City College of San Francisco - California Competes

THEME III
• DACUM (Designing A CurriculUM) sessions involving seven faculty from five departments
and over 12 representatives from industry, resulting in a summary of findings.
• A two-day retreat attended by seven faculty and administrators to review and discuss research findings
that had been provided by a project consultant, and determine implications for course finalization.
The Design Collaborative team has effectively developed and obtained Curriculum Committee approval
for three initial courses since the 2003–04 academic year: Design Fundamentals, Rapid Visualization, and
Color in Design. Faculty members began testing two of these courses during the Spring 2004 semester.
The collaboration has involved several faculty who have met to discuss the syllabi and classroom activities.
The Color in Design course debuted in Spring 2005, and a Design History course will be ready for Fall
2005, resources permitting. The next goal is to fully develop the Associate of Arts Degree in Design,
which will entail more dialogs for developing the final two courses, Orientation to Design and the Design
Practicum. This project, driven by faculty committed to dialog and finding ways to improve the learning
experience for students, appears to be on its way to success.
Enhanced Self-Study – Institution-Wide Dialog. The Enhanced Self-Study illustrates perhaps the most
intensive, broad-based, informed, and intentional institutional dialog in the College’s history. Following
the 2000 WASC Self-Study, the Chancellor proposed that the College undertake an Enhanced Self-Study
Project (ESS) to “reach deeply and incisively into the critical areas of the College where students are served
and success is achieved, to discover what we are doing that works and what is needed, and to recommend
the various vital changes which, taken together, can transform this educational enterprise” (Opening Day
Address, Fall 2000). His proposal was elaborated in the form of a handbook and disseminated to various
individuals and groups, including the Academic Senate Executive Council and the Department Chairs
Council for review and comments. After much debate and discussion among the officers of the Academic
Senate, some revisions to the proposal were made and the project moved forward.
In Fall 2000, members of the College community began organizing and meeting. From the beginning
the goal was to use the College Shared Governance System to ensure the broadest involvement of the
community. The basic structure of the ESS rested on five ad hoc committees: Pre-Registration and
Matriculation; Pre-College Learning; College Level Learning; Enrollment Management Tools; and Student
Outcomes. Orientation sessions were attended by more than 125 faculty, staff, students, and administrators
during the fall semester, and these volunteers joined one of the five ad hoc committees. Initial
meetings involved a lot of brainstorming and frank discussions about problems and concerns that
committee members believed to be barriers to student learning and success. When a committee finally
drafted a recommendation, the co-chairs brought that recommendation to the Ad Hoc Coordinating
Council (AHCC) for more discussion and acceptance, if appropriate.
The co-chairs of the five committees regularly provided progress reports to the AHCC, co-chaired by the
Chancellor and the President of the Academic Senate, and composed of the co-chairs of the committees,
the Vice Chancellors, a Department Chairs Council representative, and an Associated Students representative.
The sessions consisted of co-chair updates and presentations of recommendations coming out of the
committees. After more discussion and questioning from the AHCC, the co-chair(s) took the recommendation(s)
back to their committees for further work before resubmitting them. During this interactive
discussion process with the AHCC, two recommendations were merged, three others were not approved,
and the AHCC discovered that two original recommendations could be readily implemented without
being a part of the ESS recommendations.
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