WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 music 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:07.000 So thank you all for being here tonight. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:10.000 It's great to kick this series off this year. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:14.000 I prepared some slides. It'll walk us through the comments I have to make. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:18.000 I'd be happy to take questions along the way that's the style I'm used to. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:23.000 I apologize it's not broadcasting and some of the slides might be tough to read. 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:30.000 But my copies I know some of the data points so with any luck you'll be able to follow some of the arguments I'll be trying to make. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:34.000 So the idea is to give a general review of what Western's doing 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:37.000 talk about what's happening nationally with some best practices. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:41.000 But also then look at our own data and say how are we doing. 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:46.000 So it's a bit of an overview of key issues related to such things as high-impact practices. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:50.000 But also then how are we doing on those kinds of benchmarks 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:54.000 and how might we think about going forward and do a bit better 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:59.000 in terms of our efforts to improve student retention and graduation rates. 00:00:59.000 --> 00:00:65.000 So if you think about student success the ultimate goal and I'm fond of saying this when we welcome freshmen and parents to campus is 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:07.000 that it's a wonderful thing that they've been admitted to university. 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:10.000 And oftentimes that's an achievement in their families. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:15.000 But they really need to start planning then and now about graduating because the real goal is to finish. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:18.000 So the notion is to enter and finish. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:26.000 And that's a piece that I think is increasingly part of the dialogue within the US in particular and the state of Oregon as well. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:30.000 So what I've included on the first slide for you is a proposed mission statement 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.000 which is under review by the campus. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:40.000 It was developed by the Strategic Planning Committee in the last three months or so. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:44.000 Ella is on that committee, Linda is on that committee, I'm on that committee as co-chair. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.000 And then there are 25 of us all together. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:52.000 And the language we used I think is important because I think it is capturing some of the values 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:56.000 that Western has developed over its existence. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:60.000 And that's the notion of opportunities number one that we're creating opportunities 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:06.000 and oftentimes that means the first person in their family to go to college and graduate. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:10.000 And why that's important to me personally is my father was a World War II veteran. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.000 And went to college after World War II on the GI bill. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:19.000 And because he went to college and graduated it changed the opportunities that I had 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:23.000 as one of the four kids that he had. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:26.000 And even today when we think about our students 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:29.000 if they're the first in their families it's going to change the next generation. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:33.000 And that's why that opportunity is so personally important to me. 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:35.000 I also believe in public higher education. 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:40.000 I'm a student of that issue going back to my days as an economist. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:44.000 I believe that what this nation has done by investing in public access 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:48.000 changes the very nature and caliber of our society. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:54.000 So we sometimes get to a point where we talk in those terms but don't think deeply about what they really mean. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:60.000 And I guess I want us to stop and think about that as a campus as we think about our mission. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:04.000 So we talk about student success in that first sentence as well. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:07.000 Transformative education that's a piece of our DNA as well. 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:13.000 The notion that students who come to us whatever their age or whatever their interests are 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:15.000 are engaging in a process that's going to change them. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:20.000 You can't engage in education in a dynamic way and not have it affect you. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.000 It's impossible to go through the process and not have some impact. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:29.000 If we're serious about what we mean by critical thinking, quantitative reasoning skills, 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:32.000 liberal arts traditions values, technical skills. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:38.000 I'm an economist so all those things change the way you operate in a world 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:40.000 and equip you for further change and growth. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:45.000 And that's why it's transformative during your time here it's transformative afterward. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:49.000 And so that's why I think that statement is so important. 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:52.000 And personalized support in an accessible collaborative community. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:56.000 One of the things that struck me when I first interviewed here just over a year and half ago 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:61.000 was the sense of community that happens on campus on a daily basis. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:05.000 But that really supports the idea that we can be collaborative and learn together. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:13.000 All of the research shows that students learn best when they engage in the work they do in a thoughtful way individually 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:16.000 but more importantly then engage with others about what they think. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:21.000 They test their ideas they have conversations there's a push and pull. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:28.000 There's an opportunity for them to correct a misconception or be convinced of a new argument or learn something brand new. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:32.000 All of that is what I think Western has done. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:36.000 And so if we do all that then I think the vision statement holds as well 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:39.000 which is that we will be a place of choice. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:43.000 So this is language that the Committee's come to it's language I personally ascribe to 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:50.000 in the sense of as an economist higher ed in the US has always been a choice market that is you decide where you go. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:56.000 And we need to think about how will the next generations of students decide whether Western is right for them or not. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:61.000 So that's all the preamble of what we are I think in terms of a university. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:06.000 And while this is a proposed mission statement I want to make sure you understand it's not been approved 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:11.000 I think we're getting good dialogue on the campus even this month about what those ideas are. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:18.000 And then to tie that to the next slide is a statement from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences about a liberal education. 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:23.000 There's been a lot of debate in the US about what's the value of a liberal education. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:29.000 I think this statement captures it for me it terms of some of the best ways of capturing those values. 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:34.000 It's around these critical thinking skills I've talked about these overarching values 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:38.000 and the ability to have a major from which you then go to the next step. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.000 It doesn't mean you're going to work in your major. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:43.000 My first major was public administration. 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:47.000 I graduated with that degree as a BA. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.000 But even getting there I changed my major at least three times officially 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.000 before I chose to pursue that area. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:57.000 And while my original plan was to work in city government to be a city manager 00:05:57.000 --> 00:05:63.000 I decided my senior year on an internship that that's not what I wanted to do. 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:11.000 Because of that foundation I was then able to consider graduate school and pursue another path. 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:14.000 And again in graduate school I thought I was going to get a master's degree. 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:20.000 I thought I was going to go and be a research economist for federal government or state government. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:25.000 And then I was nudged by one of my faculty saying have you thought about the PhD program? 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:28.000 And I said tell me more about that. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:33.000 And from that conversation I was led into a doctoral program 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:35.000 that then led me down a path that I had never imagined. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:41.000 It wasn't even open to me in terms of possibilities when I was in college as a student initially. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:45.000 And that's what this process needs to be about for every student. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.000 And every student will find his or her pathway. 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:52.000 They'll discover it if we're providing that foundation of support. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:55.000 So the next slide then talks about what our state goals are. 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:58.000 There's been a lot of conversation in the state of Oregon 00:06:58.000 --> 00:06:62.000 about the impact higher education has on society at large. 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:06.000 And we have a goal which has been summarized as 40 40 20. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:13.000 What that means is 40 percent of the adult population should have a four year degree a bachelor's degree or higher 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:19.000 and 20 percent should at least graduate from high school. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:22.000 So what it's really saying is no high school dropouts. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:26.000 It's saying get some post-secondary education be it two year or four year 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:33.000 and if we do that we'll be prepared for the sort of human capital economy that is so prevalent in today's world. 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:38.000 The next slide then says if we did that what would've been the economic impact? 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.000 So as an economist I couldn't resist putting this kind of data in. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:45.000 This was done by one of our research firms here in the state of Oregon ECONorthwest. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:49.000 And what it says is that if we had closed the educational attainment gap 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:56.000 and what they're really talking about is the attainment gap between whites and underrepresented minorities. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:63.000 And what it says is that if the underrepresented minorities had the same educational attainment as the white majority 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:05.000 what would be the economic impact? 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:12.000 So if we closed that gap in 2003 I think it is what would be the impact on the state economy? 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:17.000 It's powerful. And economists do low medium high estimates and that's what you see here with the red and blue bars. 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:23.000 It's a little hard to read. But it says on the mid-point impact for the state of Oregon as a whole 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:28.000 it'd be a 1.9 billion dollar increase in gross domestic product. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:36.000 Nearly two billion dollars per year if we simply had had greater educational attainment by those who are underrepresented. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:40.000 The high estimate's over three and a half or nearly 3.3 billion. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:43.000 The blue shows you what happens in the metro Portland area 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:46.000 because that's a big part of the Oregon economy. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:54.000 But the take away here is by giving people who have been I guess unable to access higher education 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:58.000 providing an opportunity for them to graduate which is what Western does 00:08:58.000 --> 00:08:62.000 we then propel our own wellbeing forward 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:06.000 in ways that are powerful and beyond initial comprehension. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:11.000 The next slide tells you what the tale of the tape is today. 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:16.000 This is 2006 so this is the high school graduating class of 2006. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:19.000 It's measuring after six years what's the educational attainment? 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:24.000 And so that goes to 2012 it's the last data we have available to us. 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:28.000 And it says the white population has 24 percent that have a bachelor's degree or higher. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:32.000 That's that green bar at the top on that far left column. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:36.000 The underrepresented minorities that green bar is eight percent. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:42.000 For Free and Reduced Lunch that's low income so translate that into low income, eight percent. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:46.000 And so when you look at the two edges there 24 percent for the white 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:50.000 and then for those who are middle income and higher 28 percent. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:54.000 So it's saying those who have economic advantage are those who are white 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:58.000 who have a degree at about 24 or 28 percent of the population. 00:09:58.000 --> 00:09:62.000 So if we want to meet the 40 40 20 we still have a gap with that population 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:08.000 but the gap for the underrepresented and low income is eight percent compared to 40 percent. 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:11.000 That's the educational attainment gap that is facing this state 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:14.000 but it's also true of other states throughout the US. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:17.000 The data would look very similar going across the board. 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:20.000 So to me this is a call to arms for what Western does. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:25.000 The work we do by enrolling first gen, underrepresented individuals, 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:28.000 and giving them a change to be the first in their families to make a difference is really powerful. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:34.000 It's powerful economically but it's also powerful in a way that sets aside society. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:40.000 The next slide says who's our graduating class what's our profile of students coming out of high school? 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:44.000 And really hard to read I apologize for that it's even hard to read in the original. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:51.000 But I think the gist of it will be clear which is that the blue zone in that graph are white students. 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:56.000 The green are Hispanic. The gold are Black non-Hispanic. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:62.000 The grey is Asian, Pacific Islander. And the orange is Native American. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:07.000 So if you think in terms of where the greatest growth is in Oregon going forward 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:11.000 that takes you out to 2027. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:16.000 So the next roughly 15 years or so the greatest growth is in the Hispanic population. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:18.000 And that's true throughout the United States. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:25.000 So if you think of it as a high school graduating class notice that the actual numbers taper and become flat. 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:31.000 So the number of students graduating from high school in the state of Oregon has stayed at about 135,000 per year. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:34.000 But who they are changes dramatically. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.000 They become increasingly non-white is the best way to describe that. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:44.000 So that means that those students have to know they can go to college, they can afford it, they can graduate. 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:47.000 They can become a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor. They can pay back their student loans. 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:50.000 They have a chance for that opportunity. 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:55.000 So the next slide then talks about the pillars we're building with our strategic plan. 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:58.000 So again I want to tie it back to where we are going forward. 00:11:58.000 --> 00:11:62.000 So I wanted to use this as a platform to talk about who we are, 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:06.000 what's our legacy and tradition, what the crisis is in the state, 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:12.000 and then who is Western going forward with regard to how we might build an effective pathway. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:15.000 So our pillars in our plan include student success, 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:21.000 academic excellence, community engagement, accountability and then sustainability. 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:26.000 So I want you to be thinking about those pillars as you look at some of the data that's going to follow 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:28.000 as we go through the remaining slides. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:33.000 But before I do that in terms of sort of setting the stage for why Western, 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:39.000 what we need to do well, any questions on this setting the stage portion of the dialogue thus far? 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:42.000 I'll hit a pause button. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:56.000 I don't know that'd be a demography question. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:60.000 If we go back 18 years from 2022 to 2004 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:06.000 We'd probably have to look at were there changes in fertility or birth rates. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:12.000 That's during a recession so sometimes that has an impact on people's decision to have kids. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:17.000 But that's the great demography question. I don't know the answer directly. 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:23.000 But that's the beauty of this kind of stuff. Demographers can say we have this 18 year thing let's go back and look at an event 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:29.000 and see whether or not there's a relationship between an event and that change and results. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:32.000 That's a good question. I don't know the answer. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.000 Well we do know that the OSU-Cascades was a new campus in Bend. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:52.000 And it's expected to be focused on liberal arts traditions. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:60.000 They're wanting to go from fewer than 1000 students today to close to 5000 students in the next six years or so. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.000 That assumes they can grow the buildings and also the enrollment. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:07.000 So they're clearly looking at a growth scenario. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:12.000 So you just take that piece alone and add that so it becomes really an eighth campus 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:15.000 an eighth public campus in the state of Oregon. 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:18.000 It'll create challenges for that freshman class 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:22.000 in the sense of what share of that group will come to Western. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:27.000 I presented data a year ago that showed that we had actually lost market share to Southern. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:32.000 In at least the last five years Southern had gained some market share and Western had lost some market share. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.000 But in-state students or all students? 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:38.000 Freshmen. And then total enrollment. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:44.000 And then the question gets into what are the attributes of why a student chooses a campus or not. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:48.000 The campus itself has attributes. The community itself has attributes. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:53.000 And all those things come together in that choice mall I referred to. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:59.000 So with the dependence of fiscal health on enrollemnts 00:14:59.000 --> 00:14:64.000 my expectation is every campus is talking about at least sustaining enrollments if not growing them. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:09.000 So in that sense I think it's going to become more keenly competitive. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:15.000 So keep those questions and let's go to at least what's happened to our freshman cohort. 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.000 That's the slide that is on probably your fourth page. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:24.000 And again the size of these things got a little squished but I was hoping to be able to broadcast them. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:29.000 This shows the actual first time full time freshman cohort up until this year. 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:35.000 So it shows that we had on the far left edge in 2010 one of our largest classes at over 1000 students. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:41.000 It then goes through a little saddle point and then drops to 834 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:45.000 and that stays steady and then it grew to 911 last year. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:48.000 This year's number looks like it's going to be 850. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:50.000 That's where we are as of today. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:55.000 So if we were to plot the next dot it will drop slightly. 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.000 And that's a piece I actually reported to the faculty senate on earlier today. 00:15:59.000 --> 00:15:66.000 That's due to this fact that we have a flat high school graduating class, a new competitor, 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:12.000 enrollments in colleges tend to be countercyclical so when the economy is booming fewer people go to college. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:17.000 There are a number of factors that affect this. But the next one will be lower than 911. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:21.000 But it'll be close to 850. 845 perhaps. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:28.000 Why that's important is one of the key measures universities are expected to report to the federal government 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:33.000 is what are the graduation rates of the first time full time cohort. 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:38.000 So that language is important. What that means is it's the first time you've gone to college and you're going full time. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:44.000 And so the idea is if you're going full time you should graduate in four, five, or six years. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:50.000 And then they measure that cohort and say how are they doing? Four year mark, five year mark, six year mark. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:55.000 And it assumes that you're going full time throughout that time period which is an assumption that may not be true. 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:58.000 But nonetheless that's the cohort that you get measured against. 00:16:58.000 --> 00:16:60.000 So our number last year was 911. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:08.000 So out of those 911 students the retention rate will be how many of them are enrolled today as sophomores full time. 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:10.000 That will be our retention rate. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:15.000 And that tells you that first sort of continuation rate that allows you graduate 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.000 second year, third year, fourth year. The progression idea. 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:22.000 So the next slide then shows the retention rate. 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:26.000 It shows that our retention rate has been, this one is really hard to read I apologize, 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:37.000 So that scale is pretty compressed there. 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:42.000 It's bouncing between 68 and 70 percent two percentage points. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:46.000 And this year I'm expecting that percentage to be above 70 again 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:50.000 if the numbers that we have today hold on for another two weeks. 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:58.000 So the idea is to get to that point of having at least 70 percent or more of the freshman class continue. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:17:65.000 Now in a perfect world right, 911 admitted they'd all just move to second year, third year, fourth year. 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.000 That's a perfect cylinder right? Those who enter do one, two, three, four, and they graduate. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:20.000 That is irrespective of people deciding college isn't for them, financial crisis, family issues, anything can affect that decision. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:29.000 And that's why we call that a retention rate and that's why the shape is not a cylinder typically but rather has some sort of slope to it like a funnel. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.000 The next slide then talks about some of the details of who are we retaining. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:37.000 So this is the last cylce. 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:42.000 And what happens when you talk about the overall retention rate this one was 69 percent 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:45.000 you have groups that are performing better and worse. 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.000 In other words you're having higher retention rates of some populations and lower of other. 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:55.000 So here the females are retained at 72 percent that far right column 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:60.000 and the males at 64 percent I believe. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.000 Oregon residents at 70, out of state at 65. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:10.000 So earlier today I reported that one of our growth areas is out of state freshmen 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.000 non-resident students in Oregon coming here. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:18.000 And this data says that we have a slightly worse retention rate. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:27.000 So why might you have a worse retention rate for a student from Texas or California or Alaska than a student from Oregon? 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:32.000 What might be some of the things that might have a student decide not to go to a second year? 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:36.000 And how is that different than a student who lives in Oregon? 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:42.000 Cost is higher. 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:51.000 It's more expensive so there's a financial thing. They're paying at least 150 percent of the in-state rate so it's more costly. 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:58.000 How many of you have moved in the last five years? 00:19:58.000 --> 00:19:62.000 What happens when you move? 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:08.000 Networks, right? So there's a social aspect to this as well 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:10.000 that has been proven by some of the literature. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:17.000 A student who is coming from a different state or even a different nation has to have a network of support 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:21.000 that makes them have the vision and get through the difficult days. 00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:25.000 One of the things I tell students and parents when they come is there will be tough days in college. 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.000 You'll have days when you're like why am I doing this? The question is how do you persevere? 00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:33.000 What's your ability to persist and succeed? 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:39.000 Resilience training some of them call it. I'm thinking of some of the work that's done in some of the disciplines. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:48.000 Yeah, grit. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:52.000 Dust yourself off and try again. It's that notion of perseverance. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:55.000 And yet if you don't have a social network to support that 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:60.000 then maybe you say OK it really is time to take a break. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:08.000 So one of the things we have to be cognizant of if we are getting fewer Oregon residents and our retention rate of non-residents is lower 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:13.000 what does that strategy really look like in terms of our ability to succeed financially? 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:16.000 So that's what some of this data begins to tell us. 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:18.000 What I'm giving you is a perspective that I have as president 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:24.000 about how the system is woven together with different results. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:29.000 You also see some results by different ethnicity. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:34.000 So one of the great success areas is Hispanic and Latino. 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:40.000 A good number of those students are in our SEP program our Student Enrichment Program. 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:46.000 So we know if they're getting the kind of counseling and mentoring that they need as a first generation student 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:52.000 we succeed very well with that population even at a higher rate than our general population. 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:57.000 So what does that tell me as president? What it tells me is we know what to do. 00:21:57.000 --> 00:21:60.000 We know how to make someone successful or help them be successful. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.000 We just have to have the resources to make it more broadly available. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:08.000 We have to be able to generalize that treatment. 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:15.000 And that treatment is about intervention, help with difficult courses, mentoring, connectedness, 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.000 building a support system that allows those students to get through those tough days 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:23.000 when they have to have that grit that Bob just talked about. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:28.000 So there are some really bright numbers here in the sense of what we do well. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:33.000 But these are our numbers. This is looking at us through a lens of retention. 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:37.000 The final lens would be graduation rates. 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:40.000 And this goes back cohort by cohort. 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.000 And you see that the graduation rate for the six year graduation rate 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:50.000 so how many of those first-time full-time freshmen graduate within six years? That's what this is asking. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:55.000 And you see it's been one that has been declining recently with the high of 45 on the left. 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:61.000 It comes back to above that in the middle at 46 and then declines to most recently 39 percent. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:05.000 And then I want you to take a look. 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:07.000 Did I do that slide? 00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:09.000 I probably have these misordered. 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:13.000 So if you were to go ahead up to slide 15. 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:17.000 So it's probably on your page eight at the top of page eight. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:21.000 Yeah that one the very top of that. 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:28.000 What I did and I probably put it in the wrong order is that's the same data but it shows the retention rate and the graduation rate. 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:31.000 And it's lined up by cohort. 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:36.000 So on the left you see that the 2005 cohort 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:40.000 we retained them at 65 percent and they graduated at 38 percent. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:45.000 The next cohort we retained them at 74 and they graduated at 46. 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:48.000 And one of the things I've been getting to play with is what is that pattern? 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:53.000 What is that difference between retention rate and graduation rate? 00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:56.000 What's that structural relationship? 00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:59.000 And just a quick analysis shows that the average loss is 28 points. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:23:63.000 That's what's shown there in the middle in the black font. 00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:09.000 And then in terms of our most recent number where we went down to 39 percent we lost nearly 30 points. 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:13.000 So we lost more than our typical loss rate. 00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:19.000 So the next question for me as a result of doing this talk is to go back and say what's different about that cohort? 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:24.000 Was there something that we did differently as an institution that caused that change? 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:27.000 But nonetheless you see this structural pattern. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:33.000 Now the real goal of course would be to get those two lines to coincide to move the red line up toward the blue line. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:37.000 And that's what student success efforts are all about, closing that gap. 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:39.000 So again I kind of took that out of order. 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:43.000 But that's what you see with the six year graduation rate. 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:48.000 The next slide going back in order then shows it by different groups again. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:54.000 And shows those same behaviors where our Hispanic rate is better than average compared to our population. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:57.000 So what's that tell us about us? 00:24:57.000 --> 00:24:64.000 It tells us that we have retention rates and graduation rates that have some predictability some relationships. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:11.000 And then the question is what are the treatments that we are engaging in that help students succeed? 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:14.000 Those can be things like class size. 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:21.000 They can be things like support for courses that are known to be high failure rate courses. 00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:24.000 Mathematics is one of those historically. 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:29.000 They can be things about how do you succeed as a student in a college environment? 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:34.000 The move from high school learning techniques to a university technique. 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:37.000 Listening skills, reading skills, critical thinking skills. 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:42.000 All of those are things where you can invest resources and help students discover what works for them. 00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:48.000 So on the bottom of page seven we then have what's referred to as IPEDS. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:53.000 And IPEDS is the national data source where we identify peers. 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:56.000 And again this came out blurry on your hard copy. 00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:58.000 It shows peers to the right there. 00:25:58.000 --> 00:25:63.000 We say California State University at Stanislaus is a peer. 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:07.000 Eastern Oregon is a peer. Eastern Washington is a peer. 00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:12.000 Fort Hays in Kansas is a peer. OIT in Oregon is a peer. 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:18.000 Oregon State is a peer, Portland State, Southern Oregon, and then the University of Oregon. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:24.000 So on this particular data set we identified those as peers. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:27.000 Now I would argue some of those are aspirant schools. 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:30.000 But nonetheless that is how we did this report. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:35.000 So one of the things going forward is I would like to have a set of aspirants, schools we'd like to be like 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.000 and then schools that are truly peers and then look at the data. 00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:42.000 But we have this as a historical data point nonetheless. 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:48.000 And what it shows and again I apologize actually when this is broadcast it looks OK. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:55.000 But the graduation rate shows that we're 47 versus 46. We're the dark blue line our peers are the light blue. 00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:62.000 But it then shows down at the second to last set is our retention rate which shows 70 versus 74. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:08.000 And that's where what it's saying is that we aren't as good as our peers as a group. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:15.000 Now I'd love to take that apart and identify the regional comprehensives versus the large campuses 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.000 like U of O for example and see if that data holds. 00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:24.000 But going forward what I'm saying is as an institution we need to identify a set of peers, a set of aspirants, 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:30.000 and then track our results against them to say what's our relative performance? 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:36.000 Because that will help us look at ourselves with this notion of improvement this notion of continuous improvement. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:43.000 So I've lost a page here sorry. 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:56.000 What does literature say about what changes the performance of universities? 00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:61.000 And that's where I'm transitioning now to the slide that is titled high impact practices. 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:07.000 And this work comes out of a number of practices and folks. 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:12.000 George Kuh was one of the people who was early into this area of study 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:15.000 and it goes back into the late 80s and early 90s around. 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:20.000 And why do students perform differently? What is that makes those results 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:28.000 so I guess systematically different from one campus to another or one group of students to another? 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:33.000 And the gist is they discovered that there are things universities can engage in 00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:40.000 that creat opportunity for students to be resistant, show grit, and succeed. 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:43.000 And they're listed here not in any particular order. 00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:49.000 So high impact practices include first year seminars. And first year experiences. 00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:57.000 And what those are relates to the ability to have students who form communities. 00:28:57.000 --> 00:28:62.000 So first year seminars and experiences include examples where you would have linked courses, 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:08.000 you have students in residential halls who are in learning communities around common interest. 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:13.000 There could be a residence hall that is a global village. 00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:17.000 There could be a residence hall that is thinking about sustainability. 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:20.000 There could be a residence hall that is dealing with social justice. 00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:25.000 There could be a residence hall that is dealing with in election year national politics. 00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:32.000 You create a community where people are connected around topics that supersede what they might be taking individually. 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:36.000 Or in some cases those students also take a series of courses that are linked. 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:43.000 So at my former institution we had a series of three courses we are a quarter school at Easter Washington as well 00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:47.000 and we used a book called Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. 00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:53.000 And the book was used as a primary text in all of the courses that were around English literature. 00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:57.000 So the book was evaluated as a novel, in and of its own right. 00:29:57.000 --> 00:29:64.000 It was viewed in a sense of science in terms of the notion of global warming which is a main theme in the book, 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:08.000 and it was also from a political science view around social justice and equity. 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:12.000 Because it is about a woman who is going to college and breaking away from tradition 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:17.000 and all of the obstacles that she's facing as she attempts to better her world. 00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:24.000 And so that book was used throughout the entire academic year and was woven together by the faculty across three academic terms. 00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:26.000 That's an example of a linked course. 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:29.000 Another example I've seen other places is where you have team teaching 00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:32.000 where faculty from different perspectives do that in a single term. 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:38.000 All of those are efforts they are using, first year seminars or this common intellectual experience 00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:44.000 to further the goals of the student in terms of seeing the relevancy of why they're going to college. 00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:51.000 Writing intensive courses, another example where students are expected to engage in higher order argument 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:55.000 and having writing intensive courses is part of the curriculum 00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:60.000 so that that is woven throughout the curriculum from first year to senior year. 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:06.000 So it's not simply a senior year thesis but rather that experience is built vertically within the curriculum. 00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:10.000 Collaborative projects and assignments where you work in teams. 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:17.000 Undergraduate research. This is something we do really well at frankly we have the Academic Showcase which has gone back 20 plus years 00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:23.000 where faculty and students work together on creative and research projects and then we present those every May. 00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:28.000 And you'll see actually that our results show we do better than average on that than some other universities. 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:34.000 Diversity in global learning. We have 300 plus international students every year. 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:37.000 And what does that connection do for us in terms of teamwork 00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:44.000 and or exposure to ideas that help us be fully engaged in the global economy. 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:49.000 Service learning, internships, and then capstone projects. 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:55.000 These are all the high impact practices the data shows that lead to better results better retention 00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:62.000 and a more engaged student throughout the process and academic excellence also thrives with these practices as well. 00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:09.000 So how do we measure that? The next table shows what the data shows nationally. 00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:15.000 It says that if we have students who engage in these activities 00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.000 with these different levels of participation 00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:26.000 that those show significant difference in reported gains between those practices and the student's self learning. 00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:31.000 So the way to read that is if a student is engaged in a learning community 00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:37.000 they have a significantly more engaged learning experience than if they're not in a learning community. 00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:40.000 So it maps those high impact practices 00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:45.000 to self reported gains by students in terms of what their experience was. 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:53.000 So these next two slides are from George Kuh's work where they go back and study this and say nationally these things are tested and they matter. 00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:60.000 They develop deep relationships and deep learning by students throughout the US in higher education. 00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:05.000 So getting to how we stack up against that 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:12.000 we are now looking at the NSSE data and NSSE is the National Survey of Student Engagement. 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:16.000 It is a survey that is done out of the University of Indiana 00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:22.000 where these high impact practices have been sort of articulated and studied through a research institute. 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:26.000 And these are the high impact practices that NSSE measures. 00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:31.000 So learning communities, courses that include community-based projects service learning, 00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:34.000 working with a faculty member on a research project, internships, 00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:40.000 study abroad another one that has been added, and then that capstone experience. 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:46.000 And George Kuh and his colleagues have said that institutions should aspire for all students to participate 00:33:46.000 --> 00:33:51.000 in at least two high impact practices over their undergraduate experience. 00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:54.000 And one during the first year. 00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:61.000 So one of the things that's been discovered is that these high impact practices have the greatest effect if they start from the very beginning. 00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:06.000 If we have a curriculum that includes those activities in the freshman year. 00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:11.000 And the reason that that is so important is because of the community 00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:17.000 and the support network that is developed as a result of these high impact practices 00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:20.000 and the confidence it builds in the students to persevere. 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:23.000 So it has a multiple set of outcomes if you will. 00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:28.000 And then George Kuh goes on to say at least two of those should be throughout the rest of your time 00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:34.000 and of course the notion is the more active number you have the more likely you'll see students succeed 00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:39.000 beyond their peers at other institutions. 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:45.000 So the next slide at the bottom of page 10 shows our results for Western. 00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:48.000 On the left you see first year students and senior students. 00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:53.000 This is 2014 I didn't get that on this slide but this is our data from 2014. 00:34:53.000 --> 00:34:56.000 That's the last time we did this survey. We'll do another one this spring. 00:34:56.000 --> 00:34:64.000 And it shows that in our first year our freshmen that first line that's WOU and we're in the blue in this case. 00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:11.000 And then it shows the one or more high impact practices 00:35:11.000 --> 00:35:15.000 and it shows that we had 14 percent. 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:21.000 And let's see one or more is 14 percent 00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:26.000 I'm sorry two or more is 14 percent and one or more is 30 some odd percent. 00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:32.000 And if we look at the different slides below that our peer institutions are the bar right below that. 00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:37.000 And you see that we are slightly ahead on two or more but below on one or more. 00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:46.000 So you see that we are not quite as dense as our peers are in having some activities in that freshman year. 00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:52.000 And then the Carnegie class is the third set of bars. 00:35:52.000 --> 00:35:56.000 And it again shows that we are slightly below that benchmark. 00:35:56.000 --> 00:35:61.000 And we're almost identical to group 3. The peers in this case are shown at the bottom. 00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:05.000 You see some repeat of what I said earlier. Cal State Sanislaus being one of them. 00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.000 You see a different set Winsconsin Parkside is added. 00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:12.000 So again these are all measurements against a peer group. 00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:19.000 So our freshman experience is about average I would say by looking at all that data. It's very similar. 00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:23.000 And then you look at by the senior year what's the progression? 00:36:23.000 --> 00:36:30.000 And again you see a set of panels to the right and two or more is the blue and then at least one is the gold. 00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:38.000 And you see that on the two or more compared to our peer class we are just staying pretty much even. 00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:42.000 And in terms of one or more we're slightly behind. 00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:48.000 In terms of group 3 which is a subset of that group we are about average. 00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:56.000 And so one of the things this tells me is that many of the practices that Western has engaged in are also being engaged in by universities across the country. 00:36:56.000 --> 00:36:64.000 And again the question is how can we make that learning deeper here at Western to improve student success? 00:37:07.000 --> 00:37:11.000 The next slide from the same data set 2014 00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:15.000 shows the comparison by activity. 00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:23.000 And so earlier I said one of the things that we do at a fairly high level 00:37:23.000 --> 00:37:27.000 by the time we have our seniors working on these things 00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:32.000 is service learning projects and internships and that culminating experience. 00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:37.000 And that's the senior panel on the left hand in the blue where you see the relative gains. 00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:45.000 So looking from top panel to bottom panel you can see what happens during the four years of that freshman to senior experience. 00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:50.000 So learning community stays about the same. Service learning grows significantly. 00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:55.000 Research with a faculty member grows really significantly as well. 00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:60.000 Internship grows that's not surprising because they're oftentimes in their junior and senior year. 00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:05.000 And then the participation in at least one high impact practice also grows. 00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:12.000 So internally we're seeing the activities are designed to increase high impact practices structurally throughout the curriculum. 00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:16.000 So that's an encouragement in terms of our curriculum design. 00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:23.000 The sort of attributes if you think about why Western would be that relationship between faculty and students from the beginning. 00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:28.000 So one of the messages I talk about is an 18 to one student faculty ratio. 00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:31.000 And that allows a student to get to know a faculty member in their freshman year. 00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:38.000 And then if they stay in that major they may have two, three, four courses from that person over their life cycle. 00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:43.000 And as a result by the time they graduate you as a faculty member can write a very deep letter of reference. 00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:49.000 You know their skills and abilities you know how to kind of motivate them because you know them as a person. 00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:57.000 And all those things become attributes that help us succeed academically but also on that transformative journey we talked about at the outset. 00:38:58.000 --> 00:38:67.000 So again the data shows that we have structures in place that improve high impact practices, performance, over time that's a good thing. 00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:12.000 But it also shows that we're not alone in doing these practices. 00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:14.000 That's also probably reassuring. 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:21.000 But that if we are really going to aspire to be truly distinctive and different we might think about things like first year experience. 00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:29.000 And ask how might our general education program engage in these activities to a higher level than our distributive model that we have now? 00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:36.000 Where students take courses in almost any pattern that satisfies the catalog but not any particular designed way. 00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:40.000 And those are all things we have to talk about and have conversations about 00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.000 with regard to outcomes related to student success. 00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:52.000 So at this point I want to transition to one of the scholarly books I've read recently it's by Vince Tinto it's called Completing College. 00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:55.000 It was written in 2012. 00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.000 And he's just retired from a distinguished career at Syracuse University 00:39:59.000 --> 00:39:64.000 where he studied this notion of student success from the point of view 00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:12.000 of an educational perspective that he's had over these decades of research along with people like George Kuh. 00:40:13.000 --> 00:40:20.000 And some of his concluding comments around how student success is maximized 00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:23.000 start with the notion of setting high expectations. 00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:27.000 And again this gets back to that first year experience. 00:40:27.000 --> 00:40:31.000 What are the expectations for academic success at Western? 00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:38.000 What are the faculty's sort of ground rules of what it's going to take to be successful? 00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:43.000 And what he's found is if faculty have conversations about setting those expectations 00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:47.000 and set them high enough students will elevate to those levels. 00:40:47.000 --> 00:40:53.000 And with our help. Through practice in the classroom through additional resources. 00:40:53.000 --> 00:40:56.000 Writing across the curriculum is a good example. 00:40:56.000 --> 00:40:60.000 If we have writing intensive courses at the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior level 00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:03.000 students will know that effective writing is expected. 00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:09.000 As a result they will stay the course and improve that writing over time. 00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:16.000 Because the expectation is that you will perform in that sort of venue or that arena every year. 00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:22.000 If we do it once and say you've now passed that they'll say it's not important I therefore can sort of learn that, set it aside, and move on. 00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:26.000 That's a piece of what I think Tinto's talking about in terms of setting expectations. 00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:32.000 Setting the bar at a level that is an agreed upon level by faculty through a conversation about outcomes. 00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:40.000 He also says that what has to happen is we need to provide support for students to be successful especially our students. 00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:45.000 So as I said earlier many of our students are coming from either economically challenged backgrounds or the first in their families. 00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:51.000 So when they talk on breaks or whatever around the college experience 00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:56.000 many of their relatives don't have a college experience to relate to so they're really on their own. 00:41:56.000 --> 00:41:58.000 They're really pathfinders in that respect. 00:41:58.000 --> 00:41:62.000 So we have to step in and fill that void as an institution 00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:07.000 which is why we have the Student Enrichment Program, the Trio Program, our writing center, our math center. 00:42:07.000 --> 00:42:12.000 All of those services are meant to enable the students and empower them to be successful 00:42:12.000 --> 00:42:23.000 in ways that sort of make up for that disadvantage coming out of those backgrounds that aren't focused on colleges and experience. 00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:29.000 And so those skills typically are reading and listening, writing and quantitative reasoning. 00:42:29.000 --> 00:42:31.000 And those are oftentimes 00:42:31.000 --> 00:42:38.000 as a dean of business we used to track, all of the institutions where I worked prior to coming to Western Oregon, 00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:43.000 we used to track what are the predictors of academic success 00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:48.000 in sort of courses that are downstream after you take prerequisite courses. 00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:54.000 And we found some of the critical courses for business in many cases were mathematics and quantitative reasoning. 00:42:54.000 --> 00:42:59.000 So we spent a lot of time working with the math department to create different models 00:42:59.000 --> 00:42:63.000 to deliver courses so that students would have higher success. 00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:11.000 And that's why another recommendation you'll see later from Vince Tinto is a redesign effort around what are called developmental courses. 00:43:11.000 --> 00:43:15.000 And so we get to a point where students can build scaffolding based upon success. 00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:20.000 So a modular approach for example to quantitative reasoning rather than a course approach. 00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:25.000 So you learn modules. You learn that and then you move to the next module. 00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:30.000 And that's just not the way universities have historically thought about courses. 00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:33.000 We think in terms of quarters or semesters and credits 00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:40.000 and it's all one size and you pass or fail the entire course based upon whatever the rules are. 00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:46.000 But you could've mastered two thirds of the material and then failed the course because of really low scores in that one third. 00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:50.000 And then our solution historically has been go back and take the entire course. 00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:53.000 As opposed to go back and take what's missing. 00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:58.000 And so it's that notion of thinking through competencies and learning outcomes 00:43:58.000 --> 00:43:63.000 as compared to blocks of semesters or quarters in our world of credits. 00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:08.000 And so he's challenge us to think about what are the outcomes or what will be our walk. 00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:12.000 He also talks about this notion of, earlier I said, 00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:20.000 why it may not surprise us that a student from a distant place might not be retained at as high a rate as a student who lives in Salem. 00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.000 You know more locally and it's that notion of a social network and social support. 00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:27.000 And so Tinto provides evidence that that makes a difference. 00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:31.000 Our oldest daughter we have two grown daughters who went to college and they both graduated 00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:38.000 and our oldest one went and studied in Italy in her junior year and she went and she was gone the entire year. 00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:44.000 Because you know this is before internet and before a bunch of things it's the last century. 00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:47.000 But the point was that she really knew she was on her own. 00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:51.000 And she struggled mightily but persevered. 00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:55.000 But that's this notion of social networks that you're talking about I think. 00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.000 The other thing I'm really fond of is feedback. 00:44:59.000 --> 00:44:62.000 So the evidence shows that we need to provide early feedback. 00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:08.000 So some people call them early warning systems. So we have a 10 week quarter at Western Oregon University. 00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:13.000 Which means in 10 weeks you're going to go from start to finish in every course. 00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:16.000 And then the question is when do you know how you're doing? 00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:22.000 At what point do you get signals to indicate that you're progressing in a way that is meeting your expectations your goals? 00:45:23.000 --> 00:45:28.000 And what Tinto argues is you need to design courses this is really for faculty 00:45:28.000 --> 00:45:33.000 provide opportunities for early feedback so that interventions can happen in a timely fashion. 00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:41.000 So in my era it wasn't uncommon in economics for example to have two midterms and a final. 00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:46.000 And it was the semester world in my case and it was worth 16 weeks. 00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:52.000 And so you can be going along thinking you're doing great get that first midterm and say I didn't do so great but it's only the first midterm. 00:45:52.000 --> 00:45:56.000 The second midterm comes at about two thirds the way through then you have the final. 00:45:56.000 --> 00:45:65.000 With that little feedback it really was one where you had very little opportunity to go back and repair any area where you were struggling. 00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:11.000 I think that's less common today and I think what I'm saying to our faculty is build in systems that give feedback on a regular basis. 00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:18.000 Quizzes, writing assignments, projects, things that give feedback so students can self correct. 00:46:18.000 --> 00:46:20.000 And seek the help they need to meet their goals. 00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:25.000 And Tinto is arguing that this is actually true nationally as well. 00:46:26.000 --> 00:46:31.000 And then there's a quote I like on the next page from this same source. 00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:34.000 If we hope to make significant gains in retention and graduation 00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:39.000 institutions must focus on the classroom experience and student success 00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:48.000 and align classes one to another in ways that provide students a coherent pathway that propels them to completion. 00:46:49.000 --> 00:46:54.000 And so what he's saying is today's student needs to know why we're asking them to do things. 00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:62.000 Why are these courses required and how are they connected? To what end? 00:47:02.000 --> 00:47:09.000 And that's that articulation about trying to weave not only general education into the major but to all the activities. 00:47:09.000 --> 00:47:14.000 We want you to engage in undergraduate research because it will produce these kinds of outcomes for you. 00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:18.000 So one of the things again I'm fond of saying to parents and students is 00:47:18.000 --> 00:47:23.000 that at graduation we should celebrate every student going across the football field as we did this last June. 00:47:23.000 --> 00:47:32.000 And in my world it's a success when every one of those graduates has a portfolio of things they can point to that they did 00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:36.000 that they accomplished while they were in the college experience. 00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:43.000 So it's much like an artist who can point to a ceramic painting or a ceramic piece that they sculpted, or an oil painting, or a watercolor. 00:47:43.000 --> 00:47:47.000 Things that they did in the learning process. 00:47:47.000 --> 00:47:51.000 That's what I mean by a portfolio. So a marketing major might do a marketing plan. 00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:63.000 Somebody in exercise science might do a study on rates of change in one's heart rate with certain exercises. 00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:09.000 They've applied their discipline in a way that allows them to demonstrate that they're ready for whatever might be next. 00:48:09.000 --> 00:48:18.000 And if we do that if we have that as an expectation our students along the way will be more likely to succeed because they'll have relationships with faculty 00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:24.000 and they'll have a deeper learning experience and be prepared for whatever's next be that graduate school, 00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:30.000 or a professional career, or a job that leads to then a change in one's direction. 00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:35.000 As I described earlier with my thinking I wanted to be a city manager until I did that final internship 00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.000 and just said I really don't think that's my passion it's not what I want to do. 00:48:39.000 --> 00:48:43.000 And so Tinto he captures that with that. 00:48:43.000 --> 00:48:47.000 And that's why he says we must invest in assessment and course redesign. 00:48:47.000 --> 00:48:51.000 We must ask tough questions about what are students learning from our programs. 00:48:51.000 --> 00:48:57.000 And are those the intentional outcomes we expected and if not, how do we then think about it systematically? 00:48:57.000 --> 00:48:64.000 Course redesign I've talked about with regard to things like developmental courses thinking about modular approaches in some cases. 00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:10.000 The other thing we need to think about is who's teaching our first year courses. 00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.000 How do we make course assignments about who the faculty are teaching those? 00:49:14.000 --> 00:49:20.000 And we should have our best faculty engage in first year alongside faculty who might be new. 00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.000 So faculty are mentoring one another as well, you're creating a learning community of faculty. 00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:29.000 So universities that are really good at retention faculty are talking about what works. 00:49:29.000 --> 00:49:34.000 So when they're having coffee in the lounge or having lunch or at a social event 00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:39.000 they're talking about things that they tried that worked and didn't work and they're sharing expertise 00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:45.000 across boundaries and say you know I did a project for my class last quarter, it just didn't work well, let me tell you about it. 00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:48.000 Or I had one that worked really well let me tell you about that. 00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:57.000 And from that sort of failure and success we gain expertise and knowledge about how we transfer this going forward. 00:49:57.000 --> 00:49:60.000 about how we transfer this going forward. 00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.000 So again we've talked about first year experiences and learning communities. 00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:08.000 And finally another quote I liked was that studies show, and this is the quote, 00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:16.000 academically underprepared students in learning communities were significantly more engaged than were similar students on their other campuses. 00:50:16.000 --> 00:50:18.000 So this gets back to those high impact practices. 00:50:18.000 --> 00:50:26.000 And Tinto finds evidence that all these things are things that propel students toward student success. 00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:32.000 And so the complete title of his book as you can see in that footnote is Rethinking Institutional Action. 00:50:32.000 --> 00:50:41.000 So his real call is what can institutions do in a purposeful way to generate student success, that's his real purpose in writing this book. 00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:44.000 And what he says is you can do these following things. 00:50:44.000 --> 00:50:48.000 You should establish a cross-functional team of faculty, staff, and administrations 00:50:48.000 --> 00:50:53.000 whose task it is to oversee planning and action for student success. 00:50:54.000 --> 00:50:64.000 So is their a single task force at Western who gets together on a regular basis and asks the question 00:51:04.000 --> 00:51:08.000 what are our strategies and actions related to student success? 00:51:09.000 --> 00:51:12.000 I think we have a lot of different groups thinking about it 00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:20.000 but we don't have this single place where those ideas can be vetted and tested and challenged. 00:51:21.000 --> 00:51:28.000 He also then says that you need to assess the student experience and analyze patterns, typo there sorry it says patters not patterns, 00:51:28.000 --> 00:51:31.000 of student progression throughout the institution. 00:51:31.000 --> 00:51:36.000 So what he's saying is that you need to look at where are the bottlenecks and where are the failure points in the system. 00:51:36.000 --> 00:51:44.000 So in my previous world as a dean of business I knew that one of the tripping points was the first accounting course. 00:51:44.000 --> 00:51:53.000 And so we had to decide first of all is that course an introduction to the major or is it accounting for all business majors. What's its purpose first of all? 00:51:53.000 --> 00:51:59.000 And then secondly once we had its purpose to be to provide accounting knowledge for all business majors not just accountants, 00:51:59.000 --> 00:51:65.000 we then had to go ahead and say what are the resources we need to have our students be successful in that venue. 00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:13.000 And that meant we had peer tutors. We hired students who were good at it, who had survived the course a couple quarters ago. 00:52:13.000 --> 00:52:19.000 Actually some of them weren't accounting majors but they had experience in how to persevere. 00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:23.000 So peers teaching students, peer learning. 00:52:23.000 --> 00:52:28.000 And in those environments we saw better success for those courses, less of a failure rate. 00:52:28.000 --> 00:52:37.000 That's the kind of thing Tinto is saying is analyze scientifically what you're throughput is, if you will, with regard to the curriculum. 00:52:37.000 --> 00:52:40.000 Invest in long term program assessment. 00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:45.000 Change the way we approach developmental education I've talked about that briefly. 00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:51.000 Align the support for those key first year courses. 00:52:51.000 --> 00:52:58.000 And what that really means is help students know what are the resources available to them on campus for their first year and beyond. 00:52:58.000 --> 00:52:62.000 So that they know what resources are available as they move from one year to the next. 00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:09.000 So are they getting together for example in our library and working in teams to solve problems together? 00:53:09.000 --> 00:53:16.000 Are they relying on the Writing Center to improve their writing in all courses not just their freshman course? 00:53:16.000 --> 00:53:19.000 Are they thinking about it as a process of learning and improvement? 00:53:19.000 --> 00:53:24.000 Those are things that Tinto would say are healthy sort of habits. 00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:28.000 Early warning systems, I've talked about, for key courses. 00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:32.000 That learning community experience the high impact practice. 00:53:32.000 --> 00:53:36.000 He believes that that's critical for those freshman students in particular. 00:53:36.000 --> 00:53:38.000 And then advising for all students. 00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:42.000 At many institutions if you don't have a major you don't get advised. 00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:48.000 And I don't think we have that issue here, but the question is as you change majors what's the handoff? 00:53:48.000 --> 00:53:52.000 What's the relationship between moving from one major to the next? 00:53:52.000 --> 00:53:54.000 What's the diagnostic of making that change? 00:53:54.000 --> 00:53:65.000 So the data shows that students change their major officially multiple times and probably unofficially a magnitude beyond that. 00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:10.000 And that was true for my generation it's true for this generation because they're exploring. We want them to explore. 00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:16.000 But do we have an advising system that then does a handoff so that they know how the courses then track into that new major? 00:54:16.000 --> 00:54:25.000 Some what-if analysis. If I change from economics to teacher education, what's that pathway look like or vice versa. 00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:28.000 That's what Tinto was talking about. 00:54:28.000 --> 00:54:32.000 He also talks about investing in faculty development. 00:54:32.000 --> 00:54:35.000 And especially those who are early in the curriculum. 00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:47.000 So what I find encouraging by that both as a provost and a president is we need to be thinking about learning as a discipline unto itself in many respects. 00:54:47.000 --> 00:54:56.000 And what I mean by that is we need to know as much about what student progression is systematically and scientifically as we do our own disciplines. 00:54:56.000 --> 00:54:62.000 So as an economist I still get excited when I get to teach different aspects of that discipline. 00:55:02.000 --> 00:55:10.000 But I should be equally excited as a faculty member to know what are the elements that then generate student success for our students. 00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:17.000 It should be in that sense part of our daily conversation and part of our responsibility going forward. 00:55:19.000 --> 00:55:23.000 So the final piece and this is data from the Gallup poll, 00:55:23.000 --> 00:55:29.000 and the Gallup poll does Great Jobs Great Lives. And this is the 2015 results. 00:55:29.000 --> 00:55:32.000 And 2016 mirrors these as well. 00:55:32.000 --> 00:55:37.000 But they did a survey of about 30,000 US graduates of four year institutions. 00:55:37.000 --> 00:55:42.000 And said for those individuals who found college to be worthwhile, 00:55:42.000 --> 00:55:45.000 found college to be something that you would do again essentially, 00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:51.000 why would you do it, what are the factors that led you to believe and have a good experience? 00:55:51.000 --> 00:55:59.000 Graduates were more likely to have a good college experience, 1.9 times higher, if a professor or staff member cared. 00:55:59.000 --> 00:55:61.000 Graduates were more likely to have a good college experience 1.9 times higher if a professor or staff member cared. 00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:10.000 And a mentor can be a staff member, could be a community member, could be a faculty member. 00:56:14.000 --> 00:56:21.000 There's that passion piece of why we chose to work in this arena. It's a calling. 00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.000 That's that engagement of thinking and learning. 00:56:34.000 --> 00:56:37.000 So the data is clear. It talks about what happens in the classroom. 00:56:37.000 --> 00:56:46.000 But the data also points to that these activities can be reinforced or not by what's required or what's available outside the classroom. 00:56:47.000 --> 00:56:54.000 Sue talked about the sort of seven day experience of our students versus the three or four days of class. 00:56:54.000 --> 00:56:59.000 And we should be thinking systematically about what are those opportunities for growth and development. 00:56:59.000 --> 00:56:63.000 In clubs, in sports, in activities, in music, debate. 00:57:03.000 --> 00:57:08.000 Having guest speakers come to campus and go to the sessions. 00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:12.000 All those are factors that can be extracurricular. 00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:18.000 Continuing on, 1.5 times higher if they had a job or internship while they went to school. 00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:22.000 And then 1.4 times if they had a leadership position in some of these activities. 00:57:27.000 --> 00:57:32.000 What I'm trying to frame here with regard to both looking at our mission, 00:57:32.000 --> 00:57:38.000 what we value as an institution historically, where we are with regard to moving forward with a new strategic plan, 00:57:38.000 --> 00:57:42.000 what our activities have been historically and where we've done well. 00:57:43.000 --> 00:57:50.000 And where we have the ability to do even more and better. It's around these high impact practices. 00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:59.000 It's around course design, course redesign, its around pathways that allow students to have meaning in the courses they take so they persevere. 00:57:59.000 --> 00:57:64.000 It's around having flexibility so students know that they can graduate even when they change their major. 00:58:04.000 --> 00:58:11.000 So if for example if we know that students change their major on some factor of three or four 00:58:11.000 --> 00:58:19.000 do we then have an opportunity or responsibility to allow for some flexibility in that curriculum in the early stages while they settle in. 00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:22.000 And I would say it's an important question we should ask. 00:58:22.000 --> 00:58:28.000 As opposed to one that has a curriculum, I'll use an extreme now, where it's 180 hours and it's all lock step 00:58:28.000 --> 00:58:33.000 and if you get out of that line you have to go back and do 30 credits over again. 00:58:33.000 --> 00:58:40.000 And so I think we need to look at that and say where are we with regard to that level of flexibility with regard to the undergraduate experience. 00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:48.000 And then what's very exciting for me as I enter my second year with you all in this role 00:58:48.000 --> 00:58:54.000 is the fact that if one thinks about the DNA of Western it's around these high impact practices. 00:58:54.000 --> 00:58:57.000 It's around what Gallup says matters in terms of student outcomes. 00:58:57.000 --> 00:58:65.000 There's a deep and rich tradition there that we can build off of if we engage in a conversation that is deep and challenging to us, 00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:12.000 to assess ourselves in real terms. What's the data say? And what are the opportunities for improvement going forward? 00:59:13.000 --> 00:59:18.000 So as we thought about this year, we thought about the planning process, 00:59:18.000 --> 00:59:22.000 I was approached back in probably March about this opportunity. 00:59:22.000 --> 00:59:26.000 And this is the direction I decided to present to you. 00:59:26.000 --> 00:59:31.000 We're lucky to be working in this environment. It's in that sense a calling. 00:59:31.000 --> 00:59:34.000 There has to be a passion to this 00:59:34.000 --> 00:59:43.000 and one of the things I've enjoyed about my career is the chance to see each freshman class come to campus with that enthusiasm for what we do. 00:59:43.000 --> 00:59:49.000 In that sense we are in a very special institution, at any university. 00:59:49.000 --> 00:59:54.000 So I thank you for coming. I'd be happy to answer any final questions you have. 00:59:54.000 --> 00:59:60.000 I hope I raised some questions we might ask ourselves as we go forward in this planning process. 01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:06.000 We're at a unique, an important time in the history of the university 01:00:06.000 --> 01:00:14.000 as we think about what's coming our way and how we will be a place of distinction a destination campus. 01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:22.000 And I'm confidant that we have the capacity to really do this in a way that others will say how did Western do that. 01:00:22.000 --> 01:00:27.000 And they'll look to us as identifying what some call best practices. 01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:29.000 So thank you. 01:00:29.000 --> 01:00:33.000 applause