Provost’s Advisory Council Notes

January 20, 2015

3:30pm, SU 319

Present: Burke, DeNeui, Denney, Ettlich, Gardner, Garcia-Hanson, Gayton, Humphrey, King, Kinsey, Lovern, Moutsatson, Noone, Rex, Roberson, Robitz, Stanek, Stone, Walsh, Waters

Guests: Steve Thorpe, Steve Larvick, Gretchen WoelkeRachel Jones, janellewilson

  1. Report on partnerships and initiatives (Steve Thorpe)

Southern Oregon Success (SORS) is a collaborative group consisting of SOU, RCC, the Southern Oregon ESD, and K-12 schools plus human service and social service organizations. The SORS group works to help regional schools and young people reach the state's 40-40-20 goals.SORS has three key committees: Early Learning; Youth Development; and School-2-Work Committees. The key efforts are to help get to a 100% graduation rate from high school and to help young people achieve post-secondary success.

SORS has accomplished much over the past two years with projects such as the Post-Secondary Encouragement Tool (PSET) research project on what local high schools are doing well and what needs to be accomplished.SORS is looking at what the Pharr-San Juan School District in McAllen, Texas has done to improve their high school graduation rate to 92%. It has wrap-around services to help young people involving higher education, K-12, social services, and the community. The south Texas group has been very effective at changing the culture to help students. Parents, schools, social services, and the whole community are involved.

A key element of success in the south Texas model is the promotion of dual-credit college study for high school students.SOU and RCC have achieved some good successes with dual credit in southern Oregon. But, we want to add more dual credit opportunities in order to help a broader range of regional high school students earn college credit. This will lead to enrollment increases at SOU.

Ettlich: what about the free community college proposal and its possible effects? Walsh: we want to make sure we have resources to have students complete a degree. If they start at a community college we would have an increase in upper division transfer students.

Thorpe: we want to work in ways that don’t over-commit us at this point. King: a big piece is to better prepare students; we don’t only want more students, but better prepared students.

  1. Signature authority (Steve Larvick)

Larvick distributed a handout for Delegated Purchasing & Contract Signature Authority which has updates of positions, dollar amounts each level can approve, and requirements. It also includes purchasing card updates and other charts for different types of purchases.

  1. Budget process update (Denney and Lovern)

Denney gave an explanation of budget process chart and procedures. Budget assumptions are included. Categories include revenue, state allocation, 15-17 biennium, and labor/OPE. Denney gave an explanation of university-level cuts and budget changes. Offices will need to insert their S&S amounts. Lovern gave more details about the budget chart; there is a more accelerated timeline than before.

  1. Purchasing card policy approvals (Brian Kinsey):

Kinsey encouraged people to work with the Service Center to let them know what is needed.

He distributed information about a proposal to allow students to use p-cards in certain circumstances and with special approval.

  1. Recent presentation at OSBHE meeting on January 9 (Susan Walsh).

Chris Stanek, Karen Stone, Mark Denney, Susan Walsh, Roy Saigo, and student Jordan Mortimore gave an update on where we are in retrenchment. They emphasized our mission, which focuses on student success, intellectual growth, and responsible global citizenship. Our mix of students is important, not so much regional vs. destination campus. If we have a fine institution, why wouldn’t it be a destination for students? We don’t want to invest everything in one stock.

The report to OSBHE included information on retrenchment metrics:

  • Enrollment: strengthen the application funnel and grow overall enrollment.
  • Retention: focus on improving 1st to 2nd year, and 1st to 3rd year retentionrates
  • Faculty: manage efficiencies and accountability of all faculty assignments.
  • Class sizing: increase average class size and reduce low enrolled courses
  • Financials: build the fund balance and ensure financial viability.

Walsh said this will be the new normal.

  1. Other:

President Obama will include his proposal for free community college in his speech tonight. The state proposal may be more realistic.

The meeting adjourned at 4:52 p.m.