Greetings! I am Richard Rhoda and the instructor for ELPA 7110 this semester
of the Community Colleges in the United States and this is going to be a brief
video about the course. It's a bit of an overview or orientation to the course.
Let me begin with the note of context about how this fits into the Center for
Community College Leadership at ETSU. It was created last year about this time
and it's whole purpose was ETSU is committed to be serving community
colleges in this region, Appalachian region Southern Regional Education Board,
but a regional center of excellence as it relates to community colleges and
that would be in the way of a form of graduate level instruction, professional
development, outreach public service, and applied policy research. So, they're all
geared toward the unique issues and challenges of community colleges.
The basic premise that's driving this is just the observation- states, some
more than others, but states are pinning a lot of hope in a lot of public policy
on the community colleges, as a type of institution that will do.. serve a great
public purpose and that is increasing educational attainment for the state
aligning workforce development, labor needs, with instructional programs. So
it's critical now, I mean this is just not any time of in the continuum of
higher education history, it's a critical moment and it's a moment for the
community colleges really to be the institution of choice for many many
people. So that's the notion, the notion also is there's going to be a need on a
grander scale for leaders who are particularly attuned to the defining
characteristics of community colleges, and so that's where the the center comes
in. The certificate program is, it may not be unique, but it's different. It's five
courses post masters, fifteen hours, and there's a
credential. It's a graduate certificate; it can be standalone. So, as a student, you
can stop at the end of the 15 hours, or either right immediately or after a
period of time, that can become a concentration within the EDD program
here at ETSU. So it's a versatile credential, and this is the second year
now, the first cohort that started last fall has now completed with their
credential and I'm not sure how it broke down, but a number of them are now in
the EDD program. So, that's about the program. So this course, Community College
of the United States, it's a survey course. It's a review of the historic
developments of the colleges, the history of the movement, the evolution of their
roles, scope and mission, their external factors that have impacted the work of
the community colleges, and, vice versa, how the Community College has impacted
other external issues. We get into some of the operational characteristics of
the colleges. We're using community colleges in the broadest sense to
embrace, like here in Tennessee, the Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology,
as well as in other states, where they may not have that specific name of
Community College but vocational, technical, education, or something that's
post-secondary but not baccalaureate level - that's another issue. We focus on
Tennessee and reform movements, because we're right here, but as students join
the the cohorts from other states they will be bringing with them that
background, those interests, and we will certainly broaden the scope of our
focus on state reforms. So an objective, the very fundamental objective of this
course, is to start building a more in-depth understanding and appreciation
for community college characteristics, how they're structured, how and who they
serve- things of those questions. We're going to finish up the class
looking ahead in the future, future trends, future challenges, as well as
future obligations. Another objective of the class is going to take many of you
to broaden your horizons as far as what all may be engaged beyond or in addition
to what you're focusing on right now, but you know just a broader world
view of how community colleges fit into the master scheme of things in higher
education in general. So a few specifics about the course and the syllabus is on
the D2L course site. Hopefully it's pretty straightforward. Consider it the
most current draft, as things come up where we need to adjust dates or
something we can certainly do that, but assigned readings- very important that
you [read those]. Every week you'll have a assigned reading that will follow chapters in the
main text, which is by Cohen and it's called the American Community College.
Keep up with those assignments, they will be released every Monday night and
you have that week, starting basically Tuesday, to read the assignment and to
then respond to discussion questions, but Cohen is a very readable text. The
reading volume is not overwhelming by any means. There are three other texts
but don't get concerned about that. Two of them are basically monographs. One
is by Schneider and it deals with workforce development, specifically
provided by community colleges and the other is by Whiner and it's about student
success against specifically at Community College's. The last one is
more of a reference book. The higher education, now the community college
system in each state, has a chapter and some of those are current. Some, like
Tennessee, with the last focus act last year now it needs to be updated,
but anyway Cohen is the main reading assignment. Journals as things come up in
the news through higher education trade papers or
general media I'll add those to the discussion. I would encourage you to do
the same thing as you're doing reading, research for this class or for the other
class, please don't hesitate to post them as part of the discussion board. So
that's the assigned readings. The discussion board, those of you familiar
with D2L, it's pretty straightforward. I will ask a small number of open kind of
questions about the readings. You know, what from your perspective, what
significance from your perspective, is there something here that doesn't make
sense but just answer them. I do have a request respond these don't have to be
term papers. Three or four paragraphs, please write in paragraphs not bullets.
Please write in the third person; it's just it's better that way, and when
you're responding to another student's work- we're colleagues here- so just play
it straight. If you don't agree with them just say here's another way of looking
at something but that's I think you'll find that's, if you haven't done this
before, that's an interesting way of exchanging views. So we've talked about
the assigned readings, the D2L discussion. We have two weekend seminars each
semester and then one in the summer and the dates are now known for those.
They're October 13th and 14th, that's a Friday afternoon/evening, all day
Saturday. October 13th and 14th and then November 17th and 18th. Both will be held
at on the campus of Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin, Tennessee.
The format for the seminars will change but we basically have class discussion, we
have speakers, outside speakers. We've been very fortunate to attract, you know,
the leaders from campuses, as well the Tennessee Board of Regents, as well
as state government, as well as the Higher Education Commission. So the
time moves pretty quickly on those seminars, and then the last thing. There
are two written assignments for this class and both, the idea is to have
something practical, tangible, and useful to you going
forward. So the first writing assignment, which is due about the same time as the
first weekend seminar, is to.. in the form of a briefing memo to me, so it's not a
term paper, but here is the landscape 2017 for community colleges in and how
those from Tennessee would say in Tennessee, those from another state, their
state, but data points that would show.. and we'll talk about this on in the
semester, but basically it's supposed to be it's like a like an executive policy
brief. So just to tell me, without great literature but professional writing, here
are the issues today, here's a little bit of background, here are the policy
concerns that are going on. This is not an exercise in creative writing. It's to
be written as if we were co-workers, colleagues. So I don't need an opening
quote from Thoreau or anything like that, but just here here the significant data
points, here are the issues. So hopefully that will serve you well. Then the final paper,
the second paper which is due at the end of the semester is of those things that
you've identified in your perspective, that's what this memo would be called,
where you drill down. An example could be financial aid, where one of the
points is like there's there many things going on in the world of financial aid
in Tennessee Higher Education, Virginia North Carolina, but here's one that is a
particular interest to you on how and then just take that deeper and that's
where you can come up with some recommendations for for change. The first
one truly is a perspective. It's not so objective at all. Again, not creative
writing, but write it in the third person so it isn't you saying well here's what
I think or I feel. That that's not the assignment. The assignment is here are
the here are the issues. Both pages of both papers would it be expected about ten
pages in length and then if you want to have attachments that's beyond that.
Again I think you need that much space to be able to develop things. So, that
really concludes this video. A reminder, self introduction video that
you would prepare and submit through D2L would be due at the end of the first
week, and if you have any questions about that feel free to contact me or we've
give you give you links to help desk and whatever. So very excited about this
course, again, last year is a big success. We learned some things, we enjoyed the
the cohort immensely and I know you will as well. So thank you for your attention,
and here's to a good semester.