MT. SAN JACINTO COLLEGE – ACCREDITATION STANDARD IVB DRAFT
Standard IV: Leadership and Governance
The institution recognizes and uses the contributions of leadership throughout the organization for promoting student success, sustaining academic quality, integrity, fiscal stability, and continuous improvement of the institution. Governance roles are defined in policy and are designed to facilitate decisions that support student learning programs and services and improve institutional effectiveness, while acknowledging the designated responsibilities of the governing board and the chief executive officer. Through established governance structures, processes, and practices, the governing board, administrators, faculty, staff, and students work together for the good of the institution. In multi-college districts or systems, the roles within the district/system are clearly delineated. The multi-college district or system has policies for allocation of resources to adequately support and sustain the colleges.
B.chief executive officer
- The institutional chief executive officer (CEO) has primary responsibility for the quality of the institution. The CEO provides effective leadership in planning, organizing, budgeting, selecting and developing personnel, and assessing institutional effectiveness.
EVIDENCE OF MEETING THE STANDARD
The Superintendent/President is delegated the primary executive responsibility (Board Policy 2430 – Delegation of Authority) for ensuring the quality of the institution through the effectivemanagement, implementation, and execution of adopted policies and decisions of the Mt. San Jacinto College governing board requiring administrative action.
The Superintendent/President has served in his role as CEOof Mt. San Jacinto College for over nine years. During his tenure as Superintendent/President, he has provided effective leadership and innovation in planning, organizing, budgeting, selecting and developing personnel, and assessing institutional effectiveness for the single college district. The Superintendent/President identifies student success as a priority for the District. As such, hehas worked with key institutional leadership to develop an integrated planning and resource allocation model that encourages innovations as they relate to student success and sets institutional performance standards related to student achievement.
Under the Superintendent/President’s recommendation, the institution also developed several foundational institutional statements in addition to the mission statement. The Vision and Values statements were developed, in consultation with the Vision, Values, and Mission Task Force, and drive all institutional planning and resource allocation efforts.
Planning
Consistent with Board Policy 3250 – Institutional Planning – the Superintendent/President, working in conjunction with the Academic Senate and other constituent groups ensures the District implements a broad based, comprehensive, systematic, and integrated system of planning that involves appropriate segments of the College community and is supported by institutional effectiveness and research. Through the Superintendent/President’s leadership and oversight as chair of the Institutional Planning Committee (IPC) and College Council, he is intimately involved, knowledgeable, and active in all institutional planning efforts at the College.His participation on these important organizational planning bodies ensures transparency of the planning process and accountability.
The Superintendent/President has supported the adoption of Institutional-Set Standards, which are embedded into the comprehensive three-year program review cycle as another mechanism to ensure that the District is using performance indicator data to determine the extent to which the District is meeting its mission, identifying any gaps and disparities in service or success rates, and improving overall student achievement. By establishing Institutional-Set Standards specific to graduation, transfer, success, withdrawal and fill rates – the Superintendent/President provides ample evidence to support his commitment to continuous quality improvement.
Budgeting
The Superintendent/President ensures effective leadership in financial planning and preparation, fiscal management, and budget management for the District. He delegates authority related to all Business and Fiscal Affairs to the Vice President of Business Services pursuant to Board Policy 6100 – Delegation of Authority, Business and Fiscal Affairs. The Vice President of Business Services supervises all general business procedures of the District to assure the proper administration of property and contracts; the budget, audit and accounting of funds; the acquisition of supplies, equipment and property; and the protection of assets and person in compliance with applicable laws, regulations and alignment with the California Community Colleges Budget and Accounting Manual (BAM). The Vice President of Business Services is a member of Executive Cabinet and provides weekly updates to Cabinet members and Superintendent/President. The Vice President of Business Services also regularly provides reports to the Board of Trustees regarding financial statements, current financial planning projections, and expenditures. Additionally, the Vice President of Business Services serves as the chair of the Budget Committee where he/she provides information regarding budget, resource allocation, and other financial planning updates.
Organizing
The Superintendent/President regularly evaluates the College’s organizational structure to assess the effectiveness of the organization, determine if fiscal, staffing, physical and technological resources are adequate to support the mission, and that the infrastructure is appropriate and sufficient to support the needs of students on all campus and learning sites. Over the previous three years, the Superintendent/President has utilized institutional disaggregated data, external environmental scans, and input from the Academic Senate and faculty to restructure nearly every division (Administrative, Instruction, Student Services, and the President’s Office) with the goal of strengthening the institution’s capacity to support and improve student success, improve internal communication structures, reinforce support for faculty and staff, and streamline day-to-day operations. The Superintendent/President employs an open and collaborative approach to institutional planning and organizational structure. Per Board Policy 3100 – Organizational Structure – the Mt. San Jacinto College Superintendent/President works in consultation with appropriate constituents through participatory governance and establishes the organizational structure of the College to account for lines of responsibility, the size, and complexity of the College’s multi-site single college district.
Selecting and Developing Personnel
The Board of Trustees delegates authority to the Superintendent/President to authorize employment, fix job responsibilities, and perform other personnel actions per Board Policy 7110 – Delegation of Authority, Human Resources. Mt. San Jacinto College has established Board Policies and Administrative Procedures specifically related to recruiting, developing, and retaining faculty, staff and administrators. The Superintendent/President ensures that the College adheres to these established policies as well as federal and state statutes and laws related to the selection and development of personnel. As part of the personnel selection process, the Superintendent/President conducts final interviews for all full-time faculty as well as all administrative positions and forwards recommendations for selection to the Board of Trustees for final approval. In the past three years, Mt. San Jacinto College has hired a total of – new faculty and – administrators following the human resource policies outlined in Chapter 7 of the Board Policy Manual.
Professional Development and training is an institutional goal as outlined in the Educational Master Plan and the Strategic Plan. The Superintendent/President is a strong advocate for continuous professional development opportunities for faculty, staff, and administration. He encourages participation in professional development at all levels of the institution and supports in-house on-site training as well as travel to local, regional, statewide or out-of-state conferences. His commitment to professional development is evidenced through the creation of a President’s Leadership Academy. This Leadership Academy is a newly developed year-long professional development academy for a small group of classified professionals and administrators that were nominated because of their commitment to the District. The first academy cohort completed the intensive professional development program in the spring 2017 semester, with a subsequent academy cohort commencing in fall 2017.
Through his leadership and commitment to professional development, the institution has hired two focused Professional Development Coordinators, one focusing on the professional development needs of faculty, and the other focusing on administrators and classified staff. Both Professional Development Coordinators serve as members of the Professional Development Committee whose charge is to create a culture in which all employees of Mt. San Jacinto College (Administration, Supervisory/Confidential, Faculty, & Classified) are informed of and provided with opportunities in professional development. The Superintendent/President ensures that adequate resources are appropriately budgeted to support the ongoing training and professional development needs of the District’s staffing.
Assessing Institutional Effectiveness
Institutional Planning and Assessment has been designated as a core institutional priority by both the Board of Trustees and the Superintendent/President over the past three Strategic Planning cycles (2010-2017). The Superintendent/President has established an institutional commitment to continuous quality improvement by institutionalizing evaluation and assessment efforts in every planning and resource allocation structure to ensure the refinement and improvement of institutional practices, procedures and policies that favorably impact student learning, achievement, and success. Overall institutional effectiveness and improvements to student achievement and learning outcomesaresystematically assessed through institutional data and research, program review, annual program assessments, and course, program and core competencies. Processes and practices related to participatory governance structures, resource allocation, and master planning efforts are assessed through a regular evaluation process.
To support the Superintendent/President’s commitment to a culture of evidence and a focus on student learning, he developed a specific unit within his President’s Office hierarchy to support, assist, and facilitate ongoing, systematic organizational reflection and evaluation for the ultimate purpose of improving student success, achievement and learning. The Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning was established in 2011 and since that time has been the primary unit responsible for ensuring that evaluation and assessment are the basis for all planning efforts at the District. Additionally, the Superintendent/President created a new leadership position within his Executive Cabinet to spearhead institutional effectiveness, assessment and student success.
Through the leadership of the Superintendent/President Mt. San Jacinto College’s Office of Research developed a Scheduling Efficiency Tracking System (SETS), a home-grown, internal and interactive data warehouse that captures and showcases critical disaggregated student data for all institutional planning, program review and assessment, hiring, and enrollment management, scheduling efforts, and core institutional mission functions. Institutional data from SETS has been incorporated into every cycle of program review, including the annual program assessment templates utilized by faculty to evaluate and assess academic program quality, effectiveness, to identify student needs, address gaps, and assess the mission of the College. During each program review cycle, faculty access SETS and receive data specific to each academic program and discipline as well as institution-wide data to allow for comparisons within the program review documents. The specificity in the data and its incorporation with the College’s program review and planning processes has allowed for assessment of the mission and greater efficiencies specific to location, program and course as well as improvements in student performance outcomes.
ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
Mt. San Jacinto College meets Standard I.B.1. The Mt. San Jacinto College Board of Trustees has appointed a Superintendent/President and has delegated authority and responsibility for the College and the implementation of Board Policies and Administrative Procedures. The Mt. San Jacinto College Superintendent/President has the primary responsibility for the quality of the institution and provides effective leadership in every facet of the organization including planning, organizing, budgeting, selecting and developing personnel and assessing institutional effectiveness. Through the Superintendent/President’s guidance and direction, Mt. San Jacinto College has established planning and resource allocation models that are integrated, evaluated and effective in improving student achievement and success. Comprehensive disaggregated data, both internal and external, are used to develop short and long-term planning structures, priorities, goals, and objectives. The Superintendent/President creates a culture of evidence and a focus on student learning and achievement. Driven by the Superintendent/President, institutional research is closely linked with the institutional planning and resource allocation processes.
- The CEO plans, oversees, and evaluates an administrative structure organized and staffed to reflect the institution’s purposes, size, and complexity. The CEO delegates authority to administrators and others consistent with their responsibilities, as appropriate.
EVIDENCE OF MEETING THE STANDARD
The Superintendent/President plans, oversees, and evaluates an administrative structure organized and staffed to support and reflect Mt. San Jacinto College’s purpose, size and complexity. Although the Superintendent/President has ultimate authority over the College operations as outlined in Board Policy 2430 – Delegation of Authority to Superintendent/President – the Superintendent/President delegates authority to a core administrative leadership team (Executive Cabinet)representing the four major divisions at the College. Executive Cabinet consists of the Vice Presidents of Instruction, Student Services, Business Services, Human Resources, and the Executive Dean of Institutional Effectiveness, Assessment, and Student Success.Consistent with their respective roles and responsibilities as outlined in their individual job descriptions, administrative contracts, and reflective of the College’s organizational structure, each of the Vice Presidents and the Executive Dean of Institutional Effectiveness, Assessment, and Student Success reports to the Superintendent/President and manages the administrators within their respective division. Executive Cabinet meets weekly to discuss issues and collaboratively make data-driven decisions that are of broad scope that affect the district. The Superintendent/President also has his own division, the President’s Office, and includes the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Research, Public Information and Marketing, and the Mt. San Jacinto College Foundation.
A Management Leadership group meets quarterly and consists of all administrators, including the Superintendent/President, Vice Presidents, Executive Dean, deans, associate deans, and directors to discuss matters pertaining to the institution, receive updates and information, set planning agendas and priorities for not only their individual area of oversight but for the College as a whole. Until spring 2017, Management Leadership consisted of only associate deans and higher. After careful review and evaluation, the Superintendent/President determined all administrators should be included in this group to improve and strengthen communications to all levels of the institution’s leadership team.
Board Policy 7100 – Delegation of Authority, Human Resources – requires the Superintendent/President authorize employment, fix job responsibilities, and perform other personnel actions” to ensure laws, regulations and board policies and administrative procedures have been followed. The Superintendent/President’s Office maintains the College organizational chart which clearly identified the titles and functions of all administrative staff. The administrative team at Mt. San Jacinto College consists of 42 administrators. All administrators are expected to assist the College in achieving institutional goals, objectives, priorities and support student learning and achievement through administrative Program Review, Unit Plans, and the overall institutional Strategic Plan. Additionally, administrators are assigned to serve on various Participatory Governance committees and College workgroups and committees as appropriate.
The Superintendent/President regularly evaluates the College’s administrative structure to assess the effectiveness of the organization and determine if staffing is aligned to the institution’s purpose, size, and complexity. The Superintendent/President employs an open and collaborative approach to institutional planning and organizational structure. Per Board Policy 3100 – Organizational Structure – the Mt. San Jacinto College Superintendent/President works in consultation with appropriate constituents and establishes the organizational structure of the College to account for lines of responsibility, the size, and complexity of the College’s multi-site single college district. Mt. San Jacinto College has several off-site locations. As such, appropriate administrative structures have been established to account for minimum levels of staffing, administration, and support for the different learning sites.
The Superintendent/President is also the Chair for College Council, the primary Participatory Governance committee by which all other committees route information and recommendations for approval by the Superintendent/President and the Board of Trustees.
ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
Mt. San Jacinto College Meets Standard IV.B.2. The Mt. San Jacinto College Superintendent/President plans, oversees, and evaluates an administrative structure that is consistent with the purpose, size, and complexity of the institution. The Superintendent/President adheres to federal and state laws, regulations and board policies and administrative procedures to ensure the College’s structure reflects the purpose, size, and complexity of the multi-site single college district. The Superintendent/President delegates authority to a core leadership team and consistently evaluates roles and responsibilities to ensure effective management and staffing. The institution’s organizational structures are regularly reviewed and evaluated to assure that quality is maintained throughout all areas of the College.
- Through established policies and procedures, the CEO guides institutional improvement of the teaching and learning environment by: establishing a collegial process that sets values, goals, and priorities; ensuring the college sets institutional performance standards for student achievement; ensuring that evaluation and planning rely on high quality research and analysis of external and internal conditions; ensuring that educational planning is integrated with resource planning and allocation to support student achievement and learning; ensuring that the allocation of resources supports and improves learning and achievement; and establishing procedures to evaluate overall institutional planning and implementation efforts to achieve the mission of the institution.
EVIDENCE OF MEETING THE STANDARD