SCTCC President Shares her Vision for the School’s Future

ST. CLOUD -- For the first time since being selected as the new president of St. Cloud Technical and Community College, Annesa Cheek had the opportunity to outline her goals for the future of the institution.

On Thursday night she held a Framing the Future presentation in the college commons. During the presentation, Cheek addressed what the college -- in its 70th year -- is doing well and how it can improve.

Nine years ago, after a long history as a technical college, the school added a comprehensive community college side to its programming. President Cheek says the school is still growing into these changes.

We’ve got a long strong history of being a technical college and so we’re still growing into our comprehensive community college identity and sorting through what that means for us as an institution. We’ve thought one way for a long time and now it’s an opportunity for us to expand our thinking and to provide even more opportunities for on ramps and in roads for our students. It just means that we can do more for a greater multitude of students.

Cheek, who was hired back in June, has spent the last six months engaging with the St. Cloud community to learn about what is and isn’t working for the school. On her list of goals for the future is increasing the enrollment rate and expanding recruitment.

I think it’s gotta start with relationship building and looking at our data and the information about who’s coming and who’s not coming and building strategies around that. Right now we probably think we know who’s coming, but there’s opportunity for us to get greater clarity.

Other goals include increasing creating equity across all student demographics, becoming more sustainable and building a more student-ready campus.