Alamo Community Colleges News & Events

ACCD Chancellor Announces New Changes Regarding Program Performance
Problems with Nursing Program Prompting New Procedures

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 27, 2007
CONTACT: Matari Jones-Gunter, Director, Community and Public Relations, St. Philip's College
210/531-3260
mgunter@mail.accd.edu

In a special news conference today, Dr. Bruce Leslie, Chancellor of the Alamo Community College District, announced major changes regarding communication and reporting procedures involving ACCD employees, faculty, staff and students and external agencies. The Chancellor’s directives were initiated after a problem was discovered within the ADN nursing program at St. Philip’s College.

“Unfortunately, from 2004-2006, the nursing exam pass rate in our associate degree in nursing program, also known as the “ADN” mobility program, has plummeted to 71%, well below the required 80%,” said Dr. Adena Williams Loston, president of St. Philip’s College. “Accordingly the Texas Board of Nursing Examiners has changed the program status from “full” approval to “conditional” status,” she said.

That rating means the college is prohibited from accepting new students to the ADN program until the problem is fixed.

“It is unacceptable that such sanctions could have arisen about any academic program at any of the Alamo Community Colleges without questions not only being properly addressed but also communicated promptly to the college president, the district’s central administration and the board,” said Leslie. “As a result of the absence of appropriate communications and assessment, we now have a program that is not meeting the needs of our students,” he said.

Chancellor Leslie says, effective immediately, all correspondence from external agencies will be provided to him as well as the appropriate vice chancellors and college presidents.

To get the ADN program back on track, the district is offering intense tutoring to students in hopes of improving lagging test scores. They will have to score 80% or higher in order for the ADN program to regain full approval. The tutoring is being offered at no charge to the students. The ADN program supports about 40 students, a small component of the eleven allied health programs at the college.

The ADN program sanctions in no way affect the Licensed Vocational Nursing or LVN program at St. Philip’s College, Loston said. Founded in 1949, The LVN program is the cornerstone of St. Philip’s. That program produces one of the largest numbers of licensed vocational nurses in the state with about 160 licensure graduates a year.

About St. Philip’s:
St. Philip’s College is a multi-campus institution of the Alamo Community Colleges, committed to meeting the educational needs of San Antonio’s growing and diverse community. St. Philip’s College is a Historically Black College and Hispanic Serving Institution and is the only college in the nation that carries this dual distinction. As “A Point of Pride in the Community,” St. Philip’s is among the oldest and most diverse community colleges in the nation.