Community College of Denver and Conclusion

I think the chapter on the Community College of Denver was the one I was waiting for, not because it's a college in my hometown but because the transition to a learning college came about largely from a collaboration between leadership and the faculty! This collaboration has led to a pay-for-performance evaluation model adopted by the State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education. Additional key changes at CCD include:

• Identification of first-semester at-risk students on faculty rosters
• An "early alert" process to increase retention
• Data collection on student outcomes
• Accountability reporting

In the concluding chapter, O'Banion makes a dire prediciton that "unhealthy" institutions unwilling to do the work of transforming to a learning college will be relegated to the "rubbish heap of history" (p. 225). In Colorado, at least, I am unaware of any community colleges that have closed their doors since O'Banion's book was written. Nevertheless, he emphasizes the following process to ensure survival:

1. Capitalize on a "trigger event, an event that releases energy and creates opportunity" (p. 227).
2. "Test" the faculty to determine institutional values and practices as they relate to teaching and learning (231).
3. Mobilize the various innovations in the college to support and guide the development of a learning college (p. 233).
4. Identify the handful of people who will be change leaders (p. 235).
5. Create a vision for the institution (p. 236).
6. Involve all stakeholders, including administrators, faculty, support staff, trustees, community members, and students (p. 237).
7. Appoint a project manager.
8. Reallocate funds (since new funds probably cannot be found) to support the project (p. 239).
9. Encourage communicaton (p. 24).
10. Employ outside consultants as needed (p. 241).

Not being a college administrator, I can only guess that O'Banion's advice is sound. Most of the colleges in the book seem to have followed this model, especially the step about creating a vision. Schools where the faculty and students were heavily involved in the process stood out for me, as I can relate to both.

O'Banion's book is quite dated, and I'd like to know more about how community colleges have adapted in the last decade to distance education, a sagging economy, and state budget contrainsts. I am most familiar with Southwest Colorado Community College, and from an outsider's perspective, it appears well-positioned for the future. With enrollment up 47 percent last fall, according the Durango Herald, I'd say that it is an example of a college responding quickly to the demands of the workforce. I hope in the future to have first-hand experience as an instructor to see a learning college at work!

Walking the Walk at Palomar Community College

Leaders at Palomar Community College developed an impressive Vision Statement as a result of their efforts to re-engineer into a learning college:



"We have shifted from an identification with process to an identification with results. We are no longer content with merely providing quality instruction. We will judge ourselves henceforth on the quality of student learning we produce. And further, we will judge ourselves by our ability to produce even greater and more sophisticated student learning and meaningful educational success with each passing year, each exiting student, and each graduating class. To do this, we must ourselves continually experiment, discover, grow, and learn. Consequently, we see ourselves as a learning institution in both our object and our method" (p. 193).



When the Vision Task Force presented the statement to all the college constituencies, it was surprised to find absolutely no opposition. Puzzled, the task force speculated that "people thought that the Vision Statement would find a comfortable resting place on a shelf ... Or perhaps, people felt that this emphasis on learning outcomes was just another passing fad to be endured" (p. 194).

Well, the vision statement wasn't merely a feel-good exercise. College leaders implemented it immediately and with fervor. One daring move came when the college hosted a series of learning forums, the first of which was facilitated by students, who "focused on positive and negative classroom and campus experiences and successful techniques that helped them learn" (p. 195).

Another gutsy activity: "The 1995 fall Orientation Day ... Returning faculty members were not told that they would become students-for-a-day until they arrived on campus" (p. 197). Faculty and staff attended three classes, patterned after learning communities, and all demonstrating active-learning strategies. Even the college president got back into the classroom as a chemistry teacher!

Have you ever been involved in a similar scenario, where leaders didn't just talk the talk but also walked the walk?

Maricopa Continued

Paul Elsner reviews the "lessons learned" while transitioning the ten Maricopa Community Colleges to learning colleges. He summarizes in this way:

• First,we have learned that collaboration and cross-functional team processes require incredible amounts of support.
• Second, we have learned that the CEO plays an important role in creating a learner-centered institution.
• Third, we have learned that it is critically important to involve students in the change processes.
• Fourth, we have learned that it is also critical to involve faculty at every step of the long process.
• Finally, we have learned that Maricopa must rely on both internal resources and external consultants to assist with creating a new learning-centered system. (pp. 186 - 187)

He also says, "Once in a while, there are periods in the development of an institution that can be called the 'defining years.' ... Higher education, including community colleges, has been in a fixed place for too long. Institutions of higher education must be shaken out of their comfortable roles if they are to deal with the changes other social institutions are facing" (p. 185).

Have you ever been involved in an institution during its "defining years?" What was the experience like? What were the lessons learned?

Maricopa Community College

Although it was relatively successful, the Maricopa Community College District undertook conversations to become more learner centered to better position itself for the future. The staff and stakeholders decided not to use "old" and "new," but instead "traditional" and "desired" to describe the transition. Key elements of Maricopa's shift are outlined below:

• First, learning is a process which is lifelong for everybody and should be measured in a consistent, ongoing manner focused on improvement.
• Second, everyone is an active learner and teacher through collaboration, shared responsibility and mutual respect.
• Third, the learning process includes the larger community through the development of alliances, relationships and opportunities for mutual benefit.
• Fourth, learning occurs in a flexible and appropriate environment. (pp. 173 - 174)

These elements were developed through roundtables and framed all future decisions. In what way have you, or have you not, experienced any of the elements above? It could be as a student, a teacher, or any other type of stakeholder.

Lane Community College

Jerry Moskus notes that Lane Community College's transition to a learning college is just that: a transition. The process moves slowly in some ways, quickly in others. It doesn't happen all at once. For example, while faculty were highly involved with the school's redesign, some obstacles remain, including tensions with the union over managerial roles. In addition, departments remain firmly entrenched and cross-department "clusters" never really caught on.

One area of collaboration, however, is the college's Fast Forward Program, "... a learning community in which a cohort of students pursues a multicultural/interdisciplinary series of courses leading to the Oregon Transfer Degree" (p. 160). While I've heard of such programs at four-year colleges and universities, I think the idea of cohorts in a community college could greatly increase retention.

Moskus sums up Lane's transition this way: "While 'grand plans' have totally transformed some community colleges, the culture of Lane Community college is averse to such systematic, top-down schemes. The best way to achieve change at Lane has proven to be gradually, through groups and individuals who champion a cause and spread their enthusiasm to others" (p. 162).

• Do you think Lane's approach is unique to that school, or do you think gradual change is best for any organization?
• Have you ever been part of a "grassroots" effort to make change in an organization?
• Have you ever been selected as a leader to help with an organization's transition?

And then the school blew up!

Lee Howser. President of Jackson Community College. I love this guy! He explains what happened after the school took a hard look at the realities it faced:

"Once 'mess formulation' is completed and the story is told about the need to redesign, interactive design calls for assuming that the system 'blew up last night,' and that only the environment remains intact.Designers, however, can remember what they loved about the system and keep best practices and systems. The rest of the system is designed from a clean sheet of paper, leaving the 'mess' behind" (p. 131).

I have never participated in a process like this. Usually, the types of discussions I've had about changing an organization have been hampered by naysayers. This process "blows up" the obstacles, but it keeps the opportunities. What a refreshing approach.

Another reason I love Howser: He tells his faculty, "For 25 years, I have heard you say to the JCC administration, 'Give us leadership, but don't tell us what to do.' Here is your chance to design your world and realize your dreams" (p. 132). Who wouldn't want to work for a guy like that?!

P.S. (The title to this post is a link to Jackson Community College's website.)

An a-ha moment

Sometimes it takes me awhile to catch on. I just realized that this is a book by an administrator for administrators. I keep reading it from the perspective of a teacher, and that is not who O'Banion's target audience is. All of the case studies in the book are written by chancellors, superintendents, and presidents. This would be a great book for someone in the community college leadership Ph.D program. I keep wanting it to be more like Bain's What the Best College Teachers Do, but that's just not going to happen. I find it pretty ironic that O'Banion keeps pounding on the "putting the student first" message, but there's not one word from a student in this book -- at least so far.

I'm reading the chapter written by Lee Howser and Carole Schwinn of Jackson Community College in Michigan, and I like the tone so far. Howser, the new president, has a self-deprecating wit and has successfully carried his "boiling frog" analogy through the chapter. In other words, when taking over the college, he realized he didn't have the sense to jump out of the pot; the temperature just kept getting hotter. In his quest to remake the college, which ultimately was successful, Howser introduces the idea of interactive design. The process, he says, begins with "'formulation of the mess,' or an understanding of the set of interacting problems" faced by the college (p. 129). I love the mess imagery. Although Jackson could have stood on its laurels for quite some time, it didn't. Instead, the college looked critically at the challenges facing it and discovered:

• Faculty and staff were aging. Who was going to take over?
• Equipment was aging. Some was 30 years old.
• Curriculum was not being updated.
• Enrollment was dropping.
• The area was losing jobs.
• Employee morale was decreasing.

This no-holds-barred approach helped Jackson reinvent itself from the ground up. Have you ever been involved with an organization that went through a similar "formulation of the mess" process? If so, how did it go? What was the result?