Academic and Student Affairs Lead Initiatives within the Strategic Framework
AVC Meeting Updates
March 19, 2012
1. Metro Plan
- Individual conversations occurred with all seven state university presidents to ascertain their approaches to increase baccalaureate degrees by enabling students at two-year colleges to complete a MnSCU baccalaureate degree without relocating.
- Conversations between two-year college presidents and university presidents recognized that “university centers” could expand both at the two-year college campuses and at other sites, as well as in a variety of deliveries.
- College presidents and ASA staff continue to work on inventories of possible facilities available on their campuses for interested university partners to offer courses/majors/programs.
2. Underserved Communities
- Whitney Harris provided a taxonomy of services provided by the colleges and universities to promote recruitment and retention of students of color and to establish a welcoming environment on the campuses.
- Next meeting with the staff and presidents leading the initiative is being scheduled in April
3. Extraordinary Education
-E-Education
-Signature learning experiences
-Learning outcomes
-Collaboration among faculty and across Colleges and Universities:
- Still awaiting information on the activities on various campuses.
- Saint Paul College is planning its Faculty Forum for April 2. President Dastmozd reports that they have launched a website for faculty to post results of industry site visits.
- Lynda will meet with Cheryl Neudauer (faculty lead on MCTC Faculty Forums) today.
4. P-12 Alignment
- The P-12 conference has been rescheduled for March 28
5. Student Success (persistence and completion)
- The ASA committee of the board will be working on a board goal of “Creating Access to Success Pathways for MnSCU Students. The Board of Trustees Academic and student Affairs Committee will explore, discuss and advocate for research-based best practices in promoting student success (persistence and completion)
- Review of campus feedback on the recent Developmental Education and Student Success conference will be informing decisions about future faculty/staff training on best practices.
6. Developmental Education
Assessment for Course Placement Committee (ACPC) will meet on April 13, 2012 and agenda items will include: exploring feasibility and implementation steps band cut scores through use of high school transcript, high school GPA, and use of Accuplacer background questions. The committee will also continue research on establishing a developmental cut score floor. Barry Shaffer, State Director of Adult Basic Education for Minnesota Department of Education will attend the meeting and provide his perspective on the cut score floor and continued partnerships with Adult Basic Education
- FastTRAC legislation is pending being attached to the Governor’s supplemental budget for two million dollars
- Conversations are beginning on a statewide TAACCCT grant with a focus on scaling FastTRAC state wide at our two year campuses. Mindy Feldbaum, through her consultancy firm was hired by the Gates Foundation to help serve as a liaison to MnSCU in preparation for this US Department of Labor grant. Riverland College has expressed interest in being the lead college for the grant
- MnSCU has been invited by the Office of Higher Education to participate as part of a state team of 10 members to the Complete College Agenda Conference-Institute on Gateway Course Success—Transform Remediation will be held in Baltimore, MD, June 12, 2012.
- As part of the CAO/ CSO and Deans meeting held in May, there has been an expressed interest to have a vendors’ forum to include- (StrengthsQuest, Pearson, ALEKS, etc.) to showcase their products
7. Transfer of Credits
- Each MnSCU college and university president received a report on compliance with four areas of the Smart Transfer implementation. Verification is occurring with campus contacts. Institutions which have further work to do with implementing the four areas need to complete the work by fall, 2012.
- Six specific projects were proposed as possible next steps for FY 2012-2013 relative to eliminating barriers to transfer of credit.
8. Workforce and Customized Training
- Forty-one industry meetings have been scheduled and will take place in April and early May; over 35 will be held at business locations.