Monday, March 27, 2000- Palomar College- Volume 53, Number
Where's the party?.
Renaissance man
Taking the plunge
Spring break during the winter? We want our¡ old break back.
Set and costume designer George Gonzalez acts, dances and sings at the Theatre.
Palomar's swim and dive team gets ready for the conference championship.
Opinion, page 4
Entertainment, page 6
Sports, page 8
StudentS revisit speech rules
Conference focuses on students Palomar hosts fourth gathering on learning
Governing Board vote postponed to allow review
Sean J. O'Connor Opinion Editor
"Students want to be treated as customers!" Laura Palmer, the keynote speaker, raised this theme at the Fourth North American Conference on the Learning Paradigm. Palmer is the provost of the University of Phoenix. The New York Times referred to Palmer as the "antichrist of higher education" on its front page. Palmer is interested in "customer satisfaction." "We are too slow to respond," she said. She wants "just-in-time education" and "one stop shopping" where registration, digital library resources, advisement and "24-hours-day acce s takes place on the Internet. She wants faculty to address any questions students may ask within a 24-hour period. Faculty, students and employers drive curriculum outcomes at Phoenix. There is always an attempt to integrate theory and practice at the University of Phoenix. Phoenix is a for-profit university. It is tuition driven. It has 145 full-time faculty and 7,100 part-time faculty members. There are training programs for part-time faculty. Palmer believes in the "practitioner faculty." Most of the faculty are executives from the private sector. Class size is limited to 14 students and each class breaks into two or three study groups. "There is no passive learning," she said. One of the questions asked on the final assessment is, ¡'Did we treat you as an individual?" The university now has 50,000 working adults in 15 states. It has a 20 percent growth rate annually. The online section of the University of Phoenix is in 50 states and 24 countries, and has a 50 percent growth rate each year. George Boggs, president of Palomar College, in an article, "What the Learning Paradigm Means for the Faculty," said, "The best teachers treat students with respect due a customer and take extra efforts to help them succeed in their classes." He also said the-studentas-customer analogy is "more appropriate when viewed from an institutional perspective." Mary Beth Susman, chief executive officer of the Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual University, also referred to the "student as customer." She recalled her 1965 registration when it was an all day affair to register, and contrasted it with present Web site registration practices. She streamlined library services for online students in Kentucky and is working on articulation agreements for online Kentucky students. "If higher education were a business," she said, "we would be in jail for restraint of trade." Susman wants to "lower trade barriers" and to have a new import and export policy for transfer and articulation within Kentucky and other states. As it now stands, she said higher education "has nothing to do with where I am." She said the institution should serve "the customer" and revolve around the time, place, work and family of the student." Cindy L. Miles, vice president and chief operating officer of the League for Innovation in the Community College, also spoke of the "student as customer."
see Paradigm, page 3
Dustin J. Schwindt Staff Writer
Kol>ert C h"vh f The Telescope
Two Palomar students study in the Foreign Language Lab in the F Building. Palomar's enrollment may have dropped by 7 percent, which could cost the college up to $1 million in revenues.
Enrollment drops College could lose millions • Ln revenue Tom Chambers Editor in Chief
Ongoing construction and problems with a new registration system have not only caused major inconveniences for students, but now may cost the college $1 million in revenue - and $2.3 million in additional funds from the state, according to Jerry Patton, vice president of administrative services. The number of students attending Palomar this semester has dropped 1.2 percent from last spring, and the number of units being taken at the college may have dropped up to 7 percent, according to Joe Madrigal, vice president of student ser vices and chair of the Enrollment Management Task Force. Because the state funds community colleges based on the number of units taken, and not on head count, Palomar could be facing a major drop in funds. "The decline this spring will result in a
decrease in revenue," said Patton, whose office will try to deal with the shortfalls. "Approximately $750,000 to $1 million." Because the college didn't grow, Palomar will also lose the additional. growth funds California Governor Gray Davis included in the state's budget. Had Palomar reached its growth potential, the state would have given the college an additional $2.3 Imllion, Patton said. College administrators think the infrastructure project is to blame for the drop. "We had almost every sidewalk and street torn up," Patton said. Patton also thinks the PeopleSoft conversion contributed to the drop. "There's no question the change with software had an impact," he said. The Enrollment Management Task Force began meeting before Christmas to find a solution to a drop in the fall semester's enrollment- a head count drop of l percent, according io Herman Lee, director of enrollment. So far the task force has only made one suggestion: increase fundtng for the PeopleSoft conversion to hopefully fix
problems from the last three registration periods. Students were not able to register for classes, bills were not sent out, and many students found their names were missing from the roster for classes they for which they had registered. Task force members sec that as key to maintaining Palomar's enrollment. "That's where it all starts," said Gene Jackson, dean of arts and sciences, at a recent meeting. "If we don't get students registered all the rest is moot." Members of the task force are also focusing on what the college can do to fill summer classes and attract more students in the future. They point out that the economy is also an enrollment factor. "When the economy booms, and goes positive, students tend to take less units because of the number of jobs available," Madrigal said. "It's been that way for years." Accordmg to Lee, about 6,000 students dropped one or more classes, a possible signal that students are taking fewer units. However, Palomar officials also note that other colleges in the area have increased enrollment. Cal State San Marcos grew by 14 percent -giving Palomar even more competition. Coming April 3: The money - how the enrollment effects the college financially
Free speech took center stage again at the March 22 Associated Student Government meeting. The ASG revisited a resolution requesting the Board of Governors adopt new policies regarding free speech on Palomar's campus. The resolution was tabled on October 22 at the request of Director of Student Activities Bruce Bishop. Bishop asked that the resolution be tabled until he could complete drafting a new policy and procedures to regulate free speech. Voting on the adoption of the new free speech policy was pulled from the Board of Governors' March 14 agenda. Bishop said that the Governing Board waited on the vote so they could hear input from the faculty senate and any other group or individual that had an opinion on the subject. At the March 14 President's Advisory Committee meeting, Mark Vernoy, president of the Faculty Senate, said the Faculty Senate had not discussed the policy yet. Just before the meeting, ASG President Diane Vasquez indicated to George Boggs, President/Superintendent, that the ASG had also not reviewed the policy and procedures enough. Although the ASG voted to endorse the new policy and procedures drafted by Bishop, Vasquez suggested on March 15 that the student government take a second look to make sure they knew what they were voting on. The ASG spent the majority of the March 22 meeting questioning Bishop about the specifics of the policy and the procedures. More of the questions concerned the procedures governing free speech, especially procedures regarding the "campus expression area" and regulations about sign postings on campus. Jennifer Mapes, vice-president/interclub counsel chair, asked a lot of the questions during the meeting in order to
see Speech, page 5
Plans begin for new science building Kevan K. Wynn Staff Writer
Plans to construct a new $25 million science building at Palomar College are slowly moving forward. Four years ago, Palomar College formed a facilities master planning task force to examine student and staff building needs. The group, which teamed Palomar management and faculty with the Facilities Department, worked with outside architect Marlene lmirzian to research and develop a plan for new college facilities. "We identified some facilities concepts, in terms of better pedestrian walkways," said Kelley Hudson-Maclsaac, manager of facilities planning/environmental health and safety. "We tried to tackle the parking issue. We looked at trying to identify future building sites. We did have some constraints. We didn't want to take up a whole bunch of parking. We wanted to keep the instructional buildings within the Comet Circle spine that already existed. We
Conceptual drawings (top) show a new three-story science building to be built just north of the library, as shown in the blacked out area of the map (right). weren't talking about buildings in the outback." After identifying potential building sites, Imirzian met with every department to prioritize the needs of Palomar College students. "That group identified the first need was a science building," said Hudson-Maclsaac. Professor Ron Phillips, the Chemistry Department Chair, concurred with that conclusion. "In my opinion," said Phillips, "if we're going to continue to be one of the best
providers of learning for students in the field of chemistry in this area, we're going to need better facilities." Though Phillips has never been approached personally, he has overheard students talking abc;mt outdated labs. He feels students will receive a direct benefit from a new science building. "For one thing, they would have better equipment available, state-of-the-art equipment. They'd have more comfortable facilities," he said. On the question of whether he'd also
benefit from new facilities, Phillips laughed. ''I'm too close to retirement for this to be of personal benefit to me. It would be strictly for the future of the college and the students." Once the task force identified a site north of the library, its next step was submittal of an initial project proposal to the chancellor's office. That proposal was approved. "We had to pull together - on real quick notice, actually - to develop a final project
see Building, page 5