No application fee for SPC Week students

SPC Week kicked off Monday, March 18, with students touring the St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus and applying without paying an application fee.

The college’s week of enrollment events runs through Thursday, March 21, at five different campuses – St. Petersburg/Gibbs, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, Downtown and Seminole. SPC’s $40 application is waived for students who apply at an event. The events run from 2 until 7 p.m.

Students will get a flavor of each campus location through tours and question and answer sessions with employees as well as a chance to see the various clubs and programs offered at each campus. Some campuses also have planned themed events and will be offering attendees chances to win Barnes & Noble gift cards.

On Tuesday, the Clearwater Campus will hold a Campus Expo at the new Ethics and Social Sciences building and offer refreshments at The Hard Drive Cafe.

SPC Week Events: March 18 – St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus March 19 – Clearwater Campus March 20 – Tarpon Springs Campus & SPC Downtown March 21 – Seminole Campus SPC Week participants should bring these items with them to apply for financial aid and/or get in-state tuition rates.

Two campuses will be holding events on Wednesday. Tarpon Springs will host a scavenger hunt tour with a pirate theme while SPC Downtown will offer a campus tour at its location in the heart of St. Petersburg. Both campuses will be holding gift card drawings.

SPC Week wraps up on Thursday at the Seminole Campus. Tours will include the state-of-the-art Digitorium and information about new construction coming later this year. Participants can meet with academic chairs from programs such as Entrepreneurship, Digital Arts, Media & Interactive Web Design, Environmental Science Technology, Hospitality & Tourism Management and Public Policy and Administration.

The Tampa Bay Times previewed SPC Week. “Would-be students can apply to St. Petersburg College without paying that pesky $40 application fee next week, but of course, there’s a catch: Applicants must attend one of four open house events at campuses throughout Pinellas County,” the newspaper reported.

See more pictures from the St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus SPC Week event and later this week from other campuses on the college’s Facebook page.

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SPC Week: Four days, five locations, no application fee

People looking to attend the college can apply during the upcoming SPC Week without paying the $40 application fee.

Starting March 18, SPC will be hosting enrollment events at five of its campus locations. The open house events will be held from 2 to 7 p.m. at St. Petersburg/Gibbs, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, Downtown and Seminole. The $40 application fee will be waived for students who apply at an event.

SPC Week Events: March 18 – St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus March 19 – Clearwater Campus March 20 – Tarpon Springs Campus & SPC Downtown March 21 – Seminole Campus SPC Week participants should bring these items with them to apply for financial aid and/or get in-state tuition rates. Want an email reminder for SPC Week?

Participants can tour the campuses, learn about clubs and campus life, plan their class schedule, get advice about what career is right for them and speak with a financial aid expert in addition to applying. Veterans will be able to meet with the college’s Veterans Services staff who can answer questions about their GI benefits.

Each of SPC’s campuses has its own feel, clubs and programs. That’s why each campus will be providing SPC Week participants with a variety of events and activities unique to that location.

• The St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus event will take place to a ’70s theme. Hourly tours will be offered, and attendees will be able to visit of the campus’ Music Industry Recording Arts (MIRA) studio and SPC’s MYRA radio station. Participants can stop by Retro Joe’s on the second floor of the library between noon and 2 p.m. for free coffee, snacks and root beer floats. They also can attend a MIRA performance at the campus’ Student Services building. During the event, there will be drawings for six Barnes & Noble $50 gift cards.

• At the Clearwater Campus, SPC Week participants will be able to explore the college’s various degrees and departments at a Campus Expo in the campus’ new Ethics and Social Sciences building. Sample refreshments will be provided by The Hard Drive Cafe. The campus tour will include stops at the Learning Resource Commons, Crossroads Gallery, the high-tech Collaborative Center for Emerging Technologies and the Writing Studio.

• The Tarpon Springs Campus will host a scavenger hunt tour with a pirate theme during its SPC Week event. Attendees will be greeted with music, popcorn and snacks, then given a map of the campus. The scavenger hunt tour will include stops at the College of Education, Cafe Olympus, the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, the campus’ soccer fields and the Wellness Center. Applicants will be registered to win one of three $50 Barnes & Noble gift cards.

• SPC Downtown will be offering a tour of its campus, located in the heart of St. Petersburg. It is housed with the SPC Downtown Arts Cultural Center and within walking distance of all of the area’s numerous restaurants, theaters and other cultural venues. For SPC Week, the campus has reached out to area GED programs to notify potential students about the opportunities available at SPC Downtown. A drawing for a Barnes & Noble gift card also will be held.

• Highlights from the Seminole Campus SPC Week event will include guided tours of the campus’ Learning Commons, specialized classrooms, TV Studio and state-of-the-art Digitorium, plus information about new construction coming in June 2013. The event also will include hourly drawings for gift cards and SPC Theme gifts. Participants will be able to meet with academic chairs and faculty to learn more about the campus’ programs, specifically:

• Entrepreneurship Program
• Digital Arts, Media & Interactive Web Design
• Environmental Science Technology
• Hospitality & Tourism Management
• Public Policy and Administration

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SPC Midtown walks for health and campus promotion

Cynthia Jolliff-Johnson, Midtown Associate Provost and Heather Disler, SPC Downtown/Midtown Wellness Advisory Board member, organized the 1st Walk with the Provost event at SPC Midtown on Dec. 7.

While in the surrounding Midtown neighborhood they dropped off door hang tags and talked with residents about the upcoming Midtown Open House planned for Dec. 13. Representatives from Enrollment Management, Advising, Financial Aid, Career Services, Learning Resources and Student Life & Leadership will be on hand to answer students’ questions and help them enroll at SPC!

Read more about the walk on the SPC Wellness blog.

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SPC’s VP of Academic and Student Affairs interviewed about enrollment

Bay News 9 recently interviewed Tonjua Williams, Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs, about the decrease in enrollment at SPC. Dr. Williams discussed how more students are taking fewer courses at the college. The economy is an issue impacting enrollment, she said. Since it is a trend the college expects will continue at least for awhile, she said that SPC is working on strategies to reach out to students who often are working more than one job to pay bills and trying to juggle both employment and school. Like other institutions, SPC is offering more certificate programs to help students get back in the workforce as quickly as possible, she said.

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SPC’s new Student Ambassador program looking for students

SPC’s Enrollment Management department is seeking six student ambassadors who will work to provide future students with a knowledge and understanding of college life.  To be selected as a student ambassador is a unique opportunity and privilege. Student ambassadors will serve as key members of the recruiting staff by attending college-wide functions as well as community events and will be held to a high standard of performance.

 Student ambassador requirements:

• Work no more than 15 hours per week.
• $10 per hour.
• At least 12 credit hours completed at SPC.
• Cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher must be maintained.
• Must pass  75% of the courses  attempted each term.
• Must be enrolled in a minimum of six credits each term.

Qualified, interested students should apply to the openings on our student employment website.  If you have questions, please  contact Gordon Hall-Recruiter, hall.gordon@spcollege.edu or Alisha Vitale-Director of Enrollment Management, vitale.alisha@spcollege.edu

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Enrollment drops slightly for Spring

SPC had 32,222 credit students enrolled at the end of the first week of Spring classes of 2012, a drop of 1.4 percent over Spring 2011.

Monday marked the start of the traditional Spring term, but the college offers additional opportunities in the coming weeks. Express classes start Feb. 6 and the second session of Modmester classes begins March 12.

Express classes are 12 weeks, while Modmesters offer eight-week classes.

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Enrollment up 4.1 percent for fall

The 2011-12 academic year began Monday with record-breaking enrollment again.

Overall enrollment is up 4.1 percent, which translates to 33,938 students – the most ever enrolled at one time. Last year, fall enrollment grew almost 11 percent with 32,132 students.

This is the 11th year in a row the college’s fall enrollment has increased. The increases started in 2000-01 when enrollment was 17,061.

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Summer enrollment climbs 5.8 percent

Summer term started Monday at St. Petersburg College and enrollment was up 5.8 percent over the same period last year.

This year 18,923 students are enrolled compared to 17,878 last summer.

Bachelor’s degree program enrollment is up 11.8 percent to 1,391.

The increases are in line with enrollment in the last year. Spring enrollment was up 8.6 percent and fall enrollment climbed 13.8 percent.

“The academic and instructional excellence of the college remains a strong draw for those who seek postsecondary education,” President Bill Law said. “In tough economic times like these, we’re also the beacon for those who have lost their jobs and who feel the need to get additional education to face the challenges of the global economy.”

Registration for fall begins June 2; fall classes start Aug. 22.

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St. Pete TIMES: SPC deals with increasing enrollment

The Sunday edition of the St. Petersburg TIMES carried an article about how St. Petersburg College is dealing with increasing enrollments.

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St. Petersburg College’s efforts in minority recruitment appear to be paying off

  The number of minority students enrolled at St. Petersburg College has grown significantly in the past year — at rates much greater than those of white students.

The number of African-American students enrolled at the college in the spring term that began Jan. 10 increased by almost 27 percent from the spring 2010 term.

 The number of Hispanic students grew by 20.5 percent over the same period.

 This compares to a growth of 3.4 percent among white students. Overall enrollment for the same period increased 8.6 percent.

Minority students now represent about a quarter of all St. Petersburg College students.

About 85 percent of all students who were enrolled in the fall term returned for the spring. Minority students returned at or above that rate.

 “The college has worked hard to attract and keep minority students, and to encourage their academic success,” President Bill Law said. “This is an indication that those efforts are paying dividends.”

 Tonjua Williams, Associate Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs, said the focus is on the student experience and the feeling that students do better when they feel connected to the college and its support services.

“If the student experience is positive and they are actively engaged in their learning, they are more likely to achieve their goals,” she said.

Patrick Rinard, Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management, said the college has instituted a number of programs over the years that have been designed to encourage students to enroll and then finish the academic programs they have started. The new numbers, he said, indicate that those programs have been working.

“We are communicating with students throughout the term, encouraging them to finish,” Rinard said. “We offer a variety of services — tutoring and support services, for example — and we encourage the students to take advantage of them. It is a collective effort from everyone at the college to help students finish what they start.”

 SPC and other schools have worked for years to attract higher numbers of non-white students. Colleges throughout the country face the same challenge of keeping students enrolled through graduation.

SPC has a long record of special efforts to keep students in school through graduation.  It founded Women on the Way many years ago as a way of encouraging women to seek and complete college degrees. That effort has been so successful that the college recently founded Men Achieving Excellence (MAX), an effort aimed at boosting male enrollment.

A predecessor to MAX was Brother to Brother, an organization designed for black male students. Dedrick Woodard, who works for the college in the computer lab at the Midtown Center, belonged to Brother to Brother when he was working on his associate degree several years ago. He found it helpful to his academic success.

 “One thing I noticed was when students became aware of the resources and they felt comfortable about going there, they did better,” Woodard said. “They had an awareness that the program was for them. I know I realized that. Brother to Brother let me know that for sure. There was a room set aside for me – it was my special place to come and study or print things out. It altered my reality of the college experience.”

Student retention through graduation is a problem that has gained attention at the highest levels. Last year, President Obama set an ambitious goal for the country: to have the highest college graduate rates in the world by 2020. Currently, the U.S. is ranked seventh among adults 18 to 34 who are enrolled in college. Improving those numbers is difficult if significant segments have retention rates that lag behind the average.

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