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Fall 2002 Volume 6 Number 1 |
Home » MSC Today Magazine » Fall 2002 » Team Leader
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Team Leader After Leading MSC Through an Intense Self-Study Process, Barbara Frizzell Takes on New Challenges as Interim VP for Academic Affairs By Renee Pearman
The Self-Study took two years, involved 120 members of the College’s faculty and staff serving on 30 committees and subcommittees, hours of surveys and interviews, tons of paperwork, lots of coordination and patience and the occasional sense of humor. The result was a 460-page report presented to members of the visiting team of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). But more on that later. Frizzell’s tireless devotion to the Self-Study assignment - she was at the College working on the report last Christmas Eve -- prepared her for her next role at Macon State, that of interim vice president for Academic Affairs and dean of the faculty. When Dr. J. Thomas Isherwood, the former dean, accepted a college president’s position last spring, Macon State President David A. Bell asked Frizzell to serve as interim VP. “Dr. Frizzell is one of the most focused people I’ve ever met,” Bell said. “When it was time to appoint an interim chief academic officer, she was at the top of my list. Barbara has demonstrated time and time again as an educator and administrator that she can meet any challenge. I have every confidence she will take that same concentration and energy and successfully guide Macon State through its next phase of growth and development.” Frizzell welcomed the opportunity with the same enthusiasm she showed 28 years earlier when she accepted a part-time faculty position in the College’s business division. She was a newcomer to Central Georgia then, with an infant daughter. Five years later, when her daughter started school, Frizzell joined the faculty as a full-time instructor of economics. No Shortcuts Her career in education actually dates to 1962 when she was teaching algebra and general math to ninth graders at a Pensacola, Fla., high school. From there she moved to Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Fla., teaching a course on money and banking, then on to Macon. She credits her high school algebra teacher for encouraging her interest in math and her parents for getting her focused on higher education. Jennings and Lucille Thomas always stressed the importance of education to their daughters, Barbara and Priscilla. “With my parents, it was never ‘if you go to college’ but ‘when you go to college,’” said Frizzell, who has a bachelor’s degree in math, a master’s degree in finance and economics, and an Ed.D. in business education. A professor of economics, Frizzell continued to teach even as her administrative duties at Macon State increased. In 1998, she was named director of Institutional Effectiveness and later promoted to associate vice president for Planning and Assessment. Frizzell has a basic philosophy, which she always shares with students on the first day of class: there are no shortcuts to learning. “Success in the classroom, whether you are a student or a teacher, means commitment of time and effort, good work habits, a positive attitude and enthusiasm for what you are doing,” said Frizzell, who in 1997 was named a Distinguished Professor for Teaching and Learning by the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents.
“She was a very effective team leader,” said Dr. Linda Cooper, professor of business and chair of the Self-Study’s Committee on Educational Program. “Barbara is extremely well organized, and she kept everyone on task. At the same time she was very supportive of all committee members, and she was always available for assistance.” And these qualities, Cooper said, are what make Frizzell “an excellent choice” for Academic Affairs VP. No one knows Frizzell’s qualifications as an academician and administrator better than Dr. Martha Wilson, professor of English and co-director of the MSC Institutional Self-Study. Besides being colleagues for 18 years, Wilson and Frizzell worked side by side during the grueling two-year Self Study process. “Barbara understands our institution, our faculty and our students,” said Wilson, who recently was appointed interim associate vice president for Planning and Assessment, “and she has the experience, the vision and the leadership necessary to serve as our chief academic officer.” Frizzell’s leadership was essential to the success of the Self-Study, Wilson said. “From the very beginning she set a tone of collegiality and cooperation and established guidelines that would facilitate the work required in such a comprehensive project. Her sustained commitment to the project, her meticulous attention to detail and her ability to elicit the best from others allowed the College to produce a Self-Study that was thorough and accurate.” Staying Busy Bell had asked Frizzell to lead the Institutional Self –Study in the fall of 1999. One day after accepting the assignment, she started work, selecting a co-director and establishing committees. Within one month, her committees were moving at full steam. Why is the Institutional Self-Study so important? SACS’ Commission on Colleges is the accrediting body of the approximately 800 institutions of higher education, including Macon State, located in the 11 southern states in the U.S. and Latin America. Every 10 years, a member institution must conduct an internal evaluation in order to retain its accreditation status and membership in SACS. Reaccredidation by SACS’ Commission on Colleges “signifies that the college has a purpose appropriate to higher education and has resources, programs and services sufficient to accomplish its mission on a continuing basis,” Frizzell said. The road to reaccredidation begins with an Institutional Self-Study. Once that study is complete, it is mailed to members of SACS’ reaccredidation visiting team for a peer review. The team, whose members are from other SACS member institutions, spent four days at Macon State last February. The 12 educators had to verify all statements in the Self Study, which they did through personal interviews with faculty, staff, students, alumni, MSC Foundation trustees and community leaders and by reviewing all documentation supporting the study. At the end of their visit, the team members prepared a report for the Commission on Colleges. “There are more than 400 ‘must’ statements that we address in our Self- Study, and after verifying all of those, the visiting team had only 12 recommendations, which we began working on immediately,” Frizzell said. “For example, during the Self-Study, we determined, and the visiting team agreed, that we needed additional study rooms and computer stations in our Library, that we needed to provide more services for online students and that we needed more staff in our Academic Advising Center. Each of the recommendations has been addressed, and we’re also focused on expanding our services at our Warner Robins Center.” The Commission on Colleges has received the visiting team’s report as well as Macon State’s response to the recommendations. Affirmation of accreditation from the Commission is expected when it meets in December. “The results of the Self -Study showed that we are succeeding where it matters most - in the classroom,” Frizzell said. “Our educational program is excellent when evaluated in terms of curriculum, instruction and completion requirements. And the College also has reason to be proud of its faculty and their credentials. In fact, one of the greatest strengths of Macon State is the quality of its teaching faculty.” And so with the next Self-Study some 10 years away, Frizzell may have time to catch her breath before turning her full attention to the College’s seven academic divisions, admissions, registrar and financial aid offices, assessment and planning reports, academic advising and resource centers, student support services, minority student achievement, MSC’s off-campus sites . . . Well, maybe not. |
