Institutional Effectiveness Committee, AY 2024-25
The IEC will continue to be responsible for guiding Highline College through the accreditation process. (According to the NWCCU Handbook of Accreditation, this process consists of “applying evidence-informed standards and processes to support continuous improvements and promote student achievement and success” (NWCCU Handbook of Accreditation 2020).
IEC Minutes
Specific responsibilities of the Institutional Effectiveness Committee:
- Oversight of the Mission Fulfillment Report process
- Preparation of campus for the accreditation process through all the stages (year 1 to year 7) including
- Oversight of Institutional Effectiveness Reporting
(See 2023-24 work done by IEC)
Membership structure:
Representatives from Academic Affairs, Administrative Services, Institutional Advancement, the Office of Equity, Diversity and Transformation, the Office of the President (to include ITS and HR) and Student Services, will be appointed by the Executive Cabinet. A representative from the Equity Task Force shall be selected by ETF. A faculty member will be selected by the Executive Cabinet to chair the committee based on an open application process.
Membership representatives:
Emily Lardner — Accreditation Liaison Officer and Academic Affairs
Lisa Bernhagen — Faculty Chair
Theresa Duhart — Office of the President, ITS
Melanie Lawson — Office of the President, Human Resources
Maribel Jimenez — Equity, Diversity, and Transformation
Emily Coates — Institutional Research , Equity, Diversity, and Transformation
Cathy Cartwright — Academic Affairs
Tanya Powers — Academic Affairs
Jamilyn Penn — Student Services
Ay Saechao — Student Services
Dave O’Keeffe — Institutional Advancement
Jess Underwood — Institutional Advancement
Marco Lopez-Torres — Administrative Services
Zach Lambert — Administrative Services
Rickitia Reid — Equity, Diversity, and Transformation
___________ — Equity Task Force
2023-24 IEC completed work
Oversight of the Mission Fulfillment Report process
- Streamlined objectives and choose one shared language for college objectives (In response to the midcycle suggestion from NWCCU). IEC worked with the Exec Cabinet to replace Core Themes in the MFR with Strategic Goals.
- Aligned MFR Objectives with the college’s strategic goals in consultation with Executive Cabinet.
- Streamlined the MFR so it functions as a clear measurement of mission fulfillment. Indicators/measures removed from the MFR were assigned to departments/divisions to track in their IE Plans/Division Plans. They are responsible to track and report on those. These assignments were sent from IR to division leads who would communicate it to that dept. (Assignments were agreed to as a whole by Exec Cabinet 1/23/24.)
- Revised and worked to finalize MFR Objectives, Indicators, and Measures. Recommended finalized version to Exec Cabinet in spring 2024 with communication that revisions would be accepted until August.
- Began to study the rubrics NWCCU will use for the Year 6 and Year 7 accreditation visits.
Oversight of the Institutional Effectiveness Reporting
- Read IE Plans 2023-24. Emailed a thank you to each department.
- Developed a rubric and plan for supervisors to give formative feedback before IE Plans were due in 2024.
- Simplified the IE Plan form. Highlighted the twofold process of assessing last year’s performance and identifying process improvements and goals for the upcoming year. This in response to the midcycle NWCCU suggestion, “Evident lack of long-term planning in many areas of the college creates a concern for the ability of the college to effectively reach its objectives. Employees were oftentimes unable to produce documented goals beyond one year.”
- Revised the IE Plan form to support assessing institutional effectiveness for non-student-facing programs and services.
- Provided staff workshops to support IE Plan writing and reflection writing.