November 13, 2017

Retention Committee: Subcommittee Chairs Meeting

In Attendance: Ted Mahaiver, PJ Couch, Amy Smith, James Marquart, Daniel Bartlett, Kayla Holloway, Deidra Mayer

Call to order: 1:00 PM

Chair Remarks – Ted Mahavier (10 minutes):

Issues with the partnership between faculty and staff/administration stems from a lack of communication, which is a chief culprit for errors across campus.

An advising charge was added to the SSC subcommittee and additional members will be added.

Soar in 4 can address the partnership issue with an overarching campaign to share the retention committee’s overall mission. 

Marketing, Recruitment, Financial Aid – Deidra Mayer (10 minutes):

Soar in 4:

Push down to each subcommittee to create buy-in and bring back suggestions from members.

Daniel raised that we need to figure out “how” to do this, and asks, “what are we going to do differently to make this successful”? We need actionable items for each subcommittee.

Deidra suggested assigning each subcommittee with a task(s), and each subcommittee assigns tasks to members. (Ex. assign someone to advising for research and follow-up).

Ted and Deidra will meet to choose an action item for each subcommittee chair.

Full committee meeting in early spring to announce and sell this campaign with the entire committee and highlight what we have accomplished thus far.

Faculty Engagement – Amy Smith (15 minutes):

Amy requested clarification from Dr. Marquart about the charge to create large capacities for courses.  He explained that he wants strategic expansion.  Amy will survey Chairs to find one course in each department in which capacity could be 100+. 

Amy suggested requiring faculty attend training if they are teaching one of these sections.

STEM conference will be in a few weeks.

Ted suggested that disbursement of teaching and research fellowships be edited to require utilization of the funds directly benefit Lamar University.

Amy suggested rewarding faculty and staff for retention efforts. Ex. students or colleagues nominate faculty as “teacher of the month” and perhaps an article in the University Press.

Dr. Marquart suggested surveying other institutions for ideas as well.

Ted suggested on graduation day students can write the name of a faculty or staff member who helped them along the way. This message can then be shared with the faculty or staff member. 

Deidra suggested incorporating rewards in the Soar in 4 plan.

Outreach – PJ Couch (10 minutes):

Met with Deidra

Ted suggested that recruiting should manage the list of faculty involved in recruiting events.

Community engagement is progressing and a meeting with Dr. Evans and Norman Bellard is scheduled to continue this conversation.

PJ plans to meet with Katrina soon to discuss the financial aid implications of an LIT partnership.

SSC Campus and Advising – Kayla Holloway (15 minutes):

Kayla explained that SSC Campus is live and continued validation and troubleshooting have been occurring. 

Kayla stated that she wants to work with the Faculty Engagement subcommittee on ways to train and motivate faculty to utilize SSC Campus.  Amy suggested also using CTLE and creating workshops series and continued engagement with Provost Kickoff.  Kayla and Amy will meet to brainstorm these ideas.

Kayla will be meeting the Department Chairs within the Fine Arts and Communication (FAC) College as a pilot group to choose Success Marker courses for the FAC degree plans.

Ted inquired who advises TALH students and voiced concerns.  Kayla explained that program has advisors specifically for TALH students.  Ted mentioned that engaging students in this program could potentially increase retention if we keep these students at Lamar University.  Ted, Daniel and Dr. Marquart to meet about this topic. 

Closing (5 minutes)

A topic arose pertaining to faculty recruiting.  PJ Couch is currently solely responsible to schedule faculty attendance at recruiting events; Ted suggested that this be edited to be systemic.  Dr. Marquart explained that each Dean would complete enrollment plans. Recruiting could possibly be included in this to be systemic across Colleges.  Another idea was poised to engage faculty in retention efforts by potentially editing the F2.08 and streamlining the language for promotion to highlight retention efforts.

Adjourned: 2:15