Student Success Team Meeting

June 28, 2006

Members Present: Barbara Centeno, Fred Hample, Steve Wilkerson, Lawrence Williams, Barbara Smith and Ysabel Trinidad 1. Identified Chair and Secretary Chair-Steve Wilkerson Secretary-Barbara Smith 2. Dialoged about Task of Committee and general information * Graduation Rates Target * Steve will forward a matrix with regards to retention, Freshman and graduation rates * Student Success: o 40,000 projected enrollment (85% Undergraduate, 15% Graduate) o Things to engage student more to stay and finish o What Programs or Programming pieces do we have/still need o Points of Intervention (What barriers are students hitting) o Strategies to look at barrier that prevent students from staying and finishing (Barbara Smith will send info from report done by Subcommittee on Student Success in which students identified barriers) * Quality Education (for Freshman-Senior) 3. Brainstorming thoughts/ideas * Need baseline review of existing programs * Degree of success of programs * Developmental Courses * Recognize ECHS Programs * How do we measure success? Earn a degree, Grades * What more can we do with Community Colleges to ensure easy transfer for students * Learning style/Teaching style * Do we establish a Freshman College (like UT) instead of allowing students to declare a major right away * What are the positives and negatives of Learning Communities? * What are some of the External factors we can't control? * What are our assumptions about the future? ? We need to identify what we currently have (programs) and build on it * Need some measures o Freshman to Sophomore Year o Persistence to Degree o Time to Degree o Transfer Students o We graduate a lot but don't have measures. It appears that we need to highlight student other than 1st time Freshman * Define Problem o What Assumptions o What can and can't we control o Benchmarking * Look closely at all our current programs * What is our success of graduate students * Need to look at Freshman: How do we keep the student who keep coming back?, Sophomore Slump, Student involvement on campus, Faculty-mentoring. * Steve Wilkerson will provide at the next meeting some data on the demographics for 10 years from now (Dr. Murdock) * Barbara Centeno will develop a survey to be sent out to UT System Schools We decided that we would all think and look at any data we have and list our Assumptions. (Fred will send national and state reports) 4. Invite others to join group Patricia Glenn and Gerard (Jerry) Dizinno 5. Next meeting-July 13, 2006 from 3:00-5:00 at UH training room. Agenda: 1. Assumptions 2. Identifying what our steps will need to be taken

July 13, 2006

Present: Patricia Glenn, Sam Gonzales, Fred Hample, Kevin Price, Barbara Smith, Steve Wilkerson, Lawrence Williams Absent: Barbara Centeno, Art Vega Agenda Item: Review and approval of Last meeting minutes Discussion: Conclusions: Everyone approved Action items Agenda Item: Internal External Assumptions Discussion: Identified some overall assumptions: Population will be 40,000 (85% Undergraduate, 15% Graduate); Infrastructure; Admission standards will be raised; A&M Campus on Southside, Increase Reputation of the University; Alternative ways of teaching; Growth in the Community Colleges; Students living on campus will continue to increase (20% of students on campus will be in housing); Residential services that we offer will increase (ex: Coffee house, etc); Increasing number of non-native students (not from San Antonio); Push for more classroom space and faculty; Require student to take math 1st and 2nd semester at the University Conclusions: Everyone would review the assumptions and if they think of others then they would be emailed to the secretary to add to the list. Need to learn more about our current programs that support student success in the colleges, etc. Action items: Steve and Larry will look at the programs that support student success. They will email the Associate Deans and get some information to share with the group about what is occurring in the colleges'. Agenda Item: Time Line Discussion: Reviewed draft timeline and what we will be tasked with in the coming months. Conclusions: Everyone supports the timeline Action items: Comments/concerns: For the next meeting: Focus on Finalizing Assumptions, Define Student Success, Focus on Strategic goals and objectives Next meeting date: TBA

August 31, 2006

Present: Dorothy Flannagan, Patricia Glenn, Fred Hample, Kevin Price, Barbara Smith, Deanna White, Steve Wilkerson, Lawrence Williams Absent: Barbara Centeno, Sam Gonzales, Betty Travis, Brian Wallace Agenda Item: New Members- Deanna White & Dorothy Flannagan Discussion: Importance of these additional folks to the team. Conclusions: Welcomed and glad they are able to join the team. Action items: Agenda Item: New information Discussion: Discussed that the size of the university we should consider would be 35,000. Dialoged about the Strategic planning workshop. Steve shared that in the future there will be an accountability member joining this team. Steve also informed us that there will be a Public forus-CMO. Conclusions: Develop a time line and we'll need to meet more often. Action items: Steve will email the web link to the workshop. The team would like to add an undergraduate and graduate student. They would also like to have a Faculty member who graduates Ph. D students on the team. Agenda Item: Draft a group definition of student success/quality education. (1st paragraph of report) Discussion: Many ideas about what the definition should include. Everyone liked Patricia Glenn's with some adding of info. Steve noted the changes and will send out to everyone for review. Conclusions: We have a draft definition of student success/quality education. Draft: Definition of Student Success From an institutional perspective, student success is the provision of instruction, opportunities and resources that allow the greatest number of students to achieve their academic goals. The goals must be consistent with the students' academic abilities, choices, and effort. Students are successful when their abilities and efforts produce progress consonant with academic and personal goals, and students' success usually results in timely graduation, employment, and an enriched intellectual life. A quality education includes opportunities to develop the following skills that support student success: * Writing/Communication - The ability to clearly express one's ideas is a skill common to all disciplines and careers. Writing and oral communication skills are developed by multiple iterative experiences over the course of a student's educational career. * Critical thinking/Problem solving - The ability to locate, evaluate, and synthesize information and to form judgments regarding its validity is a critical skill for the information age. Critical thinking/problem solving skills are developed through learning experiences that require the integration of new ideas with previously held knowledge. * Research - The ability to find answers to questions or problems in a systematic way is a critical skill for broadening our understanding of the world. Research skills can be developed in numerous ways to include but not limited to course assignments, experiential learning, and service learning. Graduate education offers the opportunity to expand this skill by developing a student's capacity to perform independent research. * Collaboration/Interpersonal - The ability to work efficiently and effectively with a diverse array of individuals is a key skill required for success in the expanding the globalization of the world. Interpersonal skills, such as the capability to interact with others in a respectful and harmonious way, to accept responsibilities, and to resolve conflicts, are developed through collaboration and interpersonal skills, developed by collaborative learning experiences, involvement with student organizations, and participating in team sports and activities. Values promoted through a quality education Self-discovery Responsibility Citizenship Life-long learning Action items: We will need to approve at next meeting. Now we will need to focus on the pieces that are critical to decrease the gap and improve student success. Agenda Item: Review Barrier report Discussion: Discussed some key points from report. Identified some keep pieces to keep in mind when looking at student success and ways to measure: Undergraduate-Core Curriculum, Difference of and educated person (2010) vs. 10-15 years ago (Quality), "Signature" experience for their college, Writing Intensity (Writing Experience at beginning and end-Capstone), Job, Career and Major Choice, Interpersonal, Team, Student growth (academically, globally, personally), Personal Strengths (Confidence), Responsible engaged students, Develop Capacity to be life long learners Graduate-Conduct Independent research, Self Directed Learning Conclusions: Action items: Develop Measurable Objective. Comments/concerns: For the next meeting: Identify some measurable objectives. Next meeting date: September 14, 2006 3:00-5:00pm in MB 4.108.

September 14, 2006

September 21, 2006

Present: Dorothy Flannagan, Patricia Glenn, Sam Gonzales, Fred Hample, Wei-Ming Lin, Nancy Martin (new member), Lisa Montoya (new member), Kevin Price, Barbara Smith, Brian Wallace, Steve Wilkerson, Lawrence Williams Absent: Edwin Barea-Rodriguez (new member), Lorena Claeys, Barbara Centeno, Edna Dominguez, Mehdi Shadaram (new member), Betty Travis, Deanna White Agenda Item: Welcome New Members Discussion: Welcomed new members that were present-Wei-Ming Lin, Nancy Martin, and Lisa Montoya. Action items: Agenda Item: Make assignments for portions of the Student Success theme Discussion: Everyone reviewed the areas and dialoged about what was expected. Reviewed the objected and assigned a lead for each one. Conclusions: Objectives: Use the tuition structure & other institutional polices to emphasize & encourage full-time, full-year attendance & time graduation (Lead - Barbara Smith & Patricia Glenn) Provide more systematic feedback on the labor market (Lead - Sam Gonzales) Maintain and develop a focus on student learning outcomes (Lead - Steve Wilkerson) Develop policies for handling remediation (Lead-Larry Williams) Produce more graduates in the "STEM" disciplines at all degree levels (bachelors, graduate, professional.) The production of more highly trained teachers in science and mathematics, particularly at the secondary level, is also a critical need. (Lead - Edwin Barea-Rodriguez, Mehdi Shadaram-Pending) Improving Graduate Education and the Postdoctoral Experience (Lead - Dorothy Flanagan) Action items: The lead will collect everyone's objectives and tactics for each area. The team will review the draft of the objectives and tactics at the 9/28 meeting. Next meeting date: September 28, 2006 3:00-5:00pm. Location TBA.

September 18, 2006

Present: Edwin Barea-Rodriguez, Lorena Claeys, Barbara Centeno, Edna Dominguez, Dorothy Flannagan, Sam Gonzales, Fred Hample, Nancy Martin, Lisa Montoya, Barbara Smith, Brian Wallace, Deanna White, Steve Wilkerson, Lawrence Williams Absent: Patricia Glenn , Wei-Ming Lin , Kevin Price, Mehdi Shadaram, Betty Travis Agenda Item: Update from the Strategic Planning Reunion Retreat Discussion: Steve and others share updates from the retreat Agenda Item: Objectives and tactics Discussion: Every lead shared the objectives and tactics that their group developed. From the sharing of these a lot of dialog occurred concerning perspective of student success (Character traits, Graduation, Students that don't have values for success), assumptions and challenges. We discussed the need/our responsibility to develop work-study students, grade repeat policy, etc. Conclusions: Action items: Everyone will forward copies of the objectives and tactics to Steve. Members will also send Steve things that need to be addressed which we have not mentioned that will affect us. Next meeting date: October 5, 2006 3:00-5:00pm. Location TBA.

October 5, 2006

Present: Edwin Barea-Rodriguez, Edna Dominguez, Dorothy Flannagan, Patricia Glenn, Sam Gonzales, Wei-Ming Lin, Nancy Martin, Kevin Price, Barbara Smith, Brian Wallace, Deanna White, Steve Wilkerson, Lawrence Williams Absent: Lorena Claeys, Barbara Centeno, Fred Hample, Lisa Montoya, Mehdi Shadaram, Betty Travis Agenda Item: Review and Update Student Success Strategic Theme Draft Discussion: Various discussions occurred concerning the document setup and some items were deleted. Conclusions: A lot of good discussion and comments were made and changes made to the draft document. Action items: Steve will send the revised Draft to Deanna so she can edit and next week the team will review and finalize. Next meeting date: October 12, 2006 3:00-5:00pm. Location TBA.

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