Institutional Self Evaluation in Support of Reaffirmation Of
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Riverside Community College District Cynthia E. Azari, Ed.D., Interim Chancellor Board of Trustees Virginia Blumenthal, President Janet Green, Vice President Samuel Davis, Secretary Mary Figueroa, Trustee, Area 3 Nathan Miller, Trustee, Area 1 Jared Snyder, Student Trustee Norco College Paul Parnell, Ph.D., President Table of Contents Introduction History .............................................................. 1 Major Developments since Last Accreditation ............................... 3 Off-Campus Site ...................................................... 4 Organization and Timeline of the Self Evaluation ............................ 4 Data on Surrounding Areas, Students, and Graduates .......................... 7 Organizational Charts and Function Map ....................................... 41 Certification of Compliance with Eligibility Requirements ......................... 73 Certification of Compliance with Commission Policies ............................ 81 Responses to 2010 Recommendations ......................................... 87 Abstract of the Self Evaluation ............................................... 99 Standard I: Institutional Mission and Effectiveness Standard 1A. Mission ................................................. 109 Standard 1B. Improving Institutional Effectiveness ......................... 117 Standard II: Student Learning Programs and Services Standard IIA. Instructional Programs .................................... 133 Standard IIB. Student Support Services .................................. 181 Standard IIC. Library and Learning Support Services ....................... 217 Standard III: Resources Standard IIIA. Human Resources ....................................... 241 Standard IIIB. Physical Resources ....................................... 257 Standard IIIC. Technology Resources .................................... 268 Standard IIID. Financial Resources ...................................... 278 Standard IV: Leadership and Governance Standard IVA. Decision-Making Roles and Processes ....................... 301 Standard IVB. Board and Administrative Organization. 318 List of Evidence Cited .................................................... 345 Table of Contents All evidence cited in this document can be found at http://norcocollege.edu/evidence. Table of Contents Table of Contents All evidence cited in this document can be found at http://norcocollege.edu/evidence. Introduction Introduction Norco College: A Brief History Like the Native Americans and Rancho owners before him, Clark was a dreamer. Norco College, one of three colleges in the In 1923, according to Norco city historian Riverside Community College District, Bill Wilkman, he placed an ad in the Los became the 112th and newest California Angeles Times with the headline, “Norco, Community College on January 29, 2010, the Vale of Dreams Comes True.” In when it was granted initial accreditation. Jeffersonian fashion, he envisioned a Its history dates at least to the 1970s, place where urbanites could find refuge when college classes were first regularly from civilization as small farmers. He taught in the Norco-Corona area under the laid out the streets of the city, ensuring auspices of RCCD, and when Riverside that travel on horseback would be as Community College leaders first began to easy for citizens as travel by car—a dream about a branch campus in the area. feature of “Horsetown U.S.A.” preserved In many ways, however, its history is even even today. But three years later, he was older than that. distracted from realizing some of his dreams when he discovered a hot mineral The land on which the College now stands spring about a mile from where the was once home to semi-nomadic bands campus now stands. So he began to dream of Tongva Indians, some of whom built a new dream, and built a 700-acre “resort villages along the nearby Santa Ana River supreme” that included a 250,000-square- and may have gathered roots and nuts foot hotel, 60-acre lake, golf course, air where the campus stands today. They must field, and Olympic-sized pool. The resort have come to the area for the resources that opened in 1929 (shortly before the stock mattered most to desert people a thousand market crash) and was for a brief period years ago: water, game, and edible plants. a playground for film stars and famous These were the people who greeted (and athletes, before the economic downturn resisted) the Spanish, and whose land forced its closure in 1933. A day after the became part of the nearly 18,000-acre Pearl Harbor attack, it was bought by the Rancho La Sierra (Sepulveda) in 1846, U. S. Navy for use as a hospital. where their descendants probably worked for generations. For the next 50 years, Fifty years after the resort supreme through a succession of owners, this was closed, another visionary saw a new use open range, pasture land for the Rancho cattle and sheep. for land that had once been the Tongva’s. In 1983, Wilfred Airey led his Riverside In 1908, eight years before Riverside Community College Board of Trustees Junior College was founded, most of the colleagues on a tour of the U.S. Navy Rancho was bought for a half million property, part of which was still being used dollars by James W. Long, who formed as a “Fleet Analysis Center.” They were the Orange Heights Water Company and looking for a potential site for a satellite began to subdivide it into small fruit and campus to serve the growing populations vegetable farms. In 1921, the 15-square- of Corona, Norco, Eastvale, and western mile area that includes the site of the Riverside. On June 4, 1985, more than present-day campus was acquired by Rex 141 acres were acquired for a dollar from Clark, who named it “Norco,” after his the General Services Administration to North Corona Land Company. build the College. Introduction 1 All evidence cited in this document can be found at http://norcocollege.edu/evidence. Introduction A December 1986 Los Angeles Times Avenue restaurant, as they sometimes article describes Riverside Community did. Students (several of whom went on College administrator and head planner to become professors at the College) Mike Maas standing on the newly shared in the excitement of being at a new acquired land and seeing “lecture halls, campus that was always part construction ball fields, and business students.” He zone. No one seemed to mind much the had, in other words, a new dream. The occasional attacks by swarms of flies campus was expected to open in 1989, (dubbed the Norco air force) from the but funding and construction delays nearby dairy farms. Those farms have pushed the date to 1991. On March 13 of since mostly given way to subdivisions, that year, two classrooms in the Student some of whose residents attend the Services and Little Theatre buildings were College today. ready for students, and 15 or so short- term classes in Economics, Philosophy, From the beginning, Norco had been Public Speaking, and a handful of other envisioned as an institution that would traditional academic disciplines were emphasize programs in technology, a held on campus that spring semester. counterpart to its sister campus Moreno (Approximately 100 other classes that Valley’s focus on the health care fields. began in January were taught in Norco- Among its first structures were the Science area high schools and a church, as they and Technology Building, the Applied had been for years.) The formal opening Technology Building, and the Center for of the full campus (with two more Applied Competitive Technologies. In classrooms, Science and Technology and 2009, these buildings were supplemented Humanities) took place in Fall 1991— with the Industrial Technology Building. coinciding with the 75th anniversary of CTE programs at Norco today with Riverside Junior College. technology emphasis include Logistic Management, Commercial Music The early years of Riverside Community Performance, Engineering Technology, College-Norco Campus were exciting Digital Electronics, Game Design, Game ones. Funding constraints in the early Programming, and Game Audio. Several 1990s impeded growth, but the campus of these programs (e.g., Simulation enrolled over 3,000 students its first year and Gaming, Commercial Music and 5,000 within several years after that. Performance, Engineering Technology, (The head count for Fall 2013 at census and Supply Chain Technology) flourish was 9,819.) Two new buildings were in part because of support from a series completed in 1995, the aptly named of HSI grants totaling nearly 15 million Wilfred J. Airey Library and an Applied dollars. Technology Building. The dozen or so full-time faculty from that early period Over the past 22 years, the College has (seven of whom still teach at the College) also developed a strong reputation for its considered themselves pioneers at an programs in more traditional academic institution they felt they could help shape. areas. In 2013, 238 students graduated There were so few of them that they could with A.A. degrees in Social and fit into a single semi-circular booth when Behavioral Sciences, 137 in Math and they went to lunch together at a Hamner Science, 84 in Humanities, Philosophy, 2 Introduction All evidence cited in this document can be found at http://norcocollege.edu/evidence. Introduction and the Arts, 68 in Administration Major Developments since the and Information Systems, and 38 in Last Accreditation Visit Communication, Media, and Languages. • Revision of the College mission New Associate Degrees for