Chronological History of the Maricopa Community College District PEW Charitable Trust/American Council on Education Roundtable
1992
Members of Maricopa's leadership begin participating in policy discussions concerning the state of higher education. The discussions involve educational leadership from around the country and are facilitated by PEW.
1993
Maricopa becomes a partner in the PEW Roundtable's efforts to examine obstacles to change and transformation in higher education. A leadership team of faculty and administration is created. Through a series of discussions, a change initiative is adopted. "To change the learning paradigm from a traditional one to a more learner-centered one" becomes the official initiative of the Maricopa PEW leadership team.
1994
The leadership team, along with other faculty and administrators, develop the "Maricopa Roundtable Policy Draft." Included are four key elements of learning along with descriptions of what are called the "traditional" and "desired" learning paradigms. The draft is disseminated to the colleges through a series of roundtables. Feedback is received concerning the key components and the descriptions of the traditional and the desired learning paradigms.
1995
The leadership team continues and adds new members. PEW decreases its involvement and another national organization, ACE (American Council on Education) invites Maricopa to participate in a similar initiative officially titled, "The ACE Project on Leadership and Institutional Transformation."
1996
Through work with representatives from ACE and other community colleges around the country, it is discovered that the Maricopa Roundtable Policy Draft is virtually unknown to the majority of our faculty. The first goal with the ACE project is to widely disseminate the document and receive feedback.
The Instructional Councils are convened to discuss the document. By January 1997, written responses are received from 36 Instructional Councils, 13 college divisions, and four individuals. While these responses are being written, a new leadership/project team is created. This is a smaller, project-oriented team that consists of a few members of the previous group and some new members. The responses are read by this team, compiled together, and sent to the libraries at each campus.
1997
Two members of the new project team (Bob Bendotti and Donna Tannehill) are asked to focus on the responses and draft a new document that reflects what learning means at Maricopa. While they are the principal authors, the document reflects the collective thinking of the entire project team, a faculty review board, and, hopefully, Maricopa faculty as a whole.
