Master Plan Steering Committee Meeting Summary – 12/10/08

Attendees:
Steering Committee Members:
Dr. Michael Bull
Mr. Ray Calvert
Mr. Rodney Clements
Mr. Gary Colberg
Ms. Laverne Cooper
Mr. Duane Harris, Chair
Mr. Michael Hodges
Ms. Pat Hodnett-Cooper
Ms. Dianna Murphy
Ms. Jessica Ramirez
Mr. Ashton Stripling
Mayor Bryan Thompson
Dr. Andrea Wallace
Mr. Tony Wege
Mr. David Zimmerman

Absent: Regent James Bishop, Director Connie Patrick, Mr. Derrick Heck

CCG Staff:
Valerie Hepburn, Interim President
Tom Saunders, VP Business Affairs
Cynthia Atwood, AVP, Planning and Risk Management

Meeting Summary:

Updates on Transformation Progress from Dr. Hepburn:

A. Accreditation

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the accrediting body for the college, has approved the College of Coastal Georgia as a Level II institution which gives it the right to award Baccalaureate degrees. A site visit from SACS to validate the four programs offered will follow in spring of 2010.
Advertising is out there; outdoor boards featuring students, alumni, former teachers and parents of students are up and being used for recruitment purposes for faculty and students. A brochure will follow in short order.
“Your future, our community” will be the new campaign for spring, aggressively seeking prospects from the surrounding communities.

B. Technical College Transfer

The technical college transfer is moving forward.
At the same accrediting meeting that granted approval to CCGA, Altamaha Tech was accepted to candidacy for accreditation. This action needed to take place in order to change Altamaha’s service area to include Glynn, Camden and McIntosh Counties.
The Career Academy Board voted unanimously to have the technical programs co-locate with them and meetings will be held to discuss the space logistics.
Hopefully, in summer 2009, classes will be offered at the Career Academy under the Altamaha Tech banner. This will be an opportunity to test run the transfer of the technical programs before high school students attend.

C. New Faculty and College Leadership

Dr. Kent Layton has been hired as Chair of the School of Education. In addition to heading that department, he will be leading the Teaching and Learning Program, working to help faculty learn to become better teachers.
Dr. Jean Mistretta will become Chair of the Nursing and Health Sciences Program beginning February 1, 2009. CCGA is one of the very few state colleges in the system to have a named Chair for a department. Once the paperwork is completed, it will be named the Southeast Georgia Health System Chair of Nursing and Health Sciences.

Focus on the Master Plan Development Process:

A. Update on Consultants’ Visits

Dr. Hepburn distributed a handout showing what sectors have been interviewed by/or will be interviewed by Eva Klein and her team. The list covers a wide range from students and faculty to the school system, health system, Regent Bishop, elected officials, and the Chancellor’s Office.

B. What have we learned?

Dr. Hepburn distributed a handout entitled “The 8-Step Process of Successful Change” and reminded the committee that their goal is not just to address the physical infrastructure but their conversations will also be the platform for the strategic plan for the institution. A Master Plan cannot be done until a strategic plan is in place and doing both simultaneously creates a much-needed sense of urgency.
Each committee member and those with whom they are interacting will drive how the college comes together.
Right now it is about change, vision and strategy.
In early 2009, a process of communication, securing appropriate buy in and thinking through implementation strategies will be the focus of the committee.
It is important to make the plan grandiose enough that something meaningful is achieved but not so overwhelming that implementation is completely stymied.
The plan needs to be put in a format that truly sticks and creates the new culture of the institution and the community.

C. What themes are emerging?

A review of the strategic questions that would need to be answered in order to be successful in this process revealed four clusters of thought:
a. Who are we going to be?
b. What are we going to be?
c. How are we going to make it doable?
d. What is the strategy for implementation?
Thematically, it is important to see what the niche (brand) is and how to balance being an access institution while creating something special and distinctive. CCGA will strive to be both an access and a destination college.
It needs to be determined how to move forward from a funding standpoint and a facility standpoint while at the same time determining how to be inspiring and creative.
There is a lot of resonance around the concept of leadership – being leaders, developing future leaders, etc. Values including quality, being dynamic, innovative, and engaging were brought up repeatedly to the consultant group by people in various settings. Global engagement was a common theme as emerging markets and future relationships are all about a global economy.

Brainstorming:
A. Key process and/or value statements

It was agreed that public review and input around the development of the plan is important. All materials are on the web and feedback will be consistently given to stakeholders. There will be opportunities for community engagement and feedback across as many Southeast Georgia counties as possible in March when a nearly final concept of the plan will be presented for review.
Superintendent Bull presented the idea of including high school seniors in the input/review process. This was well received by the committee and a cross section of those students will be aggressively sought for input.
Identity and niche are critical. A uniqueness needs to be established that makes CCGA different, known, and lasting.
The CCGA “elan” may be a way of thinking about learning and not a specific program of study. (Service Learning)
Being known for the “Best First Two Years”, regardless of a student’s area of study may be the CCGA niche.
Other possible niches are health sciences, hospitality/tourism, culinary arts, marine sciences/ecology and environmental studies.
Using the beach as an advertising tool to bring students to this campus will be beneficial. Sun & Bug, now used as a promotional giveaway by SGHS, can be redesigned with a two sided logo promoting SGHS on one side and CCGA on the other.
Establishing the balance between being an access institution and a destination institution is very difficult. Financial access is one thing but consideration also has to be given to scholarship and achievement.
Marketing has to be done on a broad scale both in and out of state. It should highlight the affordability of Georgia’s tuition rates.
Entrance criteria needs to be determined (SAT scores, test scores). (Please see follow-up at end of this summary for clarification of this issue.)
CCGA could become an access institution with a b commitment to Learning Support.
Whatever direction the college takes in seeking this balance, quality is tantamount for both populations.
It was agreed that b links to the health system are important but that should not be the sole identity of this campus. Non-health science degrees should also be offered.
Links to FLETC are also important. Integration with them needs to be defined and degree options need to be explored.
b links to K-12 campuses needs clarification of identity and purpose.
Both the college and the community need a performing arts center. The new high school has opted for an auditorium and Dr. Bull would prefer that the college pursue the performing arts center.
The question of funding arose. Should a performing arts center be community funded? As a strategic priority for CCGA, a center would solidify the link with the K-12.
The college campus consists of 200 acres. Only 2% is occupied by buildings, 5 acres lake, and 15% is paved. Should it be a priority to preserve green space, buildings would be designed in a cluster pattern with periphery parking.
Sidewalks need to be a prime consideration to make access available from the parking lots to the center of campus and each building.
The question of what portion of acreage should remain green space remains unanswered but it should fall into place as the plan progresses.
Suggested athletic programs include soccer, golf, tennis, swimming and volleyball. It was agreed that it is better to have a few sports that are done well rather than many that are played poorly.
There are several housing options that will be driven by the financing received.
The notion of building a millennial campus environment is essential. It must be connected and engaged with widespread WIFI availability. It must incorporate learning communities into its programs.
A combination of education and workforce preparation needs to be stressed so that CCGA graduates are life ready.
Cultivating entrepreneurial students will be accomplished through employing innovative ways to develop them as citizens and future leaders.

B. Niche Strategies

Service Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility and strengthen communities.
Dr. Hepburn distributed brochures from LSU and Florida State, two schools that have excellent service learning and leadership components in their curriculum.
CCGA will have to define a quality enhancement plan (QEP) as part of the accreditation program in a couple years. This becomes a learning strategy.
There are a number of local opportunities for service learning: Job Corps, the health system, hospice, local government, Harmony Square, and the Boys and Girls Club are a few.
Global Awareness is an approach to education designed to aggressively expose students to other cultures and communities through coursework, guest lectures, exchange opportunities, and structured communications, with the goal of fostering respect and appreciation.
There are ways to accomplish global awareness besides traveling abroad. Some of those are: establishing “sister cities”, working with MAP International and the Seafarers Institute.
Engaged Entrepreneurship is defined as a strategy to infuse exploration and innovation across the educational process while anchoring these entrepreneurial strategies in social and community purposes.
The focus of engaged entrepreneurship is social and community values.

C. A possible mission statement for the College

“Educating tomorrow’s leaders through service learning, global awareness and engaged entrepreneurship”.
The suggestion was made to add an emphasis on sports to the college niche.

Parting thoughts:

Figuring out how to balance access and destination needs to be determined in such a way to have it work well.
CCGA needs to project a focus on “excellence” and “quality education”.
Learning support students need support up front and they must be identified earlier. The question of how this can be done better needs to be reviewed. A commitment must be made that the college will not lose the students who need support.
Future students must be a mix of students from this community, from all fifty states, and from foreign countries. CCGA must also embrace traditional and non-traditional students from diverse economic backgrounds.

Schedule for Future Meetings:

January 20 – All day meeting in the Satilla Room. 8:30 – 3:30
February 26 – All day meeting in the Satilla Room. 8:30 – 3:30
April 16 – All day meeting in the Satilla Room. 8:30 – 3:30

Follow-up:
As a result of the discussion about the present entrance requirements for admittance to CCGA, and whether or not the SAT test is required, Mr. Rodney Clements sent the following information on December 11, 2008.

“Students are admitted without placement testing if they have SAT scores of 430 for reading and 400 for math. These students must have also completed a college preparatory diploma. Students who fail to meet the above criteria must have a high school grade point average of at least 2.0 and are required to complete the Compass Placement Exam.

The admissions page of the CCGA website states, "since CCGA does not require students to submit SAT or ACT scores, most applicants need to take the Compass Placement Exam. Students who have taken the SAT or ACT should submit their scores to the Admissions Office for possible exemption from placement testing."

The College admissions policy is based on a pilot program from the Board of Regents that gives access institutions the ability to admit students based on their high school grade point average as opposed to SAT scores. According to the Registrar, we will continue this policy as a state college because providing access is still a part of our mission.”

MP Steering Committee Handouts - December 10th