CVHEC BLOG: ‘WHAT THE CV-HEC IS HAPPENING’ (Dec. 2021)

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The opening panel discussion at the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project convening Nov. 4 in Merced included Shirley Asher, Jennifer Johnson, Karissa Morehouse, Sonya Christian, Gregg Camfield and Chenoa Woods.

 

The beat – serving student success – goes on!

An inside look at the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Pathways Initiative and Mapper

By Tom Burke
CVHEC Transfer Project Coordinator

(Photo Gallery below)

In June, when I stepped down as chancellor of the Kern Community College District, many thought I would embark on the typical “retirement” life of fishing, hunting, traveling and just resting after a 40-year career.

While I did enjoy some of that, I also soon found myself right back in the saddle in a “new” role with KCCD as Deputy Chancellor and as a coordinator with the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium. So for those of you wondering: no I’m not officially “retired!”

Rather I am happy to report that the past few months have been quite a rewarding whirlwind as I plunged headlong into a new “assignment” as coordinator of CVHEC’s Transfer Project with the intent to enhance what has been my life’s work: serving students in general and in this case specifically, helping build effective pathways to our community colleges for a smoother, efficient transfer experience.

To that end, these past 45 days alone have seen the fruition of two great milestones.

First was the public celebration of the completion of Phase I of a joint program, the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Pathways Initiative, at a convening Nov. 4 on the UCM campus with community college partners Bakersfield and Merced Colleges.  Secondly, at that historic event, we also launched Phase II of this project that includes the participation of four more CVHEC member institutions: Porterville College, Reedley College, Clovis College and West Hills College-Lemoore.

 

Revolutionizing Positive Outcomes

The Transfer Pathways Initiative is the result of a $500,000 grant from the California Educational Learning Lab to Bakersfield College, Merced College and UC Merced for the development of 2+2 transfer maps that streamline and guide the transfer of community college students to the University of California system.

Last month’s convening, “Charting Better Maps to Degrees – Developing Transfer Pathways to UC Merced,” demonstrated how we can revolutionize positive outcomes across enrollment, completions and equity for students while emphasizing UC Merced’s commitment to significantly expanding transfer pathways for community college students within the San Joaquin Valley to UC Merced.

With about 172 participants representing all three segments of higher education, the hybrid convening itself was a hallmark of sorts being the first major gathering convened by CVHEC and its partners since the pandemic shut down the world in March 2020. The energy from seeing and hearing our colleagues in the flesh was very evident throughout the six-hour event that was also presented virtually via Zoom (130 virtual and 42 in person).

CVHEC member community colleges were well represented at the convening where we discussed how in Phase 1, our partner teams completed 14 Transfer Pathways from Merced College and Bakersfield College to UC Merced as well as Transfer Pathway work with California State University, Bakersfield.

The convening also further introduced interested colleges to the Pathway Mapper software program, particularly its ability to enhance the student transfer experience as well as early student success results from institutions utilizing the Pathway Mapper. Participants also received information on future Program Mapper software enhancements that are scheduled.

The topics of four breakout sessions portrayed the breadth and depth of our mission:

  • The Tech Behind Program Pathways Mapper
  • Student Impact of Program Pathways Mapper – On-path Percentage, Student Engagement
  • Getting Started with Program Pathways Mapper: Cleaning and Loading Your Curriculum
  • The Technology of Collaboration – How to set up effective intersegmental discipline faculty teams and develop 2+2 transfer Documentation of process and guidelines.

 

Implementation teams of faculty, staff working hand-in-hand

The second great milestone is the launch of Phase II which actually got its start in the summer when a convening of representatives from all 15 CVHEC community colleges included an update presentation on the aforementioned Phase I completion of the 14 Transfer Pathways from Merced and Bakersfield Colleges to UC Merced.

At that June 16 convening, significant interest was expressed for participation in Phase II project implementation so in the early fall CVHEC reached out to interested member community colleges with a call to form and submit their implementation teams.

The four Phase II community colleges mentioned above — Porterville, Reedley, Clovis and West Hills-Lemoore — established teams and scheduled convenings to commence the development of curriculum transfer pathways to UC Merced. They will now be individually convening in the next four months with the first held Dec. 2-3 at Porterville College.

That recent convening was my first as a coordinator and I was impressed with the commitment and excitement by the Porterville College, faculty, staff and administrators to develop nine transfer pathways directly to UC Merced including a new pathway in Spanish.

Perhaps the pinnacle of that enthusiasm was to observe, when a potential curriculum issue arose, how UC Merced staff collaborated and interfaced with community college faculty and staff for solutions on the spot.  They collectively brainstormed and developed options for resolving the issue.

In particular, the level of commitment by host Porterville College to fulfill this mission for their students was further demonstrated by the active involvement and attendance in the two-day convening by the Vice President of Instruction Thad Russell, Vice President of Student Services Primavera Arvizu and President of the Academic Senate Robert Simpkins.  In addition, Porterville College President Dr. Claudia Habib made an appearance at the convening impressing upon faculty and staff the importance of their contributions to this project for their students’ success and thanked them for their work on the pathways.

Equally, I was impressed with the Transfer Project planning team, especially CVHEC colleague Stan Carrizosa, a former College of Sequoias superintendent/president, and James Zimmerman, senior associate vice provost and dean for Undergraduate Education at UC Merced.

We hope this level of partnership by all parties will be emulated by all our members, which I am convinced will only lead to a great reward: positive outcomes across enrollment, completions and equity for students.

And that will clearly make for happier fishing, hunting and traveling days along the way (when I can squeeze them in)!

Happy Holidays to all!

See UC Merced press release: https://news.ucmerced.edu/news/2021/uc-merced-offer-simpler-transfer-pathway-central-valley-community-college-students

See Merced Sun Star story: UC Merced announces partnership to encourage Valley community college student transfers

Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director; Dr. Sonya Christian, Kern Community College District chancellor; Lark Park, director of the California Education Learning Lab; and Dr. Juan Sánchez Muñoz, UC Merced chancellor.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_images_carousel images=”6150,6118,6120,6119,6184,6171,6164,6162,6161,6147,6148,6149,6151,6144,6142,6141,6096,6140,6107,6170,6139,6138,6136,6135,6121,6122,6126,6127,6130,6131,6132,6133,6110,6109,6108,6143,6059″ img_size=”large” autoplay=”yes” title=”Gallery: CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Pathways Initiative — UC Merced campus Nov. 4″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

CVHEC Guest Blog: ‘What the CV-HEC is Happening’

 

Jamie Moore, professor of English at CVHEC-member institution College of the Sequoias in Visalia and a teacher in the statewide Puente program, was featured by the California Acceleration Project in its “Voices from the Field” blog with her entry, “Transforming The Research Paper: Using Oral History To Center  Students’ Voices And Communities.” She also is a doctoral student at CVHEC-member University of California, Merced studying pedagogy and faculty development.  CVHEC proudly presents this as our “What the CV-hec Is Happening” guest blog feature this issue.

 

COS Puente prof featured in CAP Blog
for her oral history/research paper entry

Jamie Moore, professor of English at CVHEC-member institution College of the Sequoias in Visalia, was featured by the  California Acceleration Project (CAP) in its “Notes from the Field” blog with her entry, “Transforming The Research Paper: Using Oral History To Center  Students’ Voices And Communities.”  

Prof. Moore, a teacher in the statewide Puente program, discusses how she uses oral history to transform the research assignments in her first-year composition classroom.

She invited students to interview members of their communities about issues that matter to them, including questions of identity, health care access, and citizenship laws. The approach increased student engagement, enabled students to claim their own identities as academic researchers, and elevated the voices of their communities.

And during the social isolation of the pandemic, the assignments created an avenue for “the research process to serve as a method of community care.”

She said that, as an instructor for the Puente Project, celebrating her students’ voices, communities and cultures is a priority.

“I was burnt out on the traditional concept of the research paper and how we define ‘academic research’ for beginning comp students,” Moore wrote in her summary. “My students and I explored how we could expand our collective definition of academic writing and academic research to make space for our expression. Oral History was the KEY!”

Prof. Moore, who also is a doctoral student at University of California, Merced – also a CVHEC-member — studying pedagogy and faculty development, has presented at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity, the Strengthening Student Success Conference and the Puente Project statewide trainings.

The award-winning Puente Community College Program​​ founded statewide in 1981 has been on the College of the Sequoias campus 25 years. COS is an Hispanic-Serving Institution based in Visalia with two other campuses also in Tulare County.

CAP, founded in 2010 by two community college teachers who wanted to do something about the poor outcomes of students placed into remediation, is a faculty-led professional development network that supports the state’s 114 community colleges to implement reforms that substantially increase student completion of transferable, college-level English and math requirements, a critical milestone on the path to degrees and transfer.

See the CAP blog and a webinar conversation with the guest author.

Inaugural CVHEC Blog: ‘What the CV-HEC is Happening’

With the fall semester in full swing on college campuses across the nation, we take a look at the past 18 months since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the world —  as we crawl back to some sense of normalcy — through the “blog eyes” of our CVHEC southern regional coordinator, Stan A. Carrizosa Sr., retired College of the Sequoias superintendent/president. Stan reflects on the ups and downs, lessons learned and the opportunities to be had from this era. This new CVHEC blog, “What the CV-HEC is Happening,” will feature members of our team, board of directors, partners and guests occasionally presenting insights into the world of higher education.   

 

Making our Mark on History: Looking Back on a
Pandemic Year in Valley Higher Education

By Stan A. Carrizosa Sr.
Retired Superintendent/President, College of the Sequoias
CVHEC Southern Regional Coordinator

2020 was a year like no other!

Like so many during the pandemic lockdown I found myself in a heightened state of introspection, securing my health and safety, adapting to new forms of communication, trying to recreate routines for the simplest of things like sleeping, eating and exercising … and of course binging on classic movies. An all-time favorite that popped up one day is “Apollo 13” which is the historical account of the infamous mission to the moon that went terribly wrong!

I began to see the pandemic and its impact on community colleges through the eyes of the astronauts on Apollo 13. Like NASA we were at the height of our success, riding a strong economy, new funded state mandates to address historic trends in low student achievement, and unprecedented growth in partnerships and collaboration.

Then with one quick stir of the oxygen tanks an explosion derails our lunar module and sends us into crisis-response mode as we fight for our lives:

  • We turned our entire institution on a dime and transitioned to fully remote education and online classes and services.
  • We scrambled to make technology, training, equipment and support available to students and staff.
  • We changed our modes of communication, outreach and follow-up to comply with health and safety mandates that required us all to remain physically isolated from each other.
  • We endured significant periods of panic, uncertainty, and confusion as we waited for the “return flight plan” from headquarters to come before running out of oxygen.

Looking back now on those flashes of hopelessness we are reminded of the power of the human spirit and our tremendous resiliency. With vaccines gaining significant momentum we are now feeling the sense of relief that our “heat shield” has survived the intense impact of re-entry and we’ve landed safely in the ocean and preparing to return to mission control.

We know that when we must, we can mobilize very quickly. When we are not marred in regulation, bureaucracy and political power struggles we can get things done and achieve incredible feats just because they are best to serve students and staff.

We have learned many things that will help us going forward as we enter a new “normal” that in many respects, we will never be the same as we were pre-pandemic. It is exciting to be part of shaping this new future that now must address challenges like increasing statewide access to quality internet/broadband, continuing use of remote communication modalities for things like counselor/advisor appointments, small-group office hours, extended learning opportunities, tutorials and just about any other engagement that we previously limited to face-to-face experiences.

Finally, we have learned much about providing higher quality instruction. We’ve learned how to enhance virtual learning and build a sense of community among online classes. We better understand the individual needs of learners and how to differentiate instruction to meet these needs. We know how to cultivate virtual study groups and build relationships among students in a virtual setting.

This fall semester offers us the most exciting opportunity in a generation, to be the leaders who will shape a new course for higher education in California community colleges. Many recount the Apollo 13 mission as an historic failure where others consider it NASA’s finest hour.

I tend to agree with latter and as we look to the future of community colleges, remember beneath all the red tape, mandates, equity plans and pathways, in California community colleges we are doing our own little share of God’s work, and there is no purpose more destined to succeed!

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