I write this week’s message from the League for Innovation in the Community College’s "Innovations 2010," in what has turned out to be a fairly rainy Baltimore. But the weather has not put any damper on the great ideas and discussions inside. MCC is very well represented at the conference, with presentations on a wide range of topics from distance learning to veterans’ services to sustainability to diversity/inclusion and more. In fact, over a dozen MCC faculty and staff are leading sessions at the conference! So, out of this incredible cross section, let me take on the arduous task of pulling only two to highlight — each for a different reason:
Combating Incivility: Making Courtesy Common at MCC This session merits mention in part because it attracted an overflow crowd, suggesting that many of our colleagues are struggling with the very same concerns as we are at MCC. Among the crowd was none other than Johns Hopkins University Professor P. M. Forni, who is credited with raising the bar on the discussion of civility (see https://krieger.jhu.edu/civility/background.html). After the presentation, Professor Forni described MCC’s activities as cutting edge and among the most innovative and comprehensive that he has seen within education. Both the crowd and his assessment suggest that we are on the right track. Many thanks to all who have worked and continue to work on this important initiative!
The Sixth Act: Integrating Drama, the Classroom, and the Community This session is emblematic of the unfortunately too-true adage that sometimes we have to travel away from campus to learn about good work that is happening right at home. The Sixth Act won the Innovation of the Year award last year, but I didn’t understand the interdisciplinary breadth and potential power of the group until this presentation. The session also demonstrated the kinds of connections that can really only occur at conferences. One of the attendees at the presentation runs a similar program at Humber College, a sister League institution just up the road from MCC in Toronto. She stayed to talk with our presenters, and this connection led to a question: why don't we collaborate more frequently with Humber? I’ll be pursuing this discussion at the League Board meeting later this week with Humber’s president and my former League Rep colleague, John Davies.
Finally, on the conference macro scale, my position is that we can tell what we value by looking at how we allocate our resources. Well, if space on the conference program is a resource, then the following topics are at the top of the list for valuation on the community college innovation agenda (in no particular order): student readiness, accountability and assessment, economic development, college completion, online learning and open educational resources, diversity and inclusion, and effective classroom practice (including the integration of technology and, yes, humor). To no great surprise, all of these topics are framed within the current state of the economy and its impact on higher education funding. As I mentioned a few messages back, MCC is reframing innovation as rethinking and seeing anew, so it’s heartening to see that the items on the list coming out of Baltimore should sound quite familiar back in Rochester.
I’d love to hear your nominations for unsung MCC innovations — programs, services, events.Share them on the blog.
Anne Kress
President's Office
03/31/2010 |