Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast

According to Dave Urso, Past President of TYFY, the community college mission is succinct and clear: To impact the trajectory of others through knowledge. To step forward, we need to focus on the following:

• Collaboration
• Engagement
• Retention

Collaboration:

During Urso's keynote address, each table of participants received a dozen paper cups. He instructed each group to build a tower. Each table constructed a tower of various shapes and heights. When we finished, Urso asked if any table worked together with another to build a tower with their combined cups. This activity drew our attention to see the value of collaboration. All have common ground whether we are talking about multiple community colleges or multiple departments within our college. Positive collegial working relationships are the foundation upon which to build. 

Collaboration challenge: Identify one authentic collaboration that hasn't recently been explored at our college and pursue it.

Engagement:

Engagement was defined as being a meaningful interaction between two parties. For example, students have engagement with peers, faculty, their program, and their college. Staff members have engagement with students, peers, programs, and the college.

When staff and faculty believe their is a need for change, we need to consider how we present our need. Engagement begins with how we talk about ourselves. We need to call ourselves an investment, don't talk about what is "cheaper."

In another point, He stated that intentionality matters. Students don't do optional. Urso continued to say each intervention should have its own mission statement. Who creates the schedule for the college? We need to create the schedule around student need, not faculty preference.

Yet how do we get student need discovered? 1) Host student focus groups. 2) Gather anecdotal student stories from academic advisers, 3) Listen to students who say they don't want classes online.

In building a schedule, there should be consistency from fall to spring semesters. All college staff members need to commit to the entire schedule. Pathways can help if and only if the pathway is combined with an understanding of how the end goal will impact student lives.

Center syllabi on student performance. Put the most critical information first. Don't list assignments merely by Week 1, Week 2, etc. That shows laziness on the faculty members' part. Put the actual dates due. Show in the syllabus how students can access you throughout the week, not just during office hours or class time.

Shift critical thinking to the students. Make students construct critical thinking and meaning. Don't spoon feed them. This is college.

Engagement that packs a punch includes 1) connection and relationships, 2) working with the students where they are, 3) focusing less on breadth and more on depth, 4) no longer starting up initiatives at the college without stopping others. It is amazing how many banal initiatives colleges keep running far past their time of effectiveness.

Engagement challenge: Choose a program or project that exists on campus that can and should be stopped.

Retention:

Reflect on the signature learning moments you've experienced. Build upon these for your students and your college.

Data for retention is flawed. The ideal retention rate for a community college is 50%. We keep half of our student population and then pass them on to a four-year college or to a career.

Retention is like dating. Why go on a second date? What can colleges do to mimic that? How do our highest retaining progams do it? Study the answers to these questions and build on the findings.

Retention challenge: Do something proactive that will earn Yavapai College a second date.