President reports to College's board of trustees
In his report to the Board of Trustees this morning, Greenfield Community College President Robert L. Pura cited positive results on three key assessments: by an independent auditor, by a regional governing commission and by students.
"This college," said Pura, "continues to be extraordinary in its commitment to student learning. A part of this commitment is gathering data, holding up the mirror to see ourselves and asking 'how are we doing?' By engaging in that process, we become more accountable to our students, our community and to ourselves."
Independent auditors give GCC 'unqualified' report
KPMG auditor John Moriarty presented GCC trustees with the findings of the independent auditors' report. "The bottom line," said Moriarty, "is that GCC has the right fiscal policies and procedures in place, and all of the opinions are 'unqualified.'" An "unqualified " opinion indicates the highest confidence in the financial integrity of the institution. Furthermore, reported Moriarty, the auditing team found no "material weakness" and no instances of noncompliance or other matters that are required to be disclosed under Government Auditing Standards, which represent a high level of scrutiny.
College commended by regional governing commission
President Pura reported that the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Inc. has commended Greenfield Community College "for progress made with institutional effectiveness and the assessment of student learning," as documented by GCC in its five-year interim reaccreditation report to the Association's Commission on Institutions of Higher Education.
Specifically, the NEAS&C praised Greenfield Community College for creating "a culture of inquiry and improvement" by clarifying and modifying the governance structure, initiating efforts to appraise the effectiveness of the changes, creating the College's 'Principles of Education,' and ensuring access of its diverse student body to all programs and facilities.
The interim report accepted by the Commission addresses progress that the College has made towards the overall goal of institutional effectiveness.
"When we talk about institutional effectiveness," said David Ram, Dean of Academic Affairs, "we talk about maintaining and improving quality. This means, for students, that we dedicate our energy and resources toward students, toward the classroom, and toward the support services outside of the classroom."
One improvement acknowledged by the NEAS&C's peer review team is a new model of shared governance known as The Assembly. "The significance of The Assembly," said Ram, "is that it offers all college employees the opportunity to participate in deliberations on college policies and procedures."
Another accomplishment is the development of new academic review guidelines. While some programs, such as nursing, massage therapy and outdoor leadership, are accredited by national organizations, the new academic review guidelines ensure that all academic departments and programs periodically undergo an equally rigorous internal review.
"The value of the NEAS&C process," continued Ram, "is that it combines self-assessment with peer review to balance both internal and external concerns for quality and accountability. That, to me, is the power and importance of it."
National survey shows that GCC students are 'positively engaged' in learning
President Pura reported that Greenfield Community College is one of only three community colleges in the commonwealth to participate in a national community college survey of student engagement (CCSSE). All community colleges in Connecticut, however, are involved.
"The more engaged students are," explained Pura, "the more likely they are to persist in their educational goal."
The survey ranks GCC with two-year colleges across the nation in five academic benchmarks: active and collaborative learning, student effort, academic challenge, student-faculty interaction and support for learners.
A "benchmark," explained Pamela Matheson, Research Specialist for the Title III Grant, "is simply a standard by which something can be measured or judged.
"GCC was at or above the national average on all five benchmarks," reported Matheson. "In fact, we were at the 80th percentile for student-faculty interaction and support for learners, which means that we are providing an exceptional experience compared to all the other community colleges."
The data was based on 500 student surveys conducted last spring. The results of this independent study illuminate which schools are providing the best environment for learning. This yields a rich source of data of the kind that four-year colleges are not willing to make public. By going to the Web site (www.ccsse.org), prospective students can see how each community college measures up on a national yardstick of educational factors.
GCC will use CCSSE results to understand and improve the educational experience of students.
"GCC has a lot of be proud of, and the findings suggest that we're fulfilling our mission," said Matheson.
"I'm certainly pleased with the strong results of these three assessments," said President Pura. "What pleases me most, however, is that it speaks to the incredible commitment of our faculty and staff during a time when public higher education has not been given the appropriate support necessary to make these kinds of achievements occur. Stated briefly, our faculty and staff made these things happen in spite of and not because of the way in which the state and federal government's policies seem to undermine public higher education."
For more information, please contact GCC President Robert L. Pura at (413) 775-1410.
GCC offers 'distance education' that is up-close and personal
"There are students who don't have the means to commute to campus on a regular basis," says Michelle Barthelemy, Coordinator of Distance Learning and Instructional Technology at Greenfield Community College. "It can be from lack of transportation, lack of child care, or work schedule. Online courses, one form of distance education, can provide an opportunity to create a flexible schedule in which people can do their learning."
Greenfield Community College has been offering thoughtfully-designed online courses for five years. Now, thanks to a five-year, $1.7M Title III cooperative grant from the U.S. Department of Education, GCC and Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield are joining forces with the goal of graduating students with a Fully-online associate's degree in liberal arts by 2008. In the meantime, students can take a combination of online and traditional courses that can limit the amount of time they spend on-campus to as little as two days a week, allowing them more freedom in terms of work hours or other life responsibilities.
"It's very important for us to be able to offer this accessibility because we have such diverse student populations," says Dori Digenti, Title III Activity Director for GCC and BCC. "They include parents who have a hard time getting onto campus and prefer to do most of their coursework at night when their kids are asleep; people who have some kind of physical disability; people who don't have a car. So there's a lot of different subgroups within that broad student population and our big service area that we can serve better by putting student services and courses online."
Using the latest technology and lots of personal attention, professors create an online community for students that replicates the traditional bricks-and-mortar classroom. Students taking Professor Greg Vouros's online cultural anthropology course submit their own electronic "home page" to share with classmates. "It gives students an opportunity to introduce themselves to one another and talk about what their interests are," says Professor Vouros. "That is one of the first things I ask people to do in order to build the sense that we really do have a class here made up of real people who live their lives in our area."
Everyone participates in online classes via "asynchronous discussion."
"Asynchronous means it's not happening simultaneously like a regular, in-class situation," says Gretchen Watson, Professor of English. Instead, students visit a discussion board on the course Web site, where Watson will post a prompt to get the discussion going and students have a few days to log on and respond to what other people have said. "They're not all doing it at the same time," says Watson, "but they do get the benefit of hearing from everyone in the class."
Surprisingly, this technique draws out the shy as well as the more outgoing. "In a regular class, some people sort of hide in the back of the class or they don't comment much because perhaps they're shy or they need a little more time to reflect about the subject you're discussing," says Watson. "The wonderful thing about asynchronous discussion is that students can think about it, go back and add to what they've said. So the discussion takes on a much deeper and fuller character than it does in class."
Professor Greg Vouros agrees. "As ironic as it sounds, I have to say that some of my most meaningful discussions I've ever had with a class have come out of these discussion forums. People are willing to share a lot."
"I feel like I get to know the students much better than in a regular class," says Watson. "I hear from them in such detail and so frequently that I get a better sense of who they are. I think the students get to know each other better also."
Michelle Barthelemy, who trains teachers in online learning, draws on her former experiences as an online student. "I found I developed a different type of relationship with my classmates and my instructor by the fact that I could e-mail them at 2 in the morning when I was working on an assignment, and get a response at 7 a.m. when they checked their e-mails. It's a different environment, but it's not for everybody. However, you can create a sense of community and I think faculty work really hard to make that happen."
Vouros taught one of the first online courses at GCC five years ago and has been sharing his expertise with other faculty members ever since. "The one thing I tell my colleagues," says Vouros, "is, it's all about communication. You've got to keep the communication lines open; you have to be willing to check your course e-mail more than just once a day. You have to make a commitment to spending probably more time in the long run in an online course than you do in a regular classroom course, because it's the key to ensuring the people stay with it.
"You really have to be a facilitator. You have to have energy that you bring to the course and try to somehow share that energy and keep people excited about being in a learning community, even though it doesn't involve actual face-to-face contact."
It takes a certain kind of student, too. For one thing, they need to have their own computer, and some familiarity with how to use a computer. "For those people who don't have much familiarity," says Vouros, "if they come to the initial orientation meeting that I have, they're usually in good shape."
There's an increasing demand for online courses. "I'm starting to hear it from more and more people," says Vouros. "Given the cost of transportation and the fact that we have so many students who are trying to make ends meet by working and going to school at the same time, I don't think there's any doubt that we're responding to a growing community need."
"Typically, the courses fill up rather readily," concurs Digenti.
GCC offers ten online courses for the spring semester. For course listings, visit the GCC website at www.gcc.mass.edu and go to Academics, Online Education; for more information, contact Michelle Barthelemy at (413) 775-1481 or barthelemym@gcc.mass.edu.
A unique collaboration between the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and Greenfield Community College has resulted in an unprecedented opportunity for students seeking to continue their studies toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree by enrolling in two upper-level courses in painting and photography at GCC during the spring semester, which starts in January.
"The Massachusetts College of Art at Greenfield Community College will provide access to a world-class art program here in Franklin County." says Robert L. Pura, president of Greenfield Community College.
The arrangement with the Massachusetts College of Art, which is the only one of its kind with a community college, grew out of a long-standing relationship between the two colleges marked by a strong student transfer rate and their subsequent success.
"GCC has a really extraordinary art department for a community college. It's comparable to the art departments in most four-year universities and colleges," says Kay Ransdell, Dean of Admissions and Enrollment Management at the Massachusetts College of Art. Because of this, says Ransdell, "Greenfield Community College is the first and only community college to offer access at the junior level to the Massachusetts College of Art. We are certainly excited about the prospects of what can develop."
Founded in 1873, the Massachusetts College of Art is a public, free-standing college of art and design. The college's professional baccalaureate and graduate degree programs enable students to contribute to the New England economy as fine artists, designers and art educators, and to engage creatively in the well-being of their society. The college has established its reputation as a leader in the art and design professions and influences the direction of the arts nationally through the accomplishments of its graduates and the creative activities of its faculty and staff.
The two courses being offered at GCC meet a demonstrated need for a four-year college experience for artists in this area, according to Leo Hwang-Carlos, Associate Dean of Humanities at Greenfield Community College.
"We have a unique population of art students here who are oftentimes place-bound because of family or employment," says Hwang-Carlos. "They've made a life here and the option of moving to Boston is not something that's feasible. So what we're hoping to be able to do is offer a Massachusetts College of Art degree out here in a rural setting that caters to our students."
The 6-credit painting class focuses on the study and practice of painting in oils, acrylics and mixed media. Students are expected to pursue the development of a personal direction in painting or mixed media. The 6-credit view camera class offers a rigorous introduction to the use of the view camera. Students produce a thematic portfolio of work by semester's end. Both are open enrollment courses. They will be taught by Professors Budge Hyde and Tom Young.
Budge Hyde, Professor of Art at Greenfield Community College and 23-year chair of the art department there, received his M.F.A. at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Art Academy. In 2000-2001, he was a visiting professor in painting at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His large mixed media paintings have been exhibited in New York City, Oregon, Massachusetts and Florida. His work is included in permanent and private collections including the World Bank in Washington D.C., the McDonald Corporation and the Philadelphia Print Collection.
Tom Young, Professor of Art at Greenfield Community College, received his M.F.A. in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design. He has been awarded an Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, four Artist Fellowships from the Massachusetts cultural Council, and his work is included in numerous permanent collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Polaroid International Collection and Harvard University's Fogg Museum. Says Young, "Most of the top art schools are in urban areas, not rural areas, so it's exciting to have an art school like the Massachusetts College of Art offering classes where we live."
Greenfield Community College offers a vibrant setting for a world-class art program, according to Professor Hyde: "The college is situated in an area where every available resource, such as museums and galleries, needed to complete the student's artist's concentration of study is easily accessible." Moreover, the GCC Art Department has recently moved into newly renovated space featuring additional studios and galleries and state of the art digital imaging labs, dark rooms and painting rooms. "We have facilities as good as anyone," says Hyde, "with the capabilities to accomplish what we said we would do."
The upper-level courses are part of a trend at Greenfield Community College to provide its graduates with educational opportunities that go beyond the two-year associate's degree. Recent collaborations have resulted in upper level courses being offered at GCC by the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams and online courses offered by Marlboro College Graduate Center in Brattleboro, Vt.
"It's an exciting time for Greenfield Community College to be able to give our students access to such a rich diversity of offerings and ways to continue their education," says Hwang-Carlos.
For information on either of these upper-level, fine arts classes, contact Professor Budge Hyde at (413) 775-1231 or e-mail him at hyde@gcc.mass.edu or Professor Tom Young at (413) 775-1239 (young@gcc.mass.edu). To register for courses, call (617) 879-7200 ; e-mail continuing_education@massart.edu or, online, at www.massartplus.organization.
Greenfield Community College | One College Drive | Greenfield, MA 01301-5129 | (413) 775-1000 (tel) | (413) 775-5129 (fax)