Division Directors meeting:

September 2, 2014

Education Advisory Board:

We are members of this organization. As members, we can order reports and download reports off the database and/or order in hard copy. We participate in their research. If we participate, we get a report for the participation. We can also receive onsite presentations of the report. We get threecomplimentary reports per year. We highly encourage people to use this tool and membership to our advantage. Find one place to log in and go from there. SOU email address will alert them to our membership. This is not cheap. Encourage everyone to use and browse around the site. Lots of information concerning retention is available. There are free webinars in which to participate. They archive the webinars, and they are accessible for future viewing. We can ask for custom reports such as Math retention. There is a nominal fee for custom reports and if we exceed our complimentary reports.

Recruitment update: Lisa Garcia-Hanson

We are still busy with phone calls, giving away remission money, andgiving away housing money. We are up 5.8 percent over last year’s “new” enrollment numbers. All the work is paying off. All the available housing beds have been given. We are still down on overall enrollment. The gas pedal is still on full speed for enrollment. The focus has been to keep the momentum going during the full summer not just ROAR weeks.

  • Athletics: Matt Sayre: Roy asked if we could add 25 more athletes….we are up to 18 more “new” students. We are still working the lists.
  • Beautification of the campus. This is moving forward. We have new signs and new awnings being installed. Landscaping for the Visual Arts center has started which was from a donation.
  • Study Abroad numbers will be showing up as lower division of undergraduate studies. This is confusing because of where they show up in the reports. They are flagged as STAB: Study Abroad. These numbers are not counted as “heads” but as SCH.
  • Is there a bulleted list of what we have done as a “movement” for recruitment? Lisa has information and will put together a bullet list, as detailed as possible. Dan would like to share with his division people. People don’t realize how many areas are working hard to improve numbers. We need to spotlight people working hard and to encourage moving the numbers forward.
  • Donny Nickelson is doing 100 advising sessions with people. There are Mini ROAR’s both in Ashland and Medford along with many one-on-one advising sessions. Remind people, even though we are doing a great job, we still need to keep the momentum and numbers. Head count and FTE are two different things. The FTE rings the cash register. We are up on the funnel numbers but down on enrollments. More new students, but fewer returning and continuing.
  • Advanced Southern Credit expects 1000 students or 350 FTE. Last year’s numbers were flat to 2012. 2014 will be flat.

Advising:

We talk about this subject at each meeting, but what are we going to do about it? The task force came forward, yet what is our next step? We need a holistic campus-wide approach. Faculty Senate advising group did not meet at all last year. The enrollment management plan draft discusses the fact we need to systematize the advising. We have an enrollment council; need a coordinator which Lisa is offering. Lisa can bring think tanks together. Is our structure open to suggestion? Advising varies between disciplines. We need a set of standards using the FPAR/FPAP. We need measureable, knowable standards for advising. The programs are our best source. It’s the pre-program where the students get lost. We lose a lot of people who aren’t declared. We need to focus on the students in “limbo” from undeclared to declared.

Philosophically: When we say advising and retention is everyone’s job,how do we operationalize this? How do we go forward saying Advising is everyone’s job? Faculty see the majors and minors but not past that? “I spend all this time with the majors”, says the faculty. The Faculty needs to step in and help. Students are taking courses someone told them to take, which might not be the best advice. Walk through the decision with the student to find the major. Dumping it on professional advisors is not a good program.

One of the goals Lisa mentioned was the increase in the retention of the “undeclared” students. If we focus the advising goal on the undeclared student, we can wrap around that goal and it will give us a way to look at enrollment with a different view. Meeting students where they are, not where the programs are. A lot of our students are undeclared. The University of Texas article spoke to an operational plan, with structure, support, to meet the people where they are. Some programs do advising in an excellent way, but we can’t plug people in because we don’t have the framework. We talk, but we don’t talk to the students. Talk to the students that we have. Walk in and ask students. Plug in to some of the USEM people to get the basic information concerning what we need to change in advising.

Academic advising and Emotional counseling: We have Success at Southern with 2 advisors for 200 students. We all have ideas, but what about the framework or doorways between the rooms. Students have changed a lot over the years. Faculty need training for advising. Continued education for advisors is very important. Jane Reeder has offered training. We have to be careful with faculty counseling people for inappropriate things. When do they send them to SOUCares.

Undeclared should be the focus. Jody will put together a couple of folks in this group to increase the retention of the undeclared. Scott Rex is willing to help.

  • We need propaganda for advising undeclared students. 18-20 year olds hand holding is not bad with freshman. Teaching freshman how to turn around a negative message from their instructor to a goal rather than having them become discouraged.
  • Get rid of the “pre” programs. See if the departments really need “pre”.
  • Final report form task force, academic support evaluating the faculty of how the students feel faculty are evaluating. The students would be surveyed over the advising.
  • Do we need to set up the expectations for each department for advising? Advising from quantitative to qualitative. Some students are more needy than others. We need the freedom to check in on email or in person. We need the framework, so we can solve the problems.

Starting framework: Advising sub-committee…don’t toss out yet. Undeclared and Freshmen should be a great starting point.

  • Peer advising: we need.
  • Demoralizing SOU Cares, make it a positive thing.
  • Thinking outside the box, 200 students with parallel course for 30-person class did much better. Delivery and class was same, but more interaction.
  • Create two channels: one academic and one social-emotional. Messaging is the important part. Not to stigmatize it…it’s the analytics is against them. Jeff in the library is happy to join. (Lisa-Scott-Athletics-Jeff-Jody) to meet this week.
  • Thursday the 11th: Nuts and bolts meeting to check in where people are.
  • Information:
  • Early warning piece: Civitas, very different predictive analytics. Very expensive and time expensive.
  • “Campus labs” did a presentation on the Student Affairs side and showed accreditation and how co-curricular activities help with retention. What problem are we trying to solve? Getting tools? An hour presentation would be good. There are three or four analytic products that are $100,000 cost. Hobson connect and retain, which is an early warning interface. ETS has a survey for students. Asks questions to the students that will predict their ability. Hart and Cora need to be part of the discussion. Buddy-up, social media for students to work together to study.
  • We could invest the cost to use the data but do we have the will to use the data. Problem: Retention If we buy something and only 20 faculty members are using it, we are not solving the problem. We are not convinced yet whether we need or will use.
  • We need to follow through with the programs we have in place. Track the system. Leverage what we have.

Question: Where is the data? The faculty wants the data behind the initiatives. It would help if we became proactive with enrollment and not reactive. We all have first generation students, low income, drilling down to division level, but we need to confront the problem institutionally.

Approach with an RFP with each department with more specifics. Implement programs that are models. What if we do both? To get faculty buy in.

I have faculty who say “I know which students are not going to succeed. What can I do?” What if we have speakers brought onto campus to do instructional lectures with discussion groups. Like a “brown bag series”. Should we have our instruction be more specific for each division?

Proposals for the “Student Success” Moneywill be coming from across campus. The students will also have a seat at the table, not just the divisions. Lisa will be scheduling the class. Chris Stanek will be putting together the banner piece. What can we do now and in the future?

Catalog Changes: more flexible. We met with Penny and followed up with Matt and Katrina. We found that deadlines are key to catalog changes. For any new degree programs, these will need to be approved by Faculty Senate by December 1 in order to go through the additional approval steps by the end of spring term 2015. For other curricular changes, these must be substantially approved by early in winter term; Katrina’s deadlines for courses are in February. We roughed out a schedule. During the Fall retreats, we need to encourage coordinators to come out with catalog changes over the summer, and come back in the fall with expectations. New programs (including degrees, minors, and certificates) need to be submitted during the summer. Changes to Majorsand courses need to be submitted by October.

Take the existing form like the Irregular registration form with its drop down menu and fillable fields and apply it to Catalog change submissions. The Google doc feeds information. We need a common form. Each submission is different currently. Streamline the process. We need to take it early in the fall to the Faculty Senate. We need to go back to an October deadline. Banner needs certain deadlines. If the step’s Penny must take are easier, than Katrina’s steps will be easier. Fall retreat should be for FINALIZATION of curriculum not starting the conversation. Standardizing the information is critical.

Five day a week schedule: Struggling to meet everyone’s needs. We are “nibbling” around the edges.What is the problem we are trying to solve? Will it change our enrollment negatively going 3 days a week? Should we survey the students? Matt Sayre: 18 year olds are bored, so they visit other colleges and see the activity, and are lured away from our campus. They talk about not enough life on the weekends. When you go home on Thursdays, you will stay home. Danielle has lots to offer on the weekend and very few people show up. It’s a chicken and egg situation. If we go to a full Friday class schedule, will Athletes miss with some frequency? With Moodle it’s easier, this is not an issue.

What if we go to semesters? Cost of conversion to Semesters. With the split of OUSthis might be the time to strike. Cost comes to re-writing the curriculum by the faculty. Some students will bail when you convert. Fewer places for students to jump in and jump out. Current board will not be receptive. New board might be open. The Legislators are pro-semesters. Most colleges (85%) are semester. Group that met will need to get together and determine a two-year timeline. Roll out the concept by January. Go through Senate this spring. Short term and Long term benchmarks.

What if we are asked to schedule for Friday as of next Fall? We need to have a plan and say “this is what was considered, andwe propose this . . .” What do we do to get the faculty on board with the change? We can do this, but what are the ramifications? All or nothing? People have valid input that is not just faculty opinion. Look at one- and two-credit classes. Increase the 5-week classes having them focus on Fridays. Take the students off campus on Fridays for house experiences etc. Purposeful day but not completely upset the applecart. New message “This is coming”. This is not a war. We need goals and benchmarks. Each division needs to have so many classes on Fridays. Each division should create 10 one and two credit classes…..or modify existing classes. What about student needs? Make the menu wider. Commitment by the divisions to bring up goals for and commitment to 1 and 2 credit classes. Create these classes…as a goal. Lisa will talk to Donny about students’ feelings about this change. Low enrolled classes, toss together a 199 or 399 class. Focus on making/designing seminars with marketable titles. We don’t want to bleed our students out of needed classes. Take the heavy enrolled class with the wait list and design those classes to include Friday.

Parts of Term (POT). We already have 9 parts in Summer. Can we waive the late fee moving these POT classes into the academic year? Lisa: “they won’t get a refund but we can waive the late fee.” Let students know during advising that it’s an opportunity to take these POT classes.

Goal for Divisions: Testing the waters.

Prepare a two year plan with the things we can do to convert to a 5 day a week campus:

  • Soon
  • In 6 months
  • Within two years for conversion.

The goal is to make some of the two day courses to three days. Engage our students all 7 days. Increase the 1 and 2 credit classes. Friday should not be the “weird” day. Not the day that you are “kept after”. The ambassadors need to be retrained on this.

Other news:

  • Sunday Oct 6th: Robin Williams Film Festival. 4 films with discussions on depression and improvisation. Victor Chang involved.
  • Ashland September book festival 9/20.
  • Big games this weekend. Will be a like a cage match-arena bowl since it will happen at Ashland High. The new football field is still under construction.
  • Working to make the November homecoming more of a football and community event.
  • Schneider Children Center open enrollment has started, infant and toddler numbers are up.