12 • NEWS
Monday, May 6, 2013
SSTF
Recommendations met with cautious optimism Heather Randall the telescope
Each of California’s 112 community colleges has received a scorecard from the California Community College Chancellor’s Office (CCCO) to use as a tool to gauge the past and future performance of students. On April 9, an initiative, called The Student Success Task Force (SSTF) made recommendations in areas such as completion rate, persistence, remedial and career technical education. The SSTF recommendations are in response to the state’s expectation that community colleges get students transfer ready and through the community college system faster. While not every recommendation will be mandated by the fall semester, the SSTF recommendations will have immediate and widespread impact on Palomar students and staff. In his report at the April 9 Board of Trustees meeting, Palomar College President and Superintendent Robert Deegan reported on the scorecard data. “What it shows is if you come to Palomar College, and you’re college prepared, you’re going to do very well here, no doubt about it. If you’re under prepared, it’s going to be a little tough road for you,” Deegan said. All incoming students can expect to be encouraged to see a counselor and create an education plan in the fall. Those who receive financial aid, will be required to do so. Vice President of Student
Services Berta Cuaron said she does not necessarily see the increased push for students to have education plans as a bad thing. She said that an education plan can help students “formulate a purpose,” which will help them to select the classes they need to take, and move through the matriculation process more efficiently. The scorecard data is organized into an easy-to-read bar graph. Each college has its own profile and data in the various categories broken down by ethnicity, sex and age. The data does not currently account for socioeconomic impact on students. According to Palomar’s scorecard, based only on this year’s data, 68 percent of students overall who arrive at Palomar College prepared will graduate or become transfer ready over a six-year period. The state of California would like to see the six-year transfer average for community college students reduced to four years. In addition to the state’s expectation that students reduce the amount of time they spend at Palomar College, California Gov. Jerry Brown has also recently proposed that Palomar increase its transfer rate by 10 percent if the school wants to see more money from the state. The Student Success Initiative does not include automatic state money to implement the changes. Psychology Professor Katie Townsend-Merino, who is on Palomar’s taskforce, said that is a lofty goal for colleges. “We’ve actually been work-
ing on increasing this and colleges have made some real difference, but by real difference, I mean they moved it a few percentage points,” TownsendMerino said. “Ten percentage points is huge.” She voiced her concern that performance-based funding will put faculty in the awkward position of feeling they should give students passing grades so they can transfer and Palomar can receive additional funding. Palomar’s Institutional Research and Planning Director Michelle Barton included in an April 9 report to Palomar’s Board of Trustees that it is important to look at rates of graduations over an extended period of time for accuracy. Data can fluctuate depending on time of year, since many students transfer to private schools or out of state and there may be a delay in Palomar receiving that data. Palomar’s administrators and Counseling Department are also working on the development of an online counseling component to help make up for the current deficit in the number of counselors available compared to the number of students who need access to them. “They’re developing some online orientation. We’ve got an academic advising module, but that still does not alleviate the need for students who come in and who have no idea what they are wanting to do, to interact with a counselor,” Barton said.
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elections con’t Continued from Page 3
I want to make Palomar a more “Green” Campus (environmentally-friendly), embrace diversity, promote the arts and help students out with the transferring process. Other than the communication between the ASG and the students that I have stressed so much later on this interview, I believe there are many areas that have not reached its full potential that I could help develop.
new activities and passions to explore. I would like to work with the different departments to help the students get more involved with their own corresponding fields of interest. College also needs to be an enjoyable experience -- that’s why I want Palomar to have more events, festivals, shows, etc., to promote student interaction.
and that is something that has to change now.
How will you improve student involvement? Research shows that as levels of student involvement/ engagement increase, so do levels of student retention in higher education. Getting involved in groups that share common interests or attending activities offered by the college can be fun. I want to help promote the creation of new clubs and support the current ones to grow, so students can find
I want students to know that we are here to represent them; we need student-feedback in order to inform us what they want to change. One of my main priorities is to get students more involved at Palomar and create a more effective, direct way of communication between the ASG and the students. It has come to my attention that many students didn’t even know that Palomar has an ASG,
Tell us a little more about yourself. Major: Psychology Pre-Med
How do you plan to get out there and advertise what the ASG does for students?
Though the use of social media, promotion of campus events, and – most importantly – through doing a great job. Effective and supportive work will let What are your goals if you students know that we are win the position? working on their side!
Age: 20 I have attended Palomar for 2 years already. In five years, I plan to have completed my bachelors at either UCSD or UCLA and, hopefully, will be attending Med school at NYU to become a psychiatrist.
Awards
DISTINGUISHED FACULTY AWARD RECIPIENTS ANNOUNCED
PETER ORDILLE
MATTHEW PIZZORNO
On April 19, the winners of the Distinguished Faculty Award were announced to the public. The winner of the full-time Distinguished Faculty Award is Pete Ordille, who teaches Emergency Medical Technician classes. The full-time finalists were Jenny Fererro (Child Development), Chantal Flanagan (Nursing), Lawrence Lawson (ESL) and Leanne Maunu (English). Matthew Pizzorno, who teaches English as a Second Language classes, is the recipient of this year’s part-time distinguished faculty award. The part-time faculty finalists were Justin Estep (Psychology) and Debbi Morrissette (Biology). The full-time faculty member becomes the chair of the committee and receives a monetary award of $1,000 and will speak at Palomar’s spring commencement ceremony. For profiles on the two winners, check out thetelescope.com