Agora
The Vol. 50, Issue 4
November 8, 2007
MONROE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Accreditation
process starts By Emily Chandonnet Assistant Editor
Agora photo by Charlene Hunt
U.S. Army veteran Brian Keith sits outside Union Station in Washington D.C., hoping to collect spare change. Homelessness is not exclusive to big cities. Monroe County has approximately 250 homeless residents. Read more about Monroe County’s Homeless Awareness Week on page 6.
Monroe County Community College (MCCC) was established in 1964, but the process of becoming an accredited college requires long hours of paperwork. Every ten years every American college must create a report specifically stating how they meet the accreditation requirements and criteria of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools Higher Learning Commission. The process has started once again for MCCC’s accreditation, scheduled to take place in the fall of 2009. Having an accreditation provides the public, especially present and future college students, with assurance that the college is up to national par. Accreditation is proof that the college is continuing to make changes toward improvement and is reaching requirements for the future. This past summer faculty, administrators and staff were asked to be a part of the ten different subcommittees that will create the report for accreditation. Each subcommittee has its own co-chairpersons, all together adding up to 33 MCCC employees who are steering the self study report of accreditation. At the beginning of the fall semester these ten subcommittees started recruiting more faculty, staff and administrators to be part of their committee. On Oct. 9, MCCC’s InService Day, the committees reported back to all of MCCC’s employees on the process that is taking place toward being accredited. Inspired by the success of retired Detroit Tigers announcer Erie Harwell’s appearance at a faculty breakfast earlier in the school year, the Logistics Committee incorporated a baseball theme into the In-Service Day. Many commit-
tee members were dressed in baseball uniforms and incorporated baseball animation in their presentations. The room was decorated in baseball decor and table settings included baseball stress balls, chewing gum and thunder sticks that were used for applause instead of clapping. “They wanted to make the day interesting,” MCCC chemistry professor Dr. David Waggoner said. “So they hyped it up with the baseball theme to gets peoples’ attention and to make sure that they had their remaining interests for the rest of the day. I heard an overwhelming amount of approval for having the baseball theme.” There are six regional accreditation associations across the Untied States, and Michigan is part of the largest association, the North Central Association. The mapping for the six regional associations does not make logical sense, but when they were formed in the late 1800’s they were mapped out according to local industry. Our region was formed accordingly because it is the farming region. Each regional association has very similar processes. There are two kinds of accreditations in the North Central Association, and MCCC is proceeding with the more traditional process called PEAQ (Program to Evaluate and Advance Quality). “Basically the PEAQ process is creating a formal report with tons of paperwork,” Dr. Waggoner said. Accreditation affects every MCCC student. When the results of the accreditation are evaluated through the Higher Learning Commission, MCCC will be given feedback for improvements including a check list of requirements that need to be fulfilled in the ten years before the next accreditation. With each accreditation the college must improve, or their next accreditation will not be accepted.
MCISD proposes college collaboration Middle college hopes to benefit high school students through the “power of site” By Jeffrey Kodysh Editor-in-Chief
Donald Spencer, superintendent of the Monroe County Intermediate School District (MCISD), presented information about middle colleges to Monroe County Community College (MCCC)’s board of trustees at the Oct. 22 meeting. Spencer encouraged MCCC to collaborate with MCISD in an educational project to bring a middle college to Monroe County, changing the way some Monroe high school students are educated. According to the Middle College National Consortium, a middle college is an educational program in which high school classes are taught on a college campus. Students are offered the opportunity to take college
INSIDE Editorial...............................2 Campus News....................3 Feature..........................4 & 5 Community News..............6 A&E.....................................7 Spotlight.............................8
level classes during their junior and senior years of high school. Middle college students, in addition to their completion of a high school diploma, are able to receive up to 60 college credits in the five-year program. Middle colleges are generally geared toward at-risk high school students and high school students who are not already college bound. According to Spencer, having a middle college on a college campus allows for the “power of the site” to inspire students who might not have performed well in school to perform well in middle college. Spencer said he believes that a middle college on MCCC’s campus would help serve the educational needs of the community. Michigan,
Possible change for science degree....... 3
according to Spencer, is below the national averages for residents with college degrees, and the combined lack of college educated residents and loss of manufacturing jobs has hurt the state economically. “Education makes a tremendous difference in what you earn throughout your life,” Spencer said. “It makes really all the difference, in my mind, whether you are going to be able to compete in today’s world.” Spencer said that Michigan needs to change its educational system if it is to survive in the age of globalization. “We have to look at creative ways to change our current educational system,” he said. The first step in bringing a middle college to MCCC would be a formal application from both MCCC and the
MCISD to secure state funding for the planning process. “We anticipate that in the next month or so that there will be another round of planning grants available [from the state], and when those grants are become available I would like to be in a position to apply for one,” Spencer said. Meagan Walker, an MCCC student that attended the board meeting, said she thinks that middle college is not a good idea for our campus. “We already have dual enrollment here at MCCC. Why do we need a new program to bring high school students on campus?” she said. Walker said she is also concerned that high school aged students would reduce the maturity level of campus.
Humane Society of Monroe County seeks aid for winter.......................6 Three quick tips on how to become more energized .............................4
“There is a time in your life in which you want to be held accountable for your actions,” she said. “I don’t know if most high-school aged students are ready for the college student’s level of accountability. In high school, if homework wasn’t done, most teachers would give you an extension to finish it. Most college professors will not.” If state funding is secured, more detailed plans would be drawn up concerning classes to be offered, how community partners such as Mercy Memorial Hospital might become involved, and what criteria prospective students would need to meet. After plans are drawn, MCCC’s Board of Trustees and MCISD’s Board would have the final decision on whether or not to bring the middle college to MCCC’s campus.
‘Samantha Who?’ wakes up television audience.....7