making the most of economic scarcity

These are dark days for most public educational institutions, and Sierra College is no exception as we struggle to identify ways to cut our expenses in light of our funding reduction. Although we are probably in for a two or three-year period of belt-tightening, and I do not want to understate the genuine human toll that the current economic crisis is taking, I also think there will be some value gained from this harsh moment.
To begin with, it is natural for all organizations---from the smallest family unit to the largest for-profit corporation---to become complacent and less efficient in flush times. I suppose it is regrettable, though perhaps it is simply a product of human nature, that it often takes a financial crisis for us to take a hard look at our spending and our operations. Nevertheless, we need to see this crisis as our opportunity to become even more efficient and better at what we do. Specifically, our goals in overcoming this crisis should be to:
1. take a hard look at our programs, eliminate the ones that no longer serve a viable purpose, and bolster the ones which need to be revitalized. This is not as easy as it sound, of course, and I know that eliminating programs comes with a very real human cost. We should approach this task as humanely as possible, but we should not avoid it altogether. In the final analysis, it is inhumane, in my opinion, to keep programs on life-support which have outlived their purpose;
2. focus much of our energy on rigorous human resource optimization. That means, in plain English, eliminating positions which do not contribute to the college's core mission. I am not advocating wide-scale layoffs or terminations, but we all know of people in large organizations who have lost their enthusiasm for work, and get by doing as little as possible. This is exactly the time to identify them and let them go. If the organization has done a good job of human resource management, those employees will have received plenty of notice that their performance is lacking, and plenty of opportunity to turn things around;
3. scrutinize all of our business practices to make our organization as energy-efficient and sustainable as possible. This runs the gamut from eliminating paper and energy waste to encouraging car-pooling and public transportation. I would appoint a task force comprised of representatives from all significant segments of the campus to aggressively identify such opportunities, and I would act on as many of their recommendations as we could;
4. emphasize frugality in all things, and eliminate the practice of roll-over budgets, moving closer to a zero-based budgeting model;
5. look for ways to increase educational efficiency by increasing class-sizes, consolidating sections, and eliminating classes which do not directly contribute to the core mission of the community college;
6. seek opportunities to partner with other community organizations serving synergistic purposes as ours. For example, instead of having three or four high schools and colleges in the area teaching automotive technology, I would attempt to consolidate those programs into a single center, thus reducing the cost and increasing the quality of a valuable educational program;
7. aggressively pursue alternative revenue sources, including grants, endowments, and intellectual property royalties. To do so, I would seek ways to promote the alumni association, and encourage student and faculty projects which have potential commercial application.
I am sure that there are other options I have not included---but these would be, in my opinion, a good start toward making lemonade from the economic lemon.

If I were college president

As college president, my principal goals would be to:
1. infuse a passion for student success into the culture of the college. I would assign every new full-time student to a faculty mentor, a counselor, and a small peer cohort. I would challenge all faculty and staff to learn the names of as many students as possible, and to spend time talking with students each day. I would reinforce this culture by recognizing customer service orientation in hiring, evaluation, and career advancement criteria;
1. add a service learning requirement for all graduates. I would encourage students to earn service learning credit by tutoring younger students. In this way, we could provide extra help to struggling students, and reinforce the obligation of all citizens to serve their communities;
2. add a capstone project requirement for all graduates, to evidence their mastery of the skills required for their discipline;
3. commit the college to environmental stewardship, and find concrete ways to encourage energy efficiency and sustainable practices;
4. commit the college to civility, and host frequent debates and guest lectures reinforcing this value;
5. commit the college to fiscal stewardship, and continuously find concrete ways to eliminate waste , conserve resources, live frugally, and keep a lean management structure;
6. continuously seek ways to recognize and reward excellent employee performance, identify improvement goals for struggling employees, and terminate those who will not strive for excellence;
7. model a passion for education by encouraging all qualified managers and non-instructional employees to teach a class, hosting regular forums devoted to pedagogy, and support the professional development of all employees to the fullest extent possible;
8. model good citizenship by regularly hosting intellectual and cultural events for the community, encouraging all faculty and staff to find volunteer service opportunities within the community, and maintain a vigorous dialogue with community leaders to identify potential partnerships for the common good;
9. promote wellness by offering healthy meals and snacks for students and employees, and by finding ways to encourage and reward physical and emotional fitness; and
10. promote continual innovation by encouraging and supporting new initiatives at all levels, and by discouraging blame and fear of failure.
I realize, of course, that some of these goals are abstract, and that turning them into reality requires the consent and cooperation of many constituencies, but these would, nevertheless, constitute my guiding principles for a college presidency.

the college tour rite of passage

I spent the past few days on the road with my daughter, Elizabeth, visiting universities she might attend in the Fall of 2010. Lizzy has spent the past year at Sierra College, where I work, and has to decide which university she will attend after one more year at Sierra. We left our home in Folsom on Saturday morning, and spent the evening with family in Los Angeles. On Sunday, we toured UC Irvine and CSU Long Beach. On Monday, we drove up to San Luis Obispo and visited Cal Poly. On Tuesday, we drove further north and visited CSU Monterey Bay.
Lizzy liked UC Irvine and CSU Monterey Bay, but didn't care for Cal Poly or CSU Long Beach. I'm not sure that she could tell you exactly what she didn't like about Cal Poly or CSULB, but her reactions are, in my opinion, fairly typical of how students select the colleges they attend. While we parents fret over the reputation of their academic programs, tuition and living costs, availability of financial aid, distance from home, and a variety of other criteria, most students, it seems to me, ultimately make their decisions based on the overall "feel" of the campus---which may depend on such fortuitous elements as the weather on the day of the visit, whether students and staff seemd friendly, the student's own mood on the day of the visit, etc.
In Lizzy's case, she has made it clear that her first choice is none of the colleges we visited. She wants to go to school in San Diego, so she will apply to UCSD and CSUSD. Her fall-backs will be UCI and CSUMB. I still consider our trip a success, because knowing where you DON'T want to go is as important as knowing where you want to go. Moreover, I had a great four days in the car with my daughter, and I know that those occasions will become increasingly rare.
I am saddened, however, by the knowledge that many kids her age will never have the opportunity to visit several colleges, or even the encouragement to attend college. Some of these kids may have parents who simply lack the means or the knowledge to guide their children through the intricacies of college choice, applications, and financing. I'd love to help organize and lead an annual college tour for such kids through Sierra College.