Introduction

The intent of this chapter is to describe the mission and purposes of Mott Community College and to illustrate and evaluate its effectiveness in accomplishing those purposes.

According to the college mission statement, the mission of MCC "is to provide quality higher education for the people of Genesee and surrounding counties." It also states, MCC "will provide a sound general and liberal arts education and train a well-prepared work force." The mission statement describes other purposes as well such as:

Educational Programs

As stated in the MCC Assessment Plan, "The single most important purpose of this college or any other institution of higher education is the education of its students." In order to address this purpose, MCC offers a wide variety of educational programs. The following is a description and analysis of those programs.

Liberal Arts and Sciences

The mission statement for Mott Community College has as one of its primary goals the provision of a sound general and liberal arts education for the people in Genesee and surrounding counties. Also, through academic programs, MCC will build the community it serves by helping individuals achieve their academic goals. The college will provide programs that will lead to advanced educational opportunities that encourage students to broaden their vision of their life-long goals and potential.

The primary goal for the Liberal Arts & Sciences (LAS) area is to offer collegiate level instruction for the purpose of student learning. Specific goals at MCC which relate to the mission statement for the LAS area include preparing students for transfer to four-year educational institutions, preparing students for successful completion of occupational programs at MCC, and the provision of knowledge and skills that meet the needs of the community. The LAS area also has goals which include infusing technology into the curricula and programs, enhancing enrollment and improving retention, increasing and improving articulations and academic linkages, and promoting LAS within the expanded community service area. The Liberal Arts & Sciences programs at Mott Community College are achieving this mission.

LAS programs/disciplines at MCC are offered through the Fine Arts Division, the Humanities Division, the Math and Science Division, and the Social Sciences Division. They include the following programs and disciplines:

Fine Arts – Art, Music, Theater, and Graphic Design

Humanities – Developmental English, Speech Communications, Broadcasting, Deaf Studies, English, English as a Second Language, Foreign Languages, Journalism, Manual Communications/ Interpreter Training, Philosophy, Reading, and Film

Math and Science – Math (including developmental math), Tech Math, Science, Physics, Geology, Engineering, Astronomy, Histology Technician, Photographic Technology, Chemistry, and Biology

Social Sciences – Anthropology, Economics, Geography, History, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Child Development, Criminal Justice, Corrections, Gerontology, and Social Work Technician

Currently, there are 75 full-time faculty and 155 part-time faculty in LAS. A total of 23 full-time staff persons support the LAS area. Classes for Art History, Music, Theater and Social Sciences are held in the Mott Memorial Building. Math and Science classes are held in the Curtice-Mott Complex and in the Gorman Building, which was totally refurbished and renovated during 1995-96. The Humanities courses are primarily conducted in the Curtice-Mott complex. In response to a recent survey of LAS faculty that asked them for their perception of campus facilities for instruction, the majority felt the facilities are adequate.

Enrollments within the LAS programs have fluctuated somewhat during the last three years (1995-1998) but have remained relatively constant, with an overall increase of 5%.

The overall retention rate for students who enrolled in Liberal Arts & Sciences courses during 1993-1998 was 84%. The overall successful course completion rate for students in LAS was 79% for 1997-98. Successful completion is defined as completing the course with a 2.0 or better. The following data provide a breakdown by area of the successful completion rate for 1997-98.

As a two-year institution, Mott Community College offers courses that meet the requirements for the first two years of a baccalaureate program and prepare students for bachelor’s degree programs at four-year colleges and universities. Of the students who graduated during the period of 1993 through 1997, approximately 31% transferred to another college or university.

MCC has in place several special agreements with Michigan colleges and universities that allow students to receive credit for courses taken at the community college level. Accordingly, LAS offers a significant number of courses that transfer to four-year colleges and universities. The MACRAO Articulation Agreement states that a student who completes an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree at a community college will have satisfied the basic two-year requirements of the four-year college. This agreement covers General Education requirements only.

In 1997, the Michigan Community College Association (MCCA) decided to engage in a state-wide effort to develop for itself the criteria by which Michigan community colleges may judge their own performance and compare it with that of other colleges. A task force for identifying performance indicators was established and began working to produce baseline data for measuring institutional performance and for planning improvements. One of the core indicators is performance at transfer institutions. Data gathered through this statewide effort will provide the college with information that will help in determining the success of MCC transfer students at four-year institutions. The college will be able to produce benchmarks for comparing performance and for planning improvements.

The advising office maintains an MCC Equivalency List, which lists all courses offered by course number. The transferability of each course to various colleges throughout Michigan is presented in a chart form. The colleges included in this list are:

The Advising office also maintains a Mott Community College Curricular Guidebook. The latest edition is from 1998, and is continuously updated. The guidebook includes all the colleges listed above with the exception of Lake Superior State University, Northern Michigan University and Wayne State University, and has included Detroit College of Business and Kettering University.

A section is provided for each college. The first page of each section provides a general curricular guide that lists the general education requirements for all courses of study. This page indicates whether students may take two years of study at MCC and then transfer to the particular college. It also indicates whether the college participates in a specific articulation agreement.

The first page is followed by pages pertaining to all specific major courses of study, such as accounting, biology, etc. These pages list the recommended Mott courses to be taken to transfer into the specific major and may include information on additional requirements.

Three Michigan universities offer students the opportunity to earn a Bachelor’s degree from their university on the campus of MCC, after completion of the MCC Associate’s degree. This opportunity is available for some degree programs from Ferris State, Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan Universities.

Curriculum

Decisions for selecting courses to be offered to students within LAS are made based on the following criteria:

Decision making with respect to curriculum revision is usually derived from the associate dean and faculty within the division. In some instances, the upper academic administration has initiated changes; however, approval by faculty within the division is required. According to the Fall 98 Employee Survey, faculty believe that they play a crucial role in owning and driving the Liberal Arts and Sciences programs. They also believe they have a significant role in decisions made for curriculum revision and expansion.

The associate dean is primarily responsible for developing and monitoring divisional budgets. Monies are allocated and spent based upon non-discretionary needs (contracted salaries and benefits), area needs (classroom supplies, etc.), and individual divisional needs such as special project expenses. Faculty within LAS do not provide much input into decisions regarding resource allocation, and, furthermore, they believe that the area needs additional funding in order to operate at an optimum level.

Major Changes/Initiatives

Some of the major changes and initiatives that have occurred during the past ten years within Liberal Arts and Sciences include:

Assessment

The assessment of LAS courses and programs is described in detail in the MCC Assessment Plan which is accompanying this report and is also in the Resource Room. Assessment measurements include course embedded assessment, program/discipline review, Student Instructor Evaluation Forms, graduate and follow up surveys, assessment of general education objectives, as well as a wide variety of capstone projects, portfolios, and certification exams at the program level. A summary of assessment activities is provided in the assessment section of this chapter.

As a result of the Fall 98 Employee Survey, the following concerns were expressed by faculty.

Other problems were identified but not perceived with the same degree of importance by faculty and administration. The problems that exist for the LAS area are not unique, but they represent the types of challenges many community colleges face within the higher education arena. The issues that are of primary importance relate to the mission of MCC—education and learning. This, then, must be the central focus.

Strengths

No threats were identified.

Career and Occupational Programs

The career programs offered at Mott Community College are developed in collaboration with business, labor, and government to serve existing and anticipated community needs. As is addressed in MCC’s mission statement, the joint effort of these constituencies is to "create and maintain a highly-trained work force to attract and sustain businesses that contribute to the community’s economic well-being and quality of life." Probably more so than any other of the institution’s programs, Career Programs are quickest to respond to the immediate employment needs of the community, by constructing new programs or adapting existing ones to address those needs.

Key to the success of Career Programs is the involvement of Advisory Committees, which are comprised of local employers, community agencies, educators, and students. These committees meet on a regular basis to review curriculum content, discuss employer feedback, and make recommendations about the direction and currency of the program. The Advisory Committees also work toward helping to establish system standards and accountability to ensure consistent high quality among the various MCC programs.

Assessment

Regular assessment of the Career Programs is integral to the quality and integrity of the program and to the community’s perception of the programs’ graduates. The Health Sciences Career Programs, for example, are held to stringent standards by their respective accrediting agencies, which include:

Range of Programs

Career Programs are offered through virtually every academic division in MCC, with the majority of them located in the Business, Technology, and Health Sciences areas. Many of the programs, themselves, offer students a range of choices in terms of levels of achievement or personal objectives. This range includes non-degree special courses or seminars that may serve toward the maintenance of certification standards and certificates of achievement for short-term programs.

To address the most immediate needs of employers and students, MCC offers short-term certificate and non-certificate programs, and is always investigating new opportunities to provide students with short-term training that will enable them to obtain, at a minimum, entry-level employment. These types of activities fall into the category of workforce development, an endeavor that presents challenges and opportunities to any community college, but is an area that is one of MCC’s strengths. The following programs are examples of MCC’s ventures into workforce development:

Changes Impacting MCC’s Career Programs

Many changes have affected not only the career program offerings, but how they are administered, how they are comprised, and certainly, how many of them are now viewed by accrediting agencies. And, certainly, substantial changes in the demographics and economics of Genesee County have greatly influenced the direction of the career programs.

New administration in the Health Sciences division has dramatically effected change in very basic, and very critical ways. First, and most significant, strong leadership has re-formed several academic areas to enable them to meet national accreditation standards. This is a most significant improvement, as the integrity and credibility of MCC’s programs in Physical Therapy Assisting and Occupational Therapy Assisting have moved sharply upward by the improved accreditation ratings.

The Technology Division has also changed its leadership, which has resulted in a much more dynamic and community-needs-oriented program shift. This can best be exemplified by the approval of funding for a new Regional Technology Center (RTC), a future showcase for technological career training.

Part of the function of the community college is to respond to the needs of its community. The Mott Community College community has undergone a shift in its needs patterns over the past ten years. Foremost among these changes is the shift in focus from a General Motors dominated workforce to a larger number of smaller companies. Citizens of the community are being forced to recognize that job security is no longer something that can be taken for granted; thus more and more Genesee County residents are facing job realignment, downsizing, and often, unemployment if no attempts are made toward retraining. MCC has positioned itself to address head-on this tremendous task of offering retraining opportunities in a collaborative effort with local labor unions and corporations. While this is indeed a tremendous opportunity for the institution, programs and the way they are delivered to the community must become more flexible in terms of length of study, modularization of course objectives, and must dissolve such conventions as standard begin and end dates, based on the traditional academic year divisions.

Progress is being made in this direction, but it will be critical for the success of educational programs offered in the new Regional Technology Center to fully meet these objectives in a sufficiently timely manner.

The economic outlook for the greater Genesee County area is far from bleak. Manufacturing and high-tech organizations are reaching beyond Oakland County, seeking a more advantageous tax base, outside the congested Oakland County Technological Parks. Much development is occurring in southern Genesee County, including a substantial increase in the upper-middle class residential population.

School to Work

Not all of those involved in the Career Programs are displaced auto workers, and this is a very significant fact. Genesee County K-12 students must be prepared to explore a wide range of career options – a dramatic change from the options available to their parents and grandparents who were almost guaranteed a well-paying factory job at General Motors. With that option no longer available, students in K-12 must be exposed to other occupational options.

Mott Community College has made inroads to helping students realize the need to begin to think early of the workplace, and the skills necessary to address employers’ needs. Through projects such as BelCap (a highly successful cooperative effort with one area high school), among many others, MCC faculty and staff are reaching out to middle and high school students to help better prepare them for college and for the workplace at whatever stage the student chooses to enter it.

Opportunities for optimum delivery of career programs at Mott Community College are largely contingent upon the different segments of the campus working together toward a common goal. The different factions of this campus are not much different than those of any community college: each feels that their area is key to the institution’s success, identity, and credibility. External factors will, of course, affect outcomes to a certain extent. But it is the interplay of the very different internal groups such as Continuing Education, the Liberal Arts and Sciences, as well as the Technology, Health Sciences, and Business divisions of the campus that will decide and determine the success of them all.

Student Services

Extensive student services are available at MCC to ensure student success in attaining their educational goals. These services exist to support MCC’s ability to accomplish its purposes. Services are available to support the educational programs on campus, as well as to help students in career development, job placement, and transfer success. The student services section of chapter five describes these services in detail.

Strengths

As part of its mission to provide quality higher education, Mott Community College also states it will, "create a smooth transition for students from high school to the community college and then to other educational institutions or the work place." Developmental education is one of the ways MCC addresses this task.

Mott Community College is committed to developmental education and remediation of underprepared students as evidenced by the following:

Assessment

The college catalog states, "All new degree and certificate seeking students admitted to the college are required to complete English, reading, and math placement testing before registering for their first semester classes. Computerized placement tests in reading, writing and math are given in the Testing Center, PCC 219." (Limited exceptions are listed in the 1998-1999 catalog.) Placement test results are used for course placement, counseling and advisement, and referral to support services.

For the period July 1, 1997 through June 30, 1998 the following test results were obtained.

Total Scored in

Students Dev. Range Recommended

Tested Subject Area # % Course

3,497 Basic Arithmetic 2,281 65% MATH 021 Basic Math

Three Year Trend in Recommendations for Developmental Courses:
 

Period	Math (Developmental)	Writing (Engl 101)	Reading (Developmental)
F971	412 / 665 (62%)	280 / 651 (43%)	488 / 699 (69.8%)
F98	2226 / 3410 (65%)	1395 / 3358 (41.5%)	2565 / 3490 (73.5%)
F992	1744 / 2483 (70%)	983 / 2475 (39.7%)	1859 / 2482 (74.9%)

1December 1996 through June, 1997

2 July, 1998 through Jan 15, 1999

The developmental recommendation rates for math rose steadily from 62% in F 97 to 65% in F98 and 70% in F99. In addition, the percentage of students who are placed into college-level writing based on the computerized Sentence Skills test decreased from 43% in F97, to 41.5% in F98, to 39.7% in F99. An increasing trend for developmental recommendations is also found for reading. In F97, 69.8% were recommended for remedial, in F98 73.5%, and in F99 74.9%. Clearly, the need for developmental courses is increasing.

Counseling and Advisement

As stated in the college catalog:

Developmental Courses

Developmental courses offer institutional credit, and up to 12 credits may be applied toward MCC graduation requirements, although these courses are not usually transferable. Based upon placement test results, enrollment may be recommended in one or more of the following courses:

The course review for Developmental English courses in 1997/1998 fall and winter semesters indicated 584 students enrolled, 473 completed the course (80.99%) and 375 students (79%) earned a "Satisfactory" grade.

In determining student competency in ENGL 098, a two-part measure is used: a pre-post evaluation of sentence combining, and an essay designed to encourage critical thinking. In evaluating ENGL 099, a holistic format using frequent observations of student work and progress (portfolio analysis) with the instructor is used.

Students are recommended to take ENGL 020 (Reading Improvement) if the reading assessment score is below the thirteenth grade reading level, and with a reading level of eleventh grade or below, they are strongly advised to take ENGL 020. Students who enroll in ENGL 020 are further evaluated and placed into a focused, hands on program for improving reading skills (ENGL 016, 014, 012, 010). The 1997/1998 program review for the reading course indicates that 534 students enrolled and 479 (82%) completed the course.

Mathematics

MATH 021 Basic Mathematics is designed for students who need the basic concepts of arithmetic as indicated by the math assessment. The 1997/1998 program review for MATH 021 indicated that 845 students enrolled, 763 completed (90.30%) and 456 students (60%) earned a grade of "Satisfactory" (2.0 or higher).

Changes in Developmental Courses

Faculty at Mott Community College are gradually attempting to modularize their courses in order to help students who might find themselves needing special emphasis in certain course topics. Creating modules encourages students to achieve mastery of individual course components, which encourages a continuous pattern of success. While most courses can be adapted to modularization, developmental courses, in particular, can focus attention on special subject matters with which a student may find him or herself struggling.

To meet the needs of the community, curriculum revisions and courses are offered based on a review of the five-year enrollment trends. With a growing number of nontraditional students in two-year colleges, the needs of these students are being addressed. (Nontraditional students are identified as those who have major commitments including one or more jobs, families with small children, those who are single parents, or those with older parents in poor health.) The following are two examples of curriculum revisions made recently to address the needs of students.

Support Services

Many support services are available to underprepared students. English faculty in the Writing Center assist students with college writing assignments. The Writing Center is open and staffed 37 hours per week. Professional math tutors provide tutoring in the Learning Center on an average of 27 hours per week. A Math Lab, staffed by student tutors, is available to students approximately 34 hours each week, and scheduled appointments with a tutor are also available. Professional English tutors are available 57 hours each week.

The Learning Center has trained support services coordinators who assist learning or physically disabled students to accommodate their learning needs. A counselor is also assigned to the Learning Center.

Better communication between developmental faculty and tutors could improve the effectiveness of the tutoring program. A representative for the tutors attending division faculty meetings could help accomplish this.

Strengths

Created by Dolores Sharpe/Mott on 06/22/99 Last updated on: 06/22/99