President Ramsammy encourages faculty to be “all in” at his first All-College Meeting
By: Omsalama Ayoub
Staff Writer
President Roger Ramsammy began his first All College Meeting by inviting everyone standing in the back of the room to come have a seat in the front- reflecting the central idea of the meeting he called, “all in.”
“I can tell you this is the one thing that I am going to be [making sure of] with every policy that comes before me: I will always be putting my students first,” Ramsammy said.
The All College Meeting is an annual event where the president of the college talks about the state the college is in. The President will usually talk about upcoming changes to the campus.
For the first time the meeting featured animations and a live polling system called Poll Everywhere to engage the audience.
The meeting that had traditionally centered around the president of the college talking to the faculty about what was going on turned into a brainstorm session on how to improve the student experience.
“When all the hard work is done, our students are in the hands of our faculty. It takes [many] days and nights for them to put together the materials that keep our students grounded,” Ramsammy said.
“Hudson Valley has fallen behind the SUNY average in terms of student retention,” opening speaker and Supervisor of Video and Multimedia, Scott Freedman had said before Ramsammy had walked onto the stage.
Ramsammy pointed out that many big universities get students who come out of High School very prepared for college while Hudson Valley gets a spectrum of students. “Just because they are not prepared, does that mean that we should not give them the same support as someone who is doing well?”
The audience was polled for ideas on how to get student retention up. Most of the ideas proposed by faculty revolved around being more understanding and available to students who are struggling.
“We are at a challenging time and moment… our student population is decreasing. We have to do our best by appropriately advising them and engage the students,” Dr. Fabian Vega the Dean of Liberal Arts and Science said after the meeting.
Criminal justice Professor, Michael Such, a criminal justice professor, said that he had struggled his first semester when he was at Hudson Valley.
“Our students arrive on campus with obstacles well-beyond our capabilities, but I want you to know, I am an alum. I remember my first semester on this campus I swear to all of you my midterm grades in the fall of 1975 were four Ds and an F… College is an adjustment,” Such said.
As an assistant professor almost forty-five years later, Mr. Such places himself in his student’s shoes whenever he notices students begin to slip with deadlines and help them find direction.
“Our student body is very transitional. If we can establish a relationship with the students early on and engage them in a conversation and see where their interests and struggles are at [we can reach] retention. The larger goal is to help students achieve their goal,” Vega said.