Structuring Faculty Engagement: Lessons Learned from Three Michigan Colleges

1. Structuring Faculty Engagement: Lessons Learned from Three Michigan Colleges Mark Kinney, Bay de Noc Community College Jenny Schanker, Lake Michigan College Edie Woods, Macomb Community College

2. Learning Objectives • Learn faculty engagement pitfalls and promising practices from the experiences of three Michigan community colleges • Consider the application of these practices to the challenges they face at their own institutions

3. Bay de Noc Community College • Located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, with campuses in Escanaba and Iron Mountain • Fall 2010 Enrollment: 2,742 • 48 FT faculty • 173 adjunct faculty • Union environment • AtD entry date: 2007

4. Lake Michigan College • Located in Benton Harbor • Fall 2011 enrollment: 4,662 • 55 FT faculty • 319 adjunct faculty • Union environment • AtD entry date: 2007

5. Macomb Community College • Location in Warren and Clinton Twp • Fall 2011 enrollment: 24,325 • 241 FT faculty • 727 adjunct faculty • Union environment • AtD entry date: 2009

6. Faculty and Quality Improvement Processes • Challenges in recruiting faculty • Challenges in maintaining engagement • Lessons learned: Our “best practices”

7. Challenges in Recruiting Faculty Full-time faculty Attitudes inertia, suspicion, resistance Workload union contracts Adjunct faculty Compensation for non-teaching activities

8. Challenges in Maintaining Engagement Organizational complexity Meeting times Sustaining momentum towards longer-term goals Learning curve for using data Bureaucracy Leadership turnover

9. Lessons Learned Engage faculty leaders Encourages faculty buy-in Sustains effort and progress Use existing organizational structures Connect new to existing Widen circle of engagement Embrace failure honestly

10. Lessons Learned, cont. Communicate widely and often Builds enthusiasm, reduces suspicion Practice patience with people and processes Retirements New technology, research, ideas Collaborate with colleagues at other colleges

11. Michigan’s Center for Student Success • A hub connecting leadership, administrators, faculty, and staff in their efforts to improve student outcomes, emphasizing linkages between practice, research, and policy • Fosters collaboration among 28 community colleges in a decentralized state

12. MCSS, cont. • Statewide faculty engagement • Center for Student Success Advisory Council • Achieving the Dream Core Team Leader Network • Faculty Leadership Initiative • State Policy Working Groups

13. Scenario Analysis • Copies of scenario distributed • Groups of 3-4, from different colleges • Discuss what you could do to help • Apply lessons learned and your own ideas • Debrief with a few group reports

14. Discussion • Remain in groups • Discuss challenges you identified at the beginning of the workshop • How could you apply lessons learned? • Exchange contact information

15. Questions? • Mark Kinney kinneym@baycollege.edu Twitter: @markbkinney • Jenny Schanker jschanker@mcca.org Twitter: @MCCACSS • Edie Woodswoodse@macomb.edu