Notes from the Meeting of the
Task Forces on Student Success and Curricular Innovations

January 11, 2008
9:00 am to noon, Altgeld Room 203 and Room 225

Members of the two task forces met in room 203 for the first 90 minutes.  Vice Provost Gip Seaver gave a presentation entitled, “A Study on Student Migration.”  He presented preliminary data examining recent trends in the College of Business and, along with Brent Gage and Shevawn Eaton, addressed questions and comments raised by the Task Force members.   Dr. Seaver indicated that the next step was to interview various groups of students to learn more about why students leave the university in “good standing.”

At approximately 10:30 am the two task forces separated to continue discussions.  The Task Force on Student Success heard reports from all subgroups. Written reports which included goals and strategies were presented from the Retention subgroup and VSA subgroup.  Oral reports were presented by the Advising, Campus Climate and Impacted Majors subgroups.  At the next meeting, January 25, 2008, all subgroups will have completed short written reports including goals and strategies, where identifiable.  Key items that emerged from the discussions were 1) There is a need to invite an representative from the Academic Advising Center (AAC) to our next meeting to give an overview of the AAC, 2) There is a desire on the part of the Impacted Majors subgroup members to connect with the subgroup members from the Honors Program, 3) There is some interest in putting together a group of high school counselors in the area to discuss the perception of NIU among graduating seniors.  The meeting closed with a discussion of potential travel for the group to an advising center in Milwaukee, a student success center in Connecticut and day-long workshops on retention put on in various locations by Noel-Levitz. 

Changnon provided some general announcements and then the Curricular Innovations Task Force and Dr. Seaver began a broad discussion on various issues including general education, the honors program, capstone experiences, the use of new technologies in the classroom, and enhancing engaged learning.  Many common and overlapping themes were identified through the 90 minute discussion.  Out of our brainstorming activities came the realization that the overarching goals and related strategies should be framed around the idea that NIU faculty enjoy working directly with students in a learning environment and that successful curricular changes across campus requires that the majority of NIU faculty participate in the proposed changes.  Near the end of the meeting, Changnon suggested that each subgroup continue discussions over the next two weeks, meeting in person and/or over the internet (including Blackboard), and develop a list of overarching goals and strategies/initiatives to present to the entire task force at the January 25th meeting.  Due to the potential for overlap, subgroups may want to identify ways to combine and present goals that are more ‘global’ to the task force.  Subgroups are welcome to invite Changnon and/or Douglass to participate in discussions prior to the next meeting.