Summer Tour Stops #5 & #6

July 22^nd The Deans Office

Having once lived in what is now Pam Lau’s office, it was nice to be back for a visit. Sharing the suite are Pam Lau, Dean of Academic Services and Marietta Turner, Dean of Students, along with their very capable assistant is James Albrecht.

Pam’s job entails assisting the Vice President for Academic Services to develop and administer policies and programs related to the faculty and curriculum, review and improve ongoing academic systems and support services development, providing assistance with strategic and annual planning as well as implementation and evaluation. She also oversees the Center for Academic Success.

Marietta, on the other hand, is associated with Student Services and oversees the student discipline system and serves as chief student conduct officer for the college. She addresses and resolves student complaints regarding discrimination and harassment, processes student grievances, and reviews and makes recommendations to the Vice President for Student Services regarding policies, procedures, and programs that affect students and campus life.

My time in the office was very enjoyable, spent mostly in conversation about ideas, student conduct, and exceptions to academic policy, grants and initiatives planned for the upcoming academic year. Plus we had some good Italian for lunch.

Thanks, Pam, Marietta, and James!

July 26^th TRiO Office

The Federal TRIO Programs are Federal outreach and student services programs designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. At Parkland College, we are fortunate to have the Student Support Services grant. Mary Catherine Denmark, Mark-Saint McDowell, and Particia Murbarger all help keep our participating students on track.

Through a grant competition, funds are awarded to institutions of higher education to provide opportunities for academic development, assist students with basic college requirements, and to motivate students toward the successful completion of their postsecondary education. Our Student Support Services projects also provides some grant aid to current participants who are receiving Federal Pell Grants.

The goal of SSS is to increase the college retention and graduation rates of its participants.

Additionally. Our TRiO program provides individualized counseling for personal, career, and academic information, activities, and instruction designed to acquaint students with career options, exposure to cultural events and academic programs not usually available, and mentoring programs.

Parkland student must be enrolled full-time in a transfer program and demonstrate academic need for support services as determined by placement scores. Additionally, student must meet any of the following criteria for eligibility:

• First-generation college student (neither parent/guardian graduated from a 4-year college)
• Demonstrated financial need according to federal income guidelines (Pell Grant eligibility)
• Have a documented disability (registered with Office of Disability Services at Parkland College)

Recruiting students to the program was on the minds of our TRiO staff the day I visited. Typically, a report is generated that identifies the students that may qualify to participate in the program, but with our migration project, the report is a little harder to get.

Mary Catherine gave me an overview of the program, Mark ran me through his intake process, and Patricia discussed some of the cultural opportunities our students have enjoyed in the past.

Overall, a very enjoyable day and a pleasure to learn more about the many support systems we have in place to help our students stay on track to graduate.

Thanks to all three of you!

Stop #4 – Assessment Center

July 12th-13th, 2010 

"The mission of the Assessment Center is to provide, in an efficient and friendly manner, equitable and secure assessment services that promote academic success, personal growth, and career development." 

In keeping with our long-standing policy (and best practice) of assessing all degree-seeking or course enrollee students prior to registering for classes, the Assessment Center, headquartered in room A209 is charged with leading this effort.

The Assessment Center is a single point of entry for all new students and employs a standardized, computer -adaptive and nationally recognized and normed assessment instrument to ensure that our new students are properly placed into classes. Long ago, Parkland College faculty and staff determined that the “right to fail” was not a theory we would embrace.

Our friends in the Assessment Center include: 

From left to right: Dave Anderson (High School Assessment Advisor), Melissa Franella (Part-Time Assessment Center Assistant), John Wegeng (Amazing Student Worker), Beth Hewing (Assessment Center Assistant), Diana Steele (Director). Not Pictured: Phae Seidel 

You may have already known that the Center administers the Compass Test to each of our new students, but I’ll bet very few of us know the extent to the testing services our Center provides.

ACT Residual 

College-Level Examination Program 

GED /General Educational Development Test 

Multi-state Professional Responsibility Exam 

Test of Essential Academic Skills

Automotive Service Excellence Exam 

Certified Nursing Assistant Exam 

Emergency Medical Technician Tests 

Illinois Teachers' Certification Exams

Chemistry competency exam

Constitution Test

Counseling Instruments

Online assessment

Test proctoring services for distance learners

Spanish placement and proficiency tests 

As you might imagine, the Center is a busy place. The first timeslots for testing occur at 7:45am each morning and conclude shortly before 5pm. Many of the instruments and assessments listed above are proctored on Saturdays and evenings.

From approximately 8:30am till nearly 3pm, the phones ring constantly. Not just often, but constantly. And by constantly, I mean that you cannot put the phone into the cradle for more than a second and it is ringing again. Really.

My first job was to help on the phone. Students would call to schedule an appointment for testing, re-schedule existing appointments, and to ask a variety of questions that I found myself woefully unprepared to answer. Thankfully and wisely, the staff in the Center didn’t leave me to my own devices much. I was shown the two main Colleague screens used to verify admissions status (SASM) and testing history (TSUM), and by the end of the first day, I felt marginally able to assist a student with an appointment. Thanks to Dave & Dianna for their patience.

Throughout the days, I learned about our process for bringing assessment tests to our area high schools and the fact that we went from administering somewhere in the neighborhood of four dual credit assessments to something like 120 per month these days.

I also learned that the staff in the Center, particularly Beth, Melissa, and amazing student worker, John, have some kind of telepathy thing happening. No sooner would a student finish their assessment than Beth would have results in hand and the appropriate packet of information to guide the student on to the next step, test scores were recorded and filed, and all the while walk-in and phone traffic continued in the midst. Magic, I’m convinced.

But what impressed me most was the level of service provided to each of our students. I witnessed each student greeted with a smile and a promise to help, a concerted effort to both listen and respond to each student’s circumstance, care taken to explain the next steps and directions, and a level of teamwork that generally takes years to develop.

Congratulations to all in the assessment Center and to Director Diana Steele for assembling a great group of people. It was a pleasure to be part of it for a couple days.

Stop #3 Admissions and Records

6/28 – 7/1

Admissions and Records

What a week! I had the opportunity to work and visit with the all the people that ensure that our students actually arrive in the classroom on the first day of the semester. So much happens in this very busy office.

Monday, June 28

• Meet with Reo Wilhour to see what the week would entail.
• Welcome and Walk-around for Hello to individual staff members
• Home-base #1- Li's cube, Li Barbee is on vacation. Thanks, Li!
• Favorite Colleague processing screens (Jennifer Harbaugh). I am now educated on Datatel screens that admissions uses, up to the level that I could be dangerous. Thankfully, I do not have sufficient permissions to actually do any damage. Jennifer is a wonderful teacher.
• Degree-seeking and non-degree seeking application processing (Beth Chepan) Beth is amazing. She can navigate a complex process and pause mid-stream to help a student get enrolled in a section and not miss a beat. Beth attempted to help me understand the process and I have a better understanding of how it works. My thanks, Beth.
• Health professions application processing (Michelle White). Although I didn’t see this process, I did spend time with Michelle and Christy Ihnen at the front desk. I am impressed with the range of questions that come to the desk and the depth and breadth of knowledge required to be a competent front desk person. If you ever want to get a pulse for what is happening in our student’s lives, spend some time there.
• Residency appeal with (Jason Rotzoll). It happened in between students visits at the front desk. Did you know that students living outside our district boundaries but attend a high school that falls within are afforded in-district tuition?
• Late registration team e-mails (Michelle, Beth, Chisty Ihnen and Tom Crook). 200 emails a day and roughly 4 emails per student! This process appears to be working well until we develop a way to streamline the process.

Tuesday, June 29

• Front desk work most all day!
• Demonstrate Imaging -- scanning, indexing, and retrieval (Diane Schuering). I heard about the process from many and observed Diane running the scanner. Document storage in an electronic format is obviously very important and I have great hope that the new imaging system that integrates with Colleague will make this important task simpler. Everyone does the scanning and indexing task.
• Graduation audits/Demonstrate Advisor (Dennis Kaczor). Again, I heard a lot about the process, but got too busy at the front desk and other tasks to actually sit down with Dennis. I was able to bring some students back to see Dennis for assistance with the admissions process. Thanks, Dennis!
• Transfer-in credit evaluation (Jason Rotzoll). Degree Audit! Thanks, Jason.

Wednesday, June 30

• I spent all of an hour in admissions today. Other competing duties had to come first.
• International Student Services, SEVIS (Joy Garling Prud'homme and Deb Beach) Did you know that we have International Student from @ 50 countries on campus? The most represented countries are South Korea and China. Most popular majors are General Studies (with intent to transfer) and Business. Joy and Debra assist hundreds of students each semester. This summer alone, there were some 400 applications, which means that transcripts, Visa status, initial advising and placement, and management of the SEVIS database, etc. needs to happen. Lots of work. The number of applications has grown by about 100 per year in the summer term. Thanks for all you do, Deb and Joy!

Thursday, July 1        

• Admissions switchboard and traffic expediting (Lori Sprague/student assistants) If you ever want to see an outstanding example of great service to students (on the phone, online, or in-person, spend a little time with Lori Sprague. She has great listening skills and takes the time to ensure that she knows exactly what a student needs. Often, she receives calls from students that have been transferred multiple times. She takes the time and goes the extra step(s) to make sure our students are served. Well done Lori!
• Communications management processing (Phil Myette). Every day, Phil runs the batch processes that generate either a letter or an email to students that describes where they are in the admissions process, if there are documents missing, and the like. Important work. Thanks, Phil.
• Someone turned 40 today! Happy Birthday. You know who you are. ;]
•  Admissions "Live Support Chat" for Website (Jen Smith) Jennifer does all kinds of interesting things. From managing the Parkland Pathways to the U of I program, to acting as a liaison between Financial Aid, Assessment, and other offices, to staffing the Admissions email address. When you think your email traffic is had to manage, consider the fact that Jennifer dealt with 591 admissions emails in May and 626 in June, all in addition to her own personal email account. Another interesting note, there is a “live chat” function accessible from the Admissions webpage that allows our students to access an online chat feature. I worked with @ 10 students using this system over a two day period, answering questions about transcripts, application status, and my favorite question…”is Parkland a real college”.
• Admissions Advising (Mary Kay Smith) Mary Kay is a busy person. Between appointments, walk-ins, College Tours, and information nights all over the district (3000 sq miles!), Mary Kay gets it done.
• Admissions Email box (Jennifer Smith & Mary Kay Smith) Did you know that there is an admissions email address? More than 50 emails per day are read and returned. Big job.
• Staff lunch with Dr. Ramage and Dr. Moore
• Staff picture with Dr. Ramage and Dr. Moore (All)
• Concluding group chat (All) Great to talk with everyone a review the status of the Student Services Center. As it turns out, the State delivered $2 million dollars toward the project! Excellent news. Work continues under Dr. Moore’s leadership.

It was a great week. I learned a ton and got to spend more time with the people I wave to everyday as I go past the admissions counter. I appreciate all the tasks, processes, and details that go into creating a smooth process for our students. So much happens in the background that our students and staff rarely see. My appreciation to all in Admissions and Records, especially Reo for organizing the time and hats off to all of you!