Innovating our Future - Educate, Empower, Engage

Letter from the President

For nearly 100 years, St. Petersburg College has been a valuable and accessible resource for people seeking better lives for their families and fulfillment in their careers.

In the 1920s, St. Petersburg residents began to talk about the need for an institution of higher learning to provide job skills training to local residents. With the backing of local business and political leaders, St. Petersburg Junior College - Florida’s first two-year college - opened its doors to 102 students and 14 faculty on Sept. 12, 1927. The first graduating class held 48 students.

In 1965, Gibbs Junior College, the area’s predominantly African American college, merged with SPJC. In 2001, when the college became the first in the state to offer bachelor’s degrees, we became St. Petersburg College (SPC). A beacon in the community dedicated to ensuring access to high quality, workforce-focused, SPC now employs more than 3,400 faculty and staff and serves over 43,000 students annually. More than 180,000 students have earned their credential through SPC.

The profound effect on the communities we serve is undeniable. In 2020, SPC added $1.2 billion in income to Pinellas County’s economy - approximately 2.2 percent of the county’s total gross regional product. SPC alumni contribute more than $950 million in added income to the county and for every $1 that supports SPC, the community gains $8.40 in added income and social savings. One in every 36 jobs in Pinellas can be attributed to St. Petersburg College.

The success of our graduates tells the story. SPC alumni rank first in the state of Florida for possessing the most valuable job skills. Our average associate degree graduate earns nearly $12,000 more each year than a person with a high school diploma or equivalent (and those with bachelor’s degrees have additional annual earnings of $28,500 per year).

As we celebrate our 94th year we continue to educate, empower and engage our students, employees and community through our pillars of Academic Excellence, Economic Mobility and Community Engagement and through a community of care and an equity lens.

Academic Excellence: Closing Achievement Gaps through Excellence in Teaching and Ensuring Students are Learning

• Priority 1: Support Faculty for Student Success

  • STRATEGY 1: Embed High-Impact Teaching and Learning Practices
    • Year 1
      • Facilitate student discussion on learning experiences
      • Develop Professional Development framework
      • Offer effective training to strengthen student success outcomes
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Clearly define expectations aligned to performance appraisals
      • Support expansion of discipline specific high-impact practices
      • Develop faculty badging system
        
        
  • STRATEGY 2: Elevate Student Engagement and a Sense of Belonging in the Classroom and Faculty-Student Engagement
    • Year 1
      • Implement robust Academic Integrity training for students
      • Prioritize implementation of early engagement practices
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Assess outcomes of high-impact practices
      • Evaluate metrics at program and course level to identify areas of success and improvement
      • Develop an integrated framework connecting services for students
        
        

• Priority 2: Foster Student Progression, Completion, and Transition

  • STRATEGY 1: Strengthen Holistic Support Services
    • Year 1
      • Address non-academic and academic challenges students face that impact completion, transfer, and/or employment
      • Assess student access and measure support services utilization by modality, time of service, and tools used to make necessary revisions
      • Expand technology lending to students
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Provide professional development training for faculty & staff to employ “high impact” practices that support sudent progression and completion
      • Case management support for First Generation students
      • Expand available services in all modalities
      • Expand supports to additional target student groups, including First Year Experience (FYE) and First Time in College (FTIC)
        
        
  • STRATEGY 2: Build Clear Educational Pathways
    • Year 1
      • Evaluate current pathways from non-credit to credit
      • Create structured internal pathways to baccalaureate completion
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Restructure pathways as needed for seamless integration
      • Explore micro-credentialing badges for credentials aligned to workforce needs
      • Explore new certificate programs

Economic Mobility: Preparing Students for In-Demand Careers and Driving Economic Growth in the Community

• Priority 1: Prepare Students for the Workforce

  • STRATEGY 1: Strengthen Corporate Partnerships
    • Year 1
      • Create the President’s Advisory Circle (PAC)
      • Continue to strengthen Advisory Committees
      • Conduct Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment
      • Maintain and nurture relationships with priority partners
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Enhance alignment with Pinellas and St. Petersburg Economic Development Councils
      • Respond to workforce needs through short-term training programs and continuing education upskilling
      • Ensure that our graduates are career-ready by infusing soft-skills throughout our curriculum
      • Promote our workforce success stories to further advance the SPC Brand
        
        
  • STRATEGY 2: Assess and Align Programs to Workforce Needs
    • Year 1
      • Host industry sector convenings
      • Develop meaningful articulations between non-credit and credit programs
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Conduct and implement comprehensive program audits
        
        
  • STRATEGY 3: Improve Access and Transition to College
    • Year 1
      • Remove onboarding and enrollment barriers
      • Meet students where they are – better understand challenge of entering students
      • Strategically target recruitment from high poverty areas of Pinellas
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Review enrollment funnel metrics through an equity lens
      • Offer professional development to elevate our level of customer service, increase empathy, and acknowledge biases
      • Increase enrollment and access of under-represented students in our Baccalaureate programs
      • Increase number of Pinellas County high school students in one SPC class prior to graduation
      • Review and improve FAFSA completion rates for low completion schools
        
        
  • STRATEGY 4: Enhance Job Placement and Workforce Readiness
    • Year 1
      • Establish job placement task force
      • Assess current job placement activities college wide
      • Implement comprehensive college wide job placement plan
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Establish job placement and transfer hub
      • Promote our job placement and transfer hub to the community

Community Engagement: Serving as a Catalyst for Positive Change in our Community through Key Partnerships, Civic Engagement, and Service Learning

• Priority 1: Integrate Community & Civic Engagement

  • STRATEGY 1: Increase Engagement Opportunities for Community Impact
    • Year 1
      • Define Community Engaged Learning (CEL) criteria for courses
      • Ensure all Career and Academic Communities have CEL courses
      • Identify CEL courses for students at registration
      • Enhance tracking system
      • Clarify Center for Civic Learning and Community Engagement (CCLCE) structure and mission directing college-wide efforts
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Brand CEL courses
      • Develop CEL Participation Incentives – Formal Reward System for students, faculty, staff, and partners
      • Develop and implement professional development – tied to performance appraisal system
      • Build co-curricular transcript for students
      • Measure Level of engagement: faculty, staff, students
        
        
  • STRATEGY 2: Leverage Community and Corporate Partnerships
    • Year 1
      • Hold discussions with existing partnership to build Community Engagement definitions/distinctions
      • Build database to capture partnerships
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Grow partnership base
      • Reciprocal and responding to community identified needs
      • Build network with potential employers
      • Become designated partner for state and county convenings
        
        
  • STRATEGY 3: Branding SPC as a Convener and Thought Leader for Community Improvement
    • Year 1
      • Complete and share results of Economic Impact report through planned marketing rollout
      • Showcase models of collaborative industry partnerships addressing workforce needs
      • Assess and deploy updated public relations strategies to better tell the story of SPC
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Begin 100 Year fundraising campaign
      • Spotlight SPC partnerships with the media

Employee Experience and Engagement: BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE CULTURE OF CARE AND SENSE OF BELONGING TO STRENGTHEN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT, PRODUCTIVITY, AND GROWTH

• Priority 1: Hire and Retain Excellent Employees

  • STRATEGY 1: Promote Employee Engagement, Growth, and Creativity
    • Year 1
      • Develop an Employee Growth Model, from on-boarding to off-boarding
      • Hire Chief Human Resources & Talent Officer focused on employee success and culture
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Implement targeted training for supervisors and faculty, including Building stronger supervisory skills, Community Engaged Learning, and Meeting Students Where They Are
      • Implement a classification study
      • Redesign employee review process as performance appraisals
        
        
  • STRATEGY 2: Improve Communication and Inclusion
    • Year 1
      • Establish Communications Committee
      • Review existing communications channels and committee structure
      • Develop college-wide communications plan
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Redesign communication channels
      • Implementation of college-wide communications plan
        
        
  • STRATEGY 3: Strengthen Employee Involvement
    • Year 1
      • Develop and implement feedback loops for college-wide voices to be heard (peer-networks/affinity groups)
      • Track employee perception on engagement and college success and stability
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Performance system redesign focused on professional growth, to include policies and procedures focused on employee engagement
      • Implement targeted training for supervisors that strengthens the supervisor-employee experience
      • Investigate formalizing employee mentoring program

Financial Vitality: DELIVERING THE STRATEGIC VISION USING FINANCIALLY SUSTAINABLE AND ENTREPRENEURIAL PRACTICES WHILE MAINTAINING AFFORDABILITY FOR STUDENTS

• Priority 1: Reinforce Transparent and Sound Financial Model

  • STRATEGY 1: Budget to Strategic Plan Priorities
    • Year 1
      • Develop a Comprehensive Financial Dashboard to enhance data-driven decisions, cost analysis, and budget to strategic plan priorities
      • Strategically allocate federal emergency funding tied to plan priorities
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Hold strategic plan team meetings to capture financial implications within each areas’ goals and metrics
      • Grow the Titan Fund
      • Develop and implement a plan for philanthropic support from vendors of the college
      • Create and expand our donor pipeline
  • STRATEGY 2: Utilize Entrepreneurial Practices Informed by Data
    • Year 1
      • Identify 2020-2021 Key Performance Indicator (KPI) ratios
      • Develop Budget vs Actual Functional allocation dashboard
      • Define SPC’s current overall financial viability indicators
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Develop 3-year Key Performance Indicator ratio projections to enhance strategic initiative for ratio improvements
      • Create and expand our donor pipeline
        
        
  • STRATEGY 3: Optimize Property and Technology Assets
    • Year 1
      • Perform Real Estate Strategic Master planning assessment
      • Assess space utilization utilizing specialized software
      • Perform environmental assessment
    • Years 2 & 3
      • Initiate plan based on results of the Real State Master planning, environmental report, and space utilization software
      • Develop and implement a plan for philanthropic support from vendors of the college
      • Research intellectual properties related to SPC
      • Enhance Programmatic Software and Simulations.