College Hour Exploration
How might we Convene, Connect, and Collaborate?
Background
In Fall 2022, the Institutional Effectiveness Committee (IEC) developed a 'pre-task' force to determine if there was interest in bringing College Hour to Cabrillo.
The “pre-taskforce” conducted outreach to gain insight and feedback from CCEU, Faculty Senate, ASCC, and College Planning Council (CPC).
In Fall 2023, CPC approved a College Hour Task Force under direction of IEC.
The conversation continued with a Flex event in Spring 2024 and a presentation to the Student Senate in Spring 2024.
As the task force began meeting to try to define the scope and purpose of their charge, we defined these basic premises:
College Hour should bring students, administrators, and employees together for common purpose and connection.
College Hour should break down silos and build in time for gathering –to focus on topics and activities that are relevant to a range of people associated with the College.
College Hour should encourage intentional participation on behalf of a broad spectrum of students, staff and faculty. This exemplifies the importance of building community and developing a sense of civic responsibility.
The key objective of the task force is to gather information that will help inform the design and implementation of our College Hour plan.
We are most certainly not responsible for rearranging class schedules.
Start small, evolve, and grow over time.
Basics
Content and topics of college hour should be grassroots, staff and student lead
There should be a social component - an intentional time built in for mingling and chatting - not just formal presentations
Approved events should be cross disciplinary and inclusive of several components of the college, not only one or two
Plan must include Watsonville campus in scheduling. (Make sure events happen on both campuses at various times?)
Students should play an integral part of design and implementation
Challenges
How can we work together to serve every constituency?
It's really hard to get folks to show up, so this is awesome. I could be there every week.
Next Steps for the task force in Fall 2024
Conduct focus groups with special groups on campus who conduct outreach events - so we can hear about their ideas.
Design a pilot College Hour event or activity for Spring 2025
Follow up on the timing for College Hour with Strategic Enrollment Management group who is working on master schedule so we can begin implementation process recommendations
Continued engagement with students on implementation plan
How can you get involved?
While we have no impact on when College Hour might be, we would like to offer a blueprint as to how it might work once time has been made in the schedule.
Long Term Viability Questions for task force to address and make recommendations on:
What group will be responsible for programming?
How will this be promoted?
Is there a way to combine existing efforts (and funds) to ensure the largest part of the community benefits?
For this, we're opening up a Suggestions Form. If you experienced College Hour at another institution, please let us know what you liked (or not) and what worked (or not). Responses will be anonymous, but you will need to log in with a Cabrillo email. If you want to be contacted, please leave your contact information in the form.