University Business - May 2011 - (Page 28)

COMMUNITY C O L L E G E S Developing Professionals When faculty excel, so does the community college By Ann McClure C ampus exCellenCe begins with the faculty. It’s not just about hiring high-quality professors, but also about maintaining their skills through professional development programs. “I tell our students hiring is job one, two, and three,” says John Roueche, director of the Community College leadership program (CClp) at The University of Texas at Austin, a graduate program for community college administrators. “but then you have to do something with them to continue to help them grow and keep them committed to the institution.” someone else’s future stars. “The bottom line is, they like where they are and they want to do better here,” says Diane picciani, director of the Center to promote excellence in Teaching and learning at Delaware County Community College. Community college faculty especially need to be given the tools necessary to deal with the wide variety of educational attainment, technology skills, and age differences they will encounter with their stu- EvErYONE BENEfITs With state budgets still in flux and the possibility of more furloughs a continuing threat, professional development can be a way to both boost morale and help faculty as well as staff face the challenges before them. “unfortunately, travel and staff development seems an easy thing to cut,” says Roueche. “The bad news is, organizations either get better or worse based on the will to do so.” Grooming the existing talent on campus is equally important. During the most recent “Key Trends survey” by the league for Innovation in the Community College, 80 percent of responding CeOs from two-year institutions said they expected a significant number of faculty and staff to retire in the next three years. “With that in mind, it would seem that strong professional development programs would be necessary,” says Cynthia Wilson, vice president of learning and research. leaders see an investment in an employee’s skills as an investment in the institution. and while there is always the risk of faculty moving on to another campus, not everyone worries about training 28 | May 2011 Having someone explain how to engage students can go a long way toward ensuring success on both sides of the podium. dents. “If we don’t orient them, we’ll lose them,” cautions evelyn Waiwaiole, director of the national Institute for staff & Organizational Development (nIsOD). Having someone explain how to build a syllabus and engage students in the classroom can go a long way toward ensuring success on both sides of the podium. “With the emphasis on student success, retention, and completion, there is an increased awareness of the role of effective teaching,” says Wilson. fOCUs ON TEAChINg “While motivating students is their job, very few [faculty] are prepared to do that,” says Roueche. “This is not the time to be reducing efforts to help people get better.” Helping faculty get better is what led DCCC leaders to team with Temple University (pa.) on a professional devel- opment program. at DCCC, there was a desire to provide opportunities to faculty that wouldn’t require travel, says picciani. meanwhile, leaders at Temple were developing a ‘teaching in higher education’ certificate for their graduate students, not only to improve their skills while at Temple, but to make them more marketable after they graduate, explains pamela barnett, associate vice provost and director of Temple’s Teaching & learning Center. It was a logical step to convert the certificate program into something that would work for existing faculty and offer it on the DCCC campus. “We wanted to make sure we were covering functional topics that would translate to the classroom,” says picciani, adding that community college issues are a focus. “most of us leave grad school without learning about learning,” says barnett. although the curriculum has been customized to DCCC’s needs, barnett says it covers topics every educator needs, such as dealing with increasing enrollment and making a large class “small.” “The goal is to help people learn about how people learn, and promoting student learning by using best teaching practices,” she says. “We’re getting ready to work with Montgomery County Community College (pa.) in the fall and they want to look at the scholarship of teaching and learning.” besides improving their teaching skills, participants get to meet people from across campus outside their departments. ADDrEssINg ChAllENgEs “sixty percent of all community college students are taught by adjuncts,” says Waiwaiole, who points out that it’s important to provide training and support for adjuncts since it is easier for full-time universitybusiness.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - May 2011

University Business - May 2011
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Viewpoint
Money Matters
Human Resources
Community Colleges
Networks Freshen Up
Collaboration Station
Someone to Watch Over You
What's New
End Note

University Business - May 2011