2015-1016 Report on
Faculty Congress’ Student Success and Admissions Committee
Faith Mishina served as the Chair of the Faculty Congress’ Student Success and
Admissions Committee as this was her second year fulfilling the two term requirement
for the Chair of FC Student Success and Admissions Committee. The committee
membership changed for this year as the committee morphed into two directions. One
subgroup committee took on the Task Force on Advising while another subgroup
worked through the directives from the State of Hawaii for Prior Learning Assessment.
The two committees were run simultaneously with two separate memberships.
The work of the Task Force on Advising:
On August 24, 2015, the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, the Interim Vice
Chancellor for Student Affairs and the Chair of Faculty Congress formally charged the
Faculty Congress’ Student Success and Admission Committee with a directive to
explore and recommend the “most appropriate plan for UH Hilo” to improve student
advising. As UH Hilo did not have a formal model for advising like many academic
institutions, we were charged to create a model that would span the diverse schools and
divisions of UH Hilo.
In early August, I consulted with the Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and
Kainoa Ariola in the attempt to understand the freshmen advisors’ position on advising
at UH Hilo. Then I selected the faculty Task Force to represent the various schools and
divisions. One freshman advisor was added to the Task Force both for supplying
information and integrative purposes. The Task Force members were selected because
of their reputations for being strong advisors by colleagues in their academic units.
The objectives behind this Task Force were to improve student retention and to
encourage faster graduation rates as well as select an appropriate model for advising.
We were to propose a timeline for implementation and motions endorsing a campus
wide plan for advising.
The Task Force on Advising met every other Monday during the Fall Semester of
2015. I proposed that the Chair of the Task Force be someone with considerable
advising experience. Cheryl Ramos was elected as the Chair of the Task Force, and I
became an active Ex Oficio. Specific faculty were consulted to expand the committee’s
understanding of key issues. There was a significant review of the literature on advising
and the methods for assessing advising. This was followed by a study of the history of
advising at UHH. We broke down the patterns in each of the divisions, we reviewed the
past motions of Congress on advising and the Fall 2013 Orientation Feedback which
reflected both student reaction to advising and the observations of participating faculty.
A fall 2015 faculty poll on the problems of advising was administered. The committee
paid particular attention to the areas of strong complaints or “pukas” in our system.
In addition to the meetings, the reading of the literature, and frequent outside
consultations with other faculty, Cheryl and I met weekly to put our heads together to
implement suggestions and solutions.
The Task Force ended its analysis in December, and I presented the report with 14
points to address the most grievous faculty and student complaints concerning advising
to the Faculty Congress along with 4 motions to introduce the proposed model for
advising. All four motions passed and were acknowledged by the Chancellor. Please
see the motions passed in Faculty Congress for Fall of 2015 for more detail.
One class dispensation was given to the Chair of Student Success to create and
accomplish the goals of the Task Force on Advising. When the FC Student Success
and Admissions Committee is given a Task Force or such a mandate, the class
dispensation is necessary. I spent more time on this Task Force than I would have
preparing, teaching and grading a class.
The members of the Advising Task Force were:
● Kekoa Harman (Ka Haka `Ula O Ke`elikōlani)
● Patrick Hart (Natural Sciences)
● Terrance Jalbert (Business)
● Cheryl Ramos (Social Sciences), Chair
● Bruce Mathews (Agriculture)
● Christopher Lauer (Humanities)
● Jodilyn Kunimoto (Advising representative)
● Faith Mishina (exofficio), Vice Chair of Congress
The Directives from the State on Prior Learning Assessment
The Prior Learning Assessment Committee of 2014-15 had fallen apart due to lack of
leadership. So the other subgroup of the FC Student Success undertook two of the
objectives of the State of Hawaii for Prior Learning Assessment, one for fall, one for
spring.
In Fall of 2015, the subgroup became four members as one member could no longer
serve. Again, I nominated Mahealani Jones to be the Chair of this group as she has
had her fingers on the pulse of Admissions and had considerably more knowledge
about the necessary details. We undertook the reevaluation of the AP exams and credit
given to entering freshmen. The tests were divided by department. Each of the four of
us took a quarter of the list, and we consulted face-to-face with the department chairs
about the on-going relevance of the exam to the credits offered. In many cases, there
were adjustments in the attempt to align the credits given with Manoa’s standards. By
December of 2015, all AP exams and credits had been reviewed and adjusted. The
department chairs signed off on the adjustments.
In the Spring of 2016, this subgroup undertook the definition and creation of an
academic portfolio which could receive academic credits. The literature of other
universities’ understanding of portfolios was studied. The conditions, the structure and
the contents of such a portfolio were described to conform to the State of Hawaii
standards of Prior Assessment. The proposed definition was given to the Vice
Chancellor of Academic Affairs and reported to the Faculty Congress in May 2016.
The membership of this subgroup of the FC’s Student Success and Admissions
included:




Mahealani Jones, chair
Mary Louise Haraguchi
Donna O’Hara
Faith Mishina