Enrollment Planning Team

Minutes

April 17, 2006

Present:  Mr. Andrew Hendrix, Dr. Ann Willbrand, Dr. Braden Hosch, Mr. Corey Feraldi, Dr. Ed Callen, Mrs. Gail Ratchford, Mr. Glenn Shumpert, Ms. Jennie Volforte, Ms. Jennifer Lake, Mrs. Katya Terry, Mr. Marshall Davis, Mr. Randy Duckett, Mr. Randy Warrick, Ms. Stephanie Foote, Dr. Tom Mack, Mrs. Vivian Grice

Not Present:  Mr. Ahmed Samaha, Dr. Deidre Martin, Ms. Gwen Ashley, Ms. Stacie Williams, Dr. Suzanne Ozment, Mr. Tony Ateca, Dr. Val Lumas

Randy Duckett opened the meeting at 3:05 pm by thanking Dr. Braden Hosch for conducting the March meeting.

Programmatic Updates

• Corey Feraldi informed us that the On-Line Career Library is now available to students and they would be able to research careers at their leisure at http://www.valut.com/cb/careerlib/careerlib_main.jsp?parrefer=2179.  Dr. Mack raised the issue of sharing this information with the faculty and Corey responded that we would definitely like to present it to the faculty prior to marketing it to the students.
• Stephanie Foote presented an overview of the Gateway Advisement Program and mentioned that the First Pace Participants will be a part of the Gateway Advisement program. (A group of advisors who are assigned students who demonstrate the need for some additional attention.) Sarah Keeling and Stephanie explained the indicators which had been used to identify students who would be participants in the Gateway Advisement program.  Students participating in the First Pace Program will also be informed about the Gateway Advisement Program.
• As of today, Stephanie Foote has 14 students who have indicated an interest in participating in the First Pace Program.  An additional mailing will be sent and Ashley Ball, USCA Admissions counselor is following up with phone call conversations. Housing has also had a very active part in getting accommodations ready for these students.  Professor Law will be teaching the First Pace Students, English 101.
• Randy Duckett reported on the process for selecting an Academic Advisement Consultant and said they had received several resumes, and had made a selection.  The individual has verbally accepted and will be recommending some days for her visit.

Action Team Reports

Students At Risk Action Team – Stephanie Foote

• Stephanie Foote/Sarah Keeling and the entire Action Team are making final updates to the draft of the Early Warning Process Document.  After the draft is complete it will be circulated for discussion, and recommendations.

Communications Action Team – Jennifer Lake, Dr. Braden Hosch

Jennifer Lake gave a presentation on the Internal Image Focus Groups that were conducted by Jennifer, Dr. Braden Hosch and Kendall Tubbs.  There were seven groups of 106 participants of faculty, staff and students.  The focus groups research were basically to see what the perceptions are of USCA in relation to Image, Mission and Values.  A few key points:

1)                  The most important component was the class size and the focus on the students.

2)                  Most did not have a clear picture as to where USCA was headed in the future.

3)                  The orientation program was seen as a universal success by students and a gateway experience.

4)                  The feel of family atmosphere was a very common description.

5)                  The students did not feel that the Aiken community was mindful of USCA.

6)                  As a whole no one knew the USCA values by name, which are Character, Citizenship, Collegiality and High Quality Learning Environment.

7)                  It is important to recognize that students are looking for certain things when they go to college.

8)                  Staff felt that working here was a trade-off to compensate for lower salaries.

To see the complete Internal Image Focus report go to http://ie.usca.edu.

Financial Aid Scholarship Committee – Glenn Shumpert

After a discussion of the recommendations from the Financial Aid/Strategy Team Scholarship Committee the following were approved.

• Recommendation to change scholarships to fixed dollar amounts:
  • For the USCA Chancellor’s Scholarship for 2007-08, the award should be $7,000.00 per year.
  • For Valedictorian Scholarships, the award should be $5,000 per year.
  • Scholarship eligibility criteria should be changed to be the same as eligibility for LIFE and Hope Scholarships.
• Recommendation to increase the annual dollar amount for the Vernon and Wava Ford Recruiters and USCA Bookstore Scholarships.

o       These recruiter scholarships should be increased from $2,000.00 to $2,500.00

o       15 to 20 of these scholarships should be offered

o       These scholarships should be made renewable, with scholarship eligibility criteria the same as those for LIFE and Hope Scholarships.

Recommendation not approved at this time was:

• Recommendation to make $200,000 available for need-based scholarships through the USCA fee waiver account.  The criteria for theses scholarships should be:
  • Good students
  • Financial need as determined by data received on the FAFSA.

This recommendation was sent back to the committee for better clarification of the terms as to a combination of merit and need based and not just a good student.  It should be amended to say no one below a 2.75.  After the committee has met and clarified the recommendation, Glenn Shumpert is to inform Gail Ratchford and she will advise the EPT of the meeting time.

In closing Andrew Hendrix gave a brief update to the recruitment efforts and indicated that we are up on all categories versus last year at this time.  He also stated that more freshmen have been denied admission this fall than ever before because of the new admission criteria. The goal for our Fall ’06 class is 625 students.  At this point they are “keeping a close eye on it”.

Action Team Meetings

Students At Risk Action Team – Thursday, April 20, 2006 at 11 am, Penland Room 225

Meeting was adjourned at 4:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Gail Ratchford