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Students benefit from the New Deal for Students because...
Of course everything we do centers around students. They are the reason we are here! Community colleges have long been known as "democracy's colleges." We welcome students from all walks of life, meet them where they are, and help them move to the next stage of their academic or professional goals. They come to us with varying skills in their writing, math, critical thinking, and reading comprehension skills. Some are straight out of high school, some are returning adult learners, some are seeking transfer, others are seeking employment immediately after SCCC. No matter. We want all students to succeed. Education is still very much a human endeavor, and with such a diversity of students, we need time to provide as much individualized attention as possible—and time is afforded to us with more 
full-time faculty.
I'm one of the young native Long Islanders who wasn't sure I'd be able to afford to continue living here. But thanks to SCCC, I am still here, established in my own teaching career and starting my own family.
As a social studies teacher, I find myself sharing my SCCC experiences with my students, many of whom will be the first in their families to attend college. I remember how SCCC faculty challenged me academically while also making me feel at home. I used to visit professors in their office hours to discuss my academic progress, student government projects, and scholarship applications. As a first-generation college student, believe me, I benefitted from them having the time to provide guidance about college and career paths.
These relationships were priceless and now, 13 years later, I’m very happy to still be here on Long Island and to reciprocate those relationships with my own students—and encourage them to get their start at Suffolk!
— Daniel Gomez, Social Studies Teacher, East Hampton Union Free School District, SCCC Class of 2011
Increased access to office hours
Full-time faculty hold office hours to be available to students outside of class.
While our adjunct colleagues do terrific work during class, they are not obligated to hold office hours. We know that student learning, questions, and needs aren't confined to the hours we are in a classroom. And our online and remote students need and deserve additional online times when their faculty are freely available to them as well.
More full-time faculty means more office hours—which gives us the extra time and space to support students, which is critical for retention.
Increased access to expert advising & mentoring
It's no secret that students are coming to college with more academic needs than ever. We understand the context for this—given the learning loss of the pandemic as well as our changing student demographics—and of course we stand at the ready to help them. We are the experts in our fields, after all.
But the academic advisement and mentoring needed to guide students along their journey, again, takes time. Full-time faculty are required contractually to hold eight hours of advisement in addition to the advice we share before and after class, during office hours, and in the hallways. Given our memo of agreement last fall, we have agreed it is in students' best interest for us to host four of those hours in locations even more convenient for students, such as our Academic Advisement and Mentoring Centers. We want to help our students, and it stands to reason then that having more full-time faculty means more expert advisement and mentoring for our students.
More robust support services
Given the above, whether students are looking to move forward from SCCC into the workforce or to another academic institution, they often need assistance in finding their academic pathway as they come into SCCC, get through SCCC, and move forward.
Our faculty are skilled at educating students about their options, talking through the pros and cons, and assisting as they learn to make decisions about their own next steps. We could lay out a set path for them, one that plenty of previous students have walked. However, we believe strongly that we should not tell students what to think but how to think. Giving students the time and space to make these determinations requires a bit more time, but it is a critically necessary process for each and every one of them.
Clearer academic pathways
Nonclassroom faculty at SCCC include librarians, counselors, tutors, professional assistants, mental health coordinators, specialists, and more. They provide critical essential services to our students every single day. This includes everything from faculty who help students navigate their financial aid status, to faculty who develop students' leadership skills in our Campus Activities areas (through clubs, student government, and other organizations), to faculty who offer timely and crucial help to students in our libraries, computer labs, and academic skills centers.
Without this robust support, students may not be able to get the most out of their academic journey. Full-time faculty in these roles have the time and focus needed to be more fully knowledgeable about college support systems to better assist students.
