Can dysfunctional schools teach us anything
about what's missing between the budgets?
Creating Web pages is one approach students can use to address concerns that have not been responded to appropriately at lower administrative levels. Preferably, my concerns would have been addressed at the site level, in my case by the site managers at West City Center, within the San Diego Community College District Continuing Education Program. However, if the site managers are unresponsive, and higher level administrators do not respond appropriately, it may be worthwhile to address concerns to the top administrator who bears ultimate responsibility for what occurs under his or her authority granted by the board of trustees of the local college district. Check out the trail of correspondance BELOW.
Google the words accompanying links if any links are on the blink. I am not responding to email at the current time while I work on other projects.
The issues I document are not really "dated" or "old school" in that they chronicle the kinds of campus struggles that can and do still
happen today and will likely continue in the future. The technology has changed faster than the attitudes and
mentality behind our education programs, policies, and practices.
Chancellor Gallego:
Re: Regard for SDCCD student input
As a Continuing Education student since September 1997, I have observed a lack of regard for student input that has been very troubling. I wish to know whether such disregard is the exception rather than the rule at Continuing Education campuses, and within the SDCCD as a whole. Please assure me that your role as Chancellor does include making clear to all top administrators that student input is to be encouraged and accorded due respect, playing an important role in decision-making as well.
Would you please respond to the questions below so that I might gain a clearer impression of your leadership role with regard to the following matters:
1. How much importance does the SDCCD place on student input, and in what ways is this demonstrated and made clear to students on a regular basis? (The next question is an extension of this one).I've been told that the Code is already scheduled to go up on the site, but I would like to have further input with regard to how this and other information is provided. I would like to help students pursue their concerns and offer their ideas more efficiently, especially if they encounter problems at a particular campus and are unfamiliar with protocol and help available at higher administrative levels.2. In addition to Code 3100, accommodating student organizations, and providing counselors, what policies, procedures, and personnel does the SDCCD have in place (and enforced at all campuses) to ensure that student input is openly encouraged, fairly processed, fully evaluated, and given ample and due consideration in decisions made at the individual site as well as the District level?
3. Do you feel that the most recent version of Code 3100 is composed with sufficient clarity, completeness, and ease of use that you stand fully behind it as an example of administrative excellence?
4. Do you feel Code 3100 is adequately made known and made available at all SDCCD campuses?
5. What is the District doing to make shared governance a functional reality that adequately includes student input and is increasingly effective at doing so?
6. Would you be willing to include information elicited by the above questions in future SDCCD class catalogs and on the SDCCD website, along with the complete Code 3100?
Thank you for your letter expressing concerns about your observed lack of regard for student input in the Continuing Education program of the San Diego Community College District. Following is a response to issues you addressed in your letter.
1. "How much importance does the SDCCD place on student input, and in what ways is this demonstrated and made clear to students on a regular basis?"
The San Diego Community College District values student input at both the site level as well as the district level. Some examples of the District's commitment to student input are:
a) A Student Trustee is elected each year and serves as the student voice on the District Governing Board.
b) Students are routinely represented on senior management hiring committees.
c) Each college and most continuing education centers have an active Associated Students Organization, which serves as the student voice on campus.
d) The District has a United Student Council, which serves as the districtwide Student Shared Governance Organization.
e) Students are represented on various college and district governance committees.
f) Students are regularly consulted, via the various governance organizations, on policy matters that affect students.
2. "In addition to Code 3100, accommodating student organizations, and providing counselors, what policies, procedures and personnel does the SDCCD have in place (and enforced at all campuses) to ensure that student input is openly encouraged, fairly processed, fully evaluated, and given ample and due consideration in decisions made at the individual site as well as the District level?"
Policy 3100, Student Rights, Responsibilities and Administrative Due Process is not the policy that addresses student organizations. I believe you are referencing manual 3200, which provides procedures and guidelines for student clubs. The District has numerous policies that provide for protection of student rights and student governance. A copy of all district policies pertaining to students is available for review in the District office. To make arrangements to review any district policy, please call Lynn Neault, Assistant Chancellor, Student services at (619) 584-6922,
3. "Do you feel that the most recent version of Code 3100 is composed with sufficient clarity, completeness, and ease of use that you stand fully behind it as an example of administrative excellence?"
All policies reflect current standards, federal and state law, and regulations. If you have an issue with lack of clarity in one of the policies, please provide specific comments in writing to Ms. Neault for follow-up.
4. "Do you feel Code 3100 is adequately made known and made available at all SDCCD campuses?"
Copies of all policies and procedures are available at each college and continuing education site. In addition, the Associated Student leaders routinely receive copies of certain policies that pertain to student governance. Policy 3100, is the most widely distributed policy in the district.
5. "What is the District doing to make shared governance a functional reality that adequately includes student input and is increasingly effective in doing so?"
Reference response to #1.
6. "Would you be willing to include information elicited by the above questions in future SDCCD class catalogs and on the SDCCD website, along with the complete Code 3100?
I am unclear as to what specific information about Policy 3100, as well as several other policies. In addition, the class schedule information is on the SDCCD website. It can be accessed at www.sdccd.cc.ca.us. If you have specific information that you believe should be referenced in the college catalogs and schedules, please submit your written recommendation to Ms. Neault for consideration.
In your final paragraph you state, "I've been told that the code is already scheduled to go up on the site, but I would like to have further input with regard to how this and other information is provided. I regret that I am unclear what exactly you mean by this statement. I believe I have provided you with a channel to provide input on the matters you have addressed.
Be assured that the San Diego Community Collge District values student input and is committed to providing excellence in the programs and services we provide.
Sincerely,
A. P. Gallego, Chancellor
/LN/gf
Re: Follow-up to your letter of commitment to student input
Thank you for your 8 June 99 response to my 17 April 99 letter. I appreciate that you responded to each of my questions, and that you have directed me to Lynn Neault for follow-up. Some examples that you cited as showing the District's regard for student input will require further research to determine their appropriateness and current viability in resolving ongoing issues. Several of the examples of commitment to student input you offered are unfamiliar and not easily accessible to most students — thus they are necessarily underutilized. It seems that students must rely too much on Lynn Neault for assistance that should be more readily available on site — particularly when seven or eight calls to Lynn's office have so far been unsuccessful in reaching her.
I believe each site should be able to answer the type of questions I have, backed up by all policy documents updated and available for easy reference. The District cannot blame students for being disinterested, when avoidable stumbling blocks are left in their way. Unless administrators provide a role model of concern for how they professionally conduct themselves and provide services, what can be expected of students? How can students, for example, get anywhere with a counselor/ASB Advisor, Eric Cuellar, who refuses to clarify how he views his role? This ASB Advisor wasn't even involved enough to keep ASB minutes or make them and other ASB documents available on request.
Contrary to what is promised in the class catalogs, it took me months for West City Center, Pt. Loma campus to come up with Code 3100. If this is indeed, as you say, the most widely distributed policy in the District — and even the site administrator in charge of student services couldn't come up with it — you can imagine the accessibility status for other policy documents. Hard to access policies and background information, including significant district news should not be the exclusive domain of Administrators and Instructors. A web site serving a district this size should reflect a more dynamic pulse and appetite for learning — with progressive content that empowers students and simultaneously promotes shared governance. When sharing only includes administrators and instructors, students are left with an even more pronounced "us and them" orientation — and communication — and the campus climate as a whole — suffers.
On repeated occasions various requests for policy clarification have been met with confusion, suspicion, and even hostility and retaliation. Obviously, if providing information is such a challenge, the future of shared governance does not look bright. Making matters worse, the lack of telephone and Internet accessibility to augment information sharing between students and administrators is an area of ongoing neglect. Full-time students should not be told to use the pay phones when trying to contact district personnel with policy and protocol questions. The troubling lack of respect for student initiative leaves me feeling a victim of "Student Disservices".
It would be impractical to reference all my concerns in a single letter. For example, instances of unprofessonal behavior that include demeaning language, breaking of agreements, and issuing indeterminate gag orders and threats will require scheduling of special meetings or hearings to properly address. Other matters, such as the inadequacies of district policies and codes pertaining to students will take a different type of collective effort to resolve. I will ask Lynn Neault if she can provide state guidelines and a contact at the state level to determine current conformance, consistency, and clarity of language and direction. Even with improvements in policy, adequate implementation requires more than having read it and filed it away. I fail to see why the district's zero tolerance policy stands out as the only policy that was given a high profile classroom presentation.
There are countless ways — both subtle and not so subtle — that students can come to feel that they belong to an underclass — not just in terms of physical accommodation — but in terms of information flow. Can you deny that students are routinely "left out of the loop" in both long and short-term decision-making? We cannot count on being informed of important decisions and events even after the fact. When was the last time the District addressed the need for a clearly stated response protocol — one that includes the right of students to receive a response in writing, upon request, and within a reasonable amount of time? This is one of many areas which Code 3100 does not address.
The District information stream turns into a mere trickle, if that, when it comes to students knowing what is going on. Students "tune out" administrators when they are inaccessible, unresponsive, and provide few, if any, site-specific — or even districtwide — sources of information. Students need to be updated on more than job openings. For example, if the President of Continuing Education is about to be replaced. Why isn't this kind of information passed on to students? We just had a counselor leave to work at another college, and there was no student announcement made. Even the supposed "students' voice", the ASB (on the Pt. Loma campus) choose to deny access to their minutes and tried to keep their final meeting closed to students. The above examples reflect how shared governance cannot be implemented in a communication vacuum. While you may feel the District is committed to student input in many ways, how many of these ways are well-known to students, well-implemented, and generally effective?
I checked the District Internet site today looking for information about the District Governing Board. I saw no contact information for a Student Trustee. On the site, as a whole, I also didn't see anything that was student-driven. There was no transparency with regard to how the site was created or how its content is shaped or revised as needed. Who is responsible for various areas on the site, and who is responsible for its overall content and effect? Who makes sure that we are looking at the most up to date information? For example In the Mesa College section, I recently noticed a counselor listed on staff that had left 6 months ago. I was also struck by the lack of information promoting student initiative and leadership in shared governance activities, both districtwide and site specific.
If policies 3100, 3100.1,3100.2, and 3200 are left off the district site, can you really say that you are doing all you can to keep students proactively informed and clearly directed when problems arise. Why invest millions in infrastructure and programs and fail to use it in basic services to students that should not be overlooked? Being left in dark, and out of the loop, perpetuates a climate of disservice that flashy new software or equipment can't overcome. I believe public funds budgeted for student services would be well-spent on some word-processing time to correct any information shortfalls in an efficient and resource-conserving way. Obviously, students must be assured clear and efficient access to this information as well, with accommodation for ESL, EOP, DSPS and other student groups that may be at a disadvantage.
As time permits, I hope to look into these and related matters with Lynn Neault and others in the learning community. Would you mind if I contact you again for your input on important matters under discussion? I feel you genuinely want to take pride in the performance of the District, and I look forward to your guidance and support in addressing critical issues, such as more effective shared governance implementation.
Tom Darling
As the SDCCD's Chief Executive Officer it is my understanding that your position entails ultimate responsibility for the actions and inactions of personnel under your direction. Among the issues I have brought up is inattention to response protocol — an area of misadministration that cripples progress whenever it's encountered and blatantly violates best practice. I have waited over three months for a reply to my June 27, 1999 letter to you. During this time, my grievances, properly filed on July 12, 1999, have not been addressed appropriately and I have suffered greatly as a result. This letter is a further effort to involve you more directly in solutions which will require a much more organized, thorough, and professional approach than I've encountered thus far. I have yet to see effective steps taken by district administrators to fully address many areas of chronic neglect. I have repeatedly observed blatant disregard for the district's guiding philosophy, mission and goals, and district policy. Faced with these chronic problems, it's unfair to burden students with monitoring and addressing such frequent performance gaps in order to ensure a quality learning environment. Observing SDCCD Continuing Education administration, I have yet to see anything being done "with excellence" in the two years I've been attending West City Center.
I have provided key administrators documentation to back up such allegations and it appears that problems just tend to snowball. I strongly feel that Student Services is unable to address most problems effectively of the sort that I have brought to the district's attention. To address most concerns at the site dean level has proven futile, and only exposes additional problems that need to be addressed. I am appealing to you to provide effective channels, that do not further convolute and further aggravate the process. I hope you will assume a more innovative role than Associate Dean Lyon, who on more than one occasion has told me "If you don't like it here — don't come!" Such a position is not only unprogressive — it is aggressively blocks change.
Any SDCCD student seeking policy information is currently at an extreme disadvantage if they are not already computer literate. Without the ability to research even the limited information on the district's Internet site,, and more recently, SDCCD's intranet, I would have been unable to plan an effective course toward remediation. It is painfully apparent that the SDCCD routinely leaves both faculty and students in the dark on important informational and policy matters. Moreover, it is also obvious that effective communication is not practiced with sufficient timeliness, consistency, or collaborative intent. I sincerely hope that both my previous letter and this one will receive responses "with excellence" more consistently shown in both actions initiated by you and followed through by others within your administration.
I believe that students are directly and indirectly discouraged from raising issues in many ways — as I have documented. Within Continuing Education greater apathy results from the problematic promotion of classes as "free." This leads many students to respond with "therefore we shouldn't complain" — rather than realize Continuing Education's no-fee classes are a taxpayer investment justified by an educational return that benefits society as a whole.
I feel that with continued school violence a growing issue, much more emphasis needs to be placed on ensuring that administrators proactively keep channels of communication open, and deal with student concerns fairly from the start. That I have found it necessary to continually sacrifice my immediate educational goals to address so many violations of school policy and best practice is both grievous and a chilling indication of what students may have to increasingly face in the future. In my view, school administrators are in denial about the degree to which their nonconformance to written policies and best practices actually foment and exacerbate problems that can be avoided. Far too many administrators seem to be holding onto their jobs for the prestige — albeit fading — and the personal income and benefits that their positions still provide. I believe that the West City Center offers a very disturbing up close example of what SDCCD's Continuing Education division fails to provide.
So far, informal resolution has largely failed and my grievances are growing. Assistant Chancellor of Student Services, Lynn Neault, who was selected by Vice-President of Instruction, Jim Smith, to serve as Grievance Officer instead of Dean Barbara Penn, has since June extended the trail of neglect on essential matters that so far your administration apparently chooses to ignore. No written explanation has been offered that sufficiently justifies the reasons that so many matters have been ignored.
One only has to look at the grievance statements that I've submitted and the district's responses to see the gaping holes in accountability and documented investigative action. I request documentation of progress to date, and to know what further actions are under discussion or underway. It's my feeling that there are district administrators who do not want to look too closely for fear that what they find will draw them into more difficult decisions — decisions made more difficult because of long-term problems within Continuing Education and within the district for which there may be no easy solution. Here is where bold leadership becomes imperative if significant progress is to occur. Inaction regarding so many code violations sends the message that administrators such as Dean St. John, Associate Dean Lyon, and Associate Dean Grimes can act with impunity.
While Vice-President Jim Smith continues in his patronizing, dismissive, and passive-aggressive "intervention" from time to time, Associate Dean Lyon still operates in an abusive, and provocative manner, recently saying such things "Nothing you say to me has any validity." Meanwhile Dean St. John continues to provide poor oversight: "It's bad for morale" to override decisions. His ineffective management is obviously going to have a continuing negative impact unless something is done. Furthermore, It's downright scarey to imagine Associate Dean Lyon continuing to act so belligerantly and provocatively. To allow his behavior to go uninvestigated and unchecked puts everyone more at risk.
I won't detail further failings on the part of these or other administrators in this particular letter. Rather, I wish to express my concern that issues raised in my grievance statements appear to be beyond the ability or willingness of other key personnel to address effectively. I feel that there are many mutual benefits to be gained from a more conscientious effort, yet a much more thorough and professional effort must be expended to achieve a truly successful outcome, and create the positive momentum that has so long been absent.
As you announced back in 1996, "Wonderful mission and philosophy statements are still not enough, however, unless they are supported with actions to achieve stated goals." This is an ideal opportunity to underscore the sincerity of your commitment. I trust you will not want to fall short — due to insufficient oversight or ineffective action on your part — or on the part of others in your administration.
I feel that any real student in the broadest and truest sense would not stand by and allow education to devolve without a sincere and concentrated effort to turn things around in a big way. The official talk needs strong legs to walk education into the light upon which consistent progress depends. I believe the best way we can encourage the sincere effort that students such as myself are making is to include them as partners in the improvement of education — rather than to denigrate or treat them as outcasts — or retaliate against them for challenging the failing status quo. Ultimately, through cooperation — or the lack of it — we all share a similar fate.
Tom Darling
