Hawkeye Community College AQIP Systems Portfolio
Submitted to Higher Learning Commission November 1, 2006
Contents Guide to Hawkeye Community College Systems Portfolio
Organizational structure of Hawkeye Community College
Overview……………………………………………………….p. 1
Category 1 Helping Students Learn………………………….p. 8
Category 2 Accomplishing Other Distinctive Objectives…...p. 33
Category 3 Understanding Students’ and Other Stakeholder Needs……..p. 37
Category 4 Valuing People……………………………………p. 52
Category 5 Leading and Communicating……………………p. 63
Category 6 Supporting Institutional Operations……………p. 72
Category 7 Measuring Effectiveness…………………………p. 84
Category 8 Planning Continuous Improvement…………….p. 90
Category 9 Building Collaborative Relationships…………..p. 95
Index to Hawkeye Community College Systems Portfolio…p. 107
Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
O1
Hawkeye Community College is a publicly supported college that serves all or part of ten counties in
northeast Iowa. The College was created in 1966 in response to enabling legislation of the Iowa General Assembly.
The College is governed by an elected Board of nine trustees. The service area is historically known for its
agriculture and heavy industry in Waterloo, and for higher education at the University of Northern Iowa campus in
Cedar Falls. Waterloo, in Black Hawk County, is at the center of the district and houses the College’s main
facilities. Waterloo has a 2000 Census population of 68,747 and is bordered by its sister city, Cedar Falls with a
population of 36,145. Other major communities are Waverly, 8,968, Independence, 6,014, Evansdale, 4,526, and
Grundy Center, 2,596. All other communities have less than 2,500 in population. The overall 2006 service area
population is estimated to be 207,000. The region has historically been seen as lacking in cultural and economic
cooperation between its two main population centers. However, within the past ten years, the entire region has
adopted a unified identity as The Greater Cedar Valley that is widely embraced and that has identified Hawkeye
Community College as a key supplier of an educated workforce and a supplier of workplace training. The College
is the greatest supplier of community college transfer students to neighboring University of Northern Iowa.
The original Board of Trustees named the College Hawkeye Institute of Technology and made the decision
not to become a comprehensive community college and did not “provide the first two years of college work
including pre-professional education” as provided by Iowa law. The new college absorbed the existing vocationaltechnical programs of the Waterloo Community School District. The College prospered for many years by serving
the business, industrial, and agricultural workforce needs of the local economy while gaining a national reputation
for the quality of its technical education. However, by the mid-1980s the nature of the regional and world
economies was changing. The local industrial workforce was being downsized and Iowa was experiencing an
agricultural and industrial recession that was severe and prolonged. The area lost thousands of jobs and many
thousands more in population to out migration. Enrollment in the College peaked, stagnated, and began to decline.
In 1990 the Board of Trustees held a retreat with the President and Cabinet to consider a change in the
College’s mission to include an arts and sciences transfer component. Following the retreat the Trustees
commissioned a survey of current students and a study of the general population to gauge support for the change.
The results demonstrated strong support provided the Board and College pledged to maintain the same level of
support for technical education. In 1992 the Iowa State Department of Education approved the change in mission
and Hawkeye Institute of Technology became the last community college in Iowa to embrace the comprehensive
community college mission. The Board voted in 1993 to officially change the name of the College to Hawkeye
Community College.
The College values teaching and learning, student centeredness, responsibility, excellence, innovation, and
institutional growth. The College’s current mission statement was adopted following a retreat November 7, 2001
where employees, Trustees, and members of the public crafted this new mission statement: “The mission of
Hawkeye Community College is a globally informed community of successful lifelong learners.” This mission
statement, lacking active verbs, is a result of the Board of Trustees’ decision to pursue policy governance, in which
the Board’s Ends Policies focus on outcomes, not the methods by which these results are achieved. The Board
formally adopted policy governance at its July 2002 meeting. This change in governance style has resulted in a
significant change in administration of the College and an improved Board/President relationship.
O2
The College offers credit technical and transfer education. It awards certificates, diplomas, AA, AS, AAA,
and AAS degrees. It runs an adult high school and awards high school diplomas, GED equivalency and teaches
adult basic education, and English as a second language. The Center for Business and Industry serves business and
industry training and retraining, both for credit and non credit, especially as identified by economic development
legislation and as directed by Iowa Department of Economic Development. Community Service provides
professional continuing education, certifications, personal interest programming, and training programs such as
paramedic and certified nursing assistant. The Workforce Development department administers the federal
Workforce Investment Act (WIA) programs and the state Promise Jobs (PJ) program. College staff is solely
responsible for WIA, while both College staff and Iowa Workforce Development staff work with the PJ participants.
See figure O.1 for a summary of offerings.
1
Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
Hawkeye Community College Educational Offerings
Educational Unit
Arts & Sciences
Educational Offerings
First two years of college, leading to AA, AS, AGS
degree
Career and Technical Training, leading to certificate,
diploma, AAS or AAA. degree
ABE, GED, ESL
Developmental education, leading to completion of any of
the college’s certificates, diplomas, or degrees
Career certification, licensing, advancement; personal
enrichment; services and education for senior citizens;
general lifelong learning opportunities
Customized business and industry education and training
Applied Science and Technology
Metro Success Center
Academic Support
Continuing Education
Center for Business and Industry
Fig. O.1
2005-2007 college catalog and continuing education course offerings.
CERTIFICATE
DIPLOMA
AAA
AAS
AA
AS
AS/CO
AGS
HIGH SCHOOL
DIPLOMA
HIGH SCHOOL
EQUIV
DIPLOMA
TOTAL
Figure O.2
2000-2001
200
221
78
333
343
5
2
Certificates, Diplomas, Degrees Awarded 2001-2005
2001-2002
2002-2003
2003-2004
223
234
300
172
200
197
62
61
79
354
377
422
279
320
361
2
3
3
1
2
3
7
2
2004-2005
405
225
69
376
400
1
0
3
29
22
20
18
30
210
269
155
192
188
1421
1386
1378
1576
1697
O3
The College serves traditional and non-traditional age students, full-time and part-time. The college’s
service area population is approximately 208,000. Only about 7.7% of the population identifies itself as other than
white. The immediate metropolitan area served by the college is approximately 11% minority. Eleven percent of
credit students enrolled in fall 2005 identified themselves as minorities. Waterloo is also home to more than 5,000
Bosnian immigrants who are not counted among the minority population. Total unduplicated credit headcount in
FY2006 was 7,837, a 28% increase since 2001. Non-credit enrollments totaled 31,100 by 23,039 different
individuals. The College also has a major mission to serve under prepared adults through GED, ABE, and ESL
education. The college served 1,496 ABE, GED, and ESL students during the same period.
The College’s credit student population is overwhelmingly of traditional age [24 and younger], at 73%.
However, there is a significant difference in the general studies student population which is 82% traditional age,
compared to the workforce and technical students who are 64% traditional age. The average age of a Hawkeye
Community College student has remained under 24 for the past five years. Recently, the College has begun a major
recruiting effort of students still enrolled in high school at the request of local high school districts. These students
are concurrently enrolled in high school and college level courses, constituting approximately 12% of the College’s
headcount. Full-time students make up 61% of the College’s credit student enrollment. This appears to be the
reverse of the national norm but is consistent with the College’s historic enrollment pattern that has been heavily
weighted toward full-time students. The College follows national trends more directly in the ratio of female/male
students, 57%/43% respectively.
2
Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
Key student and stakeholder groups are
• workforce and technical students
• arts and sciences transfer students
• high school students taking college level courses
• businesses and industries that contract for specialized training
• professionals who need continuing education certifications
• students of mandated programs such as required courses for drunk drivers, driver improvement, and school
bus safety
• individuals who are pursuing education for personal interest and satisfaction
Cost-competitive educational choices, quality of education, personal attention, hands-on training, quickness
of response to changing needs, and flexibility to package programming to meet the needs of individuals and
employers are all key requirements of the College’s student and stakeholder groups. Convenience (time, place,
mode of delivery by online, traditional, at community sites), appears to be the primary driver of student needs,
whether they are individual credit students or businesses and industries arranging group training, or continuing
education students. “Convenience” in this context should be read as fitting individuals’ work and personal lives.
The College has always struggled to establish a strong on campus evening program. Students’ family and work
responsibilities compete strongly for this time slot. Perhaps, not surprisingly, as the number of online courses has
increased, evening enrollments have decreased. This trend has been evident for the last several semesters.
Like most community colleges, many of Hawkeye’s students require sensitivity to their need for
developmental education, particularly in mathematics, reading, and writing. During FY2006 the College’s
Developmental Education and Academic Support unit provided 136 sections of instruction in ESL, writing, reading,
math, and science, serving nearly 2,500 students [duplicated headcount].
O4
The College identifies its chief collaborations as being with colleges and universities, K-12 school districts,
business and industry, governments and governmental agencies, economic development organizations, and service
organizations. The College’s mission directive to be a participant in creation of a “community of successful lifelong
learners” assures that the College must engage with its community. Many of the College’s collaborative
relationships are multi-type collaborations that engage organizations across the categories listed above. The
College’s strategic plan identifies several collaborative initiatives. See Category 9C1 for a full description of
partnerships and their contribution to fulfilling the nine AQIP categories.
O5
Employment Status
Highest Degree Earned*
Full time
Part time
H.S.
1 yr
2 yr
4 yr
MA/
Spec
58
26
42
13
Ed.S
Ph.D./
Ed.D
7
1
1
1
115
4
5
14
22
1
Full-time Faculty
Regular Part Time Faculty
42
1
2
11
Adjunct Faculty
133
40
2
10
35
1
Adult/Cont. Education Faculty
228
162
6
5
39
1
72
32
16
16
8
Classified bargaining
Part time
21
18
1
1
1
23
6
8
4
4
1
Classified non-bargaining
Part time
16
15
1
86
15
4
7
42
15
1
Professional
Part time
11
4
5
2
18
7
8
Administrative
Part time
Total
297
44
57
175
165
4
Total full time
314
Total part time credit faculty
175
Total part time
276
*Additional Degrees represented:
Full time faculty: 2 Doctor of Arts, 1 Doctor of Industrial Technology, 1 Doctor of Veterinary Medicine; Regular part time and adjunct
3
1
3
13
Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
faculty: 1 Doctor of Ministry, 1 Doctor of Chiropractic, 1 RN; Adult/Continuing Education: 1 Doctor of Chiropractic
Figure O.3
The College’s employment classification system and number of employees within each classification are
shown in the chart above. Employment within these classifications has been stable for the past several years. The
only classification reflecting growth is in part time adjunct and continuing education faculty. The 93 employees
who are labeled as “Classified Bargaining” are represented by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of
America UE Local 855. These staff support the College in a variety of ways. A brief listing of some of their job
titles suggests the depth and breadth of their service to the College: Cashier, Custodial Maintenance, Software
Specialist, Photo Technician, Library Reference Assistant, Financial Aid Specialist, Accounting Assistant, Boiler
Operator, etc. Staff described as “Classified non-bargaining” are considered confidential employees, exempt by
Iowa Law from collective bargaining representation. These are primarily administrative and executive secretarial
staff. The current two-year contract runs through 2007.
Full-time and regular-part-time (up to 12 credits per semester) faculty is represented by HPEA (Hawkeye
Professional Educator’s Association). The faculty master agreement is a three year agreement that runs through
August 2007. Faculty have chosen to abandon the traditional confrontational bargaining process and have adopted
Interest Based Bargaining, which has become a more conversational and problem solving approach to faculty and
administration bargaining issues. Faculty and administration bargaining teams continue to meet on a regular basis
and have chosen to engage in Interest Based Bargaining and to amend the current 2004-2007 bargaining agreement
during interim years of the agreement.
In addition to noting the distinction of part-time and full-time faculty, it is also important to note the
distinction between career/technical faculty and arts & sciences faculty. Career/Technical faculty have been the
historic core faculty of the College and they make up the largest share of full time faculty at more than 70%, while
career/technical student headcount is about 53% of the college total. This distinction is frequently noted by arts &
sciences faculty. Conversely, career/technical faculty experience a higher student contact hour load, frequently 35
hours per week or more. These differences do create a degree of tension, particularly because the majority of
campus facilities and the majority of college equipment dollars are allocated to career/technical education.
O6
Hawkeye Community College’s main campus in Waterloo includes eleven major classroom and
administrative buildings, a farm, and its agricultural buildings. The College sits on 320 acres, much of it under
cultivation or in pasture. Additionally, Hawkeye Community College Foundation owns 97 acres adjacent to the
College. These acres are actively farmed by the College’s agricultural programs. The College’ Metro Center
facilities, near Waterloo’s city center, serve ABE, GED, and ESL. The Center also serves Waterloo High School
students who are at risk of dropping out of school. The Center for Business and Industry is located in the state-ofthe-art Cedar Falls Industrial and Technology Park, located 11 miles from the main campus. Hawkeye Technical
Access Center, [H-TAC], is a second College facility within the park that concentrates on provision of high-end
computer training. This makes the College the immediate neighbor of many new and expanding businesses in the
metro area. Clinical sites for health programs are located in metropolitan area hospitals. The College maintains five
Educational Broadcast Service (EBS) classrooms in five county seat town high schools, in each of its off campus
centers, and in eleven nursing homes in mostly rural northeast Iowa. In 2003 the College established a center in
Independence, a community of about 6,000 located near the farthest eastern border of the service area. This is the
only significant facility outside the immediate Waterloo-Cedar Falls metropolitan area. The main campus and the
Center for Business and Industry are served by the Iowa Communications Network (ICN), a fiber optic network that
carries interactive television broadcasts, voice, and data. ICN is connected to every high school in the state, every
college, every state agency, and dozens of public libraries. The college can deliver classes via interactive television
to any of these sites.
Technical program lab facilities contain industrial and commercial grade equipment like hospital beds,
CNC equipment, diesel engines, a complete dental lab, and electromechanical discharge machines. Computing
technology is ubiquitous. Many specialized computer labs serve technical programs and composition classes. An
open lab of 100 PCs is available to all students and is staffed by software applications experts.
The College is completing a transition from a legacy mainframe system to Datatel Colleague to manage its
financial resources, human resources, academic programs, and student records. The transition is being overseen by
a team of core data users of the College.
The College operates under the Code of Iowa, Administrative Rules of the Iowa Department of Education
and other state regulatory agencies. It also follows laws, rules, and regulations of federal agencies, including
Environmental Protection Agency, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Education,
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Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
and Immigration and Naturalization Service. The College is observant of federal laws such as Americans with
Disabilities Act and Family Educational Records Privacy Act and takes positive steps to carry out their spirit.
Because of the industrial and medical nature of much of the College’s hands-on training, all applicable safety laws
and rules must be observed. Financial management follows the laws of the state, applicable federal grant
requirements, Financial Accounting Standards Board, Governmental Accounting Standards Board. The College
observes bargaining unit contracts and operates under its Board of Trustees’ policy governance executive limitations
and ends policies. In addition to Higher Learning Commission, its accrediting agencies are Iowa Board of Nursing,
Commission on Dental Accreditation, National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences, and
Committee on Accreditation of Respiratory Care (CoARC).
O7
Historically, the employees have not viewed the College as being in a competitive business. Indeed, in the
first 25-30 years of its existence, the College was unchallenged in delivery of superior career and technical
education. Reluctantly, staff have been forced to acknowledge the competitive nature of the current higher
education environment.
Hawkeye Community College is fourth in enrollment among community colleges in Iowa. Fall enrollment
exceeded 5,000 for the first time in 2002 and reached 5,800 in fall 2006. Despite its rapid growth since adopting its
arts and sciences transfer mission, the majority of credit hours taken by students are still in the technical programs.
Unduplicated credit headcount for FY05 was 7,750, a decrease from 7,821 in FY04. FY06 headcount rebounded
with an 8.26% increase and 5% credit hour increase. The College, however, still considers itself vulnerable to
competition, both from other education providers and from the local economy. Hawkeye is bordered by four Iowa
community colleges, all of whom compete for students, especially at the district edges. Kirkwood Community
College to the south and North Iowa Area Community College to the north and Northeast Iowa Community College
to the northeast are the chief community college competitors. The University of Northern Iowa, located in the same
metro area is a serious rival for students in their first two years of arts and sciences education. Hawkeye is the
largest feeder source of students for UNI. UNI’s center for business competes with Hawkeye’s business training
and retraining services. Upper Iowa University, located in Fayette, Iowa, has a branch campus in Waterloo. Upper
Iowa has successfully recreated itself with branch locations world-wide and is a serious competitor for the College’s
transfer students. Hamilton College recently established a facility within the Cedar Falls Industrial Park and is a
fierce competitor for all Hawkeye credit students, including career and technical. Allen College, also located in
Waterloo, is a strong competitor for nursing students. Online education competes with the College, regardless of its
geographic origin. Upper Iowa and Hamilton College, particularly, are viewed by College staff as having superior
student intake processes.
A new casino is being completed within two miles of the campus and will initially employee 900
individuals in 2007. These jobs may compete for the interest of our students but the College is working
cooperatively with the casino management to provide training and additional education to its employees.
O8
Key Opportunities:
Mission; Values; Leadership – The College is undergoing a significant change in leadership. A new
President was installed in July 2005 and a new Vice President for Academic Affairs was hired January 2006, a new
Vice President for Administration and Finance was hired April 2006, and a new vice president position was created
and filled in July 2006 for College Advancement. Additional key senior administrators are leaving the College
through retirement throughout 2006, and a senior dean was lost through death in 2006. The Dean of Arts and
Sciences is leaving for another college in late 2006. A third position, Dean of Economic Development and
Secondary Programs will be added late in 2006 or early in 2007. These significant administrative staff changes are
being widely portrayed as opportunities for growth and renewal throughout the College.
Diverse and special populations–Hawkeye Community College resides in one of the most diverse
communities in the state of Iowa. Tapping into the resources and knowledge of these communities provides an
opportunity to be the state leader on how to include the diversity of this community in college decision making. To
this end, the College added a new position, Associate Director of Multicultural Affairs, July 2006. An ongoing
opportunity to recruit and bring success to greater numbers of minority and at-risk students exists and the Associate
Director of Multicultural Affairs is a key facilitator of these goals.
Faculty and Staff training and development – HCC hired its first full-time director of the Brobst Center for
Teaching and Learning Services in July 2005. The Center has the opportunity to become the focal point of faculty
development. Additionally, an initiative to provide quality service training to all employees at least once each
calendar quarter was launched in 2005 and has been sustained. Recently, the Center for Business and Industry
5
Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
brought its WorkplaceLean training to staff who are applying its principles of improvement to the student
registration process. The College also is a member of the Center for Community College Development and is a
charter member of Strategic Horizons Colleges, an organization devoted to developing the capacity of community
colleges through staff training and development.
Facilities and Technology – Students and parents who have visited more than one Iowa Community
College campus in Iowa often cite the quality of Hawkeye’s campus facilities and equipment as a decisive factor in
choosing the College. Faculty members note the modern instructional technology and computer technology that is
available in nearly every classroom. The success of a June 10, 2003 $25,000,000 facilities and infrastructure bond
issue has enhanced the College’s ability to continue to meet its constituents’ needs for traditional face-to-face
delivery of education and training and to extend delivery through online instruction. The College’s
telecommunications towers have been converted to digital technology that is allowing the College to participate in
customized live video delivery of instruction to remote areas of its service district. The College completed transition
to a uniform online learning management system in 2006 that has provided a consistent online learning experience
for students.
Business Partnerships – The College’s ability to exploit its business and industry training component is
especially strong. The employees of that division of the College are noted for their aggressiveness and flexibility.
Moreover, they are aided by significant tax incentive training dollars that are provided by the State of Iowa. The
demand for both credit and non-credit training is growing among area businesses. Both small and large businesses
are viable partners. Center for Business and Industry staff members have identified an opportunity to help business
and industry "Grow Their Own" by creating special program and degree tracks for business and industry’s existing
employee base.
K-12 Partnerships; Higher Ed Partnerships – The demand for college level instruction within the traditional
high school classroom and within the traditional school day is growing. Many Iowa school districts find they are
able to meet the curricular needs for both high school completion and for college credit through partnerships with
community colleges. The evolving partnerships between Hawkeye and area school districts is one of significant
growth potential because of funding incentives by the Iowa legislature. Unduplicated, about 11% of the college’s
annual headcount is comprised of students who are still enrolled in high school. Other community colleges in Iowa
have a high school headcount as high as 30% of total headcount. Opportunities to partner with higher education are
equally promising. Four year colleges, public, private, and for profit, are eager to articulate community college
credits, particularly community college degrees, including AAA and AAS degrees.
Competition, Funding, and Academic Programming – Hawkeye needs to continue offering affordable
educational opportunities for students as the state and private schools continue to significantly increase the cost of
education. In addition to lower cost the College must continue to create more flexible scheduling, technologically
relevant means of delivery (e.g. online, podcasts, teleconferencing), and innovative career programming that
addresses contemporary career choices of today’s students. A recent example of creative scheduling is the
“Minimester,” an intensive eight day delivery of credit courses. Minimesters occur during the interim of fall and
spring semesters and spring and summer. Music and other fine arts offerings are significantly underdeveloped and
could attract many students to Hawkeye. Athletic activities, except intramurals are absent. Many low-cost club or
competitive sports opportunities could be developed.
Key Vulnerabilities
Mission; Values; Leadership – The institutional culture needs to become more problem-solving oriented
with a cross functional team focus. Many faculty and staff describe the culture as being slow to make decisions and
adverse to risk-taking. Our response time lags behind business and industry and other educational institutions. One
staff member described this as “living too much in the moment instead of looking to tomorrow.” We need to
continue building a culture that naturally turns to its strategic plan and AQIP initiatives for guidance through a datadriven decision-making process.
Diverse and special populations – Hawkeye Community College has successfully recruited students from
minority communities but it has been less successful seeing these students through to completion of their education
or transfer to other institutions. The College also must maintain its focus on recruitment of minority staff and staff,
especially faculty. As many as 60% of new students’ ACT and COMPASS scores suggest they are unprepared for
college level academics. The College devotes significant resources to developmental education but these students
still have difficulty successfully completing their studies.
Faculty and Staff training and development – An on-going need to do a better job of training teachers, in
general, and training them to use instructional technology tools is evident. This need is acknowledged throughout
the College but finding the time and “teeth” to be effective is a challenge. The Brobst Center for Teaching and
6
Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
Learning Services addresses this need by delivering education and training that meet the College’s faculty
credentialing requirements. The Center’s goal is to encourage all faculty to reach beyond the minimum
requirements. Additionally, all faculty need to remain current in their own disciplines. The College allocates travel
dollars for faculty to attend conferences, workshops, seminars, and other discipline specific events both in-state and
out-of-state. The effectiveness, comprehensiveness, and equity of these allocations is not documented.
The College as a whole faces a serious and immediate vulnerability relating to the implementation of its new Datatel
Colleague system which replaces a local legacy system. Implementation of Datatel Colleague has removed
employee access to many standard reports that form the core data around which decisions are made and from which
state and federal government reporting is derived. This capability needs to be rebuilt and wide-spread staff
capability to extract and analyze data from the system must be developed.
K-12 Partnerships; Higher Ed Partnerships – Some K-12 articulation agreements are stagnant and there is
some resistance within the College to providing college level instruction within local high schools. The College has
2+2 agreements and recognizes the need to strengthen these and to create additional 2+2 opportunities. The College
is working to establish a single “voice” with local high schools in order to streamline its communications. A faculty
and staff committee has created a standard operating procedures manual to facilitate the K-12 partnership process.
Competition for students in the first two years of a four year degree is accelerating. There is concern that this
competition may lead to less cooperation among the community college and four year institutions.
Competition, Funding, and Academic Programming – Hawkeye’s funding is based heavily on tuition and
student fees which now comprise more than 50% of a student’s cost to attend. Since 2001 the College has worked
to reduce the tuition and fee burden on its students from one of the highest in the state to the state average.
Hawkeye Community College has reduced its tuition and fees from the highest among Iowa’s community colleges
to 2.2% below the state average. In FYF2000 the College’s tuition was 6.6% above the state average. The College
will continue to make its educational offerings an attractive value.
The College continues to look for alternative funding sources outside current state funding. Enhanced competition
for students in higher education, both locally and online is a reality. Getting all employees to recognize their role in
that competitive environment is critical. The College’s lack of evening and weekend programming in career and
technical education leaves it particularly vulnerable to competition from private institutions and online education
which will capture the market share of evening and weekend students because of their flexible nature and businessneed response attitude.
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Hawkeye Community College
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CATEGORY 1 Helping Students Learn
1C1
All Hawkeye Community College students expect to gain the skills, knowledge, and abilities to live
productively in their communities following completion of their studies or upon transfer to another college.
Consequently, course guides are developed around Bloom’s Taxonomy [know, comprehend apply, analyze,
synthesize, evaluate] and are required to use performance verbs such as arrange, classify, argue, prove, diagnose,
infer, recommend. Faculty and students are thereby reminded the expected outcome of all HCC courses is
demonstrated mastery of the curriculum.
In addition to outcomes based curriculum within disciplines and programs of study, all students are
expected to develop specific proficiencies in oral and written communications, social sciences and humanities, and
math and science. The depth and breadth of required courses that produce these outcomes varies by the educational
award that is sought as demonstrated in the chart below.
Required Credit Hours of General Education Coursework by Award
Communications
Soc./Humanities
Math/Science
Certificate
Incorporated in technical course material
Diploma
3
3
3
AAA
6
3
3
AAS
6
3
3
AA
9
17
10
AS
9
13
12
AGS
9
13
12
Figure 1.1
Examples of courses that could be represented in any of the required credits above, with the exception of the
certificate, are Composition I, Composition II, Introduction to Sociology, General Psychology and Business Ethics.
Diploma and AAA and AAS seeking students may elect to take non-transfer courses such as Structures of English or
Human Relations.
Co-curricular activities provide access to programs that enable the student to grow as a person while having
fun outside the classroom. The student-driven Color Me Human diversity awareness program raises awareness of
diversity on our campus and in our community. Student Senate is committed to developing leadership to enhance
the campus community by implementing a diverse program of activities, advocating for student needs, legislating
and administering Student Senate policy, and actively recognizing and appreciating cultural, gender, and age
differences, while respecting individual values, alternative lifestyles, and political perspectives. Additional
leadership opportunities are developed through the leadership program of Phi Theta Kappa honor society. Events
and activities are announced weekly and are distributed electronically to all students and staff and are posted
strategically throughout the College and on its website.
1C2
The College’s mission is broadly articulated as The mission of Hawkeye Community College is a globally
informed community of successful lifelong learners. This outcome is premised on faithfully fulfilling the role of the
College as provided in the Iowa Code Chapter 260 C which specifies the parameters of Iowa Community Colleges’
missions. The College’s mission, institutional goals, pledge and accreditation information are posted on its website,
and printed in the student handbook, college catalog, and personnel handbook. They are on prominent display in the
Board Room of the College.
The Colleges’ Board Governance Policies specifically reference expected outcomes of student learning that
are aligned with mission. A monitoring report is submitted to the Board once each year to demonstrate compliance
with the requirements of each End, e.g. End B.2a Students will have the skills and knowledge required for successful
entry into the workplace (Annual November). Each End and its accompanying monitoring report is reviewed once
each year during a Board work session to evaluate the relevancy of the desired outcome and the adequacy to which
each monitoring report addresses the End.
The organizational structure of the College embraces each of these objectives and has strategically placed
advocates for each of the points of the Code and Board Ends throughout the organization. Each of these areas of the
college is staffed with professional staff who have independent authority to carry out the mission within the limits of
the law and through the planning and reporting mechanisms of their departments. The College has a highly
developed formal credit Curriculum Coordinating Committee that represents the entire college. The Curriculum
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Coordinating Committee’s mission is to ensure curriculum is consistent with and complementary to the mission of
the College. The Curriculum Coordinating Committee is a highly active committee of the College with a formally
developed calendar of well attended meetings.
Faculty are encouraged to stress the need to continue one’s education as a lifelong learner. Every student is
instructed to read the student handbook as a source of expectations regarding college regulations concerning
academics, grading, student support services, classroom and campus conduct, academic integrity and other pertinent
aspects of college life. These topics are also covered in the College Catalog. The syllabus and course guide outline
learning outcomes and expectations of the instructor and of the student in compliance with the college’s stated goals
and a statement concerning special needs accommodations. Most faculty include additional expectations regarding
academic honesty.
1C3
Credit programs are defined as career/technical or arts and sciences transfer. HCC offers 44 career and
technical programs, including certificate, diploma, AAA, and AAS in the following departments shown in Figure
1.2. The College does not have general studies majors for AA, AS, and AGS degrees but has focus areas in PreMedical Science and Health, Social Sciences, Human Services/Social Work, Business, English/Literature,
Communications/Speech, Education, Fine Arts, Engineering/Math/Computer Science, and Natural Sciences.
Additionally, the College enjoys a headcount exceeding 30,000 per year in non-credit continuing education courses.
(See OC3 Student Base)
Department
Programs Served
Agriculture & Natural Resources
Applied Arts & Human Services
Business & Information Technology
Health Sciences
Industrial Engineering Tech
Power Technology
Arts & Sciences
Total
4
5
10
8
11
6
NA
44
Figure 1.2 Annual Unduplicated Headcount Five Year Comparisons
Annual Unduplicated Headcount,
FY2006
162
573
561
1360
517
219
4445
7,837
Use of instructional technology and laboratory experiences is ubiquitous. The College has well over 100
classrooms equipped with advanced instructional technology. An open computer lab of 100 computers is available
to all students. Major library resources are available online. Nearly all career/technical programs contain dedicated
computer laboratories, plus specialized labs for photography, health sciences, graphic communications, design,
engineering, industrial, and power technologies. Courses are delivered in traditional college classrooms, at high
school sites, online, via interactive video, in laboratories and at clinical sites for health careers.
The Center for Business and Industry (CBI) and Hawkeye Technology Access Center (HTAC) specialize in
company specific, non-credit, customized programs for business and industry. CBI has content experts on staff and
contracts with various consulting firms to deliver programs and courses in: Industrial Electricity, Fluid Power,
Safety, Quality, Lean, Supervisory Skills and Employee Development. Most of these programs are “hands on and
laboratory experiences. The HTAC site delivers customized end-user (Microsoft Office products and others)
training, courses, and seminars to groups of students or one-on-one. Additionally HTAC offers High-end training to
information technology professionals, partners with vendors to do distance education, video conferencing, and
provides disaster recovery and data storage solutions. HTAC is a partnership site with Team Technologies, a
company engaged in state-of-the-art high speed network access and corporate server backup and security. A number
of IT professional internships are provided for Hawkeye’s IT students through this partnership.
1C4
The College mission states the result of Hawkeye Community College’s presence in the community will be
a “globally informed community of successful life-long learners.” Responding directly to this mission, the Board’s
Ends Policies state Students will develop into citizens who welcome diversity and encourage tolerance, and will
develop into involved citizens and effective leaders. Evidence is reported to the Board of Trustees annually in
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January concerning preparation for living in a diverse world and annually in June concerning different student
learning styles.
In addition to humanities, social sciences, and communications requirements, a three credit minimum social
diversity requirement applies to AA, AS, and AGS degrees. Social diversity courses are Diversity and the Media,
Minority Voices in Literature, Psychology of Gender, Diversity in America, and Introduction to Women’s Studies.
All technical/career programs, both diploma and degree, require a minimum three credit hours In Human Relations,
General Psychology, or Introduction to Sociology. All course guides and syllabi contain a special needs
accommodation statement.
1C5
The College’s curriculum resides in the hands of the faculty who take responsibility for curriculum change
and implementation through the curriculum change process as overseen by the Curriculum Committee and the Vice
President of Academic Affairs. Student standards for respect of intellectual property are outlined in Academic
Standards policy that was updated in April 2006 and presented at Faculty In-service in October 2006. The student
handbook provides direction on plagiarism. Faculty address plagiarism in course syllabi. Faculty who teach oral
and written communications incorporate intellectual freedom, inquiry, reflection, and respect for intellectual
property directly in course content. Computer Information Systems Technology Policy addresses respect for
intellectual property by all users of computer network technology. The faculty bargaining contract article on
intellectual property encourages development of intellectual property by all faculty by asserting faculty’s right of
ownership and the College’s right to use faculty developed intellectual property in its curriculum. The College
library maintains a diverse collection of materials representing diverse points of view and experience with structured
access through a Virtual Multi-Cultural Resources Center.
1P1
Common student learning outcomes are determined at the institutional level for general education outcomes
that apply to all students, according to the degree that is sought. Career and technical education programs define
outcomes within each core component course of each program of study in a document that is known as a Course
Guide. The outcomes are defined within the individual courses that are designated as fulfilling the requirements.
Every course of the College is supported by a course guide and every course guide contains these elements:
• Course Description
• Course Prerequisites
• Course Objectives
• Student Learning Activities
• Instructional Resources
• Evaluation
• Performance Objectives
Specific outcomes are determined by faculty consultation with a variety of sources. These include
• Comparison with similar courses offered by other colleges (Iowa uses common course numbering in
community colleges)
• Consultation with Hawkeye Community College faculty and faculty from other colleges; use of other
colleges’ web sites to compare curriculum outcomes
• Consultation with program advisory committees which meet once or twice per year. (Advisory Committee
Minutes - Example)
• Professional organization’s standards, such as Professional Photographers of America
• Accrediting agency requirements, such as Iowa Board of Nursing and Committee on Accreditation of
Respiratory Care.
• National Standards such as ABET (the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) which has
developed a set of learning outcomes used to guide faculty in assessing the effectiveness of academic
programs.
• Surveys of business and industry
• Prospective employers
• Transfer courses are based on Regents institutions requirements and State of Iowa requirement that transfer
courses must articulate with Regents universities
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Curriculum Coordinating Committee Syllabus Format
Graduate certification outcomes that require revision of the curriculum – Nursing, Dental Hygiene, and
Respiratory Care are examples
All course outcomes are based on observable behavior—reinforced by the curriculum planning process which
suggests performance verbs that will allow students to demonstrate this behavior, using performance verbs from
Bloom’s Taxonomy. Performance objective outcomes are linked to a point within the course outline as specified in
a document called Course Guide Format.
Arts & Sciences faculty completed an AQIP Action Project in 2006 that resulted in the identification of
these common student outcomes:
• Communication – Students will develop speaking, writing, reading, and listening skills
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving – Students will acquire, evaluate, and analyze information;
develop sound reasoning skills; and apply the principles of the scientific method
• Quantitative Reasoning – Students will develop skills in problem-solving, logical thinking, and
application of mathematical processes.
• Community and Global Awareness – Students will recognize and appreciate diversity, historical
viewpoints and the global perspective
• Individual Development – Students will cultivate ethical values, personal wellness, and personal learning
strategies
• Artistic Expression – students will acquire a global and cultural understanding of the role of the arts,
instilling the personal curiosity and skills for creative expression and endeavors
• Information Management – Students will apply technological methods to retrieve, process, and
communicate information
In 1992 the arts & sciences outcomes had been adopted in whole from a neighboring university when
Hawkeye added the transfer component to its mission. Following the identification of the faculty’s self-identified
common student learning outcomes during 2005, the entire Arts & Sciences curriculum was mapped to the outcomes
in an effort to determine if the outcomes would be achieved by students who completed the AA, AS, or AGS degree.
A curriculum map was established that links the above outcomes to specific courses and the outcomes stated in each
course guide.
•
•
1P2
The Curriculum change process as overseen by the Curriculum Committee and the Vice President of
Academic Affairs (1C2) is the unifying practice that ensures consistency in course design and delivery, with the
intention of facilitating student learning. A comprehensive document, How to Change Curriculum, is the universal
guide to implementing changes in a meaningful student and employer centered environment. All of the following
are required for new course approval:
• Rationale for development of the new course
• Changed Program Course of Study-AS28 (state documentation) for technical
• Documentation of transferability
• Explanation of where course fits in transfer model
• New Course Guide & Sample Calendar for Syllabi
• Estimated course fees
• Internal impact statement by Dean
• External impact statement by Dean
• Statement of support by Department Chair
• Statement of support by Dean
• Verification Advisory Committee agreement for technical programs
• Approval by the Vice President of Academic Affairs
When complete new programs of study are implemented, the College responds to the requirements of the Iowa
Department of Education as outlined in its document Submitting Program Approval Requests. Submitted requests
must meet these prescribed Iowa Department of Education criteria:
• Contain a minimum sequence of three units of instruction responding to a minimum set of performance
indicators (competencies);
• Utilize content standards and benchmarks/competency-based (performance indicators) curriculum that
reflects current industry standards.
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Demonstrate responsiveness to student interests and labor market needs, e.g., www.iowaworkforce.org
Strengthen academic skills through the career and technical education curriculum;
Provide articulation with a postsecondary institution;
Assess the extent to which the performance indicators (competencies) are being mastered;
Provide access and equity for all students;
Utilize input from an advisory council/committee;
Prepare students for entry level employment, self employment, and/or postsecondary education within their
chosen field;
• Provide students with leadership opportunities that are related to their chosen field of study;
• Provide students with employability skills; and
• Provide students with information on new and emerging technologies.
A new curriculum management product, CurricUNET was adopted by the college in summer 2005
and implemented in 2006. It facilitates all curriculum processes described above by creating an electronic flow of
documentation among all of the interested parties concerning all new or revised curriculum. Faculty and
administrative training occurred in January/February 2006. The tool has overwhelming faculty support. In addition
to members of the college faculty and staff who have access to CurricUNET, the College is able to provide access to
any other interested persons or organizations. Currently, Iowa Department of Education, Advisory Committees, and
Iowa Regents Institutions have access. CurricUNET also provides its member colleges complete access to one
another’s curriculum for purposes of comparison and revision. We anticipate CurricUNET will result in more
frequent changes to curriculum because of its ease of use and simplified process flow that it enables.
Balancing student and market issues responds to each of the above sets of criteria. At times, market demand,
student interest, and the College’s ability to sustain a program of study do not balance. The College’s decision to terminate
its aviation maintenance program effective fall 2005 was made in the face of such imbalance. Enrolled students and past
graduates were highly supportive of the program, the advisory committee praised the program, and the College had a thirtynine year history of supporting the program. Unfortunately, enrollment, graduates, industry demand, and the cost of
continuing the program did not balance. The program was enrolled at less than half its capacity, almost all graduates needed
to leave the state for employment, and the current graduates of two other aviation maintenance programs in the state more
than met the state’s need for aviation mechanics. Clearly, the state as a whole was over capacity for graduating aviation
mechanics. Hawkeye made the painful decision to close the program based on this data. The College is currently examining
several alternative uses for the instructional space that is now left open following termination of the aviation mechanics
program.
Faculty and administrators were asked to identify how they balance educational market issues with student needs in
designing responsive academic programming. Common themes emerged; however, none of these themes is common to all
curricula.
• ACT COMPASS testing to determine student entry levels and proper placement
• Course pre-tests to determine student entry knowledge
• Business and Industry input as identified through advisory committees, formal Academic Program Review and
business partnerships as in 2+2 programs
• Partnerships with other non-profit organizations, such as Waterloo Center for the Arts
• Internships and practicum to keep business and industry curriculum requirements fresh in the minds of
supervising faculty, leading to curriculum revision
• Creation of certificate exit points prior to degree completion in order to meet both student and industry
needs
• Course guides and the curriculum process in designing new courses
• Conferring with senior institutions to which our students transfer, including articulation of all transfer
courses with at least one Iowa state university.
• Creating more course variety (Minority Voices rather than only Introduction to Literature); including
design of new courses for potential students, especially adult and continuing education, but also in areas
such as fine arts that are not fully developed.
• Hiring of faculty with new expertise in areas where the curriculum is underdeveloped, such as ceramic arts,
music, and other fine arts
• Participation by faculty in professional conferences, workshops, and seminars
• Development of online courses responding to student demand, including hybrid online courses that include
a face to face component
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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•
•
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•
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•
•
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Development of online standards to ensure quality delivery of online education
Three Year Plans that respond to the strategic plan for each academic department
The Graduate Career Report survey of recent graduates and their employers regarding satisfaction with the
curriculum and how well it prepared the student for work.
Program entry requirements are determined by faculty. The following tools are used:
COMPASS or ACT testing
Personal interviews with students following COMPASS testing
Requirements of Transfer institutions
Examination of student performance on ACT, COMPASS and subsequent performance in coursework.
This becomes a predictor over time.
Review of national codes such as building codes, OSHA, licensing boards and writing these requirements
into the curriculum.
Advisory committee recommendations
1P4
The college catalog is the most consistently available tool for students (and their parents) to become
informed about program and degree requirements. A recommended or required course of study for each degree and
program is outlined in the catalog, including recommendations for high school course work and college level
prerequisites for program entry. Prior to enrollment, college recruiters are responsible for high school visits in
which students can discuss their specific post-secondary plans and become informed about the requirements for
specific program entry at Hawkeye Community College. Recruiters and admissions staff have formed personal
relationships with all high school counselors in all twenty-three school districts served by the College and in many
districts outside the legally defined service area. This reinforces the high school counselors’ ability to effectively
communicate academic requirements of Hawkeye Community College’s various degrees and programs of study.
The admissions office host numerous events each year called Focus on Friday to which potential students and their
parents are invited. These half day events discuss preparation for college in general and Hawkeye Community
College’s specific academic requirements and available services, including financial aid, counseling, and advising.
Potential students can also schedule personal visits to the campus to receive the same information. This is often the
preferred option for non-traditional students. Many programs require direct advising and counseling by program
faculty both for first time and re-enrolling students. Students who intend to transfer to a four year college are
advised by the advisers in Student Development. This advice is often specific to the intended transfer institution and
helps students properly prepare for the requirements of the transfer college in specific majors. Once a year Student
Development hosts a transfer fair to which representative of numerous four year colleges are invited to inform
students of their transfer opportunities and requirements.
Prior to entry the College requires COMPASS testing in reading, mathematics, and writing or submission
of ACT or SAT scores. Each degree and program of study has defined entrance requirements regarding these
scores. Applicants are allowed to retake the COMPASS test but ultimately, scores that indicate a likelihood of
failure in a specific program mean that the student will be advised to take one or more developmental studies
courses. Students are informed about the meaning of their scores by Testing, the advisers, and by program faculty.
Every student’s application to the College is followed up with a letter from the Admissions office.
Students receive a letter tailored to their specific program of study. Unconditional acceptance letters state the class
start date, recommendations to visit program advisers and Student Development advisers, and recommendations
concerning applying for financial aid. Other acceptance letters may state conditional acceptance, dependent on
taking the COMPASS test and achieving predefined scores, or alternately, enrolling in developmental courses.
Some letters of acceptance are probationary. This may occur when students have a high school transcript with very
low grades or the student has transferred from another college with a transcript GPA falling below 2.0. Students
with probationary acceptance are given specific advice on services available to help them maintain a 2.0 grade point
average.
The College has offered an optional orientation program several times prior to the beginning of each
semester for new students for several years. This has not been mandatory and only about one third of new students
attend. Beginning fall 2006, the College is instituting a mandatory orientation program that is the result of an Office
Lean project involving Recruiting, Admissions, Financial Aid, Business Office, Advising, Counseling and the
academic departments of the College.
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Following enrollment many opportunities are presented to students to remain informed about the academic
expectations they must fulfill. Numerous workshops are advertised to students via email and publications such as
the Stall Street Journal (posted in college restrooms), and through direct letters of contact for probationary students
and those reinstated as a result of academic suspension. Academic instruction on use of the library and its many
online research tools is presented to all oral and written communications course students. Two organizational units
of the College enhance academic services to students. Academic Support employs faculty to teach the development
courses required of students and it provides tutoring services to students and assistance in use of its computer lab
which operates most of the application software required by programs. TRiO Student Support Services serves 168
students who are first generation at-risk students. TRiO also has a specific mission of assisting its students in
transferring to four year colleges.
The most obviously useful tool at the disposal of every student is the course syllabus that spells out in detail
each instructor’s expectations for student attendance, tests, papers and projects due throughout the term, and the
methods for scheduling time with the instructor. A two credit Introduction to College course is available to all
students. It stresses educational and career planning, goal setting, study skills, and college life.
Prior to mid-term students receive an “early alert” letter if their performance indicates they are at risk of
receiving a grade of D or F in a course. This practice is now in its third year and has required that faculty practice
more frequent and earlier assessment of students in order to comply with early alert requirements by submitting
early alert grades.
At the end of each term students who have qualified for probationary (Term GPA < 2.0) or suspended
status (Current term, cumulative, and major GPA <2.0) are informed by letter of this change in their status. The full
services of the College that will help remedy this circumstance are explained in detail. The College has created a
series of workshops for these students called Yes, You Can! An attractive brochure has been developed to market
these workshops to students.
1P5
HCC continues to believe early career education and academic evaluation are both important resources that
help students match their needs, interests, and abilities with a career choice.
Many of the activities, events, courses, departments and personnel discussed in 1P3 and IP4 are relevant to students
selecting programs of study that match their needs. This is an opportunity that is perhaps overlooked by both
students and the College because inappropriate career choices are not only a waste of time for students, they are a
blow to self esteem.
COMPASS testing is administered by two full-time professional staff who work to develop a nonthreatening atmosphere designed to discover students’ current level of preparation, rather than as a method of
keeping students out of specific programs. COMPASS is used to direct students to the preparation they may lack as
incoming students and as the basis of a conversation they have with testing personnel, advisers, counselors, and
faculty concerning their career choices.
In both FY2005 and FY2006 Developmental Studies served more than 2,400 students* in the following
developmental courses:
Developmental discipline
ESL – 2 levels each, listening,
speaking, reading, writing
Writing – 2 levels
Reading & study skills – 3 levels
Math – 3 levels
Science – 1 level
Total sections
FY2005
FY2006
6
33
26
54
4
123
9
37
26
61
5
136
*Duplicated headcount
Figure 1.3
These courses are designed to serve students in any career choice and reflect the lack of basic academic preparation
by many students. Placement in developmental courses is not mandatory but students must sign a waiver to be
placed in non-developmental courses. Many career and technical programs have established minimum math,
reading, and writing scores that must be achieved prior to full program admission. Students enroll in the above
courses to meet the requirements of their career choices.
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All recruiting office activities work to prepare students for the numerous career choices by stressing the
importance of the core academic subjects in English, mathematics, and the sciences. This message is carried to all
high school and middle school visits and to our on-campus Focus on Friday events. Our director of Admissions and
Recruiting states his goal is to prepare students for “College 101” so that the student sees an expanding universe of
career choices rather than a narrowing funnel. In fall 2005 our recruiters visited a total of 156 high schools and
revisited 130 of these same schools in spring 2006 carrying both a message of broad preparation for whatever
college and career these students choose, along with the requirements for the specific career offerings of Hawkeye
Community College. This message was also carried to twenty-one college fairs in fall 2005 and spring 2006.
Fifteen Focus on Friday visit events were held on-campus with attendance of 1003 students and 389 parents.
Within the past year the College has also begun to focus more attention on middle schools where the students’
horizon for preparation is wider. Six middle school visits to campus were attended by approximately 250 children in
the 2006 academic year.
1P6
The universal practice throughout the College to document effective teaching and learning consists of
linking student assessment with the official course guides and syllabi as discussed in 1P1, 1P2, and 1P4. Consistent
use of these tools and the fundamental tie between observable outcomes and specific assessments provides assurance
that testing, projects, writing, speaking, and laboratory or clinical experience are, in fact, measures of student
learning. Students who earn grades of C or higher are proficient in expected outcomes.
Documenting this assurance has historically been somewhat easier in technical and career programs where
specific skill acquisition is fairly easily assessed and where the skills and knowledge needed for career entry are well
defined by the respective occupations. This is particularly true in occupations that require licensure. The College
administration reports licensing results to its Board once each year. Other practices within the technical and career
programs include hands on laboratory experiences. This is almost universally true in these programs of study and it
forms the core experience of these students. Other practices include capstone projects for engineering technology
and business students, and portfolio exhibits by graphic communications and photography students. These are
publicly attended events that are professionally judged. Annually the College sponsors a student art show. Entries
are externally judged by local artists for inclusion in the show. An opening night celebration is hosted in the College
library and winning entries are displayed for a month.
Employer satisfaction surveys provide a measure of teaching and learning success. This simple survey asks
employers about key areas of employee requirements as identified by our advisory committees. These surveys are
returned by employers with overwhelmingly positive comments. Another measure of student learning is found in
the student surveys that are administered within individual sections of individual courses. These are usually
administered by faculty for immediate feedback for course correction. Although they are a student self-assessment
of teaching and learning, faculty find them to be valuable sources of information concerning course content, how
closely students find it relates to assessment, and how well students perceive the faculty member to be delivering the
content. These surveys serve individual faculty members only and are not tabulated for any type of aggregate
information. Deans may administer student surveys and may use them as part of faculty evaluation. This process is
regulated by the faculty master contract.
Reaching consensus on documentation of teaching and learning effectiveness within the arts and sciences
transfer curriculum has been more challenging than within the technical curriculum. However, as discussed in 1P1,
the curriculum assessment and outcomes mapping AQIP project has resulted in a significant step forward. All
identified outcomes are linked to specific courses within the arts and sciences transfer curriculum, and then to a
specific performance objective. This process puts aside assumptions about effective teaching and student learning
and replaces them with observable student behavior. Even in a course called Music Appreciation, the student
learning outcomes all use words such as “describe,” “identify,” and “demonstrate.” Another example of effective
documentation is a portfolio project of the communications faculty. Composition faculty met over a two year period
to develop an assessment rubric that accurately reflected the learning performance outcomes expected in college
composition. The project involved full and part time faculty and consultants who conducted workshops on effective
assessment of writing. Eventually the faculty were able to practice the rubric on numerous examples of student
writing and they were able to come to consensus on the grades assigned to the writing. The result was a remarkable
consistency in grading of student work in a discipline that is often thought to be quite subjective in its grading.
The performance of students following transfer to four year colleges is judged to be an accurate reflection
of student learning while at Hawkeye Community College. Among students who transfer, 65% have completed
their two year degree requirements prior to transfer. Seventy-six percent of transferring students have completed 30
or more hours at the community college prior to transferring. The grade point differential of Hawkeye students
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compared to native students at University of Northern Iowa, the state university to which the majority of Hawkeye
students transfer, is 0.25 on a four point scale based on the university’s reporting to Hawkeye Community College.
Data supplied by the university indicates the average Hawkeye transfer student graduated in the 42nd percentile of
her/his high school class, while the average native UNI student graduated in the 69th percentile.
Sixteen of 44 technical and career programs have required field experience, practicum, internship, or
clinical experiences on the job site. Field experience is also required of education majors. These experiences allow
students to more directly experience a chosen or potential career on a day to day basis.
Service learning is a component of numerous courses but not a requirement of the curriculum. These are some
specific examples:
• Education Club recognizes students who are volunteering with children
• Many sociology students perform a 20 hour service learning requirement to illustrate the connection
between class/course material and what students are doing in their communities
• The Global Humanitarian Relief student club recently traveled to West Virginia to help the Big Laurel
Learning Center build new facilities. The summer of 2006 club members traveled to Mexico to help build
an orphanage. These activities are in response to the curricular commitment to diversity and global
awareness.
• Students in several Oral Communication classes are asked to select a non-profit organization as the subject
of the persuasive speech component of the course. Orators attempt to persuade classmates to donate time,
money, or other personal items or resources (clothing, food, blood, an old cell phone, used car, etc.) to that
cause. This meets a specific outcome of the course and it serves as a means of furthering the College’s
mission by encouraging students to look beyond themselves and find ways to be responsible citizens of the
world. One faculty member stated that students who are international students or immigrant students
“seemed thankful to have the opportunity to share some needs and concerns along these lines and within
the format of the assignment. We've had great speeches and very attentive audiences with this assignment!”
She shared this recent classroom experience:
o Two of the speeches delivered in my 11 a.m. class today demonstrate how students appreciate the opportunity
to connect this assignment to the real world and to their lives, if possible. (They are so much more
enthusiastic about an assignment then, too.) One was from a mother of two little boys who spoke on the
March of Dimes. She gave birth to a very ill baby boy in late March and he was just released from the
University of Iowa Hospital last week. She has been responsible about her course work through this difficult
time and today delivered her persuasive speech and met all the requirements, including the time limit! The
other, a male student in the Natural Resources Management program, spoke on The Izaak Walton League of
America, of which he is a member. This usually quiet, verging on shy, student was able to speak from the
heart (and experience) about something he believes in. Last week a Muslim student spoke on the American
Arab Anti-Discrimination League (the audience was absolutely riveted); a student who lost a loved one to
cancer spoke on the National Breast Cancer Foundation, another on the Big Brother/Big Sister program, and
others on the Habitat for Humanity, MADD/SADD, the Humane Society, Iowa Public Television, etc--there is
a great variety of organizations represented.
1P7
Effective and efficient course delivery is developed by reviewing the history of past course offerings,
observing trends in methods of delivery relative to the College’s learners, making predictions about future course
needs, and being aware of the College’s commitment to students that program and degree requirements can be met
within the course of study and timeline prescribed by the college catalog. Each of these guides to developing
effective and efficient course delivery is predicated on meaningful conversation among faculty department chairs,
deans, admissions, recruiters, marketers and other departments of the College.
Past Course History – The easiest (and most frequently criticized) method of building effective and
efficient course delivery is to repeat what the College has offered in the past. This method can be effective and it is
certainly efficient, as long as its results are studied throughout the registration period and following the close of
enrollment. Historic demand has been placed on face to face course offerings that occur between 8:00 a.m. and 2:00
p.m., which is even more evident 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., Monday through Friday on the main campus. A report of
student enrollment by the hour is produced each term. From this, we have learned students have a growing
preference for Tuesday-Thursday classes. An AQIP team project surveyed students and faculty regarding delivery
preferences and learned there is an overall student preference for a Monday through Thursday schedule with few or
no Friday classes. Another key observation based on past enrollment history and the AQIP team survey is that
students who attend evening sections prefer that those be offered in three hour blocks, once per week. Observing
these preferences has resulted in a course schedule that is acceptable to students and generally results in individual
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course sections sufficiently full that they do not need to be cancelled. Many technical and career programs have a
history of ending course delivery by early afternoon because many of the students are employed in afternoon hours,
often in the career field in which they are studying. This has impacted the ability of the college to fill late afternoon
classes for career and technical program students.
In addition to the main campus, the college has numerous community sites in which courses are offered.
The success of these sites requires a limited number of offerings which are rotated through each site in order to
reasonably guarantee enough students at these sites to make the course offering economically feasible. One way the
College has solved the problem of few students at remote sites has been to use the State of Iowa Communications
network which allows real time two way voice and video delivery to several hundred sites within the state, including
several dozen sites within the College’s geographic boundaries. The College also operates its own
telecommunications system that is capable of delivering the same two way real-time communication to five sites
within its service region. Recent analog to digital upgrades to the system make it possible to deliver real time two
way video to any location within the College’s ten county service area. Either of our video systems can originate at
any site on or off campus. Faculty members often choose to rotate their origination site among the 1-5 remote sites
that are serving their students. This arrangement supports enrollments as low as one student at a remote site as long
as the aggregate number of students equals ten or more.
Hawkeye Community College has established articulation agreements with each school district in its
service area. The value of these agreements to students is they can complete college credit for specific programs of
study prior to high school graduation. In addition, the College has created career academies that are aligned as
2+2+2 programs. The advantage of the academies (health careers and manufacturing careers, IT careers, and
teaching) to students is they allow completion of the first year of a college program while still in high school. The
academies also partner with businesses that provide employment experience, and they partner with other colleges
which guarantee articulation of the credits toward a four year degree. Other students learn the career they thought
they wanted to enter is not of interest to them. They benefit by exploring one or more career fields prior to high
school graduation. Articulation agreements are reviewed periodically, but most remain unchanged year to year until
either the high school or the college makes a change in its curriculum.
Observing Trends in Time, Conciseness, and Place of Delivery
Time of delivery – Enrollment statistics from the last several terms demonstrate students are continuing to
select fewer courses that meet in evenings. Off-campus enrollment continues upward momentum, driven by online
course enrollment that impacts student choice related both to time and to place. However, the impact on evening
enrollment is greatest. The college has not been successful in reversing this trend despite experimenting with
different mixes of course offerings.
Conciseness of delivery – Conciseness of delivery refers to the number of days and weeks over which
students are willing to pursue a course. Demand for four and eight week sections continues to increase. The same
48 hours of instruction are delivered within the four or eight week time frame. The courses may also be successful
in reversing the decline in face to face evening classroom instruction. The College’s most successful foray into
reducing the time it takes for students to acquire credits has been the introduction of Minimesters. Minimesters are
offered in the interim between fall and spring term and the interim between spring and summer term. These
courses meet eight times, six hours each day following this pattern:
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
• Tuesday, Wednesday.
Minimester results have been highly positive in the number of students enrolled, the satisfaction of students with
their instruction, and equally gratifying, the satisfaction of faculty with results. Minimesters were initially met with
widespread skepticism among faculty and among some administrators but faculty report they are able to cover more
material in the intense eight day sessions than they cover in sixteen week, three hour a week instruction. The
courses serve highly motivated students who have the self-discipline necessary for this intensive study. Many of the
enrollees are university students who are home on break or for the holidays. Enrollment in these courses is
described by the Dean of Arts and Sciences as “bursting at the seams.” A Minimester Satisfaction Survey is
administered each January as a method of continuing to improve these offerings.
Predictions about Future Course Needs
The safest prediction the College can make about future course needs is that the demand for online courses will
continue to accelerate. The first online courses were offered in fall 2001 when three courses were offered with 37
student enrollments. Fall 2006 online courses numbered 45 with over 975 enrollments.
Significant infrastructure investments have been made by the college to accommodate this growth and
anticipated future growth. A new online learning management system, ANGEL, has been purchased to allow
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integration of online courses with the Datatel Colleague registration system. The College is able to provide
streaming video for these courses. The College’s library began preparing to serve distance students in the mid
1990’s and has continued to build this capacity. It subscribes to several thousand online full-text journals and it is in
the process of converting its non-circulating reference collection into an online collection with unlimited use. An
Online Course Standards Committee met throughout 2005-2006 to develop and affirm standards for online
curriculum and teaching. An additional online course trend that we are beginning to follow involves evidence that
students perform at the highest level in courses that are “hybrid,” involving both online and face to face components.
The College is investigating this evidence by encouraging the development of hybrid courses by its faculty who are
paid additional compensation for developing and teaching these courses. Evidence does not yet support a
conclusion on the efficacy of hybrid courses.
A second safe prediction is that the number of high school contracted courses and their enrollments will
continue to increase. These are college level courses offered by the College within local high school classrooms.
These courses have increased in number from a few courses in a single high school district in 2001 to forty-three
sections of twenty-two distinct courses in a dozen school districts in spring 2006. Over 500 student enrollments are
counted in these courses. Fall 2006 recorded a 76% increase in student contract course enrollments. (See 9R1) The
driving factor in this increase is genuine student, parent, school, and college belief that students benefit from early
exposure to college courses. Secondly, many small districts struggle to provide students with the rich curriculum
they need to be successful in College. Students may receive both high school credit and college credit in these
courses at the discretion of the school district. All contracted courses award college credit. Money also plays a role
in the success and demand for college course delivery in high school settings. The state of Iowa provides additional
dollars to districts that offer college level courses. Parents and students benefit by not needing to pay for tuition or
books for these courses, and Hawkeye benefits by adding these students to its headcount. Because of the importance
of contracted course offerings to high school students, the College has hired an additional staff member and has
formed a High School Relations Committee to facilitate delivery of college level courses to students within their
district high school.
Course Delivery and the College’s Commitment to Students
The College is obligated to operate in a fiscally responsible manner. All course offerings are evaluated
based on the ability of the course to generate at least enough revenue to reimburse direct costs of instruction. As a
rule, course offerings are cancelled if section enrollment is less than ten students. When this happens, students who
are affected are personally contacted and arrangements are made to place the student in an alternative section, or
when appropriate, an alternate course. Technical and career course sections are never cancelled when students who
are on track to graduate need a specific course to fulfill graduation requirements. Some programs cost more to
deliver each year than the College can collect in tuition and fees. The Dental Hygiene program is a perennial
example. With its maximum enrollment, which it always meets, the program still falls short in covering its costs.
However, it is unlikely this program would be discontinued based on the financial evidence. It is a fully enrolled
program, it fills a significant public need, its students graduate on time with little or no attrition, and the graduates
earn the highest starting salaries of any of our graduates. When programs are discontinued (rare) all remaining
students are “taught out” to the end of the program and faculty are retained at full salary until that transition is
complete. Occasionally, a student who failed an earlier course will be served by offering the course as independent
study. This may happen when the needed course is offered in a regular sequence, perhaps only once per year.
When this may be detaining a student who otherwise would be eligible for graduation, faculty arrange independent
study of the course. Students meet with faculty members and carry out required assignments in a section of one
enrollment.
Other Course Delivery Considerations
Continuing Education and Business and Industry Training departments respond directly to the required
training needs that are required by individual businesses. The College enjoys much more flexibility in providing
this education, particularly when it is non-credit education that is designed in direct collaboration with the affected
businesses. Success of this training is validated by repeat business and the success the College has had in
developing ever increasing numbers of job training agreements with business and industry. (See OC4, 9C1, 9R1)
1P8
Many of the practices discussed in 1P2 and 1P6 also apply to monitoring effectiveness of the curriculum,
making changes in curriculum, and discontinuing programs and courses. Curriculum monitoring occurs most
frequently and most independently at the individual instructor and department level and is not supervised except by
the Deans. Most changes reflect changes in method, not in outcomes. Thus, they are observable in faculty syllabi.
These changes may occur because of individual colleague or department conversations, communication with faculty
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and colleagues from other organizations, as a result of travel and conference attendance, or simply as a result of
faculty readings in their discipline. These activities include many of the following:
• Department meetings
• Advisory Board recommendations
• Routine re-reading and necessary revision of course guides by departments (mandatory at least once each
five years)
• Networking with peers in other institutions
• Professional reading/ travel
• Results of student and employer surveys
• Requirements of four year college articulation
• Professional Associations standards and recommendations (See Professional Organization Memberships)
• Transfer data performance results
• Review of articulation agreements with high schools and colleges
• Faculty classroom surveys
Curricular content changes that modify expected outcomes, programs of study, prerequisites or other
significant impacts on expectations of students must be formally presented to the curriculum committee. This
process requires the use of course or program change forms that require review by the Department Chair, Dean, and
Associate Director of Academic Services. The proposed changes are presented to the full Curriculum Committee
and finally approved or disapproved by the signatures of the Curriculum Committee Chair and the Vice President of
Academic Affairs. A similar but more intensive process occurs for initiation of new courses or new technical and
career programs of study. The complete process is governed by the results of an AQIP Project document titled How
to Change Curriculum. The Curriculum Committee secretary maintains a Curriculum Change Year End Report.
The process to change, discontinue, or initiate new curriculum is impacted by numerous other processes (1P2 1P6)
including advisory committee recommendations, results of student and employer surveys, graduate placement
results, Academic Program Review (APR) as a state requirement of technical and career programs and review of
programs that appear to be in trouble regarding enrollment, revenue, student performance, employer satisfaction, or
other critical factors, such as adequate faculty or program facilities.
APR is a State of Iowa requirement for all technical and career education programs. It requires a
comprehensive review and analysis by faculty and administration once every five years, although more frequent
review can occur. Hawkeye Community College has recently devised an online APR utility in collaboration with
KMR Associates to automate the process by pulling data from the College’s Datatel Colleague System for faculty
analysis and reflection. The first utilization of this system occurred in March 2006. The system is flexible and can
be used continuously for academic program review, not just once each five years, a timeframe that no longer seems
realistic because of the rapid change in technology and the workplace.
The APR process applies to technical and career education. Comparable program processes are not applied
to arts and science disciplines, although most of the bulleted items in the first paragraph of 1P8 apply to arts and
sciences. The most extensive arts and sciences process that has been linked to curriculum revision and expansion is
the curriculum assessment and outcomes mapping AQIP project discussed in 1P1.
1P9
The College begins assessment of student and faculty learning support needs as early as the application,
testing, and registration processes. Uniform assessment of entering students with COMPASS or ACT provides a
summary report of student body needs as well as a starting point for determining individual student’s initial course
registration requirements. Because of the large number of students identified as needing at least one developmental
course, a comprehensive Academic Support unit with a full range of services is supported. These services are
available:
• Developmental courses in mathematics, reading, writing, and English as a Second Language
• Study skills and computer workshops
• Math, English, study skills, computer, and science tutors
• Make-up testing
• Special Needs testing
• Peer tutoring
• English as a second language lab
• Open computer lab with full-time hardware and software application assistance
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Use of Academic Support and its services is available to walk-in students and through referral by Testing, Advising,
Counseling, and individual faculty. Academic Services/Developmental Studies Annual Report is submitted to the
Board of Trustees each January.
TRiO Student Support Services (SSS) grant program serves 168 students who haven been identified as
first-generation at-risk college students. TRiO faculty members’ daily work with students is often the best source
for determining the academic support needs of a particular student. TriO faculty will refer TRiO participants to
other college support services when needed. SSS personnel inform other college faculty of TRiO in the following
ways:
• Campus mailings
• Distribution of brochures at faculty in-services
• Workgroup/discipline presentations
• Project Director presentations at faculty meetings and at new faculty orientations each fall semester
• Quarterly TRiO Tribune electronic newsletter
TRiO participants have frequent contacts with the SSS professional staff by filling out academic progress reports
and contact information updates. Staff review these progress reports and initiate appropriate interventions. Each
project participant is required to meet at least once every other month with one of the SSS professional staff.
Advising sessions are used to monitor academic progress, college transfer plans and adjust needed support services.
The individual Student Educational Program (SEP) will be updated as needed to reflect progress toward goals or to
initiate new services. Referrals are initiated by TRiO staff for other needed services. The TRIO staff provides
advocacy support, such as referrals to child care providers, transportation alternatives, financial planning and
coordination, and communication between faculty and students on academic class assignments.
Identification of academic support needs begins even earlier for students at the Metro Center. These
students are enrolled in Adult Basic Education, GED, and English as a Second Language. Student support is
addressed both as scheduled events and on an as-need basis. HCC counselors from the main campus assist students
with personal stress issues which, otherwise, would negatively impact academic achievement. Regular visits from
University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education, HCC Admissions, Financial Aid and Enrollment offices
assist students with support in transitioning to post-secondary education. Equal Opportunity Commission guest
speakers visit Metro Center monthly to provide information on areas such as: parenting skills, credit card debt, and
substance abuse to ABE/GED/ESL students.
The Family Literacy Grant is a new partnership with Waterloo Schools Early Childhood Program and the
Center aimed at providing support to families through literacy training, parent/community education, showing
parents how to help their children learn, and improving the parent/school relationship. On a daily basis, Metro
Center provides one-on-one tutors for Adult learners who test below the ABE (4th grade) level and for ESL students
to assist them in transitioning from ESL classes to post-secondary education. Support to ABE/GED/ESL faculty is
provided at semiannual in-service and as-needed. Examples include information about how student assessment and
goal reporting affect National Reporting System Core Measures, and Adult Education and Family Literacy Act
benchmarks by keeping faculty informed of reporting requirements. State of Iowa Content Standards to measure
student progress have resulted in planned training for teachers on content standards and a reevaluation of course
curriculum. An increase in students reporting/exhibiting learning disabilities has resulted in bringing in a national
speaker on May 12, 2006, to train teachers in how to assist adult students with dyslexia.
Many of the students described above qualify for Special Needs assistance. This statement appears on
every course syllabus:
STUDENTS’ SPECIAL NEEDS: Hawkeye Community College strives for student-centered, quality
education with flexibility to allow for students’ special needs. Students with disabilities or special needs
should feel free to contact the instructor privately if there are services or adaptations which can be made to
accommodate specific needs.
Hawkeye Community College Library has a long history of working directly with students and faculty to
determine their learning support needs in the form of traditional library services, acquisition of resources, and
through formal and informal instruction. All students and faculty have direct access to librarians to support their
learning, including the recommendation of resources that need to be acquired. Faculty members routinely
recommend the purchase of new print or online materials. Students are more likely to be occasional users of this
opportunity. In daily practice, students and faculty rely on librarians to have pre-selected the resources necessary to
support the curriculum. Library staff respond to learning support needs in these ways:
Soliciting Feedback and Disseminating Information
• Participation in beta testing of the student electronic feedback system, Helios
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Surveying faculty about specific needs, most recently the mix of paper copy periodical subscriptions
and electronic subscriptions
• Maintaining a suggestion box in the physical library and use of point of service mini-surveys:
“[Describe your experience with library computers today:]”
• Maintenance of a library web page to provide access to services, staff contacts, and resource promotion
• Formal and informal conversations with faculty about assignments, research topics, research resources,
and research methods
• Provision of multiple communication modes for student questions: face-to-face, telephone, email
Determining and Responding to Resource Needs
• Provision of traditional library book and periodical resources
• Provision of extensive online resources appropriate to community college curriculum
• Provision of access to appropriate print and online research tools for freshman and sophomore students
• Provision of resources and services that address diverse learning needs and interests
• Provision of and widely promoting library materials that reflect the College’s diversity
• Provision of instructional videos that are used by faculty in the classroom
• Provision of a wide array of library services to HCC students, including interlibrary loan, course
reserves, online library handouts, and home laptop checkout
Providing Formal Library Instruction
• Maintaining a twenty-station classroom specifically for library instruction
• Meeting with faculty to determine the focus of library instruction sessions for their classes
•
Providing library and research instruction to classes and individual students
Customizing Services
• Responding to individual requests from students, staff and faculty for research and computing
assistance
• Providing a welcoming facility that addresses student research needs, including a variety of study
spaces and basic computing services
Maintaining Trend Awareness
• Tracking current student assignments and individual student requests for research assistance
• Monitoring and researching trends in library technology and services for implementation at Hawkeye
Community College
• Monitoring patterns in students’ use of resources and library facilities to determine hours and methods
of service
• Responding to student wireless access needs
•
Student Development Services consists of academic and career advising and counseling, personal counseling,
placement assessment, transfer center, students with disabilities services, and student activities/employment
services.
• Academic and career advisors help clarify academic and career goals. They assist in course planning
and registration. They explain degree requirements and help transfer students make the transition to
four-year institutions. Various assessment tools are used, including CHOICES, a comprehensive
online career information system of five career assessments that provide a personalized list of career
options.
• Student Development performs pre-enrollment academic assessment through the COMPASS
instrument as a precursor to accurate course placement regarding reading, mathematics, and writing.
Students who are identified as needing additional academic support work with staff to schedule
appropriate courses to meet each student’s needs.
• Counseling by certified counselors assists students who have academic or career concerns,
personal/social needs, and provide referrals to appropriate agencies when necessary.
• The transfer center provides resources including college catalogs, degree and major information and
assistance in transferring to other post-secondary institutions
• Students with disabilities are served through a variety of college resources intended to help these
students get into and stay in programs of the college. Pre-enrollment academic assessment is offered
to identify at-risk populations. A Disability Counselor is provided for these students.
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Student activities and employment services organizes student co-curricular and extracurricular
activities of the college. The philosophy of Student activities is to provide access to programs and
activities that allow them to grow as a person while having fun. This office also coordinates placement
of students in career related job opportunities while enrolled and following graduation. Student clubs
and Student Senate are organized and facilitated by this office. For the past several years Student
Senate has embraced the “Color Me Human” program and has had as a primary focus to “promote
greater awareness and appreciation for the diversity in our classrooms, our college, and our
community.”
Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services has as its mission To provide resources and support for
faculty development and innovation to enhance student learning. The center was founded in July 2005 as the result
of an AQIP team project that examined the results of five previous AQIP teams, all of which centered on teaching
and learning. The team recommended creation of the center to address faculty development needs. The center
combines the talents of seven staff to support faculty development and classroom instruction. The center provides
faculty development courses that respond to the state-mandated Quality Faculty Plan and its director participates on
the faculty in-service committee. The Center has developed for faculty that can be applied to the 1-hour credit
requirement of the Quality Faculty Plan to assist faculty in understanding the integration of learning outcomes with
curriculum, instructional strategies, assessment, and life skills. Participants of the courses evidence understanding
of course alignment and brain research as it applies to creating learning designs for their own coursework. The
Center distributes a monthly calendar of faculty development events. Its steering committee of faculty
representatives meets twice yearly, once in fall and once in spring to determine priorities and direction of the year.
Brobst Center Staff serve these functions:
• Director – Oversees Center and is chiefly responsible for faculty development plans and faculty orientation
• Administrative Support Assistant – Provides administrative support to all Center staff
• Instructional Media Technologist – Provides in-classroom instructional media support; works with faculty
to develop instructional media
• Educational Technology Specialist – Provides faculty training regarding implementation of educational
media technologies; develops standards for educational media technology
• Distance Learning Coordinator – Provides faculty support regarding student online enrollment; manages
online learning management system; coordinates online and distance education delivery services
• Distance Learning and Instructional Media Specialist – Provides support to Distance Learning Coordinator,
Instructional Media Technologist, and Broadcasting Engineering Specialist
• Broadcast Engineering Specialist – Manages and coordinates use of the College’s digital wireless broadcast
network.
Computer Information Systems [CIS] provides computer network services to the main campus and all
outlying sites and centers. CIS provides a telephone and email helpline that responds to faculty office and
classroom computer support. The helpline is also the referral service for instructional media support. Work
tickets generated by the helpdesk are used to monitor unmet needs and areas where service issues may be
developing. CIS supports more than 60 dedicated instructional labs. CIS constantly monitors software
applications and their support needs. Projections for the future rely on industry forecasts regarding changes in
computing technology. CIS monitors and regulates bandwidth capacity according to need as it fluctuates across
the campus and throughout the day.
1P10
Co-curricular development goals are often addressed through student clubs that have a direct connection
with the curriculum. Examples of this and their curricular relationship are shown below.
Club
Major
Non-majors
Common Learning Outcomes*
All Ag Club
All Ag Majors
American Dental Hygienists
Association
Dental
Hygiene
AQIP Category #1
Communication
Critical thinking
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Critical thinking
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
22
Hawkeye Community College
Christ Chasers
All
Criminal Justice Club
Police Science
Corrections
Delta Epsilon Chi
Marketing
Management
Dental Assistant
Dental
Assisting
Environmental
Natural
Resources
Future Electronics Technicians Club
Electronic
Engineering
Technology
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
Communication
Critical thinking
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Communication
Critical thinking
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Information Management
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Information Management
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
No
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender
Alliance GLBTA
Global Humanitarian Club
All
Hawkeye Hubub student newsletter
All
Horticulture Club
Horticulture
IAAP [International Association of
Administrative Professionals]
Business
Majors
Interior Design Club
Interior Design
Livestock Judging
All Ag Majors
KYPC Club – Keep Your Computer
Clean
Math Club
Information
Tech Majors
All
Paint Ball
All
Photography
Professional
Photography
Phi Theta Kappa
All
AQIP Category #1
Yes
23
Communication
Critical thinking
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Quantitative Reasoning
Individual Development
Information Management
Communication
Critical thinking
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Communication
Critical thinking
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Communication
Critical thinking
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Information Management
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Information Management
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Artistic Development
Communication
Critical thinking
Individual Development
Critical thinking
Information Management
Critical thinking
Quantitative Reasoning
Individual Development
Critical thinking
Individual Development
Critical thinking
Individual Development
Artistic Development
Communication
Hawkeye Community College
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Critical thinking
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Respiratory Therapy
Respiratory
Care
Society of Manufacturing Engineers
Engineering
Technologies
TTAT Tomorrow’s Teachers in Action
Today /Education/ Early Childhood
Education
Education
Early
Childhood Ed.
Young Democrats
All
Young Republicans
All
Critical thinking
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Critical thinking
Quantitative Reasoning
Individual Development
Communication
Critical thinking
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Communication
Critical thinking
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Communication
Critical thinking
Community/Global awareness
Individual Development
Communication
Critical thinking
Individual Development
Wings Honors – Qualify via GPA,
Arts &
ACT/COMPASS score,
Sciences
Recommendation
Majors
*Arts & Sciences Common Learning Outcomes
Figure 1.4
The following co-curricular events were sponsored by Student Senate in 2005-2006.
• Color Me Human program. This program celebrates diversity through speakers, music, dance and forums
related to ethnicity, gender and other issues.
• Color Me Human Kickoff – Keynote by Leon Williams called “Outside the Lines”
• Study Circles On Race
• Gay/Lesbian Panel – Community panel involving high school and college students
• Students with Disabilities Speaker
• Native American Month Speaker
• MLK Jr. Dinner
• Black History Month and the film “Crash” with a discussion following
• Ethnic Food Fest
• Bosnian Culture Speaker
• Women’s History Month Speakers
• Save a Life Tour – Drunk Driving Simulator
1P11
An assessment matrix defines the broad array of processes used by the College to assess student
achievement. Assessment ranges from individual student outcomes assessment for individual courses to very broad
assessments of the students’ experiences with the college as measured by Community College Survey of Student
Engagement – CCSSE. The matrix describes each assessment tool, the target audience, distribution of results, use of
results, responsible persons or departments, and the timeline for implementation of the tool. The processes
described for 1P11 will be those that affect individual student assessment. College and program level assessment
are described in 1P12
Prior to Registration
• Compass or ACT
• TOEFL
• Course Test-outs
The College’s Testing Center performs pre-enrollment assessment including ACT COMPASS, TOEFL, CLEP, and
some course test-outs in math and keyboarding. Students’ ACT scores are also considered when assessing student
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course and program placement. Determination of cut scores for student placement in courses and programs is
determined in consultation with ACT, other colleges, and faculty experiences with student success relative to
reading, writing and math scores. Students whose scores indicate a need for developmental course work are
individually counseled.
Within and at End of Term
Assessment processes for individual students are clearly indicated in all course guides and individual faculty syllabi
and as determined by faculty. The processes used are dependent on individual discipline requirements but all
assessments must be observable by some measurable objective. The Curriculum Committee oversees the creation of
course guides. Deans and Department Heads oversee creation and execution of individual faculty syllabi.
Laboratory Experience
Most technical and career programs and many arts and sciences transfer courses have a hands-on laboratory
component ranging from keyboarding to medical intubation, engine assembly, and identification of flora and fauna.
Laboratories are both skill and knowledge based. Students are assessed on their ability to demonstrate acquired
knowledge and each identified skill. The abridged sample course guide below was selected at random to illustrate
assessment within a hands-on laboratory course.
AT131U SUSPENSION AND ALIGNMENT TECHNOLOGY Automotive Technology
PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES
I.
Steering Systems Design and Service (17 objectives)
1. Describe operation of passive restraint systems.
2. Describe operation of collapsible steering columns.
3. Inspect recirculating ball steering gears.
4. Adjust recirculating ball steering gears.
5. Inspect manual rack and pinion steering gear.
6. Adjust manual rack and pinion steering gear.
II.
Suspension Systems Design and Service (7 objectives)
4. Repair front suspension system.
5. Test completed repair of front suspension system.
6. Identify the differences in rear suspension systems.
7. Diagnose and repair rear suspension systems.
III.
Alignment Angles and Procedures (11 objectives)
4. Identify alignment angles related to rear suspension.
5. Operate various types of alignment lifts.
6. Operate various brands of alignment gauges.
7. Use specifications to determine problem.
IV.
Tire and Wheel Service (7 objectives)
1.
2.
3.
4.
List and identify terminology for wheel and tire vibrations.
Identify the reasons for wheel and tire vibrations.
Diagnose reasons for wheel and tire vibrations.
Operate various brands of tire balancers.
Lecture and Text
Courses that are strictly lecture and textbook also require demonstrable measures. A second abridged course guide,
also chosen at random, illustrates this requirement.
HM114T EAST ASIAN CULTURES (Humanities)
PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES:
I.
ANCIENT CIVILIZATION (7 objectives)
A.
Recognize the geographic and economic circumstances that led to the emergence of civilization in East Asia.
B.
Explain the origins and special characteristics of the Chinese writing system, including its particular
advantages and disadvantages.
C.
Explain the origins of the dynastic cycle as a view of historical development.
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II.
CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION (8 objectives)
D.
Describe the Chinese “Tributary System” and its significance.
E.
Explain the emergence of scholar-officials as the dominant class in Chinese society.
F.
Explain the emergence of the bushi as the dominant class in Japan.
G.
Discuss reasons for China’s development of a bureaucratic, gentry-based government and society in contrast
to Japan’s development of a feudal, warrior-based society.
III.
MODERN CIVILIZATION (11 objectives)
G.
Explain the reasons for the beginning of the Chinese Revolution in the opening decades of the twentieth
century.
H.
Discuss the origins of Japanese imperialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
I.
Discuss the continuation of the Chinese Revolution during the Second World War and the late 1940s.
J.
Explain the origins and consequences of the Korean War.
K.
Explain the origins and consequences of the Vietnam War.
L.
Explain the origins and consequences of the “Great Cultural Revolution.”
IV.
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES (3 objectives)
A.
Discuss Japan’s economic development since the Second World War.
B.
Discuss the shifts in China’s economic policy since the death of Mao Zedong.
C.
Explain the reasons for the emergence of the “Four Dragons” as new industrial powers in East Asia.
End of Program
• Capstone courses/Portfolios
• Pre-Board assessment for PN and ADN
Capstone projects are a requirement of sixteen of the College’s technical and career programs. These programs are
chiefly in engineering technologies, business, and applied arts. The capstone projects are viewed as bridging the gap
between theory and practice. Presentation of capstone projects is attended by fellow students, college
administrators, and the public. Portfolios create the same link between theory and practice and serve as evidence of
the graduate’s work when applying for positions.
Recent results of Practical Nursing and Associate Degree Nursing indicated a pass rate below the national
benchmark rate of 95% of the national rate. This information caused the nursing faculty to reexamine curricular
practices and to institute a mandatory pre-assessment for PN and ADN students’ ability to pass board exams,
including mandatory practice testing using the same testing format as national exams. This approach has worked to
raise pass rates to acceptable levels, including 100% in Associate Degree Nursing.
1P12
The College’s assessment matrix includes several methods of examining overall college and program
performance in relationship to student success. These measures aggregate results, opinions, and assessments of
individual students and their employers. Some of the surveys present aggregate student opinion results and a
holistic understanding of the college experience for Hawkeye Community College students. The College also
participates in national level surveys that permit a degree of comparison with the performance of peer institutions.
Success Courses [developmental] performance is measured each term because of the necessity of
determining students’ ability to move on to the next level course. If a clear relationship between successful
completion of developmental courses and subsequent successful completion of next level college courses cannot be
established, the developmental curriculum is re-examined. Ideally, developmental course completion prepares the
student for successful next level completion. Because this is not always the case, developmental course faculty
work with non-developmental faculty to assure appropriate course content and articulation.
Licensure exam performance in nursing, dental assisting and dental hygiene, and respiratory care is
reported to the Board of Trustees in May of each year. These assessments are comparable at a national level. They
are an accurate measure of students’ preparation to practice and they do lead to curriculum change when indicated.
The pass rates on Associate Degree Nursing exams fell below 95% of the average national pass rate last year. The
nursing faculty has instituted an NCLEX Plan to Improve RN Program to address this concern that includes practice
on Board exams and pre-assessment of students’ likely performance on board exams.
ACT Student Opinion Survey is administered to second year students each spring. It results are used to
gather insight about students’ overall assessment of their college experience. Results are converted to chart and
AQIP Category #1
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Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
graph format for internal use by college staff. These results are usually not benchmarked against other colleges,
although ACT does provide national norm data.
Approximately three months after a student graduates a Graduate Follow Up Survey asks about the
graduate’s ability to find employment, whether that employment is directly related to the course of study at
Hawkeye, or whether the student intends to continue her/his education. Answers to these questions form the core
data that is reported as the Graduate Career Report that summarizes placement rates and earnings of each program of
study. This document is published as a three-fold flyer to be distributed to the public. An Employer Satisfaction
Survey is complementary to the Graduation Follow Up Survey and measures employer satisfaction with student
performance after hire.
Regents transfer reports are provided by Iowa’s three public universities and offer a performance
comparison of Hawkeye transfer students and students who are native enrollees at the universities. Hawkeye
Community College transfer students usually number about 700-750 any given semester at the nearest state
university. About 65% of these transfer students completed AA, AS, AAS, or AAA degrees prior to transfer.
Consequently, we believe our graduates’ success following transfer fairly reflects their academic achievements
while enrolled at Hawkeye. Comparing Hawkeye Community College transfer students’ success with native
university students’ success yields these observations:
• Hawkeye’s average transfer student was in the 42nd percentile of her/his high school graduating class. Our
neighboring university’s native students’ average high school rank was in the 69th percentile.
• The average cumulative university grade point of Hawkeye Community College’s transfer students was
within 0.25 points of the native university students on a four point scale.
1P13
Course/department level performance data
Student performance data is collected at the course and program level. Conversations occur among
program and discipline faculty about student performance, leading in many cases to numerous curriculum changes
as recorded and approved by the Curriculum Committee. These conversations also inform the context of faculty and
advisory committee recommendations for change. They guide faculty participation in professional conference and
workshop attendance, professional reading, and skills updating. However, a consistent documented record of this
part of the college does not exist except in the fragments described here. Faculty members routinely report the
following examples as commonly collected and analyzed student performance data at the course and department
level:
Individual student level performance measures
• Student outcome performance as defined in course guides and course syllabi and as recorded in faculty
grade books
• Capstone projects that demonstrate the integration of theory and practice
• Portfolios of accumulated work, exemplified by Professional Photography, Graphic Communications and
Composition assignments/portfolios for composition courses
• Panel performances and group presentations
• Employer reports on student attitudes and customer rapport directly reported to faculty
• Student performance on tests/quizzes on a daily and weekly basis and recorded in faculty grade books
• Practical evaluations and clinical exams
• Lab skill assessment as required by course guides and faculty syllabi
• Practicum, coop, internship and field experience performances reported to faculty
• Project exams
• Certifications required for job placement, such as automotive technology, heating and air conditioning
• Pre-test and post-test assessments
Course and program level measures
• External evaluation/accreditation
• Licensure in dental, nursing, and respiratory care
• Employer satisfaction surveys, completed continuously as student employment is reported, summarized by
program, reported to programs
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Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
Institutional Level measures
• Early alert, replaces and comes earlier than mid-term, not generally analyzed by discipline, department, or
course; identifies at risk students and apprises them of corrective action
• Student attendance for financial aid purposes, not generally analyzed by discipline, department, or course
• Student surveys at time of graduation application indicate students’ perceptions of goal achievement and
their satisfaction
• Student surveys gather post-employment satisfaction
• Student performance on licensing board exams, reported to College Trustees and analyzed at the
department and program level
• Retention semester to semester, fall to fall, analyzed at program level
• Program completion
• Degrees awarded, analyzed for numeric counts by degree type and program and measured against previous
years. Analysis between and among programs does not occur.
• Performance after transfer is summarized each semester by Regents universities and is reported to the
College Trustees.
• Student satisfaction survey, at time of graduation application.
• Graduate follow up survey three months following graduation. Data are reported in an annual Graduate
Career Report and publicly distributed.
• Employer satisfaction survey following student satisfaction survey. Data are reported in an annual
Graduate Career Report and publicly distributed
• ACT/COMPASS performance, including a Waterloo School District project that begins COMPASS testing
of students during the sophomore year with growth measures each year
• Distribution of grades, not generally analyzed by discipline, department, or course
• Student attendance, not generally analyzed by discipline, department, or course
1R1
Student achievement regarding common learning objectives is documented through graduate exit surveys.
The fact that all of the college’s curriculum is outcome based gives assurance that graduating students do, in fact,
possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities demanded by their programs of study, including common student
learning outcomes. The College does not administer an exit exam on the order of ACT Collegiate Assessment of
Academic Proficiency [CAAP]. The Graduate Student Exit survey asks students to self-assess their acquisition of
common student learning outcomes as well as program specific outcomes. The College has not used trending or
benchmarking to assess results for common learning objectives but has relied on evidence as discussed in 1R2.
Beginning fall 2006 the Graduate Exit Survey is electronically linked to the graduation application.
Graduate Exit Survey Spring/Summer & Fall 2005
Technical Programs
(Click here to see survey results of Arts & Sciences)
Strongly
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Agree
22.8% (32)
53.5% (75)
21.4% (30)
2.1% (3)
1. HCC has prepared me for
speaking effectively.
2. HCC has prepared me for
communicating through writing
3. HCC has prepared me for using
basic computer skills.
4. HCC has prepared me for
making basic calculations and
computations.
5. HCC has prepared me for
problem solving and decisionmaking.
6. HCC has prepared me for
AQIP Category #1
Strongly
Disagree
21.4% (30)
51.4% (72)
25% (35)
2.1% (3)
27.3% (38)
48.9% (68)
17.2% (24)
5.7% (8)
0.7% (1)
25.3% (35)
55.7% (77)
17.3% (24)
0.7% (1)
0.7% (1)
25.8% (36)
56.1% (78)
16.5% (23)
1.4% (2)
23.5% (33)
55% (77)
19.2% (27)
2.1% (3)
28
Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
thinking creatively.
7. HCC has broadened my
understanding of science and its
impact on my life.
24.4% (34)
39.5% (55)
33.8% (47)
1.4% (2)
8. HCC has given me an
awareness of ethical behavior and
social responsibility.
23.9% (33)
48.5% (67)
26% (36)
1.4% (2)
Strongly
Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
13.5% (19)
33.5% (47)
43.5% (61)
7.8% (11)
1.4% (2)
22.1% (31)
50% (70)
26.4% (37)
20.2% (28)
48.5% (67)
26.0% (36)
5.0% (7)
25.7% (36)
48.5% (68)
23.5% (33)
2.1% (3)
23.7% (33)
52.5% (73)
21.5% (30)
2.1% (3)
27.0% (36)
53.3% (71)
15.7% (21)
3.7% (5)
23.0% (32)
54.6% (76)
17.2% (24)
5.0% (7)
32.8% (44)
49.2% (66)
14.1% (19)
3.7% (5)
9. HCC has given me a greater
awareness of the historical factors
which have shaped our world.
10. HCC has given me greater
understanding of factors that
influence human behavior.
11. HCC has prepared me for
course work at a four year
institution.
12. HCC has prepared me for
working with people of diverse
backgrounds.
13. Most of the courses I took at
HCC were intellectually
demanding.
14. Most of the instructors at
HCC are intellectually stimulating.
15. Most of my courses
encouraged integration of subject
matter from several academic
areas.
16. The overall quality of
teaching at HCC is excellent.
0.7% (1)
1.4% (2)
Figure 1.5
1R2
The College’s outcome or competency based curriculum requires a direct tie between individual course
objectives, student learning outcomes, and assessments of learning. Belief in this curriculum development process
has resulted in graduates who are in demand, who overwhelmingly find employment in their chosen field, or who
are able to successfully transfer to other four year colleges. Success of Hawkeye Community College graduates
finding desired employment or continuing their education is reported in the Graduate Career Report.
Other evidence comes in the form of employer surveys after hiring graduates, licensure board and
certifying exams, advisory committee feedback [often as employer], as described in 1P12 and 1P13.
Performance of students after transfer to one of Iowa’s three Regents universities has been especially
helpful. Because most Hawkeye Community College students transfer to neighboring University of Northern Iowa,
transfer performance for those students is monitored most closely. We do know from recent reports that 77% are
successful in their first term. Their success rate improves to 85% if they persist to following terms.
AQIP Category #1
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Hawkeye Community College
1R3
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
Recent results in processes supporting student learning:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Created Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services dedicated to faculty development and
improvements in teaching and learning (O8, 1P9) was in 2005 in response to five separate AQIP project
team recommendations.
Revised the student advising, registration and orientation process through combined WorkplaceLean
training of Recruitment, Admissions, Registration, and Student Development offices of the college. The
revision was tested with select programs in summer 2006. Eventually, all new students will go through a
mandatory registration/orientation session. They will meet with their advisors, be given a common packet
of information related to registration, financial aid, housing, orientation, student life, student email, and
other support services on campus. At the end of each session the goal is that each new student will
understand the requirements for his/her program, how to log-in and register for courses, how to log-in and
use student email, how to find support services on campus (i.e., Academic Support Center, Library, Student
Services, Student Life), and how to get involved with student life programs on campus.
Acquired a new and integrated online learning management system, ANGEL, to create a unified online
course experience for students, after six months of exploratory conversations and testing of the system by
faculty, led by Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services
Arts & Sciences faculty defined common student outcomes for the first time since having adopted
University of Northern Iowa’s outcomes in 1992. These are tied to specific course guides and syllabi.
Faculty are currently linking the outcomes to specific assessment instruments.
Online Standards Committee developed standards for online instruction which have been provisionally
adopted by Academic Standards and Issues Committee
Online Standards Committee addressed requirements of Higher Learning Commission for accreditation of
online degree
The Curriculum Committee approved twenty new courses and 53 substantial course changes during
academic year 2006 through the process defined in How to Change Curriculum. Source: Curriculum Change
Year End Report FY2006
The Assessment Committee adopted a new online Academic Program Review process in 2006 and has
finished its first cycle of review with this process. The change includes more rapid and more meaningful
feedback that is provided by a team of Assessment Committee readers.
Several years ago the College modified its relationship with academically suspended students by
encouraging them to appeal their suspension. This has been a successful program that requires students to
retake their D and F coursework with a limited schedule of new credits and/or enrollment in developmental
courses prior to taking new credits for their degree program of study. This has resulted in students
remedying their deficient grade point while avoiding failure in even more classes. For example, students
who once failed Composition I would sign up for Composition II and also fail that course. This is now
longer possible.
1R4
Overall, trending, benchmarking, and comparison with peers need to be improved. The College’s
participation in CCSSE in 2005 and National Community College Benchmark Report in 2006 are steps the College
has taken to remedy this need.
1I1
Generally, improvement of processes requires collaboration across department lines as described in 1R3
regarding improvements to student registration and orientation. The standing committees of the college are almost
always involved in these process improvements. Standing committees are Curriculum, Academic Standards and
Issues, Assessment, and AQIP Steering Committee. Two employee groups that meet regularly also facilitate
improvement functions. Academic Council is an organization of faculty department heads that meets twice each
month to discuss institutional issues. Presidents’ Council consists of administrative staff and meets two to three
times per month.
As a follow-up to the successful WorkplaceLean training that coordinated revision of the student
registration and orientation process, the College has instituted an AQIP project to infuse 5S, a series of activities
designed to improve workplace organization and standardization.
AQIP Category #1
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Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
1I2
Plans to improve student learning and development are almost always set at the department or program
level by faculty in consultation with department heads and the Dean. Such plans are often the result of advisory
committee recommendations, faculty development opportunities, including travel, and results of Academic Program
review. Each department has a three year plan that is posted on the college network and is accessible to all faculty
and staff. The plans are based on the Strategic Plan and Strategic Plan Priorities that have been selected for the
immediate upcoming year. Each academic program and discipline has a plan as does each service unit of the
College. Communication is made through regular department meetings, meetings of President’s Council, Academic
Council, and the three standing committees named in 1I1. Advisory committees are involved in communication of
goals and results. The weekly college newsletter, Hawkeye Happenings is used as a common method of
dissemination.
Immediate and urgent improvement targets:
• Streamlining of the student registration and orientation process
• Improvement plan for nursing curriculum with goal of raising first time pass rates on Board exams
• Realignment of Respiratory Care with the accreditation requirements of CoARC (Committee on
Respiratory Care)
• Expansion of online course enrollments with improved services to students
• Expansion of contract course offerings in area high school with in accordance with the College’s quality
curriculum and instruction standards. This work is facilitated by a high school relations committee that
meets regularly.
AQIP Category #1
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Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
CATEGORY 2 Accomplishing Other Distinctive Objectives
2C1
Hawkeye Community College identifies workforce development and economic development as distinctive
objectives in addition to Helping Students Learn. Organizationally, these units are called Hawkeye Community
College Workforce Development and Hawkeye Community College Center for Business and Industry.
Development of the workforce and economy have always been outcomes of the College’s explicit mission to help
individual students achieve their educational goals, but only in recent years have workforce development and
economic development been perceived of such urgency raised to the level of distinctive institutional objectives
whose goals include the overall betterment of the public welfare through workforce and economic development.
The values and attitudes that have effected this change were formed in the crucible of the severe recession that
impacted the region throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. (See O1)
2C2
The Board of Trustees policy documents directly support the College’s commitment to workforce and
economic development through its Board Ends Policies, stating Our communities will have the highly skilled
workers needed to meet the demands of a changing economy. This higher level commitment to workforce and
economic development falls squarely within the mission, vision, and philosophy of the College. Its alignment is
structurally assured by organizationally placing these two operational entities under the Vice President of Academic
Affairs, with direct supervision by the Director for Workforce Development and the Director of the Center for
Business and Industry. The College makes a conscious choice to be the contracting agency with Iowa Workforce
Development to administer Work Investment Act funding and Iowa Promise Jobs funding. The Director of the
Center for Business and Industry and the Director of Workforce Development meet weekly with the three academic
deans and the other Academic Affairs directors and program directors.
2C3
Workforce Development and the Center for Business and Industry are thoroughly integrated into the
processes and systems for Helping Students Learn. (See O1, O4, O6, 1C3, 3P1, 3P2, 3P3, 3I1, 6P1, 6P3, 6P5, 7P1,
8P5 8R1, 8R2) Workforce Development helps its clients use the resources of the State of Iowa and Hawkeye
Community College to determine aptitudes and skills for immediate entry into the workforce, for referral to partner
agencies, or through further training and education. Workforce Development refers its clients to several education
and training providers that meet the client’s education plan. All support services of the College are open to their
clients. The Center for Business and Industry contracts with businesses to deliver the training needs of each
business, usually but not exclusively through economic development funding provided by the State of Iowa. The
education provided to these employees can be either credit or non-credit. It is distinguished from other educational
offerings of the College by the nature of the business-college contract that specifies methods of delivery that may
differ from routine delivery times or that may specify delivery on the contracting businesses premises. Center for
Business and Industry staff become the intermediaries who are responsible for securing all other supporting services
of the College for the business clients’ employees. Both Workforce Development and the Center for Business and
Industry carry out the legislated development priorities of the federal and state governments in which the community
college is deemed to be the preferred provider of services. Thus, these initiatives become mission specific to the
College.
2P1
The College’s level of commitment to workforce and economic development is determined by its
relationships with city, county, and school district governing bodies, businesses and industry, and economic
development organizations, all of which look to the College to be a partner and leader in workforce and economic
development. These expectations were well-expressed by strategic focus group participants who represented this
aspect of the College mission. (See 8P1) The boards of Hawkeye Community College and Region 7 Workforce
Investment Act provide further direction. State and federal legislation specifies how funds are to be spent and what
outcomes are to be achieved.
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Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
2P2
Expectations regarding other distinctive objectives are defined in strategic initiative three of the College’s
strategic plan:
Economic and Workforce Development Plan: Expand Hawkeye Community College’s role as a critically
important contributor to comprehensive regional planning and development for all sectors of the
community.
Fulfillment of these expectations is detailed in the Three Year Plans of HCC Workforce Development and Center for
Business and Industry. The importance of these objectives is continuously reinforced through meetings of
President’s Council, the Vice President of Academic Affairs Deans and Directors meetings, and the distribution of
Cabinet meeting notes. News releases of the College prominently feature workforce and economic development
topics and the College remains actively engaged with workforce and economic development organizations such as
Greater Cedar Valley Alliance, Chambers of Commerce, and Waterloo Development Corporation. The College
recently emphasized its commitment to these objectives by creating a new position of Dean, Economic Development
and Secondary Programs to be filled by spring 2007.
2P3
Resource needs for Workforce Development and Center for Business and Industry are identified in their
three year plans. Resource needs include human resources. Both Workforce Development and Center for Business
and Industry are accountable to their legislated funding sources. Workforce Development is able to expand its
resources through incentive grants that are awarded when it meets its negotiated goals each year. The Center for
Business and Industry works on a cost recovery plus 40% business model that helps fund its resource needs. Its
training agreements are often implemented by hiring contract employees as needed for the delivery of training.
2P4
Both Workforce Development and the Center for Business and Industry have annual goal plans as well as
Three Year Plans that align with the College’s mission and with their individual unit missions. Workforce
Development periodically conducts a Regional Assessment and Analysis Plan for Region VII that details the
workforce needs of the area. Current progress is assessed during weekly staff meetings and through quarterly
reports. HCC Workforce Development reviews the performance goals negotiated with Iowa Workforce
Development and the Center for Business and Industry examines the productivity of each of its program managers.
These are shared with the dean and vice president through the Deans and Directors meetings. Annually, each
department produces a report that is submitted to their respective Boards. Ultimately, this data is submitted to Iowa
Workforce Development and Iowa Department of Education, and Iowa Department of Economic Development
whose management information systems make the data available for comparative purposes.
2P5
HCC Workforce Development regularly assesses seventeen Workforce Incentive Act Performance Goals
that are set annually by Iowa Workforce Development through negotiations with the federal government. These
goals are further defined as Workforce Investment Act Performance in Region 7. These measures include employer
and participant satisfaction, and fifteen other measures of employment success for adults, dislocated workers,
younger youth, and older youth. Individual client performance is documented through a case management system.
Under the Promise Jobs program measures are maintained on the number of Family Investment Agreements [a plan
to leave public assistance] and the clients who are following their plan. Thirty-five components are measured by
each of the seventeen Promise Jobs Grantees throughout the state and reported as Promise Jobs Component Activity
Report.
The Center for Business and Industry conducts a satisfaction survey with each employer served following delivery
of training. A review of businesses served through new training agreements is conducted quarterly. This is essential
because although the College is responsible for securing training agreements as funded by State of Iowa economic
development dollars, each business selects its own trainers. Therefore, the College must compete for the
opportunity to deliver training. All training agreements are reviewed quarterly to determine if businesses are
spending their training dollars as agreed. The Center regularly collects data related to four State of Iowa economic
development legislated programs that is reported internally to administration and the Board of Trustees and to the
state.
AQIP Category #2
33
Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
2R1
The Region 7 Workforce Investment Act Annual Report documents that each measured category was met
at 100% or higher than the negotiated performance standard. As a result, Workforce Development has received
incentive awards of totaling $148,463 in fiscal years 2003 and 2004. Hawkeye Community College Workforce
Development was the lead agency in writing and administering a Workforce Development Center
System Partners Work Incentive Grant for $112,000 that coordinates the provision of services of several partnering
agencies. The grant funding has expired but Workforce Development continues to be the lead agency to coordinate
communication and client referral among ten workforce partner agencies who continue to meet together regularly.
The Center for Business and Industry continues to increase its number of signed training agreements, with
services provided to a total 138 businesses. Its 2005 agreements for company expansion set a record for the state.
The Center has experienced 36% growth in computer, safety, leadership, quality, mechanical and electrical skill
development activities since 2004. Part of the growth is attributed to repeat business with companies that had signed
earlier training agreements. Center employees view repeat business as a true mark of success.
Center for Business and Industry Data
Year
Enroll
Contract
Hours
Companies
Served
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2,314
3,194
3,658
5,171
6,629
9,027
8,687
28,086
43,924
42,989
45,692
46,795
68,462
NA
NA
NA
74
66
88
114
138
260F
Existing
Jobs
Training
Applicants
22
19
15
38
53
48
40
260E New
Industrial
Jobs
Applicants
260E New
Jobs
Created
24
7
4
0
12
28
19
675
458
831
0
787
2,583
490
2R2
Workforce Development and the Center for Business and Industry staff are able to make direct
comparisons with their peers in Iowa based on the reports they file with Iowa Department of Education, Iowa
Workforce Development and Iowa Department of Economic Development. Workforce Development and the Center
for Business and Industry perform as well or better than their peers based on this data. Caution is required when
making direct statistical comparisons because of the widely divergent economies of different areas of the state and
significantly differing populations. Not only must they choose peers for comparison who most resemble Hawkeye’s
own region, they must be cognizant of workforce and economic events occurring within our own region and that of
peer institutions. Even within Hawkeye’s own ten county service area the economy is impacted dramatically by a
major employer entering the market, such as Target Distribution Center, or the loss of a major employer, such as
Tyson Foods. Therefore, peer to peer comparisons require both insight and art. The same is true of year to year
comparisons within our own region. Workforce Investment Act measures are not intended for region to region
comparison within states. They are intended for state to state comparison.
2R3
Workforce and economic development form the bedrock of the College’s relationship with the
communities it serves. Through the first twenty-five years of its history the College was viewed as the provider of
entry level workers for an economy that was considered to be both strong and stable. The community never
envisioned its major employers as closing or downsizing to 1/3 of their peak employment levels. Today the College
is viewed as a principal player in shaping a dynamic local economy and constantly reinventing its workforce. The
College is prominently featured in local news in its roles of workforce and economic development. The College’s
own news releases emphasize this connection. The College’s participation in economic development organizations
(2P2) continues to grow, including its participation in state and federal lobbying to impact economic development
legislation. The College’s public visibility is enhanced by workforce and economic development activities.
On a very practical level workforce and economic development infuse dollars into the College. Both areas are
targeted recipients of federal and state funding that strengthens the College. Over $700,000 per year in
AQIP Category #2
34
Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
administrative fees is collected for administering State of Iowa economic development programs. Many Workforce
Development clients become credit students of the College through workforce program funding.
2I1
Workforce and economic development are subject to the same systemic planning parameters as all other
areas of the College. The strategic planning process, three year plans, and yearly operational plans apply equally.
Workforce Development and the Center for Business and Industry participate in President’s Council, Academic
Affairs Deans and Directors meetings and AQIP team processes. The College has sought to increase the integration
of these distinct areas of the College organizationally through creation of a new position for Dean of Economic
Development and Secondary Programs.
2I2
Workforce Development renegotiates its performance goals each year with Iowa Workforce Development
as shown in the Workforce Incentive Act Goals report. As goals are met they are continually set higher for the
following year. The Center for Business and Industry sets annual goals through its internal planning process.
Results are formally reported to the Board of Trustees each year in November.
Institutionally, the College is working to integrate its distinctive objectives more completely across the
institution by tapping into the expertise of the employees of these units. The Center for Business and Industry is
leading a 2007 AQIP Action Plan with the goal to train all office areas on the 5S system. The 5S System is a series
of activities designed to improve workplace organization and standardization with an emphasis on designing
sustainable systems.
AQIP Category #2
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Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
CATEGORY 3 Understanding Students’ and Other Stakeholders’ Needs
3C1
An AQIP Stakeholder’s Needs project team identified the College’s primary mission stakeholders in 2003.
The resultant lists became the basis for conducting market research and for inviting the pubic to participate in
strategic planning. On a daily basis, the stakeholders listed below are most frequently cited by staff.
• Credit students
o Full time
o Part time
o Technical
o Transfer
o Traditional/non-traditional
o Contract course
• Parents
• Non-credit
o Business and industry training
o Adult continuing education
o ABE/GED/ESL
• Businesses
• School Districts/counselors
• Community organizations
• Foundation friends
3C2
Student and stakeholder groups expect that the College will produce program completers who are able to
effectively enter the workforce in jobs that serve the regional economy. Students expect to be able to earn a living
wage. Students who transfer to four year colleges expect to have gained the necessary knowledge and skills to be
successful at their transfer college. Businesses expect current employees to be trained for current industry needs,
often as part of a customized training package delivered by the College. Community stakeholders expect the
College to contribute to the life of the community, including its economic and civic life.
All stakeholder groups expect the College to responsibly manage the public funds with which it is entrusted
and to continue to return greater value for the dollars invested in the College, especially in comparison with four
year college costs. The College has twice commissioned studies of its economic impact on the region to documents
its efficient and effective use of taxpayer dollars. The Socioeconomic Benefits Generated by Hawkeye Community
College executive summary dated June 2005 documents the College’s role in the regional economy.
All stakeholders expect the College’s services to remain current with long term employment needs and to
be updated, modified, or revolutionized, as needed.
The community, as a whole, expects the College to be able to educate its least educated members, including
those who need adult basic education, general equivalency degrees, and English as a Second Language. It also
expects the College will be able to remediate the academic deficiencies of students who arrive with a completed
high school degree but with a need for developmental education.
3P1
Identifying changing needs of our student/client/customer groups occurs in three primary ways:
Assessment of the external environment, assessment of the internal environment, and anecdotal evidence gathered
by the staff who directly interact with stakeholders. Assessments of the external and internal environments are,
generally, better documented than anecdotal assessments. However, anecdotal assessments are likely to be acted on
because of their immediacy for the service provider and the customer.
External environment – Research Supported Data
The college follows the demographic trends of it service area population. U.S. Census data is
predominantly accessed via the State Data Center of Iowa. A second data resource commonly used is CCBenefits, a
service that combines U.S. Census data with other databases to determine local labor market needs relative to the
College’s curricular offerings. Both of these sources point to a continuing decline in service area population over
the next ten years and as far as thirty years into the future, along with concurrent aging of the population. Local
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school district enrollments are tracked by Iowa Department of Education and show high school graduations have
peaked and have entered a period of steady decline. With this data in mind, the College is working to enhance its
relationship with local school districts and is examining its services to non-traditional age students and expanding
services to older working adults.
The College’s Workforce Development department uses Iowa Labor Market Information surveys to match
its clients’ interests and abilities with current labor market requirements of the state.
In 2004-2005 Stamats, a higher education market research firm conducted a stakeholder needs survey for
the college. Stamats conducted an in-house evaluation of the College’s current recruiting methods and then
followed up with telephone interviews of potential traditional age students, their parents, and interviews with nontraditional students. A key finding of the research was that although Hawkeye Community College has traditionally
been perceived as a technical college, market demand (potential students) is for transferability to four year colleges.
President’s Council receives email copies of the following newsletters whose content is frequently based on
research by other colleges. These newsletters serve as a source to stimulate thinking and conversation on campus by
alerting staff to trends that are transpiring in other institutions and other areas of the country.
• League for Innovation Showcase
• Community College Research Center Leadership Abstracts
• National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development Innovation Abstracts
• Academe Today: The Chronicle of Higher Education Daily Report
• University Business UB Daily
External Environment – Personal Contact
College faculty and staff have numerous times each week to meet with their external constituents and to learn
about their needs. Frequently, these constituents have long term personal relationships with College personnel, as in
the case of advisory committees. Listening to these stakeholders frequently results in changes made by the College.
The examples below are followed by brief descriptions of recent results of external personal contacts.
• Advisory Committees [Purchase of recommended equipment; change in curriculum]
• High school visits; [increased number of visits]
• Meeting students and parents/ Focus on Friday [adding Saturday as a Focus on “Friday” student and parent
tour day]
• Listening to Foundation donors’ interests [gifts in excess of $100,00 to specific technical programs of
study]
• Visit business, including training departments [customized training, resulting in changing the format of
truck driving instruction]
• Meetings with high school principals, superintendents [increased offerings of contract courses to high
school students; Waterloo Community Schools’ faculty in-service day held on campus in 2005 and Cedar
Falls Schools’ faculty in-service day held on campus in 2006]
External Environment – Maintaining World Awareness
Historically, Hawkeye Community College and the region it serves viewed itself as unique and little
impacted by external events. Modern communication and a booming global economy make that illusion no longer
possible. We now know “if it is happening elsewhere it will happen here” and students expect to find the same
amenities at Hawkeye as at any other college. Among changes that once seemed innovative but are now
commonplace:
o email
o Online registration
o Online payment
o Online library
o Online courses
o On demand service. Students expect to be treated as customers.
Gathering Anecdotal Information
Anecdotal evidence to determine changing student and customer needs is a powerful form of information
because it involves direct and immediate transactions between stakeholders and the front line service staff who
deliver most services. It is the type of student and customer needs assessment data that was most often cited by
employees who attended Systems Portfolio workshops held by the College. It is evident that these employees are
sharing this information within their departments and internalizing it for improved service. Unfortunately, the
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College does not yet have a system for recording and analyzing anecdotal information which often remains within
the originating department. Employees frequently cited informal surveys, active listening, student interviews,
consultation with other college staff, and consultation with peers in other Iowa community colleges. Generalized
responses such as these are common:
• Accutrac software tracks student use of Academic Support services
• Note demand from new populations
• Validate trends by talking with front line staff
• Students self identify to counselors, advisers, faculty
• Consulting with peers from other colleges via list-servs
• Maintaining library reference statistics – what are students asking?
• Using a suggestion box
• Using as much one-on-one interaction as possible
• In class surveys of both credit and non credit students
• Keeping track of requests for courses we do not offer or not offered during the student’s preferred time
3P2
Quality Services Practices
Most employees identify simple courtesies as the most important contribution they make to building and
maintaining relationships with students. These are as simple as wearing employee nametags, smiling when greeting
students, listening attentively, and personally walking students to other offices when a referral for services needs to
be made. Most employees mention learning and using students’ names because many or most students are return
customers to most of the college’s services, including business office, financial aid, student records, library,
academic support, advising and counseling.
• Quality Service Workshops – The College began a Quality Service Initiative in 2004 to respond to gaps in
employees’ perceived quality of customer service and actual service delivered. In fall 2005 the program
was invigorated with additional training opportunities by scheduling several different service training
activities each month and by requiring each staff member to complete at least one quality service training
activity per quarter. Employees are able to choose the activities that they believe will be most beneficial to
their own area of service.
• WorkplaceLean training and Value Stream Mapping – These initiatives were added to complement the
activities of Quality Service Workshops to address service shortfalls among various departments of the
College. The process was piloted with registration and student orientation. Implementation of
recommendations began summer 2006. WorkplaceLean focuses on streamlining processes within and
among departments to both speed up and improve quality of services. Value stream mapping evaluates all
department processes and identifies which processes actually add value to the student. Those that add
value are those that receive the most attention for improvement.
• The College switchboard/reception desk was converted to a Welcome Desk in 2005 with much greater
attention to principles of quality service as described above.
Customized Customer Services Practices
Many Hawkeye Community College students have unique personal needs that require customized one-onone services. Examples are listed below.
• Personal counseling
• Admissions, advising, including meeting of prerequisites
• Counseling following COMPASS testing
• Financial aid entering and exit counseling
• Academic advising by Student Development Advisers or academic program faculty
• Workforce Investment Act and Promise Jobs devises individual personal development plans and then
follows up with telephone calls, letters, required office visits and filing of required reports on individual
student progress
• Academic Support provides tutoring and testing services
• Library reference services guides students through the research process
• Graduation audits of student transcripts keep students on track with degree requirements
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Written (hard copy) Communication
The College seeks to build a trusting and informed relationship with both prospective and current students. A
significant portion of this communication is in the form of hard-copy letters, newsletters, flyers, and handbooks as a
consistent and reliable source of information about Hawkeye and its academic programming.
• Advertising of programs and course offerings
• News Releases
• Letters
o information from recruiting/admissions
ƒ The application tracking letter is sent after an application has been received. It lets
students know what they need to do in order to complete the application process such as
sending a high school and/or college transcript and scheduling for the COMPASS
assessment.
ƒ The acceptance letter is sent after requirements have been completed. This can be a
general acceptance, probation or readmit on probation letter. These letters state the
program and starting date for classes. An inactivation letter is sent when admission
requirements are not met.
ƒ A confirmation letter is sent to students who have been accepted to a filled program
confirming their intent to attend. The letter can be sent anywhere from six to twelve
months before the program begins. Students are asked to send a reply post card
confirming their intentions.
ƒ Focus on Friday confirmation letter acknowledges student/parent intentions to attend one
of the planned visit days.
o student records updates on program waiting lists; student fulfillment of program entry
requirements
o financial aid awards
o distance learning welcome, logon and student support information, follow up letter for student not
logged in by day three of a new term
o academic programs’ letters to newly accepted technical and career students to schedule orientation
and registration, including a follow-up letter to non-responders and a final letter informing
students they may lose their place to an alternate student. Non responders also receive telephone
calls.
• Trustee scholarships are awarded to all valedictorians and salutatorians in the twenty-three school districts
served by the College. A certificate of the award is provided prior to high school graduation to each
qualifying student. Local newspapers receive a news release of the award
• Personal follow-up by Workforce Investment Act employees, including telephone, email, letters, and
required office visits
• The Student Handbook provides a single source of information about critical issues affecting academics
and student life.
• Student Activities Weekly Schedule is emailed to all students and is posted throughout the College. Cocurricular and extracurricular activities are highlighted, including student trips, club activities, health
advisories, and scheduled on campus events. Weekly activities are also described in Stall Street Journal,
posted in all campus restrooms.
• Student Testing provides CLEP registration materials, COMPASS Study Materials; Success Course
Descriptions; Special Needs Packets to alleviate student test anxiety.
Electronic Communication
Electronic communication with prospective and current students continues to grow. All students are provided
college email addresses to facilitate electronic communication. Common electronic communication methods that
aid building and maintaining relationships are listed.
• The College website is primarily designed to serve prospective and current students for current and
prospective students
• SOAR is the online website that allows students to log on to register for classes, retrieve grades, and
purchase textbooks. Students receive periodical email reminding them of SOAR functions, including
graduation applications
• Student Activities weekly schedule/Stall Street Journal is distributed via email as well as posted in hard
copy
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Comlink is an electronic communication link that posts student information via monitor in all college
buildings. Information includes registration dates, course drop dates, new course offerings, campus events,
notification of workshops, Student Health information…almost anything affecting the life of current
students
• Newsletters – TriO distributes its own newsletter to the students it serves. Hawkeye Hubbub is the
electronic student newspaper that serves all students by communicating about campus life and by giving
students their own communication medium to express their own interests and opinions.
Events and Activities
The College works to build relationships with students through events and activities that appeal to their sense of
fun and through greater integration with the College community. A sampling of these activities, common to any
academic year, are listed below.
• Orientation – Orientation occurs both in small group and large group encounters. Career and Technical
programs host their own orientation as part of the registration process. This allows students to begin
forming a relationship with their program faculty and their fellow program students. General Studies
student orientations involve larger groups of students and stress acquainting students with the offices and
services of the College and the people who provide those services
• The College Foundation hosts a luncheon for donors who are interested in meeting the student recipients of
their scholarships. Each luncheon is small and personal, including only the donor, student scholarship
recipient(s) and the Foundation Executive Director.
• Fall Fest, Spring Fling – These half day events serve to open the academic school year and to close the
year. The whole campus participates, with faculty and staff serving pizza and beverages to students in the
open courtyard of the College. These are informal and relaxed events for all staff and students where
protocol and rank disappear.
• Artist’s series – Four concert or theater events are sponsored by the College each year. Student
government co-sponsors two of these events and students are admitted free.
• Color Me Human – This flagship program of Student Government examines issues of human diversity with
events scheduled throughout the year. Issues of race and sexuality are often examined in a context that
allows students to interact in safe and open ways.
• Technology Day – This faculty-sponsored and organized event invites high school students, teachers and
counselors to become acquainted with careers in engineering, industrial, and electronic technologies. The
event provides participants with career related presentations, technical program area tours, and an
opportunity to talk with employers in technology related careers. Participation in the event has grown from
about 40 students in 2001 to 300 students in academic year 2005-06.
• Student Clubs – All student clubs have faculty sponsors. The relationships formed within these clubs
enhance students’ connection with the College
• Student Trips – Student travel with faculty to conferences and competitions integrates students with their
career aspirations and reinforces student/faculty relationships. Students often create slide shows of these
trips to illustrate the community that is created by joint travel. Recent examples are Professional
Photography, Natural Resources Management, and All Ag Club. The Global Humanitarian Relief student
club recently traveled to West Virginia to help the Big Laurel Learning Center build new facilities. The
summer of 2006 club members traveled to Mexico to help build an orphanage. Study abroad opportunities
are being created. Nursing students will travel to Dominical Republic in May 2007 for an intercultural
nursing experience.
•
3P3
Identifying the changing needs of key stakeholder groups is similar to identifying the changing needs of
students (3P2). Assessment of the external environment requires the same attention to regional demographics and
research based data. Anecdotal evidence based on personal contacts is even more valuable than when assessing
students’ changing needs because the personal contacts are often based on longer-standing relationships between
staff and stakeholders. The College informs itself further by being a visible participant in the community’s civic,
business, economic and educational life. Brief current examples illustrate a variety of methods for keeping abreast
of the changing needs of stakeholder groups.
• Strategic Plan – Planning included assessment of the regional economy and demographics. Community
representatives from business, government, education, civic, and religious organizations participated in the
process
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
Three Year Departmental Plans – Each department of the college has a three year plan that is based on the
Strategic Plan
Advisory Committees/surveys – Advisory committees are the chief connector of technical and career
program with changing needs in the business world
Focus on Friday Surveys – Parents who participate in student tours provide valuable insight about what is
important to them as their children plan for college
Participation in community groups and organization
o Chamber of Commerce membership in Waterloo and Cedar Falls
o Rotary membership in Waterloo and Cedar Falls
o Good Morning Cedar Valley – This monthly breakfast meeting of all area governmental, business,
education, and civil organizations fosters communication among leaders of these organizations.
Hawkeye is the host site once each year.
o United Way
o Junior Achievement
Greater Cedar Valley Alliance – The college President is a board member of this economic development
organization that unifies several organizations
K-12 education relationships identify needs for college credit delivered to high school students and
development of special programs for students who are at risk of dropping out of high school
Higher education relationships establish articulation agreements for transfer of credits
Legislative leaders – The College President meets once each year with all members of the Iowa Legislature
who serve in the ten county service area of Hawkeye
Membership on community Boards – College staff are encouraged to be active participants in community
organizations. These include school, library, hospital, city councils, commissions and others
Rapid Response meetings when employers are closing or having massive layoffs
Meetings with potential Foundation donors identify their interests in supporting the College
Regular meetings with businesses we serve to keep the College abreast of current training needs,
particularly in the form of customized training agreements signed with the College
Meetings with peers from other educational institutions, particularly other Iowa community colleges,
fosters broader awareness. Examples are meetings of presidents, vice presidents, academic deans,
researchers, business officers, counselors, and librarians.
3P4
Non-student stakeholders need the same quality customer service as students (3P2). Many of the examples
in 3P3 contribute to building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders. Beyond these it is the College’s
opportunity and responsibility to provide consistent and accurate information about the College. This is
accomplished through the release of hundreds of news releases each year that are descriptive of the activities and the
College, its students, and its stakeholders. Printed brochures, catalogs, course tabloids and the website must meet
this same standard of consistency and accuracy. Student recruitment materials must also accurately, consistently,
and attractively portray the College’s offerings and its student outcomes because these same materials will also be in
the hands of non-student stakeholders.
The College is a public entity that observes the laws of the state concerning public meetings and the public
conduct of its business. Its trustees are publicly elected officials and represent the College to their respective service
areas. Their impact is significant and can be noted in the recent passage of a $25,000,000 bond issue by a super
majority vote. Some of the highest positive vote percentages came from the most remote regions of the service area,
largely attributable to trustee involvement in their communities.
A current sampling of relationship building activities is described below.
• Cultivating positive relationships among media outlets to address the needs of primary stakeholders with
attention to communicating the results of the College’s programming
• Cultivating positive relationships with media personnel who cover Board of Trustees meetings, including
anticipating the information needs of media personnel in regard to the Board agenda
• Participating when invited to attend and support community events and organizations. The College rarely
misses these opportunities which number in the dozens each year. The President and Cabinet model this
participation for the college community.
• Attending regional K-12 superintendents meetings, including hosting their meeting on campus once each
year.
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
Appointing a public Bond Issue Oversight Committee to oversee the continuing plans for investing the
$25,000,000 bond issued approved by voters. The committee meets regularly as new construction and
renovation occur. Examples of oversight:
o Construction of new five million dollar classroom facility
o Reconstruction of student parking and driveways
o Planning for a new student center
o Renovation of existing classroom buildings, including mechanical systems
Meeting with individual companies and learning their employee training needs, resulting in over 114
current training contracts
Providing outreach through Martin Luther King Junior Center (MLK) through
o Churches
o Juneteenth celebration
o Summer School Program
o After-School Program
o MLK Jr. Day community banquet and activities
o Radio Interviews of Hawkeye staff, conducted monthly on KBBG Radio, a public radio station
representing the African American Community
Mailing Campus Connections newsletter to 90,000 households in our service area twice each year
Hosting Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts Merit Badge College on campus each year, with HCC volunteer
employees providing the experiences necessary for Scouts to earn merit badges
Veridian Credit Union meeting hosts its annual membership meeting on campus with telecommunications
connections to its other Iowa locations provided by HCC volunteer staff
The President’s Artist’s series brings several hundred area residents to campus each year for concert and
theatrical performances
Community Forums are often faculty scheduled events to which the public is invited in the evening.
Recent forums covered U.S. energy policy and Making our Schools Safe for GLBT Youth
Faculty hosting of Relay for Life cancer survivors event on campus
3P5
All activities described in 3P1-3P4 are necessary to continually assess the needs of new populations.
Frequently the College needs to refer to statistical data to determine how well it is performing in relationship to
these populations. More and more frequently there is a need to disaggregate our data to distinguish service needs of
different stakeholders. For example, enrollment data suggest the College is under-serving Hispanic residents and
males.
New populations requiring new services are communicated through the College’s administrative structure.
Changing economic and social structures dictate the degree to which the College engages with its multiple
stakeholder groups. Changes within the past five years include increased attention to regional legislators, increased
attention to business needs for employee training, and increased attention to the needs of local school districts and
their high school students.
3P6
The College has not actively solicited complaint information in the past. The Helios Feedback System was
designed with the intention to actively solicit student and public feedback. It is in its early stages of deployment. It
is able to direct complaints and other comments directly to the office that should be receiving the information. It
provides for direct feedback to the initiator of the complaint and it provides for systemic record keeping of types of
feedback and the offices receiving the most feedback. Individual campus offices are responsible for analyzing the
details of the feedback they receive.
Most complaints are handled within individual offices but these are not presented to the College in a
summative form. Department rules and procedures evidence the fact that anecdotal complaint information has been
formalized and institutionalized through processes that are outlined to students and stakeholders. Examples of these
would be explicit procedures for taking attendance, distributing financial aid, obtaining grade information, and
applying for graduation. When anecdotal complaint evidence reveals consistent problems, solutions such as the
Quality Service workshops are instituted. (O8, 3P2, 3I1, 4C4, 4P3)
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Formal grievance processes are outlined in the Student Handbook and the Personnel handbook, and
bargaining employee contracts. Complaints that reach the grievance stage are recorded and kept on file by the
Academic Affairs and Human Resource Services offices. Grievances filed and grievance resolution is reported to
the Board of Trustees annually.
3P7
Almost all employees of the College report they have a sense of student and stakeholder satisfaction based
on individual student and stakeholder contact with employees. These experiences often lead to immediate changes
in the customer service processes of individual offices but the College as a whole relies on surveys that are
administered systematically over time. The satisfaction measures listed below are regularly administered by the
College or its departments. Measures are analyzed at the College or department level. Department level measures
are not necessarily reported to the College. (See also 1P2-1P4) Overall, based on the large number of satisfaction
measures collected, the College has a great opportunity to aggregate results into a single stakeholder satisfaction
report each year, thereby establishing self-benchmarks
Institutionally Gathered Satisfaction Measures
• ACT Faces of the Future Survey – Measures incoming student satisfaction with college environment,
academics, and services (Administered each fall term)
• ACT Student Opinion Survey – Measures exiting student satisfaction with college, environment, academics
and services (Administered spring term, alternating with CCSSE)
• CCSSE Survey – Measures student engagement with the College and overall satisfaction with the college
experience (Administered spring term, alternating with Student Opinion Survey)
• Graduating Student Survey – Measures student satisfaction with academic outcomes just prior to
graduation
• National Community College Benchmark Project – Measures student satisfaction and provide peer college
comparison. (2006 is the first year of participation)
• Employer Satisfaction Survey, including continued hiring of graduates is administered to all employers
identified by graduates
• Testimonials of graduates and employers – These are a result of Graduate Student and Employer surveys,
shared at institutional and department level but not aggregated
• APR process – Summarizes Graduate Student Survey and Employer Survey over a five year period, shared
at institutional and departmental, and Assessment Committee level
Department/Program Gathered Satisfaction Measures
• Mid course surveys – Administered by faculty for mid course curriculum corrections
• End of course surveys – Administered by faculty or departments to determine need for curriculum revision
• Online Student Satisfaction Survey – Administered by Distance Learning and reported to online faculty,
Deans and Vice President
• Testimonials of graduates and employers – These are a result of Graduate Student and Employer surveys,
shared at institutional and department level but not aggregated
• Student satisfaction with instructor and course satisfaction surveys – Administered by Deans or faculty for
purposes of instructional and course improvement; may become part of faculty evaluation
• Advisory Board Surveys – Administered at program level
• Group Registration survey – Gathered by Student Development at close of group registration, not reported
at institutional level
• COMPASS Testing survey – Administered by Testing and reported annually to Board as part of
developmental education report
• Library Surveys – Assess point of service satisfaction with library services. Surveys vary throughout the
year and are not reported institutionally
• Academic Support Surveys – Assess point of service satisfaction with Academic Support services, not
reported institutionally
• Focus on Friday Survey – Administered by Recruiting at conclusion of Focus on Friday activities.
Satisfaction of potential student and their parents are measured separately and are not reported
institutionally
• Foundation gifts by employees and by community – Reported annually by Foundation. Growth in giving is
interpreted as satisfaction with Foundation fund raising as well as satisfaction with Foundation use of funds
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APR process – Summarizes Graduate Student Survey and Employer Survey over a five year period, shared
at institutional and departmental, and Assessment Committee level. Data is derived from Graduate Student
Follow-up Survey and Employer Satisfaction Survey
•
3R1
ACT Faces of the Future (Overall Experience with the College)
Very
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
Satisfied
23.5%
51.2%
13.8%
1.3%
18.9%
54.4%
15.9%
3.7%
24.4%
60.7%
12.8%
0.8%
2002
2003
2005*
Responses exceed 100% because of rounding
Very
Dissatisfied
0.8%
1.1%
1.5%
No
Response
9.4%
6%
0%
Figure 3.1
ACT Student Opinion (Overall Opinion of the College)
2003
2004
2006
Very
Satisfied
25.0%
18.8%
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
54.6%
47.3%
11.8%
22.6%
1.3%
4.5%
Very
Dissatisfied
1.3%
1.3%
12.2%
53.2%
20.1%
9.7%
2.2%
No
Response
6%
5.7%
2.6%
Very
Dissatisfied
6%
No
Response
7%
Figure 3.2
Graduating Student Exit Survey (Overall Estimation of Teaching Quality)
Very
Satisfied
24%
26.3%
32.8%
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
2002*
39%
20%
4%
2005*
57.8%
13.5%
2.2%
2005**
49.2%
14.1%
3.7%
*General Studies
**Technical Programs
Historically, graduate satisfaction was conducted only of technical and career programs and did not include an aggregate report.
It was reported as part of Academic Program Review. Beginning 2005 a Graduate Exit Survey is part of the graduation
application process. Results for spring 2006 are unavailable because of automation of the graduation application process.
Beginning fall 2006, the Graduate Exit Survey will be part of the graduation application process.
Figure 3.3
Employer Satisfaction Survey (Fall 2004-Fall 2005) Results are on a five point scale with five as the highest rating
4.17
Attention to detail
4.28
Uses tools/equipment properly
4.47
Follows instruction
4.24
Shows initiative
4.16
Advancement Potential
4.25
Demonstrates industry knowledge
4.21
Possesses job skills
4.31
Works effectively with others
4.45
Observes rules and regulations
4.43
Quality of work
1
1.5
2
2.5
Figure 3.4
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4
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Hawkeye Community College
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Online Student Satisfaction Survey*
Strongly
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
Not
No
Agree
Disagree
Applicable
Response
2003 fall
46.9 %
32.3 %
6.3 %
8.3 %
6.3 %
2003 spring
60.5 %
32.3 %
6.3 %
8.3 %
3.4 %
2004 spring
47.1 %
30.3 %
12.4 %
9%
1%
2005 fall
58.2 %
29.9 %
3.3 %
10.7 %
0%
*Student response to this question: I would be more likely to take another web-based class in the future, based on my experience
in this one. Students also contributed hundreds of free response. The full survey covers 25 aspects of online instruction.
Figure 3.5
Compass Placement Survey
2003 fall
2004 fall
Very*
Satisfied
19%
19%
Satisfied*
Dissatisfied*
74%
73%
7%
8%
Very
Dissatisfied*
0%
0%
YES**
NO**
92%
93%
8%
4%
3% NA
4
2005 fall
26%
70%
4%
0%
96%
*Student response to this statement: Please indicate your level of satisfaction with your testing experience.
**Student response to this question: Do you believe the test was a fair measure of your skills in each subject area?
Figure 3.6
Focus on Friday Student Tour Days
Results are on a five point scale with five as the highest rating
AY 2005
Organization
Ease of Registration
Staff Helpfulness
Admissions info
Financial Aid info
Instructor Visit
Classroom Visit
Program info
Do you plan to attend HCC?
AY 2006
Organization
5
71%
70%
79%
69%
69%
67%
68%
68%
68% yes
5
87%
4
24%
24%
18%
24%
25%
27%
26%
22%
2% no
4
12.9%
3
4%
6%
3%
6%
5%
5%
5%
8%
29% unsure
3
0.1%
2
.5%
0%
.5%
.5%
.5%
1%
1%
1%
1
.5%
.5%
.5%
.5%
.5%
1%
1%
1%
2
0%
1
0%
Ease of Registration
Staff Helpfulness
Admissions info
Financial Aid info
Facilities Appearance
Info on Transferring
Info From Tour Guide
Did you find this tour day
helpful in learning what HCC
has to offer?
80.63%
90.5%
82.6%
81%
83.7%
20.9%
86.1%
94.38 yes
18.8%
8.4%
16.3%
14.6%
15.7%
62.8%
12.7%
1.12 %no
.057%
1.1%
1.1%
4.4%
.6%
15.7%
0.6%
4.5% NA
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0.6%
0.6%
Figure 3.7
3R2
Two events occurred in 2001 to impact the College: 1.) College funding by the Iowa Legislature was
significantly reduced. This changed environment made it imperative that the college attract more new students each
year. 2.) The number of Iowa high school graduates began to decline as projected by census data. That decline has
not reversed and is projected to continue for at least ten years. Consequently, the College is challenged to recruit
more students from a shrinking pool. The attention to enrollment management resulted in the addition of a full-time
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Director of Admissions and Recruiting in October 2004. These responsibilities were previously part of the
registrar’s responsibilities.
Current Student Results – The number of students returning fall to fall has increased 27% since 2001 when the
College rededicated itself to improved customer service to students. Source: HCC Fall 2005 Student Demographic
Report
High School Student Recruitment Results – The revised student recruitment campus tour and college orientation for
prospective students and their parents began in fall 2003. Despite the declining number of high school graduates,
the number of graduates attending Hawkeye Community College as their first choice college has increased by 25.8%
since 2001. The increase in 2005 was 11.4 percent directly from high school. In 2005 recruiters visited 70 high
schools. In 2006 recruiters visited 143 high schools, including 4 out-of-state schools. Source: HCC Fall 2005 Student
Demographic Report; HCC Recruiting Results 2005-2006
Graduate Career Report – This post-graduation report is dependent on students’ voluntary completion of a survey
regarding their current job placement, whether it is closely related to their program of student, their rate of pay, and
their employer name. The rate of return is 57%. Source: Graduate Career Report
Student Activity Participation – Student willingness to participate in co-curricular activities is a measure of how
well faculty build relationships with students. The activities in 1P10 give an indication of how relationships are
built. Some additional activities of special note are listed here.
• Photography faculty and students start each year with an overnight camping retreat to build relationships
among first and second year students and among students and faculty. These students travel to and
compete in student and professional photography events. Their awards are celebrated in an awards
ceremony each spring prior to graduation.
• Natural Resources students and faculty travel to the Minnesota Boundary Waters area each summer to
observe first hand the lessons they have learned in their courses, including wildlife and habitat observation
and water safety. This bonding event has been presented to the Board of Trustees by the student
participants.
• Agriculture students travel to regional and national competitions. They compete against students from
four year agriculture colleges and universities, frequently becoming grand champions. These relationshipbuilding activities have resulted in extraordinarily loyal agriculture alumni.
• Administrative Professionals students and faculty host a competition for Iowa High School Students,
helping to build and solidify relationships with high school students and their faculty in relationship to
Hawkeye Community College. These same students host a college blood drive twice each year, just
because “it is a good thing to do.”
Persistence Data – A wide variance in persistence data exists among the forty-seven technical and career programs
of the College. Direct program to program comparisons are not possible but comparisons among different
departments show strikingly different retention statistics. Persistence among technical and career students is higher
overall than general studies persistence. The discrepancies in data between departments and among programs
should provide a rich source of dialog for the College. Source: Persistence Report Fall 2001-fall 2004
Degree Completion Prior to Transfer – A growing number of students choose to complete their two year degree
prior to transfer. The numbers below illustrate the cohort of Hawkeye Community College transfer students
attending University of Northern Iowa over the course of several years.
Source: University of Northern Iowa Academic Performance Report
Cohort size
HCC Degree completers
Fall 2005
750
506
Fall 2001
691
438
Fall 1998
484
267
Fall 1996
363
174
Figure 3.8
Focus on Friday Attendance AY2006
• 15 events
• 1003 students (13% increase over 2005)
• 439 parents (41% increase over 2005)
AQIP Category #3
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% degree completers
67%
63%
55%
48%
Hawkeye Community College
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
3R3
3R4
The College does not apply formal stakeholder satisfaction measures, perhaps with the belief that the results of
stakeholder relationships are their own satisfaction measures. Since 2001, with the arrival of a new president, the
College has accelerated its building and maintaining of relationships with its key stakeholders. Since that time, the
development of stakeholder relationships has been visible throughout the College and it can be substantiated in
minutes of the Cabinet, President’s Council, Hawkeye Happenings newsletter, and participation by the
administrative staff in community activities. [3R4]
Each of the outcomes below is a direct result of the intentional cultivation of stakeholder relationships.
Bond Issue Approval – Voters approved a $25,000,000 bond issue June 10, 2003 for building and infrastructure
improvements. The vote required 60% approval and passed by 63.5%. The measure went before the voters three
times before finally passing. Its approval is credited to a grassroots campaign throughout the districts service area,
spurred by a public bond issue committee that took responsibility for its passage.
Plant Levy Approval – The public returned to the polls September 9, 2003 and approved a second tax measure for
the College. A facilities maintenance levy passed with nearly 64% approval. It required only a simple majority to
pass. The measure provides an additional 12 million dollars over a ten year period to provide for maintenance of
facilities.
Community Participation – Development of stakeholder relationships has resulted in the College being identified as
an integral part of community organizations such as these:
o Chamber of Commerce membership in Waterloo and Cedar Falls
o Rotary membership in Waterloo and Cedar Falls
o Good Morning Cedar Valley Host and Participant – This monthly breakfast meeting of all area
governmental, business, education, and civil organizations fosters communication among leaders
of these organizations. Hawkeye is the host site once each year.
o Identification as a leadership giving organization of Cedar Valley United Way
o Board member of Greater Cedar Valley Alliance, an economic development organization of public
and private interests
o Participating member of Cedar Valley Coalition of business, governmental, educational, and civic
organizations that team to advance the interests of the Cedar Valley among state and national
legislators
Student Housing
The College has built a positive relationship with private developers to provide student housing adjacent to the
campus. Since 1993 capacity for 728 students has been built. Housing units to accommodate 98 additional students
opened in summer 2006. Managers of the housing units participate in the Focus on Friday student recruitment days.
Waterloo Schools COMPASS project – Waterloo Community Schools (WCS) is the largest district served by the
College. Over the past two years new leadership has strengthened this relationship through the COMPASS Project.
This increased cooperation to better prepare all students for college through rigorous and relevant high school led to
the decision to administer the COMPASS test to all WCS sophomores.
Faculty In-service – Waterloo Community Schools brought all its high school staff and faculty to the HCC campus
in September 2005 for their fall in-service day. The joint program reconnected and solidified connections between
the institutions. The in-service stressed the intersections of the school district’s and the college’s service to students.
This program was repeated for Cedar Falls schools in fall 2006.
Waterloo Schools Grad Connection Program – Cooperation between Waterloo Community Schools and HCC
resulted in creation of the Grad Connection. The program serves high school students who are at risk of dropping
out. Students take some of their courses at the traditional high school and others in a more flexible setting at the
College site. Both organizations benefit from this arrangement because of the school district’s ability to deliver its
own diploma to the student and the College’s ability to demonstrate its value to the student.
Contract Course Delivery – Delivery of contract courses to high school districts’ students for college credit has
continued to accelerate as relationships with high school districts have developed. Contract courses have expanded
from one district in fall 2002 to 22 districts by fall 2005 (We serve 23 districts)
Turnaround Achievement Banquet – This awards program was initiated by local business owners who recognize
middle school or high school age youth who have made significant changes in their academic behavior and
achievement. An awards banquet has transitioned to Hawkeye’s campus with the College now being a sponsor of
the program.
Foundation Giving – Foundation gifts have increased from $463,000 in 2005 to 1,231,187 in 2006. A significant
portion of giving is the result or donor relationships that are cultivated for many years. Each donor’s unique wishes
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are accommodated. Donors are provided with information regarding the outcome of the donation. For example,
scholarship donors receive the application and thank you letter of their recipient. Recognition of donors is given
with respect to privacy and to the degree the donor wants public recognition.
Long Term Care Quality of Care Partnership – The LTC/Quality of Care is a partnership of eleven Long Term Care
(LTC) Providers and Hawkeye Community College. The goal of the LTC/Quality of Care project is to improve the
overall quality of care provided to elderly and special needs residents in long term care facilities in Northeast Iowa
through application of advanced telecommunications technology that facilitates training of care givers.
Public Events – The College is becoming increasingly adept at hosting public events. These events range from
College specific activities such as groundbreaking and ribbon cutting ceremonies to community forums on energy
policy, to hosting the Waterloo Chamber of Commerce Community Education Series, to the President’s Artist Series
events. The college has just started to systematically collect data on these events and their attendance. During 2006,
more than 26,000 persons attended events in Tama Hall Conference Center. These are people who are not included
in any other credit or non-credit headcount of the College. Source: College – Community Activities
Best 25 Employers of Cedar Valley – HCC has been named as one of the top 25 employers in the Cedar Valley for
2005 and 2006 based on surveys and interviews carried out by students of Wartburg College, a neighboring liberal
arts college.
Artist Series – The President’s Artists Series presents 2-5 concert or theater performances per year in the College’s
intimate 396 seat auditorium. The series’ $5.00 ticket offers access to entertainment that is otherwise out of reach of
many members of the public, including students and youth. In each of the past two years HCC has co-sponsored a
performance with University of Northern Iowa Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center to be performed at the
university’s arts center. This allows the College to be a sponsor of an event for which it lacks financial and facility
resources to sponsor alone.
Equipment donations – The technical programs of the College often receive equipment donations based on personal
relationships of program faculty with local, state, and national businesses.
3R5
The College has not routinely benchmarked its results in stakeholder satisfaction and relationship building
against other organizations. Its participation in the 2006 National Community College Benchmark Project is a first
attempt to do so. That data is expected late in 2006. The College does have longitudinal student satisfaction data
with national norms for ACT Faces of the Future and ACT Student Opinion Survey. Its participation in Community
College Survey of Student Engagement in 2005 revealed a student body that is less engaged with the institution than
the national norm.
3I1
Numerous improvement processes are in effect, many of them discussed earlier in category three. Both
documented and undocumented processes are at work in the college but only documented improvement efforts are
recorded here. It should not be overlooked, however, that faculty department meetings that are not documented at
the College level, as well as faculty member’ individual involvement with their specific community stakeholder
groups that impact the institution.
Documented Processes
• WorkplaceLean training – This current AQIP Action Project unites employees to work across department
lines to streamline processes and maximize value to students and stakeholders
• AQIP Steering Committee – The Steering Committee listens to AQIP Team recommendations and acts on
team recommendations. AQIP team members are responsible for implementing improved processes.
• HIP Grants – Hawkeye Improvement Grants are funded by the College and require internal or external
collaboration to advance the College’s mission and strategic priorities by promoting innovative ideas for
improving services to students
• Helios Feedback System – This AQIP project is an online student/customer feedback system that
encourages customer feedback while providing a tracking system for that feedback.
• SAGE Training – Student Achievement Grounded in Equity provides workshop training to faculty to help
them recognize the processes at work in the classroom setting and how these contribute to or detract from
equity concerning ethnicity or gender.
• Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services – This new department of the College provides
workshops, courses, and other activities to address improvement in teaching and learning systems
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
High School Relations Committee – HSRC works to improve the process of course delivery to high school
districts. The committee completed a process handbook in spring 2006.
Registration Follow-up – Student Records hosts a follow-up meeting shortly after the beginning of each
semester to examine improvements in the processes surrounding student registration. Academic
administrators of the College attend but the participants who have true impact are those employees who
provide front line service to students.
President’s Council – This council of administrators meets twice a month to informally discuss issues of
the College. Frequently, these issues involve service processes and cross departmental cooperation to
correct deficiencies.
Many surveys are used to determine service improvement needs as described in 3P7 and 3R1
Quality Service Training – This is required of all non-faculty staff at least once each semester. The
College’s Center for Business and Industry training provides a regular menu of customer service
workshops from which employees can choose.
Datatel Colleague Core Team – The College’s new integrated system of financial, human resources, and
academic records is being implemented under the guidance of a core data team of representatives
throughout the College. Implementation process issues are resolved by this team that represents cross
departmental interests
3I2
Methods for Setting and Communicating Targeted Improvement
• Strategic Planning communicates mission centered priorities – The Strategic Plan 2005-2010 is the
source document for targeted improvement efforts.
• Three Year Plans – Departmental three year plans derive from the strategic plan and communicate to
administration and cabinet the individual departments’ targeted improvement plans. Plans are reviewed
and given approval by administrators.
• President’s Council – Administrators engage in conversations about targeted improvement efforts during
council meetings. President’s Council is the President’s forum for articulating overall College vision
regarding improvement activities such as the High School Relations Committee and contract course
delivery
• Hawkeye Happenings – The weekly staff newsletter provides the communication medium for identified
improvement activities.
• Foundation Reporting – The Hawkeye Foundation issues an annual report in form of a calendar that
highlights the mission of the College and its integral relationship with the community. The Foundation
reports monthly activities to the College Board of Trustees. Other campus communication instruments are
used as well, including Hawkeye Happenings, Stall Street Journal, and Campus Connections. Donors and
Foundation fund recipients received personal letters or visits.
Current Targeted Improvements
• WorkplaceLean Training to develop cross-functional teams to address system improvements
• The Foundation is educating donors about planned giving to match donor interests. A major gift campaign
and additional events to showcase the Foundation and the College are being planned.
• Helios online customer feedback system to actively solicit student/customer comments, complaints, and
suggestions and to provide improved tracking of this feedback
• Quality Service quarterly training of all non-faculty staff
• Understanding parent and new high school graduate needs, identified through market research and
implemented through improved Focus on Friday student tour days
• Understanding high school district needs relating to college credit course delivery to students in their own
high schools, implemented through High School Relations Committee
• Mandatory Orientation of all new students, identified through WorkplaceLean training of admissions,
registration, advising, and financial aid offices
• Maximizing student use of SOAR, the online student interface of the College’s Datatel Colleague
integrated management system
• Student use of Hawkeye Community College email for essential communication, as identified for
maximum use of SOAR and other College communications with students, including student records,
financial aid, academic departments, distance learning and library.
• Improvement of nursing NCLEX results, implemented through mock exams as part of student curriculum
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Hawkeye Community College
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
Improvement of Respiratory Care Board results to meet Committee on Respiratory Care accreditation
standards, implemented through program curriculum revision, including mandatory student board exams
prior to graduation
Improved attention to student job placement as identified through student surveys and the strategic plan,
implemented through change in the organizational structure
Implementation of more powerful prospect management software and procedures is being investigated by
business and industry and marketing staff
Developing telecounseling contacts with prospective students
Improving business prospect communication channels via the website
Increasing contacts with underrepresented populations through minority outreach recruiters, implemented
through new staff positions and staff reassignment
Expanded marketing of Career Academies
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CATEGORY 4 Valuing People
4C1
The Hawkeye Community College organizational chart demonstrates that the areas of the College most
closely associated with student learning are organized under the direction of the Vice President, Academic Affairs.
Academic Affairs deans, directors, and program managers meet weekly with the Vice President to facilitate
coordination of student learning activities.
The President and each of the five Cabinet members meet weekly to coordinate the College’s major
initiatives and to discuss any issues affecting student learning. Two Tuesdays per month are designated as days for
the directors of all divisions of the College to meet to work out new plans and issues related to Helping Students
Learn. The WorkplaceLean team that is addressing simplified registration procedures for students illustrates the
results of these cross-department directors’ planning meetings. (See 3P2, 4C4, 4P3, 4P5)
In addition to Cabinet, primary cross-organizational structures that facilitate the College’s focus on student
learning are President’s Council, Academic Council, Curriculum Coordinating Committee, Assessment Committee,
and Academic Standards and Issues Committee. These and other organizational structures of the College dedicated
to Helping Students Learn are further illustrated in 4P3 and Category 5 Leading and Communicating, particularly in
5C1, 5P1, and 5P3.
4C2
The region served by the College still has a strong employment base of large and small manufacturers and
processors of agricultural products. This is reflected in curricular offerings and faculty positions. The College’s
geography and excellent system of primary highways makes it easy for students and employees throughout the ten
county district to travel to the central campus. Consequently, the College has only two sites outside the immediate
metropolitan area. Most work processes center on activities of the main campus. The college uses part-time
employees extensively as adjunct credit instructors and as continuing education and business and industry
instructors.
4C3
The College serves an area of overall declining population, especially traditional age college students.
Nearly one-third of current faculty are nearing retirement age. Despite the region’s continued strength in
manufacturing and agriculture related employment, these industries do not demand the same number of employees
as in previous decades. Workforce planning for the future must consider a major shift in curricular offerings and the
requisite faculty.
4C4
The College is currently employing a system-wide quality service training initiative that is required of all staff.
Faculty are not required to participate but many choose to do so. An AQIP Action Project called 5S for the Office is
being piloted with plans to deploy it across the College. The 5S System is a series of activities designed to improve
workplace organization and standardization with an emphasis on designing sustainable systems. All AQIP teams go
through a quality improvement tools refresher course at the inception of each Action Project team.
The Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services was created in 2005 as the center for faculty
training.
The College is completing implementation of Datatel Colleague as its information management system.
Ongoing training on this system is required as the organization gains collective skill in utilizing data resources.
4P1
Every staff and faculty position is backed up by a job description that is jointly crafted by the persons most
closely associated with each position. This includes supervisors, department heads, position incumbents, and the
expertise of external advisors in education, business and industry. The Human Resource Services office oversees
creation of minimal qualifications regarding education, experience, required certifications, and hiring preferences,
such as “master’s degree preferred” or “recent experience in an educational setting preferred.” Overall, the intent is
to offer positions for which entry qualifications do not arbitrarily exclude otherwise qualified candidates. Human
Resource Services acts to prevent unwarranted education, skills and bias from impacting hiring requirements. Job
descriptions are reviewed routinely prior to employee performance evaluations and may be revised at any time.
Screening for employee values is more art than science. Experience and educational transcript requirements provide
some indication of the applicant’s general employment and educational path. The College frequently expresses a
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hiring preference for community college graduates and those with community college work experience. This
preference is applied in the initial applicant screening process.
4P2
Recruiting/Hiring
Recruiting and hiring of employees is overseen by Human Resource Services. Formal documents relating
to these processes are a Human Resource Services Hiring and Screening Booklet that is provided to all staff and
faculty who are responsible for initiating the recruiting and hiring process. Internal management of the process is
facilitated by a Recruitment Authorization Form that guides the prescribed requirements for initiating an employee
search, a Recruitment Authorization Checklist to facilitate timely completion of the recruitment and interview
processes, and a Recommendation to Employ that concludes the processes. These documents provide uniformity
and reliability of recruiting and hiring processes across the College.
Advertisement of positions still occurs in local and state newspapers, trade publications, and education
specific publications such as Chronicle of Higher Education. Increasingly, advertisement utilizes online sites, often
specific to the advertised position. Recommendations on where to advertise are made by the employing department.
Staff and faculty are also encouraged to actively recruit qualified candidates. High profile positions like president
and vice president often employ an executive search service. Administrative Employees are recruited nationally.
The College has used a formally structured interviewing process for many years. An interview team leader,
generally the supervisor for the advertised position, selects a team of interviewers. The interview team always
includes a Human Resource Services staff member. The team leader assembles a list of formal interview questions
with the guidance of Human Resource Services. The team leader and Human Resource Services then develop a
screening tool that is specific to the advertised position, as drawn from the formal job description. Once
applications are received the interview team applies the screening tool to determine a pool of interview candidates.
Generally, a clear break-point emerges to distinguish the pool of interviewed candidates from non-interviewed
candidates. Scheduled interviews adhere strictly to predetermined questions and a predetermined scoring
mechanism for the selected questions. The process is perceived as inclusive of those employees who have the most
immediate stake in who is hired and it has been sustained over many years. Its formal structure provides an equal
opportunity for interviewees to have a successful interview experience. Human Resource Services maintains a pool
of frequently asked interview questions, as well as a record of job specific questions that have been asked in the
past. Most interview questions are experience based and ask interviewees to respond with actual past experience in
the mode of “How have you…” rather than “How would you…”
Orientation of employees occurs in three principal locations:
Human Resource Services assumes responsibility for orienting all new full-time employees. Orientations
are held with groups of new employees when possible but are conducted with individual employees when necessary.
The Human Resource Services orientation concerns mostly business practices of the College that affect the
employee and a discussion of the employee’s benefits package. A uniform desire to expand new employee
orientation has been expressed across the College. Human Resource Services does not provide orientation to
adjunct faculty.
Individual departments conduct orientation of new employees that is specific to the department and the job
responsibilities. Orientation varies by department and is not formally documented at the College level. An
exception to this rule exists for adjunct faculty for whom an adjunct checklist is used to make sure each adjunct
faculty member has at least the minimum information needed to be successful in teaching for the College. Many
departments, such as the Library, Student Records, Computer Information Systems, and Business Services, maintain
detailed job responsibility and procedure manuals that are of value to both new and seasoned employees.
The third area of significant orientation is provided by the Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning
Services. Teaching and Learning provides faculty orientation for full and part-time faculty. It also provides
ongoing training opportunities to faculty in the use of instructional technology, teaching pedagogy, fulfillment of the
College’s Quality Faculty Plan, mentoring, and community college mission and history.
Overall, staff who participated in AQIP Systems Portfolio workshops expressed a desire for more
consistent and deeper orientation. This desire was expressed both in terms of learning operational procedures and
gaining better understanding of the college mission and values.
Retaining Employees
Employees cite several incentives that impact their retention as employees. Competitive salary and benefits
is frequently mentioned. Benefits include a choice of insurance packages, paid holidays, and retirement benefits.
Employees of the College can choose Iowa Public Employees Retirement System which is a defined benefits plan,
or TIAA-CREF, a 401b plan in which employees select their own retirement portfolio. Human Resource Services
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Hawkeye Community College
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periodically provides training sessions to help employees better understand their benefits choices. Retired faculty
find the opportunity to continue teaching as adjuncts to be attractive. Hiring retirees as adjunct faculty has
positively impacted the College’s ability to hire experienced experts.
The College encourages employees to further their education and improve their skills. To support and
encourage this effort, Hawkeye reimburses tuition and certain mandatory fees in part or in full for: 1) Credit Courses
at Hawkeye and Other Colleges and Universities; 2) Non-Credit Courses at Hawkeye; 3) Workshops and Seminars;
and 4) Hawkeye Credit Courses for a Full-time Employee, Employee’s Dependent(s) or Spouse. Full-time staff and
full-time and regular part-time faculty are reimbursed for semester hour or quarter hour credits earned at a regionally
accredited college or university up to six semester hours or 9 quarter hours per year. Job relatedness is encouraged,
but not required.
Planning for Personnel Change
Planning for change includes both short term and long term horizons. The short term horizon is addressed
by the formally articulated recruitment and hiring process discussed in 4P1. It also includes a significant amount of
cross-training among department staff. Although the College employs hundreds of staff, only 309 are full-time
employees and most departments number six or fewer individuals. Job manuals (4P1) provide consistent
information when changes in staffing occur.
Looking further ahead, department three year plans based on the College’s strategic plan provide an
opportunity for supervisors to articulate their personnel needs related to improvements envisioned through the plans.
The Strategic Plan 2005-2010 specifically addresses planning for Human Resource Services in Strategic Initiative
7E which calls for the design and implementation of a comprehensive plan that identifies current and future human
resource needs.
Periodically, (in practice approximately once every three years) the College undergoes reorganization to
align its staffing with the changing strategic vision. Most recently, this occurred in July 2006.
A final tool that has been effectively used by the College is an early retirement offer that has been extended
annually to employees age 55 and older with ten or more years of service to the College. This has allowed the
College to systematically anticipate retirements, prepare for the replacement of these seasoned staff, and transfer
knowledge of these staff to other employees. A recent court ruling that eliminates age-based early retirement offers
will impact the College’s ability to use this tool in the future.
4P3
The College makes a significant effort to meet the criteria of high performing organizations. Its
commitment to WorkplaceLean addresses the need to integrate the activities of departments that work together to
understand customer needs and to deliver superior service through organizational learning and skill sharing. The
ongoing quality service initiative that requires a minimum of one training activity per employee per calendar quarter
specifically addresses empowerment of employees to meet customer needs and to solve customer problems.
Innovation and empowerment are themes that are publicly endorsed by the President on numerous occasions. To
back up his public endorsement, the Hawkeye Improvement Project Grants process [HIP Grants] was established in
2005 and is self-funded at $25,000 fall and spring semesters. The process is competitive and grant applications that
do not meet HIP Grant Evaluation Criteria are not funded. Every employee is eligible to apply for an innovation
grant, provided it addresses collaboration within and between departments. Awarding of a grant requires peer
review prior to the grant award and sharing of results during and at the conclusion of the grant period.
Communication and organizational learning are further strengthened by the College’s formally organized
employee groups whose purpose is to facilitate internal communication and to forge relationships among employees.
Examples of these groups are
• Academic Council – a twice monthly meeting of faculty department heads with the Vice President
Academic Affairs
• President’s Council – a twice monthly meeting of administrators
• Standing Committees – Academic Standards, Assessment, Curriculum, Equity, Diversity, Safety, and AQIP
Steering, each bring together a cross section of the College’s employees to discuss shared problems and to
implement innovation
• Faculty In-service Committee and Employee Development Day Committee directly address organizational
learning through in-service opportunities four times each year that are largely employee driven
The College deploys an array of sophisticated communications media to effect communication among employees.
Computer Information Systems (CIS) provides a flexible wired and wireless network that is ubiquitous throughout
campus facilities. It provides access to email from any Internet connection and it enables employees to connect to
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their campus network drives from home. The computer help desk provides access to live human beings who
respond quickly to reported computing problems. Atlas is a former AQIP Action Project that provides an online
directory of all employees, including job title, department, supervisor, telephone, and fax number, email, and a
photograph. It is searchable by any part of an employee’s name or department. Example: Jane or welding. Comlink
is an electronic messaging system that connects all college facilities via television and computer monitors that are
mounted in public spaces.
Ethical Practices are assured in several formal ways. The Board of Trustees governance policies 1.0 Global
Executive Constraint and 3.0 Treatment of Staff specifically direct ethical behavior and practices regarding
treatment of employees, while the Personnel Handbook apprises employees of their rights, privileges, and
responsibilities. Union contracts for Hawkeye Professional Educators Association and United Electrical Workers
lay the ground rules for ethical behavior by administration and union employees. Employees are reminded of their
legal and ethical responsibilities regarding access and use of student records every time they log onto the student
records system. CIS has published a Policy and Standards Manual to clearly define employees’ legal and ethical
responsibilities when using College computing equipment, including use of copyright materials and other
intellectual property. Staff and faculty observe numerous professional codes of ethics. Specific examples are
business faculty, office professionals, business office professionals, counselors, librarians, health faculty, and
institutional research.
4P4
Training and development of all college faculty, staff, and administrators is supported with regard to
• institutional mission and change,
• development of academic discipline and program knowledge,
• development of staff job knowledge,
• attention to academic and career advancement,
• and licensing and credentialing requirements.
In, 2006 the College budgeted $138,464 for out of state travel and $110,661 for travel in-state. A large portion of
these dollars supported the activities described below. In addition the Human Resource Services office allocated
$22,650 for staff training activities.
Institutional mission and change requires the College’s and its employees’ attention to a higher level and
often global perspective of how it serves its stakeholders, how it prepares for changes in service to stakeholders, and
how it engages with its peer colleges and competitors.
The College’s employees are highly engaged in membership and/or participation in organizations such as
Higher Learning Commission, American Association of Community College Trustees [AACCT], Iowa Association
of Community College Trustees [IACCT], League of Innovation, The Collaboration for the Advancement of
College Teaching and Learning, Strategic Horizons College Network, a consortium of fourteen widely dispersed
community colleges engaged in developing and sharing innovative ways to improve delivery of services. These
organizations, and other professional organization memberships are vital to the expansion of the College’s vision
and knowledge. Faculty, administrators, and staff routinely attend meetings of these organizations and participate in
the educational presentations of the organizations.
Understanding of institutional vision and mission is further developed through standing committee
assignments. Committees of broad based institutional membership include Curriculum Committee, Assessment
Committee, Academic Standards and Issues Committee, and AQIP Steering Committee. Other committees such as
Master Facilities Planning Committee, Datatel Colleague Core Committee, AQIP Systems Portfolio Workshops and
AQIP continuous process improvement teams bring together a cross section of College constituencies who learn to
examine stakeholder needs through a shared perspective.
Discipline/program/staff centered professional development is provided in several ways. Each August and
January a full day of Faculty In-Service is planned by a faculty committee. For the past several years these days
activities have centered on one of the seven principles of effective teaching and learning:
1. encourages contact between students and faculty,
2. develops reciprocity and cooperation among students,
3. encourages active learning,
4. gives prompt feedback,
5. emphasizes time on task,
6. communicates high expectations, and
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7. respects diverse talents and ways of learning.
These days often feature an invited keynote speaker but the majority of the day is spent in breakout sessions that are
faculty and staff driven. Faculty In-service Day is intended for faculty and academic administrators. Faculty may
earn credit toward their Qualify Faculty Plan credentials through these activities.
Employee Development Day involves all employees of the College and like Faculty In-service Day a
keynote speaker is featured, followed by breakout sessions that are employee driven. These days occur in October
and February each year. Credit for Quality Faculty Plans is awarded for many of the breakout sessions. Employees
who present breakout sessions are recognized for the sessions they present.
A great deal of faculty, administration, and staff education occurs through numerous professional
organization memberships. These are often discipline and profession specific. The College encourages personal
memberships in these organizations and attendance at their meetings. Knowledge and peer networking acquired
through these organizations is critical to the advancement of the College.
All departments of the College engage in on-site training that is job specific to individual staff members.
Most employees of the College have received training in job related aspects of the Datatel Colleague information
management system. Maintenance and custodial staff routinely receive OSHA training and training relating to
emergency procedures. All administration and staff, plus many faculty have received quality service training onsite.
Academic/Career advancement is encouraged. The College supports two initiatives in Iowa that develop
young community college professionals. LINC [Leadership Institute for a New Century] and CLIC [Community
College Leadership Initiative Consortium] are programs of Iowa State University’s Department of Educational
Leadership. The College nominates at least one professional staff member each year to attend each of these yearlong twice-a-month development activities. Iowa State University also provides masters and doctorate level
programming designed to serve cohorts of working community college professionals. LINC or CLIC provide the
individual with 4 credits of master-level coursework with the extended opportunity to take an additional 11 credits in
conjunction with the LINC and CLIC programs. This provides the individual an opportunity to complete almost 1/3
of her/his degree requirements during the 1-year timeframe. Tuition reimbursement is provided for these programs
as well as for other college credits, both undergraduate and graduate. The College reimburses up to six credit hours
each year to all employees who apply for reimbursement through Human Resource Services tuition reimbursement
budget of $90,000.
Credentialing and licensure requirements are a major part of the role that is played by Brobst Center for
Teaching and Learning Services. The Center (1P9) plays a leading role in faculty development. It provides ongoing technology training and numerous education and training opportunities related to the Quality Faculty Plan, a
state of Iowa requirement for all Iowa community college faculty. A monthly calendar of activity is distributed to
faculty and activities are highlighted in each week’s Hawkeye Happenings newsletter. Planning for the delivery of
services occurs with the guidance of a faculty Teaching and Learning Steering Committee. Faculty are eligible for
tuition reimbursement as noted above.
4P5
The Strategic Plan and current Strategic Priorities clearly and specifically set forth training opportunities
related to these initiatives:
•
Learning how to develop customized multiple approaches to service delivery; for example,
developing faculty and staff expertise in use of ANGEL, the College’s new online learning
management system
• Learning how to deliver superior service based on continuous assessment of
student/customer/client needs; for example assessing the specific learner needs of high school
students enrolled in college courses
• Developing staff and faculty commitment to a customer service focused relationship with
students and other stakeholders; for example, required quarterly participation by staff in
quality service training
• Learning to repackage and deliver the College’s curriculum outside its traditional academic
schedule; for example increasing 4 week, 8 week, and minimester delivery of traditional 15
week curriculum
• Educating staff and faculty on the value of their participation in key community
organizations; for example, workforce, economic development, educational, social,
governmental, and cultural organizations
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Leading staff toward and through engagement with K-12 school systems through
development of smooth transitions through the education pipeline; for example, the College’s
partnership with Waterloo Community Schools and early COMPASS testing of that district’s
high school students
• Learning to balance resources and institutional capacity; for example, retooling of the
College’s truck driving program with an emphasis on trucking industry partnerships
• Learning to streamline systems, processes, and policies to create improved efficiency and add
value for stakeholders; for example the WorkplaceLean initiative that has been piloted by
Recruiting, Admissions, Financial Aid, Business Services, and Student Development
Within the parameters of the college mission and strategic plan, department Three Year Plans and the
Quality Faculty Plan, most faculty and staff assume responsibility for their own professional development and
training needs. The College facilitates this through the training agendas of Faculty In-service and Employee
Development Days activities and the activities of The Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services. Individual
employee performance evaluations may specify training needs, either agreed upon mutually by supervisor and
employee, or required by the supervisor. For most employees, however, their professional organization
memberships provide the training that is needed to remain current in a field or profession on a day to day basis.
Occasionally, whole departments may select specific training activities for their members. A notable example of
this kind of training activity was the communications department’s decision to provide training on student portfolio
evaluation to all its faculty. Faculty may also be affected by advisory committee recommendations regarding new
equipment purchases and the necessary training to use it effectively. Some employee training needs are determined
by outside organizations such as accrediting agencies and OSHA.
Training in the use of commonly deployed software and the computing infrastructures is deemed vital to all
employees and is universally available in scheduled classes or on case by case needs. Examples of this common
training are use of the college’s wired and wireless network resources, uses of commonly deployed products such as
Microsoft Excel, Word, and Outlook email and calendar. Recently, the entire staff has been involved in training on
use of the Datatel Colleague data management system.
•
4P6
The college uses three different evaluation instruments for three classes of employees:
• Hawkeye Professional Educators Association (HPEA) for all full-time and regular part-time faculty
• United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America UE Local 855 for all non-confidential classified
hourly employees
• Non-bargaining employees, including classified hourly, professional, and administrative
Probationary faculty must be evaluated by their respective Dean once each year for the first three years, and
once every three years thereafter. This evaluation instrument is currently being revised through the Interest Based
Bargaining collective bargaining process. When completed, it will incorporate features of the professional
obligations article of the faculty contract. The Dean schedules a face-to-face meeting with each evaluated faculty
member. Any requirements regarding performance improvement are outlined during this meeting. Faculty
performance evaluations may include course survey information from students but this is not uniformly used in the
process.
UE employees are evaluated yearly by their immediate supervisor. Requirements are detailed in the UE
contract but, in fact, are identical to performance evaluations of non-bargaining employees. All UE performance
evaluation instruments are uniquely tied to the job description and the specific position responsibilities and duties of
the person whose performance is being evaluated. Consequently, even persons with the same job title, e.g. Clerk II,
can have varying evaluation instruments. The instrument includes a numeric rating system but its comments section
requires documentation of each numeric rating.
Non-bargaining employees are evaluated annually during the anniversary month of their employment using
the same system as described above for UE employees. The current system was devised by an AQIP project team
whose performance evaluation recommendations regularized the process, provided a system of accountability for
supervisors to complete timely evaluations, and required narrative comments to support the numeric rating system.
As with bargaining positions, non-bargaining performance evaluations must be completed with a face-to-face
meeting with the supervisor. The AQIP team survey of employee opinions concerning evaluations found the faceto-face meeting with a supervisor to be the employee’s most valued part of the performance evaluation system.
Performance evaluations are clearly tied to categories 1 and 3 by being directly linked to the job description
of each position.
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4P7
Compensation is tied to the market range of similar positions at similar educational institutions. Human
Resource Services uses that information to establish a range for each job and sets compensation within the range
based on individual education and experience.
Formal Recognition and awards are prominently observed during Employee Development Day each
February. Employees are publicly recognized for their years of service in five year increments, including both fulltime and part-time employees. Employees who have completed degrees, other certifications, or who have published
or otherwise been honored by other organizations, or nominated for awards, are acknowledged before the gathered
employees and are recognized in the printed program. During this ceremony additional employees receive
President’s Awards for these categories of service:
• Faculty
• Part-time staff
• Full-time staff
• Commitment to Diversity
• Leadership
• Ambassador
• Innovation
Awards are dependent on nominations by another employee and must be supported by letters of endorsement by
other employees or individuals outside the college. Final selection is by an awards committee. More than one
employee may be awarded in each category, although this is infrequent, and not all categories are awarded each
year. These awards are generally recognized as a true form of collegiate recognition and winners of the awards are
both congratulated and supported throughout the college. All awardees exemplify the qualities needed to fulfill the
mission of the College through helping students learn or accomplishing other distinctive objectives:
• Demonstrated service to Hawkeye students
• Demonstrated involvement in wide variety of Hawkeye activities
• Well supported throughout the college
• Demonstrated proficiency in position
• Demonstration of overall excellent attitude toward college
February’s Employee Development Day also recognizes all recent or imminent retirees and their families.
Other forms of recognition and awards
• Faculty Rank and Titles were designed by Deans and Faculty as recognition only. No dollars or other
compensation attach to this voluntary system.
• Certificates for Employee Development Day and Faculty In-service are issued for attendance at each
breakout session during these development days
• Faculty release time may be granted to work on special projects
• Public Relations works to highlight Hawkeye employees in newspaper and news releases
• Campus Connections semiannual newsletter to the community highlights the activities of Hawkeye
employees
• The President’s weekly communiqué to Board of Directors provides recognition of activities of Hawkeye
employees
• HIP [Hawkeye Improvement Program] Grants provide staff recognition and specific alignment with
strategic objectives
• The College routinely nominates employees for local, state, and national awards
Rewards are not provided by the College and its culture would not support this form of recognition.
4P8
Employee motivational issues are chiefly identified through organizational structures such as President’s
Council or Academic Council through the open forum for discussion that is provided. Discussions of Employee
Development Day and Faculty In-service committee meetings also provide a platform to discuss motivational issues.
These discussions are frequently followed up by email communication and are formally recorded in minutes of the
meetings.
Both employee unions, HPEA and UE provide another forum for discussion of motivational issues. The
faculty’s Interest Based Bargaining format is particularly open to this method of airing issues. IBB frequently
assigns subcommittees to study issues that are then reported back to the full bargaining team. Recently, IBB
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resolved a faculty motivational issue concerning leave time for family care, chiefly child or parent. This was an
issue of particular importance to faculty because these employees to not receive paid or scheduled vacation leave.
Brainstorming of motivational issues occurs during each of the above examples but systematic analysis of
results generally does not occur except in bargaining sessions.
4P9
The College provides a fixed dollar amount to its full-time and regular part-time employees for the
purchase of health, dental, and vision insurance. Employees are allowed flexibility in choosing single or family
benefits for each portion of the benefit package.
Term life insurance equal to the employee’s salary rounded to the next highest $1,000 X 1.5 is provided.
The College is a mandatory participant in the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System defined benefits pension
system. Optionally, employees can choose TIAA-CREF with ownership and management of their own retirement
portfolio. Both the College and the employees contribute to these retirement funds. An Employee Assistance
Program and FlexPlus program are also available to employees.
Employee leave benefits are as follows:
Leave Type
Faculty
Vacation
0
Sick leave/year
10-15 days
Critical illness family
5 days
Family Care
5 days
Personal Leave
4 days
Bereavement
5 days
Paid Holiday
0
Staff
*10-20
**10-15 days
5 days
0 days
2 days
5 days
***17 days
Professional Staff
20*
15 days
5 days
0 days
4 days
5 days
***17 days
*Incremental by years of service, capping at 20 days per year; 1 additional day at 20 year, 25 years, 30 years of service
**Incremental by years of service, capping at 20 days per year
***Includes 6 days the College is closed in December-January
Figure 4.1
Human Resource Services works with an insurance committee to plan for changes and open enrollment in
the health insurance plan.
A Health and Safety Officer was hired in 2005 to carry out OSHA requirements and to maintain employee
safety training and training drills records and an incidents report of health and safety issues on campus. The College
also employs a full-time Public Safety staff of six to provide twenty-four hour a day safety and security on the main
campus. Increasing Public Safety’s presence at off campus locations, particularly the Metro site, is being evaluated
at the request of staff at the Metro location.
Surveys are used periodically to assess employee satisfaction. Human Resource Services conducted a
Health Insurance Satisfaction Survey in 2004 prior to implementing a change in plan coverage. Institutional
Research administers satisfaction surveys periodically. The Institutional Assessment Survey was last administered
in 2004. The Community College Culture Index Survey was administered in 2005. The next administered survey
will be the Institutional Assessment Survey again in 2007.
4P10
Employee performance evaluations are administered on a regular schedule as described in 4P6. Human
Resource Services keeps track of supervisor compliance, including the use of narrative within the evaluation
instrument to create a direct correlation to numeric scoring measures.
Human Resource Services tracks use of benefits by employees. This includes health, dental, and vision
insurance, and Optum Care, a 24 hour a day telephone problem solving resource of professional counselors and
registered nurses.
Completion of Quality Faculty Plan requirements is facilitated through Human Resource Services and
Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services. Individual faculty members make an appointment with Human
Resource Services to review their plan. Human Resource Services contacts the Quality Faculty Plan Committee to
meet with the faculty member to review professional development evidence, compare it to their plan, and discuss
additional training and development activities that would contribute to the individual development plan. Staff
attendance at required quality service workshops is tracked quarterly.
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Tuition reimbursement to employees is tracked as well as completion of degrees by employees. Up to six
college credits of Hawkeye Community College credit or other higher education provider credit per year are
reimbursed for the employee. An employee’s family dependents may receive up to $1,500 per year for HCC credit
courses.
4R1
Attention to the performance evaluation system as recommended by the AQIP Evaluation Process
Improvement Team has led to more timely completion of evaluations and meaningful commentary on the evaluation
instrument. The Interest Based Bargaining Process has led to mutual interest by faculty and administration in
devising a more meaningful faculty evaluation instrument. This revision is currently in process.
The College is regarded as doing a good job retaining its employees. This is attributed both to work
environment and the benefits package, including leave time. An employee survey and interview project conducted
by Wartburg College has identified Hawkeye Community College as one of the top 25 “best” employers of the
Cedar Valley region.
New leadership in the College’s Foundation office has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of
employees who actively contribute:
Fiscal 2004-05 $18,870; 142 employees participated
Fiscal 2005-06 $35,474; 235 employees participated
4R2
The College’s recognition and awards ceremony has been sustained since 1986. The process is employee
driven and could not be sustained without significant employee participation. The recognition of employees for
years of service substantiates the cumulative effects of valuing people. Every year, the college honors many
employees for their years of service to the college as shown in figure 4.2.
*Employees Recognized for Years of Service February 2006
Years of Service
5
10
15
20
41
17
24
10
Employees
Recognized
25
7
30
2
35
2
*Full and part-time
Figure 4.2
The change in staff performance evaluation processes as described in 1P4 has resulted in accurate tracking
of performance evaluation completions and in better quality commentary on the evaluations. Faculty performance
evaluation is being revised in accordance with IBB professional obligations article and will be completed in 2007.
Human Resource Services has implemented online access to employee leave status and is currently
developing online leave request forms.
An online application process was developed in 2003 following the recommendations of an AQIP Hiring
Process Team. This was aided by surveys of applicants on their satisfaction with the hiring process, including
applicants who were not offered positions.
Faculty orientation was modified following the hiring of a director for the Center for Teaching and
Learning. This process is now more in-depth and focuses more specifically on the needs of faculty.
4R3
The following measures were identified by multiple staff and faculty who participated in Systems Portfolio
Workshops:
• Student Classroom Surveys provide feedback from students both on course and faculty effectiveness.
These are administered at any time by faculty or their supervisors. Results may be entered into personnel
files by following the procedure outline in the bargaining contract. In practice, these evaluations are used
most frequently by faculty who want to learn students’ assessments of course material and its presentation
• Student survey and testing results (ACT Student Opinion, ACT Faces of the Future, Graduate Employment,
ACT COMPASS, Community College Survey of Student Engagement) and similar measures have been
gathered for several years. Their evidence suggests satisfaction of 80% or more.
• Academic Program Analysis analyzes technical and career programs on a cost/productivity/benefit basis.
• Student success in competitions is mentioned by many faculty (3R2)
• Employer Satisfaction Survey shows satisfaction in the range of 90%+
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Hawkeye Community College
•
•
•
•
•
•
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
Recruitment Results 2005-2006 shows continued enrollment growth by newly graduated high school
students despite a declining regional high school graduating class by approximately 7%.
The College is actively watches enrollment numbers daily and is disaggregating those numbers. For much
of the college’s history watching the numbers enrollment grew of its own accord. This is no longer true
Awards received by staff and faculty are recognized at Employee development day and faculty
presentations at regional and national conferences are reported. Targets and benchmarks are not
established, however.
Hawkeye Community College graduates who transfer to four year colleges are more successful than their
peers who transfer prior to graduation (Source: Iowa Regents universities reports on Hawkeye Community College student
performance following transfer)
Business and industry training agreements.
Community Focus groups for strategic plan successfully engaged the College’s multiple stakeholders
4R4
The College has not yet benchmarked against other organizations. Participation in the 2006 National
Community College Benchmark Project survey will improve the College’s ability to make direct comparisons. The
Iowa department of education provides an annual report titled Condition of Community Colleges in which human
resources data is reported for each of Iowa’s community colleges but the data are more related to college size than to
institutional success.
4I1
AQIP Continuous Process Improvement Teams have been instrumental in making improvements to current
processes and systems relating to valuing people. Several projects relate directly to valuing people and all of them
have some component related to valuing people.
The Strategic Plan 2005-2010 directly addresses valuing people through initiative 7E that calls for the
development of a comprehensive human resources plan to meet current and future needs of the college service
region.
Employee Development Day Committee has existed in some format since the beginning of the College to
address mutual development needs of employees. Faculty In-service Day Committee serves the same purpose.
Both committees are employee driven and, therefore, meet the most immediate needs of the greatest number of
employees.
Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services has the lead role for developing faculty for their
respective teaching and learning roles. Its faculty advisory committee meets twice each year to inform the center’s
programs and direction for the year.
4I2
The College has not set measurable targets for improvement. The examples below are all activities that are
measurable by completion but the College has not set other measures that gauge improvement or that can become
benchmarks of performance. It is assumed if we complete the activities we will perform better. Priorities are
communicated through common communication forums or media. President’s Council and Academic Council serve
as vehicles through which common communication can be presented to administrators and faculty chairs who are in
turn responsible for sharing the message with others in their departments. Hawkeye Happenings newsletter is a
common communications vehicle which includes the President’s Cabinet notes and the President’s weekly
communication with the Board of Trustees.
Targeted Improvement
• Quality Service Training continues as a requirement of all staff at least four times per year
• ANGEL [online learning management system] training is mandatory for all online faculty. The goal is to
move all online courses to a single platform to simplify and streamline the online experience for students
• Strategic Planning priority 7E addresses creation of a comprehensive human resources plan.
• The current AQIP Action Project 5S for the Office is being developed to deploy across the College as a
method of enabling staff to work cooperatively across department to add value to the service stakeholders
receive.
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Hawkeye Community College
•
Systems Portfolio 11-1-2006
Arts and Sciences has developed a diversity internship program by recruiting graduate students to
participate in a one semester teaching experience at the community college. The goal is to create a pool of
diverse potential faculty who had not previously considered teaching in a community college.
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CATEGORY 5 Leading and Communicating
5C1
The College’s formal organization as demonstrated by the organizational chart is augmented by these recognized
groups that always include cross-organizational or community representation
Group Name
Group Members
Group Purpose
Authority
Board of Trustees
Nine elected
College governance
Defines College ends and
presidential limitations of
authority
President’s Cabinet
President; vice presidents,
Executive Team leadership
Decision-making authority
executive directors
on key college issues
President’s Council
Academic Council
Curriculum Committee
Academic Standards/Issues
Committee
Assessment Committee
Administrative team and
representatives from off
campus sites; one member
of each union
Fourteen faculty
department heads; VP
Academic Affairs; Dir.
Teaching & Learning
Inform and discuss collegewide issues
Advisory, with significant
weight accorded member’s
knowledge and experience
Communicate academic
issues concerning students
and faculty
Voting: 10 faculty;
Deans
Non voting:
VP Academic Affairs
1Library Services
1 Student Development
1 Continuing Education
1Assoc. Dir. Academic
Services
8 faculty
3 admin./prof.
Registrar
Exofficio:
Assoc. Dir. Academic
Affairs
VP Academic Affairs
TRIO Representative
Assessment Coordinator
(chair)
8 Faculty
1 Developmental Studies
Chair
Deans
Student Services
representative
1 Institutional Researcher
or designee
Associate Director of
Academic Services
1 Student representative
(appointed by Student
Senate)
Oversee Curriculum
Development
Advisory to the VP
Academic Affairs, with
significant weight accorded
member’s knowledge and
experience
Recommend to VP
Academic Affairs with
significant weight accorded
member’s knowledge and
experience
Facilitate establishment and
revision of academic
standards;
Provide forum for
discussion of academic
issues
Advisory to VP Academic
Affairs with significant
weight accorded member’s
knowledge and experience
Develop policy; monitor
assessment activities;
Review Academic Program
Review documents; assist
faculty in selection of
assessment projects
AQIP Steering Committee
Select and monitor Action
Projects
Figure 5.1
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5C2 Alignment of leadership system with the practices and views of the board, senior leaders
Please see 5P5.
5C3
The Board of Trustees’ expectations regarding ethical behavior and practices are recorded in several Board
governance documents regarding ethics, including its own Code of Conduct. The impact of these policies is
significant in that it ultimately holds the President responsible for a broad range of activities in which the College is
engaged.
Institutional values and expectations regarding ethics, equity, social responsibility and community service
are embedded in the College’s mission, goals and vision documents:
MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of Hawkeye Community College is a globally informed community of successful lifelong learners.
INSTITUTIONAL GOALS
To effectively demonstrate our mission, the College is committed to provide:
• Educational Opportunities that are student centered, comprehensive and responsive to the individual and
society.
• Leadership Activities that support a dynamic framework for students, faculty, staff and the community to
reach their potential.
• Quality Services to each qualified individual.
• Access, sensitive to Diversity, supporting equal opportunities for all qualified individuals.
• Cooperative Community Relationships which foster human, social, cultural, economic and civic
development.
PLEDGE
As a college, we will provide focus, meaning, and the skills necessary for qualified individuals to live competently in
their communities.
Expectations regarding ethical behavior and the College’s responsibility to the community are forcefully
communicated through President’s Council by the President and Cabinet members. Standards of ethical and socially
responsible behavior for all employees are defined in the Personnel Handbook. Hawkeye faculty have codified their
professional responsibilities in the Professional Responsibilities article of their bargaining contract. Ethical
employee behavior is discussed in 4P3, including the many professional codes of ethics by which staff guide their
professional lives. (See also 5P6)
5P1
The College’s leadership positions, particularly the President and vice presidents, model a leadership style
that is faithful to policy governance. The President, vice presidents, and their subordinates are accorded significant
latitude in carrying out the mission of the College. The professional staff are accorded that same latitude.
Development of the strategic plan for 2005-2010 was an inclusive process built around the College’s mission and
values. The plan is open-ended and provides direction rather than prescription. Each department of the College was
allowed to develop its own three year plan in direct response to the strategic plan.
The President and vice presidents are visibly supportive of AQIP processes and AQIP process
improvement teams. They have been both sponsors and active participants of the teams. This is true, also, of the
full administrative staff of the College.
In 2006 the President reinstituted Hawkeye Improvement Program [HIP] grants with the goal of stimulating
innovation throughout the College. This program was active in previous years but had lapsed for the past seven
years. The improvement grants are available to all College employees and must respond to the strategic plan.
Faculty awards are made by a committee of faculty and non-faculty awards are recommended by the AQIP Steering
Committee. Criteria for awards include “enhancement of the learning environment” and collaboration across
department or with external stakeholders.
The President addresses faculty and staff weekly through the College newsletter, Hawkeye Happenings.
This provides an opportunity to keep all staff informed of the President’s priority activities, principally, building
partnerships with stakeholder organizations.
In 2004 the College joined the Center for Community College Development Strategic Horizons Colleges
network. That organization of fourteen peer colleges is committed to innovation in community college services,
particularly in the category of Helping Students Learn. Hawkeye’s participation in regional and national meetings
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of this organization includes a broad spectrum of administration, professional staff, and faculty. The President and
Vice Presidents are always represented.
The President uses two opportunities annually to communicate directly with all staff. Employee
Development Day in October and February each year devote approximately forty five minutes to a “state of the
college” address where the President’s expectations and goals are demonstrated by recognizing both
accomplishments and goals yet to be achieved.
In July 2006 the President’s Cabinet implemented a new organizational structure, including the addition of
a new Vice President position and an additional Dean. The new positions and realignment of staff reporting clearly
demonstrate enhanced commitment to external partnerships and internal commitment to improved services to
potential and current students.
5P2
The activities described in 5P1 are all designed to emphasize future opportunities. The strategic plan and
three year plans are all future focused. They result from studying the demographics of the region, identification of
key stakeholders, and keeping current with trends and environmental changes through participation in national level
organizations such as American Association of Community Colleges [AACC], American Association of Community
College Trustees [AACCT], and League for Innovation in the Community College. These and other professional
organizations are an intentional part of the leadership communication structure of the college.
A concrete example of future-oriented leadership is the conduct of the $25,000,000 bond issue campaign
that was successfully completed in June 2003. The President and Cabinet visibly led this initiative which will fund
new facilities and current facility renovations for the next ten years. This campaign was highly dependent on
building relationships with a community bond issue committee and cementing relationships with government, civic,
and business organizations throughout the region.
The College’s orientation toward future opportunities is based on building external relationships. Its
leadership is strongly aligned with formation of external relationships and future partnerships to serve stakeholder
needs, including participation in community, business and industry organizations and civic and economic
development organizations. Active participation in these organizations is modeled by the President and Cabinet and
is a frequent topic of discussion at President’s Council. Participation by all members of President’s Council and
other staff is highly encouraged and a record of participation is maintained. (See also 5R1). All professional staff
are expected to participate in their professional organizations at the local, state, regional, and national level.
During the last five years the College has become highly engaged in the legislative process at the state
level. The President meets with each state legislator from the ten county region served by the College once each
year. A professional staff member is designated to be in attendance frequently during the legislative session.
Locally, college employees attend each of several legislative forums that are held by local legislators during the
legislative session. This is a tracked activity to assure the College has representation at each forum. Presidential,
Cabinet, and administrative leadership regarding legislation affecting community colleges has made a significant
change in the attention staff devote to the political process, and it has helped identify the College’s allies in the
legislature.
5P3
As a matter of Board Policy Governance, the President, and subsequently, his subordinates are empowered
to make all decisions affecting achievement of the College’s mission and Board ends. In practice this grants
significant autonomy to the professionals who are responsible for the operating units of the Colleges, such as student
records, student developments, academic departments, library, academic support, financial aid and others.
Decision making varies in its level of formality and ranges from achieving consensus among group
participants, i.e. Cabinet, Academic Council, President’s Council, to formally structured processes such as collective
bargaining or approval of AQIP team recommendations. The groups described below form the structural bodies by
which decisions are rendered. A unilateral decision by the President without the inclusion of multiple informed
perspectives is unlikely.
Board Decision Making The Board of Trustees’ decisions are prescribed by Iowa Code and are limited by its own
governance policies. The area of greatest potential impact of Board decisions is the monthly monitoring reports of
the President’s compliance with presidential limitations and achievement of the Boards Ends Policies. The Board
can choose to accept, reject, or require changes in the evidence that is presented. The Board is currently in the
process of redefining and restructuring the forms of evidence it requires each month.
Cabinet Decisions – Cabinet meets weekly to discuss issues currently affecting the College. The meetings afford an
opportunity for the members to gain the perspective of other members and to reach decisions by consensus.
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Decisions of Cabinet are formally reported in Cabinet Notes, a brief record of its meetings that is attached to
Hawkeye Happenings newsletter. As appropriate, these decisions are communicated to other bodies of the college,
or occasionally, by email to all staff.
Committee Decisions – Several committees of the College are endowed with decision making authority as described
in their operational by-laws. These committees have broad cross-college representation in their membership. Their
decisions are communicated through committee minutes, postings on institutional bulletin boards, and verbal
communications through other institutional bodies such as Cabinet, Academic Council and President’s Council.
These committees have decision making authority:
• Academic Standards and Issues
• AQIP Steering Committee
• Assessment Committee
• Curriculum Committee
• Diversity Committee
• Equity Committee
• Employee Development Day Committee
• Faculty In-service Committee
• Hawkeye Improvement Projects Grants Committee
President’s Council is a body of all college administrators and the managers of college sites. The council meets
twice monthly as a general communication vehicle among administrators and to consider current issues of broad
College interest. Decisions are reached through consensus and in many cases are advisory to the President and
Cabinet.
Academic Council represents the interests of academic program and discipline department chairs. The group’s
decisions are advisory to the Vice President Academic Affairs. Decisions are reached by vote of the membership.
The group is governed by a set of by-laws. Decisions are communicated by minutes of the council, email to faculty,
and through faculty department meetings.
Student Senate is empowered to make decisions regarding expenditure of student activity funds. This affects cocurricular events brought to campus, entertainment events, and support of student health services.
Collective bargaining is the formal mechanism for determining wages, benefits, and working conditions decisions
for faculty and non-confidential classified employees. Bargaining progress is communicated via minutes of
bargaining sessions. Ultimately, these decisions are communicated through contract ratification and distribution of
the signed contracts. These are available on the College’s extranet.
Surveys are frequently used to gather data that impact decisions. Recent examples:
• A survey of students and employees on smoking resulted in eliminating smoking everywhere on
campus except parking lots
• A survey on the need for establishing a student health center resulted in establishing a center and
gained grant funding
• An employee survey of various summer hour practices shifted the College away from summer
four day weeks to five day weeks
5P4
Regional Demographic Data for the past ten years and up to fifteen years into the future confirm continuing
loss of population within the region served by Hawkeye Community College, particularly the loss of traditional age
college population. This information is reviewed annually and the projections have not changed. The only growing
population is of adults age 55+. With this knowledge, the College has stepped up recruiting efforts of graduating
high schools seniors, expanded the recruiting territory of graduating seniors, accelerated its response to school
districts asking for college level courses delivered to high school students, and begun exploring programming
options for older adults. For example, the introduction of computer classes geared to older adults, named Senior
Tech, has been very successful.
Demographic characteristics of current students are reviewed on the enrollment reporting date each
semester. This data includes age, gender, minority status, and full or part time status. This data plays into College
decisions regarding efforts to achieve gender balance in programs and retention of minority students. The report,
titled Student Demographics is distributed as an electronic file and includes a five year comparative analysis.
Enrollment Reporting for each semester begins weekly 40 days prior to the first day of classes and becomes
daily ten days prior to the first day of classes, continuing daily until the 10th day of classes when final counts are
taken. This data allows programs that demonstrate lagging enrollment to be targeted at an early enough date to be
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effective for the upcoming semester. This is particularly true when the lag in enrollment affects students who are
expected to return to a program. Enrollment data regarding the enrollment site is also reported. This allows
differentiation of day and evening enrollment, online enrollment, enrollment at off campus sites, and on campus
enrollment, and distinguishes returning student enrollments from new student enrollments. Daily course section
enrollment reports are critical when deciding when to cancel low enrollment sections. Overall, enrollment data for
the semester are most frequently used after the fact when planning for upcoming semesters. On a more global level,
enrollment in programs and courses is used to make decisions about programs that appear to be in trouble or to make
staffing decisions in areas of decreasing or increasing enrollment.
Graduates are reported annually by program of study with a five year comparative analysis. This
unassuming report, Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates, has a major impact on decisions regarding retention of
programs or provision of assistance to programs that appear to be struggling.
Academic Service Units of the College maintain records of their services. Although these data are not
distributed college-wide, they do impact the service decisions of their respective units. The Library, Academic
Support, Computer Information Systems, and Student Development are all examples of this type of data based
decision making.
Continuing Education/Business & Industry Training are responsible for recovering 140% of their training
costs. Programming managers of these areas meet regularly and review productivity of each training cost center.
Productivity data is summarized annually by program manager.
Job placement of graduates is reported annually in the Graduate Career Report. The information is
gathered by surveying recent graduates to determine if graduates are employed in the field for which they studied,
where they are located geographically, and to determine a wage range for new graduates. The results are distributed
publicly as a guide to career choice. Internally, the results form one piece of evidence regarding program
effectiveness.
5P5
Much of the College’s communication occurs in the decision making processes described in 5P3. The
advent of multiple forms of electronic communication has greatly impacted the frequency of communication, the
breadth of communication constituencies, and the timeliness of communication. Overall, email has had a
democratizing effect on institutional communication because of the ease with which messages can be communicated
beyond the original recipients. Email has become the de facto official communication medium.
Chain of command communication is observed for sensitive issues and when significant enlistment of
intradepartmental cooperation is necessary. The upward movement of communication would follow this pattern:
• Department head/program manager to
• Associate director/director/dean to
• Executive director/vice president to
• President
Hawkeye Community College is a relatively flat organization so it does not take much time for this communication
to occur. Because of the historically egalitarian nature of the College and with the advent of email, chain of
command communication more and more frequently becomes concurrent communication with a message directly to
an operational person, including a copy to the supervisor.
Electronic communications are by far the most frequently employed medium both for gathering
information that will affect decision making and for communicating college news.
• Email is used for person to person communication and for communication to and from distribution
groups such as President’s Council, Academic Council, department staff, and committees. Frequently
communication is conveyed to two or more of these groups simultaneously. When necessary, email is
used to communicate with all staff simultaneously. Examples of this use would be to convey
information about the death of an employee or the President’s recent use of email to convey
information about imminent promotions and changes in organizational structure.
• Comlink video messaging system is used primarily to advise students of college services but works
concurrently to keep staff aware of these services. For example, a Comlink announcing Student Health
vaccinations provides a medium by which all staff can be informed to pass information on to students.
• Hawkeye Happenings, the weekly electronic staff newsletter serves as a communication medium for
departments to announce new or changed services to students. It is also a medium for distributing
Cabinet and committee minutes. It is the single most comprehensive and frequent source of
information affecting the life of the College. All major decisions are published in the newsletter
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Meetings of department workgroups, college committees, Cabinet, President’s Council, Deans and
Directors, and Academic Council provide the most effective route to two way communication among different
organizational areas and levels of the College. They provide the most open opportunity for discussion because they
occur in real time. Lastly, they are they most effective way to form working relationships among employees.
Collective bargaining occurs in a regulated environment that allows employees to discuss and negotiate
with college administration as co-equals. This process has been especially fruitful in the faculty’s Interest Based
Bargaining sessions.
5P6
Institutional directions and opportunities – Leadership participation in AQIP continuous process
improvement activities, Strategic Horizons Network, community development activities, and the emphasis on public
and private partnerships is visible. These activities are communicated regularly at Cabinet, President’s Council,
Deans and Directors meetings, and are further disseminated through the President’s weekly email communication
with the Board of Trustees.
Learning – The phrases “teaching and learning” and “student assessment” are ubiquitous in College
discussions. Increasingly, “outcomes” and “measures” are becoming part of the conversation. Leadership’s
commitment to teaching and learning became visible in creation of the Brobst Center for Teaching & Learning in
2005. This major commitment in staffing and facilities elevates the perception and reality of meeting the
requirements of faculty development to carry out the mission of the college. Faculty have also been entrusted with
development of Faculty In-service activities for several years.
Continuous improvement – All AQIP continuous process improvement activities are openly supported by
administrators as team sponsors, team leaders, and team members. Hawkeye Improvement Project Grants are
entering their second year of operation. They allow any employee to present a plan for innovation and
improvement. Twenty-five thousand dollars per semester is allocated to these projects.
Ethics and equity –The President, and by extension, his subordinates, are guided by Board Policy 1.0 in the
execution of professional responsibilities. (See also 4P3) Communication of leadership’s commitment to equity is
visible in the consistent deployment of personnel policies, commitment to equity in admission to the College, and
monthly activity of the Equity Committee according to its statement of purpose. Equity is also communicated
through the annual Affirmative Action Plan.
Social responsibilities/Community service and involvement – The President and Vice Presidents lead by
example and expect other administrators to lead by example as well. Prescribed attendance at college and
community activities is frequent. Human Resource Services maintains a directory of community and civic
organizations that benefit from College involvement. All staff, particularly administrative staff, are encouraged to
join and participate in these organizations.
5P7
Internal Leadership Development is fostered by involving employees in organizational activities that are
beyond the daily scope of the employee’s job. Examples of this are committee involvement, e.g. Faculty In-service,
Employee Development, Curriculum, Assessment, and Academic Standards, either as participating members or as
chair.
The College adopted a faculty department chair structure in 2002 after the elimination of several
administrative department head positions. Exposure of faculty department chairs to some of the job responsibilities
that were formally administrative has prepared faculty to step into other leadership activities, including interim
administrative appointments.
All AQIP Continuous Process Improvement Teams provide leadership opportunities and develop
leadership skill at all levels across the College. All teams require leaders who are able to unite people from
disparate parts of the College, who frequently have not previously met, and who often have no team experience.
Sponsors, leaders, and members of these teams describe this opportunity as the most significant aspect of their AQIP
experience.
External leadership opportunities are abundant. The examples below describe leadership development
opportunities that are frequently pursued either by employee request or by recommendation of supervisors.
Professional organization participation is encouraged and many employees hold leadership positions within
their respective professional organization. Organizational participation frequently includes conference participation.
The College liberally supports conference attendance, particularly when faculty, staff or administrators are
conference and workshop presenters. Hawkeye employees frequently present at national conferences, including
American Association of Community Colleges and League for Innovation in the Community College.
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The College participates in three leadership development organizations regularly. Cedar Valley Leadership
Institute is an activity of the Greater Cedar Valley Chamber of Commerce. It seeks to develop local leaders by
introducing promising young employees to local civic organizations with the expectation of grooming them for
future organizational board or committee participation. The Institute meets monthly at Hawkeye Community
College. Hawkeye recommends two of its employees to the Institute each year.
The College nominates two individuals each for CLIC and LINC (4P4), programs of Iowa State University
that advance the academic and career goals of its participants. These development programs are designed to develop
leadership within the ranks of Iowa’s community colleges.
The Center for Community College Development Strategic Horizons Network (4P4) specifically intends to
develop the capacity of the College through development of its employees. The organization fosters leadership
development through two annual colloquia, visits to best practices organizations outside education, and participation
by Hawkeye employees in the development of best practices modules in areas such as leadership, strategic thinking,
college communication, and process management. The leadership development potential derives from the
opportunity to work with community college colleagues over a widely dispersed geographic region.
Other leadership development opportunities are pursued as the need arises such as Executive Leadership
Institute under the aegis of League for Innovation in the Community College which has been attended by one of the
College’s deans and the president.
5P8
Board policy requires that at least two executive team members be familiar with all current and significant
issues affecting the College in the event of sudden loss of presidential leadership. This is mapped by position title
and reaffirmed once each year to the Board.
Filling of leadership positions follows defined human resources policies and practices. Leadership
positions may be filled through internal recruitment and appointment but in practice, positions are almost always
externally recruited and internal candidates compete on equal footing with external candidates.
The College has regularly made use of interim appointments in cases involving long term illness, sudden
departure of an employee in a leadership position, or when the recruited pool of job applicants is insufficient to meet
the leadership challenges of the position to be filled.
The Board of Trustees fulfills its leadership role when recruiting a new president. Issues related to mission,
vision, and values are an integral and open aspect of the interview process. All employees are invited to meet with
presidential candidates and probe the individuals’ fit for mission, vision and values. Filling of all leadership
positions of the College involves numerous employees at numerous levels and areas of the college in both formal
and informal interview situations. All hiring is vetted by a rigorous check of references. Human Resource Services
employs outside firms to conduct reference checks for the most critical leadership roles.
5P9
Employee Performance Evaluation – All professional and administrative employees are evaluated on
characteristics of communication and leadership each year. General professional and general executive and
administrative responsibilities form an independent portion of each evaluation, apart from the job-specific
evaluation. Recommendations for improvement are noted and discussed with employees. These are conducted oneon-one and cross institutional analysis does not occur.
Employee Surveys – College employees are periodically surveyed regarding their perceptions of
communication and leadership. (See 4P9) The most recent data is from the Center for Community College
Development Community College Culture Index identified the need to change from a cultural paradigm that valued
stability and efficiency over change and community involvement. The survey was administered in January 2005 and
drew conclusions about communication and leadership at Hawkeye Community College based on eight cultural
prototypes. The survey results validate current leadership’s emphasis on developing a dynamic and externally
focused organization.
Cultural Index Prototypes:
• Dualistic or Integrated: A dualistic culture is fragmented with units functioning like silos serving as the
primary reference point for staff. In an integrated culture, staff identifies primarily with the institution—the
whole is greater than any of its parts and people put institution above the unit.
• Internally or Externally-Focused: An internally-focused culture places a premium on building capacity by
taking care of the internal organization. A culture that is externally-focused seeks growth through
collaboration with external organizations—entrepreneurial activity is valued and market connections are
important.
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Static or Dynamic: In a static culture, the focus is on continuity and stability. A dynamic culture reflects a
continuing interesting, and drive for, change.
Bureaucratic or Humanistic: Bureaucratic culture places emphasis on the organization and policies and
processes that help it run efficiently. In a humanistic culture people are valued more highly than anything
else—the organization is only as good as its staff.
Category
Communication
Leadership
Figure 5.2
Full time
faculty
Bureaucratic
Bureaucratic
Community College Culture Index, January 2005
Part time
Classified staff
Senior
faculty
administrators
Bureaucratic
Bureaucratic
Static
Bureaucratic
Bureaucratic
Dualistic
Middle
administrators
Bureaucratic
Bureaucratic
5R1
Current leadership’s emphasis on developing a dynamic and externally focused culture has led to specific
outcomes that back up that focus. Many of these instances are described more fully in categories one and four.
Dynamic Culture Results
• Support of Faculty Initiatives such as Wings honors program through release time for program
development; support for Learning Communities through release time for program development;
empowering faculty to develop standards for teaching online courses
• Creation and funding of Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services based on faculty and staff
integration of five separate AQIP team proposals
• College participation in Strategic Horizons Colleges as part of its college development plan
• Open ended three year plans developed by each department in response to the Strategic Plan 2005-2010
• Empowering faculty and staff to have key input when selecting ANGEL, the new online learning
management system
• Embracing Interest Based Bargaining in support of compensation for faculty innovation
• Faculty AQIP team development of Arts & Sciences core curriculum outcomes matrix in support of
mission and goals
• Implementation of Hawkeye Improvement Process grants to foster innovation among all staff
Externally Focused Culture Results
• FY2006 Legislative Funding in line with community college funding requests
• Voter approval of 25 million dollar bond issue for infrastructure growth and improvement
• Partnerships such as H-TAC and Team Technologies; Waterloo Schools COMPASS testing and Grad
Connection partnerships (3R3); Cedar Valley Library Consortium; legislative funding aligning with our
requests.
• Support of travel allowance in-state and out-of-state
• Strategic Horizons Colleges membership
• Creation of Center for Teaching and Learning directly supported by president
• Relationship building such as with Waterloo Schools and Cedar Falls Schools in-service programs
• One hundred sixty percent increase in giving to Hawkeye Community College Foundation 2005-2006
(3P3)
5R2
The College does not currently have Leading and Communicating benchmark comparisons with other
institutions of higher education.
5I1
The College has invested significant resources in time and money to improve electronic communications
systems. Implementation of Datatel Colleague as the College’s information management system has consumed
thousands of hours of staff time and hundreds of thousands of dollars. The College’s wired and wireless networks
are state of the art. Based on the school’s egalitarian history, employees do not find it difficult to communicate via
email with their peers and supervisors.
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The Helios Customer Feedback System is in beta testing. Once deployed fully it will have the ability to
summarize feedback data. (1P9, 3P6, 3I1, 3I2, 6P1, 6P3)
All AQIP continuous process improvement teams address issues of communication and leadership. Several
projects directly address communication. Feedback from these teams is particularly effective because it is made
directly to the AQIP Steering Committee which includes the College’s key leadership positions.
The development of departmental three year plans in response to the Strategic Plan directly communicate
the President’s leadership challenges and provide for staff to design their own plan to respond to that charge.
5I2
Targets for improvement are set by the AQIP Steering Committee in response to the Strategic Plan and by
individual departments through their Three Year Plans. An AQIP process improvement team is currently
implementing WorkplaceLean concepts to streamline the advising and registration processes of the school. The goal
is to improve communications among faculty, staff, and students so that the process of becoming a student is more
efficient, effective, and friendly. A multi-department team is coordinating the project. Improved student mail and
email communication is tied to an improved and mandatory orientation process. The project was tested with a
limited number of programs in summer/fall 2006 and will be implemented college-wide in spring 2007. Faculty and
staff who were not directly involved in the project learned about the changes through Faculty In-service and
Employee Development Day events.
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CATEGORY 6 Supporting Institutional Operations
6C1
Student and administrative support service processes are strengths of the College. Students and employees
have an expectation that these services will be provided effectively, efficiently, and professionally. When lapses in
service occur or the need for new services is apparent, students and employees all have direct access to the
administrators who are responsible for providing the service. Often the communication is by email but
appointments with a vice president or director are commonly arranged when requested. A recurring
communications course assignment requires students to interview administrators about services of the College. This
occurs each semester and it is unlikely that any administrator, including the president, has not been personally
interviewed by a panel of students about current and future services. Key support units and the number of
employees in each unit are listed below. Each unit is headed by a professional staff member.
Student and Administrative Support Units of Hawkeye Community College
Support Service Unit
Employees
Academic Support
39 employees, including tutors, readers, full and
part time faculty, computer lab assistants
Admissions and Recruiting
9 employees
Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning
Services
o Media
o Distance Learning
Business Services/Payroll
Bookstore
Communication and Information Systems
Custodial Services
Financial Aid
Food Service
Library
Maintenance
Marketing and Public Relations
Printing Services
Public Safety
Student Development
o Testing
o Special needs
o advising/counseling
Student Health
Student Life/Activities
o Student senate
o Graduation
o Housing
o Employment
Student Records/Registration
Foundation/Grants
o Grants
7 employees
19 employees
Outsourced
13 employees
14 employees
6 employees
Outsourced
5 employees
6 employees
7 employees
Outsourced
7 employees
9 employees
Outsourced
2 employees
9 employees
6 employees
Figure 6.1
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6C2
All student and administrative support services are designed to simplify and make easier the
process of being a Hawkeye Community College student, employee, or visitor. All service units are headed
by professional staff whose specific responsibilities are to facilitate the delivery of service. This requires
cooperating with other service units to resolve problems and plan improvements, keeping current in one’s
own field, and communicating the College’s service values to all employees. The College’s
WorkplaceLean initiative to simplify the registration process exemplifies the goal of making it easy to be a
customer of the College.
The attitudes necessary to accomplish service goals are modeled by supervisors. A Business
Services front-line employee describes her job not as “taking students’ tuition payments,” but as getting
students in school and keeping them I school. In the process she describes, the college maintains
an emergency loan account to assist students while they are in the process of securing financial aid.
6P1
Hawkeye Community College students expect to have their most basic support service needs met
a priori. These include security and safety, custodial services, parking, and classroom facilities. After that,
minimal levels of computer service, library resources, advising, and other services are expected. Any
services that fall below students’ minimal thresholds will result in complaints from students. Staff
members rely on a number of strategies to determine service needs that may exceed student expectations
but which are, in fact, necessary for the success of most students.
Many student support services provide face-to-face, telephone, or email communication with
students and must be responsive to individual student needs. These transactions rely on direct
communication with the student and appropriate questioning techniques to ensure students receive what
they actually need. Other times, student needs are well understood [advising/registration] but the challenge
is to redefine how those services are delivered in the most effective and efficient way to meet changing
student expectations. In every service unit of the college, staff must become informed of the processes of
other service departments because it is unlikely any single service unit will meet a student’s total needs.
Methods of determining students’ and customers’ needs are presented here by frequency of occurrence.
Meeting anticipated requirements – Administrative and student support services operate on a daily
basis by anticipating student and customer needs based on past history. Consequently, processes to support
these needs are a routine part of each unit’s operation and significant staff cross-training is in place.
Examples of these needs are provision of transcripts for transfer to other colleges, obtaining financial aid
deferments, obtaining instructions on how to use SOAR online student services, instruction in online
research methods, or arranging for alternative methods of tuition payment. Staff members are well
acquainted with how to provide these services within their departments or where students should be
referred to receive services.
Direct Student Feedback – Front line employees identify direct student feedback as the most
frequent and valid method of determining students’ support service needs. This allows for a customized
service response along with the employee’s ability to make a determination of the degree to which the
student’s need is met. These examples are cited by employees:
• After COMPASS testing students are asked directly if they need special needs support. This helps
students self-identify potential academic problems prior to encountering difficulties
• Student senate and student clubs provide a mechanism for students to communicate directly to the
College about co-curricular and extracurricular activities
• Complaints are welcome. They resolve immediate student issues and may identify a problem that
is common to many students
• Repetitive questions tell us we need to do a better job of supplying information to students or
modifying the information we supply
• Student workshops on study habits, depression, etc. allow access to direct student feedback on
student satisfaction with the workshop goals and outcomes
• Students communicate via email directly to service units: library, financial aid, student records,
and other service units of the College. The Helios feedback system works to get the feedback to
the correct department
• Appointments through counseling, advising, workforce development, financial aid, or other
service units allow a personalized approach to identifying and meeting student needs
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When we receive a request from a student for specific services, whether in the computer lab or
study area, we know that is a signal to determine whether or not we have an area of need for all
students. If we start getting more requests for specific services we decide the best way to respond
to the requests during our department meetings or specially called meetings
Departmental meetings and cross-departmental communications – All departments hold formal
and impromptu meetings to discuss issues affecting services to students. Employees identify cross-training
as a common outcome of such meetings as a method of ensuring continuity of services over the short term
(lunch), medium term (vacation), and long term (serious illness or position vacancy). All departments have
undergone extensive retraining as the College’s new data system, Datatel Colleague, is being deployed.
Consequently, departmental meetings have been more frequent and service issues have been more
common. Recently, cross departmental work teams have been assembled to redefine service to high
schools, [High School Relations Committee] and streamlining the admissions/registration process
[WorkplaceLean Team]. Faculty members consistently identify student referrals to staff in academic
support, financial aid, and the library as a method of meeting students’ needs. Staff are trained to follow up
with the referral department to be certain the student receives the needed service. Often, staff accompany
students to the referral unit. Workforce Development employees also identify client referrals to specific
service units as a routine part of their customized case management system.
Survey results – Support units administer surveys to determine the effectiveness of their services.
These surveys are generally small in scope, narrow in focus, and results are not widely distributed beyond
the initiating department. For example, COMPASS testing administers a survey once each year that asks
test takers to evaluate their satisfaction with the testing process and the results of the test. However, the
survey results are not used outside the testing department. More widely distributed surveys, such as
Student Development’s survey on the need for student health services or Student Activities’ survey of
attitudes toward a tobacco free campus are generally administered once, interpreted for action, and not readministered. Overall, College employees are supportive of surveying as a method of obtaining
information for decision-making. A simplified or uniform surveying method will likely improve the
reliability of surveys, the benchmarking of results, and follow up surveys. An online surveying instrument,
Inquisite, was purchased for this purpose in summer 2006.
Examine the curriculum – Certain areas, such as Library, Academic Support, Advising, and
Hawkeye Bookstore need to maintain close ties to current and proposed curriculum and to methods of
course delivery. Each of these service areas has had to enhance its ability to provide services to students
who are taking many or all classes online. Maintaining effective relationships with faculty is crucial, too.
Knowing faculty expectations is vital to anticipating student needs. Advisers need to keep abreast of the
transferability of new curriculum and the graduation requirements it meets. Requests from instructors
asking for services to students let us know entire classes of students have the same need(s).
Statistical resources/Professional organizations/Compliance requirements – Statistical resources
and the insight provided by professional organizations are cited by service department directors and
professional employees as sources that help determine new directions in meeting students’ service needs.
The College’s own demographic profile of students is distributed each term and is a guide both to the
changing overall population of the College and as a counterpoint to the demographic data of individual
programs. The professional organization memberships of College employees verify the degree to which
external professional expertise influences the direction of support service development. Participation in
these organizations, local, state, regional, and national, prepares the respective support units to anticipate
future student needs, of which current students may yet be unaware. Past examples are online searching
[pre-Internet], Internet, email, and wireless computing. ADA requirements prescribe the services that must
be available to special needs students. These service requirements have not changed in recent years but the
technology to accommodate needs changes constantly and the College must be ready to adopt that
technology.
6P2
All employees of the College require the same safety and comfort that is required by students.
Access to the providers of these services is open and anyone can schedule a meeting with the administrator
in charge of each service. Faculty, staff, administrators, and stakeholder groups expect that the
professionals in charge of these services will have pre-identified necessary services that will be seamlessly
delivered. For example, the College offered direct payroll deposit years ahead of direct deposit becoming
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the norm. Human Resource Services offered a cafeteria benefits plan years ahead of that becoming the
norm. Generally, service providers are expected to be and are acknowledged to be, experts. Specific
methods of communicating needs, when necessary, are identified for each employee group and
stakeholders below.
Faculty – All academic disciplines and career programs hold regular department meetings. This
provides an opportunity for specific service needs to be discussed. Department heads are then responsible
for bringing those service requests to the Dean during regular department head meetings. Faculty members
cite AQIP teams as being effective in identifying unmet needs. An example is the team that examined
retention of adjunct faculty that resulted in granting adjuncts limited leave without financial loss. Hawkeye
Professional Educators’ Association [HPEA] is the formal bargaining unit that addresses faculty needs
through the Interest Based Bargaining process. The process encourages extensive conversation and
recently resulted in redefinition of Family Care Leave to the satisfaction of faculty and administration.
Academic Council is a twice-monthly meeting of all faculty department heads, the Vice President, and
Deans. Academic Council often has invited guests to explain issues such as the budgeting process.
Staff – All staff participate in regular department meetings where their support service needs can
be discussed. As with faculty, guests are often invited to meetings. Computer services staff and human
resources staff are frequently invited to department meetings, particularly when changes in service are
being implemented. Staff name AQIP teams as an effective communication tool. An example of AQIP
team effectiveness is the online staff directory tool, Atlas, (4P3) that meets the needs of staff to efficiently
identify and communicate with all employees of the College, including the many part time employees. The
College employs about 130 classified employees. Seventy percent of these employees are represented by
the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. UE is the formal bargaining until that
identifies these staff members’ support needs regarding compensation, benefits, and work conditions.
Administrators – College administrators meet twice each month as President’s Council.
Administrative support needs are discussed as necessary. Because of the composition of the Council, the
appropriate administrator is usually in attendance and can provide direct answers to questions raised and
can discuss service needs in context of the request. These needs often address short term needs such as
enhanced maintenance and security for the Relay for Life cancer walk on campus. These administrators are
the authors or supervisors of Three Year Plans for their areas of service. Enhancements or changes in
administrative support needs are outlined in the plans.
Common to All Employees – Surveys are used to gather input from large numbers of employees.
The Institutional Assessment Survey (4P9) gathers data on how administrative service units of the College
are perceived by the different groups of employees. Human Resource Services employs surveys to gather
staff reaction to proposed or potential changes in health insurance benefits. Employees also have input to
identify administrative support needs through planning of Faculty In-service Days and Employee
Development Days. The service units of the College are featured presenters as part of these activities.
Stakeholders – Stakeholder needs are discussed throughout Category 3. The Board of Trustees
details its administrative service needs through its Board Governance Policies.
6P3
Category 6 information was gathered during an all-employee Systems Portfolio Workshop held in
February 2006. Among the conclusions that can be drawn from this experience, three stand out:
1. Employees who serve in the student and administrative support units of the College express the
need for greater awareness of the service processes of other units. Faculty feel out of touch with
these support units and their processes, although they are not particularly critical of the service
units.
2. Day to day management of student and administrative support service process are as variable as
the units that provide the service.
3. Staff self-organizational practices (priority lists, routine work order such as “answer voice
messages/email first”) are important practices.
Some front line service providers of the college feel overwhelmed by student demand and respond
by “putting out the biggest fire first.” The processes and practices described here are commonly cited by
many, most, or all service units of the College. Most of these units respond daily to informal and anecdotal
information. Although it is obvious they are constantly changing their processes in response to perceived
needs, the changes are not always documented and measures to document the effects of change are not
always defined.
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Staffing – Each area has an administrative or professional staff leader who has awareness of crossdepartment issues and who is involved in cross departmental/college meetings and conversations. This
person will usually be the first to be aware of issues that may impact service providers such as changes in
College hours and implementation of changes in computing systems. As noted in 6C1, these units vary
greatly in staffing and these differences affect issues of cross training, hours of service, and inter- and intradepartmental communication.
Documentation – Awareness of the need to document processes has received elevated attention
during the past two years. Implementation of Datatel Colleague has affected every service unit of the
College and it is understood that the technology employed today is unlikely to be “figured out” on the fly.
Business Services, Student Records, Computer Information Services, Distance Learning, and the Library
are notable for having complete documentation for each job in their respective departments. All service
units have documented procedures for the Datatel Colleague processes impacting their services. Some
areas are impacted by procedures that are mandated outside the College. Workforce Development follows
case management procedures required by the State of Iowa. All offices of the College are impacted by
FERPA requirements. The college has identified the need for more and ongoing FERPA training for
existing staff and new staff orientation to FERPA. AQIP teams have been instrumental in establishing
documentation of service procedures. A recent successful example is the high school contract courses
procedures manual that was developed by the High School Relations Committee.
A few procedures are so thoroughly established and observable that they have become recognized
as the “way the college does business.” An example is the enrollment report that is distributed throughout
the College beginning weekly six weeks prior to the start of a new term, daily ten days prior to the start of
the term, and daily for the first ten days of the term. Human Resource Services’ recruitment, authorization
to hire, and personnel leave procedures/forms are another example of thoroughly institutionalized
procedures.
Interdepartmental/Intradepartmental communication – All student and administrative service units
of the College rely on department and interdepartmental meetings to carry out daily operations.
Departments with few staff such as Student Life and Library rely on impromptu staff meetings because
they must remain open and operational during all service hours. Many staff cite small workgroups as a plus
because of the ease of communication across teams. Most department staff members connect informally at
the start of each day to establish priorities and issues for the day. Maintenance and custodial services uses
a formal “start-up” meeting each day to identify priorities because its staff is deployed at distances
throughout the campus.
Electronic communications – Electronic communication, email particularly, is essential to daily
communication and operations within and across all service departments. Cross-departmental teams, such
as the Datatel Colleague Core team, have been vital to maintaining operations as the Datatel Colleague
system has been implemented, and are successful through a combination of face-to-face meetings and email
communication. Email, however, is the predominant communication format of these teams. Service unit
staff who participated in AQIP workshops identified email and instant messaging as their preferred
communication tool because of its time saving advantages, built-in recordkeeping, and ease of exchanging
documents and other data. All staff have access to networked computer resources for these purposes,
including a universal network drive accessible to all employees and a personal network drive that can be
accessed from any college computer or from home.
Hawkeye Happenings, the electronic staff newsletter, is published weekly. It is a reliable
distribution medium about student and administrative services that is widely read throughout the College
and it promotes communication across work groups. The same communications are received by students
through their Hawkeye email account, postings on Comlink, and Stall Street Journal. (1P4, 3P2)
An innovation in department communications is being piloted by the Center for Business and
Industry. Goldmine software is a client management system that tracks all staff interaction with a specific
customer, or student. The ability to summarize staff interaction with students and clients in a single
electronic location has implications for improving customer satisfaction that can be applied to student and
administrative service units throughout the College.
Scheduling to meet demand – All student and administrative service units vary their staffing to
meet demand, including extended hours during peak registration periods and during the first several days of
each semester. Academic Support and the Library have observed extended hours year round for many
years. Although most services have not yet scheduled regular hours beyond 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. daily,
the success of the library with a staff of five covering six days and 70 hours per week demonstrates this is
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not an impossibility to achieve. Scheduling to meet demand includes setting up personal appointments for
students and clients. Appointments are a significant aspect of the services of Financial Aid, Advising,
Counseling, Academic Support, and Business Services, and the Library. The library schedules whole class
instruction at the request of faculty. Testing Services schedules COMPASS appointments to meet the
convenience of students.
Feedback Systems –Formal feedback systems used by support units include surveys such as the
New and Enrolled Group Advising Survey administered by Student Development following group
registration sessions and point of service surveys such as those used by the Library or Academic Support to
selectively measure specific aspects of their services, e.g. satisfaction with computing resources. Many
services are able to take advantage of appointments with individual students and clients to assess
satisfaction and determine whether needs are being met. Workforce Development operates by client
appointment and a formal case management system. Helios, the electronic student feedback system is
designed specifically to allow students to communicate with support service units. The library is piloting
pre and post testing of students’ knowledge of research methods and sources beginning fall 2006.
Informal feedback mechanisms make use of anecdotal information and charting of customer
service. Anecdotal evidence is abundant, effective, and widely shared within and across departments.
One-on-one interaction in person, by telephone and email is frequent and serves as a significant source to
gather satisfaction and complaint information and to identify potential problems. This is an area of
opportunity for departments that are willing to implement documentation and tracking of anecdotal
information. Such a system can be paired with the Helios feedback system.
Charting and recording of activity is usually a quantitative tracking of service activity and is used
to allocate deployment of services during the times they will be most effectively used. Additionally,
quantitative tracking of service activity provides a direct service comparison with earlier semesters or
years. Examples of this type of recording are numbers of students advised during group registration
sessions, use of academic support services, weekly and daily enrollment reports, tracking of negative and
positive feedback following cross-training of Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services staff and
Communication Information Systems staff, and use of web interfaces for delivery of services to students.
6P4
Administrative and student service units of the College enjoy an autonomy of operation that
allows their professional leadership to guide their respective units without recourse to approval by higher
administrative authority. This allows for continuous experimentation in how service is delivered and for
swift implementation of changes recommended by the staff who have direct contact with students and other
customers. The drawback to this method of operation is that measures of service are not always identified
at the institutional level and are not always reported institutionally. These staff members characterize their
information and results data as falling into one of the three categories below. Most decisions to implement
change rely on a mix of all three data sources.
Professional Information and knowledge – Professionals understand the landscape of their support
services and usually seek out improved services even before students/customers are aware of potential
improvement possibilities. All of the administrative and student service unit professionals of the college
have peers in other community colleges and all of them participate in their peer professional group
meetings at the state level and often at the national level. It is the responsibility of these people to chart
new directions for service. On a daily basis these individuals are involved in the committee work of the
College, e.g. Curriculum, Assessment, Academic Standards, Datatel Colleague Core, and others. The
summative results of their professional involvement locally, regionally, and nationally is reflected in their
respective Three Year Plans. Benchmark measures for each service unit need to be developed and reported
at the institutional level.
Experiential Data – Experiential data falls somewhere between anecdotal information and hard
data. It often involves documentation of data but does not always include a formal method of gathering
data or reporting it. It frequently forms the basis for action to improve service. Examples of experiential
data vary for each support service. Several examples are illustrated below.
• Recordkeeping by library staff of requests for wireless computer access, paired with Computer
Information Services’ [CIS] development of professional knowledge on delivery of wireless
service, resulted in piloting wireless service in the library with eventual deployment throughout
the campus. A similar example involved Business Services’ awareness of student requests for
online payment options which were implemented with the knowledge of CIS. This combination
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of experience and knowledge has led to a significant number of student online resources that
respond to student demand. Multiple service units have been trained to assist students in the use
of these resources, enabling any staff member to assist students with basic student requirements
such as access to email, student grades, registration, and to quickly diagnose problems. Whether a
student visits, Student Development, Student Activities, Student Records, Academic Support, the
Library, or Distance Learning, staff in these areas are all able to help students access any of the
College’s online resources
Simple observation by staff often results in change that benefits students. For example, the
College’s “legalistic” suspension and probation letters to students have been consistently
simplified to a point where we are now confident students understand the purpose of the letters
and they understand the requirements and options they can pursue to maintain enrollment.
Subsequent data collection over time has validated the wisdom of this approach, with more
suspended students choosing to return to the College and more of these students demonstrating
success in repeated and new courses. Results of the past five years show that 24% of students who
appeal their academic suspension successfully complete a program of study. The number of
appeals per semester has more than doubled in the past year after drastically simplifying
suspension letters.
Workforce Development has used its observation of client results to design Career Inventory, a
series of eight assessments to help participants understand how their interests, values, and
aptitudes are related to occupational choices. Participants who then choose to enroll in college
receive Workforce Development Orientation as the first step in the enrollment process by
administering an overview of programs and services available. The orientation ensures that
participants are apprised of policies and procedures that apply during enrollment, such as
attendance, payments, complaint procedures, monitoring, and follow-up.
Record keeping of student requests for expanded testing hours, paired with Academic Support’s
hard data on the steadily increasing number of students served resulted in expanded testing hours
and allocation of space for a secure testing center.
A registration follow-up meeting is hosted by Student Records and Registration following the
beginning of each term. All staff who have intensive involvement in the registration process share
their observations of what went well and what needs improvement. Minutes of the meeting are
distributed and recommended changes take effect during the upcoming registration period.
Hard Data – Hard data uses consistently identifiable methods of gathering and recording
information for decision making. Although it requires analysis, it does not require the degree of subjective
analysis that must be applied to professional knowledge and experiential data when making decisions.
Examples of hard data use are illustrated below.
• Student Recruiting used its knowledge of declining high school graduation populations to increase
the number of high school visits, including repeat visits and expanding the region of the visits.
This resulted in recruiting 14% more new high school graduates in academic year 2006. The
decision to expand visits responded to the Iowa Department of Education’s published census
figures projecting declining high school graduations by district over the next ten years.
• Student Retention used its knowledge of a 12% gap in minority student retention to create
workshops/training to address minority student retention.
• Program waiting lists maintained by Admissions were used to add a night nursing section in 2005.
All students on the wait list were personally contacted prior to adding the section to assure
adequate enrollment.
• Research and Planning and Academic Services studies degree completion by program. This has
led to discussions of adding a diploma option to many technical degree programs where attrition
indicates students are leaving to take jobs prior to graduation without completion of general
studies requirements.
• Surveys are used by numerous departments. Some surveys are point of service or point in time
data gathering instruments that are used to validate observations and may not be re-administered
[e.g. student/staff smoking attitudes]. Others, such as Workforce Development’s Dislocated
Worker Survey are used repeatedly to identify worker needs in the face of a major employer layoff
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or closure. Research and Planning administers ACT Student Opinion Survey and Faces of the
Future Survey on a regular schedule and publishes the results on the College extranet for access.
Financial Aid gathers student attendance data prior to distributing student aid, resulting in a
reduction in loan defaults.
Focus on Friday student/parent campus visit surveys indicated a need for Saturday visit days to
serve the needs of parents. Two Saturday visits were added to meet this need and resulted in a
41% increase in parent participation.
The Library gathered survey data from faculty in 2006 prior to making decisions about
discontinuing hard copy periodical and journal publications and adding additional online
resources. This resulted in a $15,000 savings that was reinvested in online resources, including
expanding the psychology journal collection from ten paper subscriptions to fifty-six full-text
online subscriptions.
6P5
Support Service Unit
Academic Services
Academic Support
Admissions and Recruiting
Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services
o Teaching and Learning
o Media
o Distance Learning
Business Services/Payroll
Bookstore
Communication and Information Systems
AQIP Category #6
Measures of support service reported
•
Academic Program Review: Eight programs per year
reflect on effectiveness of support services, including
printing, media, library, health and safety, academic
support. counseling/advising; financial aid; records
maintenance
•
program, persistence fall to spring, fall to fall,
persistence to completion
•
placement after graduation
•
Annual developmental student performance report
measuring successful course completion and student
enrollment in next level course
Prior year/semester comparisons enrollment by high
school, transferred in students, new from high school;
new students vs. returning students; admission wait lists;
enrollment reports; admissions vs. actual registrations
•
Help desk call statistics
•
Calls directly to the Center (mostly classroom
technology requests)
•
Statistics from online learning management
system—student satisfaction, times of usage,
technical problems
•
Service records for classroom technology
•
Satisfaction, learning, and behavior change measures
of faculty who engage in BCTLS course/workshop
offerings
Business Services analyzes the enrollment report before
the semester and the student census by time of day and
day of week to determine need to find additional funding
or hold back on expenditures, if additional income to
make delayed purchases is available. The student census
helps determine staffing needs and prepare appropriate
quantities of food in food service.
Sales are monitored by dept. on an hourly, daily, monthly,
and annually basis. Sales history by title is reviewed each
semester. Textbooks return data, buyback data and
enrollment is reviewed each semester.
Internet: Gather usage data and watch for peak periods or
level of consistent usage; determine means to reduce
waste, reroute traffic to increase accessibility
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Observe student information KIOSK usage and make sure
key areas are being maintained and updated if needed for
equipment.
Communication Information Systems – cont.
Custodial Services
Monitor network storage space for all students and
employees; maximize file space by periodically
instructing users to purge old files
Helpdesk tracks network, PC, and telephone service
issues; creates statistics on service and determines areas
of weakness, including potential campus wide technical
problem. Plans training based on service requests.
Analyzes student service support calls and works with
Academic Support and Library to deploy solutions in
those support areas
Telephone calls, email, work orders analyzed weekly
Food Service
Foundation
o Grants
Outsourced
Number of loan programs and students in loan programs
Total dollars for scholarships
Total number and % of Hawkeye employees giving year
over year
Total contributions year to year comparison
Library
Circulation of library materials
Number of library users in evening and on Sundays
Use of online subscription resources
Interlibrary loan borrowing and lending transactions
Number and nature of library instruction sessions
Number and nature of questions posed via Ask a
Librarian email web service
Number and nature of reference encounters (via
sampling)
Maintenance
Telephone calls, email, work orders analyzed weekly
Marketing and Public Relations
Measurement of response to ads, image enhancement,
enrollment growth, and positive news coverage.
Outsourced
ACT Faces of the Future Survey and Student Opinion
Survey to gather additional information regarding student
perception and needs
Telephone calls, email, analyzed weekly; Injury reports,
criminal reports
Needs assessments in form of surveys – [child care, health
needs, tobacco use]
COMPASS results; A COMPASS placement survey is
administered every fall semester to
determine student satisfaction in course placement
(reading, writing, and math). Year to year comparisons
are analyzed.
A writing course placement survey is administered at six
weeks to determine student satisfaction with
developmental writing course placement (past 2 years).
Utilization of fourteen different health services are
tracked quarterly and reported annually in Student Health
Services Progress Report.
14th day enrollment & demographic, MIS Year-end data,
Degrees Diplomas & Certificates
Printing Services
Research & Planning
Public Safety
Student Development
o Testing
o Special needs
o advising/counseling
Student Health
Student Records/Registration
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Workforce Development Customer Service Plan;
social/personality assessment – to determine fit for client
within workplace and school setting; customer
satisfaction surveys of customers who exit Workforce
Development programs
Figure 6.2
6R1
Student support service process results are often informally gathered and are held within the
department. Outside Three Year Plan requirements or outside agency reporting requirements, support
services generally do not distribute results reports internally. The examples below illustrate the type of
results that are recorded by units that maintain formal or semi-formal data gathering and results reporting.
See also 6P5.
• Library expanded bibliographic instruction for whole classes to match faculty requests for
general and specialized instruction
o Faculty feedback to data supplied by the Library resulted in deleting over $15,000 in hard
copy periodical subscriptions for FY2007. Savings have been used to continue expansion
of high demand online services
o Cross training enables a staff of five to provide 70 hours per week, six days per week of
service
• Academic Support has added extensive resources as a result of analyzing faculty and student
requests plus an analysis of actual users based on logins
o Addition of an Applied Arts computer lab
o Addition of workshops on Power Tools for Learning and How to Use SOAR system
o Offering on-line tutoring support via Smarthinking, PLATO
o Providing telephone and e-mail assistance to students who need help with log-on or
computer assistance
o Make-Up testing services for students from M-R 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. F: 8:00 a.m.-4:30
p.m.
o Providing peer tutoring to students in content subject areas where we do not have
professional instructor tutors
o Providing instruction in using and access to special needs equipment; Dragon Naturally
Speaking – speech to text application; JAWS - helps visually impaired students navigate
the computer screen and internet; OpenBook – text to speech application
o Testing Accommodations for students with special needs
o Providing access to specialized equipment used in courses
o Transcription machine for secretarial students
o 28% of students who have taken at least one developmental course do graduate
• Public Safety reports Injuries and criminal activity to improve student safety and to substantiate a
campus with a low crime rate.
• The College has increased student access to online services such as registration, payment, course
drops/adds, course grades, library research
• TRiO measured the number of participating students who transfer at 9.38%. Reallocation of
funding allowed hiring of a transfer advisor with a goal of 20% transfer to four year colleges
• Responding to participant survey results, Recruitment’s Focus on Friday attendance increased
FY05 to FY06 by 13% more students and 41% more parents
• Workforce Development non-activity reports result in follow up on inactive clients who are not
following their development program for entering the workforce
• A mandatory new student orientation for career and technical programs has been developed
through AQIP team collaboration of Student Development, Admissions, Recruiting, Financial
Aid, and Business Services
• Student Development added a student health center as result of extensive student surveying results
and public agency collaboration in 2005
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6R2
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Implementation of Datatel Colleague records management system resulting in broader access to
budget information; faster flow of requisitions; increased access to online services for students;
broad based staff training
Unqualified auditors’ opinion on College audits since 1966
Improved Moody bond ratings from A1to Aa3 based on the college's substantial tax base, sound
financial operations, and a modest amount of aggressively retired debt.
Audits show a healthy fund balance and annual financial statements show a bar graph on the
increasing fund balance
Passage of a bond in June 2003 and plant fund levy in September 2003; published plans of how
bond and levy proceeds are spent, including appointment of a public oversight committee bond
expenditures
Salary and benefit increases comparable to other Community Colleges for each employee group
Receipt of numerous federal, state, and local grants and a Grants Annual Report to Trustees
demonstrating the grant relationship to trustee ends policy
Based on Cabinet and President’s Council deliberation all staff go through customer service
training.
6R3
Historically, the College has looked for comparability with community colleges within the state.
This data has been limited. Within the past five years, the Iowa Department of Education has begun to
publish an annual Condition of Community Colleges report that aggregates and compares data from the
state’s community college management information system report. Typically, the College has aspired to
achieve a rank only relative to its size. With the improved data we are now able to make better
comparisons and have started to analyze how we compare with state averages as a starting point for
improvement. For example, we have been able to determine we do not serve high school students as
effectively as other Iowa community colleges on a per capita basis. By contrast, the College does graduate
a higher percentage of its technical program students than is average, giving credence to the College’s
program entry requirements. Hawkeye has not compared itself to community colleges outside the state or
to organizations outside education. Human Resource Services obtains information to search for
comparability with similar institutions, including those outside Iowa. In this case the College strives to be
competitive in compensation, benefits and workforce.
The College is beginning to gather more comparability data through participation in national
surveys. It administered Community College Survey of Student Engagement in 2005 and is a participant in
the 2006 National Community College Benchmark project. Results for the benchmark project are expected
late in 2006.
6I1
The Strategic Plan 2005-2010 serves as the overall guide to process and system improvements.
Each department’s Three Year Plan responds specifically to the Strategic Plan. Implementation of Datatel
Colleague as the integrated records management system plays a major role in the College’s ability to
retrieve and analyze data for improvement purposes. We do not yet have results to demonstrate the
effectiveness of Datatel Colleague Implementation. Ultimately, many reports generated by the Datatel
Colleague system will be available on demand to all staff.
AQIP Continuous Process Improvement Teams play a major role in defining the improvement
process. All teams follow a defined model for improvement that includes cross-College collaboration,
gathering of data, examination of data with quality improvement tools, development of an improvement
plan, and an implementation plan including assignment of responsibility, and a timetable for
implementation that includes each goal of the plan. Hawkeye Improvement Grants [HIP] follow a similar
process
The College’s membership in Center for Community College Development Strategic Horizons
Colleges’ network allows the College to plan improvements in a collaborative relationship with community
colleges outside Hawkeye’s geographic region and serving larger and more diverse student populations.
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Hawkeye has worked recently with Columbus State Community College and Seminole Community
College, much larger and more urban community colleges.
6I2
Each service unit has defined its own improvement targets for 2006-2009. These are listed in
Three Year Plans. At the institutional level the College has created AQIP Action Project teams to address
deployment of 5S training (6R2) throughout the College. The mandatory new student orientation has been
piloted for fall 2006 and is scheduled to be deployed college-wide in spring 2007.
Communication of results follows the College’s normal channel of information distribution,
including Hawkeye Happenings newsletter, news releases, Faculty In-service and Employee Development
Day activities and email. AQIP team reports are formally presented to AQIP Steering Committee as
published documents and are available to all staff through the College library and the Research office.
Multiple copies of the reports are distributed to the Steering Committee and the individuals who are
identified as being responsible for carrying out the improvement recommendations. The College has not
developed reliable results reporting processes that report results comparisons over time.
Presentation of AQIP team recommendations and results occurs during Academic Council and
President’s Council. AQIP team reports are currently being digitized for online access. Improvements in
support services are communicated to students as needed through their College email, publications such as
Stall Street Journal, and daily through the Com-Link messaging boards. Individual departments distribute
notification of improvements to their services through printed information at the point of service. Faculty
frequently support improvement efforts through classroom announcements.
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CATEGORY 7 Measuring Effectiveness
7C1
The most critical fact to know concerning the College’s primary data collection and storage
system is that it is in the midst of transitioning from a robust home grown legacy data system to a
commercially available system, Datatel Colleague. The legacy system is still available for retrospective
data through June 2005 but all data after that time must be accessed via Datatel Colleague. All systems and
processes for collecting and storing and reporting data in the legacy system are now being recreated in
Datatel Colleague. The College is in the initial phases of this creative effort and is focusing on priorities
such as state MIS reporting requirements. In the short term, data is less readily available for analysis than
previously under the legacy system. A Datatel Colleague Core Team represents the core data needs of the
College and decides priorities for rebuilding the College’s previous capacity to analyze and report data.
Datatel Colleague access is user specific and is keyed to specific job responsibilities. A limited number of
employees have complete query access to Datatel Colleague. Requests for specialized reports are made
through Communication Information Systems (CIS). Routine reports are preconfigured and are available
to anyone in the College.
The College collects, stores, and shares data and information in several ways, including data and
information that is gathered from external sources or is compiled by internal departments using alternative
software such as TopsPro, Microsoft Access, Excel, and other management software. Much data and
information is exchanged by email and long term storage takes place on network drives or within the
Datatel Colleague system. The College’s universal network “U” drive is accessible to all employees and is
continuously used to exchange data and information among departments, especially extensive files. This
drive is used when security is not an issue. Each department has a “V” drive that is accessible to all
members of the department for exchange of information and for long term storage of data. Every employee
has a personal “W” drive for storage of data. All network drives are accessible from any college network
computer via secure logon. CIS sets up access from home at request. Research and Planning maintains an
“R” research drive for long term archiving of key College data. The College does not place data on its
publicly accessible web pages but it does maintain an extranet for posting of data for any department that
asks for such space. Research & Planning and Human Resource Services are the prime users of this space.
Two specialized systems gather information relevant to curriculum. CurricUnet is an online
product that streamlines and enforces standardization of the curriculum development process. The second
product, as yet unnamed, was developed for the College by KMR Associates to improve the Academic
Program Review process by automatically populating data fields with Datatel Colleague information for
analysis by program faculty.
7C2
Academic Effectiveness Measures
• Placement Testing – Shared with academic programs
• Developmental performance – Shared with academic programs and reported to the Board of
Trustees annually
• Enrollment – Shared throughout the college. Summary data is shared with the public
o By program
o New direct from high school graduation
o New transfer or first time college
o Returning
• Persistence – Shared with academic programs
o Fall to spring
o Fall to fall
o Completion of program by program
o Transfer to four year
• Student performance – Used by Deans and shared with program chairs and individual faculty
o Completion/grades by instructor
o Completion/grades by discipline or program
o Completion/grades by gender, ethnicity, special need
o Assessment Matrix of Student Academic Achievement is applied to credit programs
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o Licensure results
Student satisfaction surveys (see 3R1)
Placement following graduation or performance after transfer
Awards by certificate, diploma, degree type – Shared throughout College
Metro Center – Reported to Dean and Vice President, shared throughout department, reported to
state, selectively reported to public
o Number served ABE, GED, ESL, Adults with disabilities
o State benchmark scores
o Pre- post- assessment
o Entered employment
o Retained job
o Earned GED
o Entered post-secondary
o Earned basic skills certificate
o GED pass rate
• Continuing Education – Reported to Dean and Vice President, shared throughout department,
reported to state, selectively reported to public
o Enrollments by occupational cluster
o Productivity by coordinator
o Productivity by cluster
o Frequency of same course offering
• Business and Industry training – Reported to Dean and Vice President, shared throughout
department, reported to state selectively reported to public
o Enrollments by occupational cluster
o Productivity by coordinator
o Productivity by cluster
o Frequency of same course offering
Demographic Effectiveness Measures – Shared throughout College each term
• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity
Collaborative Effectiveness Measures – Reported to Dean, Vice President, President, Board of
Trustees, reported to state, selectively reported to public
• 28E agreements signed and in effect [Public agency partnerships, collaborations]
• 260 E,F,G, Iowa Values Fund agreements [Iowa economic development funds]
o Enrollment by occupational cluster
o Number of companies served
o Productivity by coordinator
Human Resource Services Measures of Effectiveness – Shared throughout College, given to all new
employees, placed on web site, extranet and universal network “U” drive
• Affirmative Action Plan
• Employee performance evaluations
• Quality Faculty Plan
7P1
The College is guided by its traditional internal effectiveness measures and requirements for
external reporting. The academic assessment measures identified in 7C1 indicate to whom data is
distributed in response to support of student learning. Much of the data is entered into the Datatel
Colleague system and reports are generated based on individual queries of the system or through use of
intermediary software for recurrent reports. Distribution of reports is almost exclusively by electronic
methods and recipients are able to create their own archive of report results on their own network drive
space. Archival copies of reports are retained by the originating department. Institutional Research
maintains longitudinal archival copies on its research network drive. Institutional Research and Planning
also provides access to its staff for employees who need further processing and disaggregating or linking of
data. Employee access to data observes FERPA and ethical considerations concerning revealing
information about individual students.
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Economic and workforce development are the College’s other distinctive objectives as described
in Category 2. Data selection, management, and reporting is often predefined by state or federal reporting
requirements and the state’s MIS system. Workforce Development and Business and Industry Training
carry the bulk of economic development responsibilities in terms of responding directly to federal or state
legislation and local needs that require a quick response time. Their data collection and reporting,
therefore, are consistent and complete in response to mandatory reporting requirements.
The College has a need to examine its multiple effectiveness measures and determine which of
them need to be continuously and publicly linked for systemic improvement.
7P2
The College has recent and extensive experience determining information and data collection,
storage, and accessibility needs because of its legacy system conversion to Datatel Colleague. Every
department of the College has been involved and has had appropriate representation on the Datatel
Colleague Core Team. At a College level pertaining to Datatel Colleague, data collection has been
extensively discussed to be certain necessary data is collected and unnecessary data is not cluttering the
system or does not get entered repetitively. The College’s systems are secure and have extensive storage
capacity, currently four terabytes.
The discussion of how data is made accessible has been lengthy. All employees whose jobs
require access to system records have access that is appropriate to their jobs. Query access to the data is
available to Communication Information Systems [CIS], Research and Planning, Human Resource Services
and Business Services. Other staff can make query requests through Communication Information Systems
or Research and Planning. Data requests to meet state and federal reporting requirements or other
mandatory requirements are given priority in development. The Datatel Colleague Core Team has
coordinated its activity so that these newly created reports are crafted and tested prior to their immediate
need. At the present time, accessibility to data in meaningful reports formats for analysis has not yet
returned to the level of the legacy system, although functionality for daily records production and
maintenance is excellent.
Individual department needs regarding the technology necessary to support data collecting and
storage are continually assessed by CIS. Department computing hardware and the network infrastructure
are aggressively updated. Issues relating to adequacy of the technology to collect and store data are nearly
non-existent. In fall 2006 the College’s intranet became the extranet. The newly adopted ANGEL learning
management system software serves as the portal for sharing data. This web base access point provides a
single point of access and a consistent look as employees access data, reports and other information.
Documents are secured by authenticating to a server which then processes the users’ access levels.
7P3
The College has historically used internal comparative data from year to year. Often the data has
not been reported over a significant span of years to be able to determine trends. This is a deficiency that is
being remedied. Whenever data is available, five year comparisons are used. External comparative data
has come primarily from Iowa Department of Education publications that report the results of standardized
state MIS reporting. The College’s participation in Community College Survey of Student Engagement
(2005) and National Community College Benchmark Project (2006) is beginning to yield comparative data
that goes beyond our sister colleges in Iowa. Comparative data has not yet been used to consistently set
performance targets.
7P4
The measures shown in 7C2 document overall institutional performance. Analysis of the data
occurs at the departmental or divisional level and planning for improvement and implementation of
improvement also occurs at the department or divisional level. Institutional analysis at Cabinet level
generally happens when data show a negative trend or an institutional goal is set that will dramatically
impact the current trend, such as an emphasis on enrollment of high school students in college level
courses. Follow up analysis also occurs in President’s Council, Academic Council, and Academic Affairs
Deans and Directors meetings, all of which represent cross-functional groups of the College.
Data that impacts Board Policy and Ends is published and distributed to the Board. This data will already
have been analyzed and distributed within the reporting department and discussed by Cabinet.
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Performance data are widely distributed, often via email for data of broad interest such as current
enrollment, or through Hawkeye Happenings newsletter when a generalized interest and need to be
informed exists. Archiving of data for future use occurs on the Research and Planning network “R” drive
and on the College extranet site. Much data is accessible through the universal “U” network drive. For
example, weekly enrollment data admission status lists are distributed through this drive. Archival
information relating to enrollment and admissions is also distributed through the “U” drive.
Performance reports receive a degree of processing prior to distribution to make them more
accessible to the general reader and to provide additional context. For example, the annual auditor’s report
is a publicly available document concerning the College’s finances but three more understandable reports
for the general internal and external reader are the Working Budget, Annual Financial Statements, and
Treasurer’s Report prepared by Business Services. Similarly, each semester’s demographic report
summarizes data from several different reports to show five year trends in enrollment by program, gender,
ethnicity, high school district, credit hours and additional data that is useful at both the institutional level
and the department level.
Communication Information Systems is refining the College’s extranet site to better present and
secure this information for both current and archival purposes.
7P5
Department and unit analysis of data in alignment with student learning and overall institutional
goals is largely the responsibility of the professional staff who are hired to develop and implement the
processes and goals of each area. This is facilitated by frequent meetings of the cross functional teams.
(7P4) Each operational unit’s Three Year Plan provides evidence of how this will be accomplished and the
data that are used to reach decisions.
The College’s inclusive processes related to mission, planning and institutional development sustain an
environment in which fundamental student learning and overall institutional objectives are shared and
reinforced:
• Mission statement development process (O2)
• Strategic planning process (8P1)
• Three Year Plans (1P2, 1I2, 3P2, 4P2)
• Interest Based Bargaining (O5)
• AQIP Continuous Process Improvement Teams (8P3)
• Hawkeye Improvement Project Grants (3I1)
7P6
Software – Colleague software updates on completed on a regular monthly schedule, the updates
are applied to our TEST environment first to test and review possible impact on end users and then they are
loaded into the production environment.
Data integrity checking is monitored prior to submission of data for required reporting. Ultimately
the goal is be able to monitor key error prone data elements on a continual basis by a predetermined cycle.
For some elements this may need to be weekly, for others monthly, etc.
User Integrity – Access to Datatel Colleague is granted to users as each team leader determines the
access level each user needs to perform job junctions. This process is guided by the Administrative
Information Software Manager. Some users are granted read/write access and others may be granted read
only access. All users are required to sign a user agreement which includes a confidentiality clause before
gaining access that is reaffirmed by the user at each login. The security classes that grant access are tested
before being deployed to users, to ensure they meet the needs and limits defined by the team leader. Users
who need access beyond their usual area of responsibility (for example, a business office staff member
needs access to some piece of student data that is “owned” by the registration office) must be approved by
both team leaders.
System Integrity – The computing center is located in a new building (2005) and includes state of
the art security. The center uses modern topology to safeguard mission critical data and to ensure
consistent service delivery. The data center is self contained. It has its own cooling system, reinforced walls
and uninterruptible power system (UPS) that will kick in when power loss or flux occurs. If power is lost
the UPS will maintain all equipment in the data center while the generator starts. Once the generator is
performing, the UPS system releases power to the generator and recharges the batteries at the same time to
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prepare for any other needs. The Generator will run for 30 hours on a tank of fuel and the college has
worked with its vendor to provide additional fuel if needed during the outage time. This type of consistent
performance allows users and students to continue to work from locations that may not be affected by
power loss, including on-line and off campus locations. The facility is locked at all times. Entry is gained
through a keypad lock system. The College employs a full-time Administrative Data System Manager to
oversee the integrity of the data.
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7P7
Communication Information Systems measures accessibility to users via bandwidth availability to
carry data and any system down time. Because Datatel Colleague is a new system with numerous
implementation processes, measurement of downtime and user access has been fundamental to system
deployment. Communication and Information Systems measures effectiveness of college systems by
utilizing network management tools to monitor server, network, and video and phone performance to
maintain quality of service before performance concerns arise. The main management tool, Altiris, allows
the college to track work performance, equipment, and software licensing at a glance. CIS maintains a
baseline of statistics that provide insight to areas of growth or needs so proper planning and budget can be
set aside for keeping technology current and assessable for staff and students.
7R1
The foundation for long term system effectiveness is in place and is being monitored and further
developed on a daily basis by the Datatel Colleague Core Team. The current level of system development
meets the College’s minimal data requirements to measure effectiveness but it will take another full year’s
data reporting cycle to be able to say the system is delivering all that is needed of its capabilities at the time
information is needed.
Redevelopment of data reports comparable to those that were routinely available from the legacy
system is occurring daily. The Datatel Colleague Core team examines the results of the new reports and
verifies that they have been constructed with the appropriate field data for analysis. Staff training on
system use at all levels is continuing. The College is searching for a Datatel Colleague interface that will
place more data directly in the hands of end users.
7R2
Prior to implementing Datatel Colleague the College belonged to a consortium of seven
community colleges that coordinated sharing of the legacy system. That resulted in a robust system that
was able to respond to the needs of various users. That same consortium investigated the purchase of the
new system because it did not have the resources to maintain the home grown legacy system over time.
Four colleges of the original consortium formed a new consortium, CAST, College Alliance Sharing
Technology. Member colleges share in the development and implementation of Datatel Colleague and
work as user groups to resolve implementation and process issues. Historically, the College enjoyed a
superior system for measuring results and expects to have a superior system again with a superior end user
interface.
The college does not have comparable data outside its peer colleges in its consortium, although
uniform reporting requirements suggest the Datatel Colleague system is comparable to other systems. The
College has not yet developed a balanced scorecard to report current data and for comparison with other
colleges.
7I1
The Datatel Colleague Core Team has the primary responsibility of planning and improving the
current measurement system. Its members include the College’s principal data providers and users. The
team meets at least weekly but its individual members often meet daily to resolve current implementation
issues or to brainstorm how to improve system effectiveness.
Beyond the hardware and software is the necessity to connect all activity of the College with
effectiveness measures by impacting its culture. AQIP teams, HIP Grants, and Three Year Plans all
emphasize measures as a means of reporting effectiveness. “Data driven decision-making” has become a
catch-phrase of the institution. Decisions based on data are modeled by administrators, faculty and staff at
President’s Council, Academic Council, and Academic Affairs Deans and Directors meetings.
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7I2
Datatel Colleague Core Team weekly meetings set targets for the next improvements after
discussing current issues and priorities. The team has set a priority on reducing the number of student
logins needed to access College technology and bringing new Administrative Information Systems up to
the level of functionality the institution had prior to Datatel Colleague implementation.
CIS has shifted intensive bandwidth users, i.e. streaming video, to an alternative site in order to
dedicate on campus bandwidth to internal network purposes.
Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services is conducting faculty and staff workshops on
developing and reporting measures of effectiveness
Changes and improvements to the system are commonly communicated by email, newsletters, the
College website, ComLink, and staff meetings.
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CATEGORY 8 Planning Continuous Improvement
8C1
Hawkeye Community College’s strategic plan envisions a college that will become a more
publicly engaged over the next 5-10 years. The engagement will include fulfillment of civic
responsibilities and public and private sector educational collaborations. The College’s curriculum will be
manifest as innovative both in its diverse methods of delivery and its relevance to traditional and nontraditional students. Its technical program education and its arts and sciences transfer education will be
oriented toward careers of the future. Its business and industry training will provide knowledge and skills
vital to current employment advancement along with credentialing that is transferable to other educational
providers or employers. The College will meaningfully engage its ABE, GED, and developmental
education students in higher education.
The College has a strategic plan goal of becoming the first-choice learning provider in northeast
Iowa, including attracting high achieving students who traditionally have chosen to begin their higher
education careers at four year colleges.
8C2
The College seeks to engage learners over a broader spectrum of the life span and at a more robust
and dynamic level. Its long term strategy is to form relationships with middle school students, high school
students, traditional college age students, non-traditional students, and its business and industry
stakeholders. Its short term strategy is to concentrate on forming relationships with regional high schools
and their students and to gradually begin initiatives with middle school teachers, administrators, and their
students. The College’s mission statement indicates its desire to take a holistic approach to its
stakeholders: The mission of Hawkeye Community College is a globally informed community of successful
lifelong learners.
The College recognizes the growing importance of online education and has both short and long
term strategies to increase the number of online learners enrolled in its degree programs
The College’s vision concerning its business and industry relationships continues to broaden. With
increasing frequency, business and industry training is modeled to deliver the same credit and credentialing
as traditional credit education.
The College’s overall goal is to form collaborative relationships with clearly defined benefits for
the College and the collaborative partners in both the private and public sectors. (See Grad Connection
3R4 as an example)
8P1
The College’s most recent strategic planning process began as early as October 2002 when it
convened a charette of community members and college employees to examine the mission, vision, and
values of the College. This resulted in reaffirmation of the College’s vision and values statements along
with a new mission statement (8C2). The new mission statement was drafted to reflect the Board’s policy
governance emphasis on outcomes.
The College sought an alternative to its earlier planning processes that stretched employee and
public focus groups over many months with the result being a final plan that was notable for its list of
check-off achievements that did not fundamentally change College processes or the direction of the
College. That alternative was found when Hawkeye joined Strategic Horizons Colleges in early 2004 and
adopted the Center for Community College Development Fast Track Strategic Planning Module. The
process occurred in four stages.
May 2004
Stage 1 Document Review: In the first stage specific categories of information describing Hawkeye were
reviewed to evaluate
• its resources and capabilities
• service region characteristics
• sources of revenue
• benefits rendered to students and constituencies
• competitors
• self-analysis Strategic Management Capacity Survey of HCC administrators
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This information was analyzed to identify external conditions that influence the College, the College’s
internal capacity (i.e. strengths), and the strategic opportunities available to it.
June 21-23, 2004
Stage 2 Campus Visit: A site visit was conducted by consultants from Center for Community College
Development to meet with College staff and community groups for the purpose of gathering first-hand
information about Hawkeye’s capabilities, its visibility, the value it delivers, and current and potential
opportunities. Approximately 150 strategic planning focus group attendees participated in this phase of the
project, representing business, education, community leaders and campus constituencies.
July-September 2004
Stage 3 Analysis: Information obtained through the campus visit was merged with published information
identified in the document review to draft a strategic plan. At this stage the draft plan was reviewed by the
external and internal constituents who attended the charette held in June 2004.
October 2004
Stage 4 Comprehensive Report and Strategic Plan: The final stage is the published Strategic Plan 20052010 which identifies key findings related to the College’s strategic position.
• Hawkeye’s internal capacity
• Opportunities to develop capacity
• Current and potential value the College can deliver.
It proposes seven strategic initiatives. A situation assessment is presented for each initiative as are proposed
action steps and specific opportunities.
January 2005
The plan was thoroughly discussed by multiple stakeholders and ready for adoption by this date. Formal
adoption of the plan was delayed, however, until July 2005 because of a change in presidential leadership.
8P2
Both short and long term strategies respond to the seven strategic plan initiatives and priorities that
were selected among these initiatives. A Strategic Planning Priority Team met September 19, 2005 to
prioritize among the thirty-six strategic action steps that are identified in the 2005-2010 Hawkeye
Community College Strategic Plan. The plan itself reflects a priority selection process. Consequently, the
priorities identified by the Strategic Planning retreat team identify “priorities among priorities”. The team
selected seven “first” priorities and six “second” priorities for development. These criteria were used in the
selection process:
1. Is it student/customer/client focused?
2. Does it provide potential to meet market demands/needs?
3. Is it sustainable over time?
4. Does it have potential to build college wide engagement?
5. Does it provide opportunity to develop diversity?
8P3
AQIP Continuous Process Improvement Teams play the central role in implementing key action
plans. The teams report back to the AQIP Steering Committee with progress reports that are identified in
the timeline of each implementation plan. Progress is the subject of discussion in Cabinet, President’s
Council and Academic Council. Communication to larger groups uses Hawkeye Happenings newsletter,
news releases, monitoring reports to the Board of Trustees, staff email, department meetings, and
communication through the Foundation Board and groups such as the Bond Issue Oversight Committee.
Occasionally, an ad-hoc committee such as the High School Relations Committee (1P7, 3I1, 3I2)
will be formed that operates in a manner similar to an AQIP team but without reporting responsibilities to
the AQIP Steering Committee. The resulting product of this specific committee is a handbook on how
college courses are offered to high school students. The handbook is distributed internally and externally to
high school administrators to facilitate accurate communication and delivery of services.
The Strategic Plan and all Three Year Plans are designed as open ended plans that can be amended at any
time to respond to current conditions.
A strategic planning retreat is scheduled for November 14, 2006 to review progress on Three Year
Plans and to reaffirm existing priorities.
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8P4
Planning processes are inclusive of all departments, locations, and staffing levels of the College.
This provides comprehensive and multi-perspective contributions to planning. Strategic plan focus group
attendees and Strategic Planning Priority Team participants illustrate this involvement. Individual
departments use the strategic plan priorities to shape and direct their own plans. These plans frequently
involve cross-departmental collaboration.
8P5
This is an area of genuine opportunity for the College. Historically, the College has responded to
growth but it has not actively planned for institutional growth beyond the necessity to provide instructional
facilities. With the recent availability of comparative community college data for the state of Iowa
[Condition of Iowa Community Colleges, Iowa Department of Education] the College has set goals to be at
least average in these measures, such as the percent of the high school population that is enrolled in at least
one college level course provide by Hawkeye Community College. In other areas, such as recruitment of
new high school graduates, the goal has been to exceed the recruitment results of the previous year.
Specific numeric targets, however, are not set.
The College has taken note of the demographic projections for its region of service. (3P1) The
projections indicate a declining total population over the next ten years, especially among traditional age
students, and an expanding population of residents aged 55+. The College has a general goal of expanding
market share of these populations. The other market of intense interest to the College involves workforce
and economic development. The Center for Business and Industry sets annual goals to increase the number
of companies served through the state’s workforce training agreements and individuals served through its
leadership, safety, and technical skills programs. (See 8R1)
At this time the College does not have dashboard indicators that provide common measurement
results at a meaningful institutional level for all employees but this is planned following implementation of
all Datatel Colleague units.
8P6
AQIP Continuous Process Improvement teams are required to address resource needs as part of
the implementation process. AQIP Steering Committee considers resource needs when approving,
modifying, or rejecting specific aspects of an improvement plan. The Steering Committee may reject a
plan because its resource needs cannot be met. Conversely, the Steering Committee occasionally approves
an improvement plan with the proviso that resource needs be expanded. Hawkeye Improvement Project
[HIP Grants] and Three Year Plans model this same process.
Action plans that cannot be implemented with existing resources look to outside grant funding to
facilitate improvement. This is exemplified by the conversion of the College’s five communications towers
from analog to digital signals which required a U.S. Department of Commerce grant that was paired with
Hawkeye’s internal resources for completion.
8P7
Professional organization memberships and involvement provide assurance that the persons
responsible for leading institutional change through implementation of strategies and action plans are
prepared with the necessary knowledge and skills. The College has a long history of support for
professional organization membership and attendance at their conferences and workshops. Additionally,
faculty, staff, and administrators frequently serve on statewide committees, taskforces, and commissions
that are addressing cutting edge issues of community college development. Internally, the College provides
two Faculty In-service Days and two Employee Development Days each year that communicate the results
of institutional strategies and action plans and deliver the knowledge and skills necessary for continued
implementation of institutional change. The College’s membership in Center for Community College
Development Strategic Horizons Colleges network is further evidence in the College’s commitment to
developing the capabilities of its employees.
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8P8
The College does not currently collect measures of the effectiveness for its planning processes. It
looks to AQIP continuous process improvement teams, HIP Grant implementation, and Three Year Plan
outcomes rather than measures of the planning process itself as evidence of effectiveness. The College
does measure levels of stakeholder participation in its planning process (8R4), cross-departmental
employee participation on AQIP teams, and the degree to which Three Year Plans and HIP grant
applications reflect the priorities of the strategic plan.
8R1
The results listed below respond specifically to strategic planning priorities addressed in 8C1.
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Community College Week ranked Hawkeye in the top 50 fastest-growing community colleges
with student headcount of 5,000 to 9,999.
Retiring three completed AQIP Action Plans and selection of three new action plans for 2007
Forty-five Three Year Plans covering College departments or academic programs of the College
are being implemented
Awarding of eight HIP Grants for innovation to staff and faculty in 2006
Center for Business and Industry has steadily increased the number of companies served by State
of Iowa economic development dollars and has increased enrollments in its leadership, safety, and
technical skills programs. See 9R1.
Waterloo Community Schools held its high school faculty in-service on Hawkeye’s campus
September 16, 2005 with a jointly planned program developed by a committee of Waterloo
Schools and Hawkeye Community College staff. Waterloo is the largest school district served by
HCC.
Cedar Falls Schools held its high school faculty in-service on Hawkeye’s campus September 15,
2006 with a jointly planned program developed by Cedar Falls and Hawkeye Community College
staff. Cedar Falls is the second largest school district served by HCC
52% increase in high school student enrollments fall 2006 (947) over fall 2005 (623)
Revised technical program registration and orientation process is being piloted summer/fall 2006
Implementation of Teaching Careers Consortium fall 2006 to serve high school students who want
to explore a teaching career while still in high school
Development of Online Teaching Standards by Hawkeye Community College faculty
Adoption of a new online learning management system, ANGEL, through the research of a faculty
and Distance Learning committee throughout academic year 2006.
8R2
The College will maintain its commitment to finding new ways to recruit and serve traditional age
students. It will continue to enforce its partnerships with local school districts. It will continue to expand
online learning opportunities.
Training and educational services to business and industry will continue to be an area of growth
aided by State of Iowa economic development dollars and a locally strong economy.
Enrollment growth of credit students which appeared to have leveled off will continue to build.
The projection of flat and then growing enrollment growth is based on demographic projections for the next
ten years [proven to have been accurate the previous ten years] and the eventual impact of relationship
building with secondary schools. Staff have an expectation that the relationships developed with high
school students who have taken our credit classes will lead to more of these graduates selecting Hawkeye
Community College as their first choice college.
The cost of education is perceived to be a growing barrier to many students who may opt to
participate in full-time employment rather than higher education. Increased attention to private sources of
scholarships will be the focus of the Foundation.
The College will develop a solid plan for serving non-traditional students and the growing
population aged 55 and older. Implementation of evening and weekend programs to target non-traditional
students through co-hosting with partners such as University of Northern Iowa will provide students with
more options for four year transfer degrees offered on Hawkeye’s campus.
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8R3
Projections of strategies and action plans over the next 1-3 years are comparable to other
community colleges in Iowa that are located in service areas of declining population, a description that
includes most of the state. Hawkeye’s opportunity to serve business and industry, however, stands in
contrast to other areas of declining population because of the strong local economy, including
manufacturing, agriculture, and technology industries and a modern industrial and technology park located
in Cedar Falls adjacent to major transportation arteries and served by numerous high speed data networks.
The impact of a new casino opening spring 2007 within two miles of the main campus injects a
welcome opportunity for new training partnerships and employment for students.
The College will have stronger comparative data late in 2006 when National Community College
Benchmark report analysis is complete.
8R4
The planning process is broadly inclusive (8C2) and it provides ample opportunity for constituent
feedback. Approximately 150 internal and external constituents participated in the initial focus group
phase of the Strategic Plan. Thereafter, daily communication and feedback occurred between College
employees, and the document editor through the “miracle” of email. The final version of the Strategic Plan
is replete with employee suggested “opportunities” that are tied to one of the seven strategic initiatives and
their detailed action plans. In total, faculty, staff, and administration identified 142 action plan
opportunities.
We do not have formal measures of satisfaction with the planning process but because of the
Three Year Plan process more employees are involved in carrying out the initiatives of the plan than at any
prior time. Previous strategic plans were heavily dependent on administrators and selected professional
staff for completion. Satisfaction with the slenderness of the plan, 33 pages at its fullest version, inclusive
of all 142 action plan opportunities, makes this plan more successful in terms of being read by larger
numbers of employees. An abridged version of 22 pages has also been distributed at the request of
employees.
Further evidence of effectiveness will emerge throughout 2007 as the results of Three Year Plans
are reported and new AQIP Action Plan teams complete their work.
8I1
The College is shortening the cycle time in the planning process. Its experience with Fast Track
Strategic Planning indicates a significantly revised plan can be crafted in a few months time while still
involving multiple stakeholders. The College is introducing repetitiveness in the planning process in order
to maintain focus and accountability. For example, a retreat to select strategic priorities from the plan was
held in September 2005. A strategic planning retreat to consider the results of Three Year Plans to date is
scheduled for November 14, 2006.
8I2
Targets for improvement are the result of faculty, staff, and administrator conversations that help
us understand the current environment in which we are operating and our preferred future. Targeting
specific planning events and identifying their place in the planning cycle is a critical need. The frequency
for revisiting mission, vision, and values needs to be established. Although the College believes its
Strategic Plan should be subject to major revision each three years, the state’s requirement is a five year
plan. A commitment, therefore, to revision each three years needs to be shown in the planning calendar.
Yearly events, such as an annual retreat to examine yearly results of Three Year Plans, need to be identified
on the planning cycle calendar in order to maintain accountability and to communicate results. Each event
needs to have its participants identified.
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CATEGORY 9 Building Collaborative Relationships
9C1
Hawkeye Community College nurtures dozens, if not hundreds of collaborations at the department
and individual level. The collaborations and partnerships reported here exemplify a degree of formality
that extends beyond cordial working relationships and embodies recognizable formal and semi-formal
relationships. These relationships can readily be identified by many employees of the College and by the
staffs of collaborating organizations.
Key Collaborations
Public and private K-12 schools –The College has always promoted articulation agreements with
local school districts to recognize the vocational career education that occurs in high schools in order to
award credit or advanced placement for students who pursue these studies prior to high school graduation.
Within the past ten years the College has reinvested its resources in expanding its commitment to local
school districts, including the creation of career academies within the schools and greatly expanded credit
offerings in which the College contracts with the local district to supply college level coursework directly
in the high school classroom. This is an area of targeted growth for the College and is supported by a
special funding formula by the Iowa legislature. Within its service region, the College has articulation
agreements with twenty-three school districts.
Within the past five years the College has placed special emphasis on its collaborative
relationship with Waterloo Schools, the largest district in Hawkeye’s service area. As a result of the
College’s attention to the Waterloo district, special projects have developed. (See 9R1) The College is also
developing this depth of collaboration with the other districts in the region.
Supports AQIP Categories 1, 3, 5, 8, 9
Two and four Year Colleges – Within its service region, the College has articulation agreements
with University of Northern Iowa, located in Cedar Falls, Wartburg College, located in Waverly, Hamilton
College, located in Cedar Falls, and Upper Iowa University’s satellite campus in Waterloo. The College
also has key relationships and articulation agreements with two and four year colleges throughout the state
including articulation of AAS and AAA degrees.
Hawkeye maintains articulation agreements with four year colleges throughout the state and outof-state. Articulation agreements are at the course and the degree level. All AA and AS degrees articulate
with the three state universities and many of the state’s private colleges. All transfer courses must be
approved for transfer by at least one of the state universities before it will be offered by Hawkeye. AAS
degrees articulate with University of Northern Iowa, conferring junior status for individuals seeking the
Bachelor in Industrial Technology. University of Iowa recently developed a Bachelor in Applied Science
for all AAS degree holders. The BAS is tailored to the interests of the AAS degree holder. Hawkeye is the
largest feeder college to University of Northern Iowa, located just ten miles from the Hawkeye campus.
UNI staff members attend Hawkeye’s Focus on Friday events to connect with potential transfers. The
University also provides housing within its dormitories for Hawkeye students. Hawkeye hosts a transfer
fair once each year that is attended by the three state universities and approximately twenty-five private
four year colleges. Hawkeye’s TRiO program has developed a relationship with four year college TRiO
programs throughout the state to facilitate transfer of TRiO students and their subsequent success.
Supports AQIP Categories 1, 3, 9
Collegiate governance – Hawkeye Community College is an active participant in Iowa
Association of Community College Trustees (IACCT). This organization brings together trustee
representatives of each Iowa Community College and it serves as the forum for community college
presidents to exchange ideas and to formulate state-wide strategies. IACCT maintains offices in Des
Moines, the state capital, providing a location for community college presidents to meet and to engage
regularly with the Iowa Department of Education, the state body that has oversight of community colleges.
This essential relationship is strengthened through regular meetings that impact the colleges’ abilities to
carry out legislative priorities and that facilitate compliance with Iowa Administrative Rules.
Supports AQIP Categories 3, 5, 7, 9
Business and Industry – The historic technical roots of the College have enabled it to swiftly and
easily develop collaborative relationships with business and industry. The College has long been the
provider of technical and career graduates for the region, making it easy to fill the many program advisory
committee positions with current staff of local business and industry. The College owns its Center for
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Business and Industry facility located in the Cedar Falls Industrial park and leases space in the Cedar Falls
Technology Park in a unique partnership with Team Technologies. The College administers State of Iowa
economic development programs to serve business and has documented significant growth in the number
of signed training agreements and the number of employees served. The College also has formal job
training agreements with major employers such as John Deere, Viking Pump, and Target Corporation, as
well as much smaller local businesses. The College signs job training agreements on an ongoing basis with
businesses throughout the region served by the College. The agreements are fostered by economic
development dollars provided by the state of Iowa. The College has the legal responsibility to develop these
training agreements but once the agreements are in place, the college’s Center for Business and Industry
must compete with other training providers to deliver the actual training.
A significant number of the College’s business partners are health care providers who are
responsible for the clinical practice our credit program health care students receive. These partners include
three local hospitals, the state’s mental health facility in nearby Independence, Iowa, and numerous long
term care providers, including eleven chiefly rural long term care partners who deliver staff continuing
education by using the College’s digital educational broadcast service (EBS) network.
Supports AQIP Categories 1, 2, 3, 8, 9
Consortia collaborations – The College belongs to two formal consortia to which it commits
substantial dollars. CAST, (College Alliance Sharing Technology), a consortium of four Iowa community
colleges is an emerging partnership formed July 1, 2005 that hosts the Datatel Colleague servers of its
member colleges. CAST is housed in Hawkeye Community College facilities. CVLC (Cedar Valley
Library Consortium) is a consortium of five libraries, including one university, one community college, one
private college, and two public libraries. The consortium came into being in 1996 with three partners:
University of Northern Iowa, Hawkeye Community College, and Cedar Falls Public Library.
Both consortia share technology and staffing to manage the College’s data and information
systems with the goals of improved services at reduced cost.
Supports AQIP Categories 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9
Economic Development Organization Collaborations –The College is a member of the Greater
Cedar Valley Alliance, an economic development organization that represents the interests of the local
chambers of commerce, higher education, cities, county government, public and private utilities with a
single voice. The Alliance came into being in 2004 and has resulted in a unified approach to area economic
development. The College is also an active Participant in Cedar Valley Coalition, a local lobbying effort
that travels to Washington, D.C. annually to present the area’s needs to congressional officials and federal
agencies.
Supports AQIP Categories 2, 3, 5, 9
Public and Non-profit Organization Collaborations – Public agency collaborations help extend
the College’s resources and services to provide the maximum benefit to student stakeholders by enhancing
the College’s ability to help students learn. The College’s relationships with Iowa Workforce
Development, Iowa Department of Economic Development, Iowa College Student Aid Commission, Iowa
Department of Human Services, and Tri County Head Start among others, enlarge the College’s capacity to
produce results for its stakeholders. The College has collaborated extensively with Black Hawk Health
Department in planning the student health clinic, emergency planning, and responding to a mumps
epidemic in Iowa. This collaboration provided real-life experience as a health pandemic immunization site.
See 9R1.
Supports AQIP Categories 1, 3, 9
9C2
All of the College’s collaborations and partnerships are faithful to the legislated goals of Iowa
community colleges that are outlined in Iowa Code Chapter 260C. This document forms the genesis of the
College’s mission. Further direction is provided by the Board of Trustees’ Ends Policies that outline the
results that are to be achieved by the College. Representatives of each of the groups described in 9C1 were
involved in the College’s mission statement retreat held in October 2001 and the strategic planning process
focus groups in June 2004. All collaborations and partnerships are change driven by the belief that some
changes can more effectively be achieved by partnering two or more organizations.
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9P1
9P2
Each of the collaborative relationships below represents a high priority relationship.
Institutionally, they appear in approximate rank order. However, the departments and individuals who are
responsible for these relationships view their particular relationship as priority 1.
Relationship Building With Feeder Schools and Colleges/Receiver Colleges – Hawkeye places
emphasis on creating and building relationships with the twenty-three K-12 school districts located in its
defined service region. The College’s geographic boundaries follow school district boundaries that are
represented by the nine elected Board of Trustees. Each trustee represents one or more school districts.
Trustees were instrumental in visits to each of these districts’ Board of Education prior to approval of the
College’s twenty-five million dollar bond issue. Admissions and Recruiting offices maintain a close
relationship with each district with planned visits two or more times each year. Relationship building with
counselors in each district is especially critical. A position of High School Relations Coordinator was
created by the College in 2005 to provide a single point of college-high school contact to improve
communications with district high schools. The Coordinator led the High School Relations Committee that
authored a handbook of procedures for offering college credit in district classrooms to high school students.
The College plans the agenda and is the host site for the area superintendents’ January meeting.
Hawkeye is also the receiver college from colleges whose students are transferring to Hawkeye.
Collaboration by community college academic vice presidents has recently streamlined transfer of
community college credits to other Iowa community colleges through development of a common course
numbering system. Hawkeye also receives a supply of students from private colleges and the state’s
universities. These relationships are facilitated by direct contact between peers, e.g. admissions directors,
registrars, counselors, librarians, vice presidents, deans, faculty and others, and participation in their
respective state professional organizations. The College’s relationships with neighboring University of
Northern Iowa where Hawkeye’s transfer students number 600-700 in any given semester are especially
strong. Student Development’s annual transfer fair effectively maintains personal contact with recruiting
representatives from colleges throughout Iowa. Many of these colleges choose to schedule recruiting
representatives to be present on campus multiple times each year. The most serious contenders for
Hawkeye students visit campus once or twice a month or once each semester. Visits are scheduled at the
convenience of the visiting college.
Relationship Building With Employers – Employers who receive Hawkeye students after
graduation are represented on all of the College’s program advisory committees. Meetings of advisory
committees provide an opportunity for employers, faculty, and administrators to meet face to face to talk
about the technical and personal skills that are desired and present in Hawkeye’s graduates. All technical
program faculty have personal business and industry relationships that help shape the response to employer
needs. Hawkeye’s Institutional Research Office conducts an Employer Satisfaction Survey of each
employer who is identified by the Graduate Follow-Up Survey. Relationship building with business and
industry is especially strong in the College’s Continuing Education and Center for Business and Industry
departments. These relationships are formed through multiple personal contacts by the department’s
directors and program coordinators. Personal visits are essential in development of business and industry
training agreements that utilize state economic development dollars because these services must always be
customized to each business’s specifications.
Relationship Building With Consortia – The College’s two consortia provide critical services to
their constituencies that in each case require genuine cooperative relationships among their member
colleges or libraries in order to continually improve services.
College Alliance for Sharing Technology maintains relationships with member colleges through
its Oversight Committee. Each college has at least one member, in most cases its IT Director. The group
meets weekly via teleconference but communicates informally all week long via telephone and email. The
CAST Board also has a representative from each school, with the Vice President for Administration and
Finance as the HCC member. The Board generally meets on a monthly basis via teleconference and faceto-face once each quarter. Recommendations to the Board come from discussions between CAST and the
Oversight Committee. Each college has one Board vote. CAST operates through articles of incorporation
and by-laws. CAST meets with a Student User Group of college employees who work with student data
applications of Datatel Colleague. CAST seeks to strengthen its relationship with member colleges by
soliciting input and feedback from the Oversight Committee. CAST is distinguished from the College’s
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other consortium by hiring its own staff that creates an additional layer between the consortium and end
users.
Cedar Valley Library Consortium operates under a set of by-laws and procedural documents that
are mutually developed by the consortium partners. CVLC Council meets six times per year in order to
discuss and resolve current or developing Council issues. In the rare event that there is no official
consortium business to discuss, Council meets at its scheduled time anyway to cement the personal
relationships among the institutional members. These relationships are instrumental in the day to day
operations that are facilitated by telephone and email contact. All member libraries have a single vote on
consortium business regardless of institution size and financial resources. The Council by-laws address
size and financial differences so that neither big nor small institutions accrue benefits or liabilities at the
expense of other members. CVLC hires no staff. Communication occurs directly between and among
operational staff of each library.
Relationship Building With Economic Development Organizations – The College’s
administrative team actively and aggressively participates in activities that contribute to improving the
economic health of the region. This includes membership and participation in chambers of commerce,
Greater Cedar Valley Alliance, and Cedar Valley Coalition, Junior Achievement, and others. The College
responds to invitations to plan and execute economic development initiatives as well as invitations to
participate in the social life and celebrations of these organizations in order to form and maintain personal
relationships.
Relationship Building With Public Agencies and Non-profit Organizations – The directors of
Hawkeye Community College Workforce Development, Center for Business and Industry, and Financial
Aid maintain working relationships with their state agency counterparts. The state agencies provide a
consistent source for the implementation of regulation and policy while helping the College derive
maximum benefit of the public dollars provided to the College. Meeting and workshop attendance
maintains this working collaboration. Similar relationships exist between the College’s Metro Center and
Department of Human Services, Tri-County Head Start, Black Hawk Center for Independent Living, and
AARP. The College as a whole maintains frequent contact with Iowa Department of Education.
9P3
Organizational structures and communications systems that foster internal relationships are also
discussed in 5C1, 5P3, 5P5 and 5P7. Creating and building relationships within the College is fostered on
three different levels: The formal organizational structure, cross-departmental groups created by the
College, and social occasions fostered by the College
The formal organizational structure supports the College’s mission and vision and illustrates
relationships within and across departments. The organizational structure was revised in July 2006 and its
presentation to employees is intended to demonstrate our shared mission and its requisite cross-college
relationships. Many rank and file employees identify relationship building as occurring primarily within
the department or workgroup as a result of formal or informal departmental meetings
Cross departmental groups consciously unite employees whose specific job responsibilities are
diverse but who are responsible for ensuring the effective functioning of the whole College. These groups
are also discussed in category three. The threads of connection that run through and among each of these
groups cannot be overstated in importance. Their actions and interactions ultimately define Hawkeye
Community College.
• President’s Cabinet represents the highest organizational level of the College. It is composed of
the president, vice presidents and executive directors. Together, these six individuals have
responsibility and interest in all endeavors of the College. They meet formally weekly and
informally as needed to form a strong working relationship.
• President’s Council is made up of Cabinet and all administrators of the College. These associate
directors and directors constitute the direct reports to Cabinet. This group meets twice monthly to
hear Cabinet’s mission centered concerns and priorities and to share what is happening
organizationally within their own areas of responsibility. President’s Council is the single
occasion for which all administrative staff are regularly present. It creates a collegial atmosphere
in which working relationships and friendships are formed. The group is further strengthened by
retreats and planning meetings for topics such as AQIP Systems Portfolio and strategic planning.
• Deans, Directors, and Program Managers brings the academic vice president’s key
supervisory, planning, and management staff into weekly contact. This is the opportunity to
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•
•
•
•
•
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engage in the larger collective mission and vision of the academic programs of the College while
building personal relationships among staff who otherwise would not come together collectively.
This group moves a layer further into the organization than President’s Council.
Academic Council meets twice monthly to consider the academic enterprise of the College.
Fifteen faculty department heads comprise the majority of membership which also includes the
academic vice president, three deans, research and planning director, teaching and learning
director, and assessment chair. The Council serves as a venue for “trying on” academic change in
an atmosphere that allows faculty peers to explore the impact of policy and process revisions
across many academic disciplines and programs. The relationships formed here help prevent
faculty ossification by views that might otherwise reflect only a single teaching perspective.
Committees such as AQIP Steering Committee, Academic Standards and Issues, Curriculum,
and Assessment bring a cross section of the College together regularly. The rotating structure of
these committees assures an ever-widening contingent of employees who have worked in an
atmosphere that requires adapting a perspective broader than a single department.
AQIP teams have been highly successful at building relationships across the College that are not
enabled by any other means.
Employee unions have been highly successful in bringing together diverse perspectives and
levels of the College to discuss employee welfare and stakeholder needs. The Interest Based
Bargaining initiative fostered by administration and the faculty union has been especially fruitful
in sharing mutual interests while expressing differing perspectives.
Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services emphasizes the building of faculty
relationships. These begin with new faculty orientation and extend to collegial activities that
intend to bring faculty together from diverse academic departments.
Ad hoc committees and taskforces are generally formed based on the relationships that are built
and sustained through the groups described above. Recent examples are the High School
Relations Committee’s production of a contracted courses handbook and development of online
teaching standards by a group of faculty and other interested staff.
Social occasions are a key ingredient to cementing the relationships that are created by the formal
organizational entities described above. These occasions may be built into formal activities such
as Faculty In-service and Employee Development Day functions or they may arise as the result of
task completion such as one recently sponsored by Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning
Services to celebrate that library staff’s organization of the Center’s resource materials. At
Hawkeye, almost all such occasions include food. Hawkeye faculty and staff celebrate birth’s,
birthdays, marriages, retirements and the other key milestones of employees’ and their families’
lives. Special campus events such as the President’s Artists Series bring concerts, plays, and
other entertainments to campus and foster the building of relationships. Each December the
College hosts a holiday breakfast for all employees that is served by Cabinet. These activities and
others like them contribute to the personal relationships that are necessary to support the
College’s formal organizational structure and the organizational entities it has created to carry out
its mission.
9P4
Measures to analyze building of collaborative relationships have not been widely applied by the
College. We can see we are more engaged with collaborative partners when we examine results, but
baseline data that allow us to measure growth and to analyze change have not been established in many
instances. We know the College is expanding its collaborative relationships with K-12 schools, but it does
not have a baseline year with which to compare or definitions of successful collaboration. This hampers
the College’s ability to set targets and to quantify results.
The measures below are regularly collected, analyzed, and have trend data with which
comparisons can be made.
• Number of new economic development job training agreements signed - annual
• Total dollar value of signed job training agreements - quarterly
• Dollar value of job training through contracted training by HCC personnel - quarterly
• Repeat job training business from established business partners - annual
• Number of staff trained through job training agreements -annual
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Number of career academies established in the high schools; number of participating districts and
number of participating students - annual
Signed contract course agreements with the high schools – semi-annual and annual
Number of contracted courses and contract course students, semi-annual and annual
Number of new first time students recruited from high school – semi annual and annual
9R1
Public and private K-12 schools results – Many results for K-12 schools apply equally to all
districts but the College has been especially cognizant of results with its largest feeder district. The
College’s relationship with Waterloo schools has experienced a renaissance in the past three years, chiefly
because of the emphasis on this relationship that has been articulated by the President, vice presidents, and
deans. Within the collaborative relationships with K-12 schools, collaborations with Waterloo Schools are
emerging as the standard for collaborations with all districts.
Waterloo Schools – A robust partnership has emerged with Waterloo Schools and is currently
identified with the umbrella description “Making Connections” and has led to these collaborations:
• Waterloo Schools COMPASS project is a data sharing agreement that brings Waterloo high school
students for a campus visit that includes early COMPASS placement testing. This begins with
sophomore students and is intended to demonstrate to students the preparation they will need for
college and to help the Waterloo district determine where its curriculum needs to be strengthened.
The project intends to test all sophomore students and to retest them as seniors.
• Grad Connection is a cooperative program between Waterloo Schools and the College that allows
at-risk high school students to complete a portion of their high school education at the College’s
Success Center. In its first year the program has retained nearly 70% of enrolled students, 46%
who received their diploma and 39 % who are still in the program. Grad Connection has
contributed to a decline in Waterloo’s dropout rate. It is open to students age 20 and under with 20
high school credits completed.
• The full day fall 2005 Waterloo high school faculty in-service was held on the Hawkeye
Community College campus as a joint program developed by the school district and the College.
• Waterloo Schools Breakfast for New Teachers was held on the College’s campus fall 2006,
serving approximately eighty-five persons.
• Family Literacy Grant is a cooperative program that serves families of Waterloo school children
that have a parent enrolled in GED, ESL, or ABE programming at the College. Metro Center with
the goal of helping parents complete their education. Tri County Head Start is a partner in this
grant.
• Future Teachers Academy is a new program established in partnership with Waterloo Schools and
University of Northern Iowa to provide an opportunity for high school students to earn college
credit while exploring teaching as a career. The express purpose of the academy is to recruit
future minority teachers.
• Stairways to Opportunities is a program designed to expose middle school children to the
opportunities a education would offer them, specifically, children whose families have not
previously believed higher education is open to them.
Other K-12 Collaborations – The College continues to support long term collaborations while
initiating new collaborations with all school districts.
• Career Pathways is an emerging collaboration in which high school courses are recommended to
students for specific career choices. Eligible high school juniors and seniors may be able to take
some courses for college credit. The college level courses are intended to allow the student to
explore multiple career choices without being locked into a single career path.
• Contracted courses are offered within the school districts for college credit and in most cases are
counted by local districts as credits toward high school graduation. During the 2006 academic
year the college offered 84 courses with 1,126 student enrollments in 13 school districts. The
College accelerated its collaboration with high schools in 2005 with results shown below. The
completion of a Contract Courses Handbook for use beginning in fall 2006 is expected to further
the growth of this important collaboration.
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Contract Course Enrollments Fall 2002 – fall 2006
Term
Fall 2002
Fall 2003
Fall 2004
Fall 2005
Fall 2006
•
•
•
•
Student Enrollments
262
328 +25%
320 -1.5%
436 +36%
767 +76%
High Schools Participating
11
11
13
11
15
In fall 2005 recruiters visited a total of 156 high schools and revisited 130 of these same schools in
spring 2006. College visitations by prospective students and their parents increased in academic
year 2006. Student visits increased by 13 % and parent visits increased by 41%. The increase is
attributable to more than doubling the number of high school visits by our recruiters compared
with 2005. 1003 students (13% increase over 2005)439 parents (41% increase over 2005)
Source: HCC Recruiting Results 2005-2006
Career Academies EHC2 (Exploring Health Career Consortium), EMC2 (Exploring
Manufacturing Careers Consortium), and ITC2 (Information Technology Careers Consortium
served 247 students from 26 high schools in FY2006. The school districts, fourteen business
partners, Allen College and University of Northern Iowa, Hawkeye Quality Institute and Iowa
Quality Center are partners. The College added one new career academy in 2006 for future
teachers in cooperation with Waterloo Schools and University of Northern Iowa.
Cedar Falls Schools In-service day “Making Connections – New Opportunities for Postsecondary
Success” was hosted on Hawkeye’s campus September 15, 2006. The event was similar to the
2005 in-service day event for Waterloo Schools with a jointly planned agenda by the College and
the school district. The keynote speaker, Raymond McNulty, Executive Director of Successful
Practices Network, addressed rigor and relevance in the classroom.
All area school districts received invitations to hear Raymond McNulty, keynote speaker for
“Making Connections” [above] in the College’s Hawse Auditorium the evening of September 14,
2006 with 155 school district personnel in attendance.
Two and four year college results – Collaborations with other colleges expand learning
opportunities for students and facilitate transfer processes. This has been of increasing importance as we
realize more and more of our students are concurrently enrolled in other colleges.
• Iowa Community Colleges completed a three year common course numbering initiative in 2005
that was advanced by the presidents and academic vice presidents. The system assures seamless
transfer from one community college in the state to another without loss of credits, particularly for
technical program students.
• University of Northern Iowa staff attend all Hawkeye campus visit days. UNI is the recipient of
most of the College’s transfer students and their staff presence assures potential students and their
parents concerning future transfer to UNI.
• UNI residence halls are made available to Hawkeye students in recognition of the concurrent
nature of student enrollment and the knowledge that today’s Hawkeye students are UNI’s students
tomorrow.
• Student transfer performance data is routinely provided by Iowa’s three state universities at the
close of each semester
• The annual Transfer Fair held by Hawkeye is consistently attended by 25-30 four year colleges.
All additional visit requests by the colleges are accommodated.
• St. Ambrose University, Davenport, Iowa began using Hawkeye main campus facilities in fall
2006 to deliver its MBA program in the Waterloo area. Hawkeye staff are eligible for tuition
discounts for the MBA. St. Ambrose students will have access to the College library and other
campus services.
Collegiate governance results – Iowa’s community colleges are all governed by elected boards of
trustees. The trustees’ association, Iowa Association of Community College Trustees maintains an office
in Des Moines that is the locus of trustee collaboration on governance issues and is the common meeting
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place of community college presidents and the Iowa Department of Education whose role is to
communicate the legislative requirements of community colleges.
• A new State Five Year Strategic Plan for Community Colleges was adopted in 2006 through the
collaboration of trustees, Iowa Department of Education, and community college presidents.
• Community College Performance Indicators to be effective in academic year 2007 were adopted
in 2006 through the collaboration of trustees, Iowa Department of Education, and community
college presidents.
• Revised state accreditation guidelines that synchronize with AQIP accreditation were adopted in
2006 through the collaboration of trustees, Iowa Department of Education, and community college
presidents.
• Work with legislators to improved funding and awareness of the community college mission has
improved dramatically through the collaboration of trustees, Iowa Department of Education, and
community college presidents and the relationships they have built with legislators. Following a
painful budget reduction in 2001, this collaboration has achieved these results:
o 2005 legislative session – Community colleges requested an increase of 7.8 million
dollars in state general aid but received 9.8 million dollars, an increase of 7%. The
Governor had recommended a 5.6 million increase.
o 2006 legislative session – Community colleges requested an 11.2 million dollar increase
in state general aid and received 10 million dollars.
A portion of the new funding has economic development “strings” attached, a hallmark of a true
collaboration.
• The College has successfully invited all legislators from the districts served by the College to its
campus each fall since 2003 to meet individually with the President or other senior leader. During
election years we invite all candidates. In addition to the improved funding community colleges
have received, when we attend legislative forums, we are recognized by the legislators whose
comments are often tailored to our interests.
Business and Industry results –
• The College signs new job training agreements on an ongoing basis and currently has 19 business
training agreements in place for the training of 490 individuals. FY2006 data is as follow:
o 138 companies accessed the Cedar Falls Center for Business and Industry services.
o Enrollments in leadership and supervisory skill development programming totaled 3,409
(2,451 from Business and 958 HCC Customer Service).
o Enrollments in safety training programs totaled 3,436.
o 40 Iowa Jobs Training Applications (260F) were submitted to the Iowa Department of
Economic Development on behalf of local business and industry.
o 20 Iowa New Jobs Training Projects were approved by the Hawkeye Community College
Board of Trustees.
o 8,687 enrollments were tallied in computer, safety, leadership, quality, mechanical and
electrical skill development activities.
o Hawkeye Technology Access Center began operations in FY 2005 and created an IT
Professional certificate program.
• Hawkeye Community College Foundation operates a forgivable loan program in cooperation with
John Deere. The program pays 2/3 of a student’s tuition in programs developed specifically for the
company. Students who graduate and work three years for the company have the remainder of
their loan forgiven. One hundred fifty students are currently being served in 5 different programs
of study.
• Hawkeye Community College worked in collaboration with the Iowa Quality Center in 2006 to
create the Hawkeye Community College Quality Institute, located in the Center for Business and
Industry. The College will deliver services of Iowa Quality Center through its institute.
• Business Education Series is a leadership development program of Waterloo Chamber of
Commerce. Hawkeye is a sponsor of the series. BES events are held on the College campus.
• Long Term Care Partners is a collaboration of eleven long term care facilities and Hawkeye
Community College. This partnership secured a federal Department of Commerce grant to
partially pay for upgrading of the College’s telecommunication system. The result is a real-time
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distance education system shared by the care providers and the College. The College provides
management of the technology and awarding of continuing education credits. The care facilities
provide the instructors for the system.
The College has secured cooperative agreements with 4 local cable companies allow the College
to deliver its own cable channel to 11 communities.
Economic development organizations results – The College is seen as a key player regarding
development of the regional economy. Its membership in Greater Cedar Valley Alliance, Waterloo and
Cedar Falls chambers of commerce, and participation in the Cedar Valley Coalition federal lobbying are
accepted throughout the community as natural outcomes of the College’s mission. The College is routinely
consulted when new business and industry is being recruited for the area because of its long time training
expertise and its access to State of Iowa economic development dollars.
Consortia results – Cedar Valley Library Consortium has a ten year history of a continually
improved product and reduced costs. Its library system is several generations more advanced than any
other Iowa community college system. Students who learn to use Hawkeye’s library system are equally
comfortable at University of Northern Iowa or the two metropolitan public libraries.
CAST is a new consortium that was formed because it saved costs immediately. Expanded
services are yet to be charted.
Public agencies and non-profit organization results – The College shares overlapping missions
with many public and non-profit organizations. Cooperation among these organizations delivers a
complement of services that no single agency can provide.
• Workforce Partners is the result of ten service agencies joining together to coordinate delivery of
services related to employment, job training, and independent living. The partnership began as a
grant project of the Work Incentive Act and has continued to be coordinated by Hawkeye
Community College Workforce Development. Although grant funding has ended, the ten
agencies continue to meet monthly under the leadership of Hawkeye Community College
Workforce Development and each agency signs a letter of intent each year that specifies its
contribution to the partnership and its intent to make appropriate referrals to the partner agencies.
• Iowa Workforce Development and Hawkeye Community College Workforce Development work
closely to effectively administer Work Incentive Act and Promise Jobs funding. See 2R1.
• Iowa College Student Aid Commission and Hawkeye Community College Financial Aid work
closely to assure efficient and accurate dispensing of financial aid to Hawkeye’s students. The
Student Aid Commission keeps Hawkeye staff current on changing financial aid regulations. The
College has developed effective loan repayment counseling based on this training that has resulted
in a cohort default loan rate of 6.0% compared to the national average for 2 year public schools of
7.6%.
• The Veterans Affairs office at Hawkeye Community College assists an average of 160 students in
the fall and Spring semesters and 70 students during summer session with the processes necessary
for receiving military education benefits. The regional professional Veteran Certifying Official
organization, AVECO, offers an annual training for Certifying Officials which includes training
from the Veterans Affairs Regional Processing Center in St. Louis, Missouri and Legislative
updates from Federal Representatives. The state of Iowa military education organization, IMECC,
also holds workshops several times a year which includes representatives from the Iowa National
Guard, Reserves and the St. Louis Regional Processing office.
• Hawkeye’s Metro Center collaborates with several social agencies. The Family Literacy Program
has resulted in Tri-County Head Start paying the $70.00 GED fee for parents of children enrolled
in the program. Iowa Department of Human Services refers clients to the Metro Center for ABE,
GED, and ESL classes. Black Hawk Center for Independent Living receives teaching materials
from the Metro Center and also enrolls their clients in Metro Center classes.
• ILEA (Iowa Law Enforcement Academy) maintains a unique relationship with the College by
operating an on-campus academy in cooperation with Hawkeye’s continuing education
department. The 8-week/351 hour Academy trains new law enforcement officers from throughout
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the state and has graduated 193 officers since August of 1998. This relationship has been in
existence for over 30 years.
The Governor’s Volunteer Award recognized four individuals in 2006 in relationship to their
public engagement on behalf of Hawkeye Community College. Harold Brock, the College’s
founding board member was recognized for service to HCC and IACCT; Childhood Development
Professor Barb Gregersen was nominated by the College’s partner school as a “true role model for
children and educators.” Educators Bill and Jane Teaford were recognized for Long time Service
at the College’s Metro Center.
9R2
The return of National Community College Benchmark Project survey data in late 2006 will
provide some reliable data. A single piece of outlier data from that survey that the college was required to
validate is the percent of the public engaged in the College’s continuing education classes. The national
average is 2.01%. Hawkeye’s validated percent is in excess of 10%. The College believes a significant
portion of its success with business and industry non-credit education is due to the relationships it has
formed with business and industry. Overall, the College is cautious in comparing its performance to other
Colleges because of the great differences in population and economies served. However, the chart below
shows some striking comparisons with other Iowa Community Colleges with the most recently available
non-credit education data.
Non-credit comparison with Iowa Community Colleges 2001-2005
Program/data compared
Total cont. ed.
unduplicated headcount
New industrial new jobs
training (260E)
Iowa jobs training (260F)
HCC headcount
increase/decrease
+5.28 %**
HCC credit/contact hour
increase/decrease
All Iowa CC
increase/decrease*
-2.75% headcount**
+35%
+61% contact hour
+163% headcount
+45% contact hours
-65% headcount
-30% contact hour
-18% headcount
-36% contact hours
*Includes HCC data
**2004-2005 only because of change in state data collection method
Source: Condition of Iowa Community Colleges, Iowa Department of Education, 2005.
Figure 9.1
9I1
Collaborative relationships of the College are built and sustained through personal relationships.
To this end, the President and Cabinet model the personal role that is expected of administrative and
professional staff regarding current and potential collaborative and partnership relationships. Service on
educational, community, service organization, and business and industry related boards and committees is
targeted with specific individuals holding assigned responsibilities to represent the College. Invitations to
participate in community events and celebrations receive deliberation by Cabinet concerning the
appropriate level of support and personnel that should be accorded each. The College attempts to honor all
invitations and opportunities to support its community.
The organization of the College is designed to further collaborative relationships. Three
significant changes in personnel and structure are designed to improve personal relationships and their
collaborative results.
• A Director of Admissions and Recruiting position was added in 2004 with the intent of
improving and extending the College’s relationships with secondary education. The College
has more than doubled its contacts with regional high schools since that time.
• A High School Relations Coordinator was added to staff in 2005 with the purpose of
improving collaboration to deliver college level courses in the high schools. To facilitate this
improved relationship the College hired a recently retired school district superintendent who
already had a personal relationship with each of the school district superintendents in the area
and who had intimate knowledge of the needs of this group of stakeholders.
• Significant changes in the organizational structure were implemented in July 2006. The
position of Dean, Economic Development and Secondary Programs was created with
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supervisory responsibility for the areas in which the College is targeting building of
collaborative relationships.
The creation of internal and external collaborative relationships is encouraged by HIP Grant and
AQIP team processes that reward collaborations. The Grants Office includes collaborations and
partnerships early in the grant seeking process because of the impact this has on successfully competing for
grants. The Long Term Care Partnership grant (3R4, 9C1, (R2) from the U.S. Department of Commerce
and the Student Health Center established initially through a Wellmark Foundation grant (9C1) are recent
successful examples of collaboration.
9I2
The College’s current targets for improvement seek to expand educational and employment
opportunities for credit and non-credit students. The degree to which the College can hit these targets will
be determined by the quality of the collaborations it creates and sustains. These targets address
opportunities for current credit students, for credit students following graduation, and opportunities for noncredit students engaged in business and industry training.
Expanded Opportunities through Collaboration
Targeted Population
Targeted Opportunity
Collaborative Partner
Secondary students
Contract course college
credit
All area school districts
Secondary students
Career academies
All area school districts
Secondary students
Career pathways
All area school districts
Secondary students
Making Connections
All area school districts
All credit students
Expansion of transfer
opportunities
Targeted internships
Four year colleges
throughout Iowa
H-TAC and Team
technologies
Expansion of articulation
of AA, AS, AGS, AAA,
AAS
On-campus four year
degree opportunities
Improved graduate
placement service
Four year colleges
throughout Iowa
High end IT training
H-TAC and Team
Technologies
Selected IT majors
HCC Graduates
HCC graduates
HCC graduates
Business and industry
employees
Four year colleges
throughout Iowa
HCC Workforce
Development
Figure 9.2
Responsible HCC
Personnel
Dean, Economic
Development/Secondary
Programs
Vice President Academic
Affairs, Deans
Vice President Academic
Affairs, Deans
Vice President Academic
Affairs, Deans
Vice President Academic
Affairs, Deans
Dean, Economic
Development/Secondary
Programs; H-TAC
manager
Vice President Academic
Affairs, Deans
Select four year colleges
Vice Presidents Academic
Affairs/Institutional
Advancement
Dean, Economic
Development/Secondary
Programs; H-TAC
manager
Communication of collaborative results and improvement priorities occurs through the College’s normal
communications systems as described in 5P5. In addition to the organizational bodies of the College such
as President’s Council, Academic Council, and advisory committees, the College makes liberal use of its
web site, Hawkeye Happenings employee newsletter, Comlink electronic messaging, HCC TV, and other
local media resources. News releases provide the public with a continuing stream of news concerning the
College’s improvement results.
College events provide additional outlets to communication collaborations and collaboration
results to diverse stakeholders. The College’s job fair, Technology Day, Focus on Friday, Faculty Inservice, and Employee Development Day all provide opportunities to bring collaborative relationships
forward.
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The President communicates with the Board of Trustees through a weekly letter that keeps the
Board apprised of developing relationships. Each monthly Board packet contains photocopies of all news
articles that have appeared in local newspapers or national publications concerning the College. Board
members also receive Hawkeye Happenings newsletter.
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Index to the location of evidence
relating to the Commission’s
Criteria for Accreditation
found in Hawkeye Community College’s
Systems Portfolio
Criterion One – Mission and Integrity. The organization operates with integrity to ensure the
fulfillment of its mission through structures and processes that involve the board, administration,
faculty, staff, and students.
Core Component 1a. The organizations mission documents are clear and articulate
publicly the organization’s commitments.
The College’s current mission statement was adopted following a retreat November 7, 2001
where employees, Trustees, and members of the public crafted this new mission statement: “The
mission of Hawkeye Community College is a globally informed community of successful lifelong
learners.” [O1]
The Board’s Ends Policies focus on outcomes, not the methods by which these results are
achieved. This change in governance style has resulted in a significant change in administration
of the College and an improved Board/President relationship. The Board formally adopted policy
governance at its July 2002 meeting. [O1]
The College’s mission directive to be a participant in creation of a “community of successful
lifelong learners” publicly assures that the College will with its community. [O4]
The College’s mission, institutional goals, pledge and accreditation information are posted on its
website, and printed in the student handbook, college catalog, and personnel handbook. They
are on prominent display in the Board Room of the College. [1C2]
The Colleges’ Board Governance Policies specifically reference expected outcomes of student
learning that are aligned with mission. A monitoring report is submitted to the Board once each
year to demonstrate compliance with the requirements of each End, e.g. End B.2a Students will
have the skills and knowledge required for successful entry into the workplace (Annual
November). [1C2]
The College’s mission is broadly articulated as The mission of Hawkeye Community College is a
globally informed community of successful lifelong learners. This outcome is premised on
faithfully fulfilling the role of the College as provided in the Iowa Code Chapter 260 C which
specifies the parameters of Iowa Community Colleges’ missions. [1C2]
Institutional values and expectations regarding ethics, equity, social responsibility and community
service are embedded in the College’s mission, goals and vision documents. [5C3]
The President, and by extension, his subordinates, are guided by Board Policy 1.0 in the
execution of professional responsibilities. (See also 4P3) Communication of leadership’s
commitment to equity is visible in the consistent deployment of personnel policies, commitment to
equity in admission to the College, and monthly activity of the Equity Committee according to its
by-laws. Equity is also communicated through the annual Affirmative Action Plan. 4P4
Core Component 1b. In its mission documents, the organization recognizes the diversity
of its learners, other constituencies, and the greater society it serves.
The Board’s Ends Policies state Students will develop into citizens who welcome diversity and
encourage tolerance, and will develop into involved citizens and effective leaders. Evidence is
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reported to the Board of Trustees annually in January concerning preparation for living in a
diverse world and annually in June concerning different student learning styles. [1C4]
The College’s Institutional Goals effectively demonstrate its mission to deliver educational
opportunities that are sensitive to students, communities, and the social welfare of individuals
with appropriate regard to the diversity of the individuals and communities it serves. [5C3]
The College’s most recent strategic planning process began as early as October 2002 when it
convened a charette of community members and college employees to examine the mission,
vision, and values of the College. This resulted in reaffirmation of the College’s vision and values
statements along with a new mission statement (8C2).
The Board of Trustees policy documents directly support the College’s diverse commitment to
workforce and economic development through its Board Ends Policies, stating Our communities
will have the highly skilled workers needed to meet the demands of a changing economy. [2C2]
Core Component 1c. Understanding of and support for the mission pervade the
organization.
The organizational structure of the College embraces student learning expectations, practices,
and development aligned with mission, vision, and philosophy and has strategically placed
advocates for each of the points of the Code and Board Ends throughout the organization. [1C2]
Administrators engage in conversations about targeted improvement efforts during President’s
Council meetings. The Council is the President’s forum for articulating overall College mission
and vision regarding improvement activities such as the High School Relations Committee and
contract course delivery [3I2]
Understanding of institutional vision and mission is further developed through standing committee
assignments. Committees of broad based institutional membership include Curriculum
Committee, Assessment Committee, Academic Standards and Issues Committee, and AQIP
Steering Committee. Other committees such as Master Facilities Planning Committee, Datatel
Colleague Core Committee, AQIP Systems Portfolio Workshops and AQIP continuous process
improvement teams bring together a cross section of College constituencies who learn to
examine stakeholder needs through a shared perspective. [4P4]
Shared mission, vision, values and expectations are communicated through institutional direction
and opportunities that are pursued by administration through the emphasis placed on learning
outcomes, continuous improvement, ethics and equity, social responsibilities, and community
service. [5P6]
The formal organizational structure supports the College’s mission and vision and illustrates
relationships within and across departments. The organizational structure was revised in July
2006 and its presentation to employees is intended to demonstrate our shared mission and its
requisite cross-college relationships. [9P3]
Core component 1d. The organization’s governance and administrative structures
promote effective leadership and support collaborative processes that enable the
organization to fulfill its mission.
The Board of Trustees policy documents directly support the College’s commitment to workforce
and economic development through its Board Ends Policies, stating Our communities will have
the highly skilled workers needed to meet the demands of a changing economy. This higher level
commitment to workforce and economic development falls squarely within the mission, vision,
and philosophy of the College. Its alignment is structurally assured by organizationally placing
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these two operational entities under the Vice President of Academic Affairs, with direct
supervision by the Dean of Economic Development. The College makes a conscious choice to
be the contracting agency with Iowa Workforce Development to administer Work Investment Act
funding and Iowa Promise Jobs funding. The Director of the Center for Business and Industry and
the Director of Workforce Development meet weekly with the three academic deans and the other
Academic Affairs directors and program directors. [2C2]
Institutional mission and change require the College’s and its employees’ attention to a higher
level and often global perspective of how it serves its stakeholders, how it prepares for changes
in service to stakeholders, and how it engages with its peer colleges and competitors.
The College’s employees are highly engaged in membership and/or participation in organizations
such as Higher Learning Commission, American Association of Community College Trustees
[AACCT], Iowa Association of Community College Trustees [IACCT], League of Innovation, The
Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching and Learning, Strategic Horizons College
Network, a consortium of fourteen widely dispersed community colleges engaged in developing
and sharing innovative ways to improve delivery of services. These and other professional
organization memberships are vital to the expansion of the College’s vision and knowledge.
[4P4]
Understanding of institutional vision and mission is further developed through standing committee
assignments of broad based institutional membership. Other committees such as Master
Facilities Planning Committee, Datatel Colleague Core Committee, AQIP Systems Portfolio
Workshops and AQIP continuous process improvement teams bring together a cross section of
College constituencies who learn to examine stakeholder needs through a shared perspective.
[4P4]
The College’s leadership positions, particularly the President and vice presidents, model a
leadership style that is faithful to policy governance. The President, vice presidents, and their
subordinates are accorded significant latitude in carrying out the mission of the College. [5P1]
The Board of Trustees fulfills its leadership role when recruiting a new president. Issues related
to mission, vision, and values are an integral and open aspect of the interview process. All
employees are invited to meet with presidential candidates and probe the individuals’ fit for
mission, vision and values. Filling of all leadership positions of the College involves numerous
employees at numerous levels and areas of the college in both formal and informal interview
situations. All hiring is vetted by a rigorous check of references. Human Resource Services
employs outside firms to conduct reference checks for the most critical leadership roles. [5P8]
As a matter of Board Policy Governance, the President, and subsequently, his subordinates are
empowered to make all decisions affecting achievement of the College’s mission and Board
ends. In practice this grants autonomy to the professionals who are responsible for the operating
units of the Colleges, such as student records, student developments, academic departments,
library, academic support, financial aid and others. Decision making varies in its level of formality
and ranges from achieving consensus among group participants, i.e. Cabinet, Academic Council,
President’s Council, to formally structured processes such as collective bargaining or approval of
AQIP team recommendations. A unilateral decision by the President without the inclusion of
multiple informed perspectives is unlikely. [5P3]
All of the College’s collaborations and partnerships are faithful to the legislated goals of Iowa
community colleges that are outlined in Iowa Code Chapter 260C. This document forms the
genesis of the College’s mission. Further direction is provided by the Board of Trustees’ Ends
Policies that outline the results that are to be achieved by the College. Representatives of each
of the groups described in 9C1 were involved in the College’s mission statement retreat held in
October 2001 and the strategic planning process focus groups in June 2004. All collaborations
and partnerships are change driven by the belief that some changes can more effectively be
achieved by partnering two or more organizations [9C2]
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Core component 1e. The organization upholds and protects its integrity.
The College has developed effective collective bargaining practices with its bargaining unit
employees. These practices enhance the College’s reputation as a fair and good employer. [O5]
The College operates under the Code of Iowa, Administrative Rules of the Iowa Department of
Education and other state regulatory agencies. It also follows laws, rules, and regulations of
federal agencies, including Environmental Protection Agency, Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, U.S. Department of Education, and Immigration and Naturalization Service. The
College is observant of federal laws such as Americans with Disabilities Act and Family
Educational Records Privacy Act and takes positive steps to carry out their spirit. Because of the
industrial and medical nature of much of the College’s hands-on training, all applicable safety
laws and rules must be observed. Financial management follows the laws of the state, applicable
federal grant requirements, Financial Accounting Standards Board, Governmental Accounting
Standards Board, and the Yellow Book. The College observes bargaining unit contracts and
operates under its Board of Trustees’ policy governance executive limitations and ends policies.
In addition to Higher Learning Commission, its accrediting agencies are Iowa Board of Nursing,
Commission on Dental Accreditation, National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory
Sciences, and Committee on Accreditation of Respiratory Care (CoARC). [O6]
The College is beta testing its Helios Feedback system, an automated complaint gathering
system. It goal is to solicit informal complaint information, direct it to the correct department of
the College, respond to the customer, and to develop a record of department level complaint
information. Formal grievance procedures are outlined in the Student Handbook, Personnel
Handbook, and employee bargaining contracts. Formally filed grievances are reported annual to
the Board of Trustees. [3P6]
Ethical Practices are assured in several formal ways. The Board of Trustees governance policies
1.0 Global Executive Constraint and 3.0 Treatment of Staff specifically direct ethical behavior
and practices regarding treatment of employees, while the Personal Handbook apprises
employees of their rights, privileges, and responsibilities. Union contracts for Hawkeye
Professional Educators Association and United Electrical Workers lay the ground rules for ethical
behavior by administration and union employees. Employees are reminded of their legal and
ethical responsibilities regarding access and use of student records every time they log onto the
student records system. CIS has published a Policy and Standards Manual to clearly define
employees’ legal and ethical responsibilities when using College computing equipment. Staff and
faculty observe numerous professional codes of ethics [4P3]
The College’s leadership and communication systems provide for broad based representation of
the public through the elected Board of Trustees and through formal communication structures
that critically and openly advance the College mission. [5C1]
The Board of Trustees’ expectations regarding ethical behavior and practices are recorded in
several Board governance documents regarding ethics, including its own Code of Conduct. The
impact of these policies is significant in that it ultimately holds the President responsible for a
broad range of activities in which the College is engaged. [5C3]
Expectations regarding ethical behavior and the College’s responsibility to the community are
forcefully communicated through President’s Council by the President and Cabinet members.
Standards of ethical and socially responsible behavior for all employees are defined in the
Personnel Handbook. Hawkeye faculty members have codified their professional responsibilities
in the Professional Responsibilities article of their bargaining contract. [5C3]
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The college employs numerous methods to secure feedback from its stakeholders to ensure their
needs are being met. The College’s support service units have adopted both formal and informal
methods to gauge customer satisfaction and to assure customer voices are heard. [6P, 6P3]
The College has received unqualified auditors opinions on all audits since its founding in 1966. A
Working Budget, Annual Financial Statement, and Treasurer’s Report present this information in
understandable formats for the lay public. Its Moody’s bond rating has been upgraded from A1 to
Aa3 in the past eighteen months.[6R2, 7P4]
Students’ personal information is guarded through systems and processes that ensure the
integrity of software, network systems, and confidentiality requirements. [7P1, 7P6, 6P3]
Criterion Two – Preparing for the Future. The organization’s allocation of resources and its
processes for evaluation and planning demonstrate its capacity to fulfill the mission, improve the
quality of its education, and respond to future challenges and opportunities.
Core Component 2a. The organization realistically prepares for a future shaped by multiple
societal and economic trends.
The College remains informed of the general demographic characteristics of its student base. It
is aware of both similarities and discrepancies when compared to national models. [O3]
Effective and efficient course delivery is developed by reviewing the history of past course
offerings, observing trends in methods of delivery relative to the College’s learners and making
predictions about future course needs… Enrollment statistics from the last several terms
demonstrate students are continuing to select fewer courses that meet in evenings and fewer
courses that meet in the day. Off-campus enrollment continues upward momentum, driven by
online course enrollment that impacts student choice related both to time and to place. However,
the impact on evening enrollment is greatest…. Demand for four and eight week sections
continues to increase. The same 48 hours of instruction are delivered within the four or eight
week time frame. The College anticipates continued expansion in online course demand, less
demand for on-campus evening programs, and increased demand for college credit delivered
within the high school classroom. [1P7]
In recent years workforce development and economic development have been perceived of such
urgency to be raised to the level of distinctive institutional objectives whose goals include the
overall betterment of the public welfare through workforce and economic development. The
values and attitudes that have effected this change were formed in the crucible of the severe
recession that impacted the region throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. [2C1]
The Board of Trustees policy documents require attention to change by stating Our communities
will have the highly skilled workers needed to meet the demands of a changing economy. [2C2]
The College routinely examines the external environment for changes in social, economic and
demographic conditions that will impact its ability to deliver services to current stakeholders and
to predict future stake holders and the services they will require. The College employs research
data, information from personal constituent contacts, observation and attention to regional,
national, and world trends and events, and anecdotal information supplied by its front-line
employees. [3P1]
President’s Council receives email copies of the following newsletters whose content is frequently
based on research by other colleges. These newsletters serve as a source to stimulate thinking
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and conversation on campus by alerting staff to trends that are transpiring in other institutions and
other areas of the country.
• League for Innovation Showcase
• Community College Research Center Leadership Abstracts
• National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development Innovation Abstracts
• Academe Today: The Chronicle of Higher Education Daily Report
• University Business UB Daily [3P1]
Numerous methods are used to keep abreast of the changing needs of key stakeholder groups.
Assessment of the external environment requires attention to regional demographics and
research based data. The College informs itself further by being a visible participant in the
community’s civic, business, economic and educational life. Brief current examples illustrate a
variety of methods for keeping abreast of the changing needs of stakeholder groups. [3P3]
The College remains attuned to the developing needs of its key stakeholders through the
intentional building of personal relationships with key stakeholder groups. [3P4]
The College communicates its developing and changing stakeholder relationships to its
employees through its regular employee communication channels. [3P5]
The College recognizes demographic trends that will impact the education and training needs of
the region it serves. The College is cognizant that the demographic trends it faces are not always
the same as trends in other regions of the country. [4C3]
The College’s orientation toward future opportunities is based on building external relationships.
Its leadership is strongly aligned with formation of external relationships and future partnerships
to serve stakeholder needs, including participation in community, business and industry
organizations and civic and economic development organizations. [5P2]
The strategic plan and three year plans are all future focused. They result from studying the
demographics of the region, identification of key stakeholders, and keeping current with trends
and environmental changes through participation in national level organizations such as
American Association of Community Colleges [AACC], American Association of Community
College Trustees [AACCT], and League for Innovation in the Community College. [5P2]
Regional demographic data for the past ten years and up to fifteen years into the future confirm
continuing loss of population within the region served by Hawkeye Community College,
particularly the loss of traditional age college population. The implications of this information are
calculated in the College’s marketing, recruitment, and programming decisions. [5P4]
Core component 2b. The organization’s resource base supports its educational programs
and its plans for maintaining and strengthening their quality in the future.
Significant infrastructure investments have been made by the college to accommodate this
growth and anticipated future growth. A new online learning management system, ANGEL, has
been purchased to allow integration of online courses with the Datatel Colleague registration
system. The College is able to provide streaming video for these courses. The College’s library
began preparing to serve distance students in the mid 1990’s and has continued to build this
capacity. It subscribes to several thousand online full-text journals and it is in the process of
converting its non circulating reference collection into an online collection with unlimited use.
[1P7]
Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services has a mission To provide resources and
support for faculty development and innovation to enhance student learning. The center was
founded in July 2005 as the result of an AQIP team project that examined the results of five
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previous AQIP teams, all of which centered on teaching and learning. The team recommended
creation of the center to address faculty development needs. The center combines the talents of
seven staff to support faculty development and classroom instruction. The center provides faculty
development courses that respond to the state-mandated Quality Faculty Plan and its director
participates on the faculty in-service committee. [1P9]
The College aligns its human resources to match its changing strategic vision. This allows the
most efficient and effective use of its employee resource base. Most recently, this occurred in
July 2006. [4P2]
The College successfully completed a $25,000,000 bond issue campaign in June 2003 to provide
for new facility and technology resources and refurbishing existing facilities and technology. [5P2]
Leadership’s commitment to teaching and learning became visible in creation of the Brobst
Center for Teaching & Learning in 2005. This major commitment in staffing and facilities elevates
the perception and reality of meeting the requirements of faculty development to carry out the
mission of the college. [5P6]
The College’s well managed financial resources have allowed implementation of Datatel
Colleague records management system resulting in broader access to budget information; faster
flow of requisitions; increased access to online services for students. The College has received
unqualified auditors’ opinions on College audits since 1966. Improved Moody bond ratings from
A1to Aa3 based on the college's substantial tax base, sound financial operations, and a modest
amount of aggressively retired debt. [6R2]
Voters approved of a $25,000,000 bond issue in June 2003 to support facility and technology
improvements and approved a ten year plant fund levy valued at $12,000,000 in September
2003. This assures the College’s ability to provide appropriate facilities, technology and
maintenance for the next several years. [6R2]
The College has provided salary and benefit increases comparable to other Community Colleges
for each employee group for the past several years. [6R2]
Receipt of numerous federal, state, and local grants and a Grants Annual Report to Trustees
demonstrate success in seeking grants as alternate revenue sources in accordance with trustees’
ends policies. [6R2]
The annual Auditor’s Report, Working Budget, Annual Financial Statements, and Treasurer’s Report
demonstrate the financial health of the College. [7P4]
Since 2001 the College has worked to reduce the tuition and fee burden on its students from the highest in
the state to below the state average. [O8]
The College’s telecommunications towers have been converted to digital technology that is allowing the
College to participate in customized live video delivery of instruction to remote areas of its service district.
This conversion used a combination of existing college resources, bond issue dollars, and grant funds from
U.S. Department of Commerce. [O8, 8P6]
Core component 2c. The organization’s ongoing evaluation and assessment processes
provide reliable evidence of institutional effectiveness that clearly informs strategies for
continuous improvement.
The College employs numerous assessments of student learning that contribute to improvement
processes. All course outcomes are based on observable behavior—reinforced by the curriculum
planning process which suggests performance verbs that will allow students to demonstrate this
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behavior, using Bloom’s performance verbs from Bloom’s Taxonomy. Performance objective
outcomes are linked to a point within the course outline as specified in a document called Course
Guide Format. All assessments of learning are of observable behaviors that easily lead to
corrective action for individual students or for course curriculum as a whole. [1P1] Entering
student placement is assisted by ACT scores and COMPASS testing. Personal interviews are
conducted with students to discuss placement recommendations and performance following
placement is monitored. [1P3] Required “early alert” assessment allows faculty to intervene with
struggling students prior to mid term and to assist students with locating appropriate campus
resources for success. [1P4] Student performance assessments are clearly linked to course
guides and syllabi enabling students and faculty to clearly see where improvements are needed
[1P1, 1P2, 1P4, 1P6]
Curriculum is monitored for improvement through required course guide revisions and Academic
Program Review. [1P8]
Placement decisions are guided by COMPASS and ACT results and are further guided by
personal interviews with students following testing and surveying of students concerning their
testing experience. [1P9]
Communication Information Systems constantly monitors software applications and their support
needs. Projections for the future rely on industry forecasts regarding changes in computing
technology. CIS monitors and regulates bandwidth capacity according to need as it fluctuates
across the campus and throughout the day. [1P9]
The College employs an assessment matrix that uses multiple measures of student academic
achievement to gather data on student and institutional success. [1P11]
The College assesses its internal and external environment to determine student and other
stakeholder needs. [3P1]
Satisfaction measures are used to determine the degree of success in meeting the requirements
of various stakeholders’ needs and expectations. These include numerous surveys such as ACT
Student Opinion Survey, ACT Faces of the Future, Community College Survey of Student
Engagement, Graduate Follow-Up Survey, Employer Satisfaction Survey, and individual
departmental satisfaction surveys. [3P7]
Strategic Planning assesses regional economic and demographic conditions that impact the
College’s capacity for success. Strategic Planning priorities are built on these assessments and
become part of individual department Three Year Plans. [4P9, 6P2, 8P1]
The use of results information to improve services by student and administrative support
departments is described throughout 6P4.
Measures used by student and administrative support departments are described in 6P5, figure
6.2.
Institutional effectiveness measures are reported to appropriate stakeholders and employees to
document past performance and to set the standard for future improvement. [7C2]
Strategic planning included assessment of college resources, service region characteristics,
benefits provided to students and other stakeholders, and a self-analysis of the College’s ability to
adapt and change. [8P1]
Core component 2d. All levels of planning align with the organization’s mission, thereby
enhancing its capacity to fulfill that mission.
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The College’s level of commitment to workforce and economic development is determined by its
relationships with city, county, and school district governing bodies, businesses and industry, and
economic development organizations, all of which look to the College to be a partner and leader
in workforce and economic development. These expectations were well-expressed by strategic
focus group participants who represented this aspect of the College mission. [2P1]
Expectations regarding other distinctive objectives are defined in strategic initiative three of the
College’s strategic plan: Economic and Workforce Development Plan: Expand Hawkeye
Community College’s role as a critically important contributor to comprehensive regional planning
and development for all sectors of the community. [2P2]
Both Workforce Development and the Center for Business and Industry have annual goal plans
as well as Three Year Plans that align with the College’s mission and with their individual unit
missions. [2P4]
An AQIP Stakeholder’s Needs project team identified the College’s primary mission stakeholders
in 2003. The resultant lists became the basis for conducting market research and for inviting the
pubic to participate in strategic planning. On a daily basis, the stakeholders listed below are most
frequently cited by staff. [3C1]
Strategic Planning communicates mission centered priorities – The Strategic Plan 2005-2010 is
the source document for targeted improvement efforts. [3I2]
Within the parameters of the college mission and strategic plan, department Three Year Plans
and the Quality Faculty Plan, most faculty and staff assume responsibility for their own
professional development and training needs. The College facilitates this through the training
agendas of Faculty In-service and Employee Development Days activities and the activities of
The Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services. [4P6]
Development of the strategic plan for 2005-2010 was an inclusive process built around the
College’s mission and values. The plan is open-ended and provides direction rather than
prescription. [5p1]
The College’s inclusive processes related to mission, planning and institutional development
sustain an environment in which fundamental student learning and overall institutional objectives
are shared and reinforced: [7P5]
• Mission statement development process (O2)
• Strategic planning process (8P1)
• Three Year Plans (1P2, 1I2, 3P2, 4P2)
• Interest Based Bargaining (O5)
• AQIP Continuous Process Improvement Teams (8P3)
• Hawkeye Improvement Project Grants (3I1)
The College’s most recent strategic planning process began as early as October 2002 when it
convened a charette of community members and college employees to examine the mission,
vision, and values of the College. This resulted in reaffirmation of the College’s vision and values
statements along with a new mission statement (8C2). The new mission statement was drafted
to reflect the Board’s policy governance emphasis on outcomes. [8P1]
Criterion Three – Student Learning and Effective Teaching. The organization provides
evidence of student learning and teaching effectiveness that demonstrates it is fulfilling its
educational mission.
Core component 3a. The organization’s goals for student learning outcomes are clearly
stated for each educational program and make effective assessment possible.
The curriculum development process of the College requires all coursework that leads to a
degree, diploma, or certificate to be outcomes based and to be assessed by observable student
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behavior. This requirement covers all technical and career programs as well as arts and sciences
transfer curriculum. Consequently, course guides and syllabi are developed around Bloom’s
Taxonomy [know, comprehend apply, analyze, synthesize, evaluate] and are required to use
performance verbs such as arrange, classify, argue, prove, diagnose, infer, recommend. [1C1]
The syllabus and course guide outline learning outcomes and expectations of the instructor and
of the student in compliance with the college’s stated goals. [1C2]
Common student learning outcomes are determined at the institutional level for general education
outcomes that apply to all students, according to the degree that is sought. Career and technical
education programs define outcomes within each core component course of each program of
study in a document that is known as a Course Guide. All course outcomes are based on
observable behavior—reinforced by the curriculum planning process which suggests performance
verbs that will allow students to demonstrate this behavior, using Bloom’s performance verbs
from Bloom’s Taxonomy. Performance objective outcomes are linked to a point within the course
outline as specified in a document called Course Guide Format. [1P1, 1P11]
Arts and sciences faculty members have mapped the entire arts and sciences curriculum to
seven common student learning outcomes. The resultant map shows where in each course the
outcome is represented and the degree to which it is the emphasis of the course. [1P1]
The arts and sciences curriculum assessment and outcomes mapping AQIP project has resulted
in a significant step forward. All identified outcomes are linked to specific courses within the arts
and sciences transfer curriculum, and then to a specific performance objective. This process puts
aside assumptions about effective teaching and student learning and replaces them with
observable student behavior. Even in a course called Music Appreciation, the student learning
outcomes all use words such as “describe,” “identify,” and “demonstrate.” [1P6]
The universal practice throughout the College to document effective teaching and learning
consists of linking student assessment with the official course guides and syllabi as discussed in
1P1, 1P2, and 1P4. Consistent use of these tools and the fundamental tie between observable
outcomes and specific assessments provides assurance that testing, projects, writing, speaking,
and laboratory or clinical experience are, in fact, measures of student learning. Students who
earn grades of C or higher are proficient in expected outcomes. [1P6]
The College employs an Assessment Matrix of Student Academic Achievement that details the
numerous tools that are used to make the connection between student learning and assessment
of learning. The matrix includes standardized testing results, student and employer survey data,
course embedded assessment, capstone and portfolio projects, licensure results, student
performance after transfer results and external survey results such as Community College Survey
of Student Engagement. [1P6]
Curricular content changes that modify expected outcomes, programs of study, prerequisites or
other significant impacts on expectations of students must be formally presented to the curriculum
committee. This process requires the use of course or program change forms that require review
by the Department Chair, Dean, and Associate Director of Academic Services. The proposed
changes are presented to the full Curriculum Committee and finally approved or disapproved by
the signatures of the Curriculum Committee Chair and the Vice President of Academic Affairs.
[1P8]
The College’s assessment matrix includes several methods of examining overall college and
program performance in relationship to student success. These measures aggregate results,
opinions, and assessments of individual students and their employers. Some of the surveys
present aggregate student opinion results and a holistic understanding of the college experience
for Hawkeye Community College students. The College also participates in national level
surveys that permit a degree of comparison with the performance of peer institutions. [1P12]
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The College regularly collects, studies and disseminates assessment data at the individual
student performance level, at the course and program level, and at the institutional level. [1P13]
The College’s numerous academic effectiveness measures are regularly reported to appropriate
stakeholders, internally and externally. [7C1]
Core component 3b. The organization values and supports effective teaching.
The College’s curriculum resides in the hands of the faculty who take responsibility for curriculum
change and implementation through the curriculum change process as overseen by the
Curriculum Committee. [1C5]
The Curriculum change process as overseen by the Curriculum Committee (1C2) is the unifying
practice that ensures consistency in course design and delivery, with the intention of facilitating
student learning. [1P2]
The universal practice throughout the College to document effective teaching and learning
consists of linking student assessment with the official course guides and syllabi. Consistent use
of these tools and the fundamental tie between observable outcomes and specific assessments
provides assurance that testing, projects, writing, speaking, and laboratory or clinical experience
are, in fact, measures of student learning. [1P6]
The graduating student survey asks students to self-assess the quality of their learning
experience and teaching effectiveness. [1R6]
Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services has a mission To provide resources and
support for faculty development and innovation to enhance student learning. The center was
founded in July 2005 as the result of an AQIP team project that examined the results of five
previous AQIP teams, all of which centered on teaching and learning. The team recommended
creation of the center to address faculty development needs. [1P9] The Brobst Center provides
faculty orientation for full and part-time faculty. [4P2] Within the parameters of the college
mission and strategic plan, department Three Year Plans and the Quality Faculty Plan, most
faculty and staff assume responsibility for their own professional development and training needs.
The College facilitates this through the training agendas of Faculty In-service and Employee
Development Days activities and the activities of The Brobst Center. [4P5]
Support to ABE/GED/ESL faculty is provided at semiannual in-service and as-needed. Examples
include information about how student assessment and goal reporting affect National Reporting
System Core Measures, and Adult Education and Family Literacy Act benchmarks by keeping
faculty informed of reporting requirements. [1P9]
Faculty are responsible for planning two full day in-services each year. For the past several
years these days activities have centered on one of the seven principles of effective teaching and
learning [4P4, 5P6]
The College’s numerous academic effectiveness measures are regularly reported to appropriate
stakeholders, internally and externally. [7C1]
Core component 3c. The organization creates effective learning environments.
The College maintains and updates appropriate learning facilities and instructional technologies
on its main campus and other locations in its service region. [O6]
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Faculty members note the modern instructional technology and computer technology that is
available in nearly every classroom. The success of a June 10, 2003 $25,000,000 facilities and
infrastructure bond issue has assured the College’s ability to continue to meet its constituents’
needs for traditional face-to-face delivery of education and training and to extend delivery through
online instruction. [O6]
Every student is instructed to read the student handbook as a source of expectations regarding
college regulations concerning academics, grading, student support services, classroom and
campus conduct, and other pertinent aspects of college life. [1C2]
Use of instructional technology and laboratory experiences is ubiquitous. The College has well
over 100 classrooms equipped with advanced instructional technology. An open computer lab of
100 computers is available to all students. [1C3]
The College is diligent in preparing effective learning environments and in preparing its students
for those environments. Relationships with high school counselors are nurtured in order to help
counselors inform students of necessary college academic preparations. Recruiting materials
and the College catalog detail program and course prerequisites. COMPASS testing helps
identify students who need further preparation both before and following enrollment. Faculty
advisers refer students to appropriate resources such as the Academic Support Lab and
Developmental Education. Course syllabi outline course expectations and early alert letters
advise students to seek additional course advising and tutoring. [1P4]
Computer Information Systems [CIS] works with student support units of the college to develop a
modern and appropriate learning environment for students. This combination of service unit
experience and CIS knowledge has led to a significant number of student online resources that
respond to student demand. Multiple service units have been trained to assist students in the use
of these resources. [1P6]
CIS provides computer network services to the main campus and all outlying sites and centers.
CIS provides a telephone and email helpline that responds to faculty office and classroom
computer support. The helpline is also the referral service for instructional media support. Work
tickets generated by the helpdesk are used to monitor unmet needs and areas where service
issues may be developing. CIS supports more than 60 dedicated instructional labs. [1P9]
The College employs a full-time Public Safety staff of six to provide twenty-four hour a day safety
and security on the main campus. Increasing Public Safety’s presence at off campus locations,
particularly the Metro site, is being evaluated at the request of staff at the Metro location. [4P9]
Public Safety reports Injuries and criminal activity to improve student safety and to substantiate a
campus with a low crime rate. [6R1]
The College’s numerous academic effectiveness measures are regularly reported to appropriate
stakeholders, internally and externally. [7C1]
Health care students need clinical sites at which they can apply knowledge and practice their
skills. A significant number of the College’s business partners are health care providers who are
responsible for the clinical practice our credit program health care students receive. [9C1]
Core component 3d. The organization’s learning resources support student learning and
effective teaching.
Planning for appropriate learning resources begins at the program and course level and is
determined by faculty and approved by the Curriculum Committee. Every course guide describes
student learning activities and the supporting instructional resources that are required for the
course. The process is overseen by the Curriculum Committee. [1P1, 1P2]
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The Developmental Education and Academic Support Department provides extensive curricular
support to students and faculty through developmental education courses, tutoring, assistance
with computer applications, and special needs student accommodations. The department also
provides a secure site for make-up testing.. Faculty members routinely refer students to
Academic Support for assistance in reading, writing, mathematics, and for tutoring in specialized
subjects. [O2, O3, 1P4, 1P9, 6C1, 6P1, 6P4, 6R1,
Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services has a mission To provide resources and
support for faculty development and innovation to enhance student learning. The center was
founded in July 2005 as the result of an AQIP team project. The team recommended creation of
the center to address faculty development needs. The center combines the talents of seven staff
to support faculty development and classroom instruction. [1P9, 4P4]
The College library maintains a diverse collection of materials representing diverse points of view
and experience with structured access through a Virtual Multi-Cultural Resources Center. [1C5]
Academic library instruction is provided to all written and oral communications classes with
special emphasis on the many online resources available. [1P4] The College’s library began
preparing to serve distance students in the mid 1990’s and has continued to build this capacity. It
subscribes to several thousand online full-text journals and it is in the process of converting its
non circulating reference collection into an online collection with unlimited use. [1P7] The library
has a long history of working directly with students and faculty to determine their learning support
needs in the form of traditional library services, acquisition of resources, and through formal and
informal instruction. [1P9] The library is a member of Cedar Valley Library Consortium, a
technology sharing consortium of five libraries that maximizes student and faculty access to
library materials in the community. [9C1, 9P3]
TRiO Student Support Services serves 168 students who are first generation at-risk students.
TRiO also has a specific mission of assisting its students in transferring to four year colleges. The
TRIO staff provides advocacy support, such as referrals to child care providers, transportation
alternatives, financial planning and coordination, and communication between faculty and
students on academic class assignments. [1P4, 1P9]
Infrastructure improvements have been made to facilitate effective online teaching and learning.
ANGEL Learning Management System was implemented following faculty study and
recommendations in 2006 in order to provide a uniform online experience for all students and
faculty. An Online Course Standards Committee met throughout 2006 to establish standards for
online instruction. [1P7] Faculty training in the use of ANGEL is required for all faculty who teach
online and is provided by Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services. [4I2]
The College acknowledges the achievements of its employees annually during its Employee
Development Day in February. Employees who have completed degrees, other certifications, or
who have published or otherwise been honored by other organizations, or nominated for awards,
are acknowledged before the gathered employees and are recognized in the printed program.
[4P7]
Faculty and student travel and conference participation is supported as a method to acquire new
knowledge and to form new relationships that contribute to career development. [4P4]
Criterion Four: Acquisition, Discovery, and Application of Knowledge, The organization
promotes a life of learning for its faculty, administration, staff, and students by fostering
and supporting inquiry, creativity, practice, and social responsibility in ways consistent
with its mission.
Core Component 4a. The organization demonstrates, through the actions of its board,
administrators, students, faculty, and staff, that it values a life of learning.
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The College mission states the result of Hawkeye Community College’s presence in the
community will be a “globally informed community of successful life-long learners.” Responding
directly to this mission, the Board’s Ends Policies state Students will develop into citizens who
welcome diversity and encourage tolerance, and will develop into involved citizens and effective
leaders. [1C4]
Recognition of the importance of life long learning is the mission of the College’s Metro Center. It
provides adult basic, education, general education equivalency degree preparation and testing,
and English as a Second Language instruction and assists students with the transition to postsecondary education. [1P9]
The College supports development of its employees through travel, conference attendance, and
on campus development opportunities. In 2006 the College budgeted $138,464 for out of state
travel and $110,661 for travel in-state. In addition the Human Resource Services office allocated
$22,650 for staff training activities. [3P2, 4P4, 5P7]
Professional organization memberships and participation make important contributions to the
lifelong learning of faculty and staff and for planning the services needed by students and other
stakeholders. [4P4, 5P2, 5P7, 6P1,8P7, 9P2]
Student clubs are aligned with common student learning outcomes and facilitate learning outside
the classroom and formal curriculum. [1P10]
Articulation of the educational experience from secondary through four year degree completion is
embraced by the College. This includes articulation of high school courses with the college
curriculum and 2+2+2 agreements with high schools and four year institutions. Continued
expansion of articulation agreements is a targeted goal of the college. All of the College’s AAS
degrees transfer to University of Northern Iowa and University of Iowa. [1P7, 9C1, 9I1]
The College’s collaborative relationships support facilitation of lifelong learning among all its key
stakeholders. [9C1]
The College encourages employees to further their education and improve their skills. To support
and encourage this effort, Hawkeye reimburses tuition and certain mandatory fees in part or in
full. [4P2]
Core Component 4b. The organization demonstrates that acquisition of a breadth of
knowledge and skills and the exercise of intellectual inquiry are integral to its educational
programs.
All Hawkeye Community College students expect to gain the skills, knowledge, and abilities to
live productively in their communities following completion of their studies or upon transfer to
another college. Consequently, course guides are developed around Bloom’s Taxonomy [know,
comprehend apply, analyze, synthesize, evaluate] and are required to use performance verbs
such as arrange, classify, argue, prove, diagnose, infer, recommend. [1C1]
In addition to outcomes based curriculum within disciplines and programs of study, all students
expect to develop specific proficiencies in oral and written communications, social sciences and
humanities, and math and science. The depth and breadth of required courses that produce
these outcomes varies by the educational award. [1C1
All recruiting office activities work to prepare students for the numerous career choices by
stressing the importance of the core academic subjects in English, mathematics, and the
sciences. This message is carried to all high school and middle school visits. [1P5]
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Laboratory courses, capstone projects, and portfolios are core experiences in many programs of
study. These experiences create the link that ties discovery and application of knowledge.
Sixteen of 44 technical and career programs have required field experience, practicum,
internship, or clinical experiences on the job site that allow students to apply their breadth of
curriculum knowledge to work experiences. [1P6]
An AQIP Action Team comprised of arts and sciences faculty department chairs worked over the
course of three years to define the College’s unique common student learning outcomes and to
link those outcomes to specific courses within the arts and sciences curriculum in a document
called a curriculum map. Six common learning outcomes have been identified. [1P1]
The college catalog is the most consistently available tool for students (and their parents) to
become informed about program and degree requirements. All diploma and degree requirements
are of sufficient breadth and depth to satisfy entry level knowledge and skill to be successful in
the workplace, including sufficient mathematics and communications skills. [1P4]
Core Component 4c. The organization assesses the usefulness of its curricula to students
who will live and work in a global, diverse, and technological society.
The College’s mission is broadly articulated as The mission of Hawkeye Community College is a
globally informed community of successful lifelong learners. [1C2]
The Board’s Ends Policies state Students will develop into citizens who welcome diversity and
encourage tolerance, and will develop into involved citizens and effective leaders [1C4]
The College believes its students gain understanding of the world in which they live through
discussion, study, and exposure to the diversity of the human experience.
• The student-driven Color Me Human diversity awareness program raises awareness of
diversity on our campus and in our community. Student Senate is committed to
developing leadership to enhance the campus community by implementing a diverse
program of activities. [1C1]
• In addition to humanities, social sciences, and communications requirements, a three
credit minimum social diversity requirement applies to AA, AS, and AGS degrees.
Hawkeye Community College is the only community college in Iowa with such a
requirement. [1C4]
• The College library maintains a diverse collection of materials representing diverse points
of view and experience with structured access through a Virtual Multi-Cultural Resources
Center. [1C5]
• Students will recognize and appreciate diversity, historical viewpoints and the global
perspective is a common student learning outcome that is documented in the College’s
curriculum. [1P1]
• Service learning encourages students to seek new experiences in the community in
which they live. [1P6]
• Graduate exit surveys demonstrate students have been prepared to live in a diverse
world [1R1]
• Arts and Sciences has developed a diversity internship program by recruiting graduate
students to participate in a one semester teaching experience at the community college.
The goal is to create a pool of diverse potential faculty who had not previously considered
teaching in a community college. [4I2]
The College is aware of the visual and hands on learning style of its students. Over 100
classrooms are equipped with advanced instructional technology. An open computer lab of 100
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computers is available to all students. Major library resources are available online. Nearly all
career/technical programs contain dedicated computer laboratories. [1C3]
The Brobst Center for Teaching and Learning Services has a mission To provide resources and
support for faculty development and innovation to enhance student learning. Six professional
staff members provide pedagogical and instructional technology support to faculty. [1P9]
Student clubs are aligned with gaining new community and global perspectives. [1P10]
The arts and sciences learning outcomes specifically identify global and diverse perspectives and
use of technology to retrieve, process, and communicate information. [1P1
Core component 4d. The organization provides support to ensure that faculty, students,
and staff acquire, discover, and apply knowledge responsibly.
The College is observant of federal laws such as Americans with Disabilities Act and Family
Educational Records Privacy Act and takes positive steps to carry out their spirit. [O6]
Student standards for respect of intellectual property are outlined in Academic Standards policy.
The student handbook provides direction on plagiarism. Faculty address plagiarism in course
syllabi. Faculty who teach oral and written communications incorporate intellectual freedom,
inquiry, reflection, and respect for intellectual property directly in course content. Computer
Information Systems Technology Policy addresses respect for intellectual property by all users of
computer network technology. The faculty bargaining contract article on intellectual property
encourages development of intellectual property by all faculty by asserting faculty’s right of
ownership and the College’s right to use faculty developed intellectual property in its curriculum.
[1C5]
Arts and Sciences learning outcomes identify individual development and cultivation of ethical
values. [1P1]
The Personal Handbook apprises employees of their rights, privileges, and responsibilities.
Union contracts for Hawkeye Professional Educators Association and United Electrical Workers
lay the ground rules for ethical behavior by administration and union employees. Employees are
reminded of their legal and ethical responsibilities regarding access and use of student records
every time they log onto the student records system. CIS has published a Policy and Standards
Manual to clearly define employees’ legal and ethical responsibilities when using College
computing equipment, including use of copyright materials and other intellectual property. Staff
and faculty observe numerous professional codes of ethics. [4P3]
All offices of the College are impacted by FERPA requirements. The college has identified the
need for more and ongoing FERPA training for existing staff and new staff orientation to FERPA.
[6P3]
Employee access to data observes FERPA and ethical considerations concerning revealing
information about individual students. [7P1]
Criterion Five: Engagement and Service. As called for by its mission, the organization
identifies its constituencies and serves them in ways both value.
Core Component 5a. The organization learns from the constituencies it serves and
analyzes its capacity to serve their needs and expectations.
Employer surveys provide a measure of teaching and learning success. This simple survey asks
employers about key areas of employee requirements as identified by our advisory committees.
[1P6]
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Identifying changing needs of our student/client/customer groups occurs in three primary ways:
Assessment of the external environment, assessment of the internal environment, and anecdotal
evidence gathered by the staff who directly interact with stakeholders. [3P1]
The College responds to its student stakeholders’ by developing services to fulfill their needs and
expectations. Employees practice delivery of quality customer services, customized services to
fit students’ needs, communication through letters, flyers, and brochures, electronic
communications, and planning of events and activities. [3P2]
The College informs itself further by being a visible participant in the community’s civic, business,
economic and educational life. Brief current examples illustrate a variety of methods for keeping
abreast of the changing needs of stakeholder groups. [3P3]
The College engages in numerous relationship building activities to demonstrate its involvement
and commitment to its varied constituents. [3P4]
Since 2001, with the arrival of a new president, the College has accelerated its building and
maintaining of relationships with its key stakeholders. Since that time, the development of
stakeholder relationships has been visible throughout the College and it can be substantiated in
minutes of the Cabinet, President’s Council, Hawkeye Happenings newsletter, and participation
by the administrative staff in community activities. [3R4]
The College uses several surveys to help it discover its constituencies’ needs and experiences
with services. The surveys form the base data for analysis of current and future needs and
expectations. [3P7]
College staff and community groups participated in several focus groups during the strategic
planning process for the purpose of gathering first-hand information about Hawkeye’s capabilities,
its visibility, the value it delivers, and current and potential opportunities. Approximately 150
strategic planning focus group attendees participated, representing business, education,
community leaders and campus constituencies. [8P1]
Advisory committees of career and technical programs represent numerous constituencies.
Advisory committee members are key providers of information about services required of the
College. [1P1, 1P2, 1P3, 1R2, 1I2, 3P3, 4P5, 9C1]
Core Component 5b. The organization has the capacity and the commitment to engage
with its identified constituencies and communities.
The organizational structure of the College has strategically placed advocates for each of the
points of the Code and Board Ends throughout the organization. Each of these areas of the
college is staffed with professional staff who have independent authority to carry out the mission
of the College. [1C2]
The College’s level of commitment to workforce and economic development is determined by its
relationships with city, county, and school district governing bodies, businesses and industry, and
economic development organizations, all of which look to the College to be a partner and leader
in workforce and economic development. [2P2]
In July 2006 the President’s Cabinet implemented a new organizational structure, including the
addition of a new Vice President position and an additional Dean. The new positions and
realignment of staff reporting clearly demonstrate enhanced commitment to external partnerships
and internal commitment to improved services to potential and current students. [5P4]
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The College has reinvested its resources in expanding its commitment to local school districts,
including the creation of career academies within the schools and greatly expanded credit
offerings in which the College contracts with the local district to supply college level coursework
directly in the high school classroom. [9C1]
The College’s leadership positions, particularly the President and vice presidents, model a
leadership style that is faithful to policy governance. The President, vice presidents, and their
subordinates are accorded significant latitude in carrying out the mission of the College and the
constituencies they serve. [5P1]
The College’s formal organization is augmented by recognized groups that always include crossorganizational or community representation. These groups facilitate the College’s ability to carry
out its commitment to its constituency groups. [5C1]
Key collaborative partnerships illustrate commitment to the College’s constituents and maximize
its capacity to engage its constituents. [9C1]
Core Component 5c. The organization demonstrates its responsiveness to those
constituencies that depend on it for service.
Key collaborative partnerships illustrate commitment and responsiveness to the College’s
constituents. [9C1]
The collaborative results of the College’s many partnerships represent all of its key constituents,
including public and private K-12 schools, two and four year colleges, collegiate governance
results, business and industry, economic development organizations, consortia, public agencies
and non-profit organization results. [9R1]
The Center for Business and Industry located in Cedar Falls Industrial Park and Hawkeye
Technical Access Center (H-TAC) demonstrate responsiveness to the needs of our business
partners. [1C3]
The strategic plan calls on the College to Expand Hawkeye Community College’s role as a
critically important contributor to comprehensive regional planning and development for all
sectors of the community. The College remains actively engaged with workforce and economic
development organizations such as Greater Cedar Valley Alliance, Chambers of Commerce, and
Waterloo Development Corporation. [2P2]
Core Component 5d. Internal and external constituencies value the services the
organization provides.
The extensive list of results with our partners and collaborators demonstrates the College’s
involvement and value to its constituents and where it sees its greatest value in the communities
it serves.. [9C1
Partnerships and collaborations that have been sustained over time demonstrate the value and
College and its constituents place on these relationships.
• Cedar Valley Library Consortium sustained since 1996 [5R1, 9C1, 9P2]
• Continuing Education and Business and Industry Training departments respond directly
to the required training needs that are required by individual businesses. Success of this
training is validated by repeat business and the success the College has had in
developing ever increasing numbers of job training agreements with business and
industry. [OC4,1P7,9C1, 9R1, 9R2]
• EMC2 and EHC2 academies have been sustained over time with several school districts
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•
Workforce Development Center System Partners continues to coordinate services of
several partnering agencies. Despite the ending of grant funding, the partners continue
to meet monthly. [2R1]
Collaboration with Waterloo Community Schools continues to grow under the aegis of Making
Connections [9R1]
• COMPASS testing project
• High school faculty in service held on Hawkeye campus
• Grad connection program from high school students at risk of not graduating
• New teacher breakfast held on campus
• Family literacy grant partnership
• Future Teachers Academy
Hawkeye named among top 25 employers in the Cedar Valley in 2005 and 2006. [3R4]
During 2006, more than 26,000 persons attended community events in Tama Hall Conference
Center. These are people who are not included in any other credit or non-credit headcount of the
College. [3R4]
Secondary school requests for college level contracted courses delivered in the high school
during the regular school day continue to increase yearly. The College’s attention to these
request resulted in a 76% increase in contract course enrollment for fall 2006 compared to fall
2005. [9R1]
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