Effective governance is not always easy, pretty or simple; it is, however, important, necessary, and significant to helping a college make good decisions and get things done. I wrote about our evolving governance system in the fall of 2010. Two academic years later, the results our governance system is producing are worth noting. While the journey continues for us all, the system is evolving incrementally and the results of the past year affirm the idea that this year was a little better than last year.
The governance system is
comprised of the College Senate, College
Councils, College
Workgroups, Task Forces, and Design Teams. All of these groups address various issues
at the College and engage the Cabinet and Board of Trustees
as needed.
College Senate
A quick review of the Senate’s meeting
minutes from the past year shows topics of interest to Senators
that affected College operations and warranted discussion, dialogue, and
debate. The array of topics shows the relevance and importance of Senate
discussion on issues such as textbook costs, smoking on campus, pets on campus,
instructional space and technology, inconsistent clocks, academic appeals
process, emeritus status, and Web content filtering. In addition, the Senate provided
input to the work of the Strategic Planning Council and a number of design
teams; created a wellness committee of the Senate based on a design team
recommendation; endorsed a number of resolutions from the Faculty Council of Community
Colleges; created a charter for the Senate Advisory Committee; and enhanced
communication with Senate committees. To represent the College Senate, the Chair reported to the Cabinet and Board
of Trustees each month, attended the FCCC’s Fall and Spring Plenary as a
representative of MVCC governance, and held a Senate Committee Chairs Training
Workshop.
College Councils
While all the Councils made
progress this year, a number of significant achievements are worth noting.
Crisis Management oversaw the upgrade of security cameras at both campuses and
implemented a new emergency communications system. The Cultural Events Council
coordinated another amazing year of events at both campuses. The Employee
Enrichment Council once again put together an incredible array of institutes and
workshops for faculty and staff. The Enrollment Management Council developed
plans for enrollment and student retention and success. The Institutional
Effectiveness Council made recommendations to redefine critical success
measures for the College.
Workgroups
While Councils deal with more
overarching issues and plans, the workgroups have very focused responsibilities
in collaboratively addressing work that requires interdepartmental
coordination. Some highlights from the various workgroups include the following
accomplishments. The Administrative Process group coordinated nearly 50 major
projects and enhancements to our information management systems and IT
infrastructure. The Behavior Evaluation Response Team group met regularly to
address potentially concerning student behavior reported throughout the
College. The College Calendar workgroup updated the calendar for the next three
years. The Distance Education Workgroup coordinated continued growth of our
online and hybrid course and program offerings. And Team MVCC coordinated nearly
1,000 participants over 12 events to raise more than $30,000 for community
organizations.
Design Teams
The purpose of design teams is
to research best practices at other community colleges, inventory our current
practices, and then compare and contrast them to make recommendations to
improve various systems and processes at the College. This past year included
the work of design teams on issues related to annual evaluations, civility, internships,
and service learning. While the work on evaluations and civility continues, the
internships and service learning teams delivered their reports that will help
reshape the College in those areas.
“Committeed to death” is a phrase often
used in education. Unfortunately, that can be true if intentional thought and
effort aren’t given to structuring and actively engaging a robust governance
system with meaningful and valued work. The results of these groups this past
year speak to the commitment required to coordinate the collaboration of
intelligent, hard-working individuals who care about the work that they do and
the success of this College and our students. We’ll continue to refine the
system and improve it as the living system that it is. Thanks to the hundreds
of faculty and staff who accomplished so much through governance this year.
