Preface

SELF-STUDY PROCESS

Our self-study process began in December 1999 when President Williams called together a group of nine staff members to meet with her to discuss both the membership of the Accreditation Steering Team and the processes that the college would use for the analysis and reflection so critical to the self-study process. Following this meeting the Accreditation Steering Team was appointed and the first meeting convened on February 15, 2000. Dr. Hyunyong Kim, director of library services and Dr. Brian Donohue-Lynch were appointed by President Williams as co-chairs. Dr. Scott DeShong, a faculty member in English and the college’s representative to the Center for Teaching was appointed as editor and an Information Support Team was created. The college also supported one staff member participating again on a NEASC Visiting Team and three other staff members serving for a first time on Visiting Teams. An invitation was extended to Dr. Judith Wittenberg, associate director of the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of NEASC to meet with the full college staff and the Steering Team, and these sessions were held on May 19, 2000. The Team has been working since February 2000 on the Self-Study itself and has reported back to the full staff at each regular monthly all-staff meetings since that time. In addition, the Regional Advisory Council and Foundation were kept informed about the self-study process at their meetings. Almost all professional staff served on at least one of the Standards Work Groups or the Information Support Team. In fact, when the self-study process began in February 2000, the college had fifty-four full-time professional staff. Fifty or 93% were involved as members of the Steering Team, Standards Work Groups, Information Support Team, or as editor. In addition, two members of the classified staff served on Work Groups.

In the process of the self-study, the college has retained its standard practice of communicating with and involving as many staff as possible. The Steering Team members as well as the members assigned to each of the Standards Work Groups were selected for various specific reasons, often beyond their actual position within the organization. Steering Team members are as follows:

• President Dianne E. Williams
• Executive Assistant to the President Donna Lefevre--a member of Cabinet, and the staff member responsible for producing the document
• Dean of Administrative Services John Boland—the first staff member hired and therefore involved in every previous accreditation activity and an experienced member of NEASC evaluation team. He also serves on the Lead Planning Team and Total Quality Council.
• Dean of Learning and Student Development Susan Huard—the administrator who leads the largest division of the college and served as a member of a Visiting Team in 2000. She also serves on the Lead Planning Team.
• Director of the Willimantic Center Delia Berlin—the co-chair of the Fifth Year Interim Report. She is responsible for a component of the college that would receive special focus in the self-study as a newly designated Branch Campus, and is a past member of the Lead Planning Team and on the Division Council.
• Professor David Hopcroft—a senior faculty member and past chair of the former Academic Council who was integrally involved in creating the new Division Council
• Director of Library Services Hyunyong Kim—a senior member of the nonteaching professional staff with a record of leadership and task commitment within the institution who served as a member of a Visiting Team in 2000.
• Assistant Professor Julius Sokenu—a member of the faculty involved in a doctoral program with a focus on curriculum and instruction who served on a Visiting Team in 2000, chaired Policy and Planning for Division Council, and serves as part of the faculty for the system’s Barnes Seminar.
• Director of Business and Industry Services Jill O’Hagan—the co-chair of the Fifth Year Interim Report and responsible for programming for business, who also served on the Lead Planning Team and was the college representative to the System Planning Committee.
• Associate Professor Brian Donohue-Lynch—a past chair of the Division Council, who established procedures and bylaws for the Council, and the 1999 Connecticut Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year. He is the college’s Faculty Development Consultant who also serves on numerous state and national groups dealing with technology.
• Director of Learning Services Marie Kilbride—the former director of records who has also served as chair of the Division Council and is responsible for support services, advising, services for students with special needs, and transfer.

An Information Support Team was created to be responsible for assisting the Steering Team in both identifying sources for information and providing guidance. Because the college does not have a full-time institutional researcher a team approach was used with any requests for information going through the Steering Team co-chairs.

• Institutional Researcher Paul Carmichael—This position is a shared one with Middlesex Community College and Three Rivers Community College.
• Director of Enrollment and Research Services Antonio Veloso—The former director of admissions he is heavily involved in the implementation of the new Banner MIS system, and he chairs the system’s Council of Registrars.
• Learning Support Services Assistant Janet Hall—Besides overseeing Basic Skills testing she teaches courses in and serves as a consultant to staff in the use of the Access database.
• Library Assistant Tony Krulic—He has chaired the Sabbatical Leave and Professional Development Committee for a number of years and has updated the LSD Division Handbook and served as the archivist for the academic side for policies prior to the formation of the LSD Division.

After Standards were crafted and multiple revisions undertaken, they were sent to NEASC for feedback. Each standard contains information in bold face type, which indicates that that information will be available in workroom. This process was exceptionally useful to members of the Standards Workgroups, the Steering Team and the editor.