A Matter of Accreditation

In 2003, the President's Council -- in cooperation with the faculty and staff, and with input from the students -- developed a new Strategic Plan. This plan was created as a direct response to specific recommendations from the accreditation team. Instead of focusing solely on academics, as the prior Academic Master Plan had done, the Strategic Plan contains the following elements:

1. Educational Programs
2. Resources
3. Culture
4. Economic and Community Development.

The third goal was described as follows: "This goal refers to collegiality and communication within all facets of the college; student services, evaluation of services; and program and institutional improvement."

Four years later, it is this goal that most needs to be addressed. Productive discussions about the college's direction and shared focus are going to be held, and in order to do so, we must agree together on some ground rules for these discussions. Dave Gottshall proposed the following rules for making the discussion of different ideas more productive:

1. Give equal time.
2. Do not gripe.
3. Do not compare systems.
4. Do not idly show and tell.
5. Do not hold back.
6. Mutually enforce the other five.

Yet these "rules" come from principles. Indeed, it is necessary to share principles in order to work together.

1. People will be positive and productive.
2. People learn best from one another, from sharing their expertise. They have vast, sometimes untapped, knowledge about their profession.
3. Diversity generates creative thinking.
4. The collective wisdom and experience of the group surpass any individual or single approach.
5. Less is more. Simplification is key to learning.

These principles are reasonably similar to the principles guiding any great relationship between people. For example, "Dr. Phil" writes...
"Choose to forgive. Holding onto a grudge will only eat you up inside and cause huge family rifts."
"Sometimes relationships need a hero. That means someone has to step up and be the bigger person to close the gap. Someone has to make the first move, the first compromise, to heal the relationship."
"No matter how flat you make a pancake, it still has two sides. Step into the other person's shoes and try to see their side of the story."

Aren't these principles for addressing family conflict similar to the principles for addressing community conflict? When all the shouting is done, and when all the angst has been emoted, we must all work together. It is not productive for us to shove one another aside. It is not productive to tell one another that we do not need them. I need your help, and you need mine. We are part of a collective, and so we need one another.

If we decide, as Dr. Phil says, to be the hero and to forgive...
if we decide, as Dave Gottshall says, to be positive and embrace our diversity...
then we will easily agree to rules for productive discussion.
We will share, and we will not gripe.
We will speak honestly and freely to one another without anger or disdain.
We will focus on finding solutions rather than pointing out other people's faults.
We will realize that we are all equal partners in this community.
We will change ourselves rather than trying to change others.
Before you know it, we will have the culture of collegiality about which we dreamed four years ago.