Preliminary report suggests continued accreditation
Gilroy – Gavilan College was praised last week in an oral report given by a regional oversight commission and the kind words indicate that the school will be granted an additional six years of accreditation.
Gavilan’s extension of accreditation enables it to remain eligible for state and federal funding and denotes that the education it delivers meets quality criteria.
Despite these early signs, Gavilan must wait until the commission’s team, which visited last week, has submitted a final report in June to hear the official decision.
On the last day of a three-day site visit, the team – comprised of state community college officials representing the Western Association of Schools and Colleges – commended Gavilan on six aspects of its operations, including a solid strategic plan.
“It’s always nice to be singled out for areas that were considered noteworthy by the commission,” said president Steve Kinsella.
At the heart of the team’s praise was the school’s use of its strategic plan. The master document for the direction of the school, the strategic plan guides decisions on issues as wide-ranging as facility construction to curriculum design.
The team commended Gavilan’s plan on two counts, said Jan Bernstein-Chargin, public information officer for the college.
“One, that we had (a plan)” – some schools still do not, she said – “and two that it’s the planning document that every other document draws from.”
Accordingly, when the college gets money, it consults the plan and makes sure expenditures promote its priorities. Likewise, professors and departments that apply for money from the school must outline how their proposed projects fit into the overall goals of the college as described in the master document.
The team found this adherence to the plan to be extraordinary for a community college.
Kinsella was also singled out as noteworthy by the commission, in part because of his development of the school’s strategic plan. They also said he was a driving force behind many of the changes the college has seen in recent years, such as increased enrollment.
In sum, “they found him to be a good leader,” Bernstein-Chargin said.
While generous with its praise, the team also urged the college to increase documentation of their work and to collect data regarding how they put programs to work.
Specifically, the commission wanted Gavilan to be more diligent in using tests and regular assessments to monitor the success of their projects and students.
For instance, the college recently hired more maintenance staff in hopes of beautifying the campus. An assessment would then speak to whether hiring the employees had actually improved the appearance of the campus.
Similarly, student testing would help judge whether certain academic programs were effective in raising performance and, if so, which ones were the most effective.
These will be items the school will work on in the coming months as it awaits the commission’s final decision on accreditation.
Until then, the college can be happy with a job well done as the commission also commended the school on having exemplary disability and human resource centers, liquidation of their debt, putting money toward paying their professors when they retire and in attracting students to its programs.
“We’re really pleased with all the work everyone on campus has put into this,” he said.
