Department Chairs Council meeting minutes
Thurs. November 7, 2013
Attendance: Carl Sjovold, Marisa Agnew, Kevin Clark, Bill Doonan, Kimberly McDaniel, Robin
Roffey, Mari Carmen Garcia, Amy Strimling, Daniel Styer, Jon Zeh, Mel Duvall, Lonnie Larson,
Debra Crumpton, Michael Hunter, Chris Seddon, Jeff Karlsen, Beth Forrester, Melissa Fellman,
Kris Janssen, Kim Goff, Diane Belair, Grace Austin, Susan Griffin, Barbara Toupadakis, Dianne
Heimer, Larry Johnson, John Polagruto, Daniel O’Neil, Michael Poindexter, Mary Turner, Chris
Daubert.
Michael Poindexter explained that this initiative is intended to help our students by inviting
faculty become more involved in the advisement process. It is based on the Student Success
Act. Many things that have been mandated by this act have already been taking place at SCC.
There is also a requirement for documentation of this work being done. Students were actively
involved in creating suggestions for helping their own success, eg. Education Plans, repeat
rules, etc.
Kris Janssen: First-time students who don’t complete orientation, assessment (in Math,
English, Reading and ESL) or see a counselor during their first semester will lose their
enrollment priority and face open registration for classes. This all ultimately has an impact on
funding as well.
Chris responded to a faculty question about being assigned a faculty “mentor” that would
provide guidance by indicating such an effort was welcome.
She also reported about students’ desire to know about their careers of interest in greater
depth, such as what might be told by faculty who share their own experiences in the process of
getting there.
Kim Goff: The new student orientation will be district-wide and online in Fall 2014 [on D2L]. It
is a 20-30 minute process and requires authentication by students logging on. The current
orientations run about an hour. The orientation videos for this new process will be closedcaptioned. Here at SCC, we are developing mechanisms to be more personal with our students
alongside this online orientation process – being committed to having groups of students here
physically rather than solely online.
There are other means of assessment for students, e.g. AP scores, to avoid their losing out on
priority registration. A question was raised on whether or not assessment involves measuring
students’ computer skills.
Faculty are requested to be part of the communication process to share this information with
students. Currently, there are check lists on Eservices as students log on and register for their
courses.
Kim spoke about her earlier initiative about allowing departments to contact students majoring
in their field, e.g. sending a department-created form letter. It is intended for all students, new
or continuing. She is also willing to facilitate other contact options, like a Department Open
Houses. The Outreach program is flexible in its approaches to contact students, eg. Allied
Health’s folding business card that showcases the earnings of people in that field.
Diane Belair: questioned those in attendance about how we provide follow-up and
communicate with students on a level broader than just teaching our subject area. What do we
see our role as in this process?
Some faculty feedback was provided: one suggestion made was to provide students with a brief
survey once the semester gets underway. Another thought was presented regarding the
intended use of our next SCC website [specifically within departments] to share this information
with students. A suggestion was made to include this information on the student roster page.
Many issues surround the status of “undeclared” major (including financial aid) – while about
900 out of 5000 new students are “undeclared” majors. ISEPs (Individual Student Educational
Plans) are only able to be created by counselors, though students are guided on use of “My
Planner” as part of their Eservices account. Another faculty discussed how he helps students
develop an Educational Plan in Engineering.
Danny O’Neil, from the Student Senate, indicated some personal case examples of students’
real experiences about orientation/enrollment, etc. The new 1440 degrees will provide a good
opportunity to incorporate this information. He would also like to see if Student Senate could
provide a stance on this information as well. That idea was well-received by several faculty.
Mary Turner indicated that the student success efforts and messages discussed are consistent
throughout the state, while campuses enact these in slightly different ways.
Michael Poindexter indicated that students have also been called and emailed by the campus
as well as having information provided on Twitter and Facebook in order to have this
information provided to them.
Chris, Kim and Diane will be attending an upcoming department meeting with History and
Political Science to figure out what is best for their departments in meeting these obligations
and providing for their students. Carl suggested that other departments may wish to do the
same.