Columbia College Selected to Participate in BRIC TAP

Columbia College has been selected as one of 15 California Community Colleges to be invited to participate in the Bridging Research, Information, and Cultures (BRIC) Initiative Technical Assistance Program (BRIC TAP). According to The RP Group (The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges) who made the selections, the process was highly competitive.

The purpose of the BRIC Initiative is to strengthen inquiry-based practice and build cultures of evidence at the California Community Colleges in order to enhance student success and facilitate goal attainment.  During the 2010-2011 academic year, Columbia College, one of the 112 California Community Colleges and one among  the fifteen colleges chosen to participate, will benefit from the Technical Assistance Program by receiving an organizational needs assessment, professional development training, and customized data facilitation and coaching interventions. This support will be provided by the BRIC TAP Lead Team - comprised of faculty members, researchers, and student services professionals with a broad collection of expertise in using information to inform planning, enabling student success, and building institutional effectiveness.  Dr. Alexandra Campbell, Director of Institutional Research and Planning at Columbia College is delighted, “We are eagerly looking forward to working with top experts in the fields of institutional research and student learning outcomes assessment. The BRIC TAP project will help Columbia College to move forward in enhancing our culture of evidence. This is just the perfect time with accreditation clipping at our heels.”

One way that colleges can meet the challenge of balancing reduced higher education funding in California with the mission of providing education to a diverse student population is to strengthen their ability to gather and analyze information about what works and what doesn't, and to use this analysis as the basis for planning at the classroom, program, and institution level.  “With the limited resources available to Columbia College at this time, this is just one more way that the Development Office is doing its part to assist the College in being effective and obtaining external resources,” Beccie Michael, Director of Development.  The BRIC Initiative is funded by a two-year grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

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Coni M. Chavez
Executive Assistant to the President
Columbia College
11600 Columbia College Drive
Sonora, CA 95370
(209) 588-5115 • (209) 588-5161 fax
chavezc@yosemite.edu