OPERATIONS COUNCIL FEBRUARY 13, 2012 MINUTES Attending: Chris Bailey Laura Brener Judith Chapar Debbie Cleveland Lisa Matye Edwards Kristy Enser Brendan Glaser Sue Groth Wendy Hall Richard Hamilton Kyle Hammon Betty Hayes Megan Jasurda Karen Joiner Sandy Junker Lynn Lawrence Joe Quirk Brandon Ray Maggie Stuart Casey Tilton Nolan Wheeler Linda Clark, Recorder 1. UPDATE ON GOALS Excel in Teaching and Learning Provide Complete and Inclusive Services Create and Maintain Strategic Alliances Strengthen Organizational Climate/Structure Ensure Physical and Technical Infrastructure/Structure Develop a Culture of Evidence Focus on Enrollment Management 2. MEETING TOPICS Performance Appraisal (Pilot) President Bailey explained that he wants to see evaluations conducted on a regular basis. Evaluations should reflect a true review of an employee s performance, and not just be done for discipline reasons but for continuous improvement. With that in mind, the HR staff have redesigned performance appraisals for exempt staff to a more comprehensive-type evaluation. This evaluation will be more narrative, not numerical, and will involve from 5-7 evaluators. We are piloting this program with the current interim staff. All evaluators will have an opportunity to express their review of the new process through Survey Monkey. Classified staff will continue to be evaluated annually as per contract. Probationary employees: President Bailey would like to see a 3-month review; then there is an opportunity to discuss issues and prove an opportunity for correction. He does not want to wait until 5 months, 29 days to determine that an employee shouldn t be hired permanently. Budget President Bailey reported that nothing new has come from the special session (pertaining to higher ed), and probably won t until the revenue forecast comes out later in the week. There does, however, seem to be substantial support for education. 2012-13 Annual Priorities President Bailey explained that we are in the process of setting annual priorities for next year, and our initial thought process is to phase out strategic initiatives and establish priorities that are more reflective of our core outcomes as set by the Board of Trustees.
These are open for comment so please feel free to direct your ideas to either Linda or Wendy. Stabilize IT Infrastructure We are currently conducting a program review of IT to determine what is needed to stabilize the infrastructure and move forward. The goal is to become more proactive and less reactive, so we re looking to develop a rolling 2-year Technology Master Plan based on inputs from the campus through facilitated discussions. An Open Forum will be held after the start of spring quarter; please bring desires and needs for the next two years and prioritize within departments. Once all inputs are in, Nolan Wheeler and Brandon Ray will develop the document, which we hope to implement by September. 3. ROUND TABLE Brandon Ray IT work this past weekend went very well and minimized downtime for students and staff. The advisor data portal is up and running, and later this week, a new storage system will be set-up. Casey Tilton We had several medical issues last week. Staff responded very well. Megan Jasurda The Disabilities Office is implementing phone calls to the DSS students who are in academic jeopardy The newly remodeled second floor of the Student Center will provide space for Veterans. Wendy Hall Our Achieving the Dream coaches will be visiting this Thursday and Friday Richard Hamilton The Admissions Building project is underway and is on schedule. The Physical Science Lecture Hall users group met for the first time this week Judith Chapar The current SSS community service project will benefit the Salvation Army Call to support: Please support the TRIO program with legislators Sue Groth The LCC Facebook account now has 1000 friends A representative from Senator Murray s office will be on campus February 23
Lisa Matye Edwards Mandated changes in Financial Aid will be effective July 1, resulting in less access for students. Priority deadline has been moved up to March 15 for all state institutions of higher education Kyle Hammon A professional Development opportunity for Faculty will be available February 16-17 with trainings provided by Joan Herman and Jim Franz. Several staff members will be attending the ATD national conference in Dallas the end of February Nolan Wheeler The College has placed an ad for several faculty positions for the upcoming year Chris Bailey We are feeling pretty good about next year s budget we should be able to handle the projected 13% cut. We continue to monitor enrollment and our goal is to recruit and retain through completion. Membership: Roxana Ahmadifard Chris Bailey Tamra Bell Laura Brener Margit Brumbaugh Judith Chapar Debbie Cleveland Lisa Matye Edwards Kristy Enser Brendan Glaser Marisa Greear Sue Groth Wendy Hall Richard Hamilton Kyle Hammon Betty Hayes Megan Jasurda Karen Joiner Sandy Junker Lynn Lawrence Chad Meadors Joe Quirk Brandon Ray Kirc Roland Maggie Stuart Casey Tilton Nolan Wheeler
OPERATIONS COUNCIL REPORT President s Office Jan. Feb. 2012 President Chris Bailey Margit Brumbaugh, Foundation Sue Groth, College Relations Wendy Hall, Institutional Research, Planning and Assessment STRATEGIC ISSUE #5: ENSURE PHYSICAL and TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE/STRUCTURE Traffic to the LCC website generated 148,205 visits in January. Updates were made to 279 pages, 14 events were posted to the public and staff calendars and a new academic calendar was added to the website. The redesigned mylcc Home page received 8,055 visits during January to access student username and password information, to change passwords and to retrieve student ID numbers. mylcc Home and the LCC Online Home pages made the top 10 list for the first time. The top 8 most visited pages included: Home page: 148,205 visits Financial Aid: 8,343 visits Student Home: 50,105 visits mylcc Home: 8,055 visits Student Kiosk: 14,859 visits LCC Online Home: 7,925 visits Class Schedule: 11,237 visits Financial Aid Status: 7,415 visits Social Media: LCC subscribed followers on its social media sites increased 7% to 1,962. During the month of January, 24,629 people saw LCC Facebook postings and 268 saw LCC Foundation Facebook posts. LCC received 120 responses in comments and Likes to posts on the sites. Photo sets added to the Flickr site included volleyball, women s soccer, baseball, softball and women s basketball, the Mariner s Caravan visit, the Crosscurrents Art Exhibit and food services features. Student success stories about LCC s Transforming Lives Award nominee James McBride, Manufacturing graduate Travis Colby and chemistry graduate Sarah Vilardi were added to the LCC blog. Twitter Alerts: The LCC text subscription site on Twitter, LowerCC_Alerts, saw significant activity and over three dozen new subscribers during the January snow closure. STRATEGIC ISSUE #6: DEVELOP A CULTURE OF EVIDENCE The annual Professional/Technical Alumni Survey is currently underway. The survey asks graduates from the previous year to rate their overall experience at LCC, in addition to assessing their preparedness for the workplace. Highlights from the recently concluded Transfer Alumni Survey include: 85% of graduates rated the quality of instruction at LCC as good or very good, up from 75% the year before. 90% were satisfied or very satisfied with the availability of faculty at LCC, consistent with 89% the year before. 90% reported satisfaction with transferring credits to another institution, up from 84% the year before. STRATEGIC ISSUE #7: FOCUS ON ENROLLMENT MANAGEMNET ACHIEVING THE DREAM: The qualitative analysis portion of the Achieving the Dream planning year is complete. During this phase of the initiative, several focus groups (with students) and root cause analysis sessions (with faculty and staff) were conducted.
The top six barriers for success identified through the student focus groups are: 1. Insufficient financial resources/financial aid 2. Juggling responsibilities; managing time 3. Frustration with financial aid rules and processes 4. Course availability and scheduling (particularly for students who have to work) 5. Insufficient contact/information from LCC related to academic planning (including career planning) 6. Unclear roles/expectations/communication between students and faculty (including anxiety about approaching instructors) Emerging themes identified through the root cause analysis session with faculty and staff include: 1. Academic and career planning 2. Financial preparedness 3. Student-faculty interaction 4. Course scheduling 5. College knowledge 6. Digital divide 7. Instructional methodology 8. Most underprepared students have first encounters with least connected faculty (adjunct) and staff (work study or PT) Preparations are nearly complete for the next ATD site visit, scheduled for February 16-17. During the visit, coaches Franz Renz and Bruce McComb will guide LCC on adoption of a list of possible interventions to increase student success. The selected interventions will drive the next three years of ATD activity. TOPICS OF INTEREST ACCREDITATION Wendy Hall and other representatives from LCC will be attending a Year Three Workshop held by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities on March 13, 2012 in Seattle. FOUNDATION Scholarships LCC Foundation Scholarship applications are being accepted from Monday, February 06, 2012 to Friday, April 6, 2012. Students will submit just one single online application to be considered for about 120 Foundation scholarships, with awards totaling more than $250,000. We have completely revised the online application system and implementing a campus and community marketing effort to increase access and awareness and to encourage applications. About 25 volunteers from Student Services and Instruction have been trained to facilitate hands-on scholarship application workshops throughout February and March. More information and the workshop schedule are available online at www.lowercolumbia.edu/scholarships. Grants Applications will soon be available for 2012-2013 Exceptional Faculty and Foundation Grants. Applications are open to all staff and faculty, including part-time and full-
time. Applications will be due Friday, April 13, 2012. Dean or Vice President endorsement is required for proposed projects. For 2012-2013, the Foundation funded every proposal that was submitted for awards totaling $150,000. Please encourage staff and faculty to apply! Healthy Futures Campaign The Foundation is considering a couple of proposals for feasibility studies for the upcoming major gifts campaign to fund the Gymnasium and Health & Sciences building projects. The Executive Committee met with a consultant from The Clements Group, who work exclusively with community colleges. The Clements Group consulted on the Reaching Higher Campaign a few years ago. COLLEGE RELATIONS Promotional posters for upcoming Winter quarter events included: Scholarship Night, The Dining Room Center Stage production, Salal Review Call for Art flier, and a poster/flier on Running Start Information Sessions. Weekly and monthly newspapers and KLOG radio shared stories about LCC arts events, and Community Conversations. Press Releases were distributed to print and radio media and posted on the LCC website for: Running Start Information Sessions, LCC Scholarship Night and Crosscurrents Art Exhibit in the Rose Center Gallery. Postcards were sent to area high school sophomores and juniors about upcoming orientations for participation in the Running Start program, and to juniors and seniors about the LCC Scholarship Night. INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH and PLANNING Marisa Zylstra, Assistant Director of Financial Aid, is working on a one-credit internship for her master s program with the Office of Institutional Research in winter 2012. Marisa s intent is to support the analytical efforts underway for Achieving the Dream.
OPERATIONS COUNCIL REPORT Lisa Matye Edwards, Vice President for Student Success Betty Hayes, Talent Search Grant Chad Meadors, Advising & Testing Judith Chapar, Student Support Services Kirc Roland, Athletics Lynn Lawrence, Registration Marisa Greear, Financial Aid Megan Jasurda, Disability Support Services Roxana Ahmadifard, Student Programs Tamra Bell, Career & Employment Services Student Services Lower Columbia College February 2012 ANNUAL PRIORITIES: STRATEGIC ISSUE #1: EXCEL in TEACHING and LEARNING The Talent Search (TS) team continues to work on curriculum for ongoing group participant meetings, college information for class presentations, as well as dates and deadlines for SATs, FAFSA, scholarships, college admission applications, etc. They are also working to develop curriculum and handouts for age-appropriate and guided instruction on subjects such as: goal setting, time management, successful study habits, self-image, SAT prep., financial aid/scholarship options, college exploration, and career exploration. The Talent Search team is outlining fieldtrips and college visits to promote for the rest of the 2011/12 school year. Betty Hayes recently attended the UW TRiO Trainings for Priority 1 & 3 objectives in Arizona. The trainings were highly valuable for both the information and the networking opportunities. Meeting Talent Search directors with 10+ years of experience provided ample opportunity for discussions, idea sharing and encouragement. A Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) Task Force has been formed by Laura Brener and met for the first time January 12. Lynn is working on the application process. The committee will continue to meet. This option will be available for students fall quarter 2012. STRATEGIC ISSUE #2: CREATE and MAINTAIN STRATEGIC ALLIANCES Staff from a broad cross-section of campus met with Department of Homeland Security (DHS)/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on January 31 for a presentation on Project CAMPUS Sentinel. The DHS/ICE agents are meeting with Designated School Officials (DSO) in all the Student Exchange and Visitor Information System (SEVIS) approved schools in their service areas. The partnership developed though these meetings is aimed at protecting America by sharing information with school officials to help prevent international students from falling out of status, uphold the integrity of legitimate SEVIS schools and programs, and to provide improved strategies for identifying and prosecuting unlawful activity by students or schools. Lisa Matye Edwards and Sandie St. Onge are the DSO s for LCC. Meeting attendees were Sandie St. Onge, Sue Groth, Margit Brumbaugh, Casey Tilton, Roxana Ahmadifard, and Bunpa Lim.
Megan Jasurda, Disability Support Services Coordinator, and Kami Bair, Recruiter, presented at Kelso High School on January 19 th to about 100 students, parents, teachers, and principal. These students were on Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and we focused on the differences between high school and college disability services. Kami and Megan also highlighted the advantages of a community college, LCC s dynamic programs, support services, student involvement opportunities in ASLCC, and the steps to get started at LCC. Several students have already been on campus since the presentation for the placement pre-test practice and to visit the career center to sign up for FAFSA workshops to start the Financial Aid process in time for the March 15 th Fall application deadline. Woodland High School students on Individual Education Plans (IEPs) visited LCC on January 20 th. Megan Jasurda, Disability Support Services Coordinator, overviewed services available at LCC for students with disabilities and discussed strategies to have a successful first quarter. Worker Retraining staff, Tamra Bell, in partnership with WorkSource are providing outreach to former employees of St. John s Medical Center in response to the recent layoff to inform these individuals about available services, programs, and opportunities for retraining. The Talent Search team is active in all the target schools working primarily with the guidance counseling staff. Activities include lunchroom/classroom presentations and one-on-one meetings with participants. Talent Search currently has 133 students enrolled. The grant requires 500. The Testing Office has started collecting names of Spanish speaking staff and faculty members to be posted as a directory resource online. This past month, LCC Transfer Center hosted Evergreen State College and The Art Institute. The LCC Transfer Club and Student Support Services took LCC Students to visit Evergreen State College on January 14 th Chad Meadors, Director of Advising and Testing, attended the Advising and Counselor Council (ACC) on January 26-27 in Everett. A Faculty Advising Workgroup has been created to provide guidance, development, leadership and best practices to our advising model. Worker Retraining staff, Tamra Bell, in partnership with WorkSource Business Services staff are providing outreach to former employees of St. John s Medical Center in response to the recent layoffs to inform these individuals about available services, programs, and opportunities for retraining. A Rapid Response event is planned for February 9 h, 2012 at noon at St. John s Hospital. STRATEGIC ISSUE #3: PROVIDE COMPLETE AND INCLUSIVE SERVICES Thanks to Judith Chapar, Student Support Services Director, staff members were able to participate in a full-day of training workshops February 2 on being allies to LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning) individuals. The purpose of ALLY training is to provide staff members with an understanding of how to be and feel comfortable being an ally. Dr. Heidi Stanton Schnebly of WSU provided the ALLY training. The day started with a Train the Trainer workshop. Staff who participated in this workshop included, Judith, Anna Brodt, Carrie Thompson, Christina Jungers, Kanna Hudson, Roxana Ahmadifard, and Sandie St. Onge. The afternoon workshop was for anyone interested in learning more about being LGBTQ allies. Staff members who
participated included the morning group as well as Michael Strayer, Heidi Hammer, Megan Jasurda, Jenny Smith, Jodi Dahlke, Ashley Bemm, Nichole Seroshek, Bunpa Lim, Patrick Boerner, David Ramsey, and Jennifer Houge. It was a day well spent and the train the trainers groups will be meeting to move forward with several ideas that came out of their training. The Career and Employment Services team is offering several new workshop opportunities during Winter quarter including the following: o WOIS/ Career Cruising-aimed at helping students better utilize the college career exploration tools and make the connection between their educational and career goals o Prepare for Career Fair Season-helps students fine tune their résumé, cover o letter, and put their best foot forward to potential employers during job fairs Computer Basics-this workshop is designed to help students learn the basics of operating a computer and improving digital literacy. Students also learn the basics of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (offered in a series). Betty Hayes attended the GAINS Training as part of the Functional Care Team for the Youth Suicide Prevention grant. Roxana Ahmadifard, Director of Student Programs and Marcy Gilchrist, Running Start Coordinator visited Centralia College s Running Start program to share ideas and processes. As a result of the meeting it was decided that Running Start students would now fill out their own personalized Running Start application as opposed to the regular new student application. This will capture the necessary information needed for Running Start students. Kami Bair, Recruitment and Outreach Specialist, organized and led a tour of LCC for a group of students with special needs from Woodland High school. The students were able to meet with 6 different departments and discuss career opportunities within those areas. Twelve Student Support Services participants have been chosen to participate in a Community Enrichment Project and receive a supplemental grant in the amount of $600. GED testing is being planned for in alternative classrooms on campus as a back-up in case of disruptive construction in the Admissions Center (approved by the State Administrator.) The Student Mentoring Program has 16 active members and is preparing to add additional members. There is a need for additional staff mentors. The initial five members of the LCC s Student Ambassador s program have been selected and will begin to formulate the program and plan for a spring quarter kickoff. Our Transfer Center is having a makeover and will soon provide additional resources and workshop opportunities. Stop by the Admissions Center to see the changes. During January 2012 our Testing Center processed 202 Health Cards, 25 Compass tests, 6 Pre-Employment tests, 1 Running Start assessment, and 2 Ability Profilers. Additionally, they processed 33 GED tests with 9 passing and 24 not completing. These numbers compare to the following January 2010 tests - 308 Health Cards, 71 Compass tests, 84 Pre-Employment tests, and 5 Running Start assessments. Professional-Technical Educational Planners, Selah Mitchell and Tamra Bell, presented a workshop to nursing faculty on advising including tools and community/funding resources available to aide in student success and retention. This training was designed to help nursing faculty prepare for advising under the new nursing cohort model.
Roxana Ahmadifard is developing a new script and lay out for the Running Start Information Sessions due to start on February 7 th. This will cover all the new state changes and testing procedure. Running Start students will now pay the $30 testing/application fee and follow the same procedure as a non-running Start student. STRATEGIC ISSUE #4: STRENGTHEN ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE/STRUCTURE ASLCC is working on trying to give the lower level of the Student Center an updated feel. They will be displaying an art form or possibly a fountain in the old plant boxes and painting a few accent walls. ASLCC is volunteering their time to cut on costs for the college. The registration staff is now utilizing email in contacting students vs. sending letters. To date two major processes, midquarter progress reports and probation letters are sent the student via email. STRATEGIC ISSUE #5: ENSURE PHYSICAL and TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE/STRUCTURE The TS team is analyzing and utilizing the Blumen database for the best information to input for later mining. Furniture has been to be delivered to the newly updated Student Center. We are hoping that the upstairs will open the first week of spring quarter. Roxana Ahmadifard is working with Lisa Matye-Edwards to get digital signage set up on our campus. Next week they will do a walk through to discuss needs and areas of importance. STRATEGIC ISSUE #6: DEVELOP A CULTURE OF EVIDENCE Seventy-one students participated in the Student Support Services quarterly evaluation for Fall Quarter (response rate of 33%). Of those respondents, 79% rated the overall services of the program as very much effective. Overall, students are likely to recommend the services they receive to other peers (92%); including the SSS peer mentoring program, tutoring and academic, career and personal counseling and advising. STRATEGIC ISSUE #7: FOCUS ON ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT Career Services staff members are working with the Welding department to prepare for the 5 th annual High School Welding competition scheduled for February 9 th, 2012 including offering a presentation to attendees on the importance of early career planning and professional-technical program offerings at LCC. Talent Search team members are working specifically with seniors to complete the FAFSA and scholarship applications. Karla Rivers, Research Analyst III, created a detailed report via DATAX listing all students enrolled in Capstone courses winter quarter 2012. There were 100 students enrolled in Capstone courses. With the news that a Capstone course is no longer required for a DTA beginning Spring quarter 2012, students who are currently registered in a Capstone course or were needing to enroll in a future Capstone course or have submitted graduation application for Spring quarter are making their way to the Registrar, Lynn Lawrence, to have their options explained to them. Lynn will keep notes (if any) for each student being affected by this change in graduation requirements. This could mean changes to the students class schedules or changes to the students
graduation applications. This will be an on-going process through the rest of this year. In addition, as time allows, the registration staff will review students transcripts and reach out to those that lacked only the Capstone course for completing the DTA. TOPICS OF INTEREST ENROLLMENT FTE: 2723 as of 2/03/12 13% below same time last year 3118 2/03/11 HC: 4320 as of 2/03/12 11% below same time last year 4872 2/03/11 RECOGNITION/PERSONNEL The entire Registration Office staff has absorbed additional duties to cover the workload of Meghan Averett who is on a medical leave until the end of February. STUDENT SERVICES ACTIVITIES/ATHLETICS The LCC Athletics Scholarship Auction was a huge success, raising $38,000 gross for student/athlete scholarships. 150 people attended and the generosity was incredible. Both LCC Basketball teams are in contention at the mid-way mark of the league season. Both teams hope to finish strong and qualify for the NWAACC Tourney in Kennewick March 3-6. The LCC Red Devil Pep Band recently made its debut at basketball games and has been met with good reviews. Baseball and Softball practice is underway and both teams are hoping for decent weather in order to better prepare for the start of the season in March. The NWAACC has instituted an on-line Letter of Intent signing system that is going well. The recruiting season is well underway! COLLEGE RELATIONS/MARKETING/SPECIAL EVENTS UPCOMING EVENTS Betty Hayes will be attending the TRiO training in Arlington, VA in February for Legs & Regs training (Priority 2). A WSU-Vancouver visitation day is planned for February 16 for Talent Search program juniors and seniors. Running Start Information Sessions will be held at LCC on February 7 th @ 3:30 and 6:00 p.m. and February 23 rd at 6:00 p.m., February 9 th @ 6:30 p.m. at Castle Rock High school, and February 28 th at 6:30 p.m. at Woodland High school. These sessions will provide interested students and parent s information about the Running Start program and how to apply for the 2012-13 school year. Kami Bair will be hosting the annual Scholarship Night with Margit Brumbaugh and Sheila Burgin on February 9 th in the LCC Commons. They will present on general scholarship information and how to apply. Student Support Services: o Student Success Seminars Transferring 101 Feb. 15 th, 1:00pm ADC 143 o Student Success Seminars - - What is your leadership style - Feb. 17 th, 2:00pm ADC 143 o Campus Visit WSU Vancouver Feb. 16 th o Cultural Activity Washington State TRiO Civic Leadership Conference Feb. 8 th
OTHER Veterans Voices group and Megan Jasurda, DSS Coordinator, ran a Veterans Supply Drive Fall quarter 2011 collecting donations to send care packages to local men and women serving overseas. Twelve care packages were sent and the individuals received them just before the Holiday season. Changes to the 2012-13 federal financial aid regulations are beginning to emerge. The affect of items 2-4 listed below will mean that more students will shift toward loans as a way to make up the difference. 1) Ability to Benefit will be eliminated. Students without a high school diploma, GED, or home school will be ineligible for aid. To become eligible, students will need to obtain a diploma or GED. 2) The automatic zero Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is reduced from $32,000 down to $23,000. Fewer students will receive a zero EFC. 3) Students with EFC s of 3301 and higher become ineligible at less than half-time enrollment status versus 4401 in the 2011-12 year. 4) Reduced Pell eligibility from 18 semesters down to 12 semesters. This will have the greatest affect on 3 rd and 4 th year students as well as students seeking multiple degrees. Roxana Ahmadifard, Chad Meadors, and Tamra Bell will be attending the 10 Behaviors of Managers Who Excel workshop on February 13 th.
OPERATIONS COUNCIL REPORT 2011-2012 INSTRUCTION Laura Brener Vice President of Instruction February 2012 Brendan Glaser, Dean for Workforce Education & Community Education Kyle Hammon, Dean of Instructional Programs Maggie Stuart, Interim Dean of Instructional Programs Karen Joiner, Dean of Instructional Programs/Director of Nursing Sandy Junker, Director Head Start Renee Carney, elearning Manager Joyce Niemi, Instruction Executive Assistant Kristy Enser, Instruction Office Manager PRIORITY ISSUES STRATEGIC ISSUE # 1 - EXCEL IN TEACHING AND LEARNING Advising is teaching. The Cohort Advising Model in nursing begins this quarter. To facilitate this, Selah Mitchell conducted two advisor training sessions for the nursing faculty on January 30. For October thru December 2011, the LCC Nursing Program had 100% success on the Practical Nurse licensing exam, and 100% for the campus-based nursing graduates on the Registered Nurse licensing exam. When the results for the elearning/rone programs are included, LCC s overall passing rate for the registered Nurse exam was 86.96%. Kyle Hammon attended the winter meeting of the Articulation and Transfer Council held at Clover Park Community College. LCC s curricular redesign projects in math and English are receiving much attention as other colleges are following our lead. Many of the transfer deans had questions about implementing similar programs at their schools. We are piloting two new courses winter quarter. The Reading Workshop was developed to address the needs of students who have difficulties reading and understanding college level texts, and recruited students during the first three weeks of the quarter for the 4 th week beginning. Mary is also piloting the new precollege English course, now titled College Ready English. This course will enroll students who test at any of our existing precollege English courses (065, 075, or 100), then through a curriculum revision informed by our experience in ITRANS English, aim to move students through as many levels as possible in one quarter. Ann Williamson provided tutors an opportunity to participate in training on January 20 to assist Mark Morris high school conduct assessments for their student body. Three tutors were trained and will volunteer their time to help with this project in February. STRATEGIC ISSUE # 2 - PROVIDE COMPLETE AND INCLUSIVE SERVICES The elearning office provided one Canvas Bootcamp, with 37 attendees, three Canvas Orientations, with about 45 attendees total, and three ANGEL Orientations, with about 30 attendees total within the first week of winter quarter.
STRATEGIC ISSUE # 3 - CREATE AND MAINTAIN STRATEGIC ALLIANCES Cindy Wardlow, Career and Technical Education Coordinator for Kelso High School, has requested to combine the Kelso Health Science Careers Advisory group and the Nursing Advisory Committee. Karen Joiner has invited Cindy to attend the Nursing Advisory Committee meeting this spring to address this proposal. LCC and Kelso High School already have combined advisory committees for Fire Science and Automotive. Combining the Police Science program advisory groups is also in progress. The articulation agreement between LCC s nursing program and Linfield College RN to BSN program was completed, signed, and is in the mail! Diane Troyer, the consultant hired by the Workforce Training and Education Board to promote ICP, was on campus January 10 for meetings with faculty and staff to delve into our ICP history and procedures. The draft of her resulting report was reviewed by Laura Brener, Dani Trimble, David Ramsey, and Karen Joiner. Brendan Glaser participated in interviewing activities with the SW Workforce Development council during its recent search for a new Executive Director. Brendan participated on an interview panel representing SWWDC s regional partners. The SWWDC Board used this along with input from several other interview panels to make its selection. Jeanne Bennett was selected as the new Executive Director. She has most recently served as the Executive Director of the Mt. St. Helens Institute, and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of Southwest Washington to the job. Lynell Amundson and Brendan Glaser provided a campus tour and program overview for Scot Walstra, Vice President of the Cowlitz Economic Development Council. Mr. Walstra, who recently joined the CEDC, is familiarizing himself with regional business and resource such as LCC. He was very complementary of the college campus, its people, and the programs it offers. LCC partners with the CEDC frequently on a variety of projects involving workforce development. Planning is underway for LCC s STEM-focused Summer Academy, which will be held in July. The planning team settled on a middle-school focus and will hold a week-long academy called Catapult to College to provide a project-based learning environment. The themes will be physics, engineering, and math as teams design and build catapults and trebuchets. A culminating activity will be held the last day to showcase the projects. The Summer Academy will bring together the following collaborators: middle and high school science & math teachers, (Science Olympiad and Talent Search), City Parks and Rec staff, local businesses, WSU, and LCC student clubs (Engineering, Chemistry, Welding, etc.) The elearning Manager was asked to co-present with the University of Washington elearning Director at the NWMET (Northwest Council of Managers of Educational Technology) Conference in April on the decision process to select Canvas and the successes and challenges of the pilot. Nadine Lemmons s proposal to present her success in using Tegrity for student feedback and individual instruction was selected for the National Tegrity Conference in April. Also, the elearning Manager was selected as a panelist presenter for the conference and will be joining Nadine. Andrea GillaspySteinhilper is continuing to work with the Information Literacy Learning Community organized by Andrew Hersh-Tudor and Barbara Oldham at Wenatchee Valley College. The Learning Community is focusing on Assessment as it will relate to Accreditation. Andrea's project inside this Learning Community is developing a rubric to aid in evaluating
student success through review of rising junior papers (capstone and other research intensive classes). CEO students have created a community service project by collecting food and toiletries for the CAP Food Warehouse. Collection bins have been distributed around campus for January and February. The students and CEO Manager Tuan Dang will deliver the items on February 22. This project will meet one of the requirements of getting a diploma, a community service project, which meets the requirement of the senior project, as well as providing a good experience for the students. Every quarter items to be collected will be switched up to avoid redundancy and, for now, will be collected for CAP. Other agencies are being considered for future quarters. STRATEFIC ISSUE # 4 STRENGTHEN ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE/STRUCTURE "ITRANS: Contextualized Learning as a Vehicle for Overcoming Academic Barriers," has won the award of Honorable Mention in the National Council of Instructional Administrator's (NCIA) Exemplary Initiative competition, in the category of Access, Persistence and Completion. This competition provides an opportunity for colleges to receive recognition for best practices. The entry was submitted by Laura Brener and Maggie Stuart. LCC will officially receive the award in April. The elearning office is supporting Library reference s efforts to develop an online library presence within Canvas courses. STRATEGIC ISSUE # 5 ENSURE PHYSICAL AND TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE/STRUCTURE The Virtual Cash Machine for the Pharos program has been relocated from ADC to the Learning Commons. Student comments have been favorable. The room request form is now online for on- and off-campus individuals/groups to access for scheduling purposes. The information on this form provides the basic information to determine a location appropriate facilities on-campus. With the student center conference rooms unavailable for scheduling, it has been quite a challenge to meet the needs of campus groups requesting classroom space during winter quarter for their meetings and events. The winter Canvas pilot got off to a great start with 23 individual instructors, 76 individual courses from all modalities, and 619+ students. An assessment of perception and experience was taken at the end of the second week. Responses from instructors and students were overwhelmingly positive. Some of the strengths named were: ease of use, breadth of communication, simplicity, reliability, and overall user-friendly. STRATEGIC ISSUE # 6 - DEVELOP A CULTURE OF EVIDENCE Data recently collated for 2010-11 indicate that the first year of reform in precollege math has increased student completion rates by about 10%. Assessment projects are currently in development to evaluate Reference Library Services. Susan James is implementing a Secret Shopper project for students to evaluate the effectiveness of services provided from the Reference Desk, and Andrea is starting work on a usability study of the library services web pages, to determine whether students can find the information they need on the web. Andrea is also developing a rubric to help evaluate how well students have been taught information literacy skills. The goal is to apply this rubric to student papers and bibliographies. This will illustrate how well they have understood that there are different
kinds of information, how to find and evaluate those different types and formats of information, and how to select the items most appropriate to their needs. Before the start of winter quarter, a discussion took place between Susan James, Library Services and Vikki Carter, Tutoring Services, regarding tracking student questions for basic computer aid. During the first two weeks of winter quarter tutors assisted 552 students in the Learning Commons with those types of questions. The four top areas of assistance that tutors helped student with were printer access questions (131), log-in questions (including accessing student username and password) (127), assisting students with accessing the wireless network (58), and helping students log-in to MyMath lab (82.) Tutoring Services plan to continue this tracking during the winter quarter to help build a snapshot of student technology needs. STRATEGIC ISSUE # 7 - FOCUS ON ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT Preparations continue for the annual LCC High School Welding Competition, which will take place the evening of February 9, 2012, at the LCC Welding Lab. The LCC Welding Department will also host the Skills USA regional Welding competition on February 25, 2012. Both events provide excellent exposure for LCC s welding facilities, program, instructors, and students, and have helped keep enrollment in the program strong. The Choirs are off to a great start, with higher enrollment than has been seen in the past three quarters. To boost enrollment numbers for Community Choir a little blurb was written up in the Daily News and then later announced on the radio (all pro bono!). At the first rehearsal there were nearly 30 members an increase from 18 at the end of last quarter and 5 the quarter before that. Concert Choir and Jazz Choir have both jumped to 18 members (up from somewhere around 12 and 8 in the first quarter). The increased numbers have a lot to do with the outreach we did last quarter (carolers/flash mobs), and our successful concerts. TOPICS OF INTEREST RECOGNITION/PERSONNELL The Learning Commons welcomes Zoe Fisher as the new part-time Reference Librarian. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Oberlin College and a Masters in Library Science from Emporia State University. In addition to her experience in libraries, Zoe has facilitated free writing workshops through the nonprofit organization Write Around Portland and she is a literacy tutor with Portland Community College. INSTRUCTION Nadine Lemmons has been selected to be a presenter at the National Tegrity User Conference in April 2012 in Seattle, WA. Nadine has been a participant in LCC s Tegrity lecture capture pilot, which uses special software and camera equipment to video classroom lectures. The lectures are then made available to students online. STUDENT SERVICES ACTIVITIES/ATHLETICS Gina Osborn s choir club is growing nicely and has officially named its officers at this point. They are meeting bi-weekly to arrange a Singing Telegram sale. A great idea that will bring, both recognition and some club funds. The Slip Club (ceramics) will be sponsoring a demo, slide show and studio time on Saturday, February 11 in the ceramics lab. Adrianne Stacey from Portland will provide information
showing how to make a small ceramic garden pond. Workshop participants will then have studio time to create their own ponds. COLLEGE RELATIONS/MARKETING/SPECIAL EVENTS Approximately 40 nursing students volunteered at the Hispanic Health Fair on Saturday, January 28 at St Rose. The nursing students assisted with various health screening activities. Connie Ramos, Nursing Instructor, helped coordinate and oversee this event. The Art Gallery first exhibit of 2012 opened January 23 rd with the 30 th Anniversary Traveling Exhibit of Crosscurrents. Crosscurrents is a literary and visual art publication from the Washington Community College Humanities Association. Lower Columbia College is the last stop for this exhibit of over 80 pieces of art, broadsides, and poetry from current and retired community college faculty (from throughout the state). The exhibit will end on February 24 th. More information about the group: http://wccha.org/ Preparations for the next exhibit solo exhibit with work by artist, Brian Benfer is in progress for the opening on March 12 th. Brian works in various media. For information on the artist: http://www.brianbenfer.com/ AUXILARY PROGRAMS CONTINUING EDUCATION Lower Columbia College has been awarded a third Job Skills Program Grant for the 2011-12 academic year. The $125,000 grant is to provide training to assist Bennu Glass LLC with plant startup in 2012. Bennu Glass is located in Kalama in the facility formerly owned by Cameron Glass. They will produce wine bottles and will be hiring 75 people through the first half of 2012, and plan to bring on another 10-15 people before the end of the year. LCC will work with Bennu to identify training elements including glass production, batch and furnace process technology, safety behaviors, and team building. Additionally LCC is partnering with WorkSource and the Cowlitz Economic Development Council to provide screening and assessment of applicants. Other JSP grant projects for year are with PeaceHealth (Lean Six Sigma for Healthcare $53,000) and Steelscape (Leadership and Work Teams in Industry $43,400). So far for Winter Quarter, 2012, Community Education has enrolled a total of 385 students in onsite classes (average cost of class $63) and enrolled 11 in online classes through Ed2Go and Gatlin providers ($94/class). Interest in technology, art, music, and fitness courses continues to be to be strong. Enrollment will continue to grow as many of our classes have yet to start, and a second session will start later in the quarter. LCC provided continuing education courses for 24 caregivers in January, and 11 new caregivers were trained in either the 28 hour Accelerated Basic Training or the self-study Modified Fundamentals of Caregiving. LCC ran two open enrollment continuing education classes in January. LCC submitted proposals to the SEIU Training Partnership in the fall for the 2012/13 fiscal year to provide Basic Training and Continuing Education. The Training Partnership notified the Continuing Education unit in January that both proposals were accepted. SEIU is the Service Employees International Union that many health care workers are members of. The Training Partnership members are from the SEIU, community and technical colleges, and private and public health care organizations.
Continuing Education has been fortunate to have two LCC faculty members, Nadine Lemmons and Sue Homme, involved with recent Microsoft Office training projects for various local businesses and organizations. The expertise and professionalism they bring the these projects has contributed greatly to demand for these services. Tech Prep/Career Pathways Two new employees have joined the Career Pathways department this month. Ben Schneider was hired as a part-time program project assistant to develop graphics and materials for print and/or web in the areas of career pathways. These diagrams will be used to promote areas of study for high school students, worker retraining, and professional development clients. Ben s position is a 6 month position funded through a grant for Tech Prep from the state. Sarah Harrison was hired as the part-time program assistant to continue working on enrollment in articulated classes with area high schools, data entry into SERS, and reporting for the Perkins Grant as well as serve as the coordinator with the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Career Development Consortium. She is replacing Jill Jurvekainen who left the position in November. Both Ben and Sarah are recent graduates from LCC programs. Staff has collected all Teacher Verification Forms for the 2011-2012 school year and is currently scheduling classroom visits to enroll students for coursed articulated under Tech Prep. These activities are on-going throughout the year and are coordinated with the K12 schedule. Three new articulations are in the process of being developed: Police Science, Advanced Early Childhood Education, and Office Support/Management. Additionally, articulations are being renewed for the 2012-2013 school year. Career Pathways Manager Hahli Parvey continues to work with districts to develop and implement additional articulations and programs of study. Career Pathways staff are attending the regional CTE director meetings in addition to participating in professional development opportunities around the state to increase knowledge of K12 offerings and trends in other regions. HEAD START Health Care Institute training for dental health will be held on February 23, 2012 at Broadway Learning Center for our parents. Dr. Ken Schrecengost will be the lead trainer for this event. Parents will receive a Dental health resource book that they can use to assist them in caring for their children s oral health. Several dentists in our community will also be attending this event. Kaiser Permanente and several other dental offices gave dental items for raffle items for parents. Grants submitted: A United Way grant for $47,000 was submitted for our Positive Behavioral Support program, which supports our Mental Health Consultant. We will know the results of this grant mid-march. Also, submitted was a proposal to the Cowlitz County Community Fund for $4,000 to use towards our Health Care Institute (HCI) trainings for our parents on health and dental. We should know if we are asked to submit a full grant the end of February. Healthy Eating Series has begun for the Head Start families by our Registered Dietician. This is a five week course specifically designed to help parents learn about healthy eating and goal development; designing a life for health; healthy shopping on a budget and healthy snacks and drinks for their families. A Special Breakfast for Superintendents, Principals and Kindergarten teachers was held on January 12, 2012 to discuss how Head Start helps children develop the necessary school
readiness skills in order to be successful in the next school setting, and also to find out from the districts what their expectations are for children entering kindergarten. We had an excellent discussion with many strengths noted as well as ideas for a better collaboration. Strategic Planning Day coming up: February 15 th will begin our Strategic Planning process with staff, leadership and parents to discuss the updated community assessment and also other important reports that will lead to the update of our Strategic Plan for 2012-13. On February 17 th our community partners have been invited to a special luncheon presentation so they can hear the results and give input into the strategic plan update. Office of Head Start Information Memorandums: ACF-PI-HS-12-01 dated 1/26/12 regarding FY 2012 Head Start Funding Increase. This states that President Obama signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012 on Dec. 23, 2011. This act included the Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 appropriation for programs under the Head Start Act. This represents an increase of approximately $409 million over the FY 2011 appropriation level. This includes the AARA funded expansion, which is our Early Head Start program, and a 0.72 percent increase for all grantees and an increase in the training and technical assistance for staff development. Designation Renewal Request: Dated 1/25/12 states that each Head Start or Early Head Start agency wishing to be considered to have their designation as a Head Start or Early Head Start agency renewed for a five-year period without competition shall request that status from ACF within six months of December 9, 2011. Guidance on this requirement will be forthcoming.
LOWER COLUMBIA COLLEGE Nolan Wheeler, Interim VP Brandon Ray Debbie Cleveland Joe Quirk Richard Hamilton Karen Hartsoch OPERATIONS COUNCIL REPORTS 2011-2012 Administrative Services February 2012 STRATEGIC ISSUE #4 STRENGTHEN ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE/STRUCTURE Casey Tilton attended the Project CAMPUS Sentinel information presentation by the Department of Homeland Security. The purpose of this initiative is to improve direct communication between Designated School Officials and local Homeland Security Investigati ons Agents. Casey also attended the GAIN SS training as he is a member of the care team. Casey met with and interviewed eight RSO students, and he was also the acting student code of conduct designee in four LCC code of conduct violation referrals. I have ten students I continue to meet with and counsel on a regular basis. Casey conducted van safety training for Two LCC employees. STRATEGIC ISSUES #5: ENSURE PHYSICAL and TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE- STRUCTURE The Outweb3 server stopped working all together d uring winter break. Therefore, the backup was restored to a virtual system. Long -term plans call to separate the virtual servers and run two separate virtual arrays one for DMZ (internet) traffic and one for LAN (local, LCC) traffic. Another of the 5 physical servers hosting the virtual array quit working. Only 2 servers (40%) are still operating as expected. When this happened, the virtual proxy server that was setup in November was affected and effectively stopped all outgoing and incoming traffic while t he problem was investigated and troubleshot. A physical proxy server was configured and installed as a result of losing the virtual system. This enabled traffic to flow between LCC and the internet again. However, the new proxy is a Linux server which resulted in the loss of remote network access for some IT staff. The remote access problem is expected to be resolved when the new Cisco equipment is installed on Feb. 11. Admissions Lobby Remodel The contractor on this project will be Alkor Construction NW Inc. and their sub-contractors, Twin City Glass, Busack Electric, and Interior Recourses are eager to start work. These subcontractors are local vendors and LCC has a good working relationship with them, so they should do an excellent job. The permit has not been finalized but should be issued the first part of February. Maple Terrace Apartments Demolition Project The remaining part of this project is to comply with the Department of Ecology by stabilizing the site with erosion control measures. This wi ll include hydroseeding, wattles