Colleagues:

It seems incredible to me that only four weeks remain in the fall semester, but equally incredible are the accomplishments achieved over the past few months by all of you and by our students. Many of you have given considerable time and energy to developing our self study document for reaffirmation of accreditation, a complete draft of which is now available to all for review and comment. The self study represents a lot of research and writing, and I thank those of you who participated directly, particularly our two self study co-chairs, Kristina Allende and Barbara McNeice-Stallard. I encourage all of you to read and review the draft document, identifying suggestions for change and improvement.

In addition to the significant work on accreditation, many of you have been working on college-wide planning activities related to Planning for Institutional Effectiveness (PIE), Educational Master Plan, Facilities Master Plan, Technology Master Plan, and a new budget/resource allocation model. All of that work will result in a college better informed and positioned to meet current and future challenges and to take advantage of future opportunities, all grounded in the Mt. SAC Mission Statement and in the Mt. SAC family’s commitment to student success. Similarly, faculty have been engaged in work on defining and assessing student learning outcomes, an initiative coordinated by Professor Joan Sholars, that requires extensive dialogue and use of data within departments. I applaud Joan and all of you who are working diligently to ensure that our students successfully accomplish their goals at Mt. SAC and beyond. I thank all of you for giving so much to Mt. SAC and to students.

Certainly, our students are excelling this semester, supported, guided and encouraged by the best faculty and staff in the nation. Recently, our journalism students captured more awards in regional competition than any other community college, and our student magazine, Substance, came away with the general excellence award, the highest award possible. Our athletic teams are enjoying a stellar fall season, with men’s and women’s cross country, men’s soccer, and football winning conference championships, and those teams, as well as men’s water polo and women’s soccer, are now entering regional and state playoffs. Our students continue to demonstrate that Mt. SAC is the college of champions.

Of course, not all of our students enter Mt. SAC prepared to succeed in college-level courses, which leads me to offer a few words on this year’s college theme, “The Year of Improving Student Success Through the Use of Data,” or “Y I Use Data.” Do you know that 80% of first-time college students entering Mt. SAC (fall 2006 - 4,596 total students) were not prepared for success in college-level courses? Do you know that 73% of those students enrolled in at least one pre-collegiate/basic skills course, and, of that group, only 64% passed the pre-collegiate/basic skills course? Do you know that the overall pass rate for that group in their first semester (all courses attempted) was only 62%? These data are similar to data for students from all California community colleges, and they reflect one of the most serious challenges facing colleges today – far too many entering students need work in basic skills, as preparation for success in college-level courses. That fact (and challenge) is not news to any of us, and my intention here is to point out the value of data as we work to prepare students for success in college, efficiently and effectively.

As our faculty evaluate the effectiveness of curriculum and delivery of instruction, they must analyze data on student performance. And, they must evaluate data broken down to show the performance of students by sex, age, ethnicity, economic status, and so forth, in order to identify gaps in performance among different groups. That work is significant, time consuming, and essential. Student Services faculty and staff, as well as Administrative Services staff, also must pursue the same work. Our mission centers on success for all students, and, if we want to achieve the mission, we must continually evaluate the effectiveness of what we do. Within the next few months, our Research and Institutional Effectiveness team will be rolling out new tools for accessing and evaluating data on our students, and I look forward to sharing with you the practice and promise of enhanced data capacity for program review and assessment of student learning outcomes (and administrative unit outcomes). Accessing and evaluating good data are key to keeping the promise of our mission statement, and I encourage and applaud the good work you do to ensure student success.

John S. Nixon, Ph.D.
President/CEO