Cheryl Hagen, Schoolcraft College Bruce Moses, Pima Community College

Lori Sundberg, Carl Sandburg College

ACCOUNTABILITY—AT WHAT COST?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Develop an appreciation for the complexities associated with meeting compliance requirements.

• Consider the inherent tension in attempting to balance investments in compliance activities vs. completion agendas.

• Examine leadership approaches designed to maintain compliance while advancing the student success agenda.

OVERVIEW

• Introduction and context• How and why expectations have changed over time• Hidden costs of investing resources in accountability

and compliance—are we benefiting students? • What leaders can do, particularly at smaller

community colleges. What approaches can mitigate the costs and potential losses?

• Q & A

Why Accreditation has changed

• Financial investment by the government

• Increased compliance for higher education institutions

• Appearance of little transparency, accountability, and oversight.

• Student performance and success is not impressive

Quote from VP of Accreditation WASC

“You can’t spend close to 200 billion dollars on loans and grants without getting a lot of attention. Even in Washington that’s real money.”

Why expectations for institutions have changed

Regional Accreditation is now more prescriptive with an emphasis on:• Systems/Process • Evidence-based decision making • Federal Compliance • Continuous Improvement

The History of managing accreditation

15 Years Ago

• Faculty led

• Siloed within Academic Affairs

• Little emphasis on data (anecdotal)

• Costs and resources (fixed)

Now

• Dedicated full-time position

• Campus-wide involvement

• Data and evidence based

• Cost and resources (varies)

Promising practices from institutions

Emphasis on quality improvement:• Commitment of top management–Talk the talk–Walk the walk

• Is process focused• Utilizes teamwork• Requires controlled experimentation before

formal change (Piloting)

Ripped from the headlines…

• “25 Years Later, Has Clery Made Campuses Safer?”—Chronicle of Higher Ed, March 9, 2015

• “Botching Sexual-Assault Complaints Is Costly, Study Finds” – Chronicle of Higher Ed, January 28, 2015

• “Seeking to Strengthen Sex-Assault Policies, Colleges Draw Fire from All Sides” –Chronicle of Higher Ed, January 8, 2015

• “Presumed Guilty: College Men Accused of Rape Say the Scales Are Tipped Against Them” –Chronicle of Higher Ed, Sept.1, 2014

• “Overseeing Sex Assault Cases Is Now a Full-Time Job” – Chronicle of Higher Ed, October 31, 2014

• “Public College Leaders Rail Against Education Dept.’s ‘Regulatory Culture’—Chronicle of Higher Ed, October 20, 2014

Culture change

• April- Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issues 50-page FAQ on the “Dear Colleague” letter of 2011

• First report from White House Task Force, plus nearly a dozen companion documents

• Summer—McCaskill roundtables• September/October – “It’s on Us” campaign• October – New Clery Act rules (effective 7/1/15)• December – dramatic growth in # of colleges under

investigation by the DOE Office of Civil Rights

Have you heard this statistic?

1 in 5? https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/12/15/critics-advocates-doubt-oft-cited-campus-sexual-assault-statistic

How big is our problem?

7.4= 35%

13.6

2013 College and University Enrollmentin Millions

Total =21 million

Community College Students4-year College and University Students

319= 6%

4779

2013 Reported Sex OffensesTotal = 5098

Reported sex offenses at community collegesReported sex offenses at all colleges and universi-ties

Source: http://ncesed.govhttp://ope.ed.gov/security/

What are the costs of…

• Staffing for risk management and compliance?

• Mistakes?• Lost opportunities?

Staff

“New administrative positions, particularly in student services, drove a 28% expansion of the higher ed work force from 2000-2012.”

-Scott Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Ed, February 2014

“Colleges spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of working hours to count their crimes according to Clery’s rules and to produce annual security reports that apparently few students read.”

– Lee Gardner, Chronicle of Higher Ed, March 9, 2015

Mistakes can be costly

Clery

• Eastern Michigan University fined $357,000 for 2006 violation of Clery Act.

• Penn State’s fine for Sandusky scandal is expected to exceed that.

• Fine per violation of Clery was $27,500; raised to $35,000; McCaskill bill is pending—would raise fine to $150,000 per violation

Mistakes can be costly

Title IX

• Report from United Educators: “Confronting Campus Sexual Assault: An Examination of Higher Education Claims”

• Institutions spent more than $17 million defending against and resolving students’ claims, including lawsuits and federal complaints

Opportunity cost

“The growing list of federal regulations may ultimately be the greatest barrier to innovation, efficiency, and quality in higher education.”

-Diane Auer Jones, Inside Higher Ed, January, 2010

What can we do?

Basic must-have or must-do list• Visit higher ed compliance website – self-audit• Policies and procedures, Student Code of Conduct• Designate and train a Title IX Coordinator• Become a culture of reporting• Read “President’s Guide to Clery”

http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Documents/A-Presidents-Guide-to-the-Clery-Act.pdf

• Training for faculty, staff, and students

Enhancements that make a difference

• Centralized reporting database• Behavior Intervention Team (BIT)• Counselors or mental health referral sources• Standardizing response• Compliance committee

atixa.org

Important observation

• “The greatest threat to us is not the OCR, the legislature, or the media. The greatest threat is the colleges and universities who are doing this badly, and giving all of us a bad name.”

– Laura Bennett, president of ASCA (Association of Student Conduct Administrators)

References• Carlisle, B. A. (2014, June 2). The legalization of student affairs. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2014/06/02/the-legalization-of-student-affairs/• Carlson, S. (2014, February 5). Administrator hiring drove 28% boom in higher-ed

work force, report says. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from: http://chronicle.com/article/Administrator-Hiring-Drove-28-/144519/

• Gardner, Lee (2015, March 9). 25 Years Later, Has Clery made campuses safer?Chronicle of Higher Education.

• Jones, D.A. (2010, January 12). The federal regulatory compliance fee. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/01/12/jones#ixzz351UNhQtB

• Kirk, A. F. (2014, May 14). Think college costs too much? Thank the government. [Editorial]. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Think-College-Costs-Too-Much-/146641/

• Wilson, R. (2015, Jan. 28). Botching Sexual-Assault Complaints Is Costly, Study Finds. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

• http://www.higheredcompliance.org/matrix/• atixa.org

Cheryl Hagen, chagen@schoolcraft.eduBruce Moses, bmoses3@pima.edu

Lori Sundberg, lsundberg@sandburg.edu

Thank You!