Kathleen Molloy

Delivering the lecture is considered the highest honor bestowed on a faculty member each year.

The March 20 presentation, titled “Those Who Can Teach: Those Who Can’t Go into a Less Significant Line of Work,” will take place at 2:30 p.m. at the Garvin Theater on the West Campus, immediately followed by a reception. The event is free and open to the community.

Lecture Topic:

“The California Community College System is under incredible pressure to be all things to all people,” says Ms. Molloy. “The Student Success Task Force has made recommendations, and the California Legislature and Governor Brown seek to implement these and more in an effort to increase the completion rates of our students, while state and national groups urge us to adopt practices and programs aimed at getting our students through our colleges more quickly and efficiently.” She notes that “Many of the recommendations are good ones, some are good in theory if not in practice, and some seem counter to our fundamental belief of open access. But while not all of our students are seeking to complete a certificate, degree or transfer, the overwhelming majority of our students do have these goals. And most are highly motivated to achieve them. Yet far too many fail to reach their goals in spite of the best of intentions.”

While Ms. Molloy says that SBCC has clearly done an outstanding job of putting effective programs and practices in place, the real difference is made every day in the classroom. “That’s what the research tells us, and more importantly, that’s what our students tell us.” She points out that “Nowhere are their voices louder and clearer than in some of the recent studies and surveys that have sought to capture our students’ perceptions of their college experiences, their expectations of us as teachers and of our institutions.”

During her faculty lecture, Ms. Molloy will share findings from the research, including student surveys, interviews and classroom observations, which reveal a picture of community college students that both contradicts and reinforces teachers’ perceptions as educators and suggests effective practices and strategies to help students succeed.

About the Lecturer:

Kathleen (Kathy) Zarwell Molloy was born and raised in Los Angeles. A history major at the University of Southern California, she picked up a degree in English as well. During college, she met her husband, Paul, and married two years later. After spending a year camping through Europe and North Africa, they moved to Santa Barbara where they both enrolled in graduate school at UCSB. After receiving secondary credentials, she and her husband taught high school at Bishop Garcia Diego High School in Santa Barbara for several years until the birth of their first son, Kevin. Later they shared a teaching position in the ESL Program at SBCC’s Continuing Education Division.

After the birth of their second son, Matt, the couple decided it was time to return to school, and two years later they received their master’s degrees and applied for teaching positions at Santa Barbara City College. A year later, Ms. Molloy was hired full time in a position split between the English Department and the English Skills Department, and not too long after, her husband was hired full-time in the ESL Department.

Ms. Molloy served as department chair for English Skills and Director of Composition for the English Division. At the same time, she became the English Division representative on the Academic Senate, serving for 16 years as a senator, member of the Steering Committee and eventually as the Senate President.

During her tenure as Academic Senate President, she led the Senate’s Student Success Initiative which resulted in the creation of the Partnership for Student Success, SBCC’s award-winning collaboration of tutoring programs. She continues to serve as chair of the Partnership’s Steering Committee.

In 2010, when SBCC received its first Title V Hispanic Serving Institutions grant, Ms. Molloy was asked to become the project director. Since then, she has worked with faculty from English, English Skills, Math and Counseling to plan and implement the Express to Success Program (ESP).

Started in Fall 2011, ESP offers accelerated learning communities for students in developmental Math and English and recently received the State Chancellor’s Award for Best Practices in Student Equity.

In 2009, when the Statewide Academic Senate appointed Ms. Molloy as the Faculty Professional Development Coordinator for the Basic Skills Initiative, she led a team of community college faculty, including SBCC’s Dr. Jerry Pike, in planning and staging eight regional workshops that showcased some of the effective programs and practices in California community colleges. She has continued to work on the state’s Basic Skills Initiative, currently serving on the Chancellor’s Basic Skills Advisory Committee and recently leading the Senate’s efforts to create a Basic Skills Initiative E-Resource, a review of projects and successful programs that will be released in Spring 2013.

During her career at SBCC, Ms. Molloy has been recognized for her teaching and support of EOPS (Extended Opportunity Programs and Services) and DSPS (Disabled Student Programs and Services) students, and she has received the Faculty Excellence Award from her colleagues. In 2011, she was selected as recipient of the Stanback Stroud Diversity Award by the Statewide Academic Senate and the Foundation for California Community Colleges.

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