Mission Statement
Members of the Liberal Arts Division value student engagement and innovative teaching and learning. We model and cultivate collegial habits that inspire independent, critical thinking, and we choose practices that address the needs of a diverse community unified by its common interest in helping one another reach clear academic, personal, and career goals. Our Division welcomes and supports people from all economic backgrounds, abilities, ethnicities, races, ages, religions, genders, gender identities, sexual orientations, and nationalities.
Kevin O'Connor, Ph.D.
Dean
In order to achieve our Division Mission, we do the following:
- Always communicate in a manner that is timely, responsive, and helpful
- Stay active in our professional development
- Model practices that promote engaged teaching, learning, and service to others
- Practice supportive behaviors that encourage our students and ourselves to be directed, focused, nurtured, engaged, connected, and valued
Student Success
Aligned with the above-mentioned goals are six factors we believe are crucial to students’ engagement with the College and the value we place on them as learners. These six factors form the basis for the RP Group's student-focused investigation of support.
Six Factors of College Success
- Directed: students have a goal and know how to achieve it.
Helping students clarify their aspirations, select an educational focus they perceive as meaningful, and create a plan that moves them from enrollment to achieving their goal. - Focused: students stay on track, keeping their eyes on the prize.
Fostering students’ motivation and helping them develop the skills needed to achieve their goals. - Nurtured: students feel that somebody wants and helps them to succeed.
Conveying a sense of caring where students’ success is important and expected. - Engaged: students actively participate in class and extra-curricular activities.
Actively involving students in meaningful and authentic educational experiences and activities inside and outside of the classroom. - Connected: students feel that they are part of the college community.
Creating connections between students and the institution, while cultivating relationships that underscore how students’ involvement with the college community can contribute to their academic and personal success. - Valued: students' skills, talents, abilities and experiences are recognized; they have opportunities to contribute on campus and feel that their contributions are appreciated.
Providing students with opportunities to contribute to and enrich the college culture and community.
Student Success Resources
The following resources provide background and reflection on topics that inform Liberal Arts practices:
Documents
- Human Skills and the Labor Market Outcomes of Liberal Arts Grads
- Philosophy Prepared Me for a Career in Finance and Government
- How the Liberal Arts Lead to Success
- Professional Development Opportunities
- Why STEM Majors Need the Humanities
- Why America's Business Majors Are in Desperate Need of a Liberal Arts Education
- Dispelling the Myths Surrounding a Liberal Arts Education
- Grade Explanation
- We Need More STEM Majors with Liberal Arts Training
- When Humanities Becomes the World
- What Students Say They Need to Succeed: A Recipe for All of Us? - May/June 2013 ACCCA Report
- Transforming Basic Skills Education - RP Group
- Common Core State Standards - OCDE
- Using Student Voices to Redefine Support - RP Group
- What Students Say They Need to Succeed - RP Group
- Basic Skills Completion: The Key to Student Success in California Community Colleges - CCC
- A Matter of Degrees: Promising Practices for Community College Student Success - CCCSE
- Advancing Student Success in the California Community Colleges - SSTF recommendations
- SSRC Improving Undergraduate Learning: Findings and Policy Recommendations from the SSRC-CLA Longitudinal Project - SSRC
- Community College Honor Society Commits to Boosting Graduation Rates
- Divided We Fail: Improving Completion and Closing Racial Gaps in California Community Colleges - Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy
- One-Shot Deal? Student's Perception of Assessment and Course Placement in California's Community Colleges - WestEd
- 2020 Vision Student Success: A Report of the Commission on the Future of the Community College League of California
- Unlock Your Education Potential: What Every Student Needs to Know to Succeed! by Haig & Haig
- Basic Skills as a Foundation for Student Success in California Community Colleges - RP Group
- Characteristics of Successful Students
PowerPoints
Videos