President Greg Hamann attended a meeting with the American Association of Community Colleges last week, with an emphasis on conversations about the Graphic Arts catalog error.
"I start with a sincere apology to all who have been negatively impacted by a series of otherwise well-intended actions that together led to this very regrettable and unacceptable outcome," he wrote to staff upon his return on Friday, April 24.
After conversation with the AACC, Hamann has reported back to the faculty and staff that the time frame to honor a degree in Visual Communication has been extended.
"The LBCC catalog is a kind of contract between us and our students and so, even when it's contents are in error, we have a responsibility to live up to what we promised," he wrote.
Earlier in the week, the school announced that they would honor the Visual Communication degree if students could get their credits completed by spring of 2016. It now appears all students enrolled since the 2013 program suspension will get what they came to LBCC to earn.
Last week advisors spoke with each of the 22 students currently enrolled in the program to go over their individual options.
Lynn Tackett, a second-year student who originally spoke to The Commuter the day after the news broke, has since been reassured that her 12 hour days, four days a week on campus have not been wasted. She will earn her degree this June.
"I got a phone call [on April 23] and my advisor said everything looks good, I'm good to go," said Tackett.
Taylor Seidlitz is in his third-year of the program. He spoke with his advisor and will also be graduating this June.
"I don't have much to worry about, I'll be getting the degree I want," said Seidlitz. "I kind of wanted my degree to say Graphic Arts on my resume because that's my emphasis, but Visual Communication is the broader spectrum."
Lewis Franklin, Graphic Arts department chair, will be working with the college to redefine a similar program in the future.
"Are we going to go through the process of a new AAS? Yes. What form it will take we don't know yet," said Franklin.
During the process to re-accredit a Visual Communication program, the school will need to prove viability as if the program never existed and create it from scratch, according to Franklin. The process could take several years.
"If everything goes as it's supposed to, it will probably be spring of 2017. That's my hope."
In the mean time, the catalog error has been fixed and no new students are able enroll. The redefined program will have to be approved by both the state and the Board of Education before new students will be accepted.
Franklin doesn't know how the mistake happened, but did have knowledge that the program had been suspended but didn't know it was discontinued. He even submitted paperwork to administration he thought was helping to release the suspension.
"I did all that I was under the impression I was supposed to do. It went beyond my step because I don't deal with accreditation."
Despite all the confusion, Franklin's first priority was his students.
"I'm just glad all the students are getting taken care of," he continued, "As long as [their degree] has something that says Visual Communication/Graphic Arts they're kind of synonymous, at least in the industry."
He is confident that the staff and faculty of the department will still have jobs and that classes will continue for the Digital Imaging certificate in the interim.
No comments:
Post a Comment