"Academically Speaking"

October 28, 2009:  The past month has disappeared more quickly than in recent memory, perhaps because so many exciting initiatives are beginning to take form.  A quick run-down follows.  More details are being posted on a regular basis on the Provost’s website:  http://www.angelo.edu/dept/aaffairs/initiatives_2009-2010.html

• The Academic Plan and the Strategic Plan are on their way to President Rallo for his review.  When I receive his comments and complete the final edits, I’ll make a campus announcement so that everyone can review both plans.  I’m releasing them together because I’ve maintained since my arrival at ASU that the academic plan is the centerpiece of the overall strategic plan, so you’ll see the interconnectedness when you review both documents together.
• On Friday, October 30, several members of the ASU community travel to Boerne, TX, to officially announce our satellite offerings there.  Through the efforts of Dr. Brian May (Dean of Graduate Studies), Dr. John Miazga (Dean of the College of Education) and Dr. Leslie Mayrand (Dean of the College of Nursing and Allied Health), and with the leadership of the outstanding faculty who provide the classes, ASU will be offering programs in nursing and education as of January 2010.  ASU has also hired a full-time recruiter/coordinator for the Boerne initiative.
• When you see Sara Weertz and Nancy Allen, congratulate them on a job well done.  This week, ASU’s first general-use tutoring center opened.  The tutoring center complements the excellent work done by the writing center, the math lab, and the accounting lab in its provision of tutoring for several additional disciplines.   Located in Texan  Hall and Centennial Village (thanks to the support of Connie Frazier in Residence Life), these satellite centers already have a steady flow of traffic.  The tutoring center is part of our overall effort to establish additional services and support to aid our students in achieving academic success.
• All your comments from the recent Recruitment and Retention Summits have been reviewed by the members of the Student Support and Retention Council, who’ve prioritized them into a list that I’ll in turn use to create a retention plan.  Many thanks for all your submittals.
• Faculty:  the template for summer school stipends will be made available via the web during the week of November 2.
• The proposal to hire a consulting firm to develop a faculty salary study was pulled from the Board of Regents agenda.  Therefore, we’re working on a process to complete the salary study using an in-house committee of faculty and staff.  As soon as the committee is confirmed, I’ll post the particulars on the Provost’s website.
• The aforementioned Student Support and Retention Council has a new task:  serving as the nucleus committee to develop a set of recommendations for an expanded First Year Experience and a completely revised SOAR (Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration).  This committee, supplemented by a representative group of faculty, has its primary function the establish of the centrality of the academic program from recruitment through registration and on into the academic disciplines.
• Finally, please welcome Steve Klein as the new Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management.  Steve has no small task:  coordinating our recruitment and retention efforts in the development of strategic tasks that will lead us toward our goal of meeting 10,000 students.  He’ll need everyone’s help because, as I’ve said publicly on numerous occasions, effectively recruiting and retaining students to help them achieve their academic goals is the reason why we exist as an institution and the reason why we’re all here.

September 27, 2009:  The longer I’m in higher education (or, perhaps, the older I get), the more I’m amazed as to how quickly time moves past.  September is exiting; October is about to take center stage.  Significant movement has occurred, though, during a quickly-departing September.  Here’s an update.

1. The academic master plan has been reviewed by the deans, who have created a streamlined version that reflects the spirit of the work done by the faculty committee during spring 2009.  Said streamlined version will be distributed to the academic department heads and to the Faculty Senate for their review over the next couple of weeks.  A copy will also be posted on the Provost’s website.
2. The Vision 2012 Strategic Plan is also under final review.  It’s with the Strategic Planning Council now.  My goal is to have the plan ready for distribution, in tandem with the academic plan, by the third week in October.
3. Ideally, an integrated presentation of the academic master plan and the Vision 2012 Master Plan will be distributed the first week of November 2009, fully in time for budget discussions in preparation for FY 2011.
4. Several faculty have asked about the method used to calculate the salary equity distributed September 1.  Copies of this distribution model have been given to Faculty Senate and to each department head.
5. Thanks to everyone who participated in the recent Recruitment and Retention Summits.  Over 200 members of the campus community provided over 400 responses.  The Student Support and Retention Council is mining those comments to develop short- and long-term strategies as part of an overall retention plan.  The full listing of ideas is posted on Ramport; go to the “Strategy, Planning, and Policy” channel on your home page (if you removed the SPP channel, you’ll have to add it back in again).  The listing is also available on the web:  http://www.angelo.edu/services/strategy/documents/summit_responses.pdf
6. Several members of the campus community have asked me about what happened to all that work that was submitted last fall in support of the budget process.  To be honest, the process didn’t go as well as we had planned, so the promise of transparency was compromised.  However, I’ve learned a lot more about Texas budgeting approaches since then.  The budget that has been distributed is based on ASU earning 160,000 credit hours–a conservative budget lower than the 165,000 credit hours originally planned.  As a result, you’ve probably seen that virtually no changes occurred in many budgets, other than those affected by reallocation decisions.  The conversation about excess dollars has not yet been held.  When it does, those proposals will be resurrected.
7. The deans have created proposals for an academic advising structure within each College to assure that each student is assigned an appropriate academic advisor.   Final details regarding job description, etc., are being worked out.  Also, we’re still moving forward on the satellite tutoring centers, with a start date of November 1 as our goal.
8. Finally, two individuals have been invited to campus to interview for the position of Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management–a position that is of fundamental importance to the university as it positions itself for aggressive growth.  If you’re interested in attending an open meeting with either candidate, please contact June Moore (325.942.2708; june.moore@angelo.edu).

I appreciate all the hard work everyone is putting in to make these initiatives a reality.  It’s an exciting time to be at ASU.

September 10, 2009:  At the first Faculty Senate meeting of the academic year, several issues of consequence were discussed.  Here are some highlights from my point of view; Faculty Senate minutes will provide additional insight.

• The promotion and tenure draft is available for faculty review through RamPort (off the main RamPort page, look under “Strategy, Planning, and Policy.”  I posted it there to provide more immediate access).  Right now, the policy is scheduled to be presented to the Board of Regents at next month’s meeting.
• The new Instructional Enhancement Fee was initiated this fall, replacing individual course fees with a single per-credit hour fee.  These dollars go directly to the Deans of each College for their use in…well, in enhancing the instructional programs of their college.  The Instructional Enhancement Fee has also been proposed as the temporary site for funding of a new intiative still in draft form:  academic advisors for each college.  Through the work of the Student Support and Retention Council, I’ve been convinced that academic advising is in need of attention.  College academic advisors will serve as gateways for students entering any of the majors in a particular College, providing the help and guidance necessary to direct them to their majors in a seamless fashion.  Some confusion exists about the academic advising fee:  “Why shouldn’t this fee pay for these new advisors?”   The academic advising fee supports the salaries of the full-time professional staff of the Center for Academic Excellence, whose functions will be redefined to support such student cohorts as undeclared students and at-risk students.  Eventually, the goal is to move salaries for the college academic advisors out of the Instructional Enhancement Fee and into another budget…as long as the institution grows in enrollment.
• Recognizing the achievements of faculty should be an important component of our academic community.  In response to questions about identifying those individuals who earned Professional Achievement Awards, I announced that we’re planning a faculty awards banquet for next spring where all faculty achievements will be celebrated.
• Concerns have been expressed to me that ASU is continuing to grow administrative positions.  Actually, what we’re doing is filling vacant positions in a strategic move to have the personnel necessary to manage and support our efforts in institutional growth through aggressive recruitment and retention efforts.  The searches currently underway don’t reflect any newly-created positions; for example,
  • The Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management is the former Executive Director of Enrollment Management;
  • The Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs is the former Provost and Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs;
  • The Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management is the former Dean of Student Life;
  • The Director of Community Relations is the former Director of Marketing;
  • The Director of Institutional Effectiveness is a reactivation of the former position of the same name.

As always, responses to and questions about the blog’s contents are welcome.

September 2, 2009:  I’ve entered the blogging world to keep the campus abreast of the challenges and opportunities we face in the year before us.  So many of you have talked to me about the need for transparency and open communication, so new entries will be posted generally on a weekly basis.  In addition, a comprehensive website has been developed — http://www.angelo.edu/dept/aaffairs/ (click on Initiatives 2009-2010) — that will be continually updated to provide you information about the 27 initiatives that Academic and Student Affairs is undertaking this year.

I’ve also been asked why Academic and Student Affairs is working on so many different tasks.  The answer is summed up in three words:  recruitment and retention.  Virtually every project tracks back in some way to addressing institutional imperatives regarding how we recruit and retain students; in fact, I’ve created a diagram to illustrate these relationships (  http://www.angelo.local/dept/aaffairs/documents/everything%20is%20connected.pdf  ).  However, recruitment and retention isn’t exclusively the focus of Academic and Student Affairs–it’s a challenge that the entire campus must tackle in an integrated, collaborative manner.  Therefore, I encourage every member of the campus community to attend one of two “Recruitment and Retention Summits” on Friday, September 11 at either 9:30 a.m. or 2:30 p.m. in the C. J. Davidson Conference Center of the University Center (refreshments provided).  The discussions will be “short on PowerPoint and long on honest dialogue”  as we address how we can develop strategies as a campus community to attract and retain students. 

Financial Aid is an integral component of recruitment and retention.  So if you haven’t yet done so, please visit Financial Aid’s new interactive website (  http://www.angelo.edu/services/financial_aid/  ) to see how it’s been completely redesigned to be more student- and parent-friendly.  Also, please note that effective September 1, Linda Brasher, Veterans’ Benefits Supervisor, has joined the staff of Financial Aid.  The new G. I. Bill has specific directives and guidelines regarding veterans’ eligibility for financial aid, so much so that HB 3951 requires one or more employees at the University to be trained in student financial assistance programs for veterans and their families.   In addition to the services already provided through her office, Linda  will be trained to counsel veterans about other financial aid opportunities.  For now, Linda will remain in the Hardeman Building and will move to the temporary office space with the Registrar’s Office until the Hardeman Building is renovated and she can be located within the Financial Aid Office area.

In other recruitment-related news, the search committee for the Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management has narrowed the field of 55 to 12 candidates.  We’re looking at each “with a fine-tooth comb” to identify five candidates for telephone interviews; hopefully, the phone conversations can be held within the next two weeks.  My goal is to have the new Associate Vice President on campus by January, if not sooner.

I hope to see you at next week’s recruitment and retention summit.