President's Message to the Community

October 14, 2012,

Dear Colleagues and Fellow Members of the COM-FSM Community,

On April 20, 2012, COM-FSM Quality, Sustainability, and Success: A Framework for Planning and Action, the “presidential white paper” was presented to the college community and subsequently to our external stakeholders. This document set forth the roadmap of our work for the balance of last year, this year and broadly for years to come.

It serves as a mandate to move beyond the Proficiency Level of Institutional Effectiveness in the areas of program review, planning, and student learning outcomes to achieve the Continuous Quality Improvement level.

Six months later, the new academic year began and continues with our “full court” press to completely address all of the issues for which the college is on probation, and to regain full reaffirmation.  I want to thank faculty, staff and administration for efforts to ensure that all of the work and related evidence as articulated in the comprehensive Accreditation Work Checklist is completed as scheduled.

As a community, we continue to make significant progress to meet expectations in many areas. Yet now, we need to make extraordinary progress and I implore each of you to continue to do your part. We have no more options. This is our time and we must not falter nor delay.

Within the week, the summary report of the ACCJC Rubric Survey results will be released. These results should further inform our purposeful dialogue about our level of understanding and achievement, and guide our next steps.

While each of us continues to strengthen purposeful dialogue through participation and engagement in a broad range of meetings, serving on our governance committees, assessment of ILOs, discussing and planning the FY2014 budget process, improved integration and alignment of the Integrated Educational Master Plan, assessments of SLOs, reviewing and assessing the mission statement, assessing and making recommendations to strengthen the COMET and entrance criteria, there is much more to be done.

Academic and non-academic program reviews and assessments continue. The cycle of program assessment and the use of these completed assessments serve to improve academic and non-academic programs. These assessments will also be used to inform the development of the FY 2014 budget and in conjunction with the Integrated Educational Master Plan, the allocation of resources.

The results of the Visioning Summit were released and the outcomes will serve to support the work in phase II of the Visioning Summit at Chuuk State, Kosrae State and Yap State campuses in October and November. Through the assessments of the Communications Plan and the related purposeful dialogue at the May workshop and Visioning Summit, it is clear that communications needs to be front and center for us, and be an integral part of the strategic plan as we continue our path to “the place of enlightenment.”

The recently established Management Team comprised of directors and deans representing all departments and campuses continue to meet at least twice each month and have been charged with related communications, problem-solving and non-academic program review responsibilities. The Management Team is proving to be an effective partner in the administrative organization of the college.

As well, in many ways parallel to the purposeful dialogue and process that resulted in the development of the Management Team, the governance committees through the Council of Chairs have recommended the establishment of an Executive Council which should serve to strengthen participatory governance. Discussion will continue to further define its role, responsibilities and composition, before it is presented to the Board of Regents for their consideration. 

The 2012-2013 Faculty/Staff Senate representatives and I met and engaged in a substantive dialog about the ways in which we will continue to work together with goodwill, optimism, mutual respect, and shared commitment to transparency. There is a commitment for all of us to work together as “problem solvers” and to develop solutions to strengthen our learning community for our students.

As a learning community we are most fortunate to have such talented and committed faculty, and dedicated and hard working staff. While we continue to face many challenges together, let us continue to celebrate the exceptional relationship established among and between all college constituencies, a relationship not to be taken for granted.

In part to celebrate being a learning community, but more importantly to deliberately recognize and honor the special place and responsibility that faculty have at COM-FSM, we gathered on Friday, September 14, 2012 for our first convocation. Important messages of shared responsibility and accountability for strengthening the college were conveyed.

We continue to experience a transformation as we embrace accreditation as a framework for integrity, for purposeful dialogue and continuous improvement, and sustained constructive engagement. We must stay on this sound path toward improvement, complete work to demonstrate full compliance with Accreditation Standards, and resolve all issues by March 2013.

Together we strengthen this institution of higher education for our students, our citizens and our country.

It is a privilege for me to serve you as president.

Warm regards,

Joe

Joseph M. Daisy, Ed.D, President