Forum Six:

Faculty and Staff Forum on Accreditation

April 19 , 2007

ASUN Alumni Room

Brainstorming Session 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.

Refreshments and Informal Gathering 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

Number of participants: 29

Description of forum: Forum to discuss Institutional Integrity

Forum topic: Standard Three – Students

Questions: What should we do differently?

What should be kept about the same?

Special challenges?

Session facilitators: Melisa Choroszy, Melisa Muehlberg, Heather Turk

Agenda

1. Purpose / Background – Eric Herzik

2. Summary of Major Findings So Far from the Accreditation Self Study as a whole (Erik Herzik and other chairs if present)

3. Summary of Standard 3 Process : Melisa Choroszy

4. Strengths: Heather Turk

5. Weaknesses/Challenges: Jessica Muehlberg

6. Major Recommendations: Melisa Choroszy

7. Comments and closing: Executive Team and Melisa

TALKING POINTS for STANDARD 3

Strengths

“Futures” focused thinking on the part of student services faculty and staff that anticipates student needs resulting in the proactive development and implementation of programs and services.
Student needs assessments resulting in achievements such as the building of the Joe Crowley Student Union, the doubling of the number of mental health counselors, and the allocation of one-half million dollars to merit based scholarships. Ability to incorporate assessment findings in a timely fashion to meet the needs of students as evidenced in the establishment of ACCESS, Living and Learning Communities, Millennium Persistence Program.
Students are involved in all levels of campus and system decision making. Strong commitment to shared governance, with several committees and/or advisory boards representing all constituencies.
Increasingly diverse student body.
Policies and procedures that are based on student learning and developmental models.
Faculty consultation teams that meet regularly to support at risk students through the coordination of services to meet student needs. Intrusive support programs such as ACCESS designed to positively impact a documented at risk population.
The Enrollment Management Team that monitors enrollment goals and progress toward goal attainment as well as identifying intervention strategies to preclude enrollment barriers. Implementation of Recruitment Plus enabling the merger of recruitment and admissions processing and communications as well as the tracking of students from prospect to applicant to student.
The establishment of scholarship policies guaranteeing a four-year renewal pending satisfactory progress each year. Objective and clearly communicated award criteria in the awarding of funds from the general scholarship fund.
Student Loan cohort default rate of 3.1%, lower than public four year institutions nationwide and the lowest cohort default rate in the state of Nevada.
Mandatory Freshmen Advising.
Strong, nationally recognized support for Title IX.

Challenges

Student services has a limited ability to meet student and faculty demand for enhanced web transactional services due to the limited technical capacity of the current student information system.
Systematic review of program and departmental mission statements.
Facilitating the transition to an extended hour campus starting with the opening of the JCSU and the Knowledge Center.
Student population growth increasing the demand for campus programs and services, requiring departments and programs to develop innovative ways to use limited resources. Growth of scope and size of programs outpacing growth of resources and program offerings.
Keeping abreast of changing technology and finding effective and diverse methods of disseminating important policy information to faculty and students in an era of print and e-mail overload.
Reducing the time to degree for all students, with an emphasis on transfer students.
Improving the college going rate in a state with a high drop out rate.
Improving the four, five and six year graduation rates of undergraduates.
Increasing the awareness of all faculty and staff of their critical importance in serving student recruitment.
Availability of non-restricted funding to increase merit and non-need based awards to qualified students.
Develop articulated diversity goals by ethnicity.
Locating all campus-wide academic support services in a central location for ease of use by students.
Increased collaboration within Student Services as well as academic units across the university.

Recommendations

Use new technologies to develop innovative methods of communicating campus policy, services, and news to students, faculty and staff.
Focus on integrative/collaborative methods to improve retention and graduation rates.
Identify campus services that would be necessary to support an ‘after hours’ campus community and provide necessary support for their extended functionality.
Align assessment practices with defined student benefit outcomes and/or student learning outcomes.
Develop and provide resources for unique, culturally sensitive recruitment and retention programs for underrepresented groups.
In conjunction with university wide efforts to identify its ever-changing role in Nevada higher education, student services must also look at redefining its purpose and role within the university system. As a result of such self-reflection, student services need to ensure that the right programs are located in an administrative structure that would maximize student success.
Student services needs to look at developing more collaborative/integrative programming within its own division, with the academic community at the university, and with constituent groups in the greater Northern Nevada community.
Student services needs to look beyond state funds to expand its programs by increasing its fundraising and grant writing activities.