Chabot College Unit Plan
Unit Plan: Description of the Unit
Chabot College Unit Plan, Part I
Unit: Mass Communication (Journalism)
Division or Area to Which You Report: School of the Arts
Author(s) of this Unit Plan: Larry Leach
Date: March 11, 2011
Audience: To be read and responded to primarily by Marketing and Outreach
Purpose: Used for public relations, used in catalog and/or brochures, grant applications. Marketing & recruiting materials
Instructions: Write about one paragraph which should include the unit’s mission statement. You may include an image or picture, if you wish. You may use
last year’s description with updates or revisions as needed.
The Chabot College Journalism program is designed to educate students in the basics of 21 st Century newsgathering, content development and
presentation covering elements of traditional and new media platforms. Academic programs cover writing for print and online journalism, but the
heart of the program is publication of the online and print versions of the student newspaper, The Spectator. In preparing both print and online
editions of a weekly newspaper, students study and actively participate in developing story ideas, identifying elements of newsworthiness, writing,
reporting, photography, graphic design, multi-media development and deadline time management skills to cover campus and local news of
interest to the Chabot College community.
Chabot College Unit Plan
Program Review Summary & Unit Plan
Chabot College Unit Plan, Part II
Unit/Area: Mass Com/Journalism
Division/Area to Which You Report: School of the Arts
Author(s) of this Unit Plan: Larry Leach
Today’s Date: March 11, 2011
School Year Program Review Completed:
Audience: IPBC; Program Review Committee; Deans/Unit Administrators; Budget Committee
Purpose: To provide evidence of progress on from previous year and to provide input into planning for subsequent years.
Instructions: If you have completed your unit plan last year, please update your timeline and answer the questions below. If you are updating/changing
your timeline, list the appropriate year in which revisions were made.
1A. Problem Statement: Summarize your original Program Review conclusions (or if this was done in last year’s unit plan, please update).
1B. Analysis: What was the basis for these new and/or continuing conclusions?
1A. As best as can be determined, the last Unit Plan for Journalism was filed in December 2005 and does match the existing format. There is a program
review that is being conducted by the new full-time MCOM (Journalism) faculty member for the Journalism portion of Mass Communications. However, it is
currently in year one and conclusions will be available at the conclusion of the program review.
2. Student Learning Outcomes Inventory
a. What percentage of courses in your discipline have Student Learning Outcomes developed? __72%__
b. How many Student Learning Outcomes are there on average per course? __1___
c. What percentage of course SLOs in your discipline have been assessed? __n/a___
d. What percentage of courses in your discipline have had the assessments reflected upon, or discussed with colleagues, or discussed with the
college at large? __0___
e. Has your discipline determined any actions that might be taken as a result of this data, or insights?
None that I am aware of however, there are plans to meet with the department faculty in order to update the department courses SLO’s & CLO’s as well as
discuss other department and program improvements.
Chabot College Unit Plan
3. List your accomplishments. How do they relate to your program review, unit planning and SLO work? Please cite any relevant data
elements (e.g., efficiency, persistence, FT/PT faculty ratios, SLO assessment results, external accreditation demands, etc.).
-The students have met deadlines and published print or online issues of the school newspaper each week for Fall 2010.
-This required hundreds of hours of instruction, lab hours and extra class time by the students.
-Thanks to the SOTA staff as well as members of the school administration, we were able to secure funding for printing the school
newspaper during the 2010-2011 school year despite numerous cuts taking place across school programs thus enabling us to
continue providing the campus with a print newspaper.
-The number of students increased enrollment from Fall 2010 to Spring 2011 for MC 14 and MC 15.
-Seven students and a faculty adviser were able to attend the Northern, CA college journalism conference during the Fall 2011
semester, funded out of advertising sales, not college provided funds.
-The students achieved several awards from mail in entries at the northern, CA conference and also attended numerous workshops to
develop ideas for continued development of the school newspaper, despite a change in advisers.
4. List your new and continuing unit goals. Based upon what you accomplished, do you have any changes you are making to your goals or
timeline? Please make any revisions to the timeline on the next page.
Continuing goals (if you did not do a unit plan, skip to the next box):
Continue to print a newspaper every other week.
Continue building emphasis of online edition giving equal weight and time to producing news for both print and online media.
Continue transition to new equipment/training in order to improve adaptation to convergence and new media delivery platforms
Continue to increase enrollment in newspaper production courses
New goals:
1. Develop/Fill additional roles in the newsroom to provide hands on experience in creation and delivery of multimedia content
2. Increasing awareness of the school newspaper and program to new and continuing students and staff on campus
3. Develop an advisory board for the Journalism program on campus
4. Build up high school outreach efforts as a recruiting tool for the School newspaper program
5. Discuss how these goals support the college Strategic Plan goals and/or strategies.
Continuing goals (if you did not do a unit plan, skip to the next box):
The purpose of the Strategic plan is to provide the best possible education and job skills for our students. By publishing student journalism, whether on paper
or online, students learn analytical skills, practical job-related skills, and practice a vital requirement to keeping American democracy strong.
Chabot College Unit Plan
Continuing goals of moving towards a multiple platform journalism program
Helps prepare students with basic skills for a changing journalism job market.
Helps identify and provide a variety of career paths.
New goals:
4-1. Increased roles in the newsroom and on the staff will provide added training to both platforms, increasing preparation for careers in a
changing journalism environment
4-2. Increased awareness of the school newspaper and program will support improved communication among faculty, students, and staff
and work toward increasing communication among these groups.
4-3. An advisory board with working professionals, educators & students will support development of curriculum relevant to the roles and
functions of the changing Journalism/Media industry
4-4. An improved high school outreach program will help keep consistency in the growth and retention of the program by recruiting and
working with students actively involved in journalism programs at the high school level in the Chabot College area.
6. Solution: Cut and paste your previous timeline and update the “Accomplished?” column, if necessary. Detail the plan for accomplish
your goals. If you are making revisions to your activities or timeline, please indicate that in the “Revised?” column.
Unit Action Plan Timeline
PLOs and/or Program
Goal(s)
Build awareness of
Program Community
outreach
Timeline
Activity
Support Needed to
Accomplish These
Activities*
On going Visiting Local HS Journalism programs N/A
to promote MCOM program
Accomplishe
Person(s)
d? Yes/No/In
Responsible
Progress
Increased enrollment in Journalism Larry Leach
courses
YEAR
ONE
LEAVE
BLANK
Develop &Update SLO’s
CLO”s
1 year
Researching appropriate outcome
expectations, planning curriculum
Develop PLO’s
1 year
Work with department faculty to
Training/Workshops
develop strong PLO’s for department as
a whole
Develop new curriculum
for department including
MCOM (Journalism)
Outcome(s) Expected
1-2 Years Work with department faculty to
identify viable courses to be added to
the curriculum.
Training/Workshops
Training/Workshops
Administrative support
SLO’s & CLO’s in compliance
with college expectations
Larry Leach
Identify what students will be able
to do after completing program.
Jobs, Education, Skills, Etc
Larry Leach
To make a stronger, more
competitive and diverse program.
Larry Leach
(Dept
Faculty)
(Dept
Faculty)
* Note: As you may be carrying over or planning new activities for this planning cycle, this column should list that all activities are “In Progress.”
** List types such as “equipment,” “supplies,” “staffing,” “contractual services,” etc…
Chabot College Unit Plan
Unit Plan: Full-Time Faculty/Adjunct Staffing Request(s) [Acct. Category 1000]
Chabot College Unit Plan, Part III(a)
Unit: Mass Com/Journalism
Division or Area to Which You Report: School of the Arts
Author(s) of this Unit Plan: Larry Leach
Date: March 11, 2011
Audience: Faculty Prioritization Committee and Administration
Purpose: Providing explanation and justification for new and replacement positions for full-time faculty and adjuncts
Instructions: Please justify the need for your request. Be sure to include reference to Goals/Objectives from Part II, and Strategic Planning Priorities. Please
cite any evidence or data to support your request, including enrollment management data (EM Summary by Term) for the most recent three years, student
success data (EM Success report), and any other pertinent information. For EM data, go to http://help/EMC/ (from on campus—college intranet). If you have
not worked with EM data previously, seek assistance from your division dean or CEMC rep.
1. Number of new faculty requested in this discipline: ____0_
2. Rationale for your proposal. Include such things as enrollment, persistence, FT/PT faculty ratios, SLO assessment results,
external accreditation demands, etc. Anything that led you to request this position should be included.
N/A
3. Statements about the alignment with the strategic plan and program review are required. Indicate here any information from
advisory committees or outside accreditation reviews that is pertinent to the proposal.
N/A
4. Attachments:
 EM Summary by Term report for the appropriate discipline or cluster of disciplines.
 EM Success report for the appropriate discipline or cluster of disciplines.
Chabot College Unit Plan
Unit Plan: Classified Staffing Request(s) [Acct. Category 2000]
Chabot College Unit Plan, Part III(b)
Unit: Mass Com/Journalism
Division or Area to Which You Report: School of the Arts
Author(s) of this Unit Plan: Larry Leach
Date: March 11, 2011
Audience: Administrative Staff
Purpose: Providing explanation and justification for new and replacement positions for full-time and part-time regular (permanent) classified positions (New,
augmented and replacement positions)
Instructions: Please justify the need for your request. Be sure to include reference to Goals/Objectives from Part II, and Strategic Planning Priorities. Please
cite any evidence or data to support your request. If this position is categorically funded, include and designate the funding source of new
categorically-funded position where continuation is contingent upon available funding.
Justifications should include rationale for requesting the position. Rationale should include specific reference to, where necessary
and appropriate:
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Data from student learning and service area outcomes
Connection to program review
Relationship to institutional priorities
Impact on enrollment and revenue
Safety
Mandates
Workload distribution (impact on other’s work)
1. Rationale for your proposal. Please include the rationale from your program review and unit plan. Rationale should include
things such as student learning and service area data and outcomes, difficulty in serving students, health and safety concerns
and/or any other information that speaks to the criteria listed previously.
N/A
2. Statements about the alignment with the strategic plan and program review are required. Indicate here any information from
advisory committees or outside accreditation reviews that is pertinent to the proposal.
N/A
Chabot College Unit Plan
Unit Plan: Enrollment Requests
Chabot College Unit Plan, Part IV
Unit: Mass Com/Journalism
Division or Area to Which You Report: School of the Arts
Author(s) of this Unit Plan: Larry Leach
Date: March 11, 2011
Audience: Budget, Deans, CEMC, IPBC
Purpose: To recommend changes in FTEF allocations for subsequent academic year and guide Deans and CEMC in the allocation of FTEF to units.
Instructions: In the area below, please list your requested changes in course offerings (with reference to corresponding change in FTEF) and provide your
rationale for these changes. Be sure to analyze enrollment trends and other relevant data ( http://help/EMC/). Please seek your dean’s assistance as needed.
Currently, Journalism courses offered are MCOM 1 (News writing), MCOM 3, (Feature and Magazine Writing), MCOM 14, (Writing and Photo
Publication), and MCOM 15, (Publications/Editorial), MCOM 41 (Intro to Mass Communications).
Current courses are listed as graduation requirements for an associate degree in mass communications with an emphasis on journalism;
Courses that need revisions and updates are being reviewed and additional courses are being researched in order to build up the curriculum
and course offerings for the program in the future.
Once new courses are developed, updated graduation requirements list will also be developed for the program.
At this time, no new or changed course listings are recommended for 2011-2012.
Chabot College Unit Plan
Unit Plan — PROPOSAL FOR NEW INITIATIVES
Chabot College Unit Plan, Part V
Unit: MCOM (Journalism)
Division or Area to Which You Report: SOTA
Name of Person Completing this Form: Larry Leach
Date: March 11, 2011
Audience: Deans/Unit Administrators, IPBC, Foundation, Grants Committee, Budget Committee
Purpose: A “New Initiative” is a new project or expansion of a current project that supports college goals. The project will require the support of additional
and/or outside funding. The information you provide will facilitate and focus the research and development process for finding outside funding.
Instructions: Please fill in the following information.
Educational Master Plan and/or Strategic Plan Goal/Objective Addressed:
Current goals for MCOM (Journalism) projects planned to support the college goals are time and effort based and don’t require any specific funding
allocation in order to be executed.
Project Description:
N/A
Project Objective: (include goal & outcome from Part II of your Unit Plan for reference)
N/A
Expected Project Outcome:
N/A
Chabot College Unit Plan
Unit Plan: Request for Resources
Chabot College Unit Plan, Part VI
Unit: Mass Com/Journalism
Division or Area to Which You Report: School of the Arts
Author(s) of this Unit Plan: Larry Leach
Date: March 11, 2011
Audience: Budget, Deans
Purpose: To be read and responded to by Budget Committee.
Instructions: Please fill in the following as needed to justify your requests. Text boxes below will expand as you type. To list the items you are
requesting, please complete the accompanying Excel spreadsheets for the items you are requesting in the 4000, 5000, and 6000 account
categories, as needed, along with the justification for these requests below.
Equipment Requests [Acct. Category 6000]
Please note: Equipment requests are for equipment whose unit cost is over $200
Brief Title of Request (Project Name): The Spectator
Building/Location: Room 2325, Building 2300
Request Amount (include tax and shipping): Approximately
Description of the specific equipment or materials requested:
$11,000 for 2011-2012 school year to publish 20 print editions
*Mac Computer Upgrade + Adobe Design Premium Suite Upgrade to CS5
*(In process during Spring 2011, latest update indicates pending Summer 2011 install)
Chabot College Unit Plan
What educational programs or institutional purposes does this equipment support?
*The $11,000 is necessary to pay our printer. Producing and printing an actual paper is absolutely the heart of our educational
goals. Journalism must be practiced in order to be learned. Students must learn how to conceive, investigate, report, write, and
produce a paper on deadline in order to grasp the skills and lessons of journalism. In addition, the paper serves the entire Chabot
community by gathering and distributing news of campus events.
*As in the real world of newsroom, the Spectator essentially publishes two weekly newspapers – a print version and an online
version.
The new computers are needed for the increasing graphic load and content of doing two publications (Print & Online). This will
prepare our students to master basic job skills to either go onto a four-year journalism program or seek work in media.
*The Adobe software would add to the students ability to create attractive print media pages in an increasing visual design media
world.
Briefly describe how your request relates specifically to meeting the Educational Master Plan and the Strategic Plan Goals and support the
goals and outcomes detailed in your Unit Action Plan (Part II, Section 2)?
The new equipment (once installed) will enable students to learn in a multiple platform journalism program.
B1. Moving toward a multiple platform journalism program will help prepare students with basic skills for a changing journalism
educational environment and job market.
B2. Moving toward a multiple platform journalism program will help identify and provide a variety of career paths.
D4. Moving toward a multiple platform journalism program will support improved communication among faculty, students, and staff
and work toward increasing communication among these groups.
Why is this equipment necessary?
_____Immediate health, safety, or security issues
___x__Increases enrollment
_x____Prevents further deterioration of facilities
__x___Replaces deteriorated equipment or facilities
_____Shows cost advantage due to rising prices
_____Provides visibility for the Bond Program
Briefly describe how the above criteria are satisfied:
Chabot College Unit Plan
If we run a print-only program, we will lose students because students are more oriented to reading and producing news online. We
would also attract students who want the job skills and experience in multiple platform journalism.
Our equipment and our software is more than five years old. We are finding it more and more necessary to “nurse” it along.
What is the consequence of not funding the equipment?
If we do not receive money to print, we cannot produce a newspaper. Without funding from the school there is no guarantee we will
be able to pay the printer and sustain a viable Journalism program. If we don’t replace computers and software, the technological
functionality required to continue will dissolve.
What alternative approaches have been considered to meet programmatic demands for this equipment?
We appreciate the need for budget limitations and the Spectator continues to fund many of its equipment needs, Journalism
Association dues and conference fees through advertising sales. We have also purchased such items as SD cards and card readers,
cameras, voice recorders, laser printer cartridges, office & printing supplies, notepads, style guides, reference tools, and storage
boxes. However, advertising sales cannot cover all or even most of our program expenses.
How many students will be impacted by the purchase of this equipment? __all (25-40 per semester)_____
Do students use this equipment?
___x__yes
_____no
Is this equipment a replacement?
_x____yes
_____no
Staffing requirements for new equipment (number of staff, are they available, training, etc.): ____yes
Will training be required?
____x_yes
_____no
At whose cost?
The training can be provided as a part of the curriculum for the course by the
instructor with possible workshops by SOTA computer lab assistants if available.
What are the estimated ongoing costs (for maintenance, etc.)?
Are there potential utility costs/savings?
Is this request CTE (Career Technical Education) Eligible? _____yes
____x_no
Supplies & Services Augmentation Requests [Acct. Category 4000 and 5000]
___x__no
Chabot College Unit Plan
Note: Augmentations are rarely funded and are based upon available funding.
Definition of Augmentation: A request for additional funds for your current allocated budget (the funds you actually received), over and
above the current amount.
Brief Title of Request (Project Name):
Last year’s 4000 category budget _____________
Last year’s 5000 category budget _____________
Please state why you are requesting these funds in addition to your current allocated budget (the funds you actually received). Why were
the funds previously allocated insufficient?