Faculty Senate Minutes, Monday, February 20, 2017, RH 248 A
3:00PM
In attendance:
Meg Allan, Ann Barnes, Gregg Corley, Ed Eudy, Stacey Frank, Tom Hiebel, Justin
Herndon, Mary Orem, Mourning Pace, Julia B. Seligson, Matthew Simon.
Not in attendance. Penny Edwards, Tonia Faulling, Bill
Leverette, Laura McClain, Timeko McFadden, Richard Reeves, Renee Turner, Debbie
Vance, Jonathan Warnock, Paula Scales Whitmire.
Guests: Galen DeHay
Welcome and Agenda
Stacey Frank called the meeting to order at 3:05 PM
Minutes of January 27, 2017
Minutes were distributed and unanimously approved by
senators. Justin Herndon will forward
the minutes to Meg Allan and she will post on eTC.
Stacey introduced Galen DeHay. Galen was invited to provide an update on the
institution’s progress against strategic plan objectives.
Galen reported first on the progress made on key
indicators for cohort 2013-2016:
- Student retention is 70% which reflects a 5% gain over 1 year and 8% gain over two year period. This compares to the state rate of 47%.
- Graduation rate (unduplicated) is 23% which is above the national average.
- Transfer rate is 38% and the highest in the system. Bridge to Clemson impacts the transfer rate and the graduation rate.
- Job placement rate is 89% which is significant and illustrates that we have a close relationship with business and industry. This rate is at or above the state level.
Galen reported next on the current numbers:
- Persistence rate is at 79% and reflects continuous improvement.
- Retention rate is at 73% and reflects continuous improvement.
Galen expressed that this continuous improvement is as
a result of a lot effort on the part of faculty and staff to execute on
strategic initiatives including high impact teaching practices, engaging
students both in and out of the classroom, TC Central, support services, among
many other activities currently underway that are designed to improve the
overall student experience and increase persistence, retention and graduation
rates.
He reported on the priorities established by the
commission for 2018 which are; strategic planning, academic enrollment management,
business and industry relationships, program strategy and managing student
engagement. Additionally the institution’s focus on post traditional student
population, 25 years of age and older, continues and there are training
initiatives underway related to serving this subset which will be the only
growing demographic subset over the next few years. Faculty will participate in SC Thrive’s,
“Poverty Simulation” on March 1 during professional development day and staff
will participate soon after.
There are a few initiatives that are being tested with
promising results such as work based learning for our industry partners, and “I
Best” which partners with adult education centers for non-high school graduates
to earn their GED and then on ramp into TCTC programs. Galen expressed that we will be hearing more
about these initiatives.
Old Business
Senators discussed follow up items related to faculty
usage of starfish and blackboard, and the possibility of establishing
standardized, best-practices guidelines for all faculty to follow to ensure
that students are aware of their progress throughout the term. Areas discussed
were requiring all faculty to: complete the starfish student progress reports, utilize
the gradebook function in blackboard, and record mid-term grades. There was discussion about the differences
between divisions and that available tools work well for some but would be
redundant to others. The standardization of student progress practices was introduced
by ALT who reported that students report that they did not know their grade
until the end of the semester and consequently were not aware that they needed
to take actions to improve. The question is whether a standardized practice
would increase the numbers of students who are successful, keeping them off of
warning, probation, and suspension.
Senators concluded that the analysis should probably
start at the Dean level to determine what tools faculty are currently using to keep
students informed in each of their areas and determine if there are gaps.
New Business
None
Committee Reports
None
Meg will reach out to
Senators to schedule the next meeting.
The meeting was adjourned
at 4:30 PM.
