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
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.
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.
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 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.
Please join us in welcoming the following to the Snow College family:
NamePosition| Audrey MacNeil | Adjunct Theatre |
| Natalie Vogel | Part-Time Purchasing Specialist |
| Tad Spencer | Adjunct Geology |
| Joel Warren | Adjunct Geology |
| Mandy Terry | Adjunct Dance |
| Rawlin Bagnall | Adjunct Education |
| Teresa Allred | Adjunct ESL |
| Bob Conder | Adjunct Theatre |
| George Stermer | Adjunct Physical Education Richfield Campus |
| Lilly Nay | First Aid & CPR Richfield Campus |
| Jacob Michie | Maintenance Generalist Ephraim Campus |
| Brent Dickie | Civil Rights Investigator Ephraim Campus |
| Erik Wright | Grounds Technician Ephraim Campus |
| Hannah Ostraff | Part-Time Advancement Administrative Assistant |
The following employees are working in new positions:
NamePosition| Nate Bradley | Alumni Relations Officer |
| Amy Dickie | Accounts Payable Manager |
| Yisel Jimenez | Staff Accountant |
Happy New Year from Student Success! We are excited about several initiatives that have been a priority for the past several semesters. We recently restructured the success coach positions into advisor positions. This will reduce advisor caseloads to near nationally recommended levels. This will also help us move toward a mandatory advising model.
Advisors have been hard at work getting every student an education plan in Degree Works to help meet the aspirational statement that each student will have a "plan for the future".
We have also seen amazing usage of the college scheduler tool for students. Students can now build a complete, conflict-free schedule in just a couple of minutes with minimal input from an advisor. This enables advisors to build the plans that guide student registration. We had 4004 new users and 19,007 logins to scheduler in 2023!
We hope you have a great spring semester!
About 60 new staffers completed the CliftonStrengths assessment this month, and nearly 100 of us gathered recently to learn more about how our unique talents can support our teams. Next month, the Professional Development Committee will host Jared Wilcken of SUU to teach us the Importance of Play.
More than 25 staff were nominated for Employee of the Semester. Chair Denise Tippets and her committee are planning a special event so all staff may join in Ephraim or in Richfield to announce and recognize the winners, and enjoy food and good company.
Join us February 13 when the Welcome & Events Committee hosts a staff Valentine's Party at both campuses. It will be potluck lunch and Bingo in Richfield. Ephraim will have potluck, bingo and skating.
The Government Relations Committee will keep us informed of all the news coming from
the Utah Legislature this session through email update from Utah System of Education
tracking all the bills considered, passed and signed.
Representing all part-time and full-time staff, see our event dates, committee membership,
and more at snow.edu/staff. “Together we can do Snow much!”
We want to share your story! We know that many positive things are happening across campus—many of which are never noticed outside your department. Let us help you toot your horn! Request a press release (PR) by using our new and improved marketing service request form. Not sure if your idea would qualify for a PR? Submit it, and we will talk about how to best spread the news.
Here are just a few of the types of things we are looking for:
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.
