Podcast Episode 3: Accreditation Discussion in Advance of the Site Visit on September 19
Episode 3 of the Cypress College Campus Podcast is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
In this edition, Cypress College President Scott W. Thayer discusses the campus’ upcoming accreditation site visit with Jill Bauer and Bryan Ventura. Bauer and Ventura are leading the Cypress College reaffirmation of accreditation process. That process reaches a milestone this coming week with the site visit. Bauer is a faculty member in the ESL Department, the Academic Senate’s Charger Award recipient, and the faculty chair of the accreditation process. Ventura is the director of the Office of Institutional Research and Planning. In this role, he also serves as the Accreditation Liaison Officer.
Transcript
SCOTT THAYER: Hello, and welcome to the third episode of The Cypress College Campus Podcast. I’m Scott Thayer, the President of Cypress College and your host. This podcast shares the stories of our colleagues, students, alumni, and advocates. On today’s show, I interview accreditation faculty chair and ESL faculty, Jill Bauer, and Bryan Ventura, our Director of Institutional Research and Planning and our Accreditation Liaison officer. They are the leads for the accreditation process.
So welcome, Jill and Bryan, and thank you for joining us on the podcast. With our accreditation site visit next week, this seems like the perfect time to have you on the show. So I really appreciate your time.
So let’s start. Let’s start with you, Jill, and have you tell us a little bit about yourself.
JILL BAUER: Well, I came to Cypress College in 2016. I came by way of Washington state. I had lived there for 11 years. And I taught ESL at a community college there called North Seattle College. And in 2016, my husband and I relocated to southern California to get a little Vitamin D in our lives. And I started teaching at Irvine Valley College.
And that year, I was very fortunate. There were several full-time ESL positions that opened up in the area. And Cypress was the first to call me, and I’m very thankful for that. Because–
SCOTT THAYER: And we are too.
JILL BAUER: Yeah, I’ve been really happy here. So I started in 2016 as full-time faculty. And really focused the first half of the time I’ve been here on just teaching and the tenure process. But a few years ago, I really started getting involved with college leadership, starting with the Accreditation faculty chair position, and then most recently, the co-chair of the Instructional Program Review committee, as well.
SCOTT THAYER:No, that’s a great story. 2016, ended at Cypress. I got to California myself in 2017. So not being a native Californian — Yeah. Fellow Midwesterner, right?
JILL BAUER: That’s right. [LAUGHS]
SCOTT THAYER:So how was it? Was it a big shock when you came to California, southern California, Cypress College, specifically?
JILL BAUER: Yeah. So I grew up in the Midwest, and then we spent 11 years in Washington. And honestly, the first month that I was in southern California, I think I was on a high from the Vitamin D infusion. I would wake up every morning and just celebrate that the sun was shining again. Because that doesn’t happen in Seattle. So I’ve really grown to love it here. And it’s home now.
SCOTT THAYER: Coffee drinker?
JILL BAUER: Huge coffee drinker.
SCOTT THAYER: All right. Seattle can do that to you.
JILL BAUER: It did, it did. That’s how I survived. [LAUGHS]
SCOTT THAYER: All right. Well, great. Well, thank you, Jill. And what about you, Bryan? Let’s bring you into the conversation.
BRYAN VENTURA: All right. Well, I came to Cypress in 2021. I was previously at East Los Angeles College. And I happened to stumble on Cypress College, because I was in the area and I live close by. And I jokingly said, “Wow, there’s a college right here.” I knew of Cypress, but I’ve never been here.
BRYAN VENTURA: So I went home and I told my wife, I said, “Hey, there’s a college right down the street here, about six miles — one street, turn right, and it’s there.” And I said, “I’m going to apply and see if I can work there.” And it just so happened there was an opening. I applied, and was fortunate to get selected to be the director. And it’s great.
BRYAN VENTURA:Being close to home, being in the community that you live in has really changed my relationship with my job. Because before I worked an hour away. So coming to events or bringing my kids to work or sharing some of the college experiences was never happening until I came here.
BRYAN VENTURA:So people have probably seen my kids. They know them. They’ve given them so many treats and swag that I’ve taken home from welcome nights and carnivals. So thank you, everyone, for spoiling my kids. They love coming here.
SCOTT THAYER: No, that’s great. So you said where you worked. What about — did you grow up in southern California?
BRYAN VENTURA: I grew up in southern California, a small town called Moreno Valley. I was born on the Air Force base. Moved out to the Lakewood area, probably like, 2002. Been here ever since.
BRYAN VENTURA: Long Beach City College student, went to Riverside Community College, and before that, Moreno Valley College. So attended three community colleges. It took me quite a while to transfer. But I can empathize with the long transfer process.
SCOTT THAYER: No, that’s great. A lot of us have gone to community college. I know we’re giving all these accolades to our sister campuses, which is great. But we know being here and landing here together at Cypress has been, so far for me, a great experience. And really appreciate what you all are doing.
SCOTT THAYER: So really, let’s dive into the reason we’re recording this episode, and that is accreditation. So can you give us a quick accreditation 101, like, an overview for somebody who doesn’t even know what that means or what that is?
JILL BAUER: Yeah, I think Bryan and I can work together on that. So we like to say, accreditation is both a process and a status. So being accredited means that as a college, we can transfer our students to the UC system, to the CSU system, to other schools. Without accreditation, they would not recognize our students. So that’s extremely important, obviously.
JILL BAUER: Also it means that we can confer financial aid. So without accreditation status, we would not be able to do that. So that’s, right there, reason enough to go through the accreditation process. But I don’t know. Bryan, you want to say a little bit about the process part?
BRYAN VENTURA: Yeah. So every seven — I think it’s seven years; I think it’s going to switch to eight in the future — we have to produce what’s called the Institutional Self-Evaluation Report — we also call it the ISER because it’s such a long phrase — and really just review our achievements, our processes, in alignment with the standards.
BRYAN VENTURA: How well are we meeting these standards? Are we doing the things that we’re saying we do? And are we doing them well? So the team will come and visit. Or before they come and visit, they read our report. They are asking us different questions. They submitted what’s called the core inquiries, which are in-depth questions about areas that might have been a little fuzzy, or they’re not sure, or they want more information.
BRYAN VENTURA: So we submitted that to them. And then next week, they’re going to put boots on the ground and come talk to us a little bit more about those core inquiries, and I think more importantly, about some commendations. Because accreditation is not just to say what you’re doing wrong, but really highlight the work that we’re doing here.
BRYAN VENTURA: So they want to find out, you said all this amazing stuff in your ISER. Well, tell me what that looks like on a day-to-day? And we want to hear it directly from the people who are doing the work.
SCOTT THAYER: Right. So we have a peer review process. These are peers from California community colleges who are on this team. They’re going to visit us after they’ve read how we meet the standards of accreditation, which allows our degrees and certificates, our classes to be accepted around at other institutions. And it opens up federal financial aid for accredited colleges. So it’s an important process that every college has to go through.
SCOTT THAYER: And so I think that’s really important that we emphasize that, right? Accreditation isn’t every seven or eight years. We’re accredited every day. So it’s really a reminder to us that the work that we’re doing and how we’re doing it is so critically important. And that every seven or eight years, we have this group that comes around and says, we’re going to affirm what you’re doing.
SCOTT THAYER: Or they’re going to say, hey, help me better understand what’s going on at Cypress College. So it’s a really nice process that we have through — what’s our accreditation commission here in California?
BRYAN VENTURA: Oh, that one’s always a tough one.
JILL BAUER: The ACCJC — so the Accrediting Commission of Community Colleges and Junior Colleges? Community and Junior Colleges.
BRYAN VENTURA: Community and Junior Colleges, yes.
JILL BAUER: So that’s our ACCJC. We use acronyms a lot, but thank you — Yes, a lot.
SCOTT THAYER: — for spelling that out. And so, Jill, why did you decide to become so heavily involved in accreditation?
BRYAN VENTURA: Yes, do tell.
JILL BAUER: Yeah. Well, we have a tradition at Cypress College. We always have an accreditation faculty chair. Accreditation is part of our 10 plus one as faculty. And there’s always a faculty lead that works with the institutional researcher to do the ISER. And the tradition is that that changes hands for every accreditation cycle.
JILL BAUER:So when our last accreditation faculty chair, Liana Koeppel, finished the cycle, they sent out a email looking for the next faculty chair. And I promptly deleted it, because I did not think that I was ready for that, or see myself in that role. But Liana actually sought me out and said, “I think you’d be good at this. And this is something that the college needs.”
JILL BAUER: But what really sold me on it is when she said, “This is your opportunity to not only learn about the college, but to affect change.” And I think we often think of accreditation as a “have to.” And I mean, it is, honestly, something we have to do. And it can be laborious and tedious, but it’s also a “get to.”
JILL BAUER: We get to look at ourselves and see, like Bryan said, what are we doing well, and where do we have the opportunity to improve? And that excited me to be able to look at the college like that, and help to make it a better place. I think it’s already a great place, but there’s always room for improvement.
JILL BAUER: And it’s also something where I was really motivated just to get outside of the classroom — even though I love the classroom — and just meet the other people that make Cypress College a community. In the Humanities building, I could go in in the morning, teach my classes and go out, and never go outside.
JILL BAUER: And I wanted the opportunity to go in the other buildings and see who works there, and meet people from different offices. And accreditation has definitely been that.
SCOTT THAYER: No, that’s great. You get to meet them in person, but you also get to meet them through the ISER, right? You get to meet them through this document, the specific things that are happening. And I know you mentioned it is a labor of love, because it’s not an easy process.
SCOTT THAYER: Bryan, we talk about data all the time. How does that fit in to the ISER, the Institutional Self-Evaluation Report? I’m seeing if I’m saying that correctly. We always acronym it. But why is that important to have data? And why research in this process?
BRYAN VENTURA: Well, from my point of view, data is, and should be, in everything, and not just the numbers. There’s the narratives. There’s the narratives in program review that are critical to explaining what goes on. There’s also the numbers that reflect the summaries of what’s been going on.
BRYAN VENTURA: There’s also the voices of students who often loudly tell us what they need to be supported with, and how we can improve, and all the amazing things that we’re doing. We look at the pictures around this campus, that’s data. That’s data of success.
BRYAN VENTURA: And so in the ISER, it’s important that we — I don’t want to say prove, but just show the review team that yes, we have qualitative, quantitative, and experiential data to show that we’re serving our students, we’re meeting our mission, we’re reviewing our processes. They’re not perfect. But we’re going to work on those things.
BRYAN VENTURA: We have these documents that we’re trying to approve and codify the things that we do every day. And I think that’s an important part of, one, holding ourselves accountable, and then also holding each other accountable. So the data, whether it be qualitative or quantitative or even visual — because we have a lot of great visuals around our campus — are important to capture what’s really happening, both in terms of the summative level, the ground level, and the day-to-day.
SCOTT THAYER: Validation, right? So from that perspective, making sure it’s like, what we said we’re doing, we’re congruent. So the team gets a chance to one, read the report, then also come and see what actually is happening. I think that’s the exciting part, too. It’s an open house of sorts. We get to share.
SCOTT THAYER: Now a commendation, you mentioned that. Can you elaborate on that so folks can realize what is the accommodation piece? Because the accreditation, a lot of times, it can be a scary process if you’re not familiar with it. But there’s another component of it that allows the college to be recognized. So you want to speak to accommodation a little bit?
JILL BAUER: Yeah. So a commendation is when they are reviewing our report, they’re reviewing our evidence, and they’re seeing something that stands out to them, something that they actually want to look into further to see it as a best practice that they can share with other colleges.
JILL BAUER: And so they’re commending us for something that we’re doing above and beyond. And so they just want to recognize that, and not just give recommendations for improvement, but also recognize where we’re doing well.
SCOTT THAYER: Yeah, that’s the fun part, the show and tell and the celebration of the best practices. So what do people need to expect for our site visit next week? Can’t believe it’s a week from today. What should we expect?
BRYAN VENTURA: So I’ll start with saying, you don’t need to expect the same type of visit that we had a long time ago. The team is not here to catch us doing something wrong. They really want to just understand. They’re coming here with a posture to understand some of the the processes, the experiences that we have, and also, as Jill was talking about earlier, commending us on certain things.
BRYAN VENTURA:And so they’re coming in with that posture. So you’ll see them walking around. We’re going to go on a tour. We’re going to have a meet-and-greet, an open forum to which everyone’s invited. And then they’re going to interview some folks. And that’s really for them to get a sense of some in-depth conversation about particular things.
BRYAN VENTURA: And anyone who’s in those interviews, I think we need to feel confident in what we do. Just share what we do. We do amazing things every day. And they may not seem amazing because we’re doing it every day. But remember, this team doesn’t work here. They work at similar colleges. And they probably see amazing things, too.
BRYAN VENTURA: And so really, it’s just sharing that experience with them. We serve students. We take care of our colleagues. We interact and we have strong discussions about how do we get better. And I think if you share those things in an honest way, in a way that — lead with your heart. Then you’ll give them a sense of what we get to experience as as colleagues, as college employees, and as those who are here serving students.
SCOTT THAYER: Yeah, that’s great. Tell our story.
JILL BAUER: Yeah. And I just want to add, for those that have been through previous accreditation cycles, the tone has really changed. And Bryan mentioned this, but there aren’t any surprises anymore. They’ve told us in advance exactly who they want to meet with. And we’ve been able to notify those people and tell those folks, these are the topics that they want to address in the interview.
JILL BAUER: And there’s no surprise, like walking into your classroom or walking into your office and asking questions, like there may have been in the past. So people can just breathe a sigh of relief. It’s not going to be like that.
[LAUGHTER]
SCOTT THAYER: No, that’s good to know. I know it’s been transitioning over the years and this peer review process to allow us to share what we’re doing so our degrees, certificates will be recognized anywhere in this country, opening up access to federal financial aid. And then also sharing the excellence of the programs, the curriculum, and the experiences that our students have, which is unique to Cypress.
And so accreditation is that validation that allows us to do that. So I think those are really great points that you both mentioned. As we close out, I’m wondering what the motto “we take this journey together” means to you?
JILL BAUER: Do you want to start, Bryan?
BRYAN VENTURA: Yeah, I’ll speak from an accreditation standpoint. And I say “we take this journey together,” or I think about that in terms of having Jill as my partner on this, and then our standard leads, and my team in the IR office, our president’s staff, our dean colleagues, our faculty colleagues, there’s a lot of participation and insight that was put into this.
BRYAN VENTURA: And for the ISER, that was a big group project. And so we did take that journey together to build that. And there was a lot of time spent doing in-depth thought about, what does this process — does this work? Does it work the way we think? To more simple things, as, is this link going to work when we send it to the ACCJC? So everything in between.
BRYAN VENTURA: That was a long journey. It feels like we have this document that reflects who we are. And we may have had six core inquiries. And I know there was a little bit of a shock when we first heard it.
SCOTT THAYER: Yeah.
BRYAN VENTURA: But I’ll never forget what one of our board members said. They said this is one of the best ISERs they’ve ever read. And I think that reflects the work of everyone who participated in this process and supported this process, from the ones who led it before to the ones who are leading it now and participated. So for me, it’s like, that’s the journey that we took together, the “we.”
JILL BAUER: Yeah. That’s really interesting. Because I think when I think about the motto from the perspective of accreditation, I have a similar take-away. I love this motto because it points to such a perfect metaphor for the college experience. And I think when I think of it from the classroom perspective, I always focus in on the word “journey” for the student perspective, and the journey that they’re on.
JILL BAUER: But when I think about it from the perspective of accreditation, I really do hone in on the word “together.” And like Bryan said, there are 128 standards. It’s extremely comprehensive. And it focuses on the entire college, and the district, too. And so we really have to come together to accredit this college.
JILL BAUER: And Bryan and I could not have done it without the support that we received from the entire college. So it really was a really big group project.
[LAUGHTER]
SCOTT THAYER: A collective process. Yeah.
SCOTT THAYER: Well, that’s great. Well, thank you. Thank you both for joining us today. And thank you in advance for a successful accreditation site visit.
SCOTT THAYER: My thanks to today’s guests, Jill Bauer and Bryan Ventura. That will do it for episode number three of The Cypress College Campus Podcast. We will be back again next month. Thanks for joining us.