This mini conference day took place on 3/17/23 and was both a time for the school to do announcements while mixing in 'professional development'. This event took place in the basement of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House which the school had been allowed to use this location for free.
The main guest speaker was Dr. Christina Habbard from EAB. Here are my notes from her speaking.
State of the Sector
-Community college enrollment is down about 14% of where it was pre-covid.
-7% drop in black males interest in attending college.
-3rd grade is the point where kids stop learning to read and start reading to learn.
-Parents are still the main influence on if high schoolers transition to college.
-During covid many multiethnic students lost access to their guidance counselors and did not have that help to pick pathways in to college.
-Try to use personal network to answer questions and find solutions to problems.
-If you don't put money behind it then it is never a priority.
The Employee Side
-13% decline of employment in community colleges during covid.
-People just need to get used to not having enough staff.
~less people having the skills schools need, more people retiring, and the overall shortage in workers.
-Populations of workers at colleges is changing.
~as time goes by the wants/needs of workers change based on the values of different generations.
~move from titles and prestige to caring about work/life balance & mental health.
~schools need internal mobility (which seems to be lacking at CCD unless you are part of the club, as a hiring manager I've personally seen qualified applicants get kicked out of hiring pools by HR).
~a persons job should not be at risk if they are interested in moving up or sideways.
~other schools are guaranteeing internal applicants an interview. Then some schools will do post interview coaching to internal applicants that did not get the job. I really hope that CCD will listen to this one, but I don't have high hope since they are known for paying for speakers and then not following the advice that they give. Leadership has very selective hearing when it comes only doing things that support their views even if it means dismissing best practices in both business and education.
~schools need to compensate employees that learn new skills as their jobs evolve overtime. This is another one that will never happen since even on performance reviews employees are blocked from getting the highest marks unless they complete massive achievements for the school and this kills their motivation for even doing things slightly above their pay grade since they know it won't amount to anything. Acknowledging even small wins help to improve employee moral, but leadership lacks the understanding of this.
~if you rehire ex-employees training time is less, they also tend to stay longer then new hires.
~advertise job openings on the hiring managers LinkedIn.
Then there was a break from Dr. Hubbard and we found out that we might be losing the bookstore and there was discussions about what options we had. People were allowed to stand up and make suggestions to the whole crowd. I took a turn and brought up the option of open source material. Many cheers went up through the crowd and I even heard one person say I was preaching to the choir. For those of you that don't know what open source material is, it is items that both schools and students can use free of charge. A lot of it is primary source material or items built by other educators to help out their peers.
Then next Dr. Hubbard did another talk.
Serving Today's Learners
- minority students are more likely to enroll part time and less likely to complete their degree. (She didn't give a reason for this, but most of the time this is due to them either having to work or having family responsibilities).
-Hispanic students are 12% less likely to complete a degree when compared to white students.
-Non-consumers are people that on completion of high school they choose to not go to college and directly enter the workforce.
-After covid students are voicing that they do not want a fully online experience.
-72% of students that drop out do it for non-college related reasons.
-Talked about one stop advising without calling it that directly. It showed that she was not versed in the different types of advising models, but had an idea of how students should be advised. She covered how students should have one point of contact for everything from financial aid to academics.
Then to wrap up the day the CCD Executive Council and this turned into a disaster. First off when they were talking about HSI an employee asked what an HSI is. HSI stands for Hispanic Serving Institution. An employee not knowing what this means is a really bad sign, but at the same time not surprising since the only reason CCD has the HSI title is due to their high enrollment of people that identify as Hispanic and not due to what they actually do to serve those students. I felt really bad for this employee, but at the same time just a few months before I had to ask my boss if we were an HSI since we never really talked about it at the school, didn't have an HSI committee, or had the supports in place that other HSI schools I have worked at had. I had already been at the school for a year when I had to ask my boss that question, and as someone in middle management I should have not only been aware of that fact, but have been part of helping to drive the knowledge and support systems for those students. This then caused me to publicly ask if the school was going to start a HSI committee or do anything formal with DEI. To this Dr. Marie DeSanctis, president of CCD, responded that employees should lead this work and that she would not be starting one. Last time I checked it was the president of a college who was responsible for leading college wide initiatives and not just pushing things off on the employees. Presidents are to lead the employees and the current CCD president does not lead or inspire the staff at CCD and this event made it clear to all that attended.
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