Office of the President

January 26, 2005

Dear Dr. Glasper

The Maricopa Community Colleges District must have, as its primary mission, the achievement of two related goals: effectiveness of teaching and proficiency of learning. Every resource we develop, every service we offer, every expert decision we make must be tightly focused on improving the quality and accessibility of instruction and its delivery, and on maximizing learning for our students. Without this focus, we cannot serve our students and our communities. When appropriate systems are not in place to insure the delivery of effective teaching and learning, we lose our integrity and our credibility as an educational institution. This loss of public credibility leads to a reduced ability to attract students, superior teachers, and distinguished administrators. The inevitable consequence of this process is the loss of our reputation.

The Faculty Executive Council (FEC) has directed me to inform you of the faculty’s very deep concerns regarding the major systems breakdown last semester of Blackboard and Midas. When the colleges first decided to partner with ITS in centralizing the Blackboard and Midas systems, we expected that the most likely outcome would be an increased ability to successfully achieve our primary mission. We believed that ITS would provide more-than-adequate systems, procedures, tools, and qualified staff to maintain Blackboard and Midas in peak operating condition. We trusted that our computer-based instruction efforts now rested on a solid and reliable foundation.

Instead, and to our horror, the faculty was suddenly confronted with the catastrophic effects of an easily preventable systems failure. Much too late, we discovered that our trust had been misplaced and that immeasurable harm had been inflicted on our students’ educational experiences. The obvious failure of ITS to implement systems and procedures capable of reliably delivering the computer-based instruction essential to contemporary teaching and learning raises extremely serious questions about the degree to which MCCCD remains focused on its primary mission.

The trust that faculty once had in the competence and professionalism of ITS needs to be rebuilt. To this end, students and faculty must be assured that never again will our ability to reliably provide effective computer-based instruction be impaired.

Two years ago the Faculty Executive Council (FEC) requested that all district departments/programs undergo program review. At the FEC meeting of 1/11/2005, the Council voted unanimously to request that a program review of the district ITS services be implemented immediately. We look forward to participating in a review that will result in improved communication, services, and administration in the ITS department.

Respectfully,

Sandra Stuebner

2004-2005 President

Faculty Executive Council