PASADENA, Texas – Everyone in our area has faced insurmountable challenges over the last several weeks as we weathered Hurricane Ike and are still working on recovering our homes and lives in the aftermath.

San Jacinto College also faced difficulties with most of our buildings had some water intrusion, the science building on Central campus lost its roof, and the administration building at South campus is still running on a generator.  However, our crisis plan was implemented and although the reconstruction process is still underway, we are open and working.

The plan for a successful semester

As we were proceeding to get the buildings open, it was equally critical to us to ensure a successful semester for our 26,000 plus students.  With a goal of achieving all learning outcomes for classes, I challenged our instructional leaders to come up with the best plan possible for our students.

We knew our students and employees had faced tremendous challenges so rather than just add back all the missed days and thereby significantly extending our fall semester, we chose to assess, class-by-class, the learning outcomes needed for each individual class.  As we looked at best practices nationwide, we noticed the hybrid model is used to deliver instruction through a combination of face-to-face instruction and out-of-class activities.  Examples of the out-of-class activities could include online assignments, research projects, computer lab assignments, library assignments, papers, or any number of strategies that would replace the in-class time but ensure that students complete the learning objectives for the course.

The faculty across the district have met together with their colleagues in each discipline and reviewed the learning objective for each and every course taught at San Jacinto College. After reviewing the learning outcomes, faculty designed strategies to enrich the instruction as our students complete the coursework.

As this was developed, there were some programs, such as cosmetology and nursing, which require very specific clock hours to complete the course.  In those programs, we will be scheduling extra class time or clinical experiences so students can obtain the goals and fulfill all requirements.

This has been approved by key agencies

Student success is critical to all employees at San Jacinto College.  Therefore, I had a conference call with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which then met with the Legislative Budget Board, and the Governor’s office to ensure that this plan would be acceptable. We also check with our accrediting agency, the Southern Association on Colleges and Schools (SACS)/Commission on Colleges to be sure this plan met their approval as well. We want to be sure that all credits earned this fall by our students are equally transferable as any other semester. The groups we mentioned here applauded our work and innovative thinking.  One state official called the plan, “wonderful.”

Student Success, the reason for our being

Student success is the reason for our being so in addition to working out an academic plan to get students successfully through the semester, we have also increased the hours our tutoring centers are open and are looking at increasing the number of topics available for tutoring.  Our counseling staff in student services is  working with students to help them emotionally through this trying time.  In addition, we have made textbook scholarships available for students through our Foundation. In addition, a substantial portion of the funds raised through the annual Andy Pettitte Golf Tournament will be dedicated to support students who have had a significant loss.

With the understanding that our students have just come through a horrific event in Hurricane Ike, it was critical for us to find a plan that works for everyone. We do not want to shortchange our students so we must keep the academic integrity and rigor of our courses while finding a plan to work better for our students. We worked with critical agencies to ensure the plan would be approved and now we are implementing it.  I am blessed to work with such a dedicated faculty and staff who, in the midst of dealing with loss themselves, are bending over backward to help students achieve their academic goals.