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ranger Serving San Antonio College since 1926
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Volume 89 Issue 1 • Sept. 15, 2014
210-486-1773 • Single copies free
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Student success initiative derived from self-help book Faculty worry 4DX subtracts from time spent with students. By Bleah B. Patterson
bpatterson13@student.alamo.edu
Food stampede Art sophomore Patrick Hawbecker sorts organic lettuce donated by the San Antonio Food Bank Sept. 3 at the Phi Theta Kappa mobile food pantry in Lot 1. The food bank donated 5,000 pounds of food. The mobile food pantry will return to campus Sept. 30. Neven Jones
Student access fee not parking pass By Adriana Ruiz
aruiz168@student.alamo.edu
Reducing costs and creating a more convenient process for students were key factors in discontinuing student-parking decals, said Pamela Ansboury, associate vice chancellor for finance and fiscal services. According to the college website, students are not required to have a parking decal on their vehicles. However, the $25 student access fee is still linked to tuition “regardless of credit hours, class location or if only web-based.” “It is not a parking permit; it is an access fee,” Ansboury said. Ansboury said the student access fee also allows access to campus facilities, information services on or off campus and 24-hour security by campus police. She said the decision is more cost-efficient because prior to the student access fee, students were required to pay a $50 nonrefundable parking permit regardless if they attended both semesters. Now students only pay the access fee during active enrollment. Ansboury said this will be more convenient for students as they will not have to worry about waiting in line for vehicle registration or receiving a decal in the mail. “We used to have lines of students,” Ansboury said. “This change will be extremely beneficial to students.” Ansboury said about $15,000 to $20,000 is spent on printing and distributing the decals, and an estimated $35,000 will be saved. According to a Sept. 3 email from Ansboury, the revenues from the campus access fee are used first to cover construction, repair and maintenance of streets, roadways, parking lots and garages. “Revenues can also be allocated through the annual budget process to provide student scholarships or technology to further innovate teaching and learning for students,” Ansboury said.
Faculty, staff: Opt out of parking decals Avoid a $50 charge to park in faculty lots. By Bleah B. Patterson
bpatterson13@student.alamo.edu
The Alamo Community College District’s decision not to print parking decals anymore raised complaints from those who do not drive or use the VIA transit system. Now faculty can opt out and avoid the monthly charge, totaling $50 over the academic year, senior human resources specialist Lucia Gatica confirmed. “When a faculty or staff member fills out their (human resources) paperwork, they can just not include their car information
Ansboury said the decision was part of the original request when the student access fee was approved to begin in fall 2013. Decal use continued through spring 2014 because the parking garages were not complete and decals were already ordered. Faculty members are required to register their vehicles to park in faculty lots. Parking decals are $50 for the year and are deducted from paychecks. Linda Boyer-Owens, associate vice chancellor of human resources and organizational development, said there are a small percentage of faculty members who do not drive. She said if those faculty members wish to opt out of the parking decal, they must contact human resources and they will work with them on a case-by-case basis to have the fee removed. Ansboury said the idea of discontinuing the decals originally came from Alamo Colleges Police. Chief of Police Don Adams said he does not oppose the decision of discontinuing the park-
and they won’t have the cost for the decal deducted from their paycheck monthly,” Dorothy Keys, business office registration specialist, said. Faculty also have the option of omitting vehicle information from human resources paperwork and competing for parking in student lots for which no decal is required, Keys and police Deputy Chief Joe Pabon said. Pabon added faculty who get a new car and want to transfer their parking privileges can notify human resources and have a new decal printed with updated information at no extra charge. A second replacement decal will carry a charge.
ing decals and thinks it will benefit students. He said the decision was approved for all Alamo Colleges, but this campus had questions regarding how to differentiate between students and faculty versus non-students. He said it’s different on this campus because of the businesses on Main Street and San Pedro Avenue. “I don’t think it’s going to be a big problem,” Adams said. “People who are parking there belong there.” Adams said the hassle of distributing and enforcing parking decals outweighed the value of identifying students and faculty on campus. Adams said although citations will decrease, it will not affect parking enforcement officers job stability. Instead, he said their jobs will be reclassified. He said they will not be replacing anyone but instead some of the staff will transition up. Parking enforcement officer’s still issue citations for parking illegally in faculty lots, fire lanes and spaces for people with disabilities.
The district has trained 200 faculty and staff members across the five Alamo Colleges for implementation of FranklinCovey’s “4 Disciplines of Execution,” or 4DX. Through weekly team building and planning sessions, 190 teams span district offices and the colleges. During the spring, the district began 4DX, an initiative requiring staff and faculty districtwide to undergo training and create progress boards for each unit. The cost for training was $6,500, said Linda Boyer-Owens, associate vice chancellor of human resources and organizational development, who leads the district’s 4DX program. Each unit is required to collaborate to construct a goal for the department, ultimately helping the district achieve its “wildly important goal.” The wildly important goal, or WIG, is the first of “Four Disciplines of Execution,” defined in the self-help book of the same name authored by Sean Covey, son of Stephen Covey who authored “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” To increase degrees and certificates from 6,300 to 7,000 by fall 2015 is the college district’s chosen WIG. “Sub-WIGS,” determined by the district are increasing the fall to fall persistence rate, or measure of returning students from the previous fall, from 60 percent to 67 percent by August. Another sub-WIG calls for increasing coursebased success from 77 percent to 80 percent by January. Boyer-Owens said, “We have a very student success-centered goal.” She continued saying, “The model is from the group up, beginning with employees. That’s the really unique thing about this program. The district has given them their WIG and now they get to choose, department by department, how to make that happen.” The second discipline of execution is to “define lead measures,” or “deciding what creates success. That means finding out what leads to degrees,” Boyer-Owens said. “It’s one thing to plan great things, but it’s another thing to do them. This plan is training us how to execute those plans and see results,” she said. “A compelling score board,” is the third discipline. Often used in a corporate settings, Boyer-Owens said, each team will create a board of accountability. “When a team picks their goal, they’ll create a compelling board and keep track of their success weekly. After 12 weeks, according to the disciplines, they’ll have successfully made their goal a reality and can take down the boards,” she said. The weekly meeting is the fourth and final discipline. Boyer-Owens said the meetings are ideally 15-20 minutes. The success of 4DX hinges on accountability, and weekly meetings serve as an opportunity for unit members to be accountable. “However, in the beginning we expect the meetings to take longer as the teams get into the groove,” she said. Mike Burton, English and reading and
See SELF-HELP, Page 7