Abstract

The college is doing an excellent job in meeting the four accreditation standards as a whole. The one area where the college will be focusing its efforts over the next five years will be in the development of a systematic process to effectively use Institutional Research to measure student learning and identify areas of need to improve student learning.

Standard 1: Institutional Mission and Effectiveness

• The college is involved in institutional planning, program review, and unit planning across the institution. The college planning process is integrated as part of the new Educational Master Plan.

• The college has developed a planning system with student learning at the core. The general direction for college wide planning is developed by the Council on Institutional Development (CID) and includes the involvement of the Academic and Classified Senates, Administrative Council, Student Government and the Curriculum Committee. The CID was the major forum utilized for campus dialogue of the accreditation standard themes.

• There has been renewed enthusiasm for the planning process at Ventura College due to the successful passing of the Measure S bond. The Ventura College Facilities Master Plan has been developed to guide the future development of the Ventura College campus, not only through the expenditure of the Measure S bond funds—but beyond. The master plan is based on the Educational Master Plan developed by the college and the JCM Group, Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations, the Measure S project descriptions and the Facilities Needs Analysis.

• The college has made a strong beginning with staff development efforts to educate all staff on the importance and need to accomplish institutional wide research on student learning outcomes. There are, plans to build upon current longitudinal studies on student success and student and staff perception surveys to develop more course and program specific learning outcome studies.

• The college is in the process of hiring an institutional researcher for its grants and contracts program. This will be the first step in collecting and analyzing pertinent campus data. The Executive Vice President of Student Learning and the Academic Senate, through appropriate campus committees, building upon previously established efforts will lead the charge to define student learning outcomes and develop a plan for how the college will address the assessment of those outcomes.

• The Executive Vice President of Student Learning, the Vice President of Business Services with the college’s Administrative Council will coordinate a systematic review to track the manifested latent and consequences of reductions in service (due to the past budget shortfalls) for use in future decision making.

• The analysis from the Activities Matrix Survey solicited from the college lends support to the conclusion that the college’s planning process is closely linked to college goals. Furthermore, it was noted that the college, as well as particular program and services areas are actively participating in the implementation of unit projects and activities resulting in accomplishments that support the college’s revised goals.

Standard 2: Student Learning Programs and Services

• Ventura College assures that information about its programs is clear and accurate. All degrees and certificates are clearly described in the course catalog, which is available in hard copy and online. The commitment to with which the college makes this information available and accurate supports the college’s commitment to of institutional integrity.

• The college will work through its collaborative processes to establish mechanisms to determine placements from its vocational programs—this includes working with the State Chancellor’s Office and the State Employment Development Department to effect a computer match to determine the number of graduates, who obtain employment upon completion of their vocational programs.

• The college is committed to making better use of technology to gather data and to market its programs, such as; establishing email groups to communicate with students and an alumni association email group.

• Currently, student learning outcomes are included in course descriptions. The course objectives conform to Bloom’s Taxonomy of measurable student learning outcomes, and the course outlines indicate measures of student outcomes such as essays, research and tests. As the Curriculum Committee reviews new and revised course outlines, it looks for the delineation of higher order thinking skills, thus attending to the theme of student learning outcomes.

• The Curriculum Committee and the Program Review committees will be given the charge to identify the relationship between course objectives and student learning outcomes; to plan and implement guidelines for identification and development of student learning outcomes for courses, programs, certificates, and degrees; and provide leadership in assessing student achievement and appropriateness of those outcomes based on the success of certificated and degree recipients.

• The Curriculum Committee and Program Review Committee will assess and make a recommendation to Council on Institutional Development (CID) as to the appropriateness of accepting the Palomar College Learning Outcome Goals as a foundation for the development of learning outcome measures for specific programs and services.

• In accepting transfer credits to fulfill degree requirements, Ventura College certifies that the expected learning outcomes for transferred courses are comparable to the student learning outcomes of its own courses. The college uses both the California Articulation Number (CAN) system and Articulation System Stimulating Inter-institutional Student Transfer (ASSIST) resources to grant transfer credit to incoming students.

• The Ventura College Counseling Department will continue its efforts to increase counseling hours, but it will need to restructure to provide quality services to students. The Counseling Department Program Review identifies a need for the exploration of alternative delivery systems, including group advisement, orientation courses and workshops, Internet classes, distance learning classes, and faculty/counseling workshops.

• The Counseling Department needs to assess, and, if desirable, expand the use of small group counseling piloted during spring 2003 and the effectiveness of online orientation materials as part of this process. It must define more fully the purpose of the small groups to the staff and students and identify a better system for attracting new students into group counseling to alleviate the long waits for a drop-by counselor. Also, the department will gather quantitative and qualitative student feedback on the helpfulness and timeliness of the service process.

• Ventura College will develop a systematic way of evaluating Learning Center services; and gather evidence that contributes to the achievement of student learning outcomes, and to use these results for improvement. Benchmarks need to be established and data needs to be collected and evaluated to determine if the benchmarks have been met. Possible courses of action would include tracking usage trends; continuing to survey students and faculty to determine satisfaction with Learning Center services; and piloting a practical research method to regularly measure the effectiveness of the various teaching strategies that incorporate technology in the achievement of student learning.

• The Library and Learning Resource Center has grown dramatically over the past year, and it will continue to develop its operation in the period between the writing of this report and the accreditation visit. Nevertheless, the current information is generally representative. Any changes will be documented and presented to the visitors. The most significant change will be the opening of the new Library and Learning Resource Center during the 2004-2005 academic year.

• Services at the East Campus Center have been expanded to include regular staff visits from Financial Aid, the Educational Assistance Center, and the Student Health Center. A bilingual (English/Spanish) Admissions and Records clerk, hired to assist with registration, acts as a liaison between the Center and the main campus, assists in the handling of all residency determinations, and provides better accountability for the collection of college fees. Weekly hours for bilingual general counseling, as well as general assessment and orientation, have doubled. Plans are in place to create and Internet Café and expand library services at the East Campus, as well.

• In support of the One Book/One State Program, and English Department faculty member and a library staff member worked with faculty, staff and managers to develop One Book/One Campus, an innovative six week cross discipline collaboration that included teaching and learning about Grapes of Wrath and the topics surrounding it. The program made the novel accessible to all students on campus, regardless of skill level, learning style or language sophistication. This unique learning opportunity continued in 2003, when One Book/One Campus featured The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien. This will now be a Ventura College annual event.

Standard 3: Resources

• The Ventura College Staff Development Committee has started to encourage all creators of professional development activities on campus to incorporate evaluation with learning outcomes into their event structure. Events held within the past year or so have all included evaluation components. Staff development groups utilize many of these planning and follow up components. Many faculty members incorporate voluntary evaluation components into classroom activities. Many divisions and departments encourage the use of such classroom assessment techniques and provide information on how to use various methods effectively, these efforts need to be documented in a systematic manner.

• The VCCCD has addressed the ongoing issue of inadequate full and part-time faculty and has a plan in place to continue to address that concern. Ventura College is in the process of hiring 23 new faculty members—20 of which are on tenure track positions, commencing for the fall 2004 semester. However, the numbers of classified staff remains a concern. In employee surveys of the work environment, staff members from across the college regularly express the need for additional classified staff. The college operates with the same size staff it had when 20% fewer students (by headcount) attended. Similarly, the college operates with fewer administrative staff. The college will be addressing these issues, however, until budget concerns lessen, they will remain in the planning and developmental stages. Managers will address these issues related to management organization in the fall 2004.

• Ventura College’s institutional planning integrates physical resource planning in a number of ways. The primary planning for the college centers around the Educational Master Plan, which defines the goals and objectives of the college, serves as the guiding principle for facilities planning, and focuses on safe and sufficient physical resources to support programs and services. The college designed the Facilities Master Plan with a focus on specific projects needed to meet the goals set forth in the Educational Master Plan to assure that we adequately provide for and maintain programs and services.

• The college assures safety of the campus through compliance with various mandated inspections conducted by the Ventura College Director of Maintenance and Operations and the District Risk Manager, followed by corrective actions. Deans and supervisors/managers receive notifications of any problems and take the appropriate corrective actions. The Vice President of Business Services requires that they report back to him when they complete the corrective actions, and the Maintenance and Operations Director and the district’s Risk Manager conduct follow-up inspections.

• The limitation of resources for maintenance of its facilities and equipment present a major concern to the college. Long-range data from maintenance and operations indicated that the ratio of square footage per custodian will rise from about 20,000 in 1972 to over 40,000 once the new Library and Learning Resource Center is completed. A similar exponential increase exists for building trades workers. Over the years, the college steadily reduced maintenance and operations staff, as well as supervisory staff, while huge amounts of additional square footage requiring maintenance deferred maintenance projects throughout the college. To further compound the problem, the Maintenance and Operations Department must perform a myriad of additional mandated environmental, health and safety inspections—and they too, have been increasing over the years. These issues are currently being discussed at both the college and district level; however, there is no plan in place to address them at this time.

• In an Employee Survey of the Work Environment conducted in spring 2000, 58.4% of the college staff and faculty indicated dissatisfaction with the working conditions on campus, including facilities, space and cleanliness. The limitation in resources for directly impacts employees’ job satisfaction, and most certainly impacts students’ satisfaction negatively as well. When prioritizing work requests, the Maintenance and Operations Department considers health and safety issues their highest priority. Because of scarce resources, completion of other less critical tasks—even those more visually unappealing, often must wait.

• Computer maintenance poses ongoing challenges for Ventura College. The computer maintenance technician, responsible for a majority of the campus, presently needs to address fifty-four requests, some of which have been on his list since July 2003. The college expects maintenance issues to be compounded with the addition of almost 500 computers in the new Library and Learning Resources Center. To assist in alleviating this issue, an Information Technology Coordinator job description is being designed and moving through the district position approval process. It is hoped that this position will be on board in August 2004.

• Ventura College provides excellent access for individuals with disabilities. The college completed a number of architectural barrier removal projects over the last several years with funds from the State (IIIB-12 and IIIB-13). Maintenance and operations staff always treats access issues as a high priority. The campus Facilities Oversight Group adopted universal design as one of their guiding principles, so the college will plan all future buildings with access that exceeds ADA requirements. Equivalent access exists at the East Campus. In addition, the college continues to be proactive in its efforts to provide access to technology and media to students with disabilities. The assistive technology, which will be available to students with disabilities in the new Library and Learning Resources Center, will be a model for the state.

• The college has progressed significantly since the last accreditation in the acquisition and deployment of technology in support of its goals and objectives. The college has expanded and improved computing, telecommunications, and duplication capabilities. However, with program and discipline assessment and planning for technology varying greatly, the college has been unable to create an accurate overview of the technology needs of the campus although for some sub-areas such as distance education, Ventura College has a good handle in regard to resources and support mechanisms. These issues will be addressed through the re-establishment of the Technology Committee, slated to begin meeting in the fall 2004.

• Ventura College acquires new and replacement equipment to ensure a high level of technology currency, especially in labs. Individual departments and programs periodically conduct program review and update their unit plans to include changes in technology. Programs and departments employ processes appropriate to their goals and operations to fund and support the technology they employ. Due to present budget constraints, the college has effectively replaced or upgraded technology by cascading hardware and software from high-end and/or well-funded programs to other areas that require a lesser level of technology and/or are unable to fund new technology. Again, this process will be reviewed through the Technology Committee, fall 2004.

• The college has called upon the Facilities Oversight Group to help plan the organized development of the campus to reflect the mission and goals of the college. As such, the college has specifically designated facilities for technology as major portions of several planned projects (e.g., planetarium digital systems, and the Advanced Technology Building computer labs).

• Over a two-year period, the district worked through an expanded shared-governance process intended to modify the current budget allocation model to distribute available resources in a manner to better achieve the institutional goals for student learning at each of the colleges. As a result of continued declining resources, the Ventura College conflated special funding sources into its operating budget. For example, the 2003-2003 and 2003-2004 budgets relied heavily on the utilization of Bookstore reserves, categorical and contract funds, and even Associated Student contributions.

• The college has made every effort during the past several years to minimize the impact of budget reductions on instruction and student services. However, the reality of the current economic conditions do not allow for complete budgetary projection of these programs. In fact, the college balanced its 2003-2004 budget only after a significant number of retirements and staff eliminations, many of which were from our faculty ranks. Further in order to operate within the limits of its allocation, the college eliminated its early summer session, significantly compressed the remainder of its summer offerings, and reduced the fall 2003 instructional schedule of classes by approximately 14%. However, by more effective schedule management and room utilization and assignment through the work of the Administrative Council and Department Chairs Council Committees—through the works of these two groups, the college experienced less than a 1% decline in FTES (Full Time Equivalent Students) enrollment. This is a testament to the campus wide effort to support student learning—when compared to prior periods the college maintained a sufficient level of programs and services to support student demand, in spite of retrenchment actions.

Standard 4: Leadership and Governance

• Since their creation in 2000, Ventura College has prominently displayed the institutional goals in its catalog and on the college’s Web site. The first goal addresses the college’s commitment to “develop and maintain excellent educational programs and services.” This goal, along with the other nine, resulted in a significant period of dialogue by broad representative groups, including the Council of Institutional Development (CID), the Department Chair Council, and the President’s Cabinet. Many of the goals originated from dialogue at the department level and involved most employee subgroups. CID carefully created each goal to represent the college’s commitment to important beliefs: access. Technology, core values, institutional pride and support of the college’s Mission, development of partnerships, creation of new sources of revenue, and a commitment to continuous improvement through an ongoing collaborative planning process.

• The common goals developed for the college, by the college, are used readily by many individual divisions, department and support service centers when developing their own strategic plans for promoting accomplishments, innovations and quality improvements through compliance with the 10 institutional goals and subset goal statements. For example, in 2002-2003, the Student Success Team and related support services departments utilized the college’s goal statements as an evaluation tool to assess the fulfillment of our service quality “commitment to excellence” and to measure our annual program accomplishments. This supports the college’s theory that the broad-based, collaborative process used to craft the college’s goals helps to ensure that they are understood by most of the college’s membership. We, as a college, are proud of this effort.

• Ventura College is also proud of the fact that all employees, regardless of title or position, have the ability to engage in open and honest dialogue through the appropriate organizational network on any initiative designed to improve the practices, programs, and services in which they are involved. The college truly enjoys an environment that encourages dialogue, discussion, planning, and implementation while attempting to maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect through the Values and Goals statements recently revised by the college membership. The college clearly demonstrates its commitment to institutional improvement by stating the following under the college goal of “Innovation”: “We recognize that change is constant and that it is imperative that we continually evaluate our performance and seek new and improved approaches to providing educational programs and services.” The college’s 2003-2004 Goal #9 states that we will, “Enhance the financial strength of the college by aligning its resources with its Mission and Goals, continuously improving operational efficiency, and acquiring new revenue sources.” Goal #10 states that we will “continuously improve institutional effectiveness by defining a clear and distinctive Mission…” In sum, the college understands the importance of establishing an ongoing collaborative planning process, maintaining participatory governance, and gathering and utilizing relevant data to assess the college’s progress toward fulfilling its Mission and Goals.

• Ventura College has developed an organizational structure through which all members of the organization can effectively participate, directly or indirectly, in the operation and decision-making of the campus. Over many years, and after much collaboration, the college has evolved into a structured organization that not only allows for but also encourages the participation of every employee in the on-going institutional evaluation and improvement process. Significant representation and membership participation exists for academic employees through their Academic Senate Council, classified employees through their Classified Senate Council, students through their Associated Student Government Council, and management through its Administrative Council, allowing all a part in the decision making process. With rare exception, all college wide decisions are finalized and adopted through the President’s Cabinet. Ventura College is proud that the President’s Cabinet contains representation from all employee groups and also includes the college’s foundation Executive Director, who provides a much valued community perspective to our decision making process. The college ensures the opportunity for full participation by every employee through the council and standing committee structure.

• In many significant ways, Ventura College has taken a strong position in delineating the roles and functions of shared governance groups—especially in terms of the Academic Senate’s role in academic and professional matters. The initiative and advocacy of Ventura College toward this important functional arrangement has produced a highly cooperative and effective consortium in matters relevant to academic affairs. The generally collegial relationships between the Academic Senate, the Classified Senate, and college management demonstrate this fact. The collegial relations in our government structure often appear as well in our Curriculum Committee, Department Chair Council, Facilities Oversight Group and the numerous committees and individual relations on campus. The 2003 Accreditation visiting team noted this collegial relationship and cited it as a commendation item in their findings.

• Ventura College enjoys a strong network of interrelationships with external agencies, community based organizations, business and industry, and other educational institutions within its surrounding area. Our extensive connections and working relations with neighboring agencies tends to be unique, extensive, positive, and sometimes exemplary—such as in the implementation and operation of our Alternative Text Production Center. The college believes it is also worthy to note that many of the relationships, which were first created on external funding motives, have endured long after the funding sources were institutionalized or “dried up” altogether. In addition, Ventura College has engaged in many grass roots and community based efforts such as Enlace, Alternative Text (Braille) Production Center, or Biotechnology collaborations, even before the college realized funding. Our associations and informal partnerships with other agencies have served, as the impetus to obtain external funding for new joint ventures.

• Ventura College has preserved its commitment to quality teaching and learning n part through our reliance on many professional, community based advisory committees. These advisory bodies provide a continual assessment of the quality and relevance of many instructional training programs through which students prepare for specific job opportunities. The Ventura College School of Nursing and Allied Health, the School of Prehospital and Emergency Medicine, Toyota (T-Ten) Automotive Program, Biotechnology, and Public Safety (Ventura County Public Safety Training Center) all enjoy the benefit of advisory committees that meet on a regular basis.

• Ventura College has made a very significant effort over the past two years, through the Office of Student Learning to strengthen its self-evaluation process, enhance data collection, and accurately report the results of our continuing analysis of our programs and services to its membership, the community, and the Commission. The college has focused special emphasis on the concept of teaching and learning and on the careful analysis of student outcomes.

• Ventura College seeks the active participation of trained professionals within our community as members of our many advisory committees to ensure consistent program monitoring in regards to course content, teaching methodologies, skill development, and job placement. The advice of working professionals in our community would prove invaluable in the successful preparation of students who intend to move directly into the workplace.

• Over the past few years, public and press perceptions of Ventura College and/or the Ventura County Community College District have not been entirely favorable. Several widely publicized personnel conflicts either posed or resulted in litigation and costly court proceedings. These conflicts included the dismissal of an instructor/coach, counseling staff grievances and lawsuits, and the removal of our district chancellor, all of which resulted in strong negative public relations for the college. The college considers it unwise and unnecessary to assess the merits of the legal positions taken in relation to these cases. However, we understand that the end result may have hurt the college in terms significant resources going to legal fees, low staff morale, and poor public relations.

• Ventura College possesses a strong institutional commitment toward seeking continued continual quality improvements. Performance evaluations frequently include ongoing review of performance criteria, service needs, and quality improvement. The establishment of an Institutional Research Department on campus would help to ensure that all of our current practices, including governance, successfully effectuate teaching and learning.

• It must be noted that the workload for the two vice presidents (Executive Vice President of Student Learning and Vice President of Business Services) and the deans (five Deans and two Assistant Deans) has increased steadily since 2002— when the college underwent an internal reorganization resulting from three deans vacated their positions. It also must be cited that although the workload has greatly increased for the administrative staff, the college remains focused on its vision, which includes a commitment to provide a positive and accessible learning environment that is responsive to the needs of its students. However, this issue must be addressed in the near future as a trickle-down effect will eventually impact faculty and support staff and ultimately, the students. While the deans are coping with the increased workload and new responsibilities, the executive administration understands that the efficiency and quality of supervision will be negatively affected as we expand programs and services to meet the needs of future students. The Administrative Council will be addressing this issue at their upcoming retreat.

• Ventura College’s previous president held the position for nine years and was one of the longest serving of the college’s presidents. He left the college in January 2004. The same month, the Board appointed the district’s deputy chancellor to serve as acting president. The district will select a new President when a permanent Chancellor is in place.

• The Ventura College Community feels very strongly about the selection of their next President. They are looking for a President to be a strong leader and champion for the college. The search process for a permanent President began during the spring 2004 and was “aborted” in the summer of 2004. The Board of Trustees came out with a public statement that this decision was made because of inconsistencies in the search process. As noted earlier, a new search for a President will begin after a new Chancellor is selected for the district—the process to hire Chancellor is currently underway. The termination of the Presidential search process has created some tension and anxiety on the campus.

• The new District Chancellor, along with the support of the new Ventura College President must ensure and provide leadership in setting and communicating excellence and integrity throughout the district.