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STANDARD 11: INTEGRITY

The mission statement of the CTC system emphasizes high ethical standards and promotes the inclusion of all community members. QVCC personnel are required to adhere to the same ethical standards whether dealing with students, faculty, staff, the BOT, outside agencies and organizations, or the general public. A key purpose of this adherence is to encourage students to become active and responsive leaders in their community.

To encourage a learning and working environment that is fair and ethical, all faculty and staff members participate in a series of training opportunities supported by the College, the CTC system, and the state. Each faculty and staff member participates in training concerning diversity and sexual harassment, exceeding the state requirement that only supervisors receive such training. This training, required within the first six months of employment, is conducted by either College personnel or an outside agency. To ensure integrity across state agencies, the state government has recently mandated several policies regarding ethical behavior. The College’s designated contact with the state concerning ethics policy is the Director of Human Resources.

The College uses a contract committee and process to equitably distribute professional development funds to all faculty and professional staff members who are eligible. Faculty and staff members have broad access to professional development opportunities on site, within the CTC system, in other state venues, and at the national level. Furthermore, the CTC system sponsors a professional day each academic year, at which various ethical matters are discussed.

QVCC maintains many activities, training opportunities, and support groups both in Danielson and Willimantic to ensure that students and staff have an understanding of the College mission to the community, particularly the inclusiveness promoted in the mission statement. These efforts encourage non-discrimination and open communication. The College continues to promote its ethical position in both print and electronic publications. Also, the College’s Multicultural Program Planning Committee provides educational activities on campus for faculty, staff, and students, often focusing on diversity events such as Black History Month and Women’s History Month.

The College sponsors and co-sponsors a variety of programs, conferences, and activities throughout the year with both community and student participation. Students are encouraged to attend programs and conferences sponsored by outside groups to enhance their learning experiences and gain a more global perspective. Students both in Danielson and Willimantic participate in workshops concerning academic integrity and ethics, including a focus on plagiarism. Organized student groups provide support for various populations. Examples include the Gay-Straight Alliance, Soldiers’ Angels, and the Peace and Social Justice Group. A full-day activity sponsored by the Peace and Social Justice Group brought area organizations to campus that explored social issues including vegan eating, safe sexual practices, and pollution. The Phi Theta Kappa, Alpha Beta Gamma, and Epsilon Pi Tau honor societies organize activities that focus on academic issues; Phi Theta Kappa sponsors fundraising opportunities for local nonprofit groups. Also, faculty members regularly sponsor course-embedded programming that deals with cultural differences and acceptance. QVCC students regularly express themselves on a free speech bulletin board and an international discussion board, which challenge them to discuss issues relevant to their lives. Also, the Student Government Association provides means for students to communicate their needs to the institution.

QVCC strives to make its workforce diverse in various respects, ranging from ethnic and gender diversity to the variety of perspectives brought to the College by faculty and staff members with experience in industry and at four-year colleges and universities, including private colleges. The President meets with each faculty, professional staff, and management job candidate to assess what each individual would bring to the College. QVCC continues to struggle with the ethnic diversity of its workforce, however, mainly because of its size and location. Yet the College continues to be more diverse than the community it serves. When hiring classified staff, it is difficult to take diversity into consideration because the hiring process is not controlled by the College, but by another state agency, and state employment lists are used. Yet as the faculty has grown over the past five years, faculty diversity has increased, and diversity efforts continue in current faculty searches. To assist with cultural diversification, QVCC has continued to participate in the CTC-system-wide Minority Fellowship program. The program has provided the College with four Fellows over the past five years and given students the opportunity to interact with more minority staff members.

The hiring process is driven by Affirmative Action procedures and processes and by the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities’ requirements, while also meeting stipulations of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The diversity of full-time faculty and staff over the last five years has been affected by a hiring process that includes new strategies in advertising and interviewing. To attract a more diverse applicant pool, the College has advertised openings on the College website, the CTC system website, and professional organizations’ and associations’ electronic lists and websites.

In 2002, a full-time Director of Human Resources/Affirmative Action Officer position was established and filled. The centralization of all personnel functions into one office has eliminated the need for other staff members to perform personnel functions, increasing both effectiveness and efficiency. The Director is responsible for monitoring all search committees and hiring processes and has been designated as the campus point of contact on state ethics compliance and Freedom of Information requests.

As discussed in Standard 2, the College has a strategic plan to promote the access and success of students from underrepresented minority groups. Student recruiting efforts at QVCC are not targeted to specific groups, however, but aimed at open access for all potential students. Recruiting methods include a mall kiosk, College fairs, and both radio and print media. Activities held at the College are geared to the populations who enroll in various areas, such as the Kid’s Academy, Learning in Retirement, the Certified Nursing Assistant training program, and GED workshops, in addition to students who enroll in credit based courses and programs.

QVCC has continued to embrace new technology to enhance student, staff, and faculty services. Since the last NEASC review, use of the SCT Banner SunGard information system has allowed public real-time access to the course schedule, as well as secure student access to grades, financial aid, accounts receivable, academic history, and other personal information. All faculty members have the ability to grade through the online services and have access to class roster, advisee, and course information. Additionally, advisors have access to the information through online and desktop services. With this enhanced availability of information, issues of confidentiality, security, and appropriate access, particularly as covered by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), have become a growing concern.

The BOT’s Acceptable Use Policy concerning information technology access, which is posted near all student computer workstations, has been developed by representative groups from the CTC system such as the Information Technology Policy Committee and the Information Systems Steering Committee. At the College level, procedures exist for requesting accounts to access the information system and computer resources. FERPA information is provided at orientation sessions for adjunct faculty; however, additional training for all faculty and staff needs to be provided. Annual notification to students of their rights under FERPA is published in the College catalog and the Student Handbook. The College regularly reviews its security procedures and business practices.

Institutional Effectiveness

While the College has made modest improvements in diversity, it maintains its efforts and continues to assess ways of making greater improvements. QVCC continues to maintain effective ethical standards in its daily practices, and through academic and co-curricular programming the College encourages the development of responsible community leaders.

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