RVR2 - Northern Illinois

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Observatory PASCAL
Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions 2nd PURE CDG Regional Visit Report (RVR 2) NTH ILLINOIS, USA 1st – 3rd February, 2010
Pascal Consultative Development Group: Ilpo Laitinen, Director of Research, City of Helsinki and Professor, University of Lapland Jose-Gines Mora, Professor, University of London Hans G. Schuetze, Professor, University of British Columbia Larry Swanson, Ph.D., Director, O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, University of Montana
1. Main Findings and Recommendations from First Visit The second visit of the CDG took place ten months after the first. The findings and suggestions of that first visit (see the first regional visit report, RVR1) http://pure-pascal.com/), are shortly summarized in the following: Essentially, five observations were made, followed by a number of comments and recommendations. The PURE team emphasized the following observations in their report after the first visit:  The region: Because of the close proximity to the major metropolitan area of Chicago, and the overlapping jurisdictions of many of the offices, authorities, institutions and NGOs concerned with regional planning and especially economic and labour market issues, it is difficult to determine exactly what the borders of the Northern Illinois region are.  Regional vision and partnership building: Only a few of the various public authorities, NGOs, associations and institutions engage in any systematic and long term regional planning. Whilst some of these entities have a working relationship with each other, they do not share a common vision and strategy for the economic development of the Northern Illinois region as a whole, nor do they work on the basis of data that are shared with and accessible to others. A common regional vision and clear development objectives are therefore absent, and co-operative working relationships are ambiguous, or at least not well formalized. Neither has the higher education sector significantly engaged in nor substantially contributed to that process.  The regional Higher Education (HE) system: Whereas the city of Chicago has several major private universities, four public universities, and seven community colleges (CCs), the HE sector in the northern region outside Chicago has only one state university, NIU, as well as 19 community colleges. There are also several private universities and a number of proprietary (for profit) HE institutions in the region, some of them institutions that offer programs at a distance. NIU and the CCs form an important asset of the region.  Northern Illinois University: Nothing in NIU’s mission statement points to its special role as a 'regional' university, even if NIU has a number of policies and mechanisms in place that emphasize regional responsibilities, outreach and cooperation (responsible for the collaboration with regional partners including CCs are the Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) and the Office of Community College Relations (OCCR) which are subsets within NIU Outreach). However, regional outreach and engagement efforts and activities are concentrated in a few offices and programs, and while the principle of a regional mandate is not challenged by the NIU leadership, neither is it wholeheartedly embraced across all the academic units within NIU.
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions  Collaboration with the regional Community Colleges: Formal collaboration between NIU and the community college sector is limited to a small number of locally delivered courses and degrees at three University Outreach Centers and eight community college campuses. In general, there was little contact and communication, especially between the top management of NIU and the CCs, and not a great deal of trust between them. Based on these observations, the PURE Team made a number of suggestions, which can be summarized as follows:  NIU’s leadership, especially the president and the administration, deans and individual faculty should demonstrate that regional engagement and networking with external partners is essential, in their interest, and part of NIU’s mission - not in conflict with the other main missions of NIU, research and academic teaching;  This regional engagement and commitment to regional development should be unambiguous and clearly visible (for example by making it part of the University’s Mission Statement and other policy documents) to other regional agents and institutions. There should be initiatives as a consequence of this engagement to engender trust and to motivate collaboration among the CCs as well as with other (potential) partners.  The CCs (and others such as the various regional agencies and authorities, local development officers, NGOs) should also be convinced that there is a lot to be gained by a closer working relationship among one another, with NIU and the other potential partners in the region in order not just to collaborate on ad hoc initiatives but also on a longer term vision and development goals for the region as a whole.  NIU, the CCs and the other regional partners should seek recognition and support for their newly established regional network and collaborate both with public authorities (in Springfield and Washington D.C.), the municipalities as well as the private and the voluntary sectors.  Together with the other regional partners, NIU should analyze the regional labour market and its development and dynamism and, on this basis, identify regional skill gaps, both existing and future. Based in part on this analysis, the partners should develop an overall educational plan for the region, primarily focusing on post-secondary education and training but including the high school system. 2. Progress since the First Visit NIU, and especially the VP for Administration and Outreach, the staff of the CGS and the Office for Community College Relations (OCCR), have worked very hard during the last ten months and were successful, at least partly, in reaching greater commitment regarding regional engagement and collaboration both from within NIU and from the regional CCs. Building on a collaborative session during the CDG’s first visit as well as a couple of follow-up meetings, the NIU project staff have identified three regional action projects. They have the objective of: a) Expanding access to the baccalaureate degree for AAS degree holders; b) Strengthening regional outreach to Latino audiences; and c) Turning data into information. Work on these projects is in different stages of progress. While the first has already been implemented for two fields of study (public safety and computer science), the second is just beginning (see below). With regard to the third, important clarifications about what is needed, and for which purpose, as well as information about the sources where the data needed might be found, are still in the very beginning stage (see further below under # 3). Besides these three action projects, CGS is planning to hold a regional Forum on educational outcomes in which the essential stakeholders will be invited to participate.
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions Comment The CDG was impressed with the progress made over the last ten months. The momentum that had been built up before and during the first CDG visit has been maintained and intensified. Particularly impressive was the unanimity of support for collaborating on the project from the college presidents, and the participating area community colleges, which came together during a full day’s meeting during the CDG’s second visit. All presidents emphasized why they saw the collaboration among each other and with NIU project as beneficial. They all noted the current dire condition of the area and national economies, the need for better education and training as a means of developing a better qualified workforce, and for better positioning the region economically in the future, acknowledging that education had to be at the center when trying to advance the region economically. NIU’s president and all college presidents stressed that, as neighboring educational institutions, they could not continue doing things as they had in the past. Resources and funding were becoming more constrained and it was increasingly necessary for educational providers to cooperate more fully in delivering the type of educational curriculum needed. Clearer pathways were needed to make it possible for students to proceed through their education by moving across levels and between institutions in the region. At the time of the first visit by the CDG, there had been little basis for trust between administrators at the Community Colleges and NIU. What’s more, there were almost no expectations by these administrators as to what might be achieved by the project that NIU had initiated. However, this has noticeably changed by the time of the second visit. Trust appears to be improving between the parties, and expectations have been raised considerably, as evidenced by the unanimity and outpouring of support shown by the college presidents. However, it must be noted that not all of the 19 colleges of the region were represented at the meeting, nor were all of the other regional agencies and NGOs represented (some of whom had been present at meetings during the first visit, for example the area economic development officers). An unresolved issue is the sharing of expenses for the ongoing activities. So far, all costs, except for staff time of the representatives of the CCs and other regional collaborators, have been borne by NIU and no consensus has been reached about a more equitable cost sharing arrangement. Clearly, as the cooperative process is advancing and involving more players on a regular basis, costs will have to be more evenly distributed among the partners, particularly as tasks are identified requiring more staff and resources. Also, the larger goals of the new collaboration project continue to be somewhat unclear, or not clearly understood by all parties. In particular, it continues to be somewhat vague or ambiguous to some key administrators. Because of this, it is possible that the various parties may have different expectations and objectives for the project. It is therefore important for project managers to work at clarifying the project’s substantive goals and communicating them to participating parties, while allowing for feedback and discussion. Regarding the three action projects, these seem to be engaging NIU and the CCs in an exchange and discussion on concrete themes. These projects are but pilots, and other themes will have to be identified in the future. That does not mean that the three are marginal. On the contrary: greater articulation and cooperation between NIU and the CCs was the main rationale for developing the BSAM (Bachelor of Science in Applied Management) degree that enables students receiving AAS (Associate of Arts in Science) degrees from regional CCs to proceed into a Bachelor degree completion program and transfer their AAS coursework into the BS degree program.
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions The second action project, increasing outreach to students with a Latino background (which, in the future, will also target other growing minority populations in the region) is also important for both NIU and the CCs. This outreach work however is so far not coordinated, although the various institutional coordinators have started to compare notes and discuss collaborative arrangements. Arguably the most challenging of the three project concerns the definition, collection and analysis of regional data. It is also a theme where new ground has to be broken with regard to collaboration and partnership, not just between NIU and the CCs but with other agencies and institutions as well. This will be discussed in further detail in the following section. 3. Regional Data One of the project groups that met during the February 2nd meeting discussed the issue of how to turn data on the region into information that could serve the purposes of the project. That however was a bit like taking the second step before the first, as the main difficulty seemed to be first to identify the research or policy question(s) to be addressed, and then to map the various types of data needed, their sources and availability. The principal questions are then: what types of data is out there (where?), who owns, analyzes and uses them, what additional data are needed, where can they be found, or how can they be collected? Comment We suggest that NIU undertake an inventory or identification of how each of the cooperating community colleges and NIU do their institutional planning, focusing on how regional job growth and skills needs may be considered in outreach and engagement activities and curriculum planning. If the goals of the project are ultimately tied to better serving workforce development and education needs in the region, how are these needs now being assessed and incorporated into institutional planning by the colleges? A part of this examination would be to determine what types of data on the region’s economy and workforce are included or referenced in current institutional planning. NIU should consult and work with college institutional planners on the types of regional data that could be used in this planning and how to use it, extending a common data set on the region’s economy, past and current job growth and change in the region, and regional demographic information and trends to all college institutional planning offices in the region. Having a common and credible set of data and information of this type will contribute to cooperation among educational institutions in their planning. Common data lead to common understandings and to perceptions of common needs and opportunities tied to regional economic growth and labor force adaptation through training and education. All of this will facilitate cooperative planning among the colleges in the region. We suggest that the following be included in a common regional economic information system:  annual data on local and area employment and labor income (wages, salaries, self-employment income) by major sector and sub-sector of the economy; compiled by individual counties and aggregated to sub-regional (multi-county groupings) and regional (all counties deemed part of the region) totals; as reported each year by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce.  monthly labor force and employment data reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); compiled for individual counties that could be aggregated to sub-regions and the region as a whole on a regular basis to keep academic planners and administrators in the region tuned into labor force conditions and trends (labor force characteristics, participation rates, unemployment levels, etc.).
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions  periodic occupational data reported for the U.S. economy as a whole and for individual states and some local areas, including study reports every two years that project both U.S. and state level job growth by detailed occupational categories (these data are important in planning for future job growth in the economy and taking this into consideration in curriculum planning for educational institutions with goals of serving job and economic growth needs at both regional and higher levels). The most recent national study done by BLS is for projected job and occupation growth for the period from 2008 to 2018. A state-level complement to this study is supposed to be completed by every state approximately one year later. So, the next one for Illinois covering the period from 2008 to 2018 should be completed by the state labor department next November or December.  annual data on population change by county that is also reported by component of population change (net migration versus natural change) and by age group; allowing college administrators and planners to have a common understanding of the region’s existing and emerging age demographics and population growth characteristics; helping to better understand the changing age profile of the region’s labor force and students (both are aging).  Census and periodic data on area economic well-being including data on poverty levels, median family and household incomes, per capita incomes, etc., compiled for individual counties, sub-regions, and the region as a whole (it is important to understand how area economic well-being is changing over time and to relate this to programs in workforce development and training and education more generally). All of the data above should be organized into an on-going and accessible data system that provides for regular updating each time new data in any of these categories become available. Out of these data and reporting from them, regional characteristics will be defined and identified as will regional conditions and trends, such as growth and decline of industries and jobs provided by them, and participation rates in education and employment. Well organized discussions around these data and questions can lead further to discussions of regional “needs” and “opportunities” and these can then be further related to questions of regional “positioning” – how do educational institutions in the region position themselves better both individually and in concert with one another to achieve best results in areas of workforce improvement and overall educational advancement for the region and their respective student populations? What is the region’s strategic orientation to change and to goals in area economic and workforce advancement and improvement? If collaboration among the region’s community colleges and NIU is to be sustained and expanded, a common regional identity must ultimately emerge among the institutions and their leadership. As this occurs, elements of a regional “vision” can begin to take shape in meaningful ways. And with both a regional identity and vision more fully in place, strategies for the region can be better articulated that extend across the full range of considerations involved in educational institutions better determining their respective and joint roles in regional economic advancement. 4. Regional Economic and Workforce Development The Northern Illinois region can be defined as the shared geography which links the primary service areas of NIU and the various neighbouring community colleges. However, defining a region strictly in terms of “proximity” gives little or no attention to the primary feature of regions making them so useful in grounding programming in areas of interest to this initiative, namely, workforce development, economic development, poverty alleviation, and regional learning. Meaningful regions are ones largely defined by a wide range of mutual interdependencies that exist among people, businesses, governments, and institutions that operate within certain common geographic bounds. These are the “ties that bind” a region together and give it meaning. And they are the ties upon which a foundation of inter-cooperation between people, businesses, governments, and institutions within the region can be built1.
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions As most regions have different problems and needs and different strengths and weaknesses, in order for workforce development and economic development policy and programming to be successful, they must account for these regional variations. Workforce and economic development strategies can therefore not be of the “one-size-fits-all” kind but must be “customized” for particular regions and this takes considerable attention and work. These tenets and principles also apply to NIU and its neighbouring community colleges - in their collaboration on plans and programs across institutions aimed at attaining regional objectives with regard to skills enhancement among the area’s workforce, poverty alleviation among the area’s residents, and regional learning among the area’s population, communities, businesses, and public and private leadership. Regional engagement of any type is best pursued by designing and embarking on a long, sustained analysis and exploration of a region’s identity: who are we? - what are we? - what are our key features and characteristics? - how are we changing? - what are our problems? - what are our strengths? - what do we want to become in the future? For this type of investigation and exploration, NIU, in leading this initiative, will have to work hard to make sure the short-term goals of this initiative attainable, and also to sustain this collaboration among institutions over the long term. Workforce development and economic development more generally are not a “project”; they can only be at best a sustained on-going process, a continual work in progress, because economic development is not ever truly attained, it can only be pursued. NIU and area community colleges can form a partnership in this endeavor that is mutually beneficial, but also mutually sustaining, and becomes built into the institutional fiber of these institutions. One of the biggest challenges for these higher education institutions (HEIs) in this endeavor stems from the nature of the Northern Illinois region itself as an important “periphery region” of Chicago. This periphery region should be studied and analyzed in terms of its long-term usefulness as a planning unit or region for some workforce development and economic development programming that is interfaced with HEI educational programming and curriculum. This “region” then becomes the “subject” of this HEI collaboration, with goals and needs specified in relation to this region. A “vision” for where this region can go in the future needs to be gradually formed and articulated. Strategies for pursuing aspects of this vision then need to be formulated –strategies that explicitly reflect important characteristics of the region, how it works and operates, and how it is changing. 5. Future Challenges and Options for the Region: The Role of Learning While the discussions on regional human resources needs often tend to focus on perceived skill gaps or concrete but mostly short term action plans, it is important to note that ‘development’ connotes a broader and a longer term dimension. It is therefore prerequisite to link the short-term debate to the question of how future challenges can be met, taking into account the present situation, past developments, and the result of discussions about possible and desirable future scenarios. As knowledge and innovation will be key ingredients of sound economic and social development, the role of learning will be central. We suggest that a few learning models can provide a sense of direction and meaning, as well as a longer term perspective of what is needed, what needs to be done, and how. Repeatedly mentioned in the discussion during our meetings, three concepts all of which are centered on ‘learning,’ will have importance for future developments of the region and its people: learning regions, network learning, and lifelong learning. ‘Learning regions’ is a concept based on the notion that regions are becoming the focal point for knowledge creation and utilization in the emerging age of global production and knowledge-intensive innovation. It is the regions that function as collectors and repositories of ideas and knowledge and provide the environment and infrastructure necessary for the flow of data, information and knowledge.
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions Learning, both individual and collective, is central to this concept. In this understanding which is also called by other terms such as ‘regional innovation systems’, institutions of formal learning (especially all types of education institutions ranging from pre-schools and schools to colleges and universities) play a crucial (even if not the only) role. For regions like Northern Illinois, which are at the periphery of a large and dominant centre, closely linked with and in some ways dependent on this centre, the idea of a ‘learning region’ seems, at first glance, less applicable than in other regions where the node or hub is located within the region. Nonetheless, as shown above when discussing the importance of regional data, the Northern Illinois region is not just a contributory or a mere suburb to Chicago. It has therefore a development of its own which is partly dependent on how the region organizes itself. Especially in this region with no central agency responsible for regional and economic planning, the various agents must get together to agree on coordination, information-sharing and other collaborative arrangements. Network learning: Learning is increasingly based on complex, heterogeneous networks that, in addition to individuals, comprise various tools and methods of providing information. These networks are represented by computer-supported collaborative learning and collaborative building environments. Many post-secondary education institutions (among them NIU) recognize the importance of electronic learning platforms and value and prioritize their development in interesting ways. But the challenge is now to understand the platforms as an opportunity to analyze and then harmonize differences in methods of instruction and learning, the quality of teaching, and learning outcomes. For the various educational institutions in the region, especially NIU and the community colleges which have hitherto defined standards of quality, teaching and evaluation methods, and curricular design questions mainly on their own, network learning provides a platform that makes greater transparency and coordination possible. There are many questions with regard to the regional mission of the regional education and learning institutions that must be addressed jointly by NIU, the community colleges, other education and training providers on the one hand, and the private sector and public agents responsible for labour market and economic policies, on the other. With regard to the former, the following questions are pertinent. How do different units of NIU and the community colleges of the region define their roles and significance of their own educational mission as linked to the region and as part of the overall mission of the regional learning enterprise? How are the diplomas and degrees made into meaningful wholes, and how are their successive and cumulative nature taken into account? How are research and teaching interlinked? How are lifelong learning and labour markets taken into account in the curriculum? A useful parallel to what is needed and how it can be done, although on a much different scale, is perhaps the process of the Bologna process in Europe (see Appendix 2). Lifelong Learning is another major concept that has come to the fore (again) as both an organizational principle and a philosophy about what life and learning are all about. The organizational principle relates to two tenets, first, that learning should not be confined to the ‘formative’ (young) years of a person’s life but spread out over the person’s entire life span; and secondly, that it should be recognized that people do not learn in schools (college, etc) alone but learning takes place in many other settings as well – with the consequence that knowledge acquired in the so-called ‘non-formal’ system of learning should also be validated and accredited. With regard to the more philosophical side of lifelong learning, there are different opinions on the question whether education should serve clearly defined purposes, including for well-defined skill training, or whether learning has other important functions for the individual and society. The idea that the formal education systems must be re-organized to accommodate lifelong learners, and also that learning in informal settings (such as the workplace) should be recognized and validated, has been widely accepted, at least in principle, even if its implementation is still lagging, especially in universities. Thus, for example, continuing education has been for a long time the poor cousin of the
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions ‘regular’ initial education programs (with the exception of well paying programs for professionals who need regular updating), and university programs for seniors are an exception. The same holds true for recognition and credit for prior learning. These and related concepts have the potential of changing the ways the various regional stakeholders and agents become better connected with each other and involved in longer term regional development. In the case of the formal education institutions, they will foster understanding of the role of education and training beyond mere job training or professional preparation. Preparation for skill requirements by the labor market and society are, however, of utmost importance. When planning curricula and modes of delivery and learning, different sets of skills must be distinguished and taken into account. Especially higher education graduates face the challenge of changing contexts of work and skill requirements for which a traditional technical and professional education is insufficient and from whom, besides professional expertise, additional kinds of competencies and attitudes are required, such as functional flexibility, innovation and knowledge management, and the ability to motivate themselves and other workers (see Appendix 3). 6. Planning the Future Our visits and the two reports were part of the PURE project. In a formal sense, the involvement of the visiting team comes now to an end, even if discussions with other PURE regions and experts continue. However, for the region and for NIU and its partners, the process has just begun and needs further engagement, additional resources, and continuous momentum. Regional engagement and collaboration with others, and the building of networks and partnerships, require determination, resources, sound management and people skills, and a long term perspective. The field of societal interaction is comprehensive and region-wide and therefore a challenge for the university. University strategy for these activities is still emerging. NIU has set overarching goals for interaction but many of these have so far not resulted in concrete initiatives. Having said this, the CDG is aware that the context for work in Northern Illinois is complex, and a subtle balance is to be achieved in regard to acknowledging the complexities of the region and getting on with the work, regardless of the difficulties to find community partners and motivate them to cooperate more closely in the future. We are impressed with the work initiated and the progress made in a very short time. However, we are concerned about the sustainability of this project. Even if NIU has initiated it, there seems not yet to be sufficient acceptance and support from senior management and faculty. So far, the ‘visioning’ and the work have been done by a few people in two or three offices only, without much involvement from the top administrators, with the sole exception of the one who has been instrumental in getting the project started. Although several community college presidents have endorsed the initiative, others are still standing on the sidelines. Moreover, even those community colleges who have started to get involved have so far not indicated their willingness to share the costs. For the project to become sustainable, ownership has to be broadened and shared between the various partners, even if NIU should continue providing leadership. Interest in and support for this initiative have to be solicited from politicians, mayors, CEOs of private companies in the region, leaders from the private education institutions that are located or operate in the region, and the various private training providers. In order to motivate other potential partners to participate actively in the project there must be something in it for them. This necessitates setting forth clear objectives and benchmarks for the project, and identifying concrete collaborative projects.
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions Heartened by what has already been accomplished in very little time, in spite of minimal resources and little support, we believe that this initiative is challenging yet doable. It is a significant first step in the direction of a long term engagement with the region. 7. Suggestions based on our Observations and Discussions Most of our suggestions for the future of this collaborative project follow from what has already been said. In brief, they concern the following points:  Besides building up trust among the future partners in the importance of the initiative and the sincerity of NIU’s engagement, the most urgent next step is to further concretize the objectives and benchmarks of the project.  While discussing future development options and desirable futures for the region, work on smaller but concrete ‘action projects’ is important. The three sub-projects identified so far are a good start. and two of them are well under way.  The third project (‘turning data into information’) needs considerably more work both with regard to the concept and field work. As NIU has no academic unit concerned with regional planning and therefore no experts of their own in this field, progress will crucially depend on finding such expertise from among the partners or other institutions or agencies. However, NIU would be well advised to create a chair and program in local and regional planning which would be able to provide expertise of their own and, at the same time, train future planners who are familiar with the region.  In the meantime, and as a first step, to work on a more permanent regional data bank on students and human resources, NIU should bring together its own institutional research staff and those of the various regional community colleges to compare the different data used in their own institutional planning. Such a regional (postsecondary) data bank would serve several purposes. For example, these data could form the basis for co-op programs and for exchanges with other educational institutions outside the region, both in North America and abroad.  The leaders of NIU and the community colleges, as well as other partners, should either individually or jointly solicit support for this collaborative initiative via the political representatives of the region on the state and federal government level. They should also use their contacts with other educational institutions and NGOs, the various government and municipal offices operating in the region, as well as business, to bring them on board in order to broaden and strengthen the basis of the initiative.  NIU should also strengthen, through its own funding and reward system, programs and activities that reach out to and engage regional partners and groups. Examples are community-based research and service teaching, and a wide system of co-operative education, not just for engineering students but also for students from all other fields of study. Where possible and meaningful, these activities should include the community colleges and other regional partners.
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions APPENDIX 1
Persons with whom the CDG met during the second visit:         Paul Crawford, Director, NIU Community College Relations Robert Gleeson, Director, NIU Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) Jennifer Groce, NIU PASCAL Coordinator Karen Hunter-Anderson, Vice President for Adult Education and Institutional Support, Illinois Community College Board Patricia Inman, PASCAL Associate Anne Kaplan, Vice President, NIU Administration and Outreach John Peters, President, Northern Illinois University Diana Robinson, Associate Director, CGS
Individuals attending the February 2nd PURE conference included:                                   Joe Baumann, Director, Institutional Research, McHenry County College Jack Becherer, President, Rock Valley College Marilyn Bellert, Associate Director, Center for P-20 Engagement, NIU Lourdes Blacksmith, Director, Federal and Cultural Relations, Waubonsee Community College Louise Blazquez, Coordinator, Student and Cultural Support, College of DuPage Brad Bond, Associate Dean, Graduate School, NIU Cheryl Bowser-Antonich, Associate Vice President, Academic Affairs, Triton College Annie Byrne, Planning and Programming, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning Amanda Carrier, Communications Specialist, NIU Virginia Cassidy, Vice President, Academic Planning & Development, NIU Thomas Choice, President, Kishwaukee College Maria Coons, Interim Vice President, Enrollment and Marketing, Harper College Rena Cotsones, Assistant Vice President, Regional Engagement/Rockford, NIU Carol Cowles, Dean, Student Services, Elgin Community College. Paul Crawford, Director, Community College Relations, NIU Katie Davison, Research Associate, Center for Governmental Studies, NIU Stephanie DeCicco, Assistant Vice President, University Transfer, College of Lake County Mary Kay Devine, Workforce Development, Women Employed Rose Di Gerlando, Assistant Vice President, Teaching, Learning and Student Development, Elgin Community College Doug Easterling, Director, Institutional Research, Harper College Ricardo Estrada, Vice President, Educational Programs, Instituto del Progresso Latino Pat Fera, Manager, Will County Workforce Investment Board Jim Filipek, Coordinator, Welding and Manufacturing Programs, College of DuPage Glenda Gallisath, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, College of DuPage Elena Gardea, Outreach Recruitment Coordinator, Elgin Community College Robert Gleeson, Director, Center for Governmental Studies, NIU Bob George, Research Fellow, University of Chicago Jennifer Groce, Research Associate, NIU David Hanson, Managing Director, Workforce Development Rich Haney, Vice President, Educational Affairs, College of Lake County John Holderfield, Research Analyst, Oakton Community College Rich Holly, Dean, Visual and Performing Arts, NIU Karen Hunter-Anderson, Vice President, Adult Education and Institutional Support, Illinois Community College Board Patricia Inman, PASCAL Associate, NIU http://www.obs-pascal.com/ 
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions                                         Paul Jensen, Dean, Continuing Education, Triton College Elaine Johnson, Vice President, Academic Affairs and Workforce Development, Illinois Community College Board Anne Kaplan, Vice President, Administration and University Outreach, NIU Keiko Kimura, Dean, Academic Enrichment and Language Studies, Harper College Anissa Kuhar, Project Manager, Outreach Communications, NIU Marco Lenis, Latino Business Consultant, NIU Amy Maxeiner, Dean, Education, McHenry County College Tony Miksa, Vice President, Academic and Student Affairs, McHenry County College Luis Moreno, Dean, Student Services, Sauk Valley Community College Diane Nyhammer, Vice President, Academic Affairs/CAO, Rock Valley College Geoff Obrzut, President and CEO, Illinois Community College Board Sheryl Otto, Associate Vice President, Student Affairs, Harper College Scott Parke, Senior Director, Research and Policy Studies, Illinois Community College Board Rick Pearce, Vice President, Learning and Student Development, Illinois Valley Community College John Peters, President, NIU Mark Podemski, Vice President for Development, Rockford Area Economic Development Council Emily Prieto, Director, Latino Resource Center, NIU Deyci Ramirez, Admissions Counselor, NIU Jane Regnier, Assistant Vice President, Program Development & Distance Learning, Waubonsee Community College Cindy Rice, Assistant Professor, Early Childhood Education and Care, College of DuPage Shirley Richmond, Dean, Health and Human Sciences, NIU Diana Robinson, Associate Director, Center for Governmental Studies, NIU Michelle Roman, Director, Multicultural Student Affairs, Joliet Junior College Rodolfo Ruiz-Velasco, Student Development Specialist/Latino Alliance Advisory, College of Lake County Ana Salgado, Cross-Cultural Coordinator, Sauk Valley Community College Normah Salleh-Barone, Assistant Vice President, Academic and Student Affairs, McHenry County College David Sam, President, Elgin Community College Earl Seaver, Vice Provost, NIU Christine Sobek, President, Waubonsee Community College Bob Sompolski, Chair, Mathematics and Computer Science, Oakton Community College Karen Stewart, Vice President, Quality and Strategic Development, Waubonsee Community College Meryl Sussman, Director, Undergraduate Programs for Adults, NIU Flecia Thomas, Dean, Student Success, McHenry County College Jennifer Timmons, Senior Director, Student Development, Illinois Community College Board Steve Ullrick, Vice President, Student Services, Kishwaukee College Norm Walzer, Senior Research Scholar, Center for Governmental Studies, NIU Hilary Ward Schnadt, Associate Dean, Academic Services and Programs, University Center of Lake County Lemuel Watson, Executive Director, Center for P-20 Engagement, NIU Jill Wold, Assistant Vice President, Instruction, Waubonsee Community College Ken Zehnder, Director, State and Local Relations, NIU
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions APPENDIX 2 The Bologna Process Since 1999, ministers responsible for higher education in European countries (members and non members of the European Union) have been acting as a standing body in charge of the so-called Bologna Process. The process aims the establishment of a European Area of Higher Education (EHEA) to bring about a greater degree of “convergence” i.e. common reference points and operating procedures. Since 1999, biennial ministerial conferences have expanded the process, adding new policy areas and including new countries (47 in 2010, from Lisbon to Vladivostok, from Reykjavik to Ankara). The Bologna Follow-Up Group, composed of representatives from each signatory country and from the main university organizations operating at European level (such as universities, teacher and students associations, other international organization such as UNESCO, Council of Europe and the EC), is acting as the coordinator of the process between biannual Ministers’ meetings, organizing activities, preparing documents on each specific theme approached by the process, and, finally, drafting the communiqué approved by Ministers each two years. The Bologna Process has become the most important and wide-ranging reform of higher education in Europe since nineteenth century. As an American observer (Clifford Adelman, 2008) stated the objective is to: “…bring down education borders in the same way that economic borders had been dissolved. That means harmonization, not standardization. When these national higher education systems work with the same reference points they produce a “zone of mutual trust” that permits recognition of credentials across borders and significant international mobility for their students. Everyone is singing in the same key, though not necessarily with the same tune. In terms reaching across geography and languages, let alone in terms of turning ancient higher education systems on their heads, the Bologna Process is the most far reaching and ambitious reform of higher education ever undertaken. This area should facilitate mobility of people, transparency and recognition of qualification, quality and European dimension in higher education, as well as attractiveness of European institutions for third country students.” More information: http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/Bologna/; http://www.luminafoundation.org/our_work/tuning/Q_and_A-Bologna_and_Tuning.html
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions APPENDIX 3
New Skills for New Jobs and for a New Society In recent years, a major trend has been identified that affects the demands that higher education graduates face. It is the increasing emphasis that has been placed on education and training, which is seen by many as the most important factor affecting economic growth. The term knowledge society has been coined to indicate not only the expansion of participation in higher education or of knowledge-intensive or hightechnology sectors of the economy, but rather a situation in which the characteristics of work organisations across the board change under influence of the increasing importance of knowledge. This has clear implications for the kinds of demands made of higher education graduates. At a general level, there are good reasons to believe that higher education graduates are expected to be more or less competent in at least the following four areas: Professional expertise: Many higher education graduates are expected to become experts in their professional field. Expertise implies, first and foremost, a high degree of mastery of the knowledge and skills that are relevant in one’s own domain of work. A second characteristic feature of experts is an ability to use this mastery to diagnose and solve complex problems in their own area of work. Finally, since experts are often expected to act as an authoritative consultant or advisor for others, they need to be able to command authority and act decisively in uncertain situations. Functional flexibility: The world of work is dynamic rather than static. Rapid developments in technology, markets, organisations and relevant knowledge make it necessary that higher education graduates are able to take up diverse challenges, many not directly related to their own field of expertise, and to quickly acquire new knowledge. Innovation and knowledge management: It is important to take account of the fact that such workers are often expected to do more than simply carry out a set of prescribed tasks. In many sectors of the economy, employers look to highly educated workers to provide ways of expanding and improving the way in which they provide goods and services. Mobilisation of human resources: higher education graduates are expected to have the ability to effectively mobilise their own competencies and actively steer and direct one’s own work as well as that of others. “Basic to the idea of a region is a high degree of correlation of behavior among its various parts. There are two basic kinds of regions: homogeneous regions or ones demarcated on the basis of internal uniformity and nodal regions. A nodal region has a structure like that of a living cell. There is a nucleus and a complementary peripheral area. Functional integration, rather than homogeneity, is the basis of the correlation or community of interest within such a region.” (Edgar Hoover, An Introduction to Regional Economics [1971]).
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