June 15, 2009 Minutes of Planning Committee Meeting

The Planning Committee of the Board of Trustees of Illinois Valley Community College District No. 513 met at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, June 15, 2009 in the Room C307 at Illinois Valley Community College.

Committee Members Physically Present:

Paula J. Endress, Committee Chair
Michael C. Driscoll
Leslie-Anne Englehaupt

Others Physically Present:

Jerry Corcoran, President
Jamie Gahm, Director of Continuing Education and Business Services
Rick Pearce, Vice President for Learning and Student Development
Cheryl Roelfsema, Vice President for Business Services and Finance
Lori Scroggs, Vice President for Planning and Institutional Effectiveness

The meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Mrs. Endress.

STRATEGIC PLANNING CYCLE

Jamie Gahm reviewed the Strategic Planning Cycle beginning with the Strategic Plan Flowchart which was approved by the IVCC Board of Trustees in October 2007.  The Strategic Plan is led by the Strategic Leadership and Planning Council (SLPC) comprised of faculty, support staff, and administration.  This is the second time IVCC has been through the three-year cycle.  Jamie pointed out that the College is at the point in the cycle where the Board approves the strategic goals.  The cycle began with the environmental scan in which the College looked externally at all the forces that impact the institution.  Three years ago employees of the college were trained by a consultant. This time the environmental scan was facilitated by Rosie Lynch, a retired English instructor, and Cathy Bangert, Director of Institutional Research.  Forty employees were engaged in the process which included training in identifying trends and researching trends.  A list of forty trends was identified in eight categories:  competition; demographic; economics; education; lifestyles, social, values; politics; technology; and workforce.  IVCC’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) were identified by SLPC and then a core SWOT was identified. The purpose of the SWOT is for the College to look at itself internally and gauge how to respond to the trends.   A community forum was held for community members to review and provide feedback on the trends. The IVCC Board also reviewed the trends and then SLPC identified core trends.  SLPC reviewed the core trends and the core SWOT to draft strategic goal recommendations. The IVCC staff reviewed the current mission, vision, and core values and then SLPC proposed strategic goals and objectives.  The IVCC staff, the Student Government Association, and community leaders provided feedback on the proposed strategic goals and objectives.  The College is now ready for the Board to approve the recommended strategic plan. The committee was very appreciative of all the work that went into this process.  Once the Board approves the goals and objectives each college department will identify activities under each objective and goal.    The activities will be performed in FY11 through FY13 with budget consideration.  The committee recommended approval of the strategic goals and objectives at the June Board meeting.

ACADEMIC QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (AQIP) ACCREDITATION CYCLE

Another cycle of planning, simultaneously with the strategic plan, is the Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) which provides an alternative process through which an already-accredited institution can maintain its accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission.  In November 2002, the Board made the decision to choose AQIP.  The traditional process reaffirms accreditation every ten years.  A team would visit and evaluate what the College was doing and the way it was being done.  AQIP is a seven-year cycle which moves the College toward continuous quality improvement and provides tools for institutional self-study and self evaluation.  It forces the College to look at itself more frequently.  Next year the College will receive reaffirmation of accreditation.  As the college moves through each event and makes progress, its accreditation is also moving along.  The college has made all of the timelines from conducting a self assessment to submitting a systems portfolio.  An AQIP review team conducted a checkup visit in February 2009 and two suggestions emerged from this visit:  1) integration of AQIP with strategic planning efforts and 2) broader faculty involvement in the next strategy forum and on action project teams.  The strategy forum is part of the AQIP cycle where teams from eight to ten institutions meet to discuss where they are in their quality journey.  The team goes through intensive training to determine opportunities for improvement and prepares the team to develop action projects.  Action projects are geared at accomplishing major goals.  As one action project completes its work, another action project takes its place.  IVCC is currently working on three action projects:  1) Assessment of General Education Goals; 2) Key Performance Indicators – Measures and Targets; and 3) Enhancing Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Through Action Project Teams.  The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were distributed to the committee members.  The actual development of the KPIs dates back to 2005, but no measures or targets were developed.  This action project is identifying measures and targets.  The KPIs are used to determine the College’s success. The annual report on the action projects is due in September to the Higher Learning Commission and at that time the action projects will be presented to the Board. 

The meeting adjourned at 6:39 p.m.