July/August 2007

Current Issue

Past Issues

General Assembly Focuses on Student Engagement

Mark your calendars for ACC’s Fall General Assembly, which will be held on August 24th at the Hyatt Regency at 208 Barton Springs. Morning events will include an Administrative Update from Dr. Steve Kinslow, presentation of service awards, and remarks from keynote speaker Dr. Kay McClenny, Director of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE).  CCSSE’s survey instrument, The Community College Student Report, provides information on student engagement, a key indicator of learning.

As always, afternoon professional development sessions will be offered at Highland Business Center and at various campuses.  More information will be sent via email as details of the event develop.

ACCent on Servant-Leadership

Servant-leadership is more than a concept, it is a fact. Any great leader, by which I also mean an ethical leader of any group, will see herself or himself as a servant of that group and will act accordingly." ~ M. Scott Peck

In the fall of 2005, ACC President Dr. Steve Kinslow kicked off a college-wide Servant-Leadership initiative. Since that time, a series of Servant-Leadership workshops has been presented for ACC faculty and staff, a Servant-Leadership website has been developed at http://www.austincc.edu/servant/whatis.html, and attractive sepia-toned Servant-Leadership posters are displayed at all of the ACC campuses. Also, Servant-Leadership is now a part of the employee characteristics evaluated in the Performance Evaluation Program (PEP) and Upward Evaluation. To further expand this initiative at ACC, Infostream is introducing a regular section for each issue: ACCent on Servant-Leadership. In ACCent on Servant-Leadership, we will provide you with new resources, links, and insights into this enduring philosophy.

If you feel you don’t yet have a good grasp of the meaning of Servant-Leadership, the site noted above has a straight-forward and simple definition of the management philosophy.

Currently eight Servant-Leadership workshops are offered at various times during the year. The ones being offered this summer are listed in purple.

• Addressing Workplace Issues Using the Servant-Leadership Management Philosophy (Next offered July 20th)
• Conflict Management: A Servant-Leadership Approach
• Effective Listening: A Servant-Leadership Approach
• NEW! Emotional Intelligence, Servant-Leadership and You (Next offered July 24th)
• Employee Coaching: A Servant-Leadership Approach
• Servant-Leadership at ACC: A Staff Perspective (Next offered July 17th)
• Servant-Leadership Principles for Faculty (Next offered July 13th)
• Supervisor Series: Servant-Leadership at ACC
• NEW! Supervisor Series: Using Servant-Leadership in Feedback and Evaluation (Next offered August 24th)

More workshops will be developed over the next several months; we will alert you to these offerings as they become available.

In addition to our usual offerings, the list below previews workshops being offered through August. Go to the Workshop and Event Registration Database to view or register for any of these professional development opportunities.

Crisis Management Campus Forum 7/10/2007, 9:00am-10:00am, SAC 1130 7/17/2007, 9:00am-10:00am, CYP 2230 7/24/2007, 9:00am-10:00am, PIN 1013/1015 7/31/2007, 9:00am-10:00am, NRG 4136 8/7/2007, 9:00am-10:00am, RVS 8100 8/14/2007, 9:00am-10:00am, RGC 220 8/21/2007, 9:00am-10:00am, SVC 133 Photoshop Elements 7/20/2007, 1:30pm-3:30pm, RGC 229 Six Simple Steps to Fitness Success 7/25/2007, 11:00am-12:30pm, HBC 411 First Aid/CPR 7/26/2007, 8:00 am-4:00 pm, EVC 9313 Cultural Diversity 7/31/2007, 9:00am-10:30am, HBC 214 PowerPoint 1 8/9/2007, 2:00pm-4:00pm, HBC 301.8 PowerPoint 2 8/10/2007, 2:00pm-4:00pm, HBC 301.8

Want Online Training in

ACC now has a Web Development website that offers all kinds of resources and training about developing a website. Subjects include:

In addition, there are tutorials on Macromedia Dreamweaver and Contribute, HTML, Cascading Style Sheets and more. Check it out at http://irt.austincc.edu/webdev/.

Evaluations for Summer Classes

If faculty members would like to have their Summer class evaluated or if a Department Chair would like to request that a class be evaluated, we must receive the request no later than July 16. Any requests made after that date must come directly from the Department Chair; however, timeline and schedule constraints may prevent our fulfilling very late requests.

To request a Summer evaluation, click here:  http://www.austincc.edu/hr/eval/requests/evalrequestform.php

Summer Professional Development Day a Crowd Pleaser

Adventurer and Mt. Everest Summiter Gary Guller opened the day-long event on June 8 to a very enthusiastic group of ACC employees. If you weren’t able to attend, but have heard about his inspirational address, go to www.garyguller.com and view some of the news clips available there to get a sense of his message Make Others Great and Success is Guaranteed. Executive coach and author Terah Stearns, who presented the luncheon keynote What’s YOUR Dash?, encouraged attendees to examine their own idea of success and invited them to shift their perceptions to move toward that success.

Living and Working Well, the theme for this year’s event, was very well received by those attending. Employees reported feeling inspired and energized by topics such as Beat Stress to Win at Life, Six Simple Steps to Fitness Success, Healthy Eating for Busy People, and Social and Emotional Intelligence – it’s good for you!  

Periodic Explorations into Andragogy for ACC Faculty

By P J Caporusso, Professional Development & Evaluation Programs
Questions and comments are welcome and may be directed to pjcapor@austincc.edu.

Are Liberal Professors Imposing Their Opinions?

Are you a biased instructor?  More to the point, are you a liberal imposing your opinions on your students, and penalizing them if they don’t agree with you?

On a visit home last year, one of my older brothers was voicing his complaint about what liberals were doing to abuse young minds in higher education. His reference was the conservative opinion media which he favors as news sources.  But you don’t have to go to the popular media for input on this.  Check out The Chronicle of Higher Education for some perspective:
Patrolling Professors' Politics, In Defense of Intellectual Diversity, Intellectual Diversity: the Trojan Horse of a Dark Design. The issue has even resulted in a legislative effort in at least one state; see The Arizona Republic's article, Conservatives Push to Counter Liberal Professors.

Opinion happens! 

It might be a good time to mentally review the issue of balance in your presentations. Check the website A Berkeley Compendium: Suggestions for Teaching with Excellence for some andragological approaches to differing viewpoints. 

I’ll tell my brother I’m working on it.