While wrapping up my PowerPoint for a Professional Development Day presentation, I asked myself several probing questions. Why would anyone choose to attend my session? How can I make it relevant? What would attendees remember afterwards? What change, if any, might they implement in their interactions with students? How might that improve student success?

Stepping back, I thought of the entire PDD. Taken together, how would our collective work increase NMC-wide student success measures such as enrollment, completion rate, retention, and efficiency? How about individual students – would their experiences be better, their learning increase, their preparation for a lifetime of adult responsibilities improve?

I recalled a concept learned in my early HP career – the “Big Hairy Audacious Goal.” A BHAG transforms an organization over time by stretching everyone with a clear and focused vision to perform near-magic – JFK’s 1961/62 moon-landing challenge is considered a great example of a national BHAG. I chose a similar, though certainly much, much smaller approach: I modified my original “here’s a good idea – try it!” focus, adding a bit of time to chat and reflect about a learning BHAG.

Harvard CS50’s “Regret Clause,” the topic of my session, is a good idea:

“If you commit some act that is not reasonable but bring it to the attention of the course’s heads within 72 hours, the course may impose local sanctions that may include an unsatisfactory or failing grade for work submitted, but the course will not refer the matter to the Administrative Board.”

Some Harvard students succeed when otherwise they would not; likely some NMC students would too if the clause were to be adopted and adapted here.

When considering this, we should look at all of our classroom policies. How do they prepare students for successful lives? When does a mistake such as a cheating episode disqualify a student? When and how could and should we use such a glitch as an effective life-changing learning moment? Answers to these questions are not always clear, and they may not apply evenly in all situations. However, if we keep student success in mind as an overarching goal, we just might adapt more often and we might make a bigger difference in our students’ lives.