Institutional Improvement: Advisory Councils

To improve the quality of the programs we offer at California Coast University, we hold Advisory Council meetings for each of the schools at the University. The purpose of the Advisory Councils is to function in a variety of ways:

• To provide the institution with advice on the current level of skills, knowledge, and abilities individuals need for entry into occupations related to the educational programs offered by California Coast University.
• To provide feedback on the adequacy of the institutions educational program objectives, its curriculum, and its course materials.
• To provide feedback to keep programs current, relevant, and applicable.

Each Advisory Council is comprised of outside professionals, distinguished in their fields, with substantial professional experience related to the field. Council members include business and healthcare professionals, police and probation officers, psychologists, and education professionals. Council members are not employees or contractors of California Coast University and are not paid a salary. Instead, they are given a small honorarium, but otherwise volunteer their time to give back to their respective fields. In the course of their activities, they might review courses, textbooks, resources, examinations, etc. and provide feedback to faculty and administration. They then attend an Advisory Council meeting to share their opinions, observations and recommendations.

During the months of July and August, we had our second annual meetings for each school. The meetings are open forum and have a collegial atmosphere where attendees share professional knowledge to improve our educational programming and in turn help our students grow and develop in their chosen fields of study.

Here are a few of the recent Advisory Council recommendations that were discussed:

• Adding a Social Media Marketing course to the Marketing bachelor’s degree program, and as an elective to other degree programs, replacing an existing course.
• Adding a Homeland Security course to the Criminal Justice bachelor’s degree program, replacing an existing course.
• Adding a Computer Forensics and Cyber Crime course to the Criminal Justice bachelor’s degree program.
• Adding a Leadership course specific to Law Enforcement course to the Criminal Justice master’s degree program, replacing the existing Leadership course that was more general in nature.
• Expanding the Resources Section for each of the various schools of the University to include activities to enrich the student and educational experience.

The assistance and commitment of the Advisory Council members is invaluable in helping us keep the programs current and relevant and to improving the educational programs offered at California Coast University. Thank you to all of our Advisory Council members for giving their time, energy, and dedication.