Design for Success
Good Afternoon,
On Friday, February 27, 2015, a group of over 250 gathered to engage in a college conversation centered on Design for Success. This was an opportunity to re-envision an organizational structure for MJC that would support the new expectations of student success, completion, and equity. It was exciting to have such a large group! Even though it made table conversations harder to follow; there was broad participation resulting in creative and thoughtful feedback.
Those gathered were provided a proposed model to spark thought and dialogue. Each group was asked to discuss the following:
- The best elements of the design are?
- The least effective element of the design is?
- What change to the proposed design will more effectively support student success, student equity, and completion?
Each table then shared their response with the entire gathering. These table responses were compiled and used to rework the design into a second proposed model. The second proposed model is quite different from the first and reflects some of the innovative input from both the college conversation and the recent meeting of the Academic Senate. Do we have a perfect option? No, not yet. But, we are having conversations that inspire looking beyond our current structure at new opportunities to organize with the purposeful intent of increasing student success, completion, and equity.
In addition to the proposed models, you can also find data on course sections by discipline here. This includes a comparison of our current division structure to the second proposed model. The second proposed model includes the number of full-time faculty in each discipline. (Please note this is based on general payroll codes and may not be accurate in terms of actual teaching assignment.)
Finally, I’d like to again express my appreciation to all who have participated in and led the conversations. I am thankful for the big thinkers and visionaries who are bringing forward innovative suggestions. I am thankful for the encouragers who are inspiring colleagues to engage in the conversation. And for those who hold that our current structure is ideal, I want to remind you that remaining as we currently are structured is an option.
Have some ideas? You can use this link to access a site where you can design your own model structure. (Thank you Joshua Sigman for the drag and drop tool!)
JILL STEARNS
President