Transforming The Institution from the Inside: Creating the Brave New Community College of the Future

With rising and wide spread expectations that commu-nity colleges will become stronger forces throughout the nation, the stage is now set for these institutions to become even bigger players in the landscape of higher education, economic development and social justice by helping to create a more inclusive, well-educated and engaged citizenry. This article looks inward at what com-munity college leaders, faculty and student services pro-fessionals need to do to transform their institutions into colleges that are truly ready to meet these rapidly grow-ing expectations and to be able to take full advantage of these new opportunities. Four key areas at the institution-al level are discussed that must be addressed in order for community colleges to make substantial and necessary improvements in student learning and development. These include: (1) expanding the definition and under-standing of what leads to student learning and success; (2) realigning and tightly coupling every function and activity at the college to better support student learning and success; (3) confronting the myth that community colleges are innovative and flexible institutions; and (4) instituting a new kind of leadership that is focused firmly on improving student learning and success. There are enormous opportunities waiting for community colleges that will require dramatic transformation and change throughout the organization

Leadership, Change and the Future of Community Colleges

The mantra we continuously heard throughout the fall 2008 political campaigns was the need for change, a term that has become synonymous with a better future and the avenue to prosperity. Nowhere does the change narrative ring louder and truer than at the community college. Many of us who have spent our careers in community colleges realize that our institutions, like our local, state and federal governments, must undergo significant change in order to stay viable in the future. However, just like our government and political leaders, there is a very large gap between what community college leaders say they need to do to prepare their colleges for the future, and what actually is done. Clearly, it is time for us to get beyond all the rhetoric and begin to act

Moving Past Disconnected Hurdles: Empowering Graduate Students to Affect Positive Change Through the Thesis and Dissertation Experience

This article argues for the need to significantly adjust the process and focus of the educational thesis and dissertation to better match the preparation and needs of students who are practitioners in order to help these students become stronger and better educators and leaders. To that end, the article presents innovative approaches to improve experiences for graduate students who are developing, conducting and completing master’s degree theses and doctoral dissertations in the field of education. The vast majority of students who pursue master’s or doctoral degrees in education do not intend to become researchers or university faculty.  Rather, most of these students are looking to improve their skills as teachers and educational leaders, and will likely never conduct a major research effort beyond the thesis or dissertation.  While these students have a great deal of practical experience in their field, most of them have had little or no exposure to graduate level research, scholarly literature or academic writing.  Recognizing that research skills including data collection and analysis, and academic writing are essential skills for all graduate students including those in educational programs, these skills alone are inadequate in preparing educators for the realities they face as they work to conduct multi-tiered and multi-faceted research that will affect positive change and contribute to the field to improve overall student success. For many of these students the thesis and dissertation, while a significant requirement for the degree, are viewed as major “hurdles” that are too often disconnected from the realities and complexities of the classroom and administrative office.  Appropriate theoretical and conceptual frameworks are used to examine how the educational thesis and dissertation process can be improved to better serve the needs of educational practitioners.  This includes the use of Role AcquisitionTheory (Thornton & Nardi, 1975) to examine and help facilitate the intrinsic change process in graduate students in education during the thesis and dissertation process. Transformative Learning Framework (Cranton, 2016) is used to better understand and advance developmental changes and scaffolding that are necessary to examine problematic frames of reference, openly reflect, and to emotionally change from the experience. The Loss/Momentum Framework (RP Group, 2012) is used in two separate ways; first to scrutinize specific institutional barriers and supports that exist in graduate and doctoral programs in education as well throughout the university that influence the process of completing the thesis and dissertation.  Second, it is used to identify and examine individual characteristics, skills, and attributes of these students that serve as either barriers or assets to completing a meaningful thesis or dissertation. Practical recommendations for improving the educational thesis and dissertation process are provided, and mentoring and strategic coaching approaches discussed

Navigating Multiple Worlds: A Qualitative Study of the Lived Experiences of Hmong Women Leaders

This article presents the findings from a narrative study that examined the leadership development and pathways of nine prominent Hmong American women leaders from Minnesota and California. Each of these women was able to break through the cultural and gender glass ceiling to become positional and influential leaders in mainstream American society. The study focused on the factors that contributed to the participants leadership development; strategies used in attaining and maintaining leadership roles; and barriers each participant encountered on her path to becoming a leader. Important findings included the impact of poverty, the prominent role of education, inner strength the women possessed, importance of networking and support systems, and strong role models. Other factors included familial responsibilities, gender disparities, racism and ageism. The conceptual frameworks of Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger and Tarule (1986), and Alon and Higgins (2005), were utilized to guide the analysis and presentation of each participants life journey, and show the intersections between culture and feminist epistemology. The narrative case study approach included in-depth interviews, collective story mapping and re-narration techniques to explore the lives of these women leaders. One overarching goal of the study and this article is to create a greater understanding of complex issues and impediments associated with leadership development, with the hope of beginning a dialog that will help facilitate policy changes regarding developing and supporting minority women in leadership roles

Research on Access and Success of Under-Represented Groups in the Geosciences

The geosciences as an allied group of fields touch virtually all aspects of the human enterprise: locating and providing water, energy and mineral resources; assuring a safe and resilient environment for civilization; and providing an understanding of how the Earth system functions today, in the past and into the future. Given how the geosciences touch the lives of all people, it should also be a field that is representative of all people, but this is not yet the case. Especially with the global importance of the geosciences growing and the geoscience workforce projected to encounter shortfalls of qualified practitioners in the coming decades, it is imperative that the geoscience education research community frame and investigate central questions that can help increase the diversity of the geosciences at all levels. We must find ways to attract all kinds of students, especially those from under-represented groups to our sciences and build programs, experiences and careers in which they thrive. The research challenges proposed in this chapter focus on two essential and interdependent perspectives (1) the point of view of the individual students, faculty and professionals as they manage their own internal balance of identities as they traverse curricula, programs and career pathways, and (2) a view that captures system-wide interactions around the individuals at all stages, including family, culture, department, university and society

From Punishment to Treatment: A Providers’ Perspective on the Implementation of 2009 Rockefeller Drug Law Reforms in New York

Background: In 2009, New York reformed its “Rockefeller Drug Laws”, terminating mandatory imprisonment for many drug charges and expanding the availability of treatment alternatives to incarceration. The reforms occurred in an environment characterized by high incarceration rates, racial/ethnic disparities in drug convictions and incarceration rates, and expanded use of alternatives to incarceration. Early administrative data show a large impact on the criminal justice system. Few studies have considered the reforms from the providers’ perspective and none have sought to understand how providers are experiencing the reforms in their everyday practice. Methods: To provide a providers’ perspective, we use a qualitative, case-study approach entailing in-depth interviews with drug treatment program leaders and staff in six of the leading New York City drug programs, all with extensive experience treating court-mandated clients. Our goal was to assess treatment providers’ experiences during the reforms’ first years in effect. Results: The providers’ reports indicate that no new administrative structures or processes have been developed to foster a changed relationship between the treatment system and the criminal justice system; that the reforms failed to establish an enhanced role for treatment providers in the courts; and that client assessment, decisions on choice of treatment modalities, and program length for mandated clients continue to be dominated by criminal justice rather than clinical concerns. The providers also report some improvements in their communications and relationships with court employees involved in court-mandated cases. Conclusion: Despite some positive changes, implementation issues are potentially limiting the reforms’ ability to capitalize fully on the potential cost-savings and improvements in public health and safety that can result from the appropriate use of drug treatment as an alternative to incarceration. What appears to be occurring alongside the evolving shift from punishment to treatment under the terms of the reforms is a growing demand for treatment providers to meet the requirements of the powerful criminal justice system

Methylation detection oligonucleotide microarray analysis: a high-resolution method for detection of CpG island methylation

Methylation of CpG islands associated with genes can affect the expression of the proximal gene, and methylation of non-associated CpG islands correlates to genomic instability. This epigenetic modification has been shown to be important in many pathologies, from development and disease to cancer. We report the development of a novel high-resolution microarray that detects the methylation status of over 25 000 CpG islands in the human genome. Experiments were performed to demonstrate low system noise in the methodology and that the array probes have a high signal to noise ratio. Methylation measurements between different cell lines were validated demonstrating the accuracy of measurement. We then identified alterations in CpG islands, both those associated with gene promoters, as well as non-promoter-associated islands in a set of breast and ovarian tumors. We demonstrate that this methodology accurately identifies methylation profiles in cancer and in principle it can differentiate any CpG methylation alterations and can be adapted to analyze other species

Methylation detection oligonucleotide microarray analysis: a high-resolution method for detection of CpG island methylation

Methylation of CpG islands associated with genes can affect the expression of the proximal gene, and methylation of non-associated CpG islands correlates to genomic instability. This epigenetic modification has been shown to be important in many pathologies, from development and disease to cancer. We report the development of a novel high-resolution microarray that detects the methylation status of over 25 000 CpG islands in the human genome. Experiments were performed to demonstrate low system noise in the methodology and that the array probes have a high signal to noise ratio. Methylation measurements between different cell lines were validated demonstrating the accuracy of measurement. We then identified alterations in CpG islands, both those associated with gene promoters, as well as non-promoter-associated islands in a set of breast and ovarian tumors. We demonstrate that this methodology accurately identifies methylation profiles in cancer and in principle it can differentiate any CpG methylation alterations and can be adapted to analyze other species

Evidence for the adaptation of protein pH-dependence to subcellular pH

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The availability of genome sequences, and inferred protein coding genes, has led to several proteome-wide studies of isoelectric points. Generally, isoelectric points are distributed following variations on a biomodal theme that originates from the predominant acid and base amino acid sidechain pKas. The relative populations of the peaks in such distributions may correlate with environment, either for a whole organism or for subcellular compartments. There is also a tendency for isoelectric points averaged over a subcellular location to not coincide with the local pH, which could be related to solubility. We now calculate the correlation of other pH-dependent properties, calculated from 3D structure, with subcellular pH.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For proteins with known structure and subcellular annotation, the predicted pH at which a protein is most stable, averaged over a location, gives a significantly better correlation with subcellular pH than does isoelectric point. This observation relates to the cumulative properties of proteins, since maximal stability for individual proteins follows the bimodal isoelectric point distribution. Histidine residue location underlies the correlation, a conclusion that is tested against a background of proteins randomised with respect to this feature, and for which the observed correlation drops substantially.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There exists a constraint on protein pH-dependence, in relation to the local pH, that is manifested in the pKa distribution of histidine sub-proteomes. This is discussed in terms of protein stability, pH homeostasis, and fluctuations in proton concentration.</p

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) Mission Concept Study Final Report

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory, or HabEx, has been designed to be the Great Observatory of the 2030s. For the first time in human history, technologies have matured sufficiently to enable an affordable space-based telescope mission capable of discovering and characterizing Earthlike planets orbiting nearby bright sunlike stars in order to search for signs of habitability and biosignatures. Such a mission can also be equipped with instrumentation that will enable broad and exciting general astrophysics and planetary science not possible from current or planned facilities. HabEx is a space telescope with unique imaging and multi-object spectroscopic capabilities at wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet (UV) to near-IR. These capabilities allow for a broad suite of compelling science that cuts across the entire NASA astrophysics portfolio. HabEx has three primary science goals: (1) Seek out nearby worlds and explore their habitability; (2) Map out nearby planetary systems and understand the diversity of the worlds they contain; (3) Enable new explorations of astrophysical systems from our own solar system to external galaxies by extending our reach in the UV through near-IR. This Great Observatory science will be selected through a competed GO program, and will account for about 50% of the HabEx primary mission. The preferred HabEx architecture is a 4m, monolithic, off-axis telescope that is diffraction-limited at 0.4 microns and is in an L2 orbit. HabEx employs two starlight suppression systems: a coronagraph and a starshade, each with their own dedicated instrument