City College of San Francisco - California Competes

THEME IV
The Steering Committee for A&R Re-engineering has continued to meet during the 2004-05 academic year.
Here is a brief list of what has been done with the ten Top Priorities for Implementation:
• Improved Communication continues to be one of the official departmental objectives. The internal
communications issues among IT, Matriculation, and A&R have basically been resolved. There continues
to be an emphasis on improving communications with students. An example is the revision of letters
and forms sent to credit students.
• Payment by students was an area in which staff, faculty, students, and administration had differing
perspectives. Ultimately, imposition of a stricter payment policy was an idea not only opposed by
students, but deemed financially counter-productive, since student fees do not make up the bulk
of funding that the College receives.
• Blocks, holds, and repeats continue to be an issue in that the Department Chairs Council wanted
some control of these, and overrides to them, to remain at the departments’ discretion. A&R would
prefer uniformity with fewer signatures required, because they are concerned about students fruitlessly
hunting down department chairs for a signature during the summer months. Fact-finding is currently
taking place on the overrides question.
• Grading was another area in which recommendations were made, primarily by staff, about an issue
that falls under faculty purview according to the law. Some of those proposals did not find favor
among faculty, although web grading was implemented in 2002. Because some faculty have not made
the change, A&R has to track both old and new modalities and is unable to realize fully the projected
efficiencies of the technology.
• Records storage remains a loaded topic, literally, with loads of boxes piled up as A&R tries to keep
everything under the sun, until they receive a legal opinion as to what can be destroyed. That
legal opinion is being developed as of Spring 2005. Meanwhile, A&R is impacted by the loss of
much-needed office space. Document imaging will be implemented within three years or so to
modernize the archiving of records and go “paperless.”
• Banner support has been improved through a restructuring of the user group and a new linkage with
the Information Technology Policy Committee along with the upgrade to the latest version of Banner.
• Integration of credit and noncredit was to occur in the work processes to the degree practicable, with
the idea of increasing efficiency by avoiding duplication. That goal remains a key interest of the team
but was demoted to a secondary priority due to feasibility issues.
• A one-stop center for registration, Financial Aid, and other student services, such as the one at
San Francisco State University (SFSU), is widely considered to be an effective (“co-location”) strategy
for improving student service at CCSF. It is part of the District’s Facilities Master Plan and will be
in the next bond initiative. Students will greatly benefit from such convenience, availability, and
coordination of services.
• The degree audit has been implemented, so that students can see online what requirements they
already meet, or need to meet, for degrees, certificates, or awards. This is expected to be a much faster
and more consistent process than the manual one that preceded it.
• Tech support for students is being very successfully implemented through alternative funding for
hardware and web-based applications. Block grants were used to install several computers in Conlan
Hall, which students now use constantly to access their records, and additional computers will be
installed in the Student Union for similar purposes. In noncredit admissions, an online application
form is being piloted at the Downtown Campus and is being translated into Spanish and Chinese.
298 CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FRANCISCO