Notes - Approved

Meeting Notes

Frank Kobayashi
Nicole Porter
Melanie Ortega
BJ Snowden
Hannah Blodgett
Carina Hoffpauir
Mikhail Drobot
Justin Tseng
Eliza Arata
Sharon Gott
Marianne Harris
Brian Knirk
Nimo Ali
David Shrope-Austin
Caroline Prieto
Allyson Joye
Tera Reynolds
Arthur Jenkins
Anthony Carter
Kim Herrell
Liz Geisser
Dianne Cervantez
Maria Elena Pulido-Sepulveda

NAME OF COUNCIL/TEAM: Student Success Council
OBJECTIVE OF MEETING: Provide project team updates
DATE OF MEETING: 09/03/2019
TIME: 1:00pm
LOCATION/ROOM #: Submarine Conference Room
CALL-IN NUMBER:
CALL-IN CODE:
FACILITATOR(S): Sarah Lehmann, Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson
ASSISTANT: Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson, Sarah Lehmann
MEMBERS PRESENT:
INVITED GUEST(S): None
SUPPORTING RESOURCES (ITEMS READ IN PREPARATION FOR AND/OR BROUGHT TO MEETING):
Attached Files:
Institutional Equity Plan
California Virtual Campus - Online Education Initiative (CVC-OEI)
Video: The Future of Work: Will Our Children Be Prepared?
 
UPDATES AND BRIEF REPORTS:
Topic Person(s) Responsible Notes
Greetings & introductions. Say hello and introduce any new members. We want this year's council to have a strong discussion focus and capture as much council input as possible on all discussion topics. What ideas do you have on how to facilitate discussions and input? Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson & Sarah Lehmann
Lisa welcomed us back and provided some background & history on the council for new members. The group introduced ourselves. 
Clarify Program Paths and Pathway Communities Project Team - provide updates on work that has been done in this area. Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson
We have 9 areas of interest at the college. This number of areas can feel overwhelming for students, but it's important that they choose a major/pathway for financial aid purposes. How do we provide support for all students and also get them onto a pathway? We need a tool for students that helps them narrow down what they are interested in. We are still figuring out how students will get wraparound services via the pathways communities. 
Institutional Equity Plan Project Team - Review changes that were made over summer to the Institutional Equity Plan. Share updates. Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson and Pam Chao
The Institutional Equity Plan was updated over summer, mostly to re-format and streamline the content. 
Strategic Enrollment Management Project Team - Provide update on where we are now with this project. Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson and Sarah Lehmann
The SEM team have been working with the district and Ad AStra. A central question they're addressing is: how do we create a student-centered schedule while using FTE to maximum potential, all with data-driven decision making? The team is working on a plan with recommendations on approaches for enrollment management. 
Distance Education 2.0 Project Team - Provide updates on where we're at with DE. Lisa Aguilera Lwarenson and Sarah Lehmann
There are ongoing conversations at the district level and campus levels in terms of how to move forward with DE. We are working on creating online ADT degrees. Fully online programs are in high demand by students, so DE staff are working with faculty to get more courses online. However, we often can't move forward on our DE initiatives without approval from the district, so progress is not always as rapid as we'd like. 
Disproportionate Impact Project Team - Share updates, including who has been chosen as project team leads. Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson
This group will focus on African American, Latinx, and Native American student populations. Derrick Booth, Jesus Valle, Kim Herrell, Cathy Arellano will serve as project team leads. Those three student groups were chosen because they have the most disproportionate impact across all categories we measure. We know we have other DI groups that we need to focus on as well, but this is a starting point. The DI Project Team will research and summarize the history of exclusion for these groups, look at current research on supporting students, look at facilitators and barriers to student success, and work on creating a methodological framework for addressing DI in these student groups. They will work with their individual sub-teams and will also come together in a large group. They will also work with community leaders to gather input. They are beginning to recruit team members through the Senates. 
ACTION ITEMS:
Question Person(s) Responsible Notes and Decision(s) Next Steps
  0
       
DISCUSSION ITEMS:
Question Person(s) Responsible Notes and Next Steps
Educational Master Plan & Distance Education. Share updates on the work of the EMP project team. Watch video: "The Future of Work: Will Our Children Be prepared?" https://youtu.be/59d3UZTUFQ0 Demo: OEI-CVC (Online Education Initiative -California Virtual Campus) website: https://cvc.edu/. Discussion question: what implications does emerging technology have for ARC in the next 5-10 years? Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson The group watched the video "The Future of Work: Will Our Children Be Prepared?" The video shows how technology and AI is increasingly important in various industries. Scenes include self-driving farm equipment and semi-trucks, a 3D printed house, automation at a warehouse, self-serve kiosks at fast food restaurants, and more. What does this rise of technology means for ARC in the next 5-10 years? We also looked at the California Virtual Campus/Online Education Initiative database, which allow students to find and enroll in online courses at community colleges across the state. Online enrollment is growing significantly.

Comments from the group:
-"We're antiquated." Education changes slowly. In terms of the way higher education is organized and delivered, not much has changed in the last 100-200 years.
-How can we be more nimble and respond faster to our ever-changing work environment?
-How do we balance getting input from all constituents with agile change? Input is valuable but decision making can get slowed down. -If Amazon or Google redesigned our colleges, what would that look like?
-We have made our systems so difficult to navigate for students.
-Online education platforms such as Coursera offer a very easy experience.
-Why are our processes so cumbersome? Could we try things like counseling or even class attendance via Zoom?
-We have to reallocate resources pretty quickly to areas like Tech Ed. The jobs we're preparing our students for may not actually exist today.
-How do we know we're preparing our students for the right jobs for the future?
-What types of people do we need to have around the table in order to design curriculum and programs that will be relevant for the future job market? We can't just talk to ourselves. How many of us have worked outside the field of education? If we are too insular, we are not aware of the conversations happening outside higher ed
-Where are we having these conversations? Are we having them at all? Where are our relationships with business/industry? What teams at the college are looking at how to make sure we're meeting the needs to the future workforce?
-With the growth of online education, in 20 years will we need the same physical buildings and infrastructure?
-A vendor came to present an app that offers enrollment support and wraparound services for students. They said it could be ready to go in 2 weeks - much faster than we could ever launch something like this. These services are being built around us. If we do nothing, and we will be passed by by for-profit companies who can move faster.
-We want students to graduate with the skills they'll need to be successful in the world of work.
-What is it that we ultimately are selling students? What is our "why?' Why do we exist?
-Could we help students demonstrate their skills in ways other than by awarding degrees and certificates? For example with digital badges.
-Could we be more flexible with how students can attend class? For example, could they attend via Zoom? Even our hiring process is not very flexible. We rarely offer the option to Skype, etc. What do we lose by not having that flexibility? Our employee application process is cumbersome as well.
-It is essential that we keep equity and access at the forefront of these discussions - We need to make sure all our students have the opportunity to prepare for the future labor market.
-What will the EMP group look like? How will the EMP team accomplish this work? How will the EMP's work break into, for example, what happens in curriculum?
-Many online programs are set up to be very convenient for working professionals and stay at home parents, etc. We need to do more of that. Is a traditional classroom needed? Many online programs offer a combination of physical interactions, virtual interactions, and online instruction. We could do that better and use our physical resources more effectively.
-Should we be building more buildings when a lot of our enrollment is going online?
-How can we work with the District to move forward?
-Part of the learning curve for the institution will be learning what it means to have an Educational Master Plan. We can use it to capture ideas and plan for the future.
-It's important to look at labor market data at the curriculum level. What do employers really want? How well are we teaching and packaging soft skills like problem solving, critical thinking, communication, work ethic?
Pathways Communities - introduce concept and gather input from council on what would be important to include in a pathway community. Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson Some students get a lot of support from affinity groups like Umoja, Puente, Prise, or the Veterans Resource Center. Those programs are wonderful but serve only a small number of students. We want to replicate that support at scale for all students. The IPASS team envisioned that Pathways Communities would be a way to do that. Pathways Communities would be organized around an area of interest and would offer support services, activities, opportunities to meet peers and faculty, etc. But what would they look like exactly? What specific types of support should they offer? Question for the council: What do students need? What do we want students to get from their Pathway Community? Comments:

-Meaningful interactions with faculty outside the classroom. This would help break down barriers between faculty and students and help students understand what's possible in their field and at the college.
-Services and resources to help students choose a major and a career field.
-A workshop on reading/writing/testing in their discipline
-A mandatory orientation or class during summer
-Timely financial aid information
-Financial literacy education
-Opportunities to connect with peers
-We need to offer culturally relevant support. This is a key component of Achieving the Dream

Question: How do we schedule these types of services, programs, and events so that we reach all students? This will require a lot of coordination.

ITEMS FOR FUTURE CONSIDERATION:
Topic Contact Person
NA