DRAFT The Student Experience White Paper

Strategic Planning Sub-Committee

The Student Experience

White Paper Draft #2

February 28, 2008

Premise: The campus community embraces the concept that the student experience at Purdue University North Central (PNC) is based on the three fundamental concepts of a land grant institution- Learning, Discovery and Engagement.

Goals and Objectives of the Learning Component of the Student Experience

I. PNC should enhance campus-wide efforts to increase student success and learning.

II. PNC will align and integrate campus offices, infrastructure and academic programs in an effort to substantially improve the student experience as well as dedicate financial resources to address this effort.

Learning Strategies

1. Update all classrooms to smart rooms.

2. Assess feasibility of utilizing faculty mentors for retention of first year students.

3. Expand current degree offerings to meet the needs of the community.

4. Develop successful programs for those who are educationally disadvantaged.

5. Hire additional staff and faculty in high growth areas.

6. PNC should heighten responsiveness to other student needs through broader surveys and open forums.

Assessment/Evaluation

1. All classrooms will have smart technology in them by the year 2011.

2. Bachelor Degree offerings will be increased by 20% by the year 2013.

3. Feasibility studies will be conducted and then recommendations made to the Chancellor regarding faculty mentors for first year students by 2010.

4. Budget planning and implementation of a system of analyzing high growth enrollment areas will be conducted regarding faculty and staff hiring by 2011.

Goals and Objectives of the Discovery Component of the Student Experience

I. PNC will set high academic expectations of our students while in attendance.

Discovery Strategies

1. Assess feasibility and then establish a center on campus to coordinate learning activities outside the classroom to include internships, career planning and graduate school preparation.

2. Enhance the Career Service Department to meet and exceed the expectations of our students.

3. Investigate the use of stipends for unpaid internships.

4. Conduct survey of all departments to determine laboratory needs. Then adapt and expand Learning Labs that will incorporate practical experience with academic theory.

5. Expand departmental research support for assistantships.

6. Increase international educational and cultural exchange opportunities.

7. Increase the aesthetic awareness by offering more courses in art, music, and culture.

Assessment/Evaluation

1. Budget allocations for research assistants approved for Fall 2009.

2. Feasibility study of cost to update design of labs completed for Fall 2010.

3. A center for international and cultural exchange is established by 2011.

4. New courses in art, music and culture are expanded by 30% by the 2011.

Goals and Objectives of the Engagement Component of the Student Experience

I. The entire campus community will embrace a culture where there is a commitment to change to ensure a quality student experience.

II. PNC will invest in strategies that will improve outreach, recruitment, retention and graduation of our students.

Engagement Strategies

1. Construct a Multi-purpose Student Service Activity Center (SSMAC).

2. Expand student involvement on all appropriate campus committees.

3. Establish partnerships with local businesses for graduate placement.

4. Involve alumni in mentoring of juniors and seniors in all majors.

5. Increase community outreach programs and opportunities for all students.

6. Expand student organizations.

7. Continue to act as a resource for k-12 educational programs and expand resources according to need.

8. Create appropriate opportunities for members from the external community to provide input into all facets of the student experience.

9. Increase the number of service learning opportunities.

10. Increase funding and support for student service learning.

Assessment/Evaluation

1. Retention for first year students will improve to 65% by the year 2009.

2. The freshman student satisfaction survey will indicate that 20% of the freshman students surveyed will be more satisfied by their experience at PNC by 2012.

3. Increases in student satisfaction will be achieved in other survey instruments including graduation surveys.

4. The external community will become more involved in many student activities, and classroom activities.

Resources

The overarching thought process of the Student Experience Tiger Team about resources is that past practices and amounts will be insufficient for achieving the strategies the strategic plan currently under consideration. Instead the entire Purdue University North Central community must seek out new resources to include:

1. Reallocation of resources within the existing budget of the college

2. Additional Grants (public and private)

3. Alternative revenue streams

4. Public and Private Partnerships

5. Increasing student tuition and fees

6. Alternative tuition plans-(ie-flat tuition for full time students)

7. Gift Funds

8. Endowments

9. Scholarships

References

ACT, Inc. (2002) Return and Graduation Rate data for 2002. Retrieved February 12, 2008 from http://www.act.org/news

Duttlinger, L. (2007) Purdue University North Central Survey of Full Time Faculty and Instructional Staff. Institutional Report 07-13.

Duttlinger, L. (2007) Purdue University North Central Survey of First Semester Freshman. Institutional Report 07-12.

Learning reconsidered: A campus wide focus on the student experience. (2004). The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and The American College Personnel Association.

Tinto, V. (1993) Leaving College (2nd edition). Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press.

Notes from 2/15/08 Meeting

The Student Experience Working Group MeetingFebruary 15, 2008

Larry Barrett, Tony Cardenas, Judy Jacobi, Paul Osisek, Kristy Thomas, Sarah Weber, Thomas Albano, Scott Smithson

STRATEGIES

LEARNING:

Update all classrooms to smart rooms/new desks, etc.

Use faculty as mentors for first year students.

PNC will enhance and expand current degree and program offerings.

PNC will promote the academic growth of our students and develop programs for those who are unprepared for college.

PNC will expand the intellectual community by hiring additional faculty and staff.

Increase awareness to the general public of the success of PNC graduates.

Increase number of online/hybrid courses – expand to include other survey courses.

DISCOVERY:

Establish a center on campus to coordinate learning activities outside the classroom including internships, increased service learning, career planning, grad school prep, graduate fairs.

Recognizing that the world is more interconnected than ever, expand international exchange opportunities, both educational and cultural.

Increase funding and support for service learning.

Increase number of service learning opportunities through community outreach programs.

Enhance the Career Services Department to meet the needs of PNC students.

Investigate the use of stipends for unpaid internships.

Expand learning laboratories and classrooms to incorporate with current educational experiences for our students. This includes all academic programs at PNC.

Expand departmental research support for opportunities for student research assistantships for student research and creative endeavor.

Increase the number of cultural aesthetic courses at PNC such as art, music culture, etc.

ENGAGEMENT:

Construct a multipurpose activity center (MAC).

Expand student experience on all campus committees
Advertise – more effective call out for broader participation of students.
Partial fee remission
Experience
Say in what goes on at PNC
Stipend

Expand student organizations and community outreach programs/opportunities.

Establish partnerships with local businesses for graduate placement.

Alumni mentors for Juniors & Seniors in all majors. Networking with alumni to help facilitate jobs for graduates.

Continue to expand and act as a resource for earlier awareness in the community of educational programs at PNC.

Create opportunities for external communities to have input into all facets of the college.


RESOURCES NEEDED
Re-allocation of resources
Grants – public and private
Gift funds
Alternative revenue streams
Endowments
Scholarships
Private/private partnerships
Increase tuition

Notes From 1/18/08 Meeting

The Student Experience Working Group Meeting
January 18, 2008

Larry Barrett, Antony Cardenas, Judy Jacobi, Paul Johansen, Paul Osisek, Kristy Thomas, Scott Smithson, Liz Bernel, Sarah Weber, Thomas Albano


How can we utilize the Missions and Value Statement and how can we format it into our Tiger Group?

Stay within the framework of Learning, Discovery and Engagement. Focus on degree-seeking students but also clarify the role of non-degree, dual enrollment and lifelong learning. The Student Experience is not the only experience on campus but everything is driven by students.

The committee reviewed the group’s framework from George Asteriadis which includes a mandate that the white papers describe objectives, strategies/action steps, and funding requirements and sources. Values means approaches and best practices.

Group Member’s Comments and Suggestions:
Summarized important points from the Learning Rediscovered link previously sent to all group members.

Emphasized how accessible our campus is; sculpture; at-home environment; affordable; unique; everything that big schools offer; easier for students to get involved.
Encourage to develop new indicatives and promote awareness and maintenance of the existing cultures (internship, clubs). How can we better connect?

Caring culture-at least in the beginning.
Students are inundated from internal emails-communication overload problem.
Communication: how to enhance; how to determine what is important.

All buildings on campus are wireless compatible.

Retention-how to connect?

Globalization.

Retention needs to focus on freshmen and sophomores-mentoring, freshman experience would be helpful.

Enhance communication to increase awareness of these opportunities.

PNC desires to continue to offer both a prestigious, marketable degree and at the same time do this in a non-urban campus setting that is beautiful, both in a natural and "man-made" sense.

PNC desires to continue to encourage the "small liberal arts college" campus experience that a campus of 5,000 offers.

PNC desires to continue to provide all of the marketplace respect and prestige of a Purdue degree in a personal and caring environment that recognizes our students’ unique challenges (financial, familial) and responds with the extra support they need to be successful.

In the interest of promoting the most successful and enjoyable learning possible, PNC wants to continue to encourage students to attend all classes if possible, since we believe the student experience is about being here. With classmates. With professors. Besides the learning agenda, we want you to have fun, experience camaraderie with fellow students, make friends, and of course, take in what great professors are here to teach you!

To create a genuine college student experience, PNC must work with singular dedication to get our long, long overdue Student and Community Activity Center. The lack of a gym, student union, assembly room that can hold more than 200 people, among many other features mitigates vigorously against a PNC student having a genuine college experience in many ways.

Because of globalization of interaction in general, and world commerce, in particular we believe that our students should graduate "world -ready," by encouraging and supporting the creation of programs to encourage students to travel outside of the United States for the purpose of organized for-credit study, internships or coop education, even if for a short time.

Judy shared the PNC Brand Identify platform brochure with the committee.

80% of our students are 18 years old. Should we drop the terms traditional and non-traditional and call them baccalaureate intenders?

Provide opportunity to enhance talents of under-represented (at risk) students.

Have more cultural enrichment opportunities and activities.

Improve knowledge of population and how under prepared they are.

Commencement on campus.

Need more quiet space for study.

Use vet building for practice for students

92% of all Americans say you need college to get a career. Number one reason students go to college is to make money and have a career. PNC faculty wants to fill the minds and move on – they don’t see career development as their responsibility. We need to work this disconnect together.

Students who are used to finding help in high school find a different learning environment at the college level.

Suggests a first-week Orientation Week- instructors will tell students how to be successful- STUDY, ATTEND, ETC.

Yahoo blogs and papers on what makes a good college stressed many things that are already OUR STRENGTHS- small size; US News Best College rankings; reputation; individual attention; diversity, class size.

Freshmen coming from public school are unprepared and need significant help with the transition.

Technology needs to be on the table-she will send a technology report to the group.

Realize the non-residential aspect of PNC where most students balance work & families.

Play on our strengths–off campus classes, online learning experiences; distance education.

View all staff members as advocates for our students.

Look at faculty members as mentors.

What can we do better? Tweak the freshman survey to use for improvement especially the comments that there is a lack of communication on campus; concerns that faculty members are not approachable and instances where students have been unable to contact advisors.

Campus-wide success in the classroom and through clubs.

The working group should to “strive to have great expectation levels and embrace a culture that is committed to change to enhance the student experience.”

Assignments for January 24, 2008 meeting:
Bring 4 or 5 global statements of vision (in the form of bullet points)(We will come to a consensus on these points and then we will proceed to specific areas of strategies and action steps for them.)

Summary of the major points from today’s discussion are:
Communication
Students’ awareness of opportunities that exist (clubs, internships, etc.)
Technology
Preparedness for the college experience
Campus environment

Notes from 2/4/08 Meeting

The Student Experience Working Group MeetingFebruary 4, 2008

Larry Barrett, Antony Cardenas, Judy Jacobi, Paul Osisek, Kristy Thomas, Scott Smithson, Sarah Weber, Thomas Albano, Tom Dobrowski

Discussion:
Just a reminder that all comments should be sent to the whole committee.
The committee will focus on three areas – Learning, Discovery, Engagement.
Finalize visions for each area.
Start looking at strategies.
Strategies must be do-able; operational.
Schedule Open Forum in the next 2 weeks.
Set date for finalization.
It is not known at this time if we will be able to amend our paper or what the response to our paper will be.


PROPOSED OBJECTIVES


LEARNING:
Academic classes and programs will be challenging and faculty and staff will create learning strategies to achieve student success.

PNC will enhance and expand current degree and program offerings.

PNC will expand the intellectual community by hiring additional faculty and staff

PNC will strive for academic excellence and have great expectations of our students while in attendance and once they graduate.

PNC recognizes the uniqueness of each student’s circumstances and will attempt to adapt to meet the student’s needs in both the academic and support services areas.

Assist students who come to PNC unprepared for college.

Educate the campus and community to understand the uniqueness of students.

PNC understands that learning takes place both inside the classroom and outside the classroom.

DISCOVERY:

Opportunities for student research and support should be enhanced.

Embed real world experiences into curriculum.

The world is interconnected in technology.

Research opportunities should be utilized for both students and faculty.

ENGAGEMENT:

Expand student organizations.

Continue to expand student experience on campus committees.

Encourage and promote service learning opportunities.

Establish partnerships with local businesses/industries.

The Student/Community experience is very important.

We recognize that PNC is an engine to build a viable economy in the region we serve and a partnership between both entities.

Provide early intervention for career information and planning.

Provide more graduate preparation such as preparing for GMAT and LSATS.

Create and expand new facilities on site to create more opportunities for both the community and our students.

Continue to build and expand community outreach for both our students and the community.

Miscellaneous
PNC-PC has invited many opportunities for PNC.

Guests are brought on campus through STEP, campus tours, sculpture tours, ISTEP Forward, Porter County Academic Superbowl. As these programs grow, increased resources are needed as well as space.

Increased need for multi-functional building.

Work with Janelle Irving, institutional grant writer.

Engagement through Advancement.

Must add that we need resources.

Re-allocating resources.

Investigate the use of stipends for unpaid internships.