City College of San Francisco - California Competes

INTRODUCTION | ABSTRACT
Theme III: College Dialog Promotes
Institutional Improvements
College dialogs at CCSF are many and occur at
all levels of the organization and among all
College constituencies. Meetings and discussions
about institutional issues are pervasive, and the
dialogs that occur are critical to institutional
growth and change and address many sections
of the WASC standards. The institutional context
described within the Theme III essay includes a
description of the College’s Shared Governance
System and brief descriptions of a sample of
dialogs organized around four critical areas:
(1) planning; (2) diversity and equity; (3) student
success; and (4) teaching and learning. In reality
there is often overlap between and among the
dialogs that advance the programs and activities
reflected by these broad areas. The essay then
provides fuller depictions of four representative
and important case studies of dialogs originating
from four different sources: students, faculty,
administration, and campus/program sites.
The essay closes with suggestions for improving
the role of dialog across the District.
Theme IV: Evaluation, Planning,
& Improvement
City College of San Francisco has a cyclical planning,
evaluation, and improvement process that
increasingly focuses on student progress,
achievement, and success. The Theme IV essay
examines selected cases at CCSF, widely ranging
from a re-engineering study of Admissions and
Records and an Architecture Department
Program Review, to an evaluation of noncredit
ESL promotion testing and a re-organization of
Financial Aid. These cases vary greatly in scope
and focus, but each in its own way provides
insight into the principal parts of the planning
cycle and demonstrates how our system provides
the climate, the expectation, and the structure
for continuous improvement through both
periodic and non-periodic means. First, the
essay examines the institutional context; then,
through review of selected cases, demonstrates
that our planning and budgeting system is flexible,
well-organized, and even nimble. It will be
clear that the primary focus of the system is
supporting the improvement of teaching and
learning.
Theme V: Organization
The Theme V essay illustrates the organizational
support the College provides to support student
learning through two case studies, one of a
department, Biological Sciences, and the other
of a program, Biotechnology. Predictably, some
of the organizational structure issues reported
in these case studies may be unique to
Biotechnology or Biological Sciences; however,
the conclusion focuses on College-wide issues
raised in these case studies related to staff,
resources, and organizational structure.
The Biological Sciences Department case study
gives a picture of a typical academic department.
Several Biological Science courses can be used
to satisfy the CCSF graduation requirement in
Natural Sciences and can also be used to meet
general education requirements for the
California State University (CSU) and University
of California (UC) systems. The department
chair, three faculty members, and the Dean
of the School of Science and Mathematics
were interviewed to gather information for
this case study.
The Biotechnology Program was chosen because
it meets the educational and training needs of
students related to workforce, economic, and
community development (CCSF Strategic
Priority 3). This program illustrates how the
College supports student learning through both
its noncredit and credit programs. The College
has successfully sought grant funding to support
the program, and it has received regional, state,
and national recognition. This program is a good
example of the way the College develops community
and industry partnerships to support
programs that meet student needs. Interviews
with the program coordinators of the biotech
certificate programs, the coordinator of the
Bridge to Biotech program, the director of
Bio-Link, the coordinator of the new equipment
clearinghouse, and the Dean of the School of
Science and Mathematics provided the foundation
for this case study.
CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FRANCISCO
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