Title V Steering Council Meeting

Title V Steering Council Meeting

Meeting Minutes

Date:November 19,2009; 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM

Location:Phoenix College Library, Campus Vista Room

Present:Dr. Anna Solley, Casandra Kakar, Wilbert Nelson, Seth Goodman, Jan Binder, JimNeuenfeldt,

Valerie Hernandez, Joe Sueyoshi, Jeanne Arquette, Daniel Herbst, Eddie Ong, Paul DeRose,

Sandra Wells, William Baker, Tim Murphy, Robert Bill, Diana Mitchell, Patricia Zaccardo

Next Meeting:February 10, 2010; 2:30 PM (Tentative)

Meeting Outcomes:

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1. OPENING

1.Welcome and Introductions

Dr. Solley opened the meeting at 11:06 a.m. Attendees introduced themselves.

2.Opening Remarks

Casandra Kakar provided general comments about the Title V Grant. Title V has had a successful first year. The hiring of positions in the first year was slow due to Maricopa’s HR process which can be cumbersome. All positions will be filled and the project will be moving forward.However, the grant has progressed forward with the Mini-Grant process. In summer 2009, faculty applied for and launched Mini-Grants. This activity fulfilled goals and objectives proposed for Year One. The Mini-Grant process will continue in Year Two and which Seth will provide in detail the past year and what we have to look forward to next year. The Steering Council Meetings will continue as well. There will a lot of opportunity for Institutional change and for strengthening our gatekeeper courses with the help of faculty. Many wonderful ideas and lots of creativity are being generated with the grant. She is also excited about the Student Cohort selected and being mentored. This is an exciting piece to monitor and focus on the retention and success of these students. This might help us to create more cohorts to help and guide through the system. A lot has been accomplished along with new initiatives and ideas that Seth will share.

1. IMPLEMENTATION UPDATE

3. Implementation Overview

Seth provided an overview of the Title V Grant. Valerie Hernandez and Sandra Wells will speak about two major goals of the grant: persistence and retention by developing instructional materials and the development of a cohort of STEMstudents facilitating their academic and career planning process. The goals and objectives written into the grant are interrelated. The guiding principles which apply to all the grant goals and objectives are first, the Title V grantassists Hispanic Serving Institutions to further Hispanic attainment by improving program quality or enhancing the academic offerings or developing institutional stability, this is kept at the forefront in efforts and apply it to the activities and activity objectives. If there is an existing initiative, the grant does not seek to replicate, or duplicate or compete with it. It seeks to enhance it or further it in some way. The only exception is the Mini Grant process where faculty are actually creating learning objectives, or modules or enhancements. They are going through a two part process wheretheydevelop the material in a templateformat and then they work on developing the content. So if the Math department has developed a high quality module, down the road other departments can use the tool developed on their own. We are making sure whatever is developed through Title V can be leveraged across the campus in different departments. If pieces of programs already in place Title V may be able to provide synergy or be the missing piece that makes something happen. Its another thing we are looking for in terms of how we are implementing what the grant directs us to do and the realties of campus and the landscape we are working with.There are also some good ideas that haven’t got off the ground, maybe because they are meant to be a campus wide effort. If Title V can provide traction in a pilot format or intitating something then that’s one way we are seeking to move forward intitiatives the campus has already embraces or is interested in doing and using the grant, funds and mission to give some force behind those which is another thing we are keeping in mind. We strive for innovation and transparency in the way we are implementing the grant.Also maximum engagement from the campus community with faculty, students and administrators. The initiatives and programmatic elements need to be evidence based and have assessments built into it. Whether it’s with the programs with students, or the curriculum we are looking to integrate assessments into all of those pieces.

Additional items that go across all of theimplementation activitiesis the grant is working diligently to coordinate and align with the core indicators the college is diligent with. In particular,retention and core academic success. The grant is supporting and aligning early alert efforts and supporting that in the different individual programs but also assisting in bringing them together and implement it at a college wide level.Also collaborating with success center and implementing a Success Coach model. The grant is seeking to further or support the core indicators in that regard. Also persistence and success in courses such as Early Alert or persistence and mentoring, the grant hasa primary aim of developing learning resources, online resources, enhancements and modules and this will be directly tied to looking at persistence in each of the gateway courses. In the grant , uses the term gatekeeper but faculty seem to be more comfortable with gateway which is the terms “gatekeeper” and “gateway” are being used interchangeably. Its’ those courses that are the high risk courses the grant is the subject of. There is also an initiative called the Academic Success Awareness Program. This is the one goal of the grant which is focused on persistence. Unlike the other activities of the grant that are tied to a course, ,section or department, this effort impacts the entire college and is focused on what the grant can do through this work group to impact persistence campus wide which supports the persistence core indicator.

Additionally, bringing faculty and departments together even though it’s not stated asa grant goal or objective. In the grant but implied throughout the grant is an agenda to bring faculty and departments together even in the development of modules.They were intended to be high quality interdisciplinary modules.In the first year of the grant there was a lot of work individually with myself and staff to find out what the individual departments s needed and wanted and what directions they wanted to go in with the grant understanding the grant was developed a couple years before it was funded. As we moved forward into the summer, several faculty did work cross disciplinary to develop modules that did meet the objective to create cross disciplinary learning modules. Going forward into year two, we are going to be integrating that even more in the formatof the professional development and the Mini-Grants there will be a lot of cross departmental collaborations built into the product itself so we are sure to meet nuanced agenda in the grant and to bring shift and change to the campus which is really the mission of the Title V grant to affect institutional change. Not to lead but facilitiate the process which is already underway.

Technology in education is last the cross cutting implementation activity. Through the grant, we are advancing technology in education in the gateway courses by developing online courses and hybrid courses and online and web-based learning enhancements and modules. The aim of the grant is to meet all three critiera for all the gateway courses. This is also an opportunity to bring faculty along and invest in faculty and staff and build that into the grants going forward. The exciting project of creating a learning community for faculty while they are meeting the learning objectives of the grant and developing the learning resources the grant, call for they can also learning new technologies and teaching each other and perhaps create an institutional shift in the community that develops as a result.

Working very closely with Tim Murphy and Technology Support Group provided the opportunity to talk at length about Innovations that are down the pipe. Title V wants to be as forward thinking as TSG is. We are staying close with TSG so that whatever we are developing is not only informed by the technology but is in alignment with what the college is doing and the direction it’s going in.

One thing that is special about this Title V grant is the mini grant funding is consistent in all five years of the grant. The money that is being used to incentivize and engage faculty in developing learning resources. It is fully funded all five years. Which provides a great opportunity for Faculty to keep innovating and coming up with new ideas and not be fearful the money is going to run out.

4.Curriculum and Assessment

Sandra provided a handout of the funded Mini-Grants. This was a busy summer from May through September. The call for mini-grants was sent out in late Spring 09 semester. Faculty worked through the summer and into September to complete their grants We had 14 mini grants funded. Of the 14, 4 were developing online courses and 1 a hybrid course. The first on the list, Biology Boot camp, was one of the grants that had many disciplines involved to help students who were entering the Gateway courses, to be able to write well and the technical side of understanding content. The counseling department, math, chemistry and biology department were part of the faculty who developed this concept. Which formed a seed for other ideas faculty had. It was very successful and faculty met the deadline even with time constraints. A few mini grants which could not be completed in one year were approved to work in phases with phase one being Summer 2009 and continuing on for phase two.

The success and number of faculty who worked on the mini-grants included approximately 25 STEM faculty. It was exciting and many exchanged ideas and provided examples of what has been done.

One of the faculty created math modules posted on youtube.com. Now several other faculty at other colleges within the District are using the videos for their students.

The 4 online courses that were developed will be the first courses of Phoenix College that will be assessed using the Quality Matters rubric and revised if necessary to meet the standards. The experience will be shared and used to determine how the grant can be better supported by CTLT.Many faculty worked directly with the Instructional Designer to develop the courses and to write and revise the mini-grant so that it met the criteria stated in the Title V grant.

We are looking forward to more wonderful mini-grant opportunities in Year Two. It was a very good year.

5. STEM Cohort and Program

Valerie discussed the STEM Cohort and objectives. The handout provided is an outline of what she will address.

Transistioning the students successfully to 4 year universities and addressing access and inciting interest in STEM Careers

Development of STEM Cohort.

Valerie was hired September 14, 2009 and in the interim other staff and faculty were hired to take care of certain things. Beverly Burns from Counseling interviewed and selected the cohort. An interim Math & Science Specialist was hired as well. She took care of a lot of the administrative duties involving paperwork and amassed different materieals. She started the database for internship opportunities and career tools.

The very last page of the handout is her report.

When Valerie came on board, the first thing she did was initiate contact with all theentire STEM Cohort. After several tries, she is happy to report having talked with all but three students. She has met with most of them to complete the intake interview and talk about career goals.

We had our first get together on October 27, 2009. This was the first opportunity the students had to meet each other and the rest of the Title V Staff.We didn’t just offer free lunch, there was a panel with students from the Ursa Majors Club. They addressed how to be successful as STEM students and encouraged the students to join Ursa Majors and be more connected to the campus..

An open house breakfast is scheduled for next month. Open house because it is a busy time and students are encouraged to attend whenever they can. We are going to address spring programming, what is scheduled and hear from the students about what they would like to see.

The events are important because it builds a sense of community in the cohort. Although it is not an explicit part of the grant, it does help accomplish the grant objectives with respect to retention and persistence specifically.

An area of concern is cohort numbers. 31 students were selected for the cohort. This met the objective for year one. We are behind for Year Two. Recruiting is going to be a constant activity to meet the cohort numbers in the grant.

We have some attrition. It had nothing to do with dissatisfaction of the program, it was due to illness, transferring to ASU and things of that nature.

Undergraduate Internships.

Of the 87% of students interviewed, a fair number are not interested in participating in internships next summer. Many would rather take summer courses.

Valerie will survey student to find out specifics from students regarding internships such as when is the best time to do an internship, how many hours per week would you want to go etc.

Valerie has discussed internships with several biology professors about the possibility placing students. The reality is there is a certain skill set that is needed that is not offered in the lab classes being offered at PC. They are not supposed to be offering the skills. At 4 year universities, students are provided the opportunity to work in a lab prior to their junior year. Valerie will be investigating what can be done to help students overcome the barrier. She will continue to speak to those in the STEM industry about internships because there are some with low entry skill level.

In terms of future plans, to increase cohort numbers, all the contacts and pending contact are listed. Athletics will be added to list because there is a large number of Kinesiology majors among the athletes.

We will continue to formalize the process of developing services for the STEM Cohort students.

Valerie will send out a weekly update and include relevant seminars, reminders for college deadlines.

One weekly e-mail is thought to be a better way to communicate with students than sending one a day. The e-mails will be archived.

We have two workshops confirmed for Spring 2010 semester. A statement of purpose workshop at the end of January and a scientist who will address the importance of communication skills. Valerie wants to address professional development for the students. We have covered the academic aspect but the soft skills should be covered as well. We are also considering other workshops listed in the handout. Student input will be sought to see what they may be interested in. TGen has offered to host a tour for our students. A time and date needs to be set. The development of a Fellowship also on the handout. The workshops are beneficial to students, an incentive to participate will be provided if they attend a certain amount of events. It will not be money in pocket, it will be money that will go towards an educational or professional development expense like the purchase of a STEM textbook. The precedent has been set. This is really common in the TRIO programs.

The internship portion of the website will be set up before the end of spring 2010 which will address expectations and resources.

The question was asked about materials to provide to students who may be successful in the program. There are brochures available that can be e-mailed.

Another question was asked about the number of students to add to the current cohort. We need 40 by the end of Year Two but want at least 50 to be safe.

Early alert is a part of the grant. The two community colleges listed on the handout have agreed to share their software with us. We are also looking at a commercial early alert system as well. The ASAP committee talked about the possibility of piloting this with the M initiative. The interim Math & Science Specialist did create a paper form.

Also, the ASAP minutes from the October meeting are a

Starfish Blackboard currently being used by EMCC.

Dr. Solley asked about how many students are currently in the program. 27 students are currently in the program. We need to recruit about 20 additional students to meet the total for Year Two.

6.Miscellaneous Activities

a. Budget

Carry over funds from Year One to Year Two are the result of the delay in hiring staff. The large amount of money in salary savings which will be reapplied to another project. Seth has been working diligently to discuss the best use of the funds which are an excess of $125,000. There a few feasible projects, but this will wait until the Instructional Technologist is hired as he/she will be integral in driving those projects forward. Once a decision has been made, Seth will share it with the group.