AQIP NEWSLETTER TEAMWORK AT MCC
Issue #10
November 2006

Newsletters

MCC's AQIP Home Page

Discussion with President Haney
re: New Action Projects

In our ongoing AQIP process, three new Action Projects topics were recently selected, based upon input gathered from MCC faculty and staff. The top three “vote-getters” were:

1. Optimizing Institutional Effectiveness Through Communication
2. Strenthening Assessment to Improve Institutional Effectiveness
3. Rural Solutions (soliciting the needs of our service area)

When discussing these areas with Dr. Haney last week, she highlighted several key points:

• Our first three action projects focused on instruction. The questions we need to ask ourselves include the key issue of support for students. In other words, how does Administrative Services support student success? How does Distance Education, Physical Plant, Accounting, etc. support student success?
   
• 27 out of 29 area schools are in decline. What role do we play to help them grow economically? What can we offer programmatically? How can we meet the different needs of the Centers, and what new roles will they take?
   
• The three topics listed above are quite broad and vague. Each Action Team must take one of those generic categories and reduce it to a workable project, one that is specific, with results that are beneficial.
   
• Upon completion, we as a college must communicate results, findings, etc. with students, each other, and our communities.
   
• In terms of Communication, we can view it as both an opportunity and a challenge. The concern for better, stronger, clearer, communication will “never go away”. We will always be working to communicate more effectively and efficiently. We must build on what we currently have to strengthen our communication.

Dr. Haney stated that a plan and timeline for establishing teams will be set-up soon, with the probable change of appointing chairs rather than electing chairpersons.

View AQIP's response to our annual update
(Word document)

AQIP VIDEO CONFERENCE

AQIP: Issues, Questions, and Controversies

Approximately 20 people attended the first live AQIP video conference on October 19th. In spite of some technical difficulties, the attendees seemed to take away a greater appreciation for the AQIP process. Below, three of the attendees share what they learned:

• We are working on our strengths: (1) helping students learn (2) focusing on the future (3) maintaining alignment with the institution.
• The goal is to work smarter, not harder. By “reframing” we can help each other do what we already do but do it better.
• It is important that we maintain a “to do” list AND a “stop doing” list—we have to sort what is most effective and let go of what is not.
• The original timeline of action projects was believed to be 3-4 years. We have learned that the timeline needs to fit the action project.

• Since I have been involved in our AQIP project since inception, I have heard/seen most of this before.
• I think it should build confidence among our team(s) that others are experiencing similar issues at their institution and in their AQIP accreditation process.
• I believe that MCC would benefit from greater participation in AQIP and I think this is a tool that might promote that agenda. The presentation was informative, not too dry and incorporated the views of faculty, administration, etc.

• To hear that communication is a common issue helped me feel that we are really normal.
• I found it helpful just to listen to others talk about their struggles and what they were trying to do to work around the loop holes.
• We really can’t go wrong, because we are in a process trying to understand what is best for our institution and for our students. Just the fact that we want to look at it so thoroughly and with this kind of commitment from each of us indicates we really are on the right track in regards of self-assessment.
• I like the idea of shared responsibility and a shared voice.