Provost’s Council Meeting
May 13, 2014
2:00 pm.
Ruby Hicks Hall, Room 245
Members Present: Dan
Averette, Jackie Blakley, Tim Bowen, Jenni Creamer, Scott Harvey, Dan Holland, Lynn
Lewis, Rob Massey, Marla Roberson, Sarah Shumpert, Brian Swords, Hap Wheeler
Members Absent: Galen
DeHay, Brian Swords
Others Present: Gayle Arries, Margaret Burdette,
Lynn Smith, Kevin Steele
Length of Meeting: 2 hours
Topics Discussed:
Jackie Blakley presided over the meeting in Galen’s absence.
The minutes of the April 22, 2014 meeting were
approved.
Meg Allan presented the work on the Market Forecast project.
The Market Forecast committee was charged with creating a market forecast tool
to create a system for academic program development. By using data, planning and direction
(Executive Staff), strategy (the divisions) and tactics (departments) we can
accomplish this goal. She noted that
this is nothing new, just an elevated process in which all the pieces are
interconnected. The cyclical data will
drive the process from year to year.
Margaret Burdette attended the meeting for Chris Marino to
discuss Academic Program Review. She
distributed a copy of the e-mail that was sent out earlier, gave an overview of
the process, and noted the work currently in progress. To ensure that all teams are on the same
page, Margaret and/or Chris would like to meet with them fairly early in the
process, but left the timing of that meeting up to the team leaders. Margaret noted that at the report outs,
program coordinators are supposed to tell the story and share any future
plans. After review of the teams, Rob
Massey will be added to Team 3.
Lynn Smith and Dan Holland presented a workshop series
proposal aimed at improving student engagement and providing additional help to
achieve their goals. After researching
workshop series at other colleges, Lynn created a proposed series for
Tri-County. The series uses five tracks
with five workshops each. The tracks are
Academic Skills, Career and Employability
Skills, Personal Growth and Development, Navigating Leadership, and Dollars and Sense. A
student who attends five workshops in a track will receive a certificate with
other possible levels of incentives.
Some of the issues to be considered include:
·
Use additional formats to allow as many students
as possible access to the information/material
·
Library can provide resource guides
·
Possibly customize for certain programs/areas
·
A presentation is different from teaching –
provide presentation training
·
Working on a tracking system, may be able to use
some aspects of Starfish
·
Possibly compensate presenters
·
Possibly use as faculty/staff development
opportunity
·
Need to assess it – short (5 questions) pre/post
survey
·
COL 103 and 105 may touch on some of these
tracks. Possibly use these resources
too.
·
Eventually have in place at all campuses.
Gayle Arries and Kevin Steele discussed the Marketing Plan
for Fall 2014. Gayle distributed a handout and touched on the various
strategies which include:
·
Public Website – at least 6 months out. Developing a micro-site at tctcedge.com as we
wait for state approval on the website
·
Social Media – creating sites for a specific
target population. Content will come
from the units.
·
Content/Communications – stressed the need for
consistent message. Gayle showed a
presentation that she will make available for anyone who meets with external
clients. She encouraged everyone to get
a Dropbox account which would allow employees to use/show the various videos available in Dropbox. One goal is to make contact with students every
few weeks.
·
Advertising – review of the calendar of
marketing/advertising events.
The college will see a shift to bigger, better, very
video-driven communication. We are in the process of hiring a media specialist
to be more unified in our digital footprint.
Scott Harvey gave an update on the Attendance
Procedure. The attendance procedure
workgroup met to address issues and concerns with the procedure. Scott
distributed a handout with information about definitions, logistics,
communication, and attendance tracker modifications. He noted the following:
·
In face-to-face and hybrid classes, there is an
option for the student to be preapproved to submit work by a deadline. The student is in attendance under this
scenario. This requires documentation in
the attendance tracker. Deans can see the documentation and track the reasons
for the pre-approval.
·
Faculty must key attendance within 48 hours of
the meeting pattern. The week is
considered Monday – Sunday.
·
The number of consecutive days of attendance was
increased from seven to nine before the
e-mail is sent out. Dan Holland
requested that 20/20 mentors be added to the e-mail distribution list.
·
The attendance tracker dropdown menu has been
modified to include alternative assignment and military.
Lynn Lewis motioned to approve the attendance procedure with
the recommended changes. Dan Holland
seconded the motion and it passed. It
will be implemented Fall 2014.
There was discussion on students who are withdrawn and
actions the college can take to determine why and how the withdrawal took
place. This may be something to consider
in our retention efforts.
Rob Massey discussed Continuing Student Advising for
Summer. After discussion, it was decided
that we would do what we did last summer.
Each division will create a schedule to have advisors available for
students. Due to class schedules,
advisors will not be available at all times, and it was stressed that the
student may have to make an appointment and return at a later time. The deans
will have this schedule in place by Monday, May 19. Rob will send an e-mail to appropriate
employees with this information.
Under Announcements, Dan H. noted that he would like to
further explore the withdrawal issue. It
was noted that with all of the data we have, the college can create a profile
using data points, but historically the reason for the withdrawal has been
“Personal Reasons.”
Kevin noted that we need a model of who our students
are. This will be an agenda item for the
next meeting.
Lynn reported that the Veterinary Technology pinning
ceremony was “2 hours of good.” It was
very well done, student-driven, and Peggy Champion challenged the program to
become internationally recognized.
Dan Averette noted that they continue to work on Williamston
dual credit. A student attending the
career center as a sophomore can graduate from high school with three semesters
of college credit.
Hap Wheeler continues to work with Clemson on articulation. They are slowly working out some of the
issues.
Scott thanked the faculty for the good job in submitting
grades by the deadline. He reminded the
group that we have re-set academic status, so this semester there is only
Warning. Probation and Suspension will
happen as we move through the cycle. He
also thanked everyone for their help with graduation.
Jenni mentioned that enrollment and registration seem to be
going well. Fall to Spring persistence
and retention is increasing. She
cautioned the group that summer may fall a little. It may be an indicator that we need to
rethink summer recruitment and to be better aware of our cycles. In addition, we may need to have a discussion
to determine what size college we want/need to be by defining capacity and
considering an integration/synthesis of all of our components.
Sarah Shumpert mentioned that the Title III grant will
provide the funding for a speaker this summer.
He will be on campus on June 6, from 9:00 – 12:00. Sarah encouraged everyone to attend. Sarah also noted that Title III is funding a
team to attend a learning community conference.
The team will attend and present at the AACU High Impact Practices
Institute this summer.
Tim encouraged everyone to attend the Patriots Run, at the
Anderson Campus, on Saturday, May 17.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
Recorded By: Anne Bryan
Next Meeting: Tuesday,
May 27, at 2:00, in RH 245
