Operations
2018-2019 Program Review
1
Unit Profile
1.1
Briefly describe the program-level planning unit. What is the unit's purpose and function?
The Operations department is comprised of Maintenance, Custodial, Receiving and Office staff.
The purpose and function of Operations is two-fold: to maintain and ensure the campus stays operational day-to-day; and to facilitate reservations of facilities for the community and assist with campus requests.
Maintenance is responsible for the upkeep of campus including: buildings, grounds and equipment. Custodial is responsible for the cleanliness of the campus, porter services and set-ups. Receiving is responsible for tracking and releasing payment for any and all incoming items for the campus. Office staff is responsible for the budget, compliance, furniture, reservation of facilities/vehicles and coordination/notification of campus projects.
1.2
How does the unit contribute to achievement of the mission of American River College?
The Operations department serves as an essential element to the mission of American River College, by ensuring operation of all facilities and supporting any additional needs required to meet this mission.
To facilitate ARC's mission, the Operations department completes all necessary upgrades to facilities in order to meet current standards and requirements for our teachers and classrooms. In addition, it is our top priority to ensure the safety and accessibility for all students and visitors to campus. Our Custodial team does a daily sweep of the campus to report/remove all graffiti and need for repair. We also facilitate the set up for campus events and actively work with community to guarantee a seamless and effective experience here at ARC. Our department has offered shuttle support to students and staff when campus paths were affected by construction and assisted with the unlock/lock of facilities outside of campus hours. By eliminating as many barriers as possible, our department is able to provide our students and faculty with an environment conducive to learning.
2
Assessment and Analysis
The program review process asks units to reflect on the progress they've made towards achieving the goals they identified in each of the Annual Unit Plans they submitted since their last Program Review. Follow this link to access your previous EMP submissions. For Faculty support, please contact Veronica Lopez at lopezv@arc.losrios.edu.
2.1
Consider the progress that has been made towards the unit's objectives over the last six years. Based on how the unit intended to measure progress towards achieving these objectives, did the unit's prior planned
action steps (last six years of annual unit plans) result in the intended effect or the goal(s) being achieved?
Yes, Operations has succeeded in completing the majority of objectives noted in the prior six years of annual unit planning. Objectives that were not completed are still active and will be continuing objectives of the department.
Objectives were achieved through planned action, and the intended goals reached.
In the following program-level metrics, a green-yellow-red light icon provides a quick sense of how a particular data set's values relate to an established threshold (click '+' for details).
The following data sets may be useful in promoting and informing departmental dialogue, planning, decision making, and resource allocation.
Email Standard Data Set linkIn addition to reflecting on the metrics shown above, it may prove useful to analyze other program-level data to assess the effectiveness of your unit. For instructional units, ARC's Data on Demand system can be used to provide program and course level information regarding equitable outcomes, such as program access or enrollment, successful course completion, and degree or certificate achievement (up to 30+ demographic or course filters are available).
You might also consider pursuing other lines of inquiry appropriate to your unit type (instructional, student support, institutional/administrative support). Refer to the Program Review Inquiry Guide under the resources tab for specific lines of inquiry.
2.2
What were the findings? Please identify program strengths, opportunities, challenges, equity gaps, influencing
factors (e.g., program environment), data limitations, areas for further research, and/or other items of interest.
The prior six years of annual unit planning mostly consisted of meeting four main objectives: 1) Restructuring Operations to meet the needs of the campus; 2) Purchasing, relocating and hiring to meet the needs of Operations restructure; 3) Working with campus administrators to facilitate the movement of departments to better utilize space on campus and meet the needs of dynamic change in teaching and organizational requirements; and 4) Continuing efforts to improve the campus.
Operations’ strength now lies in a cohesive department that is better structured to accommodate the growing needs of the campus. Operations measures strength in how well the needs of the campus are being met and the level of service provided.
While Operations is now stronger due to restructuring and more efficient processes, there are still opportunities to be taken. To continue providing services to the campus to meet the American River College mission, Operations intends on growing the department to obtain all opportunities available to the campus while working to shrinking the equity gap. Opportunities include: becoming more sustainable, providing stronger response time and offering more services to the campus.
Operations carries the heavy challenge of facilitating change both organizationally and globally. Recently, laws have changed dramatically in reference to sustainability, teaching requirements, safety, and compliance. These changes require Operations’ engagement on all levels and requires significant evaluation of facilities and practices. Once recommendation and solutions are analyzed, Operations facilitates equitable change. These challenges present a unique opportunity to help the campus at every action level.
3
Reflection and Dialog
3.1
Discuss how the findings relate to the unit's effectiveness. What did your unit learn from the analysis and how
might the relevant findings inform future action?
Our findings further illustrate the effectiveness of our unit. The achieved and ongoing objectives prove to be what makes our department stronger as our unit works and comes together as a team. Whether we are met with challenges or are working on efficiencies, we have come to the resolution together.
Operations will continue to review the effectiveness of the unit and make future suggestions for improvement. Future actions steps will rely on current practices of teamwork and being open to meeting the dynamic conditions of a college campus.
3.2
What is the unit's ideal future and why is it desirable to ARC? How will the unit's aspirations support accomplishment of the mission, improve institutional effectiveness, and/or increase academic quality?
The Operations department ideal future is to improve on all current responsibilities and services of the department. Operations works in the background, but is directly responsible for the look, feel and health of the campus. It is desirable to the campus to have a well-organized, efficient Operations department to present a desirable campus to the community. Operations is responsible for providing clean, safe and presentable facilities that allow faculty and staff to provide academically rich, inclusive learning environments to the community.
Operations’ ideal future is to be able to provide superior customer service, accommodate all campus needs, improve all facilities and create a more sustainable campus.
4
Strategic Enhancement
4.1
Identify/define one or more program-level objectives which enhance the unit's effectiveness. What does your unit intend to do to work towards its ideal future? How will success be measured?
Restructuring the department is an objective that has been addressed and is ongoing; this objective has dramatically increased the department’s effectiveness along with the objective to relocate into one location which has been achieved. These two objectives have increased efficiencies and have produced favorable outcomes in our ability to accommodate and resolve issues for the campus.
To continue working toward our future goals and objectives, we will continue to campaign for additional changes that will help produce efficiencies. Our main goals for the future will be to improve campus appearance and functionality. We will measure our success through project completion and internal checks and balances of response time.
4.2
How will the unit's intended enhancements support ARC's commitment to social justice and equity?
Operations is continuously working with the campus and updated laws/regulations to provide facilities that meet the requirements of the current age. We will continue to do our part in assisting with facility reservations to hold events, update facilities as new programs start up, and provide equitable practices to the campus and our department.