ENROLLMENT PLANNING TEAM

DECEMBER 13, 2006

MINUTES

 

 

Present:  Mr. Ahmed Samaha, Mr. Andrew Hendrix, Dr. Braden Hosch, Mr. Corey Feraldi, Dr. Deidre Martin, Ms. Gail Ratchford, Mr. Marshall Davis, Mr. Randy Duckett, Ms. Stephanie Foote, Ms. Vivian Grice

 

Not Present: Dr. Ann Willbrand, Dr. Ed Callen, Ms. Gwen Ashley, Dr. Deb Kladivko, Mr. Glenn Shumpert, Ms. Jennifer Lake, Mr. Randy Warrick, Ms. Stacie Williams, Dr. Suzanne Ozment, Dr. Tom Mack, Mr. Tony Ateca, Dr. Val Lumans, Mr. Deri Wills

 

Guest:  Mr. Nick Shrader

 

Randy Duckett began the meeting sharing that Glenn’s Dad was very ill and he would not be here to give his Financial Aid/Scholarship Annual Report.  It will be on the February agenda. 

 

Vivian Grice and Stephanie Foote were asked to give an update on the Academic Warning/Probation/Suspension process and notices to students and advisors.

 

Programmatic Updates

 

 

Vivian explained the process of the notice that goes to the Academic Advisors including a letter from Stephanie Foote about the Pacer Success. 

 

Vivian also informed the group that the USC System Registrar’s had a meeting at USC Beaufort and that suspension was one of the topics of discussion.  She indicated that our SS&P committee was in the process of revising our suspension policy which they hope to send to faculty assembly for approval.  Randy indicated that there needs to be more discussion with the Student’s At Risk Action Team, so they could discuss its workload implication for the staff, and provide appropriate input to SS&P and to EPT.  He also indicated that he would ask the Chair (Mike May) of SS&P to send him the most recent version of the recommendation so he could share it with Monday Group members.

 

Also discussed at the System Registrar’s meeting, was the Grade forgiveness policy being considered. It appears to be very similar to the policy at Clemson by which no more than 2 courses could be retaken and the highest grade count toward the student’s GPA.

 

She informed the EPT that around the first of February VIP will require users to use the eight digit Static ID’s.

 

 

 

Stephanie indicated that part of the implementation of the new probation and suspension policy was changing the student culture regarding the level of academic performance required to be successful at USCA.  In that regard the Academic Success Center has designed a workshop called “Project Success”.  A newsletter is being created to send to students with a GPA below 2.0 to inform them of this resource that can help improve academic status.  A workbook is also being created that will help the student improve their standing.  This workshop will be delivered by the Academic Success Center and Advisement Services.

 

Research Updates

 

 

Randy shared the procedures that were used in creating the 2005 FY Cohort Initiatives and how it has helped identify the reasons that these freshmen left the University and where they are.  He commended Gail Ratchford and the student retention coordinator, Amber Blount for implementing these procedures and creating the final year end report.  He also informed us that the procedures started over for the 2006 FY Cohort.

 

Action Team Reports

 

 

Deidre gave the description of the Communication Action Team as the source of informing the campus about the activities of the Enrollment Planning Team.  Listed below are many ways that this action team accomplishes this.

 

Ø      USCA e-mail notification by Gail Ratchford

Ø      Post time notes article a couple of times per year by Dr. Martin

Ø      Dr. Hallman includes information about the EPT in his addresses to the campus groups.

Ø      Dr. Braden Hosch shares the resources of Enrollstat and PacerDash.

Ø      Randy Duckett and Braden will be visiting several campus groups to inform them.

Ø      Through focus groups and other efforts of Jennifer Lake, Kendall Tubbs and Dr. Braden Hosch we are communicating better in respect to the USCA values.

Ø      Dr. Martin will be working with her new Intern to better communicate the NSSE data in a format that students will understand.

Ø      Randy Duckett meets with new faculty and staff to share with them the purpose of the EPT.

 

·        SEPAT – Randy Duckett and Dr. Braden Hosch

 

The Strategic Enrollment Planning Action Team (SEPAT) is in the process of providing a document which addresses key enrollment issues.  Chief among them is the enrollment or size of USCA.  In trying to determine the appropriate size for the campus, the Action Team is focusing on the ultimate goal….how many individuals should leave USCA as college graduates. By focusing on the number of graduates we can then concentrate on all other categories (Freshmen, Transfers, etc…) and determine how many of each we would need to enroll in order to reach our graduation goals.  They hope to have a working model early in the new year.

 

 

Corey stated that this committee’s work will be based on the SEPAT recommendations and two items in particular will be the tuition increase and the GPA.

 

 

Ahmed said one of the key needs that this Action Team is working on is the need based scholarships that USCA will need in order to help students that struggle financially.

 

Dr. Braden Hosch wanted to share that the average High School GPA is a 3.56.

 

At the conclusion of the meeting, Randy Duckett pointed out the teleconferences for the Spring and dismissed the meeting at 2:55 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Gail Ratchford