Environmental Scan

I'd like to treat this blog as a sort of ePortfolio journal - allowing a channel for reflection on this new role. As an institution, NSCC has some definite ideas about what portfolio learning is about, and the notion of the environmental scan is one important element. A suggested approach is to look backward, inward, outward, and then forward as an exploration of self and the development of a career or learning plan. I'll start my scan with a look at the development and status of the institution and the department within which I will be managing. 

NSCC is the second-youngest provincial public secondary institution in Canada - formed in the mid-nineties from the aggregation of a network of vocational training institutions across the province of Nova Scotia. The College's first president, Ray Ivany (1995-2005) - now president of Acadia University - recently addressed NSCC's College Leadership Forum providing a rich history lesson on the College's birth and formative years. He recounted that the objective in those first few years was simply to change public perception of adult vocational training from the "Trades School" to the modern Community College. He reinforced the critical connection that NSCC continues to hold with Industry and Community. He also reiterated the contention that he and the other members of last year's One Nova Scotia commission presented in their momentous report "Now or Never: An Urgent Call to Action for Nova Scotians" - that NSCC will be disproportionately called upon to contribute to the initiatives that will turn the Nova Scotia economy around. "This", he said, "is the very validation of the College's mission statement - Building Nova Scotia's economy and quality of life through education and innovation."

Fast forward twenty years from NSCCs initiation: the College is quickly growing up, and hitting maturity at a time when the Province desperately needs it's help to avoid an economic collapse (at least according to Mr. Ivany's commission report). NSCCs plan at the beginning of this century was to leapfrog the rest of the national post-secondary marketplace by adopting best practices of those more established colleges while avoiding all the attendant pitfalls they have experienced. The journey has not been quite that straightforward for NSCC and there are many who still don't get behind the idea of access programming on one hand and innovative applied research on the other. Ray Ivany suggests we stay that unique course and not waiver or give in to those who see "the university as the mature form of a college".

His speech reminded me of a conversation I had with him in 2005. I asked Ray if he thought that NSCC could fully adopt Terry O'Banion's concept of The Learning Centred College. He replied "Stephen, O'Banion doesn't it have it all right - no one has it all right - and even if he did, NSCC must use it's own vision, values, and mission as a lens through which it will interpret those best practices".

My first learning activity as a new manager in this department will be to print out the college's Mission, Vision and Values statements and post it up on my desk so that I can be reminded of what we are trying to achieve, to give context to my part in that mission, and to provide a lens through which I might interpret best practices in management.  

Next post, I will examine the history of the department of Academic Quality Assurance & Program Development, and reflect on my contributions to date in its evolution.