SACS Visit Closes with Positive Exit Report; Team Will Recommend Acceptance of QEP
SACS Team Chair Ellen Weed (center, blue jacket) addresses A-B Tech faculty and staff at an exit report meeting on April 22.
From the maintenance worker who waved to their bus to the Hospitality Education student who served them at a local restaurant, members of the SACS Peer Review Team reported seeing Invitational Education at work during their visit to A-B Tech in April.
In an exit report that followed three days of meetings with faculty, staff and students, team members announced they would recommend that the Commission on Colleges (COC) of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accept A-B Tech's Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) when the COC considers the college's request for re-accreditation in December. Chair Ellen Weed added that the team agreed with the North Carolina Community College System's assessment of A-B Tech as a superior institution.
John Novak, a member of the education faculty at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario and a leader in Invitational Education, said he was impressed with the work the college has done with Invitational Education through its QEP. Novak recounted how a maintenance worker waved to the SACS team as it arrived on campus, adding "we've been waved to the whole time now."
The team cited several specific strengths of the QEP, including: its link to the college's planning process; the broad-based participation in and understanding of the plan; the choice of a creative and unique topic likely to make long-term improvements; and the positive approach to change.
Among the challenges the team said the colleges faces are: sustaining the energy and commitment that accompanied the development of the plan; determining how to define student success as well as how to measure it; assessing the plan in the future to determine whether it remains on target; allotting sufficient resources to achieve the web-related activities in the plan; and looking more at Continuing Education because the plan's objectives are weighted toward curriculum.
Although the team held official meetings on the Asheville Campus with dozens of faculty, staff and students, perhaps one of the most significant events unexpectedly occurred during dinner at Café on the Square. Weed said the team learned that its waitress was a student in the Baking and Pastry Arts program who moved from another state specifically to attend A-B Tech. The team quizzed the woman about whether she liked the college and why, and after hearing her responses, asked if she knew about the QEP. Although her reply was no, she then proceeded to describe the QEP in her own words an event Weed said affirmed all her team had seen and heard during its three-day visit.
In addition to evaluating the QEP, the team conducted a follow-up to the off-site review of the college's Compliance Certification report. Together, the QEP and the Compliance Certification form the basis of SACS' decision on re-accreditation. The team made three recommendations: that the college provide evidence its graduates are achieving general education competencies; that it justify and document the qualifications of six faculty members; and that it publish policies on the responsibilities of faculty in governance matters. The college will respond in writing to the recommendations, and will be on the COC agenda for re-affirmation in December.
BASF Corp's Enka Donation Wins State Benefactor Award
The generous gift of what is now the A-B Tech Enka Site, a property valued at over $30 million, has earned BASF Corp. the distinction as North Carolina's winner of the 2004 Council for Resource Development (CRD) Benefactor Award. The honor was announced by Kimberly Sturgeon, CRD Regional Director, and will be presented in Charleston, SC, on May 18.
When BASF conveyed its Enka land and buildings to A-B Tech, it was, and still is, the largest property donation ever made to a community college in the United States. The gift included nearly 37 acres and three buildings with a total of 277,000 square feet of floor space. BASF foresaw that the gift would be good for both the college and the area, particularly with the pressing need to serve a region that requires a workforce with the skills for tomorrow's jobs.
"As we considered ways to make the best use of the land and buildings at Enka that were no longer appropriate to our changing market, we looked at A-B Tech's vision of the business incubator it wanted to develop," said Jack Dellinger, General Manager of the BASF Enka plant. "We were well aware of the resourcefulness of the college leadership and believed this facility was well-suited and ideally located to house the programs the college wanted to create.
"The Enka site of BASF has a legacy of more than 70 years of being a good corporate citizen. Over the past few years, we have seen what began as a concept, grow to an entity that now touches all of Western North Carolina," Dellinger continued. "I would hope that all of our investments would pay such dividends and have the potential that A-B Tech's Enka Site has for the future. This award reaffirms the wisdom of our decision, and I am pleased to receive it."
An organization dedicated to advocating for community colleges, CRD assists two-year institutions in their efforts to secure resources that will enhance the quality of their services to students.
Student Awards Ceremony
Ferguson Auditorium was filled to capacity for the Student Awards Ceremony on April 21.
Each curriculum program handed out a certificate and medal to honor its top student, while additional certificates were presented to recipients of Who's Who Among Students in Community and Junior Colleges.
A-B Tech's two nominees to the 2004 All-USA Community College Academic Team, Ashley McRowan and Darlene Saccuzzo, were also recognized.
Above, Tammy Davis receives recognition from President K. Ray Bailey for being the top student in the Dental Hygiene program.