Michael Wais Jr.

Grossmont’s Master Plan

by Michael Wais - September 22, 2011

Grossmont College held its 2011 Educational Master Plan yesterday.

The plan was an effort for faculty to hear out students. The GC body brought up their concerns as district and campus officials listened to them with open ears.

The chancellor of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, Cindy Miles, hosted the first part of the event. She took questions and constructive criticism so that Grossmont could maintain its wonderful success rate.

One item students wanted was the ability to communicate directly and efficiently with higher administration. They did not like that there was no quick and easy way to reach higher campus officials for any concerns they might have in the future.

Also, students wanted direct communication in online classes. ASGC president Cheryl Phillips loved that Grossmont’s online classes support a flexible schedule, but disliked lack of face-to-face involvement with the professor online. “You could have the professor make an introduction over webcam,” was an opinion she voiced. Phillips also disliked that student interaction was limited to typing between each-other through the lectures.

Maribel, member of Griffin Radio’s Future Broadcasters of America Club, didn’t like that her previous anthropology classes on the campus only involved lectures on the lesson plan. “There’s one lecture you go to and then as you get through it you realize there’s nothing on the field. But in anthropology almost everything you learn should be from going out on the field.” She wished anthropology could hold more off-campus field-trips to achieve this.

Many students unanimously proposed for Grossmont to cooperate in activities with other colleges in other districts. However, some students praised Grossmont for extra-curricular involvement (such as get-togethers from ICC as well as Phi Theta Kappa). Students also admired and respected the multi-cultural make-up of the campus.

Dylan Burke, reporter for the GC Summit liked that Grossmont College was very cool— literally. He began by saying, “Well, to start with I like that they have air-conditioning.” He smiled and laughed. “Well I really like that they have a warm heart here! They really help a lot of the students! There’s no ‘stuffies’ and whenever the students need any help they go ahead and ask!” He praised the campus for the professor-to-student involvement.

He felt Grossmont College could benefit from more of what he called “human interest” courses, such as bowling. (Burke feels more courses that pertain to relevant contemporary interests— like Grossmont’s video-game development courses— can help benefit students.) He said that he likes that a bowling course teaches principles. Burke also feels that there should be other courses with “flavor”.

Burke believes Grossmont could be made better by expanding class sizes.

He doesn’t feel that the parking is a problem anyway.

“I think that the parking’s fine. I just park on Robles. It’s good. I get a 12 minute walk anyway. Even if you park on the parking-lot, it’s still going to take you about 12 minutes to walk to class on the other side of campus. So, I get 12 minutes of exercise as a bonus either way.”

Other concerns were abilities for counselors to have more fluid communication and more consensus in each respective department. However, students applauded the academic and career counseling centers for going above and beyond to meet each students’ needs.

All 12 people who attended the meeting intend to someday transfer on to a 4-year college.

(Source: grossmont.edu)

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