FACULTY ASSOCIATION VISION AND GOALS FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS
JCCC exists to provide opportunities for education to the community. The educational goals and needs of the college’s students are many, but the College must retain its essential character as a place that equips those students to take their places as conversant members of a dynamic, scientifically literate and culturally diverse world.
If education is at the core of the College’s mission, education must remain firmly in place as the goal towards which all facets of the institution work, and education must be the goal the allocation of the Colleges’ many resources ultimately serve. In an institution devoted to education, the faculty must shoulder special responsibilities, as it will be in the relationship between professors and students that the core mission of the College is most directly expressed. Anything that impacts, positively or negatively, that relationship impacts the ability of the College to fulfill its mission. This points to the essential role in governance that the faculty must play. Substantive faculty involvement in governance, that is, the decision and policy-making starting with classroom and curriculum matters, and extending to administrative and personnel concerns related to the college’s academic an work environment, is essential.
In light of these considerations, JCCC as the flagship institution of higher learning in Johnson County, should reflect the county’s well-established commitment to public education by maintaining high academic standards in course content, teaching, and student evaluation, thereby:
- Preparing transfer students for the academic requirements of four-year institutions.
- Insuring career program students of proper education and favorable consideration when applying for employment in their field.
- Facilitating the articulation of courses with other institutions of higher learning.
- Attracting a high-quality pool of applicants for faculty and staff positions.
As the flagship institution of higher learning in Johnson County, JCCC should preserve and promote the humanistic and ethical values associated with a liberal arts education, thereby:
- Preparing students to live and work successfully in a more culturally diverse, globally interdependent society.
- Nurturing in students the self-confidence and social awareness necessary for effective community participation and leadership.
As the flagship institution of higher learning in Johnson County, JCCC should be mindful of the changing educational needs of the county, and the role of the college in the higher education system of Kansas. Therefore, JCCC should:
- Be open to the diversity of effective teaching and learning styles, and the variety of effective means for providing education to students.
- Be willing to have true asynchronous interdisciplinary modular programming including scheduling and competencies.
- Be willing to cooperate with other Regents institutions, and coordinate and integrate educational programs to enhance opportunities for all Kansas students.
- Provide for interactive learning and learning opportunities working with other Kansas and Missouri community colleges.
- Establish educating and training agreements with industry rather than give way to “corporate universities.”
As an institution focused on education and cognizant of the essential role of faculty, JCCC should:
- Recognize and honor faculty decisions.
- Recognize and honor the unique position of faculty in evaluating and incorporating new technologies, teaching strategies and educational trends.
- Involve faculty in all phases of decision making regarding the expenditure of college resources.
- View faculty as discipline experts, including on technology issues, with respect for their unique contributions.
- Support an increase in full time faculty prestige where faculty will be leaders in “out of the classroom” learning opportunities and leaders in innovation nationally.
As an institution that invites substantive faculty involvement in governance, JCCC will agree that:
- The Faculty Association remains the primary organization for dealing with faculty issues and concerns.
- The Faculty Association empowers the faculty.
- Faculty members in leadership roles receive credit towards their basic job assignment.
- Continued direct interaction between the Board of Trustees members and faculty members is of direct benefit to the College.
- There will be increased Faculty participation in College decision making and that Faculty decisions will be honored and not changed
- There is active Faculty involvement at all stages of planning for and building of facilities.
- Faculty strengths are used and rewarded
JCCC exists to provide opportunities for education to the community. In the next five years, JCCC will:
- Remain an independent community college – not a four-year institution and not a junior college.
- Put into practice the community in our name through various educational programs, through different means of delivery addressing all age groups.
- Blend credit and non-credit, as appropriate, driven by community need.
- Outreach to high schools for high achieving and gifted students.
- Provide pre-major activities to attract high school students with transfer opportunities.
- Constantly develop new student profiles including how we serve that “new” student by enhancing advising policies.
- Develop exit competencies for students that include community involvement.
- Encourage a leadership role in Johnson County beyond “just” the President.
- Provide more distance learning opportunities plus a school of distance education.
- Provide more satellite class sites, perhaps a new campus, and offer alternative delivery on site classes.
- Establish more links to foreign colleges and an expanded English as a Second Language program for credit.
- Develop more 2+2 programs.
- Be a true virtual campus.
- Maintain buildings and grounds to support our mission. Students and Faculty will have priority in the use of these facilities.
- Utilize the campus year round with a possible trimester system and Summer Enrichment and Learning Centers.
- Provide more library resources. The library will be the center for student learning. The library will do for classes what the Carlsen Center does for the arts.
- Enjoy an increased rate of student population growth
- Provide accurate and timely course catalogs and an accurate degree audit system for students.
- Employ streamlined entrance requirements for single-class students. There will be fewer admissions tests for single goals.
- Use a real-time application process for students
- Improve the evaluation process of the faculty.
- Evaluate reassigned time projects on value not on hours.