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Back in May, Chris Snoddy, was appointed Vice President for Student Services of Black Hawk College (BHC). He officially began on July 1 and oversees Advising, Disability Resources & Access, Career Services, Financial Aid, Enrollment Management and other student-facing departments that support enrollment, student success, engagement, retention and completion across the College.
Before his role at BHC, he served as the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Student Success at Oklahoma City Community College. During his initial Quad-Cities campus visit, he was immediately impressed by the extensive facility upgrades and overall aesthetic.
“Immediately [what stood out to me was] the landscape, baseball [and] softball field, and the reconstruction of the new buildings,” he said. “It’s a beautiful-looking campus on the inside and the out.”
While he considered BHC an aesthetically pleasing campus, Snoddy said the people he’s met in his short amount of time have been very nice and welcoming, and he’s looking forward to meeting more colleagues as the new school year begins.
As Vice President for Student Services, building those connections is vital to successfully serve and support students throughout their journey at BHC. Through this, he has the opportunity to connect students to certain faces throughout campus.
“If I’m meeting with a student, I can say ‘That sounds like you need to be connected with such and such,’ Snoddy said. “For me, I’d prefer] not just give them a website or a phone number, but for me to pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, I got this student over here. Can I walk them over?”
Although Snoddy’s office is located at the Quad-Cities campus, he plans to intentionally build more connections by visiting the East Campus as well.
“I have been able to get out to the East Campus and make sure that I routinely do so. It’s a bit of a drive, but it’s worth it to make sure I’m interacting with everyone,” he said.
As he furthers his career serving students, Snoddy said student success should be defined by what it means for each student individually, because there isn’t a “one size fits all” definition.
He said that once they can help students identify what success means to them, it should be focused on what’s beyond BHC, focusing on their end goal, how BHC can help them and ensuring they are in a place where they can focus on learning, despite life barriers.
In the midst of forming new connections at BHC, he hopes his colleagues and students alike will see him as a partner in improving the student experience.
“I’m willing to collaborate [and] I’m seeking collaborations to improve the experience for Black Hawk students. That can take many different forms, but I’m also willing to listen to anything that our regulations, policies, and budget allow,” he said.