Letter from CCL President Meghan Chen
Greetings!
2016 promises to be yet another exciting year of opportunities for the Council of Chief Librarians to advance student learning and success. I am honored to continue CCL’s work as its next president. I think I speak for the organization in my sincere appreciation to Kenley Neufeld for his years of service as President and who served as the Interim President since April 2015.
So, what’s exciting for CCL this year? Just a few highlights for now …
Advocacy for a centralized library automation system (or ILS) – by now, you may have heard that the Governor’s proposed budget for 2016-17 did not include funds for the ILS plus discovery tool nor the rest of the technology budget requested by the Chancellor’s Office. As a top priority for our organization, we have already begun to advocate for inclusion of this vital technology package in the May Revise through conversations with the Community College League of California (CCLC), the Chief Instruction Officers (CCCCIO), and the Chancellor’s Office Technology, Research, and Information Systems Division. Lots of things can happen on the long road to the May Revise, and we will work together to advance this important budget item for CCC students’ equitable access to libraries and their absolutely crucial resources for lifelong learning and success.
The Chancellor’s Office has announced myriad opportunities for colleges to promote student success. Student Equity Plans were due in late December 2015, a very challenging timeline for many of us, and some of us might not have had proposals in those plans. Despair not: while it may seem that the door to SEP allocations is closed, there may very well be unspent funds or projects that fail to launch. Libraries should be ready with proposals to pounce on those unspent dollars. To that end, CCL Board will continue to share examples of funded projects, by college and amount, very shortly. We will also have continuous discussions about how to assess and report on these projects’ progress and effectiveness, including data collection and reinforcing the message that libraries promote student learning and success.
Basic Skills Initiative, in many forms, sharpens its focus on how colleges are to improve students’ progression through basic skills courses. The funded amount is $110 million in the next two years with $20 million ongoing. In 2015-16, $70 million will be used to fund various projects, and of note is another $60 million for Student Outcomes Transformation, which is one-time money, to be spread across three years. The focal points of this grant include “more, faster, and better” in getting students through the educational pipeline more efficiently and incorporating evidence based practices (The RP Group) – including contextualization, acceleration, among others. Colleges have to include at least two in their applications, but two key criteria must be addressed: scalability (of existing practices) and expansion (increased number of students served). Applications are due March 25th with funding amounts up to $1.5 million per application. There will be four workshops offered through the Chancellor’s Office’s Institutional Effectiveness Division in February and early March, and colleges are encouraged to send teams. More information here.
Bachelor’s Degree Programs in CCC: 12 colleges have been approved for their Substantive Change Proposal (Antelope, Bakersfield, Cypress, Feather River, Foothill, Mira Costa, Modesto, Rio Hondo, San Diego Mesa, Santa Ana, Santa Monica, and Skyline; Shasta, Solano, and WLA in progress.) Each college will receive $350,000, with latitude to spend the money, which can and should include the library. North Orange County CCD has been approved to administer the BA degree program implementation.
What else, you ask? More information to come as it becomes available … and CCL will be keeping its “eye” on any apertures for library involvement and advocacy.
- Military Credit
- Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students
- Dual Enrollment
- Online Education Initiative – library presence
- Career and Technical Education (“Doing What Matters”) initiatives
I’m looking forward to seeing you at the annual Deans and Directors’ Meeting on March 3-4, 2016, at the Holiday Inn Sacramento. The CCL Board is proud to welcome new library leaders at the inaugural Library Management 101 on Thursday morning, and an announcement about the Library Leadership Scholarship will be made at D&D. The annual meeting has been a source of inspiration and new energy for my professional work, and this year’s promises to be fantastic!
Got questions or comments? Please contact me at mchen@mtsac.edu.
Sincerely,
Meghan Chen