2006 Opening Day Address to Campus, President Floten

Friends and colleagues, welcome to the new academic year of Bellevue Community and the close of our 40th anniversary year.

Over the years our college has been blessed with exceptional Board members whose ongoing vision and dedication have helped shape one of the best community colleges in the nation. Here today are Ruthann Kurose, who has served us for 13 years, and Steve Miller, who is our newest trustee, who comes to us after serving on the Bellevue School District Board.

We are joined by two particularly dedicated and long-time friends, to whom we are all indebted because 40 years ago they help secure this site for our college through the power they wielded in the press and community. I present Mr. Kirkland, as he is affectionately known, Chuck Morgan, who just turned 95 last week, and Neil McReynolds, one of BCC’s first board members and a current board member of our 4-year partner EWU. Chuck and Neil, please stand.

Later this morning, we will be honoring some of our early staff in a video. Some of its stars are with us today—Kae Hutchison, Karl Palo, TP Perry, and Pauline Christiansen. It also features Bob Purser along with Chuck and Neil.

We have a new Visiting Scholar, Fahad al-Balushi, from Oman, with special thanks to Diane Douglas and the CLA for making it happen. Mr. al-Balushi will offer BCC students a full year program in Arabic language and culture. Please let’s welcome him.

If you have caught up on your emails, you know we have a new Vice President of Equity and Pluralism, Dr. Jim Bennett and a new Director of Multi-Cultural Services, Lisa Shyne, key positions to continue the college’s important work in diversity and pluralism.

In addition, we added about 60 new people over this past year, whom we officially welcome today. Jim, Lisa and other new employees, anyone hired since this time last year, stand so we may welcome you. Please, plan to attend the new employee reception on Wednesday to give your personal welcomes. May all of you new employees have long and productive careers at BCC!

And, welcome to all of you. I am always thrilled to feel the vitality that fills each fall quarter as all of we reconnect in corridors and offices and ready ourselves once again to engage with our students and each other.

For us the first day back is a day of excitement and anticipation. This particular year, it falls on date of what was for our nation a very sad and terrible day. Let’s stop for a moment of silence to remember and honor all of those who perished in the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and for the brave men and women on United Flight 93 who thwarted a third attack on this date five year’s ago.

It wouldn’t be a New Academic Year Speech if I didn’t mention a few summer changes. We were hopeful that the D building would be open for classes this fall. The concrete strike dashed that hope; but, we are close. The library and print center will stay put for the time being. We expect classrooms and offices to be available mid-fall. The addition to the N building was completed this summer with new space for offices and freed space becoming classrooms. We are moving on the new Science and Technology building, which should start construction next summer.

These many accomplishments are a real testament to the quality of our program and staff. It’s very invigorating to talk about these achievements, and there are many, many others. In each case, one or many of you made a special contribution that caused this great college to be even better.

Next Monday, we once again will welcome thousands of students, who are filled with hopes and anticipation and who come to Bellevue Community College to develop their capabilities. They are drawn by our reputation as an excellent college; where rigor and excellence are expected from students and instructors alike; and where they learn to be critical thinkers and capable, productive citizens, ready for a changing world. And, with guidance from faculty and staff, many of them will discover in themselves ways to become truly exceptional.

Take, for example, Angel Kelchev, former BCC student body and PTK president, who graduated this spring in economics, with highest honors, from Stanford University, just two years after receiving his BCC associate degree. Driven to make a better life in the United States, Angel and his family left their home in Sofia, Bulgaria, so that Angel could fulfill his dream of an American education. Most of us probably met Angel when he was here. I don’t think he missed any opportunity to get the most out of his education, apply for a scholarship, assume leadership, or perform some meaningful service in his time at BCC. He gives credit to the many BCC faculty and staff, so generous with their time and talents, who lent helping hands when he asked. Angel faces an incredible future, which makes us proud of the exceptional preparation he received here.

Another BCC student body president, Franklin Donohoe, came by last year to reconnect with the college. He was working for Deloitte after completing dual master degrees in business administration and network security from Carnegie Mellon. An impressive young man with strong values and a keen mind, Franklin will also make a significant impact any where he goes. When asked about his BCC experience, Franklin fondly noted the affiliations he had across campus with faculty, staff and other students who provided him with ongoing encouragement.

I remember, too, that TRiO student whose entire family, about 15 people strong, came to commencement. Her parents shook my hand vigorously as they glowed with pride for their daughter, the very first in their family to attend college. The student praised the TRiO staff that provided her with a “safe haven” of support and academic help.

A member of our nationally prominent jazz group, Celebration!, shared his joy with me each time they won a competition this last year. I saw him a lot! Without Celebration! and the support of the director and other students, he once confided, he would not have had sufficient motivation to stay in college.
Four different students, four different stories, just a small sample of many BCC stories; however, they are powerfully representative and share a common theme, Bellevue Community College is where students can locate in themselves the qualities and the capabilities to become exceptional. In fact, “become exceptional” is how we are characterizing ourselves to our public. You will see this on all of our publications.

As these stories also indicate, behind each student who wants to become exceptional are a faculty and staff who have created an excellent learning environment and, as well, made an individual connection that helped that student reach his or her promise.

Last year, we looked at student success and institutional development as our priority focuses for the year. You may have contributed to one of the four college committees that investigated how we could strengthen student success or examined our organization and our commitments to each other to deliver an exceptional education to our students.

Two weeks ago, to continue the work started last year in student success, a cross-college group of about thirty engaged in a special two-day student retention workshop. They reviewed BCC’s student retention and completion data to identify the student groups we should target and strategies we should pursue for this year’s efforts. What emerged from this group, as we will learn today, was more than a list of programs or organizational changes, it was a strong call for a recommitment to our students and to ourselves in reaffirmation that student success and learning excellence are our foremost and highest obligations. We will explore the reasons for this in our time today and examine student success and organizational development, the two areas in which we will focus the majority of our college wide efforts this year.

We started today noting that we have much to be proud of. We provide high quality learning experiences that prepare students to meet their goals for life and livelihood. We are an important source of educated and skilled people for our community and state. We are very diverse, reaching many different populations of students, characteristically underserved by higher education, and provide all students equal chances at life’s successes. But the promise we offer students will only materialize if they stay long enough to complete their aspirations and goals. They must stay the course and we must help them with programs and structures that encourage their academic success.

The success of our students is of utmost importance to us. We have demonstrated this through our Institutional Effectiveness program in which we monitor student retention, completion, placement, and transfer rates annually. Over the years, we have instituted many focused student support programs, such as Title 3, TRiO, the Nursing Diversity Grant, learning labs, tutoring, and supplemental instruction, among others, which have shown extraordinary student success in all measures.

What we now recognize, through review of clear and compelling data, is that we need to apply these same efforts across the board if we want BCC to be recognized for its exceptional student success rates for all students irrespective of their educational preparation, age, native tongue, race, ethnicity, or gender.

In the past few years, there has been considerable research conducted nationally and within our own state about the success rates of community college students; with mounting concern.

The nation is losing a very significant proportion of its brainpower through attrition. The Lumina Foundation(See source) recently published a national summary about degree-completion rates among community college students that shows nearly half of all students enrolled in community colleges fail to complete their academic goals.

These numbers grow worse when one looks at students of color. A study by the National Center for Education Statistics (See source) found only about a quarter of African-American students and 29 percent of Hispanic students attained a certificate or degree within six years. This compares with 38 percent of white students and 39 percent of Asian students. Many, many students leave college without having completed their goals.

The costs associated with attrition are high: Students who fall short of achieving an associate degree relinquish a potential earning capacity of over $276,000 in their lifetimes; and, communities lose the economic and social benefits of a prepared and skilled workforce.

Studies, too, are consistent in identifying the characteristics of students likely to leave early. They are part-time degree-seeking students, students without a high school diploma, adults 20 years or older, students who support themselves financially, ESL and developmental math students. As you probably have noted, these are attributes held by most BCC students; in fact it applies to about 85 percent.(See source) The vast majority of our students are at risk of dropping out.

You may be asking yourself now how this compares to or relates to BCC. Under the leadership of Matt Groshong and Tom Pritchard, as I mentioned earlier, about 30 faculty and administrators were convened late in August for a special two-day student retention workshop. With help from Catherine Kwong and Steve Downey, Matt assembled 28 pages of BCC student data for the group that included aggregated and disaggregated data on BCC students’ quarter to quarter and year-to-year retention, degree completion, and GPAs, and comparable national and state data, where available. After careful review and discussion, what emerged from the group’s analysis was a fairly clear and sobering picture of our students’ success.

They examined the completion rates for the student group most likely to persist, first-time students pursuing a degree enrolled in 10 or more credits, who started in 2003. They found that only 8 percent of them received a degree from us in the “normal” 2 years. And, only a quarter of them managed to graduate within three years! By way of comparison, the national average completion rate for this cohort of students over 3 years is 27.5 percent. When BCC’s student completion data are compared only with colleges of similar institutional characteristics and student demography, we are still 2 percent below their average achievement rate. Moreover, we tie with 2 other colleges for 16th place among the state’s 34 community and technical colleges in degree completion – right smack in the middle of the group. While it is true that we are the state’s largest transfer college in terms of sending more students to four-year universities, as a percentage of those who want to transfer, we are under-achievers.
You, like I, are probably shocked and surprised by these data. They certainly do not reflect what we want for our college, or what is in our hearts for our students.

There is some evidence that a larger percentage of our students may transfer before they complete a degree, because BCC has more students who make substantial progress (defined as enrolling 4 out of 7 quarters) than other Washington community colleges. However, our students do not complete associate degrees with the same frequency as other students.

A further surprise is that 27 percent of this cohort who started in 2003 has a current cumulative BCC GPA of 2.0 or below; not a good foundation upon which to build a degree. And, more than a quarter of the students who apply for graduation are denied the first time they apply because they have not completed the required coursework, likely because they self-advised.

In the same student cohort, students who enrolled for 16 or more credits had a fairly good year-to-year retention rate of 79 percent. But, retention dropped significantly by a full 20 percent (to 59 percent) for students taking 10 or 11 credits, the average BCC credit load. The higher the student’s credit load, the more likely she/he is to persist; part-time students are more likely to drop out. This may be because many part-time students are juggling family, work, and college, and making only small progress toward their goal, which finally doesn’t seem worth the effort, especially if career paths and benefits are not readily apparent to them.

We also know that with that same cohort of student, only about two-thirds return for the second year and only 38 percent for the third. For comparison sake, our state public universities keep about 85 percent of their students for two years.

Remember, the data we have review so far are for the student group most likely to persist. On the other end of the spectrum are developmental students. We don’t yet have data on the number of BCC students who start in basic skills who actually complete the work and progress to college level classes; however, national data show that these students have a very slim chance of completing even one year of college level coursework. And for ESL students it is only about 6 percent.

Reasons students often cite for dropping out are financial and personal circumstances, which cause many institutions to raise their hands and say: “Well, then, it is out of our control.” In truth these reasons are only a small part of the attrition issue. Most researchers agree that lack of persistence is due to two underlying reasons. First is the inability of the student to make the cultural transition from not being a student to becoming a full member of a college community. Second is the student’s assessment that the benefits of going to college do not outweigh the cost of continuing. In other words, students who do not have an affiliation with the college, primarily through a particular faculty member or through some activity outside of class, are more likely to leave because of the difficulty in making the transition to college. And, students, especially those without clear career plans or who are struggling to sandwich their education between families and jobs, may find that the cost or energy of college substantially outweighs the potential benefit for an undefined job future, and their attrition is likely to be high.

The academic environment also affects student retention. In winter quarter 2004 the CCSSE (See source) (Community College Study of Student Engagement) was administered to our students. The survey asks students to report their experiences at our college on a nationally normed inventory that contains academic or climate factors known to support retention and degree completion.

The results showed that BCC rated higher than average in students’ reported experiences in (1) active and collaborative learning opportunities, (2) their expended effort, and (3) their perception of academic challenge. They scored BCC lower than average in (1) student-faculty interaction and (2) support for learners. In summary, we have a stimulating and challenging academic environment; but, we do not have enough engagement opportunities for faculty to connect with students and, I would surmise, the majority of our students have no idea of the many opportunities they have at BCC to receive academic support.

These are interesting data. When some people hear discussion about improving student success, they immediately think it is shorthand for lowering standards. I want to be clear; this is not about lowering standards. Students – all of us – want education that is of high quality. In fact, strong academics are a positive contributor to student success. But student success is affected by more than just the classroom experience. It has a lot to do with the climate we create to help students with the transition into academic life and the personal and academic support we offer them, both in and outside of the classroom. This is the area where we can make progress.

We know BCC has talented and dedicated faculty and staff who have done their work conscientiously over the years, who were drawn into teaching and working in a college environment to help students improve their lives and livelihoods through education. Enhanced student success at BCC does not require a major transformation. It requires our focused attention and a thoughtful extension of the elements that have resulted in successful teaching and learning in our classrooms and in the support outside of the classroom we provide students.

Improvements will be accomplished by applying practices we know improve student retention and completion rates. For example, we know that students who take math and English early in their education are more likely to persist; and, if students consult with an advisor for educational planning early, they do better. They are also more likely to stay if they have developed affiliations at the college, with faculty members, or if they have participated in a learning community, a college co- or extra-curricular program, a group study table, or some other effort that provides cohort support.

Active engagement in class contributes mightily to retention as well as a thoughtful program of intervention strategies at the first time the student experiences difficulties. And, one can not over emphasize the impact of a caring environment. If students feel like they are supported, not lost in a bureaucratic maze, and if someone goes out of their way to provide personal attention, students are more likely to stay. I would advance that each of us has a story about the person in our own educational experience that made that difference for us.

Faculty members have always been the key to academic success in our colleges, making a difference in and outside of class, as study after study validates. In fact, a faculty member’s encouragement, support and constructive feedback are probably the most significant contributors to students staying. One of our goals under this effort is to increase full-time faculty to provide more student engagement opportunities. We need more full-time support for the personal attention students requires as well as the attention to this from our current faculty.

While faculty play a critical role, faculty are not alone in this enterprise. They alone cannot create transformations in our students. All of us have important roles in formulating the educational environment of our college and providing support for our students. It is our unified response, the accumulation of our collective actions, large and small, that ultimately creates the environment that connects with and supports our students.

Our contributions will be varied and unique, ranging from taking time to walk a lost and apprehensive student to a class, greeting students with a smile, providing a sympathetic ear, listening actively to a student who is frustrated by policy or process he or she doesn’t understand, helping a student in front of you rather than redirecting him/her to another college office, creating more active engagement opportunities in the classroom, teaching a freshman experience class, or volunteering to mentor a student. Each of us is an emissary in “The BCC Experience.” Our collective and continuous commitment is essential to achieve the climate that supports student success.

We have seen just a small sample of the data our retention retreat participants reviewed. If their interaction level was any indication, this analysis was invigorating because, while the data were sobering, their analysis leads us to thoughtful and focused ways to provide better student support. And, as we all know, when we put our heads together to accomplish something at BCC, there is no one like us: the results are powerful.

Would those of you who participated in the retreat, please stand? I want to give special recognition to Tom Pritchard and to Matt Groshong, who will lead the college’s student success efforts. Thanks for your efforts!

What emerged from the retention workshop were specific goals and strategies we will pursue this year. Our goals are these:

The retention workshop participants cautioned me, however, that before they could recommend that the college takes up this crucial work, they needed my agreement that this would be a long-term commitment in terms of time and resources. In effect, they said we would need to put our collective shoulders to this effort and push until we have well-established success strategies firmly embedded into our operation.

I agree. This can’t be an isolated or short-term effort that gets lost among many other college initiatives, and it requires resources. To that end, as your partner in these efforts, I have created a Student Success Opportunity Fund of $150,000 to advance these programs – funds accumulated through grant overhead and from some additional state funding we received this summer. Student scholarship and faculty grant money will be added from the Foundation. I have also asked each of the executive team members to make this our top priority for the next two years and for them to make specific contributions to the effort. Today, I am asking each of you to make a similar commitment.

We are a great college. We know this because, individually and collectively, we are high achievers with high standards and expectations and we demand a great deal of each other. Our strengths have been recognized again and again by colleagues as well as educational and community agencies locally and at the national level, and those of us who travel throughout the country are accustomed to being asked what makes BCC a special college. For me the answer is that we do many things well, and more fundamentally, we have people who are committed to doing things well, and above all we have a faculty committed to excellence.

I take great pride in the privilege of leading this exceptional institution, but I must add that I am unwilling —as I know you are— to allow us to lag in the area of most fundamental importance, the area by which we and others must measure the true value of our work and our impact, student success. When we review national and statewide statistics and our record of performance, we learn that we can and, indeed, we must do better.

I pledge my support to you as your partner in creating a learning environment where any student who desires to do so can find it in him or herself to become exceptional. And, in making these changes we will better fulfill our promises to students and to each other.

As Tom Pritchard has said: “This work is about coming home.” It hits our heartland – teaching and learning, where each of us, irrespective of where we work in the college, can and do make a difference. As another student services administrator put it: It's about service...it's about good advice...it's about learning...it's about time.(See source) This work is worth our time, best thinking, and energy.

I ask for your commitment and, with your support and positive contributions, I look forward to some time in the very near future announcing to you that we lead the state and even the nation in these important indicators of success!

Our second and last area of focus for this year is Institutional Development, which builds on the recommendations of last year’s organizational renewal and community development task forces. Although we don’t have time to go into detail, I will outline the purposes of this work and our priorities for the year. This work is about reshaping our internal processes, operational effectiveness and long-term vision as we prepare for the future.

One key component is succession planning and management. It is no secret that we are part of an aging workforce. Within the next five years one-third of us will be 60 or older and eligible to retire. BCC is not alone in this potential departure of seasoned personnel: all employment sectors share the same demography. We need to be forward-looking in replacing faculty and staff to ensure the continuance of our good work and to leave a strengthened college for the next generation of students. At the very same time, competition for good employees will never be greater. We have the opportunity to identify characteristics and traits that will complement existing staff and provide the whole set of knowledge and skills required to keep BCC on the forefront. We need to ensure BCC’s has a competitive edge in hiring and that we are prepared for the possible disequilibrium that could follow such large scale changes in personnel.

This year we will identify where turn-over will likely occur, develop new position requirements, identify practices such as early hiring that will make us more competitive, align our organization with current and future college needs, redesign key college processes, and pursue a diverse student and employment base.

More information about these priorities will be forthcoming with opportunities to shape their implementation in the weeks to come. Our individual and collective abilities to adapt to rapid change and create something new and more effective has kept BCC at the forefront of the educational process and a subject for envy and respect among our colleagues in the state. With this work we will position our organization and workforce for maintaining this edge in the future.

The work outlined this morning is the result of many BCC faculty and staff members’ contributions. I applaud the far-reaching goals they embrace. We will make significant progress in helping more students to meet their aspirations and in developing our organization. This work deserves our highest and best thinking if we are to maintain our standing as an exceptional college. We will focus our energies on our heartland, teaching and learning excellence, in a culture that applies the highest intellectual standards in planning for the best future attainable for our students and for each other.

I have confidence that your abilities and talents will enable us to move forward. Without your dedication and support, BCC would neither be where it is today, nor could we step so boldly into the future.

Cool September mornings always conjure for me a rich montage of hope, dreams, and aspirations, as I imagine the faces of students who come to us to start new lives. The heart of our collective enterprise is to help them identify their strengths and capacities and reach their goals.

Fall’s renewal will soon fade into spring’s commencement. With this year’s work behind us, on that commencement evening, we will encounter our students as they receive their degrees and certificates with the knowledge we have provided them the best start and new pathways to find within themselves opportunities to become exceptional ….. joining Angel, Franklin, our TRiO and Celebration! students, and all of the other exceptional students from BCC.

Last year, we opened our 40th year with memories of our college’s founding and we heard from some of the pioneers, like Chuck and Neil. Today, we will add the closing bookend with is a short video commemorating those early days. As you watch the video I want you to focus on the contributions these people made in casting our great college and then on our roles as time travelers having only one opportunity to leave our mark, as they have done, on this great college.

Thanks to Pauline, Karl, Kae, Bob, Chuck, and Neil for these recollections and for preserving our oral history. Remembering our roots and the tremendous vitality of your vision reaffirms our responsibility to continue the legacy passed down to us.

Our work this year will strengthen our college and prepare us for a future that fulfills our promise to students—and to ourselves. With your help, with your support… we can ensure that we create pathways to excellence. Have a great year!

According to research posted by the Lumina Foundation http://www.luminafoundation.org/newsroom/Jan2005/AtD.html

Ibid.

Research published by Loretta Seppanen from the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu/data/rsrchrpts/Resh97-3.pdf#search=%22research%20retention%22

For more information see http://www.ccsse.org/

Source: James Madison University Website http://www.jmu.edu/stusuccess/

President's Welcome

Opening Day Address 2006-07

President Jean Floten