Mission Statement

Housed in the Sociocultural Studies Department, Political Science promotes student success, completion and transfer. Political Science seeks to create lifelong learners who understand and appreciate the significance of politics and government, as well as civic engagement.

Program Description

The Political Science program creates a transfer pathway for students who plan to complete a four-year degree at a California State University. Upon completion of an AA-T degree in Political Science, students will possess the requisite foundational knowledge as well as the practical skills necessary for subsequent completion of the baccalaureate degree. Upon successful completion of the Political Science program, the student will be able to:

1. Identify major aspects of governmental systems of the United States, for individual states (especially California), and compare governmental systems on a global basis.
2. Place various governmental systems within a developmental/historical framework. Methods of description, analysis, and theory will also be important factors for students who select Political Science as their major.

The courses that comprise the AA-T degree are also for Butte and transfer General Education. With about 55 sections offered each academic year, Political Science serves a significant number of students and meets an array of important General Education and transfer requirements.

Currently, there are 2 fulltime faculty in the discipline, with one performing the bulk of the duties for Political Science associated with fulltime faculty. Six associate faculty teach 64 percent of the sections offered. In Spring 2020 two sections were cancelled due to lack of faculty, with over 50 students enrolled at the time of cancelation.

Student Learning/Administrative Unit Outcomes

From recent "deep-dive" SLO assessment activities, Political Science faculty have identified two areas of focus to improve student learning:

One recommendation is that POS 12 instructors highlight main concepts, like federalism, throughout the semester, even if the textbook does not. This is something that is already done, but could be improved upon. An agreed upon method for doing this, is to use the newspaper and current events. Another important step seems to be revising the POS 12 SLOs, so that faculty feel they accurately reflect the content of the course.
An important POS 2 course outcome for students is, "analyze how to effectively participate in politics at the national, state, county and/or city levels." The faculty are excited about Chico State's Town Hall Meeting event, and how well this supports students in achieving this outcome. A planned improvement is to make participation in this event more consistent, and to also try to create more events where students are able to discuss their research with policy actors more available on the Butte College campus. 

Standards/Goals for Student Achievement (Instruction Departments)

Student Retention and Success Rates
 

 
The retention rate is well above the 2020-2021 goal of 73 percent. The student success rates also meet or exceed the 2020-2021 goal of 75 percent.
 
Conferred Awards
 
The number of conferred awards and certificates from Political Science. Most students take a course in this discipline to meet General Education requirements.  However, the AA-T may result in more students taking subsequent courses in this discipline.

Standards/Goals for Student Achievement (All Other Departments)

To support these classroom efforts, in conjunction with ANTH, GEOG, HIST, and POS faculty, the Sociocultural Studies Department will continue to hold special Forums each fall. Previous Forums included presentations on Reading Strategies, Helping International Students Succeed, and Tried-and-Test Teaching Ideas, Helping Student Athletes Succeed, No/Low Cost Textbooks, and Tried-and-Tested Teaching Ideas. Forum topics are "just-in-time" -- meant to help instructors with recent and/or ongoing teaching challenges, and help associate faculty, which carries the bulk of the teaching duties, to keep up-to-date on what is happening at the College.

Strategic Direction

Current efforts in the Political Science program are classroom centered. Committed to excellence in the teaching of rich and rigorous course content, discipline faculty play a key role in supporting the college to meet these strategic directions.
Implementing AB 705 
AB 705 does not directly impact Political Science, and it is too soon to determine any impacts beyond math and English, but it may improve the writing capabilities of students within Political Science courses, which typically require a great deal of writing.
 
Implementing Guided Pathways
               a. Strategic Scheduling
While most faculty will not have a direct position on developing strategic scheduling, they will be involved on accomplishing those goals. Strategic scheduling may require a major overhaul of the current scheduling system of rolling over sections and thereby when and what is offered. This is the point at which the faculty, especially associate faculty, will begin to notice the changes.  
b. Hobsons Starfish
The most important aspect at the discipline is to keep faculty informed on how Hobsons/Starfish is being implemented at the College, and what they should expect as it relates to them.
 
Closing Equity Gaps
Closing equity gaps requires an understanding of where those gaps are. Data has been a gap in that understanding, but is quickly being filled. For example, below are the retention and success rates for all Ethnicities except white, in Political Science.


Retention rates for all courses are well above the 2020-2021 goal of 73 percent. Success rates vary greatly between courses, with the most commonly taken courses above the 2020-2021 goal of 75 percent, with the exception of POS 2 at 72 percent, which is below the 2020-2021 goal.  
Below are the retention and success rates based upon gender; 1) F, 2) M, 3) U, 4) X.
1) F
 
2) M
 
 
3) U
 
4) X
 
               All categories are showing improvement concerning the student retention and success rates, except for the U Gender group.
Meeting enrollment targets 
Political Science:
 
College:
 
Political Science has seen a 17 percent drop in FTES while the College experienced a 10.6 percent drop in FTES during the same time. 
Meeting student achievement goals 
Political Science
  
College
 
Fostering a Culture of Inclusiveness
Promote attendance to the Cultural Awareness Community of Practice (CACP) professional development program to assist faculty in better understanding and fully meeting the needs of culturally diverse students and colleagues.

Program Review

Political Science completed its most recent Program Review in May 2012. The Validation Team provided three Recommendations, one of which has not been adequately addressed:

Recommends a full-time faculty hire. *** The most recent fulltime instructor in the discipline, started in Fall 2013. The individual is currently the only active full-time faculty to manage the curriculum or extracurricular work = lack of ability to grow a program that could easily grow and expand, as well as have real world application to our local community and local government/policy makers.

Department Goals

1. Develop Political Science as a fully functioning program, not just as a degree listed in the catalog. Currently, Political Science is not a fully functioning program on campus because there is only one active FT faculty to manage curriculum and program events, to advise majors, to participate on campus, and to help staff classes with high pedagogical caps. POS has high FTES, full classes, high completion rates and a political science program could easily grow and help nurture a vibrant campus culture if there were adequate staffing. 

Future Development Strategies

Requested Non-Financial Resources

Current Financial Resources

Augmentation Requests