THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON
Engagement Council
Meeting Minutes – August 10, 2010
Members Present: D. Ayers, C. Beller, T. Beyerle, J. Boyes, D. Hickey, B. Jenkins, B. Jordan, J. Kovatch, B. Kraus, J. Kristofco, A. Mast, L. Meek, C. Menzemer, E. Perduyn, K. Ross-Alaolmolki, J. Savery, D. Steiner, D. Weber.
Chair: H. Harris Bane
Recorder: K. Haverkamp
TOPIC / DISCUSSION / ACTIONFuture of Engagement Council (EC) / Discussed previous focus of EC:
· New Market Development
· Broad outreach and partnership
· Curriculum engagement topics
· Barriers and best practices
How has EC helped you and your college/department:
· Help connect with colleges/depts. that we do not have direct contact with on a regular basis.
· See different levels of engagement.
· Know what is going on at UA outside of own area.
· Opportunity to see different levels of engagement.
· A chance to see both credit and non credit side of UA and know who to contact when opportunities/questions arise.
Ideas about future focus of EC:
· Do not make focus too narrow.
· Beneficial to meet people and see how colleges/depts. have energy with each other.
· Match up people in smaller subgroups for collective purposes.
· Funnel barriers to see commonalities among connections.
· Removing myths & miscommunications.
· Structure meeting to collaborate ideas.
· Create assessment tool – value in knowing what other people are doing when developing new initiative (see Engagement Database topic for more details).
· Help remove institutional barriers to do new things.
· Have community partners/businesses make a presentation about their needs or go out to businesses and report back to group about their needs.
Ideas about structure of meeting:
· Agenda - time limits, topic, and contact info.
· Minutes – shared and posted more regularly
· Create Ad Hoc Committees (see Ad Hoc Committee topic for more details)
Engagement Database / Create a database for outreach and partnerships – gather data, assessment and best practices.
· Organized by College/Department
· Include description, contact, action items/where in progress
· Work with Institutional Research
Suggested assessment/outcomes:
· How service learning helps student retention
· How Student Success Seminar using service learning
· Assessment with Coops and Internships / Committee:
H. Harris Bane,
J. Savery, D. Steiner
Ad Hoc Committees / Suggested committees:
· Best Practices/Research – to be proactive in addressing problems. Draw from proposed Engagement Database, Eduventures website.
· Assessment Tools – what are metrics/tools for new market, outreach and engagement, external messaging
· Challenges/Issues – when taking new product to market. Link with Cross Functional Team.
· Market Research
· Communications
· Curricular Engagement Survey. Committee: D. Steiner, K. Ross-Alaolmolki, B. Lyons, J. Savery,
H. Harris Bane / Next meeting:
Brainstorm around agenda items for each Ad Hoc Committee.
Divide EC members into committees.
Eduventures / Report from members attending annual meeting (H. Harris Bane, J. Savery, K. Ross-Alaolmolki)
Affirmation of push for online learning. Companies that market course development cost a lot of money.
Internationalization:
· Protocol on foreign universities going into a US university system.
· Professions feel that there is a language problem. Some universities do this well. UA does not have support to do this in volume.
Adult Learners:
· Universities need to be strategic to be successful
· Be innovative with course/program offerings
· Adult learners need options – they will go where it is available.
Tuition Plateau / Students at Wayne and MCUC do not receive tuition. Main campus students receive tuition plateau, but they also pay higher tuition than students at Wayne and MCUC.
Recommendation: No one pays more than maximum that main campus students pay for 12 credit hours. / Recommendation went to the Provost for approval.
Upcoming Year Reports / School of Law (B. Jordan) – Working on interdisciplinary community engagement course to with healthcare/hospitals for law and nursing students.
Enrollment (B. Kraus)
· Fall: increase of 6% head count & credit hours, Freshman: increase of 7%, Transfer: increase of 8%.
· Space utilization: IT is developing a new scheduling application that will help determine best way to schedule classes – more spread out classes and access to rooms owned by Colleges/Depts.
Wayne (J. Kristofco) – Formalizing partnerships with career centers. Wayne Co. Career Center, LPN to BSN partnership, partnership with Amish Community.
UA Foundation (E. Perduyn) – Foundation is doing well.
Nursing (K. Ross-Alaolmolki)
· RN to BSN program should be totally online by May
· Partnership with New Mexico Military Institute for a 2-year program in health education.
· Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program with Akron Children’s Hospital has grown to 15 students. One of 13 approved programs in US.
· Developing Adult Gerentology Nurse Practitioner Program with Law School.
Summit College (D. Weber)
· Launched a Bachelors of Organizational Supervision
· Industrial Computing Applications degree was approved by OBR
Medina County University Center (J. Boyes)
· Delivering 3rd and 4th year Spanish, French and German to Medina City Schools as postsecondary option due to budget cuts at high school.