Academic+Transfer

=Academic Transfer=

**Compilation of initial faculty responses**
• A vision for the future of Centralia College depends on the results of the accreditation process. There may be some problems that need to be addressed, and those should be the top priority of the next few years.  • Why are we visioning? Who are we visioning for? In understanding purpose/audience, I'd also like to know whether this is "pie in the sky" anything goes brainstorming, OR "let's get practical" strategizing. I think for many it's an odd time to be "visioning" when we seem so bogged down in the minutia of today's challenges; I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but I personally need to understand the motivation better, so I can contribute purposefully.  • Replace tenure track faculty lost to attrition. • Hire 3 more FT profs (than in 2010). • Supplement faculty with additional tenure-track/pro rata positions.  • Stop the technology monster from driving the college and instruction. • Let faculty choose their own technology; don’t keep pushing all the time. • Upgrade faculty computers. • Upgrade computers in smart classrooms. • Allow faculty access to their computers so they can load content-specific software. • Keep all office/classroom computers current – however, if people are happy with what they have, IT should NOT be able to simply swap it out without our knowledge or permission or approval. (They’ve rendered inoperable __three__ expensive computer-operated chemistry instruments by updating them with incompatible computers!) • Allow faculty to choose to use Apple computers and not be restricted to Windows-based machines. • If you want technology to be a driving force on this campus then make certain faculty have access to computers that are up-to-date and work properly. • Computer lab for science students with 8am – 9pm access with science specific software with good printers. • Dedicated IT person whose office is actually in NSC. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Color printers available in WAH and NSC buildings. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Large printer available for posters. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Let's be sure "Lecture Capture" and its ilk remain optional. Pedagogies that depend on student interaction and participation (e.g. substantive discussion, Socratic method, teaching of reasoning skills) mean that students must be there to be involved. They cannot download critical thinking skills onto their iPods. They must practice said skills. It would be misleading to offer Lecture Capture in such scenarios because many students would think that they do not need to attend class, and thus would not learn what they need to learn. The pedagogical reason is primary in keeping Lecture Capture optional, but issues of faculty censorship are important too. • Smarter smart classrooms. In the NSC, the DVD/CD player is placed sideways, and it does not always play reliably. I avoid the issue by using the web only. But the number of operations required to use the computer is, frankly, ridiculous: The light switch is in one place, and not all the lights can be switched. The screen switch is by the computer (that's logical), but then to raise or lower the blinds, I have to walk over to the windows. • More IT folks. The ones who are there are fabulous, but they're overworked, and that makes me hesitant to ask for help. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">•The fundamental learning objectives pertaining to quantitative, spatial, and temporal reasoning for natural science classes are best satisfied by hands-on lab experiences and field work. Online learning, while a useful too for accessing geologic information and databases, cannot readily develop contextual understanding of many major concepts in geology, such as the scale, dynamics, and spatial aspects of flowage deposits (landslides, debris flows, lava flows, pyroclastic flows, etc) and the effects and scale of plate tectonics over geologic time. Field and lab work also fosters cooperative learning via inquiry and discussion within peer groups—these relationships commonly continue outside the classroom or field-trip environment. Other natural sciences likewise best satisfy their learning objectives with combinations of lab and field work. Thus, it is important that future natural science classes include hands-on lab and field components using student teams in the “natural laboratory”. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• In-class dialogue with experienced instructors is highly effective as a way to train students for “real-life” natural hazards situations. Using the Socratic Method, teachers can quickly quiz a student about course content and assess the student’s familiarity with subject matter via contextual association while at the same time assessing a student’s knowledge of their own cognitive processes. Thus in-class experiences and conversational iterations can help students learn to inquire using critical thinking about the “why” and “how” instead of merely focusing on simple rehearsal methods of finding the “what”. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">•Science is a language, so proficiency is developed by continued use of the technical language and frequent review and re-evaluation of word usage and context. In-class experiences and dialogues are ideal for honing critical thinking and vocabulary skills in the natural sciences. The in-class dialogue is not only a way to train emergency responders and critical thinkers, it is also important for transfer of oral knowledge of geology as well as geologically-founded oral histories. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Improved coordination of services. Major priorities should include streamlining of computer technical-support services so the components have the tools and people power available to assist all faculty. Some tasks should be delegated to faculty and staff, for example, installing Google Earth, ImageJ, Irfanview, DPL tree-ring library, and other fundamental science programs could be downloaded by the individual user so that the IT staff has the time to do the most important elements. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Levels of online support should be supported that respect the limited incomes of our clientele. Moodle-style repositories or ftp sites could be developed with password protection such that no extra student fees would be needed. Faculty could easily upload pdf files of lectures as well as notes and pictures to such a website. Not all faculty are able to use Angel or other class management systems to their fullest extent. • I envision a college where technology is abundant, functional, and ancillary, where it assists everything and everyone, but drives nothing, where pedagogy and delivery are determined by the faculty, not by a search for El Dorado or a goose that lays golden eggs. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• No limit on photocopies – Why does the copy center get to dictate when material needs to be prepped? Science faculty usually have only one day, Friday, to prep lectures/assignments/labs for the following weeks. It’s a pain to bring material to the mailroom, wait days for the copies, then pick it up and schlep it up flights of stairs to your office. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Reduce bureaucracy. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• All offices/classrooms cleaned more often than currently. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Better communication WRT facility requests – Had a leak in NSC 308 which took about 4 months to be repaired and had to “beg” for updates. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Remove all motion sensors in offices – tired of being plunged into darkness because I am typing a lecture on my computer. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> • I envision a vibrant, welcoming campus; open to the community. • I envision packed classrooms. • I envision dynamic, flexible faculty, experts in their fields and in teaching, who know 100 names and faces by the 3rd week of class, who know how to read those faces, who can decide on the spot to put on the pressure, back off, change tack, or move on, who can respond to a question with humor or grace or a story or tie it in to a previous point. • I envision administrators who value their professors for the reasons above, who know that a classroom is a living space where ideas are exchanged and learning happens BECAUSE of being together, that teaching is more than a canned lecture, who know that the most valuable asset of CC is its talented faculty, who know that the community wants and needs the opportunity to learn along side living, breathing teachers. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Full credit for lab hours taught (lab teaching faculty are burning out – exothermic reactions are occurring!) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Full time lab techs with benefits. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Tutorials built into class schedule (instead of “office hours” for ninety students at one time). <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Faculty workloads must be made manageable or quality people will leave. One of the worst and most pointless drains on faculty time is being shackled to the office 35 hours per week. Centralia is unusual among Washington two-year colleges in its insistence that faculty do not stray off the reservation. It's fanciful to think we need to be there for students. Most of our students come here, take classes, and go to work, so they are not looking for us very much -- they do just about all their questions after class and in e-mails. If faculty could work at home more often – uninterrupted -- we could get work done much more efficiently. This would make a huge difference in faculty morale since we tend to take large amounts of work home. •Advising: Our current system is not sustainable with a rising student: faculty ratio. For example, I have 31 advisees, and Counseling would like me to spend 25 minutes advising each one. That's 13 hours, and I simply do not have them to give. Further, Advising Day is typically placed on a Monday or Friday, so students jump at the chance of a 3 day weekend while faculty are tied to their offices, have to commute, etc. Wasted time and resources, again. Then faculty must try to wedge advising meetings in amid days that are already cram-packed with work. My suggestion: Make Advising Day mandatory. If students wish to get their PIN to register online, they MUST come in on Advising Day. Faculty with heavy advising loads should be permitted, perhaps encouraged, to offer hour-long group advising sessions with 30 minutes of group work for 1st year, 2nd year students (or other appropriate groupings), with 30 minutes afterward for individual questions. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• More emphasis on scholarships for students not eligible for financial aid. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• More duties could be met by hiring students and covering payroll with institutional funds. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• More help for students with test anxiety. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Better transportation for students between the college and Olympia /East County so students don’t have to leave at 6 a.m. and get home late at night. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Places on campus for students to nap (comfortable couches). <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Professional science tutors for students needed – currently we simply do not have any available for the advanced courses (i.e. organic chem 261). • We have a range of familiarity with technology among our students and would do them a real service if we would find some means of assessing their skill level when they matriculate and offering, perhaps even requiring, a "tech boot camp" class of the type that Sue and Kathy wanted to develop some time ago. The job market is becoming increasingly technical, as is delivery of educational service, and we need to help our less advantaged students compete successfully. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Display cabinets filled in NSC. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Black room for chemistry labs (for chemi-luminescence experiments) – we need a room with blackout curtains. • Keys to all the sites I need to get into, including classrooms. Why is this process taking so long? • Clocks in the classroom in a position where the instructor can see them. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Create a class on genocide and international politics. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Rewrite the economics position to integrate with an international business program. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Improve accessibility of education by finding the best values in books and developing good lab assignments. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Establish a stronger four-year presence. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Hire 5 more FT profs (than in 2010). <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Food: Healthy cafeteria food available throughout the day. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Smart white boards in all classrooms. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Drop-in chemistry labs with full time lab tech in charge. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Free parking spots/lot for faculty. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Electronic key-cards for all buildings instead of 5kg of keys in your pocket which scratch the door frame when you unlock doors. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• We could save money and resources by shifting to a 4-day week. I am not sure how this would work vis a vis enlarging class time slots for fully f2f classes, and it may be that until the Campus Commons building opens, there would not be enough available classroom space (particularly given that our students vastly prefer morning classes). Possibly 4 day a week savings could be accomplished via a shift to hybrid classes, which research suggests is pedagogically more effective than fully f2f classes. I know that some faculty are unhappy about the drumbeat to move to more technologically oriented course deliveries, but that is the future and we need to deal with it. Centralia is already paying for us to take training and provides us with people like Kathy and Eric in support. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">• I would hope we a better job of integrating with the community. Our county has one of the largest percentages of under-educated people in the state. We have so far not been successful in getting these people to take courses. It concerns me that these buildings are virtually empty in the afternoons and evenings and on weekends. My vision is that the majority of the people in the community are utilizing this campus. Many colleges have had what was called “weekend college.” Students would come to campus every other weekend (Friday nights, Saturdays, Sundays), doing a lot more work individually than is typical for regular courses. In a sense these were hybrid-type courses, and having Angel would make them better than they were years ago. The marketing was to working adults who didn't want to have to give up all their free time to be in a class. Many of those campuses were packed on weekends. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">• I think we could do a better job providing training for the small businesses in the community. Everyone promoted to manager or foreman in this county should be taking a course in human resource management focused on utilizing performance appraisals effectively, motivating employees, etc. The police and sheriff's departments should be taking courses on a variety of aspects. We ought to be providing courses on legal issues facing small businesses. A lot of our courses could be reworked to provide courses specifically geared toward small businesses. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">• Teach Intro to Genocide in rotation with International Terrorism. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">• Hire someone to fill a restructured economics position. Expand offerings in economics to include (possibly): American Economic History, Intro to International Business, Comparative Economics. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> • Still have a job. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Hire 10 more FT profs (than in 2010). <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Dorms on campus. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• FT Triage nurse and psychologist on campus. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Subsidized health insurance for students. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• WiFi for Centralia/Chehalis provided by college. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">• Internet subsidies for students. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">• Continue encouraging the use of our campus for four-year degrees, possibly utilizing a semester system rather than a quarter system. A semester system allows courses to be taught one day a week over a longer span of time, which fits working adults' schedules better than our quarter system does. In my vision, I see basically non-traditional students getting their four-year degree by taking their classes here. **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Visions of the Future, Both Light and Dark ** __<span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">A Brighter Tomorrow __ <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-fareast-font-family: Palatino; msobidifontfamily: Palatino; msofareastfontfamily: Palatino; msolist: Ignore;">1) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The campus will continue to be updated physically, providing quality facilities across campus, on par with the NSC. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-fareast-font-family: Palatino; msobidifontfamily: Palatino; msofareastfontfamily: Palatino; msolist: Ignore;">2)  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Access to online electronic resources (e.g., books, journals, etc.) will be on par with the state-funded baccalaureate institutions. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-fareast-font-family: Palatino; msobidifontfamily: Palatino; msofareastfontfamily: Palatino; msolist: Ignore;">3) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Off-campus housing for international students and students from the farther edges of our service district will provide increased access and increased multiculturalism to our student body. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-fareast-font-family: Palatino; msobidifontfamily: Palatino; msofareastfontfamily: Palatino; msolist: Ignore;">4)  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">More opportunities (funding, time, availability) will be available for faculty to continue their professional development: to learn new software, to develop new lesson plans that engage the forefront of their professions, to develop new labs. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-fareast-font-family: Palatino; msobidifontfamily: Palatino; msofareastfontfamily: Palatino; msolist: Ignore;">5) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Stronger intellectual partnerships will develop between CC faculty and those at the local baccalaureate institutions. For example, we are invited to provide guest lectures/seminars for their classes and they provide guest lectures in ours. Joint pursuit of intellectual projects – research, teaching, service.  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-fareast-font-family: Palatino; msobidifontfamily: Palatino; msofareastfontfamily: Palatino; msolist: Ignore;">6)  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Tighter coordination of extracurricular opportunities: speakers, presentations, performances between us and our neighbors. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-fareast-font-family: Palatino; msobidifontfamily: Palatino; msofareastfontfamily: Palatino; msolist: Ignore;">7) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Enhanced development of technology to perform routine and automatic tasks to free up more time for creative tasks. __<span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">The Nightmare Future __ <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-fareast-font-family: Palatino; msobidifontfamily: Palatino; msofareastfontfamily: Palatino; msolist: Ignore;">1)  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Because of economic constraints, only a quarter of the classes taught at CC are by tenured/tenure-track faculty. The overwhelming majority of courses are taught by cloud of quarter-to-quarter, always-changing, underpaid adjuncts who have little loyalty to the long-term goals and quality of the college (and the college had none to them). With so few tenured/tenure track faculty, advising becomes the responsibility of staff. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-fareast-font-family: Palatino; msobidifontfamily: Palatino; msofareastfontfamily: Palatino; msolist: Ignore;">2) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Because of the explosive growth of online education, faculty meet rarely / sporadically on campus face to face. Whatever social / intellectual exchanges that do happen occur via email, twitter, and whatever the next hot thing is. Opportunities for chance encounters, chance exchanges that have the potential to broader our minds will disappear as we become more and more isolated physically and intellectually as we interact with a increasing group of narrowly-focused specialists. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-fareast-font-family: Palatino; msobidifontfamily: Palatino; msofareastfontfamily: Palatino; msolist: Ignore;">3)  **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Education: the only thing that people buy where the customer is happier with less **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">. Because students will have the ability to pursue degrees entirely online, cobbling together a course from here, a few courses from there, and the balance from a third source, students will shop around to find those courses that are the easiest, the least demanding. In response, the colleges will have pressure put on them to cater to the customer to fill seats. This creates a race to the bottom. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-fareast-font-family: Palatino; msobidifontfamily: Palatino; msofareastfontfamily: Palatino; msolist: Ignore;">4) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Then there is the backlash. Eventually, of course, the taxpayers (federal and/or state) who are paying for much of this education will feel that they are not receiving value for their money and will enforce mandatory assessment exams (Can you say “No adult college student left behind.”) at the college level. All autonomy, all spontaneity, all personal idiosyncrasy are crushed under the requirement to increase overall passing statistics. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">THREE YEARS **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">FIVE YEARS **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">SEVEN YEARS **