One of the ways we have begun to incorporate student perspectives and
insights into our ongoing planning/visioning at Austin Community College
is through a series of Future Search Conferences which we have conducted
this semester. The Future Search Conference model we have been using is
that of Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff and at five of the six
conferences we are holding we have included a "stakeholder" table of
students. Their involvement and information have greatly improved the
quality of the visioning which has occured, particularly since the
institution exists primarily to serve the needs of the students.
The use of a structured, well-proven process for coming to broad consensus
on preferred future scenarios has allowed us to move more rapidly than
before toward the strategic planning goals that all stakeholders in the
institution--internal and external-- can support.
Our goal is to become a learning organization as well as a "teaching"
organization, and that means in some very real ways we are all becoming
students again!
Tobin Quereau
Austin Community College
5930 Middle Fiskville Rd.
Austin, TX 78752
(512) 483-7821 Fax:(512) 483-7820
quereau@austin.cc.tx.us
On Wed, 19 Apr 1995, Carl Reimann wrote:
> 3. Question three again covers internal relations, but from the
> perspective of a sometimes ignored resource: students. Can you
> think of avenues for greater student involvement in any of the
> areas (mission, information, teamwork, leadership, and capacity
> for change)? What is the student's contribution in a higher ed
> institution's effort and ability to become a learning
> organization?