The Learning Community Initiative at Northern Essex
Other members of our COPPER group have expressed interest in how the Northern Essex Learning Communities initiative has been developed and maintained for several years on campus. Here is a brief explanation from Barbara Stachniewicz, our current LCRP—learning communities resource person:
Learning communities began to be offered college-wide at NECC in Fall 2001. One faculty member investigated Learning Communities as his sabbatical project and, upon his return, worked with the Director of Faculty and Staff Development to initiate a year-long professional development program to research and develop LCs. In 2000, 10 faculty members participated in the program. In the summer of 2001, a group of seven faculty and administrators attended the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education National Learning Community Project at The Evergreen State College. The experience was invaluable and we returned with an administrative plan.
We established a Steering Committee (comprised of six faculty – we have since expanded to seven – and three administrators) to create and administer policy and procedures. The Committee is chaired by a Learning Communities Resource Person who works closely with the Director of Faculty and Staff Development and reports to the Vice President of Academic Affairs. The committee developed an application process, worked with the Vice President on compensation and other issues for faculty, developed goals for the project and worked to create a campus-wide network to “grow” the initiative.
We have grown from an initial offering of five LCs in 2001 to the point where we now average 10-12 LCs in an academic year.
Currently, we have an active Steering Committee and an application process that we continually refine. We have strong support from the Office of Faculty and Staff Development and have just finished a new job description that expands the role of the Resource Person to include both facilitator and coaching tasks. We sponsor two web sites: one for faculty and staff that includes information about the program and the application process (http://www.necc.mass.edu/departments/ofsd/lc.shtml) and one for students that includes up-to-date information about our offerings (http://www.necc.mass.edu/learningcommunities/index.php).
Post submitted by Richard Lizotte, NECC