Political Science
Mission Statement
Housed in the Sociocultural Studies Department, Political Science promotes student success, completion and transfer. Political Science seeks to create lifelong learners who understand and appreciate the significance of politics and government, as well as civic engagement.
Program Description
The Political Science program creates a transfer pathway for students who plan to complete a four-year degree at a California State University. Upon completion of an AA-T degree in Political Science, students will possess the requisite foundational knowledge as well as the practical skills necessary for subsequent completion of the baccalaureate degree. Upon successful completion of the Political Science program, the student will be able to: 1. Identify major aspects of governmental systems of the United States, for individual states (especially California), and compare governmental systems on a global basis. 2. Place various governmental systems within a developmental/historical framework. Methods of description, analysis, and theory will also be important factors for students who select Political Science as their major. The courses that comprise the AA-T degree are also for Butte and transfer General Education. With about 55 sections offered each academic year, Political Science serves a significant number of students and meets an array of important General Education and transfer requirements. Currently, there are 2 fulltime faculty in the discipline, with one performing the bulk of the duties for Political Science associated with fulltime faculty. Six associate faculty teach 64 percent of the sections offered. In Spring 2020 two sections were cancelled due to lack of faculty, with over 50 students enrolled at the time of cancelation.
Student Learning/Administrative Unit Outcomes
Last SLO Report for Political Science was Spring 2017.
Standards/Goals for Student Achievement (Instruction Departments)
FTES in POS in the past has dropped, but the last few academic years POS FTES has been inline with what has been reflective of the the situation for the college because of outside events (Camp Fire, power outages).
Retention rates remain relatively strong even with the events (Camp Fire, power outages). Sucess rates dropped slightly through the Camp Fire and power outages as the college shifted to a remote environment. Sucess rates needs further data to determine the situation of the lack in increasing success.
The degrees awarded in POS continues to increase, even with the external issues confronting the community.
Standards/Goals for Student Achievement (All Other Departments)
Strategic Direction
- Enhancing a Culture of Completion and Goal Achievement - Faculty is working to provide as many courses as possible with free, open-source textbooks, thereby reducing costs for students.
- Supporting Student, Faculty, and Staff Success - Enhance SLO Participation
- Meeting Enrollment Targets - Provide various marketing methods to increase enrollment of POS courses, such as creating short videos of the discipline Anthropology that would be presented to high school counselors in the college service area.
- Meeting student achievement goals – Student success continues to be a problem. More information is needed on the root causes of Political Science's low success rate, meaningful before any attempts can be made to improve those rates.
Program Review
Political Science completed its most recent Program Review in May 2012. The Validation Team provided three Recommendations, one of which has not been adequately addressed:
- Recommends a full-time faculty hire. *** The most recent fulltime instructor in the discipline, started in Fall 2013. The individual is currently the only active full-time faculty to manage the curriculum or extracurricular work = lack of ability to grow a program that could easily grow and expand, as well as have real world application to our local community and local government/policy makers.
Department Goals
- Student Assistant
Future Development Strategies
Strategy 1 - Student Assistant
Political Science would like to hire an intern to help with the logistics of growing a civic engagement program. This can be done with Federal Work Study money or existing program funds. The estimated time commitment is 5-8 hours per week.
Initiatives
- Enhancing a Culture of Completion and Goal Achievement
- Supporting Student, Faculty and Staff Success
- Maximizing Resources to Support Student Learning
- Enhancing a Culture of Equity and Inclusiveness
Supporting Rationale
POS 2 makes up 75% of our course offerings and meets a unique GE requirement for transfer to CSUs and UCs. Expanding civic engagement opportunities for students will increase achievement of course outcomes, as well as contribute to greater course retention, success, persistence, and transfer. An important POS 2 course outcome for students is, "analyze how to effectively participate in politics at the national, state, county and/or city levels." The faculty are excited about Chico State's Town Hall Meeting event, and how well this supports students in achieving this outcome. A planned improvement is to make participation in this event more consistent, and to also try to create more events on the Butte College campus where students are able to discuss their research with policy actors. Currently this involves a lot of outside time for one faculty member to handle alone. One example is that the THM team meets every Friday, and each CSUC course is assigned an instructor and a graduate student. Butte faculty are alone in their preparations, and communications with CSUC’s FYE program to handle all the logistics for Butte Students. The Butte POS program tried this with the Fireside Program, but found it to be too much work and not cost effective for only one active full member to handle.
Supporting Rationale Alignment
Supports the College's Strategic Direction and Priorities: No
Supports Program Review Recommendations: Yes
Supports Course level SLOs: Yes
Supports PLOs: No
Supports ILO - Think Critically: Yes
Supports ILO - Communicate Competently: Yes
Supports ILO - Engage Collaboratively: No
Supports ILO - Work Effectively: No
Supports Meeting Vision for Success Goal - Credentials: No
Supports Meeting Vision for Success Goal - Transfer: Yes
Supports Meeting Vision for Success Goal - Time to Degree: No
Supports Meeting Vision for Success Goal - Employment in field of Study: No
Supports Meeting Vision for Success Goal - Reducing Equity Gaps: No
Requested Non-Financial Resources
Political Science would like to hire an intern to help with the logistics of growing a civic engagement program. This can be done with Federal Work Study money or existing program funds. The estimated time commitment is 5-8 hours per week.