Wilson Pacific University

Board of Trustees Meeting

July 12, 2016

  1. Welcome and Prayer – Chair Barry Sutton called the meeting to order at 10:08am. He welcomed everyone and began with prayer.
  1. Roll Call – DeVon Mills called the roll. Trustees presentincluded Chad Adair, Theresa Blash, James Corbitt, Marty Heede, Judy King, Vonde McClure, DeVon Mills, Barry Sutton, and Nathaniel Wilson. Ryan Babineau, Ellen Mayo, Jennifer Rosinko, Rick Treece, Nathaniel Urshan, Curtis Young, and Myles Young were absent. The WPU Board of Directors were also invited to attend, and participants included Tim Merritt and Johnny King.Staff present included Paul Baumeister and Jennifer Butts.
  1. Approval of Minutes – A copy of the minutes from the previous meetings April 12, 2016 were provided. Barry Sutton made a motion to waive the reading of the minutes and approve them; DeVon Mills seconded the motion. It passed unanimously.
  1. Reports
  2. President’s Report
  3. Accreditation status
  4. California BPPE: Wilson Pacific University originally submitted paperwork to attain State Approval in the fall of 2012. After the paperwork underwent an extra, unanticipated review by a new division of the bureau the state had recently established, the bureau requested additional paperwork from the school. Members of the cabinet met with a staff person at the bureau who assured them that the school would attain state approval soon after the submission of the requested documents. An updated enrollment agreement and catalog have been submitted, and the staff is working on preparing the other paperwork. Dr. Wilson reminded the board members about the new state regulation that limits new, unaccredited schools to two degrees. So WPU will only be able to offer the BSCM and MA degrees until Initial Accreditation is attained.
  5. Preparations for WSCUC self-study and site visit: Presently, staff are working on two large institutional projects: strategic planning and assessment. The accreditation self-study will be due in September, so the month of August and September will be especially busy with editing last year’s self-study and collecting and editing evidence.
  6. Challenge Week Schedule: Nathaniel Wilson shared that Challenge Week will be held Sept. 21-23, 2016. He reviewed the schedule. He also strongly encouraged all members of the boards to attend the graduation service on Friday evening.
  1. Staff Reports
  2. Division of Student Affairs
  3. Student Life: Beginning in August, the university will add a weekly threaded discussion in each course for praise and prayer reports. Second, short 10-15 minute recorded devotions will be shared with the WPU community to strengthen faith and spiritual formation.
  4. Enrollment Management:WPU met the enrollment projection forthe June session but it was still less than desired. One constraint is the financial verification and also the tuition rate was increased by HIU again. Admissions for the August session are doing well. Nathaniel Wilson is recruiting at Hope Corps Intensive Training Weeks.
  5. Marketing & PR:There has been an emphasis on email blasts and social media. It is challenging to determine the source of the leads because students may not accurately self-identify in their inquiry. Paul Baumeister and Ryan Babineau will be meeting later this month to help develop a marketing plan and use data for informed decision making about the best use of resources. Also, alumni and other stakeholders are being utilized to promote AST/WPU at events. Relationships are being developed with the ALJC organization and other apostolic organizations.
  6. Information Systems: Website security has been an ongoing issue. This fall, a networking system will be set up. Sonis is the new student information system that has been purchased for the school, and it will save time and expenses.
  7. Division of Business & Finance
  8. Business: One of Anna’s tasks as the Business & Office Manager was to coordinate with staff to complete mission statements and job descriptions for newer units of the school. She is presently coordinating with staff to develop handbooks for the units that do not have them.
  9. Finance: Craig Good and Anna Ballinger have completed online requirements for WPU to offer federal financial aid to its students. Both of them are scheduled to attend a mandatory training in San Francisco in September.
  10. Institutional Advancement
  11. Continuing Pentecost campaign: The campaign was held on Father’s Day (June 19). Monies are still being collected, but approx. $150,000 in pledges and donations is anticipated. The final results will be shared at the Annual Planning Conference. This money will help to defray the cost of staff that are not hired by HIU. Dr. Wilson thanked the board members for their generous donations.
  12. Alumni Association: Some recent developments with the Alumni Association include the creation of a web page, membership levels, and utilizing alumni to represent WPU at events. The university is also beginning to coordinate alumni fellowship opportunities at existing regional events, and the Summit Conference in September will be one of the first ones. DeVon Mills is studying about creating cohesion and interacting with online learners. For each of his courses, he has to apply all of his course content into an online setting since that is the wave of the future. Dr. Wilson mentioned that at some point WPU will need a campus or a larger administrative building to house the university’s operations and to facilitate face-to-face interactions.
  13. Division of Academic Affairs: Jennifer Butts shared an overview of academic affairs activities.
  14. Faculty: The Academic Assembly is holding quarterly meetings and quarterly trainings. Presently, a new Academic Policy Committee is meeting to develop assignment guidelines and policies. The Faculty Learning Community will hold its next training on August 8 on the topic of integrated course design and signature assignments.
  15. Academic Departments: Faculty members are expected to submit an annual plan and summary of their professional development activities. The lead professors of the arts and sciences and ministry departments have been coordinating with the faculty for professional development consultations. The advisory committees of the human development and business departments are continuing to develop the syllabi for the new programs.
  16. Academic Services: In preparation for independence from HIU, Jill Lewis is working on transferring courses to the Moodle platform. This fall, two key projects for faculty are the development of an orientation and the implementation of an evaluation. In addition, units and academic departments are continuing to work on collecting data and analyzing the results of assessments conducted in the 2015-2016 year.
  1. New Business and Action Items
  2. 2015-2016 AST Budget:Craig Goodman, WPU’s finance director, has completed his portions of the 2016-17 budget, but he is waiting for the controller at HIU to finish his portions. It will be a balanced budget, and a full review of the budget will be presented at the Annual Planning Conference. Paul Baumeister shared a copy of the undergraduate and graduate 2015-16 budgets. For the undergraduate budget, HIU developed and approved a deficit budget. HIU erroneously calculated a $250,000 deficit. With the errors identified by Paul Baumeister and Craig Goodman, the deficit amount was reduced to $70,000. With cost reductions and a donation, there is no longer a deficit. At the Annual Planning Conference, the AST 2015-16 budget, AST 2016-17 budget, and WPU 2016-17 budgets will be thoroughly reviewed.
  3. Strategic Planning:
  4. 2013-2016 Progress Report: The board members reviewed a chart showing the status of progress being made on initiatives in the first three years of the current strategic plan (2013-2016).
  5. SWOT Brainstorming results:The board members reviewed a document summarizing the results from the three SWOT brainstorming sessions held with stakeholders.
  6. Strategic planning model:Jennifer Butts presented and explained two models for the strategic plan: a static model and a “rolling” model. She explained the pros and cons of each.
  7. 2017-2020 Strategic Plan overview: Jennifer provided an overview of the components of the new plan that were being drafted by the Strategic Planning Committee. The board members will have an opportunity to discuss the strategic goals and initiatives at the Annual Planning Conference in September.
  8. Vision and priorities:Jennifer read aloud the new 10-year vision and priorities drafted by the Strategic Planning Committee. After some discussion, Judy King made a motion to accept the rolling 3-year plan and the vision and priorities as drafted. Marty Heede seconded the motion. The vision, priorities and 3-year iterative planning model were approved unanimously.
  9. Next steps:The Strategic Planning Committee will work on finishing the goals and initiatives in July and get stakeholder feedback in August while the finance director develops a tentative cost analysis. A draft of the strategic plan will be submitted with the accreditation self-study in September, and then the stakeholders will have an opportunity to thoroughly review the goals and initiatives at the Annual Planning Conference. The site visit team will be able to see the finished version when they come in November.
  10. Evaluations
  11. President evaluation: The trustees will conduct the first annual evaluation of the president in August. They will receive a convenient online survey.
  12. Board self-evaluation: The board will conduct the first annual self-evaluation in August after completing the president’s evaluation. It will be a convenient online survey. The PAIR office will collect and analyze the results, which will be shared and discussed at the Annual Planning Conference in order to identify areas needing improvement.
  13. Calendar:
  14. 2016-17 dates: The next meeting dates are scheduled for Jan. 19 in Chula Vista, April 11 (by phone), and June 20 (by phone).
  15. New planning cycle:When WPU becomes independent from HIU, the planning, fiscal, human resource, academic, and assessment cycle will be aligned from July 1 through June 30.
  16. Date of Challenge Week / APC in the future:The board discussed the possibility of moving the date of the Annual Planning Conference and Challenge Week to August in future years. More discussion is needed regarding this decision.
  1. Adjourn – Marty Heede made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The meeting adjourned at 12:41pm.