Faculty and Staff Development in a Complex and Dynamic Future

I have explored our changing world in previous blog postings. With these fundamental shifts in our society and economy, professional development for our faculty and staff seems to be of unprecedented importance. This changing world was part of the impetus for creating a special system design team charter for the existing College Senate staff development committee to conduct research and make recommendations to improve staff development opportunities at MVCC - http://www.mvcc.edu/fcltystaff/involvement/development.cfm. After examining our existing staff development offerings and researching best practices in community colleges around the country, their recommendations were as follows:

1. 12 contact hours of staff development be required annually of all full-time employees (including the President) during the course of their normal workday and academic schedule. We think that, in time, that amount may increase.
2. A minimum of 6 hours of staff development will be related to job and professional responsibilities, and the remainder may be used for professional or personal growth opportunities as desired.
3. These hours will encompass self-study, presentations, and improvement, and there should be a minimum of 3 hours per academic semester completed on-campus.
4. Attendance at workshops would count for 1 hour per hour of workshop and scale credit would be given for attending conferences and giving presentations.
5. The Staff Development Committee will work with CCED and other groups and committees within the College to coordinate and organize workshops.
6. Hours will be tracked through Banner (non-credit).
7. Faculty and Staff may participate in more training, if desired.
8. Approval of requests for funding for travel to conferences and professional workshops remain with the Staff Development Committee
9. The Committee have additional representation from departments such as security, facilities, and secretarial staff, for a maximum of 15 members. The Committee will serve as an advisory board to the Staff Development director(s).
10. The Staff Development Program itself should be run by a professional, and have an office and support staff.
11. The College should join the National Council of Staff, Program and Organizational Development Membership. This organization (NCSPOD) is an affiliate council of the American Association of Community Colleges, providing training, programs and publications about staff development for community colleges.

All of these recommendations were reviewed jointly by the College Senate and Executive Team with support to implement them as possible. As I consider these recommendations, I think we'll need to focus on getting the fundamental pieces in place, as our current academic calendar is not structured to accommodate dedicated days for faculty and staff development outside of the existing Summer Institute. While no specific mention of the Teaching and Learning Collaborative (TLC) was provided in the recommendations, there are no plans to continue the TLC, but rather identifying ways to provide resources that will allow for a more comprehensive and integrated approach to professional development for all faculty and staff.

Priorities for the coming year as the result of these recommendations will be to:

1. identify personnel resources in some fashion to work closely with the Senate staff development committee to coordinate efforts in this area and implement as many of the design team recommendations as possible.
2. create a system for identifying professional development needs for faculty and staff; inventorying and providing resources to provide the offerings; and creating tracking systems for registration and transcripting.
3. consider identifying dedicated days in the development of the academic calendar for 2009-10.
4. enhance the new employee orientation that was established this year.
5. create a new faculty institute for the fall 2008 cohort of new full-time faculty.
6. create a core staff development workshop (similar to the accreditation/values workshops this past March) focused on the important connection all employees share in helping to support student success.

I thought the Committee did an outstanding job in carrying out their charter. I'm excited about the possibilities of the priorities I've listed here to make a significant difference in helping to create a vibrant culture at MVCC. The 2008-2013 strategic plan includes the evaluation and implementation of these recommendations and I'm confident that these efforts will go a long way in providing great opportunities for faculty and staff at MVCC. I'd be interested in what you think about what I've shared here - contact me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Celebrating Student Success

'Tis the season as they say - the season to celebrate student success that is. As we come to the end of the spring semester and the academic year, I find myself readily inspired by the accomplishments and celebration of student success at MVCC. For the past two weeks, I have been addressing the recommendations of the system design teams in my blog posts. I plan on continuing to do so, but I'm compelled to insert a post here to reflect on some recent and upcoming events celebrating student success.

Last week we inducted more than 50 students into the Lambda Beta Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the international student honor society of community colleges. The family, friends, and staff in attendance filled ACC 116 and helped make for a great event that celebrated our top academic students.

The Student Clubs and Organizations Awards Reception celebrated the student leaders of the more than 40 student clubs and organizations at MVCC. With opportunities for students to participate at both the Utica and Rome Campuses, these student leaders bring a special element to making MVCC an exciting and dynamic college experience for all students. It was great to see the faculty and staff advisors recognized for their guidance and mentoring of these student leaders as well.

One of my favorite things about MVCC is the way in which some of the academic departments provide personalized ceremonies of student success. Last fall we had the "completion ceremonies" for the first class of Airframe and Powerplant students and a similar ceremony for the CNC machinists who completed the innovative program in partnership with Bartell, Inc. in Rome. Here in the spring, the Social Sciences department put together a wonderful ceremony for students who received awards and scholarships (one scholarship completely funded by the faculty in the department) - you could feel the sense of pride and belonging among the many students in attendance. As we approach the College's graduation ceremony on Friday, May 16th, we'll also have similar celebrations like the Athletic Awards Banquet and the inspiring scholarship reception that links many of our generous scholarship donors with the well-deserving student recipients. In addition, we'll have our Psi Beta student honor society induction ceremony for psychology students and our nursing program ceremony for this year's nursing class, as well as many other smaller celebrations around the College.

I once heard a community college president say that one of her favorite responsibilities was getting to be a part of so many student celebrations - I have to agree. I like to say that our success as a college is only limited by the success of our students. To see all that our students are accomplishing is a wonderful affirmation of the incredible talent and determination found in MVCC students and the fantastic support that our faculty and staff provide to do what we can to help students reach their potential during their time here. If you have any other ideas of how we can celebrate student success in unique and meaningful ways, contact me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Supporting Student Success

Similar to the Student Intake Design Team, the Student Support Design Team took their charter very seriously - to "research and explore ideas to make thoughtful and daring recommendations to significantly improve the student support system." The group went above and beyond in their efforts to research best practices at other institutions. The notion of "student support" can encompass a broad range of services and attributes of the College in providing the overall student experience. The Team did a great job of further defining their task and clarifying their focus to provide a set of important and meaningful recommendations that included:

• Implement institution wide changes to Developmental Education.
• Establish an Office for the First Year Experience.
• In the Master Plan, include the construction of a multi use “Learning Commons”, centralizing all student supports.
• Develop a strategy to create a culture of service learning and volunteerism.
• Expand the services and staff of Institutional Assessment, Grants and Institutional Research, and Information Technology to collect information allowing data driven decision making.
• The college should implement systems to promote student and academic department interactions aimed at building community. Each academic department should implement specific ongoing activities to foster and encourage student and faculty engagement that will promote a sense of shared academic experience, commitment to academic excellence, and belonging.

Some of these recommendations are already being incorporated into the updated strategic plan (coordination of developmental education) or the review of the organizational structure (capacity in the assessment, grants, and IT functions). As the College pursues the update of the Campus Master Plan, conversations surrounding facility needs related to academic and student support will be central to that effort. Other recommendations like establishing an Office of the First-Year Experience, service learning, and academic department connections will require some deliberation to find the right window for implementation.

Improving our student support system requires a strategic look and includes few "quick fixes". While some things can be addressed in the short-term, the emphasis with these and other design team recommendations will be to make the initial changes that will create capacity for even greater changes in the future. Thank you to all of the members of the Student Support Design Team for their efforts in completing their charter and providing the College with useful and insightful recommendations. A complete list of the Team's recommendations can be found at http://www.mvcc.edu/fcltystaff/involvement/support.cfm. Please review them and share any reactions or reflections with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Getting Students Off to a Great Start

Over the past few months more than sixty faculty and staff served on six different design teams to closely examine major administrative systems in need of review that were identified in the College Strategic Plan. Each team was provided a charter that set forth the purpose of researching best practices at other community colleges, examining our existing internal processes, comparing and contrasting the two and then making "thoughtful and daring recommendations". This is the first of six posts that will review the recommendations from each design team.

The recommendations for all groups have been posted on a website where people can review the charters, membership and recommendations for each group as well as a future placeholder where updates will be provided. The information regarding the Student Intake System Design Team can be found here - http://www.mvcc.edu/fcltystaff/involvement/intake.cfm (Click on the recommendations tab and scroll all the way to the bottom to see a summary of their recommendations.)

The task of improving our system for getting students into MVCC from the point of admission to registration can be a daunting and complex effort. However, looking at the recommendations as a whole allows one to take in the recommendations and see that much is possible - but that it will also likely take some time. One of the College's the Intake Design Team visited said they had been on a four-year journey of transforming the way they served students in these functions of admissions, placement testing, advising, financial aid, registration, and payment.

The Process Review Committee and the Executive Committee will be meeting next week to review these recommendations along with the recommendations from the Student Support Design Team. I fully recognize that the exciting recommendations from all six of these Design Teams have created a great deal of optimism for many at the College while simultaneously creating a certain level of anxiety - a natural byproduct of change.

This approach was the best way I could think of to take a comprehensive approach toward creating positive change at the College - to review our major systems all at once and create a context in which change can occur. As the budget revenue projections become more clear in the weeks ahead, the feasibility of many of these recommendations will also become more clear. What's exciting to me is that the recommendations don't offer a series of simple fixes but rather provide a roadmap for potentially transformative change. I appreciate the time and commitment of each member of the Student Intake Design Team for a job well done.

I'd appreciate your thoughts on the recommendations - share them with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Staying Informed - What's Next?

The Accreditation self-study process is complete. The System Design Teams have submitted their recommendations. The Strategic Plan is almost finished. The budget is slowly coming together – very slowly with the delay of the state budget in Albany. We have a lot of ideas, a number of possibilities and a fair amount of energy and anticipation for positive changes yet to come.

With all of the expectations associated with the positive momentum one thing is clear – it’s not all going to get done in the month of June. The recommendations from the Design Teams and the initiatives outlined in the Strategic Plan set forth an important and compelling direction for us – direction that will take a lot of energy and time to fully pursue. It will be important that the College Senate be fully engaged to make assignments to various committees and work groups that will carry out whatever the next steps will be to keep things moving in a positive direction.

As different groups take up this important work, communication will be paramount. An idea that has been nurtured and further developed by the President’s Think Tank is a web resource that centralizes information with updates about various initiatives underway at the College. Thanks to Paul Graziadei, the College webmaster, for putting this together and for all of the team leaders and committee chairs for providing all of the information. Hopefully, the updates that will be provided on this site in the future will keep communication flowing and give everyone easy access to the latest information as the exciting developments come together on these various initiatives.

For now, the site is called the Employee Involvement System and it will likely evolve over time. The idea is that employees need to get involved to make all of these great ideas come to life. So this Employee Involvement System web resource is a way for everyone to keep track of what’s happening with everything. Take a look at the following link http://www.mvcc.edu/fcltystaff/involvement/index.cfm and let me know what you think at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Accreditation - an on-going process

Just as we expect our students to meet certain requirements to graduate, MVCC must meet certain requirements to remain accredited. We are accredited by the Middle States Association (http://www.msche.org/) - a status that allows our students to receive federal financial aid, transfer credits to other colleges, take their degrees to employers to get jobs, and benefit from federal grants that we would not otherwise be able to access. The process of accreditation is a tremendous opportunity for institutional self-reflection and growth.

This week is the culmination of two years of study, with more than 100 faculty and staff participating on various committees studying every aspect of the College's operation. Through the recent workshops, all full-time employees should be familiar with our self-study process but it's worth highlighting a bit here on my blog.

With an evaluation team of eight members from other community colleges on campus for three days this week, we are in the next to final phase of our self-study. We've gone through preparing for the self-study, organizing for the self-study, conducting the self-study, discussing the results, submitting our self-study, and then preparing for the visit taking place this week. Having been heavily involved in self-study accreditation processes at two other community colleges, I feel very fortunate to have joined MVCC at the tail-end of this extensive process. I also have great appreciation for the tremendous efforts on the part of so many who have done such a fantastic job in every phase of the self-study.

However, the final chapters of the best self-study efforts always remain unwritten until well after the evaluation team has come and gone. The final chapter is what do we do with the results of the self-study and the recommendations of the team. Keeping these recommendations in front of us to guide our priorities and future work not only makes the past two years of self study worthwhile, but sets us up for success five years from now when we have our periodic review and eight years from now when we launch a new cycle for self-study. It's a great feeling to think this cycle is done, but it's important to remember the cycle of continuous improvement never ends. For more information on our self-study process, visit the following link - http://www.mvcc.edu/selfstudy/.

If you have any comments about our self study, please let me know at presblog@mvcc.edu.

The Value of Coming Together

During the first two weeks in March more than twenty workshops were held to assist the College in preparing for the upcoming accreditation site visit. The opportunity was seized to use the workshops as a conversation about the values we all share and the mission and vision statements that should lead us through the door every day at Mohawk Valley Community College.

However, while values, mission, and accreditation were the identified content areas, a key objective was to capitalize on the value of faculty and staff coming together in mixed groups to interact in new and different ways. Overall, the workshop evaluations were positive. The most consistent feedback I've received from those that participated in the workshop was, "it was good - not as bad as I thought it was going to be." Some of the evaluation forms further stated, "a little too touchy-feely for me." For a pilot project experience, I'll take it. The workshops were a great example of small change - just getting people to interact in a new environment and have some new conversations prompted a similar reaction to most changes designed to create positive results - we as humans find ourselves not looking forward to it on the front end and generally thankful for the experience in retrospect. Besides, from everything I've gathered in talking to faculty and staff over the past few months, we could use a few "touchy-feely" experiences anyway.

The evaluations will be used if future similar workshops are developed. The input from the workshops on the creation of a values statement and the revision of the mission and vision statements is being forwarded to the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC). In combination with some additional research and review of statements from other community colleges, SPC members will go about the task of creating a values statement and updating the vision and mission statements. With MVCC poised to move from a successful community college to a significant community asset, the results from these workshops and the ultimate work of the SPC will provide a solid base and clear direction for us to enthusiastically approach an ever-increasingly complex and changing future.

If you have any thoughts on this or other matters, you can reach me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Learning About Change

Two weeks and seven Campus Conversation sessions later (with close to 150 participants) I feel much more informed as I continue to think about change and the enormous potential of MVCC. The Campus Conversations of the past two weeks allowed me to share my thoughts on things related to the changing community needs, the myriad ideas for change internally, and receive feedback and insights from faculty and staff. Along the way, I came across a couple of turns of phrase that warrant further exploration.

The Center of the Community
In one Conversation, someone said, "We need to put the community at the center of MVCC and MVCC at the center of the community." Wow. I love this phrase as it captures so much of what originally intrigued me about this place - the community seems very willing to embrace an even larger, more significant role for MVCC in community and economic development efforts and many working at the College are anxious to find ways to strengthen our connections with the community. Like many colleges, our systems are set up to serve the students we serve. However, we have reached a point that to move from a successful community college to a significant community asset, we need to review our systems and structure to be more intentional about reaching those parts of the community that we currently do not serve. Embracing the community in new and different ways will allow us to serve the community in ways we probably never thought possible, as long as we keep "community" at the center of Mohawk Valley Community College.

The Value of "And"
Another conversation surfaced the notion that many of our past and current efforts at the College have centered around an either/or dynamic. The solution is either "this or that" without spending enough time exploring the extent to which the solution could combine "this and that"? It would seem that it's as simple as working on compromising - that's an oversimplification and misses the point. An illustration of this for me is how I compare MVCC with all of the other community colleges where I've worked. It seems so many of the things MVCC does well were things we struggled with at the other colleges (e.g., recruiting recent high school graduates from local high schools) and areas where MVCC could do better were in full bloom at the other colleges (e.g., serving returning adult students). If we spend less time focusing on the OR and more on the AND, we might find some very interesting solutions that would refresh many of the old and tired internal dynamics that prevent us from reaching our potential. I don't know all the specifics, but I know we'll stretch our thinking to new solutions if we spend more time considering the value of AND.

Focus vs. Results
It was noted in one conversation that we spoke for 90 minutes about change and the need for change and we never once mentioned "the need to change is to increase enrollment and the relationship to increased budgets as a result." In another, one person asked that there was no mention made of increasing student retention - we then explored that a little. Through the conversation, we landed on the notion that if we focus on our mission - why we're here, who we're trying to serve and how we're trying to serve them - students will be successful. Our collective conclusion was that if we focus on our mission, student retention will likely increase - retention and enrollment increases are the result, not the singular focus.

Perhaps my favorite insight was in the conversation where someone stated that perhaps if we actually go through change on a more regular basis, we would all become more familiar with change. If we become more familiar with change then perhaps we will therefore increase our ability to change. All of these and other insights that surfaced during the Conversations are worth reflection. I hope everyone who attended found our time together as useful as I did. I've appreciated everyone who has responded to my blog with additional thoughts and perspectives over the past two weeks. I'd welcome any additional ideas you might have as there remains a great deal to consider in the next two months - presblog@mvcc.edu.

Expanding Access

My last post was titled engagment is key to positive change. If engagement is is key to making change happen, student access is key to why change is needed. It is a great feeling to be considering changes while the College is in a position of strength. We can be more thoughtful and deliberate about how we need to change when we're not facing massive budget cuts or severe enrollment declines. Although budgets can always be better, ours is generally stable and enrollment has been up slightly this year over last. This allows us to spend time thinking about increasing our ability to serve students better as well as minimizing barriers for students to access our programs and services.

Despite our relatively low tuition, far too many students face financial barriers that limit their ability to attend college. For students with severe financial need, they most often qualify for the maximum award in the state Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and Federal Pell grants, usually covering the cost of tuition and many ancillary expenses. Access to a high quality MVCC education appears to be open and available for those who have little and for those who have much. For too many students, family income is above the state and federal financial aid thresholds, as these students (40% of MVCC students) do not qualify for the maximum grants. However, the financial aid thresholds are set around $36,000 for household income - beyond that the assumption is that individuals should be able to afford college tuition and associated fees, texts, and living expenses. If students are unable to make that happen somehow, the next best answer is going into debt and taking out student loans.

One very positive change already underway is the creation of the ACCESS Fund. The MVCC Foundation has created a new opportunity for MVCC students who fall into this middle ground. The ACCESS Fund is intended to make up as much of the difference as possible between grants from the State and Federal governments and the actual cost of attending MVCC.

Gifts to the Access Fund at the MVCC Foundation make an immediate impact for those students who qualify. Unfortunately, there is currently far more need than resources available for distribution. The faculty and staff of MVCC have seen first hand the successes of so many students, and they want to see the opportunities continue for more, especially those students who advance their educations, begin jobs or professions here in the area, and contribute to the overall well-being of the community. MVCC faculty and staff have recognized the importance of this fund and have responded generously with their gifts and pledges - as of last week, 71 faculty and staff (along with 100% of the Board of Trustees, Foundation Board and Executive Committee members) have raised $18,575. If we are able to get that figure over $20,000, we will be able to provide more than 80 students with grants of $250 or more. This represents a 50% increase over last year in both participation and dollars raised from our annual faculty and staff internal gifts campaign. Thank you to everyone who has contributed thus far.

Sometimes when we think about changes that will impact us in our work at the College, it's also important to reflect on the reason we do what we do every day - keeping our programs and services as accessible as possible to help others develop their potential through education. If you have any comments or questions about the ACCESS Fund, please contact me at presblog@mvcc.edu.

Engagement is Key to Positive Change

One nice thing about shoveling the driveway so often in upstate New York is it gives one time to reflect. A valued colleague recently sent me an email with a quote from Michel Eyquem De Montaigne, a famous 16th century French author and statesman who said, “It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.” The quote has stayed with me all week and served as the basis for my weekend winter wonderland shoveling meditations.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the three touchstones of access, excellence, and engagement. All three have many layers to their definition and significance in our work at the College. Previous posts have covered access and excellence, but it's increasingly clear to me that engagement is critical if access and excellence are to be fully realized. Two major opportunities for faculty and staff to engage in change efforts at the College will come together over the course of the next two weeks and allow people to "...rub and polish our brain against that of others."

The core staff development workshop, The Times They Are a-Changin' is a two-hour session that will provide all full-time faculty and staff with a shared meaningful experience. The title comes from the fact that our self-study for accreditation identified a number of changes to strengthen our institution for the future. These are commitments we're making that make it clear - these times are a-changin'. One thing that can provide stability through periods of change is a core values statement that will provide clarity on how we go about our work. In addition, a clear mission statement will provide focus in our daily work and a refined vision statement will hopefully provide inspiration for what we strive to be as a community college. The more than twenty scheduled workshops will not only familiarize everyone with the importance of accreditation, but will also create an opportunity for everyone to provide input into the development of a core values statement and input on updating the mission and vision statements at the College.

Scheduled during the same two week period, but (somewhat) separate from the workshops, are seven Campus Conversations. It wasn't my intention to schedule these during the same two weeks as the workshops, but the calendar doesn't always agree with our intentions. To be sure however, we certainly have much to talk about at the College right now - we have a number of commitments from the results of the accreditation self-study; we have system design team recommendations coming together to improve our systems related to student intake (everything from recruitment to registration), student support (everything from registration to graduation), employee hiring, employee recognition, staff development, and adjunct faculty support. All of these ideas and recommendations will feed into the updating of the strategic plan, as will the workshop input on a core values statement and the mission and vision statements.

The Campus Conversations are an opportunity for me to share a little more about all of these efforts and how we might identify resources to implement as many as possible. I anticipate most of these recommendations to prompt changes to many of our primary administrative systems at the College. Systems and structure are inherently integrated, so changes to our systems create the need for changes in our organizational structure. Reviewing organizational structure is not something I take lightly, which is why I want to engage faculty and staff in the conversation. I want to discuss the objectives I'm developing to review the structure - things like, provide the opportunity for everyone to be in a position to do their best work every day; provide for a reasonable scope of responsibility for all areas and positions; strengthen communication throughout the organization; and create capacity to implement the new strategic plan and actively advance the strategic priorities, directions, and initiatives; and many others.

While much is still to be determined, these workshops and conversations are part of a significant moment in time at the College where it's important for everyone to engage and participate in these opportunities. Yogi Berra didn't say it, but I love to affirm that when you work at a College, you get to work with a lot of smart people. I'm counting on that fact and would appreciate any ideas you have regarding opportunities that are before us to implement positive change as well as any ideas or reactions to what I've put forth in this post. Please share your thoughts with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.