Student Success:
Innovative Practices
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Raison d’Etre for Higher Education: Promoting Economic and Social Mobility of Students
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Sonny Ramaswamy,
NWCCU President
“You can resist an invading army; you cannot resist an idea whose time has come.” Victor Hugo
Formal (higher) education, as we know it today, i.e., a teacher or guru imparting knowledge via lecture and experiential learning, has its origins in religious teachings going back millennia to Mesopotamian, Indian, Greek, Chinese, and other cultures; for example, “gurukulas” in India, or synagogues, mosques, temples, and churches, which also controlled significant wealth, were the keepers and purveyors of knowledge. This connection between “church” and education continued over the centuries, including here in the United States with the establishment of colleges and universities affiliated with various religious orders and the education of clergy. The beneficiaries of such education practiced as clergy, and included the occasional individual, such as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, and others, in the 17
th, 18
th, and 19
th centuries, also studying and teaching about “nature”.
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Dual Enrollment Partnership: A Case Study
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Steven Meredith, Ph.D.
Assistant to the President for Institutional Effectiveness
Director of Music Technology
Southern Utah University
During an August 2018 presentation to the Utah State Legislature Subcommittee for Higher Education Appropriations, Representative Derrin Owens, the House Vice-Chair of the subcommittee asked Scott L. Wyatt, President of Southern Utah University, the following question regarding the dual enrollment partnership between Southern Utah University and Southwest Technical College: “. . . I love what I see . . . but why has it taken us until 2018 to get a model like this that really serves students of every background and need? Why has it taken so long?” President Wyatt responded, “Well, we’re in two different worlds, and it is too easy to say ‘we might lose tuition money, or we might lose students.’ So, if you were to look at each of our institutions, it is probably not in our best interest, but it is in the best interest of students - - so it’s hard!” [laughter]
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Students and Faculty Driving Change
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Constance Tucker, M.A., Ph.D.
Vice-Provost, Educational Improvement and Innovation
Oregon Health and Science University
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What does jaundice really look like in black skin? It was an Oregon Health & Science University student who asked this question to a faculty member who identifies as a white female whom we will refer to as Michelle Round, Ph.D., R.N. (pseudonym).
Readily available digital photographs of jaundice and other visible conditions that health care professionals need to recognize often do not reflect the diversity of our patient populations.
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Learning Assistants Make Connections
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Janea Triplett-Newell
,
Ph.D.
Instructional Designer, College of Southern Idaho
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A classroom utilizing a Learning Assistant Program looks more like a web and less like a line. In a course with learning assistants (LAs), experiences and content flow from and in between the instructor, LAs, and students.
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Jacqlyn King, Ph.D.
Learning Center
Coordinator,
Innovation and
Success Center, College of Southern Idaho
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A Learning Assistant Program is a pedagogical approach to pair instructors with undergraduate students whose sole purpose is to support learning activities both in and out of the classroom.
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Information Literacy as an Institutional Outcome
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Karen Clay, M.L.I.S., M.A.S.
Director of the Library and ALO,
Eastern Oregon University
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At Eastern Oregon University (EOU) we are finding that student academic success is enhanced via exposure to information literacy concepts. These concepts are introduced to students in a variety of settings, thus ensuring that there is a good chance a student will have some familiarity with information literacy by the time they graduate.
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Donald Wolff,
Ph.D.,
Vice Provost for Academic Quality,
Eastern Oregon University
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The most innovative of these practices is the explicit incorporation of information literacy concepts into the First Year Experience (FYE) program via their inclusion in the curriculum of the three credit UNI course.
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Community Engaged Learning
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Shelley McEuen-Howard, M.A.T.
Professor
of English,
College of Southern Idaho
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Samra Culum-Williams, M.S.
Project Manager
for the
Center for Instructional Excellence; Community Engaged Learning Coordinator,
College of
Southern Idaho
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The College of Southern Idaho is embarking on an exciting new journey, one that involves connecting the community and curriculum in meaningful and surprising ways with a local watershed.
Rock Creek is a local waterway that begins in the hills south of Twin Falls.
After flowing past multiple campgrounds to make a gradual three-thousand-foot drop to the agricultural landscape southeast of Twin Falls, Rock Creek cuts a rugged
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canyon swath northwest through the city to empty its roughly sixty-mile length into the Snake River. Rock Creek is both beautiful and marginalized,
transformed from being, quite literally, a town sewer and dump. Rock Creek now has a four-mile walking trail and an incorporated county park hosting an RV campground and playground. But looking closer, Rock Creek has a stubborn narrative of being undesirable, a throwaway working creek.
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Stacee Mclff, M.S.
Business
Department Chair,
Snow College
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Through strategic partnerships and a community effort, Snow College has elevated entrepreneurship in its rural service area. In 2016, President Gary Carlston signed the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship president’s pledge. The pledge symbolized new commitment to institutional and community entrepreneurial activities.
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NWCCU Educational Programming
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Successful Practices for Increasing Student Retention
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Noon (Pacific Time)
NWCCU Free 60-minute Webinar
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Jared Tippetes, Ph.D.,Vice President of Student Affairs, Southern Utah University
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Eric Kirby, Ph.D, Vice President for Student Affairs (Completion and Student Success), Southern Utah University
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In 2015, the presenters inherited a campus that had experienced eight years of stagnant or declining retention rates and were charged with turning things around. The good people on our campus had been trying everything outlined in the literature but just hadn’t seen the results and benefits of these best practices. So, our retention team went back to the drawing board and started over from scratch. From this exercise we developed and implemented our homegrown and cost-efficient ‘ASCEND’ model (Affordability; Support; Culture; Engagement; Nudges; Data). The result?
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Valerie Martinez, M.Ed.
NWCCU Vice President
In October 2018, NWCCU launched a series of webinars designed to share successful practices from member institutions. The first two webinar presentations showcased methods of Eastern Oregon University and Willamette University by which each institution uses student learning outcomes to demonstrate mission fulfillment.
The third presentation spotlighted Seattle University’s efforts to support faculty-led assessment.
The commission and webinar participants offer a shout out to the presenters who stepped forward and represented their institutions’ experiences and successes – well done!
Special Thanks for their generous contributions to Webinars:
Dr. Donald Wolff – Vice Provost for Academic Quality, Eastern Oregon University
Dr. Stasinos Stavrianeas, Professor of Exercise and Health Science, Willamette University
Dr. Mark Stewart, Professor of Psychology, Willamette University
Ms. Sophia Sansone - Accreditation and Assessment Manager, Seattle University
Visit the NWCCU website to view recordings of these webinar sessions:
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CHEA Announces Winners of
2018 CIQG Quality Award
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Dr. Lucas Kavlie, Vice-President of Compliance and Accreditation, Western Governors University, receives the CIQG Quality Award plaque from Stamenka Uvalić-Trumbić, CHEA Senior Advisor on International Affairs.
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The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) International Quality Group (CIQG) has announced the winners of the 2018 CIQG Quality Award. NWCCU member institution, Western Governors University, was one of two nationwide institutions to receive the award. The CIQG Quality Award was established in 2018 to recognize outstanding performance of higher education providers in meeting the CHEA/CIQG
International Quality Principles
. "The award is a celebration of good practice and a demonstration of the major stake that higher education providers have in improving quality around the world," said Concepcion Pijano, an international consultant on accreditation and chair of the CIQG Advisory Council.
"This award is part of trying to build international investment in higher education quality and quality assurance," said Stamenka Uvalić-Trumbić, CHEA Senior Advisor on International Affairs. See CHEA website at:
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NWCCU
Recognized by
CHEA
We are pleased to announce that the board of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) has recommended recognition of NWCCU. The Commission is grateful to the work of former interim president Marlene Moore, senior fellow Mac Powell, commission chair Joe Brimhall, and the rest of the NWCCU staff for their hard work and dedication towards achieving this recognition.
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New NWCCU ACADEMY
Mac Powell, MBA, PhD
NWCCU Senior Fellow
The process of revising the NWCCU Standards of Accreditation and Eligibility Requirements has highlighted and expanded a renewed focus on student learning and student achievement – the driving measure of institutional success.
For more information,
please contact the Academy’s Director, Dr. Mac Powell, NWCCU Senior Fellow, at mpowell@nwccu.org.
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THE
BEACON AWARD
FOR EXCELLENCE IN STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
AND SUCCESS
IS HERE
The Beacon Award is an annual award to recognize institutional or programmatic accomplishments in student achievement and success at the family of institutions accredited by Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.
Information and criteria for the award will be sent electronically to all eligible institutions on or before April 1, 2019.
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Recap on
Workshops for
Assessment Essentials
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COMMISSION MEETING:
June 19-21, 2019
Lodges at Deer Valley
Park City, Utah
WEBINAR:
Student Retention
March 20, 2019
12 noon Pacific
WORKSHOPS
:
Mission Fulfillment and Sustainability
March 4, 2019;
Accreditation Liaison Officer
March 5, 2019
Mission Fulfillment Fellowship Meeting
March 5, 2019,
8:15 am
MISSION FULFILLMENT FELLOWSHIP
June 2019 –
March 2020
University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington
NWCCU ANNUAL
REPORT
:
Opens:
May 1, 2019
Deadline:
August 1, 2019
Next Issue of The Beacon:
May 20, 2019
See the NWCCU website for registration for specific events, and for more details:
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NWCCU hosted two Assessment Essentials Workshops at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on
January 14
th and 15
th,
2019, taught by Jillian Kinzie, Associate Director of the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University. The sold-out event advanced the region’s conversations about what constitutes model practice in assessment at the course, program, and institutional level.
NWCCU Mission Fulfillment Fellowship
The NWCCU Mission Fulfillment Fellowship held its orientation on January 18, 2019, and Fellows will attend a three-day residential portion at University of Puget Sound in June 2019. The Fellowship features world-class faculty highlighted by Peter Ewell, Linda Suskie, Jillian Kinzie, Trudy Banta, Paul Gaston, and George Kuh.
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Website Publication
of NWCCU Notification Letters
In responding to the public demand for accountability of both institutions and accrediting commissions, NWCCU has posted all notification letters associated with actions taken in the January 2019 Commission meeting on its website under the link for Directory of Institutions under institution names. NWCCU will continue publishing notification letters of action in this manner after every Commission meeting hereafter. See the link below:
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As part of its ongoing process of self-reflection, and in accordance with U. S. Department of Education regulations and NWCCU Bylaws, NWCCU began its cycle of review for its Eligibility Requirements, Policies, and Standards of Accreditation on September 1st.
President Ramaswamy and NWCCU Staff have traveled to Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington to gather feedback in Town Hall conversations, in addition to holding two Online Town Halls to solicit feedback from members and the public.
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Averaged Graduation Rates and Retention Rates for All NWCCU Members
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Overall, graduation rate and full-time retention rate for NWCCU member institutions are rising. Part-time retention rate is on a decline. Data is collected from IPEDS and NWCCU Annual Reports.
James Wagner
NWCCU Coordinator of Data and Records
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The Beacon is NWCCU's quarterly newsletter to inform its member institutions and other stakeholders of up-dates, news, resources, and information pertaining to accreditation and higher education issues. Please send your comments to
TheBeacon@NWCCU.org, or, contact Pam Goad (pgoad@nwccu.org) or Jan Wilson (jwilson@nwccu.org) if you would like to contribute to The Beacon.
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