Anecdotes

Immediately before starting as HWC president, I worked with CCC on the launch of Reinvention. I was on a project team poring over data comparing student outcomes against similar (large, diverse, urban) community colleges in the country. Our outcomes did not compare favorably.

Upon starting at HWC, I interviewed dozens of people about what was working and not working at Harold Washington. I was struck by the number of anecdotes about student success. Everyone had a story about a student whose life trajectory they and/or the institution changed for the better. The anecdotes were moving and inspirational, but they did not comport with the data. I admit having felt a touch cynical. Were these people Nero, fiddling while the college burned down around them? Didn’t they see the masses of students dropping out and not completing degrees? Did one or two success stories wash away the thousands of stories of students who did not meet their goals?

I reconciled the two by concluding that while we had isolated instances of student success, we needed to do more to help the 13,000 students who come through our doors each year. The success stories served as evidence that on our best days, we could enable student success. My challenge was to bring these successes to scale. We needed to align the one-offs everyone felt good about with the data to make sure we were successfully serving thousands, and not ones and twos, of students.

This was my thinking early in my tenure as president. I did not have any student successes of my own to share. I was determined to stay focused on the data and not distracted by feel-good stories of student achievement.

In November 2011, I wrote about an international student who was struggling with a CCC policy that made it difficult for her and other international students to attend school. I worked with Kent Lusk, our Executive Director, and District Office to get the policy changed. She was able to attend HWC. A year after I posted that story, Catherine-Alice wrote me:

Hello President Laackman,

With all of the festivities this week end, I can’t help to think back on last year’s Thanksgiving. Last year around that time, I was profoundly thankful for your interest and great concern about the payment plan issue. You addressed it promptly, and you helped fight international students’ cause. Now, I worry less about financing my tuition at a community college thanks to the payment plan. Every time I apply for a scholarship, it becomes inevitable for me to think about what you did, and be thankful. I look back, and I am grateful. You have changed the lives of many students who probably don’t know it. You changed my future by helping me stay at Harold Washington and take steps closer to my goal. For that, I want to say thank you, and I think I can still say Happy Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,

Catherine-Alice Beauboeuf

I will admit that Catherine-Alice’s note did cause the analytical ice around my heart to melt a little, but I still resolved to not be swayed by one-off stories. The data must hold sway. Then, I learned that Catherine-Alice had won the Phi Theta Kappa Coca Cola New Century Scholarship – the only winner from the state of Illinois. I wrote her a note of congratulations, and she responded with kindness of her own. After this success, Catherine-Alice went on to win the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Transfer Scholarship, awarded “to help exceptionally promising students reach their full potential through education.”

Today is graduation day for City Colleges of Chicago. We have the highest numbers of graduates in twenty years – almost 4,000. HWC will see 660 graduates this year, up over 70% from two years ago. We are starting to see our efforts bear fruit. Yet the data are not causing my heart to grow two sizes today. It is my anecdote about Catherine-Alice, and all the Catherine-Alice’s, whose lives we are privileged to be a part of. Congratulations.

 

The Exonerated

“The Exonerated,” the current Loop Players’ production here at Harold Washington College, is not a great college production. It is a great production, period.

I was riveted throughout. The cast was pitch-perfect, and they played their roles well. I experienced one of those transcendent moments in theater when you actually feel yourself believing these characters are real.

I cannot recommend this play highly enough. Treat yourself. See “The Exonerated” at Harold Washington College and experience theater at its best.

 

Loop Players presents The Exonerated

by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen

directed by Kathryn Nash

Culled from interviews, letters, transcripts, case files and the public record, THE EXONERATED tells the true stories of six wrongfully convicted survivors of death row in their own words, who were eventually exonerated of their convictions. Winner 2003 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards.

Opens Weds. April 10, 7:15. Please join us for light refreshments before the play!

The show runs April 10 – 13 and April 17 – 20.

Room 102/103

Weds. and Fri. 7:15 PM curtain time

Thurs. and Sat. 2:00 PM curtain time

Students and Seniors – $5.00

General Admission – $10.00

 

Conferencing

I am sitting in the “Program for Presidents and Board Members” at the Higher Learning Commission’s Annual Conference. Over 200 fellow presidents are listening to challenging and provocative presentations on the future of higher education. Terry Hartle from ACE told us that the goals of federal education policy are changing from access to access AND completion. He also shared the signal that gainful employment is gaining ground, especially with respect to community colleges, as a measure of success. He highlighted the new White House College Scorecard that makes public college performance. We heard from Felice Nudelman on the coming MOOCS wave and how to surf it. Sylvia Manning asked us to engage on what form the federal higher ed reauthorization act should take.

City Colleges of Chicago are ahead of the curve with respect to access and completion. The Chancellor has made these goals explicit since she started, and we are tracking and actively working to improve our completion rates. We are on track with gainful employment as we implement our College to Careers initiative.

MOOCS present a disruptive force to all of higher education. Felice Nudelman said they are in version 1.0, still working to figure out what viable business models may look like. How do students obtain credentials through MOOCS that schools and employers will accept as valid signals of content or knowledge mastery? We have work to do regarding the reconcilement of our Center for Distance Learning offerings to the emerging MOOCS model. At the same time, we should work with industry partners to understand what mix of online and classroom instruction will meet their needs as we prepare our students for jobs. On the academic side, I see many more discussions with our transfer institutions as we jointly work through how to incorporate MOOCS courses into our students’ education path.

Finally, there was much discussion of Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. We can expect increased focus on completion and retention. Member of Congress will want completion rates to trigger accreditation actions. Student learning outcomes will receive increased focus. “Academically Adrift” is getting a lot of visibility in Washington, D.C. A meme gaining ground on Capitol Hill is that students are not learning much because they are not working hard. Affordability and student debt is also a major point of discussion. Transparency, based on an assumption that institutions are not providing enough information to families, will prompt discussion on what additional information we ought to provide. Much of these efforts will take hold through changes to what accreditation is charged to accomplish.

The one thing clear from these discussions is that change is coming at us fast. It is likely to be disruptive to all aspects of our operating model. It will require more transparency, accountability, and creativity. Felice Nudelman offered advice I took to heart. Figure out what your sacrosanct core is, and then work through how to deliver on that core. That may require radical rethinking of models for delivery, but these changes should enrich student learning.

Year Two

Today marks my second anniversary as president of Harold Washington College.

People ask how it’s going. I sometimes reply, “Well, the place hasn’t burned down yet.” We have endured two floods during my tenure, one invisible to the college community (thanks, Rich) and the other dealt with in time to open 8 am classes (thanks again, Rich and the engineering and janitorial team.) My flippant response reveals an underlying insecurity. What am I doing running a college?

Some faculty wonder the same thing. In a recent exchange during my State of the College address at Wright College, a few faculty pointed out several times that I am not from the Academy. I lack a PhD. I have not come up through the ranks. I have not endured countless evenings grading student assignments.

What am I doing running a college?

What I am attempting to do is to make sure more of our students achieve success. Success means, for me, helping students achieve what they came here to achieve, while at the same time shaking up their world view to expand what may be possible for them to achieve. It means challenging them to work harder, exposing them to careers and colleges they may not have considered before starting here, and providing them with academic and career experiences that change the trajectories of their lives. Completion is a major driver. Completion brings confidence. Completion gives the outside world assurance that one has persistence and can persevere.

What am I doing running a college?

I am building teams. I have built a management team of which I am very proud. One of the favorite parts of my week is the Executive Council meeting, where the administrative leaders of the college come together to talk about how it’s going and where we need to go. This team is committed and driven. I often sit in these meetings and marvel that these talented individuals have chosen to join this college and this team to drive us to greater success. This team has, in turn, built their own teams of faculty, advisors, and other staff who work together to help us ensure student success. Together, we are creating an environment where people understand how they contribute to helping us accomplish our mission and goals, and they are proud to be a part of this.

What am I doing running a college?

I am building a community. I have interviewed every full-time hire candidate for employment at the college. I have hired over twenty faculty members. I have hired janitors, engineers, financial aid advisors, academic advisors. The people who live and work within a community define it. The people we have brought in joined a very proud Harold Washington community. These new people have enhanced our community. I am proud of the faculty we have hired. I review their tenure portfolios. I sit in their classes. I attend the student events (concerts, fashion shows) they sponsor. We have great faculty, and the faculty we have hired in the past two years enrich this community. I am proud of the staff we have hired, as they have bought into what we are attempting to accomplish. Student satisfaction scores are up, graduation numbers are up, and enrollment is up. None of this happens without people who feel they are part of a community that is committed to driving student success.

What am I doing running a college?

I am having a blast. The past two years have been the most rewarding of my life. I love our students and admire their courage in overcoming so much to entrust us with their education. I love the faculty and staff who work so hard every day to make this place work, and work to make it better. Thanks to the Harold Washington College community for welcoming me and making my first two years so special.

Cognitive Dissonance

More than one friend has asked if I have heard This American Life’s broadcasts on Harper High. The show provides a summary:

We spent five months at Harper High School in Chicago, where last year alone 29 current and recent students were shot. 29. We went to get a sense of what it means to live in the midst of all this gun violence, how teens and adults navigate a world of funerals and Homecoming dances. We found so many incredible and surprising stories, this show is a two-parter; you can listen to Part Two here.

The stories of students living in what amounts to a war zone left me frustrated, angry, sad, and despairing. Shortly after hearing part one, I attended Leadership Greater Chicago’s ”Celebrate Leaders Dinner.” Ric Estrada, 2013′s honoree as Distinguished Fellow, gave a sobering acceptance challenging the audience on whether we were modeling behaviors – defending ward or organizational boundaries – that led to our current climate of violence. He drew a direct line from the leaders sitting in that room to the environment that creates gang wars. Piled on top of my Harper High listening, I felt pretty hopeless in the face of the challenge.

At that same dinner, someone at my table suggested I meet Imran Khan, the Executive Director and Founder of EMBARC Chicago. Imran and I connected this morning at breakfast. I had Googled him in relation to EMBARC and was curious about how they did their work. EMBARC provides students in Chicago’s underserved neighborhoods with cultural and social opportunities to expand their world view and help them build social-cognitive skills. As he told me his story, Imran mentioned that he was also a teacher. I asked him where. He replied, “Harper High.”

I am sure I gave him a look he is quickly growing tired of seeing. “Have you heard the This American Life piece?” he asked. I replied that everyone in education had heard it.

Imran then gave a poignant outline of what his four years at Harper have taught him. In the midst of what he described as a place more violent than Afghanistan, he has learned to be hopeful. He shared stories of how EMBARC and the leadership at Harper have come together to create opportunities for students to expand their horizons and learn self-advocacy. He remains stubbornly committed to the idea that these students want to rise above their surroundings and achieve greatness. We talked about how many of his students become CCC students, and we took some small tentative steps on figuring out how we can work together.

One of the things I love about my job is that I meet so many amazing people who refuse to accept the status quo and put everything on the line to change things. This morning, I met another.

Follow Me

I attended the last of the American Council of Education’s Institute for New Presidents last Saturday. We covered a number of worthwhile topics. I found the one on social media valuable. President Ángel Cabrera of George Mason University shared how he uses Twitter to connect with faculty, staff, students and alumni.

While I can’t hope to devote the energy President Cabrera has invested in tweeting over 8,000 times, he inspired me. I decided to start my Twitter account. I have been live for a few days now. You can follow me @DonLaackman.

Same As It Ever Was

I experienced multi-dimensional déjà vu this past Thursday as I joined the Wright team at the Q Center in St. Charles, Illinois, for our AQIP Strategy Forum. AQIP is the Academic Quality Improvement Plan pathway for accreditation Wilbur Wright College follows under the guidance of the Higher Learning Commission.

The first dimension of vu came when driving into the Center. I started my Accenture career by spending three weeks at what was formerly known as the Center for Professional Education, owned by Arthur Andersen & Co. The firm required every new hire in the firm to spend three weeks learning the methodology employed on client engagements. My class of 60 was the first to host more non-US attendees than US students. The experience was intense and exhilarating. It was my first extended interaction with teams  from Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Japan, the United Kingdom and Australia. The firm imprinted its unique culture on every new hire throughout the world, not least by living up to its up-or-out creed. If you did not complete the case project (I believe it was some COBOL program controlling a shoe factory) over the three weeks, you were not welcome back in your home office. I remember the entire class rallying around Bob, the only person not finished with the case by Week Three, Day 4, before the traditional end-of-case celebration. We dragged Bob across the finish line, learning the value of teamwork along the way.

I spent 1-2 weeks each year at St. Charles for most of my 23 years. After the AA&Co meltdown, the facility became the Q Center, and they started to accept other companies for conferences and training. Yet even with the change in ownership and attendees, the Q Center retained much of its cultural feel. Perhaps it is the tiny hotel rooms (you can literally touch both walls of the narrow end of the room with your arms outstretched), its remoteness, and the changeless cafeteria ambiance that combine to make it a unique place. My arrival on campus brought back floods of memories, and it felt a little strange to be there in a new role, with a new organization.

The second dimension of vu was brought on by the subject matter. AQIP was influenced greatly by the Malcolm Baldridge Award, instituted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, to combat the rising tide of Japanese competitiveness brought on by its industrial embrace of the quality principles espoused by Joseph Juran and W. Edwards Deming. Accenture spent a time pursuing the Baldridge Award. It is a comprehensive effort, not unlike preparing for an accreditation visit, that forces an organization to assess and document its adherence to continuous quality improvement. Like with many accreditation visits, the Chicago office received new carpet and a fresh coat of paint in preparation for the visit of the Baldridge examiners. As the Wright team reviewed our areas for improvement, identified strategies, and sketched out fish bone diagrams for root-cause analysis, I experienced a vu-like vertigo. David Byrne’s refrain started pounding in my head.

My third vu came about while working with the team, made up of faculty, staff and administrators from Wright College. Most were new to me. Yet, as we worked on our project, it was as if we had worked together for years. We wrestled with how to increase engagement of faculty and staff. We brainstormed about projects. We opened up about what was working and what wasn’t. This team cared about helping Wright become a better college. All of them are busy with their day jobs, yet they took three days from their schedules to come together and work on this effort. It was inspiring and gratifying. Great institutions are made by great people, people who care enough to see what needs to change and work to change it. Same as it ever was.

Betting It All on College

This morning’s read of the Sunday New York Times started with Keith Bradsher’s “In China, Families Bet It All on College for Their Children.” Bradsher’s article highlights the sacrifices families make to send their children to college. Wu Yiebing and Cao Weiping have forgone vacations, trips to see family, and many material comforts to pay for their daughter to attend college.

At the same time, the structure of Chinese higher education is stacked against them and their daughter. Prestigious universities favor urban elites able to afford English education, a critical gateway skill. The government subsidizes education in the selective universities at the expense of other institutions, making them less expensive than the polytechnic alternatives.  Bradsher says that the three-year polytechnics resemble our own community colleges, with more of a vocational focus and less general education options.

Alongside her parents’ sacrifices, daughter Wu Caoying is ambivalent about her college experience, both because of the pressures her family’s expectations have placed on her, as well as the uncertain job prospects available upon graduation.

The article provides a multi-layered understanding of the many forces at work in China that influence who gets to take advantage of higher education opportunities. Selective, elite institutions are favored over more accessible options. While not as dramatic as China, our own state’s methods of allocating Monetary Assistance Program (MAP) grants favor four-year students over community college attendees. In addition, the research subsidies to universities through government funding provide a subsidy to selective institutions. Even with the large subsidies provided to major research universities, tuition there can cost five to ten times the tuition of community colleges. All governments make choices in education that reflect their priorities. Bradsher’s article not only gives insight into the choices of China’s government, but raises interesting question about the United States’ priorities.

Harold’s Got Numbers

“If you’ve got numbers, show ‘em.” Stephan James, former Chief Operating Officer of Accenture, would offer this bon mot to partners at the firm to encourage us to showcase good results.

Harold’s got numbers.

I have reported here on our challenges in serving students well during registration. We had a humbling Fall experience with registration. One survey showed that 20% of the students who entered our building to register left in frustration without enrolling at Harold Washington College. This was an improvement from right before my start at the College, when 33% of our students thought their registration experience was far below their expectations (on a five-point scale where far exceeded is the best and far below the worst.)

In response, we launched a “Registration Re-Think.” We gathered employees from various disciplines to re-think every aspect of registration. As a result, we implemented a number of changes to the process. We revamped our website to guide students from the start based on where they were starting from – new to college, new to CCC but with some previous experience, students who have already attained a bachelor’s degree or higher, and our returning students. We then aligned our internal processes with the web site so that every student entering the college received a color-coded page reflecting their status.

We set up a welcome center right off of our lobby to help direct students correctly. We implemented interventions to help those students who were feeling particularly stressed during registration. Our employees started wearing name badges so that students could readily find who worked for the College. We set deadlines that we stuck to on when we would accept new students, and directed those students who arrived after the deadline to one of our sister colleges, who had more classes available for our students. Administrators pitched in, rotating welcome desk duty and learning first-hand the challenges our clerical and professional employees face during registration.

The results are in. Students’ satisfaction with HWC’s registration processes has dramatically improved. Sixty-two percent of our students said that registration far exceeded or exceeded their expectations. Only six percent said that registration was below or far below their expectations. These results place us firmly in the middle of satisfaction results of the City Colleges. Even more gratifying is the volume of positive comments from students, especially returning students, who commented on how they wish registration had been like this when they started with us.

We are not complacent. Summer and Fall registration quickly approaches, and Fall registration  is a particularly challenging time. I want more of our students feeling that their registration experience far exceeds their expectations, but we will have to continue to improve to make that happen. We tried some things that didn’t work, like extending our Thursday evening hours to accommodate working students. We gathered feedback from everyone involved, and we are in the process of implementing further changes to improve our students’ experiences.

Until then, I want to thank the staff and faculty at HWC who delivered these results. This was a team effort, and the team demonstrated excellence.

So You Want to Be a College President?

CCC has posted the President for Wilbur Wright College on The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Interested parties may find the posting here.

The search committee is in formation.