SCT

Success College Team

Update

June 20, 2002

We’ve reached a crucial place in the Success College initiative:  it is time to pull together our activities and come to some conclusions about how Success College will be implemented starting in fall of 2003.  And this must happen by the end of the next fall semester so that we can write a report for submission to SACS early in 2003 (in preparation for the SACS visit April 22-25, 2003).

Team Activities

Thread I (college culture) and Thread VI (implementation) will be the focus of our work this summer and during the fall.  The two threads are, of course, intertwined because the success of our implementation of Success College will depend mightily on how we are able to make the culture of Brookhaven a culture of success.  Marilyn Kolesar-Lynch and Cindi Love will head Thread I’s efforts this fall and spring.  Thread VI will pretty much be a committee of the whole, with the entire Success College Team participating in deliberations. 

A key Thread VI activity this summer was a joint meeting on June 11 of the SCT with the Extended President’s Cabinet and Division Deans to talk about a process for coming up with the "new threads" for Success College in the future-which we are calling "Success Directions."  In a process analogous to the one we used to decide on "Success College" as our emphasis for the alternative Self Study, we will be coming to consensus about strategic directions related to success for the next few years.  Another topic discussed in the joint meeting was the need for (or lack of need for) a structure for managing Success College starting in fall of 2003.  Based on feedback from the leadership group and our own deliberations, the Success College Team will be making recommendations to Alice and the College about the administration of Success College.

The Success College Team will be meeting June 26 to discuss the June 11 meeting and to make plans for the fall.

Thread II (professional development):  Since professional development activities must be predicated on specific content needed by employees, Thread II to some extent must wait for other threads to suggest directions for its activities.  Nevertheless, some very significant activities have been undertaken by the Faculty and Staff Instructional Development Office, under the direction of Thread II team member, Linda Lee.  Of particular note are:

•        The instructional development workshops provided to (primarily) adjunct faculty beginning Fall 2001.
•        The development of a new employee orientation procedure, through discussions and meetings during summer 2001.  This new orientation procedure will be the basis for a significant means of introducing new employees to the campus culture in general and to Success College in particular.
•        The ongoing operations of the TLC, providing training that addresses a variety of staff and faculty needs.

Though  these activities were not undertaken specifically as "Success College" projects, they are typical of the kinds of activities which have student success as their ultimate purpose and will be subsumed under the "Success College" banner.

A Thread II activity which is a more direct response to Success College is a series of workshops planned for fall 2002 on goals and goal setting, with one track for faculty and another for administrative/support staff who work directly with students.  The workshops will use the core information in Surprised by Serenity, co-written by Zack Miller.

Thread III worked with the results of a questionnaire about student goals given as part of the orientation for first time in college students and to students in selected ESOL classes (since those students do not attend the new student orientation).  When students were asked to identify what would keep them from attaining their academic goals, they indicated financial problems and work issues were the main culprits along with (to a lesser extent) test-taking problems.

In examining ways of dealing with these results, the team came to these findings:

•         Financial Problems-Many students choose not to apply for financial aid because they do not think they would qualify when in fact many would.  It is critical to get information about financial aid (grants, work-study, scholarships) to the College community.  This could be done by having information tables and Financial Aid staff actively going after students to apply for financial aid, rather than waiting for the student to find them.  Faculty could put a sentence in their syllabus about financial aid.  Class presentations to core courses were suggested.  New student orientation could include financial aid information.  SPAR is going to work with Financial Aid on a brochure about where to go for scholarship information.
•         Testing Problems-Counselor Susie Smoot-Brown is available to work individually with students who have test anxiety.  LifeLine and NiteLine Workshops and Counselor Teatsy Robbins’ evening sessions could address this topic.  The College Learning Skills course also has this component.
•         Students with Undecided Major-Advisors play a key role.  One option would be to have a shorter version of the Strong Interest Survey available in the J-lab.  (Students would need to follow up with an advisor regarding results.)  The Career Center works with students on career choices using the Myers-Briggs and Strong Interest Survey.

Thread III will meet this summer with Thread IV on how the two threads are going to interact.

Thread IV focused on surveys they conducted on the class schedule and on various other aspects of the registration process-cashier, admissions, advising, and financial aid.  They met with the Director of Public Information to share the results of their survey on the class schedule.  The Director has also initiated a survey of the schedule by another college.  Because of early deadlines for the class schedule, changes in the schedule based on either of these surveys were necessarily delayed.

This semester has been a learning opportunity for the team.  It is clear to them that it would be helpful to have assistance from a professional in designing and administering surveys, and that suggestions for improvement that come from outside are harder to accept that those generated from within.

Thread IV will continue to work with survey results and will review the entire registration process to determine what portions to focus on for further study or investigation.

A sub-team of Thread IV will focus on instructional issues in the fall.  It is headed by Delryn Fleming and Sharon Burton.

Thread V deals with communicating with students.  Since a district-wide committee (chaired by Claude Caffee) is planning how to use Colleague to communicate with specific groups of students (such as those on probation), Thread V has been inactive. However, Thread V will work on ways for the Student Success Information System (SSIS) to be used to communicate with Brookhaven students and on ways to communicate better with students who are taught by adjunct instructors, who are often not on campus e-mail.

Other Activities:  This summer we will announce the Consultant Team which will be with us in April 2003 and prepare a progress report for SACS.

If you have any questions or comments about this update, please feel free to e-mail Ed Garcia or communicate with any other SCT members listed below.

Ed Garcia