AdviseNet Meeting Notes
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 - Robert Koob
Robert Koob, Provost outlined the current goals for the university, the obstacles, and some steps the university is taking to solve the problems.
Goals
Increase our graduation rate. We are currently at 73%. Our goal is 80%. This rate is based on a 6-year graduation rate which is the standard compared nationally. The four-year graduation rate is at 30%. We would like to increase that as well. We need to help students with progress to degree. We also need to improve internal communication within the university.
Steps to Getting There:
- All departments were asked to clarify their curriculum.
- The goal is to have a documented track by December 2009.
- The ultimate goal is to have students be able to utilize graduation audit software on the Portal, with a "What If" option available in case students change their major.
- Eliminate "advisor-approved electives, as they are not programmable. They can only be handled right now through paper which slows down graduation requests and the audit
- Identify "Super Seniors" - 1200 of them at the beginning of fall quarter. Find out what classes they need to graduate and block schedule the courses they need. Do not allow any other registration until these courses are fulfilled.
- 700-800 students get "So Sorry" letters per year. There are times when students receive conflicting advice. This needs to be fixed.
- Help the 1,000 "At Risk" students - eliminate the "Helicopter Parent" syndrome. Create a social network; An advisor chooses 30 at-risk students. A care team is created, or a bridge consisting of friends and caring adults to provide follow up and communication when student misses classes, homework etc. Phone calls would be made to assist student.
- Cut down on the number of students on academic probation (currently 800). All students could possibly be disqualified from the Provost's office, and the names would be turned back to Deans for review
- Identify the 1200 super-seniors (students who have over the amount of credits needed for graduation but are lacking only a few courses. Advisors were sent lists of these students. Block schedule the courses that they need for graduation. Create contracts for students to move them towards graduation.
- Change of major issue - 30% of students change their major. We need to "tweak" the MCA for all colleges. We need to have consistent change of major policies across campus. There is currently committees working on this.
- We have limits on the total number of students allowed at Cal Poly. Our ceiling is in in the mid-15,000 + according to CSU. We need to replace the revenue lost by in-state students with an increase in the number of out-of-state students. We can also increase the amount of international students.
- DASHBOARDS has been created as a consolidated venue, which has allowed the Provost to view the entire budget for each college, see student information, policies, and space issues. He can now address specific issues with a complete picture of the situation.
- There is work being done to improve internal communication. No specifics were given on the project.
- In terms of advising, in the future, the Provost would like to enable students to have all their immediate questions answered through a common-service window, where students could receive answers on financial aid, housing, health issues, etc. He feels that they have to go to many places to get the information currently.
- In the future, he would also like Cal Poly advising to be able to communicate more effectively with students, by utilizing a system similar to the Admissions office. This priority will come after some of the other larger issues addressed are solved.