{"id":23307,"date":"2023-11-07T14:20:52","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T19:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2023\/11\/07\/board-of-trustees-november-update\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T11:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T15:36:18","slug":"board-of-trustees-november-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/11\/07\/board-of-trustees-november-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Board of Trustees: November Update\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lawrence, MA (November 1, 2023) \u2013 The Northern Essex Community College <a href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/about\/leadership\/board-of-trustees\/\">Board of Trustees<\/a> gathered on the Lawrence Campus for its November meeting. Members of the board and those in the audience learned about an exciting project that emerged from a faculty\u2019s sabbatical leave, received an update on MassReconnect at NECC, and celebrated the successes of NECC athletic teams.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/50432541651_d8479476f1_c-1-768x512-1-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-25630 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/50432541651_d8479476f1_c-1-768x512-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"View of Bentley Library on the Haverhill Campus\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><strong>Information Literacy\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nEnglish professor Patricia Portanova used her recent sabbatical leave to \u201cresearch new information and algorithmic literacy pedagogy and develop teaching modules for composition courses.\u201d In other words, Portanova looked at the ways students were gathering information and sources and devised a pathway to increase information literacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I was a student, we would research by going into the bowels of the library. Those expectations don\u2019t make sense in the 21st century,\u201d remarked Portanova on how the internet and even social media have changed how students gather source material.<\/p>\n<p>Portanova\u2019s teaching module includes a media bias chart and sections on understanding how search results can be skewed using sites like Google. Students are also asked to write a reflective essay on how they will be more critical consumers of information they see online.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInformation literacy isn\u2019t something we just do in the classroom; it\u2019s part of being an informed citizen of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Information Literacy is a learning outcome for all English 102 courses. Portanova\u2019s module is available for all faculty to use.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Administration Report\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Employee Demographics Report\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>President Lane Glenn and Executive Director of Employee Engagement and Chief People Officer Patty Gauron continue to look at employee demographics to ensure faculty, staff, and leadership are reflective of the students NECC serves. They noted that the most recent data shows that 22% of employees are Hispanic, up considerably in just a few years. They also remarked that they strive to hire people who are familiar with the communities surrounding NECC. &#8220;Two-thirds of our students come from Lawrence, Haverhill, and Methuen. It\u2019s important that we have people who live in or have businesses in the community we serve,\u201d said Glenn.<\/p>\n<p><em>MassReconnect\u00a0<\/em><br \/>\nPresident Glenn updated the board on <a href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/academics\/massreconnect\/\">MassReconnect<\/a>, the state\u2019s new program to provide free community college to adults 25 and older who don\u2019t already have a college degree. NECC has granted 200 MassReconnect awards, totaling about $400,000.<\/p>\n<p>NECC Provost Paul Beaudin shared that hybrid and evening courses are most popular with MassReconnect students- so much so that NECC now offers 60 evening sections for the fall semester on the Lawrence Campus alone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re also working hard to remind our older students that we can work with them to get credit for prior learning and learned experiences,\u201d said Beaudin.<\/p>\n<p>Northern Essex is offering extended hours for student services on both campuses for those students taking evening classes.<\/p>\n<p><em>Go, Teams!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><br \/>\nIf any members of the board were stifling a yawn or two during the meeting, it wasn\u2019t for their lack of interest in the topics. President Glenn was among those who attended the first NJCAA Basketball game of the season- the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.neccknights.com\/landing\/index\">NECC Knights<\/a> tipped off their season promptly at 12:01 am with the school\u2019s first-ever midnight madness game. The Knights showed they were ready to pick up where they left off of last year\u2019s stellar season. They beat Bunker Hill Community College Bulldogs 95 to 55.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a great spirit; we\u2019re very proud of the Midnight Madness event.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Glenn also shared that the Women\u2019s Volleyball team is heading to the National NJCAA Tournament this week after capturing the Region 21 Championship for the first time since 2018. The Knights are undefeated, and four members were named to All-Region Teams. Vielka Sanchez was also selected as the Region 21 Player of the Year.<\/p>\n<p>The Knights are seeded #14 in the National Tournament. They will take on the #3 seeded Century College (MN) Wood Ducks in the tournament\u2019s opening match at 10:00 am ET at the Alliant Energy Powerhouse Area in Cedar Rapids, IA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawrence, MA (November 1, 2023) \u2013 The Northern Essex Community College Board of Trustees gathered on the Lawrence Campus for its November meeting. Members of the board and those in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":23095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[94,250,401,560],"class_list":["post-23307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-board-of-trustees","tag-faculty","tag-mass-reconnect","tag-staff"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Board of Trustees: November Update\u00a0 - NECC News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/11\/07\/board-of-trustees-november-update\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Board of Trustees: November Update\u00a0 - NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lawrence, MA (November 1, 2023) \u2013 The Northern Essex Community College Board of Trustees gathered on the Lawrence Campus for its November meeting. 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