City College of San Francisco - California Competes

CHANCELLOR'S PREFACE:
THE MAKING OF A SELF STUDY
The making of this self study is a story worth telling because it is a reflection of how the members of
this institution work together to produce excellent outcomes. It is also the story of how members
of a diverse complex institution can find common ground.
In February 2004, I asked a group of College leaders to sit down with me to discuss how we would address
our self study. The conversation revealed that we had different conceptions of the study, and it took us
a few hours of discussion to figure out what we should do. Some of us wanted to take the traditional
standards-focused approach, while others argued for a radical departure, suggesting that we should
analyze the College through a theme-based framework as suggested by the ACCJC.
We decided to adopt both study strategies: City College would conduct a traditional self study based upon
the four primary standards during the Fall 2004 semester and then transform these standards committees
into six theme-based committees to produce a series of essays based upon the ACCJC-recommended
themes during Spring 2005.
We also agreed that we would establish an integrated self-study process. The traditional study based
upon the standards would inform the development of our essays, and, consequently, the reader would
attain a better understanding of our institution than from either a traditional study or a set of themebased
essays alone.
To accomplish this ambitious goal of producing, in effect, two inter-connected studies in less than a year,
we established an organizational infrastructure consisting of standards committees (later to become
theme-based committees) comprising faculty, classified staff, and administrators and a steering committee
comprising the committee co-chairs plus representatives from the College organizations, the senior
administrators, and a Board-appointed liaison. To ensure this entire process would work smoothly,
efficiently, and inclusively for all College constituencies, I appointed a Work Group composed of three
faculty members, two administrators, two classified staff, and a resource person.
The Work Group built the infrastructure upon which this self study rests, an infrastructure that
extended across our campuses to ensure the participation of as many members of the College community
as possible. They coordinated all of the committee meetings, the College listening sessions, and the
discussions with College organizations. Special sessions were convened to speak with students about their
concerns and their assessment of the drafts. The Work Group assembled close to 100 self study templates,
each with a specific section addressing one of the standards, a set of study questions, a list of evidence to
review, and a rubric to evaluate how well the College met the standard. The self study templates required
committee teams to review evidence and write up their findings. The completed templates were then
reviewed by the entire committee and were used by the co-chairs to write the standards reports contained
in this self study. The Work Group also assembled hundreds of documents, reports, minutes, and other
types of evidence to support the standards reports.
CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FRANCISCO
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