MINUTES
Graduation & Retention Committee
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Cranford Campus, McKay Library, Admiral Stanley Room
The meeting was called to order at 2:30 p.m.
PRESENT:
Theresa Cosmas, Barbara Foley, Barbara Gaba, Gail Hein, Marinna Kolaitis, Howard
Krebs, Bohdan Lukaschewsky, Jerri Marsee, Howard Pomann, Patricia Rodihan, David
Sheridan.
After the December 14 online seminar, Dr. Smith suggested that this committee
develop a retention plan. At today’s meeting, we discussed the seminar and our
reactions to it and found that we are in agreement with Dr. Smith. Following is
a summary of our preliminary attempt to begin to frame that plan. Notice that
the items are bulleted, not numbered; so the order in which they appear is no
indication of rank or relative importance. We identified the following
challenges and actions/possible actions.
CHALLENGES
·
Addressing inadequate preparation in high school math so that more of our
in-coming freshmen are ready to begin the college math sequence.
·
Obtaining the discrete enrollment data we need to focus our retention efforts.
·
Connecting students with the support they need to persist and succeed.
POSSIBLE ACTIONS
·
Initiate math testing at the sophomore level in targeted high schools in Union
County.
o
It was reported that a plan was already in the works in Union County to do
something like this. However, upon further investigation, that turns out to not
be the case.
o
A potential downside of this plan could be that the majority of the students we
would be testing would be going to other colleges and therefore the
time/effort/expense would not be productive for UCC.
·
Review the information on first-time full-time students in the newly produced
Data Book on enrollment to identify areas/programs that need attention. (Data
subcommittee will do this and report back at our next meeting.)
·
Review impact of UCC 101 on retention. (Request data from Dr. Chewning.)
·
Review the retention report being prepared for PRR. (Request from Dr. Roemer.)
·
Identify and compile a list of the support services already available to
students at UCC. (Representatives of these services will be invited to present
at our next meeting.)
·
Publicize the identified services to the entire UCC community, not just
students.
·
Identify student needs that are not currently being met.
·
Gather data to publicize to faculty the successful efforts currently in use in
different departments (e.g. learning communities).
·
Redesign/update the college Website.
·
Use a variety of networking media at the department level to keep students
updated and encouraged in their pursuit of a degree. Information could include
department info, speakers, introduction of faculty, reminders, transfer
opportunities, success stories of former graduates, etc.
OTHER BUSINESS
Based upon our current focus on retention along with the issue of funding, the
committee decided to table until a future date any further action on the
Proposal for Faculty Roundtable prepared by Dr. Chewning.
NEXT MEETING:
Tuesday, March 22, 2:30 – 4:30 p.m.