WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 Thank you very much, Gary, and good afternoon, everybody. 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.000 It's a pleasure to be here. 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:08.000 I'd like to thank the committee for giving me this opportunity and 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:10.000 everybody who has facilitated my getting here 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:13.000 and my visit here thus far. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:19.000 Before I get into the question that I was asked to address, 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:23.000 I'd like to share some, a few personal facts with you 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:28.000 to put a person behind the administrator, if you will. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:33.000 So, one thing, I grew up in a blue collar, working class family. 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:39.000 We were fairly poor. I was a first generation college student, 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:44.000 at least nobody in my immediate family, neither my mother or father, 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:48.000 or brothers or sisters went to college. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:52.000 So, that's one of the reasons why I'm very interested in this 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:56.000 position here at Western Oregon, because you value access 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:60.000 greatly and that's something that's been very important to me. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:06.000 I'm also an amateur musician. I play most fretted instruments and 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:12.000 sing and I do the kind of Weird Al Yankovic thing, writing parody songs, 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:16.000 and many of these have higher education themes. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:24.000 I also lead a fairly active lifestyle. And now, Fargo is great for 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:27.000 running marathons, 'cause it's nice and flat. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:31.000 It's not so great for some of these other activities here, and 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:36.000 so that's another attraction for my wife and I to return 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:40.000 to the Pacific Northwest. You have mountains! 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:47.000 I also, um, I've told some of you that when I chose my major in college 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:50.000 I was dithering between sciences and foreign languages. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:53.000 So I'm kind of a foreign language buff, 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:56.000 and currently I am working on studying Irish Gaelic, 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:60.000 and I've been doing that for about four and a half years. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:06.000 For the last year and a half, I've been studying Polish. My mother was Polish. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:12.000 I read a lot outside of my, you know, basic science discipline and higher education, 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:16.000 but I particularly enjoy reading history, political science, 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:21.000 economics, and geography, and that type of thing. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:25.000 And I'm also an aficionado of fine wine and craft beers, 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:30.000 which is another reason to return to the Pacific Northwest, 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:32.000 particularly the Willamette Valley. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:36.000 So, um, here's the question again. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:41.000 As we go through this, I want to preface this by saying 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:46.000 yes, I've had more than 12 years' experience as a Dean in higher education, 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:51.000 and I've certainly done a lot of homework with regard to Western Oregon. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:53.000 I've been through your strategic plan, 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:57.000 your general education, your new general education program, 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:61.000 most everything I can find on the web, and that type of thing. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.000 But, um, you know, I still won't know the full scoop 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.000 until and unless I'm hired and show up here and talk to a lot of people. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:15.000 So I'm going to talk about potential ways to address this situation. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:19.000 I don't expect that all of these, or any particular one, 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:23.000 would necessarily apply to Western Oregon. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:27.000 But I want to give you some idea of the breadth of things 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:29.000 that I've either had direct experience with 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:34.000 or I've learned about other people having experience with. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:40.000 So "what are the headwinds that Western Oregon faces?" 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:45.000 These are similar for many regional, uh, comprehensive universities, 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:48.000 and several of these were in the question. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:52.000 So we have declining support, public support, for higher education. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:57.000 And I don't think we're going to see a significant turnaround in this anytime soon. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:60.000 We'll probably see some ups and downs, 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:03.000 but an overall decline for quite some time. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:05.000 Challenging demographics. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:13.000 There's, nationwide, there's fewer, um, people of traditional college age at least 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:18.000 coming to college. And even more importantly, 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:21.000 many students of that age are off, 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:24.000 and their parents are questioning the value of higher education 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:26.000 and its accessibility. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:32.000 And there's also the expectation, in most of our universities, 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:36.000 that we will either have a more diverse student body, 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:37.000 even if we do nothing, 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:43.000 or that we need to go out there and attract a more diverse student body. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:46.000 So those are the, those are the things in the question. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.000 But in a different, in addition, there is a, 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:52.000 there's always been people that have questioned 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:55.000 the value of a liberal arts education. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:60.000 But I think that's becoming more and more vogue right now. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.000 Pundits and legislators are suggesting that there's 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:06.000 a skills gap at the university, 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:11.000 and that we should do, be doing, something more akin to job training. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:15.000 As I think I'm going to demonstrate, as I will demonstrate later, 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:16.000 I think that's hogwash. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.000 But we have to make the case for that, 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:23.000 that liberal education is what students really need. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:28.000 I think there's also a misconception that technology can solve all the issues, 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:32.000 and bring education to the masses for next to no money. 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:38.000 Well, the kind of debacle that mooks massive online open courses 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:41.000 I think put the "why" to that. 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:45.000 You know, they're, the only people who ever finished those courses 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:49.000 were people that had already had a college education, 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:55.000 and certainly weren't first generation, underrepresented students by and large. 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:60.000 Technology can be a help, but it's not going to be the sole solution. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:06.000 And we face increasing competition from many different types of institutions, 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.000 both regionally and nationally. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:13.000 All suffer, in some ways, needing to do the same things: 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:15.000 getting more students to combat the 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:21.000 declining support from state legislatures, etc. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:26.000 And there's clearly not a lot of room to increase tuition. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:31.000 People are already questioning whether higher education is too expensive 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:36.000 and if we want to be accessible, we have to keep tuition down. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:42.000 And, finally, I think, um, this has long been the case, 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:46.000 but I think there's an increased need for interdisciplinary 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:49.000 and collaborative approaches, whether we're teaching our students 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:54.000 to work in an environment like that, or in our own scholarly activity, 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:61.000 the world's and the nation's problems all demand a multidisciplinary approach. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:06.000 And, you know, this is probably data that's well familiar to you, 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:12.000 it's headcount data from your institutional research and assessment unit. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:17.000 It's headcount on the Y axis and the year on the X axis. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:20.000 This is Fall 4th week enrollments. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:26.000 And there's kind of a step function between 2014 and 2015, 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:32.000 but beyond that, there's a fairly steady decline in enrollment 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:34.000 in both the graduate and undergraduate levels. 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:39.000 It's not falling off a cliff quite yet, but it certainly 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:41.000 needs to be addressed. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:48.000 And so there are a number of things that a university can do to address this. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:52.000 But what are the most important things to keep in mind? 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.000 Well, I think first and foremost, universities, 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:58.000 to be competitive and to fulfill their mission, 00:07:58.000 --> 00:07:64.000 have to offer unique academic programs that are of high quality. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:08.000 Now not every single program needs to be unique, meaning that no other 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:12.000 university offers it, but I think all programs have to be 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:16.000 of high quality, and you have to have sufficient uniqueness 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:20.000 to distinguish yourself from the pack. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:25.000 But you can have unique and high quality programs, 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:31.000 but if nobody wants to enroll in them, they won't help the bottom line, 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:34.000 and the ultimate sustainability of the university. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:39.000 So the majority of the programs need to be either currently in high demand, 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:43.000 or there's a good reason to think that that demand will increase in the future. 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:48.000 You can tolerate some low enrollment if there's a specific need 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:51.000 or a mission oriented region, 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:55.000 but if you're going to develop new programs to try to solve this problem, 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:60.000 you gotta think about programs that are going to draw a sufficient number of 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:03.000 students to increase your revenue. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:11.000 The other thing that's always been important but even more so in the current environment 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:16.000 is providing strong support to students, academic support, 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:20.000 um, counseling, advising, all those types of things, 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:25.000 making sure that they have a good, positive experience 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:27.000 and can finish their degrees. 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:32.000 And then providing the appropriate support to faculty and staff 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:34.000 so that they can support the students. 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:40.000 And finally, I think it's really really important: 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:44.000 you've got a unique educational product, 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:48.000 you've gotta be able to tell the world about it, or at least people 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:52.000 in your region. You've gotta be making sure that 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:56.000 prospective students and their parents are 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:60.000 aware of the really screamin' deal that a WOU 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.000 education is. And you also want 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:08.000 legislators and other people that might be, or you're hoping will 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:12.000 foot some of the bill here, to be aware of what you're doing. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:16.000 And so I think the marketing part and 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:20.000 communications outside the university is a really important 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:22.000 part of all of this. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:28.000 But if you don't have a good something, a good product to market, okay, 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:32.000 then marketing won't help you. So you start with developing the product. 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:38.000 One way for a university to move forward is to be entrepreneurial and 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:44.000 identify new sources of revenue, okay? And there are a number of different 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:48.000 things that can be done there. But I think you need 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:51.000 to be consistent with your value and mission, okay? 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:56.000 Yeah, we could at, Western Oregon could sell cars, okay, 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:60.000 or start running a hotel, or something like that, 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.000 or develop a welding program, but maybe 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:07.000 none of those things are consistent with the values and the mission. 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:12.000 So you want to have these things be consistent with your identity. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:16.000 And they also need to be consistent with 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:20.000 local strengths, competitive context, 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:23.000 and all those types of things. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:26.000 So you know, from an academic standpoint, it might not be a crazy idea 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:29.000 for Western Oregon to think about an engineering program, 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:34.000 but from the standpoint of how much money it would take to build that 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:38.000 completely from scratch, and the competition that you have in the state, 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:42.000 that's probably not where you'd want to go. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:45.000 that's probably not where you'd want to go. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:48.000 So, one thing that's often 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:52.000 offered up as kind of a panacea is 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:56.000 going after private and corporate and foundation fundraising, 00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:60.000 so private development. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.000 I think that getting private development funds can 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:06.000 be very important, okay? 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:12.000 But most private donors, most foundations, most companies 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:16.000 don't want, aren't going to invest in the basic day to day 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:20.000 things that needs to run a university. People want to invest 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.000 in things that are really going to enhance a student's experience 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:28.000 or enhance the scholarly activity 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:32.000 that is happening in a university, and that they can make a 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:36.000 big impact on. And so going out and raising these funds 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:40.000 isn't going to replace some of the day to day 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.000 income that you need. But I think it can be very important: 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:50.000 raising funds for scholarships for students to provide access, okay? 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:56.000 for very targeted purposes. For example, when I was at the University of Idaho, 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:60.000 we had some donors who provided funds for undergraduate research, 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:03.000 experiences in faculties' laboratories, 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:08.000 you can get donors who might be interested in providing 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:12.000 some capitol support or equipment, new facilities, 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:16.000 and so this can, I think this is something that universities have to chase 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:20.000 more and more, but it has to be more than 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.000 expecting donors to pick up the whole bill. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:29.000 Certainly, I think, new academic programs is something that's very big. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:32.000 And I know that you're thinking very 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:36.000 hard about this and you have recently developed some 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:40.000 new programs. So these can take a variety of forms: 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:42.000 new majors or minors, okay, 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:44.000 new majors or minors, okay? 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:47.000 certificates at the graduate level, 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:51.000 there's also something out there that's called badges, 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:55.000 that's a sort of mini certificate type of thing. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:58.000 I don't know if this is going to happen but there's been a lot of talk 00:13:58.000 --> 00:13:63.000 among higher education people that we might move to a more 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:08.000 competency based educational system and students might be coming 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:12.000 to universities and looking for a skill here and a skill there 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:16.000 rather than a degree or a certificate. So we should certainly 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:19.000 keep our eye on that type of thing as well. 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:24.000 I think especially for a regional comprehensive university, 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:28.000 the new Masters programs that are professional in nature, 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:32.000 particularly ones that might target people that are already 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:36.000 in the workforce, that may have the means 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:42.000 or that their companies may actually pay for, um, tuition. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:44.000 And some of these programs, if they're 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:48.000 you know, unique enough and they fulfill a need, you can 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:52.000 you can actually charge a premium. Again, targeted towards people 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:54.000 that can afford that. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:57.000 that can afford that. 00:14:57.000 --> 00:14:60.000 I think distance and continuing education. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:04.000 I believe very strongly in the importance of a residential 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:08.000 education for the majority of our students, but there are 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:11.000 place bound students that may be in the work 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:15.000 workforce that can't come to a university. 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:20.000 I think some judicious use of distance, online learning can be 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.000 helpful to help protect, to generate 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:28.000 revenue, to help protect the base mission. And continuing education 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:32.000 where adults are coming, not necessarily to pick up 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:36.000 a credential but to just take some courses 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:38.000 that are of interest to them. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:40.000 that are of interest to them. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:43.000 New locations. I know that you're working on 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:48.000 putting some programs in Salem and I think that's a good thing to try 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:51.000 to reach more potential students. 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:55.000 Summer school. A lot of universities approach summer school as 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:60.000 it's just a place for students to pick up courses they failed during 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.000 the year, and that's an important role, but I think there's a 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:08.000 world of opportunity to potentially develop 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:12.000 summer specific programs. In some cases, programs 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:16.000 that might be offered to students before they come to university, 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:20.000 but I think there's a whole world of opportunity that's 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:25.000 possible with summer school if the incentive structure is right. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:27.000 Grants and contracts. 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:32.000 So I come from a research university, and one of the most 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:36.000 disillusioning things about working at a research university 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:40.000 is that getting research grants 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.000 and the dollar amounts of the grants, seems to be the most overriding concern. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:48.000 Yes, education is important. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:52.000 But, you know, you don't get tenure if you don't, if you aren't getting 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:54.000 big grants in most disciplines, etc. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:60.000 And I think this is actually wrong headed because I think 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.000 some people feel that if you get rants and contracts 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:08.000 that that's going to provide the revenue you need to do your other, 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:11.000 you know, do your education. But it's actually the other way around. 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:16.000 Grants provide direct funds for some very specific purposes but there are 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:20.000 indirect costs that the indirect cost recovery 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.000 rarely covers all those costs. So every research 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:28.000 university subsidizes research 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:32.000 through either having a large enrollment of undergrads, 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:35.000 very expensive tuition, 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:37.000 or really substantial endowments. 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:44.000 So I don't think this is a way to get net new income, but I think focused, targeted 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:48.000 going after grants that can help you, you know, 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:52.000 perhaps try some new academic programs, or fund 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:56.000 faculty research that might involve undergraduates. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:60.000 I think that's fine and I think it should be pursued. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.000 But I don't believe for a minute, even after 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:08.000 oh, what has it been, 35 years in 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:12.000 research universities, that research actually increases the net revenue. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:20.000 So another thing is if there aren't enough domestic or regional students, 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.000 go more broadly. Go. Try to attract out of students 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:26.000 out of state students or international students. 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:32.000 I know there's a push to go to Texas, one place where it seems like 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:36.000 demographics are favorable, and, you know, international 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:38.000 students have always been considered. I think it's worthwhile doing this. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:42.000 I think it's worthwhile doing this. It comes with a little bit of a price and 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:46.000 and you have to communicate well with the public 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:49.000 and the legislators in your state because sometimes people get 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:56.000 the wrong headed notion that this is taking resources away or space away 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:59.000 from more in state students. 00:18:59.000 --> 00:18:64.000 But I think that this is another tact that one can take. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:08.000 The other thing that can be done, and I think, 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:11.000 you know, this can be in tandem with developing new resources 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:16.000 is increasing efficiency and efficacy of 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:20.000 um, of whatever you're doing. So I think 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.000 we always have to constantly question, both on the academic 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:29.000 side, we call that assessment, and on the business side of a university. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:32.000 What are we doing? Why? How? 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:35.000 How effective is it? And can we change it? 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.000 We all need to be constantly looking for ways to, you know, 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:43.000 especially in our business processes, streamline things, 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:48.000 make things both less expensive in terms of how much money it costs 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:53.000 but also less time intensive on the part of faculty and staff. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:60.000 And I know that there's a lot in your strategic plan about 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.000 looking at these types of things. But I think it's also 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:08.000 possible to make significant strides in increasing 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:12.000 the efficacy, or effectiveness, or quality 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:17.000 of education, and to some extent the efficiency of education. 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:20.000 And here I want to take a little bit of a 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.000 pause, or an aside, and talk a little bit what I, 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:29.000 about what I think is good teaching, or good instruction. 00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:32.000 So, very simply, 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:36.000 I think good teaching means that students are learning. 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:40.000 Okay? I know, throughout my career, I've had science colleagues 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.000 who kind of have had the attitude that, "Well, you know, 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:47.000 we do a pretty good job teaching and these are hard subjects, 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:52.000 so if the students don't learn it, there's something wrong with them, or we don't 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:55.000 have, we haven't been given the resources to do this properly." 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.000 But think about if you ordered something from Amazon, 00:20:59.000 --> 00:20:63.000 and it didn't arrive, and you call them up and complain, 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:06.000 and they said, "Well we shipped it! We shipped it using the 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:10.000 best method we know how. If you didn't get it, it must be your fault, okay?" 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:11.000 laughter 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:16.000 No, it doesn't, it doesn't work that way. So good teaching doesn't occur 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:22.000 unless students are learning and being engaged. This idea that 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:28.000 you're weeding out the weak students also is not supported by data, at least not 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:32.000 in the sciences. A few years ago, there was a National Academy of Science study 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:36.000 that showed that A and B students were 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:40.000 also dropping out of sciences in the proportion 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.000 that they are into the overall student population. 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:48.000 So it isn't just that students are dropping 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:52.000 out of difficult math and science courses because, you know, 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:56.000 they don't have the preparation, or they have some 00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:60.000 impediment to being able to do this. We are turning off, 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.000 in some cases, in science, really good students. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:09.000 And I suspect this is probably true in some other disciplines as well. 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:13.000 There's a book that has been out for 00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:16.000 quite some time now y Arum and Roksa, 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.000 they do have a viewpoint about quality of teaching 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:28.000 that I like quite a bit and that is 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:32.000 that good teaching comprises three components: 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:36.000 high standards for the students, high expectations 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:40.000 of the students, but then what they refer 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.000 to as something like compassion, which is not just throwing the 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:48.000 stuff at the students but doing whatever you can that is reasonably 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:52.000 possible to help the students meet those expectations and standards 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:56.000 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:59.000 Reading slide 00:22:59.000 --> 00:22:64.000 In the book "The World is Flat" by Tom Friedman, which he talks about how 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:08.000 the global life is going to affect careers and how education needs 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:12.000 to feed into that. You know, there used to be an argument of "Oh we should 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:16.000 prepare them to be generalists, or prepare them to be specialists." 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:20.000 No. They need to be versatilists, because they are going to be in a variety 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.000 of careers, some of which that don't exist today. 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:28.000 Repeated surveys of prospective employers 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:32.000 show again and again, that when they ask "what's most 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:36.000 important for your particular profession", they talk about 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:40.000 the skills that are learned during a liberal or general education. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.000 So, critical thinking, global thinking, 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:47.000 written in oral communication, the major is 00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:52.000 secondary, it's still important, but it's that liberal education 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:55.000 that is the thing that employers 00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.000 want to see. And the job market is shifting. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:23:64.000 In the twentieth century, most people would have one job their whole life, 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.000 same employer. If they changed jobs at all, they went to a different 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:12.000 company in the same kind of field. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:16.000 So, mastery of a single field was the educational model and that worked. 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:20.000 The teaching model was subject matter 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.000 mastery and you tested for that. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:28.000 In the twenty first century, students will have 10 to 15 jobs 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:32.000 perhaps, and very likely, in very different 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:36.000 disciplines than their first job or what they studied for 00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:40.000 And, in some cases, as I mentioned already, in fields 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.000 that don't exist today. 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:48.000 So, back to the efficacy 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:52.000 and efficiency. One thing that I found very 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:56.000 helpful to make a quantum leap in increasing 00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:60.000 the students' learning is a learning assistance program. 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:03.000 I'm going to talk a little about that here. 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:08.000 I'm not going to claim that that will necessarily 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:11.000 that it will necessarily work here. One of the reasons it works at North Dakota State 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:16.000 really well is because we had very large enrollment classrooms that 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:20.000 it's hard to provide personalized attention, but I show this example 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.000 because I want to illustrate it is possible to make 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:28.000 big increases in the quality of student learning and engagement 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:32.000 for relatively little money while still having those 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:36.000 high standards and high expectations. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:40.000 So, the learning assistance program is where we take juniors and seniors 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.000 who have gotten at least a B in the course they are going to participate in. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:48.000 We provide them pedagogical training 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:52.000 to assist faculty in the classroom doing active learning 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:58.000 and inquiry based learning. 00:25:58.000 --> 00:25:61.000 and we provide them a stipend so they don't have to work at 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:05.000 McDonald's or Starbucks while they're doing that. 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.000 And, here's some of the data from early on. 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:13.000 The y axis is the percent of students that are getting 00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:16.000 the D's, F's , or W's in the course. 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:20.000 The x axis is the different introductory science courses 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.000 that we have. And the green bars are traditional 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:28.000 lecture based approaches. The yellow bars 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:32.000 are learning assistance supported, and this generally means 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:36.000 that they are doing active learning or inquirey based learning. 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:40.000 The difference is dramatic. Biology has about a 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:48.000 Look at Chemistry 122, it's a factor of 4 reduction. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:52.000 It's almost academic malpractice, at least at NDSU, 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:56.000 for our faculty not to be using these methods. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:60.000 Okay, the question was 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.000 prior to learning assistance, were faculty engaged in 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:08.000 active learning? I think to some extent 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:12.000 they were, and that is why 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:16.000 this difference is not as big, and this DFW rate, 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:19.000 because this is an example where the instructors were engaged in active learning 00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:24.000 before the LA's were there. The LA's do 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:28.000 facilitate. If you have a large ish class, you have 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:36.000 you get more learning assistance. You can reach more students. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:40.000 Our math department is finally 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.000 starting to use this in Calculus, 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:48.000 and so this graph here is Business Calculus, 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:52.000 this graph here is STEM Calculus. 00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:56.000 And, again, DFW rates, 00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:60.000 the green here are the proportion of students getting A's, 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.000 B's, and C's. The buffer yellow are the proportions 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:08.000 of those getting D's, F's, and W's. Again, a huge decrease 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:12.000 in the DFW rates when 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:16.000 we use this active learning technique with learning assistance. Now 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:20.000 the skeptic might say, "Oh, well you are just dumbing down the course 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.000 and making easier for them." We have tons of evidence that suggests 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:28.000 that is not the case. First of all, students that 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:32.000 learn these introductory topics in this manner do better 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:36.000 in the next course, for which the other course was a prerequisite. 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.000 We have seen that students do better on standardized 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:48.000 assessments, even though we are in no way teaching to the 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:52.000 test. And just a whole bunch of other pieces 00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:56.000 of evidence. This is one of them. 00:28:56.000 --> 00:28:60.000 So, this is a graph of learning gain 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.000 versus number of semesters. And the learning gain here 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:08.000 is that students take a standardized assessment at the beginning of the course 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:12.000 and at the end of the course. A learning gain of zero 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:16.000 is not very good, the students did not learn anything new. 00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:20.000 A learning gain of one is they have learned everything that the assessment asses. 00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.000 The blue diamonds here are 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:28.000 traditional lecture based approaches without using LA's. 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:32.000 And it is pretty depressing. 30 percent, 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:36.000 averaging 30 percent learning gains. When they started 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:40.000 to add these, we call 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.000 them research based instructional approaches, and or 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:48.000 using undergraduate learning assistance, initally the gain was modest because 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:52.000 people are trying to figure out how things work, 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:56.000 but now we are almost double the learning gain. 00:29:56.000 --> 00:29:60.000 Students are learning more, they are learning higher 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.000 on Bloom's taxonomy as well. 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:08.000 We also introduced a math emporium, which is an act of 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:12.000 learning laboratory for Pre Calculus, Trigonometry, and Algebra. 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:16.000 Prior to that, the number of DFW's exceeded 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:20.000 the number of A's, B's, and C's. It was like 55 00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.000 to 45 or something like that. After 00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:28.000 that was instituted, and we got our feet wet, we have completely 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:33.000 reversed that and decreased substantially the DFW rates. 00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:36.000 Now another approach that can be 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:40.000 taken is to maximize synergies between 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.000 teaching and research, and I know this is something that your new general 00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:48.000 education model is incorporating. Trying to encourage 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:52.000 high impact practices of which undergraduate research 00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:56.000 is one. So you can do undergraduate research out of class, 00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:60.000 student working shoulder to shoulder with a professor 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.000 either in the lab, in the field, in the library, 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:08.000 on computers, or whatever the researcher created 00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:12.000 activity is. You can incorporate it into classrooms. 00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:16.000 We have CURE's, Course Based Undergraduate Research Experiences. 00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:20.000 Three credit course, student's devise 00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.000 and carry out, interpret, and present open 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:28.000 ended research questions, that is all they do. 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:32.000 And I think it is also possible to place some cook book 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:36.000 labs that are common in some courses with more open 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:40.000 inquiry labs. I think it is also possible to find 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.000 synergies between teaching and community outreach, 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:48.000 through internships and service or community learning. Again, your general education 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:52.000 model is encouraging this, so I think that is good. 00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:56.000 Judicious use of technology. 00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:60.000 Flipped classrooms, this is an active learning laboratory where the students 00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.000 use computer technology to learn what would have been taught in lecture before 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:08.000 in a variety of ways. But then, when they came to class, they are doing active, 00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:12.000 activity based types of activities. 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:16.000 It is possible to automate some 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:20.000 assessments in some fields. Probably not a huge issue at 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.000 Western Oregon because your numbers are not great, but you can save some grading time. 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:28.000 Nobody likes to grade simple math papers 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:32.000 or things like that. And then adaptive learning 00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:36.000 tools. We use these in our math emporium. It is computer based methods 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:40.000 that help the student. If the student is getting it, they move on to the next topic, 00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.000 if they are not, the system figures that out and provides more help. 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:48.000 And that is supplemented by there being a staff of 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:52.000 instructional staff in the emporium as well. 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:56.000 Collaborations and interdisciplinary approaches 00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:60.000 are also going to become more important in the future. Other 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.000 high impact practices, many of these are also in your list of things 00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:08.000 that you want to achieve in your general education model. So what 00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:12.000 else? I think it is really important to realize that 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:16.000 even if we are able to get some more revenue, 00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:20.000 no university, not even Harvard, 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.000 not even Yale, not even Berkley, can offer 00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:28.000 high quality programs in every conceivable 00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:32.000 discipline at every concievable level. It is just not possible 00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:36.000 to do. So again, we need 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:39.000 to distinguish one's self to be unique while still providing 00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:43.000 a breadth of topics that are appropriate. 00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:48.000 But I think it is important to focus on strengths and opportunities. 00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:52.000 And, I think that all institutions, at some point are going to 00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:56.000 have to make some hard decisions and do some sort of internal 00:33:56.000 --> 00:33:60.000 reallocations. Again, looking at programs that are not meeting 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.000 whatever goals the university sets and others 00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:08.000 that have the opportunity for growth and that type of thing, and 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:12.000 reallocate some of the money because there is never going to be a bigger 00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:16.000 pot of money then the money 00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:20.000 you already have. How can we accomplish any of this? Well 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.000 I think the number one priority is to establish 00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:28.000 open, transparent communications and trust at all 00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:32.000 levels up and down through the university and then develop 00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:36.000 a shared vision that everyone can get behind. Because 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:40.000 you will not go anywhere if there are people not trusting 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.000 the Provost, or not trusting their Dean, or their 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:47.000 whatever. You have got to have that. 00:34:47.000 --> 00:34:52.000 And I think when people ask me what are my biggest 00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:56.000 accomplishments as Dean, the number one thing I always say is that in two 00:34:56.000 --> 00:34:60.000 different Deanships, I have been able to, in very short order, get 00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.000 in there and establish trust and open communications, 00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:08.000 and that has been the basis for any of these other successes. There would be no way 00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:12.000 I could help expand the learning assistance program if I 00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:16.000 did not have that going for me. 00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:20.000 But beyond that, one needs to provide a variety of key support 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.000 personnel, and I am running out of time, so I will not necessarily 00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:28.000 go into each and every one of these. I think providing 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:32.000 professional development opportunities in a wide variety of areas. 00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:36.000 I think leadership development is important. So faculty 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:40.000 and staff have opportunities, if they want to, to move up. 00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:46.000 And if they do not want to move up, those leadership things help in just your daily jobs. 00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:52.000 And I think knowing a lot about how budget and finances of the university work are important. 00:35:52.000 --> 00:35:56.000 I think providing financial support to do things like 00:35:56.000 --> 00:35:60.000 course buyouts and summer salaries so that 00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.000 faculty have time to sit back and develop new courses, 00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:08.000 new curricula, new approaches to the teaching. 00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:12.000 Certainly, travel and bringing 00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:16.000 people on campus. New equipment and technology, 00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:20.000 and possibley providing stipends for something like learning assistance. 00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.000 This brings me to the underrepresented and 00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:28.000 underserved part of the talk, and I put this towards the end on purpose. 00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:32.000 Not because it is an after thought, but because I wanted to get 00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:36.000 through the stuff that I talked about, about efficacy, 00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:40.000 increasing the quality of teaching and 00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.000 learning because I think that is a big key here. 00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:48.000 So, one thing that I think is very important, 00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:52.000 a lot of talk is about equal access, 00:36:52.000 --> 00:36:56.000 but equal access alone is not going to cut it because we can provide 00:36:56.000 --> 00:36:60.000 equal access to a Western Oregon University, 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.000 to two different people, and if their experiences prior to that 00:37:04.000 --> 00:37:08.000 are different, they may not have equal outcomes. So you might have a student 00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:12.000 that is well supported by people at home who have been through 00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:16.000 the university, they know how things work, they have had all kinds of enrichment experiences, 00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:20.000 they haven't had to work through high school. And then you have another 00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.000 student, who is a first generation student, and had to work 00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:28.000 through high school, did not have these enriching activities. 00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:32.000 There will not be equal outcomes, so we need to look at equal 00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:36.000 outcomes in addition to equal access. 00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:40.000 Now one of the things, and this is why I left this until the end, 00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.000 because there is lots of evidence to suggest that these 00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:48.000 more active, inquiry based learning methods, in these high impact 00:37:48.000 --> 00:37:52.000 practices differentially benefit underrepresented 00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:56.000 and underserved populations. They benefit everybody 00:37:56.000 --> 00:37:60.000 to some extent, but there is a lot of research out there, and 00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:03.000 there is anecdotal evidence from my own university, and 00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:08.000 from Idaho where I was before, that these things 00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:12.000 bring up people that have had poor 00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:16.000 preparations, or do not have the support system, to a greater degree. 00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:20.000 So I think that is a very important aspect of this. 00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.000 I think that the faculty composition needs to reflect 00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:28.000 the diversity in the student body. And this is, I think, 00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:32.000 a little bit of a tricky thing. I know you have got aspirations to be 00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:36.000 a hispanic serving institution. You might 00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:40.000 decide you are lucky if you are able to attract a faculty member 00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.000 who was born and educated 00:38:44.000 --> 00:38:48.000 in, you know, a hispanic country, like 00:38:48.000 --> 00:38:52.000 Spain or Argentina, or even Mexico. But 00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:56.000 most of our students that are hispanic would not have had common 00:38:56.000 --> 00:38:60.000 experiences with individuals from those areas. There is a certain dimension 00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.000 of diversity that is good to bring to the university, but it is probably 00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:08.000 not enough because students from, well, 00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:12.000 hispanic students from rural America and urban United States 00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:16.000 probably do not have the same experiences in that type 00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:20.000 of a thing. Another very important thing is for 00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.000 everybody to understand the barriers that underrepresented 00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:28.000 groups face. The unintentional 00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:32.000 biases that we all have, and all the other types of barriers. 00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:36.000 And then we devise policies, procedures, 00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:40.000 methods to minimize the impact of those biases. 00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.000 And, you know, some of the things that I have been personally 00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:48.000 involved in is developing tenure clock stoppage policies, 00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:52.000 promotion and tenure committee, and hiring committee training 00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:56.000 so that people are able to 00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:60.000 identify those biases and hopefully 00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.000 overcome them. Ally programs, Safe Zone Ally, 00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:08.000 LGBT support, FORWARD Allies and Advocates at 00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:12.000 North Dakota, that is support for women in academics. 00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:16.000 Spousal and partner hire policies 00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:20.000 and cultural competencies and anti bias training. The good thing about 00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.000 all of these is that they benefit the entire population to some extent, 00:40:24.000 --> 00:40:28.000 but they also differentially benefit 00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:32.000 the groups that face these barriers. Incorporating 00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:36.000 diversity and cultural programming in curricula, and I see 00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:40.000 that in your new general education model. And then, it may 00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.000 be necessary, I know that there are some support offices 00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:48.000 that you have already at Western Oregon. There may be 00:40:48.000 --> 00:40:52.000 a need to increase that, at least for the larger expected 00:40:52.000 --> 00:40:56.000 populations that you hope to attract. 00:40:56.000 --> 00:40:60.000 And then finally, I think very important, raising scholarship funds, 00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.000 particullary scholarship funds that can be targeted to help 00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:08.000 underrepresented, underserved groups. So this 00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:12.000 is, there is a lot to take in, we have got a lot of challenges ahead of us. 00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:16.000 I think a lot of times in higher education, we look at 00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:20.000 the challenges ahead of us, and we look at our daily work load, and 00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.000 we suffer from analysis paralysis. 00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:28.000 We are not sure if something is going to work and we are afraid 00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:31.000 to try it, but I think we have to adopt the creedo that is represented 00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:36.000 by this quote from Franklin Delanor Roosevelt. He gave a 00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:40.000 commencement speech at a university 00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.000 in the 30's. " It is common sense to take a method and try it. 00:41:44.000 --> 00:41:48.000 If it does not work, be honest about it, admit it, move on 00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:52.000 to something else. But above all, try something." 00:41:52.000 --> 00:41:56.000 With that, I would be happy to take any questions you might have. 00:41:56.000 --> 00:41:63.000 The question is, how would I address, if I came here as provost, 00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:10.000 the equal outcomes aspect that I talked about. 00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:17.000 Again, I think that encouraging 00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:23.000 I believe that there are folks already doing some of the things that I talked about. 00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:27.000 here, and there's going to be more of that as people develop 00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:29.000 new proposals for the GenEd 00:42:29.000 --> 00:42:32.000 So, I think, 00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:36.000 again, trying to get as many of these high impact practices 00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:40.000 and these research based teaching methods in place 00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.000 and that takes, first of all, identifying 00:42:44.000 --> 00:42:48.000 people that are already doing this and encouraging them, 00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:52.000 rewarding them for it, building on that, 00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:55.000 when other faculty see those successes, 00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:60.000 In my experience, then there will be a pretty big body of 00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.000 people that, once the doubts have been dispelled 00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:09.000 will start taking and doing that and then 00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:13.000 often, some of the real hard line 00:43:13.000 --> 00:43:18.000 faculty, they might not admit it, but after 00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:22.000 awhile they start adopting some of these things too. 00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:25.000 It's a matter of being an effective advocate 00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:28.000 being able to articulate 00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:32.000 the need and how this might work. 00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:36.000 And getting people to buy into that common vision 00:43:36.000 --> 00:43:40.000 and providing the necessary support 00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:43.000 of the types that I outlined towards the end of the talk. 00:43:43.000 --> 00:43:48.000 There's other things too. Those are mostly on the academic side. 00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:52.000 There's also a lot of things that can be done on the student 00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:56.000 affairs side as well to help 00:43:56.000 --> 00:43:60.000 make students feel more welcome and 00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:03.000 provide advising services, counseling services, 00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:10.000 and all of those things as well, need to be looked after. 00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:17.000 The brief version of that question was, the questioner wanted me to talk about 00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:22.000 experiences with shared governance and how shared governance should work. 00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:30.000 And, I think you're right. 00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.000 Even in a bigger university like mine, everybody is 00:44:34.000 --> 00:44:38.000 heart is more or less in the right place, but there are often 00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:41.000 differences of opinion about how to get there. 00:44:41.000 --> 00:44:44.000 Change is hard, right? 00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:53.000 I have dabbled in, most of the teaching I did before I got to North Dakota State University 00:44:53.000 --> 00:44:56.000 was done in a pretty traditional format. 00:44:56.000 --> 00:44:60.000 Lecture format. I prepared those lecutres 00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.000 I had beautiful audio visual 00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:08.000 things, I would tell jokes, I'd get up there 00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:12.000 with my guitar and have songs that were scientifically relevant. 00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:16.000 I do all kinds of things, go over the hard spots 00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:20.000 again and again. I thought I had elevated it to a high art form. 00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.000 I was still always disappointed with the student performance 00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:28.000 and year after year I came to a conclusion that 00:45:28.000 --> 00:45:32.000 it probably isn't just the students, that maybe that mode 00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:36.000 is not effective for people who are not like me. 00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:41.000 I think that it's not so much that 00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:46.000 people don't fundamentally want to serve the students, 00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:51.000 but, there's a lack of awareness in some cases, 00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:56.000 there's, oh my god, that's very scary to go into a classroom 00:45:56.000 --> 00:45:60.000 and not have your power point notes and just go through that 00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.000 and walk around the room and open yourself up to any questions 00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:07.000 students can answer. 00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:11.000 I think you're fundamentally right, that people's heart is generally in 00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:15.000 the right place. 00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.000 Then, on the other side of faculty governance, there's some things that 00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:23.000 absolutely faculty have to have a very significant role in, 00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:27.000 and one of those is curriculum, and course, and 00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:31.000 academic freedom and all that kind of thing. So I can't dictate 00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:36.000 as a dean or a provost. All I can do is offer opportunities 00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:42.000 I can, like I said, work with the faculty that are willing 00:46:42.000 --> 00:46:45.000 and sort of build it up that way. 00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.000 provide the resources. 00:46:49.000 --> 00:46:55.000 And, so, one of the things that is always irked me a little bit 00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.000 about faculty governance is that 00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:05.000 one or two powerful figures on campus can derail 00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.000 changes that even the majority of faculty want. 00:47:09.000 --> 00:47:13.000 I've seen this happen in GenEd reform where 00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:16.000 you have a nice model and 00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:21.000 there's forums and people seem to buy into it and then you get to 00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:25.000 university curriculum council and somebody in the engineering 00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.000 department says "it won't work for us and we're going to do 00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:32.000 everything to fight it." 00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:36.000 That can be frustrating, but you do your best 00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:40.000 to gain buy in and get folks 00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.000 all on the same train, so to speak. 00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:48.000 The question was that 00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:52.000 there are grants on this campus that don't 00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:56.000 directly serve students in the kinds of ways I outlined in my talk. 00:47:58.000 --> 00:47:64.000 but some of these provide important services to the community 00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:08.000 or do involve students in some ways. 00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:12.000 I think that those are fine. 00:48:12.000 --> 00:48:16.000 What I'm against is going after grants just because we think 00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:19.000 that we want to move up the rankings, or that 00:48:19.000 --> 00:48:24.000 getting more grant dollars will somehow solve our, 00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:28.000 I think if there is a legitimate purpose and the grant can 00:48:28.000 --> 00:48:32.000 help achieve that purpose then that's the appropriate role 00:48:32.000 --> 00:48:37.000 for grants in a regional comprehensive university. 00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:49.000 I probably could imagine some grants or contracts that might be inappropriate 00:48:49.000 --> 00:48:53.000 but, they have to somehow fit the mission of the university 00:48:53.000 --> 00:48:55.000 and be consistent with the values. 00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.000 The question was, if I were to come to Western Oregon University, 00:48:59.000 --> 00:48:61.000 what would I be doing in that first term. 00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:08.000 I think I'd be drinking from a firehose. Climbing a steep learning curve. 00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:12.000 Whatever metaphor you want to use. 00:49:12.000 --> 00:49:17.000 But, how I would achieve those ends is that 00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:21.000 before I got here I would ask for and get as 00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:24.000 much documentation that might be relevant to my job 00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:29.000 that I haven't already looked at and that kind of thing. 00:49:29.000 --> 00:49:34.000 Once I got here, I would be getting out and probably visiting every department, 00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:38.000 every academic department. 00:49:38.000 --> 00:49:41.000 Visiting individually or in groups 00:49:41.000 --> 00:49:46.000 various direct reports of mine in academic 00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:50.000 affairs and then getting out into student affairs, and just 00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:53.000 learning how the university works. 00:49:53.000 --> 00:49:59.000 I think that I'd be paying a lot of attention to 00:49:59.000 --> 00:49:63.000 the staff, the equivalent of whoever is the provost assistant, 00:50:03.000 --> 00:50:07.000 and the office manager because those are the folks 00:50:07.000 --> 00:50:10.000 that really know how the university works. 00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.000 You learn a lot from them. 00:50:14.000 --> 00:50:19.000 Those would be some of the main things, as I said in an earlier meeting 00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.000 you have a strategic plan. Strategic plans are 00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:26.000 always overly ambitious. You have got 00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:30.000 I don't know, does anybody know the number of goals and objectives 00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:36.000 you have in your plan? Five? Well, there's five overall goals, but 00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:40.000 there's sub goals and all that kind of thing. 00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.000 You can't do it all at once. I think if the university 00:50:44.000 --> 00:50:48.000 hasn't already engaged in a process of prioritization 00:50:48.000 --> 00:50:52.000 then I think that's something that, at least on the goals that 00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:56.000 are predominantly academic, that the provost should be 00:50:56.000 --> 00:50:58.000 thinking about leading. 00:50:58.000 --> 00:50:64.000 Again, I think getting out there and establishing that trust, 00:51:04.000 --> 00:51:08.000 meeting with people, starting to do things, to make 00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:12.000 decisions and show that process about how 00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:16.000 so that people can see that 00:51:16.000 --> 00:51:20.000 I'm open and transparent 00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.000 and trustworthy, and all those good things. 00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:26.000 Thank you.