STRENGTHS: What RCC does well.

• Caring, dedicated, and expert faculty and staff members
• Employee involvement with student learning activities
• Employee involvement in the community
• Strong leadership with integrity and vision
• Institutional commitment to professional development
• Goodwill, respect, and recognition in the community/region
• Outstanding technology, support, and distance learning
• Workforce outreach programs
• Updated, responsive curricula, with many options in region
• Quality education and high standards
• Transfer and Guaranteed Admission Agreement (GAA) options
• Proactive Educational Foundation
• Student-centered learning resources
• First Year Experience (FYE) student success focus
• Financial aid and scholarship availability
• Good counseling and advising
• Career coaches and recruitment efforts in high schools
• Sports teams
• Partnerships with school systems, businesses, and colleges
• Great location
• Affordability
• Accessibility
• Rappahannock Institute for Lifelong Learning (RILL)
• Variety of offerings and instructional delivery modes for all age groups and interests
• SACS Accreditation
• Clean and safe campuses

WEAKNESSES: What RCC could improve upon.

• Internal communication
• Mentoring and training for faculty
• Participation in governance and decision making
• Student gathering spaces
• Comprehensive marketing plan
• Deliberate focus on quality
• Reliance on part-time faculty and staff
• Instructional space, program-related labs
• Staffing levels in offices
• Resources for Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)
• Support staff for extended hours, future growth
• Heavy faculty workload
• Pedagogical training
• Tutoring availability
• Student clubs and activities
• Faculty advising model
• Career-related programs, need for short duration and internships
• Bureaucratic obstacles
• Variety in course offerings
• Recruitment, follow up, and mentoring of adjunct faculty
• Funding uncertainty and decline
• Community College image as second tier in higher education
• Large geographical area, lack of RCC satellite centers
• Diversity in workplace and classroom
• Alumni outreach

OPPORTUNITIES: What RCC can do for growth and programming.

• Increase market share, due to value and quality
• Utilize college recruiter on staff
• Encourage dual enrolled students to become completers
• Strengthen relationships with school counselors and teachers
• Expand student activities
• Increase tutoring for student success
• Add new vigorous academic and Workforce programs
• Increase internships, cooperative education, and apprenticeship
• Improve and expand Guaranteed Admissions Agreement (GAA) advising and results
• Use student assessment results to improve program quality
• Continue to upgrade and expand to welcoming, multi-use facilities
• Expand satellite locations, specifically Kilmarnock
• Include campus space for community use
• Develop a marketing plan
• Strengthen the King George site
• Partner on new initiatives with a variety of community organizations
• Increase students in grant programs and Governor’s School
• Recruit enthusiastic, competent faculty and staff members
• Seek additional sources of revenue
• Increase mentoring and leadership development internally
• Streamline processes, using new web presence and technology
• Review internal positions and processes to enhance efficiency and relationships
• Enhance university partners onsite
• Market the RCC economic advantage
• Identify and implement improved early intervention activities for student success
• Integrate ongoing training for staff
• Engage volunteers and alumni
• Strengthen RCC’s economic development role in the region
• Enhance pedagogical training
• Organize improvement input from staff serving students daily
• Enhance short-term OT programs
• Promote the Honors program
• Improve adjunct recruitment, mentoring, assimilation in the college
• Expand sports teams/clubs
• Maintain currency with instructional technology, equipment infrastructure
• Expand on-campus dual enrollment opportunities
• Increase articulated programs with four-year colleges to meet certification training
• Increase career services for students
• Seek national professional accreditation for associate degree nursing
• Redesign developmental studies

THREATS: Things that may inhibit future RCC successes.

• Heavy faculty and staff workloads
• Economic uncertainty, decline
• Increasing tuition and fees
• Financial stress prominent in service region
• Low population growth in service region
• Ability to hire individuals to support growth, expand services
• Regional perception of higher education value
• Static trend in high school graduate numbers
• Competition from other higher education entities
• Continued high need for developmental education
• RCC not meeting VCCS growth average, funding implications
• Low morale, sense of participation
• Aging workforce and need for succession planning
• Compromising quality while pursuing Full Time Enrollment (FTE) growth
• Small number of large employers offering secure positions
• Credential requirements for professional jobs shifting; sometimes above associate degree
• Bureaucracy; government policies for education, health, business
• Lack of pathways to RCC programs
• Lack of public awareness
• Lack of regional broadband
• Communication deficits
• Perception of community college as second tier in higher education
• Inadequate facilities
• Failure to continually update curricula and equipment
• External distractions on leadership focus
• Reliance on dual enrollment for enrollment growth
• Employer base not growing; soft employment market for graduates