success. One of the Valencia honorees that year was Jennifer Howe, a single mother starting back to college. She had started the Valencia Volunteers on the West Campus. It was under her leadership that year that the group won the Walt Disney Community Service Award for Best Support Group in Central Florida. As 1998 came to a close, Valencia had grown to 48,000 students. But there were problems. Although the College was in better financial shape than most of its counterparts, thanks in large part to its skills in grant acquisitions and the hard work of the College’s Foundation, money was very tight. The Board of Trustees was asked by students to eliminate the College’s intercollegiate athletic programs and to invest the funds in academic support services, such as tutoring. Many of Florida’s community colleges were forced to the same decision for budget reasons. It was not an easy time for the community colleges. moving from talk to action (1998-2000) Moving from talk to action was an important step in Valencia’s learning-centered journey. The transition from action to implementation was an important point of convergence for those at the College who had been pushing for immediate results and others lobbying for careful, incremental change. Despite severe distractions because of enormous growth, financial shortages, and continuous pressures to expand from the high technology sector, Valencia’s Learning-Centered Initiative was making extraordinary progress. Beginning in 1998, Valencia entered the Initiative’s “Phase Two: Moving from Talk to Action.” In February, a new Educational Technologies Committee was established. The College hired a new Director of Technologies and expanded the role to include online course instruction. A new student advising system, LifeMap, was inaugurated. The College Academic Achievement Initiative had begun, examining strategies for improving student success and retention rates in college prep and developmental courses. By August, another new position was added: Vice-President for Curriculum Development, Teaching, and Learning. While all Florida community colleges employed chief academic officers at either a dean or vice-presidential level, Valencia was the first to define its academic administrator in official
terms compatible with learning-centeredness. In February 1999, the college-wide Faculty Association endorsed the work of the Core Competencies Action Team. The new core competencies, which replaced the older skills model version, were profound in their elegant simplicity as they were profound in their impact. The new core competencies were simply titled: Think, Value, Communicate, and Act, and they were approved for inclusion in the 1999-2000 College Catalog. What was revolutionary about the core competencies, however, is that they were more than just defined as words. Each was expanded to challenge Valencia students in two ways: what must a student do to demonstrate thinking, valuing, communicating, or acting, and the second was how and where one must demonstrate it. The focus was on mastery learning by integrating the four core competencies throughout Valencia’s curriculum and on measuring and documenting student performance. Soon afterwards the College’s new Educational Technologies Plan also was completed. The next stage in Valencia’s learning-centered revolution came suddenly. In early January 1999, Paul Gianini, after 16 years at the helm of the College, announced his retirement. He planned to leave the College in March 2000, giving Valencia ample time to search for and find his successor. He had been only the third President in the College’s history, and his tenure was filled with major achievements. Gianini had led Valencia through years of great growth to become a national force in higher education in America. His was a time of a construction boom, adding nearly one-half million square feet in new buildings to the campuses. The College’s operating budget had swelled to $80 million annually, and grants had increased by 400% since he became President. Contributions to the Valencia Foundation over that same period had increased by 600%, making it the fifth largest community college foundation in the United States. And, of course, Valencia’s economic development efforts had been remarkably successful. “We will truly regret his leaving,” said Valencia Board of Trustees Chair Jan Lackey. “He’s been a tremendous leader. We are very grateful that Valencia is in such great shape. Not
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