VERSION 5-8-12 COMPREHENSIVE REPORT REVISION STANDARD ONE
Chapter One- Standard One—Scroll down
Shoreline Community College
Fall 2012
COMPREHENSIVE
Self-Evaluation Report
Prepared for the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
for NWCCU Visit October 3-5, 2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS
nwccu COMPREHENSIVE self-EVALUATION report 1
Title Page………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. i
Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ii
Abbreviations………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………iii
Institutional Overview ...... 1
College Profile...... 1
Accreditation History...... 1
Budget Reductions…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2
PREFACE...... 3
Update on Institutional Changes Since Last Report ...... 3
Response to Topics Requested by the Commission...... 5
Executive Summary of Eligibility Requirements 2 and 3...... 5
Chapter One: Mission, Core Themes, and Expectations 6
Standard I.A Mission...... 6
Mission...... 6
Mission Fulfillment...... 7
Acceptable Threshold of Mission Fulfillment...... 7
Standard 1.B Core Themes...... 9
Core Theme 1: Educational Attainment and Student Success...... 10
Core Theme 2: Program Excellence...... 13
Core Theme 3: Community Engagement...... 16
Core Theme 4: Access and Diversity...... 18
Core Theme 5: College Stewardship...... 21
Conclusion 24
ATTACHMENTS...... 25
#1: Core Theme Objectives and Indicators of Achievement (summary page)……………………………….. 25
#2: Memorandum of Understanding for Five Star Consortium…………………………………………………. 28
Abbreviations
AOC Accreditation Oversight Committee
AA-IP Associate in Arts - Individualized Plan
AA-DTA Associate in Arts-Direct Transfer Agreement
AFA Associate in Fine Arts
ATTF Articulation and Transfer Task Force
AM Associate in Music
AS-T Associate in Science -Transfer
AAAS Associate of Applied Arts and Sciences
BOT Board of Trustees
CBCE Center for Business and Continuing Education
CASAS Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems
CIS Computer Information Systems
CMMS Computerized Maintenance Management System
DTA Direct Transfer Agreement
ESL English as a Second Language
FTE Full-time equivalent
GED General Educational Development
HECB Higher Education Coordinating Board
IBEST Integrated Basic Education Skills Training
ICRC Intercollegiate Regulatory Commission
LCN Learning Center North
LFP Lake Forest Park
MRP Major Related Program
NAM National Association of Manufacturers
NC3 National Coalition of Certification Centers
NWCCU Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
OAR Ongoing Articulation Review
Op Com Operations Committee
PUB Pagoda Union Building
PSET President’s Senior Executive Team
RIF Reduction in force
SAI Student Achievement Initiative
SBCTC State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
SCC Shoreline Community College
SET Senior Executive Team
SLPA Speech Language Pathology Assistant
SPBC Strategic Planning and Budget Committee
VCIT Virtual College Implementation Team
WABERS Washington Adult Basic education Reporting System
1
InSTITUTIONAL OVERVIEW
Shoreline Community College (SCC) is a dynamic and vibrant campus offering excellent academic, professional-technical, adult basic education and continuing education to meet the lifelong learning needs of its community. Located 10 miles north of downtown Seattle, Washington, Shoreline Community College is a scenic campus with 26 buildings nestled among native evergreens over 83 acres. The College is surrounded by an elementary school and middle to affluent community neighborhoods. SCC was established in 1964 and operates under the regulations of the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and is governed by the Board of Trustees (BOT) of Shoreline Community College, District Number Seven. President Lee Lambert serves as the seventh president for SCC (effective July 1, 2006) and is dedicated to the College vision of becoming a world-class leader in student success and community engagement.
SCC’s mission focuses on three primary purposes that make up the essential focal areas. It reads, “We are dedicated to serving the educational, workforce and cultural needs of our diverse community.” The core themes outline how the College manifests essential elements of its mission including 1) educational attainment and student success, 2) program excellence, 3) community engagement, 4) access and diversity, and 5) college stewardship.
College Profile
Keeping to its mission of open access, SCC serves over 12,100 students annually and generates about 5,200 state supported full-time equivalent (FTE) students. (Source: SBCTC Enrollment and Staffing Report Fall 2010.) Students’ purposes for attending include 45% transfer, 39% workforce education, 8% basic skills, and 8% other. The majority of students (72%) take classes during the day and on the campus, 15% take classes online, and 13% take classes during the evening or at other locations. Over half, (54%) attend full-time and 46% attend part-time. SCC serves a diverse student population with 38% students of color. Asian/Pacific Islander students represent the largest enrollments of students of color (17%), followed by African American (9%), Hispanic (8%), Native American (2%), and other (3%). White students represent 61% of the total enrolled students. Female students represent 56% and male students represent 44%. Students with disabilities represent 5% of total enrollment and the median age is 25. The College also serves a large number of international students (approximately 600) from over 35 counties, predominately from Asia.
The College awards General Educational Development (GED), high school diplomas, continuing education, adult basic education, 61 certificate programs, and 55 academic transfer and professional technical programs that lead to recognized associate degrees. SCC offers the following primary degrees as authorized by the HECB and the SBCTC 1) Associate in Arts-Direct Transfer Agreement (AA-DTA) 2) Associate in Science-Transfer (AS-T), 3) Associate in Arts - Individualized Plan (AA-IP), 4) Major Related Program (MRP), 5) Associate in Fine Arts (AFA), 6) Associate in Music (AM), and 7) 36 professional-technical Associate of Applied Arts and Sciences (AAAS) degrees.
Accreditation History
Shoreline Community College was granted initial accreditation in 1966. Over its 45-year history, SCC has had successful compliance with its accrediting agency, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). Last year, September 2011, the College submitted its first Year One Self-Evaluation Report to the Commission and received one recommendation to “review and revise its indicators.” The College’s accreditation was “reaffirmed on the basis of the Fall 2011 Year One Evaluation.” We have earnestly done as requested in this Fall 2012 Comprehensive Self-Evaluation Report. Next year we will submit another Year One Report. With the shortened timeframe for completing all standards in fall 2012, SCC has actively engaged the campus to address the revised NWCCU standards for accreditation. The College very much appreciates this opportunity to improve our institution and measure its performance against the new standards.
Prior to the new standards, the last Full-Scale Evaluation was conducted in October 2002, followed by a Focused Interim visit conducted in 2004, and a Five-Year Interim Report in 2007 with a follow-up Progress Report on one recommendation in October 2009. The College had taken action on all recommendations resulting in the Commission’s approval of progress for all previous recommendations. The last full-scale evaluation prior to October 2002 took place in 1992 with a regular interim visit occurring in 1997. The College submitted requests for minor changes and filed progress reports that were followed by focused interim visits regarding these changes. All issues were resolved.
Budget Reductions
For the past seven years, the College has been restructuring to adapt to the budget deficit in Washington State. With a loss of about one third of its state support, currently the college faces another major reorganization for 2012-2013. Significantly, we have aimed for stable leadership and systems in place during these times of constant motion. In spite of much reduction, there has been development in efficiency, sustainability, service learning and curriculum. The College uses core themes in its policies to reinforce a positive approach to students who are themselves struggling during the economic downturn in the state and in the nation, and we aim to integrate fully the core theme objectives in our planning and assessment processes.
SCC has addressed the challenges of our students and our institution and aims to keep our focus on student success and educational attainment, increasing access and diversity, engaging with our community, maintaining program excellence and effective college stewardship of resources. Foremost, while the college has demonstrated fiscal restraint, there has not been major disruption in the classroom. As we maintain continuity in our comprehensive mission, we are a college in transition still focused on student learning and engaging our community and working on virtualization and globalization initiatives to keep the college relevant.
At the same time as the new standards were being introduced to the college in 2009, Board members were adapting to a new policy governance model. This confluence of initiatives provided an excellent opportunity for the Board, the president, and the College to revise and update college governance to the new model concurrently with identifying and adopting core themes and core theme objectives. Keeping a focus on our mission, this time became a major opportunity for the college to reaffirm its mission, values, core themes and strategic goals. The Board of Trustees Policy Manual was formally adopted in an open campus meeting June 24, 2009; it is organized around our five core themes, identifies objectives related to each theme. For the past two years, the Board receives detailed monitoring reports for each core theme objective.
We at Shoreline Community College are very proud of the comprehensive nature of the program and course offerings in support of our communities and students. The College is also proud of our continuing efforts to promote program excellence and student success in these times of economic stress. Engaging with our communities, we have fostered innovation; engaged in ongoing, systematic and thoughtful planning regarding future directions; and sustained educational excellence. Under the leadership of President Lee Lambert, and with a dedicated and skilled administration, faculty and staff, the College is striving to redesign its governance structures, to accommodate essential efficiencies, to remove barriers to educational attainment while providing innovation and direction for a transformed institution. The College’s five core themes, ten core theme objectives and seventy (70) indicators are useful barometers of how the institution operates and goes forward. See Attachment #1 for a summary page of core themes, core theme objectives and indicators.
PREFACE
Update on Institutional Changes Since Last Report
SCC submitted its Year One report last year. Technology changes to the institution since that time include a dramatic increase of thirty (30) more smart classrooms, new technologies for our boardroom and major meeting rooms, the development of our mobile app (first community college in the state to do so) and a reformulated website. The College is a national leader in use of Tegrity software by faculty, and we have increased online degrees and certificates. We have a 300 percent expansion of our manufacturing capacity, $.3 million of state monies slated for new manufacturing and chemistry equipment, and a new North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCET) national certification of our Clean Technology program.
Most significantly, future changes will be based on the work of several major task forces implemented this year that include a Virtual College Implementation Team (VCIT), Articulation and Transfer Task Force (ATTF), Advising Task Force, Campus Internationalization Leadership Team (CILT), the International Baccalaureate (IB) team, Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) Task Force, the latter two which implemented new college policies. In addition, the College expanded its Service Learning initiatives with a new mentoring program for basic skills students and a new Global Affairs Center and director.
Over the past 5 years, the College has completed extensive renovations to classrooms spaces in the 1100, 1500, 1700, 1800, buildings and remodeled the first and second floors of FOSS 5000 which houses many student services such as admissions, registration, advising and counseling, ESL/ABE/GED offices, special services and cashiering. The bottom floor of FOSS now houses a renovated Workforce area and enlarged Testing Center. We have redesigned the front entrance to the FOSS 5000 building (removed a ramp and replaced landings), improved the elevator and added an emergency stair system on the north side of the building. In addition, the 5000 building’s roof and HVAC were replaced along with improvements to all restrooms, bathrooms, hallways and classrooms.
Other key changes include an expanded 2100 Automotive Training Center to 22,000 feet, an upgrade to our Zero Energy House to meet occupancy requirements, replaced roofs, upgraded HVAC systems in the 800 music building and 3000 building. The 1200 building has new security improvements. ADA improvements were completed in the Visitor’s Parking and four other lots. Locker rooms in both the 3000 and 2000 buildings were replaced and in the 2000 building new faculty offices created. Roof repairs on multiple buildings were done and an ongoing roof study is underway.
The College curriculum undergoes frequent change and development to meet the demands of industry and to keep current academically for transfer. Recent new degrees since our last report include a Music Business Degree in the Music Technology Program and a 93 credit AAAS in Business which is fully online.
In the 10 years since its last full-scale evaluation in October 2002, Shoreline Community College has experienced dramatic campus-wide changes in budget reductions, infrastructure changes, academic program eliminations, and personnel reductions and several reorganizations. Despite these challenges, the College is poised to move forward on several significant initiatives including collaboration with regional colleges, increasing international students, veteran students, students of color, and online students. These changes and new initiatives are important to contextualize the College’s current position with respect to the Year One Report in addressing Standard One.
Since our Five-Year Interim Report to the Commission in 2007, the College has experienced significant operating budget reductions. The State of Washington has reduced SCC’s operating budget in each of the past seven (7) years. Since 2005-2006, the College has weathered an accumulative $8,701,691 reduction from its operating budget. In this past year alone, 2010-2011, the College sustained a $2.48 million reduction to its operating budget, plus an additional $445,000 state-mandated reduction to its student aid reserves. About 49% of the College revenue is tied to state supported FTEs, 40% tuition collections, 8% local fees, and 3% grants and contracts. As a result, the College has worked through several reorganizations and a rebasing (loss of FTE targets and equivalent state resource allocations). We are also seeing increases in student populations needing more resources.
Infrastructure changes and academic program eliminations and some additions were the most significant changes to the institution since the last accreditation report. SCC made the difficult decision to close our Lake Forest Park (LFP) facility (6 miles away) and relocate the Center for Business and Continuing Education (CBCE) back to the main campus with narrowly focused initiatives. The College also eliminated our Cosmetology program and closed the off-site facility (a quarter mile away from main campus). The Computer Information Systems (CIS) program and the Speech Language Pathology Assistant (SLPA) program were also eliminated. All of the eliminated programs stopped enrolling new students and taught out existing students prior to fully closing the programs. An additional significant change included integrating Learning Center North (LCN), a youth re-engagement program, onto the main campus from its off-site location about a mile from the college.
Several positive infrastructure initiatives and the development of new academic programs also occurred since the last accreditation report. We expanded our Automotive Center and completed the second phase of a full-scale renovation as well as added Hyundai, Volvo and KIA to our manufacturer specific programs. The College continues to be honored with the top award for Toyota instruction in the nation for the fourth time in a row. The College also received the national Bellwether Award for Clean Technology program in 2009 and for our Automotive program in 2011. We are now a Snap-on Tools Innovation Center, and a leadership college in establishing the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3). Our President, Lee Lambert, serves as the Vice Chairman of NC3. We were one of four pilot colleges for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) skills endorsed certification system. SCC also opened a new student union building, the Pagoda Union Building (PUB), now a hub for students and the community and completely renovated four large classroom buildings and updated over twenty-five (25) instructional and student service areas. Additionally, the College’s Master Plan was approved by the Board of Trustees and subsequently by the City of Shoreline.
New academic programs have been developed including the Clean Technology Program: Energy Audit, Zero Energy Building Practice certificates, and new applied degrees such as Digital Film Production, Music Business, Sports and Event Marketing, a 10- Quarter Nursing program in the evenings, and several nationally recognized IBEST programs. Most academic program areas have embraced some form of online learning to provide wider access, and we have fully online degree and certificate programs now available to students including an Associate in Arts-Direct Transfer Agreement, Associate in Applied Arts and Science degrees in Accounting, Business Technology, Supply Chain Management (formerly Purchasing) and Health Informatics and Information Management (HIIM). The college’s fully online certificates include Accounting, Business Technology, Purchasing and Supply Side Chain Management, Medical Coding and Reimbursement Specialist and Sustainable Business Leadership.
Personnel reductions and several reorganizations have also significantly impacted the College. Administrative, faculty and staff positions have been reduced or lost through restructuring, retirements and reduction in force (RIF). Administrative positions ranging from middle to upper leadership have been reduced or eliminated. Specific examples include the position of Vice President for Student Success was restructured into the Dean of Students, now reporting to the Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs (formerly the Vice President for Academic Affairs), two Dean positions (Library/Media/eLearning and Business) have been eliminated, and several director and middle management positions have also been eliminated. As a result of the reductions and elimination of administrative positions, the College has faced reorganizational changes each year. Faculty reductions and eliminations have impacted course and program offerings, and staff reductions and eliminations have impacted service to students, employees, and the community. Due to the continuous personnel reductions and reorganizations, campus morale is low. Despite the budget reductions, however, the College has made strategic decisions to add several administrative positions including the establishment of an Office of Advancement and hiring a Chief Advancement Officer to increase fundraising efforts of the Foundation and increase grants and contracts for the College. The College has also hired four administrative positions in an effort to increase international student enrollment.