Overview of the College

Composed of four campuses and several centers, Valencia Community College serves Orange and Osceola counties, a two-county district in Central Florida with a total population of over one million residents, a 28% increase since 1990. During Session 1, 2000-01, West Campus will serve more than 10,600 students and East Campus more than 11,800 students. The rapidly growing Osceola Campus will enroll more than 2,700 students. Winter Park Campus administers credit and continuing professional education (non-credit) programs at the campus and at a number of business sites throughout the district. More than 11,200 students are enrolled in continuing professional education courses and 1,600 in credit courses through the Winter Park Campus. The collegewide unduplicated credit enrollment for Session 1, 2000-01 will exceed 27,800 students.

Annually, the College serves more than 52,000 students (unduplicated headcount) in credit and continuing professional education programs. During the 2000-01 academic year, the College expects to enroll 40,000 credit students and 12,000 continuing professional education students. The annual full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment for 1999-00 was 13,745, based upon 40 credit hours per FTE. Using a factor of 30, the formula used in most states, Valencia's FTE exceeds 18,300. Valencia continues to be one of the fastest growing of the 28 Florida community colleges with an FTE increase of 6% for 1999-00. During the past five years, Valencia's FTE has increased 21%, while the Florida Community College system declined 4.5%

The diversity of Valencia's student population increased about 1% for the past four years, reflecting the changing demographics of Central Florida. In Session 1, 2000-01, ethnic distribution was as follows: African American - 14%; Asian/Pacific Islander - 6%; Hispanic - 19%; and other-2%. A fact sheet of additional College information is provided in the Appendix.

Brief History f the College

The College was established in Fall, 1967, in temporary facilities provided by Orange County Public Schools, with a charter class of 500 students and 20 faculty members.

West Campus, established in 1971, served as the only campus during the early 1970s. Valencia became a multi-campus institution in 1974 with the creation of East Campus and Open Campus, established to supervise a number of off-campus centers.

A joint-use site was established in 1987 with the Osceola School Board at Gateway High School on an 11-acre site in Osceola County. To serve a major increase in enrollments in Osceola County, the College secured a 100-acre site for Osceola Campus in 1992 and completed construction of its second building in 2000. Winter Park Campus moved from rental facilities to a nearby permanent facility in Winter Park in 1998; construction of its second building will be completed in 2001.

The Strategic Self-Study

Valencia Community College proposes to conduct an Alternate Self-Study for reaffirmation of accreditation in 2003. This will be accomplished through a Compliance Audit and a Strategic Self-Study. The College has already established a Compliance Audit Task Force, which has begun conducting the audit, compiling needed documentation, and preparing the compliance audit report. The major focus of Valencia's Alternate Self-Study will address its Learning-Centered Initiative, which has been underway since 1995.

Valencia's learning-centered change initiative has evolved through several stages over the past five years. In 1995, the College conducted a Pew Higher Education roundtable, which addressed issues impacting Valencia. The Pew roundtable was the first step in the College's participation in the American Council on Education (ACE) project, "Leadership and Institutional Transformation." In 1995, the College was selected as one of 27 colleges and universities, four of which were community colleges, to participate inthis five-year, Kellogg Foundation-funded project. The Pew roundtable, which launched the project, involved faculty, staff, board members, and community representatives. Positive feedback from the roundtable propelled the College to focus its change initiative on collaboration to become more learning-centered.

A leadership team was appointed by the President, composed of faculty and administrators. In the initial meetings of this team, it became clear that communication was a key problem at the College. As a multi-campus institution serving over 50,000 students, communication across geographic distances, across departments, and between and among faculty, administrators, and community stakeholders needed to be strengthened. This ACE/Kellogg Project offered an opportunity to improve communications by inviting conversation on major change issues of importance to all institutional stakeholders.