BB 1 Commitment to Mission M. Crafton
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal:
Certainly the President and VPAA, but everyone one in a leadership position as
well.
- Percentage of Completion:
Maybe 75%—BB more than VG
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):
Goal is A
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
In one sense this has to be measured by the success of all the other
goals; did we meet our goals, successful commitment; did we not, not so
good.
The intent is I am sure good, but the action is not. The fact that most
people walking around campus do not know the strategic plan of the
institution may be an indication that the leadership either did not
adequately communication or that goals are not workable.
There was of course an
historic context for this goal—at the time of the last committee’s work, there
were public disagreements among some of the university leadership, and at least
implied statements that general university directions applicable to some units
need not be applied to others. And perhaps the language choices might be
reviewed—but it would seem that once we move forward with the current plan,
there should be some kind of stated agreement that its implementation will be a
collective university task.
While the lack of shared
understanding for the full range of bread and butter goals across campus may be
evidence of a limitation of this goal, I would urge that we use that evidence
of the need for greater reinforcement and clearly data gathering on those goals
emerging from the current planning process.
BB 2 Enrollment
Management Bobby Johnson
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal:
The Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management, Dr. Scot Lingrell,
oversees the enrollment management process. The Office of Admissions,
largely responsible for achieving the “Recruitment” Bread and Butter
Goals, reports to Dr. Lingrell. Successful Enrollment Management models
require a synergy and collaboration throughout the University, with “buy
in” beginning with University leadership.
- Percentage of Completion:
Enrollment management is a comprehensive process designed to achieve and
maintain optimum recruitment, retention and graduation rates of students.
“Optimum” is defined by the University. As such, it is never a finite
process but an ongoing one.
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):
These goals are adequate.
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
A. “Improve the reputation of UWG among high school counselors, teachers and
college bound students.” Admissions staff interact with counselors on a
regular basis to speak with students, respond to questions and to organize
campus visitation from high school groups. Admissions staff attends a
number of state-wide high school counselor workshops annually. Recently,
the admissions staff have conducted several counselor phone surveys about
perceptions of UWG,
organized three focus groups of high school students and counselors to
critique web site, and held five counselor events in 2005 in a five county
market area to discuss standard, progress, initiatives, changes and
concerns. One was held on the UWG campus and hosted by President Sethna.
B. “Develop focused recruitment plans aimed at qualified and diverse high
school students.” Regarding the recruitment of qualified students, the
Admissions Office purchases names of high ability students annually and
recruits them through targeted mailings, email and other communications.
Fall Preview Days have a component designed for high ability students, who
receive a special invitation to attend. Enrollment targets have been
established for high ability students in a five county metro area of Atlanta. High
ability students are targeted for Goal Quest interaction. UWG held its
first ever Scholarship Day competition in February 2007.
Regarding diversity, names of multicultural students are purchased
annually and are recruited through targeted mailings, email and other
communications. An annual Multicultural Enrichment Program (MEP) is held
to recruit multicultural high school students. A scholarship program was
established to recruit Hispanic students. Selected out-of-state areas have
been targeted to increase geographic diversity.
C. “Build stronger ties and articulation agreements with the two-year
colleges of the University System of Georgia (USG) and the technical
colleges of the Department of Technical and Adult Education (DTAE).”
Admissions staff recruit at all junior colleges annually and target the
best feeder colleges for additional recruitment initiatives. Over the
years, The Honors College has had articulation agreements with several
two-year colleges. Currently, discussions between UWG and Georgia Perimeter
College are taking
place regarding a guaranteed transition plan.
BB 3 Academic Programs
Michael Aldrich
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal:
Academic Departments, Colleges, VPAA, Gen Ed Committee
- Percentage of Completion:
We have theoretically completed one cycle of program review, so all
programs (except new ones) should have gone through this process. However,
that does not address all the subheadings under this goal. Overall, I
would say about 65 – 70%
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):
The overarching goal is A, but we need to reexamine all the subgoals and
determine if that is how this goal should be measured.
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
This goal should be the core of our planning – to a large degree a
university is defined by its academic programming. We need to improve our
assessment of our offerings through program review and other methods, and
we need to be willing to make the changes that those assessments reveal –
strengthening programs and even deleting programs as necessary. We need to
better match up our academic priorities with our budgetary priorities and
resource allocation. We have tried for a while to be all things to all
people academically (hence the desire for accreditation in every program
where accreditation exists) instead of focusing on who we are and building
upon our strengths. We have increased focus on faculty-directed student
research and other activities. We must determine what we want our students
to get out of general education and reestablish the core as the basic
knowledge needed to function in upper division classes and life beyond the
university.
BB 4 Public Relations
Lisa Ledbetter
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal:
While marketing the university requires campus-wide effort, the primary
areas responsible include University Communications and Marketing,
Development and Alumni Relations, Admissions, Enrollment Management, and
Publications and Printing.
Percentage of Completion
This is difficult to state because the scope of the work was shifted from
focusing on the visionary goals to marketing the institution as a whole.
Marketing the institution will never be a “completed” activity.
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete): NC
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
Based on the strategies and tactics identified in the integrated marketing
plan, approximately 80 percent of the recommended activities have been
implemented. The marketing plan can be viewed at:
http://www.westga.edu/~ucm/marketing.html
BB 5 University Experience
Tom Gainey
Randy Hendrix was kind
enough to forward me a couple of reports from the Division of Student Services
that address some of the issues in B&B #5 and I have attached them to this
e-mail. One report appears to have been written in late 2000 and has 14 basic
recommendations. The second report (from August 2006) gives a progress report
on these recommendations.
It seems to me that the
Division of Student Services is primarily responsible for B&B #5, that
about 60% (very rough estimate) of the goal has been met to some degree, and
that we need to continue to have a goal related to this issue.
Some of the highlights in
this report that support B&B #5 are as follows:
• Campus Center opening
in August 2006
• Lights on an intramural field
• Establishment of the AirTran Call Center (good way to keep students around
town on weekends)
• The Latino Cultural Society was created, the Black Cultural Resource Center
was re-opened, a Black Greek Task Force was appointed, and Dr. Jack Jenkins has
been appointed as Special Associate to the President for Minority Affairs
Some plans appear to have
been push out because of budget constraints. However, it appears that some real
progress was made on this goal and that the work should continue.
Tom
BB 6 Student, Fac, Staff
Morale Randy Hendricks
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal:
Conceivably everybody.
Logically the VPs of Academic Affairs, Student Services, and Business and
Finance and the Faculty Senate
- Percentage of Completion: ?
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):
NC
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
Presumably some progress has been made in the specific areas outlined
under this goal. But the goal, at least at a glance, does not seem to
drive university-wide assessment. There is, for example, evidence that we
have moved to define workload and promotion and tenure policies more
thoroughly in such documents as the amended College
of Arts and Sciences bylaws, and
presumably in similar documents in the RCOB and the College of Education
as well as annual reports and program reviews. But the Annual Reports of
Institutional Progress in recent years, while they address the Bread and
Butter Goals in Section B, don’t seem to address the specific steps we
said we would take under this goal. I’ll list those steps here:
a) Develop policies that
address student and faculty concerns about class size to ensure that UWG can offer each
student educational excellence in a personal environment.
b) Develop clearer faculty workload, promotion, and tenure policies that are
consistent with the University mission.
c) Review staff workload, promotion, and compensation policies.
d) Promote faculty governance through the Faculty Senate and its committees [I
should note here that the Faculty Senate has just elected a Chair Pro Tem and
established an Ad Hoc Rules Committee to investigate possible changes in our
approach to faculty governance].
e) Develop procedures for assessing and improving campus services for students.
With more time we might
glean from the kinds of reports mentioned above that we have in fact made
progress in steps a-e, but shouldn’t we have a report structure at every level
that is controlled in some measure by our explicitly stated goals so that we
don’t have to glean every five years? We should know whether we have done the
things we said we would do and know it at the University level? Maybe I just
haven’t found the source during this week.
In addition to the
concerns addressed in the original document, ongoing discussions suggest we
might need to commit ourselves to some new goals concerning campus climate and
morale, including
a. improving academic
culture
b. addressing faculty concerns about summer school structure
c. addressing concerns about salary compression
d. addressing concerns about perceived inequities in funding departments in
areas such as library allocations, operating budgets, and support for research
and travel.
BB 7 External Relations
Frank Pritchett
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal:University
Communications and Marketing, with assistance from a wide-range of offices
across campus (it should be a goal of the entire campus to improve and
strengthen external relations).
- Percentage of Completion:60 percent
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):NC
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
- Alumni are more engaged today than ever before. Since 2000, a number
of academic units have engaged alumni for reunion activities, and alumni
have been invited back to campus as guest speakers and lecturers. These
activities should be encouraged to continue. Visitation Days are
advertised in the alumni magazine, as well in the electronic newsletter,
encouraging alumni to participate in the recruitment process.
- Alumni giving has increased to about 10 percent (the national average
for institutions similar to UWG is 14 percent). Donor research has begun and is
having a positive impact on alumni giving. Regional alumni receptions (On
the Road with UWG)
have expanded with several out-of-state events, and more strategic
emphasis on in-state locations; The electronic newsletter (Red and Blue
Banner) was improved and the distribution has increased from approximately
5,000 to 15,000 alumni and friends; the National Alumni Association has embarked
on external academic activities through the Education. Go Get It! program,
which targets local seventh graders whose parents have no college
background (goal is to encourage first generational college graduates)
- Efforts to improve/strengthen the town/gown relationship have been
positive. The university has representation on external groups such as
Carroll Tomorrow committees. Town Hall meetings were introduced to provide
a tool to improve communication between UWG and the community about a
variety of issues; A sense of volunteerism has expanded through offices
such as Student Activities and Career Services (Little Tallapoosa River
Cleanup was part of the fall Centennial Celebration); Service Learning has
become more integrated into the campus culture.
The Centennial Celebration included a number of events that targeted
involvement and support from the community. The Community Picnic was
successful and attracted a number of “new faces” to campus and the Gala
attracted more than 400.
- Content in alumni publications (Perspective, Red and Blue Banner) has
been strengthened with more emphasis on academic programs, impact of
giving on teaching and learning, with stories that explore service
(through the institution as well as in communities outside of Carrollton).
- The Alumni Office has worked with MAP to establish a minority
student-alumni mentoring program. Efforts to expand mentoring continue
with other areas on campus.
BB 8 Regional
Collaboration Daniel Jackson Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal:
Percentage of Completion:
Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):
General Assessment of Goal and
Program Made:
Assesment: A+
1.The UWG staff has been engaged in this effort from top
executive staff to students and all in between.
2.UWG facilities are frequently used
by community stakeholders for economic development activities and community
meetings.
3.UWG equipment is also made
available such as projection equipment and busses to CT / Chamber.
4.UWG includes CT / Chamber staff and other community leaders on
important UWG committees and boards.
5.UWG offers many programs,
presentations, and activities to the community that support these goals.
6.UWG administration and faculty are
heavily engaged in ED (economic
development) and community development acitivies.
7.UWG has actively helped with
industrial recruitment and other ED initiaitives such as the Nana Business Alliance. The list is
extensive of actual examples to support the role of ED and community devlopment
by UWG.
A summary list to detail these points
is being assembled.
New ideas or works in progress:
1.Master plan for enhancement of Maple Street
Corridor
2.Nano lab
3.Focus on entrepreneur activities
4.Closer relationship between UWG and the Burson
Center
BB 9 Information Technology
Kathy Kral
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving
Goal:Academic departments, ITS
& other IT
support units, Distance Learning, Business & Finance, Student
Services.
- Percentage of Completion: Certainly progress has been made. We have
implemented
or adopted several new enterprise applications in the last few years
(GoalQuest, WebCT Vista, eApps, myUWG, R25). Several departments have
explored the use of personal response systems and other technology in the
classroom to improve teaching and learning. But the extent of progress on
this goal is difficult to determine.
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):NC
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made: The goal itself is
probably still valid today. But the goal is not easily measurable as
stated, and may need to be rewritten in such a way that it can be
assessed. Perhaps it could include specific areas of improvement,
such as the implementation of an executive decision support system, or
increased use of the learning management system & on-line resources,
or
increased customer support and training to maximize our ROI on our current
and future technology investments. Or, the specific areas could tie back
to other goals – like leveraging technology to improve RPG.
Do we want to do more
than “employ appropriate technology”?
BB 10 Campus
Infrastructure Mike Renfrow
A. Allocate adequate
resources to building maintenance: mechanical systems, roofs, carpeting, paint,
etc.
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal:Assistant Vice
President for Campus Planning and Facilities
- Percentage of Completion: Plans implemented annually.
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):
A-Adequate
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
The department of Campus Planning and Facilities has worked hard to ensure
we are efficient with the dollars allocated for maintaining buildings,
mechanical systems, roofs, carpeting, paint, etc. While the case could be
made for greater need of resources, we feel that MRR dollars and new square
footage monies have been allocated sufficiently to supplement our
operational dollars in support of maintenance of existing buildings and
infrastructure. Preventative maintenance schedules and energy conservation
initiatives have placed CP&F in a better position to persevere during
these trying economic times. Priority lists for roof replacement, carpet,
and paint are maintained and scheduled annually. Energy cost and rising
cost of goods and services continue to provide cause for future concern.
B.
Develop a comprehensive strategy for requesting and scheduling maintenance.
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving
Goal:Assistant Vice President of Campus Planning and Facilities
- Percentage of Completion: Plans implemented annually.
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change,
D—Delete):A-Adequate
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
A maintenance management system has been in place for eight years that
allows access for all campus constituents to request maintenance needs.
This system allows our staff to plan, schedule and organize work on a
daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis. Since January 2nd of this year,
all residence hall students have been allowed to send in a request for
their individual rooms on campus. Over 20,000 work requests will be
received during this fiscal year and the status of completion, material
cost, labor, and location are documented for daily management review. A
customer survey is sent out for every completed work order that allows us
to address any problems the client may have with any aspect of the work
completed.
C.
Develop adequate budgets for computing and networking technology.
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal:ITS
Department
- Percentage of Completion: ?
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):NC- Needs change
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
ITS budget
is not keeping up with increasing maintenance costs.
The ITS
budget is less than it was 5 years ago but costs have increased
substantially. The main reason for the decrease was loss of ETAC funding – ITS budget is
covering most infrastructure spending.
D.
Treat replacement of computers and networking equipment as recurring budget
items rather than as one-time capital expenditures.
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal:ITS
Department
- Percentage of Completion: This goal is needed but not in practice at
this time.
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change,
D—Delete):NC-Needs Change
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
Much of the cost that was born by the distributed units and ITS has shifted
to Technology fees and end-of-year spending. Much of the equipment in the
machine room is aging (email systems are 5 years old – same with the web
servers, not to mention a host of other key systems). Much of this was
funding by ETAC
in the past.
E. Explore ways to
improve student housing to compete effectively with UWG’s peer institutions.
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal:Vice President for
Business and Finance and Vice President for Student Services
- Percentage of Completion: Progress has been made; approx. 1200 new
beds have been added over last 4 years.
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change,
D—Delete):A-Adequate
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made: University Suites and
Arbor View Apartments have created great living spaces for our students.
These two complexes allow UWG
to compete with our peer institutions. In addition, the University is
evaluating and exploring the need for a Greek village. Also, the
University is evaluating the current residence halls in an effort to
provide the best housing scenarios available to attract students.
BB 11 Capital Campaign
Frank Pritchett
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving
Goal:Division of University Advancement, specifically the Office of
Development and Alumni Relations
- Percentage of Completion:?
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):NC
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
- The stadium campaign is the first CAPITAL campaign in the history
of the university. It has a goal of $10M. It was officially started in
July 2005. To date, $3.5M has been raised. The plan for a COMPREHENSIVE
capital campaign has taken a back seat because of a need to pursue this
campaign (issues with long-term use of Grisham Stadium).
- Additionally, steps have been taken to prepare the university for a
comprehensive campaign. The term COMPREHENSIVE is the more appropriate term and is
what the drafters of the last strategic plan likely had in mind. It is
comprehensive in that it addresses facilities, scholarship support,
faculty support, and other programming dollars for the institution. This
campaign will have goals for both increasing the endowment of the
university (gifts in perpetuity) and for gifts of outright support as well
as planned gifts.
- The pool of donors was screened through a prospect screening service
in early 2006 to evaluate the capacity for giving amongst the university’s
alumni, friends, and donors population. The next step in terms of
evaluating the donor pool will be conducting a feasibility study with this
audience. However, the range of naming opportunities and programmatic
initiatives needs to be developed and confirmed internally first.
- A listing of naming opportunities and projects for funding is
presently being developed.
- In early 2005, a planned giving program was officially established to
begin working on formally securing gifts that will be received at a later
date. This was one of the basic structural components of a comprehensive
development operation that West Georgia had
been missing. Additionally, a corporate and foundations relations program
has also been put in place. Both of these programs have room to grow and
the two current staff members who have these responsibilities also work
with other areas of the university.
- In early 2007, the on-line giving program for the university was
implemented. The next steps with this will be the creation of college
specific giving websites.
- Between 2004 and now, the donor relations and stewardship program has
been significantly improved. Past donors are most often the best
candidates for future donations. Significant efforts have been made to
improve the relationships with former and current donors including
communications improvements. A DAY materials have been overhauled to be more
reflective of the reasons for support (students, faculty activities),
Perspective and Developments have been converted into four-color
magazines, and the Honor Roll of Donors and Annual Report of the UWG Foundation
is now a separate four-color publication. The Development and Alumni
Relations website has received a significant overhaul, and donor
stewardship events have been upgraded. Finally, a formal donor recognition
wall has been installed to recognize those donors who have made
contributions of $10K or more in the course of their lifetimes. Lastly,
the $10K and above lifetime donor audience is also now receiving special
communication from the president on the university on a semi-annual basis.
- The Alumni Relations program has also begun to develop a number of out
of state alumni activities which are designed to thank past donors,
identify new supports, and further engage other alumni in the life of the
university. In addition to being more present in Atlanta and throughout
the state, through the work of the UWG Legislative Advocates and
the On The Road program, alumni events have been coordinated in Los
Angeles and Washington, DC within the last two years and will also be
coordinated in Florida and Kentucky during the current calendar year.
Our challenges which
remain ahead in terms of the implementation of a capital campaign include:
- Determining where the resources will come for the additional staff
that will need to be hired and for the production of campaign materials
(case statements, brochures, solicitation and stewardship mailings). The
general rule for financing a campaign is that one should expect to spend
at least the equivalent of 5-7% campaign goal on the course of a campaign.
If our campaign goal would be $30M, this means $1.5M or $300K more a year
on development activities than is presently being spent.
- The volunteer corps for a campaign will need to come from a wide range
of individuals with wealth. The current foundation board is not the only
group from which a campaign committee will need to be formed.
NOTE: On face value, we are not running the campaign that was referenced in
this goal. We are running a $10M capital campaign specifically for a stadium in
addition to running our annual effort to raise about $2.5 M for the institution
annually. Until the university or the foundation trustees makes a decision that
it is willing to significantly increase the support for development initiatives
(new staff, travel dollars, etc.), our fund-raising capacity is not likely to
be expanded. Our next logical intermediate goal is to run a simultaneous
capital campaign for a library expansion and a mini-campaign for scholarship
support. We can likely do these with modest additionally university support (as
opposed to full campaign funding – perhaps on $150-$200K more a year rather
than $300-$400K more a year).
However, until we add new
staff (probably more important than operating dollars in reality), we are not
going to grow the fund-raising effort because of the fact that fund-raising is
a highly personnel intensive operation. It takes individuals to go out and sit
in front of select individuals and ask for money. We have two bread and butter
fund-raisers presently (Erin and Ernie) and they too have administrative
responsibilities which sometimes keeps them from being with donors. The same
thing applies in athletics – our fund-raising personnel there have other
responsibilities too. Dr. Andy Leavitt, Dr. Tara Singer and Frank Pritchett
have primarily administrative responsibilities and will clearly continue to do
so. We need two more road warriors.
In summary, this goal NEEDS CHANGE. It
should be changed to indicate running a series of mini-campaigns for specific
facilities and programmatic initiatives.
VG 1 UG Research and Professional Jeff
Reber
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal:
1. Individual Faculty: Collaboration with students on theoretical or
applied research; supervision of student research, independent studies,
and internships; Provide structure for reflection on “real world” experience;
provide guidance for academic competition like debate tournaments and
investment management contests.
2. Academic departments: “participate in the achievement of this goal”
3. Center for Student Research and Professional Activity: “The home unit
responsible for this goal”.
4. Career Services: Administration of the Student Research/Project
Assistant Program (SRAP), Internship and Co-op services.
5. Honors College: Georgia and National
Collegiate Honors Council Conference.
6. Graduate School: Celebration of Graduate
Student Research
- Percentage of Completion: Most of this work is done by individual
faculty who may or may not report it to their departments. The center for
student research and professional activity does not exist and so there
does not seem to be any overall assessment of our progress on these goals
as described in the visionary goals document.
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):
The assessment of the goal needs change in that it is broadened to include
assessment of activities and programs sponsored by departments, colleges,
and other university agencies (e.g., career services) that support student
scholarship.
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
Though there is not a direct overall measure of this goal, there are a
number of indirect measures that indicate an active and growing faculty
directed student research effort. Now in its 9th year Big Night continues
to be the student scholarship centerpiece on campus and has spawned a
number of other events celebrating student scholarship, including Research
Day, which is in its 2nd year, and the Celebration of Graduate Student
Research, which is in its 4th year. Several departments host their own
student research conferences where students can present their research as
they would at professional conferences (e.g., Students Psychology Annual
Research Conference (SPARC)) and at least one department publishes student
writing in a student produced journal (the Eclectic). The honors college
supports the student debate team and has a strong record of student
presentations at Collegiate Honors Council Conferences. Career Services
sponsors the Student Research/Project Assistance program and facilitates
student internship and co-op opportunities. Many graduate students work
alongside faculty on either faculty supervised or collaborative projects
as research assistants. Faculty research grants can also be an indirect
source of financial support to student researchers.
The chief concern with this goal is assessment. Although there is a good
deal of indirect and anecdotal evidence of faculty supported student
research we lack an an ongoing process of reporting it. The center for
student research and professional activity, were it to exist, could gather
much of the needed data to assess the progress of this goal from
individual faculty CVs, annual evaluations, and promotion and tenure
dossiers, as well as department’s program review documents. Another
concern with the goal is the lack of specificity. For example, stating that
departments can “participate in the achievement of this goal” is far too
vague.
VG 2 Honors & Adv Academy
Camilla Gant
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal: Honors College
- Percentage of Completion: 90% – 100%
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):
Adequate
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
Overview
The Honors
College is one of fewer than 50 such
colleges in the U.S.
Its mission is to attract and to retain academically well-prepared and
intellectually gifted undergraduates. The College provides an enhanced and
supportive learning environment for its students, and offers small,
interdisciplinary, and research-centered courses. Nearly 25 Honors courses are
offered this semester. Five of the last seven years, Honors students have had
more research proposals accepted for presentation at the annual National
Collegiate Honors Council than any other institution in the nation. They also
regularly present at the Georgia Collegiate Honors Conference and West Georgia’s Research Day and Big Night. Moreover, a
number of Honors students are admitted and awarded scholarships to graduate and
professional schools of their choices
The Advanced
Academy, which is a residential, early
college entrance program for gifted and talented high school students, is
housed in the Honors
College. The Academy is
one of a select number of early entrance programs nationwide (statistic varies
between 9 to 16). Academy students enroll in Honors courses and present
research at the aforementioned venues. According to the most recent Academy
annual report (2005-06), 67 high school students enrolled in the program, and
they averaged a composite SAT
score of 1278 (640/verbal, 636/math) and a 3.90 GPA based on college preparatory
courses. Following high school graduation, 44% of these students continued
their undergraduate education at West Georgia and 67% of them continued at an
institution with the University System of Georgia. The report also indicates
that several Academy students were named Star Student, valedictorian, or
salutatorian of their high school graduating classes, and were awarded several
prestigious post-Academy scholarships. Their median GPA was 3.47 fall 2005 and 3.5 spring
2006.
Critical Considerations
The Advanced Academy
is a presidential initiative.
Given the limited number
of students enrolled in the Advanced Academy and the Honors College,
positioning such initiatives as university-wide priorities may have limited
internal and external impact.
It is unclear how the Advanced Academy
and Honors College
impact the university’s position in best college rankings by prestigious
publications such as the U.S. News & World Report and the Princeton
Review.
It is unclear how the Advanced Academy impacts retention, progression,
and graduation statistics given that a number of the students opt to continue
their undergraduate education at institutions other than UWG.
VisGoal 3 - First Year Programs
• Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal: EXCEL Center
originally…Enrollment Management, Residence Life, Academic Affairs as well now.
• Percentage of Completion: Not sure I can say…will explain in meeting
• Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change,
D—Delete): NC
• General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
1. Listing in the University
of Colorado’s “College
and University Service-Learning Programs” directory…I don’t think so. I was
unable to locate such a document or website.
2. Staff presentations at the National Conference on the First-Year
Experience and publication in the Journal on the First Year Experience…Three
individuals from our campus have presented at the conference over the last five
years. As far as I could find, no journal articles.
3. External Funding for support of first-year programs…None unless you
consider RPG funds form the state.
Although the assessment measures listed for this goal do not reflect a very positive
picture of our efforts in this area, there have been some great programs
focusing on first year students. There are several peer mentoring programs
being used on campus through the EXCEL Center and the FYRST
program in Residence Life. The College
of Arts and Sciences
continues to enjoy success with several learning communities each year. The
focus of these communities may change from year to year, but the collaborative
effort is continually successful. A comprehensive academic advising program for
undecided majors employed through EXCEL serves a large
number of students each semester. Responsibility for coordinating first year
programs now rests with the First Year experience sub-committee of the
Strategic Enrollment Committee.
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal:
- Percentage of Completion:
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
VG 4 Tech across
Curriculum Will Lloyd
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving Goal: “an
expanded Center for Teaching and Learning”
- Percentage of Completion: 10%
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete): NC
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:
- The Distance Ed staff have done a good job of supporting blended and
online courses:
- Partial Distance (D section) courses: 58
- Fully Distance (N or G section) courses: 82
- Hybrid (1-50% distance) courses: 206
- Technology-enhanced (meet face-to-face but use tech): 469
- Total: 815
- Partial Distance (D section) courses: 73
- Fully Distance (N or G section) courses: 99
- Hybrid (1-50% distance) courses: 98
- Technology-enhanced (meet face-to-face but use tech): 559
- Total: 829
- The CTL,
which has not been “expanded,” awarded laptops this year to faculty
members to experiment with blended classes.
- All in all, though, UWG
has followed national trends, not led them.
- The goal needs to be redefined to better define:
- what we want to do,
- how we will measure progress.
VG 5 Professional
Preparation Julie Chibbaro
- Offices/Persons Responsible for Achieving
Goal:”infuse the systematic investigation of teaching and student learning
into professional preparation”
- Percentage of Completion: The home unit responsible for this goal
would be a Center for Innovations in Professional Preparation.
- Assessment of Goal (A – Adequate, NC – Needs Change, D—Delete):A
- General Assessment of Goal and Program Made:Achieving this goal will
require supposrt by the University and the Colleges (Any ideas on
processes to accomplish this???) for the teaching and learning in all
disciplines and collaboration among the Colleges to promote innovation in
professional preparation. The goal is a great goal – completion???
Inventory of Key Ideas –
Myrna Gantner*
1. Enrollment Growth
• How will we manage enrollment growth while maintaining the integrity of our
programs? How do we operationally define “integrity of our programs”?
• How do we simultaneously build enrollment and capacity (faculty, facilities,
admissions support, advising, etc.)?
2. Academic Accreditation
• Is the goal of national accreditation for all relevant programs worthy?
• To what extent is the investment of resources into national accreditation
paying off in terms of strengthened programs, organizational culture, and
program reputation?
• How do we avoid goal displacement while meeting the assessment and
documentation demands associated with accreditation?
• If assessment doesn’t lead to change, why do it? Formative evaluation for
continuous improvement has value, regardless of accreditation demands; thus,
should we entertain the idea of creating a position in each of the colleges to
support assessment for both continuous improvement and accreditation demands?
3. Core
• Many students appear not to value the core curriculum.
• Do students’ complaints about the core curriculum hold any merit?
• Are there changes we could make to the core curriculum that would help
students see its connection to improved performance in their majors?
• How can we help students understand the power that comes from learning how to
think critically?
4. Curriculum Ownership
• Curriculum ownership raises philosophical questions that get at the purpose
of education. Faculty have a voice; so do our stakeholders.
• Who owns the curriculum? Board of Regents? Faculty at the university? Our
communities? Is it a mix of all these?
• How do we address the BOR’s
demands for curriculum reform without giving up what we value? In other words,
how do we adapt to external pressures without “selling our souls”?
5. Academic Culture
6. Recruitment Goals
7. Diversity
8. Marketing Plan
9. Mission
10. Advising
11. Retention
12. Graduation Rates