Social/Cultural | Educational/Learning | Legal/Regulatory | Political Climate | Technology | Economic
Education Industry | Environment/Natural World | Demographic | Other | Summary 

Approximately 70 college staff members participated in a day-long session to identify and explore important strategic issues that will be facing Rogue Community College over the next 5-10 years.

Participants began the day in table groups of 6-7 participants. They were asked to identify trends and issues in RCC’s external environment that had some kind of impact on the college. Categories were provided as "conversation starters." All of the trends and issues identified by participants are listed by category below:

• Local tendency to undervalue education
• ADA-have to accommodate
• Quality vs. quantity in education
• Concern of multiple cultures within the RCC community i.e.various campuses.
• Southern Oregon not as anti-diversity as some areas
• Increasingly diverse population.
• Students demanding more without adequate information
• No concern for neighbors or social community
• High incarceration, correction system doesn’t correct
• More students of diverse backgrounds
• Get rich vs. traditional education
• Increasing rudeness and lack of respect
• Safety issues in offices and classrooms
• More students working and raising families
• Model in classrooms what we are lecturing on
• Institutional responsibility vs. students responsibility
• How to reduce/eliminate poverty?
• Too few women in technology.
• Lack of respect for teachers
• Students lack of personal responsibilities
• More women working
• Lack of social concern about community and others
• Less acceptance of authority
• Willingness to use violence
• More emotionally, psychologically unstable students
• Single parent families
• Teams, networks, sharing, vs. Jo/County/So. Oregon basic survival, individualism
• Students as consumers "I want my money back"
• 80% of women in workplace
• Grandparents raising grandchildren changing family dynamics.

Top of page

• "Family" education together (parent/child)
• Older population affects curriculum
• Home Schooling
  1. How do they fit in?
  2. Preparation issues
• Increase in students with low skills levels, LD’s method of instruction needs to fit students’ learning styles.
• People read on computers, not books
• Library resources increasingly web based
• Need for more non-academic training
• Correlation between workplace and learning needs to be increased
• More hands on learning-experiential learner controlled learning
• Courses taught where, when and how students learn
• Trend away from individualized instruction
• Learning styles, more options, more labs
• Increased knowledge of learning styles
• Contextually/life-skills-based learning/teaching
• Shift to general studies from specific
• Life-long learning-not just one degree
• Volume of information vs. ability to learn, interest in, stress of
• Research and learning moving fast, we’re not keeping up.
• Need for expanded developmental education to bridge the thinking gap-S.S., Science and Humanities.
• Break down of AAOT at State level
• Real time access to information
• Changes in technology-Change curriculum and its delivery
• Integrity of grades in Distance Education
• Distance Learning has its limitations
• Lack of: State level coordination of Distance Education services.
• Distance Education delivery not match learning styles of students.

Top of page

• Impact of challenges and costs per ADA students specially mental health issues, invisible disabilities
  
• FERPA
  
• Student Right to know:
  1. Completion rates
  2. "Cooking the Books"
• Tracking
• ADA support services, demands, rights
• Concerns, regulations could turn ESL students away
• CIPRIS-fee collection for INS
• Financial Aid strictly controlled by INS, Selective Service; other areas by ADA
• Workforce Investment Act will require more measurable/tracking
• MSDS
• OSHA
• Barrier of past criminal record
• Policy makers far removed from understanding issues /impacts living with
• State Mandates for education
• Confidentiality rules
• Conflicting Laws and Regulations
• Students don’t always feel rules apply to them-they are different
• Intellectual property rights
• Changing rules require staff training
• Ethics vs. information overload
• Meet needs, demands of state regulators per staff and programs
• Low flush toilet impacts each and every one
• Growing number of student grievances (I’ll sue you!)
• Students quicker to demand "rights"
• College liablel for students’ learning (can be sued if give a degree to someone without skills)
• OAR financial Reporting Bus. Services
• Labor contracts
• Restructure to meet legal and contractual regulations (fac. not eval. fac)
• Increased need for awareness about harassment issues
• Environmental laws impact what we teach and how e.g. auto emissions
• Safety ergonomics in the workplace
• Campus security
• Speed zone: downtown Medford poses a threat to students and RCC staff

Top of page

• Regional Cooperation
• Less governmental resources for social tasks
• Fewer social services for support in region
• More collaboration w/other agencies, which affect our programs
• Decreased support for school systems (public & legislature)
• Dollars drive what we offer-changing tax structures
• More and more state decisions vs. local issues (initiatives, leg. etc.)
• Decisions driven by special interest groups
• Regulations on colleges-ADA, etc.
• Where will RCC administration be by 2010?
• Agency driven students. Mandated schooling. How to serve?
• Special interest groups: PACS, large dollar influencing social change
• Sizemore
• Rich vs. Poor perceptions in gov’t affect financial aid (Federal tax issue, tax credit)
• Tax reduction initiatives
• Lack of state support/awareness of community colleges
• Tax revolt/ backlash
• More funding from legislature rather than "begging"
• Need to secure/pass Bond issues
• Paranoia about mismanagement of public funds
• Vote by mail changing voter demographics
• Voter apathy
• It isn’t apathy:
  1. People distrust
  2. Too complex
  3. People care too much and refuse to participate
  4. Government isn’t working for many people
• Population more retired-tax levies may not pass
• Charter schools-criticism of public education
• Lack of faith in our legislative process
• Political correctness ? Public perception?

Top of page

• Technology-low touch-high stress
• Concern: Technology Touch
• Balance: High Tech with high touch.
  
• High technology should not eliminate live socializing for cyber, E-contacts
  
• How to provide student services to Distance Education population
  
• Technology reduces human interaction
  
• More distance communication –isolation?
  
• Isolation from one another thru technology
  
• Technology is easier and user friendly
  
• Teachers expected to know and use new technology in the classroom
  
• Adaptation of work/teaching style
  
• Will electronic research replace written/hard copy work?
  
• Instructors need training to keep up w/standards, lack time.
  
• Expectations that students know how to use technology-more pressure on instructors.
  
• Teach how to self-educate (gain reliable information with high validity)
  
• Increasing need for training for students and staff
  
• Technology has not decreased workload
  
• Increasing competition for tech skilled workers
  
• Have-have nots in tech access
  
• Technology is expensive and disposable
  
• Increased multi campus communication
  
• Tele/pagers interrupting instruction
• Industry making more requests for training service
  
• Global mobile connectivity will break down classroom walls
  
• Technology dependent
  
• Becoming paperless college-so high dependence on technology. E.g.. I love you virus
  
• Instability of technology
  
• Exposable ("I love you")
  
• Information overload. Sort out what’s relevant
  
• Require too much info. to access college resources, e.g.. web page
  
• Campus-wide computer/high tech equipment update policy (rather than each dept.)

Top of page

• Funding allocation
• Rapid growth—Limited Resources
• 3-yr. State funding cycle ignores RCC enrollment shifts
• Concern re: Lack of awareness of outside resources
• Enrollment rise due to income—RCC then university
• Changes in employment and industry base
• Different training needs as new businesses move in w/new demands
• Hesitation of counties to support education
• State funding fluctuations
• Sizemore
• Volatility of stock markets
• Credit oriented society
• More and more greed
• Global economy affecting local economy
• More and more e-commerce
• Booming economy has become our assumption
• Large transfer points=lower tax base
• Economic base out of balance, low starting pay
• Intellectually challenged. How do they fit into Economy/RCC?
• Widening gap in income levels, often linked to geographical locations
• Mandatory prison sentences ($ for prisons-not schools)
• How do we bring the rural poor into the high tech economy?
• Different needs of rural/urban students
• More low-income students
• RCC has a high tuition in a high poverty region
• Students working a lot of hours while going to school
• Shift from industry to service economy
• Different Economies between JO/JA Counties
• Growing polarization of wealth
• Stock market-tax credits disparity of dollars affects enrollment. Volatility of income
• Should mission drive economy or economy drive a mission?
• E. students driven to low wage jobs; concern re. hunger hurting student welfare
• Students need short-term training (so they can get to work)
• Workfare: everyone must have a job
• Large geographic are creates transportation issues
• Cost of education
  1. Tax limitations
  2. State reimbursement
• High cost of technolog

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• On-site training: Bring equipment and instructors to workplace
• Trend for business to develop their own educational programs
• Serving non-traditional students-class scheduling
• Private colleges in multiple markets (Industry Universities)
• Internet offered classes may take RCC students.
• Distance ed is globally competitive
• Industry in area requires more skills
• Students are increasingly being considered as customers
• Lack of choices for university degrees in the region
• Students shop for the best deals
• Industry is becoming a competitor for training (vocational)
• More for-profit schools
• Grade inflation
• Competing with "for profit" agencies/business
  1. Quick
  2. RCC’s position

• Adverse impact process favors proprietary schools
• More competition
  1. University of Phoenix
  2. Distance educational
  3. Virtual university
• Job relevancy of education
• Impact of CAM on RCC programs
• Current funding systems are divisive! Institutions compete rather than cooperate
• "Next great economic opportunity-education" (CEO—Cisco Systems)
• College selection via Priceline.com
• Market to non-readers, to those w/o tech. Access
• Meld for students success
  1. SOU-RCC
  2. SOU-OHSU
• Open market to existing workers-night classes
• Market segment: Market penetration

Top of page

• Sensitivity to ecology
• Dam breaching on the Snake River. How will it effect power generation?
• Come for quality of life-but quality drops w/population rise
• OCC Land base in Josephine and Jackson County=lower tax base
• Decrease in logging/mining
• Dislocated workers due to environmental impact (timber industry)
• Focus on both sustainability and development
• Outdoor recreation more important. Demand for access to areas
• Population density increases
• Urban growth boundaries
• Expectation of healthy (ergonomically correct) environment
• Pollution and air quality issues
• More stress from environment
  1. Healthy issues
  2. Safety issues
• RVC and its traffic adding to downtown "pollution" and space
• Air quality issues
• Limited water resource restricts growth
• Way of doing business changing (home business)
• Ramifications of genetic engineering
• Major changes in agri-business throughout region
• Financial impact of hazardous materials management
• Telecommuting
  1. Work globally

Top of page

• RCC reach out to poor and disenfranchised-show educational available and accessible
• Increasing number of ESL population
• Other cultures underrepresented in region
• Increase of Hispanic population
• More non-English speakers at RCC
• More folks seeking job retraining
• Immigration of urban middle class into rural working class area
• High school drop out rate-causes wide gap between educated and uneducated
• More high tech high-wage jobs are coming to area
• Population is increasingly mobile
• Large number of retirees
• Age spans in classes vs. presentations styles by staff
• Aging population
• More young people at community colleges
• More younger students; growing diversity of age
• Aging faculty and staff
• Growing retirement population
• Aging population living longer
• Sheer numbers of people
• Child care issues "growing"
• Large growth expected in the valley

• Inevitable growth and change
• Regionalizing programs and courses-county system
• Unknown future
• High cost of maintaining two-county college
• Customer Service issues due to increase in students
• Under-developed service to Jackson County.
• Integrity in the use of RCC resources
• Jackson-Josephine county travel/service delivery
• Importance of communications for sense of community
• Major differences between counties, and within Jackson County
• Student Governments antiquated structurally, prevents non-traditional participation.
• Credit requirements hurt
• Increased responsibility due to expansion-logistics of multiple campuses
• Infrastructure Issues
• Transportation limitations-Public
• Avoid duplication classes, RCC/SOU (RVC) services
• Shift in top-down to collaborative management—major change for RCC
• Cost to staff and students of various sites (travel dollars)
• People need full-time employment at RCC
• Management structure
• Managing extremely rapid growth.
• Complications of two counties
• Coordinating multiple campuses

Top of page

• Diversity
• Family/Gender
• Safety
• Individual respect, values
• Delivery of Education

Artwork by Anna Mantay

• Sizemore
• Voter approval
• Legislative
• Tax Structure
• Apathy, RCC, Students, Agency collaboration
• Public support

• Customers: Who, when, for how much $, why, where
• Market high competition vs. private web
• Speed of service
• Quality of product
• Product development
• Access-RCC
• Education/industry competitive

• Economic and cultural impact on our community due to population growth and environmental change
• Shift from logging to service industry
• Health issues (quality of life)
• Environmental
  1. Individual
  2. Community
  3. The land
• Shifts in educational programs due to the above
• Designing programs that include awareness of environmental issues
• Designing learning environment to reflect health, safety and environmental issues
• Environmental/natural world.

• Learning styles
• Distance Learning
• Demographics issues
• AA breakdown
• Volume of information affects ability to learn
• Life long learning and personal enrichment
• Admissions:
  1. Preparation of students
  2. Skills vs. grades
• Broader RCC mission: DE, AAOT, Life-long Learning Prof/Tech …

• Growth in all demographic areas. (Age, cultural, re-training needs)
• More diversity in training/education
• RCC needs more outreach-to respond to rapidly changing demographics.
• More younger-out of high school students
• More input from various community partners

• Challenge to RCC is to respond to increasingly diverse populace.
• Know who we are serving, and make the change to serve them
• More high-tech jobs, high wage jobs in the valley

• Impact on Human interaction
• Dependency on technology
  1. Vulnerability
  2. Security
  3. Instability
• Ramifications of quantity and quality of information
• Constant need to train/update
• Changing nature of workplace
• Financial impact to keep up with technology
• College policy and procedures on use of technology

Our Challenge Is to
Define Impacts and Create Processes to deal with impacts

• Impact of External Regulations: FERPA, OAR-CIPRIS-ADA-INS-Selective Service
• Impact of Internal Regulations: WIA accountability-Student rights and r/grievances
• Safety and Security: OSHA-MSDS
• Staff Training on legal and regulatory issues
• Ethics and free speech
• Labor contracts

• All economic issues are inter-related
• Resources are inadequate or at best uncertain to meet growth needs
• Increased costs for providing services negatively impacting low-income students
• Not adequately serving low-income students
• Changing economic demands require flexibility
• Changes in the workforce require alternative solutions.

• Unknown Future--inevitable growth
• Regional Community College
• Student Issues
• Staffing
• Dollars
• Resources
• Travel
• Customer service
• Change, change, change

• Rapid growth/limited resources. Regionalizing programs and services; complications of two counties. Need to secure bond money; decreased school support
• Student lack of personal responsibility, rights, responsibilities, accountability
• Changes in technology leading to changes in curriculum, service, delivery. Need for training to keep up. Balancing high tech-high touch.
• Population growth in region, density. Diversity in population: ESL, Hispanic, Aging population.
• Reach out to disenfranchised; polarization of wealth, technology haves/have nots
• Distance education-global competition
• ADA/other regulations impacts. More stress from environmental-health and safety
• Short-term training, retaining needed for work. Changes in employment/industry base, industry requests for training
• Learning styles/more options/learner control. Hands on, experiential learning Lifelong learning, not one degree
• Shift from top down/individualized to collaborative/leveraged approaches to running organizations and providing services.

Rapid growth/limited resources. Regionalizing programs and services; complications of two counties. Need to secure bond money; decreased school support

Student lack of personal responsibility, rights, responsibilities, accountability

  Issue 3

Changes in technology leading to changes in curriculum, service, delivery. Need for training to keep up. Balancing high tech-high touch.

Population growth in region, density. Diversity in population: ESL, Hispanic, Aging population.

Population growth in region, density. Diversity in population: ESL, Hispanic, Aging population.

Population growth in region, density. Diversity in population: ESL, Hispanic, Aging population.

Population growth in region, density. Diversity in population: ESL, Hispanic, Aging population.

  Issue 5

Reach out to disenfranchised; polarization of wealth, technology haves/have nots

Distance Education. Global Competition

ADA/other regulations impacts. More stress from environmental-health and safety

ADA/other regulations impacts. More stress from environmental-health and safety

ADA/other regulations impacts. More stress from environmental-health and safety

ADA/other regulations impacts. More stress from environmental-health and safety

Short-term training, retaining needed for work. Changes in employment/industry base, industry requests for training

Learning styles/more options/learner control. Hands on, experiential learning.  
Lifelong learning, not one degree

Issue 10

Shift from top down/individualized to collaborative/leveraged approaches to running organizations and providing services.

Issue Statements

Finally, groups were asked to write issue statements for the top 10 issues. They were asked to describe the external issue and the appropriate role for RCC in addressing the issue. In some cases, more than one group addressed a particular issue. The issue statements are listed below:

How does RCC maintain one mission and work collegially toward regionalization with limited dollars?

• Redirect $$ to identified priorities so staff and dollars can take advantage of opportunity.
• Identify further efficiencies.
• Be equitable in distribution of scarce resources to all areas of the college.
• Seek alternative dollar resources.
• Lobby legislature for support and money.

Today’s students come to RCC with a set of values and behaviors that often differ from the current expectations of the college’s faculty and staff.

• RCC must communicate to students clear expectations for their behavior while enrolled in our institution.
• RCC faculty and staff, in turn, must understand the changing rights and legal protections of our students.
• It is a mutual responsibility of both RCC staff and students to create a learning environment based on respect, and free of threats, coercion, fear, and violence.

With changes in student demographics and addition of new campus(es). RCC needs a system to respond to accountability issues with students.

• Follow the system consistently for each incident type.
• Set clear expectations and equally clear consequences.
• Train staff so they understand the system and can be consistent.
• Train staff in legal rights, responsibilities, and limits.
• Employ peer judgment system to enforce student accountability.
• Instill a sense of student self–direction and self–responsibility
• Create an environment for interdependence.
• Foster student critical thinking and independence.

Ever–changing and expanding technology creates a need to evolve instructional models and service delivery in order to remain a competitive and viable learning environment.

To that end, RCC must place value on on–going training to accommodate appropriate technology while continuing to create and support an environment of individual support.

External Issue:

Rapidly changing technology creates challenging issues of application, adoption, and change in education.

• RCC must make decisions about the adoption and equitable distribution of new technologies that are efficient and effective for our community.
• RCC should balance human needs with the imperatives of technology.

Southern Oregon will see an Increase in an inclusive diverse population over the next decade.

RCC will develop a "diversity" plan that takes into consideration the potentially diverse population the college will serve in the future.

Growing diversity of the population throughout the region served by RCC including age, ethnicity.

RCC will provide services, programs and instruction to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population.

A significant percentage of the population within the region has become disenfranchised. "Can’t get in the game."

RCC will provide tools and resources to allow for increased access to skills and knowledge needed to reach their goals and realize their potential. (We are going to help them!) Because we care!

RCC’s district has a lot of poor people facing a number of issues, such as unemployment, underemployment, low education levels, lack of transportation, etc.

• Extend/expand services to low–income residents of Jxn/Jo counties;
• Educate our students about poverty issues;
• Educate our students about existing community resources;
• Identify barriers to access and explore ways to overcome them;
• Develop programs to enhance/improve economic base of its community;
• Secure funding for meeting this need;
• Utilize students to address these issues.

Distance education is needed to ensure equal access for a wider range of students and to compete in a changing academic market.

• Provide "high touch" with high technology applications;
• Identify which courses and programs we can support through distance education;
• Commit the necessary resources for distance education;
• Publicize/market its distance programs;
• Determine the needs and desires for distance education in its region;
• Commit resources for access and support at an appropriate level;
• Partner with local businesses and industries to determine their wants and needs for distance education courses.

Availability of Internet and distance delivery systems leads to global (galactic) competition to provide education.  RCC must determine its role in distance delivery.

Outside agencies mandate that RCC is responsible to enforce regulations.  RCC will be proactive in providing a safe healthy accessible environment for staff and students.

The Institution/Individuals have a moral and legal responsibility

• To understand and uphold all applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
• Provide a safe/healthy environment for our college community.

• Initiate pro-active training to increase awareness of applicable laws and regulations.
• Acknowledge concerns about all of the above.
• Communicate, explore alternatives and create problem-solving mechanisms.
• Provide a safe and healthy environment for staff and students.

Access to Workforce Programs that are Affordable and Relevant

• Support local economic development.
• Educate businesses to better utilize the workforce.
• Provide sufficient facilities, equipment, and supplies to do the deed!
• Encourage and model collaboration with community partners.
• Shake down the rich guys/girls!

What should RCC’s role be in providing short-term training and skill upgrading in response to external sources?

Offer traditional degree/certificate programs to meet the needs of industry requirements. Continuing education and/or skills upgrade. Short-term training that coincides with the approved curriculum should be collaborated between divisions.

The nature of learning and delivery has changed and will continue to do so.

RCC should:

Provide an environment that focuses on learning as a continual process not limited to traditional formats but providing an avenue to pursue non-traditional delivery systems.

The role of education is changing. Not one size fits all.

Recognize that each student has unique learning requirements and endeavor to identify and provide individual, ongoing support to accommodate their continuing educational needs.

To better meet customer needs requires a mandatory ongoing shift toward collaborative decision-making.

Continue to work toward increased collaborative decision making. RCC will act as a force for change with this model through education and demonstrated excellence.

RCC response: Top down versus collaborative. This is an internal issue. We are changing. As we change…

• Use teams in making decisions related to delivery of services.
• Solicit broad input from all communities of interest.
• Be realistic in expectations of staff, given heavy workloads in this time of change.
• Keep in mind the good of the college as a whole, rather than self-interest.
• Foster an environment to develop a sense of trust in all directions–superior, peer, subordinates.