Allen County Community College’s mission statement has three basic tenets, College President John Masterson said Wednesday night: to strive for excellence as a partner in the community; provide a superior education; and be a caring institution.
The first two can be expensive, Masterson noted. It costs money to ensure the college has the capacity to serve its students and the community as a whole.
“But the thing about caring is that it doesn’t cost a penny,” Masterson said. “We can give it away.”
The college’s ability to care — from its board of trustees, through its administration and down to its faculty and students — is what sets ACCC apart from the competition, Masterson concluded.
“That’s part of why we’ve been able to grow,” Masterson said. “Students have voted with their feet.”
Masterson spoke at a dinner as part of a three-day Academic Quality Improvement Program visit administered by the North Central Association.
Allen County is one of 200 community colleges or universities that utilize AQIP to receive accreditation from NCA. The inspection visit occurs once every seven years.
The visitors — Gwladys Austin, vice president of Mid Michigan Community College in Harrison, Mich., and Renae Fry, paralegal program director from North Hennepin Community College of Brooklyn Park, Minn. — are in southeast Kansas through Friday to look at all aspects of ACCC, from its Iola campus to its outreach facility in Burlingame and online courses.
Their final summary to NCA will be one of the final steps to determine if ACCC remains accredited after the 2011-12 academic year.
The college is confident it will remain accredited, Jon Marshall, ACCC’s vice president for academic affairs, told the Register, citing the college’s continued growth, and its high levels of student achievement in and out of the classroom.
“We’ve heard nothing but positive feedback,” Marshall said. “Their talks with the faculty and staff have all been extremely positive.”
WEDNESDAY’S dinner featured short summations about ACCC from Masterson; Spencer Ambler, chairman of the ACCC Board of Trustees; AnDrea Cleaves, dean of the Iola campus; Bob Reavis, dean of the Burlingame campus; Regena Aye, dean of online learning; students Josiah D’Albini, Kirsten Roberts and Adriana Lozano, math instructor Walt Regehr; Sharon Lawless, a computer science instructor in Burlingame; Vicki Curry, financial aid director; and Jason Kegler, director of student life.
Each touched on the caring aspect of ACCC.
Curry, for example, noted ACCC’s relatively intimate setting teaches staff members to treat each of ACCC students as people, not numbers.
She recalled getting a frantic call from a student asking if she could pick up a load of laundry from his residence (she did), drawing a laugh from the crowd.
“You have things that may not be in your role, but you do them anyway,” she said.
Regehr spoke about respect and admiration among the faculty members to the point that ACCC’s faculty can be considered a family.
“When you see the instructors caring about each other and supporting each other, there’s no doubt that permeates down to the students,” he said.
WHILE THE visit is yet to be complete, ACCC already has left a positive impression on its AQIP visitors.
Fry recounted a visit with a handful of ACCC students during a question-and-answer session earlier Wednesday, where she asked the students to sum up the college in a single word.
One student asked if it could be hyphenated, she said.
When asked why, the student said because he considered ACCC a “home-away-from-home,” Fry recalled.
“You’ve succeeded in creating an environment that sparks achievement,” she said.
THE DINNER was capped with several musical performances by Lozano, on guitar, and fellow students Carlos Lozano, on violin, and Samuel Cho, with the cello.
