CFAC, the Chancellor’s Faculty Advisory Committee, has new leadership. Longtime CFAC chair Charles Errico has been succeeded by Rachel Dodson.  Dodson is professor of Business Management and Administration at Laurel Ridge Community College and notes the panel has a full slate of topics to consider, aimed at improving the lives of students and college faculty alike. Reynolds Community College Information Systems Technology professor Dirk Burrus will serve as CFAC vice-chair. CFAC is part of the VCCS governance structure. Our State Board created CFAC to be the primary vehicle to gather inp ..read more

“’No’ was not an option.”  Students who have demonstrated leadership and earned top grades at Virginia’s Community Colleges shared their challenges, experiences and hopes when they gathered last week in Richmond for the VCCS All-Virginia Academic Team Awards Program.  The event was held under the auspices of Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two-year colleges. Gray Caring for three children under the age of 8, single mom Kirstin Gray says great  support from faculty and staff at Eastern Shore Community College has been essential to her academic success. “Ea ..read more

Editor’s Note: You can view and download photos from the New Horizons Conference here. One of the highlights of the annual New Horizons conference is an awards celebration honoring faculty members who have made extraordinary contributions in and outside of the classroom. Full-time and adjunct faculty are spotlighted, along with college teams for creating innovative programs to address the needs of their communities.  In addition to statewide recognition, awards often include financial gifts to individuals or colleges, sponsored by the VCCS or the Virginia Foundation for Community Co ..read more

RICHMOND – Ana Leng, an international student from Cambodia currently completing an associate degree at Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg, has been named the inaugural Poet Laureate of Virginia’s Community Colleges. Leng was one of 18 poet laureates from 20 participating Virginia Community Colleges who convened at Piedmont Virginia Community College for the state competition on Saturday. Poetry for the event interpreted the theme “I belong.” Participants were judged based on their submitted poems, their performance, and an interview with a five-judge panel. Participants also wer ..read more

Virginia’s Community Colleges are setting out to write a new chapter in the commonwealth’s long and often-troubled history with Virginia’s Native American Tribes.  Acknowledging that individual community colleges already may have meaningful relationships with local Indian populations, VCCS System Office personnel met with Tribal leaders March 1 with a goal that our colleges statewide will do a better job of understanding and supporting Native American students and employees. “My objective today is not to dwell on terrible events of previous times, but we also must never turn a blind eye ..read more

BRCC business student Fernando Sagastume with BRCC Transfer Advisor Rajan Shores “I wanted to stay close to home for financial purposes.” Like many of our students, Fernando Sagastume recognized the tremendous cost advantage of beginning his higher education at his local community college and then transferring to a senior institution for his bachelor’s degree. Thanks to the relationship between BRCC and JMU, Sagastume also has been able to meet with JMU Transfer Advisor Kate McDaniel to work toward a smooth transfer process. Sagastume is pursuing his associate degree in Business Administr ..read more

VCCS State Board Member Bruce Meyer (far left) joined the delegation from Tidewater Community College during a visit with State Sen. Angelia Williams Graves on January 31. From across the commonwealth – often enduring lengthy road trips — Virginia’s Community Colleges sent delegations to visit state lawmakers during the 2024 General Assembly session. It was the first time since the pandemic that all 23 colleges participated in the legislative outreach. Students, faculty, and staff brought compelling personal stories of lives and careers that were boosted through new skills learned at our co ..read more

OpEd by David Doré, VCCS Chancellor, and Barry DuVal, Virginia Chamber of Commerce Pres. & CEO Published by Cardinal News on Feb. 21, 2024 Dr. David Doré, VCCS Chancellor Barry DuVal, Pres. & CEO, Virginia Chamber of Commerce [Excerpt] Virginia confronts a widely acknowledged skills gap, with about 249,000 unfilled jobs in the state. The Virginia Chamber’s 29,000-plus members, many of them small businesses, struggle daily to hire people with the right skills for those jobs. This labor gap is worsened by Virginia’s consistent net negative out-migration for the last nine years, alon ..read more

One of the advantages of being relatively new to Virginia (I arrived last April) is the satisfaction of discovering more about the history of my new home. And I believe it’s appropriate for us, as people in the learning business, to remember and pay homage to the Virginia-born historian who can rightly be seen as the father of Black History Month. Carter Woodson, 1875-1950 The work of Carter Woodson, born the son of freed slaves in Buckingham County in 1875, laid the foundation for recognizing the contributions, sacrifice, and rich cultural heritage that African Americans have brought to ou ..read more

“We all have a role to play to move Virginia forward, to make sure that our people have the skills to succeed and our employers have the workers they need.” Carrie Roth, Director of Virginia’s new Department of Workforce Development and Advancement helped to drive home the central message that ran through this year’s VCCS Hire Education Conference. Built around the theme “One System – Stronger Together” the event attracted 300 workforce educators and business partners to Roanoke Dec. 6-8. Shifting demographics, advances in technology and the continuing need to attract workers back from the si ..read more