Retention and Graduation Council

December 18, 2012

MEETING MINUTES

Present: C. Lovitt, L. Tordenti, R. Bishop, C. Pudlinski, E. Wilson, N. Hoffman, E. Chasse, O. Odesina,
B. Fangiullo, O. Petkova, M. Garcia-Bowen, Y. Kirby, M. Bigley, L. George, S. Hazan, M.
McLaughlin, M. Fallon, A. Kullgren, B. Zhou, D. Sanders, K. Poppe, R. Waterman,
J. Mulrooney, E. Spear, P. Tucker, J. Paige, L. Hall, A. Reasco, J. Alicandro, R. Hernandez, L.
Recoder-Nunez, L. Glaser

Approve October 4, 2012 Minutes

The October 4, 2012 minutes were approved.

Update on Weekend Programming Initiative – L. Tordenti

L. Tordenti provided an update on the initiative to increase weekend programming on campus. Several programs were implemented during the fall semester, based on feedback received during a summer retreat with several student groups. L. Tordenti asked the following Council members to report on some of the changes made to increase weekend activity on campus:

  • S. Hazan reported that the gyms and recreation areas are now open throughout the weekend. He added that a weekend programming grant was developed, in which students could apply for up to $950 to fund a weekend program on campus. S. Hazan stated that they were pretty successful in allocating these funds.
  • J. Alicandroreported that we recently finished the Educational Benchmarking Inc. Survey (EBI), and the data will soon be analyzed. She stated that 47% of resident students took the survey, and 42% of those students stated that they were very to slightly satisfied with our current weekend programming. There were approximately 42 weekend programs this fall, and students seemed happy with their experiences. However, at 28%, Thursday is still the most popular programming day. Lastly, J. Alicandro stated that many students were displeased with the food service on the weekends.
  • L. Tordenti stated that we are working with Sodexo to extend their weekend hours.

A brief discussion occurred regarding extending library hours as a way to keep students on campus. E. Chasse stated that the library has tried this in the past; however students did not come. L. Tordenti then commented that perhaps students were not aware that the hours had changed, and that it may be worthwhile to look into this again. E. Chasse then volunteered to do some research regarding library hours at other state institutions.

C. Lovitt asked P. Tucker if there has been any progress in promoting and increasing Friday classes. P. Tucker replied that this has been tough to do. The idea is to try to increase the use of time blocks, but in such a way that it doesn’t cause conflicts for the students.

Student Success Team Report

Members of the Student Success Team provided the Council with following updates:

  • Y. Kirby provided a handout reporting department progress in creating academic maps, and she stated that faculty have responded positively to this initiative. C. Lovitt asked Y. Kirby if the departments who have not yet developed their maps are currently working to develop them. Y. Kirby replied that she is unsure, and there needs to be some kind of follow up.
  • P. Tucker stated that efforts have been made to identify and contact students who have not yet registered for the spring semester. The Registrar’s Office submitted the names of about 1700 students to CACE and the various academic schools for follow up. In addition, they reached out to advisors, providing them with lists of advisees who have not registered. Since then, 500 of these students have registered for classes. J. Mulrooney asked if the 1700 students also included students with holds. P. Tucker stated that 600 of these students had holds.
  • L. Hall stated that efforts have been made to provide more communication to department chairs about incoming students. Every Monday a report goes out to each department chair, listing students who have been admitted into their respective majors. The SST has also worked with IT to develop codes in Banner that will track registered students by major. L. Hall reported that chairs have responded positively to this initiative.
  • The SST provided a tentative list of public service announcements (PSA’s) and asked that the Council look at the list and provide feedback and suggestions. C. Lovitt asked if there has been any feedback regarding these PSA’s. Y. Kirby responded that at this point we are unsure of how successful this marketing tool is in the promotion of student success. M. McLaughlin asked the SST to send him the PSA’s for posting to our social networking sites. C. Lovitt suggested that we should post the PSA messages on the TV screens across campus.

Y. Kirby added that the Bachelor of General Studies initiative and the Super Seniors Project will both resume in the spring. The SST will also continue itssearch forearly alert/retention management software.

C. Lovitt then asked the group if there was any way to provide positive feedback to students who are doing really well. P. Tucker responded that it is our hope to one day focus not only on at risk students, but also on acknowledging students who are succeeding. A brief discussion then occurred regarding ways in which to acknowledge such students. M. Fallon stated that the psychology department has a Student/Faculty Relations Committee that posts student/faculty research on the bulletin boards in their building. There are also two display cases in Barnard Hall which highlight Student Research in Psychology Day participants. E. Chasse stated that the library highlights students who have won awards.

Retention and Graduation Data Update – Y. Kirby

Y. Kirby provided the Council with a retention and graduation data handout. She explained that she pulled a dataset from 2002 and analyzed several categories. Y. Kirby then added that some of this data will be further categorized based on race, ethnicity and gender.

Report on National Symposium on Student Retention

P. Tucker, L. George and E. Chasse attended the National Symposium on Student Retention in New Orleans this October, which they found to be a very informative experience.

The following are some best practices/suggestions shared by attendees of the conference:

  • P. Tucker stated that there was a common theme throughout the conference regarding looking at initiatives and asking whether they are “retention” activities or “success” activities. He stated that it is important to obtain as much data as possible on incoming students. Speakers at the conference also stressed the importance of involving faculty as much as possible in the retention process by: 1) tying early performance feedback to faculty support, and 2) telling faculty why we are requesting data from them regarding their students, so they will understand the data’s importance to the success of the students as well as to their own success as educators.
  • L. George stated that we have a lot of quality initiatives here, but that they need to be better organized and tracked. There are many actions that the departments are taking to improve retention that the rest of campus is unaware of. She then shared the following best practices:
  • Identify at-risk freshmen and provide more support
  • Ensure that faculty participate in ongoing workshops and classes on pedagogy
  • Create an Office of Student Retention or Student Success
  • Promote active learning, prompt feedback, high expectations, student/faculty/staff contact, and respect for diverse learning styles

L. George added that a great deal of emphasis was placed on giving students a voice, or an outlet to tell their stories of success. She stated that she, P. Tucker and E. Chasse would like to propose an essay contest, in which students can tell their stories of survival and/or overcoming obstacles, and where they turned for help. Students could compete to win cash prizes, and the winning essays could be read at orientation. L. George, P. Tucker and E. Chasse volunteered to judge the essay contest.

  • E. Chasse added that there was discussion at the conference regarding the importance of library research, and she offered to explore this further. She also noted that some schools have established a phone number that students can call to get any question answered.

Attendance Subcommittee Update – L. Glaser

L. Glaser provided an update on the Attendance Awareness Initiative. Last spring, the group received 70 faculty responses to a call for attendance policies. The subcommittee then analyzed the policies and shared some suggestions with faculty before the beginning of the fall semester, with the promise of a more formal report to follow. L. Glaser then provided a handout of the draft attendance report, and she asked the Council for feedback (see report). A brief discussion occurred. J. Mulrooney stated that he found the first sample attendance policy (found on page 2) to be offensive and too punitive, and he suggested omitting it from the report. L. Glaser replied that the three sample policies were chosen to show the breadth of the current policies being used by faculty. C. Lovitt stated that this seems like a lot of information to send in an email to faculty. He suggested emailing faculty an abbreviated version of the report, and then providing a link to the full report online.

Reorganization of Retention and Graduation Council – C. Lovitt

C. Lovitt began a brief discussion regarding the possible reorganization of the Retention and Graduation Council. He stated that J. Paige recently attended a webinar regarding improving the effectiveness of retention and graduation committees, and that we might want to consider a different way of approaching our task. C. Lovitt stated that upon the creation of the SST, which is an action-oriented group, the R&G Council has become more deliberative in nature. He then asked the Council to provide feedback regarding whether or not we should think about branching off into various subgroups. For example, we could designate subcommittees which focus on students at different levels of their academic careers. C. Lovitt added that he is holding on to some money in the budget in order to support some good initiatives.

A discussion occurred. Y. Kirby stated that we might want to find out at what point our students stop retaining/graduating, in order to see where we need to place our focus. L. Tordenti noted that we have a large number of students with behavioral issues, which certainly affects student success. These students need a very special kind of support. M. Garcia-Bowen stated that the Council had already split into class-specific subgroups a couple of years ago, and a great deal of research was compiled. She then asked if it would be worthwhile to look back at the information that we already obtained. C. Lovitt agreed that this was a good suggestion. Y. Kirby stated that some of this data might be found in our minutes. S. Hazan then asked if we should be making any changes before we see the results from the FYE study. C. Lovitt stated that we won’t make any changes to FYE until we see how these groups perform.

Announcements/Reminders/Other

L. Tordenti stated that the new residence hall will not be included in the bond sale for January; however, plans for the dining center are moving forward. We will be focusing our attention on cleaning up the residence halls that need the most work (i.e.: Vance). L. Tordenti added that Student Affairs is also devising a plan to intentionally place students into residence halls. This will allow us to provide student-specific programming that is more robust and focused on the needs of the particular student group (i.e.: freshmen).

Work in Progress:

  • E. Chasse volunteered to do some research regarding library hours at other state institutions.
  • M. McLaughlin asked the SST to send him the PSA’s for posting to our social networking sites.
  • C. Lovitt suggested that we should post the PSA messages on the TV screens across campus.
  • M. Garcia-Bowen suggested looking back at the data compiled by previous Retention and Graduation Council subcommittees.

The next Retention and Graduation Council meeting will be held on Thursday, February 7, 2013,at3:05 p.m. inSprague/Carlton, Student Center.