CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FACING TODAY’S COMMUNITY COLLEGES: PRESIDENTIAL PERSPECTIVES

1. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FACINGTODAY’S COMMUNITY COLLEGES: PRESIDENTIAL PERSPECTIVES Dr. Stephen B. Kinslow President/CEO Thursday, May 7, 2009

2. President’s Perspective:Opportunities & Challenges • Aren’t They Really One and the Same? • No Shortage of Challenges • No Shortage of Opportunities • You’re Never Really “There” • Engage or Stagnate

3. President’s Perspective:Core Challenge Creating an Institutional Culture Characterized by: • High Standards for Everyone • Collaborative Goal-Setting • Sustained Buy-In by Core Constituencies • Accountability System Measuring the Right Things • Data-based Decision Making • Willingness to Embrace Change

4. President’s Perspective:Core Opportunity • Few organizations are as well-poised as the community college to positively impact lives and communities.

5. Some Context About ACC • 2nd largest higher education institution in Central Texas • Among 10 largest one-college/multi-campuses system in U.S. • 8 county service area (urban and rural) • 7 campuses/ 9 centers • 37,000 credit students/7,000 non-credit

6. Some Context About ACC • Integrated Master Plan and Budget Model • Master Plan driven by State “Closing the Gaps” Initiative • Institutional “With a Past” • In Transition

7. Some Context About ACC ACC’s Core Goals • Expand access • Especially among traditionally under-served • Especially among economically disadvantaged • Meet Closing the Gaps enrollment goals • Expand Instructional Capacity • Increase Student Success • Expand Tax Base to Support Regional Growth

8. Stevie World:My Biases About Community Colleges • Under-funded and have to scrap for all we get • Those with the most influence least understand us • Historically, we’ve been happy with crumbs • We rely too much on anecdotal information • Old attitudes/behaviors don’t work in our best interest • Community college leaders must be more aggressive

9. Challenges Advocacy/Funding • Community colleges misunderstood and discounted • Must aggressively challenge stereotypes • Impact on economic development not well-known • Role in strengthening the middle class not well –understood • Must refuse to be ignored in public policy

10. Opportunities Advocacy/Funding • The numbers are on our side/use them • “Connect the dots” around economic development • Chambers and business organizations – engage them • Four-year systems must become more active partners with community colleges • Trustees are under-utilized messengers for advancing the community college • Faculty, staff, and students are under-utilized ambassadors • “Branding” must be constant effort

11. Advocacy Example I am ACC Video http://www.austincc.edu/marketing/media/closingthegaps.php Or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD784XgRi2g

12. Advocacy/FundingCore Messages • Community colleges are the primary gateway to higher education and training • Community colleges fuel economic development • Community colleges strengthen the middle class • Community colleges sustain critical societal infrastructure • Community colleges are quality institutions • As community colleges grow, four-year systems grow

13. Advocacy/FundingCore Messages • Access & affordability matter to everyone • Higher education levels = • quality worker pipeline to attract/expand desired industry • better jobs, higher salaries • increased local consumer spending • larger local tax bases • more equitable distribution of taxes among larger population • Healthier, more involved citizens • Lower social services costs

14. ChallengeAccountability Movement • Is “movement” the right word?? • Incomplete and lots of bad data • Imposing 4-year model on community colleges (different animal) • Shift from traditional measures to educational outcomes • From quantitative to qualitative • From belief in inherent value of education to proof of results • Does this movement work for or against community colleges?

15. OpportunitiesAccountability Movement • Sunset review of all current measures? • Lose some, and focus on the right things? • Student affairs can become more integrated into core institutional processes through increased focus on changes in student behaviors, skill sets • Design outcomes-based processes • Better internal alignment of institutional resources • Integration of accountability systems for P-16 continuum • Define what faculty need to know about their programs, give them that information, and support the reform they will seek

16. OpportunitiesAccountability Movement • We have to plan for strong faculty • Faculty will use data for program improvement, but what do we give them? • OIEA “snapshot” example

17. OIE Dashboard

18. ChallengesP-16 Reform • Misaligned sectors of public education undermine public confidence in education • Too many people fall through the cracks • Business, industry, and government, are using the dysfunctions of the system as rationale for giving/doing less • Perception that it’s all about high school students • what about under-educated/under-employed adults?

19. OpportunitiesP-16 Reform • Identification and measurement of college/career readiness standards • Opening dialog between K-12 and higher ed • Creating/strengthening college-going culture • Treating the system as a continuum • Broadening the perspectives of external constituencies

20. OpportunitiesP-16 Reform Examples • Course Realignment based on college/career readiness standards • Improved/expanded summer youth & bridge programs • Shared professional development opportunities • Improved metrics for K-12 and higher ed • Lessons apply to adult ed initiatives as well

21. ChallengesInstruction • Students changing faster than our institutions • Faculty buy-in/engagement is “spotty” • Relevant instruction requires closer ties to the outside world • We must re-think and challenge the structures we create • Engagement must be an expectation, not an enhancement or option • We have to give faculty more tools to assess their effectiveness

22. OpportunitiesInstruction • Stimulus funding • Greater business & industry input - not just workforce programs • Community-based partnerships to leverage resources • More flexibility

23. OpportunitiesInstruction • Leadership in P-16 initiatives • Foundations/External Giving

24. OpportunitiesInstruction • Blended and horizontal crossover technologies: • Continuing Ed and Credit Instruction (with cross-over tracks); mobility tracks • Nanotechnology aligns STEM disciplines, electronics, semi-conductor manufacturing, robotics • Gaming blends arts, animation, creative writing, architectural and engineering computer aided design, etc. • External Advisory Committees for programs other than workforce education • Participation in local Chambers

25. OpportunitiesInstruction • Student Engagement Must Be Embeded • Campus Compact • Aligning PTK, Honors Programs, Service Learning, Civic Engagement, Learning Communities, Student Life, El Centro, African-American Students Center, etc. • CCSSE, CCFSSE, SENSE, ATD

26. OpportunitiesInstruction External partnerships must increase support: • Capital Idea • Clinical Education Center at Brackenridge • Games Development Institute • Nanoelectronics Workforce Initiative • Renewable Energy Collaborative

27. OpportunitiesInstruction Heavy support for technology, training, and professional development: • Major course redesign, with substantial use of technology • Supplemental instruction, discipline-specific • NCAT

28. OpportunitiesInstruction Flexibility Flexibility/Responsiveness Must be Expected: • We have to question the processes we put in place • Open entry/exit must become the norm • Greater flexibility in delivery of student services must occur • Modified case management for most “at-risk”

29. ChallengeInstruction • Let’s destroy the ‘Business Model’ Approach to Education • Is a student the same as a piece of steel, a cardboard package, a microchip??

30. Other Leadership Challenges How do you make it happen... • Trustees and CEOs functioning as an effective team? • Faculty and staff involved in institutional advancement? • Fostering innovation and minimizing risk? • Communicating high expectations of students, and establishing caring teaching/learning environment? • Responsible stewardship of mother earth -greening/sustainability? • Preparing for the worst kinds of emergencies? • Succession planning to ensure continuum of leadership?

31. For More Information About the Austin Community College District Dr. Stephen B. Kinslow President/CEO Austin Community College District 5930 Middle Fiskville Road, Suite 501 Austin, TX 78752 ceo@austincc.edu 512-223-7598 512-223-7185 Fax ACC Web Site: http://www.austincc.edu/pres ACC Master Plan: http://www.austincc.edu/masterplan/ Copy of this Presentation: http://www.austincc.edu/pres/communications/CCLPIntersessionPresentation5-7-09.ppt