MATC Matters

Dear Faculty and Staff,

President Barhorst is away this week, so it is my pleasure to provide the President’s message for this edition of MATC Matters.

I want to take this opportunity to update everyone on what is happening in Learner Success at the executive level with the Associate Vice Presidents, Executive Dean, and the Administrative Dean for Learner Success.  Here is a snapshot of what is new, what is coming, and what we are all working on this year.

Keith Cornille is the Executive Dean for Learner Development.  As an Executive Dean, Keith reports directly to the President. That reporting relationship does not change the fact that Learner Development is an integral part of Learner Success. Keith and I agree that it is vitally important that Learner Development and Learner Success continue to be completely integrated and advance as one unit. We will act as one unit in every respect, including participation in major College decision-making processes such as Budgeting, Planning, and Position Allocation.

Some of the major initiatives being undertaken by Learner Development are the transitioning of students from ABE, ESL, and GED to college programs, the development of Learner Success Centers at each campus, establishment of a college Transfer Center as well as a Career and Employment Center, creation of a college Retention Plan, continuation of the First Year Experience project, growth of the Student Ambassador Leadership program, formation of a Student Health and Wellness plan, and development of a student College Readiness assessment.

Our Associate Vice President for Diversity and Community Relations is Maria Banuelos. Maria will continue to lead the Diversity and Community Relations (DCR) unit of Learner Success. In her role, Maria is responsible for Learner Success diversity initiatives such as the Councils of Color, the Faculty minority internship program, and several other initiatives related to encouraging diversity and promoting multi-cultural approaches across Learner Success. Maria is also responsible for our systems and processes related to part time faculty hiring and support. Maria and the DCR staff plan programming and scheduling at our South Madison campus and champion many of our bilingual course and program offerings.

DCR also supports the Learner Success System Integration Councils. Very soon we will create a new System Integration Council on Academic Technology. This group will serve as the primary voice of Learner Success in matters related to web development, instructional technology, learning management systems, and related efforts.

There are two important new projects on Maria’s agenda this academic year. The first is to finalize the College-wide Flexible Learning plan and begin its implementation. Craig Plain, our Director of Flexible Learning Strategies, will lead this effort with Maria’s support. The Director of Flexible Learning Strategies will report to Maria. 

The second major project is to facilitate the creation of a college-wide curriculum committee with responsibility for creating and revising curriculum policies and allocating curriculum resources according to college priorities. We have researched how these committees work at other colleges and we will blend that knowledge with work done here in the past to create this new college committee.

Our new Associate Vice President for Learner Success is Dr. Deryl Davis Fulmer. Deryl started her position two weeks ago. In her new role Dr. Fulmer is responsible for academic operations, outreach education, academic planning, economic and workforce development, postsecondary articulation, and innovation support. There is a great deal of activity in each of these areas. Here are some of the highlights.

We will form a new cross-functional team in Learner Success to implement continuous improvement strategies related to business processes in our Center and Campus offices. By the end of this month we will have hired a new Management Systems and Process Improvement Analyst for Learner Success who will bring expertise in the assessment, design and improvement of our business processes. 

Continuing education (formerly ACE) is undergoing a massive change in mission and in operations. The new Dean of Continuing Education, Kathleen Radionoff, and the Executive Director for Regional Economic and Workforce Development (East), Lorin Toepper, will lead an effort to focus more of our continuing education offerings towards professional development and build consistency in the way we operate and what we offer across the entire college district. Kathleen will create a business plan to encourage enrollment growth and to support those offerings that are important to our outreach mission but are not economically self-sustaining. The relationships between non-credit education and degree credit offerings will be clarified and a strategy for creating pathways to credit programming will be created. By the end of this academic year our BICS unit and our regional campus outreach units will combine with our continuing education units to create an economically self-sustaining, mission driven, educational outreach effort throughout the MATC service area.

The MATC Academic Plan will be updated and an implementation strategy will be identified. We intend to build enrollment targets for each program at the college that are consistent with workforce needs and college capacity. Those targets will ultimately become a part of the Academic Plan.

The regional campuses have completed drafts of a programming plan for each region. These are being shared now with the Academic Centers. After revision these plans for each regional campus will be presented to the wider college community.

We will build a home for all college articulation agreements. The goal is to create easy access to these agreements for students, faculty, and advisors. Ultimately, these agreements will be managed by the proposed MATC Transfer Center mentioned earlier. Plans for that Center are now being created at the same time as the articulation management plan is implemented this academic year.

In response to the needs identified by the “Innovators ‘R Us” faculty group and others, we have created an Innovation Support Unit. The unit will support the implementation of grants and awards. We are hopeful that this is the first step in creating an accessible college system to support innovative programming and interdisciplinary cooperation among the faculty and between Academic programs.

Dr. Abdulcadir Sido is the Administrative Dean for Learner Success, serving as the executive assistant to the Vice President for Learner Success. In that role Dr. Sido is charged with leadership responsibilities in creating and operating the MATC Institutional Review Board (IRB). He will also play a significant role in designing and implementing the Innovations Support Unit and the Academic Operations team. He has been working on the implementation of the MATC Academic Plan and has taken a lead role in our International Education efforts. Dr. Sido works closely with Maria on initiatives related to diversifying our staff and faculty.

We intend to continue to use MATC Matters to provide regular updates on what is happening across Learner Success. Please check back often for periodic Learner Success news.

On a personal note, since I was selected the Vice President for Learner Success I have heard from many of you with expressions of congratulations and offers of support. Please know that those sentiments are very much appreciated. Your encouragement is both motivating and humbling. Please accept my thanks for your continued support.

Terry Webb