Mission, education quality to improve as a result of conference

Prominent university and community members attended the Stakeholder’s Conference at GC&SU last Friday in an attempt to brainstorm ways to move the university forward in terms of mission and education quality.

Data analyses from recent GC&SU studies were shared by Dr. John W. Moore of Penson Associates, an Indiana-based research and consultation firm. According to Moore, the university’s mission is progressing well and the freshman-sophomore retention rates are improving, but graduation rates are declining.

“In regards to the mission progress review, (GC&SU) did a super job,” Moore said. “The report provided data that showed that the school is doing quite well on a variety of performance indicators.”

Moore said there was recognition that the university had a favorable student-faculty ratio. Additionally, 44 percent of classes have 20 students or less and freshmen-sophomore retention is high (over 75 percent), classroom innovation is on the rise, faculty scholarship is on the rise, and 87 percent of alumni feel prepared for their professions after graduation.

“Student participation in a variety of programs and activities is increasing rather substantially,” Moore said. “Service learning, internships, study abroad, undergraduate student research, participation in out of class learning experiences, participation in residential life-all of those trendlines are very positive.”

There is room for improvement on graduation rates, however, Moore said. Currently, 37 percent of students graduate in six years.

“Freshman-sophomore retention is really good, but it’s not that good,” keynote speaker Dr. W. Jack Magruder, and president emeritus of Truman State University, said. “When you think about the long-term economic impact, quality of life of all those kids and their families in the state of Georgia, those graduation rates really need to be a lot higher. A 37 percent six-year graduation rate is something that’s really worthy of attention.”

Macgruder spoke on ways he improved his university, followed by group sessions facilitated by Moore, which gave participants ways to share their own ideas with everyone at the conference.

Dr. Dorothy Leland, president of GC&SU, said the main focus of the conference was to provide input to the total student learning experience workgroup.

“I thought that participants made excellent contributions and came up with some compelling ideas for achieving distinction in the total student learning experience at GC&SU,” Leland said. “The group will produce a draft report by the end of the semester.”

According to Leland, the total student learning experience consists of qualities that our students share in common, regardless of their majors.

“The strategic focus process is being moved along by a number of workgroups,” Leland said during the welcome ceremony. “We need to concentrate on what aspects of features of those learning experiences we can realistically aspire to national distinction. We need to collaborate with each other to do something not only quite unique but also quite excellent.”

Leland stressed a critical outcome of the process will be the positioning of ourselves both within and outside the state of Georgia as one of the premier institutions in the state. She said funding mechanisms within the state university system don’t interface well with our mission, considering we’re funded for enrollment growth, and the push in the system and in the general assembly is to grow as fast as we possibly can.

“By virtue of our mission, we are a limited growth institution. We cannot grow very much more and sustain the smaller college intensely student focused community environment that makes this such a wonderful place,” Leland said. “So our challenge is to become good enough and to be recognized as being good enough that we are candidates for all those dollars that lie on the edges of enrollment growth that get linked to institutions of quality and institutions that the citizens and decision makers in Georgia take a great pride in.”

Leland said it is important as we think about what our pillars of distinction will be, to think about things that will not only significantly enhance the educational experience of the students, but also things that will be not quite like what other colleges do.

“We hope to have a handful of strategic direction now in which we will, in a very focused and deliberate manner, seek to move the institution forward,” Leland said. “I have never been privileged enough to be part of a faculty and staff who are so dedicated to the quality of the education experience of our students.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 27 2006. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry