I firmly believe that individuals achieve their greatest successes when they become part of something larger than themselves. I also believe that we achieve our best when we succeed as a community. Community, no matter how you define it (global, national, city, neighborhood, campus), can only succeed if those involved are committed and empowered. Certainly our country’s most recent national elections prove that point.
As I sat in the Commons of the Academic Building earlier this week, trying to encourage others to participate in our mock presidential election, I enjoyed my interaction with students. I also enjoyed the social experiment element, in terms of gaining a window on what motivates people to participate. What are the intellectual and emotional processes that drive individuals to turn toward an unknown direction or untested proposal? Why do some people want to engage in and learn more about new ideas, while others act like they don't hear or see the call to gain their attention? Reflecting on an historic presidential election - the first in fifty years without an incumbent President or Vice President on either ticket - I think about those who chose not to vote; not to engage; not to participate. While tens of millions of Americans fulfilled their obligation to vote last Tuesday, millions of others stayed home.
What is the price that comes from choosing to sit idly while afforded opportunity passes by?
I've been thinking about that question a lot lately, both in terms of the election and in terms of how our faculty and staff engage in the life of the College. If opportunities offered faculty and staff are not engaged, how is the institution’s direction affected? When does the accumulation of missed opportunities lead to institutional stagnation or, worse, willing complacency?
The American Heritage Dictionary definition of empowerment is, "to equip or supply with an ability; to enable." If people don't believe they are empowered, feel empowered or act empowered, how do they move forward? What advantage is there to providing opportunity for engagement if those involved are unable or unwilling to trust the validity of the offer?
Because our mission is so critically important to individual students and our greater community, success or crisis on campus is – or should be - a shared commodity. The triumph or failure of one department should prompt the pride or concern of all. We should all be proud then when, each year, hundreds of smiling associate degree and certificate holders cross our commencement stage on their way to achieving their life goals. In the same breath, we should all be concerned when one student fails to thrive!
As an institution dedicated to the realization of human potential, our sense of connection comes only when we engage in things beyond the j-o-b. This type of engagement comes only through individual empowerment. I recognize that the primary condition that allows individuals, offices, and departments to feel and act empowered is multi-level leadership that understands how to support opportunities that enable. It also requires balance, dialogue, teamwork, and...oh, I almost forgot...time.
I believe MVCC stands at a point of demarcation - a point at which a cultural shift has the opportunity to occur. For that to happen, we all need to nurture it every day we come to work, through actively empowered engagement! I'd appreciate your thoughts on empowerment and the journey ahead. Share your thoughts with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Building the Brand
Brand. We all know it when we see it. The curved checkmark embraced and modified by Nike to now be known as the “swoosh.” The white script on red background that will always spell out Coca-Cola. The team of draft horses and catchy jingle that for years represented Budweiser (and still does at holiday time). Think about where and when you’ve seen these brands – and in what context – and you are likely reflecting on the process of integrated marketing.
The American Marketing Association defines integrated marketing as “a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time” (Brand is defined as a product's attributes — name, appearance, reputation, and so on — taken collectively and abstractly).
Integrated marketing begins with branding. While we can relate visually to Nike’s swoosh, we are also relating subliminally to all the characteristics that the swoosh represents – physical fitness, excellent athletic apparel, exceptional sports performance are just a few. These are the attributes of Nike’s brand, and consumers expect these attributes and a lot more every time they come in contact with Nike marketing, such as purchasing a Nike product, watching a Nike-sponsored sporting event, or hearing from an athlete who endorses Nike apparel.
If we were to define a brand for MVCC, what attributes would be included? Excellent education? Friendly and welcoming atmosphere? Convenience and flexibility? What would our brand look like? Tea leaves? A hawk? What would our brand promise be?
The college’s Marketing and Communications department, with my support, will be conducting focus groups across the college, to collect faculty, staff and student opinions on branding, through an exercise known as the Brand Platform. The Brand Platform is a five-step process designed to elicit our best thinking about brand purpose, values, positioning, personality and promise. Working with many of the current college committees, we will try to survey as many of you as possible so that our brand development is as informed as it can be. Our goal is to complete the surveying process by December, so that branding – the first step in achieving truly integrated marketing – can be developed and finalized during the spring.
I know many of you have clear opinions on what the college should represent to our students, and what it should not. Please share your answers to the questions above by emailing me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
The American Marketing Association defines integrated marketing as “a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time” (Brand is defined as a product's attributes — name, appearance, reputation, and so on — taken collectively and abstractly).
Integrated marketing begins with branding. While we can relate visually to Nike’s swoosh, we are also relating subliminally to all the characteristics that the swoosh represents – physical fitness, excellent athletic apparel, exceptional sports performance are just a few. These are the attributes of Nike’s brand, and consumers expect these attributes and a lot more every time they come in contact with Nike marketing, such as purchasing a Nike product, watching a Nike-sponsored sporting event, or hearing from an athlete who endorses Nike apparel.
If we were to define a brand for MVCC, what attributes would be included? Excellent education? Friendly and welcoming atmosphere? Convenience and flexibility? What would our brand look like? Tea leaves? A hawk? What would our brand promise be?
The college’s Marketing and Communications department, with my support, will be conducting focus groups across the college, to collect faculty, staff and student opinions on branding, through an exercise known as the Brand Platform. The Brand Platform is a five-step process designed to elicit our best thinking about brand purpose, values, positioning, personality and promise. Working with many of the current college committees, we will try to survey as many of you as possible so that our brand development is as informed as it can be. Our goal is to complete the surveying process by December, so that branding – the first step in achieving truly integrated marketing – can be developed and finalized during the spring.
I know many of you have clear opinions on what the college should represent to our students, and what it should not. Please share your answers to the questions above by emailing me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Beyond Doing More with Less
I recently attended the fall colloquium of the Strategic Horizon Network, along with faculty and staff from the College and teams from 13 other Network community colleges. We spent the better part of the last three days in Ann Arbor and enjoyed dynamic presentations from a University of Michigan professor, a newly minted Ph.D. graduate who shared his dissertation findings, the CEO of Menlo Innovations - a very creative software development company - and a leader from the Ann Arbor office of Google. We also took "behind the scenes" tours of Borders, Whole Foods, Menlo Innovations and Zingerman's Deli, which is internationally known for its customer service training programs. The primary purpose of the Colloquium was to provide the college teams an opportunity to look beyond our "academic cultures" and peek into other organizations to see what we might learn about making our community colleges, as organizations, stronger for the ever-changing future that awaits us.
A few common themes emerged from all of the presentations, tours and small group conversations. Much of the discussion centered on employee empowerment and how healthy and vibrant cultures inspire people to work better together, replacing the vicious circles of negativity with a virtuous circle of positivity. All of that positivity can increase organizational capacity to do more...and that might quickly take one to the notion of “doing more with less.” With the implications of the financial meltdown in this country still yet to be revealed, "doing more with less" could easily be a rallying cry. Fortunately, that phrase was never once mentioned in the three days of the Colloquium. Instead, we were given some tools and insights to think about our places of work through a different lens.
I will likely blog in the future about some of the learning from the past few days, as it sinks in and I have more time to reflect. However, some early thoughts for me really reinforce some important reminders. Multiple speakers emphasized the notion that today’s workplace requires spending as many of our waking hours at work as we do at home. They challenged us to think about our places of work and to think about how we live while we work – in our world, this can translate to how we treat each other and our students, and in turn, how they treat us. Other common elements were to challenge long-held beliefs by asking questions and be willing to experiment more - a practice embraced by the CEO of Menlo Innovations, who often referenced Thomas Edison as he described how he re-invented his company’s work environment. It made me think about how often we try to "pilot" new ideas in a very traditional sense and how much more fun and rewarding it might be if we were to think of those pilot efforts as "experiments."
Throughout all the conceptual models, quotes and insights, my favorite and perhaps most challenging “take-away” was that of how to increase organizational capacity. How do we make our workplace more effective for those who access our programs and services and more enjoyable for those who work there? In other words, how do we do more of what works and less of what doesn't. I'd welcome any thoughts you have on helping MVCC do more of what works and less of what doesn't - email me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
A few common themes emerged from all of the presentations, tours and small group conversations. Much of the discussion centered on employee empowerment and how healthy and vibrant cultures inspire people to work better together, replacing the vicious circles of negativity with a virtuous circle of positivity. All of that positivity can increase organizational capacity to do more...and that might quickly take one to the notion of “doing more with less.” With the implications of the financial meltdown in this country still yet to be revealed, "doing more with less" could easily be a rallying cry. Fortunately, that phrase was never once mentioned in the three days of the Colloquium. Instead, we were given some tools and insights to think about our places of work through a different lens.
I will likely blog in the future about some of the learning from the past few days, as it sinks in and I have more time to reflect. However, some early thoughts for me really reinforce some important reminders. Multiple speakers emphasized the notion that today’s workplace requires spending as many of our waking hours at work as we do at home. They challenged us to think about our places of work and to think about how we live while we work – in our world, this can translate to how we treat each other and our students, and in turn, how they treat us. Other common elements were to challenge long-held beliefs by asking questions and be willing to experiment more - a practice embraced by the CEO of Menlo Innovations, who often referenced Thomas Edison as he described how he re-invented his company’s work environment. It made me think about how often we try to "pilot" new ideas in a very traditional sense and how much more fun and rewarding it might be if we were to think of those pilot efforts as "experiments."
Throughout all the conceptual models, quotes and insights, my favorite and perhaps most challenging “take-away” was that of how to increase organizational capacity. How do we make our workplace more effective for those who access our programs and services and more enjoyable for those who work there? In other words, how do we do more of what works and less of what doesn't. I'd welcome any thoughts you have on helping MVCC do more of what works and less of what doesn't - email me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The Silent Epidemic - student failure
I recently had the good fortune of attending the Governor's Student Engagement and Dropout Prevention Summit. It was very interesting for me to attend, since just a few days before, I listened to a lively College Senate discussion focused on underprepared students. The nexus for me in all of this is that there are some significant alterations in what is happening to our youth and to education overall. We have two overwhelming forces at play - numbing figures of high school dropouts coupled with staggering figures of college students in remedial/college prep courses because they are not prepared for college-level work.
At the Summit, I learned about how important the calculation of high school dropouts can be. For many years, the rate was focused on how many 12th graders started their senior year and how many graduated. More recently however, the standard calculation considers those that dropped out of high school in 11th, 10th, and the even larger numbers seen dropping out in 9th grade - 9th grade! You can learn more than you want to know about this topic by a simple Google search on "the silent epidemic." I was also intrigued by the statement "the normalization of failure" made by our amazing keynote speaker, Dr. Pedro Noguera, from NYU, as he spoke about how schools (and colleges) plan for a "certain number" of students in each grade (or class) to dropout. His remarks provided the many ways in which we as educators have tried to ignore, or at least explain away, this disturbing trend of student failure in this country and this state.
We can cite all the data we want - the financial impact of educational attainment - High school dropout average salary - $17,299; High school diploma - $26,933; Associate's degree - $36,645; and Bachelor's degree - $52,671 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005) and we still can't make the point. Rather a focus on the financial advantages of education to a student’s future does not seem to effectively counteract student perceptions about school. The message that I heard from a student panel at the Summit is that education is not relevant. Indeed, the “Silent Epidemic” report tells us that nearly half of the high school drop-outs surveyed found their classes boring and an even greater percentage—69%--said that they were unmotivated and uninspired at school. It seems to me that as adults we fail to fully comprehend the implications of the exponential ways in which students have changed in their ways of thinking, their comfort with technology, and their methods of interacting with us and their peers. We are so busy trying to “tell” students that education is relevant that we are not spending enough time “showing them.” The study suggests that more experiential learning opportunities—internships, job shadowing, and service learning activities, which help to demonstrate the applicability of learning--may be effective ways to offset that perception.
At the College Senate meeting last week, everyone received a copy of the Diploma to Nowhere report. I've included a link to the website here, with links to the executive summary and full, 17-page report. http://www.edin08.com/diplomatonowhere.aspx. As educators at the College level, community college faculty and staff are growing increasingly frustrated by the challenges associated with increasingly high numbers of students needing remediation before enrolling in college-level courses. It's not that community colleges aren't used to or capable of helping students address deficiencies. We've helped those returning adults who have been out of the classroom for years. However, the issues seem to be deeper and more complex than they've ever been. Our frustration is combined with that of our students, who thought their diploma would qualify them for college. We share in their frustration in federal and state financial aid policies that place limits on students' abilities to afford these developmental/college-prep classes, leaving students in a hurry to get these classes over with so they can get on with what they think they came for - "college."
Addressing the needs of underprepared students and the curriculum they learn is a key initiative in our Strategic Plan. In addition, we will do a better job of communicating with our partner school districts to provide them with better information about what college-level work looks like. Attending the Summit and listening to the Senate conversation, I'm left wrestling with some very tough questions - To what extent have we normalized failure? How different are we than the high schools? If the students are bored in high school classrooms, how bored are they in ours? The high performing high schools - those large urban schools in high poverty areas that achieve 90%+ graduation rates - that buck the trend do so by focusing on what works. We know that schools (and colleges) that focus on rigor, relevance and relationships create environments that promote and produce student success in ways less focused schools (and colleges) can even dream. How can we organize our efforts around simultaneously maintaining and/or increasing rigor, relevance and relationships for the benefit of our students?
I'd appreciate your thoughts and insights. You can share them with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
At the Summit, I learned about how important the calculation of high school dropouts can be. For many years, the rate was focused on how many 12th graders started their senior year and how many graduated. More recently however, the standard calculation considers those that dropped out of high school in 11th, 10th, and the even larger numbers seen dropping out in 9th grade - 9th grade! You can learn more than you want to know about this topic by a simple Google search on "the silent epidemic." I was also intrigued by the statement "the normalization of failure" made by our amazing keynote speaker, Dr. Pedro Noguera, from NYU, as he spoke about how schools (and colleges) plan for a "certain number" of students in each grade (or class) to dropout. His remarks provided the many ways in which we as educators have tried to ignore, or at least explain away, this disturbing trend of student failure in this country and this state.
We can cite all the data we want - the financial impact of educational attainment - High school dropout average salary - $17,299; High school diploma - $26,933; Associate's degree - $36,645; and Bachelor's degree - $52,671 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005) and we still can't make the point. Rather a focus on the financial advantages of education to a student’s future does not seem to effectively counteract student perceptions about school. The message that I heard from a student panel at the Summit is that education is not relevant. Indeed, the “Silent Epidemic” report tells us that nearly half of the high school drop-outs surveyed found their classes boring and an even greater percentage—69%--said that they were unmotivated and uninspired at school. It seems to me that as adults we fail to fully comprehend the implications of the exponential ways in which students have changed in their ways of thinking, their comfort with technology, and their methods of interacting with us and their peers. We are so busy trying to “tell” students that education is relevant that we are not spending enough time “showing them.” The study suggests that more experiential learning opportunities—internships, job shadowing, and service learning activities, which help to demonstrate the applicability of learning--may be effective ways to offset that perception.
At the College Senate meeting last week, everyone received a copy of the Diploma to Nowhere report. I've included a link to the website here, with links to the executive summary and full, 17-page report. http://www.edin08.com/diplomatonowhere.aspx. As educators at the College level, community college faculty and staff are growing increasingly frustrated by the challenges associated with increasingly high numbers of students needing remediation before enrolling in college-level courses. It's not that community colleges aren't used to or capable of helping students address deficiencies. We've helped those returning adults who have been out of the classroom for years. However, the issues seem to be deeper and more complex than they've ever been. Our frustration is combined with that of our students, who thought their diploma would qualify them for college. We share in their frustration in federal and state financial aid policies that place limits on students' abilities to afford these developmental/college-prep classes, leaving students in a hurry to get these classes over with so they can get on with what they think they came for - "college."
Addressing the needs of underprepared students and the curriculum they learn is a key initiative in our Strategic Plan. In addition, we will do a better job of communicating with our partner school districts to provide them with better information about what college-level work looks like. Attending the Summit and listening to the Senate conversation, I'm left wrestling with some very tough questions - To what extent have we normalized failure? How different are we than the high schools? If the students are bored in high school classrooms, how bored are they in ours? The high performing high schools - those large urban schools in high poverty areas that achieve 90%+ graduation rates - that buck the trend do so by focusing on what works. We know that schools (and colleges) that focus on rigor, relevance and relationships create environments that promote and produce student success in ways less focused schools (and colleges) can even dream. How can we organize our efforts around simultaneously maintaining and/or increasing rigor, relevance and relationships for the benefit of our students?
I'd appreciate your thoughts and insights. You can share them with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Waiting on the World to Change
This past week Dick Alfred and Pat Carter from the Strategic Horizon Network visited the College. They spent a morning with the Board of Trustees before separate meetings with the College Senate, Strategic Planning Committee/President's Think Tank and the President's Cabinet. I found their visit very thought-provoking, as their presentations and the conversation they initiated prompted questions and reflections on where we are as a college. I wanted to share some of my own observations here in this post.
We have a very good Strategic Plan. However, it's different than anything the College had previously, and as an institution we seem to be tentative in bringing it to life. The Plan has a number of far-reaching directions and aggressive initiatives that may leave people asking the question, "Where do we start?" It's as though some of us are waiting on the world to change for us -- passively observing -- without recognizing the empowerment that results naturally from committing to and immersing ourselves in the dialogue, action and process of change.
Dick and Pat also challenged us to take the nice sounding words from the Strategic Plan and be sure we develop shared meaning for them - what do we mean by valuing learning, accessibility, collaboration, excellence, diversity, affordability and integrity? They also mentioned the greatest barriers they've seen for community colleges to overcome are a sense of entitlement among employees and a lack of strategic thinking throughout the organization. To overcome them and reach our fullest potential, we need to answer the question, "Do we want to survive or thrive?" Surviving is easy - putting your head down, doing your job and staying off the radar screen. Thriving takes work - jumping into "the too hard to do box" and bringing meaning, value, and yes, life to those pretty words in the Strategic Plan. Thriving will require the development of a collective will to advance our mission by truly working together. We must change the question from what's in it for me? to what's in it for our students? for our community?
Changing the questions we ask can be a powerful tool. Dick and Pat's visit made me think that I need to clarify something along those lines. With all the changes occurring around us, I don't think the main question is how will we change, but how will we evolve? Saying we need to change can imply something is broken or was done wrong in the past. Rather, I believe we need to evolve and move along a natural, strategic path with our vision, values, mission and purpose as our guide. We have a great Strategic Plan with some lofty goals. I'd rather accomplish 80% of lofty goals than 100% of easy goals. It's the difference between saying "it may be possible, but it's too difficult" and saying, "it may be difficult, but it's possible."
These are some of my reflections; share yours with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
We have a very good Strategic Plan. However, it's different than anything the College had previously, and as an institution we seem to be tentative in bringing it to life. The Plan has a number of far-reaching directions and aggressive initiatives that may leave people asking the question, "Where do we start?" It's as though some of us are waiting on the world to change for us -- passively observing -- without recognizing the empowerment that results naturally from committing to and immersing ourselves in the dialogue, action and process of change.
Dick and Pat also challenged us to take the nice sounding words from the Strategic Plan and be sure we develop shared meaning for them - what do we mean by valuing learning, accessibility, collaboration, excellence, diversity, affordability and integrity? They also mentioned the greatest barriers they've seen for community colleges to overcome are a sense of entitlement among employees and a lack of strategic thinking throughout the organization. To overcome them and reach our fullest potential, we need to answer the question, "Do we want to survive or thrive?" Surviving is easy - putting your head down, doing your job and staying off the radar screen. Thriving takes work - jumping into "the too hard to do box" and bringing meaning, value, and yes, life to those pretty words in the Strategic Plan. Thriving will require the development of a collective will to advance our mission by truly working together. We must change the question from what's in it for me? to what's in it for our students? for our community?
Changing the questions we ask can be a powerful tool. Dick and Pat's visit made me think that I need to clarify something along those lines. With all the changes occurring around us, I don't think the main question is how will we change, but how will we evolve? Saying we need to change can imply something is broken or was done wrong in the past. Rather, I believe we need to evolve and move along a natural, strategic path with our vision, values, mission and purpose as our guide. We have a great Strategic Plan with some lofty goals. I'd rather accomplish 80% of lofty goals than 100% of easy goals. It's the difference between saying "it may be possible, but it's too difficult" and saying, "it may be difficult, but it's possible."
These are some of my reflections; share yours with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Understanding Transfer Success
Over the past week, I heard from people who have had very similar experiences as I did attending a community college - MVCC or any of the other 1,200 community colleges around the country. The incredibly supportive environment most community colleges offer can result in success students might not have dreamed possible. I firmly believe the academic success I experienced my freshman year at a community college was not because the classes were easier than classes I took at the university – rather, the academic standards were just as high as at a university, but a more supportive learning environment allowed me to explore and thrive.
Similar to maintaining high standards, the objectives of the community classes had to be the same as the university classes for my classes to transfer. The same is true here at Mohawk Valley Community College, as our faculty and staff work with faculty and staff from our university partners to align the curriculum and create transfer articulation agreements. These pathways are the key to opportunity for students who start at MVCC and transfer. I've spoken to students (or parents of students) who have transferred to our closest partners like SUNY-IT, Utica College, SUNY Oneonta or Clarkson, or to four-year institutions that review our courses on a course-by-course basis like Temple, NYU or Boston College. These students, and their parents, routinely report not only success in the transfer process, but academic readiness for their continued study, thanks to the preparation they received at MVCC.”
Across the country, community college students who transfer to a four-year college or university regularly achieve grade point averages after transfer equal to or greater than students who start at the four-year schools. The tradition of the transfer success of our students is a great foundation upon which to build and our new Strategic Plan calls for us to expand our transfer agreements with four-year colleges and universities. The State University of New York (SUNY) has begun a more aggressive transfer initiative throughout the 64 campuses. However, we can't wait for a larger system to come together in ways it hasn't in 60 years - we're taking our own actions to create even more opportunities for MVCC students to transfer to four-year schools and experience success they may not have even known was possible.
If you have any thoughts on how we can improve our transfer programs for students, please share them with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
Similar to maintaining high standards, the objectives of the community classes had to be the same as the university classes for my classes to transfer. The same is true here at Mohawk Valley Community College, as our faculty and staff work with faculty and staff from our university partners to align the curriculum and create transfer articulation agreements. These pathways are the key to opportunity for students who start at MVCC and transfer. I've spoken to students (or parents of students) who have transferred to our closest partners like SUNY-IT, Utica College, SUNY Oneonta or Clarkson, or to four-year institutions that review our courses on a course-by-course basis like Temple, NYU or Boston College. These students, and their parents, routinely report not only success in the transfer process, but academic readiness for their continued study, thanks to the preparation they received at MVCC.”
Across the country, community college students who transfer to a four-year college or university regularly achieve grade point averages after transfer equal to or greater than students who start at the four-year schools. The tradition of the transfer success of our students is a great foundation upon which to build and our new Strategic Plan calls for us to expand our transfer agreements with four-year colleges and universities. The State University of New York (SUNY) has begun a more aggressive transfer initiative throughout the 64 campuses. However, we can't wait for a larger system to come together in ways it hasn't in 60 years - we're taking our own actions to create even more opportunities for MVCC students to transfer to four-year schools and experience success they may not have even known was possible.
If you have any thoughts on how we can improve our transfer programs for students, please share them with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
A Great Place to Start
I recently read an article about a significant jump in students completing their GED and the fact that a large percentage of them indicated that the main reason for taking the GED was a "dissatisfaction with high school." This reminded me of my own high school experience - it was good, I guess. I was fortunate to have nice teachers and we took pride in our district. The top students in our class went to Brown, Swarthmore, Michigan, and other highly regarded schools. But I look back on that experience and think of myself as fairly disengaged, with my share of study halls my senior year. Unlike some of my friends, I lacked a laser focus on preparing for college and ended up falling short of graduating in the top 10% of my class of 265. Yet years later, I found myself walking across the stage in Crisler Arena, accepting a doctoral degree from the number one ranked higher education administration program in the country at The University of Michigan. I connect those two experiences with one decision upon high school graduation - to attend Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan, 18 miles from my home where I found confidence and direction.
The selling points for me were that the classes were smaller; instruction would come from those that were actually teaching the class, not from a graduate student working for a 'teacher of record'; the campus was small enough that I wasn't intimidated; the price was right; and most importantly, I knew all my classes would transfer to one of five universities that had good reputations and programs. I came to find truth in their advertising. Some of my classes were smaller than what I had in high school, so it was easy to participate in class discussions and I felt comfortable - perhaps for the first time - with learning. My English instructor was able to transfer his passion for the art of "word choice" to me; my history professor introduced me to the importance of asking "why" things happen instead of just memorizing the "what"; and my psychology instructor taught me the meaning of academic standards when she gave me a B (that I earned) when I was expecting an A.
The final highlight to my community college experience was when all 31 of my credits transferred to the university of my choice. I finished my Bachelor's degree three years later and when I found my laser focus on a career, it was aimed squarely at the very environment that gave me such a good start. If a community college was that special a place to me as a student, I reasoned, it was likely to be a special place to work. Looking back I never imagined how true that could be. Having worked in community colleges in three other states, I now know why more than 50% of all students enrolled in college in this country are enrolled in community colleges. All of the outstanding characteristics that drew me into a community college classroom are evident here at MVCC - making it a great place to begin...or begin again.
You can share your reactions and reflections with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
The selling points for me were that the classes were smaller; instruction would come from those that were actually teaching the class, not from a graduate student working for a 'teacher of record'; the campus was small enough that I wasn't intimidated; the price was right; and most importantly, I knew all my classes would transfer to one of five universities that had good reputations and programs. I came to find truth in their advertising. Some of my classes were smaller than what I had in high school, so it was easy to participate in class discussions and I felt comfortable - perhaps for the first time - with learning. My English instructor was able to transfer his passion for the art of "word choice" to me; my history professor introduced me to the importance of asking "why" things happen instead of just memorizing the "what"; and my psychology instructor taught me the meaning of academic standards when she gave me a B (that I earned) when I was expecting an A.
The final highlight to my community college experience was when all 31 of my credits transferred to the university of my choice. I finished my Bachelor's degree three years later and when I found my laser focus on a career, it was aimed squarely at the very environment that gave me such a good start. If a community college was that special a place to me as a student, I reasoned, it was likely to be a special place to work. Looking back I never imagined how true that could be. Having worked in community colleges in three other states, I now know why more than 50% of all students enrolled in college in this country are enrolled in community colleges. All of the outstanding characteristics that drew me into a community college classroom are evident here at MVCC - making it a great place to begin...or begin again.
You can share your reactions and reflections with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
Monday, September 15, 2008
The Strategic Horizon
The future is now and things are changing. We need to change, but we are an organization of more than 400 full-time faculty and staff and hundreds more adjunct faculty and part-time staff. How do we develop the capacity and the will to change, and keep changing, to remain relevant? The short answer is any way we can. A longer answer would involve multiple strategies and one of those is joining the Strategic Horizon Network - a collaboration of 15 community colleges from around the country. MVCC recently joined the Strategic Horizon Network as a community college interested in preparing itself for a complex current day and an ever-changing and emerging future.
The Network is coordinated and facilitated by Dr. Richard Alfred and Patricia Carter from the Center for Community College Development in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The presidents of the network colleges work with the facilitators to provide direction and determine the organizational curriculum and priorities for the Network. One of the important emphases of the Network is that leadership exists throughout the college. Twice a year the colleges bring teams (usually around 5-7 staff and faculty) for a colloquium event in addition to optional learning site visits. Two are being proposed for 2009: one with the National Coalition Building Institute (that focuses on building capacity through inclusivity) and one for faculty to preview research being done by Network college faculty on alternatives to textbooks using public domain sources. I would characterize the colloquia and site visits as common learning through uncommon experiences.
For example, in June the Colloquium was in Annapolis, Maryland and focused on Entrepreneurship and the ways community colleges can become more entrepreneurial and help their communities become more entrepreneurial - that was the common learning part. The uncommon part was the fact that we heard from a very funny economist (seriously) and experienced a behind the scenes tour of a defense industry leader and learned about many of their entrepreneurial strategies to prepare their organization for the future. We then had an opportunity for our college teams to process our experiences and have some conversation about what we saw and heard and the implications for our colleges. In the past, the colleges have learned about strategic human resources practices by visiting the headquarters of a major airline and customer service with a behind the scenes experience at the headquarters of a major hotel chain in addition to many other remarkable experiences. The fall colloquium will take our team to Ann Arbor to hear from leading academics in the University of Michigan Business School about abundance theory and positive organizational psychology with site visits to businesses and organizations putting those theories and ideas into practice.
On October 1st and 2nd, Richard Alfred and Pat Carter will visit the College to join the MVCC Board of Trustees in a workshop before meeting with members of the College Senate, followed by time with the Strategic Planning Committee and finally with the President's Cabinet. The intent of their visit is to help them get to know us and us to know them. They will likely prompt many conversations that we have yet to have here. Our time with them and our participation in the Strategic Horizon Network will likely surface glimpses of our own collective strategic horizon and help us reflect on new ways of thinking that will allow us to serve our students and community in significantly new and different ways.
Please share your thoughts with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
The Network is coordinated and facilitated by Dr. Richard Alfred and Patricia Carter from the Center for Community College Development in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The presidents of the network colleges work with the facilitators to provide direction and determine the organizational curriculum and priorities for the Network. One of the important emphases of the Network is that leadership exists throughout the college. Twice a year the colleges bring teams (usually around 5-7 staff and faculty) for a colloquium event in addition to optional learning site visits. Two are being proposed for 2009: one with the National Coalition Building Institute (that focuses on building capacity through inclusivity) and one for faculty to preview research being done by Network college faculty on alternatives to textbooks using public domain sources. I would characterize the colloquia and site visits as common learning through uncommon experiences.
For example, in June the Colloquium was in Annapolis, Maryland and focused on Entrepreneurship and the ways community colleges can become more entrepreneurial and help their communities become more entrepreneurial - that was the common learning part. The uncommon part was the fact that we heard from a very funny economist (seriously) and experienced a behind the scenes tour of a defense industry leader and learned about many of their entrepreneurial strategies to prepare their organization for the future. We then had an opportunity for our college teams to process our experiences and have some conversation about what we saw and heard and the implications for our colleges. In the past, the colleges have learned about strategic human resources practices by visiting the headquarters of a major airline and customer service with a behind the scenes experience at the headquarters of a major hotel chain in addition to many other remarkable experiences. The fall colloquium will take our team to Ann Arbor to hear from leading academics in the University of Michigan Business School about abundance theory and positive organizational psychology with site visits to businesses and organizations putting those theories and ideas into practice.
On October 1st and 2nd, Richard Alfred and Pat Carter will visit the College to join the MVCC Board of Trustees in a workshop before meeting with members of the College Senate, followed by time with the Strategic Planning Committee and finally with the President's Cabinet. The intent of their visit is to help them get to know us and us to know them. They will likely prompt many conversations that we have yet to have here. Our time with them and our participation in the Strategic Horizon Network will likely surface glimpses of our own collective strategic horizon and help us reflect on new ways of thinking that will allow us to serve our students and community in significantly new and different ways.
Please share your thoughts with me at presblog@mvcc.edu.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Rethinking Workplace Success
I have the good fortune of frequently talking with employers about their workforce needs and how MVCC might better support their operations - educating and training the workers of today and tomorrow. There is an apparent trend that parallels my experience with businesses in Omaha and it reflects a significant shift in today's workplace. I often ask employers for the most essential skills their entry level workers (likely those with associate degrees, certificates or less) should have to be successful. What comes to mind for you? Computer skills? Teamwork? Problem solving? Critical thinking? Appreciation of diversity? That's what I used to think. However, over the past five years, I've found that businesses share a troubling challenge of finding workers with newly defined essential skills and are having to rethink workplace success. The top five essential skills that too many new hires are lacking are often 1. Punctuality (just get me someone to show up consistently on time!); 2. Basic customer service (there's more to it than people think); 3. Respect for others (before we even talk teamwork...); 4. Positive attitude and a desire to learn (wet blankets need not apply); and 5. Professionalism (appearance, ethics, language, etc.). One employer said, "These are things so many of us used to learn in the home - but the needs are so pervasive, we can’t afford to ignore the fact that so many people lack these skills.”
Couple this revelation with the facts about the workforce in Oneida County. "After declining gradually from 2004 through 2006, the county's unemployment rate has climbed incrementally to 5.1% in May 2008, though it remains only slightly below that of the state and still below the national figure. Consistent with the upstate New York region, income levels in the county remain below average, and market value per capita is weak at $39,660" (http://www.pr-inside.com/fitch-rates-oneida-county-new-york-r754736.htm). Five percent unemployment used to mean "unemployable" and with plenty of workers, that was okay. As baby boomers begin to retire, our economy will need everyone and anyone who has the potential to enter the workforce to do so - and MVCC is the logical solution to connect workers and employers. With leadership from our Center for Corporate and Community Education (CCED) and our Humanities department, MVCC is launching a short-term workplace success program. Employability skills, customer service skills and communication, math and technology for the workplace can all be coupled with short-term training to quickly solidify the essential skills necessary for workplace success.
In addition, the average income level demonstrates that we likely have a number of people underemployed. When higher paying jobs surface in the area - nanotech or those already in development, such as expansion of the worker pool at DFAS in Rome - many people will need to be retrained. This retraining will require us to more intentionally provide courses and support services that meet the needs of working adults. Traditional concepts of curriculum content may need to evolve. In addition, we'll have to increase our efforts to strategically expand our transfer articulation agreements with SUNY-IT, Utica College, SUNY-Morrisville and others to maximize opportunities for our students. As these people move into higher paying jobs, local businesses will likely need more workers to backfill the vacancies. This is where our new workplace success curriculum will serve as the starting point for so many individuals. It's a flexible curriculum that can be offered in many ways to the myriad cohorts that will benefit from the fundamental success skills in the course objectives. The workplace success program is one of the many ways in which MVCC is addressing complex needs in our community with clear and relevant programs and services.
What do you think? Have you seen or heard about any of these same issues? Let me know at presblog@mvcc.edu.
Couple this revelation with the facts about the workforce in Oneida County. "After declining gradually from 2004 through 2006, the county's unemployment rate has climbed incrementally to 5.1% in May 2008, though it remains only slightly below that of the state and still below the national figure. Consistent with the upstate New York region, income levels in the county remain below average, and market value per capita is weak at $39,660" (http://www.pr-inside.com/fitch-rates-oneida-county-new-york-r754736.htm). Five percent unemployment used to mean "unemployable" and with plenty of workers, that was okay. As baby boomers begin to retire, our economy will need everyone and anyone who has the potential to enter the workforce to do so - and MVCC is the logical solution to connect workers and employers. With leadership from our Center for Corporate and Community Education (CCED) and our Humanities department, MVCC is launching a short-term workplace success program. Employability skills, customer service skills and communication, math and technology for the workplace can all be coupled with short-term training to quickly solidify the essential skills necessary for workplace success.
In addition, the average income level demonstrates that we likely have a number of people underemployed. When higher paying jobs surface in the area - nanotech or those already in development, such as expansion of the worker pool at DFAS in Rome - many people will need to be retrained. This retraining will require us to more intentionally provide courses and support services that meet the needs of working adults. Traditional concepts of curriculum content may need to evolve. In addition, we'll have to increase our efforts to strategically expand our transfer articulation agreements with SUNY-IT, Utica College, SUNY-Morrisville and others to maximize opportunities for our students. As these people move into higher paying jobs, local businesses will likely need more workers to backfill the vacancies. This is where our new workplace success curriculum will serve as the starting point for so many individuals. It's a flexible curriculum that can be offered in many ways to the myriad cohorts that will benefit from the fundamental success skills in the course objectives. The workplace success program is one of the many ways in which MVCC is addressing complex needs in our community with clear and relevant programs and services.
What do you think? Have you seen or heard about any of these same issues? Let me know at presblog@mvcc.edu.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Color My World
The first week of classes – what a glorious time at a community college. Students, both new and returning to the institution, rushing everywhere, caught in the tumult and trepidation of new beginnings. Faculty and staff energized and focused. A campus refreshed by new landscaping, new furniture, clean classrooms, fresh paint…
Ah, paint. Watching the email threads that dotted our inboxes during the first week of classes concerning the new paint scheme in the MV Commons Snack Bar brought to mind a quote by Ambrose Bierce. “Painting: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic.” It also brought to mind the College’s new Strategic Plan and Priority #4 – Vibrant Culture. As noted in the plan, the first direction for Vibrant Culture is to enhance faculty and staff communication.
We are members of a special community – a community that has the power to change or transform the life of every student we serve. How we communicate about each other and to each other is vital to the harmony of this community. There is nothing healthier than inspired debate about issues that are crucial to our future. However, the time, place and tone of such debate are as important as the subject matter. As MVCC moves forward with ambitious development of campus technology, our methods of campus-wide communication will change – and although these changes are not yet thoroughly defined, I can promise a better platform for conversations such as Wednesday’s dialogue about paint schemes. By better, I mean a more appropriate space for collegial conversation and inspired debate.
Until then, remember that every day is a new opportunity to focus on conversations of a much more essential nature – those that guide and mentor our most important community members, our students.
“Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.”
-Oscar Wilde
If you have any additional thoughts on the matter, let me know at presblog@mvcc.edu.
Ah, paint. Watching the email threads that dotted our inboxes during the first week of classes concerning the new paint scheme in the MV Commons Snack Bar brought to mind a quote by Ambrose Bierce. “Painting: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic.” It also brought to mind the College’s new Strategic Plan and Priority #4 – Vibrant Culture. As noted in the plan, the first direction for Vibrant Culture is to enhance faculty and staff communication.
We are members of a special community – a community that has the power to change or transform the life of every student we serve. How we communicate about each other and to each other is vital to the harmony of this community. There is nothing healthier than inspired debate about issues that are crucial to our future. However, the time, place and tone of such debate are as important as the subject matter. As MVCC moves forward with ambitious development of campus technology, our methods of campus-wide communication will change – and although these changes are not yet thoroughly defined, I can promise a better platform for conversations such as Wednesday’s dialogue about paint schemes. By better, I mean a more appropriate space for collegial conversation and inspired debate.
Until then, remember that every day is a new opportunity to focus on conversations of a much more essential nature – those that guide and mentor our most important community members, our students.
“Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.”
-Oscar Wilde
If you have any additional thoughts on the matter, let me know at presblog@mvcc.edu.
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