April 2, 2015
Dr. Dianne Van Hook, Chancellor
College of the Canyons
26455 Rockwell Canyon Road
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
Dear Chancellor Van Hook:
RE: Technical Assistance Team – Letter of Interest
Hartnell College requests a technical assistance team through the Institutional
Effectiveness Partnership Initiative.
Areas in Which Hartnell is Doing Well
Hartnell appears to be doing quite well in developing and implementing new
or revised systems and processes in such areas as strategic and integrated
planning, continuous improvement, and governance. We have a solid
administrative team that has made tremendous progress in the past two years
in leading the institution from the ACCJC sanction of probation in 2013 to
warning in 2014, and in preparing diligently for the second follow-up visit in
the near future (April 10). We also have a strong Academic Senate president,
who has been working hand in hand with the administration on many specific
projects. And faculty and staff have generally been working diligently on
ongoing and new initiatives. It is vital that we sustain our recent efforts, build
on this sound foundation, and continue to work collaboratively over the next
several years.
Areas of Interest for Technical Assistance Team Visits
Our areas of interest are focused at the intersection of institutional research
(IR), management information systems, institutional reporting, and
institutional effectiveness. Ensuring data integrity and validity, and making
data available and accessible to the college for analysis, reporting, decision
making and policy making have presented challenges to the institution for
several years, if not longer. We continue to experience issues with data
definition and validity, do not have a data dictionary for users, and are
planning to transition to a new enterprise data warehouse (EDW), through
which we expect to fulfill long-range and pent-up needs for business
intelligence reporting (we currently use Cognos), visual displays (we’re looking
at the potential of Tableau), scorecards, dashboards, and related software
applications. And we desire to continue to move toward greater utilization of
self-reporting tools.
Letter to Dr. Dianne Van Hook, Chancellor
Page 2
We require assistance as we undertake this journey. We recognize that, for Hartnell as a college,
this encompasses the full spectrum from appreciating the big picture to becoming immersed in
the fine details. We expect that this initiative will also assist us with related areas of interest, such
as providing improved data analytics for enrollment management, and tracking students from the
time they first inquire about Hartnell. We understand that training will be needed, both
specialized training for staff who must lead the college into this new era, and training for subsets
of college employees down the line.
Rationale & Context for Areas of Interest
The office of institutional planning and effectiveness (IPE) was created in fall 2012 under an
interim dean, and a more permanent dean was hired in fall 2013. The focus for that office until
now has been on responding to ACCJC recommendations, and more broadly building,
coordinating, and executing an impressive array of systems and processes in the areas of planning,
assessment, continuous improvement, program review, and the like. The office is currently staffed
with a relatively new institutional data analyst (June 2014) and a new institutional research analyst
(March 2015), which provides a challenge in moving up the learning curve, but also represents an
exciting ground-floor opportunity in building a strong team moving forward.
IPE is only currently in a position to gain a more comprehensive perspective on the institution’s
data and data reporting infrastructure through the lens of IR. The college has not had an IR office
since about 2008 and, from that time through 2014, only one staff person was available to fulfill
the institution’s ongoing needs in a reactive manner, at best. A grant-funded Title V research
group met throughout this period, developed a set of research tools mainly but not exclusively for
faculty, and facilitated a procedure for discussing and vetting the development of business
intelligence reports for specific areas. At this juncture the IPE dean is moving to centralize the IR
function under the purview of the IPE office. A job description has been approved for a new IR
director, which provides the opportunity for a proactive approach to envisioning and fleshing out
the role of IR at the college, including the cultivation of data driven decision making. However, I
am assessing whether we have the resources to fill the position. If the college is unable to commit
ongoing resources at this point, we will certainly allocate some one-time resources to the effort.
IPE is partnering with information technology systems (ITS) on an initiative that deals directly with
the areas of interest described on the first page; previous exchanges between staff in the two
offices have largely been limited to troubleshooting transactions. Working with ITS presents an
opportunity now that an ITS director is firmly in place, though the area remains challenged by the
existing workload relative to available programmer analysts. The college has been relying on the
good work of an experienced consultant for building Cognos reports, as no programmer analyst is
able to focus on data modeling and business intelligence reporting. IT is phasing out an archaic
executive information system (EIS), building an operational data store (ODS) based on Colleague,
and will be developing an EDW.
Letter to Dr. Dianne Van Hook, Chancellor
Page 3
Ideal Timeline for First Technical Assistance Visit
IPE should be several months into the partnership initiative with ITS by the end of this summer,
and thus more fully aware of and deeply immersed in the problems, challenges, and opportunities
ahead. A problem definition may also be more focused. Early fall would therefore appear to be a
prime time for a first visit, as may be practicable. In the meantime, it would be helpful to obtain
information on certain best practices utilized by community colleges, if this would be possible.
Regards,
Willard Clark Lewallen, Ph.D.
Superintendent/President