Instructional Planning Yearly Update
Department _______MESA____________
Date
December 2, 2013
Division ________NAS______________
Goals and Recommendations from Program Plan
List the top five Goals and Recommendations from the last Program Plan and indicate whether they have been met?
Goals / Recommendations from six-year plan
In progress
Goal Met
Comments
(identify source of
funding)
1.) Respond to assessments to improve access by
increasing the physical capacity of the MESA Center.
An increase by a factor of four over the existing space
would enable the program to serve a much greater
number of the 600+ declared science transfer students
at Cabrillo. This would also address the problem of
noise level and meet the needs for areas for quiet
study within the Center. (Major Growth, Increase
Effectiveness of Learning Environment, Increase
Student Success, Improve Transfer)
a. Large central study room with computers and
adjoining breakout rooms in line of sight
b. Adequate office space for the MESA Director and for
the MESA Counselor where confidentiality can be
maintained
c. Adjoining lab facilities for special summer programs
2.) Respond to assessed needs for more open hours in
MESA and to improve interdepartmental student and
faculty collaboration of the engineering, engineering
technology, physics, computer science and MESA
departments by establishing a joint facility. (Increase
Student Success, Improve Transfer)
a) Collaborate with other departments such as
Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, and Math to
design a shared space to increase open hours while
maintaining line-of-sight supervision over multiple labs.
b) Explore options that would allow earlier opening and
later closing of the Center, and additional weekend
hours to meet student demand by rearranging existing
workload and taking advantage of efficiencies obtained
in goal #1 above.
3.) Increase college transfer rates in STEM, especially
among underrepresented student groups, by
decreasing time to transfer. (Improved Transfer, Career
Development, Increase successful transfer course
completion)
Revised September 28, 2012
Ongoing
need
Title III STEM
grant
Foundation
donations
The new STEM Center that opened this Fall semester
has allowed us to meet all of these intended
improvements to student access and support.
Title III STEM
grant
Foundation
donations
The new STEM Center is set up so that the CIS lab
and Physics Learning Center faculty can help keep our
shared space open and available to students for
additional hours each week. There several hours each
week of staffing from faculty from Physics,
Engineering, CIS and CS as part of their office hours,
or designated lab time. A few faculty from the
Chemistry and Biology departments have chosen to
hold office hours in the Center, also.
Not met. This need has gotten even greater since the
goal was established in 2008. Since the STEM Center
serves over 600 students, 86% of whom are STEM
majors, a need for increased hours of a counselor who
a) Increase MESA Counselor to 50% FTE to
1. Ensure science, technology, engineering or
mathematics (STEM) majors have early, frequent and
consistent academic counseling,
2. Assist students in managing a balance between
STEM coursework and obligations outside college life,
3. Explore availability of evening counseling hours to
accommodate a diversity of student schedules, and
4. Maintain a series of counseling workshops and
dissemination of transfer information through website
or other multi-media vehicles.
4.) Increase membership in MESA, especially
participation by underrepresented population by
increasing Outreach efforts: (Improved Transfer,
Innovative Scheduling and Delivery, Career
Development, Maintenance of Program, Major Growth,
Increase successful transfer course completion)
a) Work with research office to determine an effective
outreach plan informed by data-mining
b) Explore options that would allow a regularly funded
outreach component utilizing alumni and current MESA
students
c) Develop printed and multimedia materials to
advertise services
d) Explore work-study positions to increase outreach to
interest potential MESA members
5.) Increase student success in transfer-level math and
science courses by increasing tutoring and workshop
delivery. (Improved Transfer, Innovative Scheduling
and Delivery)
a) Explore offering some or all of the 6 Academic
Excellence Workshops offered each semester for units,
in order to encourage consistent attendance and
increase student participation.
b) Increase the college contribution to the Student
Assistant budget to a level of 50% of the usual cost to
reflect the usage of Center services by the general
Cabrillo student.
c) Explore feasibility of additional support by
increasing math LIA contract and creating a science
LIA position so that college support for tutoring
matches the ratio of MESA to non-MESA members
utilization of tutoring services
New
brochures
still pending
Ongoing
need
can help with the transfer issues for students in these
majors is even more pronounced. The MESA grant is
only able to fund 4-5 units per school year of
counselor time, and so only MESA members or
students applying to be MESA members are able to
meet with the counselor. This leaves a large unmet
need, especially with the new Student Success
requirements for students to have majors declared, ed
plans on file, and demonstrable progress toward their
goals in order to get priority for registration.
Met using some Membership in MESA has increased from the 80-90
funds from NSF average numbers in 2008 to an average of 150-175
STEEP project, due to the recruitment effect of the activities of the
additional grant NSF STEEP grant—both PREP and the Energy
obtained by the Academy, and the laptop program known as
Chancellor’s
California Connects. New brochures are being
Office on behalf developed to orient students to the STEM
of the MESA
Center/MESA partnership and the services available
programs.
to them. These will be funded by the Title III STEM
grant. Workstudy students from UCSC have been
used in the Center for the past two semesters, and is
working well.
The need for an IA, and increased budget for student
peer tutors in the STEM Center to represent the nonMESA members that are utilizing services is ongoing,
and much greater now because
1. the capacity of the MESA Study Center has
expanded from 35 to 175.
2. Students usage has gone from 6,700 hours
per semester to 30,000 hours per semester. 3.
3. The number of students served has increased
from about 300 to over 600. 92% of students
report a STEM major, approx. 550.
4. MESA grant funds are still only 60% of the
Revised September 28, 2012
longstanding annual amount. Currently,those
funds support a 50% IA, 4-5 units of a STEM
Counselor, and what is left for student tutors is
$17,000 per year. Student demand for the
tutoring services is $45,000, for a shortfall of
$28,000.
New Goals and Recommendations
Goal/Recommendation
List any new goals and recommendations identified by the department
Cost
Explanation/Evidence of Need
See explanations in #3, #5 above.
#3 and #5 from previous goals are still
relevant, and the need is greater than ever.
SLO Assessment Progress: In a sentence or two, describe where your department should be on the Revolving Wheel of Assessment (what
assessment you should have done in the last year) and what was actually done. If you’re not sure where you should be on the Revolving Wheel
contact the SLO Coordinator (x6366). If any task was not completed, explain why.
In this last year, we were due to assess students’ familiarity with the California State Teaching Standards in Math and Science within the Math
158T and 158FT class. We completed that assessment.
Fill out the Assessment Results section below.
SLO Assessment Results: List SLO assessments, dialogues, and priorities identified as a result of your assessment below. Attach
Departmental Assessment Analysis Forms completed in the last two semesters.
Core Competency, Course
SLO, or CTE Program SLO
Assessed. Example: all course
SLOs for English 1A, 1B and 2
Calif Teaching Standards
Revised September 28, 2012
Date of meeting where
analysis / dialogue took
place. Example: Department
Meeting 8/27/10
Sept 24, 2013
Priorities identified for program as a result of assessment. Example:
Develop strategies for teaching research and documentation skills; share
rubrics for research papers; provide more instructional support outside of
class.
Allow additional time for assignment and provide a minimum number of
student observations in the assignment.