Revolutionary Initiatives Flowing Through the Innovation Forum

Championship-caliber athletic teams. A multimillion dollar robotics lab. Commencement ceremonies held in a state-of-the-art event center. Thanks to TCC's Innovation Forum, these dreams and so many others, could become reality, ultimately bringing the college and the community closer together.

For more than 50 years, the College has supported and nurtured mission-driven innovation that is designed to improve student access and success.

Community members and TCC staff are able to submit creative ideas to the Innovation Forum, a hub for activities that promotes and fosters innovation and entrepreneurship.

In 2013, TCC introduced Innovation Forums on all five campuses as a cutting-edge process designed to vet new ideas for projects and programs that would impact student success.

“Innovation is essential for TCC to become an even stronger leader in education, research and regional development,“ said Chad Crocker, director of facilities operations. “TCC has an adventurous spirit and overarching desire to enhance student success.”

Liaisons guide idea champions through a three-step process to determine how well new ideas support TCC's institutional goals.

Initially, there is a quick “go or no-go” filtering process to ensure projects won't compromise the TCC brand. If the project gets the go-ahead, it makes its way through the DREAM score process, which measures the diversity, workforce relevance, student engagement, accessibility and metrics regarding graduation, certificates and the total number of students the project will impact. Before proceeding to the approval process, cost-per-student ratio and community impact must be factored in to determine the possible return-on-student-investment.

If the initiative gets an average DREAM score of at least 1 on a 3 point scale, and costs no more than $3,000 per student, it goes before the Chancellor's Executive Leadership Team and the Board of Trustees for approval. It then goes back to the forum, where the idea champion and liaison work to develop a business model and pilot.

“We submitted the Library Service Desk Renovation initiative in February 2014,” said Linda Jenson, director of library services at South Campus. “We were notified of its approval in April of this year and are currently working with facilities to have this completed by early August.”

Jenson said that once the renovation is finished, visitors should enjoy the library's new one-stop shopping experience. “The redesigned service structure will be less intimidating and puts our staff right on the front lines to help those in need of assistance,” she said.

With the Innovation Forum making steady progress, these initiatives recently received approval for implementation:

• Northeast Campus—creation of the Information Station
• Northwest Campus—creation of the Marine Creek Nature Discovery Center
• Trinity River Campus—creation of the Diagnostic Medical Sonography, Computed Tomography (CT), Nuclear Medicine and Licensed Vocational Nurse programs
• Southeast Campus—new Dietetics Laboratory

In Arlington, a thriving partnership between the Southeast Campus and the Youth Education Town (YET) Center further exemplifies work supported by the Innovation Forum. Since 2014, the campus has served more than 460 students at the YET Center, offering classes such as hands-on computer and technology training for seniors, financial literacy, ESL and GED, a STAAR test boot camp and a summer STEM camp for students in grades 6-12.

Greta Bowling, professor of biology at the Northwest Campus, spoke highly of the Innovation Forum process. "Marine Creek Nature Discovery Center began as an idea to restore a small area on our campus back to native prairie. With the help of the Innovation Forum, we were able to expand upon this original idea to create an outdoor learning center that will be available to TCCD as a whole, as well as the community.”A snapshot of how the forum has impacted TCC's community

A snapshot of how the forum has impacted TCC's community

• More than 250 ideas have flowed through the Innovation Forum since its inception
• Approximately $40 million in projects have been processed or completed
• 46 projects currently sit on the prioritization list
• The Board of Trustees approved six initiatives during the Feb. 2016 board meeting