Interview with Stephen Peithman,  Public Information Officer ARC Community Relations Office    Back to ARC Institutional Report index

Office of Recruitment and Information’s basic charge is to deal with those potentially interested or have already shown interest in coming here. They are the outreach. Staff of 5-6. Go out to local schools but also to bring people onto the campus. Program for students in Middle School and High School who have college potential according to teachers and counselors but have barriers that might prevent them. Have an Academy every summer and try to catch them in the last two years of High School. Take classes in studying, time management, reading, writing, etc.  Bring back for reunions (refresher) courses during the year to keep them pointed in the right direction. Make them feel good about what they can do well and find answers through tutoring, etc.  Have to have something with a potential for fixing.

Middle School and High School students come on tours constantly. Go out to High School and Middle School classrooms and talk about college in general. Tailor the message according to the age and school. A lot of those kids don’t have a clue that there are options for them to go to college. Also want to get the message out to the parents for job market retraining. Go to career fairs, job fairs, etc. Awareness is important. Supports with printed materials, web services, etc. to help people understand the mission of the college.  A lot of misunderstanding about Community Colleges. Don’t understand this is really a college -- that you can transfer, that there are multiple missions: transfers, retraining, etc. Makes communication much more complex.  Also part of the district and have to balance communication issues for both.  Must coordinate messages. e.g. new registration system must say the same things at all colleges.

Recruitment Information people are also the intake place.  They have two information centers for students and visitors.  Students may not be comfortable asking questions and these stations are staffed by students where they may be willing to ask.

Each college has its service area, with lines drawn. Specific High School districts: Natomas, Grant, San Juan, Center.  Some crossover, such as Rancho Cordova coming to ARC more than CRC.

The Public Information Officer jobs are quite different at the different colleges. Needs have evolved differently. Organizational structures are different. Public Information Officer always reports directly to President. Not always responsible for publications. Resources are also different.  And priorities are different. At CRC the President spends a lot of time at local board meetings, Rotary clubs, etc. ARC’s President does that, but not to the same degree.  Public Information Officer in charge of external and internal communications.  Includes newsletters to employees, staff web site (Insider).  Becomes the default home page for staff.

Moving into accreditation issues now. Full tilt next year. First time being done on a district-wide level. Every six years normally. Much more efficient this way. Creating web site for employees and members of standards committees to review issues and express ideas (password protected).  Creating special letterhead.

Meet monthly with district Director of Communications, but do not report to her. Regularly discussing issues around PeopleSoft conversion.

Communication is so important and it’s a real challenge in such a large organization.  Can’t depend on people reading materials.  Especially students who are only on campus for a couple hours each week. Have to do six or seven things and hopefully one reaches them. Students don’t keep up addresses.

Articulation Council was intended to mesh programs between high school and college so that the correct courses have been taken.  Principals or Superintendents meet with key people in colleges. Lately have been addressing what colleges can do to help high schools. Allowed colleges to go out and become more proactive. Can call principals and suggest campus visits and topics.

If a business is interested in having classes taught for its employees, they make contact at the District level.

Community College is funded on student FTEs.  Dollar amount per FTE. Get that money the next year, if there is money.  Try to shoot for growth level that the state can afford to fund.  Could choose not to grow. Have to accept everyone who comes, but you don’t have to make classes available. To add students, must have room and instructors. Full-time instructors are fully occupied, so you need to find part-timers. And classrooms the right type for computer labs or chemistry labs.  Can you find the right professors who have the knowledge AND can teach?  Especially tough in ESL.  Could fill many more classes in ESL.

A portion of funding increases goes toward hiring full-time faculty. Add many every year, but it’s never enough. Only have to accept students who are able to benefit from instruction. Somewhat subjective, but cannot take severely handicapped students who cannot function at a college-level. If you don’t grow, inflation overtakes you. COLA is never sufficient.  Can lease facilities off-campus, but that has an expense attached to it. Funding is always an issue. General fund is parsed out to campuses based on enrollment. CRC got extra for awhile because it was small and growing.

Occupational programs (not normally transfer) all have advisory committees relevant to their profession. e.g. Intel and HP sit on IT advisor committees. They review the curriculum to make sure that what students are learning dovetails with what’s needed in the profession. Sometimes get approached by businesses whose employees need retraining. They come to ARC and attend classes. Initially employees, but over time training anyone looking for work at those businesses. The company provides equipment. Some company employees become ARC instructors and help train ARC faculty.  Relationship with New Car Dealers Association. Do training for Toyota dealerships.

Deans all do outreach. For example, the Director of Gerontology is always out talking to agencies, and state and not-for-profit organizations. Sponsor an Alzheimer’s Conference every year. Culinary program director knows every chef and restaurant owner in Sacramento. The Oak Café has a weekly salute to a local chef. Puts an extra demand on the faculty.  Helps the college in general.

Kirsten DuBray works with Foundation and campus events (like convocations and dedications).  Also works with alumni association and Patron’s Club.

Media relations and all calls to campus are routed through Public Information Officer.

Just signed a contract at Public Safety Training Center to train guards and police officers at Indian gaming sites.

District does advertising for enrollment, unless a program is unique to a specific college.

Marie (president) belongs to Chambers of Commerce and goes on a regular basis, as with local Rotary Club.  Maintains contacts with local school district superintendents. PE folks are big in going out and meeting with coaches. Had a speaker’s bureau which got too big. Offered several subjects to community groups (Rotary, Soroptomists) for instructors to go out and speak.

Annual basketball tournament (Hoop It Up) attracts kids form all over northern California.

Most activities are geared toward feeder high schools. Part of mission is to help those kids move ahead. ARC counselors go out there. Also have High School counselors work at ARC. They help with staffing problems in the evenings.  Then they go back to their own High Schools fully informed about ARC. Parents also do not understand the concept of a 2-year school.  Many of them never experienced a Community College growing up. A lot of students would get lost at CSU or UC (not sure what they want to do or not mature enough) and a Community College has more services and support for that kind of student. Small class sizes and instructors who are professors in lower divisions is a big benefit.  Counselors can explain that when they go back to their High Schools. The Articulation Council helps that too.

Annual High School Articulation Day (March) brings in all career and academic counselors and helps them understand the Community College. Over 100 attend.

Bond Issue: Cannot advocate anything. Can ask them to vote and can provide information. Brochures created by district. Campaign managed by Sacramento Chamber of Commerce.  Good news is 55% instead of 67%.  Better time for bond issue is presidential election.   Get on average one new building from the state every 10 years. Have to improve new facilities and add space.  Folsom Lake will be the last full scale college in the district. Too much infrastructure. Starting remote center in Natomas.  Shared with Natomas High School, public library, Natomas City Hall, CSUS. (The one in Placerville does a great job.) Could benefit High School students taking advanced placement classes.  Would allow growth beyond current rate, if they can find instructors. Would love to add more courses, but no space.

New PeopleSoft system will allow a waiting list. Now don’t know how many students would be interested in another section.  PeopleSoft was designed for a single university, not a multi-campus operation. Each campus has to be called a “career”.  Students cannot pick a “college”. Fear could lead to a drop in enrollment growth. Recently been growing 9-10% per year.