Standard Ten - Public Disclosure

 

DESCRIPTION

Cape Cod Community College presents information to the public in print and electronic format. Major print publications include the Cape Cod Community College Catalog, Semester Course Guides, Admissions Bulletin, and the Student Planner. The College website is another effective channel for disseminating information. Print and radio promotions, student publications, Channel 98, and program-related brochures are produced as means to further promote academic areas, semester offerings, and College events. Additional means of communication include an electronic message board in the cafeteria, bulletin boards in all buildings, and a large message board situated across from the main entrance to the campus. The Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs works in collaboration with the Office of College Communications to ensure that all publications portray the Mission and responsibilities of the College, providing consistency, accuracy, and high-quality production.

The most comprehensive publication is the Cape Cod Community College Catalog. It is available at Student Orientation prior to each fall and spring semester, at various offices and sites on campus, and is mailed upon request. In addition, the complete Catalog is available on the College's web site. Published annually, it provides a brief history of the College, information about the College's Mission, accreditation status, admissions policy, academic calendar, College resources, financial aid and transfer information, community resources, programs of study, and advanced degree opportunities. It also includes the College's official affirmative action statement and provides information regarding accrediting agencies and review committees. Fee structures, subject to change outside publication deadlines, are released separately and are easily accessed by students at application, placement testing, and registration. The Catalog contains a list of all current course descriptions and outlines degree requirements, program objectives, and expected educational outcomes in selected disciplines. It fully informs students of academic standards. The Catalog explains the total cost of education, along with eligibility requirements, application procedures, and available sources of financial aid. It includes a Directory of Information, listing the members of the Board of Trustees, administrative officers, support staff, advisory boards, and the faculty, indicating educational background and areas of instruction where appropriate. The Board of Trustee members and their affiliations are also noted in the College's Annual Report.

The Catalog is supplemented by the Semester Course Guide, which is prepared by the Office of College Communications. The Guide is a comprehensive semester-specific publication for each academic term—fall, spring, and summer. It lists the semester's course offerings, credit and non-credit, their meeting times and locations, instructors, prerequisites, and any special notations such as special dates or additional fees. The schedule of courses is arranged alphabetically by course discipline. For the convenience of those who are unable to enroll in courses following a traditional daytime schedule, a separate section lists courses offered during the late afternoon and evening hours. Other scheduling opportunities, such as courses offered at the Hyannis Center and other community sites, hybrid and fully online courses, and intensive or intersession courses, are listed in separate, clearly identified sections. The Course Guide also highlights College resources such as the Workforce Education Resource Center, the Hyannis Center, Advanced Studies, International Studies, and the Academy for Lifelong Learning. Registration information, hours of operation, and cost per credit hour are clearly stated, accompanied by a blank registration form. The Course Guide is produced to market the College's services and course offerings to a select target group in the service area of Southeastern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod, and the Islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Of the 80,000 pieces printed, approximately 70,000 are direct-mailed to households. Remaining Course Guides are distributed on campus and to local libraries, mailed to individuals upon request, and used for recruiting purposes.

The Semester Information Guide, accessible through the College's Home Page at www.capecod.edu, is an electronic resource containing all pertinent semester-specific information that is contained in the printed Course Guide described above. Responsive to the Campus Web as a search tool for course offerings, the Semester Information Guide provides a dynamic semester course list that indicates the status of all courses along with scheduling information, professors, and class locations for each course section.

Published annually by the Office of Student Development and overseen by the Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs, the Cape Cod Community College Student Planner (Exhibit 10.3) contains valuable information regarding student rights and responsibilities. It is distributed to those attending Student Orientation prior to fall and spring semesters or by request. The Planner contains the Student Code of Conduct, defines academic policies and procedures, offers opportunities for students to be involved in campus activities and clubs, and lists institutional resources for students.

The Admissions Bulletin, published annually by the Admissions Office, is a condensed guide to the College's admission process, complete with a blank application form. It highlights academic programs, courses and transfer options, student life, and College resources such as the Tutoring Center, the Reading and Writing Resource Center, Disability Services, tuition advantages, and procedures for obtaining various types of financial aid. The College prints approximately 15,000 copies of the Admissions Bulletin yearly. The Bulletin is distributed by the Admissions Office to high schools, social service agencies, and libraries, and is handed out at College Fairs and College Night programs.

Over the last decade, electronic communications have created a new and effective means of promoting the College and disseminating information. The College's website presents opportunities as well as challenges for maintaining accuracy and a consistently positive image. Overall responsibility for the website lies with the Offices of Information Technology and the Office of College Communication (www.capecod.edu). The College's Web Presence Committee, the Office of Information Technology, and the Office of College Communications have over the past year structured the new College website as the first component of the College's web portal. The site remains decentralized, created and maintained by many different individuals throughout the campus, but with a basic layout and guidelines that help maintain page-to-page consistency.

The College publishes information about the total cost of education at CCCC and the availability of financial aid in its Admissions Bulletin and Semester Course Guides. The expected amount of student debt upon graduation is not provided because this information is not available for all students.

Approximately 50% of the academic courses now taught at CCCC have syllabi that include specific student learning outcomes. Program outcomes have been published in the College Catalog. The College is actively completing course syllabi that include student learning outcomes for all its courses. Course syllabus information is not currently posted on the College's website.

The College disseminates basic enrollment, retention, and graduation information for its students. This information is produced in conjunction with the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education (BHE) and is published by the BHE. This information is discussed throughout the College and is available from the recently established Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness. The College provides recent information on passage rates on licensure examinations in the Nursing and Dental Hygiene programs.

Student success is measured and published in a number of ways. The CCCC Graduate Survey is conducted yearly. The Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Survey and the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) are conducted in alternate years. These surveys provide data relevant to student success. The College uses these data to improve its performance and makes the data available upon request. In addition, student success in transferring is now being measured with the assistance of the National Student Clearinghouse. Faculty and staff success stories are presented in several venues, including the College Catalog and the Admissions Bulletin. In addition, the achievements of the College's students, faculty, and staff receive effective press coverage at all levels of media, including nationwide.

Print and radio promotions are created and disseminated by the Office of College Communications. They are generally used to promote the start of a registration period or a College event. The College is in the process of including bilingual elements in its advertising.

The Main Sheet is a weekly uncensored newspaper advised by a professor of Journalism, published by students in Journalism courses, edited by a student, and distributed in 32 campus locations and on the College website.

Sea Change is a glossy journal showcasing creative fiction, poetry and art-work. It is published periodically (every two to three years), historically by a club or as a class project, and is distributed by the Department of Language and Literature, the Library, and the College bookstore.

The Write Stuff is a refereed showcase of student essays selected by a faculty committee. It is distributed in English Composition courses, made available through placement throughout campus, and is published on the campus web.

WKKL is Cape Cod Community College's student-run radio station located in a state-of– the-art facility, the Makkay Broadcasting Center. It serves as a training center for broadcasting and provides programming encompassing a wide variety of music and announcements sensitive to the social, cultural, and educational needs of the listening area. Announcements include public service messages for the College and its surrounding community.

Broadcast under the auspices of the Office of Distance and Learning Technologies, Channel 98 is our licensed, non-profit local educational television channel, carrying general College course information, public announcements, and educational programming.

Program-related brochures and academic newsletters and flyers are produced independently by College departments to fulfill specific needs.

The Compass Guide Book is designed to help students navigate their way through the college process. It contains step-by-step information for specific types of students attending CCCC (e.g. returning, first-time, transfer, ESOL, dual enrollment), and includes valuable information regarding various College offices, departments, and services students will most likely need to contact.

Email service, supported by the Office of Information Technology, complements traditional methods of communication. All students, faculty, support staff, administrators, trustees, and emeriti professors have access to College email service. Indeed, the Public Disclosure Committee used the College's email service to complete its student and faculty surveys for this self-study.

Through partnerships with four-year colleges, Cape Cod Community College offers opportunities for advanced study leading to baccalaureate and master's degrees on its campus.

The Cape Cod Community College Annual Report, published by the Office of College Communications, highlights the College's yearly accomplishments and milestones.

The Office of College Communications began distributing an "e-newsletter" in late 2007. It is an evolving effort intended to keep both internal and external audiences in touch with events, accomplishments, and initiatives on the campus. At this time, it reaches approximately 900 recipients.

The Lightkeepers Log is the alumni newsletter mailed twice a year to 8,000 alumni. After the June, 2007 issue, it will be available exclusively online. It features honorary degree recipients, retirees, teaching awards, alumni events and updates, and information on the Zammer Institute.

Finally, the Audited Financial Statement is available in the Wilkens Library or through the Massachusetts Department of Education.

 

APPRAISAL

Cape Cod Community College provides information to its constituent groups and to the general public at large that is accurate, complete, accessible through various channels and technologies, and sufficient for prospective and current students to make informed decisions about their academic options. Its variety of communication channels provide equally accurate, complete, accessible, and sufficient information to inform the College community and general public about the institution and its effectiveness in fulfilling its Mission.

The Public Disclosures Committee conducted a campus-wide online survey of its various channels of communication, including the College Catalog, the Course Guides, the Student Planner, the Admissions Bulletin, the College website, print and radio promotions, and student publications. In addition, faculty members were asked for feedback regarding the aforementioned public documents. Furthermore, as part of its efforts to effectively communicate with others, in 2005 the College enlisted the aid of Sandra Golden & Associates, Inc., specialists in higher education marketing and public relations, to perform and write an Audit Report for Cape Cod Community College. The committee used this document as a reference in their report. Data showed clearly that key segments of the College's audiences found and made effective and efficient use of the publications and available information to interact successfully with the institution. The relevant portions of those documents are included as exhibits within the data portion of this self-study.

With respect to the aforementioned online student survey, 97.3% of current students responding in Fall 2006 found the College Catalog to be "easy" or "fairly easy" to access, and 87.8% indicated that the Catalog was a "useful" or "fairly useful" tool. In addition, the 2005 Audit Report states that "The catalog seems well organized, easy to follow, and contains good information;" however, the catalog includes full-time personnel and courses not available during a particular term and also lists courses that have not been offered for several terms.

Because one individual is responsible for the accuracy and timeliness of all academic and administrative information contained in the College Catalog, Admissions Bulletin, Semester Course Guides, and the College's website, a high level of consistency throughout these documents is maintained.

The results of the Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction survey and the Community College Survey of Student Engagement have shown that the College is generally above the national average on most indices. While the College does a very good job of portraying student and faculty successes in its publications, it has not maximized the value of its research efforts in improving quality. Students would benefit from having more program-specific information to help them make better decisions about their careers and educational plans.

The College does a good job of presenting overall cost and financial aid information to its students. The information presented is accurate and offers realistic information to help students to make informed financial decisions about their education. The College does not have program specific information about debt and earning capacity of its graduates. This important information would be useful in guiding students while they make decisions about their educational and career plans.

The College has begun to see the benefits of its new student information system, implemented in the last three years. Last year, the College significantly expanded its efforts to improve its use of information. It has created a full-time Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness position to improve the College's information infrastructure. The Director will develop program-specific information and standardize institutional reporting. For example, while information on success in licensure examinations in the Nursing and Dental Hygiene programs is available, it is not widely distributed.

The CCCC Course Guide also received high ratings for accessibility and usefulness in both the student survey and the faculty survey. In like manner, the Golden & Co. Audit Report stated, "Currently your schedule has a number of good features. Its size and format work well." Student responses to the Student Planner were generally positive, with 93.7% responding that it was "easily" or "fairly easily" accessed and 70.1% indicating it was a "useful or "fairly useful" tool. Likewise, the faculty survey resulted in positive feedback, with a suggestion that more copies of the Planner be printed and distributed.

The Marketing Survey states, "The Admissions Bulletin has good content and information. The ‘Why CCCC Is Good' and the use of ‘Graduates at Work' and the ‘Save Money' chart are also good additional sections." In Fall 2006, a student survey of the Admissions Bulletin was conducted. This survey questioned 253 credit-earning students. On a scale of one to five, with five being the highest rating, students gave the Admissions Bulletin a favorable overall rating of 3.95. The Admissions application is published online.

The new website, described in the Description area of this report, was launched in late spring 2007. Evaluations of the site are being indexed for continued development and improvement of this major resource. Multiple surveys show that an overwhelming majority of CCCC students (over 90% in all cases) find the College's publications and website useful and effective. The website does not include the Annual Report or the Admissions Bulletin. The Director of Disability Services reports that the new beta website is much improved as far as legal compliance is concerned; however, she indicates that a major concern is the difficulty in using the course schedule and registering online with screen readers. Furthermore, she recommends that more departmental publications be put on the College's website to provide alternative access for students with disabilities.

All radio advertising reinforces the CCCC "brand" by tagging each spot with the theme, "Start here, and you can take your life anywhere." Based on ongoing editorials, the College enjoys a very positive relationship with the news media and is able to communicate important policy and institutional information widely and effectively. Today's digital technology allows for even more targeted delivery, thus enhancing the understanding of the institution by specific segments of its service area. Channels of communication such as postcard, email, or web-based media are becoming increasingly prevalent and routinely expected by the public. The Marketing Survey states, "The College has good relations with the media, especially the local newspapers, which have used many stories on College events, as well as significant editorials explaining the funding for the College…paid advertising for CCCC has been primarily through radio. The radio spots we heard were simple narration, but well done, clearly targeting certain audiences (part time, full time, retrainers, returning adults) and focusing on beliefs."

Similar high effectiveness and usefulness ratings were given to the College's use of media as an information distribution tool in the student survey. The Public Disclosure Committee suggests that bilingual promotions be included.

Miscellaneous publications created by individual offices and departments are sometimes inaccurate. The decentralized system that creates and disseminates such brochures, flyers, and reports results in occasional visual and content inconsistencies that could lead to misunderstandings or misinterpretations by readers. For example, in reviewing various publications, the Public Disclosure Committee found an inconsistency regarding the inclusion of the College's Mission Statement. Limited College resources constrain it from requiring that all documents created for the general public or student population be processed through its Office of Communications. On very rare occasions, inaccurate or outdated information has been found in such publications. While correction is immediate, such conflicts challenge the institution to provide complete, accurate, and current publications.

The new and more concise Mission Statement should be included in more College publications whenever reasonable. Furthermore, the College should also promote the "family look" in brochures, flyers, and reports with stricter adherence to a unified graphic look. In that regard, recently, a template for program brochures was created and used for the latest Dental Hygiene Local Anesthesia brochure.

Currently, with few exceptions, key College communications are produced in English only, a seeming contradiction to the College's commitment to diversity and the fact that there are many non-English speakers in the region, particularly those speaking Portuguese and Spanish.

The College's cable television channel was once a primary distribution source for distance learning, providing a large catalog of videotaped courses to the public. Today, that process has been superseded by an even greater variety of online courses, leaving this channel as an untapped resource for community engagement and information delivery. However, announcements on the Bulletin Board have expanded greatly, and additional programming is expected via free satellite link from the NASA Channel, the Research Channel, and the Pentagon Channel. In addition, free foreign language programming is being investigated, including Portuguese TV and Al Jazeera USA. Eight Cape Cod towns receive Channel 98; however, some Cape Cod towns do not contract with the provider. Furthermore, the Arts Channel programming is very popular with our senior population. Concerns center on maintaining our current access and expanding to reach other Cape Cod towns. The Public Disclosure Committee's suggestion to include faculty interviews on the cable channel was well received.

As required by NEASC, the College will notify the surrounding community of the comprehensive evaluation scheduled for April. Such notification will solicit Third Party Comments to be submitted at least one month before the visit from the NEASC visiting team. Notification and requests for comments will be placed in local newspapers, alumni newsletters, as well as the College newspaper, advising those who wish to comment to submit their comments to the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education.

 

INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

The College carefully reviews all of its official publications regularly. Most are done annually as they are revised and updated, while others are reviewed on an as-needed basis. These reviews are not "perfunctory," but substantive. Most recently, the review of the Summer 2007 Course Guide by deans and directors resulted in layout changes intended to increase its usefulness to both current and new students, including the addition of an on-cover index and subject/ section "tabs" along the outside borders of its pages. The College will create a campus-wide Style Guide, to which the College will require that all documents conform.

Projections - Standard Ten - Public Disclosure
Projections Create a campus-wide Style Guide, to which all campus publications will conform.	Responsible Staff Office of College Communications	Completion Date FY 2009
Provide an ongoing review of major publications and website	Office of College Communications	On-going
Indicate personnel who are not available during a particular term. The Catalog will indicate personnel who are awarded sabbaticals and their leave dates	Academic and Student Affairs	FY 2009
Complete the course sequencing located in Course Description section	Academic and Student Affairs Director of Institutional Research	FY 2009
Provide and publish information for student success and Student Right to Know, including program-specific information, retention, and graduation rates	Director of Institutional Research	FY 2009
Collect and publish information on success rates for licensure examinations in Nursing and Dental Hygiene Programs	Director of Institutional Research Office of College Communications	FY 2009
Obtain and distribute accurate program-specific information about student debt and earning capabilities for graduates	Director of Institutional Research	FY 2009
Enhance Guides by highlighting the College's value in its accessibility, advantages, transferability and successes	Office of College Communications	FY 2009
Showcase the College by including student successes and the advantages of attending CCCC	Student Development Office of College Communications	FY 2009
Publish bulletin on the College's website	Admissions Office Information Technology	FY 2009
Implement online application process	Admissions Office Information Technology	FY 2009
Compile an electronic library of all publications	Admissions Office Information Technology	FY 2009
Create an additional report (related to web-course listings and online registration) specifically responsive to the needs of visually impaired students using screen readers	Information Technology	FY 2009
Translate print publications into non-English languages, available for download on the College website	Office of College Communications	FY 2010
Publish all course syllabi with student-learning outcomes	VP Ac. & Stu. Affairs	FY 2009
Explore more effective ways of obtaining student outcomes information, and of collecting and distributing program-specific information about students and graduates	Dir. of Institutional Research VP Ac. & Stu. Affairs	FY 2009
Incorporate non-English elements in communications	Office of College Communications	FY 2009
Develop key publications in Spanish and Portuguese in response to regional needs	Office of College Communications	FY 2009
Expand our cable station's reach into Bourne, Sandwich, and Falmouth	Dir. Wilkens Library Distance Learning & Technologies	FY 2010