Hillsborough Community College (HCC) has assigned responsibility for program coordination, as well as for curriculum development and review, to persons academically qualified in the field. 

Program Coordination/Curriculum and Review

HCC Faculty hold the primary responsibility for curriculum development and review.  Fourteen faculty curriculum clusters exist, organized by curricular areas or concentration (Academic Affairs Handbook cluster summary table).  For each program or curricular area, the HCC Program/Faculty Assignment Table identifies the association between the respective program or curricular area and the faculty members.  Cluster chairs provide leadership in program coordination, as well as for curriculum development and review.  Cluster-recommended changes to the curriculum are deliberated by the Academic Affairs Committee (AAC). 

A flowchart of the Associate in Arts process appears below.  The expanded version appears in the Academic Affairs Handbook (AAC Flowchart )

Initiator → Faculty Curriculum Cluster Review → Technical Review →

Academic Affairs Committee  → Vice President of Education and Student Development/ Cabinet  →

President  → Board of Trustees

A description of the flowchart follows:

• The initiator submits a recommendation to one of the fourteen faculty curriculum clusters (Academic Affairs Handbook cluster summary table).
• The cluster reviews the proposal and votes for or against it.  Proposals approved by the cluster are moved forward to the AAC.  If the cluster votes against the proposal, the initiator may still submit it to the AAC.
• Prior to being reviewed by the AAC, the Technical Review Committee (TRC), which is made up of faculty, staff, and administrators, reviews the proposal for accuracy and alignment with state and institutional policy.  The TRC votes for or against moving the proposal forward to the AAC.  Proposals that are not approved by the TRC are sent back to the academic cluster for review and revision.
• The AAC, which is comprised of faculty representatives from each academic cluster, reviews proposals for appropriateness to our students and our institution.  The review focuses on a variety of elements such as curriculum alignment, student learning outcomes, program outcomes, institutional policy, state policy, student needs, and community needs.
• The AAC makes recommendations on the proposal to the Vice President of Education and Student Development, who makes recommendations in concert with Cabinet Leadership to the College President (President's Cabinet Meeting agenda)  If approved, the President makes the final recommendation to the Board of Trustees.  If disapproved, the recommendations are returned to Academic Affairs.
• Minutes of the AAC meetings provide a record of faculty approvals of programs (AAC Sample Meeting Minutes) and Board of Trustee meeting minutes provide a record of final approvals of programs (Sample Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes)

Hillsborough Community College's Faculty Curriculum Clusters function as the overall faculty model for assessing the quality of the curriculum and ensuring that the curriculum and its delivery is sound.  Faculty program managers provide additional support with program coordination, and they are academically qualified in the programs or curricular areas to which they are assigned.  For the Associate in Arts (AA) Program, each campus has one or more faculty program managers who are assigned to curricular areas that include disciplines in which they are academically qualified.  AA program managers provide leadership support in program delivery on each campus.

For many of the Occupational/ Technical programs, a program manager is assigned to provide leadership for assessing the quality and soundness of the curriculum.  For example, in the Health Sciences programs, faculty program managers take leadership in the College's response to accreditation reviews.

Also, each degree program and major as identified is affiliated with an academic director and deans.  The Director of Associate in Arts Programs works in concert with the associate in arts program deans to provide for AA program coordination.  The Director of Technical Programs works in concert with the occupational technical deans to provide for program coordination of all occupational-technical and health science programs. 

Discrepancy in the Documentation

With regard to the discrepancy noted in the comments from the Off-Site Committee, the Program Lead Contacts document was developed as an Associate in Science/ Associate in Applied Science reference document.  Because this document was designed as a program information guide, it included academic deans and support staff such as assistants to the deans, and professional/ managerial employees.  These personnel were not included in the Program/ Faculty Assignment Table, which was developed chiefly to identify the association between the respective program or curricular area and the faculty members.  It contains all faculty, including the faculty identified on the Program Lead Contacts document.

The deans and staff do provide administrative and staff support to the faculty with program coordination and delivery.  However, to clarify HCC’s response to this standard, the Program Lead Contacts document has been eliminated, and the Program/Faculty Assignment Table has been updated to include faculty members who serve as program managers.

The Catalog (HCC Catalog 2005-2006 - Faculty Section) becomes a static document at the time it is printed in April/ June of each year.  The Program/ Faculty Assignment Table is a dynamic document that includes faculty members who are hired after the catalog print date.  The table has been updated so that faculty members who were hired after the catalog print date are identified with an asterisk.

In summary, HCC has assigned responsibility for program coordination, as well as for curriculum development and review, to persons academically qualified in the field, and inconsistencies in the supporting documents have been resolved.