Committees to attack probation

Southwestern College leaders have pledged to throw time, energy and money at the 10 sanctions that led to the campus to be placed on probation.

A pyramid of committees, subcommittees and task forces are looking into the areas deemed deficient by the state's accrediting commission last month.

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) placed the college on probation for the first time in its 50-year history and gave it until October 2011 to prove itself or face closure.

At a March 1 special governing board meeting, the newly-formed SWC Accreditation Oversight Committee set a goal to have a report to the board by October.

Board member Dr. Jorge Dominguez said hard work could fix seven of the 10 sanctions, but he expressed concern about SWC technology, micro-management and policy-procedure issues. He said he was surprised about the sanction that asks the school "to implement a collegial and comprehensive planning process that assures improvement in student learning" because that is what administrators do on a daily basis. He said he is curious to see how the college can improve in that area.

A major portion of the meeting was spent clarifying the college's history of combining policy with procedure, something the commission frowns upon. Policies are rules and guidelines passed by the board. Procedures are strategies developed by staff for carrying them out.

Trustee Terri Valladolid said she is nervous about the issues involving the board because members met with experts last year who told them that these standards were already being met.

"What can we do differently this time to be assured that yes, we actually are going to meet some of these recommendations that apparently we haven't responded to in the last few years?" Valladolid said.

Dr. Mink Stavenga, co-chair of the Accreditation Oversight Committee, said he could not answer for the past. He said WASC has been warning the board since 1996, but never placed SWC on probation.

"It wasn't the same kind of urgency there is now," he said. "Now we have dates. We don't have six years in which to solve these issues."

Library Department Chair Ron Vess, oversight committee co-chair, said the board controls its own destiny.

"Unfortunately, we can't tell you how to act," he said. "You have to look inside yourselves."\

Board president Yolanda Salcido blamed staff.

"There have been a lot of different board members," she said. "There have been a lot of presidents. There have been a lot of administrations, but what's been here consistent is the staff and the management as well as the managers who actually do the running of the district. That is where I'm concerned, that there's more issues that have not been dealt with since 1996 and then to '03 and now we're caught again with this."

Salcido said board members can take care of board issues, but some problems are out of its control.

"There are issues that are going to take a lot of money and a lot of resources, specifically dealing with upgrading and integrating our technology," she said. "So it's beyond what we can do up here."

Faculty were most interested in addressing SWC's poor campus climate, which was severely criticized by the WASC study teams. At least 25 SWC employees volunteered for the subcommittee that will look into that area. Most other subcommittees have 3-5 members.

The commission report said the college needs to "foster an environment of trust and respect for all employees and students that allows the college community to promote administrative stability and to work together for the good of the college." This comes after two years of in-fighting between the faculty and administration over shared governance, California Educational Code provision that states that decisions affecting the entire campus have to be made "collegially."

Trustee Nick Aguilar said the large pyramid of committees and subcommittees could get entangled in "bureaucracy."

"Is it possible that we can get the job done without having so many cooks in the kitchen again so we don't spoil the soup?" he said.

Aguilar recently urged the board to hire a professional consultant to work with staff to improve chances for success.

"Given our record of failure in the past, this is something we should consider," he said.

Stavenga said the work groups are pulling together and going in the right direction with their attitude, approach and willingness.

Salcido said it was time to put personal politics of the board aside and focus on getting the college off probation.

"Whether we're here today or gone tomorrow," she said, "it's still this college that needs to get through."