NOVA Campus Conversations: Manassas and MEC

The following represents an overview of topics raised at the NOVA Campus Conversation Town Halls at the Manassas Campus and Medical Education Campus along with the responses provided. As always, if you have questions outside of your campus town halls, please do not hesitate to send them to your campus provost, division vice president or to me at PresidentsOffice@nvcc.edu.

Immigration enforcement on our campuses
All students are welcome at NOVA, and our college remains committed to our mission of providing equitable access to exceptional education and to our values, including care and inclusion. Virginia has made no changes to its policies regarding undocumented students. To date, no immigration enforcement has occurred on a college campus in Virginia. NOVA has sought guidance from the VCCS regarding the steps faculty and staff should take if such action were to occur on one of our campuses. We have been advised that guidance is forthcoming.

Amount provided for employee tuition reimbursement
HR has historically tied the amount provided to employees through the tuition reimbursement program to the graduate tuition at GMU. HR will review this amount to ensure that it still is aligned with GMU tuition.

Flags displayed in buildings, classrooms and libraries
Only the flags of Virginia and the United States may be permanently displayed in college buildings/on college property.

Centralized scheduling of courses
The work of the course scheduling work group led by Provosts Richmond Hill and Julie Leidig continues and the current process for course scheduling—decentralized at the campus level—is unchanged. We know that Teaching Faculty are focused on developing course schedules that meet the needs of current NOVA students. As NOVA seeks to grow enrollment among adult learners, however, we will need to consider how to expand/change our scheduling of courses to serve these learners.

Success of non-traditional scheduling
A faculty member shared the success they experienced in offering five-week pathway courses to cohorts of learners. Such approaches may be scalable to other disciplines with similar success in attracting, retaining and completing adult learners. This particular program has a defined audience with clear goals, and NOVA continues to expand similar programs that are directly linked to in-demand regional career pathways, such as the Fast Forward program. NOVA also recently ran its second-ever Winter Session, which increased in enrollment and student success.

Adult student enrollment
NOVA has begun a re-enrollment program for adult learners who have stopped out in the past 18 months and are within 15 credit hours of earning their degrees. The college has partnered with Inside Track for this outreach and re-enrollment coaching, and seven percent of the initial cohort of approximately 1,400 students have re-engaged with NOVA. Student feedback is being used to improve operations, services, and processes. For example, students have shared that they experienced difficulties navigating the graduation process, finding classes at times that fit with their schedules and preferred campus and lacked financial resources to complete their degrees.

With the coming demographic cliff impacting all of higher education, our college continues to look for innovative and effective ways to connect “new traditional” students to the opportunities at NOVA. This includes growing programs for which student demand far outstrips availability and employer demand for talent far outpaces the number of NOVA graduates, such as in health care programs at the MEC and trades programs at Manassas, Alexandria and Woodbridge. Such pathways are much more likely to draw adult learners—as are FastForward industry credential programs.

Employee retention
The college understands that, post-pandemic, turnover has been higher in entry-level positions, and we continue to explore ways to recognize employees’ growth as professionals. NOVA has invested in expanded employee professional development, reward and recognition opportunities and wellbeing and wellness activities. The college has increased training for supervisors with a focus on supporting their teams’ development. NOVA has also added an Employee Ombuds to provide confidential and impartial support in navigating processes. At a time when many employers are requiring a return to the office, NOVA continues to offer many employees the ability to telework, and the Commonwealth of Virginia continues to offer competitive annual salary increases.

Kind regards, Anne