COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES
DEAN'S ADVISORY COUNCIL
MINUTES
October 7, 2005
Call to order:
Council members and deans began the meeting with self introductions, each
sharing a memorable experience of their first year at college/university.
State of the College
Dean Whiteford welcomed everyone and made several announcements:
- Jim Socknet, former council member, died early this summer.
- Several council members are to be congratulated and are receiving
awards from the Alumni Association and/ or LAS during Homecoming (see
handout)
John V. Atanasoff Discovery Award
Doug Van Houweling
Citation of Merit/ Liberal Arts and Sciences
Trudy Huskamp Peterson
Order of the Knoll award
Kent Lucken
Dean Whiteford spoke briefly on the following points:
- The Center for American Intercultural Studies has been established
in Carver Hall. This center will focus on intercultural studies with
the African American, American Indian, Asian Studies, and Latino/a Studies
programs and will allow for greater collaboration between the programs
and visibility on campus. Greenlee is nearing the culmination of their
100 year celebration and has had many events over the past year to highlight
their program. A variety of senior hires have taken place in LAS departments,
and good things are expected of these hires in terms of recognition
and output.
- The New Horizons project and the College Strategic plan for 2005-2010
have been approved by the LAS Cabinet and Representative Assembly. The
New Horizons plan was discussed at the April 2005 Deans Council. An
academic plan for New Horizons will follow and be distributed at a future
Dean's Council meeting. The first year experience will be a focus of
the council meeting today. Departmental new horizon plans are at the
stage where departments are reviewing curriculum for future implementation.
Departments should complete discussions this year and next. Implementation
will begin to occur three or four years from now. Faculty hiring has
begun to follow the New Horizon matrix.
- The LAS foundation fundraising efforts have paid off and increased
from three million dollars to eight million dollars over the past year.
The college has a very good team who will continue to work toward increasing
their efforts with departments and generating enthusiasm for the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Iowa State University with alums.
- An eight person Budget Model committee has been formed for the university.
Doug Epperson serves on the committee, which has a presidential deadline
for a workable plan by July 06. ISU has not had a comprehensive budget
model such as this in place. The plan will take into account tuition,
enrollment, return of indirect monies and space and use needs. This
will be a complex plan to create in a short time frame, but overall
should be beneficial to the college, partially due to its enrollments.
- The president has instituted an enrollment leadership committee that
Whiteford serves on. A recent study announcement shows a change in demographics
for Iowa. There is a decline in the number of Iowa high school graduates
(and surrounding states) with a projected continuing decline over the
next ten years. The exception is in the Chicago area, where student
graduation numbers are high. There will be a great deal of competition
among universities, private and community colleges in the state for
students. Recruitment and retention will become even more of a focus
than they currently are for ISU. The president has goals to stabilize
the enrollment at 26,300 and increase enrollment over the next three
years.
Doug Van Houweling gave a brief chairs report.
First Year Experience Overview
A lot of excitement is being generated about the first year experience
in LAS. A goal is to improve conditions for student engagement and inquiry
for first year students. Some of the motivators to take a good look at
the first year experience are as follows: a reflection on one's own first
year experiences, a new opportunity to view those experiences for their
own children at this time, the impact of learning communities on retention,
national student survey results which indicate a need to improve student
engagement and provide challenge, university discussions to introduce
a reading component to Experience Iowa State, and General Ed curricular
reform (the last major Gen Ed reform was in 1980 when the change was made
from the quarter system). Other universities are also looking at this
first year experience and enhancing student participation resulting in
greater recruitment and retention. Iowa State is behind in this process
and is working to catch up. In the Harvard Guide to Happiness 2002 survey,
sixteen hundred students participated and it was determined that these
seven points were essential:
- students meet with faculty;
- a mix of courses – some general, some elective;
- group study – students learn from each other and form a common
bond;
- write, write, write – writing of all kinds improve writing skills;
- study a different language;
- time management skills;
- holding the drum: student involvement in extra curricular activities,
band, rallies, broomball, music, i.e., student engagement even if "holding
the drum" in the bandA pilot program, Frontiers of the Discipline,
was created and executed within one academic year. It was executed this
fall, just prior to the first week of classes for a small group of incoming
freshman. Later today, faculty from this program will give presentations
to the council.
Learning Communities have become a large part of the campus experience
at ISU. Several years ago a single learning community was put into place
and today there are more than one hundred learning communities at ISU.
There are a variety of ways to experience the learning community, but
most have a common theme between two or more areas and classes. One reason
students leave or do not graduate is a lack of social structure. Learning
communities provide that structure and have been very popular and successful
for retention. ISU recently received one of the highest ratings for learning
communities.
Further information was given regarding a current three year pilot study
by advising and career counseling services. Open option students explore
more possibilities, change majors less than other students, and graduate
as quickly as other students. Retention rates are being studied along
with transfer students and their retention and graduation rates. The rate
of non-traditional, part-time students is also being researched. Currently
non-traditional student numbers are not larger than 10% of the total number
of students at ISU.
Frontiers of the Discipline presentations
Rob Wallace, EEOB gave a short presentation introducing the Frontiers.
The purpose was to introduce students to the disciplines available, establish
faculty and student contact, and establish a cohort of student interests,
demands and friendships. The Frontiers of the Discipline topics covered
the Social Sciences, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences and Math and
the Humanities and Communications. Faculty were enlisted to develop a
course section that was an introduction to the discipline and taught in
pairs in a three day thematic format. These sections will be followed
up with an evening group session in September, October and November. Learning,
engagement and discovery were the emphasis.
Deb Marquart gave an overview of the session she was involved in. To engage
a sense of wonder was the theme for her group of seven students. Students
were introduced to the humanities and communication. Forms of communication
include, family, church, and social. Also included were the lectures groups
offered at the university, film and Andy Goldsworthy art and photos. Each
student came up with a wonder topic to research and report on. Some of
the student topics were: Twin Towers and why they fell, the death penalty,
human need for community, music affects the emotions which affect the
body, color blindness, attitudes to cadavers, the price of gas and what
determines prices.
Dan Krier and Steffen Schmidt team taught Social Science through Globalization:
Some of their discoveries were that students view education as a career
path. The goal was to awaken the impact of globalization on careers and
life. Anthropology, sociology and economy have similarities due to globalization.
The text used was by Thomas Friedman, Flattening the World. One of the
topics covered at the September meeting was the Kritina hurricane and
its impact. Faculty learned about students and how they thought and have
determined they may re-frame future teaching. Students impact faculty
in addition to faculty's impact on students. Faculty also impact faculty
when different areas and departments interact in the Frontiers seminar.
It was a learning experience for all.
David Campbell Presentation
After lunch, David Campbell, Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro,
North Carolina, gave a presentation about People in Charge Feel Stress.
The Center was started in 1972 and now has branches in Colorado Springs,
San Diego, Singapore and Brussells.
The presentation graphed life stages and ages and how they intersect and
build throughout life as each person serves multiple, simultaneous roles.
Child, student, worker, spouse, parent, leadership, mourner, and retirement
roles have demands that each person will face and the convergence (at
approximately age 40) of the majority of these multiple roles determines
the amount of stress persons have or are perceived to have. The more convergence,
generally, the more stress.
Breakout Sessions on First Year Experience
The Dean's Council separated into three breakout groups to discuss items
of importance for a successful first year experience. The council then
came back together to summarize their ideas to the entire group.
Group one report:
Group one felt that the Frontiers of Discipline was a great success, determined
by the presentations and information distributed.
Suggestions: Students must meet people and bond, have mentors
and leaders, guidance on survival (study skills, time management, how
to add/drop class, etc.), and explore possibilities both academic and
extra-curricular (music, rock climbing, etc.).
- Must manage the numbers of students in groups. Keep small groups
- Add interaction with upper classmen, peer groups. Offer extra credit
to upperclassmen to mentor these groups
- Add more faculty interaction in orientation
- Faculty interaction with large class groups: keep in touch via email
as a more personal interaction
- Add a community service component for students
- ISU Faculty outreach to high schools
- More interdisciplinary/faculty experiences
Group two report:
This group agreed with many of the first group suggestions.
Suggestions for a successful first year experience:
- Find ways to involve students in more aspects of university life
- Use funding (incentive) to involve faculty in more student activities
- Require first year dorm living/fraternity/sorority to develop relationships
and commonality
- Create an exploration lecture of the month series: How to make a
living as .....
- Email information targeted to freshman or a website for students
to interact, express interests as a way to meet more people
- Ongoing orientation: freshman groups to meet each month the first
year to ask questions about how to .....
- Announce Club and Activities Fair, target freshman
Group three report:
Group three also thought the Frontiers presentation was great and should
be a required faculty participation.
Suggestions for a successful first experience: Relationships are a primary
source of retention and engagement for students.
- Provide more opportunities for first year students to meet with faculty
and students. A large lecture can be an anti-climactic experience for
students.
- Require faculty to speak to different freshman groups. Consider a
freshman course of 7-25 first year students as an elective course in
each area with faculty seminars and choices of topics.
- Faculty entertain students at home, picnics, group outings or meetings
to provide a more human context as faculty
- Group Projects – grade both individually and as a group to
foster relationships and ability to work in groups
- Writing: more writing for students. Use peer reviews for critique
and grading.
- Create email/chat rooms for online discussion for first year students
- Student time management: use group processes, classrooms at night
available to student groups to study, discuss, etc.
- Review faculty workload/student contact hours
Discussion of reports:
Discussion centered on these and other ways that might be helpful for
first and second year students. Do not want to focus only on first year
and then let student contact drop off. Departments have freshman orientation
courses where faculty come in and speak about the various areas and careers
available for their course of study. Departments can expand upon these
and place best faculty in first year courses. Also, involve freshman mentoring
and research projects. Revise credits to allow flexibility in the first
semester courses so each student has at least one course that is an interesting
elective. Currently, fifty percent of entering freshman are in a learning
community. Perform intervention for students not failing, but not doing
well at the end of the first semester. The university could provide tools,
lists for students and groups to work together. It could be possible to
designate specific areas, classrooms, where graduate students, or faculty
could be available to assist students who need assistance.
Development Report
Alsatia Mellecker presented the development report. This has been a great
year with a lot of hard work on the part of the college, departments and
foundation officers resulting in a large increase in funding. Alsatia
provided a list of departments with large donations: ;Botany, 182,000;
Econ, 2.7 M ; Chemistry, 1.5 M; Computer Science, 125,000; FL & L,
200,000; Geology, 250,000; Greenlee, 50,000 and 80,000; Music, 1 M. The
number and amount of donations increased significantly from 3million dollars
to 8 million dollars in the 04-05 year. The number of departments participating
and benefiting from increased efforts to determine projects of interest
to alumni was greater over the past year. There are some very ambitious
goals for the university, as well as for LAS to meet over the next few
years. The university will be increasing the number of endowed Fellow,
Professor and Chairs available along with other goals. Alsatia will be
contacting members of the dean's council to assist in identifying other
successful alum, be advocates of ISU and attend regional events, and possibly
assist the dean and foundation in soliciting funds.
This past year also saw some changes due to the ruling regarding open
access to foundation information. The foundation is working to adhere
to the open records laws and still maintain a degree of confidentiality
for donors within those laws.
There are funds that are non targeted and are used at the President's
discretion and spent at the discretion of the Dean. These funds are often
used for National Merit scholarships, Study Abroad scholarships, faculty
development and faculty packages.
Dave Gieseke – Events
Saturday:
LAS Tailgate will start at 10:30, Tent # 11; Game is at 1:00
The next Deans Council meeting will be during VEISHA, April 20-21
A block of rooms for Spring 06 will be reserved, check on this and reserve
early
Handouts:
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Outreach Efforts
LAS Alumni Honors handout
Executive Session
The executive session was interactive and provided input for what worked
well in today's meeting and what did not work as well:
Liked, worked well
- The faculty presentations
- Breakout sessions, promotes involvement: gives a purpose and more
input
- Overall review and special topics
- Handouts with stats and info
- Reminisce and input: like the opportunity to be engaged in meaningful
ways
- David Campbell's graphic and presentation
- Liked the prior information package: contained more information
- Like having the Development report in the package
- Liked the LAS Field Trip: visit to C6, Music program, Tornado simulator
Need to Improve
- Need more time for faculty presentations
- Need student interaction, meet with students
- Would be valuable to meet with departments, faculty and students prior
to Deans Council meeting: arrive a day early?
- Package prior to meeting with info on discussion topics, etc. Organize
for more council input
- How does being a Land Grant institution affect the topics to address
- Would like more information on how the council input is used, what
changes this instituted
For April meeting would like: recruitment and retention information,
student statistics. Also information on avenues of engagement for students:
club information, lecture information, any other pertinent student information. |
