Ventura College
Student Services Title V Cooperative Grant Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
MCE 218
Welcome and Introductions (Dan Walsh)
Attendees:
- Gwendolyn Lewis-Huddleston, Dean, Social Sciences, Humanities, Distance Education, Professional Development
- Eileen Crump, Title V Cooperative Grant
- Barbara Barajas, Welcome Center
- Gema Espinoza, Welcome Center
- Rick Trevino, Student Activities
- Aurora de la Silva, Counseling
- Dan Walsh, Counseling
- Victoria Lugo, Dean, Student Services
Title V Cooperative Grant Student Services Projects
•Former Retention/Intervention Team: Becky Hull & Marian Carrasco-Nungaray
•Former Online Orientation Project Team: Yia Vang & Ticey Hosley
•Ticey will continue to assist with future projects
•A 35 page online orientation outline document has been created for Ben Fajen the project director
•Online orientation video was delayed due to hiring process – could not hire until July 1 of the new grant year
•The portal projects were open to all student services personnel to participate
•Online orientation will be interactive, but not everything that was initially wanted will be there; had to minimize some things to make it easier on the backend to revise
•Citrus College was used as a template for Ventura College online orientation
•Should have the end product of the student online orientation by fall
•Redesigned student portal should be complete by fall 2013 and ready for student use
•Team did consider including Spanish language on the student services site, but if this was done, the site also had to be accessible in other languages. However, the college only teaches in English, so Spanish language was ultimately not included
•ESL has dropped dramatically in all three colleges
•Another consideration in the discussion of incorporating the Spanish language in the portal was that translation programs do not interpret word for word
•The student portal will include Personal Alerts Announcement, which informs students of their academic status
•The redesigned student Portal will be a place where students transact and not just obtain information; this new format will be more engaging for students
•Currently working on developing a student success online workshop on the portal
•Ordered 5000 student folders to be used for distributing information, serving as student handbooks
•Dan was able to track down the actual Word document of the student handbook, so it can now be easily to duplicated and updated by student services department
•The student portal redesign project will be for the entire VCCCD district
•The VCCCD portal will also include a Student Services tab
•Team will begin working on a Student Success tab that will include resources for students
•Strong consideration for sustainable practices have been given for each project to ensure what is implemented remains after the grant is gone
•Every Student Services Department has two table cloths: a black one and an orange one, each with the name of the college and department printed upon it
•Title V Grant purchased eight sandwich boards for the student services department and is implementing a check-out system
•The sandwich boards will be kept next to Victoria’s office and require to be checked out
•Each student services department has a Standee
•Dan will be delivering Standee to each department once they contact him
•Student Services will initiate a local Ventura College Probation/Dismissal Letter
•Student Services is working on updating the Student Resource Sheet and will place copies in instructional boxes for faculty to attach to syllabus
•Team has initiated the Student Success Workshop, work on this will continue in upcoming semester
•Marian Carrasco-Nungaray presented at 2012 Summer Institute for Teaching Excellence (SITE)
•Counseling department is encouraged to participate in SITE; this will help bridge the gap between instructional faculty and student services
•Team currently focusing on the Retention/Intervention piece of the student portal
•Implement an effective early alert system
•Dan is working with Michael Callahan and Gwen Huddleston to create a faculty survey
•Faculty survey will take several months to implement
•Please ask colleagues for ideas on what is the best way to create a faculty survey
•Provide ideas to Dan regarding best way to establish an integrated approach to address student probationary/dismissal
•Student Success links will include pdf, PowerPoint, interactive calendars, resources listed
•Team will be evaluating Academic Renewal Policy and revise accordingly
•The Re-admission Form needs revision to provide explicit directions for students to resolve probation/dismissal
•Working on in-person student orientation and will be incorporating clicker technology; in-person orientation will mirror online orientation as much as possible
•Orientation pre/post survey will help collect data to possibly obtain future funding
•Planning on having Student Services department give presentation to classrooms in the beginning of each semester to provide student services information
•Idea for consideration: Instead of canceling a class when an instructor is absent, a counselor can substitute and give a presentation about student services
•Please spread the word about the student services portal project and all Title V Cooperative Grant projects
•We will reconvene at the end of the semester as an entire group.
•Contact Dan Walsh at with feedback, comments or questions