When I decided to begin writing in this space about seven months ago, I didn't plan on making it a weekly experience, nor did I believe that it would turn out the way it has. I fully expected to write a paragraph or two about a grant received or award won. I thought I would highlight athletic success, the latest theater production or Art Gallery showing.
This is the 28th time I have posted something on this website and I have come to realize that although my grammar and spelling is not perfect, the 200 or so weekly readers have overlooked my imperfections and sufficiently encouraged continuation. For that, I am both grateful and encouraged.
I chose to post my thoughts (I hate the word "blog". It sounds more like a noise than a word) on this particular website because, if you have not yet noticed, all the way down on the bottom of the page, is a place where you can post comment or your own thoughts. You can agree, disagree, question my choice of verb tense and over use of commas, present a differing viewpoint, raise a question, or whatever. You can even do it anonymously (civility expected, please). I want you to know that. I want to encourage you to use this space for a conversation. We can "talk" about anything you like and very little is off-limits. Those things, as you might expect surround legal or ethical obligations, but when you hear me and other administrators talk about transparency, I/we mean it.
In one of our faculty forums not too long ago, I was asked about who my intended audience might be. Were these weekly episodes published someplace else and for some unknown publication? I was a bit taken aback by the question, not because there was anything wrong with asking, but because, in my mind, it never occurred to me that anyone else outside a handful of my Parkland College colleagues (and my wife) would read it, and even there I had some doubts.
I've been surprised. Over the past seven months, students, staff, faculty, trustees, community members, random strangers, and errant Google searches have landed here. Most weeks, I am amazed. I have no explanation for the 29 visits from people in France and 19 in Lebanon. That aside, each week I write the words that appear here for the people interested in Parkland College and the things that affect us. I write it because it is connected to our mission -- to engage the community in learning.
So, let's get the conversations going.
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This is the 28th time I have posted something on this website and I have come to realize that although my grammar and spelling is not perfect, the 200 or so weekly readers have overlooked my imperfections and sufficiently encouraged continuation. For that, I am both grateful and encouraged.
I chose to post my thoughts (I hate the word "blog". It sounds more like a noise than a word) on this particular website because, if you have not yet noticed, all the way down on the bottom of the page, is a place where you can post comment or your own thoughts. You can agree, disagree, question my choice of verb tense and over use of commas, present a differing viewpoint, raise a question, or whatever. You can even do it anonymously (civility expected, please). I want you to know that. I want to encourage you to use this space for a conversation. We can "talk" about anything you like and very little is off-limits. Those things, as you might expect surround legal or ethical obligations, but when you hear me and other administrators talk about transparency, I/we mean it.
In one of our faculty forums not too long ago, I was asked about who my intended audience might be. Were these weekly episodes published someplace else and for some unknown publication? I was a bit taken aback by the question, not because there was anything wrong with asking, but because, in my mind, it never occurred to me that anyone else outside a handful of my Parkland College colleagues (and my wife) would read it, and even there I had some doubts.
I've been surprised. Over the past seven months, students, staff, faculty, trustees, community members, random strangers, and errant Google searches have landed here. Most weeks, I am amazed. I have no explanation for the 29 visits from people in France and 19 in Lebanon. That aside, each week I write the words that appear here for the people interested in Parkland College and the things that affect us. I write it because it is connected to our mission -- to engage the community in learning.
So, let's get the conversations going.
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Yesterday was a good day for Parkland College. The State of Illinois wired us a good chunk of the money owed us for FY10. This includes:
Fourth Quarter Equalization - $426,434
Student Success Grant - $367,477
Illinois Veteran Grant (IVG) Spring 2010 - $104,429
Facilitating and Coordinating Ag Education (FCAE) Grant - $297,784.00
Adult Education State Public Assistance - $6,315.50
Adult Education State Performance - $31,672.50
Adult Education State Basic - $29,764.50
Still outstanding:
IVG Summer 2010 - $86,746
IVG Fall 2010 - $224,706
MAP Fall 2010 - $886,000
Personally, it was a great day as well. I began the day with two classroom visits with Lauren O'Connor. Her English sections were giving presentations as part of their final projects and she was ever so kind to invite me to listen in. The students covered a broad range of topics from creation of an Equine Center, a residential component to the Fire Service Technology program, College-run housing, extended hours in our Child Development Lab, and more. It was very enlightening and entertaining to hear our student's perspectives on these issues. I intend to do some follow-up on a few of them.
At noon, I had the opportunity to visit with our pre-Bridge program graduates. We have 13 students completing the 12 hour class which qualifies them to take the GED Bridge to Health Careers class beginning in January. (Another group will be qualified the week of January 10). My thanks to Janet and Terri for the invitation.
Later in the day, a group of us visited Steve Brown's Speech 200 class. Via a modified Delphi process, students identify the top responses to the question, "Of the things that Parkland College might reasonably do, what improvements would you like to see as priorities for the college?" For your enjoyment and consideration, I present their list:
1) (Tie) Lower the cost of textbooks -and-
2) Make more reasonable the delays in instructor-to-student academic feedback
3) Require faculty to provide better feedback in online courses
4) Do not offer courses that are only taught online.
5) Improve WIFI access, speed, and reliability
6) Prohibit faculty from penalizing students for absences from course meetings
7) Lower the cost of food on campus
8) Improve crowd control (mostly refers to the congestion and noise in the college center)
Thoughts?
Last week, I wrote about performance funding and that caused a half -dozen or so conversations off-line. A couple days after I posted it, an article in The Daily Herald appeared. Good timing.
Fourth Quarter Equalization - $426,434
Student Success Grant - $367,477
Illinois Veteran Grant (IVG) Spring 2010 - $104,429
Facilitating and Coordinating Ag Education (FCAE) Grant - $297,784.00
Adult Education State Public Assistance - $6,315.50
Adult Education State Performance - $31,672.50
Adult Education State Basic - $29,764.50
Still outstanding:
IVG Summer 2010 - $86,746
IVG Fall 2010 - $224,706
MAP Fall 2010 - $886,000
Personally, it was a great day as well. I began the day with two classroom visits with Lauren O'Connor. Her English sections were giving presentations as part of their final projects and she was ever so kind to invite me to listen in. The students covered a broad range of topics from creation of an Equine Center, a residential component to the Fire Service Technology program, College-run housing, extended hours in our Child Development Lab, and more. It was very enlightening and entertaining to hear our student's perspectives on these issues. I intend to do some follow-up on a few of them.
At noon, I had the opportunity to visit with our pre-Bridge program graduates. We have 13 students completing the 12 hour class which qualifies them to take the GED Bridge to Health Careers class beginning in January. (Another group will be qualified the week of January 10). My thanks to Janet and Terri for the invitation.
Later in the day, a group of us visited Steve Brown's Speech 200 class. Via a modified Delphi process, students identify the top responses to the question, "Of the things that Parkland College might reasonably do, what improvements would you like to see as priorities for the college?" For your enjoyment and consideration, I present their list:
1) (Tie) Lower the cost of textbooks -and-
2) Make more reasonable the delays in instructor-to-student academic feedback
3) Require faculty to provide better feedback in online courses
4) Do not offer courses that are only taught online.
5) Improve WIFI access, speed, and reliability
6) Prohibit faculty from penalizing students for absences from course meetings
7) Lower the cost of food on campus
8) Improve crowd control (mostly refers to the congestion and noise in the college center)
Thoughts?
Last week, I wrote about performance funding and that caused a half -dozen or so conversations off-line. A couple days after I posted it, an article in The Daily Herald appeared. Good timing.
This morning I was reading The Next Big Thing: Crisis and Transformation in American Higher Education by John V. Lombardi.
In it, he talked about, "...optimal behavior of institutions suffering through the peaks and valleys of these serial crises? Some common sense guidelines may be helpful. The primary imperative surprises none of us: Pay attention to the fundamentals, all of which speak to the competitive performance of institutions within their sector and subsector of the higher education industry."
His list of the fundamentals included:
a. Enroll students.
b. Graduate students.
c. Focus on revenue.
d. Track expenses precisely.
e. Measure faculty, staff, and student performance.
f. Understand the difference between core activity and enhancements.
g. Do the core activities first and do them well.
h. Innovate to improve the fundamentals.
i. Save speculative academic enterprises for the good times.
j. Carefully define the institutional mission.
k. Compete within the mission on quality and productivity against the best.
What do you think? What's missing? How does this list reconcile with your perspective?
I'm all ears, even you folks in France and Lebanon.
(7924)
The missing piece in this list it seems to me is the student's role in their own success. This is the part that concerns me the most - as the "corporatizing" of higher education becomes more entrenched, the perspective of those making laws at the national and state level seems to be that students are products of the institution. Those who legislate mandates attempt to measure the quality of the institution based on the products it produces - namely the graduated student. From this perspective, institutions and their faculty are at fault if students don't graduate - much like a corporation would be at fault if they produced sub-par products.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with this perspective is that students are not products - they are individuals with varying needs and life issues - not all students have graduation as their goal especially those who attend community college. Many students are under-prepared and do not come to college with the skills or motivation to be successful. Some students are over-committed, they begin well and then life issues get in the way - Some students are unrealistic about how much they can take on -juggling work, school and family. Students come and go and come back again. They move from college to college depending on where they are and what they want to accomplish.
Sometimes, despite the instructor's best efforts the student doesn't succeed. Sometimes, despite the institution's best resources the student doesn't succeed - this doesn't mean they won't later or can't try again, but they don't graduate now.
These are the realities I've seen in my classes over the 25 years I have been teaching and I wonder, where in the current corporatizing climate is the student's responsibility for their own success? Where is the emphasis on their role in their own achievement?
A recent poll reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education asked who was to blame for low graduation rates - more people said students or parents than they did faculty or institutions. This is interesting, but I don't think this is an issue that needs to have someone to blame - that is the problem. Legislators and those demanding increased accountability from colleges and universities need to realize that accountability is fine, but the reality is students are people not products they will not all respond the same way - all outcomes will not be uniform. Education is a life long process and it takes the student, faculty and institution - together - to be successful.
Thanks,
Julie Weishar
Well said, Julie.
ReplyDeletePart of the problem is that the cost of higher education continues to rise and "graduation rates" are stagnant at best. The higher costs, in the eyes of students, parents, and especially the legislative branch, don't make sense.
Coupled with shrinking resources from the state, something is going to happen. Recent unrest in London over tripling of tuition rates are one such outcome.
Dr. Ramage,
ReplyDeleteI continue enjoy reading your "thoughts." It is great that you have been visiting various classes and listening to speeches. It not only is evidence that you are an "involved" administrator, but you continue to want to learn.
Julie, I agree with you. At some point and time, the student needs to take responsibility of his or her education.
Several things come to mind when thinking about the traditional student in relationship to why he or she may not cross the finish line at Parkland College. 1. They only enroll because that's the thing to do; 2. They're here because their parents are making them; 3. Lack of funds; 4. they don't want to get a job just yet; 5. Life (things no one has control over..stuff happens!) 6. No support (everyone needs a cheerleader!); and 7. (the one that will get them to the next level) They WANT to be here & they have a goal...plan.
Even though my responsibility lies working primarily with adult students, I encourage anyone to keep on pursuing until they've reach the final mark. Something different between the nontraditional and traditional students lies with the fact they want to be here.
No matter what type a student is in, he or she needs to understand that it is going to take hardwork on his or her part. Sometimes it may feel like blood, sweat, and tears are involved, but in the long run, it all pays off. It does take team work between the student & faculty, as well as support from the institution.
Well, that's my thoughts for the day!
I agree with the other 2 posts regarding student accountability. Plus, I'll add to LeAndra's list: Many of ours seem to enroll with the thought that college comes second to the jobs they hold, often, but not always, temporary retail or service jobs. Some take these jobs due to having to pay for their schooling and often find themselves in the untenable position of working with a less-than-flexible employer. On the other hand, some work an ungodly amount of hours: 50 plus in order to pay not only for school, but clothes, car, apartment, etc.
ReplyDeleteAs for feedback, I am one of those people who try to give more than adequate feedback to students, often at the cost of returning items in a more expedient fashion. I want my comments to be thoughtful, thought-provoking, and not merely editing comments. Many students appear to be used to (almost) instantaneous feedback in other classes such as those which use clickers or scantron tests. Much to my dismay, students often look to their grades rather than a combination of carefully written comments along with their grades. I am sure that I am not alone in this aspect, and there is an ongoing debate in higher ed about whether grades should be totally eliminated.
Other factors for slowdown of feedback: counseling students about ongoing academic and personal problems, departmental and college service commitments, illness, injury, technical difficulties, etc. Faculty bear a tremendous workload and it is quite a trick to give equal time to everybody. Can I speed things up? Sure, but if instructors focus on providing the grade and then nominal comments, how will students learn what they need to in order to improve? And, those same students will complain about (drumroll please): lack of sufficient feedback. Catch-22.
I love non-traditional, older students because they want to be here and usually want more feedback and utilize our office hours as all students should, trying to make sense out of our comments and finding ways to improve on their learning experiences.
Stop faculty from penalizing students for absences. Really? What would happen if any of us spent an inordinate amount of time out of work? Many of my older students relate stories from having worked in factories or the military about how the "real world" works in regards to attendance and job performance. That this continues to be suggested hints at how we need to do a better job emphasizing that attending college, especially community college, is hard work. Too many seem to think that we are a "junior" college which suggests that somehow our work ethic is less than any other academic institution. Consequently, our students tend to devalue the work we--faculty and staff perform--and in the process, devalue the work they must perform in order to be successful.
On a different note, the cafeteria has done a great job in offering wider and more healthy varieties, but perhaps could offer a 99 cent/dollar menu like Wendy's and McDonald's.
Improving crowd control rests with everyone--faculty and staff--being willing to politely approach students and ask them to move aside so that others can pass by. The students won't bite and, if they do, Public Safety is there do handle these types of incidences. We all experts on Parkland and should lend our expertise to help all of our students, not a select few who do not seem "threatening". Perhaps putting up signage and moving round tables back towards the B-wing side a bit more might help.
I came to academe to avoid manufacturing models--which clearly have not worked for a significant portion of that sector, so performance funding, performance markers, etc. tends to raise my hackles up a bit. Think we have to tread cautiously here as there are a number of us--working class--who have been there, done that, and as a result, had to re-tool our lives.
However, it is good to have this conversation. Thanks!
Instead of "stagnant", can the graduation rates be viewed as "steady" instead? Do we deliver a quality product year after year, or are we not doing enough?
ReplyDeleteEveryone should expect costs to rise over time. The confusing part might be how the costs of a college education have risen compared to inflation.
For someone like me, it would help to see a chart that showed the budget areas that have risen disproportionally to inflation (energy, salaries, benefits, etc.) and had comments that explained how it affected Parkland.
I think we would look good in this comparison. And then it might be interesting to measure against other schools to see where there are areas of concern.
You make a good point, Joe, but the general public sees "more money" and "higher tuition" as an increase in the input without equal or greater effect on the output.
ReplyDeleteThe complexity of the response makes it difficult to reconcile. We need to find a way to show consistent value. I think we do a good job of that locally, but the statewide and national conversations are a different story.
Thanks for your willingness to write your thoughts here for us. Transparency helps us all understand each other better. The news about the money coming in from the state should cheer us on a cold winter's day. In difficult economic times, we need to pull togther to face the tough issues and celebrate the good news when we can.
ReplyDeleteThe section from Lombardi's list that intrigued me the most was this:
"g. Do the core activities first and do them well."
I would assume that teaching is a core activity, and we should all strive to do this well, but I'm puzzled that in a list about the fundamentals in higher education he never uses the word teaching. Is this a function of the wider focus in his book?
My other thought about Lombardi's list was that he uses some great active verbs, advocating that we "measure" performance, "do" core activities well, and "innovate" for improvement. I would add another active verb: support. We need to continue to find ways to support each other in the work that we do at Parkland.
Lori Williams
Hi Lori:
ReplyDeleteI have not read Lombardi's book, but I assume, like you, that he intended teaching to be core. I am less sure if he intended "support" as part of the core.
I think it should be.
Question: How can we do this better at Parkland?
I think that a thorough knowledge of all the various offerings available in each department would be an excellent start. If you have never worked in a different department, or if you have been here for a long time, there might be new programs, processes, or help available that even faculty and staff don't know about or correctly understand.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we all need a refresher orientation when we come back, something that can be watched online similar to SOAR but gives an update on what's available in each department. Or use the portal to spread this information. Maybe, in essence, something similar to your department-visiting, Dr. Ramage. And of course SPARK will be a great way to spread information as well.
There are so many resources available to our students, it can be hard to keep up, and those resources will be wasted. If I don't know what is available in Financial Aid, I can't help a student who is filling out the FAFSA for the first time in the Library.
Pretty much what it seems to always boil down to: more effective communication.
+1 Sarah ...
ReplyDelete... I don't think we should ever really be satisfied with our performance, even if many more people were graduating. However, I'm also a bit bothered by the whole "create a product" model, whether the product is The Graduated Student or Our Fine Menu of Educational Experiences. I'd prefer to be actively engaged in joint efforts to escalate the wisdom, knowledge and skills for people of our community, ourselves included.