September 25, 2014 Planning Committee Meeting

The Planning Committee of the Board of Trustees of Illinois Valley Community College District No. 513 met at 6:15 p.m. on Thursday, September 25, 2014 in the Board Room-C307 at Illinois Valley Community College.

Committee Members Physically Present

Michael C. Driscoll, Committee Chair
Jane E. Goetz
David O. Mallery

Others Physically Present

Jerry Corcoran, President
Cheryl Roelfsema, Vice President for Business Services and Finance
Deborah Anderson, Vice President for Academic Affairs
Sue Isermann, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Workforce Development
Mark Grzybowski, Interim Vice President for Student Services

The meeting was called to order at 6:15 p.m. by Dr. Driscoll.

ICCB RECOGNITION REPORT

The Illinois Community College Board conducted a recognition evaluation of Illinois Valley Community College.  Colleges are evaluated on a select number of standards.  Based on a five-year cycle, recognition evaluations are conducted to assure that colleges are in compliance with these standards.  The standards selected for review during the current cycle are classified into five categories – Instruction, Student Services/Academic Support, Finance/Facilities, and Accountability.  The report focuses on the findings and recommendations for each standard.  The report contains two types of recommendations.  Compliance recommendations are those for which the college was found to be out of compliance with a given state statute or administrative rule.  Advisory recommendations are made in instances where the review team identified areas that it believes would be beneficial for the college to examine or pursue.  Five years ago ICCB made recommendations and IVCC did a good job of responding.  IVCC has shown improvement in the timeliness of reports, but there is still a need for improvement in this area and how the data is gathered. It is important for reimbursement that the reports are accurate.  IVCC is not alone when it comes to other community colleges meeting deadlines for ICCB reports.  It was noted that C1 and C2 reports had three submissions and were 122 days late.  There were concerns that deadlines are not being met and critical errors and discrepancies are being reported.  Information Technology collects the data, but if it is not reported correctly to IT, they have to go back and do research.  IT is looking at how it can more fully utilize the software to obtain the correct data.  Under the Claims Processing Issues, the query had an error in verifying their attendance through mid-term.  The query has been changed, but a follow up to see if this was the fix has not been made since the College has not reached mid-term.  Under Financial Planning, the College has adopted a board policy of establishing and maintaining at least a general fund balance of 25 percent of normal annual operating expenditures.  The majority of community colleges have 25 percent as a minimum target for their fund balances.  ICCB recommended the College continue monitoring its fund balances and Cheryl noted they are concerned about all community colleges because the state revenues and property values are declining every year.  ICCB recommended the College examine circumstances when projects exceed the ICCB-approved project budgets.  If the project comes in over five percent or the change order is five percent, then the project comes before the Board and ICCB for approval.  The College has been very good at doing this.  The project ICCB cited was early on in the five years of this recognition review.

INTEGRATED POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION DATA SYSTEM (IPEDS) REPORT

The National Center for Education Statistics gathers educational and institutional data through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data system (IPEDS).  The 2013 IPEDS Data Feedback Report provides summary data for the previous fiscal year (FY2012) for benchmarking and trend analysis.  IVCC uses the IPEDS Feedback Report for benchmarking against a group of peer institutions and for tracking IVCC trends over time.  Amy Smith, former Director of Institutional Research, shared her reports with SLPC.  Enrollments were at an all-time high and then they dropped quickly.  There has been a significant decline in unemployment rates.  It comes down to demographics.  IVCC has attracted a commendable percentage of high school graduates which is good, but the rest of the district’s population seems to be working two jobs or leaving the area.  The age of the population continues to grow and may not be interested in taking classes for degrees but just taking classes for enjoyment.  Most community colleges have seen a decline in enrollment and maybe this is the maximum the district can support.  The percentage of first-time, full-time students graduating on time fell to eight percent, which placed IVCC well below the mean.  If IVCC students stay longer they complete at 60 percent.  IVCC students are completing, but taking a longer time to do it.  This could be attributed to finances and working more hours.  When Sheila Simon was here, IVCC was amongst the highest in the state with a graduation rate of 31 percent.  The College is now at 35 percent.  It was noted that IVCC has more employees than its peers and pays its faculty more.  The College pays considerable more money in instruction and instructional support.  The relationship of expenses-to-FTE is substantially higher when all the groups are added.  Some of the College’s peers rank their instructors differently.  A reason for the greater percentage of full-time faculty per FTE could be the age of IVCC’s faculty who are on the higher end of the salary schedule.  It was noted that the Board needs to look at what the students are doing – graduation rates. The graduation rates speak highly of what is going on at the College.  The Board needs to make sure that it keeps an eye on the budget and they think they are doing that.  Dr. Corcoran does not believe comparing IVCC to Heartland, Illinois Central, Black Hawk and Joliet makes good sense.  Kankakee and Kishwaukee are most comparable to IVCC.   The peer group is not the College’s choice; ICCB has selected the peer group.

NATIONAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE BENCHMARKING PROJECT (NCCBP) SURVEY

The National Community College Benchmarking Project (NCCBP) allows 270 participating colleges an opportunity to compare themselves with others on over 140 measures.  At IVCC, comparisons are made between the broader cohort and its own recent history.  IVCC ranks at the 28^th percentile, with 32% of its students receiving Pell Grants.  IVCC has a considerable number of students that fall just short of receiving Pell Grants.  The percentage of area high school graduates choosing IVCC continues to grow with over 32 percent of area high school graduates choosing IVCC, placing it at the 87^th percentile.  For developmental math, the College has tried a Fast Track math program or math “boot camp.”  The College is trying something new in the writing co-requisite courses.  There are not a lot of results and there is more work to be done in this area. Overall, enrollee success and completer success rates for college-level courses have remained fairly steady and well above the mean.  IVCC ranked high for the non-retirement departures.  There are explanations for this high turnover along with retirees - the closing of the Sheridan Correctional Center, the closing of the Early Childhood Center at Ace Hardware in Princeton, and the reorganization of the Dislocated Workers Center by BEST, Inc.  Dr. Driscoll noted that Forms 8 and 9 (Credit Development/Remedial Course Retention and Success Rates and Student Retention and Success in First College-level Courses) should be the data used for the KPIs.  Dr. Corcoran assured him it will be aligned with the KPIs.   In Form 2, the percentage of full-time, first-time and part-time, first-time students completing a degree or certificate within three years is very high for IVCC – 91 percent for full-time and 99 percent for part-time.  Dr. Driscoll noted there have been a couple of reports tonight that have been analyzed by the Director of Institutional Research that Dr. Corcoran did not agree with.  Dr. Driscoll suggested the reports be reviewed and approved by Dr. Anderson or Dr. Corcoran so the committee is not given inconsistent messages.  The value of this report is to serve as a foundation for the College moving forward.  Ms. Goetz suggested an administrative addendum or an oral rebuttal to the report in the future. 

NOEL-LEVITZ STUDENT SATISFACTION INVENTORY

The Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction survey uses two measures:  one is how students value a particular component; the other is how satisfied they are with the college’s performance in a particular area.  Dr. Anderson provided a succinct analysis.  Since the 2010 survey, IVCC’s performance has increased in five areas and declined in five other areas.  Overall, IVCC has performed better than the benchmarks in each category and all areas have shown steady increases since the survey was administered in 2004.  Dr. Anderson noted this is a tricky report.  The students fill out the survey twice.  The first time the students are asked how important an item is to them and the second time how satisfied they are in this category.  The report then shows the gap.  The students may value the category more than the national report and they are more satisfied than the national level.  There were two areas that needed improvement – cell phone reception and internet service.  The College was aware of these and has made improvements by planning to enhance the cell phone reception and increasing the bandwidth.  Dr. Driscoll noted that all of this data needs to filter into the KPIs.  If the College does not want the data, Dr. Driscoll suggested discontinuing the survey.

COMMISSION ON DENTAL ACCREDITATION (CODA) REPORT

The Commission on Dental Accreditation adopted a resolution to continue the dental assistant program’s accreditation status of “approval with reporting requirements.” Two recommendations remain unmet and continued accreditation is dependent upon these recommendations being met and the program achieving full compliance no later than August 2015.  Recommendation #3 – the program coordinator and instructor must have a full-time commitment.  The administration is taking this position forward and the process is underway to fill the position.  Recommendation #1 – submit all course documentation requirements for DLA 2200 Dental Science II to include time allocations for didactic, laboratory and clinical learning experiences.  The program had submitted components of course documentation for all courses with the exception of DLA 2200 Dental Science II.  In the future, Mr. Mallery would like to see the cost of instruction per FTE, the noteworthiness of the program, and the suggestions of the advisory committee.  These are types of documents that we need for a substantial cost analysis to help weigh or evaluate the decision.  The question was asked if the Dental Assisting Program should be reviewed sooner than the ICCB designated time of FY2018.  The schedule of programs to be reviewed is set by ICCB.  For the last eight years on an annual basis technical programs are internally reviewed based on the number of graduates, student success in the courses in the programs, section utilization, how many students could be enrolled and how many are, tuition revenues, credit hours generated, apportionment from the state, and course fee revenues.  Instructional supplies, professional development, licenses for software, equipment, and full- and part-time instructor salaries are all factored into the review and this continues to be refined.  Dr. Driscoll asked that the report on dental assisting be brought to the Board next year.  It was suggested that with the hiring of a full-time program coordinator for the spring semester, the report would be more valuable if brought to the Board in 2016.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROGRAM REVIEW REPORT

The Program Review Report was submitted to the Illinois Community College Board.  Programs are reviewed and evaluated on a five-year cycle.  It was noted the Chart on the utilization trends and success of students in the Peer Tutoring and Writing Center has one of the best ratios over the past five years.  The College has met the needs and now would like to add more hours and more people.  It was also pointed out that students with disabilities have to self-identify themselves for help.  There is a need for faculty to help them self-identify.  The horticulture program is designated as inactive.  Students that are in the program are being taught out.  The College could bring the program back in the future, but it is not listed and students are not being enrolled in the program.  Beginning welding in the Welding Technology/Welder program is designated as withdrawn.  This program was withdrawn due to the fact that IVCC has terminated its contract with the Illinois Department of Corrections to provide instructional programming at the Sheridan Correctional Center.  The Tool & Die Maker/Machinist Apprentice program was designated as inactive.  This program was made inactive due to the fact that the College had a nearly identical program and it was confusing as to which program a student should enroll.  This certificate has not been producing any significant number of graduates.  The College maintains some courses because they are required in the welding program and as an elective in the truck driver training program.  The employers are not hiring from the program and are not asking for employees with these skills.  The placement tests for math and English are computerized.  The College uses Accuplacer and also ACT scores to place students.  Placement tests are taken at the Ottawa Center, on campus, and at the high schools.  The College shares the reports of how the high school students did in math with the high schools.

PROCESS OF FUTURE INTERIM APPOINTMENTS

The Board had asked for a process for posting and filling interim appointments.  Dr. Corcoran worked with the Director of Human Resources and with the administration.  The process was shared with the Administrative Cabinet for their thoughts and suggestions.  It is an administrative procedure that is working well and a copy of the process was shared with the Board.  This will be added as a procedure to the Hiring Policy in the Board Policy Manual.  Mr. Mallery would like to give an individual the opportunity to shine in the position without additional money.