Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
NOTE THAT SURVEY QUESTIONS BEGIN WITH #4 (questions 1-3 on the survey were the
demographics questions. #4 was the first question that asked for a ranking).
A TABLE THAT LISTS AND NUMBERS ALL STATEMENTS ON THE SURVEY IS AT THE
END OF THIS DOCUMENT.
Comments provided to Survey Statements
No.
Comment
4.
Mott CC uses student assessment results to improve teaching and learning.
Believe this is very important, but not sure of the current performance at Mott. Not a faculty person. I believe that it is being
used to improve student outcomes, but have no proof of it.
This helps to make sure students are getting what they pay for.
There is no recourse for faculty who fail to turn into IR the required documentation when course is audited. Results are
often vague without any response to what could be improved upon. Just figures.
I realize that the college focuses heavily on assessment. However, I'm not convinced that just gathering numbers and "data"
really tells us the whole story. Context, teaching approaches, course goals, are factors that may not come across in the data.
Some instructors seem genuinely concerned about continuous improvement in their teaching, while others seem oblivious to
student learning and unconcerned about student success. We don't currently seem to have a very good method to measure
the overall success of teaching and learning on campus outside of how many students pass or fail their classes.
Appears that assessment may be done to meet accreditation requirements rather than it being valued to improve
teaching/learning
I don't understand what this statement is asking.
Student assessment is very important, however assessment (and corrective action when indicated) of individual faculty is
even more important.
We are provided the opportunity to rate the course and the professor; however, I have not seen where the instructor
demonstrated any progress aside from revised curriculum. The problem is not always the curriculum, it is often the
professor and it is difficult to progress when the same instructor is in charge of several courses that any one program
requires. This defeats fairness and opportunity; once you cross wires with some instructors, they stay crossed.
All answers on this survey, when appropriate, will relate to the operations of Livingston Regional M-TEC, a Mott Community
College extension site.
We SAY it's important--lots of emphasis placed on assessment here, but I don't see REAL improvement in teaching and
learning taking place.
Placement testing assessment results? Or classroom assessment?
We believe it is important and do a lot of work to try and achieve these goals. However, some of this work is not productive.
The current process is totally meaningless a measure of student learning. We are devoting huge amounts to time and money
to a process that is very bad research. The current process makes no attempt to control for instructor error in the
assessment process and the assessment teams readily admit that the error is substantial.
Most of the time the data is not used.
Our current assessment process is not effective because so many of the artifacts (assignments) that are being used in the
data analysis are poorly designed by instructors and therefore give the student NO opportunity to show that they have
achieved some level of competence. Part time instructors are not buying-in to the process. Having a "designation" is used
as a marketing tool. This process needs to be redesigned.
It is difficult to truly judge the 'importance' of this process right now, though clearly much time, effort, and expense is involved.
The glaring problem is that we collect data about the 'artifacts' produced, but we do nothing to insure that gen ed designated
courses (where these artifacts are produced) are designed or taught to most effectively meet our objectives. We offer very
little guidance on what affect such a designation should have to change the curriculum or pedagogy; we have no support for
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
faculty who wish to work together across campus to more effectively meet these objectives. We get together to look at
results -- that's it -- but we haven't taken care of the design and support of real curricular and pedagogical change that would
produce better results.
This assessment would be valuable if it was followed by all faculty; however, most faculty simply ignore them.
Mott overemphasizes what currently passes as "student assessment results" to improve teaching and learning. To judge by
most of what we hear (in faculty meetings) and read (in publications sent to all faculty, such as the Focus) one would think
that other factors that are extremely important to teaching and learning (such as doing research in one's own subject area)
matter very little, if at all.
Currently, assessment instruments do not "assess". Instruments used do not measure what is to be measured. Statistically
invalid data leads to inferences that are baseless!
At the recent faculty meeting, those responsible for assessment presented three areas of assessment. Did they explore the
results? No. They put the every-two-year assessment on the screen for less than two minutes. The results were obviously
NOT good, and there was no discussion. How about discussion on how to improve this area of assessment on campus?
They also gave the new Gen Ed designation assessment and showed the assessment scores went down. Then they said that
maybe Faculty are losing their interest. Where is the encouragement? What a bland presentation that was. The individual
assessment team presentations were helpful, but that would have been more effective if they had their suggestions for
improvement written down. Recently [employee name] reviewed the Gen Ed changes after 2 1/2 years and made a critical
assessment of what was working and not working... but [employee name] and [employee name] did not want this information
shared to all the faculty. WHY NOT? This last faculty meeting would h
I'm not sure what importance at the institution right now means--my answers mean that I think the issue asked about is
important (or not) in general and, even if it were not in effect at Mott, it would be important (or not).
There are definitely more pressing problems at the institution than having a large portion of the faculty workforce devoted to
"grading" other faculty under the pretext that this process measures "learning” The current process is nether valid (data
collected does not measure what it is intended to measure) nor reliable (when repeated, same results are obtained) but we
are already drawing inferences from it. Assessment as a tool to measure learning in any setting micro (classroom)/macro
(institutional) is a sad excuse for evaluation through exams or grades.
Services should be spread equally across the board. Some areas are suffering while others seem to have greater priority.
I always receive my SEIF comments back with favorable student comments, but do not know how my administrators use
these. I have always received High marks from students, but am unaware how my administrators use this information.
Gen Ed committees are doing a commendable job, but more emphasis needs to be placed on making sure faculty who have
these designations on their courses are trained and assignments set up properly to meet the objectives/outcomes of each.
5.
Student Services divisions/departments provide programs and services that complement Mott CC's academic
curricula.
More full-time tutors needed, not just for those with financial need. A full-time counselor/advisor should be assigned to
developmental students, (those with low scores in 2 or more areas, esp. reading) so progress can be tracked more accurately
and support services made available consistently.
We hardly ever hear from or about Student Services.
In terms of "out-of-class" learning, there is very little happening for students in regard to student organizations and leadership
development. There is no real "active student" culture here at MCC. New barriers have been created for students to secure
CLEF funds (funds that the students PAY through their student services fee with registration). The Holiday Celebration which was at least something that happened to build community - was cancelled and replaced with meaningless activities like
a Student Services fair where an "I-pod" was raffled off. Student services was "smug" about giving away an I-pod, but
careless in doing away with the Holiday celebration and creating barriers for students to access funds through CLEF. Mott
Community College NEVER puts the needs of students first. For example, the Cafeteria was the only place on campus where
students could gather and get a good meal. Now the cafeteria is a vacant space filled with vending machines. YOU DON'T
BUILD A STUDENT INVOLV
I don't feel that some administrators who have decision making powers in some departments have a good understanding of
what that department actually does and it's importance to students and the overall operation of the college. This lack of clear
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
understanding allows some arbitrary considerations and decisions to be made that appear 'off the wall'.
Most of the time the data is not used.
There currently is a student services staff that is dedicated and trying to do the best they can. However, there is a climate of
fear and authoritarianism from the dean that clouds everything.
Staff wishes to do this, but atmosphere of fear and intimidation created by the dean has a chilling effect.
We lose many students at the financial aid office. Every semester I hear students and possible students complain about how
poorly they were treated and the lack of help getting started in the system.
Not enough resources are being devoted to student counseling.
Kudos for [employee name] and [employee name] for trying to keep student retention high by offering club activities and
reacting positively to student concerns.
It would be easier if there were some kind of bridge between Academics and Student Services. We currently operate under
the us vs. them mode and it doesn't help anyone.
Students are very frustrated with the [department name] as a whole inasmuch as there is little communication between
departments which has provided some departments with the opinion that they should make broad generalizations and
provide information that is not accurate to the students who then file grievances against the department that was spoken for
as opposed to the department that provided the inaccurate information. Additionally, [position title] is quite adept at placing
the responsibility for the errors that cause students to become disgruntled on the wrong department.
There seems to be a great deal of "territorial" bickering. I don't believe there is a large amount of cooperation between the
two sides of our house. It would be improved if both areas reported to the same person.
Some departments are much better at providing services than other departments. Funding, space and employees are
needed to provide services. Often there is not enough of these three items.
Advertising/getting the word out may need enhancement.
Many of the actions by student services often seem at odds with the academic curricula and student success. Examples amount of time requirements for student clubs to be represented at general student government functions takes away from
time students would find more meaningful being involved in their specific clubs; funds constantly being cut by CLEF making it
impossible to expand opportunities for students beyond the classroom. As our students have less and less money, they need
more and more support, especially from student services.
Student services are a critical resource for many of our students. The current [position title] of [department name] is more
concerned with power and control than serving the students. [position title] makes going here more difficult not less.
But Student Services works in a VACUUM. The service that they should perform is very important; their concept of servicing
the student is their own opinion, not that of the student. We run students all over, lock students that don’t have computers
out of on line registration for two weeks, make ADULTS do placement tests when them might want only to take a class, etc.
If you don’t fit the Mott student profile that Student Services has, too bad. Don’t think about asking the faculty and advisors
what they think about a procedure change, just do it by dictate. Don’t let people register for 12 week sessions or 2nd half
classes without turning cartwheels. Lock the students, advisors, etc., out of the system so the [position title] can justify
[employee name] existence. Why is registration closed for classes that have not even started yet? Like those starting
October 3rd, or 2nd half of semester? Student Services, does not have a clue!!!!
6.
When making institutional decisions, administrators consider the impact on students and learning.
I find that the administration, while being generally supportive, does not value faculty expertise and input when it comes to
decisions involving program alignments, facilities allocations, etc. Often, faculty are treated as if they should simply go teach
at a particular room without regard as to where that room is, whether the relationship of the courses being taught there would
benefit (or be undermined) by a physical relationship to another program, etc. Since programs and courses do not exist in a
vacuum, this approach seems very shortsighted.
Frequently, changes and decisions made by IS indicate that IS is not aware that there is an academic calendar which affects
student services and the staff's ability to serve students adequately. An example would be the change of servers in August
which affected various departments' access to their information on the Faculty Drive. An entire day's work was affected at the
busiest time of year.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
This past academic year the administration has made decisions that have affected the academic divisions and students in a
negative way.
Dean schedules classes at times convenient to selected instructors, not students.
We consider student impact, however much too frequently we do not act on that consideration due to lack of political will and
willingness to endure initial dissatisfaction of our various constituencies.
No one considered the student body when putting in the pay parking lot. These students don't have any money! And it has
caused many man hours for upkeep on gate machines, signs... It would have been better had you just added $5 to Reg fees
and made those funds solely for grounds/parking upkeep. At enrollment rates of 10,000 students for the fall and winter
semesters we would have $100,000 income for two semesters instead of buying machines, trenching up the lot for wires,
making signs, troubleshooting machine malfunctions, of making employees stand in the rain/snow to gather money, replacing
gates when they are driven through, and angry students when they can't get a spot but have to pay to get out.
Personally, I have a problem with the manner in which classes are arbitrarily cancelled. This causes numerous students to
delay their educational goals. I feel that MCC would provide a great service to the students by offering these courses that
become cancelled in Distance Learning Packets. Not only will this keep educational progress on track; it will also keep a lot
of funding at MCC that is refunded due to course cancellation.
We have at least six serious sources of revenue, yet only tuition is looked at to pay for instruction. All revenue should be
available - not set aside for admin.
The leadership does not care what happens to our students.
It depends on which area of administration we are talking about. Some areas do a great job, while others seem to believe that
students and faculty are simply one part of the institution rather than that they are the reason the college exists. They
sometimes do great things, but we subject to them rather than participants. For example, we are stuck with Datatel--totally
nonuser friendly. To my knowledge no faculty were consulted in that decision. This is typical.
Again, students are thought of LAST when decisions are made on this campus. The new General Education requirements
that went into affect nearly 3 years ago were not in the interests of students because they penalized students who wanted to
get a degree before going on to the 4-year college as a transfer student. Another example is pay for print that students now
have to burden the costs . . . with 50% of our students on some form of financial aid, this adds costs and barriers to students'
lives. Another was sending grades via e-mail only. How many students have computers at home? The economics of this
community are going to have to change dramatically if e-mail grades are to work (i.e., families being able to afford in-home
computers and internet hook up charges). What did the college do, save $10,000 dollars on that decision? How many
students did they encourage to DISCONNECT from the educational experience at MCC? Another area is making students
PAY for new college catalogues. Give m
Sometimes administrators seem to work against their stated goal of improving student learning. For instance, we have good
reason to think that a student's academic performance will improve if he or she sees a counselor regularly; but it is clear that
the administration wishes for fewer students to see counselors. We should at the least strongly encourage students
(especially freshmen) to see counselors; perhaps it should be a requirement for all those who have not completed 30 credit
hours.
Large events have been scheduled on campus which inconvenience students i.e. students arrive at campus to find that there
is a shortage of parking because of many visitors. On at least one occasion, an entire lot was closed off to students.
Every semester, classes are cancelled because of low enrollment. I understand the necessity of running full classes. But,
the number used to determine "low enrollment" is ambiguous at best and seems to change by the semester. I do not believe
that most of MCC’s administrators are in touch with the student body and their educational goals. The [position title] seems
completely out of touch with students and the faculty who work under her.
Non academic expenditure are very high, i.e. grounds, security, paid parking etc. while many academic services are out of
date, i.e. science laboratories.
Institutional decisions by administrators that directly impact student learning, as evidenced by what? I could not come up with
three items/decisions that could illustrate this.
7.
Mott CC clearly communicates its learning expectations to both current and prospective students.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
Do you mean college's mission statement? Or goals within each program? Mission statement's importance is over-rated.
Program goals are very important.
We have an open door policy, which is fantastic. We do students a huge disservice though when we let them sign up for
classes that they are not suitably prepared for. Case in point, the large number of students that either fail or drop out of
introductory classes because they did not get the necessary prerequisites from remedial classes. Better placement is
necessary. What we are communicating is not what we are doing.
It is very important that expectations be high; and it is important that not only are the expectations high on the part of the
college overall, but on the part of individuals within the college--sometimes I see individuals stepping down their expectations
because they think the students are not up to it.
Learning expectations and student behavior expectations are not standardized at MCC.
Outside of general education requirements posted in the catalog, what other information do we provide students? And
outside of the degree descriptions in the catalog, could we do more to give students a clear picture of what is required of
them to earn degrees or certificates?
I do not know if there is any mention of learning expectations to new students. There may be something in Orientation
regarding academic dismissal, but I am not sure.
Most students do not know what the Standards of Academic Progress are and do not know when they are placed on
Probation. Additionally, they tend to not know when they are on probation or why; and they are not aware of the
ramifications to their Financial Aid eligibility. This causes a lot of students to become registered for classes that they cannot
pay for and without being eligible for Financial Aid, they unwittingly incur a debt to the college that causes a debt to be
assessed to the college for collection activity. Maybe this should have been placed under the Student Services portion.
I think it's more an individual faculty job to relay this. Not sure how the college as a whole can do this.
Many courses have stated objectives. Marketing materials could be improved as they tend to target only the teenage
prospective student.
The current layout of the Catalog curricular guides is extremely confusing to students. This adds to their frustration and
sometimes can lead to students enrolling in courses they do not need. A sequential guide makes more sense, along with a
different layout for the curricular guides.
8.
Mott CC intentionally promotes excellence in teaching.
Biased as I am, I think that the majority of faculty does an excellent job. However, with the increased dependence upon parttime faculty, there is growing disconnect as part-timers are not involved with day-to-day program/course/student/college
issues.
Faculty concern for excellence is demonstrated through CETL and general promotion of professional development.
Unfortunately, a select few seemed most interested in participating in these opportunities.
I was at a meeting recently with the president, all deans, many members of student services and other decision makers. A
dean stated that he had 3 faculty members that were terrible and are problems for students. Other deans agreed that they
were in similar situations. No action will be taken on this and it is a shame that we pay these people to hurt our student.
There are areas of exceptional quality and even more areas of very good quality. Overall teaching quality is quite good.
I think most of the instructors strive to assist the students in achieving not just their best grades, but their best.
MCC apart from most every institution of learning in the area.
That sets
Since I am not a faculty person, can't respond to the current performance, except that I believe that we have excellent
teachers here from my time as a student and feedback from students periodically.
There have been some good attempts at professional development, like the Welcome Back workshops, the Tuesday
afternoon discussions, the CETL training, the Lily retreats, etc. [employee name] has made some good attempts, and done
some inter-collegiate programs with Kettering and UM Flint. But an area of concern is THE PART TIME faculty. The college
has refused to re-hire full time positions for the benefits of hiring part time professors. Disagree if you will, but full time
instructors have more dedication and access to promoting excellence in teaching. Part timers are less engaged with the
professional development opportunities listed above. They do not attend divisional meetings, and don't have opportunities to
work together with full-time faculty (outside of formal evaluation) to fully excel in the teaching area. With the percentage of
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
part-timers increasing, and the percentage of full-timers decreasing, it DOES and WILL CONTINUE TO decrease Mott's
ability to offer excellence in the
Listening to people talk about "improvement" in teaching during *every* faculty meeting (and during numerous voluntary
meetings/presentations) does not promote excellence in teaching as much as one might think. Yes, we need to discuss
those aspects of teaching that we do (interminably, it seems) discuss, but there are aspects of the teaching experience that
we never discuss. For instance, we never talk, or hear anyone talk, about grading, or grading standards, or about how
research informs teaching, and vice versa.
We promote it, but those faculty who choose to be innovative or creative must fight for every change or support that they
achieve. Our attitude seems to be that support staff is doing a special favor for faculty when they provide services that should
be their reason for being here.
Most faculty members promote excellence but do not get the full support from the administration, especially when students
refuse to take their classes because of high expectations.
Too often an instructor has very poor teaching style and/or effectiveness. Students have the ability to rate instructors and
choose their instructors, and by word of mouth students learn who to avoid. We don't need these instructors at MCC - they
damage the institution's teaching reputation. There needs to be a mechanism to not only prevent fairly new faculty from
teaching classes they do a poor job at, but also to either weed out or correct behaviors of tenured faculty that should have
retired long ago. Mott has gotten a poor reputation because of specific instructors, i.e. Accounting and Political Science.
1 - The extent of teaching done by part-time/adjunct faculty probably shows that we don't do a good job here. This is NOT to
say that these faculty are not often of very high quality. But it is to say that given the realities of their lives, and the fairly loose
oversight (or almost total lack of mentoring), and their looser connection (or non-connection) to their departments and to the
campus, chances are that as long as we rely so heavily on their work, we can't say we are intentionally promoting excellence
in teaching. We also need to do a much better job getting contacts strengthened across divisions to know more and learn
more from each other about how good teaching is getting done elsewhere and what challenges we are all facing. We need to
do much stronger mentoring of newer faculty and need to promote innovative projects, learning communities, and teamteaching ideas -- and put less emphasis on rewarding those who simply find a way to use a new piece of technology.
Deans need more authority to review syllabi and visit classes. The syllabi collect dust in a Dean's office and those who are
not following departmental objectives are not counseled or disciplined. (Full and part-time)
If Mott CC really wanted an outstanding faculty, they would hire more full time employees, or give the part time employees an
opportunity to become full time.
9.
Mott CC makes certain that students acquire the knowledge and skills required by their academic programs before
awarding them credentials.
It is difficult to bring students up to current demands of the working world when we lack up to date facilities to bring offerings
up to the state of the art demanded by the working world. We are improving in certain areas but not as a college as a whole.
Again, sometimes I see individuals stepping down their expectations--occasionally so students don't withdraw.
A joke here at the college is that it awards multiple degrees to students who meet the criteria. Yes, that pads our sad
graduation rates, but why should we be giving 2-for-1 degrees for everyone who gets an Associate in Arts and also applies
for the Associate in General Studies (and gets that too)? Granted, it's the students misleading themselves, and the college
happy to pad their statistics. It cheapens the degrees that come out of Mott Community College, however.
Well, this is up to individual programs, isn't it -- the college as a whole doesn't seem to have any mechanism for this.
Perhaps it's a legitimate sign of trust in individual units. Perhaps it's an oversight.
Often students are promoted to graduate because of threats against the college rather than success and because the college
has lowered their expectations
There is not an effective system for monitoring whether or not an instructor is following the course outline and/or adequately
evaluating the students. Neither is there any effective disciplinary action. Even when the administration knows that an
instructor is not meeting his/her courses, skipping essential course material and/or not assessing student progress, nothing
happens.
I fear that we are not able to offer enough courses that help students build the basic building blocks needed for success in the
rest of their college program of study. Examples - Developmental English Writing and Reading - these courses filled up long
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
before the Fall semester started. Yet students were not prepared to enter even a basic lecture or applied course because of
their lack of reading and writing skills. With so few of these developmental courses offered, how can we expect student
success when most of our students need these courses in order to succeed in the rest of their studies?
Appropriate checks and balances are not in place to insure that students meet expected requirements outside of grade point
averages and accumulated credits. We could do more to insure that students graduate with required knowledge and skills
(portfolios, etc.), based on past personal encounters with graduating students who still couldn't write a complete English
sentence.
I'm iffy on this one only inasmuch as I have had to repeat a lot of classes for no good reason. Most of my courses have
overlapping information, such as [course name] requiring the same information as [course name]. Ironically, they are both
taught by the same instructor, whose skills and knowledge are questionable. I say this because this instructor, [employee
name], graded my final as wrong when I listed that in MS Excel you can achieve the goal of formatting a cell by using the
format menu and by using the conditional format menu. How anyone, especially the instructor - the one who should be the
guru of the class- could not know that you can set the conditional format to format in any way you want and, even more
specifically, set it to format only when certain criterion are met, is beyond me.
There are still too many part-time and adjunct instructors to fully ensure this.
We do not have any consistent method to define and assess core competency of graduates after they complete the
requirements for their degree.
10.
Faculty and staff have a shared understanding of Mott CC's educational goals for students.
So often it is the basic everyday needs that get in the way of student learning. And it seems that we are often in a turf battle
with some folks in order to get help... often taking a year or more to solve a problem that inhibits learning on a daily basis.
Why, for example, must a classroom go from 85 degrees one day to 55 degrees the next and yet no response from facilities
in order to address what seems like a fundamental thermostatic issue? Leaky roofs, equipment in classrooms that was
promised more than a year before... all of this makes it difficult to impossible to conduct the business of the college - teaching
and learning.
The word "community" has recently been removed from marketing materials that used to read "Mott Community College."
This is telling in terms of where administration seems to be directing its sales approach.
Often Administrative functions happen without regard to the academic calendar, for example taking WebAdvisor down during
peak registration.
I think MCC considers this of the highest importance, but I don't believe that is in practice. If it were, students who have
SAP violations would not be registered for $2,000 worth of classes they expect Financial Aid to pay for while they are not
eligible because they can't maintain a 2.0 GPA or complete 67% of the credits attempted successfully. This is definitely not
a practiced component of the MCC campus.
This question relates back to question 9: does Mott ensure student performance? There is disagreement as to whether
students should be held to the same level of performance as exist at 4-year institutions. Although I believe that it is a small
minority, too many instructors (and some staff) act as if the students are only here to buy credits and that it is not necessary
to hold the students (or instructors) to a performance standard. When Mott does not go after instructors who are choosing
not to meet course times or present required course material including Gen Ed requirements, then Mott sends the message
that the quality of the education is not important. All the workshops in the world presenting the opposite opinion can not
overcome it. ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS.
What are these goals? It's a mute question if those goals have not been articulated and communicated to someone other
than the president, a few deans and the board of trustees. Poor communication leads to people having no concept of what
the College's goals are for students.
We just come in to do our jobs. I would say morale is very low amongst the part time faculty. We feel we are not appreciated
and we often do not share in the broader vision of the college because we are on campus only to teach our classes.
We have many excellent faculty and make Mott an excellent college experience.
11.
Processes are in place to determine which new educational offerings to develop.
I am not aware of the processes in place to improve future offerings.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
Most Divisions do this well, but some new offerings seem at the whim of the instructor rather than based on a needs
assessment.
The CPSC process here at the college works efficiently (especially compared to other colleges where passage of new
courses can take up to a year). The processes are in place, and they are understood by faculty / administrators, and they are
used appropriately.
We need to also look more to vocational training.
Our CPSC process is efficient and rewards creativity and cooperation between administration and faculty. It works well. So
far the role of the Curriculum dean and office in this process has not been clearly defined.
I would have liked to have seen a simulation program that was not Manufacturing. Perhaps the manufacturing industry is
providing a lot of funding toward this; however, simulation is too vast to limit to such a small industry. I would encourage
gaming and other simulation programs; they are exciting, fun, and highly in demand. In addition to other programs - I think a
lot of programs that could and should be simply are not. And that's not a good thing! (Guess how I did in English) I'm just
kidding ;-)
Development of new programs is mostly left to the "whims" of individual faculty.
I often wonder - how much is dictated from administration while faculty initiatives go unfunded?
New academic offerings to benefit students seem to travel at the pace of an arthritic turtle. However, if it is to benefit a faculty
member it flows quickly.
These processes are extremely cumbersome; consequently, we are slow to respond to identified needs.
Don’t always listen to key faculty. CPSC sometimes is a puppet of the [position title] and the [position title], who have worked
too close for too many years. By the way, which one had ANY key credentials in Curriculum and Instruction? The [position
title] was a glorified [position title]; the [position title] was a glorified [position title]. You put potential faculty through hoops to
get hired, why not key administrators????? There are Curriculum and Instruction, C & I majors out there.
12.
Mott CC regularly evaluates the effectiveness and relevance of its courses and programs.
Students tell me video tapes of retirees are being used. PSCN 171 has not updated materials in YEARS. Minimal
offerings of Technical English. We do not do a super job of making many things relevant to our Occupational Students.
I am unsure what processes you are referring to. Our employment is somewhat separate from the college and more focuses
on childcare services to the students and faculty. My point of view is more of the effect on a student at Mott rather than an
employee. So my answers may not be all the precise.
As an adjunct instructor I am not aware of this process
We do things the same way when in fields like technology we seem to be behind a few steps
As mentioned earlier, I not convinced that the "data" that is gathered is relevant. Context and course goals are not always
clear when just looking at numbers.
Considering it's not very important - a satisfactory job is being done in not evaluating things. I was told by [employee name]
that only after years of suggesting it did a committee finally agree to revamp the Admin program, which was notorious for
overlapping course work. It's not that you barely made it through and therefore don't want to go through the class again; it's
that you just completed the class and it's pointless to take it again at this point. It's not a refresher course- it's the whole
course all over again. That's annoyingly redundant.
Process is old, very slow, and very very political...making it virtually impossible to adapt new programs and courses in a
timely fashion. By the time new programs and courses are approved, our competition has developed an edge in the market
or the program/course is outdated.
In the BCON program adjustments are made yearly.
There is clearly no mechanism in place. In terms of the academic programs, there are "advisory committees" but there
certainly lacks attentiveness to the graduation rates in each of the programs. Some programs are effective; others -- LIKE
BUSINESS -- are really made up to fit the whim of the department. That's not good.
Academic programs and curriculum are sadly out of date in some divisions and there doesn't seem much effort being made to
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
bring curriculum up to speed to match current demand in the marketplace, and some divisions need a serious curriculum
overhaul. All too often, protecting turf rather than serving student needs seems to be the order of the day.
I helped my department in a project four years ago to develop curriculum. I haven't heard a thing since. I have no idea if our
plans were even read by administration.
13.
Mott CC has processes to ensure that students are prepared for the programs and courses in which they enroll.
Recent clarity of pre and co-reqs has improved this greatly. Even more could be done by adding Reading Course
equivalency for most courses.
Without mandatory placement, I don’t think we do very well at this. The retention and successful completion rates in our
introductory classes are examples of processes that do not ensure that students are sufficiently prepared for these courses.
Student's should have "basic skills" that are compatible with the course materials they will be using. Example: READING
COMPREHENSION. I have had students whose reading comprehension test scores on file at Mott were SEVEN YEARS
beneath the text book authors' recommended capability. Our information processing capabilities should allow Mott to "red
flag" such students and if not preventing them from taking the class, at least warn them that they should improve their reading
skills before enrolling.
This is an ongoing problem which has only recently gotten support from administration. Some students are often even
encouraged by advisors and counselors to skip basic courses that are obviously needed by them to have a reasonable
chance of success.
Students are placed in difficult science classes without placement tests and some can't read above a 5th grade level.
Students in this position have a very small chance of success.
Two words: mandatory placement. We should not allow ill-grounded 35 year old fears to hold back students. We simply do
not serve students by allowing them to fail because they don't get the guidance that mandatory placement offers, or by
dumbing down expectations.
Placement in some areas is done too quickly, too loosely, and if it's a recommendation rather than a requirement then it's not
as helpful to anyone as it should be.
We are doing better in this area than ever before. Prerequisites are now real and enforced. I am concerned that student
services has a stated goal of diminishing the role of advisors and counselors while substituting computer self registration by
students. I believe that the data show this is not a good idea since students are more likely to be successful when they have
had this help. This goal was imposed from the top without consultation or feedback from anyone in counseling, teaching or
advising.
Processes are not user friendly and are not communicated effectively throughout the college.
Advising and Disability Services could do a better job of helping under-prepared students.
We have placement test data, but we are not allowed to use it to make mandatory prerequisites, so we get unprepared
students in classes. The students should have to demonstrate that they are ready for the class work before they're allowed to
take the class.
Perhaps fully 1/3 of my students are not capable of reading and writing at a level appropriate to a college classroom.
The Nursing Program has implemented the new "NET" assessment of math and reading competency to better ensure
adequate program entry preparedness. Until this point, students were taking a coveted "spot" in the Nursing Program’s long
waiting list and then failing in basic mathematics skills once in the Program. Hopefully, the implementation of the NET will
identify those needing remediation prior to their entry into the Program.
We need to make sure those students who need developmental courses, especially in Reading and Writing, have those
courses available to them in their very first semester on campus. Sticking them elsewhere just because the course does not
specifically state "Engl 101" as a pre/co-requisite doesn't mean that the student is prepared to enter it. But we need to offer
more of these courses. The very few that we offer fill up long before the semester's start.
I had a girl sit down in front of me and tell me that she had been signed up for a class that required knowledge of Excel and
she didn't even have the basic understanding of Excel. She stated of all the pre-requisites listed, she had completed none
and had no idea what was going on in the class. Then she said the counselor who signed her up knew she hadn't begun
the pre-reqs yet!
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
It depends on the professor. It seems that a lot of people are given too many opportunities or slack to pass a course that
maybe towards a degree that they most likely will not succeed in especially when in some courses they are hand fed
information.
Sometimes OVERKILL. Discourages potential students, they go somewhere else to avoid our maze and bureaucracy.
Very hard to prepare skills aka reading proficiency when the open door allows everyone in with multi level needs
14.
Mott CC identifies specific targets for improving student learning.
Your tutoring centers and student services I'm sure provide this.
Peer tutoring; learning center. Great assets to the college and to the student body as a whole.
Yes and no... We’re so often just looking for numerical results without looking at the critical-thinking literate problem-solving
skills that are important for their future success. We need to make courses relevant... tie them to other areas of study...
expand the student's understanding of different areas of study and how they interconnect.
At the recent faculty meeting (September) the college showed off its data compared to national averages. The numbers
continue to fall, but is there a discussion as to WHY or how Mott can improve? Don't do this survey every two years if MCC
really doesn't plan to make use of it. These results were on the screen, before the entire faculty, for less than 2 minutes. That
shows this form of gathering information regarding student learning and effectiveness is NOT REGARDED or the results are
too embarrassing to explore through honest discussion.
15.
Mott CC maintains a climate that encourages students to express their ideas, even unusual or unpopular ones.
Mott brags about it's "Student activism" past. . . but does not give students a voice to be heard... problem is, there is NO
STUDENT INVOLVEMENT culture here at the college, and thus MOST STUDENTS don't care what happens. That is sad,
but also reflects the lack of opportunities to be heard. There are student positions on various committees at the college, but
where are the students? Where is the student government? This is a weak student government, or better yet, there really isn't
a dedication to making the student government an effective avenue for engagement, voice, and contribution. There IS NO
student voice at the college, in part because there is not STUDENT INVOLVMENT culture here at the college. The college is
not committed to students' out of class learning and engagement.
President just started hosting "student forums" last year as a vehicle to listen to student concerns. Students have been
responsive to the forums and wanted to voice their concerns. Of course, once the students' concerns are heard it is difficult
to find the financial resources to eliminate the problem or implement the solution. These forums are a GOOD thing. :)
Yes, although I never made it to one of the Presidential meetings, I appreciate the opportunity. Now, as for employees
expressing their unpopular idea....that’s another story.
I believe students are "allowed" to express their ideas -- even the unpopular or unusual ones.
Ideas are not stifled, yet I'm not sure if they are encouraged more than the norm.
16.
People working here understand the significance of Mott CC’s objectives that are not directly related to educating
students.
I don't even know what those objectives are.
Where are these objectives? Where is the involvement of students and faculty in creating these objectives? This is probably
the brainchild of the president and a couple executive deans. Yes, the Board of Trustees likes this eye-candy, but where is
the involvement of students, faculty and staff in the creation of these objectives?
not clear what you mean here.....need more information
I feel, unfortunately, that many, including decision-making administrators, do not appreciate some student services functions.
My supervisor does not really know what my office does on a day-to-day basis or the time it takes to get things done.
Decisions and directives are made that clearly represent this thinking. The next higher level has even less of a clue.
17.
Mott CC’s non-educational activities and objectives harmonize or fit with its fundamental mission, vision, and
philosophy.
be specific...please give examples for clarity
What is non-educational? Everything at the college, including student activities and leadership development, should be
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
considered educational. Where is the college's commitment to diversity? There are no signs of this commitment unless you
call the Spike Lee film weekend an offering that really helps shape and improve culture. There's no commitment to diversity
here at the college. And if it's going to cost money, there won't ever be a commitment. So in terms of diversity, let the college
stop promoting it because it does not provide any level of financial or staff support behind this philosophy.
MCC needs a student newspaper.
Intramurals and recreational opportunities are almost non-existent, yet students have been paying for them.
am not aware of such activities as an adjunct instructor
I don't believe Mott has a clearly defined and communicated mission, vision or philosophy.
I'm not certain what the mission, vision, and philosophy are. I'm not sure I've ever heard them expressed verbally.
To look at from a moral stand point, I have not witnessed anything immoral that I am aware of.
18.
Mott CC regularly solicits feedback to improve offerings and services to the communities it serves.
Mott is uniquely positioned, as a community college, to provide education and training to a community that is in desperate
need of such access. Yet, the college remains at the same level of enrollment as it has for approximately the last 10 years despite the addition of 3 satellite sites/campuses! It provides no significant outreach or innovation to assist a community that
is progressively deteriorating economically. What a tragedy!
What is MCC doing in Howell, Michigan besides wasting time and money? What is our purpose there other than to collect on
some dollars that are available for tech training (or whatever the reason is). Clio, Fenton, Lapeer are all reasonable
extensions of MCC. But Howell? Give us a break. What a waste of time and effort and college resources. There were
supposed to be classes offered there three years ago. This hasn't happened, won't happen, and we should develop a "pull
out" strategy before wasting any more money. The community that MCC serves should be defined in accordance with
community college philosophy and mission.
Use of DACUMs to solicit feedback from the community for curriculum development is a good example.
19.
The results of Mott CC’s non-educational work strengthen the overall institution.
We spend too much money on "non-educational work." Most of the money we spend on non-educational activities could be
much better spent on hiring more full-time faculty.
be specific.....give examples for clarity
I would like to see more partnerships with the Flint Schools and more active involvement of the faculty and staff with Flint
community organizations.
Not fully understanding "non-educational." If you are referring to the administration that makes the guidelines, then I would
question that. For the most part things are run well yet in our division, organization and trust may be an issue.
20.
Mott CC carefully defines and analyzes the unique needs of different groups of people it might serve.
Read above. If you don’t fit a small profile, you have to negotiate the mine fields. The over 30 person doesn’t want to
have to come to New Student Orientation. The over 30 student may or may not want to take a placement test. The senior
citizen probably doesn’t want to do ANY of this stuff, wants to pay for a class and take it, but that does not fit our profile. We
give them a hard time.
The unique needs of disadvantaged or under prepared students are totally ignored in hiring practices.
This is based on Mott's response to some specific needs the M-TEC has had to address our clients.
This is a very political area...it just depends upon who is in a position of influence at any given time and therefore, is in a
position to define/analyze the unique needs of the population he/she represents or serves. Need-less-to-say, many groups of
people and their unique needs go undefined or analyzed because their group leader is not in a position of influence to let this
activity be done.
Diversity training is needed here, especially when it comes to dealing with African Americans. There are too many
stereotypical comments about African-American being made by a lot of staff and faculty.
This needs to be done in a far more systematic fashion, across programs & disciplines.
I have no idea if they do.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
Just look at our tutoring services, disability services, etc. While we may not always succeed, we do try.
Again, there is no attention given to minority groups on campus including African Americans, Hispanic Americans, LGBT
students. Unless there are grant funds attributed to a student population, there is not specific efforts made to help the
population become connected (with the college, with each other, with faculty) or to succeed here at the college. And when the
college starts creating "modules" in order to "sell" training to business in the community -- they are moving far away from the
mission of a community college.
21.
Mott CC responds rapidly to the changing needs of students.
There is a THREE YEAR WAIT to get into the nurse program. THREE YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is one of the very few
programs where a student can graduate and immediately get a good paying job.
What are the changing needs of students? Where are the administrators that follow national trends and study the research on
community college students? There are no - or few - of these types of leaders at the college... those who stay abreast of
cutting edge research and national trends. Those resources are definitely out there, but no one reads them and no one
presents this information so others can get a better understanding of the changing needs.
Most entering students now have computer skills, yet we still require a CAC for everyone or they have to pay $25. Should be
made part of the battery of placement tests for free.
We need more technology--more computer interfaces, more modern equipment.
The process to change course content is cumbersome and makes rapid change impossible.
Another very political area...many wonderful programs and courses have been developed and presented to CPSC for
approval, but were not approved because the person(s) initiating them was not well liked by the committee or perhaps the
committee members themselves were not up to speed in the program discipline being discussed for approval. Many
committee members do not like change and therefore have hindered the process of change at MCC in an "ever changing"
world. MCC needs to remove the political barriers which prevent the institution from responding quickly to the changing
needs of students.
I don't think anything happens rapidly here. To a student who is only here for a year or two or three, or who is struggling in
their first semester, we often miss the boat in helping them meet their needs for success.
See Comment #20
What changing needs? Do they really change that much?
Mott doesn't really respond RAPIDLY to anything except bad press. Most things take a long time to reach a conclusion.
22.
Mott CC measures how effectively it serves its students.
I don't believe the "measures" cover a wide enough spectrum of the student body.
Information may be collected and acted upon but only the top levels get that information.
Greater faculty involvement is required in what measures are used for this.
As I stated earlier, our SEIF results do not seem to change anything at the college. Other than this survey, I am not aware of
any other device used by the college to "poll" students about their education.
There are instructors at Mott who consistently get bad evaluations from students (go to rate my professor.com), but there
doesn't seem to be constructive feedback to the instructors.
There are no student services satisfaction surveys, or "idea" boxes or "complaint" boxes. Yet many students are not happy
with the fact they have to wait 24 hours for Admissions to put in their applications.
We could take a few lessons from baker college. They hand walk their students through the process to ensure the students
success.
N/A meaning I'm not aware of how the evaluation works or what is being done about it.
23.
Measured student satisfaction with Mott CC improves steadily.
It not bad but I don't know if it has improved within the past 8 years. It may be the same.
Improves? Maybe not. It has always been good and continues to be.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
I'm not aware of this information
Counselors need to do better at explaining HOW credits transfer to four year universities, not just tell students that they in fact
can transfer.
Where do these UN-TRUE statistics come from that the Marketing / PR department puts out? Something like 97 percent of
graduates are satisfied with their careers (as the radio add say). That's misleading and NOT TRUE. This week at the
faculty meeting, other stats were reported in regards to "leadership development" and other student ratings... and they were
all in the 90% range. NO WAY are these TRUE. No WAY. How can people be satisfied at 99% on areas (like leadership
development) that the college has NO activities or programs oriented towards? This college mis-represents facts and figures
to make the Trustees happy, and to have something "positive" to promote when there is NO WAY THESE STATS ARE
TRUE. No Way.
My perception of "increased satisfaction" is perhaps the consequence of "self-selection" in the sample population. If the most
dissatisfied students "drop-out" with the passage of time, the percentage of "satisfied" students appears in increase.
The question is poorly designed - continuous improvement is impossible, since there is an upper limit to that which is the
target of improvement, any movement up or down may be the result of things out of MCC control, and in any case one could
always produce the results one wants (greater student satisfaction) without improving student outcomes. The concept may
be of some "political" use but is of no practical use.
I don't know how we measure up with students.
The SEIF needs to be completely overhauled. In its present form, it is not a useful indicator of student satisfaction.
#23 I have absolutely no idea.
I am not aware of these statistics
Overall student satisfaction doesn't change much from year to year.
Overall, I think the students that stick with it are pleased with their results. However, they often see their classmates fall by
the wayside and this proves disconcerting to all involved.
24.
Mott CC maintains strong relationships with former students.
Foundation for MCC is understaffed and although current staff perform outstanding service there simply isn't enough
personnel to go the distance.
I am not aware of what the school does in this regard
I put NA because I don't know.
No, there is nothing happening in this area. Sure there's a fancy alumni "room" and annual alumni "awards" -- but there's not
connection with former students. And at a community college, there's not really a need or opportunity for it. We just hope that
more students that not leave with "good feelings" about the school so they don't say negative comments about the services
here at MCC.
This information is not shared with us.
25.
Mott CC makes improvements based on the complaints it receives.
I have no idea how Mott proceeds in this regard.
Depends on who is complaining.
There is no one listening!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall, the answer is, yes we do, fairly well; but the question is poorly worded, and as such it says something about what is
wrong with "continuous improvement" business model. What matters is not that Mott makes improvements based on the
complaints it receives; what matters is that Mott makes all the improvements it can, *without sacrificing quality overall*, based
on the *legitimate* complaints it receives. Why should Mott try to make "improvements" if the complaints are unjustified?
And sometimes our attempts to improve turn out to hurt us in the long run. (I hope the point here will be applied to the results
of this survey, too!)
I put NA because I don't know.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
Again--it seems instructors just continue with the same old, same old in some instances.
It's difficult to answer this because I see no evidence of complaints received therefore I see no evidence of what is done to
make improvements based on those complaints.
When filing a complaint there is little follow-up to see if the resolution was satisfactory. Or if you were even heard.
This is not always feasible when it comes to fiscal issues such as pay to print and tuition increases. The college needs to
more effectively market its value add to the community and students it serves. Also repeat complaint on a parking issue by
the Dental Clinic has not been resolved.
Complaints that the college doesn't hire any minorities to teach full-time go unheeded.
Often the response appears to be delay, delay, delay - eventually, they will go away..... Except sometimes they come back
through lawsuits that the college always seems to lose!!!! Yet, there does not appear to be any change to address issues
raised by current or former students. Nor does there appear to be any concern about the many needs students bring with
them, especially resulting from their poverty - approximately half of the students attending MCC are eligible for financial aid a significant indicator of poverty!!
I'm not sure what you do with the professor’s evaluations or what relevance or power evaluations have. If it’s just to keep a
track record, I guess that's a start.
Need to investigate for validity of complaints
26.
Mott CC has effective processes to use the feedback it gets from its students and its other stakeholders.
I am probably not aware of all the processes in place.
Processes not in place, administrative discern is what gets attention.
To my knowledge, there is no formal process in place that uses the feedback MCC gets from its students and other
stakeholders. Things just get taken care of without any formal process. Another political arena......
I put NA because I don't know.
Students frequently complain about the problems associated with the Mott Middle College, but no one ever seems to listen. It
is an important issue for the people who have to deal with it on a daily basis.
I have no Idea.
27.
Mott CC regularly evaluates the effectiveness of human resource and personnel processes.
I have no idea.
This one of the biggest problem on our campus. The leader does NOT known what he is doing and cost of the department is
out of control. There is one lawsuit after another!!!!!
The question should not be: do we evaluate regularly? But rather - do we do effective evaluations? One could evaluate
regularly and both learn and do nothing. Given recent failures to evaluate part-time faculty, however, I answered "poor."
A casual observation readily identifies a pattern of disdain and lack of appreciation for the MCC staff and faculty emanating
from the HR department - strange, staff seem to get hired on a regular basis in HR, although no where else, hmmmm...HR
also gets modern up dated furnishings while faculty who see students on a daily basis haven't had new furnishings in some
areas in over 30 years!!!! Many areas directly working with students seem to "hobble" along without replacements of faculty
and staff while two areas, HR and Accounting, seem to be hiring on a regular basis - new hires as well as replacement staff.
Strange, too, how all these "hires" look the same.....where is the diversity???? Somehow, although there is direct student
contact, there are many areas that obviously lack importance to the administration.
JEC did not produce accurate results in all cases. The process seemed flawed by HR determining which applications were
significantly different to warrant committee review. So initially HR staff were making determinations and grouping of jobs.
This is a major task to have been done by a handful of staff that was overwhelmed by other tasks.
I don't have a clue.
Practices which go against stated procedure in interviewing and hiring of full-time faculty are reported to personnel and
continue unheeded with no changes.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
If these reviews take place, they need to be more widely promoted.
Way too much emphasis is put on certain processes or projects with very little consideration given to individual employees or
specific less-than-ideal work situations.
28.
Mott CC makes certain that Faculty and staff get the training and professional development their work requires.
CETL, WIDS, professional development money and travel money, college sponsored programs at the beginning of the
semester and workshops all year. I believe that this is one area where we really shine.
In general terms, professional development is encouraged within our disciplines. However, NO substantive
training/development is provided or encouraged for working with students with developmental needs, learning disabilities,
mental and/or emotional disabilities, hearing or vision disabilities, or who may have been sentenced by a local judge to attend
MCC. As a huge percentage of our student population fits into one of these categories, and we are an open door institution,
it's disheartening to see administration's continued lack of awareness or inability to provide necessary training that is not part
of a teacher's "normal" education.
Seems like only a few select people get the training required to do their jobs. Training at MCC is truly "hit or miss". Training
is very limited and occurs very infrequently--sometimes only out of necessity to capture some hidden or underlining
information from employees. Training needs to be consistent and ongoing.
Hard to say...adjunct/part-time faculty I'm sure vary throughout the College as to the level of support they get from their
Deans. Mine ([employee name]) has done an outstanding job of making me feel part of the department and the division. I
have heard horror stories by my peers about their treatment by other deans and faculty.
Faculty has funds but little oversight to ensure they take the training most appropriate for their position. Staff has little funds
so often take what they can get, which does not really meet their needs. The college should offer more mini-training
opportunities on campus. We have well trained faculty that could teach the sessions for less cost than sending us out.
Faculty should not be paid to take training elsewhere when they could get it here free. i.e. Excel, PowerPoint etc.
This has improved immensely. Needs to happen more frequently and a variety of opportunities.
We know that professional development is encouraged, but maybe it should be made mandatory. For example, instead of us
being told during our evaluation that we need to work on a Master's maybe we should simply be told that we are required to
take at least one class per semester or year. Maybe there should be clear cut guidelines of what we need to do exactly.
Otherwise it is very easy to put off furthering our education. I think that a lot of people need to be told to do it rather than to
be given the choice of doing it at their "convenience".
More focus on faculty then staff
I can not comment on faculty, but staff in my department is not trained at all.
Professional development in my case is a matter of buying books, going to conferences, and having enough time to do
research. I get some conference money, but I could always use lots more. Professional development in my case is not
enhanced by what I regard as the rather silly professional development activities I've seen over the last few years - e.g.,
neuropsych stuff, teaching circles, false generalizations about the role that sex plays in learning styles, and the like. I for one
do not think that there are any great mysteries about the "how" of teaching, although there are about the "what."
The college does a pretty good job in this area with CETL workshops, the professional development that [employee name]
coordinates, the attempt at teaching circles (which will only work if the faculty take advantage of it).
We have limited dollars available through our division to go to professional development activities.
For full time staff training is good. for part time persons training is talked about but not provided or even asked about.
Mott does an excellent job for full time faculty, but has had little impact on part-time faculty - very critical since such a huge
portion of our instruction is done by part-time folks.
Believe it or not, "professional development" is not synonymous with "discovering new and exciting ways of teaching" or even
"finding ways of improving student learning." It seems to me that this would be obvious to those in the professorate--but then
again, neither the head of [department name] nor the [position title] have ever been faculty. As for the positive, faculty do
have access to funding for other sorts of professional development (furthering oneself as a *chemist*, as opposed to as a
*chemistry teacher*, for instance)--but one wonders how quickly such opportunities would evaporate if they were not
guaranteed by the faculty master contract.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
See comment on Gen Ed courses
The UAW gets more support than we do. Increase Tuition Reimbursement for advanced degrees.
29.
Evaluations regularly provide Faculty and staff with concrete feedback on ways to improve.
Student evaluations are simply a joke: how can one take them seriously when the only available answers are 'yes' and 'no'?
Imagine if for each of the questions on this survey there were only two possible responses!
Can't comment on other divisions, but the Humanities Div is way behind on faculty evaluations, esp. full-time faculty, as
designated by the contract.
Evaluations for full-time faculty are mostly meaningless since there are no penalties for a poor evaluation and since the deans
doing the evaluation don’t know the subject areas they are evaluating. Part-time evaluation is very hit or miss depending
on the division. Evaluation of adjuncts doesn't mean much since it is a big hassle to get rid of an adjunct that is
underperforming and in many areas it is so hard to find people to fill people to teach that deans resort to the "any warm body"
approach to hiring.
I have not made adjunct status because administrators haven't evaluated me for the required three times. I know they are
busy, but not doing this makes me feel as if they do not care about part time.
In our field I believe our supervisors give us great feed back on how to improve our teaching and communication skills.
The SIEF forms should be the way to provide that feedback, and these forms should be given greater detail in terms of
providing feedback. The administration does get the results of these back to faculty, maybe the forms should be revised to
provide more specific information, or greater qualitative data (i.e., student written comments).
We seem to have changed this process over the years. As opposed to faculty being evaluated by other, more experienced
faculty, we now have a process that involves the Dean doing classroom visitations. This has inherent flaws because
sometimes the "Dean" just isn't qualified! Has never been in a classroom, sometimes has no expertise in the subject matter.
Personally, I have not been evaluated in probably about 10 years. This makes it difficult to answer this question.
This is done consistently in my division.
Our evaluations should be called Faculty Development. This then can be used to assist in the professional growth of
individuals and not perceived as punishment.
This is important to make sure students are getting a good solid education, not hampered by the lack of knowledge of the
instructor.
I have not been evaluated since I received a continuing contract over 10 years ago. I have evaluated many parttime/adjunct professors in my department over the years, but on the few occasions when I've had to document unsatisfactory
performance, administrative action is rarely taken.
Tenured full-time faculty are almost never evaluated; systems for evaluating part-time instructors have improved. More
faculty need to be involved in the development of evaluation criteria.
Peer or supervisor evaluations are conducted on criteria that are not communicated to faculty prior to the evaluation. Criteria
do not appear to be standardized.
30.
Mott CC’s hiring processes make certain the people it employs possess necessary credentials, skills, and values.
Sometimes, hiring processes, inclusive of the job description, appear to reflect a candidate already selected. Unspoken
message - don't bother to apply! Case in point, the current V.P. position with a tremendous amount of specificity that most
certainly reflects a particular candidate - particularly with the short time frame of anticipated hire.
There is too much of the "good old boy" system. The person they want is always done ahead of time.
Over the years, I have noticed that sometimes job descriptions for open positions are written so that a "specific" person would
meet the qualifications.
In certain areas yes. In other areas no.
Hiring at MCC is a joke most of the time...Federal/State guidelines are posted everyway---but not followed. MCC is known
locally for its discriminatory hiring practices. So many lawsuits have been filed over the last few years over this very issue.
Seems it is hard for those in the decision making process to make good hiring decisions--some managers like to test the
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
system and see what they can get away with.
MCC has a tradition of hiring from within. There certainly are advantages to this for instance employee loyalty. However, if
this is done too often, there is no influx of new information, ideas or knowledge. A college cannot advance or be dynamic if
intellectually stagnant.
The hiring process for MCC is really bad. The main goal of HR is to avoid getting sued. Hiring the best qualified candidate is
give low priority. The hiring process is so cumbersome that faculty that value their time are reluctant to get involved. Many
outstanding candidates withdraw because the process takes so long and so ill-timed. Hiring of part-time faculty is often a
"any warm body" approach since part-timers in some areas are hard to find and deans are reluctant to cancel nearly full
sections.
There appears to be different guidelines for hiring for different areas of the college. We are told that all job postings will be
communicated to the entire college staff/faculty. This apparently isn't true for one area of the college because at least two
positions have been filled without postings. We find out about it when the e-mail goes out announcing the person who is
assuming that job position.
Quite a few "non-posted" hires recently have left some people wondering just what the hiring process is.
Some issues here. In many areas, part-time and full-time faculty hired recently, have watered-down skills in the concerned
subject matter. There seems to be more emphasis on "styles", learning and teaching as opposed to content!
I am personally aware of distance classes and medical terminology classes that are being taught by people who are not up to
date on their areas, and who cannot even pronounce the words that they are supposed to be teaching to their students.
I have served on several selection committees for various college positions. They do an excellent job in this regard.
Our employees in the H.R. dept. do a great job!
I think it does okay, and HR dutifully supports the hiring committees on this campus. Maybe it's not in the hiring, maybe it's in
the orientating, but some of our faculty need a deep understanding of the role and mission and purpose of the community
college. Too often, many faculty and administrators take positions / programs here at the college that are of a 4-year
mentality. The Gen Ed. requirement revisions are an example of this. We can't expect that same of our students at a two-year
college that is expected of students at a 4-year college. On another note, sometimes the hiring processes here at the
college are "fixed". For example, sometimes administration gets around the expectation for involvement by putting the people
they want as "interim" and then hiring that person therefore avoiding having to go through a full-blown search process and
committee. The hiring of [employee name] was another "fix" as the job was open for only 5 days and ("surprise") [employee
name] was the ONLY candidate.
Administrators need to heed the recommendations of the faculty hiring committees who do a great deal of research on
candidates, only to have their selections disregarded.
It is (or should be) highly embarrassing that we sometimes rush our way through the hiring process. This is a college, and we
should hire faculty here the way other colleges and universities do, by conducting full, nationwide searches that extend over
several months. The same applies for searches on the administrative level. (Why rush through the search for the chief
academic officer of the college? Why not set the hire date for summer, instead of January, when most of those who could
best fill the position would have to leave their current job at a college or university in the middle of the academic year? Surely
we are discouraging some from applying here by doing this.)
Like I said a [position title] and a [position title] with no credentials in C & I???? Amazing. Was [employee name] ever in a
classroom?? And he is/was [position title]??????
As a new faculty, I was not notified until 3 weeks before the semester began that I was hired.....This makes it very
unprofessional to give only a 2 week notice at my previous job...Not to mention I had only 1 week to prepare for 2 lectures.
31.
Mott CC seeks out the views of Faculty and staff on ways to improve operations and performance.
Administrators at this college do not seek out advice or guidance from faculty -- who are at the front lines in dealing with
students at the college. When Administration wants to make changes -- like in the revised evaluation forms/procedures that
[employee name] tried to impose on faculty -- it involves a group of administrators coming together, deciding what to do and
then informing the faculty AFTER THE FACT. And then the project goes away for lack of support. How can you expect buy in
with out involvement of the faculty? Unfortunately it's an "us" vs. "them" mentality here at the college, and unfortunately the
hostility and distrust is equal on both sides.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
Decisions are made on a top-bottom tier, no input is solicited or acted upon.
I don't think so.
People that have been teaching their entire lives become out of touch with the rest of the working world. This does not make
them bad. But in classrooms teachers and students usually deal with theory, most of the rest of the working world has to deal
with facts. If you want to see what type of job training people need in our community need, look in the jobs wanted section of
The Flint Journal.
It does not appear that the sought after views are collected for any other purpose than to appear politically correct. Decisions
on actions often do not appear to take non-administrative views into consideration.
Here's a good way to improve operations: reduce the number of administrators (e.g., eliminate the VP position formerly held
by [employee name] and staff supporting it) and increase the number of full time faculty.
The perception is that decisions affecting students and teaching staff are made arbitrarily and only measured by dollars.
What about the educational needs of students?? Since when have we become a "for profit" institution?? We need to make
sure students receive the courses they need or they will leave us and find the institutions which do offer the coursework they
need.
Collecting views is done but action is not taken on them.
MCC certainly seeks out the opinion of faculty on ways to improve operations and performance. And faculty in turn makes
sure they are heard. The opinion of staff I feel is not valued by administrators or faculty. It is ironic that we spend an
enormous amount of time, money and effort getting students to think critically, faculty to teach critical thinking, but ideas and
opinion from staff is ignored and discouraged.
Nobody listens to part-time employees...the full time employees think we are lowly people and our opinion doesn't count.
They do not want to hear what faculty has to say!! The faculty is outstanding and they have a lot of GREAT ideas.
On course offerings, this is true. However, we are rarely consulted about other issues.
We are improving in this area, but we have a long way to go. The Student Services area of the college needs a great deal of
improvement in this regard.
The general attitude appears to be that MCC administrators do not want to hear from faculty or staff members on ways to
improve operations or performance. The only time employees are asked for input is when the college is in a dire financial
position and administrators need to find ways to cut costs...I believe that MCC has some of the most wonderful employees
around. They are innovative, creative, loyal, well-educated, and caring. They have a lot to offer the college in terms of ways
to improve operations and performance---they need to be asked for their input and respected as valued employees.
32.
Mott CC trusts Faculty and staff to do their work effectively.
The problem is that many employees do not feel the trust referred to in this question. Many feel that they are not empowered
to do their jobs because of this lack of trust.
Levels of trust should be offset by the evaluation process that is not yet in place, but has been proposed. Some
administrators do not have the time to devote to the process in areas where staffing is short.
I appreciate the trust Mott provides that we all do our work effectively, but there seems to be little oversight in some areas.
Trust has to be earned. The only way to learn that you can trust someone to do their work effectively requires managers and
supervisors to take a more active role whenever and wherever that work is accomplished.
I can only comment on my direct experience--some managers seem to micromanage.
The best guarantee of high performance: hire good people, people with the proper training and personal integrity, and let
them do their work. The way assessment has been developing, one gets the sense that at some point the "feedback loop"
will really be closed, and specific instructors will be identified as having performed poorly in some way or another.
This trust is misplaced in a number of Faculty and staff. This number may be small but it has a ripple effect when it impacts
students. Checking now and again and following up with feedback and possibly consequences would improve performance.
They don't trust us. Why to they listen in on our phone calls, watch us with the cameras and look at our e-mail?
I think the college lets the faculty do their work in the classroom. I don't think there is much interference in this area.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
Perhaps too trusting. See comments re: faculty evaluations Secretaries who are inept are shuttled from one area to
another.
33.
Faculty and staff are recognized for their contributions and accomplishments.
The same "Pets" all the time.
As stated earlier, the "Golden Apple" awards are REALLY not for the best teachers (if the students voted on these things, the
results would be completely different). These awards are more political in nature... they recognize big names on campus
rather than excellent teachers. The MCC newsletter put together by Marketing / PR does a nice job highlighting folks, in
their short blurbs on the front inside cover.
part- time and adjunct faculty are not recognized....just the full timers, developing a 2-tier system
Never been recognized for anything but should have been on several occasions.
Lots of work needs to be done in this area. There are many creative ways that MCC could and should recognize MCC
employees for their accomplishments and contributions to the organization. Not having money is not a good excuse for not
doing this.
No. Mostly very dedicated employees are just expected to continue doing a very good job with no appreciation or credit given
to them. This does not do anything for employee morale.
The contributions of faculty who are "favorites" of the Dean are widely recognized. The contributions of others are completely
ignored, both publicly and privately.
34.
Administrators communicate a clear vision for Mott CC’s future.
The vision of some Deans is in conflict with the college's stated mission.
They communicate what they want you to believe not what is really happening.
If there is a clear vision, the communication link has been broken
There does not appear to be a "vision" - upon occasion, asking any administrator below the President about the vision of the
institution, none can give any indication that one exists! What a missed opportunity - and the question is, how long will this
college limp along, going along doing the same things and having absolutely negligible effect? Ask any new hire about the
community college concept - they don't have a clue! Community Colleges were created to address access to higher
education issues - with an understanding that higher education was the answer to poverty (per the Carnegie Commission
Report - 1960's). Yet, this administration seems to think expansion and access are "fighting words" - in other words, rather
than grow and provide increasing access to people trapped in poverty, they'd rather create beautiful accommodations for a
select few, and be about the business of empire building again, for a select few. It seems, the "product" or "purpose" for
existence, i.e. education.
There is no attempt to provide "clear vision" outside of the past two to three years all these "forums" between the president
and staff are meant to spell out what a financial problem the college faces. That's fine, scare us and tell us all this doom and
gloom. But where is the dialogue on "this is where we are heading" outside of just speaking in financial terms? There is no
"direction" at MCC, and the [position title] seems ill-fit for being able to articulate anything that your could call "visionary."
There is no "future" perspective here at the college.
They don't talk to us.
I think they try to do a good job, but a lot of time it is about the dollars and cents.
Unfortunately, I don't think anyone really knows what the future holds for MCC.
35.
Mott CC’s core values stress the centrality of learning.
We are more about profitability than education.
"Learning" or do you mean the development of a whole person? The development of a critical thinker? A person ready to
contribute in terms of civic engagement? "Learning" how do you define learning?
Look at the makeup of the president's cabinet. "Academics" is one equal position out of many.
What's more important is that Mott's core values stress the centrality of the *opportunity* for learning. There's a difference
between the two, and it's the opportunity that is central. But since opportunity for learning is much more difficult to judge, I'm
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
sure we will continue to take the easy, "measurable" road. This will sound like heresy to many, but there are values equally
as important as student learning. For instance, respect for all students in a class, and, most notably, maintaining high
standards in our classes and programs.
Baker gets and retains students with the promise of JOBS after graduation, not learning.
Mott seems very concerned about generating enrollments and staying in business. Academic standards and actual student
learning take a back seat. Evidence: hiring less qualified part-time faculty to staff enrolled sections, weak part-time
evaluation system, invalid assessment program, little discussion of academic standards from the administration.
I don't know what this means.
I think this survey uses vague expressions that do not give centrality to the question.
Centrality?
36.
A clear understanding of Mott CC’s priorities guides Faculty and staff in their work.
Many faculty and staff members do not have a clue what MCC's priorities are at any given time. Furthermore, very few even
have any input into the process that determines the priorities which guide Faculty and staff in their work.
Mott's mission seems to be changing. This faculty member does not have a clear picture of what it is.
The college wants to save money any way it can. This is not written but very clear in it's actions.
Again, who's setting these priorities? Three men in a room? And who really communicates these priorities? You won't get
people to buy into priorities if they had no involvement in creating them. Another disconnect between a few people shaping
priorities and the rest of the people expected to find a small brochure that communicates these priorities.
37.
Administrators empower Faculty and staff by clearly delegating areas of authority.
Faculty in some divisions are not treated as professionals.
It depends on the administrator.
Administrators need to administrate, not be petty dictators.
Administrators "delegating"? PLEASE ! ! ! ! Administrators don't want to "share" power; they want to enforce it in deceptive
and often times hostile ways. (How do you get buy in when administrators run around with that mindset?) In [department
name] we have a bully for a manager ([employee name]). She acts like a prison warden with her Theory X style of
management (again, I won't use the word "leader"). She disempowers the supervisors that work for her, and has contempt for
anyone who does not agree with her. How can you expect people to be empowered with an [position title] who operates like
that? That style would make Charles Mott turn over in his grave.
Staff and faculty do not feel empowered to go beyond their current role due to fear of reprisals. We should be encouraging
employees to work towards their potential and guide them when needed.
Not at all!
Coordinators in all divisions need closer scrutiny. Some have a heavy work load and others have minimal duties (yet both
paid/compensated at same rate).
Sometimes managers are not clear, but skirt around issues--or make oblique comments and expect people to pick up on it.
Again, speaking from a limited circle of experience with managers directly in contact with me.
I don't feel administrators allow my dean to do her job. They seem to load her up with numerous projects/reports to do.
Poor in some areas of College
I find that some actions of the administration are clearly at odds with the defined "authority" of the faculty and their goals
towards teaching and learning.
38.
Mott CC analyzes the effectiveness of its decision-making processes.
More attention should be paid to how decision-making processes work.
The use of "Campus Wide" Program Priorities Analysis would allow everyone to see where the money is being spent and
how the priorities for funding were determined.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
Again, I don't see the evidence of this.
I have never heard a reason given for cutting a class other than "low enrollment", and that magic number is always changing
from semester to semester. Other institutions in the immediate Flint area offer classes with far fewer students in them than
our cut off numbers are. Baker University, our biggest competitor in South Eastern Michigan, regularly lets classes meet with
as few as 5 or 6 students and we have to meet "double digits" (and that elusive number changes from semester to semester).
No wonder Baker's enrollment grows every year and we struggle to keep our heads above water. Baker understands the
importance of providing students with the coursework they need; Mott only understands that a huge profit has to be made on
each course it offers. I have figured out that many times the college would have "broken even" or even made a small profit
had they offered one of my cancelled courses, but I guess the profit margin wasn't high enough to satisfy the administration.
For the years I have been here, I have seen too many examples of the following decision-making model: one committee is
pulled together (mostly of "yes" people) to decide on a solution while a second "implementation" committee gets established
later on to carry out the plan. HOW CAN THE TWO COMMITTEES BE EXPECTED TO DO THEIR WORK WITHOUT THE
OTHER COMMITTEE?
Decisions are made at the top. Little review is conducted to see if it works, take a look at MCC's literature for the public.
39.
Organizational and committee structures support good decision-making.
A representation from all areas of the college is needed for good decision-making. Often committees consist of top
administrations unaware of the day-to-day work being completed or the conditions.
Standing committees here at the college, particularly those with faculty and administrators generally run well and achieve
their goals and objectives. This includes CPSC and its subcommittees. CETL runs pretty well. CASL is another matter,
however, as this committee is tightly controlled by [employee name] with really NO openness to the concerns raised by
faculty during the recent Gen Ed "embedded" designations in the classrooms. For example, this tightly controlled committee
led our Communications Faculty do NOT HAVE SAC designations for their courses. Your "public speaking course" at MCC
does not have an SAC designation? That's a joke. The CPSC minutes include a letter from [employee name] outlining WHY
the Communication faculty withdrew their SAC and it's because the CASL committee – [employee name] in particular -- was
NON-RESPONSIVE to their concerns. That is a tragedy here at the college, and the leadership style should be in question.
They often make very poor decisions.
In some areas, but not in others.
Decisions seem to be arbitrary, depending on the semester and who is making them.
There seems to have been a tendency in the last few years for decisions to be made at the highest levels without sufficient
participation of relevant stakeholders.
MCC's CPSC is exemplary
Given little information of outcome of committee work
I have been on committees which have made some good recommendations based on effective decision-making models--only to have them never implemented. Therefore, many exceptional employees now politely refuse to waste their time and
talents working on projects.
There certainly has been phenomenal improvement in this area from 10 years ago! There seems to be frequent
organizational/administrative re-structuring. While some restructuring may be necessary, this does not project an image of
stability to the community or to employees.
40.
Administrators ensure that Faculty and staff have the resources they need to do their work.
Budget restrictions have led many positions to remain unfilled -- this limits the ability of many departments to pursue those
new or novel ideas and practices that could truly improve the institution.
We need stronger, better support services for learning disabled, under-prepared and disadvantaged students. Our aim
should not be to "weed them out," as some administrators believe.
Fees collected in specific courses (Health Sci.) are not 100% returned to the Dept. Perhaps 50% if that much.
This varies by department, of course.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
Please see previous comments - Resources - what a laugh!!!
When it takes two years to outfit a smart classroom that has had classes scheduled in it, when the various heating/air blowers
are so loud as to inhibit classroom discussion (in more than just one classroom), when temperatures in a classroom can
swing over 30 degrees from one day to the next, when software is not kept up to date or takes a year past its "current"
release to receive, or when computers are not capable of running the basic software taught in the courses... then we are not
supporting faculty and staff in their goals towards educating students and providing a positive learning environment.
Very much depends on the particular administrator responsible for allocating the resources.
While, in general, the college does a good job providing what we need to teach our students, some very basic resources are
missing: When class size maximums are 29, there should be 29 usable desks in the classrooms. Also, we have many, many
students who are uncomfortable--or cannot fit--in tablet desks, yet we've been unable to replace those with the tables we've
requested. We are also lacking basic resources for working with low IQ students. No professional tutoring is available for
these students for they do not fit into an eligible category (or so I've been told by the Learning Center), and they are in the
lowest-level course available in my discipline, yet they have no chance of passing, no matter how much time I can spend with
them. I would like to be able to send them to a counselor here who can advise them of other educational or training options
that may be available, but there seems to be no plan for such students. We accept them and take their money, but they
really
In the area I work in I feel that I am teaching in a third world country. I previously indicated I work equipment needed to teach
Our equipment is at least forty years out of date and does not meet today’s needs in the world of work.
In some cases more technology is needed--updated equipment is needed--some programs and classrooms are being
updated, but some programs still need to be brought into the modern world.
I would like a book allowance.
NO one has ever asked me if I have the things I need to teach my course. I ask the secretaries and they help me procure the
equipment I need.
Faculty get the latest computer equipment, budgets for materials and supplies, office equipment when there is enough left
after the administrators get it first.
More "smart" classrooms are needed. Lack of funds is often the response for substandard resources, walk through the
college to see where the funding are expended, H.R. has been re-modeled how many times in the last few years? To what
purpose? Others areas are in desperate need.
Faculty are supported well-enough in the classroom. I think that student services staff should have more funds to do more at
establishing a "Student Involvement" culture here at MCC. Our out-of-class experience offerings for students are a joke, as is
our Leadership Development for the few student leaders we have on campus.
Budget for classes? What budget?
resources are encouraged "what do you need to do a better job"
41.
Appropriate maintenance ensures that both facilities and equipment can be used effectively.
Our guys/gals do a great job.
Halls and stairways are dirty and have many dead flies. Heat system doesn't work well. (seasonally)
There has been no budget to maintain our equipment properly. Staff either has to make repairs or do without needed
equipment for extended periods of time.
Maintenance can be slow to respond occasionally.
The only problems I've had are with classroom furniture. I've stopped requesting repairs of student desks, for no repair (or
replacement) ever happened.
This question reads as though what is in question are the facilities and equipment needed to effectively teach and support
teaching. They are usually (not always) adequate. However, other aspects of the facilities--such as working toilets or
sufficient paper towels--are not always available. This comment includes both the Flint campus and my experience with a
satellite campus.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
Much improved in recent years vs. 10 years ago. Facilities under [employee name] and [employee name] have been
outstanding. They certainly try!
Maintenance and janitorial services at the Lapeer campus need improving. Often the boards are overloaded with chalk dust - and the bathrooms smell because of poor ventilation.
42.
Support services harmonize with Mott CC’s focus on education and learning.
As my earlier comments have suggested, inadequate or no support services are provided for students with significant hearing
disability or low IQ. We also have no reader tutors, as far as I know, when many, many of our students have very low reading
skills.
Information Systems does not always appear to be aware of the academic calendar and do not communicate with
departments before making changes that affect staff's ability to do their jobs.
Additional funding sources are needed for students that do not qualify for financial aid, yet have a need.
There could be a lot more done in this area, especially the development of a student involvement culture at the college. Yes,
students stay for only two or three years... that doesn't mean they can't grow from an active Student Life center where a real
student government works, where a real leadership development program is in operation, where student organizations get
the CLEF funds they deserve (because they paid for them out of their registration fee). Once again, these positions in this
area should be used to attract new or seasoned professionals in the area of Student Personnel Services in terms of their
educational background. We need high performing staff in this area, those who can help shape a culture. That isn't the case
right now.
43.
Technology is up-to-date and well-supported.
Need more smart classrooms that are fully functional.
The existing technology is well supported, but, again, some programs need to be updated.
This also ties in with question #41 - equipment gets purchased but maintenance and repair are not supported resulting in
equipment that does not perform well over its expected lifetime - and often the equipment stops working altogether.
We do not have a grade book tool that faculty can use seamlessly with Datatel or whatever administrative system we have. I
guess it was never a high priority. Secretaries and support personnel using the current system have to go through many
keystrokes to get to simple printouts.
The school has done quite well on the whole, given all of the challenges involved, in improving this aspect, at least as it
affects me.
Your support areas, especially ed tech, need more people.
For some, not for everyone. If you are teaching in a liberal arts area, things like smart classes are not available for everyone.
Support functions can act like they are doing you a favor by providing these services. The result is that it can be a painful
process to be too creative or too interested in anything requiring assistance.
The technology is up to date, but not yet everywhere it needs to be on campus. The students are paying 4 dollars per contact
hour for a "technology fee" and thus there should be more Smart Rooms, more computer centers available for students.
Office computers (for faculty and staff) seem pretty up to date and comprehensive. But the college needs to DEMONSTRATE
it is effectively using the Technology Fee collected each semester. Otherwise that just become another "pot of money"
administrators can dip into to pay for other things.
We will invest in the equipment. Machines are important, not people. Not students, not faculty, not staff. Machines and
technology are absolutely essential for the future workforce - in other words, lacking skills in technology will prevent one from
obtaining meaningful employment at a living wage. Again, see comments relative to access - what are we saying, let's invest
in technology so that a chosen few can have access? The rest of the folks, those in severe poverty, can simply remain there,
and that's okay? Again, community colleges across this country were created to provide access primarily to poor people and
persons of color - but, THIS community college appears to project itself as a college for the privileged - creating policies that
actively punish the poor. For example, while it is true many people in Genesee County have computers in their homes, a
great many do not - that's a luxury they simply can not address. Yet, we made the decision that grades will no longer be m
We need more Help Desk personnel!!!
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
Technology is very up to date but there is not enough support.
Tue is some areas, not in others.
Often the technology decisions made by IS are done without input from the REAL PLAYERS, Datatel might be clunky, but it
works along with Cognos. Don't throw out the baby with the bath water. Buy more copies of the "GUI" version of Datatel and
rely more on the Cognos Warehouse for analysis.
When it takes IS several years to begin setting up WiFi on campus (and it still isn't working) and actually undermining the use
of wifi by faculty and students in their classrooms, when I'm able to set it up using WEP (encrypted security) easily in my own
home, when IS ignores repeated requests for laying out a classroom in a particular fashion, or saves pennies that requiring
spending many dollars later to add wired drops (since wifi isn't available), then this all seems at odds with the goals of staying
"up-to-date".
Implementing "technology fees" has helped in this area... :)
Mott's technology in the classroom is adequate, not extensive. Smart classrooms are expensive; I understand that they will
take time to phase in. Yet I am concerned about the loss of overheads in the classroom. I have been told that there is no
plan to replace those or their carts. Even simple technologies, such as sufficient chalk or dry erase markers that actually
work, are sometimes in short supply.
There is technology available, but not enough equipment for everyone who wants to use it. Computer labs are "hogged" by
certain instructors, so that no one else can use them at those times. Many classrooms have tiny, outdated desks too small
for most adults.
Need to be across all divisions. Pet divisions should give a little.
44.
Budgeting processes ensure resources are effectively allocated.
Faculty is basically TOLD what their budget is. What input?
We judge the cost of faculty by using only tuition dollars? If it wasn't such a serious matter, I'd think it was a joke! Here's a
suggestion: run the same kind of analysis using data about the college's income and expenditures 20, 30, 40, and 50 years
ago; would the result be the same? What does this say about how we view faculty at the college?
More involvement and transparency are required in this regard; more attention should be paid to non-economic and nonnumerical measures of priority and importance. Some regular solicitation of qualitative data should be instituted.
It appears that Administration has a larger budget than Academics. No matter how many times it is explained to the faculty
and staff it still does not look good when we are asked concession and the President gets a new garage with new
landscaping.
The non-credit area of the college appears to have more financial resources then the academic. I feel that they should be at
least be equal.
Lot of money on buildings and more and more paper shufflers; we need to spend more money on instructional staff.
This is something that has been dramatically improving over the last few years.
We are constantly being told that there is no funding available for improved resources. Again how is funding allocated, what
hierarchy is in place, some areas have been without new resources for decades!
How about "fairly" allocated? Where is the openness of administrators regarding this allocation process? We've been cutting
for a couple years here at the college -- while faculty and staff have also made concessions at the bargaining tables -- but
we're giving double-digit raises to administrators? Creating new positions across the campus while taking away money from
the salaries of those who are already employed at the college? Wasting money trying to get established in HOWELL
Michigan? Not utilizing the RTC for the purposes we promised the community we would be using it for? That's a joke.
I put NA because I don't know, although I believe that more money could be spent on full time faculty and less on
administration.
45.
Mott CC effectively identifies the support service needs of its Faculty and staff, units, and divisions/departments.
You have a "faculty support" office on the second floor of the CM Building... and what do you get when you walk in there but
attitude from the [position title]. How "supportive" is that?
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they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
It depends on the area.
We need a few more full time faculty and less part time faculty. And more administrative assistants.
When issues like Survey Software are being considered, all players involved should have a voice in the selection of the
software. It should not be purchased and then shown to users as their new product. There are key people on campus that
do know a lot about survey analysis, but since IS is the one with the budget for it, we are often left out of the loop. We need
to take down the barriers between the two VP's. We are all part of one TEAM, WE ALL WORK FOR MOTT!
Why a department with over 200+ student majors has only a part-time secretary is beyond me.
46.
Support services are regularly evaluated to identify improvement opportunities.
I don't know if this is done.
Only when a major problem exists will any discussion or changes occur.
I have no idea!
Support services for whom?
I put NA because I don't know.
Need on-going assessment process for advising and counseling.
47.
Student needs are identified regularly so that appropriate support services can be provided.
When was the last time we conducted a student satisfaction survey, if one was conducted when and where were the results
discussed?
Nothing is done to assess student needs. These "meet the president" meetings are really not an effective means of getting
into the needs of students. The free food is fine, but don't tell us that's a form of assessment. When "great ideas" like
forcing students into the age of technology "kicking and screaming" to quote our [position title] are made, where is the
assessment of their needs? Just because ONE PERSON thinks it's a good idea does not mean it fits the student’s needs.
Like e-mail grading, that may work for 25% of our students, but for 75% it only encourages them to feel disconnected from the
campus and college. Why not BOTH? ? ? ? At the cost of $10,000 dollars, the savings does not warrant the costs to students
needs in this case. That Age of Technology!!! That's fine for Grand Blanc, where there might be a computer in every home
and household resources for internet services. But that is not true in the Flint area, where a vast number of our employees
live.
Don't know.
Nursing students need more space
48.
Mott CC ensures that students have easy access to the people and services they require to be successful.
We do a VERY POOR job of servicing our EVENING students.
Students are often sent all over campus to look for an individual when a phone call to assure the individual is there would be
very helpful and valuable to the student. During registration the students are sent to division offices to look for faculty when
they are not here as school has not started. OR They are in a different building than their division office
There is elitism and racism in the institution. The needs of middle-class white students are very important, while those of
others are not.
It is very difficult to arrange for "access" to the people and services students need when those same people and services are
stretched beyond their limit. We must face the fact that with fewer and fewer fulltime faculty, there are also fewer advisors
with expertise in program areas, fewer faculty who can serve on committees or meet with students and administrators, or
work on curriculum development/improvement, etc., etc.
Mostly good support; the major exception is the bookstore. The bookstore is a major obstacle to student success by not
having books available at the beginning of the semester.
Easy access is the trademark of the community college. Face to face interactions promote student connections and retention.
The whole idea of making our services available via the Web ONLY (for example, "web registration only periods") cuts
students off from what makes a community college accessible. There's been a plan at the college to DECREASE face to face
interactions between student services folks and students. That is not in the philosophy of community colleges. That
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they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
49.
Comment
disconnects students.
Divisions/departments can show their contribution to meeting Mott CC’s overall goals.
What goals and why are they not communicated on a regular basis? Why are not faculty and students and staff involved in
shaping those goals? Please.
Our department did a curriculum study 4 years ago and it disappeared in the administration department. We never had
feedback.
Deans share this information with the Administration and rarely if ever does the department know about it or receive
recognition.
Again, with fewer fulltime faculty, the burden is already fairly steep.
Administration fails to realize, we are an institutional for learning, which costs money. Before the college cuts programs that
can help someone for the rest of their lives, they need to look at waste in the administrative end of the college. If someone
can be gone for 1 month and the college carries on, maybe that job can be eliminated. Why not go with part time
administrators.
50.
Mott CC regularly measures its progress toward achieving its goals.
Part of the process involves assessment, and as we saw at the most recent gen ed assessment meeting, the approach not
only does not produce any useful data (given the number of variables that can affect the scores), and probably cannot
produce any useful data without devoting too much to the effort, it is fundamentally misguided and in fact will remake the
culture of the school, moving it from one in which the goal is excellent to one in which the goal is administration in accordance
with externally specified goals.
I don't know.
Might be good for Mott to consider an institutional report card which would be available to the community, students and staff
We need to ensure that the goals are the areas that need are attention and not just busy work.
Data is collected but nothing seems to be done with it.
When it comes to student services, we have dropped the ball.
51.
The processes for gathering and analyzing data serve the needs of Faculty and staff and divisions/departments
effectively.
Wide book?
The Office of Institutional Research needs a major personnel overhaul - more staff and having staff who understand statistics.
People who request data are told to "take a number" or do it yourself.
I'm not sure we are good at using the data for improvement.
Again, we did this analysis a few years ago and had no feedback.
This is NEVER done... the college NEVER solicits the needs of faculty or staff. It just tells us what funds are no longer
available as we watch funds going into area that make no sense, like the "campus" in Howell Michigan and the people hired
for that location.
Too much is being done twice for the different areas, no body shares the information.
While the Research office is staffed by highly effective and skilled individuals, this area is understaffed to do the full job that is
needed.
Deans pay heed to the feedback of only a few chosen faculty members. They never seek the feedback of others.
MCC is much better in this regard, but there is a great deal of room for improvement.
52.
Mott CC regularly assesses whether students achieve program and course goals.
When I grade a student I assess that student's performance. I do a very good job in that kind of assessment. Institutional
assessment, however, is both impractical and misguided, as I noted in a previous comments. So I selected NA.
Bad survey, too much bias on assessment.
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they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
In our field we assess our students constantly.
The SIEF forms need to be revised so that more information can be gathered.
Heck, we won’t even give them a graduation evaluation till their last semester!!!!
53.
Faculty and staff have access to the data and information that they need to improve the quality of the work they do.
This greatly depends on the Division. Some are excellent and some not so good on this measure.
I need access to books and conferences to improve the quality of my work. A book allowance would be good.
The Dean withholds data and information needed to process a proposed new course, for example, from certain faculty
members. Data and information about committee work that needs to be done is also withheld, or the Dean may simply lie
about it.
This information is hard to access through WebAdvisor as you can only see one student’s information at a time, and the
process is extremely slow. It would be very helpful to be able to scan through all of your students’ data to get a clear picture
of the students you would be teaching to modify the course for the group.
Faculty is evaluated on criteria that are not communicated to the faculty prior to evaluations.
54.
Faculty and staff know the key measures of Mott CC’s success.
I don't know.
Well, it would be correct to say that there is a variety of views on this.
What, [employee name] "wide book" -- give me a break. Those are measures he came up with -- mind you, an administrator
with no experience in a college classroom -- regarding "student success"? And to have the audacity to try to assess "student
success" only in the classroom and not look at other factors? What measures? Those devised by a bean-counter who's
never spent a day in the classroom and who "thinks" the wave of the future is in "modules" and "WIDS" and "distance
learning"? What a joke.
Define key measures
55.
Divisions/departments set specific targets for the goals they want to achieve.
We target goals in our department.
These goals are not shared in my department.
They are setting goals, but are they achieving them? I would ask if the goals they are setting are enough to effect change or
improvement for the needs of students; and as determined by whom?
In my department there are no goals that I know of.
56.
Mott CC has well-understood strategies to ensure it will continue to be effective in the future.
If we are having difficulty being "effective" currently, and think we are doing just fine, why would one think we would have a
hope of being effective in the future??
Fiscally, we are making strides but we are a long way off in determining the needs of future students based on economic
changes and shifts in the job market.
The President's Executive Council my have clear strategies, but the middle management and campus at large are left to
follow directions, with out clear knowledge of where we are going.
We don't know what they are. No one communicates with us.
As I noted in an earlier comment, I don't think anyone really knows where MCC will be in even a few years. Strategies
developed without a clear idea of the goals may or may not be effective. I recognize that MCC is trying.
57.
Divisions/departments set specific targets for improving their work.
Dictated.
This activity is done at the Dean level and not shared with the division.
we don't know what other departments are doing
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
If there are, and those are in the heads of the deans of the divisions, they are not communicated down to the faculty / staff
levels. And should not the faculty and staff have input on those goals?
If we have programs and no graduates for over 3 years, why do we have programs and why do we have program
coordinators, what exactly are they coordinating? We should compare ourselves to "like college" and set goals to achieve
them. When the goal is not met, the program should be revisited.
I believe that these goals are made without regard to other department goals and there is overlap of time and resources
working on the same outcomes instead of pooling resources.
We would love to increase more classes in the area of communication classes offered at Mott. I would like to see targets set
for improvements, but not sure if our [position title] or [position title] will go for this.
To my knowledge not all departments at MCC set specific target for improving their work. Another hit or miss situation.
I can only judge from my department not overall.
58.
Mott CC compares its own performance with that of other higher education institutions.
Compare pass rate on NCLEX exams
In the end we should set our own standard, measure ourselves against what we want to achieve, not against our peer
institutions.
I assume so, but don't know for sure.
I think it is important from a Marketing aspect and in determining the success of our students, especially transfer students.
If we did compare ourselves to others like us, meaning in communities reflecting similar issues, we would be very concerned
and attempt to address real issues. How is it possible to "expand" to the out county areas and not grow numerically?? Does
that simply mean that we are in the business of saving "gas" for those who live in Clio, Lapeer and Fenton - all predominantly
white communities? Or, does it mean that we want to enhance a segregationist attitude? All we have done is maintain
enrollment levels, inclusive of the ethnic percentages - no changes in overall ethnic participation (however, females in all
categories are down, while white males have increased). So, now we are paying the costs of maintaining satellites while
enrollment levels remain constant. A case could be made to shut down the satellites (which I am not advocating) as there is
no real increase in revenues resulting from their existence. When first proposed, growth was anticipated; however, current
enrollment pr
It's a laugh when I hear old-timers refer to MCC as being on the "cutting edge" or a leader in the field. What decade are they
in? The 1970s? MCC may have been a leader at one time in its history, but it is not a place other schools come to for "benchmarking". When the college explores what other institutions are doing, it's usually meant to be the system they want to
impose here at MCC. For example, our current CASL assessment process was adopted from a Community College in
Kansas City. Is this adopted assessment program working at Mott? Based on the recent Faculty Meeting, the answer is NO.
You can't just borrow something from another school and expect it to work at MCC.
I believe MCC does do that and from these comparisons, we should know that sometimes we are lacking. Students are
obviously selecting to attend elsewhere because they perceive their needs will be better met at another school.
Where is our food service?
Our general education graduation requirements as compared to other colleges are evidence enough that we are coming up
short.
Don't know current status.
59.
Mott CC has processes to ensure it is innovative and agile.
Don't know current activities.
It takes forever to get something changed at MCC even when it is a very necessary change.
MCC is an unwieldy ship.
I don't know.
Ha!!!!! And the "innovative" RTC? What a crock that has turned out to be... the right programs are not in there, but there is an
adventure ropes course there, right? The RTC became a political tool here at the college, and those programs that were in
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
favor got space, and those that were not in favor (e.g., auto) were left out. MCC can wave its RTC flag all they want, but the
inside of that building isn't even 25% realized in terms of what it was intended for.
I'm not really sure that we do. Defining them would be beneficial for faculty and staff.
60.
Mott CC allocates resources effectively in support of its plans and future goals.
[position title] has little regard for academics
Perhaps knowing the future plans and goals would be helpful. I often see changes in departments, new equipment, furniture,
etc. and wonder what and why there is change. It is more than frustrating.
This response was difficult, I know we do have plans, but I think the focus isn't always the students. Students are the key to
our future and should be treated like that, not an afterthought.
The budget support our 7 year forecast and allows us to keep functioning with minimal disruption of labor agreements while
balancing cost for students
Not in terms of hiring full time faculty. For staff positions, people are hired to replace retiring individuals or added as the head
of the department can make a good case.
We need to do more advertising.
Too many pet departments.
More resources ($) need to go to hiring full-time faculty and fewer resources ($)to creating or maintaining administrative and
HR positions.
The tech center has been underutilized, and as I said in an earlier comment, we should seek to increase the number of full
time faculty and reduce the number of administrators.
There are far too many administrators. For example, why do we need a curriculum VP as well as an Academic VP? Faculty
can and traditionally have developed curriculum. We hire tons of accountants and are short on full-time faculty. Students are
why we are here and faculty teaches the students not the administrative staff. We need full-time faculty!
61.
Mott CC measures its progress in accomplishing institutional strategies.
Don't know of measures in progress.
Never!!!!!!!
I think we do a good job at measuring, not sharing.
I assume so, but don't know for sure.
62.
Faculty and staff share a vision of what Mott CC will be like in the next 5-10 years.
I keep asking "where is the vision"! No one seems to be able to articulate a vision!!! Who knows where we will be in 5 years?
If we don't do a better job of serving students, we will decline in enrollment.
Is there a vision? If there is it is not shared. Each faction looks out for itself and it's vision is to survive with as little change as
possible
Discussions on this topic are episodic and need to be sustained.
There are not visionary leaders at MCC. A few old men who sit in a room to strategize and find ways to appease the
Trustees. Where are the visionaries on the Trustees? They don't exist either. For a school that was shaped by one of the
most prominent visionaries in Michigan history (Charles Mott), we are shamelessly devoid of visionaries in administrative
positions.
Part timer's not included
It is not communicated.
The answers don't match the questions. The answer is: no, we don't share a vision.
Faculty envisions a teaching/learning environment with full-time faculty who have time for teaching as well as committee work
to support the college at large. However, some administrators envision a "get a degree quick and cheap" environment for
"customers" vs. students and don't care if the instruction is consistent or if the instructors are compensated fairly. This
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they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
63.
Comment
lessens incentive to do committee work, etc and impacts the quality of education the students receive.
Mott CC encourages its Faculty and staff to collaborate with others on new projects.
"Collaborate" is never a word you will hear from the [position title]. It’s her way or the highway... She's a bully for a manager,
and is incapable of "leading" staff to ideas that she didn't come up with, nor is she capable of "collaboration." That would be
giving power away now, wouldn't it? Collaboration is not a word in her vocabulary, and that includes collaborating with some
of her own supervisors. They are beaten down these days, almost all of them. Live is dark and depressing since she took
over in this area. If [employee name] really wants to be a president of a college someday, he'd better get himself back in a
LEADERSHIP role in [department name]... and not just keep his attention to campus grounds, maintenance and public safety.
There is very little support (read: money) for innovations in teaching, such as team-teaching or linked classes.
Not unless you are one of the golden children.
In some instances some personnel who will be using or maintaining facilities have not been involved in planning or changing
them.
The official policy and reality are very different. True collaboration is not rewarded--it is viewed with suspicion.
We are told not to work with each other
Depends on what level you are at in the college. Staff is often underutilized in this aspect.
I think that there is a great divide between the two VP's. "Share the love" really means maintaining an open channel of
communication, for that to be done more thought has to be given as to who sits on which types of "task forces" or
"committees". There is a wealth of knowledge on this campus, and often people just want to take the easy road instead of
working together. United we stand as one strong/powerful college. Divided we fall.
64.
Mott CC builds relationships with the institutions and organizations from which its students come.
A cursory observation results in the realization that recruitment is virtually non-existent at the institution. Even looking at the
very visible nature of the [position title] serving on the Lt. Governors Committee to identify issues and strategies did not
produce any release of resources to increase access!!! Imagine, the CEO assists in the preparation of a report that says a
post-secondary education is absolutely essential - particularly at the associate degree level and there is no reflection of this in
the institutional budget as an allocation of resources to ensure access. Please........
I feel Mott does not do a very good job building bridges between future employers and students - identifying specific job skills
and tailoring degrees/training to suit such organizations.
Recruitment and Articulation staff are outstanding in their efforts however this area of the college is grossly understaffed. For
a student body of this size to have only two recruiters and the department head serving in this function does not allow room
for improvement of processes. Also, staffing of the admission desk is done with student employees. This is most people first
person to person encounter and this really needs to be a dedicated staff person.
Outreach programs are one of the good things Mott consistently does.
We need more articulation with the elementary, middle, and high schools. They are the future.
The relationship with UM Flint is awful. We send nearly 45 % of our students to UM Flint, and there's not much reciprocity or
gratitude in terms of how the relationship is... They NEED our students, but they certainly don't work hard to build bridges and
connections. There is the "transitions program" and that is one example of how more collaboration needs to take place.
We need to promote MCC to a larger percentage of students who are ready and capable of doing college-level work.
65.
Mott CC builds effective relationships among faculty, staff, and administrators.
The present administration appears reluctant to engage in open dialogue with faculty on many matters.
There are too many turf wars that inhibit good relations among faculty, staff and administrators. The faculty perceives that
decisions are made from the top down, yet when the faculty are charged with developing and making decisions, they get into
turf battles. The most memorable one recently was over Gen Ed changes. Some relationships were permanently destroyed
during this process.
What happened to the Holiday Celebration? That was the closest thing here at the college CLOSE to community building and
getting these groups together. What happened to this event? What a joke that it was cut by administration. It was one of the
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they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
few events at the college worth attending.
They think they do.
We used to do this much better. There are almost no opportunities for interaction except for a couple of campus wide events
at the beginning and end of the semester except those business meetings that are usually within our own departments. We
used to have a cafeteria and a lounge that are gone. There are no social functions except two breakfasts and one end of the
year event.
Isolated
We need to be more collaborative. MCC is top down management. We have staff and faculty w/years of experience, these
people know what works. Why aren't we working together?
Told not to work with each other
There are staff members here who add their personal dislikes to the function of the position.
This is perhaps the most important element on the survey thus far; our culture needs to build, maintain, and support
relationships on every level--between employees, departments, and community stakeholders.
I believe the union environment is detrimental to effective relationships between the groups.
Relationships are a significant problem. Also the survey question re. Relationships should have included students.
Faculty and staff are not valued by the administration.... this fact is re-iterated on a regular basis... again, all one need do is
look at the budget, the hiring processes, the disdain that is projected onto the faculty and staff by administrators.
66.
Mott CC’s key partnerships with other institutions and organizations are well-known.
While at a professional development meeting I learned about a key partnership with Kettering University. This appears to be
a closely kept secret, hmmm, Kettering expressed great pride in the partnership with hopes expressed for this community
experiencing great benefit - somehow, that sentiment appears lacking on the MCC side of things. I have yet to hear anything
about this partnership from anyone at MCC.
Minimal marketing is done in some cases. But among departments or divisions little is known. This might be a symptom of
information overload. Development of a new database for transfer and articulation and programs and courses which will be
accessible via the web is a move in the right direction. Also the Community of MCC page that was developed for the website
has been useful in community other relationships.
Again, the answers don't fit the question. The answer is: false.
There have been countless examples of the [position title] hosting people from Genesee Area School District, UM-Flint, etc.
looking for linkages to the college, and she has given them nothing but contempt. She's pissed off a lot of folks working in
organizations for potential partnerships. That's because of her own ego. How can you develop partnerships with managers
like that?
Counselors do a POOR job at explaining how credits transfer. They just like to say yes.
67.
Mott CC creates and builds relationships with external organizations that provide services to our students.
Some students have moved to other colleges in the area because the other college (Baker for example) will provide job
placement when the students graduate.
The possibility for collaboration exists, and, indeed, there have been many such collaborations in MCC's past. However, that
does not appear to be a priority at this juncture.
There are external 4 year universities that try to work with Mott CC students to help with the students transfer to a 4 year
institution but Mott CC always put up a barrier between the 4 year universities and themselves.
68.
Mott CC meaningfully involves its Faculty and staff in institutional work.
See comments for #31
Depends on which part of the College you are talking about.
The key word in this question is "meaningful." While there are many casual or cursory opportunities to be involved, our
processes need to genuinely engage as many perspectives as possible. This is difficult but important work.
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that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
This is the ideal goal we should be working towards; currently management decides the course of action with little to no input.
Often when input is solicited it is ignored.
As I noted in a previous comment, there seems to be reluctance on the part of the administration to involve faculty (or others)
in certain decisions.
If "institutional work" involves strategic planning and goal/priority setting, then the faculty and staff are SORELY left out of the
picture. If it involves "bargaining" then we're involved. If it involves administration giving away any control or information, then
the other stakeholders on campus are not involved. The few areas that things DO work is CPSC and its subcommittees.
69.
The faculty and staff feel they are in a partnership with administrators.
The faculty in the [department name] has been treated with nothing less that hostility and contempt since the new [position
title] was hired. There is no "partnerships" in the [department name]. All you have is a manager ([employee name]) with a
theory X style of management (I won't say leadership) in which fairness and regard for others is not taken into consideration.
Theory X style of management may be necessary in industrial settings, but this is a college folks. Educated people, whom
expect involvement, consultation, dialogue, problem-solving. None of these exist under the current [department name]. She
bullies her supervisors, dampens the working atmosphere, moves people around like pawns, and comes up with here "grand
plans" all in her office by herself. What was the college thinking when they hired her? "We have a pit bull on our side now"
Was that what it was thinking? You got her now, and there isn't a happy department under her right now. What a bully
There seems to be a growing anti-union sentiment on the part of several administrators. This must be addressed before the
next millage campaign in order to boost morale and ensure support from several outside groups including the UAW Retirees.
There is also a consistency/equity issue in the current administration. Why are some classes in certain departments allowed
to run with 25% seat count semester after semester while classes in other departments are cancelled unless they have 67%?
There are no partnerships
It depends on the department and the administrator. In some areas this happens and in others it never does.
Administrators make the decisions, period! There is no collaboration.
Total isolation
Not in all areas, hence the delay in the automotive technology program moving into the RTC. I think this is an example of
questionable leadership in this area more than faculty non-compliance.
See additional comments for #31
Mott should be a professional institution, and faculty should be treated as professionals. However, I am not; I am treated like
"one of family." I have found that such treatment is really a cover for informal, unprofessional interactions rather than a true
welcome and partnership.
Faculty are not asked to be involved, nor are we encouraged to be involved. If anything, there appears to be a punitive
attitude coupled with a lack of respect for the faculty - many of whom possess an incredible arsenal of experience, talent and
skills. However, this administration is not only reluctant to tap into, they don't appear to even recognize the abilities right
under their noses - or worse, develop an attitude when one speaks from experience!
See comment 65
Crossover section enrollment is strongly discouraged by admin. especially when it concerns extension centers but doesn't
care how much an instructor does to keep scheduled courses overloaded to satisfy student needs.
Again, this is based upon experiences w/ [employee name], [employee name], [employee name] and others in the front office
at the Social Sciences Division who have made me feel welcome (can't forget the other faculty members). I have been
places where adjuncts are treated like pond scum. That has not been the case for me at MCC.
This is the biggest problem in my view. Administrators administrate and forget that the students are our primary objective, not
their bottom lines. The faculty, on the other hand, are more concerned with their darn "contractual obligations," or lack there
of, to be sensitive to some necessary administrative needs. For example, we are all under the careful eye of the body politic
and the faculty needs to understand this and help the administration respond to it. On the other hand, the administration
needs to clearly convey the concerns of the political situation and encourage the faculty to help.
The relationship is, in many ways, adversarial, and perhaps unavoidably so.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
70.
Comment
Students have good access to faculty outside of scheduled classes.
Some faulty are superb about this and others are not as good about it.
This does happen in my division.
Need to have faculty office hours on the web
There is no communal area to create a natural flow for interaction between faculty and staff. At one time there was a
cafeteria and a snack bar, faculty and students frequently were observed sharing coffee or lunch or a snack. Both areas
were eliminated and replaced by vending machines and a fine dining, student run restaurant. Again, there is no place on
campus for casual interaction between faculty and students; if a student doesn't see faculty during office hours, it simply won't
happen!
It is sometimes hard for students to contact part time instructors who are only here one or two days a week. There are a lot
of part time instructors at Mott.
Because so many faculty are part-time or are full-time who schedule classes back-to-back only 2 days a week, students have
little time to contact their instructors in person. Hopefully we won't become a virtual college with email the main source of
communication.
71.
Advising processes work effectively to get students in appropriate courses and programs.
Sometimes students are placed in classes when they don't have the necessary pre-requisites; sometimes students are
advised to take classes they don't really need--or not to take classes when they will need them. I hear many complaints from
students about advising. Some go to instructors in the programs they are in to get better advice.
Continual training is needed to keep everyone current on new courses, requirements, etc.
We do fine advising our students but the main counseling office does not understand many things about our programs.
my niece received wrong info about classes from one advisor and the second advisor she contacted did not give her
complete info which cost getting into the proper classes( the student catalog is not in line with the new updated course
pamphlets that are in advising their are whole program names and names of the classes that have been changed, very
confusing?
Once again, students need to know how credits transfer.
There could be improvement in this area. Advisors at the college need an annual in-service to sharpen their knowledge and
skills.
Some students are placed in classes above their skill level simply because the course has no prerequisite.
I have had a number of students who were placed in the wrong course do to the advisors.
Advisors (and counselors) need constant training, and communication with all parts of the college, and this does not happen
right now.
Student are required to get assistance their first semester - must see a counselor or an advisor. After that first enrollment,
students are actively encouraged to enroll on-line. As most of the students are first generation college students, it is not
unusual for significant errors to be made. A CPSC committee revealed that misplacements in specific classes requiring prerequisites or co-requisites were almost always the result of on-line registration. Yet, we continue to encourage students to
pursue this type of registration. Every enrollment period reveals these same types of errors - especially in the modular
classes. Access to information is also affected. Now, existing catalogs must be purchased and the word around the campus
is that there will be no more printed catalogs!!! Again, how does a student with limited access to a computer acquire needed
information about options, course descriptions, etc.??? Further, providing information in only technology based format is not
Need more individuals to help the increasing number of students.
Future nursing students are sometimes mis-advised. Consequently they don't get on our waiting list at the earliest appropriate
time. They spend a lot of extra unnecessary time taking classes at MCC, which irritates them and doesn't bode well for
MCC's organizational capabilities. Sometimes they end up going elsewhere for their education and don't wait to get into the
program here that they'd prefer.
Students can refuse to take the advice of their counselor/advisor and clear policy needs to be set to address this concern.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
This sets up bad feelings between counselor and faculty. Faculty feels that they are not doing their job by letting students
take courses that they didn't test satisfactorily to take.
Too many times, students are placed in courses that fulfill the advisors area of teaching and not what is the best for the
student.
There should be an assessment of students computing skills and strongly recommend a computer course for students who
do not score well. It will only prepare them for all of their courses. Students often say they have the skill, yet do not have the
ability to demonstrate.
Advising does a very decent effort with most students. The Nursing Program does the poorest effort in advising students. My
daughter's experience with the Nursing advisement was plain terrible. Put that program back under the divisional advisors.
If a student knows what program they want to attend they should only see an advisor in that area not a counselor.
I don't think that advisors listen to the students. I have recently talked with a student who spent one year taking classes that
her advisor registered her for. None of the classes will go towards the actual degree she is seeking. She wasted one year of
her life and a lot of money.
Hit and miss. Finding out what credits transfer. Sometimes you get the run around or sense people are just putting in their
time for the job not really providing the encouragement or resources you may need.
Mandatory placement.
need to do better and earlier referrals for counseling
72.
Mott CC supports civic, social, and/or environmental issues in the area it serves.
I am very pleased with MCC's presence in the community.
The Service Learning office is a good start. Lots more can be done, however.
Faculty who do work in the community are only supported with an "Oh, that's nice." There is no meaningful recognition or
encouragement.
73.
Mott CC’s basic education or developmental offerings effectively prepare students for courses and programs.
There is sometimes an extreme difference between one instructor and another, not necessarily full-time v. part-time.
Availability of faculty, appropriateness of instruction, and preparation of students for next level courses varies widely.
We need to work on this to make it better, but this is happening.
We need more course selections for developmental classes.
The academic departments that offer these classes need to make more offerings. ENGL 098 and 099 have limited offerings,
and half way through the registration period these classes are full. Mandatory placement is not the answer. More sections
of our developmental courses is essential.
Without mandatory placement, all of our processes and wonderful programs don't have the CHANCE to prove their worth in
preparing students!
Mott is failing its student body and its faculty by allowing students to take general coursework without demonstrating ability in
reading, writing, and math. Simply taking remedial coursework is inadequate if the student does not need to meet a standard
ability or skill level before entering the general student population.
We would be better off if the placement testing requirements were upheld as mandatory placement. It is very difficult for a
teacher to instruct a "regular class” when half the class tested out in a lower level, ie. Math-021. This only causes the
developmental student to go further in the hole.
Many times nursing students are unable to compose a well written paper when they enter our program. This is after taking
ENG 101 and ENG 102!!
The developmental staff/faculty needs more support from the institution.
We never offer sufficient courses for those who are recommended or desire to take developmental courses of all types composition, reading or math.
We need to have tighter rules about students who are at developmental levels in English, reading and math taking higher
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
level classes. The "Blue Ribbon II" recommendations about this were never programmed into Datatel, and there is no
consistent info and training about this issue with college staff.
Our Gen Ed has been reduced to a "marketing for students" strategy. I sit on a Gen Ed assessment committee and it is pitiful
how little attention is paid to the Gen Ed requirement the class is supposed to have imbedded in it. Gen Ed is in dire need of
a revamp as this is not working except as a competition for students. Look at how many Gen Ed designations are on some
courses. How in the world can anyone teach the content of the course if they he/she is also focusing on 5-6 Gen Eds?????
74.
Programs and services are designed to meet the needs of those Mott CC serves.
The college needs to keep up with the changes in the workforce. New technology requires training, we need to be actively
networking with employers and develop training necessary for growth.
Transfer students do not want to waste time, (and money), on classes they do not need, or will not transfer, every other
student at Mott that is not planning to transfer wants to get training for a job.
75.
Students have convenient access to the information and resources necessary to support their learning.
Students come to Mott with a wide range of knowledge and preparation for class work. Some students are afraid to turn on a
computer and need tremendous individual "hand holding," while others are much more self-sufficient and ready to begin
independent learning. Traditional students can find time to use resources provided, others would claim, rightly or wrongly, that
they could use 24/7 access to information and resources, i.e. library, learning center, writing center, disability services, etc.
Good except for the bookstore
Convenient access includes face to face interactions with staff. The [position title] wants to do away with most face to face
interactions in favor of the convenience of "Web-based" services. Web-based services are fine for those who can access the
technology (what, 30% of the student?). But for the rest, such convenience is only a barrier to services and connection with
staff at a community college (which is an important characteristic of the community college). NOT EITHER / OR but BOTH /
AND.
The current assumption that most MCC students are better served with self online registration is misguided. Most need direct
and consistent advising services.
The information is there, but students (and employees) don't work very hard to find the info - our website has LOTS of info
and many people never use it.
Students need more computer access, simulation lab, skills learning labs. Hope Library facelift promotes more use of the
great resources there.
Web pages are far from user friendly. The home page is not clear. It does not easily point people in the direction they are
wanting to go.
The library hours seem short. However, the library is probably under utilized due to the paucity of books. While the
electronic databases are appropriate and useful, knowledge is contained in books as well. How can students write reports
without access to books?
Mott could use a new library building.
Students in Lapeer lack most all services from a writing center, to help with many disabilities, to tutoring, to a book purchasing
system. They are told to "come to Flint." Many students will not do that for a variety of reasons. I think there should be more
consideration of their needs.
76.
Divisions/departments have the data and information they need to make improvements.
Vocational Programs do a much better job of gathering data than Liberal Arts programs. Preparing transfer students well is
just as important.
Assessment results appear to be released in a remarkably slow timeframe.
They have the data and information, but lack funding to implement improvements.
Divisions/Departments have the information, but they don't always use it to make decisions...and administrators often
complain that they need "more data" but they don't use what they already have.
I don't know.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
We may have the data (it is not shared); however, we are told we have no funds or resources. How can we make
improvements?
77.
Communication occurs effectively up, down, and across different units of the organization.
This does not happen.
isolated
Part time faculty receives a newsletter from the union reps. Thank God for that newsletter. That is our main link with what is
happening on our campus. Otherwise, we rarely hear from administrators except to inform us that our classes are going to
be cancelled due to "low enrollment."
Communication in some areas is dismal.
Communication in the [department name] is currently TOP-DOWN. You have a dean ([employee name]) that gives
"Directives" only to her managers. She doesn't want their input or their expertise when it comes to students and their needs.
This coming from a [position title] ([employee name]) who treats students with contempt when they go to her for help. It's like
she wants to champion the "school of hard knocks" for the students that come to her. In fact, she has contempt for
EVERYONE but her superiors -- which is a true test of a BULLY.
MCC has improved in this area recently, but communication is vital; we can still do better.
We are all working at capacity so we are at a point of information overload. And the ability to retain only that which directly
affects your area is often the necessary norm.
We continue to have a big problem with the "us and them" behavior...with two VPs, there is little to no crossover in terms of
meetings, planning, discussion of issues. Sometimes it seems there is actually discouragement of talking and working with
"the other side"
This has improved greatly.
There is not one department in this institution that knows what another one is doing. Changes are not communicated. Many
people hold on to their knowledge as if it is some type of power that cannot be shared.
As stated earlier, some staff and faculty put their personal feelings (not objective enough) before putting what is right in their
decision making.
Employees are basically told only what the administration wants them to be told. Also the Board of Trustees and the general
public are only told what the administration wants them to be told. Access to truthful information is not freely given.
Part-time teachers have no real voice in the college.
78.
Mott CC actively encourages innovation.
Support (money, pay) for team teaching and linked classes should be considered.
Opportunities are underutilized. Staffing shortages again may mean that we are working at capacity an unable to allow for
the creative process. Especially with over half of our faculty makeup being part-time or adjunct. These folks are split
between colleges and are unable to serve this process. While full-time staff are also limited by working in access of a full-time
load.
Faculty innovation award money often goes unused and people seem to be too busy to come up with new ideas. This may
be because we are "lean", meaning we don't have any staffing layers beyond the absolute minimum, so everyone is just
trying to get their daily work done, with no time to be creative.
If you really cared about innovation, you would TRIPLE the annual innovation awards (and financial rewards) so as to
encourage more innovation in all area.
We say that we support innovation, but then we don't provide the assistance or support services that may be needed to make
it happen.
79.
Planning processes improve Mott CC’s effectiveness.
What planning processes? The administration does that by itself, and under such a model, will any change ever have a
chance at being effective?
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Comment
It's hard to plan when there are so many layers. We have accreditation criteria, AQIP categories, MCC Strat Plan objectives,
and then there's the layer of "key initiatives" which no-one really understands. We need a few carefully focused goals that
EVERYONE understands, and then we can all plan to work towards accomplishing those goals. Keep it SIMPLE!
The more elaborate planning processes need to be streamlined in order to be more focused and useful. The StratPlan has
far too many "key initiatives."
We operate from a reactionary management not a proactive mode.
80.
Divisions/departments work effectively as teams.
This is a weakness, particularly in the technology/computing area. MIS and EdSystems need to be more effectively aligned.
From a faculty perspective, MIS seems out of touch with classroom/academic use of technology. The efforts of EdSystems to
respond to academic computing needs is often undercut.
In some cases opposite sides of the house work in a vacuum regardless of the effect on the others needs and focus. And in
other instances offices collaborate on projects and goals.
Academic divisions, Student Service departments and Administrative departments never meet together, and the two VPs
never sit together with all of us at the table and talk about shared plans or resolutions to shared problems. Most of this work
is done person-to-person - we need processes where we all understand what's going on, together!
The idea is there but - again, people guard their knowledge as if it is some type of power that can't be shared.
The dept does not work well together at all.
Some divisions USED to be great teams. [department name] was one such great team. But the recent management style of
[employee name] has squelched the special connection this department had. [department name] also worked together well as
a team on the Holiday Celebration, but that was cut without explanation by the [position title]. For divisions/departments to
feel like teams, they need supportive environments... not those in which the management from the top is anything but teamoriented.
Some Divisions/Departments have a very strong team atmosphere while others are havens of individual autocracy.
Sometimes part time instructors are not on the same page as full time instructors--it seems that instead of having guidelines
for what should be taught (i.e., what chapters should be covered and what labs should accompany the lectures), each
individual gets to choose.
I believe some divisions/departments do work as teams. However, I do feel that there is a lot of separation and no
communication in some areas.
Our department works very well together. We have a wonderful department chairperson who encourages a spirit of
cooperation and harmony. However, our division doesn't seem very cohesive and it is apparent that our dean is constantly
fighting with our department chairperson. The feeling in our department is that we can go to our department chairperson for
help, but we are often stymied by our division dean. It seems to be very complicated and doesn't help us to be effective in
our jobs.
Several divisions have in recent times experienced internal conflicts that could easily have been avoided.
Some divisions and disciplines work very well together and others are a disaster.
While the full-time faculty in our department works very well together as a team, for the most part, most of the teachers in our
department are not full-time. It is still rare to see a part-time or adjunct instructor at a departmental meeting or professional
development meeting and very difficult for those, often transitory, teachers to feel any kind of connection to the department.
Who knows what's happening in their classrooms? As we have a great many part-time instructors in our high-demand
discipline, they are inadequately evaluated, much less mentored, and the Dean seems to keep on less than satisfactory
instructors in order to have enough teachers to staff our full sections.
We like to build walls between departments.
First, the climate for many part-timers is not a good one. It starts with being hired but never introduced at the staff breakfast.
Even though they too are part of the college, the college deems it unnecessary for them to receive that courtesy. Then, they
are expected to attend meetings, always at the central campus and never at the satellite campuses, for which they are not
compensated, with people they barely know. They cannot vote in meetings. My concerns and suggestions have been
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
81.
Comment
brushed aside, even rudely at times. It is hard to feel a valued part of a team. I think these issues need to be raised,
discussed, and resolved. Full-time faculty needs to have an understanding of part-time issues, and the departments need to
treat part-timers with respect, not disdain.
Mott CC balances individual and collective work effectively.
Increasingly difficult for full-time faculty to run all the committees necessary since most faculty are now part-time and not
required to serve. Perhaps paying them for committees and meetings would help
Not in my department. Would help a lot of supervisor sat in our office for a couple of days to see what really goes on. Then
s/he would be a little more sensitive when s/he is 'dumping' stuff that there is just not time or staff for.
There seems to be a good balance. Unfortunately not enough people feel involved to help with the collective work, and the
few who excel in the collective work are stretched too thin on committees because there are not enough of the people to do
the work. This relates to the fact that we have fewer and fewer full-time faculty. Part time faculty do not (nor should not) be
responsible for collective work.
This is a very subjective question...it depends upon how one defines "effectively"...
I've often heard that 90% of the work is done by 10% of people, that is anything above and beyond the parameters of our job.
I don't feel I can answer this question fairly as it is outside the realm of my experience at MCC.
Many individuals are over worked while others do nothing or very little.
Comments in response to end questions
No.
Question/Response(s)
82.
How would you describe your current level of enthusiasm and/or reservation for improving the institution
through the use of systematic quality improvement? Why?
It feels great to belong to a company/school that is forward thinking and progressive. Everyone wants to belong to
something that has a future, or potential for growth.
Any quality improvement is essential for the institution and its stake-holders.
I am very enthused about AQIP. I like the idea of becoming a forward-thinking, forward-moving institution as opposed to
continuing as an institution that periodically looks back on its progress and then expends energy addressing problems
and concerns after the fact. That just seems counter productive.
Satisfied. This sort of a process demonstrates that the college is making attempts to improve its performance.
I will be retiring soon. I have seen more processes to evaluate & improve this institution than fleas on a dogs back. It is
usually the same house with just a different paint job. Under the college really gets what we are about it will never
change. Administrators come & go the only solid, stable force at the college is the faculty and the staff that supports
academics directly.
I have no enthusiasm left.
Not real enthusiastic
I am very excited about the opportunity. I personally have always been focused on quality improvement, probably
because of my previous employment experiences, where it was required. It helps provide focus on why we do what we
do (or should do).
Enthusiasm is low now due to so many set-backs and lack of support.
not too excited, because it is very difficult to change the structure of how to support new initiatives in a budget crisis
I'm quite enthusiastic about this process. We have committed faculty and staff who are resourceful and excited about
their work here.
Not very enthusiastic. Have seen the same things done in the past and come to nothing.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
Low.
Moderate enthusiasm. The potential to improve is great, however, obtaining cooperation from the staff may not occur.
There are some negative people who have been here longer who say this has already been tried. Time is a huge issue
that must be considered. I would like to become more involved, but my current workload is more than enough.
Not very enthusiastic, because everyone has to buy in to improving and everyone is not open to change quickly or at all.
There are many bosses that have bosses and the bosses don't agree and even if it is a good suggestions, it could be
stopped. Thus, it very difficult.
Poor. With a sick dean who is trying to destroy certain disciplines within, nothing positive is available or growth for that
matter.
Good
I’m very enthusiastic about improving quality within the staff and building effective communication. Also, recognition of
accomplishments. I’m not sure that the college system itself needs to be improved.
I would rate my enthusiasm as high for the systematic use of quality improvement. Appears to be objective, and offers
the opportunity to have clear conversation about expectations, goals, and performance. Puts things in writing, so that
both parties are on the same page with the same understanding.
LOW because of low esteem in the personnel
Will it mesh with existing processes or do we have to again re-create, re-format, what we already collect, report, validate,
etc. for other external agencies to "fit" the AQIP format? Inefficient use of staff and faculty time when this exercise is
imposed and have to recycle information to follow a prescribed "tool" that requests the same information in a different
way. This was an inherent problem with the program review process from the Curriculum Office.
I'm not sure at this time, I’d like an opportunity to see it be carried out further
If it gets the different unions to recognize their impact on each other rather than the mind-set the faculty, staff and
administration act independently.
I strongly believe in improving the institution.
Good. I believe in quantifying data.
I'm not really sure what that means.
0 enthusiasm because this game is fixed
I am excited that an established process will provide the "map" that will allow us the opportunity to measure our success.
I am excited about the progress that is being made on the campus. I am looking forward to the continuing growth and
improvements in the coming year.
My enthusiasm for improving the institution is fairly high. However, I'm always skeptical of anything called "systematic"...
it sounds mechanical, dehumanizing.
Cautiously optimistic
I'm always for improvement. Improvement betters employee working conditions and enhances the learning process for
the students.
My level of enthusiasm is somewhat between low to mid-range. I fully support a systematic way for improving MCC;
however, I wonder if we're really dedicated to improvement or are we "going through the motions" to ensure that we
remain accredited.
I have great ideas but low incentive since I only make 18, 000 per year and the 22 yr old student I had in class got hired
for a computer job here and make 41k. Go figure.
Low level. Looks like just another fad - more meetings and more plans to sit on a shelf.
Systematic quality improvement is great if the system has enough built-in flexibility to be useful to every
department/program to which it's applied. Some systems can be designed with such rigidity that they cannot be
universally useful. That causes frustration and resentment to build among those who are asked to comply.
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that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
I am very enthusiastic for improving the institution through the use of systematic quality improvement. I would love to
see everyone more involved with MCC and its improvement.
I am eternally optimistic.
Very good
Much enthusiasm. Involving everyone should be a good thing.
I am extremely enthusiastic about systematic quality improvement, because it will serve as a formal structured method
that forces us to collaborate across departments and divisions, communicate more often and more inclusively, and
document procedures. It can't be bad, even though it will create added work.
Not familiar with it.
It does not motivate me, personally. I think the college is trying very hard to improve by offering many opportunities for
faculty and staff involvement. That's good.
Ok. need it
I'm very hopeful. Because the college agreed to embark on this new way of doing things. Dissatisfaction with the status
qui seems to be pervasive.
I am very hopeful because I see systematic quality improvement as a personal challenge. I am enthusiastic because I
see this quality in my fellow faculty members, and it is that which feeds my enthusiasm.
High level of enthusiasm.
Hopeful but skeptical, jaded. Insufficient value placed upon faculty suggestions and recommendations in the past.
I don't know enough about the process to feel either enthusiasm or reservation; however, I am receptive to learning new
strategies.
I'm all for positive change.
Level is high
I think it is a good idea because the school needs to continuously evaluate itself to maintain a high quality product for the
students.
I would like to see it work, but doubt that we will get far
I am very enthusiastic about Mott Community College improving. I feel that Mott is a great place to work for the faculty
and to learn for the students. There is always room for improvement.
I'm willing to be onboard for anything that improves student retention, satisfaction and success.
Enthusiasm is low because I don't see any results.
My enthusiasm is high however the amount of work placed in on individuals to determine the needs may be too much.
Very Positive if used correctly with open access and regard to improvement.
I am very enthused. I just hope this does not go the way of other programs
My enthusiasm is great.
Hopefully it will identify needs and those needs will be addressed.
I am cautiously optimistic because it seems like everyone will have to contribute and I wonder if that many people are
willing to devote the time and energy needed to make this a success.
Once I know what it is, I might be very enthusiastic. Right now, it sounds like more of the same buzz words (i.e.
empower, proactive, value added, client focused, best practices, synergy, core competencies etc) that simple mean
nothing really changes.
Very enthusiastic.
High enthusiasm
I am cautiously enthusiastic. Too often data is collected but logical actions do not result. It is frustrating when decisions
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they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
are made by ignoring the views of the people who will be affected.
Having used QI techniques in the past, I am very enthusiastic. I haven’t seen the concept in action and it does lead to
improvement.
Good.
Not very high. I believe that we over analyze things until it becomes to obscure. We have too many committees and it
seems that it is always the same people who are involved in these committees.
Average
Very important to my job and i would not improve a thing about it.
I am greatly interested in improving the institution. I love MCC very much. I love teaching here. I love the people I work
with and the students in every class I teach. Mott is like my second home. I want it to flourish each year.
I know that we can improve and would love to help improve it.
I am definitely in favor of the process. I hope my colleagues feel the same way. This process is a necessary evil for any
institution!
I think it is great that the college is trying to get feedback and striving to improve. I'm not sure how effective it will be since
initial enthusiasm is always high for these type of things and then wanes.
ok
I have become very dissatisfied with the educational climate at Mott. It is almost impossible to generate new and
innovative programs and pass them through CPSC.
Cautiously optimistic because MCC has (like many institutions) historically fallen victim to current fads in education and
training. If AQUIP proves to been an effective system for integrating positive changes, it could be a wonderful tool that
will be eagerly embraced.
Systematic quality improvement if all level of employees are involved with he decisions and expected outcomes will be
detrimental to the effectiveness of the program. The more commitment that is given from employees to stated goals will
improve its own concepts and thus the employee wanting to make the change.
I am always enthusiastic about the improvement the college takes to improve its programs.
I am very happy with what I see is happening with technology in the classroom.
AQUIP strategy seems reasonable and preferable to a look-back approach. Just hope it doesn't require needless
paperwork.
I think it will be a good process due to its ongoing nature and its inclusive involvement. Success may depend on the
projects chosen and the amount of 'work' people at various levels will have to do. More work on goals and objectives
can get tiresome to both faculty and administrators.
Not enough information has been given out to understand the specifics of how this is going to be used at Mott. I have
been involved with quality programs in business and understand how formal quality programs, when instituted can work
or be used but a great deal of specific information needs to be brought forth before I could give any kind of opinion or
express either enthusiasm or reservation.
Excited about the future.
Very high. I love my job, love this college, and I want to see it improve.
I believe that if we work together we will reach our goals, but we need to remember that there is more that one fix for
what appears to be the same situation.
I want to go gung ho, but face legacy issues all the time.
Not sure
I'm hopeful...waiting to see.
Don't know
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
I have been involved and supportive. However, having seen a number of earlier plans for self improvement in past years
I remain a bit skeptical
I have high spirit that Mott College is and has the cutting edge.
I do not feel that I am a part of any process. Past accomplishments are dismantled by current management. Past efforts
to streamline work and initiate cost savings are ignored
I am very excited about the possibility of making improvements through quality assurance. This will benefit all staff and
faculty members.
ok
Very excited. By getting everyone involved, at all levels, perhaps we will all begin to see the "big picture" and work
together more effectively, with less regard for personal interests.
I don't know what "Systematic quality improvement" involves.
I love my job and am enthused about any improvement MCC can make. All improvements help from administration to
staff to students.
Enthusiastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeh, for AQIP. We have the makings of a great, positive, effective institution; our efforts have to be
concise and united.
Having served on North Central Teams in the past, I believe a sustained effort would be better. The key is not to fill file
cabinets but to actually gather meaningful data and provide faculty with tools and resources to work with.
Recently the gloves have been lifted from my hands, but now I am doing so much I can barely keep up. It feels good.
In more than 33 years of education at a variety of levels, I have found that "systematic quality improvement" is a sham.
Employees say what is expected of them, don't have a realistic/honest view of what is happening, have identified (or
have had identified for them) issues not central to the quality of education.
Quite reserved.
Still enthusiastic regarding institutional improvement. However, stop having the Strategic Plans published and never
revisited or updated. Utilize the Tuesday meeting for this important aspect.
It is very much needed. It would be an effective use of resources and energy. It would help us target where to focus our
efforts.
Weary. It's important work, but it sometimes gets in the way of doing my job day-to-day.
I can't say that I’m personally enthused, but realize that the institution is committed to Aqip
Enthusiasm is high. We will be able to improve the quality of teaching and development.
I am optimistic.
Skeptical -- it's not clear how or why this system would bring about more substantive change or bring it about more
quickly.
I believe strongly in the AQIP model, but I have extreme reservations about the commitment at the most senior levels.
I enjoy this job very much, I love teaching, I have been teaching for over 20 years and when I was employed by Mott I
couldn't have been happier. I enjoy working with all the instructors in our area.
High. It is a very good community college
Tremendously supportive.
I'm excited about the possibilities.
I am very enthusiastic. In the year I have work here I am impressed with the optimistic view of both the administration
and faculty/staff. I do feel there is a sense of continual interest in learning.
My enthusiasm is high but I have very serious reservations about whether the organization is willing to commit the
necessary resources to actually make this happen in a meaningful way
Very enthusiastic! I see it as an opportunity for everyone to get involved in improving MCC. No longer can an employee
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
used the excuse that they were not asked to get involved.
I have no idea what you are asking here.
I don't mind being part of it. Give me some data and point me in a direction where I can be useful. Why? Because when
it comes down to basics, MCC is ME. From one, many.
My perception is that there is a core group that is very enthusiastic, however the rest of the College isn't informed enough
about the plan/process yet to be as excited. Perhaps after conversation day there will be more enthusiasm surrounding
AQIP.
I am enthusiastic but concerned that this will become such a bogged down system of committees, etc. that very little
overall improvement will be accomplished quickly
I have high hopes. Something must work.
Low. Because I have not been fully explained these systematic quality improvements.
At this time I still do not know all that is involved in the process. I do however like the idea of all working here being
involved in the process.
I am moderately enthused. I hope that we put all the information collected to good use!
Currently my enthusiasm is moderate!
Not very. Dept is not together.
I lack much enthusiasm because I'm hoping to retire after this academic year.
We are having a change in leadership and I have hope that a new emphasis may emerge; along with the Michigan
governor's request for more college graduates. More students leaving with an associate degree in an employable
profession.
I am always optimistic that improvement can be made.
I feel that most improvements will happen as a result of individual effort. I see few results from group and committee
efforts. Therefore, I have little enthusiasm for group or systematic efforts.
Generally low enthusiasm because of the inequities that still exist after the extensive effort put into job descriptions and
classifications, which was supposed to be part of a systematic method of quality improvement.
Mild enthusiasm...been through this before
Low. We do this every few years and things never change.
Moderate to low. The real answer is to hire and support good people. Institutionalized processes cannot replace
integrity and commitment.
Medium. It seems many of those who have been around for a long time are unwilling to participate in such things,
making it harder to get things done.
High, I believe that MCC has a diverse group of individuals which much to offer, and if brought together could do great
things.
I am excited for the possibility of a more comprehensive collaborative method for evaluating and improving the college's
performance.
To me, the quality I aim for is in the classroom. Anything that takes my attention away from that diminishes my work.
Systemic quality improvement cannot be institutionalized but merely encouraged on the individual level. But I am
enthusiastic that our faculty is doing that. We need, however, better information on what other divisions are doing.
I know that this will be a lot of work but we have to start somewhere. AQIP forces us to look to the future of MCC for our
accreditation rather than digging up old data and information from the past.
I would be somewhat reserved. People are already so busy doing their jobs--it is somewhat difficult to take on additional
tasks.
I am very enthusiastic about the AQIP approach as it includes everyone's valuable input.
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that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
No real opinion
Moderate enthusiasm
concerns of part time and adjunct have not been a priority among decision makers in the past
My enthusiasm is very high, I'm glad to know they are trying to make improvements. Hopefully, with the help of AQUIP
communication will improve as well as having an overall "team players" attitude.
Highly Enthusiastic.
Apathy
Very skeptical. Administrators are too concerned about 'show' and CYA then really developing a functional plan for the
area.
I am optimistic about improving MCC through the use of systematic quality improvement because this seems to be
unique to anything we have tried before.
I think the effort to improve the institution is absolutely vital to the college sustaining its significance to all of the different
entities we serve, and I'm committed to the process. The only reservation I have about this process is being forced to
interact with individuals who are not open-minded, who may not view the process as constructive and may be a little too
sensitive to explore the possibilities, different or new ways of doing things.
I would be enthused if the college follows through. We have started so many plans in the past only to have it left on a
shelf getting dusty.
My current level of enthusiasm is high.
It may open our eyes to see what we are really at instead of what we think we are at. But I believe it will start out with
enthusiasm.
Neutral
The current stat of the economy has everyone "down".
This is the great place to work. I think the AQIP process will make it even better if the focus is on student success.
Slightly enthusiastic. The funding issues can change the institution's resolve towards improvements.
I sat through my first orientation meeting for the department this fall and it was lousy. I won't go to another unless
someone who actually cares takes charge of it.
I'm very enthusiastic about the use of the systematic quality improvement. Administrators, faculty and staff are the key
individuals involved in all aspects of the college and know best how to evaluate its effectiveness.
It will make each department accountable for their functions and make their functions clearer to all the other
departments.
I've taught at MCC for four weeks, so I cannot answer this question productively.
I would like to feel that my students are benefiting from my instruction as well as from the other courses that they take at
Mott. Methods that improve my effectiveness are appreciated.
Very excited about this process
This is a great opportunity for Mott to soar. Changing the environment and mindset of improving our institution
continually and involving everyone WILL make a difference.
I am excited!
I believe strongly in systematic quality improvement, but I also believe that it takes much more time and energy than this
institution is willing to invest. Every employee at every level of the organization needs to understand what "quality" or
"continuous" means and how it applies to them and their jobs. I don't see that happening.
Elusive! Passionate when I do find it. I do believe in the institution and would like to see it improve. I disagree with the
process. I don’t think the process currently in place achieves what it sets out to do, systematically improve quality! This
survey is an example of just that. It leaves out many functions of the college. Not enough on the role of administrators.
Data that is not comprehensive, valid or reliable cannot lead to inferences that are meaningful.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
I have no enthusiasm for improvement because the same people who created the breaks between departments do not
want to fix them. So there can not be any quality improvement. They say they will fix it, they say the politically correct
thing, they tell the people what they wants to hear, but in the end there still is the breaks that continue to get wider and
no effort is made to repair them.
My level of enthusiasm for improving the institution through the use of systematic quality improvement is high. My
reservations are 1) I do not want to be evaluated by an administrator who has harassed me in the past, and 2) I don't
want an emphasis on quality to turn into a "weeding out" of disadvantaged and under prepared students.
Strong
I really know very little about it, but I would hope that the College would be honest about things.
I'm very supportive of the quality process mainly because it should help to develop system approach thinking and a team
approach to solving problems.
Low- because the leadership does not want to hear from the rest of the campus.
STATUS QUO/IF ITS NOT BROKEN WHY FIX IT
It is high. Perhaps this system will encourage more talking and collaboration. I used to know almost everyone who
worked here. Now I don't know many people outside of my immediate area. We don't have social events, a cafeteria,
even campus-wide meetings where we talk with each other. I hope this system will help restore some of this.
I think it is a good thing, but we must be committed to quality improvement, not just using this as a means to receive
accreditation.
My enthusiasm for Mott grows with each year. I feel that this college offers so much to its student body and that the plan
to improve quality is evident in the department meetings and discussions.
Don't know yet.
I believe in quality improvement and have a high degree of enthusiasm so long as it is not used as a manipulation
instrument.
I like the idea of a new measuring system of continuing improvement.
I am doing my part by doing my job. Anything extra I would expect to get paid for all the hours I work and perhaps a
raise.
High, let's avoid the 2 years of frantic work covering past highlights and be proactive and goal oriented.
I would really like to see a known process for requests; our department has made repeated requests for space for over 5
years. Meanwhile space beneath our department for 2 school years, more space will be available soon. We are meeting
with an architect and still we are told it is "not promised space" just an analysis and we will not receive most of the space
requested
I am certain that on the whole we have spent and will continue to spend tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of
hours looking for "systematic quality improvement," all for little gain.
I am cautiously enthusiastic concerning the process, but I always look forward to opportunities.
reserved/better direction
I've been involved with many of these processes through the years. Lots of work to make a nice thick report that no one
ever reads or follows.
My personal conviction and commitment are immense.
not very--its another mandate that we do not have the time to do
I am very passionate about change. Change can only happen through self evaluation and movements towards good.
If we had regular input it could make a difference.
There is always room for improvement. People who do not think so are dead weight. You can not move forward with
dead weight.
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that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
Mott needs to stay on top of enrollment opportunities
very satisfying
I have some reservations, to often things are sent to committees and time is spent on improvements and more meetings,
but nothing is ever done with the outcome of the recommendations.
my enthusiasm is high. I think upper management needs to listen to faculty more.
Not very high to not at all enthusiastic. Why? The top down, high authoritarian management style that is not inclusive,
does not seek information consistently says "do what I say" and "don't bother me with the facts, the details, or the
experience". Then when processes don't work, more students feel disenfranchised as was predictable, staff and faculty
are supposed to "fix it" - meaning more work in an already over-worked environment. Doing more with less time, staff,
and resources does not nor will ever produce enthusiasm.
I'm very hopeful because this approach requires objectives to be adopted and outcomes to be measured.
I am enthusiastic about systematic quality improvement. I am hoping that it includes real training for people on the front
lines. Especially for those that believe they have a clear understanding of our policies and procedures but don't.
upbeat
Very important, and excited.
Enthusiastic about the possibility of improvement; not enthusiastic about added work.
I have high hopes for the future of the college, if people keep their egos out of it and realize the student is the "customer"
and the customer comes first.
Restrained - I'm not sure "everyone" really buys into this. I'm not sure top administration will be able to allow us to do
what we currently do and lump this new work on.
Good,
I have seen the positive effects of a focus on process improvement. MCC's culture can be developed to adopt this focus
once individuals understand the benefits.
I have some reservation for improving the institution through systematic quality improvement because there are some
people at MCC who are not aware of the details of your department.
I would greatly appreciate a plan for systematic quality improvement.
I believe MCC is a great two year college. But I know that there is always room for improvement. I am always excited
about improvements.
I think overall faculty and staff has a high level interest in quality improvements at Mott. Because if we don't strive and/or
look for new ways of quality and make improvements we not be able to prepare students for a changing world in the
future. We must change if for future world needs.
As a lifelong resident of this community, a graduate of MCC, and a long time employee of the college, I take pride in my
place of work as well as all contributions that I can make towards its improvement.
I buy into improving MCC through systematic quality improvement. To better serve our students.
Not excited but willing to help.
My level of enthusiasm is very high. I believe that any school should strive to improve its effectiveness. However, a
calculated, well planned approach is necessary for it to work effectively.
It's about time to evaluate what happens at Mott each year and not once every 10 years of status quo. I look forward to
the process and the changes that will come about because of it!
It is something that needs to be done. I strongly prefer a proactive approach to one of looking over the shoulder to see
where we've been.
Since first coming to the college just a few years ago, I have been very optimistic and enthusiastic that I'm in a position to
impact students and the institution as a whole through my work. With the college's efforts to look at wide institutional
change via AQIP, I am even more charged to do my part for the betterment of this community, the students we serve,
and the faculty & staff who carry it out.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
High enthusiasm because I simply love MCC.
All companies and institutions could use systematic quality improvement. I'm very enthusiastic, but reserved. Too many
organizations talk the talk but fail to walk the talk.
You mean number crunching? Demmings' "reduce people to numbers only"? Not enthused about that at all, thanks.
"Systematic Quality Improvement"... it comes down to safe working environments where people feel valued and like to
show up for work, the rest of the improvement will follow. People don't like working in the student services area... due to
the current management style. Even the most dedicated and enthusiastic personnel have begun to complain, lose their
spirit and begin looking for other jobs. That's a tragedy.
Hopefully, but unlikely with some departments due to the present styles of managers in place.
I am excited anything is worth a try.
I am somewhat skeptical about how this is going to bring improvements to the College. Probably because of a lack of
understanding of the process.
I am enthusiastic for setting goals & evaluating the progress on a regular basis - but it needs to be done and goals need
to be specific and discussed between employee and supervisor.
High, very high enthusiasm. Any business venture, rather private or public, has no finish line. The world is changing
faster and more violently. Systems have to be continuously tweaked and refocused to stay on target. Challenges and
technologies change on a daily basis, system that worked for 100 years may not survive the next five minutes.
much improved and hopeful
I think that any measures to improve the institution for future and current students are a good thing. Our students are our
customers, and providing a good solid education and all of the things that support the students in being successful is
what the institution should be concerned with.
I am very enthusiastic about AQIP because I believe it will make a difference for students, faculty, staff and
administration in the way we communicate and improve our work.
I'm very enthusiastic. The process allows everyone to get involved, which is key to its success. Continuous quality
improvement processes have been very successful in the private sector. There's so much to gain from this.
The concept of systematic quality improvement looks great on paper.
My worry is that the part-time/adjunct faculty
will be overlooked. Full-timers are contractually required to attend various meetings, but the part-time/adjunct faculty
probably will not attend unless remuneration is offered.
Very positive, Quality improvement is a must in all walks of life.
Very reserved. It has not happened in the past and many employees are skeptical. We hear collaboration and SEE the
opposite. Many changes in current administration philosophy will have to change.
High. It would help the institution effectively serve Students/Faculty/Staff
I happen to be very enthusiastic about the use of systematic quality improvement. It gives me great confidence not only
as an employee but also as a student.
My level of enthusiasm is high for improvement of our quality of services we offer to the community.
I am enthusiastic about the process. I think a lot of misconceptions that people have about what works and what doesn't
work will be clarified and that we will have a chance to really make some leaps of improvement in areas that still need
work.
I enjoy my part time position.
I am hopeful that the quality improvement will open communication between departments and divisions, rather than
areas continuing to be territorial.
Was involved with a company who used ISO9000 standards and even though it seemed with guidelines things would
improve, there were still errors occurring which would lead to meetings to resolve the errors which I feel wastes more
money and time.
Very.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
I am very excited that the college wants to go through this process. I just hope that we will end up with a program that is
viable. Our college needs to go through a period of revitalization and we need to believe that our administrators are
people who think and have a vision for our school. We need our administrators to convey that vision to the rest of us and
up to this point, I feel that communication of vision has been very lacking.
I am very enthused. You need to always strive for quality improvement or you will be end up providing a service that may
be inferior or outdated.
Management typically has special interests and the favor these areas. I have lived through several changes and the
changes mirror their pet projects. All I can hope for is that someday we will get management that views the entire
college on an equal basis throughout the entire institution.
Very enthused. I'll do whatever it takes for the good of the institution.
Good idea but I'm concerned that it will cause more red tape and the need to expend valuable resources on paperwork
instead of on the key issues facing the college.
High and low. High because I would love to see change around here and low because there is a lot of retaliation for
speaking up around here.
Quality of all of our tasks can be improved by utilizing the tools provided by TQM, ISO or any other system (they are all
about the same, with about the same tools). I'm quite enthusiastic about bringing systematic measurement and analysis
techniques to MCC.
It this survey is an example of "systematic quality improvement"; my answer is "Bah-humbug". The survey is written in a
format designed to produce a "cheerleading session".
Excited that through this collaboration process the College will learn how to tear down walls and build the bridges
necessary to become a institution that accepts continuous improvement.
Mild. Hard to believe that theory X managers will get onboard.
I look forward to the opportunity to actively participate on November 4, 2005.
I'm always open to improving the institution by whatever means necessary because improvement benefits all involved
i.e., students, faculty, staff and administration.
It depends on what the systematic quality improvement consists of.
It sounds like a lot of work. But if the load were shared among employees and clearly communicated then I feel we will
be successful.
I'm relatively neutral. I do like the involvement of employees to enhance the work environment.
High as long as the systematic paperwork is minimal.
High - Enthusiasm - because the administration is always making changes in the way of improvement and I look forward
to the future here at MCC.
83.
Overall, how would you describe your professional satisfaction at Mott CC?
On a scale of 1 to 10, 7.
I have worked at several colleges over my professional career and I must say MCC ranks at the top of my list. I love the
school, the new found MCC pride, the landscape and the students.
I enjoy my limited role as an adjunct prof.
I appreciate the opportunities I have been given to participate in discussions and serve/assist with committees geared
toward improving our work environment and the services and programs offered by MCC. I make a greater effort and feel
much greater job satisfaction when I feel my opinions and efforts are not being discounted or looked down on because I
am support staff member.
I am truly satisfied. No situation is perfect but MCC offers good support for the faculty.
Very satisfied, because when I walk in my classroom, I can do what I do best and that is teach. My students learn
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
because of me and often times in spite of the college. I am appalled and very disappointed that a day for teaching and
learning has been eliminated, so every one can go to one big MEETING. This is something that could have been done
during report back week. It shows a phenomenal lack of understanding what we are about.
Currently unsatisfied. Involvement as a staff member is not being encouraged. Lack of involvement leads to lack of
caring.
I love teaching here, however, my opportunities are quite limited and thus I look for opportunities elsewhere and am
unable to give Mott 100% as I would like.
Not satisfied
Mott College hires good people.
I love Mott and plan to stay here until I retire. I have worked other places before coming here and this is a great place to
work. Even though we have issues, we are still one of the best community colleges in the state.
O.K. not great, just O.K.
Average
While I am satisfied with many individual colleagues, I believe that our campus operations could be much more selfaware and beneficial to all.
I love my work and my students. I am satisfied with my salary. I make a living wage. I feel decent collegiality with my
fellow faculty members. I'm happy to report to work except when I have time consuming meetings to attend that don't
mean anything to the overall scheme of life at the college.
Within the department/division it is high.
I am very satisfied with Mott. Mott treats it faculty well. We are well compensated and receive many benefits. Mott
encourages its staff to improve and provides opportunities and funds to do so. My division is well run and I trust my
boss. The teamwork at the division level needs improvement.
Overall, I am satisfied here at MCC, and I looking forward to this process and the change that can occur as a result of it,
which would add to my professional satisfaction completely.
Poor. The administration has no idea what is going on in the classroom. The [position title] has done nothing to replace
the old administration of [employee name]. No even a secretary. Poor management skills.
Good
I am 50/50 about my satisfaction some people are very professional however, there are times when we have meetings
just to have meetings and when you leave the meeting it feels there hasn't been a lot accomplished. Other times we will
be mis-informed about activities/ events or not notified of activities/ events happening at all.
Very high. Although there are always areas of improvement individually, departmentally, and institutionally, I have found
my department to be very receptive and flexible in listening to ideas, even though the ideas are not always implemented.
low...because of low esteem and trust
Frustration. A continual battle for appropriate consideration/approval of the identified needs and action for improvement.
Having to validate/justify successful processes to higher authority when a student disagrees, to name a few examples...
Good.
This is the best institution I have ever worked for. I enjoy working here, but I would like to have a full time position in the
department I work in. I have skills that would allow me to compete for positions in other departments, but I like the
department I work for and my department needs me.
Excellent. A wonderful place to work
I am satisfied with the courses I teach, the students I have the privilege to meet, and the staff in Lapeer. I am much less
satisfied with elements of the main campus.
I still love to work here - but because of the students. I have to forget about this admin and our faculty union. they have
both sold us out
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
Very high!
I am proud to be a part of this establishment where I can provide safety for employees, students, and staff. My chain of
command is very professional and does an outstanding job.
Generally fairly high. I believe that I've been allowed a fair degree of autonomy and support from the college in the
creation and development of a successful program. However, that support has always been tentative and, at times,
missing, when it comes to maintaining the professional standards we've aimed to achieve.
It is a great place to be -- best place I have ever worked. It does continue to provide frustration -- it is hard to get
everyone on the same page.
100% satisfied, I thoroughly enjoy working for the College and with the staff/students.
I would say that my satisfaction level is mid-range. Working within an educational environment is personally fulfilling for
me because I can see to some degree how I fit into the scheme of things relative to assisting students in achieving their
life/career goals. MCC can stand to improve employee personal job satisfaction goals by ensuring that opportunities exist
for career mobility and promotion. There should be more promoting from within instead of a focus on hiring external
candidates to fill positions. We need to value more the wealth of experience and qualifications that MCC employees
have.
I like the faculty people I work with, but we do have little if any positive feedback from our dean or the V.P of academic
affairs. Medium satisfaction.
MCC is a wonderful place to work with many opportunities to grow professionally and to serve an important role in the
community.
As a long-term, part-time temp, I have been extremely satisfied with my job here at Livingston M-TEC while I work to
complete my graduate degrees. My supervisor is exceptional, the best I've encountered during my working life. I'm eager
to come to work each day. My days are busy and productive. I've seen great improvements in the operation of this facility
since I arrived. And I think I've had a positive influence on those changes.
I am satisfied that every day I am learning more and more by working at MCC.
I am well pleased with MCC.
Pleasing
Okay, but very few opportunities for advancement.
I am very satisfied professionally with MCC as an employer. The culture has changed positively into one of increased
trust and continues to strive to improve the lives of its constituents and the overall community. What a great incentive to
do a good job every day.
Okay.
Generally very satisfied. At any job there will be problems; I choose to take THIS set over another set!
ok, could be better
I feel that my direct supervisor respects my work. However, I feel other areas of the college don't understand and
undervalue the work of my office. I know of one administrator, entirely outside of my division, who thinks my whole area
should be dissolved.
I enjoy my work, but I am not satisfied that all that needs to be accomplished is being addressed.
Very satisfied.
Very high. Effectively teaching within my discipline with internationally successful students.
I have enjoyed my 17 years at MCC, particularly during the last decade, when technological advancements have been
prevalent.
I enjoy working here at Mott.
Very satisfied
good
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
Very good.
I love Mott College, and all the people in it. We do not have institutional leadership that will carry us forward with all the
changes coming in the next few years.
Extremely disappointing
I think that MCC could be stronger professional, and when MCC starts showing its strength and becomes a great
communication center, I will start feeling more satisfied professional.
I'm very happy here.
Unsatisfied because the part time faculty don't have a voice in any decision making within a dept. Often they are the
ones with more work experience and can offer the students more and they left are left at the mercy of the full time faculty.
primarily due to poor leadership within depts.
Excellent
Very high
I love mcc. I think most of the staff and faculty are the best; however, there are a few stinkers. I wish their people skills
and teaching skills could be improved
improvements could be made
I love teaching my classes. I enjoy working here. I do not have a degree; however I do not really have an incentive to
continue my education. There is no room for more full time positions in our department. I put a lot of extra time into my
class and have a busy schedule outside of this place. I work part time, and have for 9 years. I don't really see the benefit
of spending money & time to go to school to teach the same classes I am teaching already.
I enjoy my position and feel it has an impact on students. However, I feel as though our department is considered the
bottom of the food chain. Decisions are not made on need or how to better service but are strictly economic and what
services in the best interest of the administration.
Very satisfied
I LOVE it! I am very happy as a professional!
I am very satisfied with my job here at Mott, however I wish that the college would offer more professional development
seminars/workshops for the staff and not just the faculty. I believe the staff should be more informed as to what is new
and innovative.
I love Mott Community College
satisfied
An eight on a scale of 1 to 10.
I am highly satisfied with the current work environment and policies.
Good
Very satisfied.
Satisfactory
It's a great place to work.
I hope to continue working for MCC for another 20 years or so because of the important people that work with me i have
had a continued education in the art of fellow works duties and chores .
I am greatly satisfied professionally here at MCC.
I feel very blessed to be an educator at MCC, and hope to be here for many more years. I just really feel that our
reputation for PR is very poor in the education field.
I feel Mott is a professional institution.
I am proud to say that I am an employee of MCC. Other people in my discipline across the state recognize the good work
that is going on here as well.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
It is a good place to work. Good benefits, pay, atmosphere. I believe the management structure and quality could
improve however.
ok
Fair. It has diminished over the years.
For more than fifteen years, MCC has been a terrific place to work. Over the past 5-7 years, the atmosphere has
chanced tremendously; and, the changes have not been positive for students nor faculty. Students face the reality of
having to pay fees for practically everything---parking, college catalogs, printing fees, technology fees, etc. Academic
freedom is being eroded by efforts to standardize processes.
Very satisfied
I am very satisfied. I have been asked to go to consider teaching full time at other universities and I have turned them
down.
I love my job but feel over-worked and underpaid.
I think MCC is a very good place to work--good people, good standards, good benefits and opportunities.
HIGH...
Very satisfied professionally
High.
My professional satisfaction when I started here at Mott was great. Over the years it has come to my attention that the
powers that be (whomever that is) pigeon holes you into a certain job and it is darn near impossible to move from there
even after completing a higher level degree. We should have a program in place for those of us staffers who choose to
better themselves by obtaining a degree.
Above Average. Just a few thorns under the saddle. Especially with Student Services. Makes my job hard when we do
everything we can do to discourage students from Mott.
I would welcome more professional development opportunities/funding for Staff.
Satisfied.
Somewhat satisfied
I have been generally very satisfied with my professional satisfaction at MCC. I have been able to pursue a number of
interests beyond my usual academic area.
My professional satisfaction has been great. I'm willing to do what it take for the cause of the college. This is a great
place to work for.
Very poor
GOOD
Overall I am satisfied with the professionalism of the college. The administration should be aware that they need to be
more visible throughout the college area and take an interest in what areas of improvements are needed by its staff.
I am very satisfied.
good
I have been here at MCC for a somewhat short period of time but thus far, I am satisfied with the various options for
professional growth
its getting better all the time
I think that MCC is a great place to work, with excellent salary and benefits. The fact that it is governed by a board that is
less than involved/informed on issues, other than to attend community events (they rubber stamp administrative
directives to a large extent) and that the institution is run by the faculty contract are concerns.
It is fine. I get the support and materials and suggestions and advice that I ask for. Students are responsive and attentive
most of the time.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
I am very happy professionally at Mott CC. I love what I do and find that I have lots of support to learn the things I do not
know.
I love Mott, I went here as an under-grad and when this position became available I wanted to take it, even though it was
a $25,000 pay cut for me. I love Mott!
Satisfied. There is always more to do than time allows.
I love what I do; I feel pity for those who don't look forward to coming to work. If you hate your job, or are trying to get
away with doing as little as possible, get a different job and let us fill your shoes with some one enjoys what they do, and
thus enjoys their life. Everybody has bad days, but everyday can't be a bad day.
I enjoy working at Mott CC. There is a great deal of autonomy, to complete the work one is expected to complete. I
have been able, so far, to avoid the deleterious and ubiquitous committees, which, again in my experience, are folly.
Very satisfied
In general, the students at Mott CC make the teaching profession very satisfying. The new Gorman Science Center is a
dream come true and I can't wait to utilize this new resource for student learning.
Highly satisfied. I see some areas that need improvement, but overall it's a great place to work.
Disappointed. Many of my skills and expertise are wasted.
Good
I am quite satisfied. I believe there should be more communication between administration and staff.
Overall, mediocre. Not everyone is on the same page. There is definitely a divide between the administration and
faculty.
Good -- I have many good colleagues, students are generally eager to improve themselves in some way, and I have a
fair amount of independence.
Very unsatisfied and very unfulfilled. I lack the support, acknowledgement, and assistance of my supervisor. I receive no
praise or positive feedback of any kind. Any efforts to obtain professional development on my own are ignored. As a
result I feel very isolated professionally, and detached from the sense of community that I would like to have been able to
foster with my institutional colleagues. The barriers are not only between faculty and administration, but at multiple
horizontal and vertical levels within the administrative ranks. I have never experienced such a continued environment of
deliberate divisiveness anywhere in my entire career. It truly is heartbreaking to watch, and devastating to experience.
Does this answer your question?
I currently am very satisfied with my schedule. Although I do put in more office hours than is required, I contribute that to
doing the little extra things for my students so they get the best education for the money that they are paying for their
class. I want to have the students leave here with a good attitude and recommend our college to others.
Very good.
Very high.
excellent
Fair!
I am very satisfied.
Very disappointed...I feel that I am an exceptional employee who has a lot to offer the college, but have not been given
the professional support or training I need.
Quite good. I enjoy the professionalism of the people that I work with.
Very satisfied. There's room for improvement, but among Michigan's two-year colleges, this one excels at showing
respect for faculty and granting them autonomy and assumed professionalism. This in turn generates a mutual respect
for administration by most faculty who aren't burned out and ready for retirement. The end result of the relationship is a
desire by all to serve students in the best way possible.
Does not exist. Mott would turn over in his grave on how the college is administered.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
Very good! I have only been with the College a short time, but so far I am very happy with the opportunities presented
here.
Within my discipline I have complete professional satisfaction but have been disappointed by the overall lack of
cohesiveness among divisions in the college and between divisions and student services.
I am satisfied, but would have a higher level of satisfaction with feedback from my supervisor. As stated earlier, I have
not had an evaluation in 10 years, and the only support I have gotten to improve myself professionally is to be told get
my degree.
Not very comfortable with my professional growth
Professionally I am very pleased with my job. It is great work environment and I feel the work I do is viewed as important
by others.
I felt more challenged/appreciated at my job several years ago than I do now.
I'm very satisfied with my job but not with the program.
Very Satisfied! MCC is supportive of Professional Development.
Very High
I've been very satisfied with the level of professionalism in my position and division.
I am satisfied with my job, the opportunity to provide students with the knowledge to gain employment in a needed
profession with a fairly good salary for the graduates.
I love teaching at Mott.
I like and enjoy my teaching efforts at MCC. I enjoy the student part of working at MCC. Many surrounding conditions
distract from that.
Personal satisfaction is high, but too many others perceive their roles at Mott negatively. This pervasive negativity stems
from some inability at Mott to pull people together to operate with enthusiastic team effort, rather than individuals
protecting their turf and fiefdoms.
Out side interests are my satisfaction.
OK. I still enjoy the job.
Reasonably well satisfied. I love the students and I have, for the most part, very good colleagues.
High.
Fine
I am mostly satisfied with MCC.
Too busy to have time to reflect
I love my job, especially the actual meat of daily teaching and learning. I am frustrated that I usually see the same faculty
involved in campus activities/committees, and I don't feel a sense of community across disciplines. I am frustrated by the
number of part time faculty that just come/go for the short block of time required for class and are not involved in the
community of MCC. On a 0-10 scale...about a 7.
I am very satisfied--and I am not a new teacher here. I respect my colleagues--their intellect and their preparation.
I come to work every day and give MCC my best effort. I have received promotions through the years. I enjoy the people
that work at the college and truly believe that we have a wonderful faculty that gives our students their best effort also.
We have a few bad apples in the bunch but the good ones make up for bad.
Overall, Mott does a great job. Unfortunately, though, I do not think that the college does a very good job at recognizing
the small things that people do every day to make this an outstanding place for people to get a good education.
I greatly appreciate my job, colleagues, and students.
I like teaching at Mott CC and hope to continue. I wish I were full-time, though.
Very satisfied with MCC and excited to be a part of this institution and what it stands for.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
good and improving with more emphasis on improving instructional effectiveness among faculty
I just thank God I have a JOB!! I believe that if a staff person has improved their education by obtaining degrees they
should have the same opportunities as faculty as far as pay increases which is not in place period here at MCC.
Outstanding
Enjoyable environment
fair to good
I am personally satisfied with the quality of services I provide and I am happy with my professional growth. However, I
am concerned that the security of my position, and the entire department will be undermined because my supervisor,
who has no background in my area of services, not only does not appear to support the operation as s/he should, but
that too many of the daily tasks do not make the best of our limited resources.
Overall, I am satisfied.
Overall, I am fairly content working in this environment, but everyone isn't. There are some serious morale issues in
some areas. Everyone is not a happy camper. While I'm not deliriously happy, I'm not miserable either. There are some
people working here who I know are terribly miserable.
very satisfied
Fair at this point. I do not feel that administration has always had the needs of our students or the community a priority.
Money seems to be the driving factor in making decisions lately instead of academics.
I'm mostly satisfied with my department and my job but there is a lack in the communication with upper management that
I feel is crucial to my job.
Extremely satisfied with MCC and its product and services.
doing a great job
Score of 1-10 - I give a 9
Very Good
I love it here. What else can be said?
I am professionally satisfied at Mott.
In my exposure to other colleges and universities, I would rate Mott as an outstanding college that has proved it's ability
to prepare students for continuation of their educational pursuits.
I think overall it is good?
I've taught at MCC for four weeks, so I cannot answer this question productively.
I think it is similar to other institutions where I teach (Oakland Community College, Oakland University).
Very satisfied, a wonderful organization with wonderful people who are very dedicated to improvement
good
I am very satisfied working at Mott.
Excellent!
I am extremely satisfied with my pay and benefits and physical working environment. I feel valued by my supervisor and
am treated with respect. However, I am frustrated by (1) the complexity of many of Mott's processes, (2) employees not
being held accountable when they don't do their jobs, and (3) a lack of respect among individuals and employee groups.
Very satisfied with what I do.
Frustrating, overwhelmed, beaten to just go with the flow and do what you’re told weather it be right or wrong.
As a professional I feel under-valued and under-recognized. I am seeking employment elsewhere.
Good
I would say that I have been extremely disappointed.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
Very high!
I love my job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I work in a warm friendly environment, with people who care about others. This is a very satisfying place to be. I think
that I am very blessed to be around such great individuals
I FEEL ACCEPTED IN ALL FACETS OF THE COLLEGE ORGANIZATION, BUT A LARGE PART OF THAT IS MY
AGRESSIVE PERSONALITY.
I love this school and believe it is an excellent institution that is serving an important function in this community. I also
know it could be better. Personally I love what I do, and I manage to accomplish what I need to, but sometimes it gets
discouraging having to fight over trivial issues to get the things I need to do my job in the best way possible.
Satisfactory.
The personal contact with administration has been of the highest personal level. My needs are met, the feedback is
prompt and I feel that I am able to teach creatively within my area.
i am very satisfied at mott.
I'm favorably impressed.
Overall, it has been very satisfying to be part of the success story of many students.
Overall, I have never worked in a better environment.
I am very satisfied and very appreciative of Human Resources.
good
I have been very satisfied with Mott CC as a professional...my department has been very helpful to me and open to new
ideas
This continues to be a great place for me to work. I am proud of my individual accomplishments, my department's work.
I love to teach, I love my Job and My Dean of [department name] is excellent. She cares about students, quality, and
taking care of patients.
A very mixed bag. On the one hand, I have a lot of freedom to design my classes and implement my ideas in the
classroom, and there are real opportunities to suggest changes at the institutional level for faculty. (And most people
who work at Mott are very friendly!) On the other hand, I often walk through the halls thinking that I am teaching at a high
school and not a college.
Very good.
I am very satisfied with the opportunities available at MCC
confusing
Very satisfied
OK
Very satisfied
I love my profession and am satisfied
I have enjoyed my work at MCC. Many times frustrated with the lack of passion that seems to occur when people don't
feel a sense of belonging. I would hope that continued work in this area will help.
Pretty good, but still could use some improvement.
A learning process.
very satisfying
MCC is the best place to work and with a little cooperation with in the different groups, departments, admin. it can
become the greatest place to work.
Very satisfied because I work with students all the time. Our students make my job great!
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
As a long time employee, I have seen far better days than the current administration produces. Consequently, I have a
little different vantage point - a span of years in which to view my career; professionally, I am pretty well satisfied over the
course of my career. However, I am greatly saddened by what I see in terms of the way overall college faculty and staff
are treated and de-valued. I am more than saddened - I am angered by the way students are treated. People can talk
all they want about "students as customers" - students are students, here because they have a vision for their life and
they believe MCC will take them there - how terrible it truly is, that for fully one half of the students who come here, they
will have to persevere through many unnecessary barriers in order to accomplish anything!!!! Those who come here with
the fewest needs are the ones who will benefit the most!
High.
Professionally, my satisfaction has been very good. Referring to my previous statement, I have heard horror stories from
other adjunct/part-time faculty regarding their experiences. As institutions of higher learning continue to expand the use
of part-time/adjunct faculty, ever effort should be made to encourage and respect the opinions, contributions and status
of part-time/adjunct faculty. Everyone needs to realize that "road" scholars play a vital role for the success of their
institution beyond the financial bottom line.
I absolutely love where I am, what I do and the people that I work with. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
Fine
I'm very satisfied working at Mott.
Pleased. I believe that in being a Community College, one must look to the community, and in doing so being a role
model first is more important that always being 'professional satisfied'
Mott is a good place to work. Presently it pays a living wage and has good health benefits which are incentives that
produce loyalty and willingness to work.
Personally, I am quite pleased.
Great.
Great.
The professional satisfaction at Mott CC is great.
Overall I a very pleased with the MCC
Professionally, I am quite dissatisfied with Mott. While I am a better instructor than I was coming into Mott, this is due to
my colleagues, not the institution. I respect my colleagues. I have very little respect for this institution. Unfortunately,
this realization on my part is recent, and is the result of several factors in several different aspects of the school.
I am very disappointed with the lack of professionalism in my department.
I love working at MCC. I am even hoping some day to become full time.
Overall, I would say that it's good.
The college has moved through some good times and bad times. I feel it is currently progressing positively.
I personally feel MCC has at times purposely misled some of their employees. For me personally, I made a career
decisions based on this insincere information, which has had a detrimental affect on my professional career.
Excellent.
I have enjoyed my time at Mott. If a chance to become a full time faculty member was ever offered to me, I would not
hesitate.
GREAT, Mott is and always will be the place for students (low income, lack of basic skills, and handicap) to be accepted
as equals and given the chance to improve their lives (degree or just courses). Students can transfer to major
universities or earn a living from the education they get at Mott.
Fairly satisfied. It would be nice to either gain more salary or get added help each time more work is dumped on us. Our
jobs keep getting bigger and bigger to the point that we can no longer be creative or even put out all the fires. It is easy
to burn out when that happens. Each program that adds to a department adds WORK. Each new technological advance
adds WORK. When we increase the number of faculty, which adds WORK. (I think you can see where this is going)
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
MCC has provided me with numerous opportunities for professional growth (i.e. workshops, trainings, etc.) And
continues to support my efforts for job satisfaction. From my experience, MCC has been on the upper tier from other
employers in this regard. However, I do acknowledge that there aren't many, if any, other career advancements for me
within this institution due to my specific position which is very frustrating and discouraging at times.
Very satisfied
I've never been given an evaluation. I'm not offered any means for advancement and my opinions for improvement go
unheard.
Mott is a professional institution that encourages students to
I'm satisfied in some areas. Enjoy working on committees and working with students. I don't enjoy the constant threat
that my job in [department name] is going to get yanked around (or attempted to get yanked) by a bully in our [position
title]. In addition, some of the NON-student friendly decisions of late (e.g., closing the cafeteria, grades via e-mail, pay for
print, Gen Ed designations doubled, leaves me disheartened when it comes to knowing this college is providing students
a good educational environment. I'm not proud to know that 50 % of our students are new EVERY year, and that our
turn-over rate is so poor. Or that our graduation rate is less than 10 % -- apparently the college is satisfied with that. But
in the classroom, it's disheartening to know that 90% of those students will never get a degree from MCC.
For years it was very positive and satisfying, now it has become a job.
I am proud to be a Mott employee besides the much improvement that is needed.
ok
Satisfied.
As a professional, my employment has been the most unfulfilling and disheartening job I have held to this point. To
watch such talents and skills be untapped and unappreciated. To see such glorious resources be squandered because
of political pressures. But, I have hope. All the pieces to the puzzle are here, they just need to be put in the right order.
in my department the level of professionalism and motivation to "do the best for our students" is high
More emphasis should be placed on the Mott's students and making college processes, and learning in the classroom
something that they will be able to take into the workforce upon graduation. Instructors should not just place an emphasis
on making “A" or "E" grades; But faculty are needed who are really enthusiastic about imparting their knowledge on the
students. Hopefully by doing this, students will be enthusiastic about continuing their education after grading from Mott.
I am somewhat satisfied. I would like the opportunity to continue growth in my education through more funding or a
mentor program.
Very satisfied. Mott is by far the best employer I've had - - I've been allowed to grow and have been given the
appropriate support and tools to do a good job. I feel very lucky to be a Mott employee!
As an adjunct faculty member, I have been proud of my involvement at Mott. The full-time faculty and staff and
administration have all been helpful, congenial, and professional in the dealings that I have had with them.
Getting better. More communication with a couple of the other part-time staff.
In general, good, however I feel the communication between Faculty and staff, student and Teacher, Supervisor and
employee is poor and should be improved.
I LOVE my work! The people are fantastic and it is a great environment. It has been a wonderful opportunity and I am
thankful. Changes are needed and I have faith that if we work together many improvements can happen.
Poor. Need to make sure Students/Faculty/Staff respect each other and their views and differences.
I'm good. I like working for Mott
I am very satisfied professionally.
My overall satisfaction at MCC is fair.
I am very satisfied.
Not exposed to much accept in my area.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
I am fairly satisfied with MCC. Working here has been a far better experience with management and benefits than
previous jobs.
I think the college has been good to me, but I would like to see more teamwork between divisions.
It is a wonderful place to work.
I have been very happy here.
I love teaching. It is the vocation I have been called to, and I love teaching at the college level. I just wish that our
administration would hire more part time faculty to full time positions. Help us part timers to grow in our careers at Mott
Community College. I know we have money issues, but we seem to have all kinds of money for things which seem
rather wasteful, but cannot hire full time faculty.
I am very satisfied. I love teaching and the great opportunities Mott provides for professional development. I also have
taught as a part time Instructor at other institutions. Teaching at Mott has provided the greatest professional satisfaction.
I feel good abut my professional ability because I have proven my self in Industry and personal academic achievement.
However I am not satisfied by the roadblocks I have ot overcome to transmit my experiences to the students.
Very satisfied.
Overall, it's a great place to work. Every place has it's ups and downs but in the end Mott is better than most.
Satisfactory
very satisfied
Extremely satisfied. My skills, talents and experience are valued by the people I work with and for and both the strategic
and tactical assignments are challenging and enjoyable.
As surprising as it may seem, I have had good students at Mott and have provided them with recommendations for
further education or employment. It is nice to work with students who want to perform well. I recognize that in a
community college environment one is going to encounter SOME students who are not interested in education, or
learning, and the goals of these students will be to "get by". It has been nice working with many of the faculty and staff.
I would say that I am "satisfied".
Under utilized
Poor to moderate.
I am just beginning to experience the Faculty enhancements here.
Very satisfied.
Not very satisfied. Some division administrators are not interested in helping individuals on their staff learn and advance
in their careers at Mott. If you're good at the job you do, you're stuck there, because then there isn't a void to fill if you
move up to another position.
very satisfied with my tenure at MCC
I feel that I am underpaid and overworked. I feel there is no opportunity for advancement, especially because the duties
just get reassigned and positions eliminated. Or when a need is identified, the duties are just assigned to a current
employee with no reward incentive.
Good. I have been treated well and enjoy coming to work each day.
High
High Satisfaction!
84.
What are 1-3 examples of processes, areas, programs, etc., at Mott CC that have established an improvement
cycle?
Technology has been well incorporated into instruction. Physical facility improvement (Gorman, in particular) is a plus.
Overall improvements in satellite campuses enhance the stature of MCC.
1) The Program & Discipline Analysis process has helped a number of programs and disciplines document what they are
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
doing right, in addition to helping define areas in need of improvement. The analysis also becomes a tool to support
requests for additional resources.
The technology commitment by the college is very good.
Ballenger Field House
Unknown.
Improvement of overall grounds on campus. Use of the Call Center in Student services.
Academic Affairs Strategic Planning process, wide book & program priorities.
vocational programs that do periodic program reviews
I cannot think of any at this time.
The accreditation process involves self-assessment and improvement. Occupational studies undergo rigorous selfevaluation. However, all of it is retrospective.
I think this one example of a program;
The process that began having students get a Dean's signature for late registration. Helps with student success.
1. Help desk response time to issues reacted to technology in our office. Has reduced but could be better.
Not sure, although Ed Systems seems to be doing a reasonable job upgrading computers in the labs for improved
performance.
External accreditation bodies and input from employers, students and advisory committees provide for continuous
improvement processes for specific academic programs.
Unknown
1. The overall appearance of the College inside & out (grounds, buildings, signs, etc. has been improved tremendously.
2. The improvement of campus safety for staff and students via the Public Safety Department's 2 Police Mini Stations. 3.
How [employee name] seeks the opinion of faculty and staff members when making decisions regarding the College.
WIDS training for class and program development, [employee name] and her professional development programs,
Committee for Excellence in Teaching and Learning retreats and programs.
all vocational ed programs are required to do so - most do
Budgeting....workforce development....technology communication.
1) More use and visibility of the Student Public Safety Officers 2) The new Mini-Station in Lot G 3) The new Emergency
Response Intercom System in Lot G
Apart from my own program, I cannot speak to the processes, areas, and programs of the entire college. We're not
always informed as to what department, process, etc. has "established" an "improvement cycle." This question seems
out of sync with the general knowledge of the majority of faculty and staff.
1. Adoption of a formal curriculum development process 2. Plans to utilize data to make strategic decisions.
Public safety, community relations, campus improvements
Wide book data for programs at MCC, Comprehensive Program Evaluation, On-line services for students
Smart classrooms (good idea, but come up with a new idea for keys, no one wants to wait for security for 15 minutes);
RTC (very nice and popular with students); Health care programs (popular and well respected in the community).
What's an improvement cycle?
It must be kept in mind that here at M-TEC, everything: curriculum planning & development, course/room/instructor
scheduling, marketing (on paper and in person), publishing, financial, customer service (students, potential students,
industry reps, community members, sales reps), purchasing (books, equipment, supplies, services), record-keeping and
facilities maintenance, is accomplished by one full-time and three part-time staff members under the ultimate direction of
our off-site Dean and Board. Every day we *must* work toward improving our processes, areas, and programs, simply in
order to make enough headway on each of our ever-growing lists of daily tasks as we move into our fifth year of
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
operation.
The Sociology program has established an improvement cycle, along with the Early Childhood Education Program and
the Counseling and Student Development area.
budgeting
Human resources, Students rights, and building structure.
I do not know of any.
Academic Program Priorities process, Student Accounts Receivable/collections effort, Annual Strategic
Planning/Budgeting process
Hard to tell from my job.
1. Gen Ed requirements in classes.
There is an academic assessment committee that has tried to have faculty buy into an assessment cycle. It has been at
work for about 10 years, but not 100% of faculty is participating.
Program reviews, General education requirement reevaluation, general education assessments
Professional Development opportunities (both on campus and funding for off campus events) and innovation awards.
Web registration; RTC building; Call Center
Our registration process has made a big improvement for example, online registration and phone registration.
? Good question?
The slow process of getting technology in the classrooms for instructors is an improvement. The school is behind many
other community colleges in that regard.
We have good ideas with no real implementation or follow through
Accounting (Budgeting), Human Resources,
I don't know.
Providing student email accounts. Improved signage for buildings. Quality of information provided on web site.
Haven't seen any.
The new technology center....
First, they are trying to involve my shift. We have felt like the forgotten people because we are not here during the day.
It seems to us that all the fun stuff goes on during the day. We never get the welcome back breakfast or other day time
activities. I also see some belt tightening and a move toward responsible spending.
Human Resources
The assessment team and the availability of professional development resources.
I'm not sure what this question is asking.
The Fine Arts Area - bringing the Art Department on Campus has made it more visible to students and therefore
enrollment has went up.
1 technology
Student Success in Math; Instructor Improvement/Student Success in Chemistry
I don't know of any.
Security
1. Emergency Response Team
They are all important process to me that is what makes up MCC to me.
1. Relationship of the administration with the faculty. At present there seem to be more dialogue between the faculty
members and those in the administration. 2. Public safety services. Personnel in the security department showed interest
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
in helping faculty member when called upon. 3. Technological department. Personnel in the Technological department
were always there when I needed help with my computer. They provided immediate response when help was requested
and were patient in explaining things.
HR is great, I feel nursing is great, but needs more funding, and the RTC is wonderful but under utilized. Given that
space, I could fill that whole building. Also, we need more parking.
CETL
Goal setting in department is helpful
That I don’t know.
Math Division
I am not of any.
Science & Math, Humanities, Admissions
Admissions, Counseling Financial Aid
unknown
Gorman renovations
The gen ed review teams are great. Need to have better ways of implementing their recommendations, however.
7 year Budget Plan, Strategic Initiative Plan, Public Revamping
Continuing Education. Apart from these, I am not aware of systematic improvement cycles on campus. I suppose our
assessment process is a type of improvement system.
SIEF's
Student services areas more streamlined
HR Evaluation Project
The creation of the COPC grant would be one example of a community outreach program that will assit both the
community and the college.
Mandatory trainings- Everybody the works for Mott College should know how to use their specific area of the networking
system. The Requisition training was great.
none that I have to deal with
Institutional Research's focus on current students and alums. Their surveys are thorough and the information is
distributed to the necessary areas of the college in order to make improvements.
Workforce Development intake and initiatives
Offering more classes in different new areas of jobs
Enrollment process has been improved; human resources is more responsive, however that department has increased
the number of full time staff to a point where one would question what they all do -- do we realy need 4 supervisors????,
maintenance and grounds has done an excellent job of changing their mindsets and are now doing an excellent job
I don't know
1 - Program Priorities from Academic Affairs 2- Wide book from Academic Affairs, 3 - Cognos Development by
[employee name] and 4 - Web site stuff from [employee name]. [employee name] and [employee name] are both brilliant
and they should be compensated and applauded for all their efforts. It is the people that make Mott what it is!
Gen Ed requirements were established to improve student learning outcomes. The process, evaluation instruments and
even the topics need to be reviewed (especially Scientific Method).
We need more focus on how the budget spent, I hear stories of how much money is spent on certain projects and it
makes me cringe, we could do such wonderful things with that money... $50,000 dollars for a single wireless access
point? Something is fishy, the problem is that the same people who are looking for these problems, report to the same
boss as the ones spending the money.... even if we where to hire an external consultant, they are going to report to the
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
same people.... this is a problem.
The Biology Discipline Review has help establish an improvement cycle. However, there does not exist much time for
faculty to be involved with these extra processes, committees, reviews, projects, plans, innovations and more. Student
learning comes first and the workload of the faculty continues to expand with surveys to be completed on the web for
AQIP at 8:00 pm from home, absence reports sent via the internet during the instructor down time, e-mail from students
to be answered at 8:00 or 10:00 pm from home, blackboard updates to be loaded on the instructor site at 10:00 pm from
home, grading of assignments at home and numerous other activities.
Assessment of student learning.
I have no idea.
WIDS
Technology,
The registration process has definitely improved in the area of checking to see that students are registered properly or
they are not listed on the attendance lists.
The technology that assists in job performance has improved drastically. Unpleasant
The communication with the admissions office and the rest of the college needs to be improved.
Modern equipment for students. Online grading and attendance
Program Priorities and the use of the DACUM process to plan new courses? programs
Not sure.
Within the counseling department there has become an increased interest in both interpersonal and multi-cultural
communications.
Academic affairs curriculum review process, Human Resources
Systems Task Force - documenting MCC academic processes; technology fees have greatly improved the technology
available in our classrooms; moving the automotive program into the RTC building.
I have no idea.
Umm... improvement cycle?
EXCESSIBILITY TO COMPUTER LABS SEEING NOT EVERYONE CAN AFFORD COMPUTERS OR INTERNET
SERVICE.
Too new of an employee to know.
While the Strategic Discipline Review is a good idea. The teaching loads of faculty make coordinating multiple faculty
members in the process very difficult. I like this direction of improvement but would like to see the college do more to
assist disciplines in this process. Other colleges I have been at have offered paid for weekend retreats where faculty get
together to assess the current status of the discipline, outline what improvements are needed and actually have time to
begin working on these outside of the normal class structure. Much more can be accomplished on these than can be in 1
45 minute meeting once a month or semester!
math modules
I cannot say
Board policy is continuously reviewed and updated as needed. Academic areas establish annual objectives, as do other
areas of the college.
Not sure.
The Dental Assisting Program has added to it's curriculum, after the State of Michigan passed into law additional
"Expanded Functions" for it's Registered Dental Assistants as of July 2003.
Nursing, Criminal Justice, Culinary Arts
The nursing program is using a recent grant to help potential nursing students remediate in areas of their weakness. This
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
should improve their success in our program.
Health Sciences require improvement cycles to stay accredited with on-site visits from the accrediting bodies to assure
compliance. Nursing, OTA, PTA, Respiratory Therapy, Dental Hygiene and Dental Assisting etc.
The Health Sciences programs have to provide an annual report to accreditation agencies. This requires that we
document graduations rates, employment rates, credentialing exam scores etc. The institution needs to have a
mechanism by which we can show everyone how we are doing (i.e. institutional report card).
Communications have improved with additional technologies.
Not any come to mind. The one area that needs to use the complete assessment cycle for improvement is teaching and
learning, but that seems to be sadly lacking in a lot of instruction that takes place, although there are always bright spots
here and there.
Dental Program
Assessment, the process involving the "wide" or "long" book, and now AQIP.
Human Resources seem to be working on improvement.
1. The website, new look and current information.
2. This survey, I hope the results are shared effectively.
I'm not sure I know what is meant by improvement cycle...Curriculum review has an evaluation cycle, is that also an
improvement cycle? Health science programs are doing yearly program review for ongoing accreditation?
1) CPSC and its subcommittees help the college immensely. 2) Divisional work and committees have the right focus and
scope.
1. The Method of Payment options for students registering for classes (good thing!)
I think that the Health Sciences Division, primarily through the direction of its various accrediting agencies, is an excellent
example of an area that is continuously working to change and improve curriculums to better meet the needs of the
community in which we are located.
1. Foreign languages
Incorporating occupational programs with academic programs.
Well since a lack of communication has been the problem here at MCC I am unable to answer this question because I
honestly don't know.
Finance - regular updates to attempt to involve and inform.
Registration (area), debt collection (process), Human Resources (area)
I think the open forums the president has had for faculty and staff, as well as the brown bags for students, have been
useful are informative, but attendance and participation is not always great. It's a worthwhile effort. I also think we have a
good working relationship with the community, but some of the internal processes for improving relationship with
faculty/staff could be improved. There's a serious division there -- nobody crosses that line and it seems like there's a
feeling that we're not in the same boat -- when in fact, we really are! I don't think everybody sees that though.
Some academic programs have an excellent program evaluation (mostly due to outside accreditation requirements)
which not only look at where the program is at right now but requires a plan of action with a time line for improvement.
Student life
Admissions, Financial Aid, Finance Office,
1. Curriculum development and revision
Various strategies from CETL, CASL, and from the different departments through our gen-ed restructuring efforts.
I don’t feel qualified to answer this question due to my short tenure at MCC.
I've taught at MCC for four weeks, so I cannot answer this question productively.
1. Testing students on content area at the beginning and end of the semester to assess learning and effectiveness of
courses.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
1) help desk for computer problems 2) registration - adding online 3) website
The Strategic Plan, Seven-Year Budget, AQIP
Buildings and maintenance. Number of administrators and their salaries. Supportive student services.
None that I can think of
Developmental English program under [employee name]
Curriculum development using WIDS
Continuing Education Department
A REALIGNMENT OF THE CULINARY ARTS AREA THAT WILL ALLOW FOR NATIONAL ACCREDITING.
Assessment.
In the area of Fine Arts, the courses offered have grown. The new Visual Arts and Design Center is a major
improvement. No longer do Mott students have to go off campus for these studio classes.
New buildings and renovations. a high quality basketball coach. new up dated equipment for m&o.
Don't know
I believe that the best example is in the Financial Aid/Registration/Cashier area. They process a large volume of work in
a very timely fashion.
I was under the impression that through the Key Initiatives, every department set goals for improvement every year.
I am still unclear what "Processes" you are referring to. I'm sure now that I have chosen to go back to school I will find
out. I do like the partnership with other colleges such as Rochester and Ferris. I have yet to experience it but think it's a
awesome opportunity!
1) A more open approach to financial accountability with facts and figures that provide real numbers. 2) A concerted
effort to provide a positive image for Mott (through Marketing, K-12 alliances, public forums.
Our program effectiveness committee in our department.
Talk of "improvement cycles" is utter bullshit. Take this to the business world. Mott is not a business. Teachers are not
producers and students are not consumers, so there is no way to effectively close the "cycle". For the most part we must
set high standards by and for ourselves and ask *ourselves* whether we are meeting them. It's not an easy thing to do,
though, so I'm sure we'll be re-cycling over and over again.
Human Resources
Online Grades and attendance.
Assessment area (portfolio) has gathered a lot of information to help measure if any improvements are occurring.
Program/Discipline Analysis and Planning
1. Establishment of an Events Office to facilitate both internal and external events. 2. Campus facilities and grounds
being renovated. 3.
Setting goals and objectives for program/disciplines
New software updated frequently, a must to keep on top of the computer industry.
Moving on-line with many procedures pertaining to services. The creation and maintenance of the website. The Tech
Fee and the life cycle of what that fee pays for, i.e. computers, smart classrooms, printers, the photography lab, the new
greenhouse, the biology labs, the math lab, the lecture halls, the new editing equipment. Thus allowing the students to
have good equipment and learning instruments for a quality education.
do not know
gen ed requirement review and evaluation, enrollment process is much more effective,
Cannot say that I know of any!!!!
1.) There are many individual faculty who use learning objectives and classroom assessment to continually improve their
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
instruction. One place where evidence of this is displayed is at the biannual Assessment Fair. 2.) Academic Affairs
annually reports the cost/Revenue performance of each academic program and discipline. Faculty and administrators
use the report to adjust cost and revenue variables in specific programs and disciplines. 3.) Academic Affairs has
developed an annual prioritization model that measures each program and discipline against 54 criteria. Each year
faculty and administration in the various programs and disciplines can plan to improve their program’s performance in
one of more of the 54 criteria to enhance the relative performance of their program or discipline.
Student Services seems to be trying very hard to improve processes.
class size, offices, a-v materials
looking locally and giving students opportunities and hope that something can be done to change their environment, and
to continue to challenge the students to push themselves beyond what they would expect
Accounting processes are demanding a conformity which cause department planning
Current tech advances have been great, although the physical plant for those programs is vastly underused.
Academics and the "long-book", MIS with life-cycle replacements and Student Services with their self-services on the
web.
I am not aware of any processes or anything that has established an improvement cycle at MCC
Presumably, this survey is one process.
I apologize for being critical of this survey, but I found the survey lacking in assessment value. I found the numbered
statements were ideal goals and\or assumptions of the college that may or may not be true. The question/response was
then built upon an assumption that may or may not be true of the college. Because of this, most of my responses were
N\A and I was unable to respond to the questions accurately.
I'm not sure since I am only part time.
Registration area has improved. A student can enroll/pay in class faster with the usage of the website.
1. Collaborative negotiations; 2. Enhanced student and faculty self-service functionality through WebAdvisor; 3.
Increased focus on student success
Not aware of many formal areas (one example would be the Registration process, which has been improved). A lot of
informal improvement underway.
Having worked here since 2003 I was able to experience the Fine Arts department move to a renovated building on
campus. Overall, this has been exciting and satisfactory. Although some miscommunication between Faculty and
Architects have cause significant pains. I believe the colleges aim for a lowest bid should have been rethought. In other
words, More money spent wisely in the beginning will have saved us money and aggravation in the future.
I don't know of any as yet.
I don't understand your question
Partnerships with some major universities, A solid nursing program, and our new RTC.
I'm not aware of any.
The Learning Center is "supposed" to have an improvement cycle each and every year in terms of the "student success"
rates of those receiving services supported by federal grant funds. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN and MCC ranks the
WORST of nearly 30 2-year colleges in the state. Other than that, I don't know of any area that is supposed to be set up
on an improvement cycle. By the way, make your working conditions healthy and enjoyable and the need to "prove"
improvement goes away. ..
Have we started yet? If so, I have not seen it thus far.
Human Resources and the Library and Distance Learning Department
Student Evaluations, although there is no improvement cycle, but there is data. Sit downs with Corporate leaders to
discuss MCC and its ability to serve. Never heard if this data was collected or used.
unknown
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
1. Improvement in registration processes 2. Library Technology that allows students to have access to materials that aid
them in completing their educational requirements. 3. Open computer labs that are available to disadvantage students
who may not have access to a computer at home.
Do not know of any.
Accounting - Budget.
1. English 101 and English 102 are under constant and ongoing scrutiny.
Educational Systems has made great improvements with the classrooms. Assessment teams have been strengthened.
Level of divisional help to students/faculty/staff
The surveys given to the students at the end of the semester that allow the students a voice concerning their education.
Provide better communication to departments that could potential affect their area when a change occurs.
Student Registration, Strategic Planning and Facilities Improvements
Departmental restructure
Gorman Science Center. MEC. Smart Classrooms.
The Regional Technology Center is an example of reaching out to the needs of the community. As we move from a
manufacturing based economy in Genesee County, we need to re-train workers in technology-based professions.
Health Sciences.
1. The Technical Center Is an excellent improvement. 2. Excellent programs in anthropology and psychology, and 3.
Recent upgrading of the biology sciences are excellent. Our library is outstanding.
Technology fee
The developmental programs, the different computer labs that students have access to and transfer programs that are
here on campus from the different 4 year universities.
workforce development
I don't personally know of any.
My evaluation of Mott's "process" is that the amount of "talking" about quality has increased since the 1980's. As far as
effect, It is my opinion that QUALITY HAS DECREASED during this period of time. Committee meetings, planning
sessions, and fancy program titles do not insure successful results.
PROE (Program Review for Occupational Education)
Academic Affairs.
CETL, WIDS, Blackboard, On-Line Learning initiatives.
I'm not aware of any.
Health Programs - through their separate accreditation needs have established a record of improvement and measured
success. Research and Development - has shown improvement and might do even more with technical support staff
assistance. Human Resources - while well staffed is slow to make progress but is making progress toward developing
processes to evaluate employees.
Mott has changed its image dealing with current high school graduates. It used to be considered a place to go if you
were unable to go to another college (like a last chance). Now it seems as if it is a viable option for a lot of students.
1. Tracking current student success 2. Tracking past student success. 3. Tracking past student nonsuccess
Registrar: On-line registration - RTC - Updated technology and Facility - continuous improvement of the overall look of
the campus.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
Comments from Two Added Questions by Mott
No.
Question/Response(s)
85.
In what ways has the MCC 2001-2006 Strategic Plan had an effect on the work you do?
None
To a part-time faculty, no noticeable change occurred due to 01-06 Strategic Plan.
Many of my work tasks and duties are directly related to MCC's goals/plans for institution-wide improvement, assessment of
student and institutional needs, and ongoing progress toward achievement of institutional goals.
The goals of the institution are clear. They need to be communicated through the divisions on an on-going basis.
It's the first time that institutional planning has survived more than a few years. The current Strategic Plan is too broad, but at
least we have something in writing that we can all refer to. It takes a few annual cycles before people really understand the
planning process, and it's important that we don't keep changing our goals and processes. The AQIP Vital Focus method will
make us pare down the many ideas to a handful that we can really sink our teeth into. The Strat Plan should be developed
with input from employees, and then stick to it, and don't make up new layers like Strategic Initiatives that don't align well. We
don't put enough focus on the main objectives of helping students learn...everything the college does should be in support of
this. We do not put students first - many times the question of "how will this affect students and support student success" is
never considered when plans are made. We need to put maximum effort into every strategy or action that helps every
individual student be as successful as possible, but right now we just get 'em in, but don't pay careful attention to their needs
when they're here. The Strategic Plan should reflect these values.
Little if any.
It has not had any effect.
Departmental goals were developed with activities outlined to complete each goal.
It makes me think about how the goals I set meet the Board objectives and if they don't, should they still be pursued.
I don't know
The work that was part of the Honeywell project has had a very negative effect on my position during the work. I hope that
after all the grief I have endured, things are better in the long term.
It has not allowed funding for new developing programs of study
Little of the work I do is reflected in Strategic Planning for the college.
Very little.
Not greatly. The information has been presented, but not read and utilized as it should. More effort on my part is needed.
Unfortunately, I have not been introduced to the Strategic Plan. My assumption is that it is to continue what Mott has been
doing and to improve departments, divisions, communication, and team dynamics among the College. When it is introduced to
me and I am certain this is the Plan, it will have a tremendous impact on the work I am involved in for the College.
Nothing. With a mentally-ill dean who has an "agenda" and everything is poorly managed and administration refuses to do
anything about it!
Helped in getting a clearer vision as to why the college is moving in certain directions.
Targeted goals, individually and departmentally, assessment of the success or failure of meeting those goals
NOTHING
Design improvements and the necessary steps and funding requests to move forward to "fit" these.
Being aware of what techniques that are available and to assist in areas needed
The plan directs how our division functions, and I am affected as a member of the division. Our division has good
administration-faculty-staff communication, so the direction flows through to our division. We are currently trying to move into
the age of teaching by simulation. We have received support, but it has moved in slowly. The Dean has been encouraging,
but there have been space problems for developing labs. I do not think that we take the role of leader and innovator in
education that we should.
None at all. I teach English courses to the best of my ability, which I believe is very good. I have a strong internal work ethic
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
and a real concern for my students. I am mostly internally driven. As a part-time instructor, I am pretty much on my own. I don't
totally mind this, but I resent the attitude sometimes from some full-time staff. The attitude seems sometimes of belittlement,
yet an expectation that you should attend all meetings. Well, it's not pleasant to attend meetings where you don't really know
people, can't vote, are sometimes treated rudely for being part-time, believe your ideas and suggestions don't count. This
chasm needs to be addressed. Also, it would be nice sometimes if meetings were held on the satellite campuses to see the
needs and concerns. Also, it would show a respect for the part-timers who call these campuses home. I have worked here for
many years now and feel very disconnected from main campus.
a most tangible example of the impact has been the "wide-book" so our focus more on control, "our plan" is to squeeze
academics in favor of more admin.-- a very poor strategy with very negative results.
The Strategic Plan is the "map" that provides the direction allowing me to parallel my tasks to coincide with the college vision
for student success. The plan clearly provides the objectives that I can set toward my goals in establishing the needs for
student learning.
It has improved my duties and responsibilities.
My work has been effected in both positive and "less than" positive ways by the strategic plan. "Valuing People" - while
encouraged to take advantage of professional development activities, I often find that administrators are prone to make
decisions that have a direct impact on my area without consulting me. Decisions related to program shifting, building
assignments, resource allocations (or lack thereof) are made and then directed to the particular staff and faculty rather than
being a collaboration that takes into account the faculty input and expertise, especially as the faculty has the ability to speak to
impact of decisions on occupational programs, student success and attitudes. ++++ Other areas "UNDERSTANDING
STUDENT AND OTHER STAKEHOLDER’S NEEDS" - it's nice to "understand" them but quite another to act upon them. While
we're all familiar with the problems of a shrinking budget, it is still a barrier to student success when programs are under
funded, faculty not hired, labs/technology not up-to-date. ++++ "HELPING STUDENTS LEARN" - the analysis of data does
not tell us everything. We should be working towards the improvement of critical thinking skills and understanding of
course/subject relevance that are developed through interdisciplinary studies, global and national citizenship and cross-cultural
understanding that is developed through community and international activities.
Focuses efforts around strategic college goals. Understanding the overall college goals allows resources and personnel to be
effectively identified and assigned. However, there still seems to be individual (person, discipline, department, etc.)
disagreement about which goals are truly "strategic" -- and support often seems to lie only within the "chimneys" of the
individual portion of the college most affected (academic, facilities, information technology, etc.)
Have not been here long enough to answer appropriately
Gives me a better understanding of the process and future goals of the College. Gives me direction in the areas in which I
work to achieve these goals. I like the way the President and the administration puts it on the line what is happening, what they
perceive and the direction they are taking to deal with it. Being up front with the staff improves operations!
Limited impact. I am not too familiar with the strategic plan currently in place.
I don't know yet. I want a full time job so that I can work on the classes and continue training that would benefit students at
MCC. It is difficult to do this as an adjunct instructor, because I have to have a second job, and positions are never offered in
my area (only one full time faculty member in our area). I realize this is an economic decision for the college, but with all the
emphasis on quality education, Mott needs to reassess the benefits that full time faculty can provide, and add to the staff.
No effect
I am just about to celebrate my second anniversary working at Livingston M-TEC. Therefore, the strategic plan was already
well underway when I started. I was not aware that there was a strategic plan in place. Upon reading the strategic plan,
however, it is clear that the recommendations within it are being considered and addressed in the day-to-day operation of our
facility. We at the M-TEC are somewhat removed, not only physically but operationally, with many issues here that do not
apply at the MCC campus, and vice-versa. However, the general philosophy of providing a quality academic experience to our
students is equally strong here. I would stress that the systems in place at MCC may not be the best or most efficient systems
for our facility here, since we offer very different types of programs. With our limited staff, we must find ways to accomplish the
same goals in less time and with less paperwork than might be allowed at the MCC offices.
I have no knowledge of the MCC 2001-2006 Strategic Plan, so I'm not sure that it has had an effect on the work I do.
Financial support is made available to those who have goals/objective in those specific areas.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
The Strategic Plan provided essential knowledge to examine all aspects of the facility, such as polices, procedures, and
employee training. The plan was a starting point for improving the quality of the Mott as a leader in the educational and
technical learning arena. Mott College currently complies and exceeds standards set forth within its own guidelines. MCC
2001-2006 created a safe zone for me and my ideas. I feel part of a team and my own productivity has increased.
I do not know. I haven't incorporated the plan into my job and wasn't aware that I should.
It has been the guide for annual decisions, budget allocation and individual departmental goals and efforts. It has also served
as a reference as to community opinions about what the critical issues at MCC are as we address problems and consider
future decisions.
0% I clean things.
None yet. But looking to see it soon, and hoping it’s all going to be fair, for all staff, no matter what area or shift there working.
I'm not aware of any.
The budget cuts has affected out department, We are short staff. Our benefit package could be better.
I have to confess that I have no idea what is in the MCC 2001-2006 Strategic Plan. If this plan has had an effect on the work
that I do, then it is because, the plan has filtered down to me somewhat osmosis like to inform my teaching and improve the
student learning that occurs in my classroom.
Always trying to improve.
I am unfamiliar with the plan. Therefore, I would have to say that it has had minimal effect on the work I do.
I have seen improvements in technology, and shifts toward technological processes; for example, emphasis on web
registration, and online grading and attendance.
It has caused me to look at our processes and make improvements to the way things are being done. It has made me be
more customer friendly with the people we service.
It is hard for me to measure.
I would like to say that the Strategic Plan has made a big difference after all of the work that we have done. Most people on
campus just look at it as another quarterly report and just go through the motions.
The Strategic Plan has helped prioritize goals that we as a college want to achieve. However, the individual goals that we set
may not be as important to someone else as it is to us. What one person thinks as beneficial; another could think of it as
harmful or not beneficial.
Serves as a reminder of the goals of the college.
When changes occur with technology, Mott is there to improve upon existing processes and with changing curriculum, too
meet today’s times, it’s easier for students to study for careers they are interested in.
No effect at all
The goals of the college and the needs of the stakeholders play a role in my delivery to the students.
The past 5 years has seen a substantial improvement in the financial stability and long term direction of the college as a whole.
I am much more confident in the direction of the college than I was 5 years ago. There is still a lot of work to do but overall a
lot of progress has been made.
I have not seen a change in my work. I think my department is resistant to change and even if it was an improvement they
would resist. Because of the shift I work I am not involved in the day-time operation of mcc, but I am also a student and can
see the college from that prospective too. I think I have the best job and that mcc is the best place to work, but in a work place
this size there is always room for improvement. I would like to see more involvement by my department, but as I said I think
there would be a lot of resistance. I think AQUP is a step in the right direction.
No effect.
Student enrollment has increased. The programs we offer are expanding. Our facility is centrally located to provide services to
the local community.
None directly.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
I have not looked at the strategic plan.
I'm not sure since I am not really sure what the 2001-2006 strategic plan is.
Some of the decisions made here at Mott are bad ones and sometimes the decisions made affect other employees and
administrators do not care or have no clue what the repercussions are when making their decisions or visions.
Financial support has been available to accomplish goals. In my opinion, The Strategic Plan has been the most effective tool
for improvement that has been implemented at the College in the last 20 years.
There was a strategic plan?
As a new employee, the plan aided in my understanding of MCC goals and visions
Not much. I think things have pretty much stayed the same over the years. It could just be that I am not looking with clear eyes.
It hasn't
The way that it has helped me is that it has made me a better worker and how to improve my abilities to do a better job for
MCC. Also, make me more concerned in how I do my job and how to make any necessary changes it anything that needs
improvement. Let me know how important that i am to MCC and how I do my job to the best of my abilities.
It made my teaching work more effective. It made it easy to achieve our program goals and teaching objectives
The college and its administrators have always supported my area of work and have shown me and my department that they
have faith in us and what we teach. I hope that we continue with this relationship and continue to provide excellent training and
education to our students here at MCC. I do however, believe that we need to reach out more to our students, and help them
through the process of becoming a student and obtaining student aid and/or loans. The people that work in the Prahl Center,
who many times are the first persons to come in contact with our students need to friendly, patient, and kind. The new students
need to feel welcome and honestly know that we are glad that they are here with us.
I have only been here a short time and I do not feel comfortable and I do not feel that I have enough experience here to
address this question. I will add some comments. The strategic plan has definitely addressed the needs of all students. I
believe it has especially addressed the needs of the adult learner to make these people feel more comfortable when they
arrive on this campus.
Somewhat improves goal setting process but truly doesn’t effect my job that much. Day to day work is still the same and this
department has always had goal setting so nothing much changed. I believe the plan is good overall for the college, however.
Our budget has been cut. Our department is under staffed. Our benefit package could be better.
I don’t see much change.
Hinder my opportunity to be more involved within the community and hampered by ability to make much needed changed in
my field of study.
The current strategic plan has resulted in additional paper work for me. Specifically, monitoring student attendance, collecting
and maintaining assessment materials, providing materials to be evaluated, strategic planning meetings, etc. I have not been
able to identify real or meaningful benefits of the added meeting, nor benefits of the added paper work.
I have not been involved with the Strategic Plan actively there it has not had an affect on the work I do.
It helped get the technology that we needed in our classrooms.
Made me more aware of the need for on-going assessment.
Identifies goals and objectives which are in line with the college mission.
Not nearly enough. From my perspective, the plan was too multi-faceted to be useful as a classroom teacher.
The millage and bond issue passed.
[employee name] has brought a lot to the college, but we have many legacy issues that need to be worked on. We have too
many small kingdoms. We need to break down barriers.
The MCC 2001-2006 Strategic plan has assisted me in focusing on what needs to be done to better improve the quality and
awareness of services provided to our students.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
I understand how my responsibilities fit into a broader framework. I have a broader perspective. I feel that I have more of an
understanding of how to do my job effectively.
I feel that I am doing my best work.
It has minimal effect on my own classes. However the community outreach elements have opened a significant opportunity for
a difference element of personal growth and experiences outside my usual classroom duties.
Nothing
No positive effect
IT HAS HELPED ME HAVE A OUTLINE, OF WHAT I'M TO PERFORM MY JOB.
Our strategic plan has provided necessary information (feedback) necessary to objectively evaluate the various responsibilities
of my position. As a result of this information, improvements and reduction of waste have occurred.
We must continually look for, develop and implement strategies that will prepare individuals for either additional training (i.e.
MCC and post-secondary education) or productive careers as opposed to menial jobs that lead to frustration.
Helped with more education as an instructor
Most of the items listed for my area in the strategic plan are items that we were already doing. No new impact.
As a part time adjunct person, the big picture was not as much a part of my teaching as with some. The changes that helped
clarify the requirements and procedures I should follow made my work more organized.
The Strategic Plan didn't focus enough on Students. It talked about them but didn't have it as our "Primary Focus", I think this
AQIP process has the right focus "STUDENTS FIRST", always work around that!
The strategic plan, based on the wide-book data collection is difficult to understand. The data does not seem to make sense.
more planning, and great focus on students
The plan sets certain priorities, otherwise it's part of the landscape. It is obvious that the plan does not address key
weaknesses at the institution--it is too much of a PR document. So far, we have not elected to name and tackle really tough
issues which would address key causes of lower than desired graduation rates, course completion rates, etc. That being said,
I am continually amazed at how much we do accomplish and the growth that takes place in students who come to us with very
little and leave with skills, confidence and a chance for a better standard of living through education.
Probably not a major influence since I'm not completely aware of the Strategic Plan at this stage. Possible to revisit these
issues during the College Wide meetings rather than a CASL/CETL dog and pony show each month.
More technology is available.
I saw the strategic plan for the first time in 2005. No effect yet. Dissemination is spotty.
Had to set personal and office goals to make sure institution met its strategic goals and plans.
It has given me the opportunity to instruct students at a higher level of education.
It has increased my workload yet additional help is not obtained.
I couldn't say -- and what does that tell us?
It's helped in giving a perspective/strategic plan on how to meet shared goals and objectives in serving the community, college
and students needs.
None. A great deal of busywork that produces superficial and meaningless data. Nothing that opens up the prospect of
innovation, creativity, or substance.
Because of the strategic planning of the college our enrollment has increased.
Modern equipment for the students.
It provides a clear direction for what the College wishes to accomplish over that planning horizon, and it enables me to plan
accordingly to make sure that what I'm doing links directly to the College's overall objectives.
No comment!
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that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
I have only been working at MCC for just over a year. In this time I
This plan has provided ways to improving existing internal budgets and controls; ways to improve some of our internal systems
of operation; ways to expand technology in our classrooms and offices; ways to evaluate curricular program priorities; ways to
improve MCC's institutional image and community relationships; and ways to expand community partnerships for improved
economic development in our area
none
What is the MCC 2001-2006 Strategic Plan?
Nothing! Due to poor administration with people still remaining from [employee name] reign of terror, it is a total joke. VP's who
are NOT qualified are still in power. Oh, [position title] will be leaving in December, thank God and like five years over due!!
Deans who do not support faculty; rather some create major problems with total discord and total lack of sensitivity to PT/FT
faculty. Some students without degrees make more money than adjunct faculty. There are serious problems here. Stop sugar
coating the major problems and do some clean up for a change. Certain administrators earn BIG BUCKS. How about some
positive action?
I have only been with the College for a very short time, however the Strategic Plan was reviewed with me and the specific
goals of our department are strategically in line with the College's plan.
In our discipline we have started developing better ways to educate students by incorporating new technology. We are looking
into ways to connect to the community at large and to foster student engagement in community issues.
I am beginning to see positive results of the processes in that resources are being allocated to areas that need to be improved.
This has affected the work I do by creating more work; many of the improvements the institution has made have resulted in the
decentralization of many reports. These reports were at one time produced in batches on a regular basis and delivered to us.
Now, these reports require that we produce them ourselves. It has also become standard that I must call and make note that
an area needs to be cleaned, vacuumed or that the bathroom needs to be stocked with supplies such as feminine products or
hand soap. I see our division/department staff doing more work at the same staffing levels, and in some cases with less staff
than they had 10 years ago. I believe that as a result of decisions that puts more responsibility on divisions/departments to get
the information they need to be effective in what they do creates low morale and an atmosphere of distrust, which also results
in a lack of loyalty.
The Plan adds Some Structure and balance to the work I do as to how my job relates to the community and college.
I don't know what the strategic plan is, so I wouldn't know how it had an effect on the work I do.
It's not something I think of on a daily basis. However, when developing departmental goals and objectives, we do refer to the
Strategic Plan to ensure that they are in-line with the overall college goals and objectives.
It has had some effect.
I'm not sure.
Decline comment.
I'm not aware of the particulars of this plan.
Strategic planning looked at cost of programs and has made faculty aware of what the administration values most: bodies in
classes and large seat counts with high student: teacher ratios.
As a faculty member in Health Sciences, the last couple of years the programs and faculty and students have felt threatened
by the possibility of the administration closing programs even though the current programs improve the graduation rate for the
college (which comparatively has one of the lowest in the state) and prepares students for good paying jobs. Dental Assisting
program was placed on chopping block and community uproar and support from faculty/students internally forced
administration to put the ax away though the faculty/students still remember this administrative decision very well.
Not much that I see.
No effect in any real way.
None
Has helped to focus on some important goals, but sometimes feels like we are just doing something to say we completed a
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that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
goal, when other items came up that should be more important. Need to be allowed to say that a certain objective has not
been completed for the year, but others have.
In spending money on equipment and improving classrooms condition so that I can work more effectively.
What is the strategic Plan??
It has had very little impact on what I do, excepting the statistical analysis (wide book) which has preoccupied me with cutting
costs. I have always strived to improve student learning through use of various teaching techniques, continuing education and
collaboration with other faculty, but this has little or nothing to do with the strategic plan. I have, however, seen more
opportunities for faculty continuing education over the last couple years and a purposeful effort on the part of the professional
development office to offer faculty development opportunities. I have taken advantage of some of these offerings. I have been
involved in gen ed assessment and am now wondering how we will use the information to actually improve student learning as
opposed to just assessing it through artifact analysis. In reviewing the strategic plan, I am sure there are many things going on
behind the scenes, but I am not impacted by them in performing my daily job. In many instances, I am unaware of what, if
anything is being done to accomplish the strategic plan.
None. Strategic plans seem to revel in the abstract when the essence of teaching is in the classroom. As a college we plan,
plan, but not much comes of it. The best planning comes within the individual and within the division. The administration
should be doing the work of integrating these plans--or offering directives to help guide planning. Otherwise, why are
administrators getting such high pay?
Setting goals each year and planning the activities that will need to be involved to successfully accomplish the goal keep us on
track. Having to report on a quarterly basis brings the goal back into focus.
There is now too much emphasis on "Data Gathering." Decisions are being made based on the "Data," but things aren't
always as they seem on paper. Planning has shifted from TALKING to people, to REACTING to "Data."
No effect that I can see.
Actually, I am not familiar with the 2001-2006 Strategic Plan. I can say the there should be more "COMMUNICATION"
throughout the entire organization. At the present there is a lack of it in my opinion. As it is now only selected individuals know
exactly what's going on, everything else seems hush, hush.
no comment
I am out of the information loop.
We had had to develop hoops to jump through that did not appear to have any real functional value.
By requiring identification of specific goals and objectives for our department, the 2001-2006 Strategic Plan has helped me/us
focus on specific areas of need and attach timeframes to these needs. It has helped me/us to have a specific plan of action.
When we periodically review these goals and objectives it helps keep me/us accountable. It also serves as a reminder that we
are ultimately here to serve our campus community to the best of our ability.
It has been automatically implemented into my responsibilities, so it has had a major effect in my area of work.
Mott's Strategic Plan was used as a basis for developing our program's strategic plan. From this we have created program
objectives and goals.
I am not sure.
None so far - I'm not sure what the Strategic Plan all involves. No communication!
We didn't have the things we have today
Communication has improved. Student in-take process is improving.
Helped to shape the type of information and services we provide
The strategic plan has very little impact on my work.
No effect other than having to put in extra time trying to do extra assessments.
The classroom technology for instruction has been significantly upgraded which has provided me many more ways to get
instructional information to my students. Electronic communication is faster and available 24hrs. Presentation media is
appropriate and useful. There is a lot more potential to be gained here, however.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
Goals and objectives extremely important in planning and implementation of projects.
I've taught at MCC for four weeks, so I cannot answer this question productively.
I only teach one or two courses a year and do not live in Genesee County so I have a limited knowledge of how the college is
working. I have given pre-tests to students at the beginning of the semester and this has given me a little insight into topics I
need to be more certain to cover in my course, since the students will take the same test at the end to help determine
effectiveness. I have noticed other data collection as well in regards to attendance and future course plans of students.
Very little influence
Strategic Objective/student success - having awareness of making decisions to help support students needs
The MCC 2001 - 2006 Strategic Plan has pushed me to evaluate my own course plans and make some improvements to
them, including changing the technological components.
The Strategic Plan allows us to see how well the college and external community view the mission and goals of MCC. The
Strategic Plan is tied to the seven year college budget and to the department goals and objectives.
It hasn't.
Extra work with no noted improvement
Am not sure what "effects" were directly felt by me that were a result of "Strategic" planning.. Classroom environment is still
the same. Too many meetings on teaching styles and assessment. Data being passed around that in my opinion does not
reflect that state of the college or the state of the classroom. Lot more paperwork that goes through the mail box that is
irrelevant to the job I do.
Increased the work load and decreased the number of people doing jobs which also increases the work load. Not enough time
is set to get projects done. Seen more of a break between departments and divisions creating more tension.
Do not have enough information to respond to this question.
It has helped to define curriculum design processes and the development of new course content.
I had to write my own job description which was then watered down by my supervisor to make it read as if the individual
performing the job did not need to use his/her own brain very often.
It has provided me the opportunity to view the college as a whole.
None
Not much as far as I know. And, of course, that is the biggest problem at this school. I know there is never enough
communication anywhere, but we have less than we used to.
I feel that course offerings have been expanded at the branch campuses. The Lapeer Campus has grown and has been able
to meet the needs of this rapidly growing community. My work in the Arts and Humanities has been allowed to develop on this
campus.
None
I have no knowledge of the strategic plan that is in effect right now.
I haven't been at Mott long enough to answer.
The MCC 2001-2006 Strategic Plan did not seem to have any direct effect on the work I do other than impose some budget
constraints that tested my ability to get a dollar out of every dime.
I am unaware of MCC's Strategic Plan. I am in complete understanding of my personal goals and expectations which goes
hand in hand with what my career expects and our goals for our division. I feel I am doing my job as best as I can and putting
in additional time to improve the quality of our program.
it leave room from improvement
A focused approach, driven by specific goals, both broad college goals and specific department/division goals avoids the
shotgun approach. Individual tasks have more meaning when centered within goals.
we have used the strategic plan to guide our departmental purchases. We have used the strategic plan to create committees
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
to work on specifics to improve program effectiveness. We have used the plan to address student retention.
Very little. I set much higher goals for myself than those I find in the broadly written objectives (or at least the ones that apply
to me as a professor).
It has helped to focus attention on accreditation which reinforces teaching goals and puts the administration in context of
improving the teaching atmosphere.
It's encouraged me to remain focused on results and outcomes
Not sure
Nothing because of an ineffective dean who is totally incompetent and administration does nothing to correct this major
problem.
The MCC 2001-2006 has helped me to evaluate better the needs of the students.
It provided a reasonably clear series of goals and objectives that related to the college's mission, thus allowing areas of the
college to be doing what they do in concert with the overall direction the college as a whole was moving.
none
Developed goals for my area, based on the mission of the college. It sets priorities that match what is important to practices.
Not a whole lot. Sometimes we feel rather left out.
I have no clue.
The SP to reach out to the community has lead to our department to do more on-site presentations, more marketing and
community participation at special events. Our department has numerous internal roadblocks that we encounter on a daily
basis, which contributes to the overall affect on the staff and instructors. Communication is the biggest problem that I feel
MCC has at this time. MCC is falling behind in the "real" world application of courses. The mindset of some employees is the
same that it was 20 years ago. Some faculty have not changed their class out-lines since they began teaching or their delivery
of the class material.
I think the enrollment processes have greatly improved at MCC. The technology in the classroom is much better also. All in
all, I think we are improving.
Resources seem to be more limited. Further, there appears to be a lack of regard for students. The college seems more
technology based with, what I regard as, flawed assumptions. While it is true that technology is here to stay and it is
absolutely imperative college graduates are technology proficient, creating and enforcing policies that totally disregard
impoverished students does not appear to be in the best interest of the college or the students we serve. Fully one half of the
student population is functioning at some level of poverty, as demonstrated by their eligibility for Pell grants. Acting as if they
are invisible sends a strong message - "we don't want you here". Certainly, it is a challenge to accommodate students who are
privileged, with many choices and a full, strong academic preparedness for college while addressing the needs of students
who are at the very opposite end of the spectrum. However, it is a challenge every community college in the country also
faces - it is the very nature of a community college (see the evolution of junior colleges to community colleges) and inherent in
the design and purpose of a "community college". The level of frustration that comes from simply being "poor" on a day to day
basis is further compromised by policies such as lack of access to catalogs (must buy or access internet), pay for print labs,
increasing fees and contact hour costs, removing the "caps" from high contact programs without any known assessment of
potential impact on students, etc. These policies have been undertaken in an effort to "save costs"??? But without any
feedback from the general college community or its students. This is so very surprising as we appear to be also dealing with
significant pressure from external sources to increase our retention and graduation rates. Such policies seem to actively
discourage fully one half of the student body from completing classes successfully (as we have more writing requirements, and
faculty
The existence of a strategic plan at the institutional level has provided an expectation of and the framework for strategic
planning at the area and department levels. It has sustained an ongoing strategic planning process at area and department
levels.
I don't believe that it has.
Classroom "smart" technology almost there and necessary for best use of media to teach.
It has helped me realize what Mott wishes for the students who pass through its halls, and also realizes that someday those
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
students have the opportunity to help make this a better place, internally, locally and on a world wide stage.
We have to do survives.
None, really
Every thing seems to be going good.
The Strategic Plan directly impacts the goals identified for my department.
The strategic plan works out just fine. Everyone in this office seem to be doing well.
MCC strategic Plan has motivated me to bring new ideals to this campus. The Strategic Plan allows me to be creative and
allows me to search out and try new programs.
In my three and a half years with Mott CC, my supervision has never shared with me Mott's strategic plan. Last January, my
supervision requested an agenda outlining my goals and objectives for the calendar year. After careful thought, I compiled and
submitted my report highlighting my goals and objectives as requested by the end of January. It is now late September (nine
months later) and I have not had any response from my supervision in reference to the goals and objectives he had requested.
I know exactly what I need to teach the students so the class will meet or exceed the course requirements.
none, I do not know what the strategic plan is for 2001-2006
The Strategic Plan has not resulted in much effect on my work since our group deals with change and service on a daily basis,
anyway.
Serves as a reference point and times of decision on allocation of resources.
As a part time instructor, I have very little knowledge of the strategic plan overall. Admittedly, I have not pursued the
information at any great length. I have seen evidence of the plan from my departments (Fine Arts) full time faculty. They are
constantly adapting our curriculum to keep up with the fast pace of the outside world.
MORE
My work entails securing grant funds for college-wide initiatives. In that respect, one of my obligations in seeking grant funding
is to ensure that any external funding that's pursued is in alignment with the college's strategic goals and objectives. MCC's
Strategic Plan has also been used to broaden the role of my department as well as to help integrate my work into the minds of
faculty and staff at MCC.
Importance of team work in learning process, Importance of planning for each and every class that I teach, and importance of
the internal assessment of student learning.
It gives me the opportunity to work effectively and accomplish goals in my field of work. To have support from staff and faculty
and work
What Plan? And why are not faculty and staff involved in creating that plan? What plan? The one that's printed up nicely for the
Board of Trustees? Sorry, haven't seen that document, nor do I care to.
NO EFFECT AT ALL
More work and providing reports that are rarely used.
It has provided an opportunity for faculty to use new technology for class presentations and improved communications with the
students.
I HAVE SET GOALS THAT ARE IN LINE WITH OVERALL STRATEGIC GOALS OF COLLEGE. IT’S MADE ME REALIZE
THAT EVERY POSITION HAS AN INTEGRAL PART IN THE STRATEGIC PLAN.
It has increased my work load tremendously.
I don’t know what Mott's strategic plan is. Do we have one? If we do, it’s had no effect on my work.
reminded me we are a part of a community and our interdependence with that community
appreciation of the departmental
supports and people in health sciences for who they are and what I can learn form them and a recognition that the nurses we
educate have such an impact on our area health care systems and future
None
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
It has given me and my department direction - we are able to focus on specific goals which are documented and can then be
measured. It requires me to be accountable for the job that I do.
With each class, I strive to instill an appreciation for the written word, for the writing process, and for the importance of
concise and clear communication.
i don’t know
Nothing specifically
Little to none.
None
Haven't Read it. Haven’t Seen it.
I believe that MCC 2001-2006 Strategic Plan has had a positive effect on the work I do because it has allowed me to be
helpful, considerate to others needs and it has helped me to understand the importance of the unification in the community as
a whole.
I am not aware of what the strategic plan is. I recall hearing about in very briefly.
It has helped me and the staffs that I work with articulate some very specific objectives that have improved our internal
systems. I have also had the opportunity to initiate activities that have increased awareness of our department's role, both
internally and externally. Also, by seeing the goals and objectives that other areas of the college set for themselves, I am able
to have a view of what we are working on in terms of improvement and what we have achieved.
As part timer, I was not present.
I use more technology in the classroom.
I'm sorry, but I am not even aware of this plan.
It has helped me to understand what the plans are. As a result I can make sure my plans are congruent.
Actually I don't know of the plans. I do know whatever the plans for improving my teaching environment has not changed in
the past and I am not optimistic of seeing any improvement in the environment in the future.
Budgetary cuts, including loss of staff members have had an adverse effect of how we can serve faculty and students.
What plan? Have not heard anything about it.
it doesn't apply
I can read the words, but am not sure that what we actually do supports those words on a daily basis. There is little or no
evaluation, data gathering or analysis to determine status or whether we are improving or getting worse. The Strategic Plan
seems to have had little direct effect on me in my daily tasks.
NONE. I could not even tell you what the "Strategic Plan" was.
It has helped others to understand that the biggest reason and the most important reason to exist here is for STUDENT
SUCCESS.
The effect has been to require more work for what appear to be isolated initiatives under motherhood goals.
I'm not familiar with the Plan and don't know the effect it has had on the work I do.
No change in the work I do, but the recent job evaluation process brought me down a grade and lowered my salary. That's
very discouraging.
Knowing how I too am involved in the student learning process. Continuous improvement through employee evaluation. More
should have been conveyed to me by my supervisor. Our departmental goals were not shared with other staff.
Has made improvements in organization.
More paperwork and deadlines that must be juggled along with classroom responsibilities and individualized student help.
Providing more efficiently equipment to enable me to do my job better.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
86.
What is the best opportunity for MCC to improve in the next 5 years?
MCC must show this community a direct connection between traditional class offerings and employment; i.e. What happens to
me if I graduate from Mott? What are my options and what opportunities will I have.
Perhaps the implementation of the AQIP findings and recommendation.
I believe that encouraging and developing institution-wide cross communication forums can only help the college improve and I
am excited about the prospect of implementing the AQIP system because of this.
The importance of (and lack of) cross-communication has been very apparent to me when I have had opportunity to work with
topic-specific committees that include a diverse cross-section of support staff, and mid and high level administrators among its
membership. One committee in particular stands out in my mind because conversation often strayed to other topics toward the
close of the meeting, and this casual conversation often became the most enlightening and productive element of the
gathering. It was not unusual to hear staff and administrators lament that they had not been consulted regarding changes in
procedure or policy which had an indirect or even a direct impact on their work environment and ability to function. Sometimes
they were surprised and delighted to learn of new resources and alliances. Sometimes members gained a wider perspective or
understanding of an issue after learning how other departments and programs might be affected. The conversations were
always interesting and everyone involved said more than once they wished they could converse and share information with
people they might otherwise not have an opportunity to talk with.
The entire group of General Education designations needs to be reviewed. Numerous courses have these designations when
they should not have even be allowed to apply for them. This process needs more structure and thought.
Be more student friendly and concern about the student body. Put foodservice back on campus. Work together as one team.
Hiring people on their experience not who they are.
Focus more on student needs and less on faculty and administrative needs. Stop the "silo" behavior between the VPs. We
need to become known as the most involved and caring college in town, especially as our competition increases. The fact that
we cost less should not be reflected in the service we give...we have to avoid being looked at as the "dollar store" of Flint area
higher education. All teachers should become very informed about every student they have in every class, and care about
them beyond just their homework and such. The coordinators of degree programs should be held highly accountable for every
student in their program. The advisors and counselors should be held very accountable for the students who are assigned to
them. The President and executive cabinet should pay closer attention to the operations needs of student services and
divisions - any point where direct student contact occurs. All employees should be held very accountable for using their email,
voicemail, web resources, paper resources and inter-employee communication - no one should be allowed to have their head
in the sand. We spend a huge amount of money on making sure that employees have the resources and tools they need, and
we need to get a better return on this investment.
View this institution from the learning process out. All decisions about budget need to be evaluated in the context of its affect
on the educational process. If things must be cut lets look at non-academic areas first. Administration needs a better
understanding of what teaching/learning are truly about. Try something new, part time administrators, less meetings for
meetings sake. It's a difficult concept for many administrators to grasp.
Get rid of iron fisted administrators and supervisory people that tend to make decisions without any consultation with the
people doing the work. Get back to collaborative problem solving. We need to either buy in and involve the people with
authority, or drop the whole idea and quit pretending.
An increased commitment to provide full-time staff. The over-reliance on part-time instructors is leading to inconsistencies in
teaching and meeting the educational needs of those departments.
Develop new innovative degree programs and get rid of costly programs that have low enrollments. Raise admissions
standards also.
Building relationships with the community. More activities to bring the community to our campus.
Communication - we do it poorly and it causes a great number of problems.
The opportunity is now!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ask students and community for ways to improve, and listen.
Make innovative initiatives in developing and funding high tech high wage programs of study
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
Pursue more data gathering opportunities such as this one and develop resources to more fully implement its standard
educational objectives.
Maintaining and updating technology.
I am not sure what this question really means; however, if the College could improve how it cares for it students. Not only
improve but keep the student in mind when decisions are made to change, add, or remove things at the College that directly
impact the student. To me, no consideration has been given, but to the budget. They have to remain in College so they
continue at the College. Additionally, the student needs to feel that they are cared about at the institution.
Replace old administration and deans who have "never taught a day in their respective lives." The President has waited too
long to replace the dead and dying deans and administration. Talk is cheap concerning new ideas; however, with old and blind
administration nothing new will ever be accomplished. What a total waste of time!
Develop formal training programs for new employees or employees that change jobs.
Building the communication within departments and to develop more "team" building activities.
Better communication between departments and divisions, foster a sense that you can be "heard" and the needs will be
addressed. Personally, I can present an idea for the microcosm that is important to me and my work. Institutionally, I may not
see how that idea fits into the macrocosm of Mott CC. If the idea is not workable, say so, with a quick explanation of why it is
not workable. This creates a much different atmosphere for me than no response. At least I know that I was heard, and my
idea considered, and at the same time educates me further about the macrocosm of Mott.
TRUST
Build, invest in and expand education and training programs within viable areas that will offer employment opportunities for the
community. Move away from industrial-based education toward human service-oriented careers.
Give the students and staff what they need instead of what the budget allows. Do what is best for the student.
To be able to reach every student and not allow any to fall through the cracks
Expanding it's offerings through the use of technology - courses available through web streaming, remote TV access, online
offerings.
One thing would be for there to be a universal way for students to communicate with faculty. I know that all students have
been given e-mail accounts, but they do not know what these are. They might need an orientation to computer services. I find
that many students do not know about all the resources that Mott CC provides.
Putting people in place who really care about improvements and not just lip service to their bosses. There are too many
stagnant administrators. I have attended meetings in Lapeer during which students express their concerns, etc. I am amazed
how various administrators stand up and say that they are not really problems, or it was an isolated event, etc. I think we need
people who are not most concerned with how they look to superiors, but are willing to honestly assess their departments. Too
much gets hidden and neglected.
We always have the opportunity to go into the community, to ask our students, and faculty and staff what is needed. Then we
allocate resources. Unfortunately, we are not asking. we are just throwing more $ at this admin. which is only making matters
worse.
Right now as the college teams define the focus projects that will best benefit the college community and the citizens of the
region.
By making more use of the Regional Technology Center.
1) Keep technology up-to-date and make it more available to students outside of the classroom; 2) Hire more fulltime faculty
rather than so many part-time faculty in order to have more faculty who are available to students, for curriculum development,
and other areas of academic service; 3) Improve the interdisciplinary nature of courses by demonstrating the relevance of
subjects and critical thinking skills across different fields of study; 4) Make sure all departments have full-time clerical/support
staff who can maintain office continuity and provide much-needed support to faculty and departments; 5) improve student
services and student activities by releasing restrictions on student activity funds to allow them to be used in more meaningful
ways; 6) improve communications and interaction between faculty and administrators so that they work together in
collaboration with each other towards the common goals and mission of the college.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
Build a common shared vision of efforts and drive buy-in from the top down. Community colleges will likely face difficult
funding years, short resources, and a rapidly changing workplace for years to come --successfully addressing these issues will
require everyone's commitment to the cause. This will require amply opportunities for everyone to be involved -- not everyone
will, but they must be given the opportunity.
Understanding the true needs of the students.
Community relations gather community support!
Current program offerings must be examined carefully to determine if they are viable for student career goals and community
needs. Since financial resources for community colleges are seriously being diminished now and for the immediate future, the
College must have a clear and definitive mission for the goals that will be achieved.
Keep aligned with UM Flint, Ferris, EMU, Central; build a stronger developmental program for incoming students lacking
academic skills, get out there and talk to local high schools and even middle schools, set up tables at malls and the new
downtown area, take advantage of every possible grant. Get a taco bell back on campus, and throw in a few more Flint
Journals, etc. Things are looking good; keep up the good work.
More programs in health related fields especially biotechnology. Forget the manufacturing emphasis - it was a good political
move but in the long run manufacturing is dead.
During the next 5 years MCC should focus on good use of facilities, increasing enrollment, and evaluating the results of the
programs currently in place to see if students are getting what they expect from their experience here, then seeing to it that
they do. I think at our facility, a huge improvement would be to give our site coordinator the position/title/salary/permanent staff
she deserves, as she has so clearly demonstrated her ability to do the job well.
The best way for MCC to improve in the next 5 years is to expand the extension centers. More class offerings should be made
available to where students actually live rather than being offered only on the main campus and force students to attend there.
Mott can improve by researching and studying trends in the economy.
Better communication between people and departments.
Student retention and success, and the use of better data to help with the improvement effort and its ongoing measurement.
MCC needs to do a better job with students that are transferring. Our counselors need to be able to explain how credits
transfer, and what class at a university equals what class at Mott, and how do the credit hours from Mott transfer to a
university. (I.e. lots of four credit hour classes at Mott are only three credit hour classes at U of M Flint.) This causes an odd
balance of transfer credits and students that transfer from Mott end up being one or two credits short for specific graduation
requirement and have to now pay for a three credit hour class, (at university price levels), in order to get the one or two credits
needed. That costs students a lot of time, money and frustration. Students that do not attend Mott for the purpose of
transferring want to receive training in a field where they can get a good paying job as soon as possible. Mott needs to provide
training that suits these students’ needs. These jobs are ever changing and Mott needs to be highly receptive and flexible to
the yearly changes in the job market. This how baker is successful, they give students training to get a job. Some students
want an education to build on; others just want training for a job.
Continue with excellent teaching and support. Broaden our preparatory program so that students are prepared for college level
work. Increase partnerships with businesses so our students can get jobs when they are done. Keep a tight watch on the job
market and on new employment areas becoming available.
Togetherness for all staff, and all shifts. Because we are not together now.
This AQIP process of looking at the ways the entire college needs to work together to accomplish shared values.
Taking every opportunity to collaborate among the faculty and staff as well as the general community in which and for whom
we exist.
Availability of classes each semester. All classes offered every semester. It seems like when I want to sign up for a class it is
not offered during the semester that I would like to take it. Also, make furthering our education mandatory. Require that we
attend important meetings, etc. instead of making it optional.
More discussions and conversations like the one being planned, perhaps.
MCC should continue to lobby state and federal legislators to improve, or at least maintain the funding levels of aid to our
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
college.
Meet the demands of the changing economy.
Invest in technology. Stay financially sound.
One way for MCC to improve is to improve on the technology for use by faculty. MCC is slowly doing this by installing
computers in the classroom for the faculty to use.
To get dynamic leaders in the leadership roles instead of the same old guard of boys club members.
By continuing to build partnerships with other educational institutions as well and communities ties.
I really believe that the best way for MCC to improve would be to have departments and divisions come up with one or two
specific goal(s) that they would like to reach in the effort to improve MCC. Then the department/division should work together
to determine what each individual can do to help reach their goal, and they would be improving the communication within the
department/division. Hopefully, they will grow stronger.
Communication between areas of the college and between our students and the college need to be improved.
Continue to keep up with the changing demands of student interest. And keep up with technology.
Hire more full time professors.
Work on communication between divisions/departments in regards to student processes so that every division is telling the
students the same thing, which will eliminate students having frustration and in some cases leaving MCC and attending
another college. Also, making decisions that will help our students instead of adding unnecessary "work" for them. In the past,
some administrators have made decisions that do not help the students because they do not communicate with the
divisions/departments that the decision will impact to get some type of feedback.
To meet the needs of students who have need for technological skills the new addition to campus has much room to grow.
The best opportunity for MCC is to do a realistic evaluation of the Academic Programs and direction. The job market is
changing at a pace that is difficult to absorb for many institutions. We need to be able to change our occupational degrees to
meet the needs of today’s job market. 1. More short term training options 1 year or less that can fit into an associate’s degree
if they decide to continue. 2. Have occupational associate’s degrees with specialty options. A good example of this would be
Electronics having an option for Bio Medical Engineering Tech or others. This way you can add degree options without having
an entirely new program. Prioritize capital resources were they are beneficial to the students. Many times money is used by
those that have the most influence or power and not by what is best for the students. To know what is important to a college
follow the money. For capital outlays, student services such as advising, registration, financial aid, admissions, etc should
have the equal priority as internal functions such as human resources in terms of updates. Even though upper Administration
have that as a goal, if the middle administrators that communicate goals do not it often is not accomplished. Important goals
need to be a priority at each level of the college. Extension sites are created by the college but often key people use there
influence and power to minimize or impede their success. If the college chooses to use extension sites it needs to support
them. Growth of the community that uses MCC is geographically changing and to stay competitive with their needs we need to
use those options that will benefit our students including classes outside of the main campus.
This is a hard question for me to answer. I would like to see employees that do not want to work here leave. I would like to
have more opportunity to advance personally. I would like to see a cut down on the waist. An example is that I see
maintenance and public safety cars and trucks running for as long as an hour with no one in the car. It also seems to me that
a lot of people have access to the college's money and spend it freely.
Continue to work with faculty & staff to create a better and successful work environment. Improving moral/especially after job
evaluation process
The system for students to get enrolled in classes needs to be made student friendly. Our department continually has students
who are either confused or upset with the enrollment process. The registration center should be changed to feel less
impersonal. The student talks to someone behind a glass window, this makes the impression very impersonal. Advisors should
not send student from place to place to do things before getting enrolled.
Address the student’s needs and provide services. Provide students with easy access to faculty. Upgrade the college,
buildings are in poor repair, employees have poor working conditions (heat and cooling) and no one addresses the concerns.
Getting all faculty and staff involved in the process like we are doing with AQIP.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
Revamp Gen Ed so that is meaningful and perhaps along the way this will improve the relations among the faculty and
administrators. This time, could it please be faculty driven?????
Student relationships and also how they treat their employees such as being fair no favoritism
Working directly with high school and middle school students and teachers.
Encourage the students to take more responsibility for their own education and performance.
By keeping up with the fast pace of technology. So that we can properly train faculty and staff, so that they can affectively
prepare our students for the real world.
Suit the needs of the students better. Students in seats, taking classes are what drives the college. The Administrators need
to understand the importance of the students and the faculty needs to understand that the college is a business and the main
objective is to make money.
Increase the number of full time faculty members in each division if possible. We need more full time instructors and maybe
less part timers.
Hire more full time instructors and we have got to improve our financial aid office PR. I hear at least one complaint about that
department every day.
Not lower it's standards. Help students succeed in offering support classes, but academia must be number one in order to
prepare students for the future.
I believe that it is being worked on presently! To improve the quality of the instruction for the adults who come here that need
developmental courses. If MCC can be known as an institution that cares about all learners, then the work will spread fast!
Improve by hiring more knowledgeable faculty. Not necessarily more experienced but more educated and knowledgeable.
People who have innovative teaching techniques and genuinely care about their students and want them to learn.
Give pay raises.
Involve more part-time and younger faculty to generate some new and current ideas as they relate to the workplace.
Philosophical changes could have positive effects on the atmosphere and on the morale at the college.
The College needs to work on improving the communication to new students who do not have financial means to attend
classes for them to realize that MCC education is a financial commitment.
Making sure it stays up to date with the technology in all departments, and not just a chosen few.
Expand technology and training for using the technology and be innovative with new classes and programs.
Hire more full-time faculty and/or compensate part-time faculty for participation on committees and for attending meetings. No
matter how wonderful the strategic plans, missions, or goals are, they can not be accomplished by only a few. Incentives must
be present so all will participate.
Proper Budgeting and planning
AQIP. Involve more and more employees in decision-making. Make all processes even more transparent and aligned with
other processes.
We need to get our Tech Center running at full capacity so that it can contribute to rejuvenating Flint
Better communication between Administration and Academics departments. Also, remember that students are our customers,
they are the reason we are here!
Do a retirement buyout. Get some new blood in.
Versatility in methods of course delivery.
Find the resources necessary to fund the hiring of full-time faculty members that are needed.
The college should significantly increase the number of full time faculty in order to allow a larger and more active role of the
faculty in a number of institutional activities.
There is a lot of equipment (technology division) that is not being used. What constant classes or programs can be
established to utilize the RTC more effective? Work together academic and non-Credit people. Let's not the RTC be used as
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
rental building for the community.
Personnel that are qualified in the position they hold
I THINK THAT FROM A EDUCATION STAND POINT MCC IS DOING A GOOD JOB BUT, I THINK THAT ONE WAY TO
IMPROVE IS TO GET A FOOTBALL TEAM. I UNDERSTAND THAT IT WILL COST A LOT TO INSURE BUT, I THINK THE
REWARD WILL BE WORTH IT. I TRULY, THINK THAT IT WILL BOOST ENROLLMENT BY AT LEAST 25%. EVERYONE
WHO PLAYS FOOTBALL DREAM IS TO PLAY FOOTBALL AT A FOUR YEAR COLLEGE. FOR ACADEMIC REASONS
MANY PLAYERS DREAMS ARE CRUSHED BEFORE THEY GET STARTED. HAVING A FOOTBALL TEAM WILL BE AN
OUTLET FOR MANY PEOPLE WHO, WOULD HAVE JUST NOT EVEN TRIED TO GO TO COLLEGE. THIS COULD BE A
CHANCE FOR THEM TO CHASE A DREAM AND TO GET AN EDUCATION.
I feel that communication and document control are two areas that the college needs to focus in order to grow the college for
the communities that it serves. There is so much "control" present in the administrative side that is hinders and harms the
potential of the college.
In advertising. There are many people outside the college community that still believe that a degree from Mott is not worth
the time and trouble of attending. An associate’s degree in the right field is worth a good deal of money and I don't think that
Mott is getting this message out to the residents of this county.
To develop programs and trainings curriculums that will address the increase in the high school dropout rate
continue to offer new classes in broader areas of job opportunities
MCC needs to work on its collective bargaining agreements especially that with the faculty - faculty contracts are impeding the
development of new courses needed by the community. Union contracts generally negatively affect the budget with unrealistic
demands in terms of salary increases and fringe benefits. The college cannot continue to support the current level of cost
increases in salary and fringe benefit line items.
Make direct and repeated contacts with area high schools to make them aware of the strengths of Mott and the variety of
classes available.
AQIP and opening the channels of communication between VP's, VP of Support and Administrative Services and VP of
Academic Affairs. There is a lot of talent within this organization and we should really maximize that!
Put more emphasis at the Cabinet level on the Academic side of the house rather than have Accounting and Personnel and
Facilities setting the agenda for the college. Have the Vice-President of Academics have significant classroom teaching
experience. Build a more cooperative relationship with the academic deans.
I think we really need to focus on the students more, it’s not just about the jobs we have, but the jobs that need to be done. If
that means when you walk down the hall you pick up a piece of trash, you pick it up. If it means you walk a student down the
hall you do it. If it means you stay late after an office hour, to finish helping, you do it. Go the extra mile; it WILL make a
difference in a student’s life.
New Gorman Science Center will expand the potential to reach students and the community with Science education.
Strengthen mandatory placement in gen ed courses
MCC future success depends on adequate financial resources and community support. The best thing MC can do to secure
these resources is to better develop community support and work to pass local millage renewals.
Increase the desire to improve to the fullest extent. Take advantage of the ever increasing opportunity to expand all programs
towards high technical education.
Health care and technology are of the utmost importance in today’s society. Expansion of these programs is a must for our
future.
It would involve a combination of reexamining learning objectives -- what should students know and be able to do -- and then
examining what we do to see how we can change our approaches to meet those goals. And that would involve making a
much more concerted effort to get people across campus working together, and making it more of an 'expectation' that we will
all always be learning, trying new things.
Being able to provide more and better servicing while resources become tighter. We have to do a better job of changing to
meet a constantly changing global economy. It's absolutely critical to do future planning that will carry the college forward
looking at company downsizing and unstable economic conditions which appears will continue for the next several years.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
By treating new enrollees with more respect. they are the reason we get paid. In the 9 years that I have been teaching here I
have had complaint after complaint from students on how they were treated from the first step at the admissions desk until they
are sent to us for advising. Even though I am not an advisor I do the job very well. When the student gets to our office they our
almost ready to not even start because they have been given the run around in the financial aid department that they are in
tears when they get here. So I think that this department really needs to take a good look at them selves and re think how to
change things to accommodate the students.
Better academic advisement
Use the DACUM process to evaluate programs that are under enrolled and don't seem to be serving the current needs of
prospective students.
Continue to have student services available for students. There needs to be an onsite cafeteria available for students. A
program to retain students in MCC would be beneficial as well.
Systemic process improvement
Expand and improve our relationships with k-12 schools districts to bridge higher education by promoting dual enrollment and
early admission opportunities to their students. Promoting residents of the surrounding MCC area to expand their learning by
taking courses that upgrade their skills to meet current and future job needs. More attention given to the extension sites with
improved classrooms, more course offerings and upgraded buildings.
Improve the student advising system, provide clear expectations for each program and assure that a student who stays on
track can actually finish in the advertised amount of time: two years for an Associates Degree. Reduce the confusion with
Gen Ed requirements.
Improve services/facilities at satellite campuses. More funding for Writing Center outreach and staffing. Liaison with area high
schools actively---Tech Prep Committee formation w/HS teachers? Consider 300-400 level courses in some programs. TEN
MINUTES between 75 MINUTE class sessions---this isn't high school! Continue strong connection between admin. & faculty
so that mutual respect grows accordingly. Conduct student survey to identify courses & programs they would like to take and
participate in.
I FEEL THAT STUDENTS SHOULD BE OUR MAIN CONCERN FOR THE REASON IF IT WAS NOT FOR THEM WE
WOULD NOT BE HERE. I FEEL FROM STUDENT FEED BACK THAT WE NEED TO IMPROVE ON THE ADVISING THEY
RECEIVE TOWARD THERE DEGREE. A LOT OF STUDENTS FEEL THEY ARE BEING PUT IN CLASSES THAT THEY DO
NOT NEED. I HERE MANY STUDENTS DO NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND THE SERIOUSNESS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF
THERE FINANCIAL AID OR PELL GRANT UNTIL AFTER THEY MESS UP AND IT IS TOO LATE. MAYBE THEY NEED TO
BE BETTER INFORMED ON WHAT THE PELL GRANT IS ACTUALLY FOR.
New deans and new administration!!
As I have only been with the College for a short time, I don't feel I have enough knowledge to answer this question effectively.
1) Get more feedback on student’s thoughts for what is needed at MCC in terms of both services and programs 2) Provide
more coordinated and stable services to students for academic assistance outside of the classroom. Seems that each
semester the hours change and personnel to assist students range in abilities from great to poor. Do better at advertising these
to students and faculty, perhaps place them in a central location of the campus to make ease of access greater 3) Speed up
technology and facilities updating to improve learning atmosphere in all classrooms. Some of our classrooms lack good
window coverings to allow students to see overheads. Improve old classroom set-ups and do away with the TV set-ups and
instead use LCD projectors with speakers to show all DVD and VHS materials. Connect these straight through the smart cart.
Incorporate into smart classrooms overhead cameras for both showing images and notes. Also let faculty have access to these
cabinets so that they can use jump drives and other materials from CDs or floppy. 4) Improve computer facilities. One area for
each building on campus dedicated directly to open hours for students that are separate from computer labs used for teaching.
Teaching computer labs that are not controlled by divisions but by central classroom reservation system. 5) Have the Gen Ed
requirements actually mean something that will translate to transfer or degree requirements. Now it is like a shopping list
beyond what was originally attended from the model institution.
Communication. MCC seriously lacks in its communication processes in all areas. Students don't know what is going on; staff
is not given adequate notice of changes in policies (if they are given it at all) and faculty are not given information in a timely
manner. MCC does make a half-hearted attempt at communication, but it is only in a few remote areas. Higher ups do not
understand that just because you make the information available there is no guarantee that it is read. A standard must be set
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
that clearly identifies the responsibility on the individual to be informed and then policies that address accountability must be
put into place and followed through on when the standards are not met.
Keep Striving to reach its’ goal of serving the community in everyway possible.
To improve student services. To make the students feel welcome, not overcome with obstacles they are not aware of when
they are trying to get answers to their questions.
I think the best way MCC can improve in the next five years is to encourage more employees to become involved in areas
outside of their regular job at the college. Like advising a student club, attending college events and fundraisers, etc. I think
employees need to see that there's a lot more to MCC than the department or office you work in each day. The more you see
of MCC, the more there is to like!
It can improve by getting the employees more involved and by creating a more friendly work environment.
To get the community more involved.
MCC should continue to research career demand in the local area.
Be open to improvements in the nursing program, which seems to be the largest program of students at MCC. Yes, it is an
expensive program, but don't you want a well prepared nurse taking care of you or others that you know.
Promote more programs to provide the community with graduates who are able to step into employment opportunities.
Institution needs to develop an annual report card which hopefully would show to community, administration, faculty, staff,
students etc that MCC is demonstrating steady improvement.
Morale is generally low at Mott and needs to be improved so that faculty no longer refuse to walk through the administrative
wing, staff concerns and needs are considered before changes are made, and a better working environment is created for
everyone. Peace between Information Systems and Academic Computing should be a priority instead of a continuous state of
turf war being perpetuated. A better look at jobs and real job descriptions than is currently in place would reveal that there are
huge inequities between similar paying positions.
Open Communications
Hire more full time faculty, and reverse the trend to greater percentage reliance on part time.
We really need to evaluate the services/processes that are being done by divisions/departments, as it seems we don't always
work as a team. There needs to be a better understanding of what others do and how we can help each other instead of
blaming each other.
Improvement needed in providing specialized tutorial services available to students.
To begin open communication and have departments work together, to share resources.
more support staff
To continue to build a strong relationship with the community. Develop a process to actually address/improve student learning,
not just assess it.
The college has provided useful in-service and meetings, such as studies on the brain and on learning strategies. These
relate directly to teaching and are therefore quite useful. Keep doing this.
Bringing more of the community into MCC and more MCC into the community. Getting faculty and staff involved in projects
and activities in the areas where they live as well as where they work.
MCC has the best opportunity for improvement if it shifts its focus toward better communication. People who are employed by
the college should not have to subscribe to The Flint Journal to find out what is going on at the college.
Solve problems as they arise but never lose sight of long term objectives related to improving learning
Understanding the Flint community and surrounding areas as General Motors jobs continue to decline and further education
will be needed.
Improve in advising of students and support for non-traditional students
Don't no
Work as a "Team Player" and have more open communication throughout the entire college.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
Pay close attention to work force in surrounding areas and change
OFFERING MORE CLASSES FOR CEU'S
Keep upgrading curriculum. Making sure the basics that are taught in reading math and sciences are real and can apply by
students in their future.
I am excited to be a part of the AQUIP process and I believe that this process is the best opportunity we have for MCC to
improve in the next 5 years!
Continue to respond to the needs and concerns of students, faculty and staff, as well as the community -- keeping in mind that
the student is our most important constituent.
Pay more attention to the needs of the community when determining which programs to create or discontinue. Continue to
develop alliances with other institutions and businesses in the community.
Improve the communication between administrators, Faculty and Staff Offer more training
To get a better system in place for students that have a family to get through the registration process. It's harder for parents to
come and find time to go through admissions, orientation, meet with counselors, advisors and then register for classes. Most
have full time jobs and maybe even small children. Their time is limited and from people I've heard back from they have had to
come back several times just to complete the process and were very frustrated by that.
To continue with the job that there doing
Continued communication improvement. [employee name] have the courage and strength to make improvements within the
in-take process in counseling and advising(so much $$ being wasted)- lots of DATA! The humanities department re-think their
current position on COMM 131 as not being a SAC - let's think about students guys! A suggestion box - it is very, very hard to
suggest changes as there is great fear in retaliation - unfortunately, honesty works in a few divisions. I've been at MCC(fulltime)for over 20 years and no longer feel comfortable expressing my concerns(many deaf ears - their agendas!).
Continue to expand and renovate facilities. Add programs and partnerships with 4 year schools.
MCC must keep student success as its number one priority. The final question that should be asked prior to any decision made
should be "How will this decision impact student success?" Let's keep it simple and focused. Why spend so much time creating
a mission statement when we know what our mission is, "STUDENT SUCCESS"
MCC should be trying to do all possible things to effectively improve learning and competence. Evaluation, placement, and
effective counseling are important because the breakdown in these areas have a devastating impact on at risk students.
We are the low cost provider of education in this region and I think that is generally recognized, but we also have the
reputation of being the low quality provider as well. If we can significantly change that, we will be in excellent shape.
Continue to look at innovative and effective models of learning and class offerings for a global society.
I've taught at MCC for four weeks, so I cannot answer this question productively.
Continue to offer workshops on effective teaching.
Revisiting assessment and general education
AQUIP - includes everyone to focus on MCC goals and improvement. It will be a conscious, consorted effort for all to improve
in what they do on a DAILY basis. It the everyday "stuff" that makes us who we really are.
To continue to increase the quality of MCC's instructional credit and non-credit offerings and services to our students to meet
their needs and the community's needs.
1) Document and re-engineer processes. 2) Bridge the gap between faculty/staff, management/employees and academic/nonacademic functions.
Understand and prioritize. The main players are the students and the faculty that help them learn. a) Less emphasis please on
teaching and learning styles and more on content. I have yet to hear of a workplace that asks a person what their learning style
is and finds a job to suit that. b) Faculty evaluation should be done by peers not Deans that are not qualified to do the same. c)
Mandatory placement in introductory classes. If not we are getting all the students we want in huge numbers and setting them
up for failure. d) A budgetary process that faculty can be involved in. e) Assessment has gotten out of hand. It should not be
the focus. Student evaluation should be. f) More full time faculty. g) More support staff in Division offices h) More support
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
services for students to help them pick classes that they can succeed in, better placement, better advisement i) Improve the
whole financial aid, add/ drop process and timeline. Almost 10-20% of students seem completely lost, beginning of every
semester. They don’t have classes, get dropped, no books, etc, etc,. j) Faculty coordinators must be brought back. They
played an extremely important, critical role. k) CETL tends to be "exclusive" as opposed to "inclusive". This has to change if
improvement is desired from faculty.
There needs to be a we attitude not an us verses them attitude. Too many duplicated efforts because areas will not talk to
each other and share information. Causing a lot of wasted time, effort and money and resources.
Partnering with the Genesee County Schools, especially Flint, to provide continuity of expectations for the residents of the
county. Pursuing grants that further these kinds of partnerships.
New technology direction away from a manufacturing focus
For much more forthrightness and honesty to come from the administration and for the College as a whole to have more care
and concern for its employees. People do have feelings, and these feelings should not always be stomped on or ignored or
belittled.
Let us work together as a single team!
If all the departments and divisions worked together and had an open line of communication.
REALIZE THE INTERNATIONAL SCOPE OF VARIOUS SERVICE INDUSTRIES AND NOT FOCUS ON THE LOCAL
MARKET FOR TOTAL JOB PLACEMENT.
I am hoping that the AQIP process will promote more collaboration and communication about important decisions. The
[position title] in [department name] has handed down plans and goals that she developed without any input from faculty--or
anyone else as far as I know. (Of course, I DON'T know.)
To continue to evaluate and eliminate offerings and programs that does not add value to the committee or are draining
resources from the main mission of the College.
Mott needs to ensure that its outlying campuses are allowed to grow. I feel that the restraints on travel, costly fuel, and the fact
that the student body often works will sway more students to attend their local branch campuses of Mott.
Maintain and increase the programs offered in the r.t.c. Continue using the off campus sites such as Fenton and Lapeer to
make mcc more accessible to the general public. Strive to obtain effective leadership in the non-educational departments.
Find better opportunities for nursing students to complete their courses. I understand that many student need to wait 3 years
for some required courses. Our area certainly needs more trained nurses.
MCC should return to the style of management whereby the administration exists to support the faculty, who after all, are the
experts when it comes to education. There is a very definite lack of trust and confidence in several of the administrators.
relationships with staff and faculty
Consistency of leadership; stable funding
Our department is not able to meet the space and technology needs of our students. Our students want a study area in the
department, so that they can help each other learn, work in groups, work on presentations. Our students need more lab
practice space as our lab instructional lab is always in use. They need locker spaces as they come for the day and do not
have a place to store their belongings. We need a space for sim man scenario use because we all want to use him and there
is no space just for him. We need a computer space with 40 computers for computer use; we can't do anything for the whole
class or make use of computerized instruction for the group where students can proceed at their own pace.
Hire a vice president for academic affairs and a dean of curriculum who have extensive experience as teachers and
researchers on the college level, and who will emphasize that Mott CC faculty are experts in their fields as well as teachers.
Better yet, scrap the dean of curriculum position and hire two more full-time faculty members. Gosh, how *did* we get along
for the first 75 years without a dean of curriculum, anyway?
Another opportunity is to raise academic standards higher than those of UM-Flint. We must stop thinking that it is acceptable to
set Mott's standards just below that of UM-Flint's. In many ways, UM-Flint has and will, over the next five years, continue to
lower academic standards, so it would not be difficult to surpass their standards. However, it would take a tremendous act of
will and a very different mind-set concerning what Mott Community College can and should be.
Mott Community College should actively participate in streamline the transfer of credits to 4 year colleges. The State Gov't has
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
proposed a system of standardized transcript records that might help our students by making transfer easier.
President needs to replace OLD administration from [employee name] and start "fresh" as most presidents have done! Too
much deadwood that collect extremely large salaries and are incompetent!!
Innovation and partnerships with 4 year institutions
To listen to the faculty and students
Talk to part-time people as well as full time employees. Full time instructors think themselves to be demi-gods and know
everything.
The goal is known to all employees and all employees work toward the same goal. And....I stress all.
Everyone at MCC needs to realize that we are not the only college in town anymore. Our advertising, marketing, helping
students register, advancing programs, all need to be reflective and changed to become easier to understand and processes
need to be stream-lined. It should not take student five trips to campus to get registered for a class. Advisors and counselors
need to be on the same page. (Why do we need both). Administrators, Faculty, Staff need to remember why they wanted to
work at MCC. It shouldn't be just for a paycheck.
Have more faculty involvement in decision making. Ask faculty
1. Get back to why we exist!! Become more student focused and be about the business of creating an environment that allows
students to get the academic background and training required to be successful in their chosen endeavor. Increase supportive
services for students and begin to take their issues seriously by incorporating experiences and training that prepares them for
the world they will be embracing - not by creating policies that create real barriers to the successful transition from their current
situation to the desired proficiency. 2. Develop a collaborative environment where every member of the college community
feels and demonstrably is, valued. The current environment of top-down high authoritarianism undermines previously
committed core values to the previously defined mission and purpose of the community college. 3. While we have a very
comprehensive mission statement, we do very little beyond providing classes as referenced in the statement. For example, we
have eliminated the Director of Student Activities and merged the department with the Admissions Department using existing
staff and this leaves very little effort, dollars and time for recruitment or program development. 4. Develop an honest
approach to students and staff. Each year the president holds student forums, looks like he's interested and then nothing
happens to substantially address the issues students bring to him. Then, faculty are encouraged to bring their classes.....for
what? This is a joke to faculty, staff and students. Ask a student what they think about the colleges' commitment to
them....They might lol...laugh out loud!
The best opportunity Mott has to improve in the next five years is to better quantify student outcomes, both institutional
measures of student outcomes (attrition, graduation, etc) and learning outcomes (gen ed assessment, classroom assessment,
etc). More accurate quantifications of student success will provide the basis for decisions on better alignment of the curriculum
to community needs and more effective instruction.
The best thing that MCC can do is communicate processes and requirements - especially with Advisors/Counselors - so that
students are not put in the wrong places or asked to do the wrong things. Not everyone is clear on policies and procedures. It
is these people that cause distress to our students and is one of the greatest causes for them to seek alternative institutions.
More full time well-paid positions.
Put a higher value on its faculty and staff and the everyday work they do to help the students move through the college
processes.
Focus on the next crisis and solving it before it happens! I.e. fuel cell technology, environmental issues, etc..
Improve student retention by focusing in on those who don't return the following semester/year.
To become a university and offer more programs. Also the possibility of the college taking over the Flint regional Police
Academy and merging with the Mott criminal justice and Ferris. the student safety officer position could also be counted as
credits towards a criminal justice degree
To develop and adopt a customer focus for all activities across the college.
Everything’s is running smoothly as of now
One of the most important things MCC can do to improve the services we provide to students. Students should be able to get
a quality education (obtain a degree) from any of MCC campuses.
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
While I am uncertain what you mean by "best opportunity," I believe the following three comments are of value to Mott
Community College. The first is to reward the intellectual work of the faculty up front, not merely after the fact, for their work in
creating courses. Inspire innovation, curriculum development, and creativity by rewarding the actual work and by providing
some creative control over the final product. The second is to develop a stronger professional atmosphere on the campus and
the satellite campuses. Indicate that good work is important and reward it. Use professional titles. Classify part-time faculty
as "lecturers" or "adjuncts" and not merely as "part-time faculty." Infuse the "family" with some self-pride. The third is to
seriously consider why Mott students (let alone people in the community) have such a poor attitude towards the school.
Repeatedly, I have had students ask me why I teach at Mott. I respond with "should not community college students have
great instructors, too?" But the question uncovers a basic and profound disregard for the school, even among the students.
I teach in the technology department and I think the department is doing an awesome job. Maybe scanners in the classroom
and labs for the students to use. Having extended hours in the computer labs (until about 11:00), maybe even on Sunday's.
Offering the software that is used in the classroom to faculty at a reduced rate or even free would help the faculty become
even more familiar with the software and it would help when teaching it in the classroom. Having a tech person in the building,
available, and knowing how to reach the person during class hours in case of problems.
Create pre-college classes that do ensure the student is ready for class requirements. Many students are trying to work, go to
school and have a family--I do not believe that they will be successful. We need better planning for child care, requiring the
student to have a plan of action for their college career. It is simply too expensive to have students not ready and committed to
their education, before they start into programs. The returning student needs classes to ensure that they are ready for the
advanced learning environment. I also believe that students are allowed into programs only because they want to earn a
higher income yet do not have the academic ability and so they fail out. I believe the student must be better assessed for their
academic skills and then directed into appropriate programs for their ability
It is necessary to research the needs of the community and the direction of future technologies in order to retain jobs in this
area.
Funding and contracts hamper innovation but the emphasis on community economic development is critical.
I believe that MCC should continue to evaluate the programs it offers and adapt them as quickly and effectively as is possible.
If the college can show the public its commitment to them, if it can keep on or ahead of the cutting edge in technology and
social issues, I believe that MCC will improve its standing and importance to the population it serves.
student placement data (better process and use), program and course evaluations as part of CPSC, consistent administration
both sides, look at student evaluation of faculty, look at the grading scale, course offerings (student needs/ faculty desired
schedules), faculty/staff contract (what is or is not upheld), territory issues between people and departments
Provide more mini-training sessions to get, and keep, staff current with computer programs, communication skills, collaborative
process etc. Provide more sessions for faculty on site instead of sending them off to somewhere else for training. That would
allow more "experts" for the same or little more funding.
1. To continue recruiting faculty with fresh ideas and "out-of-the-box" methods of teaching and thinking. Faculty and
Administration must be willing to study/learn the generations for whom they're charged with teaching in order to effectively get
through to our diverse student population. Out-of-the-box thinkers are also more likely to be creative, innovative, and willing to
pursue non-traditional avenues in order to provide an holistic learning environment for students.
A better communication with the community, finding ways to cut the cost of tuition and books for students, providing job
opportunities for the needy students, making more tutors available and, in particular, in the areas of science and mathematics.
Become more customer focused. Train employees in customer service skills. Train supervisors in effective communication
and management skills. Value employee suggestions.
To develop a culture of student involvement, to make a campus where students are supported outside the classroom.
MORE PARKING
AQUIP, if the Executive cabinet and higher managers truly embrace it.
Getting students more involved, and putting students first.
TO CONTINUE TO PARTNERSHIP WITH BUSINESSES AND INDIVIDUALS OUTSIDE THE COLLEGE. TO CONTINUE TO
ACCESS EMPLOYERS NEEDS.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
Develop a plan and pull together the Mott Community as a team to exploit innovations in learning and educational processes.
Give everyone a voice, especially the customer. Provide strong leadership, not management, to pull those voices together into
one harmony. Use Human Resources to identify talents, not skill sets, when choosing employees or change agents.
increase our community interdependence
Administrators identify College Goals as a whole. Then break down the goals with department managers to see what things
can be done departmentally to meet College goals. Departmental managers can meet with staff and faculty in their
departments communicating the goals for the department and how everyone can work together to meet these goals. Requires
communication from the top-down.
AQIP
Improve relationships between administrators, faculty and staff. There seems to be a lack of trust and respect between these
groups. By improving and strengthening the relationships, everyone, including students, will benefit.
Mott needs to increase its advertising budget.
Mott delivers quality education at a bargain price--thanks, partly, to the
part-time/adjunct faculty who work for a fraction of the cost of a full-time faculty.
Advertise the reasonably priced, low cost
educational opportunity at Mott. Baker College constantly advertises itself, and its student population grows, even though
Baker is an incredible EXPENSIVE college. Why would any student attend Baker--unless Baker was offering a program that
was not offered at Mott? Still, most Baker students are enrolled in programs that are offered at Mott--at a more reasonable
cost.
I have enjoyed my years as an adjunct faculty member at Mott. On the other hand, the divide between the salary of
the full-timers and the part-timers/adjunct grows wider and wider. Last year, instead of taking a total salary freeze for the
faculty, the faculty negotiators missed an opportunity to toss a proverbial bone to the part-timers/adjunct faculty by negotiating
a symbolic raise for them.
We part-timers/adjunct folks provide a meaningful addition to the Mott faculty, but our
contribution needs to be more noticed--via the negotiation process.
Adjuncts and part-timers are often not given the complete set of requirements for teaching a particular class. Someone needs
to be sure that this happens on a consistent basis. I found out about some items only by random luck - sometimes only days
before the project was supposed due within the department. There is also the issue of documenting how much work I have
done. I was evaluated in the first semester of the first year I taught here. I am now in my second year and have NEVER seen
my formal evaluation nor am I listed on the priority points scale. What is up with that!!
I don’t know
Improve the registration and guidance department. Insure that customer service is raised to the highest level. Take a look
outside the box as to course offerings. The college must change with the times. Traditional education may need a "transplant".
The college should work as a team. Each Division or Department has its responsibility but working together as equals can
improve the institution and provide superior education to all students.
Start a collaborative process involving all levels of the organization in decision-making.
Take a tour through our
enrollment process, look for improvements and hurdles (we have a number of roadblocks for new students) and make
changes. Provide customer service training and require evaluations and corrective action. Share information at every level,
college plans, goals for areas, etc. Keep the staff informed!
Be more aware of the Student/Faculty/Staff needs
Construction improvements and updates
The best opportunity for MCC to improve in the next 5 years is to continue to do the outstanding work and build on any
learning experiences.
Recognizing that overall that MCC possess bright, enthusiastic people.
MCC is an outstanding college. I find that people who have not worked other places have a more critical eye of what we need
to do to improve than I might. On the other hand, I think we need to continue to work on creating a seamless path between
non-credit opportunities that exist both in our continuing education and workforce development areas and our academic
offerings. We have made improvements in this area since I have been here, but I would say that is an area that we have a
great opportunity to continue to improve on in the next 5 years. This is an issue that is important at the national and state level
and lots of opportunities to learn from other community colleges.
Start with the students needs in mind. If we make it easier for them to get the things done that are needed (placement testing,
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Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
registration, financial aid, etc.)Students wouldn't be so frustrated.
Listen to the people who are dealing directly with the students -- they are closest to understanding the frustrations students
face in dealing with MCC and their unmet needs.
Upgrade and update the physical facilities.
Be responsive to students' needs. Offer the courses they need to go to the next step in their education or their career. If we
develop a reputation as offering what students need, our college will grow and flourish. However, under the current philosophy
of the college, students are continually discouraged about getting the coursework they need in the amount of time they need it,
and many go elsewhere to find the classes they need. When I look at my colleagues and the wealth of experience and
knowledge they bring with them into the classrooms, I get excited. However, I do feel that the administration doesn't know or
care about the individuals who teach the courses, they only care that we make the college profitable. I know that in this
climate of budget cuts, all of us have to be aware and concerned about the budget of the college. However, a college is much
more than its administrators. It is all about what goes on between students and faculty in the classrooms, labs and learning
centers. I would ask my administrators to please give more part time faculty the opportunity to become full time; please give
us the opportunity to teach the courses our students need.
Mott's best opportunity to improve is to continue the strong community alliances it has, and to continue to strive to meet the
changing job preparation needs of the area.
Much money is being spent in favored areas of the college and I commend the progress. In five years perhaps the priority
objectives will change and areas lacking will improve in the college as a whole.
Communication is the key! Realize that the students are the reason we are here - it's all about them!
Better communication from Administration about the strategic goals of the institution. Faculty need to realize that this place
can't run with out support staff.
MCC needs diversity training. We have different nationalities here and yet some of the staff and faculty do not adhere or try to
become culturally aware of the different cultures. There were/are time when I myself hear the racial/cultural overtones that
some staff and faculty make in their everyday conversations and when it is reported, nothing is done about it.
keep upgrading technology; offer more online class
By being more accessible to students in the district - building our branch campuses with effective course programs to draw the
"on-the-fence" potential student. Courses at branch campuses should be feeder courses to main campus or should be
complete programs in themselves. Right now we have mixed messages being sent to the public. Combine appropriate course
distribution among campuses with effective, saturation marketing and brand identity programs.
1. Assess "basic skills" as a pre-requisite to course enrollment; as discussed in the comments to Question 13. Students who
do not have the appropriate basic skills should not be permitted to waste their time, money, and hope; in situations they are not
prepared for.
2. Currently, the almighty theme of "academic freedom" seems to have
eliminated any function procedures of COMMAND and CONTROL in terms of the oversight of faculty performance. Every
semester I submit "Course Policies". I have never been told that they were reviewed or evaluated to determine whether or not
they met the expectations of those placed the course on curriculum. I have never been told whether my procedures for
evaluation of a student's
performance were good, bad, or should be improved means employed by different faculty
members. By analogy, my "faculty evaluations" have indicated that when operating a car, it not being driven "off the road".
They do not offer any advice on how I could or should do a better or more effective job. All hail "academic freedom".
Improvement begins with knowing what people are doing and evaluating performance in the context of whether or not it meets
the expectations of those who set the "goals".
3. If "low enrollment" in an area is seen as preventing the
establishment of an increased number of different courses, consider more alternatives as either full-semester 2-hour classes,
or regular-time half-semester classes, in order to encourage student enrollment.
AQIP should help in developing and documenting process and procedures. We can only hope that it (AQIP) will help in
implementing collaborative decision making and having this information communicated to the MOTT family.
For more collaboration across the College and within particular areas of the College.
To examine demographic, economic and societal studies to determine which programs should be continued and built up, and
which programs should be adjusted or cut. The reality of Governor Granholm's educational funding changes is here, and will
greatly influence MCC's future. We need to be ready for that reality.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
No.
Question/Response(s)
A good start would be to train division administrators to respect, value, and show some appreciation for their staff.
To become fiscally sound. To direct energies into the improvement of the local economy by working with local government in
the shared goal of bringing jobs to our community.
For VP level administrators to learn to work with employees as opposed to putting them in a stressful and threatening
environment. The moral is down for many competent, dedicated and extremely hard working employees. These employees
work in the trenches with the students. These employees are constantly put in uncomfortable situations. The college
President is unfortunately not aware of this.
"Relax"!
Table of Statements/Questions on Constellation Survey for Your Institution
Statement:(What is held in highest value/importance?)
4.
Mott CC uses student assessment results to improve teaching and learning.
5.
Student Services divisions/departments provide programs and services that complement Mott CC's academic curricula.
6.
When making institutional decisions, administrators consider the impact on students and learning.
7.
Mott CC clearly communicates its learning expectations to both current and prospective students.
8.
Mott CC intentionally promotes excellence in teaching.
9.
Mott CC makes certain that students acquire the knowledge and skills required by their academic programs before awarding
them credentials.
10.
Faculty and staff have a shared understanding of Mott CC's educational goals for students.
11.
Processes are in place to determine which new educational offerings to develop.
12.
Mott CC regularly evaluates the effectiveness and relevance of its courses and programs.
13.
Mott CC has processes to ensure that students are prepared for the programs and courses in which they enroll.
14.
Mott CC identifies specific targets for improving student learning.
15.
Mott CC maintains a climate that encourages students to express their ideas, even unusual or unpopular ones.
16.
People working here understand the significance of Mott CC’s objectives that are not directly related to educating students.
17.
Mott CC’s non-educational activities and objectives harmonize or fit with its fundamental mission, vision, and philosophy.
18.
Mott CC regularly solicits feedback to improve offerings and services to the communities it serves.
19.
The results of Mott CC’s non-educational work strengthen the overall institution.
20.
Mott CC carefully defines and analyzes the unique needs of different groups of people it might serve.
21.
Mott CC responds rapidly to the changing needs of students.
22.
Mott CC measures how effectively it serves its students.
23.
Measured student satisfaction with Mott CC improves steadily.
24.
Mott CC maintains strong relationships with former students.
25.
Mott CC makes improvements based on the complaints it receives.
26.
Mott CC has effective processes to use the feedback it gets from its students and its other stakeholders.
27.
Mott CC regularly evaluates the effectiveness of human resource and personnel processes.
28.
Mott CC makes certain that Faculty and staff get the training and professional development their work requires.
29.
Evaluations regularly provide Faculty and staff with concrete feedback on ways to improve.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
Statement:(What is held in highest value/importance?)
30.
Mott CC’s hiring processes make certain the people it employs possess necessary credentials, skills, and values.
31.
Mott CC seeks out the views of Faculty and staff on ways to improve operations and performance.
32.
Mott CC trusts Faculty and staff to do their work effectively.
33.
Faculty and staff are recognized for their contributions and accomplishments.
34.
Administrators communicate a clear vision for Mott CC’s future.
35.
Mott CC’s core values stress the centrality of learning.
36.
A clear understanding of Mott CC’s priorities guides Faculty and staff in their work.
37.
Administrators empower Faculty and staff by clearly delegating areas of authority.
38.
Mott CC analyzes the effectiveness of its decision-making processes.
39.
Organizational and committee structures support good decision-making.
40.
Administrators ensure that Faculty and staff have the resources they need to do their work.
41.
Appropriate maintenance ensures that both facilities and equipment can be used effectively.
42.
Support services harmonize with Mott CC’s focus on education and learning.
43.
Technology is up-to-date and well-supported.
44.
Budgeting processes ensure resources are effectively allocated.
45.
Mott CC effectively identifies the support service needs of its Faculty and staff, units, and divisions/departments.
46.
Support services are regularly evaluated to identify improvement opportunities.
47.
Student needs are identified regularly so that appropriate support services can be provided.
48.
Mott CC ensures that students have easy access to the people and services they require to be successful.
49.
Divisions/departments can show their contribution to meeting Mott CC’s overall goals.
50.
Mott CC regularly measures its progress toward achieving its goals.
51.
The processes for gathering and analyzing data serve the needs of Faculty and staff and divisions/departments effectively.
52.
Mott CC regularly assesses whether students achieve program and course goals.
53.
Faculty and staff have access to the data and information that they need to improve the quality of the work they do.
54.
Faculty and staff know the key measures of Mott CC’s success.
55.
Divisions/departments set specific targets for the goals they want to achieve.
56.
Mott CC has well-understood strategies to ensure it will continue to be effective in the future.
57.
Divisions/departments set specific targets for improving their work.
58.
Mott CC compares its own performance with that of other higher education institutions.
59.
Mott CC has processes to ensure it is innovative and agile.
60.
Mott CC allocates resources effectively in support of its plans and future goals.
61.
Mott CC measures its progress in accomplishing institutional strategies.
62.
Faculty and staff share a vision of what Mott CC will be like in the next 5-10 years.
63.
Mott CC encourages its Faculty and staff to collaborate with others on new projects.
64.
Mott CC builds relationships with the institutions and organizations from which its students come.
65.
Mott CC builds effective relationships among faculty, staff, and administrators.
66.
Mott CC’s key partnerships with other institutions and organizations are well-known.
67.
Mott CC creates and builds relationships with external organizations that provide services to our students.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.
Mott Community College Comments from Constellation
October 2005
Statement:(What is held in highest value/importance?)
68.
Mott CC meaningfully involves its Faculty and staff in institutional work.
69.
The faculty and staff feel they are in a partnership with administrators.
70.
Students have good access to faculty outside of scheduled classes.
71.
Advising processes work effectively to get students in appropriate courses and programs.
72.
Mott CC supports civic, social, and/or environmental issues in the area it serves.
73.
Mott CC’s basic education or developmental offerings effectively prepare students for courses and programs.
74.
Programs and services are designed to meet the needs of those Mott CC serves.
75.
Students have convenient access to the information and resources necessary to support their learning.
76.
Divisions/departments have the data and information they need to make improvements.
77.
Communication occurs effectively up, down, and across different units of the organization.
78.
Mott CC actively encourages innovation.
79.
Planning processes improve Mott CC’s effectiveness.
80.
Divisions/departments work effectively as teams.
81.
Mott CC balances individual and collective work effectively.
Data entered into the "comments" field by survey respondents has not been edited for grammar or mechanics. For legal reasons, specific references
that identify particular employees have been removed and replaced with generic descriptors in brackets. Otherwise, all comments are presented as
they were written.