Los Angeles Mission College makes a conscientious effort to represent itself clearly, accurately, and consistently to its students and the public at large through careful review and revision of its publications.

College publications include two types of information. Information that comes from the district is subject to review at that level by the Office of Public Relations and the Office of Institutional Research and Information (2.1). Information generated by and specifically relevant to the college is reviewed according to local policies using a variety of procedures. At the college level, for example, the individual or department providing information for the Catalog or Schedule of Classes is responsible for accuracy (2.2). Once the Office of Academic Affairs receives this information, the department chair and the publication preparation office have several chances to review and edit it as galley proofs move back and forth (2.3). The vice president of Academic Affairs or a designee makes final corrections and checks for accuracy.

The Catalog (2.4) includes the District Educational Philosophy and District Mission Statement as well as the LAMC Mission Statement and the College Goals. It also explains degree, certificate, transfer, and program requirements; lists courses offered; provides information on available educational resources; explains fees and other costs to the student; discusses financial aid; clarifies fee refund policies; outlines requirements for admission; and publishes the academic calendar. It lists the names of the faculty, the district and college administration, and the Board of Trustees.

The Schedule of Classes (2.5) also contains some of this information, as does the college Website (2.6), which several different individuals and offices have constructed and maintained. Currently, the Schedule of Classes, the admissions policies and procedures, and information on some of the programs and academic departments are available online.

Plus, students are able to enroll online (2.7), and recently an effort has been initiated to put the entire Catalog online. Management of the Website has been on an ad hoc basis with interested faculty and staff noticing errors and calling them to the attention of administration.

A newly revised and upgraded Student Handbook (2.8) designed as a planner has been published and distributed free of charge to all students in the fall semester of 2000. It contains the student grievance procedure, the student code of conduct, and the discipline policy along with much of the same information cited above.

Two of the college’s publications ensure academic freedom. First, Article 4 of the Agreement Between the Los Angeles Community College District and the AFT College Guild Local 1521 (2.9) states that "The Faculty shall have the academic freedom to seek the truth and guarantee freedom of learning to the students."

Second, the college Academic Senate adopted the Faculty Ethics Statement (2.10), which contains principles of academic freedom and responsibility. It states that a "conviction of the worth and dignity of the advancement of knowledge" and the responsibility to seek and to state the truth as they see it guides community college faculty members. "Faculty members accept the obligation to exercise critical self-discipline and judgment in using, extending, and transmitting knowledge. ‘Subsidiary’ interests must never seriously hamper or compromise freedom of inquiry." It goes on to state that faculty members "foster the free pursuit of learning in students" and "demonstrate respect for the student as an individual." The statement asserts that "faculty members have obligations that derive from common membership in the community of scholars, including respecting and defending the free inquiry of associates and showing due respect for the opinions of others. They aspire to improve their effectiveness as teachers and scholars. They have the rights and obligations of all citizens including the obligation to promote conditions of free inquiry and to further public understanding of academic freedom." And finally, respecting students as individuals is an "ethical imperative" regardless of cultural background, ethnicity, race, gender, religious belief, political ideology, disability, sexual preference, age, or socioeconomic status.

The faculty is also obligated to distinguish between personal conviction and course content. District policy requires (2.11) that the course outline of record list the content and objectives for each course, and the college faculty, by Academic Senate Resolution (2.12) and Title 5 (2.13), must teach to the course outline.

Additionally, Article 19 of the Agreement (2.14) asks the Peer Evaluation Committee to determine whether a faculty member is performing to standards, including those set forth in the Faculty Ethics Statement.

The Standard of Student Conduct section in the Catalog, the Student Handbook, and the Schedule of Classes provides expectations regarding academic honesty. The Catalog refers to Board Rule 9803.12 (2.15), which discusses dishonesty, "such as cheating, or knowingly furnishing false information to the colleges," and it clearly states the possible sanctions for violations. Many instructors also include statements regarding expectations of student honesty in their course syllabi. In addition, types of disciplinary actions are available in the Office of Student Services and in the new Student Handbook. As for faculty, the Faculty Handbook (2.16) and the Faculty Ethics Statement include expectations regarding academic honesty in the areas of copyright laws and conflict of interest in publishing for profit. The faculty evaluation process set forth in the Agreement implies sanctions.

The college understands and is concerned about issues of equity and diversity as illustrated in the new institutional goals (2.17). The goals emphasize equal access, retention, and student success in order "to develop student knowledge and skills essential for transfer, degree completion, and occupational competencies." In addition, "The college environment, including programs, services, and co-curricular activities will be diversified to reflect the educational, social, and cultural uniqueness of all people." The college also incorporates the District Educational Philosophy (2.18) of working to "promote equal opportunity for participation, provide an educational environment which meets the needs of students with varied learning skills, and affirm the importance of multicultural, international, and inter-cultural collegiate experiences that foster individual and group understanding."

One way the college ensures equality and diversity is through compliance with the District Hiring Policy (2.19), which mandates that a compliance officer be present during the process for hiring both faculty and classified positions, including the pulling of files and the interview. The campus compliance officer, who Mission College shares with Los Angeles Valley College, is responsible for informing the Academic Senate Faculty Hiring Committee of the applicable ethnicity and gender guidelines (2.20). All relevant college publications contain the District Non-Discrimination Policy (2.21).

Also, equity and diversity are the topics of many of the workshops and forums that Staff Development offers throughout the year and that are open to all faculty and classified staff (2.22). Faculty can earn flex credit for attendance at these programs (2.23).

A Multicultural Committee comprised of faculty and staff representing diverse backgrounds was developed at the inception of the Chicano Studies Department. It works to expand offerings in other ethnic studies areas to create a complete American Studies Department that would incorporate Chicano Studies, Afro-American Studies, Asian American Studies, and others. The committee also plays an active role in sponsoring co-curricular cultural events to promote awareness of cultural diversity. As of this writing, Student Services sponsors the Black Student Union, MECHA, the International Student Club, and the Alpha Gamma Sigma Honor Society.

Extended Opportunity Programs and Services is a state-funded program that supplements the regular educational programs of the college. The primary objective of EOP&S is to encourage the enrollment and retention of students affected by language, social, and economic disadvantages. The program’s priority is to facilitate the completion of the educational goals and objectives of the students it serves. To this end, services include specialized, regularly scheduled counseling; individualized tutoring services; book grants; childcare allowances; and priority registration.

Mission College currently does not have an athletic program.

In an effort to demonstrate an honest and open process in compliance with Commission standards, the faculty chair of the 2001 self-study, the accreditation liaison officer, and the Accreditation Steering Committee agreed to conduct a majority of the business of the study online. The resulting Website (2.24) features all drafts of committee work on the standards, schedules and minutes of every committee meeting, revisions of drafts, documentation, guidelines, resources, and previous Commission recommendations and correspondence. The site is updated daily, and the campus community, the public at large, and the Commission itself have been able to follow the process as it unfolds.

Every effort has been made during the study to generate enthusiasm among committee members for honest research and evaluation of college policies and procedures. Committee chairs and other interested faculty have had the opportunity to attend workshops on the subjects of the standards and the institutional assessment process as a whole (2.25). Commissioners have participated in both small information sessions with the Steering Committee and large workshops designed to investigate the relative responsibilities for policies and procedures within the district and the college.

The agreement by the three San Fernando Valley colleges in the district to participate in the Multi-College Pilot Program, which was designed to delineate and evaluate the relationship between the colleges and the district, is proof of an awakening enthusiasm for the study. The three colleges and the chancellor hope that some serious barriers to understanding this relationship will fall. Faculty, administration, and staff expect policies and procedures of all involved entities, including the unions, the Personnel Commission, and the District Academic Senate, to become clearer.

Program Review (2.26) at Mission College has been a systematic process designed to regularly evaluate all aspects of the institution, including disciplines, committees, and offices, to ensure integrity in all representations of its mission, programs, and services. Currently, this process is undergoing a transformation into a college-wide assessment and planning process that is detailed in Standard 3.

Executive staff members have reviewed college policies on an irregular basis in their weekly meetings, and the Mission President’s Coordinating Council has done so in its monthly meetings. Faculty members, department chairs, the staff of the Office of Academic Affairs, the vice president of Academic Affairs, and the Counseling Office review college publications yearly. In addition, faculty, department chairs, deans, and Academic Affairs staff review the Catalog and the Schedule of Classes on a continual basis.

SELF EVALUATION

The student survey (2.27) reveals that nearly 70 percent of students (Item #1, SS) have a high level of confidence in the accuracy and precision of the college’s official publications while the college faculty and staff survey (2.28) reveals that 56 percent of faculty and staff do (Item #3, FSS). However, the positive overall perception of the accuracy of the college’s publications among both students and staff does not obviate the need for specific improvements.

Despite the current extensive review process, some errors in the Catalog and the Schedule of Classes persist. A number of these inaccuracies occur because the articulation process calendar does not match the college proofing and printing deadlines. Also, a considerable delay exists when receiving approval for articulation proposals from transfer institutions. Plus, frequent turnover in administrative personnel leads to inaccuracies in the administrative list (2.29).

The Schedule of Classes needs an index as well as new diagrams to enable students to understand short-term classes and some nontraditional programs. Some inaccuracies may be due to the short turn-around time caused by the recent policy of publishing two semesters at once and by not taking enough care in proofing galleys. Other problems may be due to the coordination between district software and the publication preparation process. The software does not allow some types of scheduling to be entered, so parts of the schedule have to be laid out by hand, and opportunities for errors arise when these documents are passed back and forth. Taking more care in the proofing of galleys can eliminate these errors.

The Academic Senate formed an ad hoc committee in the spring of 2000 to assist in the oversight of the editing of the Catalog and the Schedule of Classes. One suggestion has focused on putting the galleys online for review and having a technical reader complete the final editing. But the college and the district should also explore the purchase of new scheduling software that accommodates nontraditional start and stop dates and block scheduling.

Accuracy with the Website has been a continual problem. Oversight had been ineffective until the recent plan for the Title III office to assist with updating the site and responding to complaints of inaccuracy. The Title III office has put in place a plan (2.30) approved by the Technology Mediated Instruction Committee that will greatly expand the amount and quality of information available to students. The information will be presented in a uniform and easily understood format. It will contain detailed material on each course, including instructor-generated supplementary materials. The college needs to institutionalize the current process.

In the student survey, a moderately high proportion of students, 46 percent (Item #54a, SS), did not respond to the statement about the importance of the college Website. However, student satisfaction with the college Website is very positive, with nearly 75 percent of students (Item #54b, SS) rating it satisfactory or better. The faculty and staff are also satisfied with the college Website, with 74 percent (Item #118b, FSS) rating it satisfactory or higher. However, 24 percent (Item #118a, FSS) of respondents are neutral regarding the importance of the college Website to their work. Thus, many students and faculty/staff do not perceive the Website as important to their roles at the college. The new plan for the oversight, management, and content of the site will offer an opportunity to change this perception.

Academic freedom at the college is understood and safeguarded. The results of the faculty and staff survey indicate that nearly 65 percent of faculty (Item #54, FSS) believe they have a good understanding of college policies relating to academic freedom. In addition, nearly 95 percent of faculty (Item #62, FSS) perceive college administration to be protective of faculty exercising academic freedom.

The distinction between personal belief and fact is also understood and maintained in the instructional environment. The student survey indicates that 85 percent of students (Item #4, SS) agree that instructors are able to separate personal opinion from fact when teaching their classes.

The Faculty Handbook does not contain the Faculty Ethics Statement, and the contents of the statement are not discussed on any regular basis. However, the Academic Senate has proposed that a revised handbook include the statement. Additionally, some faculty members believe that the current peer evaluation process is perfunctory and does not adequately evaluate or improve the teaching-learning process. This is discussed further in Standard 7.

In the fall of 1999, the Academic Senate approved a Conflict Resolution Procedure (2.31) after a few incidents of interpersonal conflict on campus created a less than optimum sense of collegiality in one or more departments. The procedure calls for a collegiality facilitator and the Academic Senate president to create a committee of faculty facilitators who will deal with faculty complaints regarding practical and academic matters. The committee’s purpose is not to judge who is right or wrong nor to render mandatory decisions but to facilitate resolution by offering options for both sides of the conflict to consider.

Academic honesty is not a significant problem at the college. Nearly 61 percent (Item #56, FSS) of faculty indicate that they have a good understanding of current college policies on student academic honesty. Moreover, about 71 percent (Item #61, FSS) of faculty report that cheating is not a problem in their classes. A large percentage of faculty, 64 percent (Item #53, FSS), also maintains that students who cheat are likely to be caught. Similarly, 76 percent of students also indicate that they have a good understanding of the student code of conduct (Item #6, SS), and 81 percent understand the college policies related to cheating (Item #5, SS).

Some mention of student sanctions could be inserted in the Schedule of Classes, and all faculty members should be encouraged to include expectations of student honesty in their course syllabi. Neither the Catalog nor the Schedule of Classes mentions breeches of faculty honesty such as bribery, favoritism, or dishonest grade-keeping procedures or the accompanying sanctions. Faculty violations and sanctions could be included in both as well as in the Faculty Handbook.

The college is responding well to the challenges posed by diversity. Eighty-two percent of students believe that the college promotes an appreciation of diverse peoples and cultures (Item #8, SS). Faculty and staff share this view, with nearly 79 percent believing so. Moreover, 77 percent of students (Item #9, SS) also perceive the college faculty and staff as broadly representative of the community.

Although the college now has a compliance officer who has conducted training for members of hiring committees (2.32), some inconsistencies in procedures have occurred. With the number of new full-time faculty hires projected for the next several years, hiring committees will need repeated training to ensure compliance with district policies.

The Multicultural Committee sponsors many events and activities focusing on diversity throughout the year. However, they are not well attended due to limited avenues for publicity and a subsequent general lack of awareness. The college has no newspaper or marquee, and flyers and e-mails are quickly forgotten. Some have proposed touch screen kiosks promoting campus events along with video monitors on which campus news could be disseminated (See Standard 5).

Regarding the current self-study, the perception of many participants is that it has been extraordinarily open and honest and has the potential to be a catalyst for positive change. Diversity of opinion and wide participation in the writing of subsections of every standard has been remarkable. Participants view the pilot program and the accompanying documents detailing the relationship between the district and the college as groundbreaking steps in developing ongoing accountability procedures (2.33).

The recent movement at the college toward a systematic assessment and planning process represents a dedication by faculty to evaluating all policies, practices, and publications. The groundwork has been laid for evaluating the effectiveness of all aspects of the college with the purpose of continual improvement. Institutional assessment at the college will focus on offices, committees, publications, and even ad hoc decision-making units along with traditional arenas such as programs and departments (2.34).

PLANNING AGENDA

3. The current grant-funded process for maintaining the Website will be institutionalized at the end of the funding period.

4. Sanctions for violation of Student Code of Conduct will be published in the Schedule of Classes and included in the Website.