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CORRECTION: The article below misstates the titles of Dr. Jacqueline Claunch and Dr. Ana “Cha” Guzman. Dr. Claunch is president of Northwest Vista College and Dr. Guzman is president of Palo Alto College.
The Alamo Community College District board of trustees, district administrators and the five college presidents gathered Saturday for an annual retreat to collaborate efforts to increase student success and achievement.
The problem that the board and administrators found during the retreat is that enrollment may be up well above average by more than 8,000 students, but Faculty Senates and Staff Councils have said morale across the district has decreased along with it, and officials worry that it will affect classroom productivity by faculty and student achievement.
Dr. Thomas Cleary, vice chancellor for planning, performance and information systems, said the town hall forums have produced positives because faculty and staff have been given an environment to vent and more information has come out into the open. At the past two forums — at this college and Palo Alto College — board representatives and district administration said they realize they have the same expectations for student success as faculty and staff.
The board has scheduled the final two forums at Northwest Vista and Northeast Lakeview colleges for Monday and Tuesday from 3 p.m.-5 p.m.
Dr. Federico Zaragoza, vice chancellor of economic and workforce development, said the district has a chance to be proactive or “continue to eat at each other.”
The district has become so mired that Zaragoza said everyone is focusing on the negatives instead of the positives. The district must focus on the positives to move forward, he said.
The session included strategies to revamp financial and budgeting practices, which administrators are hoping will aid the district in contending with an increase in student enrollment.
Dr. Gene Sprague, District 6 trustee, said morale is not a tangible issue. He said if officials find the district’s strengths and work on the problems, “morale will be a by-product.”
San Antonio College Faculty Senate Chair Jeff Hunt said, “Morale is real and it is tangible.”
Hunt said speaking for the four oldest colleges in the district — this college, St. Philip’s, Northwest Vista and Palo Alto colleges — faculty and staff feel the diminished morale in the air while walking through the halls on their respective campuses.
It is most apparent in departments where faculty expends so much energy because they are expected to provide peer assessments and student engagement, as well as trying new teaching methods with limited resources. It can be a drain, Hunt said.
The college presidents also reviewed their own campuses’ initiatives, thus far, along with coordinated efforts among the colleges that they expect will change learning outcomes for the district.
College presidents outlined strategic plans, such as coordinated student service efforts among the colleges but freedom to enact a few variant plans, which in a few cases followed previous planning efforts by the district with the Achieving the Dream initiative.
But all the presidents, board members and district administrators expressed worry over the colleges’ past and present graduation rates. They discussed strategies, such as automatic graduation and identifying students with more than 60 hours who are eligible for graduation that might improve the rates in the future.
Dr. Jacqueline Claunch, president of Palo Alto College, said her college graduated 410 students in 2007 and doubled this year to 840 graduates, a 51.2 percent increase over two years.
Dr. Ana “Cha” Guzman, president of Northwest Vista College, said her college graduated 599 in 2007 and 731 in 2008, an 18.1 percent increase. But the numbers for Northwest Vista College do not look as promising in 2009 at an estimated 600 graduating.
Guzman said her college established a graduation taskforce in 2006 because their rates have been historically low. From 2001 to 2003, the college averaged 200 student graduates per year.
She said the major issue is student completion because many students either transfer to four-year universities after obtaining 35 credit hours or receive 60 credit hours but are intent on transferring. So, Guzman said, their mission must be the cultivation of students.
Guzman said her college went about a restructuring of student services.
She said when she arrived at the college, many student success strategies that had been successful stopped regular practice but she is reinstituting many of those.
Dr. Robert Zeigler, this college’s president, said as a result of streamlining the graduation process, along with a push from faculty to stress the importance of obtaining an associate’s degree to their students, San Antonio College increased its graduating and certificate numbers to 1,400 in 2008 and 1,600 in 2009, a 12.5 percent increase since last year.
Dr. Adena Loston, president of St. Philip’s College, said 500 students graduated in May, 800 in August and more than 600 students are registered to graduate Dec. 11. Loston’s college saw a 37.5 percent increase from May until August, but by her estimate, the college will decrease its graduates by 33.3 percent in December.
The district and colleges gauge their graduation success rates based on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s definition, which tracks a cohort of first-time-in-college students over a three-year span by degree, certification and credit to transfer students. Students who do not answer questions pertaining to their educational goals are also grouped into these statistics.
But the board, district and college administrators were still concerned with increasing graduation rates and productive grade rates.
Zaragoza said in today’s society, students come to community colleges not expecting to graduate, but receive basic education and transfer to four-year universities.
Enrollment numbers have increased exponentially, exceeding 60,000 students, but officials wonder if those numbers are sustainable because of an insufficient budget.
Also, the predatory economy is expected to eventually turn around and send students migrating back to the job market.
Claunch said based on Northwest Vista College’s budget, the college might have to limit student growth, but she does not have enough data to support that theory.
But she said her college also does not want to create barriers to attending school.
Chancellor Bruce Leslie said there is a different policy at the state level than what should apply to community colleges, which encourages students to transfer to four-year universities to graduate and there are no incentives to stay at community colleges.
That has become a culture reinforced by incoming students’ peers. But students do not realize the financial benefits of staying at a community college, Leslie said.
The presidents have all developed schemes to increase student success, productive grade rates and maximize development education.
At this college, Zeigler said administrators have taken to donning academic regalia to show students the importance of obtaining their associate’s degrees, an original suggestion of Dr. Jessica Howard, vice president of academic affairs.
At first, the idea seemed a little crazy, Zeigler said, but now it is the norm.
Zeigler said because of efforts to strengthen the learning community, this past spring saw a 5 percent increase in productive grade rates and a 4 percent increase in course completion.
At St. Philip’s College, Loston said her college only required math as a developmental course. Now, they include English and reading as required skill development courses.
The college also offers two scholarship programs, which started last January, student engagement and a president’s scholarship.
An annual golf tournament funds the scholarships.
To qualify for the student engagement scholarship, students must be involved in extracurricular activities that promote the campus, such as Phi Theta Kappa.
And students must maintain a 4.0 GPA to qualify for the president’s scholarship and serve as ambassadors in six different areas across St. Philip’s College from economic development, alternative energy and healthcare.
The students also must provide a monthly status report, Loston said.
Leslie said the district is putting a stop to late registration because the practice allows students to begin attendance three days into a course.
Students will only be allowed to register until the first day of standard classes.
Instead, administration is adding new courses that will begin two weeks later than the standard class session and end at the same time as the rest of the classes.
Cleary also gave the board members and college presidents an assessment of ways to increase student success using technological advancements that are at their disposal through the Banner Software system.
His presentation defined 10 strategic goals that can keep account of student success using measures like key performance indicators.
The idea is to use Banner to measure productive grade rates, where students obtain a C or better in all of their courses taken, and student completion rates with that of the other colleges in the district and peers in community college systems across the state.
Diane Snyder, associate vice chancellor of finance and fiscal services, presented the board with the possibility of another traumatic year for the district’s budget.
Snyder told the board by the December Audit, Budget and Finance Committee meeting, her department will know what the impact of the district’s increased enrollment will be for revenues and expenditures in the coming year.
District 8 trustee James Rindfuss suggested Snyder create a database model along with Cleary and Patricia Major, director of auditing, that will obtain a better level of profitability and sustainability for the district in the future.
Zaragoza said the district must understand that a balance is needed between quality and quantity. He said the state government and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board review quality, and if that level suffers, the district is doing a disservice to the students.
Trustees approved a tuition rate increase for international students Aug. 18 during a regular board meeting.
Board members and district administrators defined guidelines for the increase Saturday, stating international students will pay a flat rate of $1,800 for their first six credits, and seven or more credits will warrant $300 more per hour.
The board also formally approved the appointment of Dr. Ines Joseph as the vice president of college services at Palo Alto College and Gary O’Bar Jr. as the district director of purchasing, with start dates of Nov. 9 and Nov. 16, respectively.
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