#davidliu

Over the summer HACC's marketing department came up with a social media campaign: take a picture of yourself with your choice of HACC gear and post it online. This was supposed to show HACC pride, but not everyone saw it that way. Below is a letter sent out by Associate Professor of Sociology David R. Liu, reprinted with his permission:

Response to Mike Walsh and the community August 10, 2014

On June 26 Mike Walsh, the president’s assistant, sent an email to the entire college community with the subject line: “Where in the world is HACC?”

Unlike most all-college emails, this one immediately caught my attention. I was intrigued by the fact that he was raising this question so directly, and to the college as a whole, as this is the question that many of us have been asking in both public and private conversations for years now. This question has become increasingly important as we have, and continue to, endure substantial changes in organization, personnel, operations and curriculum, with no apparent end (or logic) in sight. And now, I thought, finally, we are going to collectively address this question of where we are, where we stand and, presumably, what we stand for. That is what came to mind as I read that question in the subject line: Where in the world is HACC? Indeed, where are we?

Well, you know what happened next. I opened the email and found, instead, that I had been invited to take my HACC teddy bear or water bottle or pen set embossed with a duly approved college logo as I traversed the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall of China, and proudly display them while captured by the miracle of photography. Then I was directed to post said image to the proper social media authorities.

Now, notwithstanding my concern that my visage, along with my teddy bear or water bottle, might show up on the back of a milk carton or a commuter bus as part of the recent college publicity blitzkrieg, I have other reservations about such an endeavor. I demurred.

It’s not that those schemes are not entertaining, diverting or mildly attention getting. The problem arises if those schemes are all that we are given to address this most vital of questions: Where in the world is HACC? Indeed.

Where are we really? Where do we stand in higher education? Where do we stand as a college and as a community in our own right? Where is the college in the minds and hearts (the most important worlds) of those most closely connected to it?

By this I don’t mean where do we rank in terms of enrollment, completion rates, tuition fees, full-time to adjunct ratios, etc. (none of which, we all recognize, are incidental to the viability of the institution). Rather, where are we? Where have we come in the last 50 years – as a college and as a community? And where do we want to be in the next five, 10 or 50 years?

Are we just blindly following the latest educational fads, or are the changes in content, design and implementation of courses and programs, organizational structure, and our guiding ethos, based on a foundation that will not melt into air in a few years or decades?

We’re often reminded that we need to “meet our students where they are.” Sure, but what about the subsequent step, namely, “helping guide them to where they ought to be”? This assumes, of course, that we know where we ought to be –or at least what we are aiming for.

Oh, I know, we have a mission statement and a strategic plan. And we have assessable and measurable objectives that are continually trotted out like beleaguered ponies at a kid’s birthday party. We even have a “vision statement,” the syntactical travesty that it is. But they don’t begin to do justice to the question.

I’ve been listening carefully for the last three years (I’ll limit my comments to that time frame and won’t bother here to detail the abject failures of the previous administration – they are legion), and the best I can come up with are what seem to be three talking points from our current leadership: workforce development, retention and an expanded online presence. Ok, fine. I get it – as far as it goes. But if these are being touted as the edifice of our academy, this rhetoric rings distressingly hollow.

Something seems to have gone missing for quite a while in our collective talk that has been reflected in our collective sentiments. And, among many members of our community, this is reflected in both disposition and conduct ranging from confusion to malaise to frustration – primarily, however, reflected in a palpable sense of demoralization.

While I recognize that Harrisburg Area Community College may never mirror the Elysian Fields of higher education, we are, at our heart, a college and an academic community. As such, our primary commitment remains, at the end of the day, the life of the mind. Lest this sound too abstract or airy-fairy, it does not mean we all need to major in philosophy. It does mean that we need, collectively and individually, never to lose focus on what has traditionally been a source of admiration and inspiration for all members of the college community. This is a focus on what have been called “big ideas.”

Developing and pursuing big ideas is neither pipe dream nor idle wish, nor is it limited to an elect few. Everyone is interested in big ideas. They are the most powerful sources of inspiration and aspiration. They clarify and point the way. They are not easily measurable, but they are generative. They ground a practice and center one’s ambitions. If your aim is true the arrow may not reach the target, but it will have made its mark.

A recent column in the New York Times highlighted one such effort aimed at high school students entering their senior year who, it would seem, are the least likely to attend and finish college. It is a summer seminar entitled “Freedom and Citizenship in Ancient, Modern and Contemporary Thought.”

The author of the piece (Frank Bruni) describes the program and profiles some of the students (poor, minority, culturally disadvantaged). But, he says, of the program: The “distinction of this one and the reason it should be replicated is that it doesn’t focus on narrow disciplines, discrete skills, and standardized tests. It doesn’t reduce learning to metrics or cast college as a bridge to a predetermined career.

It assumes that these kids, like any others, are hungry for big ideas. And it wagers that tugging them into sophisticated discussions will give them a fluency and confidence that could be the difference between merely getting to college and navigating it successfully, all the way to completion, which for poor kids is often the trickiest part of all.”

These students are like our students – and like us. Big ideas inspire. Meaty discussions engage and compel. Inspiration engenders dedication, and dedication leads to excellence. There are no shortcuts, but there are myriad ways in which we have all been shortchanged and we have been shortchanging ourselves.

One such hindrance is the constant focus on the short term and “branding,” resulting in hysterical responses and desperate tactics rather than looking long-term and developing big ideas and inspiring aims. What has been sorely missing at our beloved college for too long is a vision that can serve to direct our aim and inspire our efforts – all of our efforts from the tree-trimmer to the trustee.

This is a propitious time, at our 50th anniversary, to rethink where we are as a college and as a community. Where in the world is HACC? was the question posed to us. But, perhaps more vitally: Where, in HACC, is the world?

So how do we develop this collective vision (a strategic plan in itself is not a vision any more than a marketing campaign is)? And it is essential that it is a collective vision, because only from that collective vision can members make sense of, and commit to, the mission. From that commitment does one develop dedication to a plan one works with, and on, every day.

We begin with conversations and aiming high at ideas that could inspire. We begin by collectively imagining what is possible and even what may seem impossible, but desirable, at this moment.

To this end I propose a series of conversations – informal, but structured. They could be over lunch or around a seminar table. But they remain conversations, not meetings or forums. Because it is only through conversation that ideas can be proffered, developed, altered or relegated. And they will focus on vision -- our vision for our college. I invite anyone, regardless of status or pay grade, to a conversation. (You can email me to start, but I hope we’ll have numerous, multiple and ongoing conversations throughout the college … indefinitely. I will take the lead in organizing the responses and tapping others who have interests in leading conversations on various topics or at different campuses. However, I see myself as only a starting point. Don’t worry, your responses will not be shared with “Everyone.” Look for opportunities to participate.

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. The 19th century education reformer Horace Mann once famously said, “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”

Imagine if that was the basis of our collective vision for our college. How would our mission be construed? How might we relate to one another and our students if this was our primary aim? How would we market ourselves differently (and maybe more effectively)?

Pie in the sky? Too romantic?

Remember, 50 years ago there were NO community colleges in Pennsylvania.

It’s time to start thinking creatively and humanely about the next 50 years.

Invitingly,