4. Chronology and Process
In approximately late July 1997, Victor Valley College secured external counsel (The Resource Group) for technical assistance and related services leading to the production of this multi-year Educational Master Plan for the college. TRG has assisted numerous colleges and universities to produce educational master plans, academic master plans, campus master plans, and the like. Here is a chronology of key events and decision points that facilitated the development of the Victor Valley College Educational Master Plan.
Initial Meetings to Discern Methodologies and Procedures
Beginning in late July 1997 and continuing through October 1997, the project team of TRG, led by Dr. Esteban Soriano, met on at least seven occasions with the core VVC team to identify and resolve basic procedural and EMP scope issues. The campus core team always involved at least President Halisky, VP Salterelli, and Director of Customer Service Darlene Castleman. On at least two occasions, VP Jim Pell and staff from data operations participated in these sessions.
The purpose of these sessions was to address such structural issues as:
̃ What to call the publication
̃ What time period would be involved
̃ Which divisions or units would be involved
̃ What historical data were available
̃ How to integrate existing elements such as strategic plans, program reviews, earlier drafts of an educational master plan, the Vision statement, campus mission statement, etc.
̃ Identifying a campus calendar to ensure the availability of faculty and staff for assignments and the ability to produce required drafts of plan sections
̃ Determining whether to have the plan based on program clusters, departments, or divisions
̃ Identifying the process of who would be responsible in each program cluster or major to produce initial plan elements, who would be the check point, who would work with faculty to finalize plan elements (e.g., goals, objectives, activities, resource requirements), the role of VP Salterelli, the role of the President, and the role of the consultants
̃ Developing and finalizing a comprehensive outline of each proposed chapter and section so that the outline would guide the identification of which personnel were best capable of drafting which sections in specific chapters
The sessions were also designed to edit and finalize and series of existing forms and formats related to capturing the planning input of faculty, lead faculty, program cluster chairs, staff, and campus administrators. These forms allowed each participant to organize their input in common ways through the use of common forms that were both hard copy and electronic.
The sessions were further designed to finalize what policies would be in place for what training would take place, the amount of time faculty and administrators would be given to prepare their goals and objectives, to whom those initial drafts would be submitted and the process of review and refinement, how the draft material would flow from faculty to the VP and ultimately to the President for final review and approval for inclusion in the master draft EMP to be prepared by the consultant, and then the process of editing and finalizing the draft EMP into an acceptable final, public EMP version.
Each of these tasks was accomplished during the course of the meetings. Seven versions of the draft comprehensive plan outline were created before a final outline was approved by the campus core team. Four versions of the procedures instructions and input forms were edited before a final version was approved.
Creating Baseline and Historical Data
During this same time period, the consultant and internal project team worked with the data unit of the college to identify what campus data were available for analysis and display on such topics as enrollment history, faculty and staff profiles, graduation rates, growth rates, seat time and FTES, and other topics important for documenting trends. Just over 20 comprehensive tables were identified as being possible to construct, and the data unit spent about three weeks preparing drafts of those tables. In addition, a similar number of community-based data displays were prepared by the consultant to describe area population trends, economic activity, workforce projections, and the like.
Creating and Hosting Training Sessions
The decision was made to collect academic planning data by program cluster. There are over 30+ program clusters at VVC. The campus and consultant prepared a listing of each cluster and its “lead” faculty person.
The consultant worked with Ms. Castleman in September and October 1997 to identify four one-hour EMP training sessions for faculty and staff to be conducted during November - December 1997 on various days and times in the VVC Board Room. Faculty could attend any one of the four training sessions most convenient to their schedules. Letters were prepared by Ms. Castleman and sent to each cluster lead faculty member and virtually all campus faculty announcing the training sessions and asking them to register with Ms. Castleman in a session they preferred to attend.
In all, about 47 faculty, staff, and administrators attended the sessions, representing virtually ever program cluster (except perhaps two). In the case of one program cluster where the lead faculty member could not make any of the sessions, the consultant returned to the college for a one-on-one session. At least three lead faculty engaged in follow-up telephone consultations with the consultant to provide further training.
The training sessions were conducted by the consultant. Each attendee was provided a folder containing the comprehensive plan outline, all forms and formats to be used to capture their input, a detailed instruction sheet on the process and deadlines, a sample set of input forms that featured a sample goal, objective, activities, and resource requirements, and a flow chart of how the process would move along from this period forward until a final EMP was prepared. A sheet also included contact information to receive additional information or assistance from the consultant.
The consultant provided overheads for all sheets, answered all questions, distributed extra copies of printed input forms and then passed out to each attendee electronic fill-in form diskettes that corresponded to the type of computer and software program the attendee used.
Ms. Castleman was provided with ten additional training material sets and diskettes that were available to any non-attendee or an attendee who had misplaced his/her set.
Generating the “Pre-Distribution” Draft Version
Faculty members were given from the period of November 1997 to nearly the end of January 1998 (10 weeks) to prepare the goals/objectives/strategies/resource needs forms for their clusters. They were to turn them into VP Salterelli who would review them and work with lead faculty should revisions be needed.
Given the crush of campus events and other pressures, the President extended the input time from faculty to early March 1998.
After meeting with VP Salterelli and making any revisions necessary, lead faculty members submitted both hard and electronic cluster plans to Ms. Castleman. She tracked which program clusters had submitted their plans and which were still outstanding. Beginning in the second week of March 1998, the consultant began receiving the program cluster plans. Where electronic diskettes were missing, the consultant scanned or re-entered the hard copies. All of the submissions were then strung together according to which chapter they would be featured in and the alpha order in which they would appear. The consultant worked with Ms. Castleman through the second week of May to receive the input forms from the remaining, last lead faculty members.
During this same time period of November 1997 through early May 1998, the other sections and chapter elements were being drafted by the consultant and specifically assigned to VVC staff, including the President, VP Salterelli, VP Pell, Ms. Castleman, the PIO, and others.
All of the above material was strung together in a “pre-distribution” draft that made no attempt to edit any of the materials. Copies of this version were prepared for the core campus team and two meetings were held in late April and May 1998 at VVC to go through this version for any obvious errors, holes, major corrections, and the like. This version was then edited by the consultant group for obvious grammatical errors and layout errors.
Generating the “Internal Edit” Draft Version and Plans for the Final Version
The result of these efforts was the production of an “internal edit” version. This version was finalized and presented to the campus during the last week of May 1998. Five bound copies and a camera ready copy of this version was prepared for the campus and delivered to the President. The consultant had a set of final meetings with the President and core campus team in May and early June 1998 to review the purpose and next steps in the review, editing, and finalization of the plan.
It was determined by the core campus team and the President that the edit version would be widely disseminated to deans, VPs, key lead faculty and others so that the version could be modified in any way to properly capture the most current plans and goals of each cluster and division. With the introduction of several new deans and senior administrators, this process allowed their input and revisions to earlier drafts and submissions.
The President had sections of the plan copied and distributed to his senior administrative team at a retreat during the summer of 1998. More sections were copied and distributed to deans, unit heads, senior administrators, and lead faculty as they returned to school in September 1998. Their charge was to review their sections, update any goals, objectives or plans and ensure that the proposed activities were consistent with the overall institutional goals and objectives for the next 5-7 years.
This campus review process generated numerous edit marks, changes, and section rewrites. Those items were forwarded to the consultant beginning mid November 1998 through mid January 1999. A “working final” draft was prepared about January 20, 1999 and underwent final review, comment, and presentation to Trustees, faculty, administrators, staff, and others. Those comments were captured and incorporated into this final approved version of the Plan.