College District Organization

The college district organization will expand over time to accommodate the addition of two educational centers, one in Coyote Valley and another in San Benito County. The State Chancellor's Office has accepted Gavilan College's Letter of Intent to establish an educational center in Coyote Valley and has authorized the college to proceed with the needs analysis segment of the application process. Over a period of twenty years or more it is expected that the two proposed educational centers will grow into fully accredited colleges.

Addressing the coordination and development of the educational centers will require high level educational administration and appropriate support personnel. In the upcoming fiscal years it is expected that a provost or executive level position will be added to the college's organizational structure. Site development work will have to be coordinated with the state and integrated into Gavilan College's facilities and educational master planning processes. For planning purposes Morgan Hill and Coyote Valley should be considered as one academic service area, as the distance between Morgan Hill and Coyote Valley is a mere four miles.

Gavilan College continues to experience increased student enrollment, with expansion of technology usage in instruction and student support services. Increased staffing will be needed in the technology area. Enrollment growth also increases the need for more full time faculty members.

Projections

Population

Overall, the district has been experiencing growth that is among the highest in California. Gavilan College's twenty-mile service area housed a population of 183,791 in the year 2005, and many more residential communities have been developed or planned since that time. An analysis of the top zip code areas (producing 80% of the students at Gavilan) and Gavilan's twenty-mile service area shows that the region has the potential to grow by 76%. Coyote Valley and Paicines are predicted to experience the greatest amount (300-900%) during this period. In 2005, the Gavilan College service area had approximately 60,000 households and a healthy median income of $65,000.

Source: Estimates are from the following sources: A=ABAG; B=AMBAG

The ethnic characteristics and age distributions within the Gavilan College service area offer both opportunities and challenges over the next ten years. The provision of appropriate opportunities for a growing Hispanic population is imperative, as are opportunities for re-entry students. In terms of age, the largest percentage increases in the next ten years will occur in the segment of the population that is currently 45 to 64 years of age.

Prior to 2006, research indicated that Gavilan College was losing students from its service area to other community colleges. Recent increases in enrollment suggest that Gavilan College has recaptured or attracted new students to its main campus and educational centers. Maintaining and increasing growth in enrollment will remain a challenge for the next ten-year period.

Enrollment

Student enrollment exhibited an overall decline of 3% between 1999 and 2005. However, a 4% growth rate occurred in both Fall 2004 and 2005. The Fall 2005 semester produced an overall enrollment of 5,333 (including JPA). Gavilan's percentage growth rate in Fall 2006 was 11%, an encouraging sign that a positive trend may be developing relative to enrollment growth.

Enrollment History at the College

Source:  Gavilan College Office of Research

Enrollment growth potential for the future can be captured in the following models. The enrollment growth models are listed in order of least to most aggressive.

1. A blended growth rate of 1.92% is projected in the top five zip codes areas within the Gavilan College district. All other factors remaining constant, this 1.92% annual growth rate would translate into an enrollment of 5,844 by the year 2010.
2. The Enrollment and WSCH Forecast (Table 16) issued by the Chancellor's Office, California Community Colleges, projects an enrollment of 5,882 for the year 2010. This projection is based on an averaged growth rate of approximately 2.6% over time. Using this scenario, it is likely that Gavilan could grow to almost 6,000 students in the next five years.
3. Raising the "student area participation rates" in the five most productive zip code areas to the state standard of 37 students per every 1,000 population would produce an enrollment of 7,358 by the year 2010. This would require a growth rate of approximately 5.5%. Increasing enrollment to this extent would require that the college develop a strategy to recapture those students who live in the district but attend community colleges elsewhere.
4. The projected population in Gavilan's twenty-mile service area for 2010 is approximately 261,864. Using this figure and a "student area participation rate" that averages 25.0 students per 1,000 population (lowest "student area participation rate" of five major zip code areas within the district in 2005), a student enrollment of 6,547 could be forecasted for 2010. In order to reach this enrollment target, Gavilan would need to maintain an annual growth rate of 4.6%.

Considering the factors and projections from the four different models, it is projected that Gavilan College will have a student enrollment between 6,000 and 7,000 students by the year 2010. This model is based on maintaining a realistic and conservative growth rate of 4% annually.

Source: Analysis provided by California Community College Chancellor's Office Research Division

Comparing Gavilan's twenty-mile service area demographics to the enrollment profile on campus suggests the existence of substantial student recruitment and retention opportunities. Recruitment opportunities should focus on the continued enrollment of Hispanic students, which represent 47% of the total enrollment at Gavilan. Hispanic student enrollment is in line with the population growth rate parallel projected for Gavilan's service area.

Opportunities exist to recruit and retain the Asian segment of Gavilan's service area population; Gavilan College's Asian student population represents approximately 5% of current enrollment. The relative differential for the Asian population is approximately 2.0%. Efforts are also required to increase the district participation rate of all races and ethnic groups.

A review of the age composition of the service area suggests that there will be an increase in the population aged 40 to 65 years during the next ten years and beyond. Enrollment increases will need to be concentrated on better recruitment and attraction efforts for a variety of student populations.

For the purposes of forecasting enrollment growth, it should be noted that the exact year in which a given student enrollment is achieved is not critical. What is critical is that the projections for student enrollment are master-planned so that instructional programs, support services, facilities, and staffing will be in place when a particular level of enrollment ("target enrollment") is achieved.

Instructional Programs

The future instructional delivery system at Gavilan will need to keep pace with the constant challenge of change. Pressures from learners, demographic changes, the needs of business and industry, increasing competition in the education marketplace, and the economic reality of accelerated competition for every tax dollar will be the drivers of change.

Gavilan College's vision for the future will need to focus less on the "one size fits all" delivery system. Instructional delivery in the next decade will need to change significantly to accommodate various learning styles and needs. Computer technology will be integrated more widely across the curriculum. Learning outcomes will guide teaching. Instructional delivery will focus on the adaptation of the teaching methodology to match the new requirements for learning.

Gavilan has identified several key strategies for improving its instructional delivery system. A vision of the future will incorporate these and other strategies into a unified plan. Combined, these strategies will be the vehicle that brings Gavilan closer to its goal of achieving educational excellence. The strategies will include but not be limited to the following:

Instructional Relevancy and Performance: Performance standards will be developed to assess course content, operational efficiency, relevancy, and applicability. Under-performing programs will be deleted and replaced with new programs.

Innovative Instruction: The development of inter-disciplinary courses and programs that promote connections between the disciplines, the community, and business and industry will be a part of Gavilan College's future. Innovative instruction will be encouraged and rewarded through programs of recognition. Collaboration and team building will be the process by which innovative instruction is developed.

Accessibility: The instructional program of the future will be less dependent upon a schedule of classes and more responsive to the individual schedules of learners. A greater emphasis will be placed on working students, non-traditional students, and life-long learners at Gavilan. Intersession, accelerated, and modular courses will be added to the schedule in an effort to attract and retain students. Short-term, high-intensity learning experiences will be more in demand and, consequently, incorporated into the instructional delivery system at Gavilan College. The expansion of the curricular offerings at the satellite sites in Morgan Hill, Hollister, and Coyote will be a key component in defining Gavilan College's future.

Personalized Learning: Diagnostic and prescriptive counseling will be employed that will lead to the development of a learning prescription tailored to both the educational requirements of the individual and his/her cognitive style.

Alternative Instructional Delivery Strategies: The development of learning alternatives through which an individual can gain the same body of material in a variety of ways will be required. These learning alternatives will include use of the conventional classroom, technology (on-line and telecourses), tutorials, work experience, and specialized laboratories. Lectures and laboratory experiences will become more integrated. Greater emphasis will be placed on students succeeding in their academic experience.

Public and Private Partnerships: The instructional delivery system will incorporate community- and regionally-based programs reflective of the needs and interests of the Gavilan service area and the public and private partnerships forged by the college. Contract education will be developed to its full capacity.

Technology:  Gavilan College will become a leader and regional resource for distance learning telecourses, video conferencing, public access educational television, interactive television, and computer technology. Electronic access, literacy, and competency for students, faculty, and staff will be a strong part of Gavilan College's technology program. "Smart classrooms," interactive computer hardware and software, and computer-assisted instruction will be part of the Gavilan College technology infrastructure.

Distance Learning: Gavilan College's physical facilities will become less important as there will no longer be a single learning environment. Distance learning, as an instructional delivery system, will be particularly valuable to individuals who cannot come to a central campus for a variety of reasons. Gavilan will expand its instructional delivery for more and greater distance learning opportunities.

Diverse Learning: More diverse learning experiences and a wider variety of subject matter will be made available to students. These materials will be packaged and repackaged into learning modules that suit the individual needs of the learner.

Workforce Development: In the future Gavilan College's technical and occupational education will not be a two-year linear process, but rather a short-term, high-intensity experience providing entry-level skills for workers in weeks or months. These offerings will be developed in partnership with business and industry yet lead to other educational opportunities in fully supported "ladder" programs.

Overall, Gavilan College's instructional delivery program must meet the needs of a student and labor force drawn from a highly diverse, multicultural, and multilingual population. It is imperative that Gavilan College build the appropriate "bridge" support systems and "ladder" programs that provide the opportunity to all students to succeed in higher education.

Support Services

Student services at Gavilan College will become flexible to meet the needs of a changing student population. Counseling will assume a greater diagnostic and prescriptive function. Support services will make it easier for students to register, obtain assistance, access records, and receive financial assistance. Access to student services will be provided on campus, at the satellite sites, and from the home and/or the workplace. Gavilan College will address a growing number of students with special needs and/or learning disabilities.

The concept of a "one-stop" matriculation process, where all student services are housed in an integrated, common location is a high priority for the future. Current technology will need to be brought on-line to assist students with the admissions process, counseling, and assessing and registering students in one interactive process. Staff development and training programs must be implemented to provide faculty and staff the necessary training to utilize these student assistance systems.

Facilities

Facilities of the future will reflect a changing instructional delivery system and instructional program. As technology is accessed in the classroom, the definitive line that has separated lecture and laboratory space will become increasingly difficult to discern. Instructional space must be adaptable for many uses and equipped with the technological resources that are patterned after how the student of tomorrow will learn. Facilities must be developed with the expectation that within five years they may be readapted and reconfigured. New construction should permit the maximum amount of structural and infrastructure flexibility.

Significant changes in instructional delivery will mean a decrease in the significance of the large community college campuses that have been developed in the past. Building large numbers of classrooms and traditional laboratories may be less important than developing technology-based learning resource centers and outreach (satellite) sites. This will be particularly true at the satellite sites of Morgan Hill, Hollister, and Coyote, where future demands will become greater, not less.

Infrastructure to support and improve the physical plant of the existing campus will continue be a high priority. Air conditioning, telecommunications, and specialized equipment are needed to conduct laboratory work and vocational training that is current and relevant.

New facilities for Allied Health, Child Development and Adaptive Physical Education have been constructed over the last decade as part of Gavilan College's capital improvement program. Additional building needs include a centralized, "one-stop" facility to house and adequately address the space needs of all student support services, including those of admissions and records. Equally important is the need to address the space shortages and fragmented collage of buildings that comprise administrative services. Functions such as business services, facilities, reprographics, purchasing/contract support, payroll, management information systems, and human resources will be expanding, and should be consolidated and centralized on campus. The entire operation of administrative services needs to receive high priority with regard to new office space and support facilities.

Human Resources

Over the next ten years, Gavilan College will need to have faculty and staff that are both more knowledgeable and more flexible on the job. Cross-training of faculty and staff will be a high priority for the effective delivery and support of the instructional program. Support services staff will need to be well versed in the nuances of electronic technology.

The hiring and retention of full-time versus part-time faculty should be a strong consideration, understanding that this can only be initiated within the context of budgetary considerations. Full-time faculty would maximize the benefits derived from continuity of (educational) process and the investment of the district's training dollars. This vision implies that training will be a constant process for the majority of the faculty.

It will be imperative that all faculty hired in the future will be technologically literate. Significant efforts to provide training for those who lack the essential technological skills and knowledge may be needed. A commitment to educational excellence will require additional faculty as programs expand and/or are newly created.

Support services staffing needs will also increase. The greatest staff demands are projected for personnel, MIS, tutoring, counseling and guidance, admissions and records, and financial aid. Additionally, full-time staff will be needed to support  marketing and recruitment/outreach.

Efficiently Meeting the Needs of Students

To be viable and competitive in the educational marketplace, the college will need to manage change and operate efficiently. Operational efficiency is necessary to ensure that Gavilan is receiving maximum financial support and benefit from the state. Operational efficiency will translate to bringing the college closer to the statewide averages for class size, weekly student contact hours (WSCH) per section, WSCH per full-time equivalent faculty (FTEF), and WSCH per full-time equivalent student (FTES). Money generated by student attendance is the engine that drives the micro-economy of a community college. Low enrollments produce fewer operating funds, less program development, fewer employees, lower salaries, less equipment, and inferior facilities. In essence, funds must be transferred from support services to instruction in order to maintain income from the state.

Gavilan College can expect to face increased competition for financial support and students from the surrounding community colleges. As operational costs rise and the uncertainty of public funding becomes reality, Gavilan College will need to seek and locate new sources of revenue, either from grants, business and industry, or local bond measures.

Curricular Offerings of the College

Gavilan College has invested considerable time in assessing the performance, viability, and relevancy of existing curricular offerings. Through the collaborative process, a broad-based, on-campus Institutional Effectiveness Committee (IEC) was established to conduct program review. The primary task of the IEC is to evaluate the instructional and service programs of the college on a cyclical basis. The IEC also identifies and evaluates "at-risk" programs as well as those identified by the administration as having a questionable need.

The IEC adopted identifying measures and performance standards for the instructional programs deemed "at-risk" and reviewed the identified programs. The reviewed programs developed action plans for phase out or revitalization. (The IEC makes no recommendations to the administration regarding programs continuation status.) The pursuit of educational excellence and the desire to present a balanced curriculum have guided this effort. Underperforming curricular offerings and programs have been identified and appropriate changes directed. Table 17 provides a breakdown, by division, of Gavilan College's current instructional programs.

Disciplines by TOP Code Listing

The Taxonomy of Programs (TOP Code) is the standardized method by which the state categorizes disciplines for comparison purposes. It varies substantially from the divisional breakdown used by Gavilan. Table 18 presents Gavilan's curricular offerings by TOP code.

Source: Gavilan College Research Office

As part of the educational master planning process, the efficiency and productivity of curricular offerings have been evaluated with the goal of identifying areas for improvement in the instructional delivery system.

1. The present college-wide average class size is 23.23 students per section (fall 2005 semester). This average does not include distance education or other off-campus classes; cancelled classes, or classes with zero enrollments. The statewide benchmark is 35 students per class (Table 19).
2. By TOP code breakdown, Gavilan currently has 12 instructional areas that meet or exceed the state average of WSCH per TOP code (Table 20).
3. Approximately 38% of instructional departments are operating at 525 WSCH per FTEF (Table 21). Four departments were operating at less than 50% efficiency in Fall 2005.
4. The pattern of the college will have to reflect a class schedule that uses all available instructional periods. Historically, Gavilan's class schedule concentrated on morning classes five days a week. The 16 week academic schedule and two day a week scheduling has pushed more classes into the afternoon time slots. An evening schedule will also be important in bringing the college's load capacity ratios down to levels that will allow the college to effectively compete for capital construction funding.

Table 19 displays productivity of academic departments relative to students per class section offered. In this table, curricular offerings are compared against the state standard of 35 students per class section. Class sections for distance education courses, off-campus work experience, and sections with zero enrollments were not included. For assessment purposes, the 2005 fall semester was used.

Source:  Gavilan Research Office

Table 20 provides a comparison of weekly student contact hours (WSCH) per TOP code. The TOP code instructional breakdown is used to provide a basis for comparison with statewide averages. The state averages are computed from the Chancellor's Office Data Mart FTES by TOP code for 109 community colleges in the system. Instructional areas at Gavilan College that currently meet or exceed the statewide averages for WSCH are shaded. These data should be interpreted with caution because statewide WSCH data by TOP code was derived from FTES.

Source:  Gavilan Research Office

Gavilan College's productivity relative to WSCH per full-time faculty equivalents (FTEF) is shown in Table 21. The state's benchmark for peak efficiency is 525 WSCH per FTEF. The curricular offerings are presented by department.

Source:  Gavilan Research Office

Table 22 provides an efficiency breakdown by academic department based on Gavilan College's FTES 726 report. In general, the larger the efficiency value, the more efficient a department is at utilizing resources.

Conclusions:  The data on curricular offerings suggest that, as part of the vision for the future, the college will need to focus on changing the status quo with respect to its program of studies.

The Facilities Plan

Determination of Space Capacity

To determine projected space needs, a total computed square footage requirement is compared against existing space inventory. This comparison results in a number that expresses whether a campus is over built or under built for each category of space. The following sections provide a explanation of how space is inventoried and how the space needs are computed. Finally, the computed space needs are expressed for both the Gilroy and Coyote campuses of the Gavilan District.

Facilities Inventory

The inventory of facilities is an important tool in planning and managing college campuses. The California Community Colleges Facilities Inventory Manual includes descriptive data on buildings and rooms for each college district. This information is essential for developing the annual five-year capital construction plan and for scheduling and controlling campus space. In addition, planning for new capital outlay construction projects, projecting future facilities, developing capital outlay and deferred maintenance budgets, and analyzing space utilization are tasks that rely heavily on the facilities inventory documents and procedures.

The Education Code mandates an annual inventory of all facilities in the college district. In January of 2005, Gavilan College completed a comprehensive space inventory update where each room was measured and room typed in accordance with its usage. The update revisions were entered into FUSION (the State Chancellor's Office WEB-based program). In October 2006, the program was updated to reflect minor changes that resulted in the ensuing year resulting in the most current space inventory document, the 2006 Gavilan Community College District Report 17 ASF/OGSF Summary and Capacities Summary. This document was used as the basis for the facility assessment. The facilities inventory, as stated, has been integrated into the current database and used for the projection of future building requirements at Gavilan College.

Space Utilization and Planning Standards

To determine space capacity requirements for a college's enrollment, the enrollment itself (or an approximation thereof) is applied to a set of standards for each type of space.

Prescribed State Space Standards

The space inventory reports provide a district with a summary of capacity spaces by classroom (lecture), laboratory, office, library and audio-visual/TV; this space is expressed in assignable square feet.

Title 5 of the California Administrative Code requires the use of specific standards in the computation of the five categories of capacity space. These standards are to be used consistently be all districts in determining the capacity of existing facilities. The following explanation of the five categories that follows includes some additional statements regarding the particular type of space that is being addressed.

Teaching Spaces

Teaching spaces are identified as either lecture or laboratory depending on the nature of the student's participation in the instructional process. If the student requires the regular use of special equipment in the class it is usually considered a laboratory activity; a room designed to accommodate laboratory activity is classified as laboratory even if lecture takes place in the room more often than lab.

Computation of lecture and laboratory space requirements is based on weekly student contact hours (WSCH) for a 70 hour week (Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.). The total projected WSCH enrollments are separated into lecture and laboratory. Complete (100%) utilization of all rooms and all stations is not considered reasonable for a number of reasons:

• No guarantee that class enrollments will necessarily match the size of teaching areas available;
• The need for a safety net to provide spaces for classes anticipated,  but dependent on enrollments;
• Human behavior patterns dictate some hours will be more popular (thereby requiring more teaching spaces) than others; e.g., lunch/dinner and local industry work hours can affect the hours people are willing to be in class;
• Occasional uses of the "public" facilities for purposes other than the teaching program;
• Laboratory (and sometimes lecture room) preparation/setup and breakdown time;
• Potential for allowing a class to proceed or spill over beyond its usual hours to complete an issue or activity underway at the time;
• Time when the room is empty to perform on-going maintenance, repair, cleaning, or painting;
• Alternatives for cases where a room may become unusable due to an unexpected breakdown in the heating/cooling/ventilation systems, lighting, electrical, or other utilities, or a broken window, door, spill or other disruption;
• Some lecture spaces adjacent to laboratories limited in general use due to inconvenience, noise, safety, or the adjacent activities (fumes in a paint shop, hazards involved with people traveling in or around the laboratory area);
• Laboratories with specialized equipment that can only be used for a single purpose regardless of enrollment (e.g., x-ray rooms, dental hygiene stations, auto mechanics, morgues);
• Special scheduling needs (e.g., 3-hour block Monday night instead of 1-hour block Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).

Lecture Classrooms  (room types 110-115)

This standard is used for determining space allocations for Lecture (Room Type 110) and Lecture Service (Room Type 115). Lecture space allocations usually vary from 11.5 to 25.0 ASF/station depending on floor space;  room configurations, type of seating and room service requirements (projection rooms, A.V. storage, maps storage, etc.)  State standards provide for an average of 15 ASF/station. For colleges with enrollment of less than 140,000 WSCH, a room must be in use 48 hours of the 70 hour w