The President’s Blog

FOUNDATIONS OF EXCELLENCE. The work started four years ago by our Foundations of Excellence committees continues to evolve into new strategies and patterns for our college. Dr. Kay McClenney of the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) is well aware of our work here and recognizes that we were early adopters of strategies to focus on the success of our entering students. In fact, the latest report from CCCSE is called Imagine Success which mirrors the theme of our kick-off video Imagine which was created several years ago. I have sent Dr. McClenney a copy of our video as a reminder of our pioneering efforts.
The survey created by CCCSE has used six principles to categorize the efforts being used by community colleges across the country to engage new students. These principles incorporate all of our original FOE goals and we will find it useful to start using these principles as we go forward. Here are the six design principles that CCCSE has described as features of a college designed for student success:

• Principle 1: Personal Connections
• Principle 2: High Expectations and Aspirations
• Principle 3: A Plan and a Pathway to Success
• Principle 4: An Effective Track to College Readiness
• Principle 5: Engaged Learning
• Principle 6: An Integrated Network of Financial, Social, and Academic Support

It seems that CCCSE is following our lead very well, but we will find it important to follow their lead in data collection and in the use of data to make decisions. Since CCCSE is collecting data from community colleges across the country, it will be useful for us to use their terminology and principles in the future. This is easy since their principles incorporate all of our thinking and early efforts in Foundations of Excellence. You can find more on-line at http://www.ccsse.org/sense/survey/SENSE_2008_National_Report_March_18.pdf