CBT: The College Brain Trust

Home > Results > CBT Case Studies > Imperial Valley College

CBT Case Studies

Imperial Valley College

Accreditation Issues
Educational Master Plan
Technology Plan
Strategic Plan
Resource Plan

SITUATION

Imperial Valley College was on “warning” status by the Accreditation Commission and needed to create an Educational Master Plan, a Strategic Plan, a Technology Plan, a Resource Plan and a Progress Report.  Superintendent President Ed Gould was new to the college, and they were under a tight deadline from the Commission to produce the plans.

While a lot of work was already underway to respond to the Commission’s recommendations, objective insight and expertise were needed from someone who had been through the process before and would facilitate the college’s ownership of the process.

College Brain Trust was contracted to assist, with Richard Giese and Ed Buckley as consultants. 

CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES

Giese remembers, “Part of the challenge of this project was the sheer scope—four essential plans were required, along with a progress report. The college also faced budget and financial issues and these plans needed to integrate with the budget.

Another challenge was the short time frame and the timing—we had only a few months to complete the work—and it was the middle of summer, not a time of year when faculty were typically on campus. Without collaborative faculty input and buy-in, we would be wasting our time.”

Like most challenges, the sheer number of plans needed in such a short time frame actually presented an intriguing opportunity for the team and the college. Under ordinary time frames, these accreditation-related plans are typically created first, and then integrated to the budget. CBT recommended the inverse approach for Imperial Valley College.

STRATEGIC APPROACH

Key strategic elements of CBT’s approach included:
 

• Integrative Planning First: Because several key accreditation-related plans had not yet been completed by the college CBT recommended that after a facilitated strategic gap analysis the college first focus on overall integrative institutional planning, then, the composition of the individual area plans required by the ACCJC.
  
  This organic, collaborative process facilitated a naturally integrated plan, and promoted buy-in and understanding by the individual planning teams, especially regarding how each area relates to the whole. This approach also avoided redundancy between plans and satisfied a key accreditation recommendation that individual plans be integrated with the budget process.

• Grassroots, Collaborative Involvement: While meeting the Accreditation Commission’s requirements were critical, the more important issue was the ongoing viability and effectiveness of Imperial Valley College.

Superintendent President Gould recalls, “CBT consultants Dick Giese and Ed Buckley had expertise that was immediately accepted by the planning groups. More importantly, they were able to communicate directly and in a positive, objective way regarding the serious nature of the accreditation issues we faced and create a productive dialogue with our teams.”

OUTCOME & REFLECTIONS

Because the CBT team was actively working with the people who would be implementing the plan on a day-to-day basis, and helping them move forward in the process of creating those plans in a way that conformed to the ACCJC standard, the on-campus collaboration between CBT and the Imperial Valley College teams went extremely well, according to Gould.

“We really loved having a chance to work with such a great group of people.” Richard Giese comments. “They are truly great. Their genuine buy-in and desire to deliver a high quality outcome and to take action to implement and institutionalize the plans was remarkable.”

According to Superintendent President Gould, the successful outcome is multiple college-created plans that are not just sitting on a shelf, but are being implemented, even now.  He says, "We take the planning process seriously, and the execution of the plan will be part of our ongoing nature and culture as a college. Our work with CBT helped us move beyond creating the documentation to actually living out the plans that we made, and we are going to do it in a way that is second to none."