Please submit your ideas for MCC's strategic priorities for the next three years related to the Core Principle of "Quality" by posting a comment below.
Quality - To achieve excellence in teaching, learning and the services we provide
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Increase professional development offerings for all workers at MCC, look at staffing levels in service areas to make sure we are adequately meeting stakeholders' needs, improve our use of technology on a campus wide basis, increase course offerings, and more.
ReplyDeleteThe definition for quality and excellence should be reviewed at each department level. A SWOT analysis of how quality can be achieved should be determined and then have a quarterly review of that the analysis to keep on course.
ReplyDeleteBut there has to be trust that each department can do this.
Define a communications plan to support our students/constituents. This is not a marketing plan. This is a whole college plan so that students get consistant, accurate answers no matter who they ask.
ReplyDeleteThe following is from a recent email sent to fellow faculty by one of our math instructors: "When compared to other nations, the math and science achievement of U.S. pupils and the rate of science, technology, engineering and/or math degree attainment appear inconsistent with a nation considered the world leader in scientific innovation. In a recent international assessment of 15-year-old students, the U.S. ranked 28th in math literacy and 24th in science literacy. Moreover, the U.S. ranks 20th among all nations in the proportion of 24-year-olds who earn degrees in natural science or engineering."
ReplyDeleteIn addition to encouraging excellent teaching practices among faculty, MCC can only demonstrate a commitment to increasing the quality of science and math education by providing up-to-date technologies and facilities (laboratory environments).
Need to build a Performing Arts Center.
ReplyDeleteEstablish minimum competencies (using current placement tests) for courses.
ReplyDeleteDigital marquee sign on Route 14.
ReplyDeleteBuilding that integrates all of the health sciences and content sciences.
ReplyDeleteReview and evaluate ratio of full-time to part-time faculty members.
ReplyDeleteEnsure access to computers and computer programs (particularly during peak hours).
ReplyDeleteReview hiring practices (including recruitment, review of applicants, etc.) to ensure that most qualified individuals are hired.
ReplyDeleteExpand number of computer labs, bandwidth, etc.
ReplyDeleteEstablish language learning center (we're currently behind the times). Sage and Special Needs cut Spanish tutoring - need to reestablish tutoring opportunities due to student demand.
ReplyDeleteAdditional technology in the classroom (i.e. smartboards) to have ability to capture notes for students.
ReplyDeleteEstablish student peer tutoring in Sage Learning Center.
ReplyDeletePromote excellence in teaching by recruiting strong faculty -- need competitive pay and benefits.
ReplyDeletePromote excellence in teaching by focusing on best practices for instruction as well as morale boosts.
ReplyDeleteRevisit assessment so that they is better buy-in with faculty and students.
ReplyDeleteWork to make students understand the benefits of their education - beyond meeting a requirement or needing it for X. What is the real value of education?
ReplyDelete360 evaluations of all faculty, staff, administration.
ReplyDeleteHire people at salaries that at least approach "competitive" levels, regardless of whether it is an internal or external person that gets the job. Investment in employees provides a greater return to our students and community.
ReplyDeleteCreate a lane in the faculty schedule that actual honors those with doctoral degrees. This would give recognition to our doctoral faculty and encourage others to earn their doctoral degree.
ReplyDeleteWe need more dean-level participation in classroom observations, including observations of online classes
ReplyDeleteDevelop a quality work environment by defining the culture of the college, our ethics, our work standards, how we value our employees, how we treat our employees and how our employees treat each other.
ReplyDeleteAppropriate space for classrooms, labs and other learning activities.
ReplyDeleteAs stated elsewhere in this category, keeping up to date with science and technology classroom labs is absolutely essential. There are lab classrooms in Buildings B and D, along with the college greenhouse, although maintained very well by faculty and staff compare quite poorly to those of area High Schools by being out of date. This not only reflects poorly on MCC but does little to enhance the learning experience of our students.
ReplyDeleteQuality in teaching, learning and services comes about as a result of honest assessment and efforts toward continual improvement.
ReplyDeleteFor transfer students, ensure that they are prepared to be successful at four-year schools.
ReplyDeleteFor career/tech ed students, ensure that they have the skills needed to get, and be successful in, their first job.
For developmental students, ensure that they can transition effectively to college-level coursework when they have finished their developmental sequence; keep the students motivated so that as many as possible actually finish the developmental sequence.
More generally, for all students: help them to transition to the next stage in their lives.
Services: each area live up to its mission, either by supporting students or helping the College to improve in other ways.
Look at professional development priorities -- Faculty should be encouraged to develop skills in their field which is much more expensive than PLS courses.
ReplyDeletehybrid vehicles in automotive, we need to stay cuurent in a rapidly changning field.
ReplyDeleteAutomotive classes are all full. To expand the program we need another big lab. Give the theater/art department the conference center or a new performing arts center and turn the blackbox into an automotive lab.
ReplyDeleteIntegrate gen ed with occupational or other gfen ed courses. Academy and learning community instructors know that this works. Incetivize this approach so others will follow.
ReplyDeleteMinimize the mountain of paperwork that is required internally to get new courses/programs implemented. By the time we have the courses/programs we are already behind.
ReplyDeleteWhat we must ultimately remember is that we need to do the best we can regardless of the size or quality of the facilities available. This is not to say that we shouldn't offer up suggestions OR devise plans to make improvements for these target facilities, but we simply cannot (in good conscience) hinge all of our conceptions pertaining the state of these facilities as an overall measure of our quality. That (frankly) is out of our control, not to mention a complete cop-out.
ReplyDeleteWhat we must do instead is to hold ourselves to a MEASUREABLE system of performance standards; whether it be campus-wide, division-wide, or department-wide, it must be a system that holds EACH of us accountable to meeting the expectations of the internal & external community-at-large. This, in conjunction with a justifiable development plan, will give us the practical means to reach our quality goals, both in facilities and personnel. Either way, this will take time, and we must be patient and show due diligence. Indeed, ROME WAS NOT BUILT IN A DAY...
It is also important to note here that this program MUST have buy-in & participation from the top-down. If Deans or AVPS or Coordinators don't actively press their people toward a higher standard, then much of the effort in establishing this program goes wasted. Only when we know that we're being evaluated, do we tend to exert ourselves to meet/exceed that measure...
After reading all of the posts it is clear that we have some commons areas that most would like to see movement in. We could easily define the general strategy areas within this priority and then each department can define the tactics they can take to meet the needs of strategy. It is clear that everyone wants to see movement in the areas of Staff Development, facilities improvement, Student development, learning technologies, Assessment (employee & learning), communications. Under each of these general areas there are many great ideas that we all have to impact the overall goal of excellence in teaching, learning and services.
ReplyDeleteThere are two things above that I whole heartedly agree with that I think would help us to make great strides towards excellence. It is extremely important to ensure that the staff of the college value education as much as we want the students to. In order to do that we need to provide relative and valuable training and development opportunities for ALL staff. Currently there is very little development opportunities available for non-faculty members. There have been a few attempts recently, successful options like the CCOO class and the recent announcement of a leadership workshop series that are moving in the right direction. But there needs to be partnerships developed with other institutions that would enable employees to achieve higher education goals in convenient ways so that we are truly developing talent within our ranks. I also agree with the person who suggested a 360 approach to employee evaluations. This would instill a much greater sense of ownership and accountability among staff. Right now everyone gets annual raises whether everyone really deserves it or not and the annual review process is primarily a perfunctory function that does not add any real value to an employees job or growth.
ReplyDeleteGeneral comment (there should be an other comment section for each weeks' discussions) -
ReplyDeleteThis blog is a great way of getting internal input. How will this be merged with what we learned in our MAP sessions, the Board's Visioning sessions (what is their vision?) and any other SWOT analysis before we finalize our Strategic Goals? How do we keep this step at a strategic level instead of focusing on tactical too soon?
Building on the comment that we need to provide consistent answers to questions from our shareholders and students:
ReplyDeleteWe should put a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) tab on mchenry.edu. In order to maintain a consistent format, only one person or a small group of people would make changes to the FAQ. Each department/division could forward the questions they find themselves continuously answering, together with the answers, to a central the person/people responsible for adding to the page.
Develop a furniture or hardware replacement plan to ensure student chairs (especially in DGM classrooms) and CPUs in classrooms, labs and Atrium are cleaned (atrium CPUs are caked with dust)
ReplyDeleteIn addition to above comment about student chairs, need plan to replace broken chairs, including those in DGM classrooms.
ReplyDeleteContinually seek input from students to assess their learning, service, and communication needs (possibly through focus groups)and to find out if MCC is communicating to them effectively.
ReplyDeleteTry to partner with another college to offer a Doctoral cohort here at MCC
ReplyDeleteAn issue that affects both QUALITY and ACCESSIBILITY is the heavy reliance on adjunct instructors. While this has an obvious benefit to the institution, it can reduce both quality and accessibility. In my department (Philosophy) it is very difficult -- sometimes virtually impossible -- to find qualified adjuncts to teach the popular daytime sections that students demand. We sometimes hire adjuncts who arguably do not meet minimum qualifications. We do this out of desperation and necessity. The choices are these: hire poorly qualified instructors (which reduces QUALITY) or cancel fully-enrolled classes or don't schedule them in the first place (which reduces ACCESSIBILITY). Either way we shortchange students. My guess is that these issues are not limited to my department. The college can move towards improving both quality and accessibility by hiring the number of full-time instructors that are truly required to do the job. Jim Gould
ReplyDeleteMCC is very unusual in that the biology department and the campus greenhouse are nowhere near each other. Future plans for much-needed expansion and upgrading of biology labs and classrooms should consider the educational value of an accessable greenhouse to teaching plant biology.
ReplyDelete1. Recruit and retain highly qualified faculty.
ReplyDelete2. Add resources (and budget for these) for curriculum areas in the library (books and media).
Modernize the science laboratory and lecture rooms. Many of our students who attended high school were taught in sigficantly better equiped and designed classrooms than what they get at MCC.
ReplyDeleteObtain and maintain an NCLEX pass rate of >90% for the nursing program
ReplyDeleteWe need more faculty space. Faculty members should not be in cubicals for a wide variety of reasons.
ReplyDeleteThe Honors Program needs a major overhall. Enrollment in the honors classes has gone way down and this is not good. Our best students should have access to more honors courses and opportunities.
ReplyDeleteHire the best and most qualified across all areas of the college (faculty, administration, and staff) and make it worthwhile to be a part of this institution (fair wage). Treat each other (across the board) with respect and civility above all else. Morale is at an all time low – why? We don’t trust each other or the institution right now. Highlight the good of what is here – and once and for all – get rid of the bad.
ReplyDeleteFair, living wages for adjuncts is key to quality of instruction. We need to build a system of evaluating and promoting adjuncts to guaranteed/contracted positions with X number of teaching and tutoring hours required each year. Adjuncts would be salaried, receive more benefits, and rewarded for their hard work. Many universities call these lectorships, and MCC sorely needs a program like this!
ReplyDelete