PROVOST’s COUNCIL
MINUTES
September 16, 2015, 8:30-10:00
Present
George Brown, Farnazeh Razzaghi, Tim Metz, Alison Morrison-Shetlar,
Brandon Schwab, Lowell Davis, Carol Burton, Susan Fouts, Richard Starnes,
Darrell Parker, Kevan Frazier
Guests
Chip Ferguson for Jeff Ray, Kim Winter for Dale Carpenter, Natalie Clark,
Billy Ogletree for Doug Keskula, Jim Miller, April Tallant for Jill Granger,
Alison Joseph
Recorder
Anne Aldrich
DISCUSSION
WCU Leadership
Summit Updates
(Jim Miller/
Natalie Clark)
Jim Miller and Natalie Clark provided updates on the October 1-2 WCU
Leadership Summit specifically regarding the breakout sessions. Facilitator
training is Friday, September 25th.
Natalie distributed and reviewed a handout regarding the breakout sessions.
Participation of non-facilitators in the facilitator training is to provide
awareness of the questions that will be asked. There will be a report out from
each group at the conclusion of the summit. It will be up to the advisory boards
to determine who they prefer to report out at the conclusion.
After lunch we will showcase WCU and our students with a tour of the Health
and Human Science Building, the RAPID Center for a hands on learning
experience being taught by students, the College of Arts and Sciences with
student presentations on experiential learning, the College of Education and
Allied Professions showcasing the new electronic classroom and a grand finale
with the College of Fine and Performing Arts. There will be 180 people on six
buses moving through campus. Deans will be hosting the tours. The Provost’s
role will be to conclude the event on Friday.
Departments with
Financial Investment
Opportunities via
Scholarship
(Alison Joseph)
Alison Joseph presented her Capstone Project, the culminating work in
achieving her Master of Public Affairs (Spring 2015). The project identified
investments to increase graduate enrollment specific to cost, revenue and
capacity. Discussion ensued. It was suggested we consider the trend lines over
time as a more significant factor in making future decisions.
Student Data Mart - GA is now able to reach into Banner and pull our data as
well as allowing us to see data of other institutions. The data is much richer
and deeper. However, this means that every single thing we have ever written
is broken so we are in the process of rebuilding. There are three institutions
participating in this project with WCU as the leading institution in this
initiative.
Enrollment (What do
you currently use to
predict retention?)
All received their census and budget data. Today’s discussion is specific to
how you each predict retention, how can we support each other, and how as a
group we would like to use data as we move forward.
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(All)
One issue is pre-nursing majors that are not tracked by anyone - this is an issue
that needs to be addressed. Discussion ensued.
The number one reason we lose students is because they are transferring to
institutions they planned to go to all along. The other main reason is financial
aid. We are trying to track program level retention, where these students are
going and if they are completing - but this is very time intensive work. We do
not track the majors of students that leave WCU.
We are also experiencing the challenge of students waiting later and later to
register for their next semester. It was suggested rather than tracking students
by declared major which changes frequently (as well as the largest percentage
that are undeclared), we track them by students who have less than 29 hours at
WCU as a cohort. All others could be tracked by program.
Information collected at the Chancellor’s Leadership Council regarding
suggestions for retention demonstrated we are already doing about 40% of the
ideas put forth. One of the highest success rates for retention are students in
freshman seminars, Catamount Gap, living learning communities, etc. These
students are retained at a considerably higher rate than students that do not
participate. Another factor to consider is there is no longer a requirement for
students who change their majors to meet with their former advisor - all of this
is now automated. The loss of human touch is critical.
It was suggested that we do more to engage parents in the student’s education,
creating another point of pressure. ASU currently has an excellent program.
This is a way to provide some professional development for parents as well
without bypassing FERPA.
Next steps:
 get data to the deans
 identify clear strategies to increase the human touch within the classroom
and outside primarily for freshman
 when talking to faculty we are in the habit of setting the next schedule
rather than having a true human interaction with the student - we have
moved more into advising as a process rather than just scheduling
For next Provost Council meeting, please come forth with concrete items with
which we can move forward.
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