Roles & Purposes Dimension Report
Committee Co-Chairs:
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Alan Asher, Faculty, Library
Lisa Kratz, Director, Maucker Union Administration
Committee Members:
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Stacey Christensen, Community Relations Manager-UMPR
Joseph DeWitz, Psychologist, Counseling Center
Lisa Krausman, Dining Unit Manager
Siobahn Morgan, Assoc. Dean & Professor: CNS
Alex Oberle, Assistant Professor, Geography
Lori Seawel, Educational Technology Specialist
Tony Smothers, Transfer Advising Relations
Miranda Vesey, student
Laura Wilson, Career Services Advisor
Foundations Institutions promote student understanding of the various roles and
purposes of higher education, both for the individual and society. These roles and
purposes include knowledge acquisition for personal growth, learning to prepare for
future employment, learning to become engaged citizens, and learning to serve the
public good. Institutions encourage first-year students to examine systematically
their motivation and goals with regard to higher education in general and to their
own college/university. Students are exposed to the value of general education as
well as to the value of more focused, in-depth study of a field or fields of knowledge
(i.e., the major).
The Roles & Purposes committee identified and examined over sixty relevant
documents from the Evidence Library. These items were organized according to the
following categories:
Orientation and Transition Programs: Counselor Advisory Board meeting notes, New Student
Survey Fall 2007, Family Weekend Schedule of Events, Orientation Coordinating
Committee/Welcome Week 2008 Final Report, Student Affairs Homepage, FYE Program Report,
Jump Start materials, Student Support Services materials
Residential Life Programming: Peer Academic Advisor in Residence (PAIR) 2008 survey,
Department of Residence Mission Statement, Department of Residence Student Handbook
Liberal Arts Core (LAC): LAC Homepage, Oral Communication course packet, miscellaneous Oral
Communication syllabi, Category V LAC Review 2005, Introductory Psychology syllabi, College
Research and Writing course goals, Guidance on House file 2679 and Senior Year Plus, First Year
Seminar for Business Majors, Oral Communication 48C:001, World Geography syllabi, Syllabus for
Champs Life Skills course, First-Year Writing syllabi, LAC 1A outcomes, LAC 1A Draft Assessment
Plan, Themes from First-Year syllabi
Academic Advising: Office of Academic Advising Homepage, NACADA Consultant Report 2007,
UNI Intake Model information, Office of Academic Advising mission and goals, University Academic
Advising Mission and Vision Task Force Report, Office of Academic Advising Outcomes for Advising
Events, Academic Advising Learning Outcomes, Student Survey on the Importance of Academic
Advising 2007, Academic Advisor Survey, 2004 Liberal Arts Core Advising Guide, LAC Goals
Summary
Mission/Program: Curriculum and Instruction Mission Statement, Special Education Mission and
Objectives, Malcolm Price Lab School Mission and Vision, Communication Studies Mission, Theatre
Mission, Industrial Technology Mission, Mathematics Mission, Science Education Mission and
Vision, DTGFS Textiles and Apparel Mission, Social Work MSW Mission, Graduate College Mission,
Graduate College Strategic Plan, Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology Mission, CBA Mission,
COE Strategic Plan, CHFA Mission Goals and Strategic Plan, CBCS Mission, Non-Academic Unit
Mission Statements
General: NSSE Date, Admissions Marketing Materials, Institutional Strategic Plan, 2001
Accreditation Report, COE Strategic Plan, Qualities for UNI Undergraduates: A working document
for field testing 1997, New Student Handbook
The information gathered from the Evidence Library, along with the results of the
faculty/staff and student surveys, formed the basis of the committee’s response to
the following three performance indicators:
Purposes
Motivation
Rationale
Current Situation
Performance Indicator 8.1 Purposes asked to what degree does the campus
effectively communicate to first-year students its vision for the various purposes of
higher education. Foundations of Excellence recognizes four purposes of higher
education including:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Knowledge acquisition for personal growth
Learning to prepare for future employment
Learning for engaged citizenship
Learning for serving the public good
The review of the evidence revealed no consistent, University-wide approach to
providing Roles and Purposes Information. For example, the current institutional
Strategic Plan (which is slated to be revised in the very near future) does address
values such as service to the State of Iowa, expansive awareness of multiple
perspectives characteristic of a global society, personalized character building
experiences, and opportunities for students to provide service to the greater
community, but there was no prominent information addressing Roles and Purposes
in the admissions literature or web site. Individual colleges and non-academic
departments vary considerably in how their mission statements and other
information sources address Roles and Purposes. For the LAC, there is no approved
Purposes and Goals statement for the LAC as a whole, and course syllabi for FirstYear level LAC courses are inconsistent in their presentation of Roles and Purposes
information.
There were some examples of units who were incorporating broad Roles and
Purposes information into their mission statements. The Academic Advising unit
materials referred to how a college education at UNI should prepare students for
future employment, assist them in achieving their life goals, and increase their
knowledge for personal growth. The Department of Residence mission statement
addresses the provision of an environment that is more conducive to students
becoming engaged, productive citizens of the University.
After a review of the evidence related to this performance indicator, the committee
concluded that the university does not have a unified campus-wide philosophy,
statement, or approach that addresses the roles and purposes of higher education.
Pieces of Roles and Purposes-related information are communicated through some
programs and venues, but there is not consistent, intentional approach to this
communication.
Performance Indicator 8.2 Motivation asked to what degree does the institution
provide opportunities for first-year students to examine their personal motivation
for pursuing higher education?
UNI provides many opportunities for students to explore career related reasons for
pursuing higher education, but there is very little evidence to suggest that the
university is providing organized or systematic opportunities for students to explore
their non-vocational reasons for pursuing collegiate study. The Liberal Arts Core
provides opportunities for students to experience non-career specific academic
offerings, and the Liberal Arts Core committee has been attempting to highlight
how courses from the core contribute to the development of a well rounded
individual, but these efforts fall short of a campus-wide commitment.
In examining the LAC information, it was evident that the majority of the
information about the LAC that addresses Roles and Purposes is directed towards
students and parents, not faculty. This may have contributed to the discrepancy in
the student and faculty/staff surveys, in which the students rated UNI’s attention to
the Roles and Purposes dimension as a 3.56, compared to a 3.08 rating for
faculty/staff (“3” indicates a ranking of “moderate” on a scale where “1” equates to
“not at all” and “5” equates to “very high”). On the student survey, the lowest rated
item was the question asking how UNI helped them examine their own personal
reasons for getting a college education (3.04).
Performance Indicator 8.3 Rationale asks the question to what degree does the
campus effectively communicate its rationale for the following three areas:
Required courses
Required competencies
Requirements for entry into majors
The core curriculum at UNI is the Liberal Arts Core. The campus committee
charged with oversight of the Liberal Arts Core has made considerable effort to
communicate the rationale for a required general education to students; however,
the rationale could be communicated more effectively to faculty, as mentioned
above. Among the examples of competencies enumerated in this performance
indicator, only writing skills are systematically addressed, and this is through the
College Writing and Research course in the Liberal Arts Core that most first-year
students take. The requirements for entry into the major areas are addressed in
numerous areas including academic advising and the various introductory courses
for the majors.
The student and faculty/staff surveys also provided some information in how these
constituencies perceive the delivery of information related to the rationale for these
three areas. The highest rating on both the student (3.81) and faculty/staff (3.47)
survey was for the question related to how the University helped students
understand the value of higher education for future employment. The second
highest rating on both surveys (3.80 for students and 3.04 for faculty/staff) was for
the question about how the University helped students understand the value of
higher education for their own personal growth.
Conclusions
After careful examination of the Evidence Library and the survey results, the
committee was able to confirm that there is no consistent message on the campus
that articulates to students the broad roles and purposes of higher education.
Opportunities exist within existing campus structures such as the Liberal Arts
Core, new student orientation programs, residence life programs, new faculty
orientation, and ongoing faculty development programs, to incorporate roles and
purposes statements into the fabric of the undergraduate, especially first-year,
student experience.
The committee discussed at length the discrepancy between student survey
responses and faculty/staff survey responses to the question of how college can help
the student achieve life goals. Many members of the committee felt that this
particular survey question is misleading, since the evidence suggests that the
students identify future employment as their life goal while the faculty and staff are
more likely to have interpreted the question to mean learning for purposes beyond
future employment. It is the assessment of the committee that UNI is performing
at a high level in communicating the aspects of higher education related to future
employment, but is performing at a lower level in communicating the role of higher
education in learning for personal growth, engaged citizenship, and in learning for
serving the public good.
Opportunities and Challenges
Most first-year students coming to UNI have some college credits, but may not have
been exposed to any Roles and Purposes information in those college credit courses.
Coupled with this is increasing pressure at the State level to increase the amount of
college credits that a high school student might obtain before their graduation.
Approximately one-third of incoming new students are transfers direct from other
colleges or universities. Many of these students will have completed the majority of
their LAC courses elsewhere, and will not be exposed to the Roles and Purposes
information to which first-year students should be exposed.
There are many opportunities in place for students to fulfill most of the ideals of the
Roles and Purposes dimension, however, there appear to be few if any direct
opportunities for students to examine systematically their motivation and goals
with regard to higher education in general and to their UNI experience. There is
also no unified Roles and Purposes statement or philosophy for UNI which could
guide this exploration.
Major initiatives that are impending at UNI, such as the revision of the
institutional strategic plan and the ongoing HLC accreditation process, offer an
opportunity to incorporate a unified Roles and Purposes statement across the
institution.
Recommended Grade: C
Recommended Action Items
1. Develop a Roles and Purposes Statement for the University. (High Priority)
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The university should develop a clearly articulated statement of roles and
purposes for higher education at UNI.
The drafting of this statement should be an inclusive process, involving
representation from the entire University community, alumni and the
community at large.
The statement should also be consistently communicated and incorporated in
all University publications and settings.
The statement should directly address first-year student needs.
2. Develop a Faculty Development Program which incorporates broad first-year
student information and specific Roles and Purposes information. (High
Priority)
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The university should create a program of ongoing faculty development
related to first-year students in areas such as Roles and Purposes, core
competencies, the LAC purposes and goals, and resources on campus. (high
priority)
This is particularly important for faculty who teach Category I LAC courses,
and for faculty who are new to UNI.
Concomitantly, it is important that the faculty reward system recognize and
prize faculty teaching of first-year students.
3. Incorporate Roles and Purposes information in course syllabi. (Medium
Priority)
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The university should develop a template for course syllabi that incorporates
roles and purposes in the goals, objectives, and outcomes for each course.
In order to do this for the LAC courses, where it is perhaps most relevant, it
is necessary that the Roles and Purposes of the LAC be clearly defined.
4. Develop opportunities for students to explore both the general Roles and
Purposes of higher education, and their own personal motivation for pursuing
higher education. (Medium Priority)
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The university should develop systematic opportunities for students to
examine their motivation and goals with regards to higher education in
programs such as Orientation, Residential Life, and the LAC.
The development of a First Year Experience is of critical importance, and the
Roles and Purposes component should be featured in any First Year
Experience program which is developed as a result of this self-assessment.
The University should investigate the use of e-portfolios as a tool through
which Roles and Purposes information can be communicated, and through
which students can personally process this information in an intentional way.
Roles and Purposes Dimension Feedback
University of Northern Iowa
Betsy Griffin, Policy Center Advisor
Remember the purpose of this feedback is to give you an outsider’s reaction and
reflection on your report. Obviously, there is institutional context and detail of
which I am unaware. The questions are for the purpose of promoting thought and
discussion among your Task Force. You don’t need to respond to me or to do
anything in particular in regards to them.
I’ll provide feedback in the order of the report to make it easier to follow.
You reviewed an impressive array of documents for your dimension.
Current Situation
8.1 These institution values at least provide a basis that could be
communicated to the students. In regards to the first-year level LAC courses
when you say they were inconsistent in presenting roles an purposes, do you
mean some did and some didn’t or that they communicated different things? It
seems that Academic Advising and DOR are model departments in many areas.
Good analysis.
8.2 The LAC efforts do provide an avenue that reaches all the students
because of the required courses. If LAC faculty were in the picture the
messages could really have impact.
8.3 I am curious if you discovered any discrepancies in the ways that majors
addressed the reasons for their requirements. In my experience some majors
pay more attention to this than others and instructors of introductory courses
are even more variable especially in areas where adjuncts teach many sections
of the intro courses.
You may be right on the different interpretations of “life goals” may students
may have limited their thoughts to career goals.
Opportunities and Challenges
With the high level of transfer from dual credit and other institutions it may be
difficult to count on LAC courses alone to communicate roles and purposes.
Recommendations
The recommendations are appropriate and well stated.
Having a clear statement for the university is a logical prerequisite for
communicating it to the students.
Faculty members are a key to effectively communicating the roles and
purposes. They have more ongoing opportunities to reinforce what may easily
be forgotten in publications or orientation sessions.
Overall, this is a succinct presentation of the situation and potential actions.