Winona State University

Office of Assessment

NCA Steering Committee

You are invited to the 1998 WSU Leadership Retreat!

The retreat will be held at Alverna Center on Wednesday, August 19th, 1998 from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. This year's retreat will be facilitated by the NCA Steering Committee and members of the Long Range Planning Committee and will focus on preparing for the upcoming self study and accreditation visit. Because the self study will involve all areas of the university, your input as a member of WSU's leadership will be critical to the success of the self study and our reaccreditation.

A tentative retreat agenda is attached.

We hope you will be able to attend this first official event of the 1998 - 1999 academic year!

To be invited:

Cabinet, Deans , Excluded managers, Faculty Senators, Department Chairs, Long Range Planning members, NCA Steering committee members, Faculty Development, Directors, Council 6 leadership , MUSAAF leadership

Background

What has changed at WSU since 1991? mission , academic programs , student body , fiscal resources , physical resources , system

Organize in terms of

Inputs: what is different that is 'coming in 'to WSU?

Processes: what are we doing differently to achieve our goals?

Results: what is different in what we produce?

Feedback: what is different about what we know about ourselves?

(it may not be possible to do it by year, but if any of the changes could be anchored in a year, that would be great)

year	inputs	processes	results	feedback
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
00

Response to the 1991 plan

How have we addressed the 1991 Concerns?

1. gen ed

2. infrastructures

3. research and scholarly activity

4. library

5. graduate programs

6. budget cut

General Education

1. Courses have been repeatedly added to the general education program without concern for the overall definition of the program causing it to lack focus, direction, and an articulated set of goals. No office or official appears to have direct responsibility for oversight of the general education program. The development of a new general education program must be based on themes and concepts reflecting current practice in defining this component of the baccalaureate degree, examining potentials of a CORE set of courses, prescriptive liberating studies courses and limited electives through upper division course work.

Infrastructures

2. Detailed analysis and planning needs to be conducted in order to develop infrastructures for supporting several initiatives at WSU. The Long Range Plan expresses WSU's vision for the future and contingency-oriented analyses need to be eliminated so that scarce resources can be reallocated to new initiatives. Research needs to be conducted expeditiously so that decision-making can occur to develop specific plans and time lines for implementing the long range plan and outcomes assessment program at WSU.

Research and Scholarly Activity

3. The research and scholarly activities of the faculty do not sufficiently support the “. . .” as stated in the Minnesota State University System's mission statement; nor do they “. . . support commitment to scholarly and creative activity which enhances instructional programs and teaching excellence. . .” as stated in Winona's general goal statement.

An increasing number of faculty do participate in such activities, but the data, reports and vita reviewed by team members indicate that for a significant number of the faculty, scholarly, creative and research activities are not reflected on faculty records at a level normally expected of graduate degree-granting institutions.

Library

4. An institution's library is the heart of academic quality. The library at WSU has experienced slow progress due to current budgetary restrictions. With future budgets promising to be even more restricted, the team is deeply concerned about the library and about deferral of collection-building at a time when the institution is focused on enhancing the quality of the learning environment.

Graduate Programs

5. The team notes the steps taken recently to strengthen the quality of all graduate programs yet is still troubled by several aspects of the graduate program. (1) There are still several graduate programs with enrollments low enough to seriously jeopardize their continued viability. This situation is especially acute at the sixth year educational specialist degree level, and in the master's degree programs in English, history and physical education. This is a pervasive long-standing problem. (2) The role of the graduate council as a primary recommending body regarding graduate program policies and programs seems ambiguous. (3) Annual election of all members of the graduate council offers the potential of a lack of continuity. (4) Some members of the graduate council are new to the institution, and have but limited previous experience in graduate level programs. (5) The role of the assistant vice president for academic affairs for graduate studies in not clearly defined by the institution.

Budget Reductions

6. The team is genuinely concerned relative to the proposed $3 million budget reduction which has been recommended by the Governor. If passed by the legislature, it could have a devastating effect on the University's ability to maintain academic quality and integrity in its programs. That concern is intensified because the institution seems intent on promoting its growth stature of recent years and is reluctant to reduce programs or personnel.

The team is concerned that with the severity of the proposed reductions in the next biennium, WSU might have to forego its Residential College, delete courses and programs with low enrollments and curtail much needed library book and equipment purchases. If the cuts are imposed, Winona State can no longer “be all things to all people” and difficult decisions will have to be made based on

---

Criterion 1: The institution has clear and publicly stated purposes consistent with its mission and appropriate to an institution of higher education.

(This group will probably not be able to answer these questions: Where did the mission come from? How did it evolve?)

• Why is the mission appropriate to a university?

• How can we demonstrate that the mission is related to everything else that we do?

(Some of these things we might be doing now, some things someone might have to implement)

• How can we demonstrate that our mission is understood by our constituents?

(For this one, you might be developing a plan to demonstrate this)

• How does our mission position us for the future?

(For this one, the discussion is based on what we are assuming the future holds for the university, our students, society, etc.)

Criterion 2: The institution has effectively organized the human, financial, and physical resources necessary to accomplish its purposes.

Different resources / structures that we have...

Administrative

Faculty Governance (senate, committees, etc.)

Student Governance

College / Department

Physical Layout of campus

Academic Calendar

Budget

Catalog

Others?

A helpful organizing concept might be something like this:

	student needs	faculty/staff needs	administration needs	prospective students needs	community needs
administrative
faculty governance
student governance
college / department
physical layout of campus
academic calendar
budget
catalog
others

Criteria 3: WSU is accomplishing its purposes

Look's like we'll take this one in terms of the leadership emphases.

	What are the dimensions or different categories of it?	What are we doing to facilitate it?	What still needs to be done?
student success
student satisfaction
general education
enrollment
faculty and staff development
technology
partnership

Criteria 4. The institution can continue to accomplish its purposes and strengthen its educational effectiveness

What are we doing to ensure that we're going to be able to meet the changing needs of our students?

faculty?

MnSCU?

Society?

What do each of these groups want from us?

What are we going to do to make sure that we can meet their needs?

	What needs will these groups have?	How are we positioning ourselves to meet these needs?
new entering students
current students
faculty / staff
surrounding community
employers
society
legislature
graduates

Criteria 5. The institution demonstrates integrity in its practices and relationships.

	What do we believe?	How do we communicate those beliefs?	How do we demonstrate those beliefs?
students
faculty
campus
university
anything else

The goal of the day is to promote faculty and staff understanding of....

1. what accreditation is (evaluation) and not (description)

2. why it's important

3. what the criteria are

4. how we can study to determine if we're meeting the criteria

 

Topic Facilitators

Background: (1) Chuck Bentley (2) Tim Hatfield

Criteria One: (3) Linda Seppanen (4) Carol Anderson

Criteria Two: (5) Vernon Leighton (6) Keith Denehey

Criteria Three (7) Fred Otto (8) Paul Johnson

Criteria Four (9) Susan Hatfield (10) Peter Henderson

Criteria Five (11) Lee Gray (12) Troy Paino

long range planners who will co-facilitate:

Deb Benz, Dennis Martin, Carol Anderson, Tim Gaspar, Mark Wrolstad, Scott Ellinghausen, Nancy Peterson, Jean Billman