February 2, 2017 - Palm Desert

            Leaving Oxnard at around 9:30 am the plan was to travel the three-hour drive to the Coachella valley to visit College of the Desert and return after an overnight camp in order to test all the camping gear.  Winds and fortune were with me as the majority of the ride was freeway through the LA basin and I missed most traffic backups.  I do not have a go pro or means to document the view during the ride but the snow topped mountain ranges and green hills this time of year were inspirational.  The air was cool but not cold, perfection in riding conditions.

            The other things that cannot be captured are the smells.  A big reason I am a fan of the motorcycle is it exposes you to the full range of your senses while traveling.  On this day a wind front was coming in and the air was fresh and clean.  Upon getting to the valley I detected a slightly plastic or metallic smell in the air only to be greeted on the horizon by a wind farm of giant propellers.  As humans our sense of smell is almost vestigial compared to other species like dogs and I wondered what their experience of these changes must be like.  If you are one of those people who would never get on a motorcycle might I suggest sticking your head out the window like the canine do.  There a whole world out there that’s invisible to us.

            I arrived at the College of the Desert campus around 12:30.  The main campus of around 40,000 students was  busy being the spring semester only started last week.  I found the science building surrounded by students.  The layout of many of the building on the campus is one where the single level classrooms open out onto the courtyard with the internal hallways for storeroom supplying and staff.  The campus has a card lock system on all its doors, which remain locked.  So the students wait on the outside of the line of doors until the instructor opens them up at the appropriate time.  I’m not trying to throw shade here but I was struck by the analogy to animal feeding pens if you have ever worked a ranch or visited a feed lot….  Only here the sustenance was education.

            There were a few novel ideas I believe CCSF would do well to copy.  In the internal hallways there were branded charging stations for the students to use to charge their cell phone while waiting for class.  And there was an outdoor kiosk that was a pop up store run by students in the business department, to give them experience setting up and running a concession.  

            I wandered into the presidents office to inquire about the campus and was rewarded by a chance encounter with the college’s director of development and one of the college Trustees.  Both were very helpful and full of useful information.  College of the Desert has been bucking the trend in California.  While enrollments have been declining in the state this college is increasing.  They have been successful at capturing state dollars associated with completion initiatives by using their research team.  In the last few years they spiked their successful transfer rates by gathering data on who could not complete transfer due to inability to get impacted classes, they then took steps to increase class load and all but hand held those students through the registration process to ensure they got the missing classes they needed.

            They also have a laudable and novel approach to free community college.  Whereas at CCSF we have been fighting with the mayor’s office to get monies to make CCSF free to all students.  College of the Dessert has found the same funds but targets it to the second year of enrollment.  In essence they enroll student in the first year taking advantage of all the BOG waivers and financial aid they can set the student up for (like every other college) but they inform the students at this time that the next year your college will be free regardless.  This must allow for more retention, and allow for better budgeting of the amount of money needed for this program, as it’s quantifiable in the first year.  This model has potential for CCSF especially if it extended to adult enrichment education.  As we struggle with making all classes free today (or next fall), what if the marketing for the casual student was take an arts class today and your future classes will be free.  As long as you keep enrolling the college wins both on marketing and budgeting, implementation is also designed into the process, as the evaluation of the program is cohort driven.

            The visit was very useful, they even invited me to the equivalent to their college council/planning committee meeting which will be taking place tomorrow.  I know it seems ridiculous to spend my sabbatical going back to planning meeting but I just might show up to observe.

Update 2/3/17

            I did show up to the end of the planning meeting the following day.  The session included a lot of stakeholders.  Faculty, Admin and representatives from all groups sat at one large table in the multipurpose room.  Turns out the free tuition initiative are being 100% funded by donations from the college foundation.  I had good opportunity after the meeting to meet one on one with some faculty in English and Math.  Many of our challenges are held in common.