Palo Verde College Follow-Up Report Submitted by: Palo Verde College One College Drive Blythe, CA 92225 Submitted to: Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges October 1, 2021 To: Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges From: Donald G. Wallace, Ph.D., Superintendent/President Palo Verde College One College Drive, Blythe, CA 92225 I certify there was broad participation and review by the campus community and believe this report accurately reflects the nature and substance of this institution. Signatures: ______________________________________________________ Brad Arneson, President, Board of Trustees _________________________________________________ Dr. Donald G. Wallace, Superintendent/President _________________________________________________ William Smith, Interim Vice President, Instruction and Student Services/ALO _________________________________________________ Richard Castillo, President, CTA _________________________________________________ Sarah Frid, President, Academic Senate _________________________________________________ Jose Rascon, President, Associated Student Government _________________________________________________ Rich Soto, President, CSEA 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Report Preparation Responses to the Commission Action Letter ACCJC Policy on Student and Public Complaints Against Institutions (Requirement 1) ACCJC Policy on Distance Education and Correspondence Education (Requirement 2) Standard I.B.2. I.B.4, II.A.3 (Requirement 3) Standard I.B.3 (Requirement 4) Standard I.B.5, II.A.2, II.C.1 (Requirement 5) Appendix—List of Evidence 3 REPORT PREPARATION Palo Verde College began preparing its response immediately upon receiving the June 29, 2020, Commission Action Letter. The Vice President of Instruction and Student Services/ALO, under the direction of the Superintendent/President, was delegated the task of coordinating the response effort. The Vice President of Instruction and Student Services/ALO recruited an administrator, two faculty members and the Director of Institutional Research to serve on an Accreditation Task Force that met every other week to develop responses to the Action Letter and review progress. A date was set in late July to complete the report, allowing time for institution-wide review and Board of Trustees’ first and second readings, to meet the October 1, 2021, report submission deadline. The Accreditation Task Force initiated the following tasks in Summer 2020: Requirement 1: Prepared a paper version of the Correspondence Education Handbook 2020-21, containing, among other information, procedures as to grievances and complaints. Arranged distribution of the document to incarcerated students. Began review of all Board policies and administrative procedures dealing with students’ rights and responsibilities, including BP 5530/AP 5530 Student Rights and Grievances, which was revised in 2021. Re-organized data file of student complaints and grievances to improve tracking and follow-up actions. Requirement 2: Worked with the Academic Senate to finalize resolutions governing distance education and correspondence education, including changes in accordance with recent revisions to Title 5, paragraphs 55260 Correspondence Education Definition and Application and 55262 Correspondence Education Instructor Contact. Requirement 3: Worked with the Academic Senate and conducted eLumen training on Flex Day, January 21, 2021, to ensure comprehensive input of student learning outcome assessments scheduled on the SLO matrix. As of the date of this Follow-Up Report, SLO assessments and reflections are inputted in eLumen through Spring Semester 2021. Requirement 4: Built upon the College’s work accomplished to date on institution-set standards and worked with the Program Review Committee to formulate a process for reviewing and addressing adverse institutional deviations from set standards. Prompts regarding institution-set standards are incorporated in program review templates. Requirement 5: Worked with the Program Review Committee, Academic Senate and classified managers to ensure timely completion and approval of program reviews and Snapshots in accordance with the Program Preview Matrix. Throughout this time, the Vice President of Instruction and Student Services/ALO kept the College informed of progress in the preparation of the response, including updates during the 4 January 21, 2021, Flex Day, monthly reports before the Board and monthly general staff meetings. RESPONSES TO THE COMMISSION ACTION LETTER ACCJC Policy on Student and Public Complaints Against Institutions (Requirement 1): In order to meet the Commission’s policy, the Commission requires the institution widely communicate its formal student grievance process so that all students are aware of their rights and responsibilities. College Response: Palo Verde College has made improvements in this area, having taken steps to ensure that incarcerated students, as well as community students, are well aware of their rights and responsibilities, and have access to processes for filing complaints and grievances. Upon learning of the ACCJC’s recommendation, the College acted quickly in the Spring and Summer of 2020 to distribute grievance forms to all students, including incarcerated students. Later in 2020, the College compiled the Correspondence Education Handbook 2020-21, containing the student grievance form (page 52) and information about the grievance process (page 35), student conduct, non-discrimination, sexual harassment and related matters. The Correspondence Education Handbook was distributed to all students, including incarcerated students in paper form, during orientation. The Correspondence Education Handbook has since been updated for 2021-22 and is, similarly, distributed to all students. Community students—that is, students not incarcerated—have direct access to information on grievances and complaints, through the College’s website, Main Page from which students can go to the Student Concerns button for the Student Grievance Form and links to BP 3410/AP 3410 Nondiscrimination, BP 3430/AP 3430 Prohibition of Harassment, BP 3540/AP 3540 Sexual and Other Assaults, BP 4231/AP 4231 Grade Changes and BP 5520/AP 5520 Student Disciplinary Procedures. The College Catalog, as it always has, provides information on grievances and complaints in the Students’ Rights and Responsibilities section. The catalog is published each year and posted on the College website. Also, the Palo Verde College Handbook/Planner is made available to all students at no charge. The Planner contains College information of value to all students and has a section devoted to complaints and grievances on page 85. In a related action, BP 5530/AP 5530 Student Rights and Grievances, was revised and was approved June 8, 2021 by the Board of Trustees. The College has long maintained files to track complaints and to ensure they are acted upon in a timely manner. (Complaints and Grievances) Additionally, the College created a shared file for complaint history to which authorized College personnel have access for purposes of follow-up and update. 5 ACCJC Policy on Distance Education and Correspondence Education (Requirement 2): In order to meet the Commission’s policy, the Commission requires the institution establish a policy defining regular and substantive instructor-initiated contact with students for Distance Education courses. The college must provide professional development opportunities for faculty teaching online to ensure Distance Education courses include regular and substantive instructor- student interaction. College Response: The College has accomplished two major improvements to address Requirement 2 and to ensure compliance with the ACCJC Policy on Distance Education and on Correspondence Education. First, the Academic Standards Committee and Academic Senate developed, in cooperation with College administration, and ratified policies governing distance education and correspondence education. These policies may be reviewed through these links: Standards for Distance Learning: Introduction Distance Education Policies—No-Show Process and Regular, Effective Contact Changes in correspondence processes The Academic Senate resolution titled “Standards for Distance Learning: Introduction” requires that instructors teaching correspondence sections maintain “regular effective contact” with their students, which the College defines as “at least seven (7) different contacts with the opportunity to ask questions of an instructor.” (Standards for Distance Learning: Introduction, page 2) Instructors teaching distance education, or online, courses must, similarly, maintain regular, effective contact with their students. According to Distance Education Policies—No Show Process and Regular, Effective Contact, “Regular effective contact means that instructors must keep in contact with students on a consistent and timely basis to both ensure the quality of instruction and verify their performance and participation status.” The Academic Senate resolution titled “Distance Education Policies—No Show Process and Regular, Effective Contact” recommends, furthermore, practices that will help maintain regular contact, including, for example, establishing expectations, faculty-initiated interaction, timely feedback on student work, content delivery, and student-to-student contact The College converted the above-referenced Academic Senate policies into a revised