Dear Colleagues:
I am pleased to report that our spring semester is going well due to our collective efforts to keep COVID-19 at a minimum on our campus. Thank you, as always, for continuing to do your part to help mitigate the virus spread by wearing a face covering, maintaining social distance and practicing good hygiene habits. I wanted to take a few moments to share with you some good news and some upcoming happenings:
Faculty/Staff/Retirees Ceremony Set
I am happy to share with you that the annual Faculty/Staff/Retirees Ceremony will be our first in-person event in nearly a year. The ceremony will be held outdoors on the Byrnes Auditorium front lawn on Tuesday, April 27, at 9:30 a.m. At the ceremony, we will recognize 2020 and 2021 retirees as well as service award recipients who achieved 10, 20, 30 and 40 years of employment milestones. In keeping with our current campus safety protocols, all attendees will be required to wear a face covering and remain socially distanced.
In addition to honoring our retirees and service award recipients, we also will recognize recipients of the Winthrop Award of Excellence. This award is given to individuals who set themselves apart, beyond performing normal job duties, by implementing Winthrop's strategic plan. These individuals have demonstrated extra effort and made remarkable progress in transforming the university's shared vision into reality. If you know of a colleague who has demonstrated these qualities, please nominate him or her for the Winthrop Award of Excellence by March 15. View the nomination form. During the awards ceremony we will also announce the winner of the Mary Spann Richardson award, which is presented to a faculty or staff member who has provided Winthrop University with positive visibility throughout South Carolina, the United States, and the world.
More information will be forthcoming about the Faculty/Staff/Retirees Ceremony, but I encourage you to please save the date so that you can join me in celebrating our colleagues.
Third-Straight Year at #1
I am very pleased to share with you that for the third-straight year Winthrop has secured the top spot among the 10 four-year state universities in South Carolina in meeting its affirmative action goals for recruiting, retaining and promoting minorities and women, according to the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission. This is evidence that Winthrop is continuing to meet its affirmative action goals for recruiting, retaining and promoting minorities and women. In Goal 3 of the Winthrop Plan, the university exceeded the 2025 stretch target for the percentage of faculty/managerial staff who are African American, Latin American, Native American, Asian or International. The university went from a baseline of 14 percent to 21 percent in its minority hiring. View the S.C. Human Affairs Commission report.
SACSCOC Reaffirmation Update
I would like to extend my thanks to many of you who have worked hard for months on our reaffirmation process. We have individuals across campus writing our report, a QEP Topic Development Committee has begun working to identify how we can improve career readiness, and teams who are revising -- and in some instances, creating -- policies and procedures to ensure that we remain compliant with SACSCOC standards. This is time-consuming, yet critical, work to ensure that we stay within our timeframe. I appreciate the cross-campus effort, especially in the midst of everything else going on, as this process ultimately will result in our reaccreditation. Learn more about the process here.
Trustee Retreat
The Board of Trustees will be holding a two-day retreat Feb. 19-20. We will be discussing a wide variety of topics from across the university. Be on the lookout for the retreat agenda which will be emailed to the campus community soon.
Finally, in the coming weeks we are looking at holding aFaculty/Staff Town Hall in order to share with you information on finances, budgets, plans for the 2021-22 academic year, the latest on COVID-19, and more. Please monitor your email for information on when the town hall will take place and how you may submit questions in advance.
As always, thank you for everything that you do for Winthrop.
Sincerely,
George
George W. Hynd
Interim President
