Expand Faculty and Staff Development

Educators  and  administrators  in  higher  education today experience somewhat of a double bind. Colleges must operate on extremely tight budgets, with fewer faculty and staff to share management responsibilities inside  and  outside  the  classroom.  At  the  same  time, as  higher  education  becomes  more  rigorously  data- driven and   results-oriented,   faculty   and   staff   must devote more attention to ensuring that methods remain state-of-the-art. [8]

This initiative will offer professional development for faculty and staff, exposing them to a variety of training opportunities—from academic advisement and customer service, to performance-based decision-making. We will also explore ways to strengthen recognition of faculty and staff leadership in their fields, college, and community. By 2016, our hope is to provide all faculty and staff with opportunities to participate, so that we can even better model for our students the value of lifelong learning and always aspire to become better at what we do.

Activity Areas of Focus:

• Survey all NVCC units to determine the training needs that will support the college’s strategic goals.
• Create a faculty and staff development and recognition plan that incorporates the Center for Teaching, union- funded professional development, and other providers.
• Seek external funding to support the high-cost elements of the faculty and staff development plan.
• Develop assessment methods that track participation and outcomes.

Deepen Volunteerism, Mentoring and Service Learning

Many colleges are exploring ways to strengthen civic engagement among students, faculty and staff. The reasons are both philosophical (that higher education has a significant role to play in building an engaged citizenry that supports a more vibrant democracy) and pragmatic (that these experiential learning opportunities can yield positive student learning and employment outcomes for students).[9]

NVCC already has an active student body and engaged faculty and staff, with more than 39 student clubs and student-centered organizations, and more than 100 faculty, staff, and students participating in campus- and community-based volunteer and mentoring activities. In recent years, the Behavioral and Social Sciences Division pioneered theme-based service learning in which more  than 53 students have worked on course-related community service opportunities that they self-identified and designed. By 2016, NVCC will expand its civic engagement efforts, so that more students, faculty, and staff can benefit from these experiences on and off campus.

Activity Areas of Focus:

• Reach out to the Student Government Association (SGA) to engage all student clubs in dialogue about ways that they can serve as campus and community activists and advocates.
• Connect faculty and staff with community residents via online lectures on topics of mutual interest.
• Expand   the   mentoring   program   to   include   more student, alumni, and community/industry mentors.
• Strengthen collaboration among AmeriCorps and academic divisions to create more volunteer activities and service learning opportunities for our students.
• Increase partnerships with community institutions, including sister schools to model the Brother to Brother and Sister to Sister mentoring programs that support students from underrepresented groups.

Improve Equity and Outcomes for Underrepresented Groups

Community colleges are primary entry points to higher education for many underrepresented groups. They enroll 44 % of African American, 45% of Asian or Pacific Islander, and 51% and 54%, respectively, of Hispanic and Native American undergraduates.[10]  They enroll 42% of first- generation college students.[11] Bottom line, they represent more  accessible and affordable  post-secondary options for many, especially those from middle- to low-income families. And their accessibility parlays beyond learning. It also can help lift people, especially those born into poor families, out of poverty. Indeed, the effect can be dramatic, with some recent studies showing for those born into the poorest fifth of American families, a college degree gives them an 80% chance of bettering their economic status during their lifetimes.[12]

A commitment to providing open access and opportunity for all underlies NVCC’s mission and values. While our campus has grown more diverse in recent years, more focus is needed to boost representation among key racial and ethnic groups, as well as those who are economically disadvantaged. By 2016, this initiative will help ensure a more inclusive student body that represents the diverse demographics of our service region.

Activity Areas of Focus:

• Expand outreach to students from underrepresented groups to increase awareness, engagement and participation in Bridge to College retention activities and programs.
• Establish an engagement plan based on student needs and interests. The plan will include activities (first- generation club, peer tutoring), outreach strategies, and student outcomes.
• Identify key community partners including the School District of Waterbury, New Opportunities, YMCA, Opportunities Industrialization Center, and Brass City Harvest to collaborate with the Bridge to College Office to engage students from underrepresented groups.

Strengthen Liberal Arts, General Education, and Transfer

Many students seek out a community college to begin their higher educational journey. For minority, low-income, and older students, a community college is often an entry point to higher education and a place to increase their odds of socio-economic upward mobility.[13] Yet, while community colleges understand the importance of laying the foundation for continued learning, ensuring student transfer is complicated, given the complex interests and needs of students, as well as the difficulties in tracking where they go.

Through this initiative, NVCC will implement efforts mandated by the Board of Regents (BOR) for the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities which approved a Transfer and Articulation Policy (TAP) in 2012 designed to facilitate the transfer of the state’s community college students into their junior year at the state universities. By fall 2014, the successful implementation of the policy will significantly improve our current transfer pathways through the creation of a common general education core that allows students to transfer seamlessly to four- year institutions in the Connecticut system. In addition to complying with statewide education policy changes, by 2016 NVCC will review its Liberal Arts and Sciences curriculum, to ensure that it offers an educational experience that encourages creativity, intelligence, and adaptability and helps students understand their transfer options.

Activity Areas of Focus:

• Map Transfer Articulation Program’s Gen Ed Framework competencies/outcomes across all core courses.
• Review, adjust, and adopt TAP Gen Ed Framework competencies for NVCC’s General Education core.
• Strengthen seamless articulations with state universities through support of BOR Pathways committees.
• Create pre-major pathways, which include 30–31 transferable gen ed credits common to all 17 ConnSCU institutions.
• Develop and implement outcomes assessment plans for all disciplines within the common core.

Improve Job Placement Efforts

Although unemployment rates have been improving nationally and in the region, the recession hit Northwest Connecticut hard and the regional recovery appears slow going.[14] These circumstances, alongside changing expectations within industry regarding worker skills, make the job market more difficult to navigate for those who are both seeking and trying to hold onto a job.

NVCC recognizes it plays an important role in job placement. In fall 2011, NVCC opened the Job Placement Center (JPC) on its Waterbury campus. Since that time, 1,036 students signed into the JPC to benefit from its general career services, including its resume writing and interviewing workshops, job/career fairs, placement of students into cooperative education internships, and one- to-one assistance to connect students with job openings. By 2016, we will focus even more squarely on how we can help graduating students to secure quality, upwardly mobile jobs in their career areas of choice.

Activity Areas of Focus:

• Develop a comprehensive, college-wide plan to improve job placement.
• Build partnerships with businesses to better understand their needs and connect students with jobs.
• Strengthen the job placement offerings and services, expanding one-to-one student supports, workshops, and internships/cooperative education experiences that provide students with the latest job-search tools.
• Strengthen the JPC’s job placement systems and results.

Incorporate 21st Century Technology Inside and Outside the Classroom

Many colleges are exploring technology as an educational delivery tool within the classroom, via distance learning efforts, Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), and the creation of smart classrooms. Colleges less often pursue technological innovation to strengthen academic learning supports and improve administrative decision-making and business practice. [15]

Through this initiative, NVCC will consider ways to better incorporate technology inside and outside of the classroom to improve student performance as well as institutional effectiveness. By 2016, we will: offer new online courses and identify ways to control the quality of online course offerings; reposition critical academic supports, such as our library, to better support student learning; and identify technological enhancements that can improve NVCC’s capacity to collect, organize, and report out on data to support a stronger culture of evidence-based decision- making.

Activity Areas of Focus:

• Certify all online courses; introduce quality control measures across offerings.
• Create new online courses and a fully online Associate Degree program in General Studies.
• Increase the number of smart classrooms.
• Undertake a needs assessment and review of promising technological approaches to library based learning supports in concert with the 2013 Library Program Review. Implement recommendations.
• Re-engineer data collection, access, organization, and reporting processes.

Build Partnerships and Community Presence in Waterbury, Danbury, Naugatuck, and the Broader Service Region

One of NVCC’s most widely noted successes in recent years is the establishment of evening bus service for Waterbury residents. College, city, and state leaders collaborated to bring this service that has affected the lives of thousands.[16] Evening bus service means area residents can work in the late evening. NVCC students can now use bus UPasses to get to campus, enabling them to enroll in more classes and remain on campus longer to access our educational services and student activities. Since October 2011, evening bus rides taken by all riders city-wide total 360,000, and 21,400 evening bus rides were taken by UPass holders,  among  whom  NVCC  students  were  counted. Our bus service collaboration illustrates what can happen when  college  and  community  come  together.  Through 2016, we will continue to explore partnerships with the City of Waterbury, Danbury, Naugatuck, New Milford, and other cities and towns to increase our responsiveness to community needs.

Activity Areas of Focus:

• Monitor   evening   bus   service   and   student   UPass ridership; advocate for state funding beyond 2014.
• Continue and expand numerous partnerships with the City of Waterbury and its Public School System.
• Working with state officials, obtain lease for new downtown Danbury Center site to accommodate rapid enrollment growth (up from 231 students at opening in 2009 to 919 students in 2013).
• Meet with Danbury, Naugatuck, and New Milford leaders to identify mutual interests and needs.
• Reach out to other mayors and municipal leaders to identify potential partnership opportunities.

Enhance Pre-Collegiate Pathways to Higher Education

As a nation, we know we need to better address college preparedness issues much earlier in a student’s academic experience. We also need to more clearly delineate and articulate the requirements and credentials for different fields of study and employment, so that students can more successfully pursue post-secondary degrees and credentials, as well as careers.[17]

In 2012, NVCC joined the City of Waterbury and became the fiduciary for GEAR UP (Gain Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs), a federally funded $11.2 million, seven-year grant to help prepare middle and high school students for post-secondary education. NVCC’s Bridge to College Office currently administers this grant along with others: Connecticut Collegiate Awareness and Preparation Program, Workforce Investment Act In-School Youth Program, Community College Scholars Program, AmeriCorps, and the College Access and Challenge Program. Through this initiative, NVCC advances these and other efforts to help Waterbury and surrounding communities improve student performance in high schools and middle schools, thereby improving student pathways to higher education.

Activity Areas of Focus:

• Serve as the fiduciary and partner in administering the GEAR UP grant.
• Incorporate Bridge to College into the fabric of NVCC and strengthen collaboration between programs, maximizing impact on students.
• Increase the number of high school graduates who are college ready.
• Explore state funding and partnerships with boards of education and area employers to establish a Middle College Science Academy at NVCC.

Build Workforce Pathways in High-Demand Careers

Workforce development partnerships between community colleges and industry are increasingly the norm and expectation. As business sectors seek more skilled workers, many are turning to community colleges to lend their expertise at serving local workforce training needs. And, training programs developed in partnership with industry tend to be more attractive to students, especially in this economy, where they can provide greater assurance of employment.[18]

Through this initiative, NVCC will expand our recently established Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center (AMTC), which, with funding support and via a curriculum developed jointly with local manufacturers, offers a blend of non-credit to credit award options to students in basic and advanced manufacturing skills. Given that non-credit courses often serve as first entry points for students who seek credentialing programs for new jobs or advanced skills in their current positions, we will explore additional non-credit to credit programs in allied health, business/computer skills, accounting, and other high-demand careers. We also will strengthen our internal processes to monitor area workforce needs so that we can adjust our curricula and design new degree programs or certificates for emerging careers.

Activity Areas of Focus:

• Expand day and evening enrollment in AMTC and ensure equipment is state-of-the-art.
• Implement new allied health academic programs consistent with the Academic Plan.
• Provide incumbent worker training for employees of our manufacturing partners via the AMTC.
• Identify and implement additional non-credit to credit pathways and programs.
• Explore high-demand career pathways that build joint STEM programs between NVCC and four-year colleges.
• Undertake program reviews and assessments in coordination with industry associations and employers to keep NVCC programs current and connected with workforce needs and demands.

Fashion a Comprehensive Development and Communications Strategy

With public funds diminishing, community colleges need to be smarter about how they fundraise and manage their investments. That means developing foundations, devising new fundraising and donor recognition approaches, and diversifying investments.[19] It also means innovating new tactics, like social media, to tackle negative perceptions about community colleges, so that they become more highly regarded as institutions of choice for higher education.

The NVCC Foundation has reorganized itself for fundraising, with its enthusiastic and committed board. It has adopted a new mission (to raise funds for and increase awareness of the college) to align its activities with NVCC’s goals and initiatives established in its strategic plan. The Foundation’s new mission allows for an ambitious agenda for coming years: to build Foundation membership; to strengthen ties to alumni; to research lessons learned from peer institutions; and to expand the reach of annual campaigns, particularly among area employers. This initiative outlines campus-based fundraising and communications activities to support and augment their work.

Activity Areas of Focus:

• Purchase a donor and grants management
• Work with faculty to identify funding for department projects that enhance teaching and learning.
• Establish a President’s Grants Planning Council to explore and prioritize major grants.
• Design a communications plan that uses data to show the value of community colleges.

Link Data to Decision-making for Greater Institutional Effectiveness

Higher education has experienced a cultural shift in its decision-making practices. Many funding initiatives, from the federal Race to the Top, to state formula funding, are increasingly basing their allocations on student completion and graduation.[20] Higher education accrediting bodies are now requiring colleges to produce greater evidence of how data influences decision-making.[21] As the country and the State of Connecticut look to community colleges to educate a competent and skilled workforce, these institutions must become more effective at documenting student success in more meaningful ways.

At NVCC, we must fortify our internal culture of data-informed decision making so that we can make wise choices about what improves student success. Through this initiative, we will build systems and internal communications strategies that provide faculty and staff with greater access to data as they plan, implement, and assess programs and initiatives. We will help faculty and staff understand how performance on student-centered outcomes impacts budgeting. As availability of data increases, so will the expectation that faculty and staff demonstrate use of it to identify areas of concern, make improvements and document progress linked to student success.

Activity Areas of Focus:

• Implement systems that improve NVCC’s information reporting capacity.
• Provide training in using the system’s reporting capabilities.
• Develop standardized reporting cycles and provide regular data snapshots, which analyze particular issues facing certain student groups and illustrate them with data from NVCC.
• Design internal communications approach that helps the campus community understand how data informs better decisions and improves our impact.
• Implement assessment measures and methods to better track progress across all strategic plan initiatives.

Build Campus Infrastructure and Access

Colleges need modern, functional facilities that support teaching and learning. Campuses must be inviting and safe for students, employees, and the community. Ensuring the physical plan basics (attractive grounds, accessible and clean facilities, ample parking, and transportation access) and infrastructure development that supports teaching and learning (personal and group study/congregating areas, state-of-the-art science, engineering, and computer laboratories) help extend that invitation. The trend across the country is also to “go green” – to be more conscious of our impact on the environment.

Through this initiative, NVCC will undertake improvement projects that address maintenance and upgrades as well as student and community access to college programs and services, including those required externally (e.g., ADA compliance). We also will advocate for continued evening bus service, and undertake efforts to reduce our environmental footprint.

Activity Areas of Focus:

• Design and renovate Founders Hall to house the new Center for Allied Health and a multi-purpose meeting facility to be used by the entire campus.
• Convert more general classrooms to computer classrooms and to smart classrooms.
• Complete Office of Civil Rights-mandated self-assessment of physical/program access, and obtain funds to make the required physical improvements in order to enhance access for all.
• Design and complete the campus-wide improvement project (includes sidewalk construction, repaving streets and parking lots, campus lighting improvements, campus East Entrance improvements).
• “Green” NVCC’s water and energy usage, waste disposal, and recycling