SOUTH PLAINS COLLEGE
Institutional Effectiveness Committee
April 13, 2012
9:00 a.m. – Sundown Room
MINUTES
Members Present: Billy Alonzo, Christi Anderson, Rob Blair, Sharon Bogener, Debra Britton,
Julie Gerstenberger, Rebecca Graves, Kara Martinez, Mollie Melton, Cathy Mitchell, Yancy
Nunez, Gary Poffenbarger, Randy Robertson, Lance Scott, Amanda Sims, Dawn Valles, Jack
Warldow, Myrna Whitehead, Alan Worley and Stephen John.
Members Absent: Cary Banks, Urisonya Flunder, Joseph Kline, Sue Ann Lopez, Robert Plant,
Lynda Reid, Jim Walker.
The meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m. Minutes of the January 20, 2012 meeting,
distributed earlier by email, were presented for approval. Motion by Jack Wardlow to accept
minutes by consensus. Motion seconded by Cathy Mitchell.
The following agenda items were taken up.
Supervisors Network – LeadSPC
Rafael Aguilera reported that a professional development workshop for instructional and
administrative supervisors will be held April 27 from 9:30 -11:30 a.m. in SS101. Randy Anderson
with E3 Professional Trainers will present a “Life Plan” session. Email invitations have been
sent out to all supervisory personnel.
Institutional Research and Data Subcommittee
Jack Wardlow reported that although his subcommittee has not met since last fall, progress is
being made with reviewing data fields and cleaning up student databases. Committee members
discussed collecting race and ethnicity information from students. The THECB recently adopted
the federal census race and ethnicity guidelines, which asks students to identify their ethnicity
first and then their race. The new categories appear to be causing confusion for students as a
significant number are not providing ethnicity and race information. Recent THECB
accountability system data is indicating this confusion and non-response by students. Strategies
need to be implemented for collecting and verifying race and ethnicity information through
additional means. Committee members discussed several options, including using prompts on
CampusConnect when students access their personal accounts.
Wardlow also reported on the THECB’s plan to calculate “momentum points” as a means for
providing state funding based on student success outcomes. The point system will be based on
tracking a cohort of first-time-in-college students. It will become important for the college to
record “student intent” accurately as part of this process. The question was posed if student
intent was a part of information collected on CampusConnect. Rob Blair said student intent is
collected from the Application for Admission as well as within CampusConnect. He also stated
that for Perkins Measures reporting it is important that the major codes for students be captured
and verified. Committee members discussed the need for students to earn an associate degree
and then transfer as a means to generate “momentum points.” Cathy Mitchell reported that
work in underway to clean up the degree audit feature of CampusConnect and make it more
functional for student and advisor use.
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TaskStream AMS Implementation Update
John reported that at the IE Committee’s last meeting, a suggestion was made to develop
templates that would help planners organize content outside the online TaskStream
environment. Templates were developed and distributed to planners Feb. 2. Copies of the
templates were also provided to IE Committee members. Feedback on the use of the templates
has been limited, but those who are using them say they are helpful.
John also reported that the Annual Program Review Report template was developed and
approved by the Executive Council Jan. 23. It was distributed to the Administrative Council for
review and following a comment period, it was sent to unit planners to report major
assessments conducted within the past year and recommendations for improvement that may
or may not have a budget impact. Use of the report for the Annual Program Review Hearings
March 1-2 was inconsistent. John is working with the Deans to get all unit planners to submit
the report. The report will be used as documentation that planning is integrated and systematic
and that recommendations are being reviewed by the executive administration in preparing
budget and updating institutional plans.
Mission Statement Evaluation Subcommittee
Jack Wardlow, Kara Martinez, Robert Plant, Randy Robertson and Becky Graves volunteered at
the last meeting to serve on this ad hoc committee. This subcommittee has not had the
opportunity to meet because of other projects. A list of constituents who will be invited to
participate in the survey is presently being compiled. Plans are to launch the survey by the end
of April. Christi Anderson, Lance Scott and Dawn Valles volunteered to serve on the
subcommittee.
SACS Orientation Meeting Report
John reported that SACS/COC held its orientation session for two-year institutions undergoing
reaffirmation of accreditation in 2014 on January 30 in Atlanta. The session was attended by
Cathy Mitchell, Stephen John, Tony Riley and Teresa Green. The group heard from Dr. Belle
Wheelen, President of SACS/COC. She reported that the primary challenges for colleges
include: full-time faculty per program, faculty credentials, and institutional effectiveness. The
reaffirmation process is an opportunity to show off what we do well and to assess and improve.
The Compliance Certification Report looks at the quality of the institution and the Quality
Enhancement Plan looks at student learning. The team also attended individual work sessions
in student services, business and financial reports and institutional effectiveness. The group also
met Dr. Steven Sheeley, SACS/COC liaison. The college’s on-site committee review has been
scheduled for Oct. 15-17, 2013.
QEP Progress Report
Gary Poffenbarger, QEP co-chair, presented a timeline for preparing the college’s QEP. The
steering committee is conducting focus groups. A faculty-staff focus group follows this IE
Committee meeting (April 13). So far, the committee has seen consistency in the topics that are
being offered for the plan. Lubbock community constituents will participate in a focus group
session on April 17 at the BMATC. Several student focus group sessions are also pending.
Poffenbarger reported that the data and input gathering for the topic selection has been a
dynamic process.
Compliance Certification Audit
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John reported that there have been several small group meetings with deans and
Administrative Council to clarify our understanding of the compliance requirements.
Documentation that is available to support a case for compliance is being identified and
updated. SACS/COC released its revised Resource Manual for the Principles of Accreditation a
week ago. The resource manual has been distributed to the Administrative Council for review
and was discussed in a recent meeting. The resource manual will be posted to MySPC under the
Institutional Effectiveness link. John also said that compliance coordinators have been identified
for all core requirements, comprehensive standards and federal requirements. A template is
being developed that will be used by compliance report writers to submit rough drafts of
compliance cases. John said several options are also being investigated on how the college will
compile its CCR and present it to the off-site committee for review. Cathy Mitchell is presently
reviewing three North Carolina Colleges as a member of an off-site committee.
2010-11 Institutional Effectiveness Performance Report
IE Committee members were presented copies of the 2010-11 Institutional Effectiveness
Performance Report. John reported that data was available for 55 of the performance
benchmarks. Of these benchmarks, the college met or exceeded the standards on 44 of the
measures for an overall performance rating of 80%. For the remaining 15 performance measures
for which we did not have new data to report in 2010-11, the most recent data available
indicated the college met or exceeded the benchmarks for these measures.
Areas that we need to monitor and take action on are:
 Graduation and Persistence of First-Time, Full-Time Students
 Licensure Exam Passage – 90% benchmark and placement rates for come of our technical
programs.
 Student Diversity—made notable progress in the last year and this fall semester.
 Retention/persistence of FTIC students
 Acquisition of public/private support – grants and contributors to the Foundation
 Employee Diversity
The report has been distributed by email to all instructional and administrative leadership and
the report action plans were recently reviewed by the Administrative Council.
Support Services Survey
The Results and Analysis Report for the Support Services Survey was distributed to committee
members. Directors of the administrative support areas have met and have reviewed the results.
The group has also discussed how they will incorporate the results into their planning and
assessment workspaces in TaskStream. Recommended benchmarks set for the survey
statements are the same as the Employee Survey: arithmetic mean greater than 3.5 and
percentage agreement greater than 70 percent. Composite means for all service areas exceeded
the 3.5 benchmark.
Employee Survey
The biennial Employee Survey opened March 26. To date, 218 employees have responded to the
survey. The goal is to get at least 60% of the current employee workforce to participate, which
would be 342 employees. Committee members were asked to encourage their co-workers to
participate.
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Announcements
Mitchell reported that the Student Affairs Division had launched an online student services
survey and that 200 students have participated to date.
With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 10:00 a.m.
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