Since the accreditation site visit in the spring of 1998, and the NCA team's
subsequent report, the College has undergone a tremendous transformation in how
it is organized and in how decisions are made. Many of these changes are the
result of a change in leadership that significantly altered the decision-making
processes, the climate, and the ownership of the institution. At the time of the
NCA visit, the college had 12-15 designated standing committees, each charged
with responsibilities for specific, and narrow, aspects of college
administration, development, planning, and supervision. LCOOCC employs
approximately 50 full-time employees, and enrolls, on the average, 500 students
each semester, yet it had the committee structure of an institution three times
its size. In January of 1999, the college hired a new president, and his most
significant and immediate impact was that of instituting a shared decision
making process that involved all the employees of the college.
At the time of the current president's hiring, (January 1999), a complete
Assessment Plan was due to NCA that April. The college had struggled with the
creation and implementation of assessment plans and processes since its
elevation to candidacy status in 1987. During the past spring semester the entire
college staff was involved weekly, in the creation of an academic assessment
plan. This document was submitted
to NCA in April 1999 and subsequently approved. The significance of this
document lies in the fact that it was created and endorsed through a rigorous
and exhausting process that meaningfully engaged the college administration,
faculty and staff on a continual basis until the time at which it was submitted.
In prior efforts to develop assessment processes the responsibility had been
allocated to a handful of individuals. This
failure to provide college-wide ownership in the process and product resulted in
citation of the last accreditation team for our failure to have an effective,
implemented plan for academic assessment. That an acceptable, workable and meaningful plan was developed last spring is the direct result of a
change in leadership and management style.
A participatory style of management in which all college employees were
engaged in decision-making processes resulted in the type of ownership and input
where individuals were given the respect, opportunity, and obligation, to assist
in decision making.
While the committee structure has lessened at LCOOCC, the number of people
meaningfully engaged in providing feedback and direction for the college has
dramatically increased. The entire
faculty body and all the members of the Administrative Council have been
responsible for the elucidation of assessment goals, objectives and measures,
the analysis of institutional Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Trends,
and in the planning processes in effect at the college. The effective
constituents have grown from a shifting unidentifiable base, to regularly
include community members on the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation and at our
Outreach sites, area business leaders, local public schools, alumni and
students, other universities in the region, as well as all college employees.
Planning for the college is currently the responsibility of virtually all the
college's employees. Through
the SWOT analysis completed last fall, the weaknesses and opportunities of the
college have been made common knowledge. Program and policy development has
centered on addressing these weaknesses, strengthening the strengths and
capitalizing upon identified opportunities.
This document represents Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College's
commitment to continuous improvement in its effectiveness as an institution of
higher education.
The linkage of new program development with formal needs assessment is evident
in many areas. Examples of this
include the pursuit (and successful acquisition), of resources to enhance
educational opportunities in technology, the development of Work-Based Learning
initiatives, implementing procedures to allow more people to access high school
equivalency programming, developing placement policy for new students based upon
the known successes of students taking skills courses compared to comparable
individuals who enter directly in to college-level work and plans to develop a
library better suited to meeting the current and future needs of the college.