According to Community College Week's annual Top 100, Florida's community colleges rank among the top producers of associate degrees in the nation. Florida community colleges lead the nation's 1200 community colleges in six of the areas measured, including the total number of associate degrees awarded. In the state, we rank third in the number of degrees awarded, and seventh in the nation. You will recall last month we ranked third in the nation in granting degrees to minorities in the annual survey done by Diverse Issues in Higher Education. You should be proud of our rankings, because they are the result of the good teamwork that you provide to the college every day.

If you would like to view the whole report, visit here. For a list of Florida institutions and their national rankings, click here.


For many years North Campus has produced a literary festival of national stature, wRites of Spring, under the leadership of Professor Casey Gilson. For the 2009 event, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and the critically acclaimed collection of short stories, Drown, has agreed to be the featured speaker. Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and raised in New Jersey, Diaz lives in New York City and is professor of creative writing at MIT. I know we all look forward to his visit on North Campus, so mark your calendars for March 24 & 25, 2009 when wRites of Spring takes place.


The college received two outstanding grants this month; one is a Congressionally Directed Grant for the Adams Central Campus Institute for Public Safety's Center for Emergency Preparedness in the amount of $286,899. The money will allow the institute to begin programmatic activities at the center. Barbara Pippin has been working tirelessly with our congressional representatives to spark these grant awards.

The second grant has been awarded to the Student Affairs area from the Jim Moran Foundation for the College Boost program. This program serves former foster youth by providing support activities for these prospective students to continue their education. Learning communities will be developed in the program, and it is expected to serve 128 students over a three year period. The amount of the grant is $232,918. This is just another way your college is working to improve the quality of life for the residents of Broward County.


North Campus is celebrating a letter that Provost Barbara Bryan received from the FAA saying that the college has been approved as a participant in the FAA Technical Operations-Collegiate Training Initiative. Program participants will be students in the Engineering Tech program based at North. An official signing ceremony of a Letter of Understanding between the college and the FAA will take place at the August Board of Trustees meeting.


Cindy Thuma, coordinator of communications and publications in the Public Relations department at the Willis Holcombe Center, has had her ninth book published. She and Catherine Lower authored Haunted Florida: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena in the Sunshine State, published by Stackpole Books. Thuma and Lower met as editors at the now-defunct Sun-Tattler in Hollywood; Lower now works at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. Cindy also wrote Sport Lauderdale: Big Names and Big Games, released by The History Press in 2007. Her next book will be Island Cities: The Story of Wilton Manors and Lazy Lake. Bravo Cindy!


It has also been a busy time for President Armstrong, as he acts as our representative on four boards to which he has been newly appointed. Governor Crist has appointed him to the Workforce Florida, Inc. Board of Directors. The college already has a leadership role in workforce education in the state through our Career Education department under the leadership of Mattie Roig, and this appointment will support our continued efforts in this area. Florida Commissioner of Education Eric Smith has appointed President Armstrong to the Florida College System Task Force, which will make recommendations for the transition of the state's community colleges to baccalaureate degree-granting institutions. Having just gone through that process ourselves, he will have the opportunity to bring our feedback and Broward College's experiences to the board as the committee makes its recommendations to the commissioner.

President Armstrong was also asked to sit on the boards of Leadership Florida and United Way of Broward County. As you know, United Way looks to meet the human services challenges that face our community here in Broward, and he will now have the opportunity to work more closely with them in their efforts. Leadership Florida looks to meet the economic challenges we face at the state level. He am honored to be able to serve you on all of these boards.



Phi Beta Lambda students win 28 state awards
Business students in the BCC chapter of Phi Beta Lambda won 28 awards at the 58th Annual Florida Leadership Conference in Tampa recently. Our students competed with other community colleges, as well as four-year universities such as FIU, the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida among others. The team took 11 first place and five second-place awards. Twelve awards were received for third, fourth and fifth places.

DECA students win awards at national conference
Six BCC students received Certificates of Excellence in the National Epsilon Chi Division of the DECA Career Development Conference held in Atlanta this month. In addition, two of the students were among the top ten finalists in international marketing, one was a top ten finalist in hospitality marketing, and two were national medalists in the Restaurant and Food Service Management division, as well as the travel and tourism division. BCC’s Zack Larkins was elected to the Florida DECA State Officer Team, and will serve as parliamentarian of Florida Delta Epsilon Chi next academic year. Professor Paul Ricker was recognized for his 30 years of service to the state and national associations as a DECA adviser.

BCC SGA students win awards
Nadine Delcin and Sarah Murr, of the North Campus Student Government Association, won awards at the District 1 Florida Junior & Community College Student Government Association Awards Ceremony recently. Delcin received the Most Spirited Student award, and Murr received the Most Outstanding Student Award.

IPS receives perfect audit
BCC’s Institute of Public Safety, one of the state’s largest public safety training centers, was recently notified it had received a perfect audit from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Dean Linda Wood, her staff and instructors are proud of this significant achievement.

BCC becomes BC
No I didn't forget the second "C" in BCC. Late yesterday afternoon at the Board of Trustees meeting, I learned that Governor Crist signed the legislation for our name change to Broward College. Using our new name is a little premature, since it will not really be official until July 1, but I wanted you to know about it as soon as possible. To read the full story about the name change on our website, click on this link: http://www.broward.edu/student/AnnouncementsStudent/page20524.html.