The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
The Undergraduate Educational Policy and Curriculum Committee
Minutes
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Attending:
Mary Adamek; Helena Dettmer (chair); Sarah Fagan; Denise Filios; Kenneth
Gayley; Kathryn Hall (staff); Mackenzie Hasley; Timothy Havens; Michel
Laronde; Sarah Larsen
Excused:
Ed Folsom; Shaun Vecera
1. Emil Rinderspacher, Director of the Office of Admissions, and Eric Page, Director,
Admissions, External Relations and Communication, updated the committee on the
Office of Admissions’ strategic plan. Many changes are underway in recruitment and
enrollment management. Currently, the University of Iowa is hiring an Associate Vice
President for Enrollment Management, a new position reporting to the President and
overseeing strategic enrollment management and the offices of Admissions and
Financial Aid. The new Associate Vice President also will provide leadership for
campus-wide marketing. The University has been marketing very specialized
programs, such as athletics or health care at UIHC, but more strategic long-term
planning and marketing are now required. To help with strategic enrollment planning
and management, the company Art and Science has been hired to review data
concerning financial aid and scholarship awards to see how the funds can best be
distributed. UI now uses a “first-come first-served” model which may not allow funds
to go to those with the highest need or with the best qualifications. The company will
also analyze price since Iowa in recent years has become expensive for out-of-state
students as compared to the prices of other institutions. Art and Science will be
interviewing faculty and staff to discover UI’s unique strengths as a first step for
creating outreach strategies. The University has also recently hired a new data
analyst to help collect and analyze data related to enrollment management, with that
hire to be announced shortly.
Emil Rinderspacher next addressed current admissions numbers for Fall 2014, with
the CLAS count of first-semester first-year students at 3,811, up from the Fall 2013
figure of 3,738 students. The numbers have increased in every undergraduate
college except for the College of Nursing, which has very selective admission
standards and an intentionally small cohort.
This fall, a very strong class has been recruited, including a larger percentage of
entering students with higher ACT scores and stronger GPAs. Domestic minority
admissions are now at 19%, and admissions of international students has also
grown. International students admitted conditionally through the Iowa Intensive
English Program are not counted as enrolled at UI, making the true international
student population higher than it first might appear.
Goals for Fall 2015 include around 400-500 additional students, with Admissions
aiming for around 250 more Iowa residents, 150 domestic out-of-state students, and
around 100 international students. Engineering and Business are planning for
growth; in CLAS, programs related to the health sciences are seeing greater student
demand.
Admissions is implementing these recruiting goals using a number of new strategies.
For example, additional recruiters have been hired to serve Western Iowa, the
Chicago area, California, and China. Undergraduate colleges have also been adding
recruiters to facilitate collegiate involvement and to create additional outreach
strategies. A new campus-wide committee, CURI (Committee for Undergraduate
Recruitment Initiatives) has been established to help create campus-wide
involvement with recruiting and to consult on strategies and projects.
Admissions is hosting a campus-wide open house on October 25 called You@UI, with
the undergraduate colleges, faculty, and staff participating. More than 2,000 guests
are expected at the all-day event. Other outreach strategies include infusing the
academic message into all outreach materials; personalizing messages to students
by involving faculty and administrators; and creating an online campus-visit
scheduler that includes all departments and programs so that students may select a
departmental visit day and time online. To help personalize campus visits, many UI
colleges and departments are hiring students to function as ambassadors to greet
future students, to answer questions, and to share their own stories of how they
came to UI and how they discovered a major, social groups, and meaningful
activities.
Eric Page noted that outreach strategies also include experimenting with social
media and online messages versa print materials, with personalized emails proving
to be very effective. Helping students to see that a large institution can feel small
and personable while offering endless opportunities is important. The faculty
members’ involvement in last spring’s email campaign was helpful and very
successful.
The committee had a number of questions, particularly involving how to plan for a
growing class size, with members wondering if there would be enough classrooms
and lab space for the projected enrollments, and if this data could help support
better curricular planning. Emil Rinderspacher reminded the group that even though
Admissions is now receiving more applications than last year and more acceptances,
these numbers are not firm until generally late spring when students settle on their
final choice of school. Many students apply to multiple schools and wait to see
scholarship and financial aid offers before making a commitment. This can make
institutional planning challenging, not only for the number of seats needed in classes
but also for residence hall space. The Regents will also be examining the RAI
[Regents Admission Index] on the recommendation of Deloitte, particularly looking
at the high school ranking factor since many high schools no longer rank, making
this part of the index less relevant. A decision by the Regents on this matter will
have additional recruiting implications.
Helena Dettmer reminded the group that a campus-wide committee is meeting to
explore space-related concerns and to prepare for more students but that much
remains to be done.
2. The minutes from September 18 were discussed and approved with minor
corrections.
3. The committee further discussed the implications of CLAS enrollments and the new
funding model focused on credit-hour counts. Members wondered why credit hours
in CLAS were dropping if student enrollments had increased. There are many
reasons, including the enforcement of Federal credit-hour guidelines; student
interest in programs outside of the College; increased summer offerings; students
taking fewer credit hours in their first semester; changes in offerings and course
popularity; and other reasons. Departments with insight into specific cases should
contact Helena Dettmer or Raúl Curto. Meanwhile, enrollments in programs outside
of CLAS should be analyzed to see what effect student choices have on CLAS
semester-hour counts.
4. The meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Timothy Havens, Associate Professor,
Department of Communication Studies and of African American Studies
Secretary, Undergraduate Educational Policy and Curriculum Committee