Minnesota
State
Colleges
ACADEMIC & STUDENT AFFAIRS NEWSLETTER
A Monthly
Electronic
Communication
APRIL 2003
http://www.academicaffairs.mnscu.edu/
SR. VICE CHANCELLOR FOR ACADEMIC AND STUDENT AFFAIRS
REPORT
It
has been a hectic year in the
Chancellor
James McCormick reported to the Board of Trustees on college, university and
system 2002-2003 Work Plan achievements in October, 2002; January, 2003 and
April, 2003. Each of us should take the
time to reflect on these accomplishments.
The focus and value we place on education is not misplaced.
It
is through your individual commitment, focus and dedication to the learning
mission that our system, colleges and universities are able to collectively
serve the needs of
While
it is our pleasure to share this newsletter with you, I want to thank you
personally for all of these quality efforts and I look forward to working with
you in the coming months as we continue to provide quality education programs
to students.
2002-2003 ACADEMIC AND STUDENT AFFAIRS AWARDS
CONGRATULATIONS TO:
Barbara
McDonald,
dean of academic affairs at
The
Bio-Technology Program at
Health
PRO's (Peers Reaching Out) at
CHANGES IN POLICIES ON ACADEMIC PROGRAMS
On
The
board made the following changes regarding closure, suspension, and
reinstatement of academic programs (Policies 3.12 and 3.13):
●consolidation
of separate policies into a single, coordinated policy (Policy 3.12)
●delegation
of authority to close programs to the chancellor or chancellor’s designee,
thereby eliminating the need for the Board approval [in March 2002 the board
delegated authority to approve new programs to the chancellor or chancellor’s
designee]
●assignment
of explicit authority to the chancellor to close a program based on its
performance or on absence of enrollment 18 months after its approval to start
●permission
for institutions to extend the normal three-year period of suspension to a
fourth year, after which closure would be automatic in the absence of
reinstatement
The
Board adopted several revisions regarding degrees, diplomas, and certificates
(Policy 3.17), including:
●permission
under certain circumstances for certificate programs to have more than 30
credits or fewer than 9
●addition
of the term “non-liberal arts professional” to the description of Associate in
Science programs
●change
in the required number general education credits in a baccalaureate program
from one-third of the program’s total to 40
●change
in the required number upper-division credits in a baccalaureate program from
one-third of the program’s total to 40
●other
technical changes for clarity or conformity with other provisions of policy
Board
policies may be viewed at: http://www.mnscu.edu/Policies/PolicyIndex.html
For
further information please contact Mitch Rubinstein at 651-296-5793, mitchell.rubinstein@so.mnscu.edu
or JoAnn Simser at 651-297-2285, joann.simser@so.mnscu.edu
in the Program Approval Unit in the Office of the Chancellor.
INFORMATION ON TRANSFER REQUIRED FOR NEW PROGRAM
APPROVAL
The
Chancellor issued a procedure regarding information on transfer that must
accompany applications for new academic programs. In March 2002 the Board
of Trustees revised Policy 3.14 on approving new programs to require information
on transfer in the applications. The procedure, 3.14.1, issued
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT TAKES THE STAGE AT THE CAPITOL
This legislative session, the Strategic
Partnerships and Workforce Development Unit within the Academic and Student
Affairs Division has been advocating for
Office of the Chancellor staff and campus
representatives recently made presentations to legislative committees in order
to educate legislators about the percentage of
In March, Mary Rothchild, Strategic Partnerships
Unit, made a presentation to the House Economic Development and Tourism
Division about the changes in the manufacturing industry and the role of the
system in responding to these changes.
The following is an excerpt from her testimony:
“As we hear from manufacturers about globalization,
competition from foreign suppliers and demand for increasing productivity, we
are partnering to provide new opportunities for re-training incumbent workers,
providing occupational English to immigrant workers, and widening the breadth
of skills taught in traditional manufacturing programs.
When we think of manufacturing, we think of
production line workers; yet these occupations account for only about 50% of
the workforce. Another 10% of the
workforce is in occupations related to engineering technology and
repair/maintenance. The remaining 40%
of the workforce is in traditional business occupations such as finance, management,
marketing and sales, and transportation.
Over 65% of the state’s graduates in engineering
and manufacturing technology are educated in programs offered by
In 2001, Minnesota Jobs Skills Partnership grants
provided over $5,000,000 to our system to serve manufacturing employers and
their training needs. Another project
designed to meet the needs of employers is a federally-funded grant project
called “PROJECT ACCESS.” Project Access
is a joint project with three metro area colleges to prepare non-English
speaking students to function in a manufacturing work setting, even before
they’ve mastered English. It was
developed by
The Strategic Partnerships and Workforce
Development Unit provided updates on other critical industries during this
legislative session, as well. In
February, Chancellor McCormick invited Susan Stout of the Minnesota Nurses
Association to testify with him on the Minnesota State Colleges &
Universities’ nursing education programs.
The nursing shortage has drawn many students to nursing resulting in a
need for nursing program expansion. The
system’s request for $6 million would result in a 40% increase in the number of
nursing program graduates over the next two years.
For additional information on these critical areas,
please contact:
Michael Murphy,
Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Partnerships and Workforce Development,
michael.murphy@so.mnscu.edu
WHAT’S NEW WITH TRANSFER
“What’s
New with MnTransfer.org” is now What’s New with Transfer! We are broadening our scope to include all
transfer news.
Transfer
Specialists’ Conference (for
is
scheduled for October 2003.
REALIZING STUDENT POTENTIAL CONFERENCE – A BIG
SUCCESS
Sr.
Vice Chancellor Linda Baer and Chancellor McCormick addressed 930 MnSCU faculty
in February at the Realizing Student Potential Conference at Minneapolis
Community and
The
goal of the conference was to offer an opportunity to share ideas and
best-practice strategies for teaching students who do not come to college
prepared to succeed. Topics ranged from
optimizing classroom learning, teaching in the diverse classroom, designing
programs for student success, and reflecting on the education profession
today. The program included a panel
featuring Tom Gillaspy, Minnesota State Demographer, Patty Wheeler Andrews,
faculty member at
For
more information, go to:
www.ctl.mnscu.edu/CTLEvents/winterconf
PROGRAM COLLABORATION AND TRANSFER
MnTC Course
Review: A
peer faculty review process has been used to obtain feedback to assure quality
and transferability of courses proposed by technical colleges to be included in
the MnTC. The last review was held on
Since August 2001, peer faculty have reviewed
proposed course outlines, course syllabi, and MnTC goal and competency
implementation documents for 342 courses.
During the current academic year, faculty reviewed 82 courses and
recommended 52 courses for inclusion in the MnTC. A total of 219 courses have been recommended
for inclusion since August 2001.
Courses
recommended for inclusion in the MnTC are listed at www.mntransfer.org/MnTC/review/reviewpreamble.html. For further information contact Jerry Johnson
at 651-649-5987 or email jerry.johnson@so.mnscu.edu.
Discipline/Department
Meetings: Meetings for faculty representing
several disciplines/departments were held on
Discipline/Department List
Serves: The Program Collaboration
and Transfer team has developed a list serve for each discipline/department so
meeting attendees and others may articulate their issues, suggested
resolutions, etc. To subscribe to the
list serve of interest to you, point your web browser to http://www.mntransfer.org/MnTC/listserveinfo.html.
The
list serves are easy to use, but do require that you log-in with your email
address and a password is not needed.
The list serves are open and so anyone that wishes to submit comments or
view the messages may log in. Here are
the steps to join a list serve:
- Click on the join
button.
- Complete the email
address and optional name fields.
- Click on the save
button.
- Click on the go back
button.
- Click on the enter
button.
Your
participation in the list serve discussion is encouraged as we wish to have
as much information as possible available to the discipline/department meeting
participants. Thanks for your involvement.
For further information contact Jerry Johnson at phone 651-649-5987
or email jerry.johnson@so.mnscu.edu.
THE SEAMLESS EDUCATION SERVICES PROJECT
WHAT IS IT AND WHAT IS PLANNED?
The
Seamless Education Services project directly supports three Strategic
Directions of the 2002-2003 Strategic Plan for
Strategic
Direction 1 – Increase Access and
Strategic
Direction 2 – Expand High Quality Learning Programs and Services
Strategic
Direction 3 – Fully Integrate the System:
The
Seamless Education Services Project was initiated to address the strategies
listed above in meeting the needs of students concurrently enrolled in more
than one
The
project scope is to: Define, develop and implement appropriate state-wide
policies, processes, ISRS system enhancements and staff/faculty access to
information, to provide MnSCU students accepted into a home school who wish to
enroll in more than one institution’s courses
during pursuit of their education goal with: one-time application and fees transferable to
all MnSCU institutions enrolled in; one entrance assessment accessible by all
MnSCU institutions of enrollment; one point of registration (from campus or
online) for courses offered by other institution; one financial aid process
that will address costs from multiple institutions during the same term; one
billing statement and one point of payment for all MnSCU tuition and fees; and
one cumulative academic record reporting all MnSCU credits completed.
The
number of students enrolled at multiple MnSCU institutions concurrently is
growing. With the change in student
demographics, technology and courses available on-line, the number of these
students is expected to grow at a pretty rapid pace. There are currently over 5,000 students who
are concurrently enrolled in more than one MnSCU institution during one
semester. The majority of MnSCU institutions
currently have students enrolled in their courses who are also enrolled at
another MnSCU institution(s) during one term.
We
need to be able to find ways to provide customer service to these students in a
more efficient and effective manner.
Students who currently fit this profile are required to perform many
additional tasks than those enrolled in only one institution and experience
unnecessary frustration. One example is that they are required to physically
obtain records from their home institution and then bring paperwork, mail or
fax it to host institutions, to ensure that the institution has the appropriate
information to allow the student to enroll in courses. If the student doesn’t perform these additional
tasks, campus staff have been required to add these tasks to their already high
workload. Students have been questioning
for some time why if MnSCU is one system, do they have to go through such hoops
to attend more than one institution.
They ask “Why isn’t this process more seamless?”
The
focus of the first phase of this project is to help eliminate work-arounds that
are currently being performed by institutions involved in consortiums and
shared programs, to serve their concurrently enrolled students. Phase One is currently planned for
implementation at the end of June, 2003.
Who
is involved in planning, definition and implementation of the project? The project is sponsored by Linda Baer,
Senior Vice Chancellor, Academic and Student Affairs and Ken Niemi, Vice
Chancellor and Chief Information Officer.
The project is managed by a Program Team including: Gary Langer, Associate Vice Chancellor,
Academic Programs; Mike Lopez, Associate Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs; Paul
Wasko, Project Director, E-Services; Larry Simmons, Director of Administrative
IS; Peter Wielinski, Program Manager;
and Jane Bradley-Durfee, Project Management Consultant. The project decisions regarding oversight of
the project and recommendations for high-level requirements for implementation
are made by the Project Task Force, which is made up of campus and MnSCU staff
from the various units affected by the implementation of this project. Also involved in the project in defining the
detailed requirements as well as designing and developing business process and
policy recommendations required to implement the services included in the scope
of the project are Business Groups representing campus units affected by the
project. The members of the Task force
and Business Groups can be viewed in the Roles and Responsibilities document
located on the project website.
Where
are we in our plans for the project? The
project has been initiated, completed the planning phase and requirements
definition for the first phase of implementation. The project Task Force is currently involved
in defining high-level requirements for the remainder of the project scope.
Anyone interested in continuous updates or additional information regarding the project are encouraged to go to the project website:
http://www.eservices.mnscu.edu
and
select Seamless Project from the list of projects on the left of the page.
“Higher Education’s Role in
Economic and Workforce Development” is a ninety minute program delivered by
staff and partners of the Minnesota State College and University System for the
PERKINS GRANTS AWARDED FOR FY 2003
Perkins
grants totaling $198,322 have been awarded for collaborative curriculum
projects and new program development in FY 2003.
Collaborative
Curriculum Grants: These grants will be used
for activities related to alignment of curriculum in new programs or redesigned
programs. Priority was given to proposals that align curriculum across
institutions to facilitate articulation and career pathways for students, adopt
a new curriculum model, facilitate alternative delivery to improve access, or
adopt national skill standards.
Thirteen
-
Allied Dental Personnel Advanced Expanded Duties, collaborating with
-
Surgical Technician, alignment with Health Careers Institute,
-
Manufacturing Curriculum Development/Process Plant articulation project
collaborating with
-
Dual Entrance, Dual Exit Nursing project collaborating with
-
Health Information Technology project with Rochester Community and
-
Child Care and Paraeducation AS Degree, collaborating with Fergus Falls
Community College, Bemidji State University, Minnesota State University Moorhead,
Northland Community and Technical College
-
Virtual Reality and other Computer Information Systems, collaborating with
-
Nursing Program Redesign, collaborating with
-
Paraprofessional/Title I Career Ladder Project, collaborating with
New
Program Development Grants: Grants totaling $107,900 were awarded for
activities related to the development of new programs in priority areas.
Healthcare grants totaled $8,000; paraeducation grants, $23,250; manufacturing
grants, $30,300; protective services
proposals, $17,850; and other program areas, $28,500
The
following new program development proposals were funded:
Health
care
-
Paraeducation
-
-
-
Manufacturing
-
-