Moria Dailey
Published: March 8, 2006
PJC is going through the reaccreditation process with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Part of that process requires PJC to institute a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), said Dr. June Linke, a member of the QEP team and the head of the behavioral sciences department.
According to the QEP website, the project intends to address the question: How can our policies and processes lead to higher levels of student learning? During the current semester, the QEP team is collecting suggestions from faculty, students, and really, anyone that is a part of PJC.
“This semester we’re going through the topic selection process. We’re having a series of topic workshops, and we’ve already had about 40 different ideas submitted over the last week,” Linke said.
“My first expectation is it [the plan] will pull faculty and administration together,” said Dr. Vicki Schell, another member of the QEP team as well as the head of the mathematics department.
The chosen topic must lead to a plan that must be tied to learning, be able to be carried out over the next five years, and the college must be able to measure results, Linke explained.
Students are “very much welcome” to attend any of the QEP topic selection workshops, as well as go online to www.pjc.edu/sacs and click on “Quality Enhancement Plan” to submit their ideas, Linke said.
Linke said that several teachers will be hosting workshops and there will be several workshops held in the student center.
Starting in fall 2006, once the QEP team has gotten positive feedback from SACS on the selected topic, they will begin to develop the specific ways the plan will be instituted in PJC and the way it will compliment PJC’s strategic plan, Linke said.
“It’s going to be something that is beneficial to students,” Linke said, explaining that once the topic is selected, the team will be able to develop goals and objectives, as well as set deadlines as to when said goals and objectives will be done.
Schell said she hopes that the enactment of the plan will provide a more consistent overall experience for students.
A full schedule of the workshops can be found on the QEP website.