Vice Provost meets his goals, expansion halted

Nadra Mabrouk/Staff Writer

Since his appointment as permanent Vice Provost of Biscayne Bay Campus on Jan.4, Steven Moll set out to improve the campus for students by enhancing its services and finding room for improvement in every corner.

Upon receiving his position, Moll organized his top goals in an outline with “metrics” created to measure the goals and how they link to “Hit the Ground Running,” a statement University President Mark Rosenberg designed before becoming president in August 2009.

The University’s “Worlds Ahead” strategic plan is a five year plan designed to focus upon the arts, environment, globalization and health to form a firm groundwork for economic development, future advance and job formation in the region. This was outlined by Rosenberg in the 2010-2015 strategic plan.

Moll set out to begin by improving customer service on the campus. Customer service includes the cashiers and those working in Financial Aid office. In the spring, customer service training was initiated with the help of Human Resources Department. The training program included role-playing and made up scenarios that enabled workers in training to see if they were able to handle situations correctly. Surveys were given to students and with the arrival of the results, it can be seen where customer service needs work and more training can be created from that.

According to Moll, BBC’s customer service is improving.

Moll also wanted to increase the amount of global learning courses on campus.

Global learning for global citizenship is the Quality Enhancement Plan for FIU. The plan’s purpose is to give every FIU undergraduate curricular and co-curricular opportunities to gain knowledge and skills of global citizenship.

New additions have been made to the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management which include HFT 3503 – Hospitality Marketing Strategy, and HFT 3073- Social Responsibility in the Hospitality Industry which covers global issues that affect companies and their communities.

Another goal set by Moll was to increase the number of Circle of Friends of BBC.

In 2009, the Circle of Friends was designed to expand FIU’s reach into the community and raise necessary funds. The members are from the community and receive invitations to a series of events on BBC by the Office of the Vice Provost.  New members contribute anywhere between 100-500 dollars. This money is mostly used for scholarships.

According to Moll, 85 percent of this money goes to scholarships and the money has to stay local to the state of Florida. He wants students to participate in activities that benefit the communities and the citizens from where the money is derived from and to do as much “local good” as they can.

The progress of the construction of the School of Environment, Arts and Society building has, at the moment, reached a pause, according to Moll, as they are attempting to work with the City of North Miami to get a secondary road opened. The building would be a subdivision of the College of Arts and Sciences, of which SEAS falls under.

Moll claimed that President Rosenberg has made it clear that until the second road is opened, growth on campus will be hindered. Three choices for a location of a secondary road are 135 street, 143 street, through Oleta Park, or improve what already exists on 151 street.

The building hopes to contain more interdisciplinary studies and have a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.

Additions of native trees and shrubs and a butterfly garden will help beautify the campus and also support environmental awareness. According to Jennifer Grimm, Environmental Coordinator, butterfly gardens have been planted by the flag poles near Wolfe University Center, by the gazebo near Glenn Hubert Library, and behind AC II.

There is 20 or 30 different flora planted designed to attract butterfly species. FIU is also the first university in the state to receive Tree Campus USA designation. The Tree Campus USA program recognizes universities that maintain their campus trees and attempt to engage the communit beyond the campus to grow healthy, urban forests.

According to Grimm, FIU has made a commitment to grow native trees and have already begun planting them around campus.

“Every day is exciting. Any day where we can act to help students get a better education is a good day,” Moll said, “If it means more classes, more scholarships, more cultural events, or more activities then that’s what we do.”