In her first Fall Planning welcome back remarks, Daytona State College President Carol Eaton urged faculty and staff to dedicate themselves to seeking teachable moments both inside and outside the classroom.
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| Dr. Eaton addresses the college community during Fall Planning. |
“The thought of what we do as educators in the classroom and outside of the classroom is very significant,” she said to a capacity audience of faculty and staff who packed the Daytona Beach Campus Theater Center on Wednesday. “What we do here together as members of the Daytona State College community may have implications days, weeks, months and certainly even years later in the lives of the students and the people with whom we interact. That can be very sobering, and yet, even though it places a burden on us, it is truly a rewarding career and an honor to be working with students.”
Dr. Eaton said she believes all college employees are educators and have the ability to inspire and influence. “Our students look to us to model the kind of behavior that goes on in the workplace,” she said. “They look to us to model the kind of behavior that we share together. Enthusiasm and inspiration are part of what I think in education we give to our students, and I feel that among all of you.”
She noted that she received more than 300 responses to a college-wide email she sent out after her first days on the job which asked employees what they deemed to be the college’s greatest strengths and weaknesses. The overwhelming consensus among those responses was that students have remained the primary focus of the institution despite the “rough patches” of the past year.
If there had been a doubt in my mind about coming here, which there was not, just reading those comments would have wiped those doubts away,” she said.
Soon to begin her third week as Daytona State College president, Dr. Eaton said she intends to take a collaborative approach to developing a shared vision of the institution as it moves forward.
“I imagine a future of Daytona State College as a place of learning, a place where teachers love to learn and learners love to teach,” she said. “Again, all of us as teachers and learners. I envision Daytona State College as a place where each and every one of us takes responsibility for our own development, where we offer support and learning opportunities to our students and each other, not just inside the formal classrooms, but in what goes on in the hallways and the cafeteria, the academic support center, the library, the gym and the fitness room and, indeed, in the president’s office.”
She added, “I imagine a place where faculty are proud to teach, where staff are proud to work and students are proud to attend. I imagine a place where our alumni are our biggest recruiters, and our donors don’t ask, ‘How much?’ but, instead ask, ‘When can I give?’”
The Daytona State College District Board of Trustees will host a community reception on behalf of Dr. Eaton on Friday, Sept. 2, from 5 – 6:30 p.m., at the News-Journal Center, 221 N. Beach St. in downtown Daytona Beach. To RSVP, please call (386) 506-3130.
