The Association of Community College Trustees and the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas-Austin, in partnership with the Nebraska Community College Association, convened the first Governance Institute for Student Success in Nebraska in November in Norfolk.
Forty-two trustees and presidents from five Nebraska community colleges had the opportunity to develop and implement a culture of evidence and accountability for student success and completion.
The national GISS initiative promotes student success and college completion by focusing on effective governance policies. The GISS was created to foster the institutional agenda and skills necessary to accelerate and achieve the needed increases in student attainment and completion among community college boards and presidents. The national GISS initiative promotes student success and college completion by focusing on effective governance policies. The GISS was created to foster the institutional agenda and skills necessary to accelerate and achieve the needed increases in student attainment and completion among community college boards and presidents.
“This GISS institute helped our colleges’ board members reinvigorate their efforts to focus on student success and gave them the tools to more accurately measure and hold their college administrations accountable for student success-related programs and initiatives,” said Dennis Baack, NCCA’s executive director.
“We were challenged to think creatively beyond a historically access-focused model to include success and completion as a part of our mission,” said Western Nebraska Community College Board of Governors Member M. Thomas Perkins. “We were asked to engage in conversations with our CEO about plans to promote the success of our students and to offer board policy recommendations to assist the college administration in its efforts to create a climate of learning for our students.”
Central Community College President Greg Smith praised the effort.
“The Nebraska GISS was exactly what we needed,” Smith said. “The GISS resident faculty did an excellent job explaining why community college governing boards should become more involved in setting new policy aimed at improving student success. This ‘hands-on’ institute resulted in a number of new commitments and clear action steps for Central Community College, including commitments to revise our mission statement to reflect emphasis on student success and to discuss some aspect of student success and completion at each of our board meetings.”
“The institute was not only informative, but transformative,” said Bob Feit, chair of Southeast Community College’s Board of Governors. “We came away with new information but, more importantly, with an understanding of how to process information to the ultimate benefit of our students.”
“Our partnership with the Nebraska community colleges is part of ACCT’s effort to improve completion rates throughout the country,” said ACCT President and CEO J. Noah Brown. “We appreciate the trustees’ and presidents’ time and their commitment to forward the student success and completion agenda thru the GISS.”
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