Interview with Claire Ricci, Director of Academic and Career Readiness at Alamance Community College

I had the opportunity to interview Claire Ricci, Director of College and Career Readiness at Alamance Community College.  Claire has been at ACC for  6 1/2 years, four of which she has served as director.  As director, she serves not only as the department leader, she also serves as the mediator between senior leadership and the department, as the spokeswoman for Academic and Career Readiness.  In our interview, I had the chance to discuss several technology challenges, but there have also been several strides forward as well.  Before we look at the challenges and triumphs, let us took a brief look at what exactly is Academic and Career Readiness.

Academic and Career Readiness (ACR) encompasses a diverse group of students.  ACR students are not actual college students, as this department includes Adult Language Acquisition (as known as English as a Second or Other Language- ESOL), Adult Basic Literacy Education (ABLE, formally known as Compensatory Education or Comp Ed.), Adult Basic Education, Adult High School, and Career College.  Many of these students are seeking to complete a High School Equivalency Exam or an Adult High School diploma.  Other students are simply seeking to improve their language skills or improve basic life skills.

One of the first things to understand is that the ACR department is funded in a different way than other areas of the college.  While college classes receive full-time equivalent (FTE)–a formula used to compute the number of contact hours students are taking– based enrollment at a fixed date, ACR earns FTE by the total number of actual seat hours for the year.  Additionally, the population of the program is a small percentage of the total for the college, making the pot of money to draw from considerable smaller for the program. ACR, therefore, must often rely on funding granted to the program by the state for each program graduate and grant writing to help bolster the purse strings. As a result, Claire spends a considerable amount of time in grant writing to increase funding for the program.

As you can imagine, with funding being one of the top concerns for ACR, tackling technology change is a daunting task.  In running a program that assists 2,000 students a year, priority spending goes to faculty and staff, supplies, and professional development.  Incorporating technology is not always at the top of the list when there are other things that demand funding first. 

In addition to funding issues, Claire pointed out a few other issues that create technology challenges for ACR.  The previous college president was not a fan of technology in the classroom.  Therefore, there is a serious lack of technology in many areas, as the new president has only been in office three years.  Sweeping technological changes and increases would be at a considerable expense, so the college president, Dr. Gatewood, chooses to make slow steady movements forward.  Again, as ACR is funded differently, this means changes come to the department last. 

Technology changes are further delayed by the fact that the IT department of ACC is quite small.  Sweeping technology changes are difficult to implement without proper staffing.   With staffing as an issue, getting things fixed usually take priority over installing new things; and either one of those tasks can be difficult to get accomplished.  As a result of these issues, technology at ACC is a bit outdated, though functioning.  Programs that are state-mandated also have issues of relevancy and timeliness, but those are issues to tackle at another time.

The last challenge that Claire and I discussed included the general lack of knowledge in implementing technology, a problem even she faces by her own admittance.  When she become director, just four short years ago, the department kept track of incoming students using a series of physical notebooks that were battered and torn according to Claire.  This was one of the first technology changes that she began to implement in the ACR department.

Though technology change has been slow and cumbersome, there have been a few changes that have been that have improved efficiency and effectiveness.  The use of a shared drive and digital back up have been two great changes that have occurred.  the staff are learning together to implement new technology in order to make things easier and much more effective.

As Claire realized her own shortcomings with technology, she made the decision to hire Joey Crotts, a retired IT and customer service gentleman, to help research and implement new technology.  Joey researches the challenges and benefits of various projects, and helps to make sure they are implemented smoothly.  One of his tasks included Web Attendance, an online program that allows instructors to input attendance hours, and allowing administration to see this data in real time.  Joey also works on creating reports in Informer and Datatel, two systems utilized college wide.  Joey has been instrumental in assisting the department in moving forward with technology.

Claire has found other solutions for technology challenges.  With the arrival of Dr. Gatewood as president, all departments have been hopeful and excited about the implementation of more technology.  Clare and others in the department have also established a great working relationship with the IT department.  Further, she does a considerable amount of grant writing to increase funding for various things including technology.  She has been successful in obtaining several grants that have supplied several computers and laptops for the program.

Claire hopes to increase the number of computers and laptops in the classroom.  She also hopes to continue to utilize software to improve reporting for the staff.  There are also plans to move away from educational software packages that are not meeting the demands of the students and reporting needs.  Claire stated, "Not being up-to-date in technology is hindering growth.  We are making great strides forward to improve our technology footprint."

While Claire and the ACR department face several technological challenges, I think they are making great strides toward facing these challenges.  While I have noticed many of the technology issues faced by our department, Claire is working diligently to move the department forward and meet the educational needs of today's students. I look forward to see what further changes are coming!