Planning and Managing Change at the College of Southern Maryland

"A Framework for Leading Change Through the Lens of Student Success" is the title of this League for Innovation Learning Abstract. In it, Irvin Clark III, Jody Simpson, Charlene Newkirk, and Debra Wyvill describe how the College of Southern Maryland used Kotter's eight stage process in the planning for and creation of its Learning Communities Program.

Achieving a fall-to-spring retention rate of over 81 percent for learning community participants was just one of several successful outcomes that provided an impetus to our efforts. This retention rate was instrumental in allowing SEMC to establish itself and champion the success of the LPC. The subcommittee sought to illustrate to the college community the positive impact of the program in such areas as student retention, collaboration between academic and student affairs, curriculum development, outcomes assessment, and budget development. This was accomplished, in part, through presentations, reports, and marketing literature. In particular, we presented at two conferences and several collegewide committee meetings. We also worked with institutional research to develop a comprehensive report, and created marketing literature highlighting the success of the LPC. Furthermore, our focus on promoting a culture of communication, transparency, and assessment allowed us to successfully articulate the effectiveness of the program within the organizational culture of CSM.

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA