Present: Chair Kurt Fosso, Kevin Holloway, Barbara Balko,
Alicia Gilbert, Deborah Lycan, Michael Ford, Michael Sexton, Dell
Smith, Glendi Gaddis, Shannon Benfield-Blankenship, Ashley Schmitt
(invited), Sharon Barnes (secretary)
Absent: Shannon Benfield-Blankenship, Greg Caldwell, Kristi
Williams, and Dale Holloway
Chair Kurt Fosso opened the meeting at 3:10. The minutes of October
14, 1998 were approved with corrections.
Subcommittee Reports
Kurt Fosso reported that the Academic Standing Subcommittee
approved one case for readmission.
Barbara Balko reported that the Petitions and Waivers Subcommittee
has had several petitions to consider. A repeat pattern has developed
to have the Caribbean Cultures accepted as a Core substitute. Barb
suggested that the Curriculum Committee should consider making this
change.
Deborah Lycan reported that the other subcommittee members for Honors
and Awards are Annie Dawid and Janet Davidson as well as Alicia
Gilbert and Shannon Benfield-Blankenship. Alicia will be on the
internal awards committee (Cheney, Pamplin Corp. and Mary Stuart
Rogers fellowships). Those applicants will be reviewed in early
February. Shannon will be on the subcommittee for the Neeley and
Trustee scholarships, which will meet in April. Dean of Admissions
Michael Sexton said that Admissions narrows down the candidates to
the top 125 for the Neeley and Trustee scholarship awards. The
committee meets on one day in about a five-hour period where Michael
orients the committee to previous procedures for selecting the Neeley
and Trustee recipients, and then the committee reads the files, which
are grouped by GPAs, SATs, etc., as well as strength of school
curriculum. Michael Ford volunteered to help the committee as a
nonvoting member.
Rescheduling AAAS Meeting
The Committee decided to meet on the regularly scheduled
Wednesday -- December 9th and cut the meeting short if the
CAS Christmas party occurs at the same time.
Proposed Changes to Academic Integrity Policies and
Procedures Document
Kurt Fosso with the help of Ashley Schmitt developed a
resolution to present at the December faculty meeting to modify the
document on academic integrity policies and procedures. The
resolution was approved to go forward to the faculty with a phrase
omission.
Latin Honors
Registrar Dell Smith summarized the choices available to the
Committee for implementing Latin Honors. After some discussion, the
Committee approved the following:
Matriculation
Dean of Admissions Michael Sexton explained that even though the
numbers of admitted students were down this year, that the retention
of continuing students increased and the overall difference was about
$40,000 to the College with the reduced discount rate. There were
large drops in the matriculated California admittees. It is too soon
to know if the decrease of new students is a trend. Some factors that
may attract or turn away students are uncompetitive financial aid
packages, room and board requirements, the core course, how they were
approached and contacted.
In 1996, it cost about $254 per capita to recruit students and $1685
per matriculant. Lewis & Clark spends less money in recruiting
than most other like institutions. Kevin Holloway suggested that we
might be spending our dollars on the wrong targeted group. He said we
might focus on a different group to get a potentially more successful
matriculation. Michael Sexton said it would be fine to have fewer
applicants if the result was matriculant numbers increasing.
Kurt Fosso said the website costs much less than publications.
Students do a lot of browsing of websites. Our website could be much
more attractive. Michael said that a College committee determines the
institutional site and that IT had its budget cut, and is working
with fewer people. There is no one person dedicated to maintaining
and developing the website -- the IT people have several different
responsibilities and this is one of them. We are making some web
improvement, but not a large amount. The catalog is out on the site
earlier this year than last.
Kevin Holloway asked about the $40,000 impact. If the discount rate
had not changed, where would we have been? Michael Sexton answered
that he did not know. Kevin asked if there is a continuing decrease
in the number of students, will the dollars go down? Mike confirmed
that would be the case. If the retention rate went up 1%, the income
could offset the decrease in application numbers. Kevin noted that we
could be in worse shape if the numbers continue to go down. Michael
Sexton said that the data reporting is misleading when looking only
at one variable. Mike also said it takes time to get into a new
market. Kevin said that Admissions makes the College's name known,
the school actually does the recruiting.
Dean of Students Michael Ford said the California matriculants were
down 50%. Financial Aid Director Glendi Gaddis commented on the
percentage of Californians who qualify for financial aid. Michael
Sexton said that last fall 35% of our enrollment came from 102
schools who had four or more students at Lewis & Clark. This year
30% came from only 87 schools that have four or more students
enrolled.
Kevin Holloway said we should look at other avenues to recruit
students.
Michael Sexton said that he received good feedback on the admitted
student questionnaire, which is administered every other year.
Faculty involvement is uneven, yet important and done less than at
overlap schools, based on students' answers from a year ago. Living
accommodations are a large concern. We need to look at the things
students wanted when coming to Lewis & Clark.
Kevin asked why do students go elsewhere? Glendi said students look
at job placement. Michael Sexton said that students go elsewhere
because of 1) financial aid, 2) parental decisions, and 3) most
college students go to college within 200 miles of their home.
Kevin: The Admissions packet is great and was a deciding factor for
him to come to Lewis & Clark. Are there elements of campus life
that turn off students?
Michael Sexton: General education flexibility in view of the larger
structure is very attractive to those enrolled. Mike noted that
twelve percent of the students indicated interest in the new
environmental studies major, pointing toward future resource
issues.
Michael Ford: Dell talked about two key issues for matriculation: 1)
financial aid, and 2) academic advising. We had much less trouble
this fall. More people were around when students wanted room changes,
and more rooms were available to accommodate their needs. More
students were satisfied their first term this year. More critical
information into faculty hands would create more satisfaction because
faculty would be aware of students' problems.
Glendi Gaddis: Financial factors are also a consideration -- what is
an education at Lewis & Clark worth to my family and me?
Michael Sexton: Turnover is largest with the freshman class. There is
not a large turnover after the sophomore year.
Shannon Benfield-Blankenship: There is not enough diversity or
student leaders - the opportunity is there, there is not enough
participation by students.
Kurt Fosso: We need to generate sense of belonging in the students.
Could we have seed money?
Michael Ford: The Trustees approved $340,000 student fees to be
allocated for the students.
Michael Sexton: It costs money to recruit any targeted group.
Diversity is a concern. Deciding factors on where to spend money and
groups to target lie with the enrollment management team, policy
issues lie with AAAS. We should continue this conversation in the
future.
Barbara Balko: What do we do with the information?
Kurt Fosso: The college needs to create a more attractive web page --
it is cheaper than printing publications.
Shannon Benfield-Blankenship: Look at Vanderbilt's web page.
Barbara Balko: Chemistry gets 100 hits a week.
Kurt Fosso: For our next meeting we will take a look at web
materials. Look at other schools and links they use to get some
ideas.
Glendi: We could use CD-ROMs for targeted admits, and follow up via
e-mail with a welcome. E-mail is much easier for faculty recruitment
and can create an ongoing e-mail conversation. Barbara said that
using e-mail will create more one-on-one contact.
Alicia Gilbert: If CD-ROMs are too expensive we could use VCR tapes
to show the college.
Shannon: Clips of 30 seconds or one minute each could be placed in
different sites on the College's web page.
Kurt Fosso: Agenda for the December meeting will include
matriculation, faculty involvement, web page, and faculty
advising.
Next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 9, 1998. The
meeting adjourned at 5:10 p.m.