September 17, 2008

INFOLIST: Title Wave

Editor's Note: I have something to say about this but I need to gather my facts ...

This message was posted on the college's electronic mail server, Infolist Sept. 15:
September 15, 2008 - Letter from President Calaway to JCCC Community
Just a few weeks have passed since we celebrated the start of the fall semester and the time is right to share several organizational adjustments which will take effect immediately. I have gathered input from the broad internal and external community and have considered that advice in light of my vision for our fine institution. As you have heard me share in the past my focus for our college will be laser-like on this agenda!
  1. Designing and implementing an outcomes based approach to curriculum and learning assessment that clearly and demonstrably improves learner knowledge.
  2. Implement an organizational and budgetary model which is equally focused on learning and funding of learning innovation initiative.
  3. Assure that a broad base of engagement opportunities are available to students and staff to support learners at all levels.
With the departure of Dr. Wayne Brown we were provided the opportunity to deeply consider the structure of our entire leadership function, how it supports learning and explore opportunities for our talented team in that arena. As a result of these factors I am pleased to share the following institutional enhancements.
First, as a result of his outstanding work and leadership within our college, I have asked Dr. Dana Grove to assume a restructured and expanded role, Executive Vice President, Educational Planning and Development/Chief Operating Officer. In this role he will continue to provide executive leadership for the following areas; Student Development, Workforce and Economic Development (formerly Continuing Education), Institutional Research, AQIP Accreditation, Institutional Strategic and Operational Planning, and Learner Engagement. He will also assume executive leadership for the College Information Services branch. Dr. Grove has provided outstanding leadership to our college and this dramatically expanded role will allow our college to benefit from his keen mind, effective leadership, and thoughtful style. With this structure adjustment and as a benefit to the outstanding leadership Dr. Grove has provided our college we will not be filling a third EVP level position and will redirect those funds into academic and student engagement initiatives. Ms. Sandra Warner has agreed to take on the senior level role of Interim Chief Information Officer upon the departure of Dr. Brown reporting now to Dr. Grove. This CIO position will be posted in the near future with the target date of January 1, 2009 for a final candidate to be in place. We have great confidence in Ms. Warner’s leadership skills and look for her to take us to exciting new places in support of learning and academics.
Institutional Research – National Benchmarking Study
Over the past several years the college has been deeply involved in the National Benchmark Study. This program provides vital comparative data to our college and our sister schools nationwide. The work in support of this study however has drawn resources away from the Institutional Research’s primary mission of learner outcome assessment and teaching support. Hence I have asked Dr. Jeff Seybert to take on the new role of Director, National Benchmark Project, within the Workforce and Economic Development Division. His role will include responsibility for the project and he will also conduct economic and market research for the branch. Please congratulate Jeff on this new focus of his work.
It will be our intention to immediately post the Director, Institutional Research position with an expressed leadership focus centered in learning and learner outcome assessment holistically across the college curriculum.
Campus Police and Public Safety Programs
With Dr. Brown’s departure I have asked Jerry Wolfskill to take on the added leadership role for the Campus Police department. He will work with Chief Ramirez to continue to assess all means needed to assure a safe environment for all on our campus. In his new role Mr. Wolfskill will work to expand opportunities with our community police and law enforcement entities and will assure, along with the chief, that officer training and community policing are of the highest priority.
Instruction and Learning Quality
Finally, with Dr. Grove’s significantly expanded role, Dr. Marilyn Rhinehart will take on the role of Chief Academic Officer and full responsibility for college credit instruction. She and I will work closely together to dramatically expand our college efforts toward a learning outcomes based approach to curriculum and instruction. We will have a clear focus on programs and services that will improve student success, retention, and educational goal attainment. We will also work directly together this fall to finalize the college’s academic leadership structure including filling all dean’s vacancies and finalizing our chair and Associate Dean structure. I have also asked Dr. Rhinehart to work closely with all academic support areas with an expressed focus on exploring and expanding the quality of our non teaching academic support. Each of our support areas do exceptional work and will look to build even further on their efforts by implementing a significant quality assessment approach to how we support work in the classroom. We will also continue to work closely with Dr. Grove’s efforts to strengthen our bond between Learner Engagement and Instruction.
Thank you for all you have done to keep us on track and focused on learning. Through your excellent work our college truly is providing a world class learning experience to all students.

September 10, 2008

NEWS: Innovation Validation

Major League
Will college strike out or hit a home run as it pitches to regain League of Innovation status?


When Charles Carlsen resigned following allegations he sexually harassed several female employees, the college's membership in the prestigious League of Innovation was in jeapoardy.

Last spring the college passed phase one of reaffirmation into the League. Entering the second phase requires a site visit by League board members.

A former JCCC president currently sits on the League's board and serves as a League Senior Fellow. Larry Tyree, former interim president, represented JCCC on the League's board after Carlsen resigned.

Tyree now serves as interim president of Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y., which is also one of the 19 members comprising the League's board.

Community Invited
League representatives will meet with the JCCC Board of Trustees, Sept. 16.

The next morning the public is invited to attend presentations to the League representatives focusing on diversity, sustainability and other campus issues.


This is the message posted today on the college's electronic mail server, Infolist:
LEAGUE FOR INNOVATION REAFFIRMATION PRESENTATIONS

JCCC is one of 19 community colleges in the country that sits on the Board of Trustees for the prestigious League for Innovation in Community Colleges. Every time there is a CEO turnover at one of these schools, it must undergo a “reaffirmation” with the League. JCCC successfully completed Phase I of this reaffirmation process last spring with submission and League acceptance of its reaffirmation application. (This document can be found at http://www.jccc.net/home/download/18217/LeagueReaffirmation.pdf .) The next and final phase consists of a campus visit.

On Tuesday, September 16, and Wednesday, September 17, President Jean Goodnow of Delta College (Michigan), President Steve Johnson of Sinclair Community College (Ohio), and League CEO Gerardo de los Santos will be visiting JCCC to conclude the reaffirmation process. They will be meeting with the JCCC Board of Trustees the evening of the 16th and will be hearing presentations on new initiatives at the school on the morning of the 17th. Here is the presentation schedule for Wednesday morning:

Time Innovation Presenters
9:00 – 9:20 a.m. Center for Sustainability
Jay Antle, Deb Williams, and Tim Gelvin
9:20 – 9:40 a.m. Diversity Initiatives Carmaletta Williams and Sean Daley
9:40 – 10:00 a.m. Bioscience Academy, KC Wired, Research Triangle Sally Winship, Tim Gelvin, and Luanne Wolfgram
10:00 – 10:20 a.m. Oral Health on Wheels Heather Flick
10:20 – 10:40 a.m. College Scholars Jim Leiker and Ellyn Mulcahy
10:40 – 11:00 a.m. Facilities Funding, Deferred Maintenance, Gateway and Lenexa
Jerry Baird
11:00 – 11:20 a.m. Teaching, Learning and Engagement Initiative Dana Grove, Bruce Harvey, and Rick Moehring
11:20 – 11:40 a.m. Edible Schoolyard/Wysong Challenge Joe Sopcich, David Smith, and Felix Sturmer

These presentations will be in the Hudson Auditorium in the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, and they are open to all wishing to attend. You are not expected to remain the entire morning, so come and go as your schedule permits. We will be happy to see you there. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Dana Grove.

September 5, 2008

NEWS: Employee Requests Gun as his Departing Gift

JCCC Aims to Please

An e-mail has surfaced requesting employees of Johnson County Community College contribute funds to purchase a gun as a going away gift for departing employee.
According to the Sept. 2 e-mail, Wayne Brown, executive vice president of administration requested a gun as a going away gift. It is similar to the guns recently acquired for the campus police force, which Brown was instrumental in creating.
The e-mail comes from Debbie Ross, an administrative assistant and Randy Garcia, sergeant of the newly formed JCCC police force.

From: Donna Wallace
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 5:09 PM
To: (recipients names have been omitted by the editor)

Subject: A message from Randy Garcia and Debbie Ross
As a going away present for Dr. Brown he has expressed an interest in a handgun similar to what the College officer's now carry. He was very instrumental in our Department purchasing our Glocks. We have been in contact with OMB guns and they have agreed to sell a handgun to Dr. Brown at their Department price. He receives a discount from OMB due to his retired military status. Contributions from our department have netted approximately half the price for the handgun.

We were wondering if your department would be interested in participating. If you or others in your area would like to be a part of this gift, please let us know. We will need to have the amount gathered by Friday afternoon so a gift certificate can be purchased.

We have a small window of opportunity to give this nice personal gift, but our time is limited. Since Dr. Brown's last day is Monday our donations from both areas will need to be collected within the next three days.

We apologize for the short notice but we were unaware in the change of his plans to leave earlier.

Please contact myself or Debbie Ross for any questions or concerns.

Thank you for your help and assistance,
Randy and Debbie

September 2, 2008

CALENDAR: ¡Viva!

Editor's Note: I helped organize these events and will serve as a participant in two of them. I'm also a founding member of the college's new Hispanic student organization that is co-sponsoring this program.

JCCC HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH EVENTS

The Hispanic Experience at JCCC
Regnier Center 101A
Sept. 9, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
A forum of JCCC Hispanic students and staff will lead a discussion of the Hispanic Experience at JCCC. Panelists include Miguel Morales, library aide and former managing editor of The Campus Ledger; Will Suarez, student; Gloria Rosso, counselor; and Luz Alvarez, Spanish professor; moderated by English Professor Steve Werkmeister. This event is free and open to the public.

Hispanic Heritage Month Movie: "Walkout"
Craig Community Auditorium
Sept. 15, noon-2 p.m.
Former spy kid, Alexa Vega stars alongside Michael Pena ("Crash") as a teacher and student at the center of the 1968 student protests in Los Angeles. These events not only inspired similar walkouts against anti-immigrant legislation in 2006, but they also shaped a generation of youth into civil rights leaders. This showing is free and open to the public.


Latino Writers Collective Forum
Hudson Auditorium, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art
Sept. 25 - Reception at 6:00 p.m. - Forum at 7:00 p.m.
Kansas City’s own Latino Writers Collective, a group that meets regularly at The Writer’s Place to support Latino writers through readings and critiques and by coordinating events throughout the metro area, released its first anthology in May, "Primera Pagina, Poetry from the Heartland."

Members include Gloria Martinez Adams and Sofiana Olivera, cofounders Jose Faus and Linda Rodriguez, and JCCC students Carlos Duarte and Miguel M. Morales. Join us for readings from the collective’s work and
a discussion of the Latino writer’s unique role in both the literary world and the larger community. Prior to the forum, a reception will be held from 6:00-7:00 in the Atrium of the Nerman Museum. This event is free and open to the public.

Diversity Book Group: Books and Burritos
In Focus Dining, Commons Building
Oct. 3, 2-4 p.m.
Los Angeles Times reporter, Sam Quinones, has long covered the stories of Mexican immigrants from both sides of the border. His new book, "Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration," profiles these lives, revealing the complexities of the issues and motivations that surround the larger immigration story. Of particular local interest, although it’s the story of the changing face of America, this book also includes the remarkable story of how a western Kansas town came to rally around its almost all immigrant soccer team.

Our Books and Burritos event will include both burritos for attendees and a discussion lead by English professor Danny Alexander. RSVP to Susan McGarvey, 913-469-8500, ext. 4327, or smcgarvey@jccc.edu. This event is free and open to the public.