Staff Assembly Notes

February 3, 2011

Group #1

Propositions 1,2,5

(1)Our undergraduate experience will reflect an innovative blending of liberal arts and professional education.

(2) Our graduate programs will adopt an innovative integration of theory and

practice.

(5) Our degree programs will enable is to continue to attract students who can

benefit from Nazareth degree programs.

-#5 vague

  • High school grads who wouldn’t normally go to college – how do we attract & support them?
  • Establish mentor program with high school sophomores & juniors
  • Bring high school students to campus & continue to follow up with them
  • Increase 2+2 and 2+3 programs with community colleges
  • Beautiful place & great people – expand recruiting to other states
  • Offer 2 year degrees
  • Distance learning
  • Cost is a concern for families
  • Work with high schools to earn Nazareth credit in high school
  • Accelerated programs
  • Saturday programs
  • Create majors related to sustainability
  • Weekend college – to recruit adults
  • Satellite campuses
  • Global Nazareth sites
  • Create majors that trend with 2020
  • Look at strong programs
  • Build 2 year programs in those areas
  • New math/science building
  • What new programs could be developed?
  • Partnerships with industry & community
  • Center for entrepreneurship
  • 2 year nursing program
  • Explorer program in high schools (connect with them)
  • Summer camps to get students connected early
  • Dual degree programs (BS/MS, etc)
  • On-line degrees, especially grad level
  • Expand HHS programs (high demand for these)
  • Expand athletic facilities
  • Sell the value of the liberal arts
  • Transferability of skills
  • Sell value of blending liberal arts with professional programs
  • Look at size of our programs
  • How big do we want to be?
  • Stay small and competitive or grow?
  • Can connect distance learners to campus
  • On-line labs (“lab in a box”)
  • On-line learning – need to carefully think about how we can connect students to the institution
  • Impact on future alumni giving & support
  • Pay attention to time to complete a degree
  • Make it easy to double major
  • Promote opportunities for this
  • Self-created programs (majors/minors)
  • Be creative within departments to help students reach goals
  • Practical experiences
  • Improved facilities
  • Food options (Starbucks, Taco Bell)
  • Stores (mini-Wegmans on campus)
  • Student bathrooms
  • Activities
  • Merge with SJF and/or combine resources/support
  • RAC collaborations
  • Market study abroad
  • Build it into programs
  • Market internships
  • Partnerships with other colleges like MSW
  • Don’t lose what made Nazareth unique from the start
  • We care about students
  • Nazareth is good at relationship building
  • Emphasize this

Group #2

Propositions 3,6,10

(3) We will prepare students to be global citizens, with the skills and

understanding to live and work in pluralistic communities.

(6) Our external reputation and our internal priorities will be defined by a

transformative sequence of opportunities for students to develop

intellectual capacities, skills for living in a pluralistic world, and the

ability to apply academic learning to lived experience.

(10) Our clearly stated expectations for students in 2020 and beyond will be

shaped by our understanding of what their careers, work, and social

experiences will be.

-Value of global experience at undergrad level

-Value of off-campus learning

  • Real step forward for us
  • Real challenge is in the College of Arts & Sciences
  • Students are not always focused on career direction

-International experience is transformative & life-changing

  • Semester at sea, semester in Italy

-Transformation needs to be built into the experience (through reflection, etc) – does not happen by magic

-Student leadership opportunities on campus

-Opportunity for all students must be built into the core.

  • We have a whole contingent here
  • Multitude of diversity

-Everything we do on campus should reflect integrated, experiential learning

  • Not just for students/should be part of working here as well

-Opportunity for staff to go along (e.g. abroad) & how do we help them to re-integrate or integrate (for students arriving from abroad)

-International students need resources & information on campus (e.g. what to do in Wegmans? There is no transportation)

  • How to increase attendance in International Club
  • More direct interaction with students as staff members

-Conversational groups (once a week)

  • Staff - consider it part of working, not an hour off
  • Part of the experience

-Have ORIENTATION – menu/cafeteria style of experiential learning

  • How can they enhance their experience

-Tim Backus program in College Student Personnel

  • These students could assist in doing some of these things
  • Increase grade student enrollment

-Natural partnership between Arts Center & International Students

  • Alliance between InternationalClub & ArtsCenter?

-Involvement in “Partnering Experiences” should be an expectation for staff

-More 1-on-1 relational partnering

  • Intercultural exchange

-International students to come here and live with a family

  • Note: there might be some grant restrictions

-Virtual international partnerships between students here and abroad via Skype, Social Media

-Barriers:

  • Students think they are coming to NYC, don’t know there is no transportation.
  • People (staff) fear feeling awkward or uncomfortable?

-Match international students with a “host mom” for their time here?

-Institution needs to foster and value staff experience - we are willing!

-Parents of incoming students might be asked to extend some support to an incoming international student

-Lack of understanding that majority of students do speak English

-2 distinct groups of international students completely separated in terms of support

  • 4 year matriculation with domestic students versus those on a sponsored program

-Civic engagement is a big piece of this as well – there are a number of opportunities

  • Post-grad opportunities
  • With fees attached, how could college support
  • E.G. Ithaca MLK program, paid for by the college

-Technology alone has changed so much for students

  • Students are changing in the way they come to us
  • How can we really identify needs & wants of students 9 years from now? It is a real challenge.

-Average age of transfer students is 24

-Less limitations of compas daycare!

  • How about evening hours?

-How to offer education to students in other countries

  • What does that mean to our services?

-Either we can let it happen to us, or we can decide what we want it to look like and control it

-“Microwave children” want everything now!

  • They are hyper (current 9-year-olds)
  • How will we keep them interested at 20?

-DIFFERENTIATION

  • Interfaith component, promote better
  • Requires everybody to be ambassadors

-Mentoring program with Nazareth Faculty/Staff for international students

Group #3

Proposition 4

(4) We will prepare students dedicated to the ideal of service to their

communities.

-Currently doing:

  • Internships, courses, service floors, athletic service, Partners for Service, etc

-Parents were surveyed & shared

  • It was very valuable

-Engaged students

  • Higher GPAs, etc
  • Very beneficial

-Critical learning to replace apathy that can be found in college bubble

  • Keep them connected to larger world

-Citizenship responsibilities have decreased in our society

  • Perhaps because so many struggle to just survive

-Is this proposition just for students or also for faculty/staff?

-Ways & opportunities here:

  • Civic engagement awards (including faculty & staff)
  • Faculty and staff share our experiences with students (i.e. day of service, plan outing as department, etc)
  • Involve staff’s input & involvement in student service projects
  • Covering both local & global (i.e. NAZRAB, Student Alliance, CFS, St’s Place, etc)
  • Global trends to be less than our global focus
  • Ability to assess where students are & measuring their impact on community, also impact on students’ own lives
  • Strengthen marketing as well
  • Take students out (i.e. Habitat) and show how to practically paint a house, etc & apply it to own life and on a larger scale
  • In practice not just in theory & apply it even to theoretical classwork
  • Pair students with staff members almost as mentor (mentor with skill or even outside their field & in their passion
  • Shows students how to stay connected even in business
  • Step outside of self and get still get back
  • In 2020 Nazareth is known as most community-supportive organization
  • What can we offer to community?
  • Take on serious project
  • Someone to train interns
  • Helping everyone sort through opportunities
  • Marketing
  • Partner with Rochester Cares
  • Communication with them
  • Using their database
  • College be able to have resources allocated to help students have that global experience
  • Even non-academic internships, over summer, paid by college scholarships(i.e. with UN in Sweden)
  • Put more funds toward study abroad scholarship
  • New core’s experiential learning piece
  • Experience for every student
  • Involve curriculum
  • Every department have 1-2 service hours/month
  • Program to allow staff 1-2 hours/month to do volunteer work during days, or ability to take time off to go to help with natural desires
  • Community partners more visible on campus
  • Resources for speaker series
  • Workshops based on strength of our civically engaged partners (Center for Urban Ed, etc)
  • Masterclass
  • Having students in community helps promote college visibility
  • Helps with fundraising too
  • Have one big project be the schools focus
  • Bringing faculty, staff & students working together toward single goal
  • i.e. Nazareth House
  • Resources: broader in every discipline
  • i.e. lead testing in science department

Group #4

Proposition 8

(8) NazarethCollege will have complementary governance and administrative

structures with the capacity to respond nimbly to change and to serve both

our mission and external accountability.

-How would we be able to adapt to change?

  • Partnerships w/community & industries (formal or informal)
  • Co-Ops/internships leading to jobs

-What is the barrier to changing?

  • Communication & ability to respond makes you nimble
  • Matrix organization
  • Faculty has own way – not all know how it works
  • Each department can make decisions, but larger decisions take time, need support
  • Is the support available?

-Changing world (mobile world & communication)

  • Technology progressing
  • Several staff members aren’t mobile (phones & email)
  • Smart phone example (faster communication)
  • Better use of technology to increase mobility
  • Basic phone plan?

-Nazareth can be conservative with change, but once decisions are made, it works well

  • How do we figure out how to accept and implement change sooner?
  • What are other colleges doing?
  • Changes must involve more than one person initiating ideas
  • Communicate through electronic feedback (allows open communication)

-What are the students going to be like?

  • Demographic change

-How can we respond to changes & new students?

  • Bringing students in over the summer
  • Support by changing climate of students (close gap)
  • Must be something to close gap (generation gap)
  • Older versus younger students on campus
  • Different skills
  • How can we accommodate adult students to include them?

-How do we as a college make sure we’re preparing students?

  • Adult learners, athletes, etc
  • Need to be more aware of outside world
  • Need to sustain enrollment, tuition-based
  • Using athletics to sustain enrollment
  • How can we ensure they succeed?
  • Having mentor through coaching (“parents away from home”)
  • Amping up athletics would help

-Nazareth Retention is on higher end

  • Graduation rate versus retention rate

-How do we ensure we’re competitive & get successful students?

  • Residential life
  • Keep doing what we do well and build on it
  • Changes are often due to going to state schools or cheaper institutions because of finances

-Raising endowment

  • Cutting budgets
  • Financial aid

-Make a list of weaknesses instead of just strengths

  • Can we agree on them?
  • Can’t have bias

-Administrative structure

  • What would allow us to be more nimble?
  • Going through approval process can be long
  • Understanding other departments
  • Getting students because of new buildings, programs, majors, etc
  • Offering more

-By 2020, new majors can be available

  • Which programs can we being
  • RIT as example; larger with more resources
  • What will students want & need to know?
  • Liberal Arts at risk?
  • Use that to our advantage
  • Changing programs
  • Emerging professions (ex: medical technology)

-Undergraduate research

  • Useful for resume building and experience
  • Need to hear more about it
  • Communication

-Emphasis on personal touch

-Having a vision to show people/students

-Admissions – How are programs being marketed?

  • Will new building increase interest? Yes!
  • Other departments with admissions?

Group #5

Proposition 9

(9) We will develop and steward the appropriate resources to sustain the

college’s viability as it actualizes the vision set forth in the strategic plan.

Resources to be sought and stewarded include financial resources, human

resources and the physical and virtual resources that enable the effective

delivery of instruction.

-Human Resources

  • Professional Development/Training
  • Pluralism/Diversity
  • Global Partnerships/campus locations
  • Value of individual role and related contribution to the team/importance of this
  • Programs with other colleges
  • Collaborations
  • Specifically to student programs
  • Relationship building
  • Don’t fight for student
  • Look at business processes
  • Efficiencies/opportunity
  • Proactive versus reactive approach
  • More flexible options for student programs/choice
  • Interdisciplinary (ex: Art/Nursing)
  • Joint (2 colleges) degree
  • SJFC/Nazareth
  • 2+2 programs
  • Has private philanthropy appeal
  • Funding thinking – Prog versus bricks mortar
  • Enrollment
  • Explore bigger presence in high school
  • Increase graduation rate
  • Non-traditional
  • Expand geography
  • Camps
  • Sports, music, art, infotonics
  • What do employers want?
  • How can Nazareth meet needs, craft programs accordingly
  • Flexibility (7 careers!)
  • Credit for experience
  • Addition/Elimination of programs
  • Veterans (positioning to support)
  • Cooperative programs
  • Opportunities for prof. advancement
  • Career track – seeing what this is
  • Professional development
  • Retention
  • Events on campus
  • Internal/external connections
  • To programs/function
  • Maximize market/positioning
  • Ex. Healthcare Forum, AC, Ethics, Teen Book Festival

Group #6

Propositions 11

(11) We will promote Nazareth as a national leader.

-Do we need a national reputation?

  • Concern about our rep in NE
  • As a recruiter name not known when she calls students
  • Happy if we become known in Mid-Atlantic NE area
  • The name is not known
  • Where are you?
  • Are you Catholic?
  • Are you Religious?
  • Unknown factor
  • How do we promote?
  • Lacrosse is recognized nationally
  • PT is recognized nationally
  • As we continue to grow we become more regionally known
  • Need to beef up programs to get away from so many Rochester, SyracuseBuffalo

-What are some of the differences with colleges who do have religious names?

  • Sacred Heart
  • Very aggressive in attracting students
  • We are moving in the right direction but we are more conservative
  • Aggressive – tried to attract students from all over country; not afraid to attract students
  • The name is an issue
  • If students thinking great a Catholic school
  • Tough to say we are not religious with a name like NazarethCollege
  • Some not names schools locally embrace the Catholic tradition & use regular language that appeals to Catholics
  • Extremely proud of our history, but we are moving forward
  • The SSJ were visionary and realized we could not continue to be Catholic women’s college because dwindling demographics.
  • We have 28,000 alums and 75% grad since 1980.
  • Do we want to continue to attract students because of religious beliefs or do we want to be open to all students.
  • Realities are programs & offerings are what attract.
  • We need great facilities & great offerings.
  • People that know us love us; once we bring people to campus it helps.
  • Fly about 40 counselors every year (Adm) from all over country in consortium with UR, RIT, etc. Generally speaking this goes over well.
  • Straw Poll for Yes (4) No (8)
  • Concerned about the student’s who don’t ever look at us
  • We need to offer something that is a draw
  • What if we were a university?
  • Name change there would help with International recruitment
  • College = HS here
  • NY & Mass are only 2 states which have requirements to be University
  • Fact: Math Science building will be great draw
  • Lack of students union
  • Lack of indoor facilities for athletics (HS have better)
  • One of easiest ways to get reputation is through athletics
  • Athletics facilities are a huge investment
  • Our alums do not make a lot of money & can’t give back the way alums of many other colleges can
  • Majority of ArtsCenter money came from alums, 1.5 million from Math & Science came from company
  • Are we holding onto a name for tradition?
  • Commitment to community, service learning & civic engagement
  • It’s about programs& strength of programs
  • How do we keep
  • You can change the name but the programs are still the same
  • Name recognition/marketing on national not just regional level of specific star program
  • Pressure on academic side to create some stellar programs in areas where we are string could be stronger, e.g. business
  • College founded as gateway to the American Dream
  • If we can change names does it look like we are throwing our foundation away?
  • We need to think about what our position is; never thought of as robust academically value centered
  • How can we be aggressive in getting transfers from CC
  • Maybe diversify programs
  • Facilities are huge
  • We are maxed out in terms of borrowing – don’t look for field house soon
  • Who are we?
  • What’s in a name?
  • What do we need?

Group #7

What other creative opportunities do we see that respond to the external factors and position Nazareth for 2020?

-International/Global – University (v. College)

  • Perception -/+ of size implications

-Students of 2020

  • What will they want?
  • How will we be attractive to them?
  • Late night programs
  • Facilities & services
  • Field house/student life center
  • Dining/cooking options & facilities
  • Support services (faculty & staff)
  • Technology (how using devices, expectations)
  • Expectation of immediate response
  • Live-in/ connect with real world
  • Student self-designed majors & more responsibilities for majors
  • Calendar/flexibility

-Collaboration/Cooperation/Consortia

  • With other institutions
  • E.G. MSW

-Communications

  • Understanding/knowledge of & alignment of students experience
  • Personal v. institutional response
  • Organize & access information
  • Portal
  • The “daily”
  • Rapid pace of change
  • Keeping up with tech/skills
  • Culture shift