The Monday Message – RealNOVA Task Force

Last fall, our College held the #RealNOVA conference, featuring keynotes by Virginia Secretary of Education Atif Qarni and Hope Center founder, Temple University Professor, Sara Goldrick-Rab. A short video of the day’s proceedings can be found here. Vice President Frances Villagran-Glover organized this work and has served as co-chair of the VCCS P2 Task Force, which has been working to understand how the system can help close the basic needs gap facing our students across the Commonweath. And, recent data suggests this gap is considerable.

As part of our RealNOVA efforts, our College participated in the annual Real College survey on student basic needs. The results are striking: 32% of NOVA respondents reported food insecurity; 39% reported housing insecurity; and 15% resported homelessness. These students are in our classrooms, offices, labs, and libraries; you know them and the struggles they face balancing the challenges of everyday life with their academic goals. And, we can and must do more to support them by making NOVA student-ready.

As a first step, I have asked Vice President Villagran-Glover to convene a time-limited NOVA-wide task force, as a follow-up to the RealNOVA convening, this survey, and her work on the VCCS P2 committee. The task force is to have representation from each campus, and Provosts are being asked to appoint both an employee and a student and to consider the diversity of our College in their appointments. Meetings will make use of conferencing technology whenever possible to facilitate access and inclusion of members.

This new RealNOVA task force is charged with accomplishing the following three items by May 30:

· recommending a single, common, consistent “brand” for the RealNOVA basic needs services/office on each campus

· recommending a baseline for consistent RealNOVA basic needs services/staffing that should be offered on each campus (with the proviso that the services be allowed for provision by VCCS institutions)

· identifying the gap between the current state of basic needs services and staffing at each campus and the recommended baseline

The work of the task force will provide an important and essential foundation for NOVA to assure students are served consistently across our campuses and to help us plan for, budget, and raise funds to support our students. If you have an interest in serving, please let your Provost know, and thank you for all you do to assure that NOVA creates a welcoming and supportive learning environment for our students.

Best,

Anne