Lamkin Speaks Highly of Summer Bridge Program

by Kyle Kessell

In a short half hour meeting, the Board of Governors met to discuss the fiscal budget, the improving rate of freshman staying after the first semester and new programs coming that will help out students, such as the My Degrees site set to launch March. The first person to speak in the meeting was President Lamkin. He spoke of the Guided Pathway System being fully implemented and that with the syllabus including a detailed schedule of what to expect during the semester, students scheduling more classes have risen by 10 percent. He also spoke of a 360-degree evaluation of the President’s Cabinet with the goal to help WVU Parkersburg move into the future with better leadership.

One of the topics brought up by President Lamkin got a lot of attention. In the summer of 2017, the college will start the Summer Bridge Program. It’s a six-week program that will be available to any first year freshman and will get tough classes out of the way like English, Math and the new incoming College 101 class, which will help new students get more acclimated to the college environment. The hope of this program is continuing the success rate of incoming freshman.

Lamkin is very excited about this program and was quick to mention how much help he received from his faculty and staff saying, “They took an idea that I had and turned it into a Cadillac.”

The meeting wrapped up shortly after Lamkin spoke with Alice Harris discussing the fiscal budget and the funding of continued projects such as maintenance on the air handlers, which causes a loud and distracting noise when they come on. The budget to fix such a problem is being worked out for next year. The next meeting will be March 8 and will take place in the President’s Board Room.