Living our values

The higher education landscape today is littered with colleges that failed to understand the trends, failed to innovate and took their focus off their core values.

Late last month I challenged our administrators to reflect on the College’s values, which begin with “We value our students, employees and the community members we serve by making decisions that address the needs of those populations.”  Our values also cover integrity, excellence, communication, collaboration and open admissions and access.

I then asked them if their values aligned with the College. I also asked, “What  have you done to fulfill the College’s mission?”

If Pima Community College is going to reach its potential to be a premier community college, each of us must be committed to our organizational values and to fulfilling our mission.

The challenge, of course, is that today’s world is much different than when  Pima opened its doors nearly 50 years ago. Today’s technology-driven, global economy  demands innovation at an unprecedented pace. Further, our students must be prepared for a world that  moves seamlessly across borders, thanks largely to technology, and a workforce that integrates ideas and cultures from every perspective.

To put students first at Pima Community College means exposing them to cultural opportunities and providing a global understanding. Even graduates who will build their lives and careers in Pima County must be prepared for a workforce where the company owner is from China or Germany or elsewhere; where the expectation is to be multi-lingual or culturally competent; where the workplace enjoys a rich diversity.

Our students return from study abroad opportunities to China, Ireland and other places they might have never thought possible as changed individuals with a new confidence. Pima students study alongside our international students, break bread with them, learn from them. Everyone benefits.

Putting students first at Pima means innovating to ensure they have access to the best services, the latest teaching methods and the newest technology.  STEM fields are changing rapidly and Pima must adapt to ensure that our students are prepared for those great jobs. If our programs aren’t innovating, they are dying.

Recently we were told that everything about college should be easy, except for the learning.

Putting students first at Pima also means innovating our student experience, providing welcoming, encouraging and effective interactions.

Finally, putting students first means that faculty, staff and administrators can’t wait for opportunity before they act. They can’t wait to be asked.  They can’t wait for crisis to compel change.  They can’t hope difficult times will simply pass by.  Each of us owes it to our students to live our values, to watch and understand the trends, to innovate to meet student needs.

The day is gone when good enough was enough.  “Good enough” is not in Pima’s lexicon.  I shared the story of James Dyson and how a local sawmill inspired his line of vacuum cleaners. For James Dyson, good enough was not an option and he found inspiration for something better, perhaps even the best vacuum cleaner.

I challenge Pima supporters and employees to find your inspiration.

Get excited when you think that Pima Community College can be a premier community college, with record-setting completion rates, multiple nationally recognized programs and standard-setting customer service.  We are certainly paving the way for that with guided pathways, Centers of Excellence, iBEST and other initiatives. We will continue that very good work and keep building on it.

Think about how you would answer “what have I done to fulfill the College’s mission? How I have lived the College values?”   If you don’t like your answer, know that you can aspire to more.

Futures Conference 2018

The College held its fifth annual Futures Conference last week. The conference is an important element in our strategic planning process, as it brings together students, Governing Board members, community members and PCC employees to discuss matters of College-wide importance, and to engage in small-group discussions that surface new ideas. Futures Conferences are a vehicle for constructive community engagement — we partner with the public, seeking advice and innovation.

This year’s conference focused on three areas:

• Guided Pathways, clearly defined roadmaps to credentials that let students get the best return on their investment of time and resources.
• Centers of Excellence, which enhance student success and economic development by providing students with rigorous, best-in-class training so they can succeed in leading-edge sectors of the economy.
• Diversity and Inclusion, drivers of equity that need to be addressed if organizations are to succeed economically in a rapidly globalizing 21^st

I opened with remarks that put the College’s work into prospective. New technological, economic and demographic realities are converging to create an age of accelerated change not seen since the 1440s, when Johannes Gutenberg introduced mechanical printing and ushered in the modern age. These changes, which range from the rise of Artificial Intelligence to persistent education and skills gaps, present higher education with numerous challenges. The foremost is realizing opportunities within our grasp today while preparing for opportunities of the future. This is a formidable task, given that 65 percent of today’s first-graders will be employed in jobs that currently do not exist. My path forward for the College, unsurprisingly, is to improve delivery of instruction and services so our students have the knowledge, skills and abilities to thrive regardless of what the future may bring.

Clearly, given this uncertain landscape, the College needs the insights of its partners, and Future Conferences are an excellent way to leverage their creative energy. Past conferences have resulted in real change. In 2017, attendees identified as priorities “Establish guided pathways for in-demand programs” and “Align College programs, processes, systems and resources to support economic opportunities within Pima County through relationships with local business and industry.”  Those insights were woven into the 2017-2021 Strategic Plan, which was approved by the Governing Board in May 2017. I am confident this year’s Futures Conference will yield similar advances.

In perspective: wages, the FY 2018 budget, and our future

Below is a message I sent the College community on May 12:

 

This is truly an exciting time at Pima Community College. On Wednesday evening, our Governing Board directed us to move forward with significant, wide-ranging initiatives that have the potential to reshape PCC so that we can best serve our community for years — and in some cases, decades — to come.

Let’s start with the budget. Last night, the Board approved key budget parameters that put the final pieces in place for Fiscal Year 2018.  We can now move forward with publication of the budget and Truth in Taxation notices for public review.  The budget will ultimately be adopted in June following the public hearing and special Board meeting.

Wages

The Board, in recognition of the great work by employees during these challenging times, directed the College to provide a 2 percent incremental increase to salaries and wages. Assuming formal approval by the Board in June, this increase will be calculated on base pay amounts throughout the year.  While it is not technically an increase to base pay, the amount will be essentially the same. Its continuance will be decided next year when we have more information from a class and compensation study the Board on Wednesday night directed the College to undertake, and how the organization is doing in relation to its strategic and operational goals.

The Board’s direction is an echo of my heartfelt thanks to our employees, whose grit and creativity put us back in good standing with our accreditor.  Specifically, I want to thank you all for your feedback, questions, suggestions, and patience throughout this dynamic budget scenario and development period.  We are clearly rebuilding the plane as we are flying it — we are incorporating strategic and organizational changes within the budget structures to facilitate changes necessary for us to become a premier community college.

The big picture: challenges

To reach that goal, we are working diligently on fiscal and operational challenges connected with declining enrollment — our infrastructure is misaligned, particularly in terms of our physical structure and the number of people we employ.  We have been discussing and working on this for several years, and have made very real progress by, among other things:

• implementing the College reorganization;
• reducing the size of the administration;
• setting target ratios that guide the authorization to fill full-time faculty positions;
• adjusting tuition and other service delivery to ensure we are market-competitive;
• reducing equipment purchases that are subject to expenditure limitation;
• improving classroom funding models consistent with the new organization;
• scrutinizing every staff position prior to recruitment, and establishing unit-based budget reduction targets.

That said, our current enrollment results in a very real need to significantly reduce our operational expenses due to looming expenditure limitation realities.  The good news is we have some time to adjust to the reduction; the bad news is that reductions are a certainty we must address.

The big picture: opportunities

At the same time, the College is undergoing a strategic renewal, as evidenced by the Board’s actions Wednesday night:

• Approving three strategic directions contained in the final draft of the 2017-2021 Strategic Plan;
• Committing the College to the goal of ensuring that 60 percent of Pima County residents age 25 and older have a certificate or college degree by 2030, aligning us with Governor Doug Ducey’s Achieve60AZ initiative;
• Approving conceptual Educational and Facilities Master Plans, which provide a vision for where we need to go as an organization. Ensuring program quality, relevance, and sustainability; implementing effective pathways to student success; establishing Centers of Excellence; and expanding and integrating our outreach efforts create an array of exciting possibilities to focus on. The plans also clarify the need to reinvest into the College to improve program and service delivery, educational space, and equipment.

A healthy, balanced budget

When we originally developed the budget scenarios back in December, it was with these challenges and opportunities in mind.  The feedback we received from our forums and feedback tools indicate that the College community understands the need to resize and reinvest.  Approximately 95 percent of the responses we received supported either Scenarios B or C, which trigger budget reductions and reinvestment starting in FY 2018.

The budget that the Board approved for publication includes a healthy balance of these conceptual and strategic changes.  Specifically, the budget includes the reduction of 100 vacant staff positions (approximately $6.3 million), the inclusion of $3.6 million in revenue bond debt service, an increase in property taxes to the levy maximum (approximately 3 percent), and direction to fund enhanced enrollment initiatives (i.e., marketing, retention efforts) and the aforementioned class and compensation study.

No reduction in force in FY 2018

The reduction of 100 positions will be achieved through the elimination of existing vacant staff positions.  Approximately 40 positions have already been identified for elimination, and 60 additional positions will be identified during the course of the year.  The Executive Leadership Team will develop a new process for reviewing all vacant staff positions, and only critical positions will be approved for recruitment.  As a result of this strategy, the College does not expect a Reduction in Force during Fiscal Year 2018.  However, this approach will require all of us to be more flexible with how and where we perform our duties, and there will be active and constructive discussion about how to more efficiently provide necessary services with fewer people.

Lastly, the revenue bond debt service of $3.6 million will enable the College to have an infusion of approximately $45 million to take a major first step toward the implementation of the Educational and Facilities Master Plans.  The specific projects will be identified in coming months through a series of summits and discussions, and the actual process of issuing debt will require Board action. The revenue bond will enable us to make significant progress toward consolidating programs and creating our new Centers of Excellence.

I mentioned that the budget was predicated on foundational assumptions that include financial and operational metrics, and the budget makes good progress toward our upcoming expenditure limitation.  A commitment toward increasing enrollment will focus our energies on specific initiatives and tangible gains, and decrease the amount we will eventually have to reduce by 2021.  The proposed Fiscal Year 2018 budget contributes more than $5 million of progress on our expenditure limitation, which is within our targeted Scenario B goal.

A final word

When he was CEO of Intel Corp., Andy Grove coined the term “strategic inflection point,” defined as that which causes a fundamental change in an organization’s strategy. With our accreditation challenges behind us, and with fascinating new initiatives ahead, it’s clear we are pivoting toward a brighter future. Working together, we can reimagine PCC for the benefit of our students and community.