Gauging the Future: HCC Engages the Community to Identify Emerging Trends

By Randy Bengfort



Computer-generated avatars advise students and teach classes. A suburban campus that is self-sustaining in all its energy needs. Civility becomes an inter-disciplinary part of the curriculum.

These and dozens of other recommendations are the future of higher education in Howard County as seen by a group of citizens serving on the Commission on the Future (COF) of Howard Community College (HCC).

Wrapping up nearly four months of intensive analysis and discussion, the Commission released its latest report in January that will help guide the college's planning for the next five years, said HCC President Kate Hetherington. Initiated in 1998, COFs have been formed every five years.

"The commission is an invaluable service to the college for researching and meeting the needs of the community," said Hetherington. "Its guidance has enabled HCC to stay on the cutting edge of educational programming.

"HCC can support our residents in many ways, both traditional and nontraditional," she said. "This process helps us grow in unison with our community's vision and keeps us from becoming constrained by pre-existing standards."



Innovation and Alternatives

Chaired by Mary Ann Scully, president and CEO of Howard Bank, the commission began working in September to identify innovative ideas, emerging issues and alternatives for the college's future. The commission was organized into six task forces chaired by members of the community.

¥ Creating a Leading Edge Learning Organization: Shirley Collier, Optemax

¥ Environmental Sustainability: Carl Nelson, Corporate Office Properties Trust

¥ Global Education: Nayab Siddiqui, Scientific Systems and Software International

¥ New Programs for the Future: Sam Seymour, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

¥ Preparing Health Care Professionals: Judy Cooksey Krieg, University of Maryland, Baltimore

¥ Workforce Development: Dick Story, Howard County Economic Development Authority

More than 50 community members actively participated in the commission.

According to Scully, the community leaders - task force chairs and their members - were the key to the success of the collaborative opportunity.

"Their knowledge of and commitment to their community at large and to the community college [serving] that community was evident throughout the process," she said.

From the start, she added, the college placed an emphasis on seeking innovative and large scale recommendations as well as recommendations that built on programs already in place.

"This open approach, as well as the seriousness with which the college trustees have always used the commission's output in their own strategic planning process, makes Howard Community College's Commission on the Future unique and inspiring for all involved," Scully said.



Idea Generator

Examples of recommendations made by HCC's Commission on the Future include the following.

¥ Continue efforts to globalize the curriculum, an idea that expanded upon previous COFs and continues to be one of the most important developments for the future. With the globalization of the world's economy, the most successful students - and workers of the future - will be well-versed in political, social and economic aspects of the global environment. The college would continue to engage the international resources available in the Baltimore-Washington region and expand opportunities for students to study abroad.

¥ Use computer-generated virtual environments to enhance learning and delivery of services. Such virtual environments could apply the use of animated graphical images that can be customized to represent an individual, better known as avatars. For example, admissions avatars could conduct virtual campus tours, present program information and advise students. In a chemistry course, a student avatar could seek out relevant lessons and lecture materials and interact with the instructor's avatar to clarify a point or virtually participate in a chemistry laboratory experiment.

¥ Continue to emphasize commitment to a disciplined, market-oriented and entrepreneurial use of new technology through unique course offerings such as Technology Transfer: From Invention to Marketplace and by considering COF recommendations such as hiring a technology futurist to advise an interdisciplinary technology committee.

¥ Practice, teach and live environmental sustainability. In 2007, HCC became the first community college in Maryland to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, pledging to achieve climate neutrality within 10 years. The COF identified ways to build upon the pledge with ideas ranging from recycling and purchasing good-for-the-earth products to expanding programs in green technology and sustainable design and hiring a full-time director of sustainability.

¥ Explore ways to leverage, both virtually and physically, the challenges and opportunities inherent in the expected relocation of new programs and employees requiring highly evolved science, technology, engineering and math proficiency to Fort Meade as part of the region's Base Realignment and Closure initiative.

¥ Partner with other county and regional institutions to ensure that the county is prepared for the demands of an aging population, especially in the health care field.

¥ Integrate civility, ethics and values across HCC curricula. Building upon the "Choose Civility" initiative cosponsored by HCC with the Howard County Library, this recommendation seeks to enhance respect, empathy, consideration and tolerance in Howard County.

The complete COF report is available at www.howardcc.edu/cof.