Preface

The process for carrying out the Capital Community College self-study involved careful planning, wide participation, a bottom-up approach, multiple reviews, and frequent feedback loops throughout the college community. At the beginning of 2005, the President nominated two self-study co-chairs, who were approved by the College Senate. The co-chairs developed a plan that would include a steering committee, a task force for each standard, and a timeline of actions. The Self-Study Steering Committee comprised the co-chairs, the task force chairs, an editor-in-chief, an institutional researcher, and the College deans (who served ex officio). By the end of March 2005, the Steering Committee had held an organizational meeting, participated in a self-study workshop, prepared for leading the task forces, and met with the Executive Director of CIHE. At the same time, eleven task forces, with between four and ten volunteer members each, were established and approved by the President.

In the spring of 2005, the task forces gathered information for reports on their standards, using various methods of engaging broad participation, including surveys and focus groups. By August 2005, the task forces had written preliminary reports for their standards. The co-chairs and editor-in-chief reviewed the reports and met with each task force chair to provide feedback. The task forces submitted second drafts by the middle of October 2005. These were reviewed by the President and deans, who provided feedback. Salient features of the second drafts, along with responses to them, were distilled into eleven tables of Highlights of the Self-Study. These were presented at an all-college meeting, where participants were encouraged to select several standards for examination and discussion, commenting on the issues raised in the Highlights. Based on notes from these discussions and responses from the administration, the task forces produced third drafts of their reports. Both the second and third drafts of the individual reports, as they became available, were uploaded to a self-study page on the College’s website.

The editor-in-chief, with support from the co-chairs, compiled the separate task force reports into a unified January draft, which was placed on the college website. Faculty and staff responded to this draft at an all-college meeting in early February 2006. Working with the resulting comments and questions, the editor-in-chief, with support from Steering Committee members, prepared a March draft, which was forwarded to CIHE for its review and recommendations. This draft was also offered for review to interested students, members of the Capital Community College Foundation, and other friends of the College. Throughout the spring of 2006, members of the Steering Committee and the task forces, along with college administrators, continued to review the March, May, and June drafts for completeness, strength of evidence, and accuracy, while the editor-in-chief collected responses and crafted the final draft of the Self-Study Report.

This inclusive and interactive mode of operation gave the College an opportunity to act on a number of identified concerns while the self-study was in progress. The ability to do so was reinforced by the momentum of three other events taking place at the time of the self-study. These were the inauguration of a new President, the development of a new College Strategic Plan, and a research initiative leading toward the application for an Achieving the Dream grant. The President was pleased to address self-study findings as they became available. The Strategic Planning Committee, with support from the President, was committed to addressing self-study concerns in the new College Strategic Plan. The Achieving the Dream steering committee, with support from the Academic Dean, was able to use self-study findings as they became available, and, in turn, to share data with the task forces. The emerging Strategic Plan and the Achieving the Dream grant application have woven into their own objectives many of the concerns revealed by the self-study process, thereby strengthening the College’s fabric of self-knowledge and intentions. As will be seen in this report, certain problems identified in the self-study have been resolved along the way, others are in the process of resolution, and some require further planning, resources, creativity, and time.