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Evaluating the California Community Colleges Registry

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Evaluating the California Community Colleges Registry

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EVALUATING THE GAUFORNIA'COMMUNITY
COLLEGES REGISTRY
by
Dolores W. C ole
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the D egree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
August 2002
Copyright 2002 Dolores W. C ole
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UMI Number: 3073734
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
School of Education
Los Angeles, California 90089-0031
This dissertation, written by
Dolores W. Cole
under the direction o f h Dissertation Committee, and
approved by all members o f the Committee, has been
presented to and accepted by the Faculty o f the School
o f Education in partialfulfillm ent o f the requirements fo r
the degree o f
' Bate
D o c to r o f E d u c a t io n
September 24, 2001
Dissertation Committee
lU lju u jtL
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DEDICATION
To Mrs. I. R. West, my ever-dedicated parent,
who gave me the confidence to begin
the quest for higher education.
To Mrs. Norma Chanerl, my smarter sibling,
who provided that extra push that enabled
me to complete this project.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to acknowledge several people without whom I would never
have arrived at the end of the long road to completion of this document: Mrs.
Queen Hamilton, Dean of Instruction at San Bernardino Valley College, who
somehow convinced me to begin the doctoral program: Dr. Fran Newman, my
first professor, who was so inspiring and encouraging that I continued; the Cal
ifornia Community Colleges Chancellor's Office for the assistance and support
provided in conducting the research for this study; Dr. Linda Hagedorn for her
patience in guiding my research; California Community Colleges Chancellor
Tom Nussbaum, whose inspirational remarks sparked my interest in the study;
and Drs. Lawrence Picus and Melora Sundt for their kindness and support.
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DEDICATION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS............................................................................................. iii
L IS T OF TABLES....................................................................................................... vii
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................. ix
Chapter
1. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................... 1
Statement of the Problem............................................................ 3
Purpose of the Study..................................................................... 6
Significance of the Study.............................................................. 9
Research Questions..................................................................... 9
Assumptions of the Study.............................................................. 10
Limitations of the Study ............................................................... 1 1
Delimitations of the Study ............................................................ 12
Definition of Terms......................................................................... 12
Board of Governors................................................................ 12
Diversity................................................................................... 12
Job Fairs ................................................................................. 13
Registrants ............................................................................. 13
The Registry............................................................................. 13
Title V ....................................................................................... 13
Organization of the Study............................................................ 14
2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE................................................................. 15
The CCC Registry ......................................................................... 15
Registry Data Bank ............................................................... 16
Job Fairs ................................................................................. 16
Recruitment........................................................................... 16
Commercial Internet Recruitment Sources .............................. 17
The Registry Versus Commercial Web Sites................................ 20
Rationale for Diversity................................................................... 24
iv
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Chapter Page
Affirmative Action Recruitment .................................................. 27
Efforts in the C C C .................................................................... 30
Affirmative Action Recruitment in Other Colleges/
Universities........................................................................ 31
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................ 34
Review of Registry Documents.................................................... 37
Focus Group Meetings.................................................................. 39
Interviews........................................................................................ 41
Commercial Recruitment Web Sites .......................................... 43
Jobs.com ................................................................................ 43
Monster.com .......................................................................... 43
Joboptions.com...................................................................... 45
NationJob Network................................................................ 45
Surveys............................................................................................ 46
4. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH R E S U LT S ........................................................ 49
Registry Reports.............................................................................. 49
Other Relevant Reports................................................................ 55
Interviews........................................................................................ 57
Focus Group Meetings.................................................................. 59
Interviews and Observations at the CCC Registry O ffice 63
5. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH RESULTS...................................................... 69
Registrant Survey Results .............................................................. 69
Summary of Registrant Survey Frequencies .............................. 73
Selected Crosstabulations of Applicant Surveys ...................... 74
Summary of Human Resource Officer Survey Results .............. 81
6. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS........................ 89
Responses to Questions................................................................ 89
Assisting Districts in Identifying. Locating, and Re
cruiting Qualified Members of Underrepresented
Groups.............................................................................. 89
Operation and Maintenance of The Registry and
Registry Web Site ............................................................ 90
Distribution of Candidate Mailing Labels............................ 92
Summary Reports and Demographic Information 93
Media Advertising Campaign, Job Fairs, Newsletter,
Telephone Service, Registry Training, and
Registry Information on the Internet ............................ 96
Services to the CCC Human Resources/Affirmative
Action Officers and Public ............................................ 98
v
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Chapter Page
Other Issues That Impact The Registry and Its
Effectiveness.................................................................... 99
Summary of Findings...................................................................... 101
Implications of the Study.............................................................. 103
Recommendations........................................................................ 104
Recommendation 1: The Registry Web Site ...................... 104
Recommendation 2: Advertising........................................ 106
Recommendation 3: Job Fairs ............................................ 107
Recommendation 4: Project Director................................ 108
Recommendation 5: System Issues .................................... 109
Other Recommendations .................................................... 109
REFERENCES CITED............................................................................................... I l l
APPENDICES......................................................................................................... 116
A. FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS................................................................. 117
B . INTERVIEW QUESTIONS......................................................................... 119
C. SURVEY INSTRUMENTS........................................................................... 121
vi
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Representation of Women and Minorities in 1989 ....................... 3
2. Increase in Representation of Minorities and Women
Since 1989 .................................................................................... 4
3. Newspaper Versus Internet Job Advertising, March 2001........... 19
4. Internet Recruiting Method Yielding Most Hires, April 2001 ......... 19
5. Registrant Survey Responses: Percentages ................................. 70
6. Registrant Responses to Survey Questions: Equal Oppor
tunity to Be Selected, Influence of Ethnic Makeup of
District, and Willingness to Relocate for Faculty Position 75
7. Registrant Responses to Survey Questions: Employment
Status in District to Which Applied............................................ 77
8. Registrant Responses to Survey Questions: Number of
Invitations to Be Interviewed .................................................... 78
9. Registrant Responses to Survey Questions: Number of
Times Offered a Position............................................................ 78
10. Chi-square Analyses of Responses, by Race and G en d er 79
11. Summary of Human Resource Officer Survey Results .................. 82
12. Choice of Single Recruitment Source for Faculty and
Administrative Positions.............................................................. 83
13. Use of Registry to Recruit Full-Time and Part-Time Faculty 84
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Table Page
1 4. Suggested Changes in Application Process to Improve
Likelihood of Inviting Minority and Women Applicants
to Interview.................................................................................. 85
15. Respondents’ Suggestions to Improve The Registry Service 86
16. Use of Registry to Recruit Full-Time and Part-Time Adminis
trators ............................................................................................ 86
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ABSTRACT
In 1989 the Vice Chancellor of Human Resources for the California
Community Colleges (CCC) issued a report that indicated that, in spite of leg
islative changes and other efforts made by the colleges and the Board of Gov
ernors, women and minorities were no better represented in faculty and ad
ministrative positions in 1987 than they had been in 1970. Therefore, in 1989 the
CCC Staff and Faculty Diversity Registry (The Registry) was created as one of
several resources to provide assistance to the state community college districts
in identifying, locating, and recruiting qualified members of historically under
represented groups for faculty and administrative positions in the system. In
1999, after 10 years in operation and a maintenance cost of $2.5 million dollars,
the system Board of Governors called for an evaluation of The Registry. T his
study was conducted in answer to that call. Surveys, interviews, and focus
group meetings indicated that, although the users enjoyed having access to
The Registry database, it had not proven to be an effective means of enhanc
ing the proportions of minorities seeking positions in the system.
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
After delivering a speech on higher education at the University of South
ern California in the spring of 1998, Tom Nussbaum, statewide Chancellor for
the California Community Colleges (CCC), was asked what he considered to
be the most pressing human resources issue facing the system. Without hesita
tion, the Chancellor replied "diversity." He followed with the explanation that,
given the fact that the majority of the student population in the state commu
nity college system is minority and 78% of the faculty is nonminority, attaining a
more diverse faculty is the most pressing human resources issue facing the
system (T . Nussbaum, public lecture, March, 1998). Chancellor Nussbaum
analogized "diversity” to affirmative action and implied that it would be inher
ently beneficial to have a faculty that more closely mirrors the demographics
of the state's population. What he did not mention was the significant amount
of funding and effort that have been expended during the past decade by
the California Community Colleges to decrease that imbalance (Sheehan,
1991).
During the 1 990s, much was written about affirmative action and the
need to attain greater staff and faculty diversity within higher education.
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Claimed benefits included providing role models and mentors to women and
minority students as well as introducing greater variety to the intellectual and
cultural perspectives of faculty, staff, and students (Humphreys, 1998). One of
the most frequently heard arguments against affirmative action is that it results
in granting unfair preferences to some who may be less qualified than nonmi
nority males to achieve this presumed beneficial diversity (Wolf-Devine, 1997).
In 1989 the legislators of the state of California passed a law (AB 1725) which
codified major changes in the administration of community colleges, including
a commitment to affirmative action and the establishment of the goal of
attaining a work force within the colleges that mirrors the adult population of
the state by 2005. One of the actions taken by the Board of Governors of the
colleges to achieve this goal was to fund the Staff and Faculty Diversity Registry
in 1989, renamed The Registry in 1995.
The scope of this study is not to debate the positives and negatives of
affirmative action nor to define the definite differences between affirmative
action and diversity. Instead, the study is intended to provide a thorough
examination of the effectiveness of The Registry, which was implemented by
the Board of Governors to enhance the diversity of the professional and admin
istrative work force within the 107 California community colleges and to identify
opportunities for improvement.
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Statement of the Problem
The Registry was created in 1989 as one of several resources developed
by CCC to provide assistance to the state's community college districts in
identifying, locating, and recruiting qualified members of historically underrep
resented groups for faculty and administrative positions in the system. Since its
inception, The Registry has been maintained by an annual grant of $250,000
from the Chancellor’s office (RFP #98-0683, California Community Colleges,
1999). The representation of minorities and women in faculty and administra
tive positions as of 1989 is displayed in Table 1 .
Table 1
Representation o f Women and Minorities in 1989
Group Faculty Administrators
Minorities 16.7% 23.9%
Women 29.2% 36.0%
In 1995 the Vice Chancellor of Human Resources issued a report that
indicated that, between 1989 and 1993, the overall representation of minorities
had actually decreased in faculty positions by 1.3% and in administrative
positions by 1.7% (Sheehan, 1993). The overall representation of women had
increased by 7.2% in faculty positions and by 1.0% in administrative positions.
As of 1998, these figures had increased as shown in Table 2.
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Table 2
Increase in Representation o f Minorities and Women Since 1989
Group Current rate Increase since 1989
Minority faculty 21.4% 4.7%
Minority administrators 29.4% 5.5%
Women faculty 47.5% 8.3%
Women administrators 45.5% 9.0%
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It should be noted that, in 1989, with the passage of AB 1725, the state
legislature approved requirements stipulating that the system's work force
should proportionately match the adult population of the state by 2005. As of
1998, the state’s population was 48% minority (California Department of F i
nance, 1999). Also, in 1990 the students enrolled in the colleges were 55.5%
female and 44.5% male and were 50.2% White, and 36.8% minority, and 13.2%
of unknown racial background. By 1999, these percentages had changed to
56.4% female and 43.6% male and 39.8% White, 50.3% minority, and 10.5% un
known (CCC Office of the Chancellor, 1999).
Hence, although the percentage representation of women and minori
ties in faculty and administrative positions showed improvement, the improve
ment did not appear substantial enough to indicate that the system would
achieve the overall goal of attaining a work force similar to the state’s adult
population by 2005. These facts raised an obvious question for the Board of
Governors: Does The Registry assist the colleges in achieving the goal of in
creasing minorities and women in faculty and administrative positions?
As a result, a Request For Proposal (RFP; CCC. 1999) was issued to deter
mine the effectiveness of all aspects of The Registry. The RFP requested that
the outcome of the evaluation be a report that included an identification of
the problem, the goal, methodology of the research, findings, recommenda
tions to improve The Registry as a source of achieving diverse faculty and staff,
an analysis of feasible alternatives and solutions, an estimate of appropriate
funding to achieve the recommendations, and a permanent funding source.
5
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Purpose of the Study
The overall goal of this study of The Registry is to gain a deeper under
standing of the rationale for establishing such a program, a clearer under
standing of what it is attempting to achieve, a determination of whether it is
feasible, and if so, identification of possible actions that can be taken to en
hance it. The information gleaned from the research could also be useful in
identifying policy and/or regulatory issues that should be modified as the CCC
plans for the human resources needs of the colleges for the next decade.
Significance of the Study
The implications of a diverse faculty within community colleges and
other areas of higher education are very similar to those in other facets of
American society: meeting the needs of the constituents served and respond
ing to the concerns of an orderly, democratic society. It has been well docu
mented by census data and reports published by various agencies that, as we
begin the 21 st century, the United States is becoming increasingly more racially
and ethnically diverse (Hudson Institute, Inc., 1987; U.S. Census Bureau, 1990).
This is especially true in California, and even more so among the segments of
the population under age 40. In addition, women participate in the paid work
force at a higher level than at any time in our nation’s history. One obvious im
plication of these demographic changes for community colleges is that the
students served are likely to be considerably more diverse than they were a
generation ago.
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According to the American Association of Community Colleges (as
cited in Cohen, 2000), 44% of all higher education undergraduates in the
United States in 2000 were enrolled in community colleges, including 46% to
55% of the students classified as ethnic minorities. The percentages served by
CCC are even higher: In 1997,62.5% of all students enrolled in for-credit classes
in higher education in the state attended classes in community colleges (Cali
fornia Citizens Commission on Higher Education, 1998), and fewer than half of
them self-identified as White (CCC Office of the Chancellor, 1999). Due largely
to their open-door admissions policy and comparatively lower costs, commu
nity colleges enrolled the majority of all Latinos and African Americans in Cali
fornia higher education (California Citizens Commission on Higher Education),
and this trend is likely to continue.
The link between power and the ability to participate fully in the fruits of
a democratic society is highly related to the amount of education one attains
(Arciniega, 1990). The average income of individuals is closely tied to the
amount of education that they attain. Indeed, in today’s economy, the pros
pects of even finding a job are significantly enhanced by further education
(California Citizen’s Commission on Higher Education, 1998). Community
colleges offer the majority of citizens the most accessible means of acquiring
the s k ills needed to participate in the new economy, as well as an inexpensive
means of creating a work force of taxpayers who can contribute a net gain to
the gross domestic production of the state. Diversity among the faculty pro
vides an effective and visible support system for the increasingly diverse
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student population; provides role models, advisors, and advocates for diverse
students; and exposes other students to diverse points of view (“Affirmative Ac
tion at the Crossroads," 1986). Since the majority of the students attending
community colleges in California are already racially and ethnically diverse,
the state has a vested interest in attaining a work force within the system that
can meet the needs of that constituency.
The students attending community colleges across the country tend to
reflect population changes much more readily than those in 4-year colleges
due to their open admissions and lower tuition charges. Enrollment changes
for the CCC provide further understanding of the impact of demographics on
the issue of diversity within the system. In 1990, the system's students were 55.5%
female, 44.5% male and 50.2% White, 36.8% minority; the remaining 13.2% were
of unknown racial background. By 1999, these percentages had changed to
56.4% female, 43.6% male and 38.4% White. 47.% minority (14.6% unknown).
Clearly, the constituents served by the community colleges have and continue
to become increasingly minority.
Hence, diversity is sought in community colleges because it is recog
nized that the constituencies served are changing. Just as in industry, where
the customer base is tantamount to projecting sales and revenues, and where
"marketing" to the customer base means understanding their needs and pe
culiarities, community colleges must, of necessity, be concerned about at
tracting students as well as employees who can relate to and reach the stu
dents whom they serve. The significance of this study is to determine whether a
8
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service provided by the Chancellor’s Office to assist the system colleges in
attaining a major initiation of the Board of Governors is meeting this objective.
Research Questions
The primary question to be answered by the study is : Has The Registry
been an effective means of assisting the community colleges in increasing the
representation of women and minorities in faculty and staff positions? In order
to make this determination, the Chancellor’s Office RFP requested answers to
the following questions:
1. Does The Registry assist the districts in identifying, locating, and re
cruiting qualified historically underrepresented group members?
2. How effective is the operation and maintenance of The Registry and
Registry Web site?
3. How effective is The Registry in distributing candidate mailing labels?
4. Are The Registry summary reports and related demographic informa
tion adequate for determining whether The Registry is effective?
5. How effective are the media advertising campaigns in generating
applicants?
6. How effective are the job fairs, job bank newsletter, telephone serv
ice, Registry training, and information on the Internet?
Other questions that have been addressed in this study are:
1. How do the hiring rates of applicants who place their data in The
Registry compare to those of applicants who do not?
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2. How consistently do community college districts use The Registry?
3. Are there other sources that yield significant numbers of women,
minorities, and other applicants and hires?
4. How satisfied are CCC user administrators and applicants with the
services provided by The Registry?
5. How might the components of The Registry be transformed or com
bined in new ways to achieve faculty and administrator diversity?
6. Are there other methods that should be considered by the commu
nity college system to achieve a well-qualified, diverse work force?
7. Are there differences between relevant characteristics of minority
applicants versus nonminority applicants and between male applicants versus
female applicants?
8. Do certain sources yield larger or smaller numbers of particular
groups of applicants?
9. Do colleges with larger numbers of minority students do a better job
of recruiting minority faculty and administrators?
Assumptions of the Study
The following assumptions were made:
1. Respondents to the surveys were presumed to understand the ques
tions and answer them truthfully.
2. The data were accurately recorded and analyzed.
10
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3. The research, data gathering, findings, and conclusions of the study
represent "solid" research.
4. The human resources and affirmative action officers were interested
in recruiting qualified and diverse faculty and administrators and were familiar
with The Registry.
5. The administrators of The Registry were interested in making The Reg
istry as helpful to the registrants and human resource managers as possible.
Limitations of the Study
Several factors limit the scope of the information collected and gleaned
from this study. The surveys for this study were mailed to a sample of persons
who had placed their job-related information into The Registry database and
to human resources/affirmative action officers within the CCC system. There
was no way to require either of these population groups to return the surveys;
hence, the data reflect the opinions of those who responded to the request.
The Registry reports reviewed were primarily for 1995 through 1999. Although
the database was established in 1989, accountability reports prior to 1995 were
not available.
Some of the individuals who returned the surveys did not respond to all
of the questions; this applied to the registrants in the database more than to
the human resource/affirmative action officers. As a result, the total numbers
of persons who responded to specific questions sometimes differed from the
total number of surveys analyzed.
U
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Delimitations of the Study
Because The Registry is used exclusively by the public community col
leges in California, the conclusions are applicable only to them. Although sim
ilar issues exist in recruiting faculty in other entities of higher education, the
conclusions presented should not be presumed to apply equally to 4-year
public or private colleges and universities within California, nor to public com
munity colleges in other states.
Definition of Terms
For the purpose of this study, the following terms are defined:
Board o f Governors
The Board of Governors of the CCC sets policy and guidance for the
districts and colleges that comprise the system. The 16-member board, which
is appointed by the Governor of California, selects the Chancellor of the sys
tem and is legislatively authorized to develop and implement policy for the
colleges.
Diversity
In the work place this term typically refers to acknowledging and re
specting differences such as race, gender, disability status, sexual orientation,
national origin, or age among employees. The definition includes other group
membership differences, including military status, marital status,
12
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socioeconomic status, and others that might cause employees or potential
employees to be treated differently.
Job Fairs
Job fairs are one-stop events used by many organizations when they
have a large number of positions available that must be filled quickly. Appli
cants are notified through various media that employers will be gathered in a
single location to provide information on positions available. Employers are
typically provided a booth or table at the location to present information
about their organizations and applications for the open positions.
Registrants
Registrants are persons who have expressed interest in working in a CCC
by placing their names, addresses, and professional area(s) of competency in
The Registry data bank.
The Registry
This term refers to the Staff and Faculty Affirmative Action Registry data
base of the CCC.
Title V
Title V of the California Education Code (1990) establishes the minimum
standards for affirmative action and nondiscrimination in the CCC.
13
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Organization of the Study
Chapter 1 provides an introduction and background information, identi
fies the problem that precipitated the study, clarifies the purpose of the study,
explains significance of the study, and presents the research questions. The
chapter also includes basic assumptions, limitations, and delimitations of the
research. Chapter 2 presents a review of literature that served as background
information for the research. Chapter 3 describes the research methods used
and the factors that were examined. Chapter 4 presents the findings gained
from the interviews, focus group meetings, and reports. Chapter 5 presents the
findings gathered from the surveys. Chapter 6 presents a discussion of each of
the seven issues identified in the request for proposal within the context of the
findings, recommendations for modifying The Registry, additional issues that
impact operation of The Registry, and issues worthy of further study. The study
concludes with a list of references and the appendices.
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CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
This chapter includes descriptions of The Registry and other Internet re
cruitment Web sites that accept data from job seekers and provide some of
those data to organizations seeking applicants, the rationale for seeking diver
sity and employing affirmative action within the CCC and other entities of
higher education, and other reports that provide relevant information on the
achievement of diversity within the CCC.
The CC C Registry
The Registry provides several important services to the 72 public com
munity college districts in the state of California: a computerized data bank,
annual job fairs, lis ts and mailing labels of individuals by professional discipline,
demographic data, a Web site with available job titles at individual colleges
[Frequently Asked Questions, n.d.), advertising and promotion of the Web site
and the colleges, and telephone support to users. The most widely used serv
ices are described below.
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Registry D a ta Bank
The computerized data bank is comprised of information about individ
uals who have expressed interest in working in a faculty or administrative posi
tion within the CCC. Individuals can place their names, addresses, and up to
three areas of expertise in The Registry’s central data bank by mail or online. At
the request of the individual college districts, mailing address labels of individu
als for a given discipline are sent to the district from The Registry staff, and job
announcements can be mailed to the potential applicant.
Job Fairs
The Registry coordinates two annual job fairs in the first quarter of each
year, one in southern California and the other in northern California. Individual
community college districts pay from $1,500 to $2,200 to participate. Advertis
ing and promotion for the job fairs include full-page advertisements in the
Chronicle o f Higher Education and other publications geared to recruitment in
higher education. When The Registry was initiated, the staff managed all
logistics for production of the job fairs. For the past 3 years, the districts have
divided the cost of employing an outside coordinator.
Recruitm ent
The community college districts are required by state law to send their
job announcements to The Registry. The announcements are compiled by The
Registry staff and made available to potential applicants via the Web,
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subscriptions to The Registry newsletter, e-mail, and/or telephone. Prospective
applicants are able to check the Web to locate positions and contact individ
ual colleges directly. In order to generate applicant interest and awareness,
full-page advertisements have occasionally been placed in the Chronicle o f
Higher Education, Black issues in Higher Education, and other publications
geared to the higher education community. Although the primary goal of The
Registry is to improve the representation of underrepresented group members,
anyone may use The Registry, regardless of race, gender, disability, or other
classification.
Commercial Internet Recruitment Sources
Recruiting via the Internet enables recruiters to post job opportunities on
career Web sites on the Internet, which then allows job seekers to respond di
rectly, either electronically or via facsimile transmission (fax). It allows the job
seeker to peruse thousands of job opportunities from the myriad companies
now using the Internet as a part of their strategy to recruit new employees. It
also provides recruiters access to large databases of resumes using keywords,
job titles, s kill sets, educational backgrounds, and other specific criteria (Rob
bins, 2000). In 1999, companies spent over $400 million in advertising job oppor
tunities on the Internet through companies that charge fees to recruiters via
career Web sites such as Monster.com, CareerPath.com. Hotjobs, Nation Job
Network, CareerMosaic, CareerBuilder.com, and others. By the year 2003, that
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Table 3
Newpaper Versus Internet Job Advertising, March 2001
Source of advertising Portion of market
Newspaper 17.5%
Internet job postings 77.0%
Other 5.5%
Table 4
internet Recruiting M ethod Yielding Most Hires (April
2001)
Method Percentage of hires
Job postings 49
Resume databases 31
Company Web site 10
Search engines 10
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It Is clear that Internet recruiting is not a future issue; it is a "do or die is
sue," particularly in high-tech professions and regions geared to staying even
with the competition (Robbins. 2000). Use of the Internet has facilitated real
time job posting capabilities that have led to reduced recruiting cycle times,
lower overall cost-per-hire, and a greater return on investment.
The Registry Versus Commercial W eb Sites
How does The Registry Compare to commercial recruitment Web sites?
According to the Cyberspace Resume */7(Nemnich & Jandt, 2000), most sites
allow resume posting by applicants at no cost, as well as updating, editing, ad
ditions, and deletions at any time; confidentiality to shield resumes from being
viewed by current employers; and call-in assistance by customer service repre
sentatives. The authors of this book rated over 70 resume banks as most favor
able to potential applicants using the following criteria:
1. Stability of sponsorship or ownership. This generally referred to the
length of time that the resume bank had been in existence; higher ratings were
given to those in existence the longest period of time. Since most of them
started after 1994, in comparison to The Registry’s 1989 start year. The Registry
would rate favorably. However, The Registry began accepting data online
only in 1997, and it still does not accept full resumes. So, although it offers com
parative longevity, it still does not offer all sen/ices offered by the commercial
sites.
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2. Cost to the job seeker and cost to the employer. Resume banks that
had major corporate sponsors, and hence were free to applicants as well as
employers, were rated highest. Here again. The Registry would get high marks,
since it is free to both districts and applicants because the costs are underwrit
ten by the CCC Chancellor's Office.
3. Ratio of the number of resumes held to the number of employers
who use the database. Apparently, the authors gave the highest ratings for
this factor to Web sites that had smaller numbers of applicants per employer;
for example, those with the highest rating generally had one to three resumes
per employer. Not all of the Web sites provided this information, so the rating
data for this factor was incomplete.
4. Ratio of number of resumes held to the number of daily visits ("hits”)
on the resumes. Those sites that received the most hits were given the highest
rating. Again, not all of the sites evaluated provided this information. The Reg
istry is not technologically equipped to count the number of visits to its site.
5. Confidentiality available to the job seeker. Web sites that protected
applicant resumes from being viewed by their employers were given the high
est rating. The Registry would compare favorably if the person seeking the
information did not have access to the individual’s Social Security number,
because it uses Social Security numbers for identification.
6. Sophistication of the search options. Those Web sites that allow iden
tification of career specialization, geographic location preferences, national
or international exposure to positions, and industry specific choices received
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higher ratings. The Registry would receive a low rating by this criterion because
it does not allow job seekers to specify geographic location; however, it does
offer career specialization. Since it focuses solely on the CCC, the exposure to
national and international positions criteria is inapplicable.
7. Technology to notify job seeker and employer of matches. Web sites
that provided e-mail notifications to applicants when compatible positions be
came available or to employers when resume matches were found were
given the highest rating for this factor. The Registry does not offer e-mail tech
nology to job seekers at this time.
8. Overall ease of entering the resume and using the site. This criterion
is not applicable because The Registry does not accept resumes. Unfortu
nately, this renders it incapable of providing a very important feature to the
district recruiters: prescreening of applicants for minimum qualifications before
soliciting applications from them. Electronic prescreening of applicants would
save a significant amount of time and increase the quality of applicants.
9. Other aspects that help the job seeker, such as career information or
other unique, special features. For example, the shorter the period of time that
resumes remain online, the more desirable the resume bank. Most of the data
banks renew resumes every 6 months and offer online assistance to applicants.
The Registry does not accept resumes; however, the data that it accepts
remain in place for 3 years before registrants are asked to update the data.
T his increases the likelihood that districts continue to send announcements to
registrants who are no longer interested in employment.
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Hence, although The Registry technically offers more factors than it
lacks, including stability, costs, confidentiality, and specialization, it fails to offer
two very important factors: sophistication of the technology used and “fresh
ness" of the registrant database.
According to an article in the May 2000 issue of Yahoo! Internet Life
(Cohen. 2000), the best Web sites for finding a job are Monster.com,
Hotjobs.com, Headhunter, net, Yahoolcareers. and Careermosaic. The article
presented a comparison of these job search hubs by several criteria: (a) num
ber of positions listed; (b) confidentiality of data entered; (c) amount and
quality of related information made available; and (d) extra enhancements,
such as the number of resumes that could be placed on each site, the avail
ability of notification to users when appropriate positions are placed on line,
the number of times a resume has been viewed, and the like.
The results indicated The Registry is woefully behind each of these ca
reer sites in terms of technological capability and supplemental services, such
as tips on how to get the most out of using the site and links to other sites that
could be useful. Of particular concern is the lack of reliable e-mail communi
cation between The Registry and the college recruiters as well as between the
college recruiters and registrants because it eliminates one of the important
advantages Internet recruiting offers: reduced cycle time.
There was no comparison to the numbers of opportunities, since The
Registry shows administrative and faculty positions within the state community
colleges only. The number of positions posted annually averages 1,600 to 1.800
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and, as of January 2000, approximately 13,000 potential applicants had con
tact information stored in the databank. The Registry compares well to the
commercial sites in maintaining the confidentiality of the data placed into the
system by job seekers; even the community college system recruiters must go
through The Registry staff to gain access to the names of individuals who have
placed contact information in the database.
Rationale for Diversity
Why should community colleges and other institutions of higher educa
tion be concerned with increasing the diversity of its faculty and administra
tors? In 1989 the California state legislature passed Assembly B ill 1725, which (in
addition to other important changes to community college governance) es
tablished hiring goals for ethnic minority and women faculty members and ad
ministrators for achieving a community college work force that would mirror
the demographic characteristics of the state’s population by the year 2005. At
the time, census projections published by the state Department of Finance and
others indicated that the majority of the population of California would be
ethnic minority by 2010 (Sheehan, 1990). In consideration of this projection, AB
1725 identified a central leadership goal for the colleges to match the diversity
of their student bodies with comparable diversity among the faculty and staff.
The bill states, "The long-term objective of staff diversity is to achieve a work
force free from racial, ethnic or gender bias and to reap the benefits of a mul
ticultural staff" (n.p.). The sentiment of the Board of Governors and the system’s
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chancellor at that time were similar; they reasoned that given the large num
bers of students of color served by the system, California had a vested interest
in serving the needs of all its citizens and would reap a positive economic
impact from doing so (“Affirmative Action at the Crossroads," 1986).
Subsequently published rationales state that women and ethnic minori
ties are able to contribute points of view that others might not be able to pro
vide by virtue of their different experiences and origins (Owens et al., 1994).
Also, if nonminority students are to be well educated, they must be prepared to
relate positively to diversity in the workplace. Hence, having experience with
and exposure to diversity will assist in their preparation (Wolf-Devine, 1997).
According to the Los Angeles Times (Nelson & O'Reilly, 2000), the demo
graphic shift creating the projected majority ethnic minority population in the
state occurred in mid-year 2000. This shift was reflected in the student popula
tion of the CCC in figures published by the Policy Analysis and Development
Division of the Chancellor’s Office of the CCC: As of fall 1998, system enroll
ment was 49.7% minority and 10.5% unknown, with 56.4% female and 43.6%
male (CCC Office of the Chancellor, 1999).
The students attending community colleges across the country tend to
reflect population changes much more readily than 4-year colleges and uni
versities because of their open admissions and lower tuition charges. Enroll
ment changes for the California Community Colleges provide further under
standing of the impact of demographics on the issue of diversity within the
system: In 1990 the system’s students were 50.2% white, 36.8% minority, the
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remaining 13.2% were of unknown racial background. In 1999 these percent
ages had changed to 38.4% white, 47% minority, and 14.6% unknown. Clearly,
the constituents served by the community colleges have, and continue to
become increasingly minority.
According to a 1996 study by a major search firm on corporate diversity
efforts. Fortune 500 companies reported the following reasons for having diver
sity programs in place:
1. They believed such initiatives help attract and retain talented em
ployees;
2. They believed that they help market their products to their increas
ingly diverse consumer bases; and,
3. They believed that they help them avoid costly lawsuits (Caudron &
Hayes. 1997).
Diversity is sought in community colleges for similar reasons: (a) the large
numbers of students of color served by the system, (b) the positive potential
economic impact of an educated population, and (c) the presumed vested
interest that the state has in serving the needs of all citizens.
According to a study issued in 1997 by Wentling and Palma-Rivas, the
four major reasons that organizations invest in managing diversity are (a) to
improve productivity and remain competitive, (b) to form better work relation
ships among employees, (c) to enhance social responsibility, and (d) to ad
dress legal concerns. According to others (Caudron & Hayes, 1997; Hunter,
1998), the primary reasons are demographic changes and the resulting impact
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on customer/client penetration, and reducing conflict and potential negative
legal actions among employees.
The mission of the CCC remains advancing the state’s economic
growth and global competitiveness through education, training, and services
that contribute to continuous work force improvement (California Citizens
Commission on Higher Education, 1998). Most major corporations began im
plementing initiatives for valuing diversity during the past decade of the 20t h
century in recognition of the impact of demographic changes and global
marketing strategies (Hunter, 1998). Corporations will not be healthy unless the
societies in which they reside are healthy. Healthy societies in the 21s t century
will be those in which the most challenging, rewarding career possibilities are
perceived to be open to all races and ethnic groups (Bowen & Bok, 1998). Ob
viously, these two important segments of society share a common purpose,
and supporting policies and practices that encourage valuing and attaining
diversity advance that purpose.
Affirmative Action Recruitment
Affirmative action has been a very controversial topic, particularly dur
ing the past decade (Feinberg, 1998). Although there is near-universal accep
tance of the principles of equal employment opportunity, there is little public
support for measures specifically designed to end work place segregation or
ensure diversity. Further, faculty embrace very limited views of the meaning or
value of diversity. Such attitudes can have a significant impact on affirmative
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action recruitment because faculty members traditionally comprise the major
ity of those on hiring committees. Yet, unless positive action is taken to over
come the effects of historical exclusion, benign neutral employment practices
will perpetuate the status quo. Therefore, those seeking to promote workplace
integration might better be served by attempts to eliminate cultural biases in
herent in existing recruitment systems than attempt to impose practices that
are perceived to be unfairly preferential (Schwindt, Hall, & Davis, 1998). In spite
of the controversy, facts on how the job market actually works for faculty re
cruitment indicate that affirmative action hiring policies are s till necessary to
ensure equal treatment for women and minorities (Humphreys, 1998).
As is evident from the studies presented below, the methods most often
cited to attain a diverse work force in all organizations are aggressive recruit
ment, various kinds of diversity training, incentive programs, and commitment
from the top. Although the terms “affirmative action" and “diversity" are often
used synonymously, they are two separate concepts. Affirmative action is le
gally required and is applicable to women, minorities, and the disabled, while
diversity is usually described as a "strategic imperative" to enhance the ability
of the organization to realize the maximum potential of its employees by elimi
nating the subtle barriers imposed by any employee differences deemed
irrelevant to performance (Thomas, 1991). It should be noted that diversity is
typically achieved after implementation of a successful affirmative action
program, since often there is no significant diversity without it (Hunter. 1998).
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Research studies have produced a variety of proposed actions to es
tablish a diverse workplace in higher education. According to a study con
ducted by Colby and Foote (1994), some of the best steps to recruit minority
faculty are (a) keeping an open mind in evaluating credentials, recognizing
the value of nonacademic experiences; (b) including minority professionals
from the academic discipline on search committees; (c) using minority media
for recruitment campaigns; (d) making use of partnerships with business and
industry to seek out potential candidates; (e) keeping candidate pools open
until qualified underrepresented group members are found; (f) initiating pro
grams that aggressively seek well-qualified minority candidates through broad
networks and personal contacts; (g) including minorities on search commit
tees; (h) implementing long-range programs that encourage minority students
from elementary school through graduate programs; and (i) establishing and
maintaining diversity within the administrative staff.
Additional strategies for retaining minority faculty were presented by
Owens et al. (1994) included (a) organizing orientation programs and assis
tance with college and campus resources, housing, shopping, and community
services; (b) scheduling activities that require all faculty members to interact
such as diversity training and staff development programs to promote collegi-
ality; and (c) incorporating minority faculty into the decision-making process of
the college and mainstreaming their teaching assignments.
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Efforts in the C C C
The CCC system implemented some aspects of the above strategies in
the effort to increase minority faculty within its institutions. Key components of
the plan format put in place by the system were leadership from the top, re
wards and incentives to districts and individuals who contribute to diverse
staffing, required filing of affirmative action plans, an annual job fair that fo
cused on affirmative action, and accountability to the state legislature. The
system established a 30% hiring rate for minority faculty in 1989 and put The
Registry in place to provide assistance to the districts to achieve that goal. In
the 1992-93 academic year, the districts collectively exceeded this goal by
1.2%.
Solano Community College (one of the CCC) established a year-long
project in 1993 to recruit and retain underrepresented faculty and staff, and
they published the results (Tolliver, 1994). A diverse team of college employees
was formed to identify weaknesses, adopt more effective recruiting strategies,
improve hiring procedures, research successful programs, and develop a suc
cessful plan. Recommendations for improving recruitment and retention of
women and minorities developed by the Solano team included (a) providing
ongoing training on cultural diversity issues for faculty and staff to enhance
sensitivity and awareness, (b) showcasing the college with an open house for
community leaders, (c) administering a campus climate survey, (d) holding
lecture series and open forums on cross-cultural diversity, (e) developing ongo
ing strategies for retention of underrepresented staff and faculty, (f) providing
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continuous orientation and training of part-time instructors, and (g) establishing
and maintaining resources on cultural diversity.
Affirm ative Action Recruitm ent in
O ther Colleges/Universities
Studies conducted at other colleges and universities have examined
the effectiveness of campus programs aimed at achieving higher rates of
participation and success for minority faculty and offer recommendations for
the future that may be applicable to the CCC. A committee at the University
of Maryland College Park researched minority faculty advancement and
success, surveyed job satisfaction, and sought to determine how department
chairs can help or hinder young faculty aiming for tenure (Clague, 1992).
A study conducted at Kansas City Community College to develop rec
ommendations to improve minority faculty hiring procedures and provide in
formation and guidelines for recruiting minority faculty members produced a
comprehensive list of recommendations (Wilson, 1994). Those most notable
were the following:
1. Listen to minority faculty member needs;
2. Establish strategies to prepare the campus for intellectual, social,
ethnic, and cultural diversity;
3. Establish a staff conversion program to identify minority staff mem
bers in instructional support departments who may be interested in teaching;
4. Start early recruitment programs with universities with large numbers
of minority students;
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5. Develop relationships with minority organizations to seek their assis
tance in identifying qualified individuals for faculty positions; and
6. Include minorities in all phases of the recruitment efforts. Although
these studies were primarily concerned with minority faculty recruitment and
retention, the actions recommended could be applied to women and admin
istrative positions.
The Maricopa community colleges of Arizona utilized many of these
strategies to create applicant pools in which minorities and women were well
represented (de los Santos. 1994). They visited colleges with large minority
populations, sent direct mailings, mailed packets to individual minority gradu
ate students, and sent faculty representatives to state and district minority or
ganizations to encourage potential applicants to apply for positions within their
system. The result was an increase in full-time minority faculty from 16.7% in
1987 to 19.2% in 1992. They also increased the number of minority managers
(deans, directors, coordinators) from 19.6% in 1987 to 23.2% in 1992.
A key component to attaining and retaining a diverse work force in any
setting is the leadership of the chief executive officer, particularly if the organi
zation has been reluctant to accept diversity in the past. He or she sets the
tone, the motivation, and the direction of the institution (Burgos-Sasser, 1994).
However, in the shared governance environment that exists within higher edu
cation in which faculty committees often exert greater influence than the CEO,
it is often difficult to embrace controversial or unpopular issues, and many
CEOs appear to have been reluctant to take on this issue. Hence, in spite of
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the regulatory goal of attaining a work force that reflects the adult population
of the state, the altruistic and public policy rationales for supporting diversity,
and the various methods identified for implementing affirmative action. The
Registry’s potential for assisting the colleges in increasing the proportions of
minorities and women in nontraditional roles is ultimately up to whether the
individuals within the system choose to take advantage of it.
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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The chapter describes the research methods used to make a deter
mination of whether The Registry has accomplished its mission. Unlike research
conducted to attain new knowledge, evaluation measures mission achieve
ment and product delivery. The purpose is to determine worth and social utility
or, in this instance, program planning and management. In the social sciences
the term "paradigm" or “framework" is synonymous with the term "model." Ed
ucational researchers tend to view paradigms as procedural diagrams indicat
ing the steps that should be taken to complete a task or reach a particular
goal (Issac & Michael, 1997). The framework or paradigm selected to research
any subject is typically quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative research is
characterized by (a) experiments with random assignment of subjects to treat
ment conditions, (b) quasi-experiments that use nonrandomized designs, and
(c) surveys employing questionnaires or structured interviews for data collec
tion. Qualitative research methods employ a broad variety of data collection
types, analysis, and report writing that can be grouped in four broad catego
ries: (a) ethnographies, in which the researcher studies a cultural group during
a prolonged period by collecting primarily observational data: (b) grounded
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theory, in which the researcher attempts to derive a theory by using multiple
stages of data collection and the refinement and interrelationship of catego
ries of information; (c) case studies, in which the researcher explores a single
entity or phenomenon and collects detailed information using a variety of
data collection procedures during a sustained period of time; and (d) phe
nomenological studies, in which human experiences are examined through
detailed descriptions of the people being studied. The quantitative approach
holds that the researcher should remain distant and independent of the re
search topic and the language used should be formal and impersonal or third
person. The qualitative approach postulates that researchers interact with
those in the study, minimize the distance between themselves and those being
researched, and use an informal, first person writing style (Creswell, 1994).
The philosophy most applicable to the evaluation of The Registry is the
case study approach described by Creswell (1994), in which the researcher
explores a single entity or phenomenon bounded by time and activity and
collects detailed information. The research methods used for the evaluation
were a combination of qualitative and quantitative research techniques,
commonly referred to as a triangulation approach. The concept is based on
the assumption that any bias inherent in using a single data source, investiga
tor, or method would be neutralized when used in conjunction with other data
sources, investigators, and methods. According to J. M. Morse, "methodologi
cal triangulation’’ can occur between qualitative and quantitative ap
proaches by simultaneous or sequential triangulation (as cited in Creswell). In
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simultaneous triangulation the researcher answers the qualitative and quanti
tative research questions at the same time. Results are reported separately
and do not necessarily relate to or confirm the results of the quantitative study.
In sequential triangulation the researcher conducts two phases of the project,
with the results of the first phase essential for planning the next phase. The
questions of the first phase are completed before the questions of the second
phase are raised. Sequential triangulation was used to evaluate the Registry.
Program evaluation typically involves a three-step sequence (Issac & Michael,
1997): (a) objectives—state clearly and specifically each objective in measur
able or observable terms: (b) means— plan the various strategies and activities
which will be implemented to attain each objective: and (c) measures—select
or develop the measures by which attainment of each objective will be deter
mined.
According to the final report submitted to the Chancellor’s Office by
The Registry project manager in May 1996, the "prime directive" of The Registry
is to assist the California Community Colleges with meeting their diversity goals
and timetables and provide educators who are committed to excellence.
Hence, the essence of the evaluation was to determine whether that directive
had been accomplished.
The qualitative methods of the triangulation included (a) review of the
stated charge or responsibilities of The Registry to clearly define the scope of its
mission: (b) review of relevant documents, such as reports on staffing and sal
aries published by the CCC Accountability Unit and the CCC Human
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Resources Unit; (c) collection and analysis of reports and data maintained by
The Registry; (d) observation and interviews with the past and current manag
ers and staff to gain a better understanding of the background of how The
Registry was started and how it currently operates; (e) individual interviews with
a human resource user, affirmative action officer, and public information
officer to determine their views of The Registry and its impact on recruitment
practices in colleges; (f) focus group meetings with groups of human re
sources/affirmative action officers within the colleges to determine general
attitudes and concerns about The Registry; and (g) review of proposals solic
ited from commercial Internet companies to determine how their operations
compare to The Registry. The quantitative methods included (a) development
of a survey instrument for the human resources officers within the community
colleges and analysis of the data generated, and (b) development of a survey
instrument for registrants in the data bank and analysis of the data generated.
Each of these approaches is described in greater detail below.
Review of Registry Documents
The primary focus of the document review was reports generated by
The Registry office and staffing and salary reports published by the CCC Ac
countability Unit Policy Analysis and Development Division of the Chancellor’s
Office (1994). In order to accomplish this, the researcher requested copies of
all reports that had been generated by the office. The reports provided in
cluded demographic data on the registrants from 1990 through 2000 and the
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reports listed below from 1996 through 1999: (a) Registry District Use Summaries,
which are lis ts of district requests for labels from 1996 through 1999; (b) detailed
demographic information on registrants, including race and gender, by high
est degree claimed and type of position of interest for 1995 through January
2000; (c) summaries of the numbers of registrants in the system by race and
gender; (d) year-end reports that include summary information on which pub
lications had run advertisements for The Registry, descriptions of outreach ef
forts. such as workshops and conferences participated in by Registry staff, and
tallies of the numbers of individuals who had added their contact data to The
Registry; (e) survey formats designed to determine how widely known The Reg
istry was and the level of satisfaction with the services provided; (f) lis ts of hires
by discipline; (g) lis ts of job postings by district; (h) job fair participation by dis
trict; (i) search requests by district; (j) numbers of labels requested by each
district; (k) copies of memoranda sent to district human resources offices and
documents generated to describe The Registry to potential registrants; (I) cop
ies of monthly Job Bank Newsletters showing positions advertised by district;
(m) copies of survey formats issued to HR users; and (n) accountability reports
for academic years 1996-1999 that present the annual numbers of persons
hired by the districts, a separate list of those hired who were also registrants of
The Registry, and an alphabetical listing of the college districts showing the
names of individuals hired for faculty and administrative positions.
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Focus Group Meetings
Focus group meetings were used to draw out information and generate
hypotheses that could be explored through the survey. In September 1999, e-
mail messages were sent to randomly selected district human resources man
agers, soliciting their participation in The Registry evaluation focus group meet
ings during the semiannual October conference. On the first day of the con
ference the researcher made an announcement that she was evaluating The
Registry under the auspices of the state Chancellor's Office and would like to
hold two focus group meetings during the conference as part of the project.
She specifically mentioned to the chief human resources officers of the larger
districts in southern California that the first session would take place at the end
of the first day of the conference, and she asked them to participate. These
districts included three multiple-campus districts and three single-campus dis
tricts, all in southern California. With the exception of the vice-president of
human resources for one of the single-campus districts, all agreed. Six adminis
trators representing five districts were present at the beginning of the session;
two additional human resources administrators were detained but joined the
group midway through the meeting. In spite of the fact that this first session
took place in a corner of a much larger room in which a few conference
participants were talking, the group discussion appeared to be unrestrained.
The second group, consisting of six human resources directors of somewhat
smaller districts from both southern and northern California, was convened at
the close of the conference. On the morning of the last day the researcher
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specifically reminded these participants of the evaluation announcement and
gave assurances that it would likely take no more than an hour. With the
exception of one individual who declined because he needed to leave the
conference, all consented to participate. This session took place in a small
conference room, and again it appeared to be unrestrained. The third session
was held with 12 human resource directors and/or affirmative action officers
attending the November 1999 Affirmative Action. Diversity, and Equity Consor
tium meeting in Oakland. T h is session took place in a larger room with the
participants seated around a U-shaped table, and did not yield as much feed
back about The Registry as the previous two session, primarily because the
larger size was not as conducive to open discussion.
Each meeting was opened with the following prepared remarks:
As you know, The Registry was implemented in 1989 as a
means of assisting the community colleges in increasing the num
bers of women and minorities in faculty and administrative posi
tions. At the time, approximately 20% of the faculty was com
prised of minorities and close to 35% were women. According to
the Policy Analysis and Management Information Services Divi
sion of the Chancellor’s Office, as of June 1998,21.4% of the fac
ulty was minority, 47% were women. I am gathering data to eval
uate The Registry and develop recommendations to make it
more effective for applicants as well as administrators. In addi
tion to analyzing the data that has been gathered by The Registry
for the past ten years, I will also issue a survey to all of the districts
as well as to a sample of applicants. And, I am conducting focus
groups meetings with selected human resources and affirmative
action professionals to gain an understanding of their views on
The Registry.
Since the purpose of this project is to improve a tool that
we are required to use, I trust you will feel free to speak freely.
Please be aware that in order to make sure I don't m iss any of
your important comments, I need to tape our session. Do I have
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your permission to tape your comments? Is there anyone here
who feels he or she would be inhibited by the tape recorder?
All of the participants indicated that they were willing to proceed at the
conclusion of these remarks. Each group was then asked eight open-ended
questions (appendix A), and they generally spoke quite freely for approxi
mately 45 to 60 minutes. All of the participants seemed to welcome an oppor
tunity to discuss The Registry.
Interviews
The researcher conducted seven interviews for the evaluation: a hu
man resources manager who has been in the system for almost 30 years, an
affirmative action administrator in a very diverse district, the past and present
project directors of The Registry, the two clerical employees assigned to The
Registry, and a public information officer who had coordinated several of The
Registry job fairs and advertising campaigns. Questions guiding these inter
views are listed in appendix B .
The 30-year employee was asked to participate because of his long
tenure in the CCC; because he had been the chief human resources officer of
the largest district in the system (nine campuses) for many years, it was as
sumed that he was uniquely knowledgeable of the difficulties associated with
recruiting faculty and administrators for multiple locations. The interview took
approximately 1 hour and was conducted in his office. The affirmative action
administrator was a relatively new employee at one of the most diverse single-
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campus districts in the system. This interview took approximately 45 minutes
and was conducted by telephone.
The interviews with The Registry staff took place in their offices in two
half-day sessions. Appointments with the staff were made well in advance of
the interviews, with the explanation of the grant to evaluate The Registry. Al
though the staff was aware that the discussions could result in a recommenda
tion that the function be discontinued, they were quite open and cooperative.
The office and staff of The Registry are housed at Yosemite Community College
District, a two-college district (Columbia Community College and Modesto
Junior College) located in the city of Modesto. The office was established
there in 1989 when a manager at Modesto Community College who had been
a member of a task force led by then- Vice-Chancellor for Diversity and Equity
was awarded a grant to develop The Registry. On the afternoon of the first day
of the researcher’s visit to the college, she met with the original project director
for over 2 hours, then met briefly with the new director and agreed to meet
with him and his staff the following morning.
The day-to-day operation of The Registry is actually run by two female
clerical employees, one of whom has been entering the data and responding
to requests for labels for its entire 1 0-year existence. The space in which these
two employees work is a long, narrow room filled with vertical and lateral files,
desks, tables, and computers.
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Commercial Recruitment W eb Sites
Proposals for managing The Registry Web site were solicited from a
variety of for-profit recruitment sources. The following companies responded:
Jobs.com, Monster.com, Nationjobs.com, and JobOptions.com.
Jobs.com
According to the Jobs.com proposal, "By 2003,96% of all companies will
be recruiting online, making it essential to get to job seekers fast" (Weaver &
Dixon-Heir, 2000, n.p.). This proposal included the following features: (a) unlim
ited job postings; (b) a customized profile and benefits page that offers unlim
ited space to present information about the community colleges; (c) unlimited
access to the ResumeBank, which is the database for the resumes of potential
applicants; (d) Web-based software to help organize all employment opportu
nities and analyze the results of each job posted on the Jobscom network;
(e) links of all jobs posted to specified college sites; and (f) tracking information
for all job postings on the Internet and the success of each recruitment site.
The cost of the Jobs.com service package was $36,200 per year.
M onster.com
Monster's proposal claimed that it is the Web’s most technologically ad
vanced career hub and that it could be unobtrusively integrated into the
CCC's Web sites and managed from one location. The features included the
following:
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Joboptions.com
According to Joboptions.com, the most common ways in which Web
sites turn off loyal customers is by presenting outdated stale content, slow re
sponse times, downtime or technical problems, and bad customer service. This
proposal also included a brief critical analysis of the CCC Web page, which
indicated that the page was inefficient because it lis ts three separate links to
look for job openings, presents graphics that unnecessarily slow the download
time (time required to view the image after clicking the icon), and is not orga
nized to simplify the process so that job seekers can search multiple positions/
locations in a single search. As a selling point, the company emphasized the
importance of a user-friendly Web site, fast response time, and updated con
tent; the company promised to provide these features and to correct the
“problems" identified in its critique of The Registry web site, as well as the follow
ing: (a) a customized private Web site to include jobs, resumes, banners, and
employer links and databases; (b) banner advertising; (c) e-mail; and (d) vir
tual job fairs.
N ation Job Network
This online recruiting company cited a study by J. Walter Thompson that
indicated that over 70% of active job seekers prefer the Internet to other meth
ods of job seeking such as newspaper classifieds, agencies, or job fairs. As a
further selling point, it cited a Merrill Lynch report that estimated that spending
on Internet recruiting would grow from $205 million in 1999 to $5.1 billion in 2003,
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and it listed NationJob as one of the leading Internet recruiting firms. The Na-
tionJob proposal included the following features: (a) detailed organization
profile; (b) links to the home page in all listings; (c) an average of 20 million
“hits" per month; (d) a special customized jobs page; (e) a Web site to attract
specific types of people; (f) jobs automatically cross-posted to other major
sites, such as America’s Job Bank. Yahoo! Internet Life Classifieds, and others;
(g) updating of the system’s job page each month; and (h) promotion of
NationJob through the media, professional communities, and the Internet. The
cost quoted by NationJob.com for the above features was $90,000 per year.
Using the information gathered through these approaches, it was possi
ble to draw useful conclusions about the efficacy of The Registry as a means of
recruiting administrators and faculty in the colleges, to assess The Registry as a
means of increasing the representation of women and minorities in those
positions, and to identify possible improvements to make it more effective.
Surveys
Subsequent to the focus group meetings and interviews, the researcher
developed a survey to test some of the common assumptions and concerns
raised by the human resource users. To assess their perceptions as to whether
The Registry was meeting its charge, she developed a separate survey for the
registrants. The survey instruments are included in appendix C. An effort was
made to limit the length of the surveys to minimize the likelihood that long
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instruments would negatively influence the willingness of participants to com
plete them.
The human resource instrument was mailed to each of the 72 commu
nity college districts in the state, and approximately 30 responded within 30
days of the request. A second request was then sent via e-mail, appealing for
a fax, e-mail, or postal reply; this resulted in 15 more responses by e-mail, 5 by
mail, and 10 by fax. In total. 60 (83%) of the districts responded to the survey.
The registrant survey was mailed to 400 individuals. The Registry office staff
provided mailing labels for a random, stratified sample of people in the data
base by randomly selecting ten registrants from each of the 40 position codes.
The first survey mailing yielded 182 responses. A second request was mailed 30
days later, resulting in a total of 255 completed surveys (63%).
The survey responses were entered into a computerized statistical data
base and analyzed for frequency distributions that yielded percentages for
each survey question. Because one of the primary goals of The Registry is to
assist the districts in locating and recruiting more women and minorities, the
analysis specifically sought differences in the registrants’ responses by race
and gender as well as by age and location. Differences across these groups
were analyzed using crosstabulations to determine whether there were any
distinctions in the way in which The Registry was viewed by the various groups
of respondents, and chi-square testing was used to determine whether any of
the differences were statistically significant. The human resources user survey
data were crosstabulated by location and district size.
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The surveys and focus group meetings were symbiotic; the information
gathered from each complemented the other. Hence, some of the conclu
sions presented are based on the focus groups and interviews alone, some on
the survey only, others on the analysis of the data, and some on all of these.
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CHAPTER 4
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH RESULTS
The research findings for The Registry evaluation are presented in two
chapters. Chapter 4 addresses the findings gleaned from reports published by
The Registry and the system Chancellor’s Office, interviews with human re
source/affirmative action managers, focus group meetings, and interviews
and observation of The Registry office operation and staff.
Registry Reports
A review of the annual and quarterly reports issued between 1996 and
1999 by The Registry provided answers to the questions presented below as
well as some insight into the potential effectiveness of The Registry.
/. Has The Registry achie ved a representation o f women and minori
ties in its d ata bank that is high enough to help the system districts increase their
representation o f these groups?
As of January 2000, there were 13,596 registrants in The Registry data
bank, divided among 40 job codes or professional areas of interest/ expertise.
Fourteen (35%) of the code groups included fewer than 250 registrants, 17
(42.5%) held 250 to 999 registrants, and only 9 (22.5%) held 1,000 or more. From
a strictly numerical point of view, these figures are not impressive. According
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to The Registry reports for academic years 1995-96,1996-97, and 1997-98 (Gav-
reau, 1996/1997,1997/1998,1998/1999), the numbers of faculty and administra
tive positions filled by the (then) 107 colleges was approximately 300 annually.
Since the registrants numbered from 12,000 to 13,000 during those years, reli
ance on The Registry would have yielded approximately 40 potential appli
cants for each position. The race and gender of individuals who had placed
their data into the system were 29.8% minority, 46.7% female, 50.4% male, and
2.9% gender unknown. Hence, if the minorities and women were evenly distrib
uted among all of the job codes (they are not), approximately 12 of the 40 reg
istrants would have been minority, 17 to 20 women. Of those registrants who
chose to apply, many would not have survived the screening process due to
failure to follow the typically prescriptive hiring procedures that the colleges
use or due to lack of appropriate qualifications. Given this information, one
would have to conclude that The Registry representatives must either work
harder or acquire greater resources to attain a larger as well as more diverse
database if it is to adequately support the system goal of attaining a work
force that reflects the adult population of the state. Although, as previously in
dicated, the numbers and percentages of women and minorities employed in
administrative and faculty positions by the colleges have increased, it is dif
ficult to credit the improvements to The Registry.
2. How do the qualifications o f women, minorities, and disabled appli
cants compare with those o f other applicants in The Registry data bank?
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The qualifications of these historically underrepresented groups com
pare well with those of other applicants in The Registry data bank. Fully 78.7%
of the general registrants indicated that they had at least a master’s degree,
with 21% of that percentage claiming a doctorate. An additional 9.8%
claimed a credential (prior to 1990. credentials were issued to individuals
deemed qualified by the state Chancellor’s Office), which also serves as a
qualification to teach. By comparison, 85.8% of the 3,903 minorities in the data
bank indicated they had a master’s degree or more, as did 87.8% of the 6,353
women and 90% of the 8.177 White registrants. None of the commercial Web
sites provided specific data regarding the percentages of resumes claiming a
bachelor's or master's degree, but their representatives verbally related that
30% to 50% were bachelor's degree recipients. Hence, it seems fair to con
clude that The Registry can claim to have attained a higher proportion of at
least minimally qualified database registrants than the commercial sources.
3. Has The Registry been an effective tool for pro viding assistance to
community college districts in locating, identifying, an d selecting women, mi
norities, and the disabled for faculty and administrative positions?
Unfortunately, although the reports compiled by The Registry office pro
vided information regarding the numbers of Registry database participants
who had been hired each year, they did not provide this information by race
or gender. According to the data provided, approximately 16% of the individu
als who had placed their data into the system had also been hired by one of
the colleges each year from 1996 through 1998 (Gavreau, 1996/1997,1997/
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1998,1998/1999). But the question of whether The Registry had been an effec
tive means of locating and recruiting women and minorities into the database
could not be answered, primarily because there were no clear data indicative
of community college faculty or administrator availability. According to Milam
(1997), in a study developed to address questions regarding college faculty
availability for hiring, affirmative action, and supply and demand, it was cur
rently not possible to provide conclusive crosstabulation data of women and
minorities by discipline or tenure status in higher education. Moreover, most of
the models that are available do not adequately capture enrollment data for
master’s degree programs, which would address community college needs.
Also unavailable are conclusive crosstabulated data concerning the propor
tions of skilled tradespersons with associate or bachelor's degrees, thus quali
fied to teach in the career-oriented courses of study taught in the CCC. If such
data were available, it would be simple to compare the percentages of wom
en, minorities, and disabled in The Registry database to state and/or national
availability to determine whether The Registry included a reasonable propor
tion of these groups.
Although some of the information provided was useful, most of The Reg
istry reports consisted of long lists of new hires by district, district phone logs, dis
trict jobs posted with The Registry, and labels sent by district, without analyses of
the data. There were no reference points; no indications of which districts used
The Registry most or least; whether the percentage of openings posted to The
Registry represented 50%, 80%, or 100% of the positions filled in the system; and
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no way to establish whether the number of labels requested by each district
was high or low vis-a-vis the number of positions that they sought to fill. Hence,
there was little information that would assist the Chancellor's Office in tracking
the effectiveness of The Registry, determining how consistently the districts
were using it, or enforcing the Title V requirement for the colleges to use The
Registry consistently for all faculty and administrative recruitment.
The Accountability Reports provided for 1998-99 and 97-98 are listings of
faculty and administrators hired who were also registrants when hired by each
district. These reports also present summary data showing the numbers and
percentages of faculty and administrators hired for the current and previous
academic years. However, because the reports were very confusing, it was
necessary to contact The Registry office to determine what was actually
meant by the information shown. The reports do not clearly define the mean
ings of labels used to categorize data. They do not reconcile with previous ac
countability reports; for example, the ending totals for 1995 did not match the
1995 totals presented in the 1996 report. The names of those hired were desig
nated A for administrator or F for faculty and placed in a current or prior col
umn. Many of the names did not include either designation. The fact that
there was no uniformity in the way in which districts labeled administrators and
faculty adds to the difficulty of making meaningful comparisons or presenting
a meaningful report.
A survey was issued to the human resources users by The Registry office
in 1996, apparently designed to determine how these users viewed the service
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and to gauge their satisfaction levels with The Registry. The users were asked to
indicate recruitment assistance needs that were not being addressed through
The Registry and whether they would like to see the service continued.
The primary exception to the generally unsatisfactory information pro
vided by The Registry reports came from the demographic data, which pres
ents the numbers and percentages of applicants in The Registry by race, gen
der, disability status, and highest degree/credential held. T his information is
also presented for each of the 40 position codes used by The Registry from 1996
through 1999 and quarterly single-page summaries of the total registrant data
base for March 1993 through June 1999. These data were useful in tracking
whether The Registry increased the percentages of minorities and women in its
database since its inception, which would be an indicator of whether it might
be a useful means of assisting the districts in increasing the proportion of these
groups within their applicant pools.
The reports also included (a) ad placements by publication, size of ad
placed, costs, and number of responses received; (b) job fairs reports, identify
ing where the fairs took place, income received from the participating districts,
and the number of names added to The Registry due to the job fairs (approxi
mately 4,000 names were added in 1996; these statistics were not presented for
other years); (c) statements regarding workshops, where they would be of
fered. conferences attended by Registry staff, and reports regarding reaction
to the job bank newsletter by job fair participants; and (d) copies of marketing
materials for job fair participants: lis ts of contact names/addresses at each of
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the system colleges, solicitations to subscribe to the newsletter, and applica
tion forms for entering data into The Registry.
It should be noted that many of the weaknesses noted in the account
ability reports are not the fault of The Registry staff, as the staff members can
report only the data they are provided.
Other Relevant Reports
According to the Report on Staffing and Salaries [CCC Office of the
Chancellor, 1999), the overall representation of individual minority groups
within the statewide system of 7 1 districts revealed the following percentages:
6.4% Asians (not including Filipinos), 6.4% Black, 9.7% Hispanic, and 1.1% Native
American. A count of the 71 districts in which specific minority groups were
above these percentages by 33% or more (for example 8.5% for Asians), re
vealed Asians in 7 districts, Blacks in 9 districts, and Hispanics in 10 districts.
Overall, most of the minorities in the system were concentrated in 10
districts: indeed. 85% of the minorities were found in 15% of the 71 districts. This
was particularly true for Blacks, who were concentrated in a few districts, such
as Compton with 71.4% minority faculty, 48.8% of whom were Black, and Peral
ta (Oakland) with 45% minorities, 27.9% of whom were Black. Yet each of these
districts is within 30 miles of districts with less than half that level of minority rep
resentation, such as Long Beach with 21.5% and San Mateo with 26.4%. This
dichotomy gave rise to the following questions that were addressed in the
applicant survey:
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1. Do minorities self-select themselves into or out of such districts by
choosing to apply or not apply?
2. Does the internal representation of minorities within districts have an
impact on their ability to attract other minorities?
3. Is there a correlation between the percentages of minorities al
ready employed by a district and the likelihood that others will be hired
through the faculty screening committees?
4. Do the locations of some of the districts, coupled with the presumed
reluctance of many minorities to move to areas with few members of their par
ticular group already in place, influence their willingness to relocate?
The answers were mixed. Sixty-five percent of the Asian registrants and
55.5% of the Blacks indicated that ethnic make-up of the district strongly influ
enced their decision to apply, while only 14% of the Caucasians and 33% of the
Hispanics answered this question affirmatively. Blacks (78%) and Hispanics
(73%) indicated a greater willingness to relocate for faculty positions than did
Asians (64%) and Caucasians (67%). Registrants 55 and older were more willing
to relocate (77.8%) than were any of the younger groups, and men (74%) were
significantly more willing to move than were women. It was surprising that only
50% of the Caucasian registrants indicated that they felt that they had an
equal opportunity to be selected for positions, as compared to 60% of Hispan
ics, 61 % of Blacks, and 69% of Asians.
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Interviews
The human resources manager and the affirmative action manager in
terviewed for the study expressed opinions in several areas.
Regarding minorities, the interviewees expressed that The Registry was
designed to help in recruiting minorities and women but that it has not really
been effective in that regard. One said that, as it currently stands, "I would say
if we didn’t use it we wouldn’t see an appreciable difference in the numbers of
minorities in our applicant pools." They reported that many minority applicants
who are qualified for faculty positions have the impression that it is very difficult
to get hired into the community college system, so they decline to try. The Reg
istry is not as visible as it should be; many minorities are not aware that it exists.
Also, there seems to be a tendency for the faculty to clone themselves when
interviewing potential applicants. Therefore, minorities tend to have a greater
chance of being selected at colleges that already have a significant number
of minorities. The same is true for women.
Regarding technology, the interviewees felt that The Registry should be
used only as an indication of interest; the information is too general to be used
as a full recruitment tool. For example, it is still necessary to do extensive
screening of applicants because there is not enough specific information on
each individual in the system to determine whether that person is truly quali
fied. Some reported that they have their own database of applicants col
lected at the annual job fair and through the year from people who seeking
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positions. When they have openings, they send announcements to these
individuals as well as to the people in The Registry.
Regarding their attitude toward The Registry, the interviewees expressed
that The Registry is an excellent idea but does not provide enough data to be
useful as a one-stop recruitment tool. Overall, the general consensus was that
the districts like having it available as an additional source but it could provide
so much more than it currently does.
Regarding advertising, the interviewees felt that The Registry would be
so much more effective if there were collaboration among the districts and the
Chancellor’s Office, especially regarding targeted advertising and Web site
links.
In spite of the generally positive attitude expressed during the interviews,
one additional comment arose that implied growing frustration with some of
the more cumbersome aspects of using The Registry. At least two of the dis
tricts have begun to develop their own databases, or mini registries. They use
the job fairs to collect names of individuals interested in working at their district
and access these databases, as well as The Registry, as needed. One district
mentioned having collected over 5.000 names in the past 4 to 5, the other over
7,000.
In addition to the conversations with the above two individuals, a tele
phone interview was held with the former public information officer for the
Yosemite Community College District who had assisted The Registry staff in co
ordinating the job fairs and media campaigns. According to her, the
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Chronicle ofHigher Education was by far the most effective publication to
reach potential applicants for faculty and administrative positions and it should
be the primary print media used. She also stated that her most significant hur
dle to implementing an effective advertising campaign was that of inade
quate resources, and that during its 10 years of operation the budget made
available for administering The Registry had remained the same while salaries
and other costs had increased. The result was a steady decrease in the
amount of money available for advertising. She recommended that (a) future
Chronicle ads be increased in size and placed at regular intervals; (b) print
advertising be augmented with a variety of other advertising sources, such as
radio, television, movie theatres, and Internet banner advertising; and (c) an
effective advertising campaign would require significantly more funding to
make The Registry achieve its full potential.
Focus Group Meetings
The following seven themes were commonly expressed in the three
meetings.
1. Overall reaction to The Registry was positive. The human resources/
affirmative action users liked the “idea" of The Registry—that it is an inexpen
sive source of applicants, that it is a convenient resource for applicants seeking
community college opportunities, that it provides some indication of the num
bers of potential applicants, and that it provides a central place for candi
dates to identify positions in the community colleges across the state.
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However, more careful review of fhe interviews and focus group meetings
revealed more negative comments than positive. While it is true that, if one
needs applicants. The Registry has many names and addresses that can be
accessed, the data are free, and 80% or more of the registrants have at least a
master's degree. The Registry was not seen as an effective means of assisting
the colleges in increasing the representation of historically underrepresented
group members (what it was expected to accomplish). Hence, participants in
those focus group meetings reported that, in actual practice. The Registry has
not lived up to its promise and seemingly rarely results in actual hires.
2. Although The Registry has been a good source of applicants and
opportunities for women, it was not perceived by the users to be a useful
means of increasing minority representation. The minority human resources
professionals felt that the existence of The Registry was less well known in the
minority communities, and hence fewer of them place their data into the sys
tem. Although it is possible to request registrants by ethnicity or gender, few of
the human resources managers interviewed seemed willing to use that option,
due either to personal convictions and/or concerns about violating Proposition
209, which bans preferential hiring by race/gender in public sector positions in
California. They also felt that the clerical administrators of The Registry who are
responsible for sending the labels were reluctant to comply with such requests.
3. Using The Registry labels is quite cumbersome for the human re
source users. The categories for identifying potential applicants are very
broad; as a result, a request for registrants for a particular area might yield 800
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to 1.200 labels. This means a large commitment of funds and employee time to
mail announcements to applicants. Further, many of the applicants are no
longer at the addresses provided and this results in what the users consider un-
acceptably large amounts of wasted postage and time. One focus group
participant stated that, in order to use The Registry consistently and process all
of the labels, he would have to hire a full-time employee. When this is com
pared to placing an advertisement, it is easier for districts to opt for the latter.
4. Timeliness poses a barrier to effective use of The Registry for appli
cants as well as for human resource users. The typical recruitment time from
opening to closing of community college faculty/administrator announce
ments is 4 weeks. Labels are generally requested at the same time that an
nouncements are opened. Obtaining labels can take from 3 to 10 days. Once
received, the labels must be affixed to envelopes or postcards and mailed,
and applicants are invited to contact the human resources office if they wish
to apply. If so, they call and then wait to receive the application and detailed
announcement or go to the district to collect the documents. Then they must
complete an application package that typically includes transcripts, letters of
recommendation, a completed application, and a detailed letter explaining
how their qualifications meet the requirements of the job. By the time this pro
cess is completed, the 4-week window for receiving applications has closed.
Often, even if the applicants submit the necessary documents, they have not
had adequate time to do a good Job. The Registry newsletter, which is pub
lished monthly, often includes announcements with barely a week or days
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meet this requirement. Many assume that previous experience in a work envi
ronment known to be diverse suffices, without specifically responding. Unfortu
nately, many of the districts require an explicit response to this prerequisite. As
a result, many applicants who are obviously well qualified are never invited to
the interview stage of the process because of a misstep in the application
process.
7. The job fairs are good for public relations and visibility but not for
building applicant pools. This is due largely to the fact that few districts main
tain a database of applications that they access for applicants. Instead, an
nouncements are issued when positions are available and only the pool of
respondents who apply at that time is actually considered. Most districts allow
interested job fair participants to complete a brief interest form, but these are
primarily used to fill part-time faculty positions. In order to be considered for
full-time positions, interested applicants must apply during the time that posi
tions are open. Unless people are qualified for and interested in a position
available at the time that the job fair is being held, the most they are likely to
get out of the job fair is awareness of the CCC or The Registry.
Interviews and Observations at the CCC Registry
Office
The office and staff of The Registry are housed in the district offices of
Yosemite Community College District in the city of Modesto. Modesto is a
medium-size town in the central valley of the state noted for its many trees. The
college, founded in 1927, is located between a well-maintained middle-class
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neighborhood and an industrial area. The Registry office was established there
in 1989 when a manager at Yosemite Community College was awarded a
grant to develop The Registry.
The visit to the office of the first project director was conducted on No
vember 18.1999. Except for a 1 -year break in the early 1 990s, this individual
managed The Registry as a collateral duty until June 1999, when the responsi
bility was given to the District Management Information Services (MIS) Network
Manager, also as a 40% collateral duty. Neither of these employees received
additional pay for assuming The Registry project manager role. The manager
had a very pleasant, gracious demeanor, and was very forthcoming about h is
history with The Registry. After only a few questions, he readily opened up and
spent 2 hours describing, explaining, and sharing his 1 0-year perspective on
The Registry.
The director indicated that he was initially reluctant to turn the opera
tion of The Registry over to someone else, but he did so after his supervisor, the
vice-president for instruction, told him that she felt that he should do so. He
acknowledged being biased toward The Registry because he had developed
it from the beginning. He appeared to view it primarily from the perspective of
one concerned with making sure that it functioned properly rather than wheth
er it served the initial goal of assisting the colleges in acquiring more minority
and women applicants/employees. He shared his thoughts on how The Regis
try had evolved over the previous 10 years, its strengths and weaknesses, and
how he would change it if he were s till involved. He is well acquainted with the
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concern about returned labels with expired addresses, but he feels that, in
spite of a few hundred dollars per district spent on wasted postage, The Regis
try is overall an excellent bargain for the community colleges, given all of the
free information gleaned from the database. He also mentioned that, if he
were s till involved, he would seek additional funding from the Chancellor’s
Office to increase the use of banner ads to bring more traffic to The Registry
Web site. He has stayed away from the project since it was turned over to the
new project director in July. He made the following observations:
Over the years we did analyses of how much money it cost
us to run ads in particular publications and the kind of return we
were getting and adjusted where we placed our advertising dol
lars accordingly. Certain publications that we expected to get
us a huge number of applicants surprisingly yielded very little
return.
No matter what people say, the job fairs are regional; Los
Angeles people go to the southern fair, San Franciscans go to the
one in the north. Neither job fair is particularly beneficial to the
central valley colleges.
We did an analysis of the people in the database: 89%
were from California.
If I were still involved, I would probably redesign the Web
site to make it more contemporary and easier to use. I would also
use more banner ads to advertise the site. And I would make
greater use of the Internet, and limit print advertising to publica
tions that had demonstrated their ability to pull in applicants,
such as the Los Angeles Times and the Chronicle o f Higher Educa
tion.
If The Registry is going to be run effectively, the project
director should be full time. That would give the individual an
opportunity to really get out there, keep up with technology,
work with the users, and tell people how to use the system.
It is interesting to note that half of The Registry staff had left earlier that
year. The secretary who had worked with the original project director for most
of the 10 years that he was in that role continued to work with him, and the
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person who coordinated The Registry job fairs and advertising/public relations
left to take a position at another college. The remaining employees are the
two clerks who have been with The Registry for 8 and 10 years, respectively,
and the new project director.
The following morning a meeting was held with the new Registry project
director and his staff. The Registry office is located at Modesto Junior College,
a mile or so from the district office, in what appeared to be one of the original
buildings when the college was founded in 1927. It is a wooden structure, with
narrow halls, tile floors, and old fixtures and furniture. Everything was clean and
well maintained.
The day-to-day operation of The Registry is actually run by two clerical
employees, one of whom has been inputting the data and responding to re
quests for labels for its entire 1 0-year existence. The other employee came to
the college as a student 10 years ago and began working in The Registry office
8 years ago. The space in which these two employees work is a long, narrow
room filled with vertical and lateral files, desks, tables, and computers.
The project manager and clerical employees gave a demonstration of
the procedures that they employ when a request for labels is received, and
they demonstrated the many things that users can now do themselves: Districts
can place their own job announcements online without going through The
Registry staff and they can download their own labels from the system. Regis
trants can enter their data directly online, which is much simpler than complet
ing the bubble forms that were originally requested by mail, completed and
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returned, then entered into the system by the staff. Unfortunately, it appeared
that many districts were not aware of these capabilities. At the time of the re
searcher’s visit, several positions open in the researcher’s district that had been
sent by fax to The Registry office were not posted on the Web site.
The new project director related that one of his goals is to visit the dis
tricts during the next year or 2 years to become acquainted with the human
resource users and to demonstrate the new capabilities of the system. For
now, his primary goals are to maintain the ongoing operation and to increase
outreach to minorities to encourage more of them to enter their data into the
system.
During this meeting the researcher informally shared some of the feed
back that had been provided by colleagues around the state, including their
perception that The Registry is no longer a means of recruiting women and
minorities but rather a convenient but general applicant recruitment tool. One
of the employees related that no more than 10% or so of the community col
lege districts had specifically requested minority or female applicants during
her 10 years as an employee. She also indicated that she is not completely
comfortable with "targeted" recruitment. The project director was quite firm in
his position that The Registry had to do a better job of providing assistance to
the districts in recruiting women and minorities. He provided a list of colleges
and universities with large numbers of minority students that he had contacted
and requested Web page links to The Registry.
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Many of the questions and concerns raised during the focus group
meetings are answered by the survey results which are presented in chapter 5.
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CHAPTER 5
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH RESULTS
This chapter addresses the findings generated by the analyses of the
surveys completed by the registrants and the system human resource/af
firmative action officers. After the data were entered into a database, fre
quency analyses were developed to determine the percentages of responses
to the survey questions and to identify patterns. Crosstabulations were run to
determine whether there were substantial differences in the responses given
across demographic groups.
Registrant Survey Results
The analyses of the frequency of responses to the surveys returned by
the registrant sample are shown in Table 5. They confirmed most of the as
sumptions that had been expressed during the interviews and focus groups
with the human resource users. Because some of the respondents did not
answer all of the questions, some of the tables present data that do not total
100%.
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Table 5
Registrant Survey Responses: Percentages
Item and response %
F irst learned about The Registry from:
Friend 30.9
Job fair 17.1
Chronicle o f Higher Education 16.8
Los Angeles Times 12.7
San Francisco Examiner 6.1
Other sources 26.7
Percentage of respondents who agreed or strongly agreed to
the following questions:
Found The Registry simple to use 96.8
Received adequate number of reminders to update data 72.4
Received announcements early enough to apply for positions 80.2
Ethnic makeup of districts strongly influenced decision to apply 30.5
Had equal opportunity of being selected 58.2
Willing to relocate for faculty position 65.8
Willing to relocate for administrative position 58.7
Reason registrant did not request an application:
Location 61.0
Discipline 37.2
Schedule 26.5
Other 20.3
Type of job sought:
Faculty 88.5
Administrative 38.1
Staff 20.5
Other 3.7
Number of job announcements received:
None 1.6
1-3 14.3
4-9 36.5
10+ 47.2
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Table 5 (continued)
Item and response %
Number of times applications requested:
None 19.4
1-3 47.2
4-9 24.6
10+ 8.7
Applied for jobs without announcements:
None 37.3
1-3 38.1
4-9 13.9
10+ 9.1
Times invited to interview:
None 50.6
1-3 35.2
4-9 6.5
10+ 1.0
Times offered a position:
None 76.8
1-3 13.8
4-9 1.6
10+ 8.0
Percentage of respondents who answered yes\o the following:
Part-time faculty member before applying 16.9
Employed at another college prior to placing data in Registry 36.1
Received letter inviting data update 55.8
Updated data 66.2
Received announcements for part-time positions 59.4
Race of respondent:
White 64.4
Hispanic 8.4
Black 10.8
Asian 13.2
Native American 0.4
Other 0.8
No response 2.0
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Table 5 (continued)
Item and response %
Age of respondent:
25-34 13.4
35-44 27.7
45-54 37.2
55+ 20.9
Gender of respondent:
Male 58.7
Female 40.9
Residence of respondent:
Northern California 31.3
Southern California 59.5
Central California 2.4
Outside California 6.3
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Summary of Registrant Survey Frequencies
The largest single source for learning about The Registry cited was friends
(31.0%). "Other sources" accounted for the second largest group (26.0%),
while the job fairs and Chronicle o f Higher Education accounted for 17.1 % and
16.8%, respectively. These results support the assessment of most of the focus
group and interview participants that the job fairs are not the most effective
means of selecting new employees. In addition, the fact that over 88% of the
respondents were seeking faculty positions, compared with only 38% seeking
administrative positions, supports the contention of the focus group members
that The Registry and job fairs are not the most effective means of recruiting
administrators.
Large majorities (two thirds or more) of the registrants agreed or strongly
agreed that The Registry is simple to use (96.8%), that they received adequate
numbers of reminders to update their data (72.4%), and that they updated
their data (66.2%). In addition, 80.5% requested applications and 80.2% re
ceived announcements early enough to apply for positions. Only 1.6% of the
registrants indicated that they had never received a job announcement, and
47.2% had received 10 or more. These responses strongly suggest that the ma
jority of the registrant survey respondents were pleased with The Registry.
The facts that only 16.9% of the respondents indicated that they were
part-time faculty members and 36.1 % indicated that they had been employed
at another college before applying fora position indicate that the majority of
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the registrants were outside of the system and not beneficiaries of “insider"
information.
Analyses of the personal characteristics of the registrant respondents
revealed that just under two thirds were White, one third were minorities, almost
77% were over 35 (with the largest cohort between ages 45 and 54), male
respondents were significantly higher than females, and over 90% resided in
California.
Selected Crosstabulations of Applicant Surveys
The crosstabulations of the registrant responses to survey questions re
vealed numerous differences among racial/ethnic groups and between males
and females. Those differences that appeared to influence the question of
whether The Registry is an effective means of recruiting women and minorities
are shown in Tables 6-10. Because only 3 of the 255 registrants self-identified as
Native American or “Other" (5 left this item unanswered), percentages for
these groups are not included in the crosstabulation tables.
Chi-square testing was used to measure the significance of differences
between groups revealed by the crosstabulations. Those instances in which
the significance values were between .00 and .05 were identified as too sub
stantial to be due to chance and therefore attributable to the independent
variable. Although many of the percentage differences between groups re
vealed by the crosstabulations appeared to be substantial, the chi-square
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Table 6
Registrant Responses to Survey Questions: Equal Opportunity to Be Selected,
Influence o f Ethnic Makeup o f District and Willingness to Relocate for Faculty
Position
Item and respondent category Agree Disagree No response
Respondent felt had an equal
opportunity of being selected
Males
Females
White
Hispanic
Asian
Black
Age 25-34
Age 35-44
Age 45-54
Age 55+
Northern California
Southern California
Central California
Outside California
35.6
21.0
17.8
38.1
59.4
59.3
40.6
34.3
19.8
35.8
29.5
32.2
50.0
6.3
58.9
74.0
74.5
57.1
40.6
40.7
34.3
58.6
74.7
62.3
64.1
63.7
50.0
81.3
5.5
5.0
7.6
4.8
0.0
0.0
6.3
7 .1
5.5
1.9
6.4
4.1
0.0
12.5
Ethnic makeup of respondent’s
district strongly influenced the
decision to apply
Males
Females
White
Hispanic
Asian
Black
Age 25-34
Age 35-44
Age 45-54
Age 55+
Northern California
Southern California
Central California
Outside California
35.6
21.0
17.8
38.1
59.4
59.2
40.6
34.3
19.8
35.8
29.5
32.2
50.0
6.3
58.9
74.0
74.6
57.1
40.6
40.7
34.3
58.6
74.7
62.3
64.1
63.7
50.0
81.3
5.5
5.0
7.6
4.8
0.0
0.0
6.3
7.1
5.5
1.9
6.4
4.1
0.0
12.5
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Table 6 (continued)
Item and respondent category Agree Disagree No response
W illing to relocate for position
Males 71.7 20.3 8.0
Females 57.4 40.6 2.0
White 17.8 74.6 7.6
Hispanic 38.1 57.1 4.8
Asian 59.4 40.6 0.0
Black 59.2 40.7 0.0
Age 25-34 57.6 39.4 0.0
Age 35-44 67.1 30.0 0.0
Age 45-54 62.4 36.6 0.0
Age 55+ 73.6 26.4 6.3
Northern California 62.0 38.0 0.0
Southern California 64.9 33.1 0.0
Central California 66.7 33.3 0.0
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Table 7
Registrant Responses to Survey Questions: Employment Status in District to
Which Applie d
Item and respondent category Yes No
Employed at another district prior to placing data into
The Registry
Males 36.5 63.5
Females 35.3 64.7
White 35.0 65.0
Hispanic 47.6 52.4
Asian 36.4 63.6
Black 29.6 70.4
Part-time faculty member at the college to which applied
Males 14.1 85.9
Females 19.0 81.0
White 16.6 83.4
Hispanic 14.3 85.7
Asian 15.1 84.9
Black 25.9 74.1
Age 25-34 17.6 82.4
Age 35-44 22.1 77.9
Age 45-54 10.9 89.1
Age 55+ 20.8 79.1
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Table 8
Registrant Responses to Survey Questions: Number o f Invitations to Be Inter
viewed
Respondent category None 1 to 9 10 or more
Gender
Male 57.5 37.7 2.1
Female 41.2 48.5 2.1
Ethnicity
White 48.7 45.5 1.3
Hispanic 52.7 47.4 0.0
Asian 62.5 21.9 9.4
Black 63.0 33.3 0.0
Table 9
Registrant Responses to Survey Questions: Number o f Times Offered a Position
Respondent category None 1 or more No response
Gender
Male 81.1 12.6 6.3
Female 72.9 18.8 8.3
Ethnicity
White 77.6 14.1 8.3
Hispanic 80.0 15.0 5.0
Asian 75.0 18.8 6.3
Black 81.5 18.5 0.0
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Table 10
Chi-Square Analyses o f Responses, by Race and Gender
Item and respondent category A 8 d f
P
Equal opportunity of being selected
Race 19.514 20 .489
Gender 7.16 5 .209
Ethnic makeup of district strongly influenced
decision to apply
Race 31.710 3 .000*
Gender 19.690 3 .000*
Willing to relocate for faculty position
Race 16.358 12 .175
Males 16.312 24 .876
Females 37.888 20 .009*
Part-time faculty member prior to placing data
The Registry
Race 17.428 12 .275
Males 18.412 24 .876
Females 36.687 20 .129
Part-time faculty member at the college where
application filed
Race 1.709 3 .635
Gender 0.484 1 .487
Number of times invited to interview
Race 30.114 18 .036*
Gender 23.090 10 .010*
Number of times offered a position
Race 20.428 18 .309
Gender 4.812 3 .186
*p < .05.
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tests indicated that most were not statistically significant. Results of chi-square
testing are reported in Table 10.
The percentage differences shown in Tables 6 and 8 were statistically
significant. Table 6 shows that Black and Asian registrants were more likely than
White registrants and moderately more likely than Hispanics to indicate that
ethnic make-up influenced their decision to apply, and the chi-square test
results in Table 10 confirmed that the differences were significant. This finding
supports the theory voiced by many of the focus group participants that minor
ity applicants self-select in or out of districts, based on the demographic repre
sentation already in place. The difference between male and female appli
cants willing to relocate for faculty positions, shown in Table 6, was significant
and essentially predictable. Table 10 confirms that the rates of White and H is
panic applicants invited to interview after applying for positions were signifi
cantly higher than those for Blacks and Asians.
There was a consensus among the human resource participants that
part-time faculty are much more likely to be hired for full-time faculty positions
than are applicants outside the system. To confirm or disaffirm this question,
responses to the questions "Were you a part-time faculty member?" and "How
often were you offered a position?" were crosstabulated to determine whether
there was an association between these two variables. The result was X2 (ctf= 3,
n =4.812) = 1.033, p < .793, not statistically significant. Therefore, there was no
significant difference in the numbers of offers of employment received by part-
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time faculty members who placed their data into The Registry databank and
those who were not employed as part-time faculty.
Summary of Human Resource Officer Survey Results
In light of the focus group and interview comments, the above findings
suggest a good deal of ambivalence about The Registry among the human
resource managers. The information gleaned from the surveys, summarized in
Tables 11-16, contradicted the comments made during the interviews and
focus group meetings. In spite of the frustrations related to outdated ad
dresses, returned labels, and outdated technological capabilities, the clear
majority (83.4%) agreed or strongly agreed that they were satisfied with The
Registry and that The Registry had been a good way to identify general appli
cants. A respectable 70.7% agreed that it had been a good way to identify
women applicants, and 69% agreed that it had been a good way to identify
minority applicants. Yet, the general consensus during the focus group meet
ings and interviews was that The Registry had not proven to be an effective
means of identifying minority applicants. This ambivalence is further revealed
by responses to the question "If you could use only one recruitment source for
faculty and administrative positions, which would you select?" Eighty-eight
percent chose the Chronicle o f Higher Education for faculty and 86.2% chose it
for administrators. The Registry was the second highest source selected, but at
the significantly lower rates of 49.1 % for faculty and 46.4% for administrators.
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Table 1 1
Summary o f Human Resource Officer Survey Results
Item of satisfaction with Registry Agree Disagree
Were you satisfied with the services provided by The
Registry? 83.4% 16.6%
Has The Registry been a good way to identify
minority applicants? 69.0% 31.0%
Has The Registry been a good way to identify women
applicants? 70.7% 29.3%
Has The Registry been a good way to identify general
applicants? 83.3% 16.7%
Are Registry applicants more likely to be selected? 26.8% 73.2%
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Table 12
Choice o f Single Recruitment Source for Faculty and Administrative Positions
Position and recruitment source Percentage
Faculty positions
The Registry 49.1
Chronicle o f Higher Education 88.0
Los Angeles Times 30.9
San Francisco Examiner 17.3
Other local publications 39.6
Other national publications 31.4
Part-time employees 36.5
Other 11.9
Administrative positions
The Registry 46.4
Chronicle o f Higher Education 86.2
Los Angeles Times 31.5
San Francisco Examiner 14.7
Other local publications 30.1
Other national publications 30.8
Part-time employees 11.8
Other 19.5
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Table 13
Use o f Registry to Recruit Full-Time and Part-Time Faculty
Faculty and rate of use Percentage
Full-time faculty
Less than 25% 11.7
50% to 75% 11.7
More than 75% 76.7
Part-time faculty
Less than 25% 57.6
50% to 75% 18.6
More than 75% 15.3
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Table 14
Suggested Changes in Application Process to improve Likelihood o f inviting
Minority and Women Applicants to Interview
Suggested change Agree Disagree
Minority applicants
Eliminate letters of reference 39.0% 52.6%
Eliminate transcripts 25.4% 62.7%
Pay transportation expenses 86.7% 8.4%
Pay other interviewing expenses 81.4% 10.2%
Pay relocation expenses 67.8% 18.6%
Provide spousal employment assistance 62.8% 22.0%
Provide data on housing, etc. 69.5% 30.5%
Provide child care information 52.2% 31.0%
Women applicants
Eliminate letters of reference 32.8% 53.5%
Eliminate transcripts 25.9% 53.5%
Pay transportation expenses 86.2% 6.9%
Pay other interviewing expenses 79.7% 10.2%
Pay relocation expenses 72.4% 13.8%
Provide spousal employment assistance 70.7% 15.5%
Provide data on housing, etc. 74.1% 13.8%
Provide child care information 65.5% 22.4%
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Table 15
Respondents' Suggestions to Improve the Registry Service
Suggestion %
Update information more frequently 86.5
Provide information regarding application process to jobseekers 79.3
Provide postcards rather than mailing labels 20.7
Increase targeted advertising 89.5
Provide more info re applicants before labels sent 67.2
Provide more categories for administrative positions 81.0
More regional job fairs rather than just north/south 54.3
Other factors to improve Registry 81.0
Table 16
Use o f Registry to Recruit Full-Time and Part-Time Administrators
Faculty and rate of use Percentage
Full-time faculty
Less than 25% 16.7
50% to 75% 15.0
More than 75% 65.0
Part-time faculty
Less than 25% 61.1
50% to 75% 7.4
More than 75% 13.0
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Only 26.8% of the human resource users indicated that The Registry applicants
were more likely to be selected than other applicants.
The human resource users survey data were somewhat more consistent
with the surveys in regard to possible improvements in the way in which The
Registry is managed and CCC recruitment procedures. Three quarters or more
of the survey respondents indicated that Registry data should be updated
more frequently, that the Web site should provide information on the system’s
application process, that there should be more targeted advertising, and that
there should be more categories within the administrative job code. Two thirds
indicated that they would like more information about registrants before labels
are mailed, and slightly more than half favored more regional job fairs, rather
than holding them only in the northern and southern sections of the state. Al
though most of these concerns were discussed in one or more of the focus
groups or interviews, the quantitative data reinforce their significance to the
users.
The human resource users survey included eight questions designed to
ascertain attitudes toward eliminating certain aspects of the application pro
cess commonly used by the colleges. It was generally agreed during the focus
group meetings that these factors were barriers to attaining large and diverse
applicant pools and that they yielded limited data. Nevertheless, there was
little support for eliminating letters of reference (32.8%) or transcripts (25.9%).
There was very strong support for paying expenses related to transportation,
interviewing, and relocation. There was significant support for providing other
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services, such as spousal employment assistance, housing information, and
childcare information.
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CHAPTER 6
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Given the findings revealed by the research, interviews, focus groups,
and surveys, it is now possible to respond to the questions raised in the Chancel
lor’s Office RFP, draw some conclusions regarding how effective The Registry
was between 1989 and 1999, and make some recommendations regarding its
future.
Responses to Questions
Assisting Districts in identifying, Locating, a n d
Recruiting Q ualified M em bers o f Underrepre
sented Groups
All of the research indicates that The Registry is viewed positively by the
users; however, the human resource users were ambivalent as to its usefulness
in identifying and locating minority registrants. Although it is possible to request
registrants by ethnicity or gender, few of the human resources managers inter
viewed seemed willing to use that option, due either to personal convictions
and/or concerns about violating Proposition 209, which bans preferential hiring
by race/gender in public sector positions in California. Hence, the potential
usefulness of this aspect of The Registry is unclear. They agreed that The
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Registry had been a good source for identifying and locating women and
nonminority males.
The analysis of the results of the survey returned by 63.5% of the regis
trants in The Registry data bank indicated that 16% had found full-time positions
with the colleges. Although this figure differs significantly from the 41% selec
tion rate identified by The Registry project administrators, it is very similar to the
data cited in the Robbins report on Internet recruitment. The survey frequency
data showed that, within the overall percentage of 16% registrant hires, minori
ties and women were hired at somewhat higher rates; however, the differ
ences were not statistically significant.
Over 80% of all of the people in The Registry, including women and mi
norities, had at least a master's degree or community college teaching cre
dential, which is encouraging. However, after 10 years in operation, there
were only 13,000 registrants in the database. Although it appears that The
Registry has attracted a rich database, it has not attained one large enough to
serve as the primary recruitment source for a system comprising 108 colleges.
O peration a n d M ain ten an ce o f The
Registry a n d Registry Web Site
A comparison of The Registry Web site to commercial Web sites re
vealed a number of weaknesses. The Registry site has a long, 29-second down
load time and the necessity to move through three separate links before get
ting to actual job openings. By comparison, the major commercial job sites
download within 15 seconds and have the ability to get into job opportunities
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within two clicks. According to representatives of JobOptions.com and Na-
tionjobs.com. three of four job seekers will avoid placing data in systems that
are inconvenient and not user friendly, causing many people to skip entering
their data entirely.
Unlike the commercial Web sites. The Registry site requires submission of
a Social Security number to get into the database. According to Monster.com
and Joboptions.com representatives, The Registry probably loses a large num
ber of potential applicants due to privacy concerns related to providing Social
Security numbers. Since the total database was only 13,000 as of January 2000,
this assertion seems plausible.
The system does not make adequate use of e-mail features that would
make contact with applicants more convenient for them as well as for the
human resource users, such as automatic notification of jobs in their areas of
interest, direct application for positions via The Registry, or sending labels elec
tronically.
The Web site administrators have not provided many of the service im
provements promised in the past 2 years, several of which would have ad
dressed the timeliness and outdated labels issues, such as downloading labels
from the Web site or direct posting of positions as mentioned above.
According to Robbins (2000), over 80% of the positions filled via the Inter
net result from the job seeker proactively responding to a job opening rather
than a recruiter locating the individual in a database. This indicates that the
way in which the Web site is operated and maintained is very important to its
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success in achieving its mission. The Registry has not effectively met this objec
tive.
Distribution o f C an d id ate M ailing Labels
Accessing The Registry labels was the function of The Registry Web site
that received the most criticism from the focus group participants. The most
frequent concerns verbalized are discussed.
Timeliness poses a barrier to effective use of The Registry labels for regis
trants as well as human resource users. The typical recruitment time from open
ing to closing of community college faculty/administrator announcements is 4
weeks. Obtaining labels can take from 3 to 10 days. Once received, the labels
must be affixed to envelopes or postcards and mailed. The research revealed
that one of the most important advantages of Internet recruitment is timeliness;
hence. Registry users lose one of the most important advantages of using the
Internet. After receiving the announcement, applicants are invited to contact
the human resources office if they wish to apply, since most districts are unwill
ing to send full announcements and applications unless an individual is specifi
cally interested. The applicant then contacts the district and waits to receive
an application and announcement or goes to the district to collect these doc
uments. He/She then must complete an application package that typically
includes transcripts, letters of recommendation, a completed application, and
a detailed letter explaining how the applicant’s qualifications meet the re
quirements of the job. It should be noted that, in spite of this process, 82% of
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the registrant respondents indicated that they received the announcements
early enough to apply for the position.
The categories for identifying potential applicants are very broad, es
pecially for potential administrators. As a result, a request for registrants of a
given job code might yield 800 to 1.200 labels, with only a small proportion of
them representing potential applicants who meet minimum qualifications. This
means a large commitment of employee time to mail announcements to ap
plicants and a large amount of printing and postage costs. When this process
is compared to placing an advertisement, it is easier for districts to opt for the
latter.
Given these findings, one would have to conclude that, although much
good will has been generated by The Registry’s existence, the process of mail
ing labels is not an effective means of providing registrant data to the district
human resource offices.
Sum m ary Reports a n d Dem ographic
Inform ation
A few of the focus group participants indicated that using the demo
graphic data provided by The Registry gives them an idea of the scope of
availability for a given job code before they begin recruiting. If the number of
registrants in the database is small, they have a better idea of how much ad
ditional recruiting may be necessary. However, most did not express an opin
ion in this area or were not aware that the data are available, which suggests
that they do not make much use of this service. Since most of the users were
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either unaware or simply not taking advantage of the registrant demographic
information, it is necessary to conclude that The Registry has not effectively
communicated the availability of this service.
The 29% minority registrant pool is slightly more than half of the 51 % mi
nority population in the state: hence, either the system is missing a large pro
portion of the minorities or the availability of minorities qualified or interested in
entering the community college system is significantly less than in the student
population. It was not possible to compare the size of the minority database to
the commercial Internet databases because this information is not requested.
The Minority Jobs databank, which specifically markets to the minority commu
nity, projects that 90% of its applicants are minority, but this is a targeted data
base. Most of the focus group participants felt that The Registry should do
more targeted advertising and should have a larger minority database.
With regard to keeping track of the demographics of the database, The
Registry administrators have done a good job. Statistics on the race, gender,
disability status, and types of degrees held are updated on a quarterly basis.
The primary means of evaluating The Registry has been or should be the an
nual Accountability Report. This issue is included along with the seven factors
identified in the R FP to evaluate The Registry because it could provide all of the
information necessary to determine whether The Registry is effective. This doc
ument completed each year by The Registry staff, presents job titles and
names of persons hired by each district, with an A (administrator) or F (faculty)
indicating the type of position for which the person was hired, and whether the
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person hired was in The Registry database in the year of the report and in years
previous. Unfortunately, there is no indication of whether those hired were
minorities, women, or disabled, which was the primary reason for establishing
The Registry.
“Total faculty prior" apparently refers to individuals who placed their
data into the system at any time prior to the report. L is ts and dates of labels
sent are not crosstabulated with the names of individuals hired for confirma
tion. If a person were in the database and subsequently hired, credit was
taken by The Registry, when it is not clear that The Registry was the source of
the notification or otherwise had a role in the person’s selection.
Many of the reports are simply lis ts of data, such as search requests by
districts, labels requested or provided to districts, or job listings by district, with
no analyses or summaries.
The Accountability Reports show data for faculty and administrators.
Unfortunately, the titles used by the districts are not consistent; a director or
coordinator may be a faculty member in one district and an administrator in
another. Hence, the distinctions provide little opportunity for meaningful anal
ysis. This is not the fault of The Registry, but it does imply the need for more con
sistency in the definitions used to track personnel actions by the CCC system.
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M ed ia Advertising C am paign, Job Fairs,
Newsletter, Telephone Service, Registry
Training, a n d Registry inform ation on the
internet
Regarding advertising, according to the former public information of
ficer for the Yosemite district, the Chronicle ofHigher Education was by far the
most effective publication to reach potential applicants for faculty and ad
ministrative positions in higher education and should be the primary print me
dium. This was confirmed by the responses to the survey issued to the human
resources managers (see item 3 above). However, it should be noted that, in
response to the query "How did you learn of The Registry?" only 17% of the reg
istrants identified the Chronicle as the source. The largest response rate was
“friend" (29%) or "other" (29%). Hence, although the Chronic/e i s the best print
medium for recruiting applicants, it should not be the only source used.
Most of the focus group participants indicated that Job fairsaxe a good
means of making people aware of the community colleges as a potential
place to work but that they are not necessarily a good means of filling posi
tions. Stated another way. they are good for public relations and visibility but
not for building applicant pools. The general consensus was that rarely does
participation in the job fairs result in filling a position unless the position is open
at the time of the fair. This is due primarily to the fact that few districts use pre
viously collected applications when filling full-time positions; instead, an
nouncements are issued when positions are open, and only those applicants
who apply during that time are actually considered. It should be noted that
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17.1 % of the registrants indicated that they learned about The Registry via the
job fairs.
The Registry newsletter, which is published monthly, often includes an
nouncements with barely a week or a few days remaining before the position
closes. Most faculty positions are open to receive applications for 1 month,
most administrative positions for 4 to 6 weeks. If a position opens during the
week before the newsletter is published, it will likely not be included because
the deadline for placing the notice will have passed. By the time the next
newsletter is published, the position will have closed. Hence, particularly for
faculty positions, those who do not have regular access to the Internet and
who instead rely on the newsletter often receive the information too late. The
Registry staff acknowledged that subscriptions to the newsletter have dropped
continuously over the past 3 years. For these reasons, the consensus of the fo
cus group participants was that it is not published often enough to be a useful
means of recruitment.
Regarding telephone service, most of the focus group participants were
very complimentary regarding the help provided by Registry office staff, both
in the focus groups and on the survey. Faxing seems to be the most commonly
used means of requesting labels and sending job announcements. Although
this issue was not addressed on the survey, it appears that The Registry staff has
done a good job of responding to telephone inquiries.
Although training on using The Registryhos been presented at some of
the job fairs, few of the human resources/affirmative action managers had
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received the training. Most of the actual sending and collecting of data is
done by human resource office staff members who do not attend the job fairs.
If they do attend, it is not likely that they have the opportunity to participate in
training while there because of the demands of working their district booths.
Information provided on The Registry Internet site is useful for finding out about
many matters of interest but, according to the commercial Internet proposal
developers, the site should be more focused on the information needed to find
employment rather than including general information about the community
colleges. The fact that The Registry is not a separate Web site makes it less
visible and more difficult to locate by many potential registrants.
Services to the C C C Hum an Resources/
Affirm ative A ction Officers a n d Public
Overall reaction to The Registry was positive; 83% of the human re
sources/affirmative action users indicated that they were very satisfied with The
Registry. They complimented the staff of The Registry and considered them to
be very helpful. Nevertheless, they felt that, while it is true that, if one needs
applicants, The Registry has many names and addresses that can be ac
cessed, the data are free, and 80% or more of the registrants have at least a
master’s degree, in actual practice The Registry does not live up to its promise
and seemingly rarely results in actual hires.
Although users have communicated the difficulty related to outdated
addresses and broad categorizations resulting in cumbersome mailing lists, little
has been done to address these concerns. Improvements that have been
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made have not been aggressively communicated to the districts, and The
Registry staff has not been particularly responsive to feedback from users in the
field requesting changes in the procedures that would make The Registry more
useful. The users like the existence of The Registry and any other relatively inex
pensive sources that might yield qualified applicants, particularly in the tight
labor market existent in 1999-2000. But in regard to delivery of actual services.
The Registry has many weaknesses that should be overcome to provide opti
mum service.
O ther Issues That Im p a c t The Registry
a n d Its Effectiveness
Other issues impacting the effectiveness of The Registry are the follow
ing:
1. Community colleges application process. Many of the require
ments for completing an application package for the CCC are unique to the
system and unfamiliar to people outside the system. The applications typically
require strict adherence to procedures and provision of documents not typi
cally found in other organizations.
Title V requires that all of the colleges list "experience that indicates
sensitivity to and understanding of the diverse .. . backgrounds of community
college students" as a basic requirement. Some districts reject applications
from applicants who assume that their experience in meeting this requirement
will speak for itself rather than explaining how they meet this requirement in a
cover letter or other document.
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Many colleges require letters of recommendation and reject applicants
who do not provide them. The letters are of dubious value, since rarely do ap
plicants provide anything other than glowing letters of reference and colleges
universally conduct reference checks for serious candidates.
Many colleges require transcripts for administrative positions in which no
teaching will be required, and again, this can be a deterrent to applicants
from outside the education sector who typically rely on experience to market
their skills and abilities for new positions.
These and other procedures that are not consistent from district to
district result in the rejection of many applicants who are obviously well quali
fied but are never invited to the interview stage of the process because they
made a misstep in the application process.
2. Travel expenses. Most of the districts do not pay travel expenses in
the initial phase of the interview process. Many do not reimburse expenses
even for the second interview. As a result, many applicants who might be will
ing to relocate from outside the state, or even within, are required to come to
interviews at their own expense, with limited probability of being selected;
many choose not to do so. In comparison, applicant expenses are reimbursed
by the two state university systems. The human resource users perceived this as
a definite barrier to attracting people embarking on the career paths and
whom they might be able to convince to relocate if they were interviewed
and selected.
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3. Impact of part-time faculty. The survey data did not support the
consensus of the focus group participants that attaining greater minority diver
sity among the faculty is significantly hampered by heavy reliance on part-time
faculty for filling full-time positions. The percentages of minorities and women
who indicated that they had been part-time faculty prior to applying were
very similar to the percentages of nonminority males.
Summary of Findings
Despite legislative changes and other efforts by the Board of Governors
to improve the representation of women and ethnic minorities in faculty and
administrative positions within the California community Colleges, progress in
the past 10 years has been disappointing. Although there has been improve
ment in the percentages of minorities in faculty and administrator positions,
they have not kept pace proportionately with increases in the adult population
of the state. While overall reaction to The Registry is positive on the part of both
human resource users and registrant, the perception is that The Registry has not
proven to be a useful means of increasing minority representation within the
colleges. Due to the way in which data have been maintained and reports
formatted, assessing whether The Registry can be given credit for the increases
in minority and women faculty members and administrators over the past 9
years is difficult. Nevertheless, according to a survey completed by registrants
as part of this evaluation, 42% indicated that they had been invited to inter
view for a position within the colleges, and 16% said that they had been
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offered one or more positions. Most important, a larger percentage of the per
sons offered positions were women and minorities than nonminority males. On
line recruitment has attained an increasingly important role in employee re
placement strategies of all major employers during the past 5 years. Accord
ing to Yahoo! Internet Life magazine and the Society for Human Resources
Management. 96% of corporations and most other organizations will be using
online recruiting within the next 3 years. Hence, eliminating The Registry at this
time is not advisable. However, if The Registry is to live up to its potential, signifi
cant investment must be made to make it more accessible and user friendly.
The media advertising campaign has fallen victim to the static funding
available from the Chancellor’s Office and other priorities. As a result, most of
the funds have been used to promote job fairs rather than to develop the con
sistent message and multipronged approach necessary for an effective cam
paign.
The job fairs have been administered well and complaints are minimal,
but they seldom result in actual hires. Unfortunately, reliable data regarding
the number of individuals hired as a result of the job fairs are not available, so it
is not possible to compute costs-per-hire for the job fairs, but it is clear that the
human resources users are skeptical of their usefulness.
The district users of The Registry service appreciate having access to this
resource. However, they realize that it should be updated, and they still con
sider the Chronicle o f Higher Educations be the preferred means of recruiting
faculty and administrators. Advertising in national publications, such as the
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Chronicle o f Higher Education, should be contributed to by all of the colleges
and done on a system-wide basis to leverage the image and visibility of the
CCC.
Implications of the Study
Based on projections that the adult population of California will become
“majority minority" by 2005, the California legislature (AB 1725) and the CCC
Board of Governors (Title V) established the goal of attaining a work force that
mirrors the population of the state by 2005. Year 2000 U.S. census data con
firmed that this change actually occurred in 1999 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). A
number of issues may impede this regulatory goal.
Although the Board of Governors and the system Chancellor’s Office
support achieving diversity and policies to further that goal, administrators of
the districts are hired and fired by the locally elected boards of trustees, who
may or may not agree with those policies. District administrators are typically
more mindful of their concerns than of system level authority.
Although the overall goal of achieving full work force diversity among
faculty and administrators is laudable, if the data in The Registry accurately re
flect the availability of minorities who meet the minimum qualifications, it may
not be possible to reach the goal without investing in efforts to increase the
development of individuals with these credentials.
The passage of Proposition 209 resulted in a good deal of confusion re
garding the legality of affirmative action goals, as well as heightened hostility
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toward the concept by likening it to "preferences" for minorities and women at
the expense of others.
The CCC Registry was an innovative concept at the time of its imple
mentation in 1989. It not only provided a potential means of assisting the
colleges to attain a well-qualified work force in what was to become an in
creasingly competitive labor market; it also offered the possibility of enhancing
the representation of women and minorities, a goal which had just been estab
lished by system leaders and state legislators. Unfortunately, The Registry’s
capabilities have not kept pace with the technological changes that are
available on commercial online job search Web sites, and it now falls short of its
mission. Projections indicate that, by 2003,96% of all organizations will be re
cruiting online (Weaver & Dixon-Heir, 2000); hence, discontinuing online recruit
ment is not a viable option. Some districts have already begun to build their
own applicant databases and Web sites.
Recommendations
These recommendations could reinvigorate The Registry, address the
concerns revealed by the evaluation, and provide much-needed assistance
to the districts as they approach the daunting task of identifying and recruiting
new faculty members and administrators in the years to come.
Recommendation I: The Registry Web Site
The Chancellor’s Office should invest in significantly improving the tech
nological capabilities of The Registry as soon as possible. Maintaining a central
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site leverages the collective impact of the 108 colleges, affording them much
greater visibility than they could achieve individually. More significantly, if the
Web site is not improved soon, the technological frustrations will result in fewer
and fewer districts and job seekers using the site. The following capabilities
should be added to The Registry as soon as possible:
1. Job posting of resumes;
2. Resume screening that would allow human resource users to view
only those resumes that include the necessary requirements and thereby
eliminate the need to contact hundreds of people who do not have the mini
mum requirements for the job;
3. Links from the central Registry Web site to the individual colleges so
that, when applicants identify a job for which they would like to apply, district
applications and job announcements can be accessed quickly and conve
niently;
4. Links to specific college career centers with high percentages of
historically underrepresented students to access those likely to reach targeted
applicants; and
5. Automatic, cumulative tracking of the numbers of applicants who
post their data/resumes, apply, are invited to interviews, accept interviews, are
offered employment, and are hired, all categorized by race, gender, disability
status, and individual college.
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Implementing these enhancements would eliminate most, if not all, of the
problems identified by the human resource/affirmative action users in the
evaluation process.
The most efficient way of providing these services while maintaining ac
cess to ongoing technological improvements to the system is by contracting
with one of the commercial job search Web sites to manage the site more ef
ficiently and to provide the services that will make continuing to use it worth
while for human resource users and applicants alike. The costs of contracting
with one of the commercial job search Web sites for such enhancements
would range from $36,200 to $149,100 annually. The costs could be recouped
by charging the individual districts a fee if good service is provided, thereby
reducing the expenditures by the Chancellor’s Office.
Recommendation 2: Advertising
The surveys and focus groups indicated that the Chronicle ofHigher Ed
ucation \ s the best medium to attract faculty and administrator applicants to
community college positions. By centralizing advertising campaigns for all of
the campuses so that regular advertisements are placed in the Chronicle.
using full-page ads to advertise openings at all of the colleges. The Registry
would raise the image and visibility of the system and the Web site. Again, the
cost could be recouped by demonstrating the collective benefit of this type of
advertising and charging each of the districts a fee for participation. Inquiries
with Chronicle staff indicate that approximately one third of the districts spent
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more individually in 1999 than monthly full-page ads for the entire system would
cost. If each of the 72 districts were assessed an annual fee of $1,000 to $2,000,
based on size, the above costs could be covered more than adequately. That
amount could pay for full-page Chronicle ads each month for a year.
T his would require the Chancellor's Office to continue to supplement
the costs of employee salaries for a period of time until the new Registry had
proven its worth. Long-term, the services provided could be made available to
other colleges and universities, again for a fee. If the services provided do not
justify continuing The Registry and increasing the fee after a given period of
time (for example, 3 years), consideration should be given to discontinuing The
Registry.
Recommendation 3: Job Fairs
The job fairs provide good public relations but poor actual applicant
pool development and limited actual hires, primarily because most of the at
tendees are unable or unwilling to relocate from one end of the state to the
other and because of the need to provide fresh applications for positions when
they are open.
The CCC should consider enhancing the current on-site job fair format
with a virtual format, allowing potential applicants to dial in as well as walk in.
The public relations and visibility rewards would s till be reaped, and the logistics
would allow considerably easier and less costly access for qualified applicants
who happen to be disabled.
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If the above recommendation is too big a leap to take at this time, con
sideration should be given to holding several regional job fairs, spread over a
longer period of time, instead of the current schedule of one in the northern
half of the state and the other in the southern half of the state within the space
of 2 weeks. This would allow focused marketing to potential applicants within
commuting distance of clusters of colleges, and thereby enhance the likeli
hood that attendees would actually apply when notified of openings. The
added frequency would also raise the visibility of the job fairs and improve the
likelihood that a broader pool of individuals would be aware of them.
Recommendation 4: Project Director
Very few of the system users who participated in this evaluation had
received training on using The Registry or were aware of the enhancements
(that actually were not sustained). In addition, the current and previous direc
tors indicated that they spent only 30-40% of their time working on The Registry.
The project director position should be a full-time position, dedicated solely to
managing The Registry, both (a) to increase the amount of interface time with
human resources users of The Registry to “seU " use of the tool, provide training
on how to optimize use of the service, and (b) to gain a better understanding
of the problems that users experience and identify ways to solve them. This
individual should network with both minority and nonminority professional or
ganizations around the country, visit historically Black- and Hispanic-serving
colleges and universities, participate in conferences heavily attended by
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educators, and engage in other activities to raise the visibility of The Registry.
This recommendation in particular is critical to ensuring that the numbers of
historically underrepresented groups in the database are as close to their ac
tual availability in the adult work force as possible, and to ensuring optimal
performance of The Registry.
Recommendation 5: System Issues
Solutions to system barriers to achieving greater participation of histori
cally underrepresented groups in the colleges across the state appear simpler
to attain than individual campus barriers, such as resistance by faculty at indi
vidual campuses, because they can be addressed by policy changes. Exam
ples include (a) providing the staffing necessary at the Chancellor’s Office to
consistently monitor adherence to policies that could improve minority recruit
ment and selection, such as bypassing the human resources offices for screen
ing and selecting part-time faculty; and (b) make greater funding available to
facilitate staffing of the district human resources offices so that they can pro
vide more professional services to the districts.
Other Recommendations
The following recommendations are made to the Chancellor’s Office:
1. Determine the format of the accountability reports rather than al
lowing The Registry office to assume this task. This would enable the Chancel
lor's Office to gain a better understanding of whether the overall mission of The
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Registry is being accomplished, do a better job of connecting Registry use to
applicant actual hires, and make the reports more meaningful.
2. Provide more enforcement of the regulations requiring part-time
hires via human resources, and more staffing for district human resources to
accomplish this.
3. As a matter of policy, implement and fund reimbursement for travel
expenses related to interviewing for faculty and administrative positions within
the system to applicants traveling more than 50 miles.
4. Review the application process used by most districts and consider
ways to minimize the paperwork necessary to apply for administrative and/or
faculty positions.
5. Develop a universal application process applicable to all of the col
leges, then include the information on The Registry Web site regarding how to
apply, to minimize the frequency of attracting applicants who have the qualifi
cations but make a misstep in the application process.
Implementation of these recommendations would not only improve the
quality of The Registry as a general tool for recruiting potential applicants for
administrative and faculty positions in the world's largest community college
system; it would also maximize the likelihood of recruiting minorities and wom
en.
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Wilson, C. E . (1994). Development o f recommendations to improve minority
hiring procedures a t Kansas City Community College (Ed.D. practicum.
Nova Southeastern University). Kansas City, MO: Nova Southeastern Uni
versity.
Wolf-Devine, C. (1997). Affirmative action in faculty appointments. Landam,
MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
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APPENDICES
116
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APPENDIX A
FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS
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FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS
1. What do you like about the registry? Why?
2. What do you dislike about the registry? Why?
3. Do you feel you are now getting an adequate number of minority and
women applicants for faculty positions at your district?
4. What are some of the barriers to getting women/minorities into your dis
trict?
5. Do you feel that if you get a good number of women or minority applicants
for faculty positions they would have a strong likelihood of being selected
at your district?
6. Do you feel that if you get a good number of women and/or minority appli
cants for administrator positions they would have a strong likelihood of
being selected?
7. In your opinion, are women/minorities are selected for faculty or adminis
trative positions are they likely to be accepted?
8. Are they any other issues that impact the ability of your district to increase
the numbers of women or minorities?
(Prepared by Dolores W. Cole.)
118
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APPENDIX B
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
119
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INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. On a percentage basis, how consistently does your office use the applicant
data in the Registry?
2. How pleased are you with the services provided by the Registry?
3. How might the components of the Registry be transformed or combined in
new ways to better achieve faculty diversity? Administrator diversity?
4. What do you consider to be the biggest problem in attaining a more di
verse faculty at your district?
5. Do you feel it is easier for a minority faculty applicant to be selected/ac
cepted today within your district than 10 years ago? Five years ago?
6. Are there other methods that should be considered by the community
college system to achieve a well-qualified, diverse workforce?
7. What role (if any) has the CEO within your district taken in influencing in
creasing diversity among the faculty?
8. Do you have any other thoughts on what can be done to increase the
proportion of minority faculty members within your district?
(Prepared by Dolores W. Cole.)
120
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APPENDIX C
SURVEY INSTRUMENTS
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REGISTRY SURVEY—APPLICANTS
The following questions are designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the
California Community Colleges Registry and are anticipated to take no more
ten minutes to complete. No individual identifying information about respon
dents will be included in the survey results. The form may be returned in the
stamped envelope provided, or faxed to (909) 369-0459. Questions about the
process can be answered by calling (909) 889-6893. Please return your survey
no later than June 30.2000.
1. How did you first learn about The Registry (please check all that apply) ?
Friend
Job fair
Chronicle o f Higher Education
Los Angeles Times
San Francisco Examiner
Other_______________________________________
2.
1 found The Registry simple to use.
1 received an adequate number of
reminders to update my data.
1 received announcements early
enough to apply for the position.
The ethnic make-up of the district(s)
strongly influenced your decision to
apply or not apply
1 felt 1 had an equal opportunity of
being selected for the positions 1
applied for.
1 would be willing to relocate for a
faculty position
1 would be willing to relocate for an
administrative position:
122
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3. What was the reason(s) you did not request an application for the position
announcement(s) you received?
Location of the position
Discipline/area of expertise
Schedule (part-time positions)
Other___________________________________
4. In your job search what job(s) did you seek? Please check all that apply:
Faculty
Administrator
Staff
Other_____________________________________
5.
How many times have you re
ceived job announcements
throuah The Registry?
How many times have you re
quested an application as a result
of receiving a Registry announce
ment?
How many times have you ap
plied for a position without receiv
ing an announcement through
The Registry?
Of the positions you applied for,
how often were you invited to
interview?
Of the above positions, how many
times were you offered employ
ment?
123
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6.
Were you a part-time faculty member of the college you
applied to prior to learnina of the position?
Were you employed at another community college prior
to placina vour data into The R egistry?
Have you ever received a letter inviting you to update
your Registry data?
If invited, did you update your data, i.e. ask to continue
to be notified of positions?
Have you received announcements for part-time or
temporary positions from The R egistry?
7. Demographic Data. What is your:
124
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REGISTRY SURVEY—HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGERS
The following questions are designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the
Cciifornia Community Colleges Registry and are anticipated to take no more
ten minutes to complete. Please return the form in the enclosed envelope no
later than June 30,2000. or fax it to (909) 384-0968. Questions about the ques
tionnaire can be answered bv calling Dolores Cole at fxxx) xxx-xxxx.
District_________________________
1 .
Strongly
Agree Agree Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
1 am very satisfied with the services
provided bvThe Registry:
The Registry has proven to be a very
good way to identify minority appli
cants:
The Registry has proven to be a very
good way to identify women appli
cants:
The Registry has proven to be a very
good tool to identify general appli
cants.
Applicants referred from The R egis
try are more likely to be selected.
2. If you could use only one recruitment source for faculty positions, it would
be:
Agree
Strongly
Agree Disagree
Strongly Dis
agree
The Registry
Chronicle of Higher Education
L o s Angeles T i m e s
San Francisco Examiner
Other local publications
Other national publications
Part-time employees
Other
125
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3. If you could use only one recruitment source for administrative positions, it
would be:
Agree
Strongly
Agree Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
The Registry
Chronicle of Higher Education
L o s Angeles T i m e s
San Francisco Examiner
Other local publications
Other national publications
Part-time employees
Other
4. Of the procedures in the application process listed below, which would
improve the likelihood of inviting minority applicants to interview:
Strongly
Agree Agree Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
Eliminating the requirement for
letters of reference.
Eliminating the requirement for
transcripts for administrative
positions.
Paying transportation expenses
related to interviewing.
Paying other expenses related
to interviewing.
Paying relocation expenses for
individuals moving over 50
m iles.
Providing employment a s s is
tance to accompanying
spouses.
Providing data re. affordable
housing and other community
resources in your area.
Providing child care informa
tion in your area.
126
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5. Of the procedures in the application process listed below, which would
improve the likelihood of inviting women applicants to interview:
Strongly
Agree Agree Disagree
Strongly Dis
agree
Eliminating the requirement for
letters of reference.
Eliminating the requirement for
transcripts for administrative po
sitions.
Paying transportation expenses
related to interviewina.
Paying other expenses related
to interviewina.
Paying relocation expenses for
individuals moving over 50 m iles.
Providing employment as
sistance to accompanying
spouses.
Providing data re. affordable
housing and other community
resources in vour area.
Providing childcare information
in vour area.
6. How often does your office make use of the applicant data in The Registry
for recruitment?
More than 75% of
the Time
50 to 75% of
the Time
L e s s Than 25%
of the Time
Full-time faculty
Part-time faculty
Full-administrators
Part-time administrators
127
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7. In your opinion how could The Registry improve its services?
Strongly
Agree Agree
Dis
agree
Strongly
Disagree
Update the information in the data
bank more freauently.
Provide tips/information about the ap
plication process to job seekers.
Provide postcards rather than mailing
labels.
Increase targeted advertising
Provide more data fields about the
applicants to allow more pinpointed
label reauests
Provide more categories for adminis
trative positions
Instead of two job fairs north and
south, provide four to six regional job
fairs.
Other ways:
(Prepared by Dolores W. Cole.)
128
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Cole, Dolores W. (author)

Core Title Evaluating the California Community Colleges Registry

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Education, administration,education, community college,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Hagedorn, Linda Serra (committee chair), Picus, Lawrence O. (committee member), Sundt, Melora (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-210045

Unique identifier UC11334819

Identifier 3073734.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-210045 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 3073734.pdf

Dmrecord 210045

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Cole, Dolores W.

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA