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Update from the State CEO Conference
The presidents of all Southern California community colleges gather annually in April to review where we are at as a State, as an educational system, and to discuss current priorities and strategies for moving forward. With presentations from the League and the Chancellor’s Office, here is my short list from the two-day conference.
Over the last four years, we have lost 469,000 students statewide, and enrollment demand is slowing down. This "forced change” due to financial contraction has deeply affected the CCC system. We need to embrace the reduced mission of the CCC’s, focusing on success, not just access. One way to address this mission is to work towards increasing unit load, rather than increasing students. This approach supports student success, as we know that full-time students achieve educational goals at a higher rate than part-time students. Finally, we need to continue to work more as a system and not lose the momentum we currently have in addressing student success (SB 1440, SB 1456, etc).
Potentially, this “slack in demand” will allow CCC’s some catch-up time to address areas neglected over the past four years, such as maintenance. While the economic outlook is moderately good, fixed costs will continue to accelerate (STRS, PERS, health benefits, and deferred maintenance). We need to plan for these.
Other financial updates included:
- Do not expect performance-based funding to happen in this year’s budget. But this is still very much on the table.
- Do not expect any action on Adult Ed this year. This is too big and too complex for the Legislature to do anything soon.
- Expect the May revise to still include $196.9 million for community colleges.
What is on the horizon?
Online education, MOOCs and efficiency are popular topics with legislators and the governor. Faced with the facts that 25% of all CCC students take online classes, an education panel discussed MOOC mania, Google glasses, and the fact that we are already in a virtual world. iTunes university and Google are already there.
What are we going to do to get ahead of this? Currently, SDICCCA colleges are working to coordinate online offerings and professional development. In California, we anticipate system-wide coordination with a centralized portal. Another state goal is a common LMS (learning management system) with a one-time investment of $13million and annual costs of $8 million. Course development, professional development, system level support and student support would be centralized in this system, potentially saving Southwestern College funds.
Online education is just one way in which we see a movement away from the Carnegie unit and toward student outcomes and competency-based education. ACCJC sees this movement toward competency-based education a “bright light.”
There are three other major initiatives getting serious consideration: Community College baccalaureate degrees; new accreditation standards that include Institution-Set Standards; and rethinking the delivery of Career Technical Education.
Community College baccalaureate degrees are a top priority of San Diego Chancellor Carroll. She has advocated that a statewide taskforce be formed, similar to the Student Success Task Force. Chancellor Brice Harris concurs, and we expect this group to be formed soon. These four-year degrees would be “applied baccalaureates,” with the primary example being the BSN (bachelors of science in nursing) degree. Anticipate a one-year task force review and final report.
New accreditation standards will be released in 2014, and they will be less redundant. There will be a new Standard I.C.—institutional integrity. (SWC will follow the new standards at our next self-evaluation, due in fall 2015.)
Also included in the new accreditation standards will be Institution-Set Standards for academic achievement. These are NOT goals, but minimum standards by which each institution judges itself to ensure quality and encourage continuous improvement. There will be a new emphasis on effective student learning as measured by assessment of outcomes for ALL staff, not just faculty members. One example may be including a student learning component in all academic administrators, faculty, and other academic staff evaluations.
Career Technical Education is more important than ever. CEOs need to rethink how we approach industry and how we respond to industry needs. California has the worst unemployment rate in the nation (tying with Mississippi and Nevada at 9.6%). At the same time, CCCs have missed out on nearly all federal funds dispersed via Workforce Investment Boards.
CEOs were advised to get out of the credit-thinking box—which is too slow to be of much use to most industry needs. We need to be more flexible and use non-credit, and fee-based/ no-credit approaches, which can be much more responsive to industry needs.
Vice Chancellor Ton-Quinlivan is also aggressively working to “regionalize” our CTE structures, which includes the “braided funding strategy.” Braiding funds essentially means combining several sources of funding (including state and federal grants).
CEOs need to have updated external scans of their communities and use this information when addressing the public, industry, campus constituencies. Southwestern College has this updated information, allowing us to address future career needs for South County, thanks to our new EMP. Additionally; our recent economic scan measured the value of the investment of a community college education to our students and community. For every dollar a student invests in their education at Southwestern College, they earn $5.40 in future earnings.
We will be creating information sheets to share with industry leaders and the community. Be on the lookout for them on the district website, so you can share them with your community contacts.
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ASO Supports Academic Success
The student leadership on campus is embracing our efforts to improve student transfer rates. This Saturday, the ASO will hold its second annual Pathway to Success conference. The conference is expanding this year to provide transferring students with an opportunity to attend workshops being held by SDSU, UCSD AND UCLA.
UCSD's participation this year is a direct result of the students' request to Chancellor Pradeep Khosla in a private meeting after the Chancellor's reception on campus last semester.
The day-long conference will also provide workshops to incoming freshmen, giving them helpful tips on making a successful transition to college. The ASO is still seeking mentors to pair with the new students at the Saturday conference. If you know of a student who is interested in participating as a mentor, have them email:
swcmentor@gmail.com
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Spring Opening Day Efforts Gaining Traction
If you are one of the more than 300 staff members who participated in the brainstorming breakout sessions at spring opening day, you should be pleased to know that those ideas are getting a workout. Each of the ideas has been categorized into one of six research-based student success factors. The ideas and the success factors were further analyzed at a retreat on April 5. Hosted by VPAA Kathy Tyner and VPSA Angelica Suarez, leaders of the faculty, staff, and administrators, identified short-term action items based on the following criteria:
- could begin within six months
- would have a large impact on improving student achievement of certificates and degrees
- could be implemented with existing College resources of people, time, and money.
A second retreat is being held on April 26, where these ideas will be refined further. Continue readinaboutnthe progress of this group in future Superintendent/President columns.
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EMP Final Draft Ready for Review
The College’s Educational Master Plan has gathered considerable feedback, and now our new journey begins. As consultant Fred Trapp said last week in his presentation to the SCC, the Educational Master Plan is not an end, but a beginning.
The plan has done an excellent analysis of Southwestern College’s strengths and opportunities. We sit among the greatest number of enterprise zones of any college in San Diego County. That means there is an entrepreneurial spirit in South County and our local government agencies are willing to invest in new businesses. That also means that Southwestern College is poised to be the trainer of choice for employers.
The plan also formalized what members of our college community have been saying since I arrived—our data governance systems are in need of serious attention and standardization.
With the high expectations of SB1456, the Student Success Act, our data governance system will need to better reflect degree and certificate completions. This will require that we all work together to determine mechanisms that help our students take that extra step to document their success.
It is this lack of standardization and the current system’s inability to audit degrees that we have embarked on our ambitious Ellucian (formerly Datatel) project. We all have been asking for serious data governance reform, and we have begun that process. Many departments have already received orientation for the Ellucian products—several of which we had but didn’t use—that will help us strengthen our systems. There are solutions for Human Resources, Financial Services, Student Services and Academic Affairs, among others. Later this week we’ll be rolling out information to all constituents to show our progress.
The Educational Master Plan has done an excellent job of documenting this moment in time in Southwestern College’s history. It is now up to us to use this information for continuous improvement for the betterment of the students we serve.
To view the final draft of the plan, go to Educational and Facilities Master Plans on the college website. Additionally, the Academic Senate is hosting Dr. Fred Trapp at its meeting tomorrow, 11am in L238N.
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The Classified Employee of the Quarter
Tom Holst, Southwestern College’s lead plumber and employee since January 1992, has kept a low profile for the past 21 years at SWC, but his kindness, professionalism and willingness to help others has not gone unnoticed. Holst is SWC’s Employee of the Quarter—April to June 2013—and his humility is almost as strong as his work ethic.
Holst has contributed to the success of the college’s many operations, including in the School of Math, Science and Engineering. Holst has used his expertise and diligence to handle a high volume of emergency situations, including fixing gas leaks and flooding sinks and floors in many science labs. He has taken the initiative to ensure these issues don’t resurface, and has handled them all with a demeanor that his highly respected and liked amongst the campus community.
Holst will be recognized at the March 13 Governing Board meeting.
Congratulations, Tom.
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January 15, 2013
Julie Swanson - Classified Employee of the Quarter
Outstanding customer service, great initiative and support to students are a few of the qualities Julie Swanson demonstrates daily in Student Employment Services. The Governing Board and Julie’s colleagues recognized her at the December, 2012 Governing Board meeting.
In nominating her for Employee of the Quarter – January to March 2013 – those working with Julie appreciated her efforts to raise the level of customer service to students and employers. She established a Twitter account to promote job opportunities, developed instructional fliers to help students understand SES services and streamlined processes to save time and money. Julie also volunteers her time to assist students with their resumes.
Congratulations, Julie.
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January 15, 2013
Welcome to Spring Semester, 2013
The campus has come alive again as students, faculty and staff begin Spring Semester, 2013. There is optimism in the air with the positive impact of Proposition 30’s passage in November and a balanced budget proposal coming from the Governor’s office.
Opening Day set a tone of reflection and enthusiasm as all employees re-discovered ways to work together to help students succeed. In the general session, students—past and present—talked about how our employees helped them grow into the leaders they are today. They also challenged us to raise the bar for all students.
My presentation provided data on our student achievement and outlined strategies that our students tell us work well in building their success.
As we settle into the spring semester, let us remember the excitement of this week and our promise to reach out to students on their journey to educational success.