Tracy MacLean

  • The Achieving the Dream BC Pathways Group has posted a case statement about their work, including information about guided pathways and how it might benefit BC students, and welcomes feedback from the college […]

  • More than thirty faculty and staff members from offices and departments across the campuses have developed a draft student success action plan. Achieving the Dream team members examined college data, grassroots […]

    • Not sure if this is right location to provide feedback on ATD action plan –

      1. The priority 2 action plan has 3 rows listed with due dates of June or before. What is the status of these actions? Complete? In Progress? New?

      2. What are BCs values? The student success visual list 3 values – equity; student-centered forms; evidence-based decisions. How do these reconcile with the values described in policy 1200 of the 6/6/18 board packet, which says:

      Core Values
      We, the Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, and administration of Bellevue College, place students at the center of all we do and support and promote the excellence of their efforts. We affirm and embody pluralism; value collaboration and shared decision making; and honor creativity and innovation. We consider it our duty to anticipate changing demands in education and welcome the opportunity to shape its future. We acknowledge our responsibility to society and embrace the belief that widespread access to excellent postsecondary education is the cornerstone of a democratic society.

      3. How is accountability going to be monitored, enforced with appropriate consequences should deliverables fall short?

    • Put steps in place to reach the goal. Proper documentation is needed. For example, if a department speaks with a student, that interaction should be documented in the student’s comments, so then when that student visits with a new person, that team player has the info to be the most effective for the student. This creates trust and saves time because the student doesn’t have to re-explain their situation.
      Transition steps should be provided and tailored to each student, this seems to be the hardest part for students, and providing transition steps for which department will provide what, will make it easier for that student to follow through with the processes to get there goal met.

    • I would like to thank all of the members of the ATD teams. This work is vitally important for the future of the college. Because this work involves re-examining and rethinking long-established practices, I’m sure that it is challenging and fairly thankless. So, I wanted to be sure to convey my heartfelt thanks.

      On the whole, I am a big fan of the Student Success Action Plan. The three primary initiatives are exactly the right three initiatives. Guided Pathways, integrated advising, and faculty development all build on existing work, draw from proven best practices, and are likely to move the right needles. In short, the ATD core team has put together a strong framework.

      However, I don’t think the initiatives are as integrated as they could be. Just to pick a single example, the “exploratory sequence” mentioned in the Priority 1 work plan will need to be connected with the “integrative advising model” of Priority 2 and with the faculty development work in Priority 3. If our initiatives are interconnected and reinforcing, they will have much greater impact. It is vitally important to build in such connections from the very beginning. Currently, it seems that the work planning integrated advising has not been well connected to the Guided Pathways planning. Some co-planning sessions and perhaps a system of dedicated liaisons to connect the planning teams might be beneficial.

      As we engage in this critically important work, we should examine successes at our peer institutions. I know that we desperately need to do and to act, but I worry that our planning is not as firmly rooted in the studies of student engagement and the scholarship of teaching and learning as it might be. We should include time to study and to reflect in our planning work. There is much we could learn from the City University of New York (CUNY) system, the Community College of Baltimore County, and Miami Dade College, as well as the University of Central Oklahoma and the Cal State system. These campuses have revamped their entry and enrollment systems, combined first-year seminars and learning communities, implemented mandatory advising, and integrated experiential learning and other high-impact practices into their Guided Pathways. They have all substantially narrowed achievement gaps while producing double-digit increases in graduation and retention rates.

      The ATD teams have done a great job gathering and using data about BC’s current institutional capacities and strengths. It is wise to build on our strengths, and the ATD teams should be commended for this approach. But I would encourage us to also look at how other colleges have built connections between priority initiatives to integrate faculty development, academic and career advising, and experiential learning into their Pathways.

  • Last November, President Wakefield convened a Strategic Plan Update Steering Committee to build on the accomplishment of the original Strategic Plan Task Force and to keep our planning current and […]

    • Regarding Community Engagement and Enrichment, BC must consider creating a BAS in American Sign Language Interpreting to fill a community need for more ASL interpreters. We are in the process of researching this, but an ITP would go a long way toward serving a large community and making a huge difference Statewide.

    • Regarding College Life and Culture, BC must consider hiring American Sign Language interpreters to serve our faculty, staff and students who are Deaf and hard of hearing.
      Our community of Deaf and hoh people is large. BC could be a leader in both educating and employing Deaf and hoh people especially if we begin with hiring staff ASL interpreters for our current Deaf and hoh employees.

    • Regarding faculty professional development, you must have the goal of increasing funding for PD. In World Languages, for example, we have a nationally recognized professional conference which happens only once a year and often only on the east coast of the U.S. This conference is expensive because of lodging and travel from Seattle. Please consider increasing funding for PD across campus.

  • Dr. Jill Wakefield has convened a Strategic Plan Update (SPU) Steering Committee to review and revise the Strategic Plan. Key tasks for the group will include:

    Develop an updating process for annual […]

  • An article by Katherine Long “State’s students falling short in level of education for jobs” shows the importance of college attainment to residents of Washington State and local businesses. According to a recent […]

  • For the past two years, this Designing Our Future commons website has been used to post documents and solicit comments about a new governance system for Bellevue College. Last spring, elections were held and […]

  • President Rule sent the following letter to the college community, emphasizing key aspects of the Strategic Plan for AY 2016-16.

    “This is an exciting time to be at Bellevue College as we embrace a myriad of […]

  • The BC Governance College Assembly met Monday, June 13, for the first time and elected the following officers for 2016-2017.

    Chair: Jason Fuller (faculty)
    Vice chair: Sam Akeyo (student)
    Secretary: Becky […]

  • The Student, Faculty, Exempt, and Classified councils are currently working on their appointments to the functional council. Some positions are still pending, but partial lists can be found on the Council Membership page.

  • The Bellevue College community has completed its first election for the constituency councils of the new BC Governance system. The Governance Development Team–Jim Craswell, Jason Fuller and Tracy Biga M […]

  • All BC employees will be emailed an electronic ballot based on their constituency group: classified, exempt, or faculty. Faculty will vote for Faculty Council members based on their academic division, EWD, LMC, or […]

  • Voter guides for constituency councils are now available for employee review. Exempt and classified staff will vote for at large positions. Faculty members will vote based on academic divisions, EWD, the LMC, or […]

  • Thanks to everyone who completed the recent Culminating Feedback Survey. The Governance Development Team appreciates the positive results and the many comments, questions, and suggestions. The document below shows […]

  • Founding documents related to BC Governance are now available for review on the BC Governance page. A survey requesting feedback on the new system will be sent April 4-8, with a nomination period to follow.

  • Tracy MacLean wrote a new post on the site Designing Our Future 8 years ago

    The Faculty Advisory Group, which has been working closely with the Governance Development Team, has provided a list of FAQs in response to faculty comments on College Issues Day.

    College Issues Day FAQs from […]

  • Nearly 600 faculty and staff members gathered on Feb. 11, 2016, for professional development related to the theme of governance. Break-out sessions provided information about a proposed system of BC Governance, […]

  • The Office of Equity & Pluralism has posted the Diversity and Equity Plan DRAFT. College faculty, staff, and students and members of the local community are invited to review the plan and attend a listening s […]

  • All faculty and staff members are invited to participate in College Issues Day. The theme will be Governance. The schedule and session descriptions can be found here. Information about a proposed new structure for […]

  • In order to ensure that the goals and priority initiatives in the 5-Year eLearning Plan align with faculty needs, the eLearning Council conducted a faculty survey in Spring 2015. One hundred and thirty-eight f […]

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