Good evening President Sullivan, Governing Board members, Chancellor Gonzales, CEC Colleagues and guests.

It is incredible the difference that 5 years can make. 

5 years ago on February 27, 2018. I was the Faculty Senate President at South Mountain Community College.  I sat that night with hundreds of colleagues in one of the District satellite viewing spaces necessary on the night of the Governing Board meeting because there were too many attendees to be housed in the Governing Board room.  On what Dr. Thor called a “dark day in Maricopa history,” a majority of Governing Board members voted to tear up the Residential Faculty Agreement, abolish the collaborative administration and faculty policy team known as Meet and Confer, and finish the goal they’d begun when they ended staff representation:  They gutted shared governance in the Maricopa County Community Colleges. 

Five years later, complete with two years of COVID smack dab in the middle, I stand here as the Faculty Association President and argue that we are in the midst of a renaissance of shared governance.  Due to the dedicated work of the Chancellor, our Governing Board, and the leadership of faculty, staff, and administration, together this year we have solidified the foundation of academic freedom, freedom of speech, and shared governance in our District.  The results are remarkable:

• We have an active and thriving Committee on Academic Freedom, with increased requests for support and clarification about academic freedom coming from our Maricopa community.
• We have a dedicated team of leaders exploring creation of a structure for Shared Governance in Maricopa, testament to our commitment to both its ideals and application. 
• We developed a new Strategic Plan that involved stakeholders from across the District from start to finish, including retreats that brought together Maricopa faculty, staff, and administrators with Governing Board and community members to envision Maricopa’s future and priorities.
• The Compensation Advisory Committee and Advisory Budget Committees have worked collaboratively to propose compensation plans for faculty, staff, and adjuncts that support the Governing Board’s commitment to equity and fiscal responsibility.
• We have three effective teams established for policy development that have resulted in policy documents for residential faculty, staff, and adjuncts.  In true Maricopa acronym love, those teams are the RFACT, SPCT, and AFHCT.
• This year saw the work to finalize the Performance Success evaluation model for staff, with implementation plans in place to begin pilots in Fall 23 and launch in Fall 24.  This has been a heavy lift and a team effort; I was proud to be part of this incredible work for our staff colleagues.

These are only the *large* endeavors we have completed or have moved into action just this past year.  There are numerous other task forces and initiatives recently launched or in the wings. It is gratifying to see the difference it makes to bring stakeholders together early in the decision making processes that help propel us forward to support our students and communities.  The work is not always easy or fast, and shared governance is a fragile construct  that requires constant vigilance and effort, but the progress is clearly worth the commitment.

In this, my last Board address as Faculty Executive Council President, I wish to take a moment to thank those who have made it possible for me to contribute in this renaissance year to the work of shared governance in Maricopa.  

First, thank you to my colleagues on CEC. Those early morning phone calls, late emails, and last minute meetings are testament to our willingness to collaborate, explore options, and give grace to each other as we address the inevitable challenges and opportunities we face in our complex system.  I have appreciated your generosity and look forward to our continued work. 

Thank you and recognition to my Faculty Association Officers, without whom I would not still be #vertical. Past President John Schampel has been on FEC since 2013, and I have appreciated his passion for shared governance, his experience with the history of Maricopa and faculty leadership, and his willingness to shoot straight with me whenever I ask..  President Elect Lisa Marsio already has an established track record of commitment to faculty and Maricopa in her previous leadership positions, and I look forward to supporting her and the intelligence, integrity, and kindness that she will bring to this role.  I have turned to Sasha as a touchstone in all things, to Megan for her generosity of spirit and rhetorical savvy, to Liz for her ability to provide clarity and focus, to Kory for quiet strength and determination, and to Barry and Jim for their institutional knowledge and experience.  These officers have provided the brains and the hands behind the scenes that make this job possible. This role is and will always be a team effort, and I was lucky and grateful to have them at my back. 

Thank you to the members of the Faculty Executive Council, especially the college Faculty Senate Presidents, who ensure their college colleagues are informed and are participating in shared governance locally and at the District.  We all benefit from their efforts on behalf of their colleges, and I have benefited from their perspectives, their work, and their collegiality.

Finally, thank you to the strong and dedicated faculty of the Maricopa Community Colleges.  When shared governance and freedom of expression were endangered in Maricopa, they rallied and worked and leveraged national higher education institutions and our legal system to restore what had been lost.  When faced with an unprecedented global pandemic, they pivoted and learned and sacrificed– in the midst of their own personal struggles– to support their students, colleagues, and colleges and to ensure access to the promise and power of higher education.  And in this new era of collaboration and partnership, they have willingly stepped up when asked to serve on the councils, committees, task forces, and teams that shared governance requires, all while continuing to teach and learn and provide excellence in education.  It has been my privilege and honor to represent and to serve them.  

These monthly addresses have admittedly been the most nerve-wracking part of my role as Faculty Association President, but I have been grateful for the opportunity to share the good work of faculty with you.  As always, thank you for the time and your attention.  Good evening.

Camille

No Tricks, All Treats: Faculty and Enrollment Support

Good evening President Sullivan, Governing Board members, Chancellor Gonzales, colleagues, guests, and in particular to Glendale’s new interim President, Dr. Ernie Lara.  Dr. Lara, the faculty appreciate your service and look forward to working with you!

Tonight, I would like to take the opportunity to discuss the vital topic of enrollment and retention. We are all aware of the challenges we face with respect to bringing students back after the pandemic. Our colleges and District have been working on efforts designed to recruit and support students, and the work has appropriately focused resources and prioritized efforts in the offices of enrollment services, advising, and marketing.  However, these offices are not alone in their efforts. In addition to offering instructional excellence and quality curriculum in the classroom, faculty are working to support enrollment through outreach and retention efforts on campus and with our community partners in many disciplines and programs. 

Through outreach, faculty help to introduce students to the opportunities that are available to them in the Maricopa Community Colleges. For example, this fall at Paradise Valley, faculty in the fine and performing arts–music, dance, and theatre–are actively recruiting through work at their local high schools.  PVCC Music faculty are visiting feeder high school music programs weekly, Theatre faculty are inviting high school students to college events such as the 1st Annual PVCC Theatre Day, and faculty are jointly hosting performances and competitions such as the Quarterfinals of Alice Cooper’s “Proof Is in the Pudding” Music and Dance Competition. Additionally, PVCC faculty are working with their community partners to attract potential students to healthcare programs. In September, Nursing faculty and members of the PVCC Student Nurses Association represented PVCC at the Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences career fair for high school students.   Nursing students collaborated with Mayo educators to demonstrate nursing skills, answer questions, and provide brochures for EMT, Paramedicine, CNA, and Registered Nurse programs for the estimated 500 high school attendees. 

We know that enrollment efforts should not ONLY focus on recruiting new students but should also include work to support student retention, which aligns to our goals of increasing student completion and success.  Faculty across MCCCD employ unique strategies to support student retention and completion both in and out of the classroom:

• At SCC, service learning coordinators offer the “SCC – Social Cause Connection.” This new event has been designed to connect students to what they are learning in the classroom, to their peers across disciplines, to social issues that impact our communities, and to ways they can get involved. In its fall 2022 debut, hundreds of students attended the event. Nearly every student volunteered to participate in one of SCC’s on-site service learning sessions, where, for example, they could pack seeds to fight hunger, write letters to isolated senior citizens, or learn how to dispose of waste. The only suggestion for improvement was that students want more, as the sessions became “standing room only” events. SCC Service Learning coordinators intend to oblige.
• At Mesa Community College, Biology faculty have piloted two new support programs to support retention. 
  • In spring 2021, Biology faculty added Embedded peer tutors to 3 key BIO classes. The Embedded tutors offer tailored support options to students, such as extended office hours and weekly discussion boards with recorded videos addressing the “tough topic of the week.” 
  • In Fall 2022, faculty developed new Biology Boot Camps for BIO 181 and BIO 201 students. Faculty acted on data that revealed students struggle with basic time management skills, poor study techniques, and high levels of anxiety.  The goal of the Biology Boot camps is a focus on these topics to support student persistence and success.
• Finally, at Estrella Mountain, faculty are engaging in research to ask students what they need in order to succeed and then to align those responses to interventions  Over 1000 students were surveyed and over 50 students participated in focus groups conducted by EMCC’s Student Engagement Research Team. The research results led to the current phase of MCLI Horizon Grant funded interventions that focus on increasing engagement, increasing sense of belonging, and supporting more effective dissemination of campus resource information to all students. 

While tonight I have focused on specific colleges and programs, faculty across all of our colleges contribute to similar efforts. Faculty show their commitment to the promise of education every day through their work in and out of the classroom.  We are proud to be partners in the work to support enrollment and retention for the sake of our students, our institution, and our communities.

Thank you for your time.  

(And because it’s the end of October, we’ve brought treats.  Happy Halloween!)