(Long post ahead)
It was a work trip.
Yes, tropical islands. More photos of enjoyment of the island to come. Hawaii to enjoy at the tail end of it. But it was, I swear, a work trip.
Some context: all institutions of higher education that receive monies from the US government (and that includes accepting student loan monies from students for such things as tuition) must undergo accreditation. Accreditation is important for how the peer review process assures a certain quality of education, to be sure. But that financial piece is perhaps key here.
Because there are so many institutions dispersed across such a huge area, there are regional bodies that handle accreditation. My own college is accredited by ACCJC, which is responsible primarily for two-year schools in California. Not exclusively this state, though. ACCJC certifies institutions in Hawaii and the outlying Pacific islands.
Now, there are American territories in the Pacific. The co-chair of the visiting team I served on is the president of the college on American Samoa, for example.
But there are also sovereign nations in the Pacific that have relationships with the United States, twenty-year compacts of free association that account for funding and services that include education.
All of this is why almost a year ago (last June!), I was invited to be part of the review team for the College of Micronesia - Federated States of Micronesia (COM-FSM). I have served on teams before, most recently visiting a for-profit college in Visalia in 2018. It had been a while, and I had almost thought I had dropped off the list of potential peer reviewers, so when the invitation came up, I was excited. And then I opened the email and saw where and started laughing. Micronesia? Wow. Yes!
I should explain (and this is a very wordy opening before we get to some pretty photos, sorry to whoever is reading this): in the past, the entire review team visited the college. Everyone. No longer, and I think that makes sense. I didn't know that at the time of the invitation, but no matter. I simply appreciate being part of the process.
The team met in person in Sacramento for a focused day discussion together.
All of us in a room at a hotel hashing out what we felt were the Core Inquiries. So, rather than trying to go through each part of the standards (and there are a lot of parts!) one by one, the teams now try to develop a set of thematic areas for deeper investigation and exploration. These Core Inquiries are sent on to the college so that they may respond to them. The visiting team, which is now a subset of the overall team, then follows up on those themes during the visit.
More context (sorry, this is suuuuuper wordy): there is a part of the standards that relates to the library and learning resources: II.B. Within that, there are four parts. Early in the process, I indicated that - of course! - I could work on II.B. But this isn't my first time working on a team, and I know more than just library stuff, so I indicated that I have before and could again work on other standards. Happily, the co-chairs accommodated that. In fact, there was another team member who, while no longer a librarian in the library, had that background in their career. They asked for II.B and were assigned it. I was given III:
- III.A Human Resources
- III.B Physical Resources (facilities)
- III.C Technological Resources
- III.D Financial Resources
Lots to dig into, and dig into it (working with a teammate named Stevenson,
who is a VP at the College of the Marshall Islands and a genuinely terrific guy to work with) I did.
The team came out of Sacramento with a set of Core Inquiries. Two months later (while I was at dinner before the three of us went to the Chanticleer holiday concert at the Disney Hall, of all times and places), I received the email inviting me to be part of the visiting team. Oh, just try to stop me, right?
More communication, an online meeting, and then, as you saw from a recent post, it was the long travel to Pohnpei. COM-FSM has six campuses: each of the four states has a campus, including Pohnpei,
a career and technical education also on Pohnpei, and the National Campus, again on Pohnpei. We spent our visit at the National Campus. I somewhat wish we had officially seen the other campuses on the island, but I absolutely understand the cost and logistical issues with getting to see the campuses on Yap, Chuuk, and Kosrae.
We arrived at the National Campus after lunch on the Tuesday and were greeted formally with short speeches and a sakau ceremony.
Sakau is a liquid derived from pounding kava root and straining it through hibiscus bark, the sap of which adds viscosity to the liquid. Once ceremonial only, the drink has now become more socially widespread. It's a little slimy, it's very bitter, it numbs your mouth. I thought I was having an allergic reaction at first, not knowing about the numbing effect. No matter my thoughts on the drink as a beverage, the ceremony felt like a great honour and an incredible welcome. We were garlanded with leis and invited to take photos,
and then our hosts took us on a tour of campus.
Look, if you want to compare the college to a classic (especially east coast) American or Canadian campus, you'll find COM-FSM wanting. So stop thinking that way. Instead, appreciate it for how it worked in its setting and how it supported its students. I appreciated, for example, how the central campus had covered walkways that provided shade as well as shelter
from the what-seemed-daily rain.
I was happy to see the student residences and the cafeteria nearby that served breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The gym and auditorium facility was a handsome (and large!) building.
The hydroponic operations for the agricultural program were pretty impressive,
growing food for the students (and then there were the sties for pigs that presumably provided meat).
And, of course, there was the library. The team was housed in the same building as the library, but you know I wandered in the library a bit.
Super quiet space? Loved it.
That collection of Pacific Islander materials? Important.
Tuesday was the tour and an informal meeting with the college president and a few others. Wednesday we began the heavy work. Breakfast in the team room.
Interviews with groups of college staff (and some students) to explore the Core Inquiries. Lunch among the students and staff at the cafeteria.
An open forum for anyone to give us feedback and ask questions. Writing. We left the college at 5:00 that day and headed back to the hotel for a working dinner in the meeting room they had provided us.
That took us a few more hours. You know what? It was really great work. All of us pitched in, all of us came to consensus. We weren't done. Thursday entailed more interviews and data collection in the morning, more writing through lunch and into the afternoon. We wrapped up by about 4 in the afternoon. Friday was a light schedule: the closing presentation by the team co-chair (with the team behind her) in front of an auditorium whose audience included faculty, staff, administrators, students, and more on Zoom. We said goodbyes quickly, stopped at the entry sign for photos,
and then were off to the hotel. And that, alas, was the last glimpse of COM-FSM.
For now. I would love to get back there again one day in some capacity. The work of the team was deeply rewarding - yes, I'm bringing back ideas to share with my college - and if a future opportunity arose, I would jump at it.
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