Abstract

Accreditation 1999 Self Study Plan Agenda Summary

 

This section is a summary of the planning areas identified by the College through the self study process. The Planning Summary Team, which was composed of faculty, staff, administrators and a student, reviewed the accreditation planning agendas, the College Goals, the goals and objectives of the Strategic Plan, the Educational Master Plan, and the Facilities Plan to develop this planning summary. The Planning Summary Team utilized content analysis in identifying the common themes for this planning summary. The themes revolved around the following: Instructional Excellence, Student Services/Student Success, Diversity, Technology, and Future Development. This planning summary provides a thematic guide for future intuitional activities. The planning recommendations will be integrated into one of the following major plans of the College:

1.     Strategic Plan

2.     Educational Master Plan

3.     Facilities Plan

Standard One: Institutional Mission
   Strategic Plan: Future Development Goal

1.	The College will incorporate the Accrediation Self-Study Planning Agendas into the appropriate plans of the College, i.e., Strategic Plan, Educational Master Plan, Facilities Plan, and/or other planning docunents.

Standard Two: Instutional Integrity
    Educational Master Plan: Student Services Goal

1.	The schedule of classes will be revised to explain more procisely the step-by-step procedures of automated phone-in registration. In addition, the phone number will be listed in more areas of the schedule.
2.	Communications between the institution and students will be increased through additional or more frequent newsletters and bulletins. Attention to this need will benefit the students by providing them with more timely and complete information. Overall campus communications would also be improved.

    Strategic Plan: Organizational Culture Goal

3.	The College will expand the paragraph in the Student Handbook dealing with academic freedom and place it in the front of the publication for better visibility.
4.	Since it has been twelve years since the board policies dealing with academic freedom were drafted, the College will review and refine if necessary.

    Strategic Plan: Futute Development Goal

5.	Student surveys will be given on an annual basis to ensure the balance between personal convictions and proven conclusions in the classroom.

    Educational Master Plan: Instructional Excellence Goal

6.	This committee recommends that the district promote and support the reactivation of the academic Professional Ethics Committee through Faculty Senate to provide faculty-driven sanctions for unacceptable ethical conduct.

    Educational Master Plan: Technology Goal

7.	In future College publications, sections which discuss plagiarism will include use of materials obtained over the Internet.

    Strategic Plan: Diversity Goal

8.	The College will implement activities to promote affirmative action, staff diversity, student and gender equality, and utilize all available resources.

    Educational Master Plan: Student Services Goal

9.

The College will reconsider the hiring of full-time coaching staff. It is difficult to maintain stability and consistency with turnover involved with part-time staff. The College seems to have rebounded from its past financial difficulties, and is now hiring again. It is felt that serious consideration should be given to strengthening the various athletic programs by hiring more full-time coaching staff.

    Strategic Plan: External Relations Goal

10.	The College will continue to demonstrate institutional honesty and integrity with the commission and agrees to comply with commission standards, policies, guidelines, public disclosure, and self study requirements.

Standard Three: Institutional Effectiveness

    Strategic Plan: Future Development Goal

1.	The College's plans for the establishment of a centralized Research Department will be implemented as soon as possible and the College will improve its efforts to ensure that research is integrated with and supportive of instutional planning and evaluation.
2.	The Strategic Plan, Educational Master Plan, Facilities Master Plan, Program Review, and other planning documents shall be assessed, reviewed, monitored, and updated periodically, taking into account all available relevant data, in addition to social, economic, political, and technological trends.
3.	The College will hire a qualified educator skilled in institutional research and evaluation to administer the overall research and evaluation functions.
4.	The College will hire a Research Analyist, and a Data Processing Technician to increase the quality, accuracy, and the availability of data to support all institutional research needs.
5.	The College will adopt and implement a Plan for Institutional Assessment which uses outcome and effectiveness measures to evaluate the contribution of each program and service unit towards achieving the strategic goals of the district. This plan will integrate Accreditation Self-Study recommendations, Program Development and Review, and student satisfaction research into a comprehensive tool for measuring and improving effectiveness of the institution.
6.	The College will develop and implement a plan whereby the results of program reviews can be linked directly to the planning process of the institution.
7.	The College administration will distribute an executive summary of all planning documents campus wide as guides to be used for all program and department planning.
8.	The College administration will conduct staff development training workshops on the phases of the planning process to include, but not limited to, overview of all district plans, review progress of the implementation of the plans, monitoring the plans, revisions, evaluation, and renewal of the plans.
9.	Staff Development activities will be planned to assist all constituent groups in becoming more knowledgeable of the overall budget resource allocation process.
10.	The College will explore the feasibility of increasing staff to analyze and evaluate the results of reviews and surveys.
11.	The College will provide support for ongoing staff development activities relating to institutional effectiveness, outcomes, and encourage staff to attend workshops and conferences relating to institutional effectiveness, and assessment.
12.	The College will review and revise its planning documents to continue the pursuit of the goals of that specific plan and the College in general.
13.	The College will strengthen the means of documenting the achievement of College student outcomes, i.e. transfer outcomes, retention and persistance rates of students, degree completion, and longitudinal studies.
14.	A clearly defined process for evaluating the effects of the updated plans will be established to insure that these documents reflect the current changes of our student population.
15.	As the College implenents the new Educational Master Plan it will ensure that instutitional goals defined in the document are reviewed for effectiveness to consider the diverse needs of a community whose population is growing.
16.	The Administration will systematically conduct a review and modification of instutitional research efforts, evaluation processes, instutional plans, and planning processes to determine their ongoing utility for assessing institutional effectiveness.

Standard Four: Educational Programs

    Educational Master Plan: Instructional Excellence Goal

1.	The College will continue to examine programs and design cources and certificates that address the needs of older and returning students in workforce and professional development.
2.	The College will continue to develop new courses that recognize the accomplishments of minorities and serve as models of learning excellence for our increasingly diverse population.
3.	The College will continue to plan and develop alternitive scheduling, including increases in weekend college programs, open-entry/exit courses, and offerings for online delivery.
4.	Department chairs and division deans will continue to work together to identify ways to expand course offerings to meet the growing needs of our students. Special attention will be given to expand offerings into early morning and weekend time periods to accomodate further growth while minimizing impact on facilities during peak hours.
5.	The College will expand alternative course offerings and scheduling through the development of distance learning courses in accordance with requirements set fourth by the California Community College Distance Education Technical Advisory Committee recommendations and through our own program review and curriculum committee review process.
6.	Faculty and administration will continuously strive to work together to provide sufficent resources and methodologies to deliver top quality instructions consistent with our mission statement.
7.	Through the program review process, the College will examine the potential development of new vocational certificates to accommodate the increases in federally and state-mandated student populations (CalWORKS) and to meet the needs of high desert residents for lifelong learning.
8.	The College will continue its commitment to an upgrade for software and hardware that will allow more flexibility in generating reports from MIS data.
9.	The College will continue to assess the needs of all participating department, faculty, and staff at Victor Valley College.
10.	The College will assess alternatives in classroom scheduling to ensure adequate space availability for students and faculty.
11.	The College will continue to plan for state-of-the-art classrooms and facilities to accomodate technological growth and support alternative means of program delivery.
Educational Master Plan: Instructional Excellence
12.	The College will increase communication between counseling services and instructional units by advertising more of the special programs available to students. The College will facilitate more communication between instructional planners and counselors to assure that advisement is coordinated between all units involved in providing services to students.
13.	Victor Valley College will continue to subject new courses to rigorous review prior ro adoption.
14.	Traditional programs and degrees need to be examined in light of developing parrallel certificate programs of appropiate lentgh, breadth, depth, and sequencing of courses to increase service for workforce training and development and meet industry-specific needs.
15.	The Vocational and Academic Deans will strive to form partnerships with area businesses and educational leaders to promote customized Contact Education and other educational programs of study in accordance with our mission.
16.	The College will support programs that address special need populations, especially in projected growth areas such as CalWORKS, ESL and Basic Skills.
17.	The College will strive to create a more formalized method of distributing course outlines of records and sylabi to adjunct instructors.
18.	The College will increase participation of adjunct instructors in workshops designed to analyze grading methods and minimum standards.
19.	The College will maintain high standards for ensuring that new general education courses meet all general education requirements as defined in Title V.
20.	The College will collaborate with the Staff Development Office to promote increased workshops for adjunct instructors to identify core standards of competencies in general education and to promote a more consistent adherence to minimum standards as reflected in grading policies and assessment measures.
21.	As a pat of the Partnership in Excellence initiative, Victor Valley College will implement plans to formally assess the placement progress of degree and transfor students.
22.	The College will consider implementation of summary exit tests to students in general education English and Math to use as feedback for instructors.
23.	Students should be surveyed to assess whether the information in the catalog, its supplements and various handouts are sufficent to understand the general education pattern and the requirements for the Associate degree.
24.	The Academic Senate, through the Curriculum Committee, will consider a policy delineating a coherent policy for the courses to be selected for the general education pattern for the Associate's degree.
25.	The Academic Senate, through the Curriculum Committee, will survey the courses currently in the general education pattern for the Associates's Degree to ensure a relative degree in rigor in the breadth of courses within each category.
26.	The College will implement any changes the Academic Senate approves for the general education pattern for the Associate's degree.
27.	The Academic Senate, the Office of Student Learning, and the Deans, will encourage better communication between the credit and non-credit instructional faculty. In addition, procedures for informing the Curriculum Committee will be considered.
28.	The College needs to scrutinize those disciplines that are chronically short of adjunct instructors and give careful consideration to those areas' requests for new faculty positions. The adjunct faculty have developed a core group of individuals that are actively researching how other campuses treat their adjuct instructors. The College should carefully consider the information brought fourth from that committee.
29.	The issue of enforcing pre- and co-requisites at the point of registration needs to be addressed.
30.	The College should continue with the contract to develop faculty familiarity with Technological Medicated Instruction and consider whether that contract service should be transfered to a permanent position.
31.	Flex day activities will include a session on the preparation of the syllabi which will retain academic freedom yet include as much as is necessary to form a contract between the instructors and the student. The completeness and depth of the syllabus have a direct relationship to student complaints after grades are disseminated. Grading standards can be tightened up by describing the standards in more detail in the syllabus and by maintaining a strict adherence to those standards.
32.	The Office of Student Learning will include a statement such as the following in the Victor Valley College catelog: The College accepts most lower division courses from colleges accredited by the following instutitions: Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, The Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges, North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc./ Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools/Commission on Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges/Accrediting Commision for Senior Colleges and Universities (see Accredited Institutions of Post-secondary Education Handbook xi). This will help students know whether or not pervious course work will transfoer to Victor Valley College.
33.	The College will include in the Victor Valley College catelog clear information about the Pass Along agreement as defined by the Chancellors office.
34.	The College will better publicize the Assist Program.
35.	Victor Valley College administration will continue to encourage faculty to take advantage of the class reassigned time to develop classes using technology mediated instruction.
36.	Victor Valley College administration and staff development office should plan in-house awareness of the Chancellors Partnerships for Excellence for faculty and department chairs. Victor Valley College should also access appropriate materials for this mandated activity from the Internet.
37.	Victor Valley College should continue to enhance the program review procedure that is now in place and encourage stricter adherence for the non-instructional side of campus.
38.	Victor Valley College will continue to encourage the development of classes taught by non-traditional methods. Victor Valley College will also monitor the effectiveness of the current courses taught by non-traditional methods.

Standard Five: Student Support and Development

    Educational Master Plan: Student Services Goal

1.	The Dean of Students and the Matriculation Steering Committee will design a comprehensive, consistent process that provides clear, accurate and consistent information through many different delivery methods including translation and bilingual staff.
2.	The Admissions Office needs up-to-date computer hardware and software to meet the needs of current admission standards. The Admissions Office will work with MIS (Management Information Systems) to develop an electronic admissions application.
3.	The Admissions Office will work in collaboration with the MIS Office to enhance inter-departmental communication, cooperation, and team work, to facilitate the requirements necessary in processing the admissions application of a new or returning student.
4.	Students will be surveyed to determine whether the institution is providing current and accurate information.
5.	Priority registration will be outlined in the class schedule. the refund policy in the scheldule will be reworded to clearly outline the policy.
6.	Brochures on specialized programs will be upheld annually and distributed to various key locations such as Student Services Building, Student Activities Building, Library and Learning Center.
7.	Increase publicity on services and policies for students and increase satisfaction with usage of services and survey students to determine their degree of satisfaction and use of these services.
8.	Review all aspects of the Matriculation Program and revise the plans accordingly.
9.	Reorganize Admission/Records/Registar's Office and improve procedures to service students.
10.	Increase outreach to VVC students interested in transfer to four-year colleges. The Dean of Students and Director of Outreach will implement a High School Outreach program.
11.	Improve access to needed records by counselors (entry credit, degree audit, repeat course grades).
12.	Solidify ACCESS staffing amd improve access to adaptive equipment.
13.	Improve Athletic funding, counseling, and fund raising.
14.	Improve reasearch capabilities for student services.
15.	Hire an additional ESL instructor to help meet the demands of a growing ethnically diverse student population.
16.	See that all departments and programs that provide student educational support services are centrally located, preferably in nearby buildings or in one facility.
17.	The Student Services staff and Associated Student Body will collaborate to develop a survey to assess the involvement of students in planning and evaluating student suport and development services.
18.	The Academic Senate, the administration, and Associated Students will increase and allow student participation in shared governance, and joint committees, by boarding the recruitment efforts for committe and task force participants from the student population.
19.	The results of the CPT survey about the disparate impact, general course impact, CPT cut scores, and the faculty/student placement opinion survey will be analyzed and distributed campus wide.
20.	The assessment services and exemptions procedure will be more widely publicized.
21.	To continue Victor Valley College's commitment to quality services it is recommended that several facilities be expanded to accommodate the increasing student population.
Educational Master Plan: Technology Goal
22.	Student Services needs to upgrade its computer hardware and software to better serve the students through rapidly changing technology (i.e. Electronic Admissions Application, on line registration, Financial Aid Application).
Educational Master Plan: Student Services Goal
23.	To better serve our increasing non-English speaking population, Victor Valley College will need to implement a cultural and languague training program for appropriate staff. Additionally, more staff will be needed to continue our commitment to quality service.
24.	The College will assess the need for expanded services during evenings and weekends.
Strategic Plan: Diversity Goal
25.	To ensure the success of minority recruitment, the College needs to make portions of College publications such as regestration, matriculation, financial aid, selected parts of the catelog, courses and teacher evaluation forms, and student satisfaction surveys available in both English and Spanish.
26.	The College will review the need for a Spanish-language extension that callers can be connected to when phoning Victor Valley College.
27.	The College will promote diversity by infusing multiculturalism into the education curriculum. Toward this goal, the College could create a multicultural certificate and/or degree.
28.	The College will provide cross cultural training in existing classes (i.e. Sociology, Foreign Languages, Psychology) to expose students to cultural and ethnic differences. Such efforts would promote multicultural understanding and sensitity. As an example, students in a business communication course might get together with students from an ESL course to discuss ethnic/national stereotypes.
29.	The College will infuse multiculturalism into alternate delivery systems. Alternate styles of delivery might include diversity awareness training for faculty and staff at Flex Day. Workshops could be provided for students through outreach to student clubs and organizations.
30.	The College will expand Cooperative Education to include sites that provide opportunities for matriculation training. Additional site locations (i.e. welfare, public schools, disabled services) could be developed that expose students to different cultures.
31.	The College will continue the hiring of minority faculty, especially faculty in key academic/student affairs areas such as Child Development, Assessment, Financial Aid, Counseling, and Enrollment Services and individuals to translate (catelog, class schedules, etc.) into Spanish languages.
32.	The College will provide easily accessible bilingual speaking personnel in technical assistance areas such as computer labs and learning services, as well as in Student Services.
33.	The College will revise and implement the action plans and time lines in the diversity section of the Strategic Plan.8
34.	The College will conduct the student assessment of the College environment annually and utilize the results for planning and improvement.
Strategic Plan: Future Development Goal
35.	The College will conduct a survey to measure students' satisfaction during 1998/99 school year and annually thereafter.
36.	The appropriate staff will be trained to operate and use the image scanning equipment for the efficent and effective management of student records.
37.	Results of the current Student Satisfaction Survey need to be coupled with surveys form previous years to assist in addressing trends and developing plans to improve Student Services.
38.	The College will systematically evaluate the appropriateness, adequacy, and effectiveness of its student services and will use the results of the evaluation as basis for the improvement.