March 11, 2017 – Daytona State College

            I stopped by this college with a particular mission.  CCSF and DSC have both shared the same chancellor.  Philip R Day was chancellor at DSC prior to his tenure (and legal troubles with improper use of college funds) at CCSF.  I had heard rumor there was a building names after him at DSC, and I can report first hand that this is not true.  There is no current building named for Dr. Day at Daytona State.             I know this because when you walk into the main admin and student support services building in addition to an information desk there is an office directly opposite it titled “Questions and Answers” it is a very easy to find clearing house for all issues at the college student and otherwise, and is another good idea CCSF could take from this college.  The assistant director of admission staffs this office.  In addition to being a lovely, friendly and informative person she has also worked in financial aid and in various offices on campus.  In the time I was visiting she fielded multiple question on various fronts.  It was clear her job was not to handle all student issues but to be knowledgeable enough about the college to direct the inquiry to the correct person if she did not have an immediate solution.  

            The timing of my visit was the Friday afternoon before spring break and things were relatively slow, so not only did I receive an answer to my question about Dr. Day.  I also received a book on the history of the college. Lots of firsthand information, and an very enlightening discussion about college issue with upgrading their information systems. 

            CCSF and DSC have both had similar issues with their background technology.  Both colleges have used a database system that had patches made to it which made it work but left the user interfaces clunky and awkward.  (Anyone who inputs data directly into BANNER at CCSF will know what I am speaking of)   Both colleges have upgraded by stripping off these modifications and moving to an out of the box system to make it easier to upgrade as technology moves forward.  Both colleges have suffered from loss of function as the new systems were not set up to meet the needs of the user and further modifications have needed to be made. 

            Take home message here is, both the staff and students and colleges are becoming more subordinate to the information systems we put in place.  This is a major evolutionary trend in large organizations like ours and functionality is not the top priority.  We move foreword with less than perfect digital tools and then expect the organization to catch up to the newly implemented system.  At CCSF this is no where more apparent than in out decreasing enrollment numbers, where no one can explain what percentage of student enrollment loss is due to failure of students to get though newly implemented online enrollment system (we are not alone in this issue either).  

            What to do?  One suggestion is at least redeploy our best human assists (the ones with the greatest institutional knowledge) in places where students can easily reach out to them.  Then as an institution we need to work together to empower those people, not to be tasked with solving all the problems, but by working with other experts at the college to form a network of solutions.  Because digital logic too easily leads to a rejection of function (Server 404 error…), this network needs to be based on people, not technology, as the means to solutions.  Just having a registration phone APP will not fix the issue.  We as people have to become the tech experts or at least empowered with lots of communication with those who are tech savvy in every area of college function, so that we can help our students live up to this new challenge of our age…

As a PS: I would like to acknowledge that Katryn Wiese has tried to do exactly what I mentioned above for one aspect of the college (Curricunet and SLO’s) and I hope that her sabbatical is proving to be as useful, productive and reinvigorating as mine has been.