Reasons to Attend an ATF Meeting
Attending and participating in an ATF meeting allows faculty to influence, plan, and implement changes while ensuring adherence to statewide transfer policy. Additionally, ATF meetings allow for the development of strong relationships that result in the enrichment of curriculum and discipline responsiveness to changes.
Additionally, participation increases understanding among faculty from the various institutions as to the similarities and differences that exist among institutions. Faculty who attend meeting gain an opportunity to better understand each other thus allowing us to work together to better serve all of our students. Some examples of these differences might be things such as:
Accrediting agencies: While most of the institutions have regional
or national accreditation, some also have discipline specific
and/or program accrediting agencies they must report to. Examples include:
- Interior Design - Foundation for Interior Design Education Research (FIDER)
- Nursing – National League of Nursing Accreditation Commission (NLNAC)
- Dental Hygiene – American Dental Association
- Business Programs - Programs - Association of Collegiate
Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP)
Location: Some of the institutions are located in urban areas and attract their students from the surrounding community. Others are located in more rural settings. Often their students travel long distances and must schedule their studies accordingly. This can impact things such as scheduling and course offerings, use of online courses, etc. Rural schools might also face additional challenges in locating faculty especially in highly technical domains while urban schools may find themselves competing with each other for faculty in these specialized areas.
University and Community College Structures: While Maricopa has chosen to align its AGEC to ASU most of the other public institutions have created their own AGEC's to meet the needs of their students. These different AGEC's often reflect a difference in philosophies among the institutions. Other types of structural differences that might be noted are class sizes, scheduling of laboratories, use of TA's in place of faculty in certain types of classes, etc.
Size: Both in terms of the number of faculty and the number
of students. Size differences can impact things such as the
size of the program, the resources available to the program, and class
offerings.