PRESIDENT’S QUARTERLY REPORT TO THE COLLEGE
MARCH 2010
SUMMARY
Empire State College Strategic Planning forums have continued throughout the state, most recently at the HudsonValley, Long Island, GeneseeValley and Central New York centers and at the Van Arsdale Center for Labor Studies. The feedback received so far is incorporated into the Feb.10 draft that is included in this briefing booklet. The last forum will be held at the NortheastCenterMarch 15, and the final draft of the plan will be presented at the All College Conference March 25.
The Open University of New York (OUNY) concept paper has been shared with SUNY and has been discussed across the college including with the members of ourSenate. I am in the process of creating an intranet blog for faculty, students and staff to share their thoughts and ideas on this concept. I hope to have additional town meetings on OUNY (much like we did for the Strategic Plan) at the various centers later this spring.
Work has continued on the SUNY strategic planning process, with forums at Delhi (Diversity) and Stony Brook (Energy), and with three more forums to go, including a special symposium on Globalization on March 5, and a capstone session at the Center for Nanotechnology scheduled for March 18.
I have been recently named chairman of the SUNY Innovative Instructional Opportunities Working Group. This group is part of this Strategic Planning Process and I look forward to working closely with David Lavallee, the interim senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost at SUNY System Administration on this new initiative. In addition, I am co-chairing the search committee for the new SUNY vice chancellor for communications position.
There has been quite a bit of activity with partnerships and articulation agreements at the college. I was pleased to attend the signing of an articulation agreement with KingsboroughCommunity College in Brooklyn on Jan. 6. This is the first such agreement with a CUNY college, and we expect to develop agreements with the other CUNY community colleges over the next year. On Jan. 29, I hosted the new president of SchenectadyCountyCommunity College, Dr Quintin Bullock. We discussed our proposed Pathways Articulation Agreement with SCCC and my attendance at his upcoming inauguration. Additionally, discussions have been held with the NationalLaborCollege in Washington, D.C. regarding a partnership that could extend the work of the Van Arsdale Center for Labor Studies outside of the state.
I recently participated on a panel of college and university presidents and military service chiefs at the Council of College Military Educators annual meeting. The conference addressed the emerging challenges in military education. Due to the flexibility of our programs and our unique delivery methods, Empire State College has a long and dedicated presence in the field of military education
On March 8, I will attend the American Council for Education Commission on Lifelong Learning meeting. This commission, made up primarily of college and university presidents, gives advice on lifelong educational learning trends. They review policy statements, guidelines, and principles of good practice on adult learning issues and give recommendations to the ACE board.
With regard to the Cabinet reorganization, the search for the vice president of integrated technologies is underway.
We will be pleased to host Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, Vice Chancellor Monica Rimai and other SUNY dignitaries and community leaders at the official opening of 113 West Ave. on March 11. Festivities include a ribbon-cutting ceremony, tours and an open house.
In the reports that follow, you will find information related to almost every office and geographic region of the college. As usual, we will be pleased to respond to any questions, comments or suggestions you have based on your reading of these reports.
OFFICE OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
SUMMARY
The Office of Academic Affairs welcomed Dr. Hugh Hammett as interim provost in January. Dr. Hammett has been with the college 32 years, most recently serving as vice president for external affairs. Trained as an historian of United States foreign relations, he received hisPh. D. from the University of Virginia. Prior to his service at Empire State College, Dr. Hammett held faculty appointments at Virginia Tech, IthacaCollege, and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Dr. Hammett came to Empire State College to serve as associate dean, then acting dean of the RochesterCenterand subsequently served as the dean of continuing education and public service. He holds the concurrent rank of professor at Empire State College. He is working with President Davis on the reorganization of the Office of Academic Affairs and creating a new vision for it that will align with the 2015 Strategic Plan.
Across the college, the faculty and staff have been involved in significant scholarship, resulting in the publishing of a number of books, articles and papers. The involvement of faculty and staff in the larger higher education community has reached from local communities in the state of New Yorkto regions around the world. Articulation agreements are being signed with sister SUNY institutions and new relationships with organizations throughout the country are growing. Membership on advisory boards, invitations to speak, awards presented and requests for consultation demonstrate the significant value faculty and staff bring to the larger educational community.
Middle States Reaccreditation Update
In early December, the college received the report of the Middle States evaluation team that visited the institution in November. Consistent with the team's closing remarks at the end of the visit, the team report noted a number of areas of achievement for the college and made several suggestions that affirmed findings and proposals presented in the college's self-study report. The commission shared the report with the College Council, the Middle States Steering Committee and President's Council. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education makes its decision about the college's reaccreditation when it meets in March.Given the positive response by the team, we are optimistic the commission will approve the college’s10-year term of reaccreditation. Once the Middle States Commission makes its decision, the team report, the college's response and the commission decision will be more widely shared within the college community.
New Faculty
Dr. John M. Beckem IIjoined the Center for Distance Learning on Jan. 11, 2010, as an Academic Area Coordinator in Business, Management and Economics. Dr. Beckem earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from OaklandUniversity, as well as a Master of Divinity from Ashland Theological Seminary and an M.S. in Administration from CentralMichiganUniversity. Dr. Beckem most recently served as a faculty member of the College of Management and Graduate Studies at CentralMichiganUniversity.
UUP Joint Labor Management Individual Development Funds (UUP/IDA)
The second cycle of the UUP/IDA funds had 44 applicants requesting $38,432 in funds. Only $8,000 was allocated for this cycle. Many of the faculty who applied also wereeligible for faculty development funds and they were asked to move their requests over to that funding source. The committee allocated $500 each to the remaining applicants..
Keep-Mills Symposium on Ways of Knowing
This year’s symposium focuses on contemplative science. Eighteen students are registered in this residency, which started Jan.19. The five faculty teaching this year are Robert Altobello, Bob Carey, Lorraine Lander, Elaine Lux and Nan Travers. The Rensselaerville Institute is the site for the face-to-face residency portion of the study on April 9-11, 2010.
All College 2010
The theme for the All College Conference is the Ernest L. Boyer Family Lecture, “Networking to Learn: Collaborative Planning for the Future.” An innovative keynote address by Elliott Masie of the MasieCenterwill involve interviews withfiveindividuals on the question, “What does social learning look like?” Individuals drawn from alumni, the foundation board, community members, and faculty will participate.
All About Mentoring (AAM)
“All About Mentoring” Vol. 36 includes contributions from more than 25 colleagues from across the college and from a number of scholars from outside the college who were invited to contribute. This issue of AAM focuses on ecology and learning.
All Areas of Study 2009 (AAOS)
This year’s All Areas of Study Meeting took place Oct. 21-23, 2009. The theme was “Celebrating our Creativity and Innovation,” which followed up on the discussions held at the June Academic Conference 2009. Through discussions within individual areas of study, and in groups that crossed academic study boundaries, we focused on reimagining the areas of study at the college.
College Professor of Adult Learning and Mentoring
Dr. Alan Mandell, with colleague Lee Herman, co-wrote a new piece on mentoring titled “Mentoring: When Learners Make the Learning,” which was published in Mezirow and Taylor’s edited “Transformative Learning in Practice: Insights from Community, Workplace and Higher Education”(Jossey-Bass 2009). A second Mandell essay written with colleague Frank Fischer of Rutgers University on the theorist Michael Polanyi was published in “Science as Culture” and was translated into German and published as Die verborgene Politik des impliziten Wissens: Michael Polanyis Republik der Wissenschaft, Leviathan: Berliner Zeitschrift fuer Sozialwissenschft, Jahrgang 37.
The GraduateCenter at the City University of New York honored Dr. Mandell with an Alumni Achievement Award for his work in adult learning. Additionally, he was named the recipient of the Eugene Sullivan Award for Leadership from the Adult Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) for his outstanding leadership in the organization. He has been a member of the board for several years and on the 2009 conference planning committee. Empire State College will host the AHEA Conference in 2010.
Vermont State Colleges (VSC) Memo of Understanding
A memoof understanding with the Vermont State Colleges to accept their prior learning assessments credits is now in place. Before reaching this agreement, students transferring with prior learning assessment credits from VSC had to have them re-evaluated.
Articulation Agreements
Eight enhanced “Pathways” articulation agreements are now in place with SUNY colleges and the first was with such agreement with the City University of New York was recently signed.
The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL)
College academic review professionals Nan Travers, along with Marnie Evans, Amanda Treadwell and Terry Hoffman conducted a roundtable on their national study, “Researching Critical Factors Impacting PLA Programs: A Multi-Institutional Study to Identify Best Practice,” at the CAEL conference in late November. They also presented a national CAEL webinar on Jan. 20, 2010, which was attended by more than 100 people.
Travers will serve on the advisory board to the VirtualPriorLearningAssessmentCenter, funded by a planning grant from Lumina and sponsored by a partnership between CAEL and American Council on Education.
Registrar’s Office
The Registrar’s Office is now on VA-Once, the electronic filing system with the Veterans' Administration. This enables the college, particularly the Office of the Registrar and the Office of Veterans and Military Affairs, to "track" the processing of veteran’s benefit requests.
The number of graduates continues to run slightly ahead of last year for the first two quarters, representing a possible 5 percent increase over 2008-09, if the pace continues in the same manner for the rest of the year.
Smarthinking
The Office of Collegewide Academic Support (OCAS)staff continues to monitor student use of and satisfaction with Smarthinking tutoring services. Student use of these services this quarter has increased more than 40 percent compared to the same time last year. Student satisfaction as measured by OCAS surveys remains consistently high.
Admissions Assessment Policy
The first stage of the Admissions Assessment Policy was launched in November. The Office of Integrative Technology is working on the programming to support the process. The numbers thus far are representative of the previous assessment and do not appear to require many students to take the Bridge Program. The Office of Collegewide Academic Support has been working collaboratively with the directors of Academic Services to prepare for the implementation of the new admissions policy.
Office of Collegewide Disability Services
The following table shows the number of students with disabilities who enrolled for the 2009-2010 academic year to date and the total number of students with disabilities who enrolled since 2007.
Center / Total # of Students w/disabilities newly enrolled 2009-2010 / Total # of students w/disabilities2007-2010
CDL / 154 / 275
CGP / 12 / 35
CNY / 36 / 68
GVC / 35 / 78
HVACLS / 3 / 5
HVC / 9 / 39
LIC / 33 / 52
Metro / 47 / 68
NFC / 18 / 50
Northeast / 30 / 52
Total / 377 / 722
Academic Review
The following table shows the number of individual degree programs approved for undergraduate students within each of the college’s areas of study for the second quarter of the 2009-2010 academic year.
Number of Degree Programs Concurred by Undergraduate Area of Study
Undergraduate Area of Study / July –September 2009The Arts / 25
Business, Management & Economics / 233
Community and Human Services / 159
Cultural Studies / 39
Educational Studies / 9
Human Development / 44
Historical Studies / 19
Interdisciplinary Studies / 65
Labor Studies / 22
Nursing / 1
Science, Math, and Technology / 56
Social Theory, Structure and Change / 8
Grand Total / 680
The following tables display the number of degrees granted at Empire State College during the second quarter (Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, 2009) of the 2009-2010 academic year. The three tables in the report denote the number of undergraduate degrees awarded by center, the number of degrees awarded by undergraduate area of study, and the number of degrees awarded by graduate program.
Table 1: Undergraduate Degrees Awarded by Center
Center/Program / Associate / Bachelor’s / TotalN / % / N / % / N / %
GeneseeValley / 6 / 4.3 / 20 / 5.3 / 26 / 5.0
Metro / 8 / 5.8 / 33 / 8.7 / 41 / 7.9
Long Island / 5 / 3.6 / 23 / 6.1 / 28 / 5.4
Central New York / 11 / 8.0 / 33 / 8.7 / 44 / 8.5
HudsonValley / 3 / 2.2 / 35 / 9.2 / 38 / 7.4
Van Arsdale / 57 / 41.3 / 0 / 0.0 / 57 / 11.0
Northeast / 10 / 7.2 / 35 / 9.2 / 45 / 8.7
Niagara Frontier / 9 / 6.5 / 28 / 7.4 / 37 / 7.2
Center for Distance Learning / 29 / 21.0 / 125 / 33.0 / 154 / 29.8
International Programs / 0 / 0.0 / 46 / 12.1 / 46 / 8.9
Verizon Corporate College / 0 / 0.0 / 1 / 0.3 / 1 / 0.2
Total / 138 / 100 / 379 / 100 / 517 / 100
Table 2: Undergraduate Degrees Awarded by Area of Study
Area of Study / Associate / Bachelor’s / TotalN / % / N / % / N / %
The Arts / 3 / 2.2 / 15 / 4.0 / 18 / 3.5
Business, Management and Economics / 26 / 18.8 / 138 / 36.4 / 164 / 31.7
Community and Human Services / 13 / 9.4 / 81 / 21.4 / 94 / 18.2
Cultural Studies / 3 / 2.2 / 30 / 7.9 / 33 / 6.4
Educational Studies / 1 / 0.7 / 17 / 4.5 / 18 / 3.5
Human Development / 2 / 1.4 / 23 / 6.1 / 25 / 4.8
Historical Studies / 0 / 0.0 / 13 / 3.4 / 13 / 2.5
Interdisciplinary Studies / 27 / 19.6 / 33 / 8.7 / 60 / 11.6
Labor Studies / 57 / 41.3 / 1 / 0.3 / 58 / 11.2
Science, Math and Technology / 6 / 4.3 / 24 / 6.4 / 30 / 5.8
Social Theory, Structure and Change / 0 / 0.0 / 4 / 1.1 / 4 / 0.8
Total / 138 / 100 / 379 / 100 / 517 / 100
Table 3: Graduate Degrees Awarded by Program
Program / N / %Arts in Teaching / 1 / 14.3
Business Administration / 3 / 42.9
Business and Policy Studies / 0 / 0.0
Labor and Policy Studies / 1 / 14.3
Liberal Studies / 1 / 14.3
Social Policy / 1 / 14.3
Total / 7 / 100
Center and Program News
The Center for Distance Learning
The center’sthree-year retention rate has climbed about three percent per year (from 34 to 41 percent over three cohorts) and our one-year retention rate has improved from 57 percent to 61 percent. CDL enrolls about 1,000 new students each fiscal year.
The center continues to participate in a SUNY-wide initiative to develop an online program at the EuropeanUniversity of Humanities (EHU) - also known as “university in exile”. From October 2009 through January 2010, Mentor Val Chukhlomin has developed and conducted an eight-week bilingual course, “Teaching Online,” for a group consisting of eight EHU educators. The center delivered the study fully online with a number of Elluminate meetings.
CDL has established a partnership with the MetropolitanCenter and Per Scholas, Incorporated. Per Scholas is a non-profit organization with locations in the Bronx and Miami. The National Program on Non-Collegiate Sponsored Instruction (PONSI) evaluated the computer training courses for college-level credit.
The center established a new partnership with the New York State Association of Superintendents of School Building and Grounds. Members who complete an associate’s degree in School Facilities Management from MohawkValleyCommunity College may transfer to Empire State College to complete a bachelor’s degree in business, management and economics with a concentration in facilities management.
In addition, the CDL Student Advisory Group initiated “Students at a Distance Can Make a Difference.” In this effort, the group solicited coats from the entire Center for Distance Learning community, which has donated more than 300 coats to a variety of organizations.
Wednesday Webinarsvia Elluminate continue to be successful connecting with over 100 returning instructors in the past year on topics such as learning styles, the Socratic method, military and veteran students, academic support and resources available to them.
Audeliz Matias and David Wolf presented “Non-traditional Approaches to Teaching GPS Online” at the American Geophysical Union, and Mentor Menoukha Case presented a paper at the National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference titled, “Things Begin before They Are Names: Lorraine Hansberry’s Africanist Intersectional Feminism.”
Bidhan Chandra gave a two-hour presentation in October 2009 titled, “India at Crossroads – Yesterday and Tomorrow,” at the Union College Academy of Lifelong Learning (UCALL). Eighty members attended the presentation. In November of 2009, Dr. Chandra conducted a workshop “Understanding Global Diversity for International Business Success” for the capital district business community.
Mentors Carol Carnevale, Oto Jones and Susan Oaks presented “Supporting Quality Online Learning in a Period of Rapid Growth” at the Cambridge Conference on Open and Distance Learning; Mentor Nataly Tcherepashenets presented at the International Congress on Chilean Poetry, “Dialogos: William Shakespeare y Jorge Luis Borges en el universo (anti) poetico de Nicanor Parra,” at Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile. Al Lawrence has been invited to deliver a series of lectures on “School Desegregation and Civil Rights in Eisenhower’s America” at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Massachusetts.
Ken Charuk, as part of a National Science Foundation, wrote the chapter titled Designing the Online Laboratoryfor an upcoming publication of “Moving the Lab Online.” Mentor Deborah Smith had two travel articles published in Iceland in the nationalmagazine Atlantica. The Journal of Educational Technology Systemspublished Lisa Snyder’sarticle, “Using the Improvement-Focused Model to Evaluate an Online Teacher Education Program.” Desiree Roberts wrote an article published in the Albany Times Uniontitled, “Forty-six Years,” which was a reflection on the assassination of John F. Kennedy.