new offerings will begin the week of May 18th so look for them on the Wellness website at www.valenciacc.edu/ wellness and in the Bulletin. If you have any suggestions please don't hesitate to contact djakubcin@valenciacc.edu.

National Walk-at-Lunch Day is Wednesday, April 29. Did you know that experts recommend that adults get at least 30 minutes of moderate activity, five times per week. If those 30 minutes are achieved in one session that means taking a minimum of 3,000 steps in 30 minutes. However, researchers point out in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that walkers can also break those steps down into several shorter exercise sessions throughout the day. So mark your calendars and get a walk in at lunch on April 29.

Human Resources - Termination Reminder for Supervisors and Managers

Supervisors and Managers of part-time hourly and work study student employees, are reminded to notify Human Resources when an employee resigns, transfers to another department, or is dismissed and will no longer be working for the department. HR will need the last date worked for the specific position number that needs to be ended or terminated. Please contact Human Resources at ext. 8033 to be directed to an HR Specialist for assistance. 

Kudos

Jeff Cornett, director, Institutional Research will compete at the 2009 MONOPOLY U.S. National Championship Tournament on April 14-15 in Washington, D.C. Jeff is one of 28 competitors that earned an invitation to this tournament based on earlier online qualifying rounds. The winner of the national championship will represent the United States at the MONOPOLY World Championships in Las Vegas in October. Jeff competed previously in this tournament in 1991 when he was Connecticut and Eastern Regional champion. Wish him luck.

Dr. Louise Pitts, dean of Health Sciences, has been appointed by Governor Crist to the Florida Center for Nursing's Board of Directors. The Center's purpose is to address issues related to the nursing shortage in Florida. Congratulations Dr. Pitts. 

Hortensia Louro-Bernal, EAP associate faculty, Osceola Campus, co-facilitated a workshop "Can We Promote Language Acquisition Through Genuine Communication?" at the 43rd Annual International Tesol (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Convention last month in Denver, Colorado.

Anita Kovalsky has been appointed by the National League for Nursing to serve as an ambassador. Anita will facilitate communication between the National League for Nursing and Valencia's nursing faculty. She will also work with ambassadors around the country to keep nursing faculty and administration informed about all of the NLN’s initiatives.

Phi Theta Kappa – Alpha Gamma Omega Chapter – would like to congratulate Elizabeth Ingram, professor of Biology and Debra Hollister, professor of Psychology as 'Professors of the Semesters' for the Spring 2009.

Nursing professors, Manny Ramos and Susan Stone, have been invited to present at the 57th Annual National Student Nurses Convention in Nashville, Tenn. on April 18th, 2009. Their presentation entitled: "The times, they are a changing" will discuss effective methods to assess, interact and enhance student success within the nursing educational arena. Useful tools and strategies will be provided to participants. This invitation resulted from the publication of an article with the same title that will appear in the March/April "Dean's Notes", a publication of the National Student Nurses Association.

Congratulations Tenure Class of 2009! The following faculty members will be recommended for continuing contract consideration at the June District Board of Trustees meeting.

Rhonda Atkinson, Education
Lisa Cohen, Mathematics
Catherine Espenscheid, Counseling
Ed Frame, Humanities
Claudia Genovese-Martinez, Mathematics
Al Groccia, Mathmatics
Clay Inman, Physics
Sean Jennings, Psychology
Agatha Shaw, Mathematics
Michele Lima, Speech
Rachid Semmoum, Mathematics
Sherrie Smith, Nursing
Jennifer Taylor, Humanities
Steve Tullo, Counseling
Allen Watters, Architecture

A Warm Welcome to New Full-time Employees

Yulisa Nunez De La Cruz, financial aid specialist, East Campus, mc 3-15, ext. 2672

Shivani Persaud, instructional assistant, sr., Biological Science, West Campus, mc 4-3, ext. 1927

Steven Thiesse, Administrations manager, Student Services, East Campus, mc 3-15, ext. 2207

A Fond Farewell and Best Wishes to Retiring Full-time Employee

Stewart Murray, maintenance technician, Plant Operations, West Campus, retired 3/31/09

Please e-mail your achievements, awards, recognitions and relevant information for the college community to Mary Jane Jones in the Marketing and Media Relations office. Deadline for submission is 5 p.m. on Tuesday to be included in the following Monday’s publication.