April
13, 2005
MEETING MINUTES
In
Attendance: V. Morrow, R. Stanback-Stroud, A. Archer, I.
Barcala, C. Beringer, D. Bestock, E. Briones,
J. Hughes, F. Irigoyen, N. Kapp, M. Mascarinas,
J. Piergrossi, E. Seth, J. Redwine, E. Seth, L.
Whitten, K. Zbikowski-Taylor
New
IPC Director Announced
Cathy
Hasson has been selected to be the Director of Planning, Research
and Institutional Effectiveness. She will officially begin in
early August but plans to come in for selected days to do some
early preparation. Cathy comes to us by way of Saddleback College
in Orange County and Mission College in Santa Clara, CA. Vicki
Morrow noted that our job description was very comprehensive and
we were fortunate to find her.
Planning
Calendar/Committee List
The
IPC membership list was presented. Ilka Barcala asked that Melchie
Cabrigas’ name be removed from the list. A draft of the 2005-2006
calendar was presented. The committee discussed changing the timelines
in order for the college to begin work on the work plan at an
earlier stage. Regina acknowledged that the work plan needs some
attention and she is hoping Cathy Hasson will help revise the
process, and begin the planning earlier in the year. Vicki wants
to know if the work plans can be more concise so the value of
the planning is more important.
Vicki
also asked if we can change the timing around hiring for faculty
positions. She would like the FTEF announcements sent out earlier
(mid-fall) so we are ahead of the pack and interviewing by mid-spring.
She asked the committee if we can we move up the whole process.
Connie Beringer would like to suggest that we form committees
before the fall break.
Student
Learning Outcomes Update
Regina
Stanback-Stroud presented the update in Karen Wong’s absence.
She noted that Skyline is engaged in a campus-wide dialogue on
Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) and presented a handout to the
committee entitled, "Update on SLO Development at Skyline
College." The program was initiated last year with the offices
of the Vice President of Student Services and Vice President of
Instruction. The Academic Senate president was included in the
discussion to increase awareness of SLOs. Last July, 48 staff
attended a workshop and all student services staff attended a
workshop in the fall. Regina developed a proposal to appoint a
SLO coordinator (Karen Wong) and a Professional Development Coordinator
(Phyllis Taylor). They have partnered on the program. Karen has
formed a steering committee to do assessments. She wrote a grant
to get stipends, and hire and train faculty to train the trainers.
She consulted with Academic Senate and with the Curriculum Committee
to make sure the information was concise. She is also working
with counterparts at other colleges. In addition, a SLO Assessment
Cycle (SLOAC) team was appointed. They developed a draft philosophy,
which was distributed to the committee. They are presenting this
to Academic Senate and other governance groups for their approval.
They are committed to the American Association of Higher Education’s
(AAHE) principles, which are listed in the handout.
Accreditation
Update
Donna
Bestock announced that Skyline is scheduled for an accreditation
visit in fall 2007. She noted that there is a great deal of overlap
with SLO. It is a multi-phase program that will require:
-
The
need to keep good records to see what we have accomplished
and what the process was.
-
The
formation of a steering committee.
-
The
formation of a writing committee comprised of administration,
faculty, classified staff, and students.
A
copy of "Accreditation: Getting Started" was distributed
to the committee. Donna noted that there are now four standards:
Institutional Mission and Effectiveness; Student Learning Programs
and Services; Resources; and Leadership and Governance. The Accrediting
Commission has asked that we include six themes (refer to list).
Note #5 Dialogue: The dialogue has got to be a part of what we
include. In addition, people who are appointed to the writing
committee will also be asked to write about the themes.
Writing
Accreditation Reports: Vicki Morrow added that she has noticed
that colleges have not capitalized on the new standards. Projects
can now be written to be more concise, and less repetitive to
eliminate writing on recurrent topics and thereby ease the workload.
She noted in a previous accreditation she participated in that
the committee marked a grid and checked off repetitive references
to topics. There are ways to exploit the new standards to minimize
repetitiveness and she suggests the committee does that and designs
a template for Skyline. She also noted that there are plenty of
places to note reference documents, which should be utilized to
cut down on work. Nick Kapp felt that we should stick to what
has worked in the past. Vicki will look into ways in which other
reports are written. Vicki also asked if there is a way to use
the web in the internal review process. Donna noted that we will
use the accreditation web page to post reports. Regina has sample
templates of how to incorporate projects (like SLOs) in the accreditation
reports.
Steering
and Writing Committee: Nick asked if we have a district representative
to coordinate the accreditation and Vicki Morrow will check. Usually
there is a district member on the Standards Writing Committee.
An editor will be working on and reviewing the project throughout
the process. The editor needs to be sufficiently "internal"
to know the intricacies of the policies. Donna wants to know how
to get good student involvement especially in terms of continuity.
The committee would like to see a good handoff system for students.
Accreditation
Timeline: We will spend one year gathering data and then write
a draft. It is presented to a governing body to review (Steering
committee, governing council). Their comments are sent back to
the writing team and the draft is then sent back for approval
by May 2007. We will be able to make minor updates to the report
after May and before the team comes. Once approved, the report
is submitted to the board, and then a final, polished report is
presented to the Accrediting Commission two months before accreditation.
Annual
Planning
There
has been a gap in the planning process due to personnel changes.
Deans are now working with their staff to come up with their annual
plans. The plans will be very realistic, due to resources available.
An analysis of how well the college performed in achieving its
mission and goals has not been done before. Regina hopes the new
director will help with this so that the college evaluation will
be more meaningful this year.
Budget
For
the upcoming year, no new funds were added to the site allocation
other than COLA and step and column increases. Skyline’s
budget is basically the same as last year, except for the cost
of hiring five new faculty positions (four in instruction and
one in counseling). In addition, the college is hiring replacements
for three faculty who retired this year. The College Budget Committee
recommended hiring the new faculty positions, but the college
had to shift dollars from the 1310 budget since the load will
be shifted to the permanent faculty hired. The committee also
recommended reducing discretionary budgets such as miscellaneous
supplies and suggested backfilling these with Prop. 20 funds.
Now
that the district receives state apportionment, the three colleges
were instructed to maintain or increase their enrollment. Linda
Whitten hopes the new allocation model will be better. The present
model has no provisions for colleges that grow. Step and column
increases were al that we got. The new allocation aims to provide
stability in funding. We anticipate that the new district allocation
model will be implemented in FY 2006-07.
