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HLC/NCA STEERING COMMITTEE
Phoenix College
Wednesday, March 23 2005 - 1:00 p.m.
Administrative Conference Room

Meeting Notes

Present: Judy, Denny, Mike M., Casandra, Dr. Solley, Brent, David, Queta, Ann, Patricia, Nancy, Linn, Sara, Mike M., Karen C., Jan, Trino, Marian, Rosemary.

Brent began the meeting by welcoming Dr. Solley. It has been great working with her since she came on board as Acting President.

Dr. Solomon's visit: Brent handed out an agenda for Karen Solomon's visit tomorrow, March 24. Karen is a colleague of Diane Nyhammer and will be coming in her place since Diane has taken a new job and will be leaving the HLC at the end of the month. Karen is not our staff liaison, but she can give good input into the self study process. Karen is also the person that did the Minnesota workshop that some of the committee attended at the end of January.

Looking at the agenda, Faculty Senate is for all faculty, including the new faculty, which were invited by Brent and Marian at the NFO.

For Karen's visit tomorrow it is important that people come prepared and ready to ask questions. The chairs have some questions that they are bringing from each of their committees.

Exit Interviews: Brent, Marian and David went to the exit interviews for PVCC and MCC. Both were as different as you can get. They did both at the front of the interview discuss the campus in general; the look of it, the cleanliness. They mentioned that the mission was very evident, highly visible. They also both had a list of people that they wanted to meet with: community members, students, etc. Students were asked about assessment. We need to address this with PC students.

PVCC received 10-year re-accreditation with a report on assessment. The site team went through and mentioned overall what was good, what needed improvement and overall if they met the criteria.

MCC went through the criterion step by step and said if each one separately was met. It was very business like and short. They received 10-year re-accreditation with no reports.

Resource Room: In attending the exit interviews Brent, Marian and David were able to see the resource rooms at both colleges. PVCC's was larger, with a large conference area and a small area that was set up like a living room in the same room. Mesa's was smaller. Both campuses emphasized that it is better to have more information rather than less, and to have everything in paper format in the resource room. Looking at both resource rooms, Mesa's was easier to understand. From seeing these rooms, we are looking for a resource room that is bigger and has more capabilities such as wireless laptops. One idea is to use the Library Multi-Purpose Classroom.

Graduate Survey: it has been completed and will be distributed to those who are graduating in May. Marian has talked to Donna F. and the surveys will be handed out when students pick up their gowns. The bookstore has agreed to hand out the surveys. There will be a box in the bookstore for students to drop off their survey. The results from the survey should be in by the end of the semester. For future surveys they will be handed out when the students apply for graduation.

All-employee and Adjunct meetings: April 20th and 21st there will be an all-employee and adjunct meeting to bring the campus up-to-date on the self-study process. These meetings may be the time to inform everyone about having uniform mission vision and values posted around campus. This may also be a good place to discuss the mission and possible changes; we can have discussion groups with the faculty and adjunct that attend.

Mission, Vision changes: Looking at the mission, there are certain keywords that we may want to add: diversity, student success, teaching and learning, etc. It would be good to finalize the mission and vision before the self-study report is finished. The last time the mission was looked at was in 1999 and in 1997.

NCA/HLC Webpage: there needs to be as much information as we can get uploaded onto the webpage. There needs to be a transparent process to all of this. Mike will look at adding a weekly question on the PC homepage. For this we need to channel our ideas for the questions and how we want to put it together through him and then he will get someone to work on it; needs to be something creative. The answer should be on the NCA webpage for the answer to the question as well as a way to contact us.

Newsletter: the newsletter for February has gone out, the next one will be in April. The criterion chairs and writers came up with a flow for the newsletters that are to come.

Writing Update: we are making progress with the report. Karen's section (Criterion 4) is all done. The editors have drafts and outlines from everyone. We are hoping to have stuff to post by mid April and are hoping to have most of the report posted by the end of the semester. The drafts will go to the editing group then to Dean Kakar and Dr. Solley before they are posted on the website. We will continue to work on and add to the report until September or October. Each section of the report that is posted will have a feedback form for those reading the documents to fill out and comment on what has been read.

Criterion Chair updates:
Denny- continue to work on the edits. Has drafts for two sections and outlines for four components. His committee does have a question - should the mission documents all be in their chapter instead of just referencing to them? In finding an answer for this question, need to remember that the more information the site team has the better. It is important that the mission be in the report since it is so central to everything. In order for the mission to have meaning, need to have the other mission documents as well.

Ann -four outlines and a draft for one of the components.

Mike -completed outlines 3B and 3C and drafts for 3A and 3D. The committee has not addressed opportunities for improvement but will do so at their next meeting on April 4, and at the April 28 meeting.

Karen -completed their entire draft and is meeting on Monday to go over opportunities for improvement and strengths.

Queta - 5A is almost complete, finalizing 5B on 3/24. There is an outline for 5C and it should be finished by the end of April.

Dr. Solley thanked everyone for their hard work, dedication and commitment. We are going to do well on the self study and are doing our best to have permanent leadership in place as soon as possible.

One final suggestion was made to create a subgroup to meet with the campus in order to follow through on communication.

Meeting adjourned.