Enrollment management efforts continue

The Enrollment Management Task Force in cooperation with campus leadership have established teams to further investigate seven strategic opportunities. Teams include faculty and staff members representing all departments. SEM Works will be on campus today through Wednesday to work with the strategy teams in each of these areas:

• Institutional positioning
• Targeted growth opportunities
• Marketing-oriented website
• Scholarships and waivers
• Course scheduling
• First- and second-year experience
• Performance and success analytics

The teams will work through May to define and prioritize initiatives. Team membership and the terms of reference for each team are available on the EM sharepoint site.

Grant helps improve access to college

WSU Vancouver has been awarded a College Access Corps grant through the Washington Campus Compact for the second year in a row. The grant will provide a full-time Americorps volunteer for the 2015/16 academic year whose job it will be to increase college readiness and access among middle and high school students. To that end, the Americorps volunteer will hire and train college coaches to help deliver the curriculum. Building college access is time and labor intensive, and the College Access Corps grant helps extend Student Affairs’ reach with this important student population.

Sales program named tops, again

The Professional Sales Certificate program has once again been named a “Top University Sales Program” by the Sales Education Foundation. WSU Vancouver’s program was recognized for preparing students for careers in professional selling and helping to elevate the sales profession. The Sales Education Foundation released the 2015 Annual featuring the complete list last week.

Make a WSU Golden Grad happy on May Day

Cougs in the Community will help spread Cougar cheer in the form of flowers on May Day—Friday, May 1. Volunteer between 1 and 5:30 p.m. to help assemble flower arrangements and prepare cards, or agree to deliver to a location or two. RSVP by email or call 6-9600. Please include the time you plan to volunteer. Volunteers will receive a $10 gift certificate from Mill Creek Pub. More details will be provided when you RSVP.

Dumped bunnies get a second chance

A small child in a spring outfit clutching an adorable bunny at Eastertime is such a lovely picture. Unfortunately rabbits are ground-loving creatures that don’t want to be held, carried or cuddled. Poof, the magical Easter vision comes undone when the frightened rabbit scratches the child. Then Mom and Dad find out bunnies are almost as much work as dogs. They need to be house trained, they chew and they need to be spayed or neutered. Within a few weeks, the Easter bunny gets dumped.

It’s just this kind of scenario that likely led to about a dozen domestic rabbits being dumped on campus last week. You may have seen one of them hopping around near an orange parking lot. Knowing domestic rabbits are ill-prepared for survival in the wild, members of the Public Safety team set out to catch them last Tuesday. Armed with nets, they were able to catch five rabbits, each of which has been adopted by a loving, rabbit-friendly home.

If you are considering adopting a rabbit, do your homework. There are lots of books and websites that will help you know if a rabbit is right for you.