PCC Receives Highest Honor for Annual Financial Report

Great news from our office of Finance:

For the 25^th consecutive year, the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting has been awarded to Pima Community College by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) for the College’s fiscal year 2016 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR).

The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management.

The CAFR has been judged by an impartial panel to meet the high standards of the program, which includes demonstrating a constructive “spirit of full disclosure” to clearly communicate its financial story and motivate potential users and user groups to read the CAFR.

“This award is testament to the hard work and diligence of our finance team and to the College’s commitment to accountability and transparency,” said Dr. David Bea, Executive Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration.

Government Finance Officers Association is a major professional organization servicing the needs of nearly 19,000 appointed and elected local, state, and provincial-level government officials and other finance practitioners. It provides top quality publications, training programs, services, and products designed to enhance the skills and performance of those responsible for government finance policy and management. The association is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with offices in Washington, D. C.

 

Report validates our progress on accreditation

I am pleased to report that we have received the Draft Feedback Report from the Higher Learning Commission’s Peer Review Team, who recommended removing the College from sanctions in 10 of the 11 areas of concern.  And while they determined that one area required the College to remain “On Notice” for an additional six months, our work earned praise and recognition.

In fact, the Report validates every effort we have made to strengthen Pima’s commitment to students and the community.

As you know, while remaining fully accredited, the College was “On Notice” as we addressed 11 areas of focus where the HLC, the College’s accrediting body, thought we could easily slip out of compliance with accrediting standards.

Following review of considerable documentation and an intensive September Focused Visit, the Peer Reviewers, who are college leaders from across the country, concurred that PCC made significant progress and fully addressed the concerns of the Commission in five areas of focus.  That is outstanding news.  It allows us to move forward with no need for monitoring.

In five other areas, Reviewers complimented the College on its work and acknowledged the strong foundation built in each area, but believed we needed additional time to provide evidence of effectiveness. As we expected, those areas were recommended for additional monitoring, but there was no recommendation of a sanction, and of those, only one required HLC follow up. Again, more good news.

In only one area, regarding assessment of student learning outcomes, the Peer Reviewers thought the “evidence of effectiveness was insufficient” enough for the college to remain “On Notice” for an additional six months, until Sept. 1, 2017.

Specifically, Reviewers want to see the College complete hiring of two critical assessment positions, a Director of Assessment reporting to the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Accreditation and Academic Quality Improvement, and a Research Analyst reporting to the Director of Assessment. The extra time gives the College the opportunity to complete the hires and to allow these individuals to develop goals, strategies and tactics. We are firmly on track; an offer has been made to a candidate for the Director’s position and interviews for the Research Analyst position occur this week.

Reviewers were particularly attentive to assessment of student learning outcomes, in part because it viewed the College’s efforts as overdue, and in part because our model is still new and will require continued oversight and direction by someone who has a direct line of accountability for its success.

Even so, Peer Reviewers said the “new structure has enhanced visibility, consistency and stronger leadership of the PCC assessment efforts.”

Next steps

The College was given the opportunity to review the Draft Feedback Report for errors. After reviewing the College’s comments, the HLC will finalize and issue the Feedback Report.  We expect this to happen in the next few weeks.  The Final Feedback Report and supporting evidence will be reviewed by the HLC Board of Trustees in February 2017 for a final decision. The status becomes official with the HLC Board vote.

By Sept. 1, 2017, we will submit a report on the status of hiring the two assessment positions. The report also will include updates about the monitored areas. Review of the College’s report will determine if a site visit is required for Fall 2017.

While the College had hoped to come fully off sanction, we are heartened and encouraged by the significant progress to date.

The Reviewers’ compliments were abundant and included statements such as “the institution’s governance and administrative structures promote effective leadership and support collaborative processes that enable the institution to fulfill its mission. … The team found during its visit that it appeared the College had improved the climate of openness and inclusivity of individual perspectives.”

And “it is clear that PCC has embraced a new culture that includes a focus on Developmental Education and on Adult Education, including KPIs related to the development of both within the Strategic Plan. The Dean of Developmental Education is progressively leading an enthusiastic group of faculty, advisors and staff who are focused on student success.”

We are grateful for the Reviewers’ thoughtful evaluation and for recognizing the hard work behind all of the achievements in these past several months. We still have much hard work ahead, but now our path is clear and we can be confident in our actions.

 

PCC headed in the right direction

Here is my commentary on PCC’s future. It was published in the Arizona Daily Star on Oct. 13:

On Sept. 26 and 27, seven members of a Peer Review Team from the Higher Learning Commission engaged in 50-plus meetings with more than 250 faculty, staff, students, board and community members, on four Pima Community College campuses.

During this visit, the College was asked to provide evidence that it has put in place systems that demonstrated effectiveness and sustainability in 11 key areas outlined in our “Notice Report” submitted to the HLC in June.  The College made a strong case to be removed from our current sanction of “Notice,” a status that means the HLC sees the college at risk of falling out of compliance with accrediting standards.

It was significant for other reasons as well. It was a turning point, where PCC demonstrated, without equivocation, that it is actively addressing problems and concerns, some of which date back a decade or more, and is fearlessly taking on problems as part of our new culture of continuous improvement.

The visit was not about reliving the past, however. It was about putting PCC on secure footing with HLC standards and strengthening the College for the vital work of supporting our community.

Accreditation reviews usually happen every 10 years, but can happen more often if accreditors find areas of concern. Last week’s “Focused Visit,” was to find evidence of effectiveness in 11 specific areas, including things like implementation of the 2014-17 Strategic Plan and ensuring that proper metrics are being used to address progress in student retention, persistence and completion.

Some of the areas, such as assessing student learning outcomes, were the reason the college was placed on Probation in 2013. That sanction was reduced in March to “Notice.”  Others, including, ensuring syllabi have proper and specific learning goals, and ensuring consistency in review of dual learning courses and dual learning faculty training, were additional findings from a previous Focused Visit.

The good news is Pima Community College has addressed these issues.

The problems we faced were not created overnight and will not be resolved overnight, but PCC faculty, staff and administration have worked tirelessly over the last three years to move the college in the right direction.

It is important to note that Pima continues to be fully accredited. Credits for qualifying courses transfer to our state and other universities. Students who meet the requirements and are enrolled in qualifying programs of study may be eligible for federal aid.

Our community should be proud of the hard work of this college. We also should remember why this visit was important, not just for PCC, but for the region.

As a leading educator for so-called “middle skills,” in demand by manufacturers and other technology and technical employers, PCC not only helps prepare our residents for high-growth, high-wage jobs but also fills critical skills gaps for our workforce.

Further, our transfer programs give students a solid and affordable foundation toward a baccalaureate degree.

This is where PCC matters.

Proud to be an open admissions college, we also have developed a laser-focus on student success.  We have broadened our economic development role to include customized training for incumbent workers, career and educational pathways, and built key workforce partnerships.

Yet, in many ways, we are just getting started.  PCC has set its sights on being a premier community college. It is what our diverse population of students, employers and region need and deserve.

We are grateful to our employees and community members who participated in last week’s visit and to members of the community for ongoing support.  We look forward to engaging you as we continue the good, hard work ahead.

Aviation Technology Center update

 

Here is a message I shared with the College community earlier today:

I am pleased to give you good news on the status of our Aviation Technology Center (ATC).

You will recall that when a college offers more than 50 percent of courses for a specific program at a location geographically separate from a main campus, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) must approve the site.  Further, colleges are prohibited by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) from disbursing federal financial aid for programs at sites that have not been HLC-approved.

We discovered that PCC had never obtained this approval for the ATC site, and self-disclosed this fact to the HLC and ED.  We immediately filed for approval with the HLC, and did not disburse financial aid to Aviation students for the summer semester.  Instead, the College and the PCC Foundation provided affected students with institutional and Foundation scholarships.

I want to emphasize that through this whole process the Aviation program itself has remained fully accredited and approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the HLC.

On June 27, 2016, the HLC approved the ATC at Pima Community College as an additional location.  This means that the College is able to offer the various Aviation degrees and certificates at the ATC.  This approval also allowed the College to seek approval from ED to offer federal financial aid at this location.

We are awaiting final approval from ED, but based on our conversations with them, we are optimistic that this will occur before the fall financial aid disbursement date of September 9.  We also have learned that the Department is in the process of reviewing our Program Participation Agreement (PPA) and updating our Eligibility & Certification Approval Report (ECAR), which contains the ED list of Pima’s approved locations.  These are very positive signs.

On Thursday, August 4, 2016, Aviation leadership met with students, updated them on our progress, and discussed the College’s efforts to ensure that financial aid students remain unaffected.  The College is working to have contingency plans in place, should the ED approval be delayed past September 9.

I am encouraged by these developments, and I am proud of the staff and faculty who proactively identified this issue, and have been working to correct it.  Thanks to their efforts, this is one more example of the College’s progress toward becoming a premier institution of learning.

 

Accreditation update

 

Below is a message I shared earlier today with the College community:

I want to share a brief summary of information presented to the Governing Board by Bruce Moses, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Accreditation and Quality Improvement, at the Board’s Aug. 1 Study Session.

The topic, accreditation and the Sept. 26-27 Focus Visit by a team from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), is of obvious interest to the College community. Here are the major takeaways from the session.

Outcomes

As you know, the College is accredited by the HLC but is on Notice, which means we are at risk of being unable to meet one or more of HLC’s Criteria for Accreditation. We submitted a Notice Report to the HLC on June 29, 2016. A timeline of important upcoming HLC-related events is available on the pima.edu website. A critical event will be the HLC Board of Trustees’ meeting Feb. 26-27 to determine the College’s institutional status.

HLC rules prohibit it from keeping PCC on Notice, or placing us back on Probation. These are the possible outcomes:

• We are removed from Notice.
• We are removed from Notice, but must submit one or more reports detailing our progress in areas in which the HLC says we need to improve. The HLC may make additional Focus Visits to the College.
• The HLC issues an order requiring us to show causeas to why our accredited status should not be removed.

Conclusion

One point Bruce astutely drove home is the need for the College to keep making progress throughout the Fall semester. A PCC team will travel to Chicago in December for a hearing of the HLC’s Institutional Actions Council, which makes recommendations to the HLC Board of Trustees. At the hearing, it will be important for the PCC team to provide evidence that the College has been improving processes throughout the semester.

We are up to the challenge to continue to improve. I don’t have to tell you that we have made significant strides. Our faculty, staff, administrators and Board are responsible for the many positive changes at PCC.  Thank you for meeting the challenges and taking advantage of the opportunities to improve service to our students and community.

 

Report to the Community

This month’s edition of PCC Spotlight, the College’s e-newsletter, contains my annual Report to the Community.

Some of the topics addressed in the Report:

• Accreditation: We have submitted a Notice Report to the Higher Learning Commission, a key step in regaining the fullest measure of confidence from our accreditor.
• Fiscal stewardship: I put into perspective PCC’s budget, property tax rates, and tuition for 2016-17.
• Student success: We are making strides in improving and expanding pathways for students at the beginning of their education journey.

Click to read PCC Spotlight 

College submits Notice Report to accreditor

Below is a message I sent earlier today to the College community:

Colleagues,

The College yesterday afternoon sent our Notice Report to the Higher Learning Commission. The report can be read on the Accreditation page of our website.

In meeting the deadline for submission of the report, the College has reached another milestone as we seek to regain the full trust of our accreditor. It’s important to remember that successfully emerging from the Notice sanction is not an endpoint. It is a significant step toward our ultimate goal, providing the best possible programs and services to students and the community.

The Notice process has been marked by many changes at the College, including a re-evaluation of our Mission Fulfillment Framework, the foundation document for our efforts. Change is difficult, especially in a large, student-centered organization such as PCC, but it’s necessary, and I am proud so many employees have embraced new ways of doing things.

A project of this scope could not succeed without the teamwork of faculty, staff and administrators. Dozens of employees should be proud of their efforts, and I thank those who commented on earlier drafts of the report, or provided evidence.

As it has in past HLC-related matters, the Provost’s Office took the lead on the Notice Report and piloted the College through a long, complex process. The Subject Matter Experts team spent hours researching, writing, revising and editing the Notice Report, and deserve recognition: Dolores Durán-Cerda, Julian Easter, Carl Englander, Karrie Mitchell, Bruce Moses, Lee Nichols, Michael Parker, Nic Richmond, Carin Rubinstein, Kate Schmidt, Jeff Silvyn and Jeff Thies.

I am confident the Notice Report provides strong evidence that the College has substantially addressed the concerns raised in the HLC Notice Letter, and demonstrates we meet HLC standards. The progress made by the College over the past three years is strengthening our efforts to revitalize our community academically, economically and culturally.

Thank you for your support.

Lee D. Lambert,

Chancellor

Aviation Technology Center update

Here is a message I sent to the College community regarding our Aviation Technology Center:

I have good news to share about our Aviation Technology Center (ATC).  The College was notified on May 17 that the Higher Learning Commission’s Review Committee has recommended approval of the ATC as an additional location, and this will be voted on at the HLC’s June 26 & 27 meeting.

If you’ll remember, when a college offers more than 50 percent of the coursework of a program at a location geographically separate from a main campus (in ATC’s case, Desert Vista), the HLC must approve the site. [You can read more about this and other topics in my synopsis of a May 5 financial aid training for administrators.]

Wednesday, Desert Vista Campus Vice President Ted Roush notified Aviation students of the HLC’s recommendation, which eliminates the need to move classes from the ATC to other PCC locations.

The students also were updated that the College still is waiting for the Department of Education to approve disbursement of financial aid to students taking courses at the ATC. The College has been reaching out to Summer 2016 Financial Aid-certified students at the ATC to inform them that their tuition and other expenses that would have been funded with federal financial aid will be paid instead with institutional and private funds. Each student’s financial situation is unique; aviation academic advisors, counselors and financial aid staff are working with Financial Aid-certified students individually to make sure there is a clear understanding of the process. But it’s important to reiterate: all eligible financial aid Aviation students will be held harmless for the summer.

Bringing the Aviation Technology Center into compliance with HLC and Department of Education rules is crucial to ensuring the success of our students in the highly regarded Aviation program. It also serves as an example of the importance of transparency and accountability amid the complexity of higher education regulation. All across the College, employees are working to bring us into compliance with accreditors and regulators so that students can reap the benefits of a PCC education. I thank you for your dedication to doing things right.

View a fact sheet, for more information regarding the Aviation site approval process.

Financial aid update

Below is a message sent to PCC employees last week regarding training for PCC administrators on the important topic of financial aid to students. The training focused on maintaining compliance with federal and state authorities and with our accrediting organizations.

Last Thursday, May 5, we held training for administrators on various compliance areas including some recently discovered PCC sites that do not appear to have gone through a required approval process with the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). This approval process is connected to federal financial aid (Title IV) regulations. At the conclusion of the training, we provided a short review of the training for other employees who were able to join us. This email includes a synopsis of the training and subsequent discussion. However, first I’d like to reiterate the importance of conversations like this.

Many of you have been proactively reviewing policies and procedures throughout the College to ensure that the institution is fully compliant with relevant regulations and requirements, especially those of the federal government and the HLC.

Together we’ve been able to uncover gaps or errors that needed to be corrected. We have self-disclosed to the HLC and the Dept. of Education the areas we’ve discovered, and we are working as a team to correct them. We have received compliments from our regulatory bodies for doing this, and they are working with us as we make these systemic changes throughout the College. Many of you have been part of this effort and your commitment to making things right shows how many people we have here at PCC who care deeply about the institution and our students.

Several aspects of how federal financial aid regulations impact College operations were reviewed in the training:

1. Selective Admissions – Students must be fully admitted into an eligible program before they can receive federal financial aid for that program. As of January 2016, PCC identified 26 programs that were not appropriately coded in Banner as having selective admission requirements, i.e. background checks or course prerequisites. As a result, some students were listed as admitted to a program even though they had not met all the program admissions requirements.
STATUS: IN PROGRESS. Programs are either being reconfigured so they are no longer Selective Admissions, or correctly coded as selective admissions. Students have been notified to either fulfill program admissions requirements or change their majors by 5-13-16.

2. Developmental Education – For developmental education courses to be eligible for federal financial aid, they must be at the 9th grade level or above, and be part of the developmental education sequence. Four courses were determined by the AZ Dept. of Education to be below 9th grade level and therefore ineligible for financial aid.
STATUS: COMPLETE. WRT 070, MAT 082, MAT 086, and REA 071 have been deactivated from financial aid eligibility, and a new developmental education sequence has been designed to comply with Department of Education regulations.

3. Course-to-Program Applicability – Students can only receive Title IV aid for courses in their declared program of study.
STATUS: COMPLETE, but labor intensive. Advisors are manually reviewing records to verify course-to-program applicability. The College is working on various I.T. solutions to automate this process.

4. Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) – The Financial Aid SAP policy must be “as strict as” the institutional SAP policy.
STATUS: COMPLETE. Standards were changed in Fall 2015 to meet the regulations. The Financial Aid SAP Appeals team has undergone training on the level of rigor expected in SAP Appeals review and will continue to do so to maintain compliance and consistency.

5. Administrative Capability — The Department of Education requires that conflicting information be resolved and a system of checks and balances be put in place in the administration of Title IV aid. An HLC Substantive Change application and subsequent approval is required if a college offers more than 50% of a program at a location that is geographically separate from a main campus. Likewise, the Department of Education requires this HLC approval prior to disbursing aid to students attending at these additional locations. PCC discovered a mismatch between the list of approved locations with the HLC and the list of approved locations with the Department of Education.
STATUS: IN PROGRESS. We filed substantive change applications with the HLC in February to seek approval for offering more than 50% of a program at three additional locations (Aviation Technology Center, Maintenance & Security, Public Safety Academy) , and are hoping for approval over the next few weeks.We notified the Dept. of Ed of the mismatch between HLC additional locations and those listed by the Dept. of Ed as approved. They are conducting an offsite program review of two of the locations (Aviation Technology Center and Maintenance & Security), and we should expect to hear on their process in the next few weeks. As we are awaiting approval from the HLC and Dept. of Ed., summer classes at these additional locations are being relocated to the campuses, when possible.

Because Aviation courses cannot be relocated without additional approval from the FAA, the PCC and the PCC Foundation will provide scholarships to summer session students who would have received federal financial aid (Title IV). We hope to have the appropriate approvals for the fall semester from both the HLC and the Dept. of Ed. During the May 5 training, administrators were asked to report any other additional locations where PCC courses are taught, so that we can ensure proper reporting and approval is sought with the HLC and Dept. of Education

Final thoughts
As you can see, ensuring compliance in today’s higher education world has never been more complicated or absolutely necessary. In order to become the premier institution I know Pima can be, we must be self-reflective and knowledgeable about the regulatory bodies that impact the College. We want to do more than what is minimally required—we want to exceed the standard, and ensure that we are catching these issues ourselves.

Compliance is about transparency, accountability, and making sure we are enabling our students to achieve their hopes and dreams. Thanks for your help with this incredibly important work.

Futures Conference 2016

I delivered opening remarks to the Pima Community College Futures Conference late last month. The conference was attended by almost 160 PCC employees and government, education, business and community leaders. The question posed at the conference was simple and fundamental: “How does PCC know it has fulfilled its mission?”

The answer is critically important to the College. We need to demonstrate to the peer institutions who accredit us, and to the public, that we can accurately ascertain our strengths and areas needing improvement. Over the two-plus hours of the conference, attendees met in small groups. They proposed a wide range of indicators to effectively measure performance in several areas, including diversity, student access and success, and community engagement.

The information gathered at the conference will be refined and converted into Key Performance Indicators that, pending Governing Board approval, will be embedded into the College’s strategic planning process.

Naturally, given the topic, most of the conversation centered on numbers and analysis.  I closed with a reminder that the College, while committed to being data-informed and evidence-based, must never lose sight of its underlying values or its focus on the individual student. At my table I heard the story of one student, Martin, whose goal is to become a lawyer and who has trusted in us his dreams and hopes for the future. In listening to Martin, who is of modest means, I was reminded of a quote from Melinda Gates: “If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.”

This was the third Futures Conference held by the College. All have been expertly organized by our Office of Institutional Research, Planning and Effectiveness. Dr. Nicola Richmond and her team — including Michelle Henry, David Purkiss, table facilitators and other volunteers – once again did a great job in bringing together a diverse group of internal and external constituents to creatively collaborate on an important topic.