College Program Review Third Year Follow-Up Report: Fill & Download for Free

Thanks for the A2A.The biggest misconception people have about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (and when I say “people” I mean “Quorans” because that’s basically the limits of my knowledge of other people’s opinions on AOC) is this:Her degree is actually worth the paper it’s printed on.Spoiler alert: it isn’t.According to Wikipedia, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez graduated cum laude from Boston University College of Arts and Sciences in 2011, majoring in international relations and economics.Let’s talk about that cum laude for a moment.In the United States, there are three different levels of honor that can be attached to degrees. (Technically there are five, but two are rarely used). There’s cum laude (“with honor”), magna cum laude (“with great honor”), and summa cum laude (“with highest honor”).Cum laude basically means AOC did an above-average job. It’s nothing to brag about. It looks good on your LinkedIn profile page, but it’s not as impressive as magna cum laude or summa cum laude.Also according to Wikipedia, Harvard was the first United States college to begin awarding honors to graduates (in 1869). In the beginning, it was just cum laude and summa cum laude; from 1880 onwards, magna cum laude was added.The Faculty then prepared regulations for recommending candidates for the Bachelor’s degree, either for an ordinary degree or for a degree with distinction; the grades of distinction being summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude. The degree summa cum laude is for those who have attained ninety percent on the general scale, or have received Highest Honors in any department, and carries with it the assignment of an oration on the list of Commencement parts; the degree magna cum laude is for those who have attained eighty percent on the general scale, or have received Honors in any department, and carries with it the assignment of a dissertation; and the degree cum laude is to be given to those who attain seventy-five percent on the general scale, and to those who receive Honorable Mention in any study together with sixty-five percent on the general scale, or seventy percent on the last three years, or seventy-five percent on the last two.— Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1877–78So basically you can graduate with honor (cum laude) as long as you are in the top 25% of your class, right?Just for kicks, I looked up Boston University’s requirements for receiving Latin honors on your degree.Among graduating seniors in each school or college, Latin Honors are awarded to the top 30% of the class as follows:Summa Cum Laude … Top 5%Magna Cum Laude … Next 10%Cum Laude … Next 15%The “break points” (GPA ranges corresponding to each of the honors categories) are determined for each school or college on February 4th of each year, based on the penultimate semester’s GPAs of the senior class; contact your school or college Graduation Office for the specific “break points.” Honors are awarded based on the graduate’s GPA at the time they are applied:- May graduates on February 4*- September graduates on September 4- January graduates on January 4*May graduates whose final semester grades improve their GPAs sufficiently to move them into a higher Latin Honors category will be assigned those honors.Latin Honors will not be given for GPAs below 3.0.Oh my. It looks like in order to graduate cum laude at BU, you just need to be in the top 30% of your class and keep your GPA above 3.0.Wow.This means that AOC could have held a B average her entire college career and still gotten that cum laude attached to her degree. Big screamin’ deal.Okay. Now let’s talk about her degree.There’s two types of Bachelor’s degrees, as I understand it: B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) and B.S. (Bachelor of Science).Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences, according to its own fact sheet, was founded in 1873 as the College of Liberal Arts. It’s a liberal arts college and always has been. From reading its Wikipedia page and fact sheet, it looks like the College of Arts and Sciences doesn’t offer any B.S. degrees—just B.A. degrees.I was never crystal clear on what the difference was between Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees, growing up. But I was under the impression that Bachelor of Arts was more…well, shallow. Airy. Academic. A B.A. degree in a particular field of study gave the holder a good overview of that field of study, I thought, and transmitted a broad sense of the discipline. But it wasn’t really a practical education—it didn’t teach you how to be a professional in that field, the way B.S. degrees did.For that reason, when I enrolled at North Dakota State University in 2004, I chose a Bachelor of Science in mass communication (and later switched to a B.S. in journalism). That’s because I wanted to learn how to be a journalist. I wanted to learn the nitty-gritty details and tricks of the trade, not just get a 30,000-foot view of the subject.I still feel as though my B.S. degree failed to prepare me for a professional life as a journalist. My first job out of college—as an editorial assistant at my hometown newspaper—lasted barely a month. I was fired for “not being ready.” (Translation: “not knowing how to be a reporter.”)Perhaps I was never meant to be a journalist. But I will say this about my B.S. degree courses at NDSU: instead of just learning about the history of journalism and the ethics of it and all that hypothetical crap, I was actually learning how to be a reporter: pyramid structure (for news writing) and the rule of thirds (in photojournalism) and all that jazz. That’s what my B.S. degree taught me. I don’t think a B.A. degree in journalism would have prepared me to work as a reporter nearly as well.While writing this answer, I did some research, just to make sure my impressions were correct. It seems they were:What is the Difference Between a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Sciences?BACHELOR OF ARTS (BA)A Bachelor of Arts degree offers students a broader education in their major. Students are required to take a variety of liberal art subjects such as humanities, literature, history, social sciences, communications, and a foreign language. Students can select from a diverse list of courses that fulfill each liberal arts requirement. This allows students to actively mold their education to their interests. A BA degree provides a more diverse education in a particular major, therefore, a BA degree generally requires less credits than a BS degree. For example, the University of Washington (UW) offers a BA and BS in Psychology. A BA in Psychology from UW requires less mathematics and statistics courses than a BS in Psychology.BACHELOR OF SCIENCES (BS)A Bachelor of Science degree offers students a more specialized education in their major. Generally, a BS degree requires more credits than a BA degree because a BS degree is more focused in the specific major. Students are required to focus on studying their major at a more in-depth level. Students have fewer chances to take classes outside of their major. A BS degree is generally offered in technical and scientific topics like engineering, technology, mathematics, computer science, nursing, and biochemistry. Although a BS degree is generally offered in scientific degrees, many schools offer BS degrees in specialized fields, for example, Northeastern University offers a BS degree in Music with a concentration in Music Industry.There ya go. B.A. degrees are broader and less focused than B.S. degrees. They provide a more diverse overview of a particular major, but don’t go in-depth. Students in B.A. programs take a wide variety of classes in different subjects: humanities, literature, history, social sciences, etc. (Stuff that has almost nothing to do with their field of study.) They can pick and choose courses to fulfill the requirements of their major, “molding their education to their interests.”I think Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got ripped off. Or rather, she ripped herself off. For $70,000 a year, she wound up with a B.A. degree in two academic disciplines that she probably should have gotten a B.S. degree in instead. At the very least, she should have picked some different courses in the process of acquiring her B.A. degree—you know, maybe some courses that actually focused more on economics.Because AOC don’t know jack about economics.The Economic Illiteracy of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - QuilletteSocialist Ocasio-Cortez Bragged About Her Economics Degree Before Pushing False Economic DataMaybe she didn’t rip herself off, though. Maybe Boston University ripped her off. Maybe the quality of education there is so poor that she couldn’t help but graduate nearly as ignorant as she was when she matriculated.Boston University’s Fake-o-Nomics Darling | National ReviewHere’s a quote from a different article, this one on Fox News (I don’t care how you feel about Fox News, by the bye—this is pertinent and sagacious):So what is a college degree worth these days? Millennial congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez majored in Economics and graduated cum laude from a private university that costs nearly $70,000 per year. Since entering Congress, she has struggled to articulate even basic economic concepts.Last month, AOC blocked Amazon from relocating tens of thousands of jobs near her congressional district because she failed to understand the difference between a tax incentive and a slush fund. On Tuesday, during congressional testimony, Ocasio-Cortez appeared bemused as Wells Fargo CEO explained the basic function of a bank. If Ocasio-Cortez represents the quality of an Economics degree from BU, the university should lose its accreditation.The liberal arts enable us to understand and earn our liberty. Unlike professional and mechanical education, the liberal arts do not train students for any particular job. They are literally the arts of freedom, and no society that abandons liberal education can remain free for long. Unfortunately, the left’s decades-long effort to subvert liberal education through pseudo-academic disciplines, administrative bloat, and outright censorship have transformed even our nation’s most elite universities into little more than decadent indoctrination camps.So there you are. Ocasio-Cortez’s blisteringly obvious ignorance of even the most basic economic principles seems to prove that either (a) she paid $70,000 a year to an institution that, thanks to leftist politicization, is incapable of instilling even a scintilla of correct information into its students’ heads, or (b) she chose to study international relations and economics at a liberal arts college instead of a university which offered more in-depth B.S. degrees in those academic disciplines, or (c) she chose all the wrong courses at BU and her studies lacked the focus and depth necessary to properly train her in international relations and economics.Or possibly (d) a combination of all three.Either way, folks, you can stop trying to defend her with this old canard:“But she graduated cum laude from Boston University with a degree in economics!”To which I reply:“Fat lot of good it did her.”

I didn’t feel that Obama was the president of Black people or that it was his job to make Black lives better. There is relatively little a president can do to help members of a specific race, and that is if we grant that helping a specific race is something presidents should be in the business of doing.Insofar as Obama benefited Black people, it was because his policies were more likely to favor the poor than those of the Republican Party. And because the poor in the US are disproportionately non-White, this had the indirect effect of helping Black people. A program like Obamacare, which taxed the rich to provide subsidized health insurance to the poor, was a prime example of this. In states that expanded Medicaid, the health gap between the white and non-white uninsured rate decreased.[1]The program helped people of all races. There just happened to be more Black people—and even more Latinos—to help.This was the main way in which Obama focused on helping Black people. But there was also another way, although it didn’t bear much fruit at the time. Obama’s Justice Department took reports of police brutality seriously. This is why the Ferguson Report was released. Michael Brown may not have been the innocent he was initially assumed to be, but the discriminatory practices found at all levels of law enforcement in Ferguson, MO were really appalling. In the short term, the report was met by a yawn in most of conservative America, except for a few lonely voices like Jason Lee Steorts.[2]But now, the rest of America has belatedly caught up to the fact that what the report documented was the mundane reality of a racist pattern of policing in the US, not an isolated incident. And many of us are glad that there was a president in office in 2014 who took the issue seriously enough to investigate and issue a public report.Those are the big things as I see it. If you want a full list, you can find it here: Progress of the African-American Community During the Obama AdministrationLabor Market, Income and PovertyThe unemployment rate for African Americans peaked at 16.8 percent in March 2010, after experiencing a larger percentage-point increase from its pre-recession average to its peak than the overall unemployment rate did. Since then, the African-American unemployment rate has seen a larger percentage-point decline in the recovery, falling much faster than the overall unemployment rate over the last year.The real median income of black households increased by 4.1 percent between 2014 and 2015.The President enacted permanent expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which together now provide about 2 million African-American working families with an average tax cut of about $1,000 each.A recent report from the Census Bureau shows the remarkable progress that American families have made as the recovery continues to strengthen. Real median household income grew 5.2 percent from 2014 to 2015, the fastest annual growth on record. Income grew for households across the income distribution, with the fastest growth among lower- and middle-income households. The number of people in poverty fell by 3.5 million, leading the poverty rate to fall from 14.8 percent to 13.5 percent, the largest one-year drop since 1968, with even larger improvements including for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and children.The poverty rate for African Americans fell faster in 2015 than in any year since 1999. While the poverty rate fell for across all racial and ethnic groups this year, it fell 2.1 percentage points (p.p.) for African Americans, resulting in 700,000 fewer African Americans in poverty.African American children also made large gains in 2015, with the poverty rate falling 4.2 percentage points and 400,000 fewer children in poverty.HealthSince the start of Affordable Care Act's first open enrollment period at the end of 2013, the uninsured rate among non-elderly African Americans has declined by more than half. Over that period, about 3 million uninsured nonelderly, African-American adults gained health coverage.Teen pregnancy among African-American women is at an historic low. The birth rate per 1,000 African-American teen females has fallen from 60.4 in 2008, before President Obama entered office, to 34.9 in 2014.Life expectancy at birth is the highest it’s ever been for African Americans. In 2014, life expectancy at birth was 72.5 years for African-American males and 78.4 for African-American females, the highest point in the historical series for both genders.EducationThe high school graduation rate for African-American students is at its highest point in history. In the 2013-2014 academic year, 72.5 percent of African-American public high school students graduated within four years.Since the President took office, over one million more black and Hispanic students enrolled in college.Among African-Americans and Hispanic students 25 and older, high school completion is higher than ever before. Among African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian students 25 and older, Bachelor’s degree attainment is higher than ever before. As of 2015, 88 percent of the African-American population 25 and older had at least a high school degree and 23percent had at least a Bachelor’s degree.Support for HBCUsThe U.S. Department of Education (ED) is responsible for funding more than $4 billion for HBCUs each year.Pell Grant funding for HBCU students increased significantly between 2007 and 2014, growing from $523 million to $824 million.The President’s FY 2017 budget request proposes a new, $30 million competitive grant program, called the HBCU and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) Innovation for Completion Fund, designed to support innovative and evidence-based, student-centered strategies and interventions to increase the number of low-income students completing degree programs at HBCUs and MSIs.The First in the World (FITW) program provided unique opportunities for HBCUs to compete for grants focused on innovation to drive student success.In 2014, Hampton University received a grant award of $3.5 million.In FY 2015, three FITW awards were made to HBCUs, including Jackson State University ($2.9 million), Delaware State University ($2.6 million) and Spelman College ($2.7 million).While Congress did not fund the program in fiscal year 2016, the President’s 2017 budget request includes $100 million for the First in the World program, with up to $30 million set aside for HBCUs and MSIs.Criminal JusticeThe incarceration rates for African-American men and women fell during each year of the Obama Administration and are at their lowest points in over two decades. The imprisonment rates for African-American men and women were at their lowest points since the early 1990s and late 1980s, respectively, of 2014, the latest year for which Bureau of Justice Statistics data are available.The number of juveniles in secure detention has been reduced dramatically over the last decade. The number of juveniles committed or detained, a disproportionate number of whom are African American, fell more than 30% between 2007 and 2013.The President has ordered the Justice Department to ban the use of solitary confinement for juveniles held in federal custody. There are presently no more juveniles being held in restrictive housing federally.My Brother’s KeeperPresident Obama launched the My Brother’s Keeper initiative on February 27, 2014 to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color and ensure that all young people can reach their full potential.Nearly 250 communities in all 50 states, 19 Tribal Nations, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico have accepted the President’s My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge to dedicate resources and execute their own strategic plans to ensure all young people can reach their full potential.Inspired by the President’s call to action, philanthropic and other private organizations have committed to provide more than $600 million in grants and in-kind resources and $1 billion in low-interest financing to expand opportunity for young people – more than tripling the initial private sector investment since 2014.In May 2014, the MBK Task Force gave President Obama nearly 80 recommendations to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by young people, including boys and young men of color. Agencies have been working individually and collectively since to respond to recommendations with federal policy initiatives, grant programs, and guidance. Today, more than 80% of MBK Task Force Recommendations are complete or on track.Advancing Equity for Women and Girls of ColorIn 2014, the Council on Women and Girls (CWG) launched a specific work stream called “Advancing Equity for Women and Girls of Color” to ensure that policies and programs across the federal government appropriately take into account the unique obstacles that women and girls of color can face. In fall 2015, CWG released a report that identified five data-driven issue areas where interventions can promote opportunities for success at school, work, and in the community.This work has also inspired independent commitments to advance equity, including a $100 million, 5-year-funding initiative by Prosperity Together—a coalition of women’s foundations—to improve economic prosperity for low-income women and women and girls of color and a $75 million funding commitment by the Collaborative to Advance Equity through Research—an affiliation of American colleges, universities, research organizations, publishers and public interest institutions led by Wake Forest University—to support existing and new research efforts about women and girls of color.At the United State of Women Summit in June 2016, eight organizations launched “Young Women’s Initiatives,” place-based, data-driven programs that will focus in on the local needs of young women of color. Those organizations include the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, the Women’s Foundation of California, the Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis, the Washington Area Women’s Foundation, the Dallas Women’s Foundation, the Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham, the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts, and the New York Women’s Foundation.Small BusinessThere are 8 million minority-owned firms in the U.S.—a 38% increase since 2007.In early 2015, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) launched the MBK Millennial Entrepreneurs Initiative, which seeks to address the challenges faced by underserved millennials, including boys and young men of color, through self-employment and entrepreneurship. A major component of this effort included the six-part video series, titled “Biz My Way,” which encourages millennials to follow their passion in business.In fiscal year 2015, underserved markets received 32,563 loans totaling $13 billion, compared with 25,799 loans and $10.47 billion in fiscal year 2014, an increase of 26 percent in number of loans and 24 percent in dollar amount.Last year, the SBA issued a new rule that makes most individuals currently on probation or parole eligible for a SBA microloan—a loan of up to $50,000 that helps small businesses start up. And in August 2016, SBA together with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Justine Petersen, launched the Aspire Entrepreneurship Initiative, a $2.1 Million pilot initiative to provide entrepreneurship education and microloans to returning citizens in Detroit, Chicago, Louisville and St. Louis.Civil Rights DivisionThe Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division continued to enforce federal law. Over the last eight years, the Division has vigorously protected the civil rights of individuals in housing, lending, employment, voting, education, and disability rights and through hate crimes and law enforcement misconduct prosecutions and law enforcement pattern and practice cases.African-American Judicial AppointeesPresident Obama has made 62 lifetime appointments of African Americans to serve on the federal bench.This includes 9 African-American circuit court judges.It also includes the appointment of 53 African American district court judges—including 26 African-American women appointed to the federal court, which is more African-American women appointed by any President in history.In total, 19% of the President’s confirmed judges have been African American, compared to 16% under President Bill Clinton and 7% under President George W. Bush.Five states now have their first African-American circuit judge; 10 states now have their first African-American female lifetime-appointed federal judge; and 3 districts now have their first African-American district judge.Also, the President appointed the first Haitian-American lifetime-appointed federal judge, the first Afro-Caribbean-born district judge, the first African-American female circuit judge in the Sixth Circuit, and the first African-American circuit judge on the First Circuit (who was also the first African-American female lifetime-appointed federal judge to serve anywhere in the First Circuit).The President is committed to continuing to ensure diversity on the federal bench. This year, the President nominated Myra Selby of Indiana to the Seventh Circuit, Abdul Kallon of Alabama to the Eleventh Circuit, and Rebecca Haywood of Pennsylvania to the Third Circuit. If confirmed, each of these would be a judicial first—Myra Selby would be the first African-American circuit judge from Indiana, Abdul Kallon would be the first African-American circuit judge from Alabama, and Rebecca Haywood would be the first African-American woman on the Third Circuit. In addition, two of the President’s district court nominees—Stephanie Finely and Patricia Timmons-Goodson—would be the first African-American lifetime-appointed federal judges in each of their respective districts, if confirmed.You will see a politician taking credit for many things that would have happened with or without him. That much is par for the course. But you can generally see the pattern I outlined in my first point: actions taken to help the poor tend to disproportionately help people of color in a society where race and socioeconomic status are inextricably linked.Footnotes[1] Did the Affordable Care Act Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Insurance Coverage?[2] The Ferguson Report and the Right | National Review

This question asks specifically about community college. I can speak to my experience as a newly tenured faculty member at a California community college. It is just my experience but a lot of it is typical for California.The TL:DR is the hard part is getting the tenure track job. The word “tenure” has scary connotations at the research university level. But this is not the case in the community colleges. Tenure is not a foregone conclusion but it is very rare that a tenure track faculty member does not earn tenure as long as they stick through the process. Part of the reason for this is that the jobs are highly competitive. It is unlikely for an unqualified candidate to make it through the hiring process.As far as my background, I have a bachelors degree in mathematics and a masters degree in pure mathematics. After graduate school I spent about a year working as an Actuary and another two years working in market research (doing a lot of data analysis). I started teaching as an adjunct and a community college in January of 2010 for the Spring semester. I took a second adjunct position in another district for the Fall semester (August 2010). By the time that semester ended I had decided this was the career I wanted. I started looking for full time work.One thing that was in my favor was that I was teaching mathematics. The largest departments in California community colleges are Math and English (ESL is usually up there). This meant that in the San Francisco Bay area there tended to be between 10 and 15 job openings a year. In many other fields there may not be any positions opening. One year I went to the area meeting of the Mathematical Association of America (I go most years). One of the talks was given by a sculptor who had developed a 3D marble maze game with some mathematics involved in the design. He was an adjunct sculpture instructor at a large Bay Area. He said that in 25 years of teaching there had never been a tenure track position open in his field.Tenure track positions open up on a yearly cycle. Hiring season is between about November and May. My second year of teaching I started to take applying to jobs seriously. But I didn’t get interviews. I got an interview at one of the schools where I was teaching and one in Portland (yes Oregon). The same thing happened the following year. My third year teaching I must have crossed a threshold where the screeners could check the “experienced” box. I got 8 interviews that year.The hiring process for a tenure track mathematics position goes as follows. Your application starts at HR. They have negotiated screening procedures with the math department. Typically the application requires you to submit a detailed work and education history, transcripts, a resume and cover letter, and then you usually have answer somewhere between 2 and 10 essay questions about your background, experience, teaching philosophy and your experience or intent regarding the role of faculty in the governance of the college. Some schools would ask me to explain a specific mathematical concept in writing or submit an exam covering specific material. Some schools asked me to submit one of my syllabi. Just submitting the application could easily be 20 hours of work. This was the case for a while until I had done enough applications that I could borrow from writing I had previously done.If you got past the HR screening your application would be sent to the math department’s hiring committee. Their job was to wittle the list down to no more than 20 candidates. Then those candidates would be invited for a first round interview.The first round interview typically consisted of a teaching demonstration and more teaching philosophy questions. Sometimes there would be math questions (aimed at answering sample student questions). Candidates would be informed ahead of time of a topic or topics and told to prepare a 10, 15 or 20 minute lesson on that topic. The interview would also include questions about teaching background, role of tenure track instructor, how to spot math anxiety. Every one of these interviews would ask how we acommodate teaching students with a wide variety of backgrounds. These interviews typically took about an hour. I would usually spend about 20 - 30 hours preparing for each teaching demonstration.From 2010 to 2015 I was invited to 30 tenure track first round interviews.After the department level interview the department would rank the candidates and cut the list down to 3 - 5 candidates. Those candidates were sent forward to the Presidential round interviews. I have been to four of these. These interviews usual were given for the president of the college and at leaset one of the Vice Presidents. Most also included representatives from the District management (the Chancelor’s office). They were primarily interested in the candidates background and how they would serve the institution. I was even asked what I saw the role of the faculty member in reaching out to the community. The job of this committee is to choose which candidate(s) to fill the open position(s). Technically those candidates have to be approved by the board of trustees but the only reason why those recommendations would not be rubber stamped is if the district had experienced serious financial hardships. I have only been given one job offerOk, now the tenure process. There might be some variation but most California community colleges have similar processes. For me it was a four year process. A tenure committee was formed. It consisted of two faculty from my department (thanks to math being a large department) and a Dean. My committee happened to include my Dean, who was technically my supervisor but it didn’t have to be that way. When I was hired I was hired for a one year contract. The first year the committee had to decide whether to recommend me for a second one year contract. The second year they were decided whether I deserved a two year contract. Then they got two years to decide whether to grant me tenure which comes with a “continuing contract”. The first two years I was evaluated in both Fall and Spring semester. The last two years I was only evaluated in the Fall. At the end of Fall of my fourth year my team recommended me for tenure. The Vice President of Instruction and the President of the college reviewed my tenure file and approved it. In April of 2019 the Board of Trustees (an elected body) approved my tenure as well as 8 other faculty at my college.Evaluation meant that each member of my committee had to observe two of my class sessions (usually for about an hour). Each class, the students would have to fill out surveys to give me and my team feedback on my effectiveness as an instructor. I also had to write a self-evaluation report describing what I was doing to stay current in the field. How I was planning on improving my teaching, and what I was doing to serve my responsibilities to the college. At the end of every semester my team would meet with me to report on what they saw and give me advice on what to work on for the next evaluation. Documents of those reports were put in my tenure file. The biggest take-away was that my committee was impressed with my skills creating a safe learning environment where my students felt comfortable speaking up when they needed help. That I had creative and effective ways of using technology as part of the learning process. They were particularly impressed with the way that I would immediately take feedback from them or from my students and seek out ways to improve my teaching in those areas.Ultimately the goal of a well designed tenure process should just that. To ensure that the tenure candidate is motivated to improve themselves as an instructor. That they have the tools to do so. And that they will do their part to serve the institution. Teaching is a constant job of improvement. A teacher is never 100% effective but the best ones are always striving to get there.A community college is similarly never 100% effective but should always be striving for that goal. Faculty play a crucial role in that struggle for improvement of the institution. Tenure track faculty must find areas of college governance where they are passionate in working to improve how the college is run.Gaining tenure was technically a four year process. But that ignores the hard part. Spring of 2019 I was awarded tenure. That was my 19th semester teaching. When I was adjunct I taught summer classes too. Even before I realized I wanted this career my life experience was contributing to the success of that ambition. My three years of industry work allow me to tell my college students what working in an office is going to be like for them. And how statistics can be applied in the real world. My graduate work gave me intuitive understanding of mathematics so that I know how the math I teach works behind the scenes. I also taught classes for 3 years in graduate school. I came to my undergraduate institution knowing I wanted to teach eventually. I got experience tutoring and assisting instructors. I took math education courses an participated in a program designed for students wanting to become high school teachers. My first teaching job was at age 16, teaching swimming. I did that from age 16 to age 20.So you can decide. Getting tenure at a community college was a fairly enlightening 4 year experience. But it was a culmination of 9.5 years of teaching experience. I had been developing as a teacher for 24 years.