Academic Council Minutes
November 13, 2003
Present: Faye Vowell, Duane Elms, Barbara Taylor, Ernie Noack for Jerry Harmon, Michelle Behr, Cynthia Bettison, Virginia Huegel for Bertha Benavidez, Ed Hall, Donna Rees, Ken Ladner, Lloyd Cowling, Marcia Bourdette, Linda Baldwin, Michael Metcalf, Jennifer Halleran, Gwen Cassel.
1. Site Visit by QNM--Kathie Gilbert--QNM examiners will be here Monday and Tuesday, November 17 and 18. The lead examiner is quality manager at Intel. The team consists of 8 people, 6 of whom actually read our application. Of the other two--one is a judge and one is an award administrator. They have sent us a list of 27 areas that they will want to question us on. We are arranging meetings with groups of people who can respond to the various questions. There will be two teams working simultaneously with 2 or 3 people on each team. The team will be verifying and clarifying the things we wrote in our report. The team will also be walking around campus and visiting with people. Dr. Vowell suggested that they chairs pull out departmental goals for this year to refer to. Dr. Gilbert advised that it would be fine to ask the team questions for clarification and that it would be acceptable to educate the team on some of our processes. Some areas have been identified as needing department chair input because of hands-on experience with some of the faculty and student processes: faculty performance management and communicating with students are examples.
Meeting times: Opening session at 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning in the GRC auditorium.The team has identified 12 time slots for each day--6 with one team and 6 with the other team. There will also be 12 time slots on Tuesday. There will be an outbrief at the end with Dr. Counts and the vice presidents. The 8:00 a.m. meeting is open to everyone, but Dr.Counts wants all Directors to attend. Dr. Vowell asked that those attending the early session wear clothing that identifies them with WNMU.
Dr. Gilbert has identified the 27 areas in which questions will be focused. A lead person has been assigned along with other WNMU employees. Academic Affairs has 7 areas. Dr. Vowell will e-mail the Agenda Matrix by Responsible Party for Site Visit 2003.
There will be a Cabinet meeting Friday morning at 8:30 at GRC auditorium. People whose names are on the Agenda Matrix should attend a 1:00 p.m. meeting tomorrow in Rooms A, B, and C in the GRC.
The team will be housed in the SIGRED conference room in the GRC. Hunter Hall will be staffed Monday and Tuesday for debriefing and refreshments. Dr. Gilbert asked that all employees who speak with the team stop by the debriefing room in Hunter Hall and tell us the type of questions asked in their meeting.
The AQIP Systems Portfolio was to be launched this month. This systems portfolio will benefit greatly from the QNM application. These are strongly linked processes--QNM report done partly to get ready for AQIP Systems Portfolio.
2. NSSE Results--Barbara Taylor--Passed out Institutional Benchmark Report for 2002 and 2003. The purpose of NSSE is to provide data to colleges and universities to improve undergraduate service, some states are requiring this information, can be used for accreditation, and to provide benchmarks about teaching and learning. The data sources are first year and senior students. At WNMU we have almost every student included. The response rate for national is 43%. Our response rate in 2003 was 33% and in 2002 was 41%.
There are five areas in the report.
How can we use these results? The Academic Council questioned the usefulness of the data because the respondents were not chosen randomly and the response rate was relatively low. This issue was not resolved and will need to be addressed again.
How are other institutions using these results? Some accreditation reports are organized around this data. One institution is posting a student tip of the week; others are integrating into institutional policy and planning; fundraising; involved students in interpreting data and asked for suggestions for improvement.
These areas of student engagement grow out of the best practices literature. They are a way to measure how best practices are being used on this campus.
3. Building Engagement and Attainment of Minority Students (BEAMS project)--Currently have a team composed of Assessment Committee faculty, and administrators and wils come up with a plan to address some of these issues. This summer, the team will go to AAHE institute to work on a plan and interact with other similar institutions to share ideas.
Meeting adjourned at 3:25 p.m.