Previous Recommendation
Introductory
Comments:
When the evaluation team members visited Cañada College
on April 4-6, 1995, they made ten recommendations for our college
and shared an equal number of commendations. Cañada College
was also asked to submit a Midterm Report indicating progress
toward meeting the evaluation team's recommendations and a summary
of progress on college identified concerns as expressed in the
1995 self-study. The College was asked to focus its Midterm
Report on recommendation #6 pertaining to Student Services.
Commission representatives then made a brief visit to the campus
following receipt of the Midterm Report.
Following the brief visit to the college and review of the Midterm Report completed in October 1997, the Commission requested an additional Progress Report in November 1998. A full and complete response to Commission concerns was prepared and submitted as requested and both the 1997 and 1998 documents are available for further review. It should be noted that Cañada College is a completely different institution today than it was in 1995 or in 1998. Major changes have occurred with regard to leadership, fiscal resources and community and institutional partnerships.
Leadership:
Three different Presidents have served since 1995 and the last
Interim President, Rosa Perez, was made permanent in spring
2000. The new President has been a resident in the College and
District attendance area for a number of years and was a former
employee of the District. She is well known and highly regarded
in the community and has deep roots in the bay area. The stability,
knowledge, and vision her leadership has brought to the College
has helped move the institution a long way towards transformation
into one of the more dynamic and effective community colleges
in the area. In addition, the College has restored the position
of Vice President of Instruction and created two new administrative
positions, Dean of Enrollment Services and Dean of Instructional
Services. The position of Vice President of Instruction was
filled by the former Dean of Science and Technology. Her long
tenure at the College, credibility, knowledge, and appreciation
for both instruction and student services has filled a huge
void. The Dean of Enrollment Services is the first administrative
position to be restored to student services since 1993, when
all but the Vice President of Student Services were eliminated.
In addition, two new Academic Supervisor positions were fill
this past August: Coordinator of Matriculation, Articulation
and Transfer, and Coordinator of the Learning Center.
Fiscal
Resources:
The College has earned the distinction of being a "Hispanic
Serving Institution" and was awarded a significant federal
grant to help transform and prepare the College to meet the
needs of a new demographic population. Several members of the
administrative and teaching staff have taken the initiative
to seek out external funding that has brought substantial additional
funding to the College for special programs, services, and initiatives.
These new funds have greatly improved the visibility of the
college, boosted staff morale, and reinvigorated the College
in general by replacing or providing much needed equipment,
new staffing, and funding to increase college opportunities
in the community. They have also brought additional work. The
new Chancellor of the SMCCCD and the Board of Trustees have
also been very supportive, allocating additional funds to Cañada
for growth initiatives and new partnerships.
Partnerships:
What some are calling the most significant developments in the
history of the College came about because of the tenacious and
impressive people skills of our new President, who made it a
goal to establish personal and institutional relationships with
our feeder institutions and surrounding communities. After visiting
the Superintendents and Principals of our four feeder high schools
and elementary school districts, the College succeeded in crafting
its first ever signed articulation agreement with the Sequoia
Union High School District and verbal commitments with the Redwood
City Elementary School District to create a seamless "pipeline
to college" for the growing underserved Latino student
population in the area. This was followed by an unprecedented
agreement with San Francisco State University to co-locate on
the Cañada College campus specified, upper division Baccalaureate
programs beginning in the Spring of 2001. This agreement will
enable residents of the College attendance area to complete
their AA/AS and/or transfer to SFSU without having to leave
the community and provides the means for an articulated K-16
pipeline to a college. Hailed in the community as a potential
answer to the Digital Divide, the teacher shortage, congestion
on the freeways, and overcrowding at the four-year institutions,
this partnership has gained the enthusiastic support and endorsement
of local officials, from the Mayor of Redwood City all the way
to the Governor of California. Our local trustees immediately
provided $100,000 to begin the planning, and a bill to upgrade
college labs and equipment for upper division work is moving
swiftly through the legislature.
Thus, it is from this context that the reader is requested to review the College's response to the following recommendations made in 1995.
[Originally Recommendation 1: "The College should explore ways to provide institutional research for the campus in order to conduct a comprehensive Community Needs Assessment of the service area; to evaluate student needs, satisfaction, and outcomes; and to validate the effectiveness of current programs and services."]
Response: A comprehensive Community Needs Assessment of the service area was completed in spring 1996. In addition a campus-wide Student Satisfaction Survey was administered in October 1997 to validate the effectiveness of programs and services offered. In the 1998/99 academic year, student focus groups were convened to provide additional student feedback and follow-up on programs and services provided by the college. While the results were overwhelmingly positive for the vast majority of programs and services provided, valuable information about student perception of counseling and advising became apparent and these results formed the basis for subsequent reorganization of counseling.
The College allocated funding for a Researcher position, augmented by a small grant from the Chancellor's Office. This position was filled for a short time, and presently two full-time faculty in the math department are providing reassigned time to conduct research for the College. These two faculty work under the supervision of the Vice President of Instruction and consult with the College Research Committee. The District regularly produces reports and other data to assist the Colleges in related research and representatives from all three campuses meet periodically to review research needs, approaches, and common problems. A decision will be made this spring whether the College should once again attempt to fill the researcher position or continue with the current arrangement.
[Originally Recommendation 2: "The College should take advantage of the opportunity to attract and embrace a more diverse student body and staff, which will contribute to the overall quality and effectiveness of the College."]
Response: Since 1995 the College has made enormous strides in this area. Not only have the faculty, administration, and staff become more diverse, so has the student body.
The College has developed a recruitment system that focuses on the needs of its community in the South County, a very diverse community with a large population of Hispanic students. Outreach has been developed to reach this population at feeder high schools and in the community. Examples can be found in several standards in this document. The College is also consciously examining it hiring practices and its campus environment in order to embrace more completely and serve a more diverse student body.
For example, the Faculty and Staff Diversity Committee has been re-created as a proactive committee on campus. Also, through the efforts of new faculty members, the student clubs that forward the issues and serve the needs of gay, lesbian, and African-American students have been revitalized. There is also a District-wide commitment through the efforts of the District Academic Senate and the College Academic Senates to promote the philosophy of inclusion and community-building in curriculum, professional development events, college and district-wide discussions, and conferences. An example of this is the initiative begun last year to fund members of all three colleges to attend the Museum of Tolerance and share the experience with all. The first group will attend this experience in December and groups will be funded regularly in the future.
In the spring of 2000 the College was designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), meaning that more than 25% of its student enrollment was of Hispanic origin. The College has agreed to provide Community Based English Training to parents of students in the Redwood City School District and is active with Latino parent groups and organizations throughout its feeder attendance area. In March 2001 the College will host its first Cesar Chavez Celebration in cooperation with local kindergarten classes to produce a "College Caminada" (Road to College), an attempt to instill college aspiation in 5 and 6 year olds. While issues of diversity still evoke strong and sometimes divergent feelings among various segments of the campus community, there is no question that the College is taking full advantage of every opportunity to attract and embrace a more diverse student body and staff. This effort is greatly enhanced by the bilingual and bicultural capabilities of the President and other members of her staff.
[Originally Recommendation 4: "The College should explore, develop, and offer other instructional delivery systems that incorporate new technologies."]
Response: The College has implemented a number of new delivery methods in order to accommodate student needs for a broader range of instructional approaches. Grants from the Packard Foundation and more recently the Department of Education have enabled faculty to be exposed to techniques for more culturally and linguistically appropriate instruction, collaborative learning, technology-infused instruction, twenty Telecourses, and twenty-two online courses. CAT instruction in two ESL labs, a Writing Lab, and computer based language instruction in the Learning Centers, both on and off-campus, have also been added. Many faculty have been trained in CAI through the college's Center for Teaching and Learning. With the arrival of San Francisco State University on campus, co-enrollment in courses, increased articulation, and more alternative formats for educational offerings may be possible.
[Originally Recommendation 7: The College should ensure the security of student records, particularly in the areas of admissions and progress reports. These records need to be protected from damage by fire and earthquake. Resources need to be provided to ensure that all records are duplicated."]
Response: Storage and security of records is no longer a problem. Records are located in a secure, fireproof area, and backed up by data files on line.
[Originally Recommendation 8: "The College should consider staffing needs in the library, as funding permits."]
Response: The College has restored funding for a reference librarian in the permanent budget and the Library Coordinator position has been increased from an 11-month academic position to a 12-month position.
[Originally Recommendation 9: "The College should develop a plan to increase funding from external sources. Sources include, but are not limited to, increased grant activities, contract education, and fund-raising efforts."]
Response: The College successfully undertook a significant campaign to increase external funding from local, state, and federal sources. Since 1995 the college has received well over a million dollars in external funding, with every indication that this figure will increase substantially in the next few years.
[Originally Recommendation 10: "The Academic Senate and faculty union should develop a workable agreement to delineate the function and scope of each organization. As the resolution of this matter is rather global in nature, it may be best addressed at the level of the three colleges and the district."]
Response: Meetings have taken place since this recommendation was originally made and the function and scope of each organization has been more clearly defined. These discussions have occurred at both the campus and district level and there currently exists on campus a highly collegial atmosphere between the organizations. The union now has a seat on the District Shared Governance Council and participates actively in the college Academic Senate agendas.
Recommendations From the Focused Progress Report in 1998
[Orginally stated as Recommendation 5 by 4/95 Evaluation Team and restated by the 11/97 Focus Team: "The College needs to improve overall supervision, effectiveness and support of counseling, identify and implement strategies for improved communication and cooperation among counseling faculty and other Student Services support staff, continue to improve interface with instructional faculty and division offices, identify and implement activities that will foster staff morale, unity, and sense of purpose; it also needs to implement an enrollment management system with appropriate staffing. The Midterm Team strongly believes the College should continue to explore and expand its concept of a one-stop shop from Student Services including such ideas as reuniting DSP&S with the rest of Student Services."
As stated by Executive Director Wolf: "While significant progress has been made in revitalizing student services, further attention to the organizational structure and types of support services the college can reasonably offer must be addressed."]
[Originally stated as Recommendation 6 by 4/95 Evaluation Team: "The College should undertake an in-depth study of the student services area in order to determine what services should be offered, what resources are required, and how the area should be organized. As part of the process, the college should identify and investigate successful service delivery models used by other colleges of similar size."]
Response: Recommendations from previous site visits have enumerated many concerns in Student Services; however, they have also noted that comprehensive services have continued to be offered, and that "Student services staff have performed admirably in the face of major obstacles...each person interviewed gave evidence of being committed to the college's mission, and more particularly, to student success." The concerns expressed through the recommendations deal primarily with organization, structure, and efficacy of services, and with enrollment management.
Organizational Structure: At the present time, five of the eight full time counselors now report to instructional deans and the College has moved to an integrated counseling services model, where students may avail themselves of transfer, career, general academic, or specialized counseling services as needed in one location. The integrated counseling center is intended to augment services provided by division counselors who concentrate their services on majors by disciplines. A new full time bilingual counselor was recently hired for outreach and pre-admissions counseling, as a result of grant funding. The new Coordinator of Matriculation, Transfer, and Articulation has been a much-welcomed addition in an area that was significantly lacking in leadership. A Lead Counselor was named and other new positions supported by grants (HSEP Program Services Coordinator; CalWORKs; and Workability III) have been added. We are currently seeking to fill a vacant Dean of Enrollment Services position. Staffing in other student services areas continues to be a challenge, either because of ongoing vacancies due to retirements and resignations or lack of funding. Overall, staffing in Student Services areas has rebounded from the cuts imposed in lean budget years (95-98), but not necessarily in the same areas as before. Services to students in admissions, assessment, registration, and orientation, academic counseling, and follow-up with educational support have continued to be successfully provided, to the extent that students responding to the Fall 99 AACC Survey, "Faces of the Future," indicated an 85% satisfaction rate with Cañada College. The survey did not include pecific questions about Student Services, so there is no specific data to compare with the Noel-Levitz survey taken in 1997.
The current atmosphere in student services is dynamic, fast-paced, and stressful. Significant technological advances have resulted in new systemic and procedural changes that, while more current with the times, have not reduced demand on staff time or workload. It seems that while technology has increased, so have the needs of our changing student population.
Remodeling projects in Admissions and Records, EOPS/Financial Aid, and the Career Center/drop-in area have improved visibility and accessibility for students and improved the work environment for staff in those areas. First-round approval has been granted by the State Chancellor's Office for a new Library / Learning Resources building, which will place the Library and Learning Resources in the center of campus, allow the expansion of Student Services, and enable various programs to be in closer proximity. For example, Cañada College has long been concerned with better integration of DSP&S, Health Services, and Psychological Services to improve access for students and approach the goal of a "one stop shop." In the administrative re-organization in spring of 1999, DSP&S and Learning Resources were assigned to the Instruction Office, while DSP&S remained physically in Building 3. Psychological Service and Health Services remained in Student Services, in Building 6 and Building 5, respectively. In the summer of 2000, DSP&S was moved to building 5 where it is housed with Workability III, and the Learning Disability Program was moved to the Learning Center. The Health Center was moved to Building 1, and the Transfer Center was moved into the Integrated Counseling Center. Financial Aid was moved next to Admissions & Records and EOP&S was moved to Building 3, where DSP&S used to be located.
Small, cramped office space continues to be an issue but with the promise of a new Library/Learning Resources Building in the near future, relief is at least in sight. Current plans call for all student services finally to be located all together in the air-conditioned space presently occupied by the Learning Center. Vacancies in key areas increase the challenge to "get everything done" in a timely way and with the standard of excellence that has been a source of pride to classified staff. A systematic process for ongoing solicitation of student feedback about services provided is not yet in place and other planned activities must wait until staff is freed up or hired to manage them.
Enrollment Management: The College's commitment to enrollment management is evident in recent staffing, establishment of an oversight committee with broad representation, and aggressive recruiting and outreach activities. Enrollment has indeed increased, as has the proportion of younger students. For 1998-99, the college appointed an Acting Dean of EOPS, Outreach, and Enrollment Management. The position has been made permanent as Dean of Enrollment Services, and is in the process of being filled (Spring 2001). The positions of College Recruiter and Program Services Coordinator for EOPS have been created and filled, resulting in much greater efforts and success in community outreach, particularly to area high schools. An Enrollment Management Team was formed in Fall 1998 to develop plans to 1) serve and retain more students, 2) evaluate and improve institutional effectiveness, 3) improve effectiveness of Student Services to increase student satisfaction and to better integrate Student Services and Instruction, 4) strengthen planning for staff retirements, professional development for employees, and develop a more diverse workforce, 5) increase college/community connections, 6) plan how to implement a nw facilities master plan, and 7) continue resource development for students, program development, and institutional advancement. The Team's composition reflects all areas of the College, including a broad spectrum from Student Services, and all levels of employees and student representatives. While the current Enrollment Management Plan is of necessity more limited in scope than the original charge, it demonstrates clear focus on outreach, recruiting, and retention.
Activity in pursuit of enrollment has been impressive. However, the many changes in administrative organization, staff additions, reassignments, deletions, and program additions experienced in Student Services for the past three years have been challenging. Although driven by financial incentives, efficiency, and the quest for improvement, the frequency of changes and the lack of specific evaluative measures in most areas make assessment of effectiveness of those changes difficult at this time.
Types of Support Services Offered: The College continues to offer traditional student support services augmented by a new concept _ supported education. There has never been a doubt that the College must continue to provide the basics in student services. The question was how to provide them effectively, given the staffing, resources, and physical limitations. Judging by the transfer and degree/certificate completion indicators released last Spring by the State Chancellor's office, Cañada is doing quite well. With its new partners in the community, there is no question that the number and complexity of student services needed by our new population means that traditional services are not sufficient. Our planned new emphasis on supported education is grounded in research on special populations. Supported education approaches mean building student services directly into the learning process. Supported education melds student services with instruction by incorporating one into the other via in-class supplemental instruction, student instructional processing: seminars taught by student services staff in collaboration with teaching faculty, mentors and tutors as case managers, and acculturation activities designed to change the mental set of entering students to "college students" via a freshman experience. MESA, Learning Communities, HSEP, HSI, and EOP are all examples of programs that will incorporate supported education. This approach will undoubtedly set Cañada off as distinctive and unique and that is how it should be, given the unique and distinctive position it currently enjoys in the community.
