Engaging and retaining community college students

From this morning’s Inside Higher Ed: Rules of (Community College) Engagement:

It’s no great secret that community college students spend much of their time away from campus. As this year’s report on an annual survey of the academic experiences of students at two-year institutions puts it: “Most students simply are not on campus enough for engagement to occur spontaneously. They rarely bump into instructors on campus and have serendipitous informal conversations.”

Thus, the report argues, community college faculty need to take advantage of their limited classroom time, and administrators need to think about ways to create opportunities for students — and particularly part-timers — to engage with instructors and their peers while on campus.

The Community College Survey of Student Engagement, released Monday, reached that conclusion after tracking data compiled over the past five years (700,000 students, 548 institutions) on how students spend their time and interact with people at their institutions.

In addition to the wide-angle view, the survey provides its usual look at a three-year cohort — those who responded from 2005 to 2007, a group that includes more than 310,000 students from 525 institutions.

The students responded to survey questions in the spring after having several months’ worth of experiences from which to draw. Those who are included in the report are the “survivors,” as the report says. But, as CCSSE notes, many more students don’t stay past the first semester — and researchers want to know what factors into a student’s level of engagement and satisfaction at the start of college.

That’s why, in the “special focus” survey section, questions this year asked students to think back to their first four weeks of college. (Questions asked to beginning students this fall about their first month will be released as part of a separate report in the spring.) The results from this year’s focus section show that:

• Fewer than half of students met with an adviser to discuss academic plans in the first four weeks.
• Slightly more than half completed an assessment test for course placement.
• Thirty-two percent didn’t attend an orientation program, and only one in three who did said they were “very satisfied” with the experience.

Kay McClenney, director of the survey, said that some of the engagement results are alarming, given that the first few weeks of college are essential in capturing students’ attention…. (My emphases.)

Visiting north of Hamilton Trail

WADDA dreary day.

Jan emailed. He wrote me that Mojo, son of Sunny Bear, had died "in his sleep," last night.

Mojo was an excellent young man, and I will miss him. He was about 16 years old.

EVEN THOUGH there was little sun, I decided it was a good time to visit Hamilton Trail, which is very near Lambrose Canyon, where I live.

I walked up Live Oak. Then I hopped the fence up at the crest of Harris Grade.

It looked very bad. It looked worse as I got further in. Well, there's no use talking about it. Here are some pictures.

I'm gonna miss that Mojo. He was a knucklehead, but he didn't have a mean bone in his body. He sure was a sweet guy.

Sunny says "hey."

(See Hangin' with Mojo, Democrat & Sunny and Mojo.)


THE SANTIAGO FIRE: According to InciWeb, that a fire is “contained” means that a “fuel break around the fire has been completed.” “Control” refers to the “complete extinguishment of a fire, including spot fires.”

At present, the Santiago fire is contained, but not controlled. 30 mph winds are expected in Santiago Canyon tomorrow morning.

A suggestion

Tom Fuentes’ man: fat fiscal FUBAR

"Last Tuesday I read in the LA Times…that the CEO of Morgan Stanley had been asked to resign. As I read that, I was struck by the irony that, in the private sector, when a corporation is experiencing difficulties, the CEO is asked to resign. Apparently, in the public sector, when the corporation is experiencing difficulty, the CEOs are awarded a new contract and a raise….”

—An IVC instructor, urging trustees not to grant Chancellor Raghu Mathur a new contract & raise (during the 6/21/05 meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees). Hours later, Mathur was granted a very generous new contract.

ITEM 6.3 of the South Orange County Community College District’s Board of Trustees agenda [pdf file] for the Nov. 13 meeting is: Compliance with the 50% Law.

As you know, the SOCCCD is in the midst of a huge fiscal FUBAR, owing to mismanagement by the district. The 50% Law requires that at least 50% of expenditures (by California school districts, including community colleges) be devoted to "instruction," but, over the last five or so years, the district's instructional expenses have dipped increasingly toward the 50% line and, for 2007-08, those expenses will descend to 46%, according to district projections. (See graphic below.)

It is not clear what this violation will mean for the district and its two colleges (and one park), since, evidently, it is unprecedented for a "basic aid" district (i.e., a district that relies on local property taxes, not state money) to be out of compliance with this law.

MASSIVE HIRING OF FACULTY. In response to this crisis—which, somehow, was recognized only recently—the district is moving toward a huge push for new faculty hires—perhaps 30 at Saddleback College and 15 at Irvine Valley College. Naturally, the hire of full-time faculty is an important and time-consuming process—something that should be done carefully and deliberately, not hurriedly—and thus considerable resistance is growing among faculty to this massive hiring initiative.

The Chancellor of the SOCCCD, Raghu P. Mathur, is widely seen as the conservative “board majority’s” hatchet man, one who is willing to do the board’s bidding, even when the bidding involves highly unusual and unpopular (and even illegal) measures.

A few years ago, Mathur received a 94% faculty vote of “no confidence.” It had no evident impact on the Board Majority’s support for Mathur.

Indeed, at the urging of Trustee Tom Fuentes—former head of the Orange County Republican Party—Mathur has been showered with rewards. At present, he receives a salary of about $300,000—an amount that is, at best, unusual for the Chancellor of a district comprising only two campuses. (Naturally, this kind of expenditure only worsens the 50% issue.)

Tuesday night’s discussion is liable to be interesting. Just how "fiscally conservative" are these board members? Do they really believe in accountability? Will they fail to state clearly what the data shouts: that their man Mathur has screwed up?

And not just a little!

[Luddites: don't forget to click on the blue words. But skip "agenda."]

Big man on campus. And big LETTERS, too

In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed:

The major donor to the University of California at Irvine’s new law school was promised that the chancellor would “periodically and confidentially consult” with him about the selection of the first dean and future deans, the Los Angeles Times reported, based on a gift agreement it obtained. Irvine’s chancellor faced an uproar when he withdrew an offer of the dean’s job to a prominent legal scholar whose political views are to the left of those of the donor. The job was restored and the donor, Donald Bren, denied any involvement — a denial he reiterated to the Times after it obtained the gift agreement. That pact also suggests other matters of concern to Bren. For example, he was promised that signs on all law school buildings would read “Donald Bren School of Law” in lettering at least twice the size of the building name.

A Veterans Day Ceremony at Irvine Valley College

Those indecorous, flag-stomping, pig-killing College Republicans!

FROM this morning’s Inside Higher Ed:

• A federal magistrate has indicated that he will find a California State University System rule that requires students to be civil to be unconstitutional, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The ruling…came in a case in which San Francisco State University responded to a complaint about the conduct of College Republicans who stomped on flags with the name of Allah on them during an anti-terrorism rally. San Francisco State found no violation, but the Republicans challenged the civility code, saying that the investigation violated their rights....

• Shasta College, in California, has been consumed by speculation over how an 800-pound breeding boar was poisoned in September, The Redding Searchlight reported. Rumors have intensified since the student newspaper, The Lance, reported that the prized pig was poisoned two days after six students who worked on the college farm were evicted from a dormitory. Officials said that there is no evidence linking the students to the death of the pig, who was named Romeo.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

There's a rumor that, at yesterday's special meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees in which the Chancellor was evaluated, after hours of deliberation, it was decided that Raghu Mathur is to be issued exactly one Brownie Point.