FACULTY SENATE
12/5/14-McTarnaghan
Academic Policy Development
Mission and Strategic Plan
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Assessment of Goals and Objectives
Who Are and Should be Our Clients?
Balance in Teaching/Research/Service
Effectiveness and Efficiency in our Resources
How to Best Serve Students
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Development of Enrollment Plan
Work with Feeder Institutions
Establish Reasonable Admission Standards
Support Face to Face and On-Line Delivery
Systems
• Serve full and part-time students
• Time in Place and Competency Assessment
Focus on “Hot Button” State Policies
• Time to Degree:
• Many states pressure schools to show
improvement in 4 and 6 yr. graduation rates
• This relates to full-time undergraduates
• Has there been pressure to avoid serving parttime and adult citizens?
Time to Degree (cont’d)
• Summer Board of Governors mtg. critical of
FGCU’s record
• BOG’s belief expressed that FGCU’s admission
standards too weak
• BOG expressed policy was to lower enrollment
plan, forcing higher admission standards, thus
improving time to degree
• BOG staff requested FGCU to submit revised
enrollment plan-it was done
Excess Credit Hours
• Another measurement by state, originally
focused on 120 unit max for BA/BS degrees
• One hypothesis holds that changing majors, thus
adding credits to degree, is inefficient
• Another hypothesis holds that penalizing
universities for excess credits will force
compliance with the 120 unit goal
• These “productivity” measures limit student
exploration of courses in the college experience
Institutional Policy Questions
• Are our admissions standards too weak?
• Are we doing a proper job advising and
scheduling our full-time students?
• What should our philosophy be with respect
to an enrollment plan serving both full-time
and part-time students?
• How can we best use our resources in serving
on-campus and off-campus students?
Look at Some Present Policies
• What is the rationale for advising first term
freshmen to limit enrollment to 12 credits?
• If we know some lower division students can’t
register for courses in sequence, why don’t we
consider a student demand schedule based upon
data driven from pre-registration?
• What support is given, or rewards, that enable
students to accelerate, take competency exams,
graduate in three years?
• Do we permit programs that exceed 120 credits?
What Can We Do-Internally?
• Build academic schedule via Pre-Registration
• Avoid advising all but weakest freshmen to
limit of 12 credits
• Encourage brightest students to accelerate
• Use Academic Common Market-Southern
Regional Education Board-www.sreb.org
Whose Responsibility-Part-Time
Students
• Consider FGCU’s original mission:
• “Part time students are the fastest growing
population in higher education, comprising nearly
half of all students enrolled. Between 1970 and
1991 in the United States, part-time enrollments
increased by 122% compared with 38% for fulltime enrollments. To accommodate this growing
population, the University will offer a Weekend
College Program in selected degree programs.”
Part-Time (cont’d)
• At the time FGCU opened, it was estimated
that using both on-campus and on-line
delivery, the academically qualified part-time
potential statewide unserved student
population exceeded 500,000.
• At that time, the existing 9 SUS universities
produced over 90% of their credit hours in a
Monday-Thursday schedule
Part-Time (Cont’d)
• What has happened in the BOG enrollment
planning to accommodate P.T. students?
• What happened at FGCU to move away from
serving P.T. students, and to emulate the 4-day
academic schedule which was the norm for the
other state universities?
• Shouldn’t the taxpaying citizens, working M-F,
desiring to continue improving skills, be
considered co-participants with 18-24 year olds
who wish to attend full-time in building an
enrollment plan?
What is the State’s Vision?
• With respect to enrollment growth, we observe
pressure from the Governor, also expressed via
the BOG, to restrict building projects which would
be self-funding via bond issues.
• We observe the BOG using the hammer of Timeto-Degree and Excess Credit Hours, forcing
downward revisions of our enrollment plan.
• Do these actions reflect an appreciation of
student interests, application demand, employers
seeking in-service options for workers?
Vision (Cont’d)
• Any cost-benefit analysis would show that to increase medical
school graduates by 100, or 400, it is infinitely less expensive to add
spaces in an existing school than to start a new medical school.
• Many similar examples, demonstrate that political power, rather
than rational distribution of educational resources, is becoming the
order of the day.
• The new constitutional board was to moderate political influence in
university decisions, yet, recent appointments to BOG have come
with commitments to the Governor to limit building programs,
enrollment growth, etc.
• Several recent university presidential appointments have been to
former political leaders. As some long-term financial supporters of
the party in power have told me, “our team won the election, and
we deserve the top positions in the university system.”
My Request to Senate
• Pick a few of the really important educational
policy issues-debate them openly-bring them to
the Board of Trustees and let the light of the
press shine upon them
• Don’t let the “top-down” student scheduling
scenario contribute to student inability to get
proper courses on time.
• Don’t let state political leadership focus on
limiting student access via enrollment plan
squeeze, and hurt future generations of citizens.