Academic Master Plan 2020-2025

Happy New Decade!

It's kind of scary, but 2020 is here and
it's a great time, it's an exciting time

for Austin Community College. We have
achieved so much,

You have achieved so much success over the
past several years.

We're really on a roll.

We've tripled our graduation rate, we've
increased our persistence rates.

Every year we've increased the number of
our graduates, the number of our

certificate and degree holders.

We're doing great things. If you took our
graduation and transfer rate combined,

we're actually the leading community
college in the state.

So give yourselves a hand on that.
[applause]

And yet, you know, there's always more
that we can do.

Students still are accumulating too many
excess credits.

They're still taking too long to graduate.

And most importantly, we're not achieving
the equitable outcomes that we want for

all of our students.

There's lots of things that we're doing
well, and we need to expand, and offer

greater support for those things.

And there's talk about a lot of additional
new ideas that can even take us to the

next level.

So that's what this semester's gonna be
all about.

Figuring out, what are we doing well?
What do we need to bolster and increase?

And what are we not doing as well, and
what are some of the new, latest,

greatest ideas that can really help us
achieve greater levels of success?

We are going to keep this very
transparent; Communications has been

wonderful.

Edward Terry has been awesome in
creating this master plan website for us,

in which we're gonna publish all
information.

All the agendas, all the minutes, there's
lots of resources out there.

FC and OIEA have been terrific in
providing us lots of information in terms

of our demographics, in terms of our labor
market information.

And she and Garrett Gross will offer you
some insight into that.

Obviously, we can't cover everything
today, but today's sort of the overview

as to how the process is going to work.

And we'll have multiple speakers, but
instead of a PowerPoint presentation,

we're actually gonna use the website to
walk you through the website to show how,

hopefully, functional and valuable it will
be to your work, going forward.

I'll ask each of the speakers to allow a
little bit of time after each presentation

for some Q&A for some question and
answers and discussion.

We definitely want to attend to all
questions.

The website has an FAQ and it's populated
right now with just a few questions.

But as we get additional questions, we'll
add to that.

And I guess I need to say that about the
website, it will continue to be populated

with more information as we need to.

It's pretty populated now, but I think we
can always add to it.

So without further ado, we're gonna
actually start the presentation.

Mike Midgley, you are up first.
There you are! [chuckles]

He's gonna talk about what's different
about this academic plan.

How is this one going to differ from the
prior academic plan back of 2014?

So Mike, let me hand it over to you.

Good morning. [inaudible] Okay, so first,
no PowerPoint, and I have to use a mic?

This is gonna be painful. Um...
[laughter]

Okay, so yeah, I know I won't
get to walk around today.

Work out better for you folks in the back.

Hello?
[laughter]

Well, it was on.

[cheering and laughter]

He can't do it either!
[laughter]

[tapping on microphone]
Check, check, check. [cheering]

[Mike] Good thing I don't now. Thank you!

Now we can walk! So, good morning!

So we did the draw straws things and my
straw was getting to talk about the

former academic master plan, so I'll do
that, talk about that.

Some of you were here when we did that.
Man, it's been awhile.

I actually went back and looked at it,
when we did that plan, back in 2013,

I think, is when we were doing it.

And in doing that, I ran into some
ancillary materials.

Like you probably don't remember this, but
it was widely hailed as the blueprint for

ACC to move through the next decade,
modernized as a community college.

We got written up in the Statesman, all
of those things.

Which was kind of a hoot to see it,
looking back at that time, so yeah.

You don't remember any of that right?

Nah, never happened! [Laughing]

So, I just want to say a few things about
that, I don't want to get totally bogged

down in it, but I think that in looking
back that it's sort of like the elephant.

We're all touching different parts of it.

Because I know that I've had a lot of
people say to me,

We did a lot of work on that, nothing
really came of that.

Whatever happened to that plan? It just
got put on a shelf somewhere.

And my take on its, like significantly
different than that.

So, in looking at that plan, what we,
—You know, one of the things people

also say is that it's 350 pages long.

Holy cow, what can you even do with that?

I really got a kick out of that because
that was a short version,

the one we printed. [Laughter]

It didn't include all of your departmental
plans, they got rolled up to

the dean level.

So there was another, like 3-400 pages
that we didn't include in the plan.

And so, in looking at that plan, I think
it kind of breaks out into several things.

And I think some of them relate to this
plan, which is why we're talking about it.

Okay, when we did that plan, we started
in like 2012, 2013, I don't know.

A long time ago, in that zone. Cause I
think it was dated 2014.

One of the things that we were engaged in
at that time, if you think back,

is the board was talking a lot about a
bond referendum in 2014.

And so, they were deep into,

If we go out for bonds, what are we
gonna do with the bonds?

And so one of the primary things that that
was all about, not the only thing,

and I'll come back to that, but one of the
things that that amp was about,

was what are the bonds supposed to be?

We're about to go out for almost half a
billion in bonds,

—and it was under that,
they pulled it down.

And what should we be doing?

And one of the things that they were
really interested in, and they formed a

bond steering committee. And what the bond
steering committee was really interested

in also is, Do you have an academic plan?
And if you're going to go out for a bond

referendum, it is informed by academics?
And what we're doing going forward.

And I'll say academics, I really am
including student affairs in at it,

as this point, because they were a big
part of this also.

And so one of the things that we did, with
that, is we looked at,

What's coming up from the departments?
What are the ideas they're sending forward

that we can't do without a bond
referendum?

And that was the first sort on that whole
thing.

And so, if you think about what, like one
of the things that came out of,

Gary Hampton's old division. Remember
that? Three divisions in one.

How great was that? Totally unrelated,
by the way.

So if you go back and look at that, like
the public service area that we had.

And if you drive it down to those
departments, all the way down to what they

sent forward. And I know you don't have
all that, because that didn't go into the

report, but if you just look at the dean
level analysis of that.

One of the things they talked about, and
they didn't say Hays, they never mention

that, but they said, you know we really
should have a public safety training

center of some sort, and it should include
these areas.

That went into the bond package. We have a
public safety training center at Hays.

And you can track it right back to that.

One of the things that came out of a lot
of the departments that were in the media

areas, and they were in multiple divisions
at the time, if you remember that.

Some were over with Gary, some were with
Matthew, they were in different areas.

But a common thread with most of the
creative media type departments,

Fine Arts, all of those, Digital Arts, was
we should really be together.

We should have more space, there's no way
we're gonna expand at

Rio Grande/ Northridge. Which is basically
where they were.

We should all be together

That's phase II, primarily, over there
now.

And you can march it right down with most,
everything that came out of the bond

initiative that we did, I think
everything, came right out of the

academic master plans.

So that was one level that it drove the
bonds.

In fact, we presented to the bonds
steering committee, Enrique and I did,

in this very room.

Although, he was, do you remember Dr.
Soliz? Yeah yeah, I miss him, he was cool.

He was your predecessor, Charles, he was
provost.

He would come in and say, last night I
dreamed such and such, and we would

implement it. [Laughter]

In case you wondered about those years.

And so we did the presentation to the bond
steering committe.

He did a presentation of the academic
master plan to the board.

If you ever find yourself with absolutely
nothing to do, go back to about 2014

and watch Dr. Soliz presenting the
academic master plan to the board of

trustees in this very room.

He talked for 45 minutes and he told them
not one single thing.

And he did it intentionally, because we
hadn't released it yet.

But that was a first level. That's a first
layer that we had.

I think that's important because, as we go
forward, we're going for some of the

things we're interested in doing, we're
gonna have to have a bond referendum

to do that.

We know that we want to do somethings
already.

We know we want to do something, we have
property at southeast Travis County,

out by the airport. We bought that
property from the last bond initiative.

And in the last bond initiative we said
that's going to be a more technical campus

than any of the other campuses we have
yet.

There were a lot of things in there, but
that was one of them that came out of

that academic master plan.

It was really what it came out of, and
this is a thing.

Okay, everyone didn't get everything they
asked for, yeah applied tech!

They didn't get anything they asked for.

Because it was in the bond initiative and
it got pulled at the last minute.

And they got absolutely no expansion at
Riverside, but they kept that thread.

And it's been with us ever since, and so
in the next bond referendum,

it's my expectation, that that will be in.

And we'll finally build something out
for them.

[Inaudible]

Yeah, almost all of it passed that we did,
so that's the first level, thanks Max.

And so, I think that that's important to
think about now too.

What sort of long term, major things that
would require a bond initiative?

Because I think we'll do one in the next
few years.

You should be thinking in those terms.

How do we expand significantly?

Some folks, you know, they're just going
to be trying to adjust to what they have.

The creative media folks, I suspect you
don't want a new campus.

You've got one, we're not even moved in
yet, we're actually.

We're moving in, it's supposed to be on
time, so here's hoping.

[Inaudible]

On time, so those things came out. So
that was one level, okay?

And I think it's important to think about
that, because I've mentioned a couple of

things, it could go right on.

What about the vet tech program? What
about the farm in Elgin?

What about, what about, what about, you
know? We did all those things.

Even down to Health Sciences, yeah they've
got the big simulation center.

But there's little stuff buried in there,
too.

They wanted to expand Sonography at
Round Rock, that was in their original

claim they sent forth. We did that, we did
that what? Last year, year before?

Yeah, so a lot of those things. So think
in those terms.

Second level of stuff we did, it doesn't
have to be built around a bond either.

Some of the things we did in the master
plan, they weren't built around the bond.

One of the things, if you go back and read
it, I'm sure you all did last night,

so you'd be prepared for this discussion,
was we need to do something better with

distance learning.

We need a strategy for distance learning.

If you go back and look at that, a lot of
the things we've done with the Erasmus

and moving ahead, came out of that.

We need to do something with dual credit.

That was in several folks plans, in
several department plans.

In different ways, I'll come back to that,
when I get to the stuff that's just,

I scratch my head, and I thought, really?
We put this in here?

But a lot of folks wanted to work with
dual credit.

We have been working on that, chipping
away at it ever since.

We went through this year long process,
with this group of us and, Ted you were on

that group, several other folks were, of
us and the high schools trying to improve

dual credit, we're still working on that.
We're gonna form a steering committee

for that.

So there were other things that came out
of it, second layer, that didn't require

bonds, had nothing to do with bonds. We
didn't spend any bond money on them.

But they were strategies and improvements
to what we do.

Think in those terms, also, because those
matter as well.

What can we focus on even if we don't do
it immediately.

And that was one of the things, too, that
I think we didn't do a good job on.

Is going back and telling people what we
did, because, like with that,

we knew we were moving ahead on those
two examples.

We didn't do it in 2015, as soon as it
happened, we knew it was going to take

awhile to grind through, because it was a
lot in there.

And so we're still working on some of
those things.

So there are those things.

There are things that, another example of
something that's in there that we didn't,

we never went back and said, well, look
we did some of this stuff.

There were several departments that talked
about the department chair,

managing the department. We need more
release time, where you struggle to manage

a department with all of the tasks that we
have, you need to do something about how

we do administrative stuff.

So we didn't do anything immediately,
nothing happened in 2015.

But if you recall, and a lot of you were
on that, we went through this whole

year and half, two year process of
restructuring the department chair

compensation, the release time.

We spent, we added about, close to not
quite, but we spent about a million more

dollars a year on department chair stuff
than we did, essentially release time

and those things. And we do it every year.

And you can trace it. I'm not saying
that's the only reason.

Some of this stuff, we act like the only
thing we ever knew was the academic

master plan. No, we knew all this anyway,
just it was in there.

So you can trace some things back in there
that are in there buried, but they got

noticed and we knew them already and we
moved ahead on them.

Somethings were probably good ideas, but
we couldn't do at the time.

Like, there was a request for a certain
kind of center.

Which actually, wasn't a bad idea, it's
just the request was for one at every

campus, at a time when we didn't have any
space.

And so we couldn't go down that road.
So there are things like that that

probably you should look at your old plan
again, and say, is this still viable?

Should we be bringing this back?

And then there were some things that, and
this goes to Dr. Cook's point, that he

personally is going to respond to each
and every request that you send in.

[Laughter] If it doesn't get. But there's
some things.

And so just, you know, think about this,
there are some things in there that when

I look at them and still look at them. I
just scratch my head, like the dual credit

thing I mentioned, I feel like we're
making really good progress with that.

We're not there yet, and we still have a
lot to do, but like creating a wall

of shame to identify any high school whose
students need developmental work and

how many students. That's probably not a
good strategy for us, with dual credit.

You know, to do that.

Having a mid-sized department whose
request is for 21 instructional associates.

I did the math on that, I just thought,
that's intriguing.

And so for every student, every individual
student in a class, for this department,

that would have been, 3 hour class, that
would have been in a given week,

they would have had between 5 and 10 hours
of individual one on one attention for

every student enrolled in the class.

Which led me to thinking, so if all of
your students can spend an additional,

let's say 7 hours a week outside of class,
in one on one tutoring and are willing to?

They probably don't need the tutors, or
they don't need the class.

So think about stuff. I mean that one
just.

And so that's the last level, it's
sprinkled with things that you look at and

you say, Guys just think about what
you're doing.

And those are anomalies, and I pulled
those out specifically to say,

some of those were in there, and it's
probably good Dr. Cook's going to respond

to some of those rather, rather than me.
So, [Laughter].

So there you have it, so to recap and
summarize, because it looks like my time

is winding down with you. [Laughter]
It is!

I would encourage you, so the question is,
if I didn't get anything last time,

why should I care about this time?

Well, most people got something, even the
folks that had things buried in there that

we didn't go back and say you got this.

There were some things that you didn't
get, and I know that's true.

You put together a plan like that, and
it's that large, there are gonna be some

things overlooked, that's just the
reality. Go back and look at them again,

see if they make sense.

Think long term, think bonds, think things
that can be accomplished, think things

that are reasonable and realistic, think
things that are focused around students

doing better. And then, yeah we'll forge
ahead.

I think that's a recap of the last one.
And that's probably enough, thanks.

[Applause] Thank you Mike,
good job.

I think another major difference, and by
the way, for those of you still standing

back there, there are scattered, individual
seats up here, please come up and grab a

seat. We want you to be comfortable.

Or not! [Laughter]

Okay, all right.

Raise your hand if you have an empty seat.

One of the big difference is, and this is
intentional, is that the last plan was

literally down to very small departments.
Sometimes with 1 and 2 people in the

department.

Hundreds of different departments
submitting plans.

It was really a very kind of fragmented
approach.

And what we are purposely doing this time,
is asking you to work within your areas of

study and not only across the programs
within the areas of study,

but also collaboratively with student
services, with instructional services,

with other departments that you might need
to interact with and get guidance

and advice.

We really, as Mike said, would like to
pick out those things that really grab

your attention.

I know at our guided pathways meeting,
last meeting, what was it they asked us.

What's going to really light your fire?
What will light the fire of students in

their first semester, to really get them
excited about what they're studying.

And what their future holds.

And that's the kind of stuff that I think
we really want to unearth and to have

bubble up.

We'll have lots of conversations, lots of
opportunities.

The website also has a place, if you feel
the area of study team is too big,

or not listening to your individual
suggestions, you still have a opportunity

to give individual comments.

And Missy Patterson relate, I haven't seen
Missy this morning are you here Missy?

Somewhere?

Oh she may be online.

One of her comments that people feedback
is they didn't get feedback as to why some

suggestions were taken, and other
suggestions were not.

And we do want to do a better job to try
to offer feedback as to how the

suggestions are perceived and how it might
fit in with bigger plans.

So, let's see, Brendan, maybe you can come
and help me work the website here as we

go through a little bit of this.

The homepage, —awkward here, the homepage
gives just a general introduction,

if you scroll down.

And at the bottom it has the broad
purposes of an academic master plan.

And you also can read the announcement,
we sent out a memo from Dr. Rhodes and

myself last semester alerting people that
this was coming and these would be the

purposes.

So lets go to the process page.

And there's an actual flow chart, which
diagrams this.

So for those of you Math and Science
people it's maybe a better way to walk

through it.

But we have lots of documents that we have
accumulated.

We have a strategic plan, we have a
regional workforce plan.

We have guided pathways plans, we have
lots of planning documents.

And we want to have them roll up and serve
as resources for this plan.

In other words, we don't want this to be
disconnected from everything you've done.

We're connecting it to your program
reviews.

We're connecting it to your program goals
and objectives.

So we've got all of those earmarked on the
website so that you can draw upon them.

We want people to see this as an integrated
effort on all of our prior efforts.

We also have the labor market information
and demographic information.

And we have the state plan for higher
education, how do we fit within the larger

state plan.

Everybody knows 60 by 30. 30 % of our
young Texans, ages 25-34 should have a

post-secondary certificate or a degree
by 2030.

Oh good, yeah let's use that. Can we make
it a little bigger, I wonder? Perfect.

So, the amp website will have all the
planning documents for you.

And we picked out ten strategic themes
that appear over and over in these

different documents.

Number one, equity. We have got to achieve
equity.

Our population is becoming ever more
diverse, and all of our citizens,

all of our students have got to be
afforded equitable chances for good

education, good jobs, good opportunities
going forward.

So how do we achieve the greatest equity
possible?

Teaching and learning, this is the heart
of what we do.

How do we do a better job, to achieve
equitable outcomes in our classroom?

How might we have different technologies,
different techniques, different strategies?

How might we do a better job of involving
our students?

We all know that active learning is a
better process than the passive learning

of the past.

I know students are used to just being
talked to, and a lot of students just want

to be told what to do, but they're not
really learning and growing and obtaining

those skills that they're going to need
for their future work lives.

The future of teaching and learning, lots
of new ideas.

The student experience, we know that the
more students are engaged socially,

academically, the more successful they
are, so how can we provide that rich

student experience? How do we advocate for
students?

How do we provide them wrap around
services?

We know students are coming to us with all
sorts of needs, food insecurity, housing

insecurity, mental health issues.

All sorts of ways in which we're gonna
have to figure out how do we partner with

resources in the community to ensure that
we're serving students broadly,

holistically, so they can be successful.

Program development, what programs need to
be expanded?

What programs need to move to maybe an
applied baccalaureate degree?

We've got our first one, we're well on our
way to our second one.

Are there other areas?

How do we link up with our universities
more effectively to ensure those transfer

opportunities are successful? We're
hosting a statewide transfer meeting on

January 31. Luminum, Aspen, several
centers have joined together to pick

3 states, Texas, Virginia, and Minnesota
to look at transfer opportunities and how

do we expand transfer.

We've been paired up with Texas State, one
of our primary transfer institutions.

And we're talking, one on one, how do we
do a better job of making sure our

students make it to Texas State, achieve
the maximum amount of credits.

And get through their baccalaureate degree
successfully.

Partnerships with K-12, with community
agencies, with business and industry.

We have to work collectively,
collaboratively, across our community

if we want to achieve greater success.

And then finally, we're saying, are there
some we haven't touched on?

Are there some themes that you're thinking
about that you want to offer.

So we want to give you that opportunity.

So the areas of study are gonna be co-led
by an instructional dean.

The dean assigned to that area of study,
as well as a student service dean,

because we want this a collaborative
conversation across instruction and

student services.

We're asking each area of study to come up
at least with one suggestion.

They could come up with multiple
suggestions, if they like.

But at least one suggestion, how to take
things forward, how to achieve greater

student success.

How is student success defined? Greater
access, greater persistence, greater

completion, greater transfer, greater
employment opportunities.

Those are the categories of success.

That's the rubric, we have a rubric, which
the steering committee will use to

evaluate proposals.

How viable are they? What evidence is out
there that exists to show that this is a

likely successful endeavor?

Lots of conversation, ultimately there
will be an executive committee which will

receive the recommendations from the
steering committee.

Because, as Mike has said, we don't want
another 300 page document that people

can't even get through with one reading.

There's a great, in fact, I need to put
this out there for the resources.

There's a great academic master plan that
was developed by Montgomery College in

Maryland, which we kind of used.

And I think they ultimately came up with
7 or 8 initiatives that they wanted

to execute.

Something that was readable, something
that was easily communicated and

understood by a wide audience as to why
we're doing it.

And most importantly, feedback to the
groups, so that we can explain,

Yes, we like that, that's a great idea!
We're gonna run with that.

No, that's not really what we're trying to
do.

It's not, you don't have the data to show
us it's gonna impact a large number of

students and really move us forward on
the outcomes that we need.

So with that, what do we have next on the
agenda?

Garrett!

Okay, Garrett and FC are going to talk
about demographic data as well as

labor market data.

Student data first.

[FC] I think I'm gonna have to drive here,
thank you.

I'm FC Caranikas, Office of Institutional
Effectiveness and Accountability, OIEA.

Can you hear me now? Office of
Institutional Effectiveness and

Accountability, OIEA.

I'm saying OIEA because I'm gonna use that
in a minute to find what I need on the web

here.

I think, if you've been here a number of
years, you know that OIEA.

[Inaudible]

[Dr. Cook] You might need to use the
hand held, it's easier to keep close.

[Chuckles] Use one that's working.

You know that we did departmental
snapshots years ago.

We discontinued them, weren't being
used very much.

And then Dr. Cook last year asked us to
take another look at them and re-energize

them. And so we did that, if you were here
perhaps at the department chairs

workshop in October, you would have seen
our template, which I'll show you again

today.

We're going to be doing the departmental
snapshots will be available in February.

We'll also have an area of study summary.

And these are to help you look at some
trends the last couple years.

And figure out maybe where you want to go,
and how well you're doing now.

So first, I want to show you how to get
there.

On Dr. Cook's resources web page we will
have a link that goes to the departmental

snapshot web page.

And I think it will be, if I can move this
down.

Under the supporting documents, probably
some place down here will have a web link.

But, no worries, for now, I'll show you
how to get there quite quickly.

Oh, all right.

[Dr. Cook] Might be easier for you,
you talk, I'll do the web.

[FC] Okay, all right, so Austin CC, we're
gonna go to ACC's main web page,

we're gonna go into the search bar, and
we're going to put in OIEA.

Up in the search bar, at the top right
there, we're gonna go to OIEA.

And then we're gonna look down at the
first one here, Office of Institutional

Effectiveness, right here. Yep, click.

Data and reports, when I get there you can
just write down the URL,

[Dr. Cook] Actually, we'll have a link
directly from the amp website,

[FC] Right, but first, I would like you to
type it into that beige bar departmental.

The first thing that comes up is
departmental snap shots,

click on that, that will take us to the
web page.

And if you'll look at the URL,
Austincc.edu/tips/department.

So, this is going to be our landing page,
where we're going to have departmental

snapshots.

Usually, they'll be released around March
1. We're doing a little bit early release.

February 7.

And as you can, you might not have seen,
when Dr. Cook first landed there,

it has a note that the departmental
snapshots are coming soon.

In October, we shared the template, which
had active data for the accounting

department. Thank you accounting
department, for sharing.

Some of the things you need to know about
are here.

What is your current demographics of your
student body?

You're gonna want to compare that to the
demographics of the area.

Central Texas, to see are you matching
that, do you want to look at that in more

depth.

So, declared majors, demographic analysis
there.

These also have tables later on, first two
pages are graphs, the second several

pages are the tables with the numbers.

Dr. Cook mentioned thinking about how can
we help our students finish faster.

There's some data here that says how long
it's taking students, on average,

to finish a program. It's probably on the
second page or.

How many excess credit hours do students
have?

Are they kind of on track, are they
finishing enough credit hours each

semester?

Maybe those are some areas around where
you have some ideas for new initiatives.

So, this, as I said, will also be provided
at the area of study level,

because your work teams are by area of
study.

And so you might need some aggregate
data there.

Are there any questions that I can answer?

[Dr. Cook] You know we will have some
broader demographic data.

Y'all have done some reports, which are
gonna directly link to that show the

Austin area demographics, and projected
trends.

You have projected trends by location, so
that you can see it by campuses.

You have education, demographic overview
by educational attainment of different

groups and different age groups. So they
really do have a wealth of data that

we're gonna be able to provide for you.

[FC] I think that, I was just talking
about student data, we're also here.

Garrett will talk more about the
demographics of central Texas.

And then, Daniel Chupe O'Hanlon in our
office has become our labor market expert.

And he's created a lot of labor market
occupation reports that Garrett will talk

about also.

These are all resources, data resources
for you, as you're trying to think about

where do you want to do something that
might impact the most number of people.

[Dr. Cook] We also have, this is the
latest draft from Pfluger Architects.

They have been engaged to update our
facilities master plan, and they've done

some pretty extensive studies by campus
area.

So, lots of good, rich information.

Sean, you had a question?

[Sean] I was just going to ask about the
departmental website.

Will the release like an ACC wide
snapshot as well?

So that you can compare with your
department to what.

[Dr. Cook] The question was, are we going
to issue an ACC wide snapshot so that the

departments can compare to the total
picture.

And yes, we will do that.

[FC] Actually, the data will be in a
column in each table here.

So, on the departmental snapshot it'll
have your department, it'll have the

college wide data for that metric.

So there won't be a —It's separate
departmental snapshot printed,

but you will have the data you need.

[Dr. Cook] Thanks FC, and if you didn't
know, Soon Bayers, our former VP of

OIEA retired in December, and FC has
graciously stepped forward as our interim

director and doing a great job. I
appreciate all your hard work FC.

[Applause]

Okay Garrett, you want to talk about labor
market and would you like me to drive?

[Garrett] I'll do it, if that's okay.

Hello everyone, I promise not to drown
everyone in data, we just want to share a

little bit about the resources that you
have available.

The one, and we just opened this
demographics report.

It's a 300 page report, think of it as an
external layer on what, how Austin is

growing, how it's changing.

What's nice about that report that's here,
is that it looks at campuses specifically.

So we're a large region, we're gentrifying
quickly.

Changes are happening faster than we can
keep track of.

That'll give you some insight into some of
that, when you think about where your

locations, where your programs are at.

It's a starting point, there is an ocean
of data that we can collect behind that.

So that's why knowing the OIEA folks and
ourselves.

With the question you're specifically
asking is always most important.

You can get lost in data very quickly, as
many of us know, so knowing what you're

trying to answer is the most important
piece, so we can get there quickly

so we can move on with our planning
process.

But after demographics, we've included
here several, kind of, intro's into labor

market data that's available.

And the most important piece is this
crosswalk.

Think of it as our skeleton for how we're
mapping our programs to what we know

about [inaudible]. Was that me?

I'll make this sign bigger, yes.

So, we have mapped all of our academic
programs, which are in this column here.

To the occupational codes on the far
right.

And so you can scroll through by area of
study and see which ones we've been able

to map where we see strong linkages
between how our programs are coded

and how occupations are coded.

Wherever you see a link across we can
provide labor market data for that

occupation.

Some of our programs have multiple
occupations.

Some of our occupations have multiple
programs.

So not every program is here and we're
working on that.

This skeleton is a living document.
[Dr. Cook in audible]

[Garrett] Correct, depending on where we're
at every situation is somewhat unique.

But this is a living document. The first
time you look at it, you'll be able to

come back and say, you know what,
we look good, but on some occasions

you'll have adjustments we need to make,
cause our labor market evolves,

we have to continually update.

So, don't be afraid to say, I think we
need to look at realignment.

I think there's something that's missing.

And this is something that Daniel on OIEA
going to be spending some time updating

as we interact with us.

Well, what we've done here, this is for
every single area of study and all the

occupations that we've been able to map.

But if you come back, we've created an
initial report for every area of study.

And what these reports do is take all the
occupations for that area of study and

create an initial labor market report.

Now, the first thing I want to note is
that we're lumping together several

occupations. That may serve some initial
uses, but for most of us we're gonna have

to go a layer deeper into specific
programs.

But what's really nice about this report
is we can produce it quickly.

And it can produce some useful information
at a high level.

So here, I pulled our area of study for
computer science information technology.

Not surprisingly, we have a lot more jobs
here than the United States does,

we're Austin, that makes sense.

Compensation is slightly higher and job
posting is higher, which means it's more

difficult to find those individuals.

We know this anecdotally, it's nice to
have a quick reference with the data

to use in our planning.

Here is a long term trend if you need it
on historically.

The blue is the US, although the average
for the United States, black is here in

Central Texas. So we need historical data
on trends on how several occupations

have been growing or shrinking.

The dotted line is projections, if you
need data on how those occupations are

growing for our programs, if you need to
make the case, we need to grow programs

here, we need to locate programs here,
some programs need to change sizes.

This is the data that may be helpful to
do that.

A few last things I want to point out, we
are able to drill down deeper into

industries. Here it's telling us which
industries have the most job postings.

We can get into some skills data, we can
get into specific programs,

specific companies, where those companies
are located.

You can go down those rabbit holes deeply
as you need to.

So again, I'll just reiterate at the
beginning, know what you're trying

to answer, so we can get that data to you
as quickly as possible.

And then there's several of us here, many
of you in this room that are happy to

provide any additional information and
help you wade through the ocean of

a lot of data that'll answer those
questions.

I think I'll stop there so we can move on
with our pieces, unless anyone has a

specific question.

All right, well thank you very much.

[Mary Harris] Blank screen.

Oh I can drive, I just want to bring it
up.

There we go, thank you. Appreciate it.

Morning everybody, I'm Mary Harris and I'm
with Institutional planning, development,

and evaluation.

Is Ron here? Ron Johns? I just want to
introduce everybody to Ron Johns.

If you don't know him. If you don't know
Ron, then you just don't know. [Laughter]

Ron is our associate dean for assessment
and evaluation, and also Marcus.

Are you here Marcus? Marcus Jackson who is
our director of planning.

If you don't know those two, you just
don't know, but you're gonna get to know

them really well.

So as you know, one of the areas that we're
responsible for is the strategic plan.

And then also just the annual planning
process that everybody goes through.

And through that annual planing process
you just end up with a lot of information.

And then there's also the program review.
And there's good information that can be

used as you develop your academic master
plans.

And Ron and Marcus were wonderful and kind
of pulled out the information.

—Oh, I'm sorry, well that wasn't good, was
it?

That we thought you could use. Just give
me a minute here, please hold.

Why does it keep, is it spinning? It's
tired.

I'm gonna take some of this other stuff
down, how's that?

Where are we? Yep.

There we go. Something's wrong.

Well, I can't, cause I want to show it to
them, it's kinda hard.

Am I doing something?

Oh, there you go, that's a good idea.
Let's go to a different browser.

Please talk amongst yourselves, while we.
[Laughter]

Internet Explorer?

Well, I kind of want to drive, it's easier
for me to drive and talk, if we can just

bring it back up.

It is.

Okay, let's see if we can get this.

Let's just say no, for now.

I apologize for that.

Okay, so we're back on the AMP website.
And everything, [Shushing]

Excuse me.

Everything is going to be under resources
that I'm getting ready to talk about.

So, as I mentioned, Ron and Marcus, kind
of put together, they kind of pulled

things out that we thought you would like,
instead of having to spend a lot of time

in trackdat. But if you want to spend
some time in trackdat, we'll show you

how to do that too.

So the first thing I'm gonna talk about
are the program initiatives.

So, everybody's familiar with the program
review, or most of you are familiar

with the program review, so what we did
was they pulled out information from the

program review that you could readily
look at that could get you started and

thinking.

These were the areas out of program review
that we thought would be most important,

if you want something really quick to look
at.

So you can look at the community
partnerships.

As you see, we have the different, as we
call them, units.

And you can see how that I've identified
the community partnerships and new

initiatives that they want to do, that
that area wants to do.

That's a very quick look. You can go in
deeper, you can actually pull up the

whole program review document on our
website.

And I do believe that there's gonna be a
link to that website.

And Marcus & Ron can always help you find
that, if you want additional information.

But this is just quick information to
start the conversation.

If you go in to the actual full program
review, what you probably won't see

is any program, if there aren't certain
program reviews there, those are going to

be programs reviews that are currently
going through the program review cycle.

As you know, we're on a three year cycle.

And so, those program reviews have been
pulled out, but you can still access them,

kind of through a repository that we have.

But Ron and Marcus can answer that
question.

That's just a little side information.

So this is one document here that you can
take a look at that might be useful.

Another one, I can't figure out where I am
here.

Another one is,

back to resources.

The next one that I want to show you are
planning goals.

So this is from the annual planning that
we do where we update our plans.

We don't necessarily write out a new plan
every year, we just update our plans.

So this is going to be the, I'm gonna skip
down to the, oh they're over here.

Right here, Planning Goals.

So we start, we're gonna start with the
goals themselves, so you can see what the

goals are. As you can see the discipline.

So in this case, we're looking at Art,
can everybody see that as well as possible?

Do I need to make it bigger or are we
okay?

You can see we're looking at Art.

So they state what the strategic goal is,
equity and access.

And then what their goal is under equity
and access.

So in this case, increase the number of
sections offered in both F2F format and

Distance Learning by hiring new faculty,
blah, blah, blah.

And then, is it active? Yes or no.

Yes means it's still an active goal. No
means, obviously it's not an active goal.

Which basically means they're no longer
pursuing that goal or they've already met

that goal, the initiatives within that
goal, or have gone back and decided that

that goal is no longer needed.

So you'll see that under creative design,
where they had a goal to create a VR/AR

presence in our degree programs. You see
that's no longer active.

So that's another quick resource if you
don't want to go through the full plan

on trackdat.

The other part of that is where you can
actually see the goals and objectives.

So, this is the same thing, this is Art
again.

The same goal, and this time you see the
outcome name, and the outcome that they

have for that.

And their outcome is tied to personnel,
and again, it's active.

So that just gives you a little bit more
information for talking point,

for the purposes of chatting about it.

So this is already on the website, there's
going to be a link to the planning website

so that you can go straight to that, which
will also include a link to trackdat.

If you decide that you do want to go into
trackdat and dig a little deeper.

And look at the full plans, I'm just
holding this up, I know you can't see it.

But it's a one pager that Marcus put
together, and it's very colorful,

that kind of walks you through how to get
to the information in more detail that I

just showed you. And that one pager is
also going to be on the website for

everybody to look at.

And that's all I have, does anybody have
anything else for me?

And don't forget, we still have a
strategic plan.

Everything ties to the strategic plan.

Thank you.
[Applause]

[Inaudible]
[Dr. Scott begins]

Good Morning. I ordered up my whiskey
voice for you this morning. [Laughter]

Little known fact for most of you, I was
on the search committee for the provost

hire, and our candidates all had to
present on the last academic master plan.

So when Dr. Cook talks about the previous
plan, he knows it, he read it,

he presented on it, 5 1/2 years ago.

He says he barely made it through, but
anyway.

We don't want 300 pages this time.

So you've, it's been a bit of a drinking
from a fire hose experience I would

think at this point. You've heard a lot.

I'm not sure that we've, sort of,
highlighted the keys things,

but what you are hearing is that these
are going to be area of study academic

master plans, they are going to be
initiatives that cross programs, right?

They are going to speak to strategic
themes.

And we have told you that everybody
needs an initiative around equity,

diversity and inclusion.

And then you can have other initiatives
around other themes, if you want.

And so now, my job is to tell you that
we've tried to think this through.

And like good teachers everywhere, we have
established a rubric by which we will

assess what you present.

Good enough, can you see it, sort
of?

What you'll see, categories for
evaluations.

You're going to be evaluated on these
things.

And then we've mapped out Needs major
improvement, which is somewhat different

from Needs Improvement, Meets
Expectations, Exceeds Expectations.

So, we are going to be looking, and this
is the steering committee that's like a

35 person steering committee, a lot of
voices, a lot of eyes, a lot of, hmm?

Oh, we're up to 39, okay. One more, we
need 40.

Okay, so we're trying to provide you with
an understanding of, kind of the elements

that we're looking for, the ways you
should be thinking.

You've got lots of information about data
resources, the kinds of questions you can

ask and answer with all those resources.

But we also want you to know that we're
going to be looking for certain things in

the steering committee and the executive
committee.

Of course, what are we starting with?
What the academic master plan must

match our mission.

We're not a 4 year public university,
we're not a private liberal arts college,

we are a community college. We have a very
particular mission, we serve particular

students. Of course, you must start there.

We have a strategic plan, everybody name
those goals!

Goal 1: Equity and Access.

Goal 2: Equity and Persistence and
Engagement.

Goal 3: Equity and Completion and
Transition or Transfer.

Goal 4: Equity in Operational Excellence,
something like that.

Yay, you win.

So there are other strategic plans that
guide our work.

The department chairs in the room heard me
preach this sermon last summer at the

Department Chair Institute, right?

We've got the 16 x 30 plan that Dr. Cook
mentioned, the community master workforce

plan, but you must align with who we are
and what we have said as a college

or our strategic goals.

We're also looking at scale.

It's not an initiative if it only serves
10 % of the students in the program or

the area of study.

There's got to be a scale element
involved in this.

It's not 3 people want to try something
new, it's this, we really see something

that has potential here, not only in
Psychology, buy also in History and

also in Anthropology, and also in
Economics.

It's this initiative that's going to cross
departments and will really have impact

on a lot of students.

We're looking at what you say will happen
with this initiative.

And it's always about students, right?

We are here to ensure that students learn.

We are here to ensure that all our
students have access to those learning

opportunities and all of our programs.

We're here to help students stay in the
semester and move on to the next semester.

We're here to help students engage with
their learning and with us and their

faculty.

We're here to help them achieve their
goals, transfer, completion.

So, it's about, of course, the impact that
we will have on our core mission,

which is serving our students.

We also want you to not just pie in the
sky this, but to really say,

we have looked at some CCRC reports, we
have looked at what Ivy Tech does,

we gathered some evidence from research
from other colleges.

They've had great success with this, we
think it's something that we could tweak

and refine and it will work for us.

So there's gotta be evidence of viability.
This is a viable authentic proposal.

Innovation, you know, what is it that they
say?

Keep doing what you're doing and expecting
different results, right?

If you see in your data that there are
some things you really need to address.

If it's in equitable outcomes and student
performance in the classroom.

If it's in equitable outcomes in
persistence or in completion,

then what innovations can you develop
based on the research and the data that

you think might address those inequities
and close those gaps.

So we're looking at all of those things.

You'll see it's a very straightforward
point system.

No multiple calculations and pivot tables
and all that, right, it's just points.

And there will be many people doing this,
so there's a certain kind of inter-rater

viability embedded in this, right, cause
lots of folks will be assessing these

proposals.

So, the things in the left column are
what we're looking for.

And then we've got what we hope is a
fairly straightforward system for

assessing how far along you are in terms
of meeting or exceeding expectations.

And that is my only part in this show this
morning.

So I will turn it over to Gretchen.

[Gretchen] Hi there! I think I know almost
everybody.

I'm Gretchen Riehl, I'm the Associate Vice
President for workforce education.

I get to talk about the guiding
assumptions, time line and team members.

So let me see if I can get back to the

Yeah, ah there we are. I want to go to
back to process.

I'm gonna start with the guiding
assumptions down here.

Basically, and you've kind of heard a lot
already this morning.

We wanted to be aspirational, we want you
to think about in 5-10-15 years what could

my program look like. What could the area
of study look like?

If it was the best area of study in the
country, what would it look like?

Those are the kind of questions you should
be asking yourself.

And then what will it take to get there?

So aspirational, we don't want you to
continue on the way you're currently

working. We want you to think about what
would make it the best in the world,

in the universe. Dr. Rhodes likes us to be
the biggest and the best in the universe.

We do want to acknowledge that everything
we do is important.

However, we have only a mere 385 million
dollars in our budget.

So I know that that sounds like a lot of
money, but when you divide it up by 40,000

students and 11 campuses and I'm not sure
how many employees, it doesn't go as far

as we might like it to go.

So not everything is gonna be fundable,
just because we don't have unlimited

resources.

But that doesn't mean it's not important.

So we do want to acknowledge that
everything we do is important, but not

everything can be a top priority.

This is to be a living document, so being
on the workforce side, my home discipline

is actually Health Sciences, so I'll use
Health Sciences as an example.

When I was in respiratory care school,
umpty-ump years ago, I learned a certain

technology. I probably wouldn't recognize
the machines being used by respiratory

therapists today because it's completely
different.

And so, on the workforce side, we don't
know what the jobs are gonna be in 5 or 10

years. We don't know what equipment's
going to be like in 5 or 10 years.

So we need to have the flexibility in this
plan to be able to adapt to what's coming

down the pike. You heard Garrett, well you
heard Garrett talking about the labor

market information. That's going to be
really important to you.

And I say workforce, but really, I could
make an argument that every student is

a workforce student. So it's just that
when do they enter the workforce.

For many students, they don't enter until
after they complete their Bachelor's

degree or higher. So really, all programs
are workforce programs from that

point of view.

So we want it to be a document that can
be adaptable and adjustable and grow into

the future.

And then the last guiding assumption is
that we are going to use this as a

guideline to inform and set priorities for
future budgets.

So I know that there's a lot of
frustration during the budget process

because people come up with these
elaborate plans and they make all these

requests.

And most of them don't get funded. Let
me put that into perspective for you.

Typically, we have somewhere between a
million and a million and a half dollars

of new money that we can use on new
projects every year.

Last year, I, just me, received over 6
million dollars worth of request from

my departments. That's just me. So I
couldn't even, even if I got all the money

I couldn't fund everything.

So then you have, and then Gaye lynn wants
some money. I don't know why [laughter]

And Willie wants money for his people, so
you begin to see that we just can't do

everything every year. So, we tend to have
different priorities every year.

But we're using the academic master plans
to really look at the biggest picture.

And what are going to be the top
priorities moving down the pike.

And where do we, how do we need to align
that.

So, those are the guiding assumptions.

Doesn't mean your division, or your
department isn't important.

It means we need to take the biggest
picture we can.

Okay, so I also want to talk about the
timeline.

And so today is the kick off.

And so you all are here now, the steering
committee is actually going to meet from

11-1. Actually, I think it's 11:30-1
because they have to reset the room.

But and then on February 7, the area of
study teams will come back together from

8:30-11:00. And I think you'll meet
individually, you will have, where's Suzy?

Ah, we'll have rooms for them, all in one
building?

So we'll have rooms for you, but you won't
meet together because you are doing your

own work. So Suzy is taking care of the
logistics for that.

And you'll notice that on each date, the
area of study teams meet from 8:30-11.

And then the steering committee meets for
11-1.

The plan is, we'll meet on February 7,
March 27, and May 1.

The co-chairs of the area of study teams
will report on each of those date at 11

to the steering team where their progress
is at that particular time.

And then on March 1 is when the co-chairs
are going to, I'm sorry May 1, yes,

the other M.

May 1, the area of study co-chairs will
present the plans for that area of study.

And then on May 15, the steering committee
will send recommendations to the executive

committee. And on June 1, the final
editing by the executive committee will

be complete. And the executive committee
will present to the board of trustees on

June 15.

So that is our timeline. And again, this
is on the website.

So you can go look at it in more depth.

And then the last thing that I'm supposed
to talk about are the committees.

And we basically have, so we have a, and
I'm not going to read all these names,

but I'm going to show you where you find
them, we have each committee.

And you can read the charge to the
committee and then the membership.

This is the executive committee. And the
executive committee is really guiding

and providing oversight to the entire
process and we are led by the very

capable Dr. Charles Cook. [Chuckles]

So this has kind of been an exciting
process, we've been doing a lot of work in

the last couple of months to get the frame
work set for y'all.

And so I'm not going to read all these
names, but you can go back and read

them later.

The steering committee then, and so the
executive committee convened a steering

committee. And the co-chairs are Brandon
Whatley, and Rachel Ruiz.

So, we've got us our steering committee
co-chairs are an instructional dean and

a student services dean.

Because if you look at our college, the
meat of the work is done between

instruction and student services.

We can't, us on the instructional side
can't live without student services,

they can't live without us. So, we have to
work together to get what is,

what we need done, done.

So, it's now, I'm not going to read these
names either, because there's 39 of them.

But we have tried to really look across
the college, we've got people.

We've got faculty, we've got department
chairs, we've got deans, we've got someone

from HR, we've got financial aid.

We've got the Library, we've got adult ed,
several people from student affairs.

We've got a couple of students.

We really tried to have a broad
representation of every point of view

possible. I know that's not possible, but
we really looked for broad representation

across the college so we could get the
main points of view that we needed.

And the steering committee, they're really
going to do a lot of the work, in terms of

guiding the area of study teams, and
making sure they're getting their work

done and staying on task.

And then the last group of committees are
the area of study teams.

And there are 9 of them. They are each
co-chaired, actually there's 8 of them.

They're each co-chaired by a instructional
dean and a student affairs dean.

So we've got Arts and Digital Media,
co-chaired by Tom Nevill and Mike Acosta.

Business, we put Business and Culinary
Hospitality and Tourism together because

they're in the same division. That's co-
chaired by Lorlie Ellis and Louella Tate.

Computer Science and Information
Technology is co-chaired by Linda Smarzik

and Jim Boullosa. Jim Boullosa.

Design, Manufacturing, Construction and
Applied Technologies is co-chaired by

Brandon Whatley and Roxanne Royalty.

Education and Public and Social Services,
again, those 2 areas of study are in the

same division, that ones co-chaired by
Giao Phan and Heather Elias.

And Health Sciences is co-chaired by Pat
Recek and Christina Michura.

Liberal Arts/Humanity is co-chaired by
Matthew Daude Laurents and

Roman Escamilla.

Liberal Art/Social and Behavioral Sciences
is co-chaired by Sam Echeverria-Cruz

and Voncille Wright. And I do believe they
are actually going to work together

because Liberal Arts is really one area
of study.

We divided it into two divisions for ease
of management, but it's really one

area of study, so they'll be working
together, actually.

And then finally, Science, Engineering and
Math is co-chaired by David Fonken

and Mervin Jones.

And so the area of study teams are really
where the meat of the work is going

to be done. And with that, I'm going to
hand it over to Suzy!

So we were asked to talk a little bit
about the resource teams.

And I wanted to mention that when we first
started all of this pathways work and had

the conversations with Davis Jenkins and
Kay McClenny and our achieving the dream

coaches, they did talk about the idea that
the area of studies or meta majors

would become learning communities.

Learning communities involved all faculty
in those areas.

Also, all student services contacts in
those areas, advisors and counselors.

But they also included others from other
areas who would support those.

And so at that time, several different

entities divided or assigned people to
those areas of study.

Student Life assigned individual contacts
for each area of study.

Library has assigned librarians, faculty
librarians to areas of study.

Instructional designers have been assigned
to areas of study.

So the idea for the resource teams is that
they would be people that were embedded

in your different areas of study as you're
doing this work to help provide some

resources. Same thing with distance
learning, dual credit, high school

programs, etc.

So, what we want to do, and what we'll do
in the February meeting is have all of

those representatives available to support
you in this work.

We talked about a lot of things related to
technology resources.

You know, we have partnerships with Apple.

We went to an event where they showed us
sort of the future of what could happen

with iPads and things like that.

We have a relationship with Adobe.

So those kinds of things where there are
resource people who would be there.

Experiential learning is another one,
articulation.

So, the event in February will actually be
across the street at the Holiday Inn.

What we have done is we have had, we'll
have a general session room,

for sort of a communal event.

And then we will have break out rooms for
all those areas of study.

And again, we will have resource staff
there and faculty available to support

whatever it is you need to do there.

The key contacts are listed where you
saw the area of study teams.

You saw there was a resource team link.

So those key contacts are listed both on
the student affairs side and the

academic affairs side, or instructional
services side of the house.

Good Morning, Willie Martinez. I'm the
interim VP of Student Affairs.

So within student affairs there's a lot
of different services.

But I want to say, one of the things that
we're constantly doing is evaluating

how we can do better, so that we can be
better for all our students.

The expectation's to help each and every
single student.

And one of our biggest things within
student affairs is how we can better

collaborate across the board with faculty
and all academics, so that we can share

a lot of that information.

There's too many people that don't know
all the support services that do exist

for our students. So we need to do a
better job there.

And just letting, not just our students
know, but letting faculty and staff know

that these services are available. And how
we can work better together so that we can

get across those services.

Now, the expectation for anybody in
student affairs is gonna be that they're

gonna be a resource. So you see anybody
that's within student affairs, you can ask

them a question, and hopefully they can
shoot you to the right person,

or they can answer the question.

Now, very specifically, we are going to
have all our deans co-chaired across

the area of study teams, but we're also
going to have an additional executive dean.

Two of our executive deans, Dr. Dorado
Kinney Dr. Wade Bradfute are going to be

assigned to all the different areas of
study.

Also as a point of contact for any broader
questions that you may have, or anything

that you need to forward along.

I religiously check emails so I will
always answer questions or concerns.

And any one of the AVP's will always
answer questions or concerns.

Yeah, okay. Thank you all. Mary?

Additional featured readings? Yeah.

We've been collecting readings from the
past couple of years, especially from

The Chronicle of Education, they
periodically will assemble some of their

best articles that have gotten a lot of
traction.

And let me go back to the resource page.

Well

These are different readings, as I say, on
student success, equity, transformation.

Oh, here's the Georgia Tech plan. I was
particularly looking at what universities

have done. And the two best examples
that I have found are Georgia Tech,

looking at what should the university be
in 2040.

And Stanford actually did it back in
2015, what should Stanford look like

in 2025. And very interesting very
informative.

They're acknowledging higher education is
changing dramatically it's not serving

just this niche of 18-22 year olds.
Increasingly we're serving everyone from

high school age through retirement age,
and beyond.

Because the economy and the society is
changing so fast that people are going to

have to continually update their knowledge
and skills.

So interesting reading.

And it's nice to know that not only
community colleges, but universities

across the country are saying, the old
traditional ways, this model that we

created in the 19th century is not working
well for students in the 21st century.

So how can we do a better job?

So lots of interesting reading that might
prompt some thinking and ideas on your part.

Additionally, multiple multiple websites
to on the future of college.

Obviously, you're not going to have time
to read all of this stuff, but it's good

material to browse. And like I said, a
prompt to your thinking.

Okay, I think we have time for a break.

So let's take ten minutes, it's now almost
10.

Reassemble at 10:10, maybe 10:15.

Usually, it takes us that long to get back
in our places, but thank you for your

attention thus far. And we'll hopefully
have greater discussion when we

reassemble.

So I'm Brandon Whatley and this is Rachel
Ruiz.

We are the co-chairs for the steering
committee.

And we're here to help guide this problem,
this process to a degree. [Laughter]

To a degree.

But, in utilization of the steering
committee, so quick announcement.

We've added the 40th member to our
steering committee this morning.

[Laughter] That is Theresa Glenn.

So I'm going to turn this over to Rachel
and she's going to start us off.

Good morning everybody. So, we have seen
the, we've had the macro look right,

of what this AMP will, process, will look
like.

And we're going to now dig into the micro.

We're going to go over the AoS template,
which is found in the website.

I tend to like PowerPoint, so I'm going to
use PowerPoint here.

And then Brandon is going to go over the
actual proposal.

And what the proposal process will look
like.

So, as far as next steps, as we've heard,
all faculty and staff are invited to

participate as members of the AoS teams.
And we're encouraging them to attend the

AoS team, as many of the meetings as they
can.

The AoS co-chairs, we've heard the
instructional dean and the student

affair assigned dean, will meet and
they'll actually lead the discussions of

the AoS teams. And then they will
determine what proposals will be then

sent forward to the steering committee.

So, I'd like at this time, to introduce
our, all of our instructional deans

and student affair deans who were
co-chairs for the AoS.

If you'll just stand up for just a moment
where we can see who you are.

[Applause] There you go, okay. Thank you!

The AoS co-chairs will attend each
steering committee meeting to provide an

update as to the work of the AoS teams.

And then the broad based, now 40 member,
steering committee will review the AoS

proposals, consider college wide needs,
and make recommendations to the

executive committee.

So again, I'd like to ask all of the
members of the steering committee that are

here right now to please rise, just so we
can see who you are. [Applause]

Okay, great. Thank you.

And then the executive committee will make
the final report to the college board of

trustees who are responsible for actually
making the decision of which proposals

will be funded.

So those are next steps.

Area of study template that is found on
the website.

Some of the things that we're asking the
area of study teams to do is to first

read/review the articles, the strategic
plan, labor market trends, all of this.

All of this information that you've heard
of today.

We're asking the AoS teams to become
familiar with as much of that as possible.

Also, they need to include the strategic
themes that Brandon will go over in just

a moment.

And then they'll need to consider the
questions regarding guided pathways,

3 years of the AoS data and demographics,
and then to review current and projected

regional labor market trends. And then,
actually develop the proposal.

So we're going to dig a little bit more in
to these questions.

The first are answering these questions
related to the guided pathways 2017-2021.

And I've just extrapolated, sort of,
the high points,

but it's a lot more detail when you go in.

So the first question, Are our program
maps current and posted with required

courses, career, and transfer
opportunities?

How will the programs work with Student
Affairs, community partners and

communications, to advertise and market
programs to diverse students and to inform

them of career and transfer opportunities?

How will programs use adult ED,
developmental ED, continuing ED as

on ramps for underserved students to
credit programs?

What may be done to improve outcomes of
our K-12 and university partnerships,

and to evaluate their effectiveness?

And lastly, How will AoS programs and
Student Affairs work collaboratively to

support student's enrollments,
persistence and completion rates?

Now the questions regarding the 3 years of
AoS student data and area demographics.

Number 1: Are AoS student enrollments
representative of the service area

demographics? If not what can be done to
improve it?

Number 2: What are the trends in
persistent rates of students within the

AoS programs? How many have completed
15-30-45 semester credit hours?

Number 3: How can the AoS programs and
services assist students over the next 5

years in avoiding the accumulation of
excess credits and debt?

Number 4: What are the trends in
completion and transfer rates of

students within the AoS programs?

And number 5: What efforts across the AoS
programs and services are made to ensure

equitable outcomes by students gender,
race, ethnicity, and level of income and

persistence completion, and transfer
rates?

All very important questions as we
develop our proposals.

And then the last set of questions are
regarding the current and projected

regional labor market trends.

Number 1: Are AoS programs meeting the
current regional labor market needs?

Will they meet the projected regional
labor market needs?

And if not, what needs to be done to do
so?

Number 2: How many ACC students in the
AoS programs with no prior degree need to

attain a baccalaureate degree or above
for a good paying job?

How can ACC achieve this goal in the
next 5 years?

And then last, How will the AoS student
data look different in 2025 or 2030?

So these are all of the, sort of,
pertinent details that the AoS teams

will need to ensure that they're
considering as they're developing their

proposals. The steering committee and the
executive committee will also be

considering these questions in order to
make the final decisions of which

priority proposals go forward.

So at this time, Brandon is going to go
into the detail of the proposal itself.

[Brandon] Hello, so both of these documents
are in the resources link, posted there.

And we're just pulling the key elements
out of those documents.

So the proposal template, which is the how
to, how do you actually write the

proposal, is the guide. It's to guide you
in what you need to address within.

So, the opening paragraph should be a 2-3
paragraph executive summary or abstract.

This is really about what you foresee your
AoS looking like in 5 years, 2025.

And beyond.

So really, it's your vision. Where do you
want to go?

What this project or initiative that I'm
addressing, where's it going to take us

in 5 years?

So that's really the first element.

Proposal, should at a minimum, address
strategic theme A, as was mentioned

earlier, diversity, equity and inclusion.

And then you can add additional themes as
you go.

So as you look at the document, you might
ask yourself, well do I submit multiple

proposals, or do I submit multiple
strategic themes?

You're going to have to have to kind of
answer that question yourself,

depending on what you're proposing.

So for example, you may be saying, I need
to have access for our students at

multiple campuses by offering said
programs that aren't currently offered.

Along with that, you might also say,
We want to enhance earn and learn

opportunities for our students in that
process.

So those, in some ways, are two separate
themes, but can be written under one

proposal. Or, they could be broken out
into two proposals.

So, really giving you a little bit of
flexibility on how you do that.

The steering committee will then take
that feedback and figure out what

common themes across AoS's do we need to
push forward, that sort of thing.

So strategic themes, the areas that which
we need to address within this document

are equity, diversity, inclusion, teaching
and learning.

And there's experiential learning, active
and collaborative learning,

evidence of student learning and
preparation,

the future of teaching and learning.

The student experience, student
engagement, student advocacy.

You know, what are students undertaking?

And we probably need to take some extra
steps to ask our students what they're

experience. We often forget to do that.

So let's, within our AoS teams, we
probably need to have some student input

within that development period.

Program development, partnerships, and
then partnerships with business and

industry, high school partnerships, that
sort of thing.

New programs to be developed.

A new theme, that's opened ended, it could
be anything you deem that's relevant to

this process.

So, for each strategic theme, though,
as you list and move along,

you will need to address the following
items,

How does the proposal align with ACC's
mission and strategic plan?

I mean that seems pretty straightforward.

How does the proposal address the
strategic theme?

How many students, or what percentage
of students within your area of study

will the proposal impact? It may be
students that don't exist yet.

You don't know, we don't know.

What are the projected results of this
proposal in terms of students increase

in one or more of the following
categories:

Access, persistence, completion,
learning, transfer and/or employment.

What evidence of viability do you have
that the proposal will support successful

outcomes?

You know, you're going to have to find
some data to back up what you're proposing.

And some of it will be on the resources
page already, and some of it you may have

to go out and illicit and find.

What academic sources, resources, whoops.

What makes the proposal innovative?

So we want something innovative, we don't
want just, not all aspects of every

proposal or strategic theme are going to
be something totally innovative and new,

some of it might just be readdressing
something that we've already been working

towards in an innovative approach to it.

But we want our folks, we want y'all to be
innovative in what you put forward.

And then appendix B simply lists what's,
who's involved.

Who on the AoS teams, now as Rachel
pointed out, the AoS teams is everybody

within your AoS, it's not just your
advisory committee that we've been meeting

with previously.

This is all your faculty and staff, this
is all of our student affairs folks that

support our AoS. This is CE, this is AVE.

These are all folks that have a stake in
that area of study.

So it's going to be important that our
AoS teams chairs, co-chairs, deans,

that we make sure that we invite our
faculty and staff and our other folks

that are involved.

So that onus will be on y'all to make sure
that your folks have the information they

need to be present and to know what we're,
what we'll be talking about.

So, each team will be required to keep
meeting minutes on the resource page

there is a template for meeting minutes.

We would like to use that one for
consistency.

So as your AoS teams meet, it is been
deemed that the instructional dean's

admin will keep the meeting minutes for
your AoS teams meetings.

Now, of course, y'all can correspond with
your partner dean and work that out.

But we want to make sure we have meeting
minutes posted on our website,

showing the progress and work.

And then appendix C, many of you might be
curious what are resource team folks.

So the examples might be include TLED, the
business office, HR, wherever you're

getting supplemental information to build
your proposals.

So we will, and appendix C will be listed
in those resource folks.

What they're role is.

That's pretty much it.

So next is Dr. Cook with questions for
any of us.

[Rachel] I forgot to ask the executive
committee members to please rise who

are here. Because I think that's important
that you all know who they are.

Okay, thank you! [Applause]

[Dr. Cook] Okay, lots of information.

Linnea, I see your hand way back there.

Linnea, hold on.

We're recording this, so y'all are gonna
have to ask your questions in a microphone.

[Linnea] So I wanted to know, what about
cross-walks with other AoS's?

Because, for example, I share a lab with
MLT and actually medical diagnostics and

biotech and MLT, there is a lot of cross-
walk between that.

Is there any way we can do some sort of
analytical analysis of some of this data

being generated to look for some of these
natural cross-walks that then could be

then suggested to the teams, Oh by the
way, so and so's doing this, you may want

to talk to them.

[Dr. Cook] Absolutely, in fact, we
encourage that kind of interdisciplinary,

intra, or inter AoS conversation. We think
that's great.

I love that idea, and we can assist you
Garrett, FC, let us know what additional

assistance with you might need with data.

[Dr. Scott] Part of the reason why we're
asking for every area of study to report

to the steering committee every time they
meet, is for folks to sit there.

David would sit there and hear something
that Pat says they're working on..

So it's also to allow for that ongoing
exchange of updates and ideas.

Courtney

[Courtney] I guess I wanted some clarity
on who's invited to the AoS team meetings,

cause I believe Rachel said that all
faculty and staff are invited to attend

and participate, but then later, it
sounded like it might just be

instructional faculty and student affairs
folks.

So I'm wondering, like if you work in HR
or in the business office,

how do you decide which AoS team meeting
to go to if they aren't in fact invited.

[Dr. Cook] Well obviously, we're probably
not going to be able to accommodate all

employees across, but the instructional
services, the TLED division as you know,

we have an assigned instructional dean.

You know, the AoS needs to have a lot of
communication, not just these regular

assigned meetings. I'm hoping that the
co-chairs will establish maybe a Google

group for lots of communication. And if
you as an individual are interested in say

attending the Science, Engineering and
Math, that you let David know.

And that you asked to be invited to that
conversation.

Certainly, the co-chairs, as they develop
their proposals, if it's something that's

going to pertain to, we need greater
communication skills.

Maybe they reach out to you, Courtney, to
help them in getting a certain newsletter

put together, or a website put together,
whatever it might be.

Absolutely, if it impacts business
services that we'll reach out to Neal and

his folks as well.

Uh, Grant.

[Grant] Is there any way we can formally
get students involved in the planning

process?

[Dr. Cook] Yeah, we have two students on
the steering committee which we know

of course is not enough.

Purposefully, we chose them from student
government and also from Phi Theta Cappa,

which is one of our most active student
groups.

But we've talked about the need for us to
do additional focus groups,

additional surveys of students.

We have existing information in the way
of CCSEE data, Noel-Levitz data.

And I believe the Noel-Levitz survey's
going to be repeated this semester,

but it's going to be too slow really to
get us the feedback we need.

But I encourage the AoS teams, you create
your own data, your own surveys,

your own focus groups. I encourage you to
yeah, involve students as best you can.

Like we said, Student Life, they have
assigned individuals to different

areas of study. So Willie, if you could
provide us the list of Student Life

personnel who are assigned to the
different areas of study, that we could

provide the teams?
[Inaudible]

[Dr. Cook] Uh huh.

Sure.

[Willie] We can for sure send somebody.
But in addition to Student Life,

within Student Affairs, we need to figure
out how we're going to spread the wealth.

And try to be as involved as possible
within all the area of study teams.

[Dr. Cook] Sure, Jason Briseno is here and
he's on the steering committee, the head

of our financial aid office. So he'll be
hearing the reports back from area of

study teams. And as they need additional
information, say from the financial aid

office, he can make a point of assigning
somebody to work with them.

[Willie] And I think one of the things we
haven't mentioned was that the timeline

itself are at minimum the team meetings
we're going to have, but we're probably

going to wind up having a lot more outside
of just those scheduled.

[Dr. Cook] Yeah, we encourage, we know
it's difficult, obviously it's a very

compressed time period.

This is happening in such a manner because
the facility master plan had already

gotten underway, and our regional advisory
committee members, our board members

were saying, well why are we updating
facility master plans until we really have

some clear indication of where we want to
go with our programs?

So that's why we want to build this
together so that these things are

interlinked.

Right now Pfluger Architects has been
meeting with the different regional

advisory committees, and they have a
matrix that's showing what we have talked

about in terms of expanding different
programs, but they don't have, say the

matrix that Mike has developed for how we
want to offer our instructional programs

across the different campuses and regions.

So we're going to marry those two
processes, so that ones not getting out

in front of the other. That we have good
input and knowledge of where we're going.

[Chris] And so, I just wanted to, I just
wanted to tag onto that.

Cause we had regional advisory committee
meetings last week.

And so there was a strong desire on the
part of the regional advisory committee

members to loop in to what's going on in
the academic master planning process,

to help out. And so we should, we have to
figure out a solution for how they can

provide input and take part in a way
that's helpful to the process and not in

a way that maybe could distract from the
process.

So we still probably have to think that
through, I think a little bit.

[Dr. Cook] Yeah, thanks so much. Dan had
his hand up and then we'll come back to

you Gretchen.

[Dan] Thanks, I was wondering how you
envision the functioning inside of the

areas of study, in terms of deciding on
the proposals specifics.

Should that be essentially a decision by
the chairs or should it be a democratic

process? Because there's likely to be a
lot of diversity in the thoughts and

attitudes and ideas of what innovation
and creativity in pursuit of the mission

really are. So, I'd like your thoughts on
how you think these area of study template

proposals should be decided upon by the
areas of study.

[Dr. Cook] Well obviously we try to give
you enough criteria that you could make

your own decisions in terms of which
proposals seem to be the most important

going forward. How do they align with our
mission?

How are they serving the greatest number
of students in those important outcomes?

Most importantly, how are they promoting
diversity and equity.

So I think, you know, we're not going to
dictate to you how to do it.

I think that's a conversation for you to
have among yourselves.

We want interdisciplinary conversation.

In the past, and it's very typical for
most higher ed institutions,

people become siloed within departments
and have really, sort of a narrow view.

You know, my students in Psychology or
in History, whatever.

We want y'all to try to think more
broadly.

Liberal Arts students, Liberal Arts are
under attack by many people because

they don't seem to have the "marketable
skills" that industry and business are

asking for, but yet many would contend
and would say they're the most important

critical skills going forward. Critical
thinking, communication, problem solving,

teamwork. I mean those are the very things
you emphasize in your programs.

So, I think you can make very strong cases,
but we hope you will work across your

department boundaries. [Laughter]

[Dr. Scott] Let's hear it
for the Liberal Arts, all right.

[Gretchen] Well, so I now have two things
to say.

So to piggy back on that, all of the
workforce programs also have general

education components. And so in your
Psychology class or your History class or

English class, you not only have your
History or Psychology majors you have

welders and future nurses and future
building construction,

future accountants, etc. So those classes
are not homogenous, they are very diverse

classes from a disciplinary standpoint,
so that's one thing.

[Dr. Cook] One of our good conversations I
thought at the last guided pathways meeting

and I see Erin John here from English, we
talked about how do we take our gateway

courses, like freshman composition, and
how do we maybe create maybe a bank of

assignments that can be customized for
students in other areas of study so that

they can truly understand why is it
important for me as a welder or a

construction manager to have very good
communication skills both writing and orally?

So that we do a good job of helping
students know why do I have to take math,

why do I have to take composition. How is
it going to build my portfolio

going forward?

[Gretchen] So the other thing I wanted to
say was more on process again,

the goal is to get as wide a input as
possible, so we do want the 3 defined area

of study meetings to have lots of people
there with broad input.

Having said that, it's almost impossible
to write something with 50 people.

And so I would recommend the use of task
groups in assignments in between.

So, for the co-chairs of the area of study
teams, feel free to ask for volunteers

and make assignments. This group's going
to write this piece, and this group.

And so that's a way to move forward in
between the meetings.

Because you're not going to get a lot of
the work done at the meetings, the work's

going to have to be between. And we don't
want all the co-chairs doing all the work.

The co-chairs will work together to
provide the framework, but then it's the

whole group doing the work together.

[Dr. Cook] Thanks.

Other comments, questions?

Yes, Christina, is that you?

[Christina] I'm excited about everybody
partnering together on this, but I just

was concerned because we talk about
equity a lot, but a lot of the boots

on the ground, people at the campuses,
haven't received equity training.

And we don't have an equity training, for
instance with adjuncts, that

they can't go to a 2 day training, in
most cases.

And so, I know our leadership academy
and Jim's team

proposed an online module, which I know
wasn't popular, but I was wondering if we

could revisit that as a way to, at least,
baseline everybody into understanding

the concepts of equity, so that we can
apply them to our work and our

interactions with the students and others?

[Dr. Cook] Yeah, that has come up in a
couple of conversations Christina,

so thanks for bringing it up again.

Yeah, I think we can work to put something
together in the way of training.

We have many folks in our employ who are
well steeped in the principles and

practices of equity. So I think we can put
something together to help them.

One of the readings I found particularly
good, it's Unlocking the Nation's Potential.

Building quality as well as equity in
academic programs.

So you might check out that article, cause
I thought it had some good ideas.

Suzy

[Suzy] Just a quick comment that while we
will end this particular process in June,

this is actually the beginning of these
learning committee's meeting on an

ongoing basis, even after this particular
master plan is written.

Because then we have to operationalize
all this work.

So consider that as we go forward and
we're going to try to make as much

support and space available for you to
have those larger meetings, because we

know that that becomes an issue when
trying to find space.

So, just letting you know.

[Dr. Cook] And let me comment that Mary
Harris will be heading up the planning for

the next strategic plan. Our current
strategic plan is 2017-2021.

We're dating this academic plan 2020-2025.

So we purposely have some of these
overlaps to ensure continuity, that things

don't get lost and buried with the plan
because necessarily you may state a goal,

but not be able to achieve it, you don't
want to lose it, you want to figure out

how do we carry that forward into the
next plan.

Dan again.

[Dan] Thank you. Given that academic
freedom is mandated by S.A.C.S. COG for

accreditation purposes and is also
mandated by ACC board policy and has been

described as a transcendent value by the
US Supreme Court.

I'm wondering what your opinion is in
terms of how you see academic freedom as

a factor in not just the process, but in
the pursuit of the product.

How important and how do you view academic
freedom as a value a principle?

[Dr. Cook] Thank you for the opportunity,
I think we've had this conversation

previously, but obviously academic
freedom is extremely important.

I think I might have a more narrow
definition of academic freedom than you.

To me, academic freedom is your freedom as
a faculty member, to decide what's

important to teach, the content of your
subject matter.

You are content subject matter experts.

No one should be able to tell you teach
this and not teach that.

Having said that, you're one individual.
You're teaching the same course as many

other individuals within Austin Community
College.

You have a responsibility to work with
your colleagues and your peers to come

to common agreement as to what's most
important to teach.

Students have a transcript that says ACC,
Psychology 2301.

It doesn't say necessarily the teacher on
the transcript.

So you have a responsibility to work with
our universities so that they have a good

understanding of a student taking
Psychology 2301 regardless of who the

instructor was, they're going to come out
with a common set of knowledge and skills

going forward.

An outsider isn't telling you what that
is, you are working with your peers to

make that determination.

[Woman asks] So actually, this is just a
logistic question for Suzy because

when we encourage faculty participate on
these area of study teams, I have a fairly

large number of faculty.

For instance, for those meetings and the
planned meetings, how do we ensure

that we have adequate space in those
meeting rooms for the number of

participants that might want to come?

[Suzy]So we have a very close relationship
with all the hotels in this area, as you

can imagine. But we let them know that we
needed some flexibility.

We are going to ask those who will attend
the AoS sessions to RSVP.

So we can actually combine rooms or
separate rooms depending on how

many will be in those sessions.

We know Liberal Arts, for example, is
going to combine both of those dean.

Even though it's all Liberal Arts, so
they're going to need a larger room.

So we're flexible in that space, but we
don't want to limit you, because we know

this is important work.

If going forward we need to go to a
different hotel, we can do that as well.

So we'll have ample flexibility.

We will be working with Brandon and
Rachel on those RSVPs and the

communication around that.

Brandon and Rachel will be sending those
out, we're just going to be supporting

between Courtney and some other staff
from TLEG will be supporting them to make

sure we have accurate counts, as close as
we can get.

[Dr. Scott] And I also think, and I know
Brandon wants to talk about logistics,

but you have to think transparency and
you have to think 21st century sometimes

this is hard for me. But cause I'm a 20th
century girl, but a Google group and a

list serve, and WebX, and posting those
minutes online as soon as the meeting

is over. And you may have to take
ownership of a list serve to send out

an invite for meetings in between. Those
expected meetings, I think, think always

about how you can talk about where you are
and what you're doing and let people see

it, even if they can't come to the
meeting.

Let people be a part of the Google group
conversation, even if they can't come to

the meeting. I think those things are
really going to be important.

[Brandon] Yeah, real quick, Rachel and I
will not be sending out emails to all your

faculty, so you will need to do that. And
you will need to keep track of who is

RSVPing for your area of study and give
that information to us so we can report

upwards.

You know, following up on that comment
Brandon, you remember he was talking about

the template and the appendix A and B. And
I think it's important to list the people

who have participated, because we want to
see that it has widespread buy in and

agreement. We don't want an idea that's
been, you know the brain child of one

individual who has ramrodded it through a
group.

We want this to be collaborative, that
you've gotten feedback, you've gotten

support from your fellow faculty, from
your related student service people.

So reach out and bring people in to get
their opinions and their ideas.

[Dr. Scott] And I think there's a trickle
down element to this right?

The dean invites the department chairs,
the department chairs sends an invite to

all of his or her adjunct and full time
faculty.

I mean you'll just have to work in large
divisions, you'll have to think about

those sorts of things.

I just want to ask officially how the on
ramp programs, adult ed, continuing ed,

and dev ed, how do they participate in
this process at the AoS level.

[Dr. Cook] Well, Kathy, you're a pro in
terms of on ramps.

If you don't know, Adult ed has done an
incredible job of creating programs that

link with many of our credit programs so
that students can actually begin taking

credit courses even before they get
their GED and qualify for financial aid.

Get into these programs.

You've got HVAC, computer science, some
health science, accounting, many areas

that you've done this. So I think as a
member of a steering committee

when we have reports back from our
co-chairs, challenge them, ask them,

Okay how have you partnered with adult ed,
how have you partnered with continuing ed

so that we, again, break down these
boundaries between our programs.

Increasingly, the name of the game, I saw
Hector earlier, is going to be

continuing ed. It's gonna be how do people
keep current in their knowledge and skills.

So we need to look at lots of credentials,
badges, certificates, they're gonna help

people verify and update their knowledge
and skills.

And often times that's going to mean
working hand in hand with continuing ed.

[Dr. Scott] I would encourage the AoS
co-chairs, mean you all have under that

AoS advisory team structure, you have
designated adult ed and continuing ed

members, invite them to your meetings,
don't leave them behind.

I think that's really important.

[Dr. Cook] Great, good point.
[inaudible]

[Dr. Cook] Absolutely, you may, you'll be
stretched thin, but I know an accomplished

achiever in that regards, so absolutely.

[Suzy] Were talking about how there
might not be all the staff available,

but there are other faculty that they've
worked with for a very long time who

understand all that goes on in the high
school programs that would be embedded

in the areas of study. So there, distance
learning has faculty, right?

You've done distance learning for many
years.

So those conversations you've had, but all
the staff from all those areas will be

available as resources again, in the work
that you're doing.

The high school folks are absolutely
essential.

We have over 8,000 students in various
dual credit programs.

We have, I'm not even going to name 13
early college high schools.

We have at least ten or more career
academies, PTEX innovative academies.

And those are only going to grow, continue
to grow.

The division between high school and
college, particularly the two year college

is totally merging. Society is not pleased
with what we've had in the old traditional

agrarian style K12 model. It needs to be
opportunities for people to more quickly

get the knowledge and skills they need for
the 21st century, dual credit is a vehicle

for doing that. It is a major vehicle for
equity.

We've had lots of conversations with K12
partners about our early college high

schools. Our early college high schools,
by law, have to be diverse.

They have to represent the demographics
of the service area.

Unlike dual credit, which tends to more
greatly represent the middle and upper

income students, and families.

So we're having lots of conversation about
how we make our high school opportunities

more equitable for students across the
region.

I'm sure you will have additional
questions as you get in to the actual work.

Don't hesitate to send in your comments
via the website, don't hesitate to email

any of us. I think, like Willie said,
we're all very anxious to hear your

feedback and to respond to your comments.
And we want to make this as transparent,

as collaborative a process as possible.

I thank you all for your attention today,
for your being here, for your willingness

to undertake what's going to be a
difficult task, but an exciting one.

And so any ways we can offer additional
help, don't hesitate to let us know.

Any final comments, questions? Brandon.

Just FYI, steering committee, we're gonna
meet at 301 at 11:30.

And deans and co-chairs, y'all are welcome
to come, I don't know whether you got an

invite or not.

Okay, thank you very much, this recording
will be posted on the website.

If you had some faculty who were unable to
attend and if they want to review it

at a later date.