Improving Student Experience Through Institutional Collaboration
In 2019, I led a group from Schoolcraft College that spearheaded a Memorandum of Understanding that brought Plymouth/Canton Schools, Wayne State University, and Schoolcraft College together to chart and implement a collaboration that created shared academic and curriculum pathways, seamless transfers, and a shared student experience. This innovative collaboration among educational institutions promotes pathways leading to high school diplomas, certificates, and associate and bachelor degrees.
Providing Students Access to Industry Through Funding Innovation
I led a successful effort to gain voter approval in 2018 for a Financial Sustainability Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) for Schoolcraft College. As a result of this initiative, the College is realizing approximately an additional $7 million per year in revenue, providing a financial cushion in uncertain economic times and also creating new educational and employment opportunities for the College’s students. The AQIP looks beyond traditional revenue streams to industry partnerships, leveraging the College’s formerly underutilized assets in order to relocate industry and community partners to the Schoolcraft College campus. As a result, the College can rely on consistent revenue streams for decades to come while students benefit from academic programming enhanced by community partnerships, and internships and fieldwork closely aligned with and supported by industry partners.
Enhancing Student Learning Through Facilities Transformation
Working with a broad array of College stakeholders, I spearheaded the purchase of a vacant warehouse contiguous to the College’s Public Safety Training Complex. The transaction employed a sophisticated strategy involving business partnerships in order to ensure competitive pricing. The new space is being renovated to enhance student learning opportunities in the following programs: welding, computer-aided design, plastics, metallurgy, manufacturing and electronics. In order to ensure that the new facility would meet the needs and expectations of students, faculty and industry partners, I led extensive meetings that brought faculty, staff and industry partners together in order to define a shared vision for the project and catalog detailed requirements and specifications. I was also instrumental in securing funding through the College’s partners in order to transition the project from a shared vision to a shared resource.
Leveraging Partnerships and Facilities to Bring Industry to Students
With an emphasis on building community relations, I led an effort to secure a $10 million award from the Joint Capital Outlay Committee in Lansing. What had started as a simple revamp of Schoolcraft College’s Health Sciences Learning space evolved into a full renovation that is transforming the space into a highly collaborative learning environment that exposes students to multiple health professions. Four new programs – surgical tech, sterile processing, radiology and ultrasound – will be available to students as of Fall 2021 as part of the College’s partnership with Trinity Health System.
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As a result of the industry partnerships created by the six College-related 501(c)(3) entities of which I am the President, industry partners have provided valuable input into the development of the new programs housed in the Health Sciences Learning space. They have also been instrumental in recruiting talent to run the programs.
Mapping the Future of Technical Education
In pursuit of a curriculum that better prepares students with both the hard and soft skills that industry now requires, I led an effort at Schoolcraft College to develop a model curriculum. In support of this effort, I engaged College faculty, staff and outside subject matter experts and also pursued grants through the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) projects and centers. The ATE program develops curriculum recommendations based on industry and business needs and then shares the recommendations with community colleges so that they can modify established curriculum to meet individual colleges’ needs.
While Schoolcraft ultimately did not receive NSF ATE funding, the College was still able to create a case study that included the Recovery & Restoration Technician Education Core, a model program that maps the future of technician education in order to produce and sustain a competent and highly-trained technical workforce for years to come. |
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Envisioning the Campus of the Future
Upon soliciting input from faculty, staff and the Schoolcraft College President, I worked closely with the Vice President of Instruction in order to develop a future vision of the College’s facilities. We used academic programs as our base in order to identify requirements and specifications for physical space, equipment and related faculty needs. As a part of this planning collaboration, I identified potential revenue sources to support the envisioned facilities and associated resources.
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