Last week I attended my first League for Innovation in the Community College board meeting as MCC President. Several themes emerged from that gathering—many of which echo those I shared a few weeks back that arose at the ACCT meeting, but some that strike a new chord. In brief . . .
--It may not be a surprise that student retention, success, and completion are on all League presidents’ radar. But, these goals are being accompanied by stronger accountability measures in several states. Washington, in particular, has a student success accountability framework that has drawn considerable interest from external funding sources, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Also, all colleges are seeking ways to scale up retention and completion initiatives that have proven successful within specific populations.
--Student enrollment at all League colleges is growing dramatically, and all of us are being challenged by capacity issues. Because of significant unemployment rates in some of the states represented within the League, some colleges have grown more than 15% in the past year, and all have grown at a much higher rate than expected. This increase is coming at the very time that almost every college is currently facing or is about to face state budget cuts. Thus, there was considerable discussion in both the board meeting and the League reps meeting about how we respond to these challenges innovatively and collaboratively within and across colleges while keeping student access to quality education as our central mission.
--Sustainability, whether in academic programs or college operations, continues to be a topic of considerable interest among the colleges and within the League. MCC has submitted two articles for consideration in the League’s upcoming publication on the topic. As the conversation on sustainability matures, it is becoming more complex. Some colleges are developing green buildings that will function as interactive labs to study sustainable building techniques and green technologies. Others are using sustainability as an outreach activity with their communities, and many are moving from general programs in sustainability to very specific career tracks in the green economy.
--And, the League announced its new conference: STEMTech. This conference will replace the Conference on Information Technology. As the name suggests, STEMTech focuses on sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics across the curriculum. Given the fundamental role community colleges play in providing instruction in these fields and in recruiting students into the complete array of STEM-related disciplines, this is an exciting opportunity for faculty and staff to share their innovative approaches. The first STEMTech conference is being launched with great fanfare at a great location: it will be held next October 31-November 3 in Orlando, Florida (actually on Disney World property). Look for more details in the coming months.
Finally, whenever a League college has a new president, it must go through a reaffirmation process. MCC will submit its application in advance of the spring board meeting, which will be held in late March. An internal group is hard at work compiling the information for the document, which is no small task, and I am certain that the outcome will be positive. MCC has long been a leader within the League, and each day, I see more and more reasons why.
Next week, the budget process . . . something old, something new.
Anne Kress
President's Office
10/28/2009 |