Community Education Center Association

INFORMATION ON THE NEW COMPRESSED CALENDAR

Jan 25, 2003

Greetings, PCC Family Member:

As you know very well, PCC?’s Board of Trustees has approved a
"compressed" calendar to start with the fall semester Sept. 2.

Many colleges have successfully implemented the compressed
calendar before us. They?’ve found that students are more
successful under the new calendar, and that students, faculty,
staff, and administrators are generally pleased with the results.

Still, it takes a lot of work to implement a new calendar. Happily,
a lot of the work has already been done or is well underway.

At the end of this document is a bulleted list of some of the key
issues that have been decided or implemented. Updates will be
sent to you in the coming months.

Meanwhile, it will be useful for you to understand how the work
is being done, and how you can be involved if you want to be.


IMPLEMENTATION

Two groups are coordinating the implementation process:

The Compressed Calendar Implementation Committee (CCIC) is
meeting every week and includes reps from each planning area of
the college (Instruction, Student and Learning Services,
Administrative Services, and the President's Area).

The CCIC is a nuts-and-bolts working group seeking to identify
every operation that might be affected by the new calendar, and to
make sure people in each affected department will be ready.

The second group is the Compressed Calendar Steering
Committee (CCSC), which meets every month, often with the
CCIC. The Steering Committee includes reps from PCC?’s
shared-governance groups, plus the vice presidents and the public
relations officer.

The Steering Committee is a link between the Implementation
Committee and the broader campus community, conveying
information and bringing the community's concerns to the CCIC.

The convener of both groups is Matthew Lee, former Dean of
Institutional Planning and Research and now a PCC consultant.


GET INFORMATION ON WEB BOARDS

If you want to stay in touch with the details of the
implementation process, you can visit a special ?“web board?” at
{ HYPERLINK "http://webboard.paccd.cc.ca.us"
}http://webboard.paccd.cc.ca.us. On the web board, select
?“Compressed Calendar Discussions,?” log in as a new user, and
you will find discussion groups in which you can participate, and
ways to read and download the latest version of major planning
documents. (You can log in as a guest if you prefer, but you
won?’t be able to post your own comments in the discussion
groups.)

For instance, to see an up-to-date view of the implementation
process, you can click on ?“Planning Document,?” then on
?“Compressed Calendar Issues and Tasks.?” In the right-hand
window you can click to read or download the most recent
versions of two key planning documents: "MIS and Operations
Issues and Tasks" and "Other Issues and Tasks." These two
documents are the core of what?’s being worked on week to week.
In both documents, which are in Microsoft Word format,
highlighted text indicates changes from a previous version. You
can search for terms that might interest you.

If you want to offer your own input about potential concerns or
have a question about some issue, you can post it to one of the
discussion groups on the web board, or you can just e-mail an
appropriate member of the CCIC directly:

o Instruction: Sabah Alquaddoomi (saalquaddoomi)
o Student and Learning Services: Margaret Ramey (mbramey)
o Administrative Services: Dodie Burns (djburns)
o Human Resources: Sandy Lindoerfer (solindoerfer)
o Planning and Research: Stuart Wilcox (sawilcox)
o MIS: Dale Pittman (depittman)
o Coordination: Matthew Lee ({ HYPERLINK
"mailto:mclee@noraleeetal.com" }mclee@noraleeetal.com)

CCIC members will consider all these comments in their
implementation discussions.

Thank you for taking the time to get acquainted with this
important task, and for contributing to the discussion.


COMPRESSED CALENDAR FACT SHEET

o The new "compressed calendar" will begin on Sept. 2, two
weeks later than usual. In 2003 only, we will have a two-week
break after the summer session ends on August 16. In future
years it will be a one-week break.

o The fall semester will be 16 weeks (Sept. 2 to Dec. 20, 2003)
instead of the normal 18 weeks. Then there will be a six-week
winter intersession (Jan. 5-Feb. 12, 2004), and a 16-week spring
semester (Feb. 17 to June 12, 2004). Dates for the 11-week
summer intersession in 2004 have not yet been approved by the
Board.

o The total amount of class time and teaching time will remain
the same because of slightly longer classes. The day will start a
bit earlier (7 a.m. for some classes) and go a bit later (10:30 p.m.
for some classes).

o There will be six days of finals for the 16-week semester
(instead of the normal eight).

o The Fall, Spring and Summer sessions will be slightly less
crowded because some class offerings will move into the new
Winter intersession.

(This Fact Sheet will be updated. Questions and suggestions are
welcome.)

Chuck Champlin
PCC Director of Public Relations
PR Dept. Ext 7315; Personal line 7264
D Building, Room 203
Pegasus: cdchamplin