Germantown Campus
VP/PROVOST’S REPORT
TO THE GERMANTOWN CAMPUS COMMUNITY
www.montgomerycollege.edu/departments/gprovost/
A Message from the Vice President
and Provost
Congratulations for the smooth transition to the
fall semester as we have accommodated a
record increase in enrollment. Our student
enrollment led all campuses at the College in
percentage increase, over 9%. This is a great
tribute to the confidence our community has in
the Germantown Campus to help provide an
excellent preparation for the knowledge–based
world that has come into existence now.
I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to welcome
nearly 800 students and their families for the
Scholarship Conference organized by our
Montgomery College Transfer Scholarship
Coordinating Committee. Congratulations to all
who helped “open the doors” for all the students
seeking help in the pursuit of their academic
careers.
It was great to see so many faculty and students
at the Spectrum Lecture, “Environmental
Impacts of Biofuels,” by Dr. Libby Jewel of
NOAA. Let’s all plan to return on November 2
for the next Spectrum Lecture entitled, “The
Science of Solar Energy.”
I want you to be aware that we are doing
everything possible to make sure the planned
Bioscience Education Center is staying on
schedule for a 2012 opening and that our
Science and Technology Park continues to move
ahead. These efforts continue to require much
time and attention as we work through the
County’s Growth Policy and needed zoning text
amendments. The Germantown Innovation
Center has reached 90% occupancy.
At our recent Campus Coffee, I had the
opportunity to learn about one of our Innovation
Center firms, Joinn Laboratories. The North
October 2009
American office of Joinn Laboratories is located
in the Innovation Center. Joinn is a “preclinical
contract research organization” that is currently
constructing a one million square foot research
facility near Shanghai, China. The more we learn
of the exciting local, national, and international
businesses that are our partners in the
Innovation Center, the more opportunities we will
discover for collaboration and integration of
efforts.
In closing, I hope that you are continuing to have
a successful semester. Please leave some time
in December for our holiday potluck party which
will give everyone an opportunity to demonstrate
their culinary skills! Details will follow.
Sanjay
Faculty Council
Submitted by John Hamman, Faculty Council
Chair
The semester is now well underway, and
midterm week is upon us. I hope that all of you
have had a pleasant first half of the semester.
The Germantown Faculty Council had their first
meeting of the semester on September 28, and
below are four highlights from that meeting.

At the beginning of the semester, Wayne
Barbour sent an email to all of us about the
Behavior Intervention Team (BIT). The
email had an attachment that is the form to
fill out if you have any behavior concerns
about a student. Everyone should have a
copy of this form saved somewhere as you
cannot predict when you will need it. The
form can be emailed to BIT-G where it will
be acted upon. The team has been working
hard to coordinate across the three
campuses to provide safety while
maintaining the rights and confidentiality of
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VP/Provost’s Report to the Germantown Campus
students. If you need another copy of that
email or have questions, please let Wayne
or myself know.



The student code of conduct was also
discussed. The code of conduct has some
minor editorial changes that are being
proposed. For a full copy of the changes,
contact Karen Roseberry or myself. The
important issue came up that there will be
overlap between any behavioral (BIT) issues
and code of conduct issues. It was stressed
that you can fill out the forms for any
behavioral issues. If BIT feels it is code of
conduct, they will send it on to Dean
Roseberry -- you as faculty don't need to
worry if you can't decide where it should go.
Likewise, they wanted to stress that nothing
has changed about what you do if there is an
actual emergency. You still call 911 or
security (7-7777) for anything that requires
immediate attention.
Dr. Rai presented data regarding our
increased enrollment this semester at
Germantown and thanked all faculty for their
hard work in making this possible. He also
discussed that the Board of Trustees
recently approved the lease for Holy Cross
Hospital on the Germantown Campus. The
hospital still needs to clear the large hurdle
of the state certificate of need, but the
college has gotten approval of proper zoning
to allow the hospital, as well as other
businesses, to become part of the business
park.
Lastly, the Regs committee is looking at the
plus/minus grading system that was
proposed at the closing meeting last year.
There will be more information available
soon.
The next Germantown Faculty Council meeting
is on October 26. I hope you will find some time
to join us this semester. If you have any
questions or comments, please feel free to
contact me at fccg@montgomerycollege.edu.
Campus Enrollment
Germantown’s 2009 combined summer
enrollment was 2,666 students, a 5.1 percent
increase over the 2008 combined summer
enrollment. This fall, Germantown’s enrollment
reached an all-time high of 6,573 students, a 9.3
percent increase over fall 2008.
Humanities, Social Sciences, and
Education
One of the College Area Review
recommendations of the AELP program was to
gather as EL, RD, and SP disciplines to discuss
new program initiatives and best practices. As a
result, 55 faculty members met on Friday,
August 28, for the day-long retreat. The day
began with a review of the College Area Review
recommendations and generated a framework
for the program’s comprehensive mission
statement. After that, there was a panel
discussion on vocabulary development featuring
several campus experts on the subject followed
by a sharing of textbooks, activities, and
strategies for success in classrooms. Time was
also set aside for CAR workgroups to meet.
The workgroups included the ACCUPLACER
ESL, common course designators for all AELP
courses, Learning Communities formation, AELP
mission statement, technology skills and
guidelines for tech-based assignments, AELP
website, and “institutional credit” for classes.
Each of the workgroups will continue to work
throughout the year, providing appropriate
updates to CAR and CAPDI. Of particular
CAPDI interests are the ACCUPLACER ESL
project and “institutional credit” discussion.
Distance Learning
Student Focus Group
Seven students make up the Office of Distance
Learning’s (ODL) first Student Focus Group. The
group will have one face-to-face meeting in late
September with the rest of the communication
and discussion being done online. Information
gathered from the Focus Group will be used to
improve the Distance Learning initiative at
Montgomery College.
Enrollments
Enrollments for Distance Learning continue to
increase. For the fall semester, as of September
2, there were 3,914 online enrollments and 1,237
blended-class enrollments. Montgomery College
is offering 205 online sections and 79 blended
sections.
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VP/Provost’s Report to the Germantown Campus
ODL will continue to work with senior
administrators in developing a plan to offer more
Distance Learning courses in high enrollment
areas.
Distance Learning Program Advisory
Committee
The Distance Learning Program Advisory
Committee has finalized its definitions of
Distance Learning courses, and this information
will be circulated to various groups for approval.
Two course management system vendors-Desire2Learn and Blackboard--will be invited to
Montgomery College this fall to give
presentations on their products. Faculty will have
an opportunity to ask questions of the vendors
and use the systems in a test environment.
Student Orientations
More than 180 students registered to participate
in the various Distance Learning orientations
offered by ODL. These orientations afford
students the opportunity to ask questions about
Distance Learning and to log into WebCT.
Orientations were held in person at each of the
campuses and via Elluminate.
Center for Teaching and Learning
(CTL)
The CTL started the month of September in
earnest after the Labor Day holiday.
August 28 was the CTL Professional
Development day for this semester’s
Professional Week. Faculty members were
provided with a variety of opportunities by
attending both face-to-face workshop
presentations and videoconference
presentations so that they did not have to leave
their respective campus to participate.
The CTL partnered with both the English
department and the American English Language
Program to offer content-specific professional
development for the two areas. These two
workshops were attended by more than 150
faculty from all three campuses. The CTL also
provided two workshops for new faculty: one on
pedagogy best practices and the second on
technology tools and support available at the
College.
Because faculty members are completely
immersed in class-related activities the first few
weeks of the semester, the CTL, for the first
time, held office hours on each of the three
campuses for faculty who wanted last minute
coaching on any aspect of their teaching. By the
end of the month, the CTL had offered additional
professional development opportunities for
faculty including podcasting, blogs, and wikis,
working with Elluminate, MyMC Course Tools,
Using the Smart Instructor Workstation, and
Using Excel for Grade Sheets. The CTL also
began its 2009-2010 Professional Development
for New Faculty Series.
Student Development
Dean’s Office
Dr. Karen Roseberry, Dean of Student
Development, and Wayne Barbour, Associate
Dean of Student Development, participated in
new student orientations providing welcomes,
words of wisdom, and encouragement.
Mr. Barbour addressed the Germantown
Campus providing a presentation on the
College’s Behavior Intervention Team initiative.
The campus was informed about the College’s
efforts to further its mission to maintain a
healthy, safe, and secure environment, free of
intimidation and harm, by systematically
addressing behaviors of concern and disruption.
The reporting of incidents began August 31,
2009, the first day of classes.
Student Development staff members were
among the many on hand during the first week of
classes to assist students with classroom
locations, information about accessing student
identification, parking permits, and various
resources available on campus and at the
College.
Assessment Center
On August 27, the Assessment Center
participated in the training of Montgomery
County Public School personnel as part of the
pilot program to administer the accuplacer in the
high schools. August 31 marked the beginning
of all testing being administered on a walk-in
basis. Staff diligently worked to assist students
who needed to be assessed in order to start
classes in the fall semester.
Marie Martin, supervisor of the Germantown
Campus Assessment Center, joined her
colleagues from the Takoma Park/Silver Spring
and Rockville Campuses on September 15 to
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VP/Provost’s Report to the Germantown Campus
discuss implementation plans in response to the
College Area Review recommendations. The
Assessment Center did a pilot test to assist the
Assessment Technology Institute norm the Test
of Essential Academic Skills on September 23.
Career/Transfer Center
Career/ Transfer Center staff and faulty
welcomed the University of Maryland University
College to campus on September 1, 8, 15, and
22. The Universities at Shady Grove were
among the visiting universities during the month
of September, visiting on September 8.
.
Counseling and Advising
Counseling faculty entered one of its busiest
times of the year (peak registration). Indicative of
the increasing enrollment experienced at the
Germantown Campus, counselors served a high
number of students. Counselors and advisors
saw 3,083 students, a 13% increase over last
year. During the same period, 704 students
attended mandatory advising sessions.
After accommodating well over 3,000 students
this summer, Counseling and Advising continued
right into the beginning of the 2009-2010
academic year advising students with matters
concerning class schedules, graduation audits,
and everything in between.
On September 14, the Center for International
and Multicultural Students hosted a “Meet and
Greet” that was structured to provide
international students the opportunity to meet
one another. Counselors were on hand to
answer questions.
Disability Support Services
During the month of August, incoming students
with disabilities received tutorials on accessing
and utilizing assistive technology.
Gillian Reid-Nelson, Disability Support Services
team member, joined Dr. Karen Roseberry
facilitating learning opportunities for students in
their DS 107 course.
Disability Support counselors were busy
assisting students with disabilities who are in
need of accommodations to fully participate in
their classes.
First Year Experience
Farewells and sentiments of appreciation were
extended to Christy Partlow, who resigned from
her position as Collegewide Coordinator of the
First Year Experience Program to accept a
position in K-12. Thanks to Christy in
coordinating what was a collaborative effort to
develop the Student Insider’s Guide, The guide
was distributed to all students taking the DS 107
course.
With the recent vacancy of the Collegewide
Coordinator of the First Year Experience
Program, options are being considered to
determine the most effective way to fill the void.
Germantown Options for Adult Learners
An Adult Student Open House was held on
August 12 at the Germantown Campus. The
Open House was attended by approximately 50
students who learned about resources at
Montgomery College.
Occupying a recently modified office, Amanda
McIntosh, Coordinator for the Germantown
Options for Adult Learners (G.O.A.L.), welcomed
newly-enrolled and returning students. A
Welcome Back Reception was held for adult
students on September 10. In addition, on
September 30, G.O.A.L. hosted a Renaissance
Scholars Information Session.
Student Employment Services
Student Employment Services (SES) kicked off
the fall semester with a new “Employment
Outcomes Survey” that was distributed to every
student receiving services during the month.
The new survey serves as a response to College
Area Review team recommendations and a
means to create a base-line measure of
employment outcomes for reporting strategic
objectives.
Eric Myren, Director of SES, and Joe O’Hare,
Job Opportunity Coordinator, joined Steve
Greenfield, Workforce Development and
Continuing Education, as hosts to a Chinese
Delegation from Zhejiang Financial College. The
delegation was provided information about
Montgomery College and its methods of student
and employer engagement as well as the
broader Workforce Development System.
Student Life
Staff in the Office of Student Life was busy
putting the final touches on plans for the fall
semester that will include special service
projects, alternative breaks, and materials for
curricular service learning.
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VP/Provost’s Report to the Germantown Campus
In addition, new student orientation sessions
were held on August 24 with two sessions on
August 25 to accommodate students who could
only attend during morning or evening hours.
Students attending were able to meet professors
and staff from various academic and student
services departments. Collectively, over 350
students attended the orientations.
The month of September was filled with Student
Life activities that included the first student
senate meeting on September 9; welcome week
during the week of September 14 – 17; Service
Learning & Volunteer Fair on September 16;
International Peace Day on September 21; blood
drive on September 24; and movie night which
featured the movie, “Miracle at Saint Anna,” on
September 24. The month of September was
designated as “Hispanic Heritage Month.”
Financial Aid
By the end of September, the Office of Student
Financial Aid (for the three campuses) received
over 15,000 financial aid applications for
registered MC students. The numbers of
students whose families lost jobs or were
experiencing hardship and reduced income
increased dramatically. There were large
numbers of student visits to the campus for
personal attention for unusual circumstances,
and there were many more requests for help
completing the financial aid application. In
addition, e-mail response services handled up to
90 e-mails per day during peak registration
periods, with an average monthly volume of over
1,000 e-mail student requests. Germantown
handled many more phone call inquiries. There
were some days that phone calls reached about
500 calls per day as students requested
information about 2009-2010 available financial
aid opportunities.
Financial aid staff made presentations to
prospective students and enrolled students. The
staff spoke on and off campus, including a
middle school visit and numerous presentations
at functions offered by Student Life and
Admissions . Over 500 students were
addressed by Financial Aid in the various
orientation and Student Life venues for the
month.
Note: Unless otherwise indicated, this Report
reflects those events and activities taking place
in September.