Report to the Coomunity

Report to the Community

CONTINUED accreditation
of
QUINEBAUG VALLEY
COMMUNITY COLLEGE
by
The Commission on
Institutions of Higher Education
of the
The New England Association
of Schools & Colleges, Inc.

The following are quotes from the team’s report and the Commission’s letter with strengths first and then the concerns, followed by the areas for emphasis in our 2006 interim report.

AS AN INSTITUTION

“QVCC’s primary focus is the education of its students. This focus is displayed through a ‘learners first’ attitude which pervades the entire institution.”

“The institution’s pride in its
accomplishments is entirely warranted.”

The New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. (NEASC) was founded in 1885 and is the recognized accrediting association for all levels of education. QVCC was last granted continuing accreditation by NEASC in 1992 for the maximum allowable time of ten years. In 2000 Quinebaug Valley Community College undertook an intensive self-study process over an eighteen month period and then underwent a three day site visit in October 2001 by an evaluation team.

At a meeting of the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education on March 8, 2002, the College was granted continuing accreditation for the maximum period of ten years with an interim report in five years. We are proud to share some of the key findings with our community. Both the self-study done by the college and the letter of continuing accreditation are available in their entirety on the college website at www.qvcc.commnet.edu.

“What emerged was a picture of a collegial culture that emphasizes teamwork, cross-functionality, ongoing self-assessment, and continuous quality improvement.”

Regarding the meeting with community members “...in great detail they outlined the ways in which the college provides higher education access, serves as a cultural center in the region, and reaches out to its community whenever education or training needs become apparent.”

Learners First

Report to the Community
“The Commission applauds the institution’s ability to manage its resources effectively in recent years and to deliver solid academic programs in the face of significant fiscal limitations and uncertainty about the level of continued funding...” “Planning and goal setting are pervasive throughout the institution and are one of the outstanding strengths of the college.” “The Commission takes very favorable note of the College’s serious commitment to planning and quality management, which appears to pervade every level of the institution.” “Quinebaug Valley Community College is responsive to the needs of faculty, staff, students, and the community.” “QVCC is an institution that values opinions from all segments and facilitates the participation of all constituencies in the governance process. Everyone has a voice, can raise a concern, and propose an idea.” “Finally, we applaud the College for the manner in which it serves successfully as a center for academic, cultural, and economic development in the region, and for managing to do so in the face of serious fiscal constraints.” PROGRAMS AND SERVICES “We commend the College for the strength of its academic programming and support services, which are made possible by the energy and dedication of its well-qualified faculty, staff, and senior leadership team.” “Although the college is small and has few full-time faculty, an amazing variety of courses are offered. This is achieved primarily through the liberal use of adjunct faculty, innovative teaching, multi-discipline instructors, and the use of technology. The wide variety of courses available to the student allows for in-depth study in the major and the opportunity to take interesting electives. All programs have the proper requirements for general education. The general education requirements are reasonable and balanced to provide a good foundation for an educated person.”	“Instruction is highly innovative and makes excellent use of technology and available resources.” “The use of technology at the college is widespread, highly creative, and very advanced considering the size of the institution and available resources.” “The institution uses a highly structured and rigorous method of assessing prior life and work experience for credit.” “Assessment is important and designed to improve service to students.” “A wide range of student services and support are creatively provided. This is especially impressive given the small size of the institution and the number of available staff.” “QVCC has a clearly defined academic planning and evaluation process for all academic programs.” “Students are provided a voice in QVCC’s organization and governance at the system and college levels.” “The members of the college family should take great pride in their ability to provide quality instruction and support services to their constituencies in light of an austere financial support base.” “Programmatic self-studies and a system of discipline review are used to continually reexamine and improve the curriculum.”
2

Report to the Community

STAFF

“A dedicated and student-centered staff at QVCC creatively provides a broad range of student and academic support services and co curricular activities and programming.”

“The library has a dedicated and very energetic staff which functions as a team. On the state level, the excellence of their work has been acknowledged by the Governor’s Service Award.”

“The faculty is particularly committed to continual self-examination, purposeful change and innovations as demonstrated by the individual action plans that address faculty fulfillment of the institutional goals and their own professional development planning and implementation.”

“The institution is quite clearly a source of pride for students and the community reflecting the high quality of education and the climate of intellectual enrichment provided by faculty. Faculty live by the ‘Learners First’ principle adopted several years ago by the college community as evidenced by the learner centered focus in classroom instruction and curricular development.”

“Faculty members made a commitment to the innovative use of instructional technology and have placed QVCC at the forefront of web-based instructional support, distance learning, and computer technology to support classroom instruction.”

“The college has had considerable success attracting faculty who are multi-talented and can teach in more than one discipline, thus providing greater curricular variety than would normally be possible with this number of faculty.”

CONCERNS

The concerns raised primarily deal with resources—human, fiscal, and facilities.

“Resources and staffing are barely adequate to meet programmatic needs and related services.”

“The ability to maintain an open student access model could be in jeopardy in light of significant increases in enrollment patterns and possible decreases in state funding levels.”

“…space is at a premium at the Danielson campus…As enrollments increase in the future, the space shortage will evolve to a more critical situation.” (Note: Enrollment has grown almost 30% in the past four years. Design for an addition is scheduled for this coming year with construction of the addition to be completed December 2004.)

“The number of fulltime faculty may not be sufficient to fully address the range of curricular needs in a comprehensive community college. This may inhibit new program development and curricular enhancement.”

“Currently higher allocations are needed to support the costs of replacing furnishings and equipment.”

(Library) “Funding continues to be a challenge as the staff continues to balance the need to provide traditional print resources on 2 campuses as well as electronic resources with scarce dollars.” “The staff is barely sufficient to support 2 libraries.”

“With fiscal support from the state projected to decline in the coming years, it is also essential that an active and highly visible foundation (fund-raising) presence evolves and be maintained throughout the entire service area.”

“In light of the College’s practice of assigning multiple and diverse areas of responsibility to staff, future retirements may require consideration of new staff positions.”

“More work needs to be done to encourage involvement between students from the Danielson and Willimantic campuses which are 20 miles apart.”

AREAS OF EMPHASIS
FOR THE 2006 REPORT

Ensuring that the number of faculty is sufficient to offer the academic programs and to carry out non-instructional duties
Facilitating interactions between the Willimantic and Danielson campuses and providing access to co-curricular activities to all students
Meeting physical resource needs, particularly on the Danielson campus
Continuing to maintain fiscal stability in the face of funding uncertainty

Publication of this report is made possible through the generosity of United Natural Foods, Inc.

Report to the Community
	Quinebaug Valley Community College is using the accreditation process and the results of the evaluation team’s visit and Commission action to continuously improve our services, programs, and to advance the achievement of our mission. As this community’s college we will continue to use “Learners First” to drive all that we do. We invite all members of the community to join with us in this endeavor. We welcome your input, suggestions, compliments and criticism to assist us in the years ahead to build on our strengths and respond to the concerns as identified. With your support, the future for Quinebaug Valley Community College has no limits. Dianne E. Williams President
4 Quinebaug Valley Community College 742 Upper Maple Street ● Danielson, CT 06239 ● (860) 774-1130 729 Main Street ● Willimantic, CT 06226 ● (860) 423-1824