Passaic County Community College opened its newest academic building for this fall semester. The $12 million building on Memorial Drive and Ellison Street will be shared with Passaic County. The first floor and part of the second floor will be leased by the state to house Passaic County’s One-Stop Career Center.
The other part of the second floor and the entire third floor of the three-story structure will be used for classrooms. With an enrollment of about 13,000, PCCC is among the fastest-growing community colleges in New Jersey.
In addition, the college also is planning to build a $1 million pedestrian bridge across Ellison Street in the next six month to connect the new building with its Academic Hall as was done to connect the parking deck to Academic Hall. and the pedestrian bridge that crosses College Boulevard.
Showing posts with label PCCC News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PCCC News. Show all posts
September 28, 2012
March 6, 2012
NJEDge.net Faculty Showcase
PCCC faculty and staff are presenting at the NJEDge.net Best Practices Faculty Showcase on March 16, 2012, held at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ.
The Best Practices Faculty Showcase is a place for NJ faculty and academics to share innovative teaching methods that involve technology. Each year, over 20 sessions are presented at this one-day event.
PCCC will have the following presenters this year.
Kenneth Ronkowitz, "Unintended Consequences: Measuring Faculty Buy-in to Instructional Technology"
"Besides redesigning 25 GenEd courses across disciplines to include more writing, an initiative at PCCC has been to introduce instructional technology into those same courses. Now in its fifth year, we have found varied success with the six technology components. This presentation looks at the assessment of "faculty buy-in" (or lack thereof) for e-portfolios, video lecture capture, supplementary websites, streaming media, reusable learning objects and online gaming. Through surveys of faculty and students and focus groups, we have tried to determine the best practices that led to faculty using technology in the intended and some unintended ways. Through data from institutional research, we have determined what impact the initiative has had on overall student success. Our efforts have been the 2012 National Council of the Teachers of English (NCTE) Award for Two-Year Colleges in fostering student success."
Elizabeth Nesius, "Creating a Helpdesk Where None Exists"
"As the use of technology in education continues to increase, so does the need to train people to use it effectively. When an institution cannot provide a 24/7 helpdesk to assist students, faculty are often level one support for students, although the faculty themselves may not know how to help with technological issues students have. At PCCC, one way we have found to address the growing need for technology training is through the use of "lecture capture" software like ECHO 360 or Camtasia Relay to create short training videos on specific topics. Not only have training videos reduced the amount of technology training faculty need, but they also have had the unintended consequence of reaching a broader audience than a help desk or in-person training session, which has allowed for broader adoption of new technology. It can also reduce costs, as it provides an alternative to a help desk when dealing with common problems. In the future, we intend to develop short videos not only for technology training, but also for concepts that apply across disciplines so that some content can be offloaded from the classroom, giving faculty more time to spend on course content."
Richard Lauria, "Wiki-fy Your Class"
"A wiki is web page that you create and use to help you teach your classes. It's more than a blog and less than a LMS (Learning Management System). At a minimum, wikis can be used for organizing your class: an electronic bulletin board with your syllabus, course schedule and contact information posted. Another possibility is to use it as a resource: a repository of links, articles and videos to supplement what gets taught in the classroom. To truly wiki-fy your class, you let the students build it. You start with an address and a skeleton structure, but you give students access and let them populate the pages of the wiki. Regardless how you decide to use it, a wiki can be a very powerful tool. I will demonstrate how to create your very own wiki and start using it in your class today."
NJEDge.net is a consortium of academic and research institutions in NJ. Their main focus is innovative uses of education technology and the development of new technologies.
For more information on NJEDge.net, go to http://njedge.net/. For more information about the Best Practices Faculty Showcase, go to http://njedge.net/activities/facultyshowcase/2012/index.php.
The Best Practices Faculty Showcase is a place for NJ faculty and academics to share innovative teaching methods that involve technology. Each year, over 20 sessions are presented at this one-day event.
PCCC will have the following presenters this year.
Kenneth Ronkowitz, "Unintended Consequences: Measuring Faculty Buy-in to Instructional Technology"
"Besides redesigning 25 GenEd courses across disciplines to include more writing, an initiative at PCCC has been to introduce instructional technology into those same courses. Now in its fifth year, we have found varied success with the six technology components. This presentation looks at the assessment of "faculty buy-in" (or lack thereof) for e-portfolios, video lecture capture, supplementary websites, streaming media, reusable learning objects and online gaming. Through surveys of faculty and students and focus groups, we have tried to determine the best practices that led to faculty using technology in the intended and some unintended ways. Through data from institutional research, we have determined what impact the initiative has had on overall student success. Our efforts have been the 2012 National Council of the Teachers of English (NCTE) Award for Two-Year Colleges in fostering student success."
Elizabeth Nesius, "Creating a Helpdesk Where None Exists"
"As the use of technology in education continues to increase, so does the need to train people to use it effectively. When an institution cannot provide a 24/7 helpdesk to assist students, faculty are often level one support for students, although the faculty themselves may not know how to help with technological issues students have. At PCCC, one way we have found to address the growing need for technology training is through the use of "lecture capture" software like ECHO 360 or Camtasia Relay to create short training videos on specific topics. Not only have training videos reduced the amount of technology training faculty need, but they also have had the unintended consequence of reaching a broader audience than a help desk or in-person training session, which has allowed for broader adoption of new technology. It can also reduce costs, as it provides an alternative to a help desk when dealing with common problems. In the future, we intend to develop short videos not only for technology training, but also for concepts that apply across disciplines so that some content can be offloaded from the classroom, giving faculty more time to spend on course content."
Richard Lauria, "Wiki-fy Your Class"
"A wiki is web page that you create and use to help you teach your classes. It's more than a blog and less than a LMS (Learning Management System). At a minimum, wikis can be used for organizing your class: an electronic bulletin board with your syllabus, course schedule and contact information posted. Another possibility is to use it as a resource: a repository of links, articles and videos to supplement what gets taught in the classroom. To truly wiki-fy your class, you let the students build it. You start with an address and a skeleton structure, but you give students access and let them populate the pages of the wiki. Regardless how you decide to use it, a wiki can be a very powerful tool. I will demonstrate how to create your very own wiki and start using it in your class today."
NJEDge.net is a consortium of academic and research institutions in NJ. Their main focus is innovative uses of education technology and the development of new technologies.
For more information on NJEDge.net, go to http://njedge.net/. For more information about the Best Practices Faculty Showcase, go to http://njedge.net/activities/facultyshowcase/2012/index.php.
February 3, 2012
The PCCC Super Bowl Connection
Passaic County Community College in Paterson is deep in NY Giants country. The Giants' wide receiver, Victor Cruz, is also a Paterson native.
Cruz was an undrafted free agent out of the University of Massachusetts in 2010 and he was almost cut several times by the Giants. He admits that he almost didn’t make it at UMass either because of academic problems.
If you hear him interviewed, he comes off as a smart guy who knows the right things to say. But like many undergrads, he admits to being irresponsible and too interested in having fun.
On Yahoo! Sports, he said:
“Everybody says that when you go off to college, it’s your chance to have a good time. At the same time, you have to take care of your work. I didn’t get that. I expected a lot of things to be given to me and just taken care of when I got to college and that wasn’t going to happen.”
In 2007, Victor was living back in Paterson "trying to get his grades together" here at Passaic County Community College. It was a tough year. His father committed suicide that year, and his grandfather also died that year.
“It wasn’t one thing that made me realize that I had to get this straightened out, it was a multitude of things. So many things were happening at once, and I just realized I didn’t want to be a statistic, another guy from an inner-city who didn’t make it. I wanted to realize my dreams. To do that, I had to apply myself.”
He turned it around.
This season as a player he has been great. He's a media favorite in Super Bowl coverage. He is also a favorite of the the Latin media.
He has demonstrated his salsa dancing on TV and turned down an offer to be on "Dancing With The Stars" to stay focused on football.
“I see what could happen for me and I’m going to capitalize on it when the time is right. Like I said, I have that pride in my culture and I want to show people that.”
We wish Victor and Giants good luck this weekend. And Victor, if you need any help writing a press release, drop by the Writing Center in Paterson...
January 13, 2012
Paterson Literary Review Award for Lifetime Service to Literature
The Poetry Center at PCCC has announced that Grace Cavalieri, Stanley Barkan, Jim Haba and Vivian Shipley are the recipients of the 2011 Paterson Literary Review Award for Lifetime Service to Literature.
“Each of the winners has dedicated many years to serving the needs of writers and to bringing other writers to national and international attention. In doing so, each has contributed greatly to literature and enriched the lives of readers everywhere,” said Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Executive Director of the Poetry Center.
For bios and more info go to www.pccc.edu/poetry.
“Each of the winners has dedicated many years to serving the needs of writers and to bringing other writers to national and international attention. In doing so, each has contributed greatly to literature and enriched the lives of readers everywhere,” said Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Executive Director of the Poetry Center.
For bios and more info go to www.pccc.edu/poetry.
December 15, 2011
Closing Out 2011 and Into the New Year
Passaic County Community College will be closed for Winter Break from December 23 through January 2nd.
Classes for the spring semester begin on Wednesday, January 18 and the Writing Center will reopen on Monday, January 23rd.
The Writing Initiative team wishes all of you a happy holiday break and a healthy new year!
November 2, 2011
NEA Grant for PCCC Poetry Center
The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College (PCCC) has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
With this funding, the Poetry Center will provide free poetry workshops to seniors in Passaic County and publish an anthology of their work.
The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College is one of 1,145 not-for-profit national, regional, state, and local organizations recommended for a grant as part of the federal agency’s second round of fiscal year 2011 grants. In total, the NEA will distribute more than $88 million to support projects nationwide.
Since the Poetry Center was founded in 1980 by Executive Director Maria Mazziotti Gillan, it has organized quality programs that have brought it to national attention, such as the Paterson Literary Review, four poetry contests, and a cable TV show. The Poetry Center reaches more than one million people annually, and is unique not only because of the number and variety of services it offers, but because of its connection with an urban, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic community.
The Poetry Center was named a Distinguished Arts Project and awarded several Citations of Excellence, and is funded, in part, by a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
With this funding, the Poetry Center will provide free poetry workshops to seniors in Passaic County and publish an anthology of their work.
The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College is one of 1,145 not-for-profit national, regional, state, and local organizations recommended for a grant as part of the federal agency’s second round of fiscal year 2011 grants. In total, the NEA will distribute more than $88 million to support projects nationwide.
 |
| Stanley Kunitz, then Poet Laureate of the United States and Maria Mazziotti Gillan, talk with a reading attendee |
The Poetry Center was named a Distinguished Arts Project and awarded several Citations of Excellence, and is funded, in part, by a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
September 21, 2011
Critical Thinking and Writing in Science and Math
It was just announced this week that Passaic County Community College has won a $4.1 million federal grant to improve college students' success in science and math and get high school students engaged in those fields. The funds come from the U.S. Education Department's Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program. (More than half of PCCC's students are Hispanic.) The Education Department has sought to boost training in what are known as the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) in order to help American students compete in an increasingly high-tech, global marketplace.
In our writing initiative, we have now redesigned six courses in science and math as writing-intensive. Those courses are: College Math, Statistics, Environmental Science, Biology I, Biology II and Microbiology.
Part of our approach to WI course redesign is to include the explicit use of critical thinking (CT) assignments and techniques in the writing activities.
Scientific critical thinking is different than the CT found in a literature class. Though certain standards, such as open mindedness, relevancy and accuracy, certainly go across disciplines, a familiarity with the nature of science, the experimental method and the knowledge base of a particular science changes most teachers approach to CT.
Critical thinking skills that are often noted as essential in STEM areas include:
We can look at retrodiction as an example of a skill that is probably unfamiliar to many people. Retrodiction is the act of making a "prediction" about the past. That's an idea that is hard for students to grasp at first. You would speculate about uncertain events in the more distant past so that you can "predict" a known event in the less distant past. If greenhouse gases had been capped at a certain level in 1950, what effect would it have on the current readings? If a murder victim's body had been refrigerated for a month before it was discovered, how would it affect an autopsy findings? It is used in archaeology, climatology, evolutionary biology, financial analysis, forensic science, and cosmology.
Hands-on, project-based math and science curriculum activities are often the nest places for students to think critically about the use of math and science in solving problems. In the taxonomy of higher level thinking skills, this deepens their knowledge of the basics.
This approach is used in many K-12 curriculum too. WGBH offers teachers a number of classroom resources at http://www.teachersdomain.org.
The problem based learning approach (PBL) can be seen in "PBL in Action" activities such as The Wing Strength Design Project and Geometry in the Real World: Students as Architects offered by sites such as http://www.edutopia.org and http://www.21stcenturyskills.org.
Further Reading
Developing Reflective Judgment (Jossey-Bass Education Series)
Critical thinking skills that are often noted as essential in STEM areas include:
- Distinguishing correlation from cause and effect
- Distinguishing analysis from description
- Understanding reductionism and knowing when to use it.
- Recognizing important variables in complex phenomena
- Isolating and testing variables
- Knowing the value of prediction (versus retrodiction)
- Distinguishing scientific evidence, reasoning and rationalizing
- Exercising sound reasoning in understanding
- Making complex choices
- Understanding the interconnections among systems
- Framing, analyzing and solving problems
We can look at retrodiction as an example of a skill that is probably unfamiliar to many people. Retrodiction is the act of making a "prediction" about the past. That's an idea that is hard for students to grasp at first. You would speculate about uncertain events in the more distant past so that you can "predict" a known event in the less distant past. If greenhouse gases had been capped at a certain level in 1950, what effect would it have on the current readings? If a murder victim's body had been refrigerated for a month before it was discovered, how would it affect an autopsy findings? It is used in archaeology, climatology, evolutionary biology, financial analysis, forensic science, and cosmology.
Hands-on, project-based math and science curriculum activities are often the nest places for students to think critically about the use of math and science in solving problems. In the taxonomy of higher level thinking skills, this deepens their knowledge of the basics.
This approach is used in many K-12 curriculum too. WGBH offers teachers a number of classroom resources at http://www.teachersdomain.org.
The problem based learning approach (PBL) can be seen in "PBL in Action" activities such as The Wing Strength Design Project and Geometry in the Real World: Students as Architects offered by sites such as http://www.edutopia.org and http://www.21stcenturyskills.org.
Further Reading
Developing Reflective Judgment (Jossey-Bass Education Series)
August 31, 2011
Achieving the Dream at PCCC
Today was scheduled to be the college convocation, but Hurricane Irene and a record flood stage on the Passaic River and the Great Falls here in Paterson has cancelled that.
One of the main topics for convocation was to be discussion on our participation in Achieving the Dream. Achieving the Dream is a national nonprofit dedicated to helping more community college students succeed, particularly students of color and low-income students.
Achieving the Dream advances community college student success through work on four fronts:
- Transforming community colleges
- Influencing policy
- Developing new knowledge
- Engaging the public
Passaic County Community
College (PCCC) opened in 1971 with a few hundred students. Today, PCCC
enrolls more than 8,000 students a year in over 60 associate degree,
certificate, and diploma programs. The college is also home to an
extensive program of ESL, continuing education, and customized training.
The college operates four campus locations including the main campus in
Paterson, academic centers in Passaic and Wanaque, and a public safety
academy in Wayne, New Jersey.
PCCC is federally-defined as
a Hispanic-Serving Institution, one of approximately 230 such colleges
and universities nationwide, and is among the most diverse colleges in
the state and the nation. The Writing Initiative grant which we work on here is a Title V federal grant for Hispanic-Serving Institutions.
The most recent graduating class of PCCC
included students from 54 different nations. Serving a largely at-risk,
disadvantaged student population, PCCC has students attending the
college at varying levels of academic, social, and financial need. The
total student enrollment for Fall 2009 was comprised of 48% Hispanic and
Latino students and 17% were African American students.
Improving student success is
a goal of the college’s Strategic Plan, which is linked to PCCC's seven institutional goals. Passaic County
also envisions the improvement of teaching and learning for diverse
students, and the re-engineering of tutorial laboratory services for ESL
and developmental students.
With the help and guidance of Achieving the Dream, the college seeks to:
- Provide a learner-centered environment focused on student success
- Make higher education accessible to the community they serve
- Develop interventions targeting specific groups of at-risk students
Within the past seven years,
PCCC has undertaken a comprehensive effort to improve student writing
skills. In 2004, the college gathered data that indicated that poor
student writing was prevalent throughout the institution and was
therefore eroding the quality of academic programs. The college has
since been able to establish a College Writing Center on its main
campus, therefore providing students enrolled in writing intensive
courses with access to writing support from trained tutors. PCCC leaders
hope that Achieving the Dream will assist them in reallocating
resources for their initiatives as well as help them to expand more
promising programs and services.
August 25, 2011
PCCC Poetry Center Receives NEA Grant
The Poetry Center will use the funding to provide free poetry workshops to seniors in Passaic County and publish an anthology of their work.
The Poetry Center was founded in 1980 by Executive Director Maria Mazziotti Gillan. For over 30 years, it has organized quality programs that have brought it to national attention, such as the Paterson Literary Review, four poetry contests, and a cable TV show.
The Center reaches more than one million people annually, and is unique not only because of the number and variety of services it offers, but because of its connection with an urban, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic community. It brings national attention to our college.
The Poetry Center at PCCC is one of 1,145 not-for-profit national, regional, state, and local organizations recommended for a grant as part of the federal agency's second round of fiscal year 2011 grants. In total, the NEA will distribute more than $88 million to support projects nationwide.
 |
| Maria Gillan with then U.S.Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz at a Poetry Center reading in 2001. |
August 4, 2011
Shakespeare in the State Park
The public is invited to the annual performance of
Shakespeare in the State Park. This year's production will be The
Tempest, presented by the Hudson
Shakespeare Company, a nonprofit theater troupe that "utilizes
the best young and experienced actors, directors and crew from around
the tri-state area." The production will be presented in front
of an 18th Century building within the Long Pond Ironworks Historic
District. For more information on this and other events there see http://longpondironworks.org
Shakespeare in the State Park is free and open to the public; the performance will begin at 5:00 p.m. Attendees are asked to bring lawn chairs and bug spray. The performance is ADA accessible. The Friends of Long Pond Ironworks will be offering cold water. Rain date is August 7.
This project is funded, in part, by the Passaic County Cultural and Heritage Council at Passaic County Community College, made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Shakespeare in the State Park is free and open to the public; the performance will begin at 5:00 p.m. Attendees are asked to bring lawn chairs and bug spray. The performance is ADA accessible. The Friends of Long Pond Ironworks will be offering cold water. Rain date is August 7.
This project is funded, in part, by the Passaic County Cultural and Heritage Council at Passaic County Community College, made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
May 19, 2011
Graduation Day
PASSAIC COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
39TH COMMENCEMENT CEREMONIES
THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2011 6:00 PM
PATERSON CAMPUS
Nearly 600 graduates will receive their degrees and certificates tonight at PCCC's 39th commencement ceremonies tonight.
Keynote Speaker: The Honorable Miguel de la Carrera,
Superior Court Judge, State of New Jersey.
Valedictorian: Linda Finnan,
Associate in Arts in Liberal Arts Degree
The commencement ceremony will take place in the gym, with the College Faculty, Administrators, and Staff in attendance, as well as friends and family of the candidates for graduation.
Superior Court Judge, State of New Jersey.
Valedictorian: Linda Finnan,
Associate in Arts in Liberal Arts Degree
The commencement ceremony will take place in the gym, with the College Faculty, Administrators, and Staff in attendance, as well as friends and family of the candidates for graduation.
April 25, 2011
PCCC Faculty-Staff Poetry Reading
 |
| Maria Mazziotti Gillan |
On April 19, 2011, PCCC held the the third annual PCCC Faculty-Staff Poetry Reading, sponsored by the Writing Initiative. The reading, part of the College's celebration of National Poetry Month (April), was held in the Founders Hall Theater.
 |
| Ken Ronkowitz |
The featured reading was followed by an open reading. PCCC faculty,
staff, and students were invited to read original poems of their
own.
The reading was open to students, faculty, and staff. Tomas Feliciano, PCCC student and winner of the WI Writing Contest, was among those who shared their work with the audience.
March 4, 2011
Maria Mazziotti Gillan Honored as a Writer For Writers
 |
| From left to right: Michael Morrison, benefit chair; John Grisham, honoree; Maria Mazziotti Gillan,honoree; Elizabeth Nunez, honoree; Elliot Figman, Poets & Writers’ executive director;Jonathan Galassi, honoree; and Paul Rudnick, master of ceremonies. Photo credit: Christopher Smith |
The recent Poets & Writers’ Annual Dinner, held Wednesday, March 2 at Capitale in New York City, raised more than $475,000 to support Poets & Writers' programs serving creative writers. The event was chaired by Michael Morrison, U.S. General Books and Canada, HarperCollins Publishers, and Paul Rudnick
served as master of ceremonies.Included in the 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Awards was Passaic County Community College's own Maria Mazziotti Gillan
. The Writers for Writers Award recognizes authors who have given generously to other writers or to the broader literary community.Maria Mazziotti Gillan, a Paterson native and award-winning poet, has been the executive director of the The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College since it was established in 1980.
Over the years, the Poetry Center has been accorded international recognition for many of its activities including the Distinguished Poets Series, the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards, the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Paterson Fiction Prize, and the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People. The annual Paterson Literary Review, the monthly New Jersey Poetry Calendar and the New Jersey Poetry Resource Book are also published by the Poetry Center.
For more than 30 years, Maria has powered the Center's mission to provide poetry events and workshops to a diverse audience and to provide opportunities for poets through offering contests, awards, a journal, anthologies, reference materials, and conferences.
Also receiving a Writers for Writers award at the event were John Grisham
, and Elizabeth Nunez. The Editor’s Award was presented to Jonathan Galassi in recognition of a book editor who has made an outstanding contribution to the publication of poetry or literary prose over a sustained period of time.
February 17, 2011
Accountability for Community Colleges
Passaic County Community College has been selected as one of 40 community colleges nationwide to pilot a new Voluntary Framework of Accountability (VFA) that is designed to redefine what “success” means for two-year institutions nationwide.
The Voluntary Framework of Accountability is an initiative by community colleges to develop more accurate ways to measure their performance. An accountability framework specifically for community colleges, it will measure institutional effectiveness based on the community college’s own unique student population and multiple services.
Unfortunately, community colleges have for years been held accountable to performance indicators designed for four-year institutions - indicators which are inadequate for understanding community college students.
The U.S. Department of Education defines a "successful" community college student as someone who enrolls as a full-time student and completes an Associate degree within three years. But, since many of our students are not full-time, and are parents and the major wage earner in a family, these life responsibilities ake the three year measure unrealistic.
The VFA represents the first national system to provide accurate data, operational transparency and the ability for colleges to benchmark student progress and completion data against peer institutions.
The VFA is being developed by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) in collaboration with the Association of Community College Trustees and the College Board and with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Lumina Foundation for Education.
The pilot colleges include 37 institutions, two statewide systems and one multi-college district in 29 states. Besides PCCC, New Jersey schools in the pilot are Burlington County College (Pemberton, NJ), Hudson County Community College (Jersey City, NJ), and Raritan Valley Community College (Somerville, NJ).
Pending outcomes of the pilot testing, reaction to the VFA among AACC member institutions and future funding, a full-scale roll-out to the nation’s nearly 1,200 community, junior and technical colleges could take place starting in 2012.
The Obama administration and others are focused on greater numbers of student completions and demonstrable measures for how we gauge student success.
More www.aacc.nche.edu/Resources/aaccprograms/vfa/
The Voluntary Framework of Accountability is an initiative by community colleges to develop more accurate ways to measure their performance. An accountability framework specifically for community colleges, it will measure institutional effectiveness based on the community college’s own unique student population and multiple services.
Unfortunately, community colleges have for years been held accountable to performance indicators designed for four-year institutions - indicators which are inadequate for understanding community college students.
The U.S. Department of Education defines a "successful" community college student as someone who enrolls as a full-time student and completes an Associate degree within three years. But, since many of our students are not full-time, and are parents and the major wage earner in a family, these life responsibilities ake the three year measure unrealistic.
The VFA represents the first national system to provide accurate data, operational transparency and the ability for colleges to benchmark student progress and completion data against peer institutions.
The pilot colleges include 37 institutions, two statewide systems and one multi-college district in 29 states. Besides PCCC, New Jersey schools in the pilot are Burlington County College (Pemberton, NJ), Hudson County Community College (Jersey City, NJ), and Raritan Valley Community College (Somerville, NJ).
Pending outcomes of the pilot testing, reaction to the VFA among AACC member institutions and future funding, a full-scale roll-out to the nation’s nearly 1,200 community, junior and technical colleges could take place starting in 2012.
The Obama administration and others are focused on greater numbers of student completions and demonstrable measures for how we gauge student success.
More www.aacc.nche.edu/Resources/aaccprograms/vfa/
December 22, 2010
PCCC Winter Break
Passaic County Community College will be on winter break from December 23 until January 2.
Offices will reopen on Monday, January 3rd.
Registration for the 15 week semester is on January 13 – 15 and 18.
Registration for the 12 week semester will be held February 7 & 8.
Classes will begin on Wednesday, January 19.
December 15, 2010
Silk City Accepting Submissions
 |
| Cover photo by Mark Hillringhouse |
Students, faculty and staff may submit poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction, and black and white photography.
Send all work as an email attachment to SilkCity@pccc.edu
Include your full name in the email. All work must be properly formatted.
Questions and inquiries may be addressed to the advisors Professor Mark Hillringhouse and Professor Mark Tambone.
October 13, 2010
Enrollment Up At PCCC and Most NJ Colleges
Enrollment continues to surge at NJ's public colleges and universities. Part of that is due to a population bulge and also a poor economy that has served as a catalyst for some people to return to school to improve their employment resume.
The community college growth has been fueled by several initiatives by the Obama administration. People looking to retrain for new careers in this tough economy has been a focus of those initiatives.
Students and their parents are also being much more cost-conscious and are opting for the much lower tuition rates during their first two years of college and then transferring to 4-year schools.
That is one reason why our Writing Initiative has concentrated on the redesign of General Education courses as writing intensive. Those GenEd courses are the ones that will transfer to NJ's 4-year schools.
Here at Passaic County Community College, enrollment has topped 10,000 as a 20-year growth trend continues. The number is 9% higher than last September, said President Steve Rose.
According to Randy Jenkins, Director of Online Learning, online enrollments are up 36% over the same time last fall.
PCCC converted a storage garage on the Paterson campus into six new classrooms and they were immediately filled with classes.
Our newest campus in Passaic which last year "is already at capacity," said President Rose.
In our neighboring county, Bergen County College opened its fall semester with more than 17,000 students as enrollment grew in both its distance-learning courses and its new campus. Enrollment at their new Meadowlands campus in Lyndhurst grew by more than 58% from 2009, and students enrolled in online courses increased 12 percent from last year.
At NJ's 4-year colleges,growth is also the trend. NJ's largest university, Rutgers, has three campuses with more than 56,000 students this year, up from 53,000. The state university plans to add 2,000 more dormitory beds at its main campus over the next two years.
There are about 230 more students this year at Montclair State University which has an enrollment of 18,402, making it the second-largest university in the state.
At William Paterson University in Wayne, enrollment is up 4.6 percent to 11,217.
The community college growth has been fueled by several initiatives by the Obama administration. People looking to retrain for new careers in this tough economy has been a focus of those initiatives.
Students and their parents are also being much more cost-conscious and are opting for the much lower tuition rates during their first two years of college and then transferring to 4-year schools.
That is one reason why our Writing Initiative has concentrated on the redesign of General Education courses as writing intensive. Those GenEd courses are the ones that will transfer to NJ's 4-year schools.
According to Randy Jenkins, Director of Online Learning, online enrollments are up 36% over the same time last fall.
PCCC converted a storage garage on the Paterson campus into six new classrooms and they were immediately filled with classes.
Our newest campus in Passaic which last year "is already at capacity," said President Rose.
In our neighboring county, Bergen County College opened its fall semester with more than 17,000 students as enrollment grew in both its distance-learning courses and its new campus. Enrollment at their new Meadowlands campus in Lyndhurst grew by more than 58% from 2009, and students enrolled in online courses increased 12 percent from last year.
At NJ's 4-year colleges,growth is also the trend. NJ's largest university, Rutgers, has three campuses with more than 56,000 students this year, up from 53,000. The state university plans to add 2,000 more dormitory beds at its main campus over the next two years.
There are about 230 more students this year at Montclair State University which has an enrollment of 18,402, making it the second-largest university in the state.
At William Paterson University in Wayne, enrollment is up 4.6 percent to 11,217.
August 16, 2010
The Bookstore Has Moved
The 3100 square-foot facility is about 20 per cent larger than the former location, and has more room for clothing, backpacks, electronics, printer ink cartridges, and other peripheral supplies. A larger stockroom will permit the bookstore to keep more books and other supplies in stock.
Back-to-School Hours (Starts Aug. 28)
Mon-Fri 9:00 am 7:30 pm
Sat. 9:00 am 12 noon
Visit the PCCC Bookstore Online
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