Six Years of Student Success | Equity Efforts | Open Carry on Campus
WINTER 2016
Sharing the Recipe
ACCT Chair Roberto Zárate has helped scale up student success efforts at the Alamo Colleges. Now he wants to see them take root across the country.
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.OR T C C A . WWW
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
2015-2016 Chair Roberto Zárate Alamo Colleges, TX
Chair-elect Bakari Lee Hudson County Community College, NJ
Vice Chair Emily Yim Edmonds Community College, WA
Secretary-Treasurer Connie Hornbeck Iowa Western Community College, IA
Immediate Past Chair Robin M. Smith Lansing Community College, MI
Central Regional Chair Vernon Jung Moraine Park Technical College, WI
Northeast Regional Chair Hector Ortiz Harrisburg Area Community College, PA
Pacific Regional Chair Jane Strain Cochise College, AZ
Southern Regional Chair Mack Jackson Midlands Technical College, SC
Western Regional Chair Gerald Cook Johnson County Community College, KS
Debra Borden Frederick Community College, MD Stephan Castellanos San Joaquin Delta College, CA Tamela Cullens South Florida State College, FL Dawn Erlandson Minnesota State Colleges & Universities, MN Mary Figueroa Riverside Community College District, CA Jim Harper Portland Community College, OR William Kelley Harper College, IL Gregory Knott Parkland College, IL Kent Miller Mid-Plains Community College, NE LeRoy W. Mitchell Westchester Community College, NY Clare Ollayos Elgin Community College, IL Bernie Rhinerson San Diego Community College District, CA Helen Rosemond-Saunders, Diversity Committee Chair Tri-County Technical College, SC Dennis Troy Bladen Community College, NC Rafael Turner Mott Community College, MI
From the Chair We Have the Solutions FROM RECORD ENROLLMENTS TO A NEWFOUND public acknowledgement of what community colleges do for our country, our sector has experienced a sea change over the past decade. Our colleges have tirelessly met ever-increasing demands while — remarkably — raising our own high expectations. What does “student success” really mean? And what are we really doing about it? Does student success mean improved graduation rates? Does it mean improved standardized test scores, or even pre-college placement tests? Does it mean improving on our already exceptional promise of open access to higher education? Does it mean trying on innovative new educational models, or does it mean crunching numbers — the all-important “big data” that we now have at our fingertips? Yes, yes, yes to all these questions. For the better part of a decade, community college leaders have expanded the missions of our institutions and explored new terrain in search of solutions. The big conversations and independent experiments have propelled us to where we are today. We are in a good place. We continue to mature. Together, at the national level, our discussions have set the agendas that undergird our institutions’ efforts to improve student success in all its meanings. Each year at the ACCT Leadership Congress, hundreds of colleges share ideas and promising models that demonstrate clearly that our greatest challenges are the catalysts for our greatest work. The 2016 ACCT Leadership Congress in New Orleans this October presents a new challenge whose time has come: taking inventory of the lessons we have learned over the past decade and mobilizing them. The theme, Leading with Intention, will bring together disparate ideas to assess what’s working for us, learn from what hasn’t worked out as well, and clarify all the solutions we already have to lead with purpose. Now is the time to ask how we can convert more ideas into greater actions to advance student success, and to what ultimate end. It is time to go to scale with the implementation of those best practices that we know foster student success. We must review the metrics that are used to define student success — metrics which can further disaggregate the varied reasons students enroll in community colleges and what helps them succeed. This will be the basis of our work over the coming year, culminating in the New Orleans Congress. I urge you to take stock of your college’s greatest accomplishments, and even its greatest setbacks, as they relate to student success. At the heart of these are lessons that need to be shared with peers around the country so that we can keep up the momentum. We must proceed with a sense of urgency, as every day we delay in making policy decisions that promote student success, the probability that we lose students grows. I look forward to sharing ideas and working with you to move those ideas into actions and outcomes. The nation’s community colleges have evolved and accomplished so much over the past decade. I believe that community colleges are the pathway to the middle class. I am excited to witness our next great accomplishments as we contribute to the vitality of our great nation. ROBERTO ZÁRATE ALAMO COLLEGES, TX
T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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Trustee
QUA R T ERLY
The Voice of Community College Leaders
From the President & CEO
WINTER 2016
Editorial Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF J. Noah Brown
The Spice of Life
President & CEO
MANAGING EDITOR David Conner Communications & Publications Manager
EDITOR Mark Toner CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jee Hang Lee Vice President of Public Policy and External Relations
Colleen Campbell Senior Policy Analyst
Narcisa Polonio Executive Vice President for Education, Research, and Board Leadership Services
Ira Michael Shepard ACCT Legal Counsel
Jennifer Stiddard Senior Public Policy Associate
EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES Karen Lomax Executive Coordinator to the President and Board of Directors
Indya Rogers Board and Publications Assistant
DESIGN & PRODUCTION www.moiremarketing.com – Washington, D.C. YOUR OPINION MATTERS CONTACT: David Conner (866) 895-ACCT (2228) dconner@acct.org
TRUSTEE QUARTERLY (ISSN 0271-9746) is published three or four times per year as a membership service of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). ACCT is a not-for-profit educational organization of governing boards of public and private community, technical, and junior colleges. Membership is also open to state coordinating boards, advisory boards, and state associations. The mission of ACCT is to foster greater understanding of and appreciation for community college boards; support boards in their efforts to develop public policies focusing on meeting community needs; help build board governance leadership and advocacy capacity through in-service education and training programs; and support boards through specialized services and programs. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and values of the Association of Community College Trustees. Non-members may subscribe to TRUSTEE QUARTERLY for $60.00 per year (plus postage for international subscriptions). Third-class postage paid at Washington, D.C.
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ACCT CHAIR ROBERTO ZÁRATE SPEAKS IN THIS issue of Trustee Quarterly about “sharing the recipe” for student success. Variety, as we all know, is the spice of life, and diversity is the spice of our national recipe for success. This issue profiles a number of initiatives that are meeting a great diversity of students’ needs, from Chair Zárate’s personal story and longtime leadership of a primarily Hispanicserving school in Texas (p. 20) to advances made by Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (p. 26). Dawn Lindsay, president of ACCT’s 2015 Charles Kennedy Equity Awardwinning Anne Arundel Community College, discusses the importance of inclusivity and diversity on her campus, which can be applied to colleges throughout the country (p. 34). This issue also covers this past October’s ACCT Leadership Congress in San Diego (p. 16) and looks back at the evolution of the Symposium on Student Success from its inception as a (we thought) one-time leadership summit supported by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (p 10). With additional support from the Kresge and Lumina Foundations, the symposium has continued for six years and has shifted from brainstorming to action, including the development of a Policy Action Agenda for student success (p. 15) and a forthcoming Equity Action Agenda, to be released later this year. As we continue to leverage the outcomes of the ACCT Leadership Congress, Student Success Symposiums, Governance Institutes for Student Success, and related initiatives, ACCT also continues to forge innovative partnerships. We are working with the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund to advance data-informed student success-based governance and collaborating with the American Association of Community Colleges and Higher Ed for Higher Standards (HEfHS) to commit to the implementation of higher academic standards in secondary school to prepare students for success in college and careers (see News, p. 5). We are also proud to have partnered recently with the Healthy Minds Study, Single Stop USA, and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab to produce a new research report on hunger and housing insecurity among community college students. This first-of-its-kind study, discussed on page 7, was featured in a New York Times op-ed on the day of its release. ACCT has been busy — which means our members have been busy. Many years ago, we challenged ourselves to mindfully add new ingredients to our existing recipes to make them better, but we need your contributions. We are calling for presentation proposals for this October’s ACCT Leadership Congress in New Orleans, which will address Leading with Intent. This is a call to action — your peer community college leaders need to know the secrets to your success so that we can help our students ascend to even greater heights. You are the most crucial ingredient in the student success recipe. I look forward to seeing you in February at the 2016 Community College National Legislative Summit and in New Orleans this October. Please reach out to me anytime with your thoughts. ACCT is your association, and we can only make progress together.
J. NOAH BROWN ACCT PRESIDENT AND CEO
Contents
TRUSTEE QUARTERLY | WINTER 2016
DEPARTMENTS 8
Advocacy The Hidden Costs of Higher Education Jee Hang Lee
29 Trustee Talk With ACCT Guidance for Challenging Issues in
8
20
Community College Governance Narcisa A. Polonio
36 Legal Legal Issues Impacting Community Colleges Ira Michael Shepard
16
IN EVERY ISSUE 1
From the Chair
FEATURES
2
From the President & CEO
4
News
10 Six Years of Student Success — By Mark Toner
32 Around the Regions
ACCT’s Symposium on Completion has helped community college leaders develop roadmaps to transform their institutions.
16 Seize the Opportunity — By Mark Toner ACCT’s 46th Annual Leadership Congress focused on equity, student success, and the promise to make two years of college free for all.
20 Sharing the Recipe — By Mark Toner
38 ACCT Lifetime Members 41 Searches 45 Interface 48 Advisor
ACCT Chair Roberto Zárate has helped scale up student success efforts at the Alamo Colleges. Now he wants to see them take root across the country.
26 The Complexity behind AAPI Inclusion: Who Counts? — By Pam Y. Eddinger Disaggregating data can help community colleges move beyond the “model minority” myth and better serve all Asian American and Pacific Islanders.
34 Core Values for Changing Campuses — By Dawn Lindsay The 2015 Charles Kennedy Equity Awardee talks about the importance of inclusivity and diversity on campus.
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Governance Leadership Institute Miami, Florida April 28-30, 2016 Join your peer trustees and presidents this April in Miami for the 2016 installment of our nationally acclaimed educational institute. The GLI is a unique opportunity for board members, their chancellor or president, and board staff to work together on important and timely issues and develop as a powerful and effective team.
NEWS 2016 ACCT Association Awards The 2016 ACCT Association Awards were presented on Friday, October 16, during the Annual ACCT Awards Gala in San Diego. For photos and videos of the Association and Regional Awards, visit www.acct.org/awards.
Topics include: n Running effective meetings n K ey indicators of an effective board
2016 M. Dale Ensign Trustee Leadership Award Paul Gomez Chaffey College, Calif.
2016 Marie Y. Martin Chief Executive Award Linda Allen Hawkeye Community College, Iowa
n T he complexity of equity and diversity n E merging trends in higher education n O utcomes, quality, and student success n N ew community college models: baccalaureates and new funding formulas n D eveloping a campus emergency plan n R ole of the chair and leadership team of the board
2016 Charles Kennedy Equity Award Anne Arundel Community College, Md.
n I mage building and crisis management n B oard self-assessment/ presidential evaluation
To register, go to www.trustee-education.org. For more information, contact Christina Sage Simons at 202.775.4462 or csimons@acct.org. 4
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2016 William H. Meardy Faculty Member Award Suryakant Desai Dallas County Community College District, Texas
2016 ACCT Professional Board Staff Member Award Valerie Krueger Moraine Park Technical College, Wis.
For more information about the ACCT Awards program, contact awards@acct.org.
ACCT Teams Up with NALEO to Prepare and Educate Community College Trustees The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund are pleased to announce a new partnership to create the ACCT/NALEO Education Prep Academy, a one-day educational academy to be held on February 8, 2016, in advance of the Community College National Legislative Summit in Washington, D.C. The NLS draws more than 1,000 community college trustees, presidents, and other advocates to the nation’s capital each year to advocate on behalf of community colleges at the federal level. The ACCT/NALEO Academy is an effort to conduct professional development services in order to enhance the knowledge and leadership capacity of Latino community college trustees and other policymakers on key issues pertaining to college completion. The goals of the ACCT/NALEO Academy are to: •P rovide professional development and policy training for Latino policymakers via a one-day training prior to the 2016 Community College National Legislative Summit, February 8-11; • Raise policymakers’ awareness and understanding of current college completion policy issues, including a focus on K-12 alignment to the community college sector, with an emphasis on developmental education; • Increase Latino policymakers’ knowledge of data, best practices, and policy options pertaining to developing a college completion agenda for all community college students; and • Facilitate discussion to develop policymakers’ action plans in their communities and states. Following the ACCT/NALEO Academy, the ACCT and NALEO Educational Fund also will develop a best practices white paper highlighting retention efforts that help to increase community college degree or certificate completion in order to help Latino policymakers better understand, access, and address student financial aid funding, housing, and childcare issues, as well as student support services. For more information, contact dconner@acct.org.
ACCT, AACC Partner with Higher Ed for Higher Standards ACCT has partnered with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and Higher Ed for Higher Standards (HEfHS) to commit to the implementation of higher academic standards in secondary school designed to prepare students for success in college and careers. Each year, about 50 percent of first-year students at two-year colleges and 20 percent of those entering four-year universities require basic developmental courses before they can begin credit-bearing coursework. This lack of preparedness costs students and taxpayers billions of dollars each year. It greatly slows progress at the college level and increases the gap between the needs of the business community and qualified workers. Community colleges have long filled the need of providing remedial and developmental education to underprepared students who want to pursue higher education. This is a fundamental part of our mission, but students who arrive on our campuses underprepared continued on page 6
LET THE LAW WORK FOR YOU Timing is everything when it comes to advocacy, but not everyone has time to pay attention to pending legislation day in and day out. ACCT’s Latest Action in Washington (LAW) Alerts do the work for you. Since 2008, nearly 1,600 people have signed up to receive ACCT’s LAW Alert emails — brief summaries of legislative actions emailed to subscribers as legislation happens, giving community college trustees, presidents, and other leaders and advocates time to contact their representatives and exert influence before it’s too late. Please encourage your fellow trustees, presidents, and colleagues to stay up to date about legislation that affects their community colleges by joining the LAW E-Alert network. To join, simply email publicpolicy@acct.org with “LAW Alert” in the subject of the email. For more information about ACCT’s advocacy services, visit www.acct.org/advocacy. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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Model Standards of Good Practice for Trustee Boards In Support of Effective Community College Governance, the Board Believes: n
That it derives its authority from the community and that it must always act as an advocate on behalf of the entire community;
n
That it must clearly define and articulate its role;
n
That it is responsible for creating and maintaining a spirit of true cooperation and a mutually supportive relationship with its CEO;
n
That it always strives to differentiate between external and internal processes in the exercise of its authority;
n
That its trustee members should engage in a regular and ongoing process of in-service training and continuous improvement;
n
That its trustee members come to each meeting prepared and ready to debate issues fully and openly;
n
That its trustee members vote their conscience and support the decision or policy made;
n
That its behavior, and that of its members, exemplify ethical behavior and conduct that is above reproach;
n
That it endeavors to remain always accountable to the community;
n
That it honestly debates the issues affecting its community and speaks with one voice once a decision or policy is made.
Adopted by the ACCT Board of Directors, October 2000. *The term “board” refers to a community college board of trustees or appropriate governing authority.
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NEWS
continued from page 5
This partnership marks a new way of approaching remedial education by taking needed, actionable steps to raise the bar for academic and career success. academically have a steep hill to climb to persist and complete their degrees. Students should be entering all colleges prepared for college-level work, and that preparation should be completed in high school. ACCT and AACC have long advocated for greater alignment between K-12 standards and first year credit-bearing course requirements for community colleges. Community colleges have a vested interest in raising standards so that students who come through community college doors will be able to get started immediately on college-level coursework. Although community colleges have time-tested expertise in filling the need for remediating students and preparing them for college, providing remediation to 50 percent or more of entering students is a tremendous strain on resources that could be applied to teaching students at the college level, not to mention delaying students’ progress through higher education and ultimately toward finding gainful employment. We applaud states that have made great strides over the past several years in implementing more challenging K-12 standards designed to prepare students for success in college and careers. This work holds tremendous potential for increasing the number of students who arrive in our colleges and businesses prepared for success. This fall will mark a critical milestone in states’ efforts to raise educational standards: The results of new K-12 student assessments, aligned to college readiness standards, will be released in dozens of states across the country. For the first time, scores on high school assessments will have a meaningful connection to college and career success. Students who meet college readiness standards will be more prepared for successful transition into credit-bearing college coursework and training opportunities. Standards for these tests have been raised to reflect real expectations of college and career readiness and provide a more accurate assessment of student readiness for the demands of postsecondary life. This partnership marks a new way of approaching remedial education by taking needed, actionable steps to raise the bar for academic and career success. AACC, ACCT, and HEfHS are collaborating to promote and support strong partnerships between community colleges and high schools to help them implement more ambitious K-12 standards and assessments to increase students’ college readiness. Over the next year, the partners will work with community colleges and their governing boards throughout the country to facilitate greater cooperation with K-12 districts through a number of advocacy and educational programs designed to support student success. Higher expectations starting in K-12, combined with strong student supports to help them meet these expectations, hold great promise for increasing student success in higher education. For more information, contact dconner@acct.org.
Registration and Call for Presentations: 2016 ACCT Leadership Congress Join more than 1,400 trustees, college presidents, philanthropic leaders, and federal officials as we move the needle on student success at the 2016 ACCT Leadership Congress, to be held October 5-8 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Registration for the 2016 Congress opens in mid-February at www.acct.org. ACCT is seeking presentations for the 2016 Congress that relate to the following tracks: 1. The new reality of commuter campuses: Security and preparing for disasters 2. Expanding the mission: The baccalaureate degree, partnerships with K-12, corporate colleges, reverse transfer, and other innovative models 3. Entrepreneurial and strategic alliances with business and industry: Meeting the evolving new workforce needs of urban, rural, and all communities, emerging industries, and new realities 4. New pathways to student success: Learning analytics, data-informed solutions to foster equity, access, student success, and completion 5. The new financial model: New strategies for leveraging resources and funding 6. Combating poverty and promoting citizenship: Innovative alliances to serve at-risk students and underserved populations 7. Strengthening governance: Effective practices from policy to fiduciary responsibilities For more information and to submit your presentation idea, go to www.acct.org and click “Events,” or email questions to ACCT Education Events Specialist Christina Sage Simons at csimons@acct.org.
New Research Report Shines Light on Hungry, Homeless Community College Students ACCT is proud to announce the release of a new research report created in partnership with the Healthy Minds Study, Single Stop, and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab that assesses food and housing insecurity among community college students. Authors Sara Goldrick-Rab, Katharine M. Broton, and Daniel Eisenberg surveyed
more than 4,000 students at 10 community colleges in California, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Wisconsin, and Wyoming about how today’s college prices affected them. In an op-ed published in the New York Times, Goldrick-Rab and Broton write that despite increased public scrutiny over rising tuition and fees, living expenses are actually “one of the most costly barriers that stand between today’s students and graduation.” According to the report, nearly 80 percent of the total cost of a year in community college is not tuition, but books and supplies, transportation, health care, clothing, housing, and food. Among the students surveyed: • Fifty-two percent indicated they were struggling with food insecurity, housing insecurity, or both. • One in five students went hungry while attending college. • Thirty-one percent of African American students and 23 percent of Latino students had very low levels of food security, compared with 19 percent of non-Hispanic white students. • One in eight was homeless at some time in his or her college career. • More than half (52 percent) of African American students experienced housing insecurity, with 18 percent experiencing homelessness, compared with 35 percent housing insecurity and 11 percent homelessness among non-Hispanic white students. For more information, contact dconner@acct.org. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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ADVOCACY
The Hidden Costs of Higher Education
AS CONGRESS CONSIDERS THE reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, there is growing interest in looking at issues around the cost of higher education. Affordability is a complex subject that extends beyond tuition and fees. According to the College Board, two-year public colleges continue to represent the lowest-priced higher education institutions, averaging $3,435 for annual tuition and fees for a fulltime student in 2015-16. By comparison, tuition and fees averaged $9,410 at four-year public colleges and $32,405 at four-year private non-profit colleges. While tuition and fees for two-year public colleges are low compared to other sectors, the true cost of going to a community college is vastly understated. Tuition and fees do not include students’ other required expenses, such as books and supplies, transportation, housing, food, and other living costs. The average cost of attendance for a community college commuter student in 2015-16 is $16,833, according to the College Board. The maximum Pell Grant a qualifying student may receive is $5,775, leaving $11,058 unmet for students who receive a full Pell award. This unmet need requires many community college students to work to cover the full cost of their education. The harsh financial reality is that a student would have to work 30 hours per week at the federal minimum wage ($7.25) in order to cover the full gap. While some students work full time while going to college full time, many do not enroll on a full-time basis and work at least one job while in college. Research shows that students who enroll full time are more likely to persist and ultimately finish their degrees or certificates than students 8
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By Jee Hang Lee
who enroll part time. The longer it takes a student to complete a degree, the greater the odds that the student will not complete the degree. ACCT has grown concerned about living costs and the unmet financial needs of students, which have resulted in students experiencing hunger and homelessness. ACCT recently partnered with the University of Michigan Healthy Minds Study, the University of Wisconsin
HOPE Lab, and Single Stop USA to examine food and housing insecurity at 10 community colleges. The stark findings from the student survey show that a significant number of students are struggling with covering basic living costs. Among the findings: • Fifty-two percent of students indicated they were struggling with food insecurity, housing insecurity, or both.
RICHARD MIA COLLECTION
A
At community colleges, tuition and fees only scratch the surface of students’ financial needs.
Tuition and Fees
Room and Board
Books and Supplies
Transportation
Other Expenses
$1,774
Public Two-Year In-District Commuter
$3,435
$8,003
$2,257 $1,364
Public Four-Year In-State On-Campus
$9,410
$16,833 $1,109
$10,138
$2,106 $24,061 $1,298
Public Four-Year Out-of-State On-Campus
$23,893
$1,109 $10,138
$2,106 $38,544 $1,628 $1,033
$1,298
Private Nonprofit Four-Year On-Campus
$32,405
$11,516
$47,831 $1,249
$0
$10,000
$20,000
$30,000
$40,000
Average Estimated Full-Time Undergraduate Budgets by Sector, 2015-16 Source: The College Board, http://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-estimated-undergraduate-budgets-2015-16
•O ne in five students went hungry while attending college. • Thirty-one percent of African American students and 23 percent of Latino students had very low levels of food security, compared with 19 percent of non-Hispanic white students. • One in eight was homeless at some time in his or her college career. • More than half (52 percent) of African American students experienced housing insecurity, with 18 percent experiencing homelessness, compared with 35 percent housing insecurity and 11 percent homelessness among non-Hispanic white students. To learn more about the report, see p. 7. The other complication to living costs is that many community college students take out student loans to cover their unmet financial needs. When students default, those loans were often borrowed to cover living costs, not tuition and fees. ACCT’s recent report, A Closer Look at the Trillion, assessed all Iowa community college students that entered the FY11 repayment period. The data for some students appears to coincide with borrowing for a particular need, as opposed to borrowing to the maximum level allowable. For example, students
In order to support our students, Congress needs to pursue avenues that support broader efforts around affordability. This includes efforts such as increasing the Pell Grant maximum, year-round Pell Grants, and maintenance of effort provisions to ensure that states continue funding for higher education. who borrowed $250 to $499 from federal student loans were one of the highestdefaulting groups in the study. With such high default rates on low loan balances, community colleges are risking high cohort default rates and potential fines under risk-sharing proposals. These defaults can be managed by implementing emergency funds and appropriately counseling borrowers with acute needs. In order to support our students, Congress needs to pursue avenues
that support broader efforts around affordability. This includes increasing the Pell Grant maximum, instituting year-round Pell Grants, and maintenance of effort provisions to ensure that states continue funding for higher education. Another crucial element will be the authorization of the America’s College Promise Act of 2015, which would create a federalstate partnership to provide two years of tuition-free college to a large portion of community college students. As currently envisioned, America’s College Promise would allow many needy students to apply their Pell Grant to cover the cost of living, as opposed to tuition and fees. ACCT will continue to monitor and work with Congress as it reauthorizes HEA. We encourage you to use ACCT’s online policy center to communicate with your members of Congress and follow federal legislative updates through the Latest Action in Washington (LAW) email alerts and the Capitol Connection e-newsletter. To join, email publicpolicy@acct.org.
ACCT Vice President for Public Policy and External Relations Jee Hang Lee can be reached by email at jhlee@acct.org, or by phone at 202-775-4667. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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Six Years Student Success of
ACCT’S SYMPOSIUM ON COMPLETION HAS HELPED COMMUNITY COLLEGE LEADERS DEVELOP ROADMAPS TO TRANSFORM THEIR INSTITUTIONS.
BY MARK TONER
Thomas Bailey, director, Community College Research Center at Columbia University
Karen Stout, president and CEO, Achieving the Dream
BY ALL ACCOUNTS, 2010 WAS A LANDMARK YEAR FOR the community college movement. The White House convened its first summit on community colleges, following up on a pledge made during the signing of the Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 on the campus of Northern Virginia Community College. The law that set healthcare reform into motion also introduced the Community College and Career Training Grant Program, which would inject $2 billion into community colleges over the next four years, all in service of President Obama’s call to increase the number of Americans who hold a college degree or certificate by 5 million by 2020. Joining a growing number of foundations advancing the completion agenda, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation unveiled Completion by Design, its $35 million effort to encourage 10
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From left: Tina Gridiron, strategy director, Lumina Foundation; J. Luke Wood and Frank Harris III, co-directors of the Minority Male Community College Collaborative at San Diego State University
innovation and the sharing of ideas across community college campuses. As the transformation of their mission from open-access to access and success became a national priority, community colleges had won unprecedented attention and financial support from both the federal government and foundations. What their leaders and governing boards needed was a roadmap. “The next step for community colleges is to put all the pieces of the puzzle together,” Gates Foundation co-chair Melinda French Gates said during the White House summit. Weeks later, ACCT convened its first Symposium on Completion. With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the symposium recognized a critical need — the role trustees must play in advancing the student success agenda on their campuses.
Carrie Billy, president and CEO, American Indian Higher Education Consortium
Victor B. Sáenz, associate professor, University of Texas at Austin
“It’s vitally important that trustees are involved in this conversation,” 2010 ACCT Chair Thomas Bennett said during the opening of that convening, held immediately before ACCT’s Leadership Congress in Toronto, Canada. Six years later, ACCT’s annual Symposiums on Completion have had a significant impact on campuses across the nation. The invitational event has drawn leaders from across the community college spectrum — trustees, presidents, researchers, policymakers, and federal officials. Each Symposium has preceded the annual ACCT Congress, helping to set the agenda and tone for the nation’s largest trustee leadership conference, which draws around 2,000 community college leaders each year. Critical discussions have been incorporated into standing-room-only Congress roundtables, drawing a much larger cross-section of community college leadership into active discussion about the student success agenda. “The work matters, and your engagement is what makes the difference,” ACCT President & CEO J. Noah Brown told 2015 Symposium attendees. The Symposiums have also provided community college leaders with a roadmap. A Policy Action Agenda proposed and refined by community college leaders during the events has guided policy on campuses across the country (see p. 15). A similar agenda now being developed based on working discussions during the two most recent Symposiums will help refine that agenda to focus on equity and the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. And perhaps most importantly, the Symposiums have helped ensure that trustees see themselves as the leading advocates for student success efforts at their institutions. “I believe the last voice should be the trustees’ voice,” ACCT Executive Vice President for Education, Research, and Board Services Narcisa Polonio said during the 2015 Symposium. “But the trustees’ voice should focus on students first.”
An Evolution The Symposium on Completion was initially convened as a one-time event. It has since become an important annual summit,
Alison Kadlec, senior vice president and director, higher education and workforce programs, Public Agenda
with Kresge Foundation and Lumina Foundation joining the Gates Foundation as sponsors. And as community colleges have embraced and put the student success agenda into place, the Symposiums have evolved to reflect the progress that has been made — and the challenges our institutions still face. In this article, we take a look at the evolution of the ACCT Symposium on Student Success. With continued support from partners committed to student success, the Symposium will continue to guide the evolution of effective governance that advances student success. Year 1: Framing the Challenge The inaugural Symposium focused on placing Obama’s American Graduation Initiative and the related completion agendas into context — and identifying the steps community colleges must take. Speakers identified key practices that support the completion agenda, including: • L eaders who are engaged and pay continuous attention to progress on student success issues; • A shared and enacted vision of a student success agenda; • Planning and budgeting aligned with the agenda; • A culture of evidence; •B road consensus among students, faculty, staff, and the community; • Integration of other initiatives, including accreditation; and •F ocused professional development aligned with student completion objectives. The first Symposium also reinforced the importance of data in identifying the challenges and the solutions — and acknowledged the cultural change a culture of evidence represented for many institutions. “Community colleges have lived long and pretty comfortably with the anecdote — students whose lives have changed,” said Kay McClenney, then director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin’s Community College Leadership Program. “But...[anecdotes] do not tell the story of the typical student experience... what we have to T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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William F.L. Moses, managing director, education, Kresge Foundation
J. Noah Brown, president and CEO, ACCT
get ready to do is understand honestly what happens to students when they move through our system — or don’t.” From the start, Symposium speakers emphasized the importance of ensuring that all students succeed, urging community college leaders not to rest on longstanding assumptions around different groups’ intentions. “Until the choice not to persist or graduate is equitably distributed across students by race, age, or income level, this is an argument we can no longer countenance,” McClenney said. Year 2: Priorities and Partnerships The second Symposium on Student Success focused on identifying priorities — and key partnerships. Attendees began the work of developing what would become the Policy Action Agenda, which has since been integrated in ACCT’s Governance Institute on Student Success (GISS) and the agendas of community college boards across the country. In small group and roundtable discussions, participants focused on a range of issues, including the importance of effective partnerships, ways to foster an institutional focus on student success, transfer, technology, workforce needs, and the importance of balancing student success with community colleges’ commitment to access and equity. Working together, attendees drafted a model board agenda that sets goals for the institution, fosters stronger partnerships with P-12 systems, industry, and community groups, and applies data on student outcomes to drive policy decisions. At the heart of this agenda was changing the way the board operates. “The hardest work is not changing practice, but changing cultures,” said McClenney. “The board plays an extremely important role in... shifting to an understanding that access without success in 21st century America is an empty promise... and [that] we’re not talking about itty-bitty changes around the edges.” McClenney told trustees it is critical to “frame the way you think 12
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about what you need to think about. It’s not your role to decide what the curriculum and interventions are going to be,” she said. “But it surely is your role to ask questions about what the college is doing and monitor the data to see if these actions are closing achievement gaps.” Year 3: Drilling Down on Data The third Symposium focused on using data to address key misconceptions that, left unchecked, could hinder completion efforts on community college campuses. The key, McClenney told attendees, is addressing “the considerable misalignment between what institutions are providing and what students need” as well as “what we think we’re doing for students and what we’re actually doing for students,” she said — misconceptions that can only be revealed through the careful use of data. “Behind every single data point are people who depend on the goals you set for your community colleges to meet their aspirations,” McClenney added. Trustees were urged to “use data as a flashlight, not a hammer,” as Diana Oblinger, president and CEO of Educause, put it. “Analytics and data are critical to you and your students being able to see inside the black box that is higher education,” she said. More specifically, speakers focused on urging the collection of disaggregated data that shows how different groups of students — young, old, and of different races or backgrounds – were doing. “There’s no more powerful lever for change than data that paints a picture of our community college students and tells the truth about which groups are disproportionately falling through the cracks,” McClenney said. “Unless you are tracking student cohorts as they are moving through your college and disaggregating by race, ethnicity, first-time college, and age, you are not able to understand what is going on with student success at your college.” Among the key data sources discussed was the then-emerging Voluntary Framework for Accountability (VFA). Developed by
Symposium participants
ACCT and the American Association of Community Colleges, the VFA provides measures of student progress and outcomes; measures of workforce, economic, and community development; and an approach for assessing student learning outcomes, and can be used to start a data-informed discussion among trustees and CEOs. “This is really where we need to be going as a sector,” said Karen Stout, then president of Montgomery County Community College in Pennsylvania. “I look at the VFA locally as a catalyst to building my understanding of the institution to focus on governance, and nationally as a catalyst for understanding our areas of opportunity for the future.” Boards must decide what metrics to use and to hold the institution accountable, speakers said. “When those lights on the dashboard come on, you as trustees need to know what to do,” said ACCT President & CEO J. Noah Brown. Year 4: Expanding the Agenda The fourth Symposium focused on expanding efforts beyond the community colleges invested in the student success agenda. “You’ve already been not just the vanguard, but also the flag bearers among the different tiers of higher education,” said Sheri Ranis, strategy director for the Lumina Foundation. “How do we convert others and translate what you’ve done to the rest of higher education? That’s a really important inflection point, where you as the vanguard need to educate the rest.” Attendees also focused on the impact of emerging performance funding systems on the completion agenda. “For the first time in a long time, we’re having concrete discussions about student success because the creation of the system requires it,” said Sara Goldrick-Rab, associate professor at the University of WisconsinMadison. For performance funding to move the needle on student success, it must have explicit and measurable goals, include the full spectrum of higher education institutions while acknowledging their different missions, and reward institutions for meeting their
goals, said David Longanecker, president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Reflecting the impact of budget cuts and increasing student demand, the Symposium also focused on the impact of online learning on student success. Research shows that online courses have higher withdrawal rates and lower overall grades — outcomes which are magnified among students with poor academic backgrounds. Speakers stressed the importance of considering online courses as part of a college’s broader spectrum of offerings. “Think about all the different pathways the learners on your campus are seeking,” urged Rebecca Petersen, research director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s edx venture. “It’s not just all MOOC or blended learning, but the ecosystem you create and how technology... fits into it.” Year 5: A Focus on Equity The fifth Symposium focused on helping community colleges keep true to their promise of creating pathways out of poverty by considering the changing student population on their campuses. Polonio urged trustees to consider the role they play in ensuring that equity becomes as important a value as access and success at their institutions. “It’s always important to ask with the services we choose to provide, or not provide, if we are perpetuating the educational divide,” she said. Attendees also learned about the sobering realities that challenge the promise of access — and success — for all: • S tudents who come from families in the top quartile of income are 10 times more likely to get a college degree than those in the bottom quartile, according to Mark Mitsui, deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s office of career, technical, and adult education. •W hile community colleges enroll more men of color than any other sector in higher education, black males receive fewer than 4 percent of all associate degrees awarded; Latino males earn fewer than 5 percent. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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•A t selective four-year institutions, students from affluent families outnumber the poorest students by 14 to 1. The opposite is true at community colleges, where students from the lowest income quartile outnumber those from the wealthiest by 2 to 1 — and those numbers keep growing. • Between 1982 and 2006, the percentage of the most affluent students at community colleges declined from 24 to 16 percent. Speakers identified key strategies that lead to improved success for students of color, including personal connections, high expectations, instructor quality, engagement, and diversity and cultural competency, as well as predictive analytics to track student progress, improve advising, and identify other needs, such as emergency grants for students with sudden financial challenges. Working together in small groups, Symposium attendees began identifying ways that trustees can help make intentional actions a reality on their campuses. Policy plans that surfaced during discussions included eliminating key barriers and focusing on common problems like remediation, aligning systems and structures, examining intake systems, and rethinking the role of faculty within a broader team that can better support students with services such as mentoring, tutoring, and guidance. These initial plans will ultimately become a fully formed Equity Action Agenda, which like the Policy Action Agenda that preceded it, can help governing boards across the country ensure their institutions are focused at all levels on meeting the needs of all students. Year 6: Moving to “Reform 2.0” The most recent Symposium focused on the growing recognition of the need for broader, structural change. Institutions are moving from “Reform 1.0” — scattered individual activities focused on completion that didn’t always scale or work together — to “Reform 2.0,” what Thomas Bailey, director of the Community College Research Center at Columbia University, calls “a much more comprehensive and ambitious reform agenda.” “It’s a new way of thinking about reform and how we ought to be designing colleges and changing design of those colleges,” he said. The next generation of reforms will: • Be based on analysis and improvement of the college-level program of study — something that has not been impacted significantly by reforms to date • Take students from the very beginning all the way to the end of their college experience. • Redesign intake systems to help students decide exactly what they want to do and what skills they need for that program. As Symposium attendees continued to refine the Equity Action Agenda, speakers reinforced the need to ensure that continued change targets the students who need it the most. “On an aggregate level, we are improving completion,” said Stout, now president and CEO of Achieving the Dream. “But when you disaggregate the data for African Americans, Latinos, even older students, the outcomes aren’t equitable. In some cases, the gap has increased.” Frank Harris III, co-director of the Minority Male Community 14
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College Collaborative at San Diego State University, urged trustees to consider decisions through the lens of equity: “What is it that we are doing or not doing as a board, college, or department that results in students not doing as well as they should?” White House official Roberto J. Rodriguez stressed the need to continue developing and disseminating best practices to support at-risk learners, including the 5.8 million disconnected youth who are not on a path to further education or careers. “It’s a make or break moment for the middle class,” said Rodriguez, deputy assistant to the president for education. “I truly believe the work you are doing at your institutions is on the front lines of that make or break moment for our families, young people, and adults.”
The Impact Over the past six years, the lessons from the Symposia have informed a host of other ACCT efforts, including: • The Voluntary Framework of Accountability • The Governance Institute for Student Success (GISS), which has trained governing boards on how to put the policy goals surfaced during the Symposia into place on their campuses •P artnerships with Single Stop USA and other organizations that support students and completion efforts • Democracy’s Call to Action •P ublication of Making Good on the Promise of the Open Door: Effective Governance and Leadership to Improve Equity, Student Success, and Completion More importantly, the Symposia is making a difference on college campuses. In Nebraska, an ACCT grant helped the state’s six community colleges implement the VFA and provide professional development for community college trustees through GISS. At Central Community College, student success issues are now “standing agenda items” at every board meeting, said President Greg Smith. Tom Perkins, a trustee at Western Nebraska Community College, says his thinking has been challenged by the Symposiums. “They have exposed me to new ideas regarding student success and community college accountability concerns,” he says. “But I have also been reminded of policy issues, which prevent students of color and those from low-income families from achieving their full potential… I am a better trustee today as the result of the knowledge gained from attending the Symposiums.”
The Road Ahead As the completion agenda nears the end of its first decade, one thing that’s become clear is that improving student outcomes isn’t a short-term endeavor. “We know it takes 10 to 12 years to really move the needle,” Stout said at the most recent Symposium. Changing the direction of a large and complex institution is a long-term process that for governing boards includes the following key steps. • Discovery • Looking at data objectively • Debating and deliberation • Developing reforms
• Testing and assessing • Implementation • Evaluation • Refinement Over the past six years, community college leaders have moved from dialogue about the importance of completion to internalizing the importance of student success goals to action. But the work doesn’t end here. The completion challenge laid out by President Obama and others at the beginning of the decade has yet to be fulfilled, and longstanding achievement gaps still persist at many institutions. Now that governing boards have risen to the challenge of setting the agenda on their campuses, the task before them shifts from dialogue and action to assessment — to continuously monitoring existing efforts to ensure they are effective and helping identify new solutions for their campuses and the students they serve.
With the agendas developed during the Symposiums in hand, boards will be better equipped to take the ongoing steps required to improve completion for all students. Their leadership will likely be the deciding factor in whether our colleges meet the nation’s growing needs for a well-educated workforce that reflects its changing population. “We believe the sustainability of the student success movement really depends on trustees,” Polonio said during the 2015 Symposium. “If they come up with the right policy and it is implemented the right way, it can be sustained for the next 10 to 20 years.” Thanks to the support of partners and the participation of visionary thought leaders, the ACCT Symposium on Student Success has evolved to become an intentional change agent, and with an ongoing commitment to meet annually, we will continue setting and meeting benchmarks that lead to improved student outcomes.
ACCT’S POLICY ACTION AGENDA ACCT’s Policy Action Agenda is a guide for governing boards to support student success and completion. Developed during the Symposiums on Completion, the Policy Action Agenda: • Encourages governing boards to develop student success policies; • Reaffirms a commitment to access and equity; • Calls upon governing boards to take action.
Strategic Goals 1. Reaffirm the mission of the college and its commitment to ensure access, success, and equity for all students, while affirming that quality must undergird all credentials granted by the institution. 2. Ensure that the institutional strategic plan gives priority to student success and equity, and aligns the institutional budget with student success goals. 3. Request and endorse a completion agenda framework for your institution, including consistent and comparable definitions for completion and student success such as those included in the Voluntary Framework of Accountability, to ensure uniformity and quality.
the effectiveness of developmental education and other programs. 7. Ensure that metrics for institutional performance and student success incorporate employment and wage data for college graduates. 8. Require that measures of student success be prominently featured in periodic institutional reports to the board. 9. Invest in building institutional capacity for data- and evidence-informed work, including development of data systems and institutional research. 10. Align board self-evaluation and president/CEO evaluation with defined student success measures.
Board Priorities 11. Ensure that the institutional budget clearly reflects priority placed on improvement in student success and college completion. 12. Through Board policy and strategic direction, provide support for the CEO to lead courageous and transformational work focused on student success.
Partnerships
13. Establish regular opportunities for the board to engage in meaningful, data-informed discussions about priorities and progress on the college’s student success agenda.
4. Strengthen partnerships with colleges, universities and PreK-12 systems, particularly in the areas of articulation, assessment, placement, and college readiness.
14. Invest in implementation of evidence-based educational pathways for students, regardless of their level of college readiness upon entry.
5. Engage employers, workforce boards, and community organizations to ensure the value of associate degrees and certificates and their relevance to local and regional labor markets.
15. Upon recommendation by the CEO, adopt student success policies and support practices at scale, including practices that can lead to transformational change in college orientation, academic skills assessment, course placement, educational planning, early academic alert systems, and other evidence-based interventions.
Measurements and Metrics 6. Commit to track all entering student cohorts for at least five years and examine cohort data to determine
16. Commit to ongoing professional development for the board.
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SEIZE the OPPORTUNITY BY MARK TONER
ACCT’s 46th Annual Leadership Congress focused on equity, student success, and the promise to make two years of college free for all.
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Even with the unprecedented focus on the nation’s community colleges of late, 2015 was a banner year. So when 2,000 trustees, presidents, and other community college leaders convened in San Diego for the 46th annual ACCT Leadership Congress, they were urged to seize the opportunity to make two 2
years of college universal — and continue improving
1. Over 2,000 community college leaders attended the 2015 ACCT Leadership Congress; 2. 2014-15 ACCT Chair Robin M. Smith
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students’ opportunities to succeed.
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“It’s an ideal time,” said University of California President Janet Napolitano, who formerly served as both U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and governor of Arizona. “There has been an entire national dialogue this year based on community colleges, their importance, their role, and their being a key ingredient of higher education in the United States.” “This really is a tremendous moment,” agreed ACCT President & CEO J. Noah Brown. “I’m asking all of you to join us to work hard to make this a reality. We will not see another opportunity like this in our lifetime.”
Keeping the Promise
© 2016 ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEES. PHOTOS BY ALAN DECKER
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3 1.San Diego Community College District Chancellor Constance Carroll welcomes attendees; 2. Wednesday keynote speaker Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., president and CEO, TIAA-CREF; 3. Thursday keynote speaker Janet Napolitano, president, University of California
A White House official urged ACCT Congress attendees to help expand access to college in much the same way high school became free and universal a century ago. With the administration’s goal to increase the number of Americans with a postsecondary degree or credential by 2020, “we can’t get there without our community colleges as the catalyst driving that train,” Roberto J. Rodriguez, deputy assistant to the president for education, told Congress attendees. On the heels of the Obama administration’s America’s College Promise initiative, the White House has worked to build coalitions to advocate for the idea of universal two-year college, Rodriguez said — an idea which is beginning to take root. Along with the national Heads Up America (headsupamerica. us) campaign, nine states and communities have already implemented similar free tuition programs. In fact, one-quarter of the nation’s community colleges are now located in places with free or near-free tuition policies. “We have launched a movement,” Rodriguez said. “The effort is intended to live on beyond the arc of our administration. We’re open to all variations of the idea.” Efforts are also accelerating at the local level. Karen Stout, president and CEO of Achieving the Dream, told attendees that the majority of community college presidents fully support the initiative, identifying academic and career advising as the most critical additional needs to ensure it works for all students. Jeff Turp, executive vice president and COO of Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, said the 44-campus college has created a 40-member advocacy group to build support for the concept among state lawmakers. The state’s chamber of commerce, manufacturers association, and other business groups have endorsed the concept, which Turp said is a reflection of workforce needs in the state. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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“They’re saying you may not want to do [Obama’s] version, but you have to do something,” Turp said. Scott Svonkin, board president of the Los Angeles Community College District, said that his board of trustees unanimously passed a resolution endorsing the proposal. “It’s about getting people good jobs and a four-year degree,” he said. “It is the foundation of what the country is built on.” Joe May, chancellor of the Dallas Community College District, urged trustees to focus discussions on the growing number of jobs that require more than a high school diploma. “Colleges get hung up on what America’s College Promise is and don’t talk enough about why it’s so important,” he told trustees. “Many of us know it intuitively, but sometimes we forget how the needs of our society have changed in our lifetime.” ACCT and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) have developed an advocacy toolkit for community college trustees and presidents, which can be downloaded at www.acct.org/news/college-promise-toolkittrustees-and-presidents.
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Measurable Impact Congress speakers also urged community college leaders to continue to find ways to ensure that students meet their goals once they do enroll. With the student success agenda now nearly a decade old, speakers pointed to successful efforts and the importance of meeting the needs of students who have been historically underrepresented in higher ed. City University of New York Chancellor James B. Milliken urged ACCT Congress attendees to focus their efforts on “smart, targeted programs with measurable impact” to improve completion rates. “It’s not enough for us to provide only access and opportunities for advancement. We must take responsibility for giving [students] the tools they need,” he said. Milliken pointed to CUNY’s success with targeted efforts to improve completion on its campuses, including its nationally recognized Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), which provides students with financial aid, transportation costs, cohorts grouped by major, and intensive counseling and advising, resulting in dramatic gains in completion. Despite the increased costs of the program, per-diploma costs have fallen as ASAP has scaled up in recent years, Milliken said. A key to ASAP’s success is its demonstrable benefits, Milliken said. Research shows that every dollar invested in ASAP yields three in social service savings — a message likely to resonate 18
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5 1. Attendees meet at the membership celebration luncheon; 2. Friday keynote speaker James B. Milliken, chancellor, City University of New York (CUNY); 3. A record number of participants used the ACCT mobile app; 4. 2015 ACCT Awardees; 5. General session attendees
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3 1. Saturday keynote speaker Chuck Underwood, host of America’s Generations with Chuck Underwood; 2. Student trustees; 3. Zárate gives closing remarks
as community college leaders continue to advocate for scarce public funds. “It’s become almost reflexive for politicians to say that you can’t improve schools by throwing money at them,” said Milliken. “By investing in well-designed programs, the payoff to our students and our country can be tremendous… That’s the case you and I should be making to political leaders. I believe it’s one it’s impossible to argue with.” UC’s Napolitano touted another proven strategy, the use of pathways to ensure successful transfer to four-year institutions. Calling UC’s transfer pathways initiative “a major step towards simplifying and streamlining the process,” Napolitano said that the additional 11 pathways now being developed will ultimately cover more than two-thirds of all majors pursued by California community college transfer students. “Anything we can do to simplify and clarify that transfer process will help all students, but particularly unrepresented minorities, many of whom start in community colleges,” she said. As student success initiatives continue to mature, there’s a redoubled emphasis on ensuring that they support the growing numbers of traditionally underrepresented students entering community college campuses. Attendees continued discussions on equity issues begun during the sixth annual Invitational Symposium on Student Success, held immediately before this year’s Congress (see p. 10), and demographer Chuck Underwood returned to the Congress for a second year to encourage leaders to develop generational strategies for a broad range of campus activities.
Sharing the Recipe Incoming ACCT Chair Roberto Zárate told Congress attendees that the association will focus on “sharing the recipe for student success” in the coming year (see profile, p. 20). As a trustee of the Alamo Colleges board in Texas, “I have seen the impact a governing board and great leader can have on student success and completion,” Zárate said. Along with sharing best practices, Zárate said ACCT will invest in and promote efforts that strengthen governing boards and emphasize the use of data to foster student equity and completion, including the Governance Institute for Student Success. With a change in the White House on the horizon, he also urged trustees to continue advocating for the unprecedented levels of attention and support community colleges have received in recent years. “This is the moment to forcefully argue for our rightful place in higher education,” Zárate said. “This is the moment to step up for student success.” T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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Sharing the Recipe
ACCT Chair Roberto Zárate has helped scale up student success efforts at the Alamo Colleges. Now he wants to see them take root across the country. BY MARK TONER
ROBERTO ZÁRATE BELIEVES THAT EDUCATION “OPENS THE DOOR TO ALL kinds of opportunities.” He would know. One of eight children in a family of migrant workers, Zárate entered elementary school speaking mostly Spanish. He became the first in his family to attend college — “stepping off the bus from hoeing cotton fields,” he says — and devoted his career to giving others similar opportunities, first as a teacher, then as a principal, and now, for more than a decade, as a trustee of the Alamo Colleges. As 2015-16 ACCT Chair, Zárate intends to focus on “sharing the recipe for student success” — one which depends heavily on engaged board leadership. “I have seen the impact a governing board and great leader can have on student success and completion,” he told attendees at the 2015 ACCT Congress as he accepted the gavel (see p. 14). “This is the moment to step up for student success.”
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Zárate was raised in Eden, Texas, the son of a sheep shearer. “God gave me the ability to learn quickly,” he says. He received a scholarship to attend Howard Payne College in Brownwood, Texas, where he excelled — except in math. “I was a typical first-time college student,” he says. More to the point, he was a first-generation college student and one of only a handful of Hispanic students on campus at the time, and he wound up having to learn to navigate the college-going experience largely on his own. As a result, Zárate wound up graduating with far too many credits — an experience that would inform his future role as a trustee. “I didn’t know,” he says. “I thought it was my responsibility to figure out in the catalog what to take.” Zárate’s career in education began in 1970, and was jumpstarted as the result of a student walkout. Mexican American students in Crystal City protested the lack of Hispanic teachers in the district’s K-12 schools, and he became one of the first MexicanAmerican teachers in Texas. “I was hired to represent that cultural background,” Zárate says. At the time, classes were often segregated by English language ability, and Zárate became a de facto bilingual teacher, sometimes teaching classes with more than 40 students. He taught for three years before becoming a principal for the first time in Crystal City. Zarate then moved to San Antonio, where he worked in central office positions for the Edgewood Independent School District, including serving as a director of curriculum and professional development . He also helped develop the first teacher evaluation system in the state, but Zárate decided he wanted to be a principal again, this time at the elementary school level. The opportunity arose at Perales Elementary, where the school’s principal left unexpectedly in the middle of the year. “They promised me they’d find a principal after the holidays,” Zárate says. In the meantime, he told students to “dress like they were going to church,” brought in packs of Polaroid film, took pictures of every student, and posted them in each classroom. “I said, ‘This is what you look like at your very best, and I expect that from you every day,’” Zárate recalls. Instead of being replaced, “I closed out the school that year,” Zárate says. “In the process, I found out that’s where I belong. Seeing something meaningful like that after investing so much time was really satisfying.” Zárate then moved to San Antonio’s Northside Independent School District (NISD), where he worked in the central office for a year before becoming a principal again — this time at John Glenn Elementary, where he stayed three years. The district leadership then asked him to step in at one of the district’s most challenging schools. When Zárate became principal of Mary Hull Elementary School, it was one of the lowest-performing schools in the city, with nearly nine in ten students on free and reduced lunch in a neighborhood plagued by violence. He began his tenure at the troubled school by interviewing faculty to get a sense of where things were — and to set new expectations. “I basically said, ‘Look, we’re going to start over. We 22
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cannot continue doing the same thing over and over again,’” Zárate recalls. So Zárate started meeting buses as they came in and escorting students out of the building at the end of the day. “That gained a lot in the community,” he says. Parent meetings that attracted one parent when he arrived drew 200 by year’s end. But the challenges were just beginning. In Zárate’s second year as principal, he received a call in the middle of the night from police. A major fire had gutted half of the school. He pledged to open the building the following Monday, and in doing so attracted the attention of former Minnesota Vikings owner Red McCombs, who became a mentor for students and provided financial support. The school turned around. Six years into Zárate’s tenure as principal, Mary Hull was named a Texas Recognized School, a Commended Title I School, a Texas Blue Ribbon School, and a National Blue Ribbon School. The following year, Hispanic magazine rated Mary Hull as one of the best schools in the nation for serving Hispanic students. “It was a real trendsetter in San Antonio and something I was really proud of,” Zárate says. Zárate remained at the school for 16 years. He and his wife, Jane Ann, had a daughter and three sons. Now retired, he remains active in education at all levels, in large part through his trusteeship at Alamo Colleges. “I get calls from kids all the time. I see them all the time,” Zárate says. “I could have gone up in the ranks, but I thought what for? I love changing lives. That’s why I love community colleges — you change lives.” Zárate was first appointed as an Alamo Colleges trustee in 2003, when he was asked to apply for the position at a turbulent time for the institution and its board. Zárate did so, he says, initially without telling his wife. (She knew that was exactly what he was going to do, he says.) The idea appealed to him because of his background in education — and because of a longstanding perception in local politics he wanted to counter. “There was an aura in town that Hispanics couldn’t govern,” he says. “I thought maybe I could redeem that.” Zárate was elected to his first term the following spring, at which time he and other board members focused on improving the college and its governance. “Integrity became our rallying cry,” he says. In fact, the board has been recognized multiple times for financial stewardship in recent years — particularly notable since the college lost $40 million in funding during the recession. “To me, it’s a benchmark in that we still provided services to underserved populations” in the face of cuts, he says. “To me, financial stewardship means you can provide services regardless of the situation.” Alamo also successfully won voter approval for a $450 million bond package in 2005, and the board is now in the early stages of considering a similar proposal, which would address deferred maintenance and renovations as well as the creation of “centers of excellence” on Alamo’s campuses. Zárate’s own experience as a first-generation college student has helped guide his governance role at Alamo. With five colleges
Zárate credits his time with ACCT as helping him and his fellow board members navigate the path towards creating a policy agenda focused on student success.
serving more than 65,000 students throughout the San Antonio metropolitan area, Alamo became one of the first institutions in the country to develop a student success policy and a related student responsibility policy — an effort Zárate calls “one of the seminal moments of the board.” “We tend to talk a lot about student success, but we never put it into policy,” he says. “The board is totally dedicated to student success issues and eliminating the barriers that get in the way. All of that is something I’m very proud to be part of.” More recently, Alamo Colleges has focused on revamping advising services and creating aligned pathways from 8th grade through four-year universities to ensure that more students complete with degrees and credentials in their chosen programs of study. “One of the reasons that’s become very evident with the data is that we were not advising students appropriately and they wander around,” he says. “It’s not cost-effective for the student or for the institution.” Implementing changes of this scope at scale is challenging at any institution, but even more so at Alamo, the second largest community college system in Texas. That’s why strong governance and policy are so critical to improving student success outcomes, Zárate says. “We had a recipe, and our board has had the courage to put it into policy,” Zárate says. Zárate credits his time with ACCT as helping him and his fellow board members navigate the path towards creating a policy agenda focused on student success. “We were struggling with what to do about graduation rates and persistence,” he says. “ACCT was the driving force we looked to for direction. We became more knowledgeable as a board in the direction we needed to go, and that knowledge grew with every ACCT Leadership Congress and NLS [Community College National Legislative Summit].” To this day, Zárate says he and fellow board members look to ACCT for guidance that their local policy efforts “are on the right track.” Zárate’s participation in ACCT events also had a larger impact on Texas community colleges, as he saw and learned from examples of state trustee organizations working to advocate on behalf of their institutions with state lawmakers. He facilitated the meetings that led to the creation of the Community College Association of Texas Trustees (CCATT), which was founded in 2007 to represent governing boards from all 50 Texas community
college districts. The next year, Zárate became CCATT’s first chair, and today, the organization plays a crucial role in trustee advocacy and education. Zárate became a member of the ACCT Board of Directors in 2010 and successfully won a seat on the executive committee two years later. It was this time that led him to focus on the impact community college trustees can have on national policy. “I was enthralled by the kind of exposure the ACCT Board has in terms of policy formation and the impact on student success,” he says. To that end, he is concerned about the risk-sharing proposals for student loan borrowers now being considered at the federal level, noting the at-risk nature of many community college students and the impact of punitive fines on workforce development. “If we can say that with a unified voice, that could be very powerful,” he says. Zárate’s experience helping guide Alamo Colleges toward the implementation of a student success agenda and its sweeping changes in advising and creating of pathways are helping inform his role as ACCT Chair. The second Hispanic — and third Texan — to chair ACCT, Zárate intends to stress the importance of bringing innovations to scale across every community college in the nation. “If the research tells you something out there works, why keep experimenting?” he asks. “While we’re experimenting, students are dropping out because they’re frustrated with the barriers — you’re losing them. To me, that provides an urgency in terms of governance. You have to take it to scale.” To that end, Zárate intends to use his role as ACCT Chair to encourage the sharing of best practices across institutions. ACCT will also invest in and promote efforts that strengthen governing boards and emphasize the use of data to foster student equity and completion, including the Governance Institute for Student Success. ACCT’s emphasis on governance and student success should inform how boards across the country operate, Zárate says. “Trustees should have policies in place and have a coherent system in place to foster student success,” he says. Having participated in conversations about student success since he first became a trustee, Zárate is eager to see solutions come to scale. “We’re tired of talking about this,” Zarate says. “We have the solutions. Let’s do something.” T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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COMPLEXITY
The behind AAPI
Inclusion:
WHO COUNTS?
Disaggregating data can help community colleges move beyond the “model minority” myth and better serve all Asian American and Pacific Islanders. BY PAM Y. EDDINGER
THE MYTH OF THE HIGH-ACHIEVING ASIAN STUDENT, LIKE THAT OF THE MODEL MINORITY, IS A DISTORTION THAT OBSCURES THE HIDDEN ACHIEVEMENT GAP WITH HIGH PRAISE [AND] PROVIDES NO CLARITY FOR THE HIGH-ACHIEVING AND NO REMEDY FOR THOSE STRUGGLING IN THE SHADOWS.
IN THE SUMMER OF 2015, THE WHITE HOUSE HOSTED the historic first all-day Summit for the White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI), welcoming from across the country some 2,000 opinion leaders in the areas of health, education, civil rights, immigration, and economic and community development. WHAAPI Executive Director Kiran Ahuja opened a packed day of sessions, illuminated by panels and participants from the highest level of national leadership from Congress and the President’s Cabinet, and punctuated by cultural celebrations in the performing arts. White House summits are coveted venues that give high visibility to emerging, urgent national issues. We only have to look to the most recent White House convenings on college opportunity and community colleges, and how these dialogues informed the President’s proposal of free community college education in America’s Promise.
Growth and Complexities So what is the impetus behind the scale and scope of this historic convening on Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI)? Why now? The answer is at once direct and complex. The simple answer points to the sheer growth in numbers. AAPIs represent the fastest expanding racial group, growing at four times the rate of the total U.S. population. AAPIs will exceed 47 million by 2060. The complexity and challenges behind this growth pattern, however, is often obscured by the perception of AAPIs as a monolithic and homogenized group. The highachieving Asian students in our schools and colleges, the vast number of accomplished Asians in the STEM fields, the self-sufficient and upwardly mobile Asian professionals — these are the AAPI images uppermost in the American public’s consciousness. In this stereotypical world, AAPIs are rarely bedeviled by poverty, lack of academic preparation, unemployment, and inadequate health care. The “model minority” myth continues to taint public understanding, and it poses a barrier to public policies and programs that must attend the anticipated population growth. As we examine the disaggregated population data in the
iCount report, published by the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE) and WHIAAPI in advocating for data quality in AAPI research, it becomes clear how much the model minority myth, bolstered by undifferentiated population data, has obscured the true picture. The report identifies some 29 subgroups within the AAPI population, with wide variations in socio-economic status and educational attainment. As much as we note positive signs of stability and affluence, the deficits are just as stark, troubling, and entrenched. High dropout rates, poverty, barriers to higher education, and social mobility are all present within the subgroups, mirroring the urgent issues prevalent in low-income urban and rural communities of color. The projected AAPI population increase in the coming years will only exacerbate the need for programs and policies to address these deepening issues. The White House convening this past summer was certainly an unprecedented celebration of AAPI heritage and achievements. Even more importantly, it was a defining point in our national dialogue, where we take racial perceptions about AAPIs beyond the model minority myth to explore fundamental questions about disparities in the AAPI subgroups, and how to craft better public policies to lift the attainment of a growing segment of the American population. The summit brought onto the national stage concerns and debates that, until now, existed in the echo chambers of race-based organizations and some community colleges. In its struggle to tell the full story of an American experience, AAPIs are no different from our African American and Hispanic/Latino brethren. Until the full story is told, until individual experiences inform the experience of the whole, until there is nuanced understanding of ethnicity, language, immigration, generational histories and socio-economic variations within the sub-populations, there can be no meaningful policies, programs, or full inclusion of AAPIs in the dialogue of our nation. The summit was a start, and the White House has called to us to continue this work. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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AAPI Subgroups: Profiles and Realities
Action Steps
The iCount report recognizes Asian American and Pacific Islanders to be two distinct categories; it further identifies subgroups under each. Two categories and their respective subgroups represent wide-ranging geographic disbursement, socio-economic backgrounds, and educational attainment. There are some 29 subgroups under the AAPI designation:
To leverage the notice and momentum of the historic national convening, we call to action the leadership of our nation’s community colleges, along with state education leaders, trustees, presidents and CEOs, foundation boards, leaders of professional associations, reform networks, and communities of practice. The majority of low-income and first-time college-attending AAPI students are in our institutions and at our door. Nearly 150 of our public community colleges are AANAPISIs (Asian America Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions), in which at least 10 percent of their enrollment are AAPIs and underserved. Our ability to tell the full story of AAPIs, and our programs, practices, and policies are powerful tools to lift struggling students into success. We present the following agenda for your consideration:
Asian Americans • Asian Indian • Bangladeshi • Bhutanese • Burmese • Cambodian • Chinese (except Taiwanese) • Filipino • Hmong • Indonesian • Japanese • Korean • Laotian • Malaysian • Nepalese • Pakistani
• Sri Lankan • Taiwanese • Thai • Vietnamese • Other Asians Pacific Islanders • Native Hawaiian • Samoan • Tongan • Guamanian or Chamorro • Marshallese • Fijian • Other Polynesian • Other Micronesian • Other Melanesian • Other Pacific Islander
The socio-economic range of these groups spans the spectrum, from low-income to high-earning. An examination of median household income of AAPIs from 2008 to 2010 finds that the Hmong, Bangladeshi, and Cambodian groups are some $20,000 below the median, while the Asian Indian and Filipino groups anchor the more affluent and high-skilled end of the spectrum at more than $10,000 and more than $20,000 above the median, respectively. A look at educational attainment during that same period from 2008 to 2010 echoes a similar theme of wide-range differentiation among the subgroups. Hmong, Cambodian, and Laotian subgroups have the highest percentage of individuals with less than a high school diploma, while over 70 percent of Taiwanese and Asian Indian subgroups earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to the iCount report. Even the well-rehearsed refrains of overrepresentation of AAPIs at elite colleges can benefit from a reality check: While a number of subgroups, such as Chinese (including Taiwanese), Asian Indians, and Koreans have higher representation, far many more subgroups have disproportionately lower representation, among them Hmong, Samoan, Thai, and Filipino, the report says. With the wide variations manifested in these key indicators, it is not surprising that there is a corresponding wide range of student achievements among the subgroups. The myth of the high-achieving Asian student, like that of the model minority, is a distortion that obscures the hidden achievement gap with high praise, a distortion that provides no clarity for the high-achieving and no remedy for those struggling in the shadows. 28
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Ask for Better, Disaggregated Data •R equest disaggregated data in your institutional effectiveness reporting, and insist on accompanying narrative about language, socio-economic and immigration factors, and geography that places your data in context. •E nsure that strategies and programs are based on disaggregated data, as well as the cultural context of the local communities. •A dvocate for disaggregated data in AAPI and other minority population reports at the local, regional, and state level.
Build AAPI Inclusion in Core Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Advising •C urriculum, pedagogy, and advising practices are at the heart of our institutions. If inclusion is to be sustainable, it must live in the classroom and advising practices. Seek out powerful reforms that value culturally relevant and community based curriculum.
Build a Pipeline of Leadership and Create Role Models for Students •C onsider AAPI inclusion as an integral factor, and not an add-on, in talent recruitment. •E ncourage internal talent development and participate in regional and national professional development activities targeting emerging AAPI leaders. • Proactively recruit AAPI teachers and mentors to ensure there are role models for students.
Insist on Systemic Understanding and Systemic Change • S erve as purveyors and facilitators of AAPI knowledge among civic, philanthropic, educational, and governmental institutions. • I nitiate and convene public and organizational policy discussions to further the work of AAPI and minority population inclusion.
Pam Y. Eddinger, Ph.D., is president of Bunker Hill Community College in Massachusetts.
ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT ISSUES AFFECTING BOARDS TODAY
TRUSTEE
TA L K
Guidance for challenging issues in community college governance. BY NARCI SA A. P OLONIO A ND NORMA GOLDS TE IN This issue of Trustee Talk focuses on the Second Amendment and the changing landscape of laws governing community college campuses. To download previous issues of Trustee Talk, visit www.trustee-education.org/trustee-talk. To receive the monthly Trustee Talk newsletter by email, or to submit a question, contact ACCT Executive Vice President Narcisa A. Polonio at narcisa_polonio@acct.org.
Q: The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right of the people to “keep and bear arms.” What are the potential implications as more state legislatures consider laws allowing students and others to bear arms on campus? The Constitutional right to bear arms permeates our society and extends to our community college campuses. Governing boards of community colleges need to be aware of the changing landscape within their states and the potential of having weapons on campus, even in boardrooms. Community college boards typically do not sidestep the issue and accept the responsibility to ensure appropriate policies are in place. Therefore, there is no question that governing boards must continuously review their policies to enforce the law and protect students, faculty, and staff. Safeguarding their institutions is both a legal and moral imperative. While the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects all Americans’ rights to keep and bear arms, each state is granted discretion in interpreting these laws, and as a result, each state determines related rights, such as gun permit laws and the legality of the concealed and open carrying of handguns and assault weapons, for example. For example, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, “California’s Governor, Jerry Brown, signed into a law
a measure banning people with concealed weapon permits from taking their guns onto college campuses” at the same time when other states are requiring colleges to allow individuals with “concealed carry” licenses to bring guns onto campuses. Given the prevalence of on-campus shootings, beginning with Colorado’s Columbine High School in 1999 and Virginia Tech in 2007 to the recent Umpqua Community College campus shooting in Oregon, educational institutions’ governing boards are responsible for understanding and keeping current on their respective states’ right-to-carry laws and creating and enforcing policies that adhere to these laws while protecting the campus community’s safety and the institution’s interests. Most articles about concealed weapons on college campuses cite the deaths of 32 students and staff and the wounding of 17 others at Virginia Tech in 2007 as the catalyst for colleges to re-examine their own security procedures. Spillover from this catastrophic event, the worst by a single shooter in U.S. history, continues. The October 1, 2015, shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon that resulted in the death of eight students and an assistant professor resonated deeply with the community college sector and provoked President Barack Obama to call for greater attention to gun control. While gun control remains one of the most divisive topics in our nation,
governing boards, presidents, and college administrations are uniquely responsible for taking all possible measures to protect their communities against potential on-campus violence while doing so within the scopes of federal, state, and local laws. Following are guidelines for boards to consider: 1) First and foremost, make sure the president, college administration, and state community college association stay well informed about enactment of laws and new guidelines by your state legislature. Don’t be caught off guard. Throughout the nation, many state legislatures are currently debating whether to allow students, faculty, staff, and visitors to carry firearms on college campuses. “Campus carry” is a “hot button” issue. At least 10 states are attempting to add college campuses to the list of permissible places to carry concealed handguns, as reported last year by Campus Reform, a conservative political action organization, with Texas being the most recent state approving campus carry legislation in June 2015. According to that legislation, the law will apply to community colleges starting in 2017. • The Campus Reform and Armed Campuses websites also reported that currently, 23 states allow colleges to set their own firearms policies; • Of the 23 states, only six (Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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TRUSTEES AND THE ADMINISTRATION SHOULD BE FULLY AWARE OF ANY EXISTING AND DEVELOPING “CONCEALED CARRY” LEGISLATION IN THEIR STATES, PROVISIONS FOR PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING TO OPT OUT, AND ANY ATTEMPTS TO RESTRICT THESE OPTIONS.
and Wisconsin) currently allow campus carry. (Armed Campuses is an anti-firearm website developed as a guide to help students and parents make college choice decisions.) The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) website tracks “concealed carry” weapon laws on college campuses: • States where “concealed carry” on postsecondary campuses is currently permitted include Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Wisconsin, Texas, and Utah. • As of February 2015, 19 states have banned carrying concealed weapons on a college campus: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wyoming. • States where “concealed carry” legislation is proposed this year include Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee. 2) Become aware of legislative provisions and appeals in your state. Trustees and the administration should be fully aware of any existing and developing “concealed carry” legislation in their states, provisions for public institutions of higher learning to opt out, and any attempts to restrict these options. Governing boards in some states have effectively used the “opt out” provisions, including Kansas and Arkansas. In Arizona, according to official sources from the Maricopa Office of Government Relations, “Maricopa Community Colleges support the ability of our locally elected district 30
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Governing Board to determine the most appropriate policies for our district in all matters including public safety.” Maricopa Community Colleges’ policy prohibits concealed weapons on campus (any type of deadly weapon, edged weapon, dangerous instrument, or martialarts weapon), while a person can lawfully transport or store any firearm that is locked in the person’s privately owned vehicle and is not visible from the outside. According to NCSL, Utah specifies that colleges cannot prohibit legal gun permitholders from bringing concealed firearms on to a college campus. In Colorado, community college campuses removed gun prohibitions after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the Board of Regents’ gun ban on campuses violated state law and could not limit the rights of legal gun permit holders from bringing concealed firearms onto a campus. According to Dr. Nancy J. McCallin, president of the Colorado Community College System, “Student, faculty, staff, and visitor safety is a top priority on our campuses. We follow state law, and in 2012 the Colorado State Supreme Court ruled that concealed carry guns are allowed on college campuses.” Conversely, the University of Wisconsin system campuses and technical community college districts are putting appropriate required signage in place to keep guns off their campuses. In Arkansas, since a 2013 concealed carry law for faculty only passed, every public and private institution has opted out. According to the NCSL site, appeals to remove opt-out provisions have been made in many of the 23 states banning guns. Therefore, it is important to obtain the latest information from your state. In most states, legal carriers of concealed
firearms must be gun permit holders and at least 21 years old. In Colorado, gun carriers have to disclose only to law enforcement agents that they carry concealed firearms, and only when asked. The Colorado Concealed Carry Act stipulates that teachers, college personnel, and boards shall not exclude any legal carriers from the classroom or meetings, nor may they ask a student whether or not he or she holds a permit. Board counsel should be consulted to identify the varying statutes and provisions within a state. 3) Promote campus dialogue from all constituents — students, staff, faculty, and administrators and the community. Boards and presidents should collaborate to assure that a clear firearms policy is in place and well-advertised on campus. But before that can happen, and if given an opportunity, the administration should promote campus dialogue. It is the responsibility of the administration to connect with college constituencies and identify the underlying safety concerns of the campus. Once the board and administration understands what legislative measures regarding campus carry apply in their states, the board must institute appropriate policies. It is the responsibility of boards to follow the law and examine what is in their colleges’ best interests. 4) Budget for costs associated with implementing laws, where applicable. There are different and conflicting viewpoints about the costs of implementing concealed weapons laws. The Idaho Statesman reported estimates for Idaho’s 2014 concealed weapons law for five campuses were $3.7 million for both continuing and one-time expenses for personnel, training, and equipment
such as metal detectors. The University of Houston (UH) and University of Texas (UT) estimated costs of up to $46 million to update security for its entire system. Such costs have been questioned by campus carry proponents, but according to The Houston Chronicle, estimated costs include weapons storage facilities, hiring additional personnel, educating the campus community about the new law, developing and maintaining consistent campus security procedures and equipment, and keeping concealed-carry license owners in compliance with current gun laws at all times for both the UH and UT systems. 5) Assess risk and manage threats: Boards have the duty of care to assess the readiness of the college administration for any unforeseen or sudden disaster. Governing boards and administrations have a responsibility to safeguard their institutions regardless of state firearm laws or individual opinions about rights to carry or firearm control. It is important to ensure the administration reviews and assesses all of the college’s security and safety policies for consistency and compliance with federal and state laws. Procedures and services should address: • campus safety and security, • mental health support services, • college-wide alerts and campus communication procedures, • linkages and partnerships with emergency respondents and local and state police, • identifying and using available resources provided by federal, state and local agencies, • external communication/ media procedures,* • appropriate training for campus personnel, • and emergency evacuation procedures. *Communications plans are critically important. How colleges communicate has changed dramatically in recent years, particularly with the advent of social media. In response to the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007, Congress added to existing laws
to require a campus emergency response plan and immediate notification to the campus as soon as an emergency is confirmed unless such notification would impede attempts to control the situation. Risk management can include internal and external communication policies and procedures, as well as connections to emergency agencies, first responders, and media relations. A question to ask your college administration: Does the college leadership have a communications plan and a plan for continuing operations during and after a crisis? While the college’s response should be led by the president, the board should be kept informed. The college administration must manage the message and be acutely aware of public scrutiny. Particularly through social media, word of a catastrophic event and the actions and words of college leaders will get out, potentially even viewed instantly by the community and others via the pervasiveness of mobile device video. ACCT’s webinar on Safeguarding Your Institution: The Board’s Role in Navigating Disaster includes resources and models of college communication plans. 6) Advocate, engage, and always speak with one voice. It is important for trustees to speak with one voice, and especially so during a crisis. Central to the board’s responsibility is the well-being of the college. One of the board’s primary roles is to engage in citizen action on behalf of the institution. The message that individual trustees communicate, however, must be consistent with the messages from the board. And as always, when speaking to journalists or any other public channel, only authorized board members (often the board chair) should represent the college.
necessary for the overall well-being of the institution — academically, fiscally, and legally — but most importantly, to the safety and security of the students and staff. The members of the governing board must rally together and collaborate with the administration to ensure the very best way to implement the law and safeguard the campus. In no way are these easy tasks for governing boards and their presidents. Within the first 275 days of 2015, the United States saw 294 mass shootings — and of those, 52 occurred at educational institutions, with 30 fatalities and another 53 injured. The new reality creates added complexity and stress to the board room.
Selected Resources for Communication in a Crisis Web: • Why it’s critical to understand the anatomy of a campus crisis by Spencer Graham, eCampus News, November 24, 2015. • Crisis Communications (a collection of online samples of crisis communication plans from various colleges), Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), December 2015. Handbook: • Crisis Emergency Risk Communication, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014 edition, online For a more complete listing, visit the Trustee Talk website.
In Summary The right to bear arms and firearm control and injury prevention are politically divisive issues. While it may be challenging at times to reconcile differing opinions among board members and executive leadership, doing so is
Narcisa A. Polonio, Ed.D. is ACCT’s executive vice president for education, research, and board leadership services. Norma Goldstein, Ph.D. is acting coordinator of the Governance Institute for Student Success. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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Around Regions the
has extended its discounted Internet access program to low-income Illinois community college students who are federal Pell Grant recipients.
CENTRAL REGION Ohio community colleges used a $15 million Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant to create the Ohio Technical Skills Innovation Network. Led by Lorain County Community College, the network works with employers to identify core skills needed by the state’s industries and expand programs at the 11 participating community colleges.
Macomb Community College in Michigan received a $300,000 grant from the Kresge Foundation to focus on transfer initiatives.
NORTHEAST REGION
Milwaukee Area Technical College in Wisconsin created a privately funded program to fund tuition-free college for lowincome, academically qualified high school seniors. The MATC Promise, which will launch in the fall, will enroll roughly 1,000 Milwaukee high school seniors and is part of a larger $1 million scholarship initiative.
City University of New York officials are exploring tuition-free options for the system. Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams proposed a three-pronged plan, including expanding CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) combined with increased funding from the city and state. New York City’s Independent Budget Office conducted a cost analysis determining that it would cost the city between $138 million and $232 million on top of its $306 million in annual expenditures on the system to provide free tuition to all full- and part-time CUNY students.
Internet provider Comcast
City University of New York
A Wisconsin lawmaker introduced a proposal to create a state commission to study ways to make college debtfree for state residents, using a combination of state and federal support and policies like work-study requirements.
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received a $3.2 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to train 27 Ph.D. students who will teach 2,500 undergraduates at LaGuardia Community College. Hudson Valley Community College in New York will begin a $4.5 million upgrade to its athletic complex in the spring. Working with the city’s district attorney, the Community College of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania launched a pilot program allowing people charged with firsttime nonviolent felonies to attend college instead of jail. The Future Forward pilot will begin with 10 to 15 students charged with lesser crimes, such as drug sales, car theft, and commercial burglary, and is believed to be the first of its kind in the country. “Instead of facing a trial and possible conviction, this program provides the opportunity for … the possibility of a future which includes a college degree,” college president Donal Guy Generals said. Bergen Community College in New Jersey received a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to expand its programs for students with significant cognitive impairments. BCC’s Turning Point Program provides students with intellectual disabilities with advising, counseling, peer mentoring, and other support services.
PACIFIC REGION California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill expanding dual enrollment partnerships between high schools and the state’s community colleges as part of the state’s College and Career Access Pathways. The California Community College Board of Governors approved 25 recommendations developed by the system’s Task Force on Workforce, Job Creation, and a Strong Economy. The task force made recommendations in the areas of student success, career pathways, workforce data and outcomes, curriculum, CTE faculty, regional coordination, and funding. The State Center Community College District in California and Fresno Pacific University created a two-year graduation guarantee program for community college graduates seeking bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields. The Supporting Transfers in Reaching Educational Aspirations in Math and Science (STREAMS) program, which includes scholarships and academic mentoring for low-income students, is funded by a
five-year National Science Foundation grant. Hawaii Community College and Honolulu Community College each received a retired fire engine from the Honolulu Fire Department for use in their fire and environmental emergency response programs.
SOUTHERN REGION Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam unveiled plans to restructure the state’s public higher education system, which would shift governance of several universities to local boards and make the statewide board of regents’ primary focus governing the state’s community colleges and colleges of applied technology. Thirteen community colleges and 27 colleges of applied technology were also removed from Haslam’s plans to outsource the management and operation of nearly all state-owned buildings, including college campuses. An internal analysis showed that spending on facilities management on these campuses fell well below industry benchmarks. North Carolina’s community college board is considering whether the state’s community colleges should offer four-year
nursing degrees. A committee of community college leaders and health industry groups proposed further study, citing a national goal of 80 percent of all nurses holding four-year degrees by 2020. Rockingham Community College in North Carolina received a $2.2 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop and revise online programs in criminal justice and for the associate of arts degree. Isothermal Community College in North Carolina entered a partnership with NC State University to discuss potential initiatives including distance learning, internships and reciprocal learning opportunities. The Virginia Community College System received a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to retrain former coal miners in the manufacturing, tourism, and outdoor recreation industries. Pulaski Technical College in Arkansas was awarded $5.2 million in U.S. Department of Education grants to support student programs. Grants will support an enhanced student information system and online services for students, as well as a program to promote careers in STEM disciplines. Northwest Arkansas Community College commissioned an economic impact study showing a $9.60 return on every dollar invested in the institution.
Seminole State College in Florida partnered with the Heart of Florida United Way and the Lumina Foundation to create the Destination Graduation initiative. The pilot program will set aside $30,000 a semester to help students struggling with non-academic costs, such as transportation and childcare.
WESTERN REGION The Texas Association of Community Colleges has partnered with the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) to create a prior learning assessment program for adult students. The portfolio-assessment system will be used by College of the Mainland, Texarkana College, Ranger College, San Jacinto College, The Alamo Colleges, Lone Star College System, and Tarrant County College District. “This is a powerful new program and we look forward to working with adult students everywhere to help them achieve their dream of a college degree,” Dr. Martha Ellis, TACC interim president and CEO, said in a statement. McLennan Community College in Texas is working with local nonprofit agencies
to develop a workforce skills certificate that will unify community training programs focused on basic job skills. The goal is to create a common curriculum that will hold greater value with area employers. Alamo Colleges and the University of Texas at San Antonio received a $3.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to focus on student retention. The PIVOT for Academic Success Program will provide a series of academic and student support services to help increase the number of first-time, full-time Hispanic, low socioeconomic, and first-generation students who transfer and graduate with a bachelor’s degree. Mesalands Community College in New Mexico expanded its partnership with General Electric affiliate Granite International, which holds week-long training sessions for new hires at the college’s North American Wind Research Training Center, which includes a 1.5 megawatt GE wind turbine. Five tribal colleges in North Dakota are sharing $7 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Education. The funds will be used to strengthen academic quality, management, and overall fiscal stability. The Colorado Community College System is phasing out out-of-state online instructors. Officials cited the costs of managing differing education and labor laws for instructors residing in other states.
Around the Regions provides an opportunity to share what’s happening in the states and around the regions. This section focuses on state legislative and budgetary issues, economic development, and finance. Please e-mail items from press releases or newsletters to ACCT at dconner@acct.org. Fax submissions to 202-223-1297. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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CoreValues for
Changing Campuses
The 2015 Charles Kennedy Equity Awardee talks about the importance of inclusivity and diversity on campus. BY DAWN LINDSAY
AS COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE NATION HAVE EXPERIENCED a continued shift in demographics that reflect an increasingly diverse population, at Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) in Maryland we have also seen the number of minority students we serve rise each year. Anne Arundel is committed to meeting the needs of a diverse and global community, and inclusivity is one of the goals under the college’s strategic plan. We have also made substantial progress toward achieving greater equity on campus. When inclusivity and diversity are part of a college’s core values, everyone benefits — especially our students. I am proud to report that in 2015, Anne Arundel’s equity and inclusion efforts were recognized with three national awards, the most recent being the 2015 Charles Kennedy Equity Award presented at the ACCT Awards gala this past fall. 34
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While these national awards have been gratifying, as they reaffirm our strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, we know this is only the beginning. There is more work to do. Here’s a look at some of the progress we have made, as well as some ambitious plans for the future. To better serve all of our students, in 2014 we hired James A. Felton III as the college’s first chief diversity officer to oversee our commitment to equity and inclusivity in AACC’s policies, programs, and procedures. We also incorporated a diversity course requirement into the general education program, installed gender-neutral/ADA accessible restrooms on campus, had record attendance at our annual Black Male Symposium, and launched a campus-wide Intergroup Dialogue initiative. Anne Arundel also successfully completed a “Year of Social Justice,” which featured
ANNE ARUNDEL IS COMMITTED TO MEETING THE NEEDS OF A DIVERSE AND GLOBAL COMMUNITY, AND INCLUSIVITY IS ONE OF THE GOALS UNDER THE COLLEGE’S STRATEGIC PLAN.
more than 50 programs, speakers, films, exhibits, and service projects for the college and local community. One of Anne Arundel’s programs that was recognized with the Charles Kennedy Equity Award — and for which we are especially proud — is our Student Achievement and Success Program (SASP). SASP is a highly effective support and retention program designed to increase the academic success and retention of students who traditionally have more barriers and challenges to overcome in realizing their goals. With targeted initiatives like the First Year Experience and the Black Male Initiative, this program helps support first-generation, low-income, underprepared, and minority college students. From fall 2013 to spring 2014, 83 percent of our SASP program students persisted. Our Engineering Scholars Program (ESP), a scholarship program resulting from a five-year, $598,000 grant provided by the National Science Foundation, is another Anne Arundel initiative designed to help underrepresented groups succeed. The overall goals of the program include increasing financial and student support services, targeting underrepresented groups (African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and women) in STEM fields, enhancing student academic and support services, increasing the retention rates of engineering/engineering technology students, and increasing the employment and transfer rates of engineering students. Since the start of the grant in 2011, the program has awarded full scholarships to more than 60 students majoring in engineering or engineering technology at Anne Arundel who also demonstrated a financial need. To date, over 30 have graduated and/or successfully transferred to four-year engineering programs at such institutions as Virginia Polytechnic Institute, University of Maryland College Park, UMBC, Florida Institute of Technology, and the U.S. Naval Academy. More recently, in collaboration with the college’s diversity committee, we launched the Office of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access, and Leadership (IDEAL), named to reflect Anne Arundel’s diversity efforts and core values of access and inclusion. Through IDEAL, we also launched several initiatives this past fall to exemplify this commitment, including the Diversity Welcoming Committee. This committee assists with on-campus faculty interviews where committee members are on hand to answer any questions job candidates of all backgrounds may have about the college and the Anne Arundel County area. We also provide information on resources and programs at the college and answer cultural questions, such as where to find certain cuisines or where the more diverse neighborhoods are. This “welcoming face” helps ensure prospective faculty not only see Anne Arundel as an inclusive campus, but that inclusivity is an important value of our college. Going forward, Felton has exciting plans to take the Intergroup Dialogue initiative a big step forward. The purpose of Intergroup
(From left) ACCT President and CEO J. Noah Brown with 2015 Charles Kennedy Equity Awardees Anne Arundel Community College Vice Chair Diane R. Dixon-Proctor and President Dawn Lindsay, and (far right) 2014-15 ACCT Chair Robin M. Smith
Dialogue, which is a facilitated learning approach, is to create a space to talk about difficult topics, such as race, class, and inequality through continuous, face-to-face meetings between people from two or more social identity groups that have a history of conflict or potential conflict. It’s an innovative strategy to enhance participants’ awareness, knowledge, and skills in relating to people who are different from them. This past fall, 22 people from the college and supporting community — from sociology faculty to members of the American Red Cross — were trained as dialogue facilitators. Plans are also underway for a Day of Dialogue this spring, with sessions for both the community and the campus to attend. The college will also be updating Anne Arundel’s diversity plan to be more equity-minded in serving the needs of a diverse student population. Like most colleges and universities across our nation, at Anne Arundel we pride ourselves on being an open and welcoming college that serves a diverse community. We welcome all — students, faculty and staff — regardless of their religion, race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, or social identity group. So while we are proud of all of our accomplishments and efforts that help us better serve all students, we are ready and eager to keep going. It is our diversity, after all, that makes Anne Arundel — and this nation — strong and whole.
Dr. Dawn Lindsay is president of Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland. Dr. Lindsay also serves on the American Association of Community College’s Commission on Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity and is a member of the Anne Arundel County Public Schools’ Blue Ribbon Commission on Equity and Achievement. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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LEGAL
Legal Issues Impacting Community Colleges First Amendment claims, reverse discrimination liability, and ADA compliance among recent developments.
A
By Ira Michael Shepard; ACCT General Counsel
A NUMBER OF HIGH-PROFILE COURT cases in recent months address legal issues facing community colleges nationwide, including First Amendment claims, reverse discrimination and Title VII liability, and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance. Tenured community college professor loses First Amendment claim following criticism of alleged discrimination practices. A federal district court in New York dismissed a First Amendment retaliation claim filed by a tenured professor who had his directorship of the college’s honors program dropped after seven years in the position (Epstein v. Suffolk County, Suffolk Community College, 2015 BL 274961. E.D.N.Y., No. 2:14-cv00937, 8/26/15). The professor’s directorship was discontinued following a speech he gave on campus in which he alleged that the honors program practices racial discrimination, allocating spending in ways that predominantly favor Caucasian students. He also criticized the college’s ability to properly evaluate students selected for the honors program and raised concerns that the college’s advertisements had racist overtones because they excluded minorities and failed to feature any minorities in speaking roles.
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In dismissing the claim, the court concluded that the professor failed to demonstrate that he was speaking as a private citizen, as opposed to an employee, on a matter of public concern. The court did acknowledge that the plaintiff’s job did not require him to evaluate students within the honors program or involve him in the college’s advertising or decisions relating to how each campus received funds, all of which were the brunt of the criticism he raised during his speech. However, the court still concluded that his speech was a means to fulfill his responsibilities undertaken in the course of his job as a professor and chair of the honors program and therefore he was not protected as a person speaking as a private citizen. Hiring through a temp agency no bar to Title VII liability. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals joined seven other federal circuit courts of appeals in holding that multiple companies can be the employer of a single employee and thus each responsible under Title VII for discrimination and sex harassment claims. The Fourth Circuit reversed a federal trial court decision allowing the plaintiff’s complaint under Title VII to go forward notwithstanding the fact she was hired and paid through a temporary staffing agency. The court concluded that the joint
employer doctrine is appropriate in today’s modern workforce, where many employees are employed by temporary staffing companies that exercise little control over the employees’ day-to-day activities. The joint-employer liability standard is favored by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The court held that three primary factors are important in determining joint employer status in cases where the staffing agency hires and pays the employees. The factors are which entity (1) has the real power to hire and fire the worker; (2) supervises the worker day to day; and (3) is the site at which the work takes place. Special education teacher with depression and anxiety granted ADA jury trial over her proposed termination and failure to accommodate with a temporary transfer to a substitute position. A special education teacher in Pennsylvania is entitled to move forward to a jury trial over her Americans with Disability Act (ADA) claim that she was discriminated against by way of a firing proposed allegedly because of her depressed and anxious condition, which is covered as a disability under the ADA (Aptaker v. Bucks County Intermediate, 2015 B: 287856, ED.Pa. No. 2:14-cv-02255, 9/1/15). Her complaint stated that the institution refused to consider her proposed accommodation of a temporary transfer to a substitute teaching position. The federal district court judge denied summary judgment to the institution, holding that a jury could infer from the facts presented that the short time between the plaintiff disclosing her illness and her superiors’ greater scrutiny of her performance leading to a recommendation of discharge was the pretext for unlawful discrimination under the ADA. The court also held that the institution refused to participate in the interactive process to identify a reasonable accommodation once it became clear that the plaintiff had
Split Decisions in Higher Ed Reverse Discrimination Cases requested a temporary assignment to a substitute position as an accommodation. The court recognized that the plaintiff had worked for the school for seven years and had never received a negative evaluation until shortly after she disclosed her illness and requested an accommodation. A month after the plaintiff disclosed her illness, her supervisors proposed a classroom evaluation in which she received a negative assessment. Her request for a temporary transfer to a substitute position was denied, and she was told there were no substitute positions available. The court pointed out that the plaintiff submitted evidence of substitute job openings and postings for that school year. Finally, the court rejected the institution’s argument that when the plaintiff requested the temporary substitute assignment she did not characterize the request for a “reasonable accommodation.” The court ruled that the ADA does not require the use of “magic words” when requesting an accommodation. The court concluded that the institution was on notice of the plaintiff’s disability, and her request was sufficient to trigger its obligation to participate in the interactive reasonable accommodation process. University counseling center clinical psychologists lose their First Amendment termination/retaliation case. Five former clinical psychologists at Georgia State University’s counseling center who were terminated as a result of the university’s decision to outsource most of their services lost their First Amendment claim of retaliatory discharge (Alves v. Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, 2015 BL 355570, 11th Cir. No. 14-14149 10/29/15). The outsourcing came shortly after the former employees’ extensive written criticism of the counseling center’s director. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit affirmed the federal trial court dismissal of the case, holding that the former employees’ First Amendment claim was based on matters of personal interest
that related to their jobs, as opposed to an independent matter of public concern. The five plaintiffs submitted a written memorandum to the counseling center director and the director’s supervisor criticizing the director’s leadership and management, which they concluded “created an unstable work environment” and prevented the staff from being effective in their work. They also complained that the director treated “staff of color” less favorably than she treated Caucasian staff. The university investigated the complaints and concluded that they were without merit and that the five had “negative attitudes” due to a desire to run the center on more of a collaborative model. A week after the university rejected the complaints of the five psychologists, the director made the decision to lay off all the staff psychologists and outsource the services for budgetary reasons. All but one of the laid off psychologists had signed the memorandum critical of the director. The five psychologists who had signed the critical memo alleged that they were fired in retaliation for complaining about the program and its leadership, which was protected speech under the First Amendment, as it involved a matter of public concern. The university argued that the speech was not protected by the First Amendment as it related to “ordinary job duties” and was an internal complaint about the center’s director’s management style. The Court of Appeals agreed with the university, holding that while the memorandum made some “vague and sweeping references to matters of public concern, including student well-being and the quality of client care, the majority of the memorandum addressed their personal grievances with their work supervisor.” As such, it was not protected First Amendment speech, the court ruled.
Ira Michael Shepard is a partner with the law firm of Saul Ewing, LLP, in Washington, D.C., and ACCT’s general counsel.
Caucasian professor loses reversediscrimination claim despite comments about hiring minority applicants. A white visiting professor who had applied for a tenuretrack position at a university lost his claim of reverse discrimination, notwithstanding evidence that a dean had commented that the department would not hire a white professor if there were qualified minority applicants (Rahn v. Board of Trustees of Northern Illinois University, 2015 B: 307581, 7th Cir., No. 14-2402, 9/23/15). The court observed that the dean himself was not involved in the decision to eliminate the plaintiff from the competition for the position and that the plaintiff never submitted evidence to contradict the university’s claim that the non-white candidate chosen for the position was more qualified than the plaintiff. Although the plaintiff claimed that the dean’s comment was direct evidence of reverse race discrimination, the court concluded that the dean had nothing to do with the elimination of the plaintiff from the competition, and so the claim must fail. White college instructor awarded $4.85 million jury verdict in reverse-discrimination lawsuit against university following discharge. A Missouri state court jury recently awarded a Caucasian former college instructor a total verdict of $4.85 million in damages as a result of her 2010 discharge, which she claimed was the result of reverse discrimination and her college’s dean wanting to make the education college’s faculty “blacker” (Wilkens v. HarrisStowe State University, Mo. Cir. Ct. no. 1222-CC0917, verdict, 10/15/15). The plaintiff was awarded $1.35 million in compensatory damages and $3.5 million in punitive damages. The plaintiff had been employed by the university for nine years before her termination, and the university did not argue that anything in the plaintiff’s record caused her termination. The university claimed that the instructor was terminated for budgetary reasons. The plaintiff presented evidence attesting that she was replaced by an African American instructor who was given a salary $15,000 higher than her own. The plaintiff also presented evidence and testimony from a “whistleblower” instructor who alleged that the dean wanted to “get rid of Caucasian instructors.” The judge issued an adverse ruling against the university as a result of the plaintiff counsel’s claim of evidence destruction, after emails from the dean’s email account had apparently been wiped from a hard drive.
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Richard N. Adams Kenneth R. Allbaugh Arthur C. Anthonisen Alwin Arce* Joan Athen Chuck Ayala James Ayers Steven J. Ballard Ken Bartlett Geoffrey L. Baum Jim Beasley Elmer Beckendorf Manuel Benavidez, Jr.* Thomas M. Bennett Marilyn Blocker E. Stewart Blume George Boggs Kitty Boyle Lewis S. Braxton Harold Brock* Robert Burch Ken Burke Donald Campbell Lois Carson Dennis Christensen Gene P. Ciafre Don Coffey Brian Conley Angelo Cortinas Paul J. Cunningham Carole Currey Clara Dasher Robert Davidson* John Dent Beatrice Doser* Denise Ducheny Isobel Dvorsky Dorothy Ehrhart-Morrison M. Dale Ensign Nino Falcone Mark Fazzini H. Ronald Feaver Dale Fitzner Phyllis Folarin Paul Fong John Forte* S. Dell Foxx Frank S. Gallagher Rebeca Garcia Robert E. Garrison* 38
Jeanne M. Gavish Norma Jean Germond John Giardino Paul J. Gomez Maureen Grady Jane Gregory Jan Guy Gloria Guzman Diane Olmos Guzman David W. Hackett* Daniel Hall Joyce Hanes Fred Harcleroad* Thomas Harding Robert W. Harrell, Jr. Herald Harrington Raymond Hartstein John W. Hawley Jody T. Hendry William T. Hiering James D. Hittle* Troy Holliday Walter Howald Nancy M. Hubers Jo Ann Huerter Rosie Hussey Melanie L. Jackson B.A. Jensen* Joan Jenstead* Patricia Jones Worth Keene Bonnie B. Kelley Bruce Ketron Dick Klassen Kirby Kleffmann* Brenda Knight Sheila Korhammer Ruthann Kurose Robert Lawrence Hugh Lee* Morrison Lewis George Little Donald Loff Gloria Lopez James Lumber Judith Madonia Molly Beth Malcolm Thomas W. Malone Doreen Margolin* Marie Y. Martin
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Montez C. Martin, Jr. Fred Mathews David Mathis Robert Matteucci Bennie Matthews Donald M. Mawhinney Robert G. McBride Robert McCray William McDaniel* Gene E. McDonald Carla McGee Jean M. McPheeters William H. Meardy Frank Mensel Michael Monteleone Della-May Moore David Murphy* Moudy Nabulsi Rich Nay Helen Newsome* Wayne Newton Ed Nicklaus Shirley Okerstrom Joann L. Ordinachev Kathleen Orringer Judy R. Parker di G. Pauly Debra Pearson James R. Perry George Potter Pattie Powell Naomi Pursel Raymond Reddrick Rebecca L. Redman Mehdi M. Ressallat Carl Robinson Elizabeth Rocklin Herbert Roney Nancy R. Rosasco Wanda Rosenbaugh Linda B. Rosenthal William O. Rowell* Armando Ruiz David Rutledge Steve Salazar Edward “Sandy” Sanders Lydia Santibanez Evonne Seron Schulze Anne V. Scott Virginia Scott
Peter E. Sercer, Sr. Jo Ann Sharp Vaughn A. Sherman C. Louis Shields Darrell Shumway Betti Singh W.L. “Levi” Smallwood James Smith Joshua L. Smith William J. Smith Lillie J. Solomon* Lynda Stanley Betty K. Steege Victor F. Stewart, Jr.* James Stribling* Pete Tafoya David H. Talley Esther D. Tang James B. Tatum Leslie Thonesen Charles Tice Dick Trammel Celia M. Turner* Linda Upmeyer Roberto Uranga David Viar Jim Voss Franklin Walker Barbara Wallace Linden A. Warfel William C . Warren Nancy Watkins Lauren A. Welch Denise Wellons-Glover Mary Beth Williams Ruby Jo Williams Ronald Winthers Jerry Wright John Wright M.W. “Bill” Wyckoff Brad W. Young J. Pete Zepeda* *Deceased
A Lifetime of Appreciation ACCT LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP Community college trustees give a lot of themselves — time, energy, wisdom — and ask for little or nothing in return. The gift of an ACCT Lifetime Membership is a way to thank trustees for everything they do, and to empower them to keep doing it for as long as they choose. A lifetime membership is a perfect way to… • Recognize outstanding trustees whose dedication to your college has made a difference and set an example. • Thank outgoing members for their service. • Remain involved with your peers and make a tax-deductible donation to your national association by purchasing a Lifetime Membership for yourself.
7 REASONS TO BESTOW A LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP
1
Giving outstanding and retiring board members a Lifetime Membership to ACCT is a way to thank them for their service, recognize them among their peers, and ensure their ongoing interest in your college.
2
Lifetime Members receive complimentary registration to all ACCT meetings, including the Annual Leadership Congress and the National Legislative Summit, after retiring from their local boards.
3 Lifetime Members receive all of ACCT’s award-winning publications, including Trustee Quarterly magazine and Advisor. 4 Lifetime Members are recognized publicly in Trustee Quarterly, on the ACCT Web site, and elsewhere. Lifetime Membership program supports and promotes ACCT’s continuing trustee education and 5 The professional development. 6 Colleges that purchase Lifetime Memberships can deduct the expense from taxes to the fullest extent allowed by law. 7 It’s just a nice thing to do — and haven’t your most exceptional trustees earned it? For more information and to submit an application, go to www.acct.org/membership/lifetime or contact ACCT’s Member Services at 202.775.4667 or acctinfo@acct.org.
Engage Your Board. Advance Your College. ACCT Board Leadership Services provide opportunities to strengthen the unique role of board members and to develop an effective board. Services Include
• Retreats • Board self-assessment • Presidential evaluations • Succession planning
• Institutional leadership analysis • Board policy review • Mediation and conflict resolution
Call us today to learn more about how to engage your board and make use of each trustee’s skills and expertise. Contact: Narcisa A. Polonio, Ed.D. Executive Vice President for Education, Research, and Board Leadership Services narcisa_polonio@acct.org Colleen Allen Board Program Specialist callen@acct.org 202-775-6490 | www.trustee-education.org
Presidential Searches The Board Leadership Services staff and consultants of the Association of Community College Trustees are pleased to have assisted in the search for the following community college chief executive officers.
Coconino Community College, Ariz.
San José – Evergreen Community College District, Calif.
Dr. Colleen Smith President
Dr. Deborah Budd Chancellor
Former District Senior Vice President
Former President Berkeley City College
Collin College, Texas
Peralta Community College District, Calif.
“We are very fortunate to have had such an outstanding field of finalists. Dr. Smith is the right choice for Coconino Community College at this time. She has exceptional qualifications, and having formerly served as a full-time faculty member, associate dean, vice president, and college president, she has tremendous experience that will help CCC to chart the right course for our future. The CCC District Governing Board and college community look forward to working closely with Dr. Smith to meet the needs of the communities we serve.” — Patricia Garcia, Chair, District Governing Board
Kishwaukee College, Ill. Dr. Laurie Borowicz President Former Vice President of Student Services
“We are extremely proud of the selection of Dr. Budd. Her experience and credentials, combined with her dedication and enthusiasm for student success and community partnership, will help SJECCD realize its vision of becoming the premier post-secondary institution for advancing opportunity, equity, and social justice through educational excellence.” — Wendy L. Ho, Board Chair
Solano Community College, Calif. Dr. Celia Esposito-Noy Superintendent/President Former Vice Chancellor for Educational Services and Student Success Chabot-Las Positas Community College District, Calif.
“The students, faculty, staff, and the Board of Trustees of Kishwaukee College were pleased with the 55 candidates that ACCT Presidential Search Services brought to us for consideration to become the fifth president in our 48-year history. We are convinced that Dr. Laurie Borowicz is exactly the right person to lead Kishwaukee College at this challenging time in the college’s history. During the search, it was important for all of us to remember that, while we were selecting our new president, at the same time she was selecting Kishwaukee College.”
“The elected trustees of Solano Community College District (SCCD) are extremely impressed with Dr. Celia Esposito-Noy’s extensive education and professional experiences and with her interview with the board for the position of Superintendent-President. Her vast experiences and accomplishments in administrative leadership at the community college level will make her a valuable addition to SCCD as we continually focus on transforming student lives for success while implementing our vision/mission statement and core values. I am anxiously looking forward to working with Dr. Esposito-Noy, and I am optimistic that she will be a phenomenal asset to the college.”
— Robert Johnson, Board Chair
— A. Marie Young, Board President
Northcentral Technical College, Wis.
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Presidential Searches The Board Leadership Services staff and consultants of the Association of Community College Trustees are pleased to have assisted in the search for the following community college chief executive officers.
Fletcher Technical Community College, Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS)
Bronx Community College, City University of New York (CUNY)
Dr. Kristine Strickland Chancellor
Former President
Former Executive Dean for the West Bank Campus Delgado Community College, LCTCS “On behalf of the Board of Supervisors, I want to congratulate Dr. Strickland on her selection as the new chancellor of Fletcher Technical Community College. As chair of the search committee, we were impressed by the depth and knowledge of each finalist. Yet we believe Dr. Strickland is the perfect fit for the students, the college, and the community it serves. She will continue leading our efforts to deliver world-class academic and workforce training.” — Tim Hardy, Board of Supervisors, First Vice Chair, and Chair of the Search Committee, Louisiana Community and Technical College System “This was indeed a very competitive search process. The pool of finalists was extraordinary. Dr. Strickland embodies the requisite skills and vision needed to lead Fletcher into the next phase of its growth, and I am confident that she will continue to provide solutions to meet the workforce needs of the region.” — Dr. Monty Sullivan, President, Louisiana Community and Technical College System
Dr. Thomas Isekenegbe President Cumberland County College, New Jersey “President Isekenegbe has an exemplary record of leadership and accomplishment at Cumberland County College and throughout a distinguished career that encompasses administration, teaching, scholarship, and community service. He is deeply committed and focused on student success and completion and has developed and implemented effective strategies to enhance student achievement. We are confident that he will provide inspired leadership for Bronx Community College.” — Benno Schmidt, Board of Trustees Chairperson, and James B. Milliken, Chancellor
Hostos Community College, City University of New York (CUNY) Dr. David Gomez President Former Interim President Hostos Community College, City University of New York, New York “Dr. Gomez has proven himself to be an exemplary academic leader and administrator as well as a dedicated member of the CUNY community. As a Bronx resident, Interim President, and former Dean of Faculty at Hostos, he is thoroughly familiar with the college and the surrounding community and has been exceptionally supportive of its students, faculty, and staff.” — Benno Schmidt, Board of Trustees Chairperson, and James B. Milliken, Chancellor
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BOARD RETREATS ACCT would like to thank the following colleges which have taken advantage of our Board Retreat Services. Big Bend Community College, Washington
Mendocino Community College, California
College of the Mainland, Texas
New Mexico Junior College, New Mexico
Danville Area Community College, Illinois
Peralta Community College District, California
Erie Community College, New York
Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College, Michigan
BOARD SELF-ASSESSMENTS AND PRESIDENTIAL EVALUATIONS ACCT would like to thank the following colleges which have taken advantage of our Board and/or President Evaluation Services. Columbus State College, Ohio
Erie Community College, New York
Community College of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Houston Community College District, Texas
Crowder College, Missouri
Hudson County Community College, New Jersey
LOOKING FOR A
NEW PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT, PROVOST, OR VICE CHANCELLOR? OUR SUCCESS ACCT Board Leadership Services brings over 30 years of experience to every executive search. We have assisted more than 300 colleges and governing boards in successfully identifying the best candidates for new presidents and chancellors. ACCT’s services have been expanded to work with chancellors and presidents to identify the most outstanding candidates for vice presidential positions at your college. ACCT Board Leadership Services will guide you through every step of the process.
OUR STRENGTHS • We understand the needs of community colleges. • We find and cultivate high-caliber talent. • We build a unique pool of candidates for each search to “fit” the college. • We have extensive contacts with women and minorities poised to advance. • We have the advantage of the ACCT membership as a source of contacts. ACCT Board Leadership Services will hold your hand during every step of the selection process.
For more information on ACCT’s expanded services to assist with the placement of vice presidents, provosts, and vice chancellors, please contact Narcisa Polonio at narcisa_polonio@acct.org or 202-276-1983. T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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Do You Remember …your last board retreat? If it’s been more than a few years, you probably have work to do. An annual board retreat can support team building, strategic planning, and good governance. Community college governing boards are increasingly being held accountable for the success of the institution and its students. ACCT’s Retreat & Workshop Services are designed to help trustees effectively carry out their responsibilities in an increasingly complex and litigious world. ACCT is committed to assisting boards by enhancing their capability to provide effective lay governance and leadership to strengthen the capacity of community colleges to achieve their mission on behalf of their communities. Retreats can strengthen communication and understanding among board members, which can lead to a stronger, more effective working group. When a board engages in training and professional development, it is also a model for the rest of the institution. ACCT Board Leadership Services will customize a retreat that fits your board’s individual needs. ACCT’s expertise is able to provide comprehensive retreat services and guidance to the Board of Trustees and CEO. Our service derives its strength and uniqueness from the following: • Focus only on the two-year community and technical college sector. • A 35-year history of outstanding and recognized service to boards of trustees in colleges and districts throughout the United States and abroad. • A range of board retreat and consultative services that set the stage for long-term success. • A range of services that can be customized to a board’s exact needs. • Experience conducting more than 300 retreats for community colleges all over the country. • Facilitators and consultants who include former trustees, presidents, and scholars with proven track records and expertise in college governance and board leadership.
Classic Topics While each retreat or workshop can be tailored to meet the individual needs of any institution and its board, ACCT offers a range of Classic Topics. Potential retreat topics include: • Roles and Responsibilities of the Board • Strengthening the Board/President Relationship • How to Implement Policy Governance • Board Ethics and Standards of Good Practice • Board Planning and Goal Setting • The Role of the Board in Strategic Planning • The Role of the Board in the Accreditation Process • Mediation and Conflict Resolution • The Board’s Role in Advocacy • The Board’s Role in Fundraising • New President Transition • New Trustee Orientation • Board Self-Assessment and Presidential Evaluation
For more information or to schedule a retreat, contact Narcisa Polonio at narcisa_polonio@acct.org / 202.276.1983 or Colleen Allen at callen@acct.org / 202.775.6490.
NET WORK NEWS WINTER 2016
INTERFACE
A PUBLICATION OF THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROFESSIONAL BOARD STAFF NETWORK IN COOPERATION WITH THE ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEES
PROFESSIONAL BOARD STAFF MEMBER 2015-16 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Finding Your Passion
OFFICERS
By Christina M. Heskett, Hillsborough Community College, Florida
Christina Heskett, President Executive Assistant Hillsborough Community College, Florida cheskett@hccfl.edu Alonia Sharps, Vice President Chief of Staff Princes George’s Community College, Maryland sharpsac@pgcc.edu Heather Lanham, Secretary Executive Assistant to the President & Secretary, Board of Trustees Edison State Community College, Ohio hlanham@edisonohio.edu Mechell Downey, Immediate Past President Administrative Assistant to the President Seminole State College, Oklahoma m.downey@sscok.edu
MEMBERS-AT-LARGE Terri Grimes, Central Region Member-at-Large Executive Assistant Highland Community College, Illinois terri.grimes@highland.edu Cynthia Gruskos, Northeast Region Member-at-Large Confidential Assistant to the President and Board of Trustees Brookdale Community College, New Jersey cgruskos@brookdalecc.edu Margaret Lamb, Pacific Region Member-at-Large Executive Assistant to the Chancellor San Diego Community College District, California mlamb@sdccd.edu Sherri Bowen, Southern Region Member-at-Large Director, Office of the President Forsyth Technical Community College, North Carolina sbowen@forsythtech.edu Carla Patee, Western Region Member-at-Large Executive Assistant and Clerk for the Board Dodge City Community College, Kansas cpatee@dc3.edu
Passion [PASH-uhn] noun; a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything. AMERICANS ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT A GREAT MANY THINGS — God, country, life, liberty, peace, and happiness, just to name a few. One of our nation’s founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, used his passion for writing to scribe the Declaration of Independence, effectively securing our inalienable right to seek out that which drives those very passions. We are, each of us, passionate about something; if I had to choose the one thing I am most passionate about, it would be my family. But can a person be truly be passionate about their career? The answer is yes; I witnessed this firsthand while speaking with the professional board staff members who attended the 2015 ACCT Annual Congress. Attendees kicked off this year’s conference with a meet-and-greet at Harbor House, located in San Diego’s Seaport Village. Restaurant staff provided what seemed like an endless parade of delectable edibles, including fresh guacamole and chips, fruits, vegetables, southwestern egg rolls, chicken, and meatballs marinara; then topped off the evening off with a sinfully delicious chocolate fondue. The event was an opportunity to meet peers and get to know our counterparts. The PBSN extends a heartfelt “Thank you!” to Mechell Downey, Immediate Past PBSN president, and Dr. James Utterback, president of Seminole State College of Oklahoma, for sponsoring the evening’s festivities. For those of you who were not able to attend due to a prior commitment, mark your calendars now for this year’s meet-and-greet, which will take place on October 5, immediately following the opening session at the 2016 ACCT Congress in New Orleans. Others might wonder what, as “secretaries,” we could possibly be passionate about. Well, if one clings to the old notion that a secretary’s workday consists of taking shorthand, typing, answering phones, and filing our nails, then I would also be wondering that very thing. And while many of us accept the title of Board Secretary, we are not secretaries — we are much more than that. We are administrative professionals and participatory members of the offices in which we work. Our passion shines through in all that we do, whether we are providing assistance to a student, creating a budget, handling complaints, or reconciling trustee travel. We are passionate about our students, our schools, higher education, and moreover, the opportunities for advancement and pathways to success that these institutions provide. As a reminder to those who attended this year’s workshop of just how much the role of secretary (or assistant, if you prefer) has evolved, we kicked off our workshop with the icebreaker Secretary Jeopardy. Much like the game show Jeopardy!, attendees were asked challenging questions about fictional TV and movie secretaries, with a few Daily Doubles on the cutting-edge office equipment of yesteryear, such as the pinball typewriter and the mimeograph, thrown in for good measure. Each team worked together to answer questions like, “Wonder Woman’s alter ego Diana Prince began her career as Secretary to the Office of Strategic Services. She rose to the rank of Major in what branch of the U.S. military?” The answer? I bet your T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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A PUBLICATION OF THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROFESSIONAL BOARD STAFF NETWORK IN COOPERATION WITH THE ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEES
secretary knows! And while some questions were quite difficult, the icebreaker served its purpose and got everyone talking. A few lucky attendees took home DVDs of the movies Working Girl, Nine to Five, and The Devil Wears Prada, as well as other gifts donated by the PBSN Executive Committee. Donna Miller, the workshop’s guest speaker and former trustee of the North Orange County Community College District, presented on Diplomacy in the Workplace. The presentation focused on creating a positive climate, being a good listener, conflict resolution techniques, and more. While most of us would not be where we are today without at least some of these skills, this was a great way to share new ideas and affect, in a more positive way, our working environment. We wrapped up this year’s session with roundtable discussions on a variety of topics that included trustee training manuals, travel, presidential searches, board training, security issues, and best
2015-16 Professional Board Staff Network Officers
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practices. And, as in previous years, the forum produced in-depth discussions and a sharing of ideas we rarely get to participate in at work. Attendees glean new ways of spotting problems and learning alternative methods for implementing change. Results from a survey posted after the workshop confirmed that this is the part of the conference that attendees enjoy the most, and once again, attendees requested the addition of a morning session to make the workshops an all-day affair. On October 16th, the PBSN held its annual business meeting, re-electing many familiar faces and adding some new ones. The gavel changed hands as Mechell Downey moved to the role of Immediate Past President and I ascended to the role of President. Mechell thanked the Executive Committee for its hard work, commitment, and dedication to ensuring a successful conference. The newly-elected 2016 PBSN Executive Committee is: Tina Heskett, President; Alonia Sharps, Vice President;
NET WORK NEWS WINTER 2016
INTERFACE
A PUBLICATION OF THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROFESSIONAL BOARD STAFF NETWORK IN COOPERATION WITH THE ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEES
Heather Lanham, Secretary; and Mechell Downey, Immediate Past President. Executive Committee Members-at-Large are Terri Grimes, Central Region; Cynthia Gruskos, Northeast Region; Margaret Lamb, Pacific Region; Sherri Bowen, Southern Region; and Carla Patee, Western Region. As we prepare to usher in a new year, we will begin planning the agenda for our next Congress. If you would like to present, want to share an idea, or have a topic you want to bring under discussion, please feel free to email me at cheskett@hccfl.edu so that it may be considered for incorporation into our next workshop.
One final note about passion: With rising tensions around the world and turmoil on college campuses throughout the country, it is important now, more than ever, to embrace your passion and cultivate it. Whether you are a patriot who believes in the importance of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, a faculty member who revels in fostering dissent, a chancellor confronted with racial tensions, or a secretary trying to finish your degree, there is something you are passionate about — find it. Foster it. Share it with the world.
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M.O.M. to the Board of Trustees By Alonia C. Sharps, Prince George’s Community College MANY BOARD SUPPORT STAFF MEMBERS SERVE AS THE Multitasking Operational Manager (MOM) to the board of trustees. We affectionately call ourselves the “Board MOM.” Having served many board members during the tenure of three college presidents, it is an honor and a privilege to have the confidence of the president and board, and to be given this title. When written out, “multitasking operational manager” is a good way to describe the position, and in its acronym form, it aptly suggests the nurturing and guiding roles that many of us do play. As MOM to my college’s board, I am indeed a multitasker. The board sees me as a senior management administrator who is part of the senior leadership team, and also as the individual who provides for their needs and wishes. When we think about the title of MOM, we recognize that we are important in the lives of many individuals. What are the tasks that would not be completed if it were not for MOM? We make sure that board meetings are scheduled, board agendas are drafted, reviewed, and distributed, board meals are planned, and travel is booked for professional development. We ensure the board receives information in a timely manner, and we also fulfill countless other tasks that ideally make the life of a board member easier. We, as board support staff, must always remember that our trustees are part-time volunteers who govern our institutions and serve as advocates for the colleges and the students we serve. There is no question asked or request received from a trustee that should be considered trivial. The MOM is always ready to respond, and that response is always provided with insight, care, and politeness. Are there times when the MOM has to be forceful? Absolutely, but forcefulness is always executed in a caring manner. The MOM is able to support the board by having information
that is accessible at all times, such as food preferences and allergies, preferred modes of travel (car, train, or airplane), hotel accommodations (queen or king bed, lower or higher hotel floor, near or away from the elevator, smoking or non-smoking room or floor), and contact information for home and work and the best way to contact the trustee. This MOM keeps the information on her iPad and iPhone. It is readily available. There are times when trustees are scheduled to travel and plans change. The MOM has to be able to contact the affected individuals and just keep things moving. The chair of the board always fosters professional development for trustees. Whether in the form of board retreats or presentations at the fall ACCT Leadership Congress, the MOM is instrumental in making it happen. The MOM works with the president to develop agendas for board retreats and topics for presentation at the ACCT Congress. If the presentation is accepted, the MOM collects all necessary materials for the development of the PowerPoint and handouts. After arriving at the Congress, the MOM ensures that all is ready for the board presentation. The MOM always seeks innovative ways to serve the needs of the trustees. Being active with the Professional Board Staff Network (PBSN) and attending the PBSN sessions during the ACCT Congress is helpful for all involved. The sessions are an opportunity to share, network, and learn best practices. The PBSN provides access to loads of resources that can make our lives and those of our presidents and trustees better. New ideas are vetted and old ideas are refreshed and made better. That’s what we do! Last, but not least — is the MOM’s job ever completed? Take it from this MOM, the answer is no, and I would not have it any other way! T R U S T E E Q U A RT E R LY
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advisor 2015 ELECTION RESULTS
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Chair Roberto Zárate Alamo Colleges, TX Chair-Elect Bakari G. Lee Hudson County Community College, NJ Vice-Chair Emily Yim Edmonds Community College, WA Secretary-Treasurer Connie Hornbeck Iowa Western Community College, IA Immediate Past Chair Robin M. Smith Lansing Community College, MI
REGIONAL CHAIRS
Pacific Region Emily Yim Edmonds Community College, WA Southern Region Mack Jackson Midlands Technical College, SC Western Region Gerald Cook Johnson County Community College, KS
DIRECTORS-AT-LARGE (3-year terms except where noted) Stephan Castellanos (one-year partial term) San Joaquin Delta College, CA Dawn Erlandson Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, MN Bernie Rhinerson San Diego Community College District, CA
Central Regional Chair Vernon Jung Moraine Park Technical College, WI
Rafael Turner Mott Community College, MI
Northeast Regional Chair Hector Ortiz Harrisburg Area Community College, PA
APPOINTED BOARD MEMBERS
Pacific Regional Chair Jane Strain Cochise College, AZ Southern Regional Chair Mack Jackson Midlands Technical College, SC Western Regional Chair Gerald Cook Johnson County Community College, KS
Diversity Committee Chair Helen Rosemond-Saunders Tri-County Technical College, SC
ACCT DIVERSITY COMMITTEE (2-year terms except where noted) Central Region Jay Nardini Hawkeye Community College, IA
Central Region William Kelley Harper College, IL Northeast Region Debra Borden Frederick Community College, MD
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Pacific Region Judy Chen-Haggerty Mt. San Antonio College, CA Southern Region Betty Holness Daytona State College, FL Western Region Carlton Underwood Central Wyoming College, WY
RETIRING ACCT BOARD MEMBERS William Coleman Mercer County Community College, NJ Kirsten Diederich North Dakota University System, ND Resigned January 2015 Stanley Edwards Halifax Community College, NC Robert Feit Southeast Community College, NE Resigned May 2015 Diane Gallagher Highland Community College, IL Jeffrey May Joliet Junior College, IL Resigned July 2015 Norwood Ogé Louisiana Community and Technical College System Robert Proctor Lansing Community College, MI
REGIONAL DIRECTORS (3-year terms except where noted)
Northeast Region Warren Hayman The Community College of Baltimore County, MD
ACCT DEADLINES 2016 ACCT Leadership Congress Call for Presentations May 2, 2016 2016 ACCT Awards Nominations June 13, 2016
Amendments to ACCT Bylaws July 1, 2016 Submitting Resolutions July 1, 2016
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A Closer Look at the Trillion: Borrowing, Repayment, and Default at Iowa’s Community Colleges (2015)
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The Trustee’s Role in Fundraising: From Arm’s Length to Knee Deep — What Trustees Need to Know About Institutional Advancement (2008)
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The Board Chair: A Guide for Leading Community College Boards
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Trusteeship in Community Colleges: A Guide to Effective Governance
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Community College Trustees: Leading on Behalf of Their Communities
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