Minutes of the
NIU Board of Trustees
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS, STUDENT AFFAIRS
AND PERSONNEL COMMITTEE
June 12, 1997
CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
The meeting was called to order by Vice Chair Susan Grans at 10:32 a.m. Recording Secretary Mimms conducted a roll call of Trustees. Members present were Trustees David Raymond and Vice Chair Susan Grans. Joining the meeting in progress was Student Trustee David Marquez. Not present were Trustee Manuel Sanchez, Student Trustee Willie Fowler and Committee Chair James Myles. Also present were Committee Liaison Carroll Moody and Board Parliamentarian Ken Davidson.
VERIFICATION OF APPROPRIATE NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
Confirmation of Open Meetings Act notification compliance was given by Board Parliamentarian Ken Davidson. He noted that in the absence of a quorum there were informational items on the agenda which could be considered by those present until the arrival of a quorum and recommended that the meeting proceed.
MEETING AGENDA APPROVAL
Due to the lack of a quorum, the meeting agenda was not approved.
UNIVERSITY REPORTS
Committee Liaison Moody told the Committee that the new B.S.Ed. in Health Education, approved by the Board of Trustees in May 1996 had not been forwarded for IBHE approval by the staff. However, the university had successfully appealed the staff’s decision and the B.S.Ed. in Health Education was to be recommended for approval at the July meeting of the IBHE. Agenda Item 7.a. – 1996-97 Program Review Summary
Vice Chair Grans called on Lynne Waldeland to present the 1996-97 Program Review Summary. Dr. Waldeland gave a brief summary of the year-long campus program review process and mentioned that this year’s schedule, as set by the IBHE, included a set of unrelated programs, ranging from philosophy to technology to the programs in the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences. The School offers programs in three areas. Dietetics, at both the baccalaureate and master’s levels, was judged to be one of the strongest programs on campus. It undergoes rigorous accreditation scrutiny by the American Dietetics Association, and during this five-year review period, the ADA has changed its expectations for the internship experience. The program did intensive preparation for the initial site visit for the new postbaccalaureate internship, and it received ADA approval this past year.
The second program area, Family and Child Studies, is a growth area at the university and is one of the disciplinary areas that received new positions in recent years as part of the university P·Q·P reallocation of staff positions. It includes both an undergraduate and a master’s program; the master’s program includes an accredited specialization in marriage and family therapy. The undergraduate program includes a child development emphasis served by the child development laboratory which will be housed in the new child care center.
The third program area, the undergraduate program in textiles, apparel and merchandising, has undergone many changes along with the industry. The curriculum at the community colleges has also changed; and in order to capstone community college preparation, the program has had to add more theoretical and merchandising components and put less emphasis on the technical aspects of textiles and apparel. The school also offered a graduate program, and M.S. in Home Economics Resources and Services. It had been the result of a combination of graduate programs in textiles and in home economic education and it had really never found an audience since its inception in the early 1980s. After a great deal of interim review and examination, the faculty in the school decided that the M.S. program is not viable in its present form and has recommended its elimination.
Dr. Waldeland then summarized review findings for the baccalaureate and the master’s programs in philosophy. As might be expected, the philosophy program provides a great deal of general education; ninety percent of the department’s undergraduate credit hours go to nonmajors. While providing that service to the university, it also offers a relatively small but extremely strong major as judged by the fact that its students are accepted by good graduate schools or obtain good jobs in a variety of settings, including business and human services. NIU’s master’s program in philosophy is also relatively small. It is the only one at an Illinois public university offered by a philosophy department that does not also offer the doctorate. Its students are accepted by the best philosophy doctoral programs in the nation. The department receives good feedback about how well prepared the students are.
Dr. Waldeland reported that the psychology programs, also reviewed this year, are notable for the integration the department has achieved among a very popular undergraduate program and its master’s and doctoral programs. The undergraduate program serves over 600 majors and over 350 minors, provides an enormous amount of general education coursework, and offers also elective courses at all levels for a number of other majors. Psychology is one of the departments that is known for providing extensive opportunities for undergraduate students to work one-on-one with faculty in research and training settings. The university’s M.A. program in Psychology is primarily a feeder program for the Ph.D. The exception is the 30% or so of its students whose career goal is school psychology. They are able to obtain certification with the master’s degree, and a number of them take jobs at that point, although some return for doctoral study later. Waldeland noted the doctoral program in psychology is very selective; it accepts, on the average, 17% of the applicants each year. A number of the doctoral graduates go on to college teaching; others work in social service agencies or enter private practice.
Psychology has among its faculty service two Presidential Research Professors the Department of Philosophy has two. The Department of Philosophy also has a Presidential Teaching Professor.
Dr. Waldeland then reported on the technology undergraduate program in the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. It has distinguished itself by its willingness to capstone community college work, including the applied degrees in technology. Dr. Waldeland reminded the Board that it had recently approved this program’s plan to take its undergraduate industrial technology emphasis to Rockford. That program is going very well, and the department has received a number of requests from other community colleges to provide the same kind of opportunities for their students. The department’s goal is to get accreditation for both the engineering technology and the industrial technology emphases. The other program offered by the Department of Technology is the Master of Science in Industrial Management. Students for this program are mostly employed in business and industry and study on a part-time basis. They are primarily people who had technical training at the undergraduate level and now find themselves in need of managerial or planning or logistical expertise.
Dr. Waldeland stated that the university also reviewed the Bachelor of General Studies, a general degree that also offers a contract major option in most of the university’s colleges. When students wish to have a program not offered here, but for which available course work can be combined to create it, students may draw up a proposed plan of study and "contract" with a faculty advisor to oversee it. NIU offers the general B.G.S. degree at three off-campus sites for students who want a baccalaureate degree for personal satisfaction or for career advancement that does not require a specific field of study. Trustee Raymond asked why the same kind of objective could not be accomplished with a standard bachelor of arts program in the liberal arts college. Dr. Waldeland replied that those who opt for the B.G.S. usually do not need a specific major for professional preparation. It is a degree that often appeals to people who interrupted or delayed their education and now would like to take college courses. They do not need the structure of the traditional undergraduate degree.
Dr. Waldeland said there is a another subset of students who wish to prepare for something the university does not offer because only a very small population would be interested in it and cited the example of scientific illustration. Over the last ten years, she said, the university has had about seven students who have combined course work in art and in anatomy and physiology for the purpose of becoming scientific illustrators. Drs. Waldeland and Hewitt stated that other specialized areas have included Arts Administration, American Studies, Dance Criticism and Japanese. These students arrange existing courses to prepare themselves in a specialized field. The key to the success of this program, Dr. Waldeland told the Trustees, is careful advising. Advisors ask for real evidence that jobs in the specialized area exist and that the program is offered at other institutions. In the case of the general degree, advisors try to make sure the students understand that, with the B.G.S., they are not preparing for a specific job.
When asked by Trustee Raymond if this was a common program at other universities, Dr. Waldeland said there is a similar program offered by the former Board of Governors, which has retained the Board of Governors name. Other institutions offer such programs; they are usually called either Bachelor of Liberal Studies or Bachelor of General Studies. Trustee Raymond inquired how many students were in this program at any one time. Dr. Rosalie Hewitt answered that there are around 100 students at any one time, including the general program and the contract major. Dr. Moody added that because this program is also offered off campus, it serves place-bound people who often want a general degree.
President La Tourette pointed out that the B.S.Ed. program in Health Education that the IBHE will approve in July was originally offered as a B.G.S. contract major opportunity. The growth of student interest in this particular area eventually justified the university’s offering it as a separate degree program.
Trustee Grans stated that in doing employee interviews, she felt the B.G.S. degree seemed to be clearly understood. If it allows the university to meet changing market needs, then it sounds like a useful kind of a program. Dr. Waldeland emphasized that advising at the beginning of the program is key, followed up with university oversight by the associate provost and a faculty committee, which carefully monitors the program to be sure that it is serving student interests well. Trustee Raymond stated that the B.G.S. program sounded like a very good program given this description.
Trustee Grans noted that the technology degrees in Rockford are going very well, both from an industry and a student standpoint. She said that she gets great feedback from the students who are participating and appreciates the synergy with the community college.
Agenda Item 7.b. – Graduate Program Review Update
Dr. Moody said that the IBHE had instructed all public universities to review all of their graduate programs during the 1996-97 academic year. The university had 73 graduate programs, including master’s, educational specialist and doctoral degrees, and the J.D. In order to conduct a review of this kind, which was an extraordinary requirement for the university, Dr. Moody explained that the Provost’s Office prepared a format for an abbreviated self-study for each program to complete. The format asked programs to identify their objectives and the measures of quality they used to determine if the programs were achieving their objectives; to provide information on student and occupational demand for the program as well as their placement rates; to describe the contribution to the university mission made by the programs; the cost and efficiency of program delivery; and to set forth future plans for improving the programs or making any alterations or changes. All of the programs were asked to produce these mini-reviews and present them to a 14-member special committee, which was constituted specifically for this purpose, comprised of faculty members from both the Academic Planning Council and the Graduate Council.
After the review was completed, the review committee reported its findings to the Provost. For many programs, no problems were identified. Some of these programs need to revise plans for assessing their program outcomes, and these must be submitted by October 1. For other programs, the committee identified some specific issues that required attention. The committee looked at such issues as program delivery costs that were higher than the statewide average for the same programs at other universities; programs that had high student-faculty ratios which the committee felt might affect the ability of students to move expeditiously through the doctoral dissertation stage; programs that had lower than average enrollments compared to other institutions’ similar programs; and the clarity of program objectives. Where concerns were identified, the special committee made recommendations for action to the Provost, who accepted those recommendations. Progress reports to the appropriate faculty committee, either the Academic Planning Council or the Graduate Council, will be required in the spring of 1998 and the spring of 1999.
Within the framework of the graduate review, the School of Music made a decision to consolidate three master’s programs in Music. The decision was also reported to delete the M.S. in Home Economics Resources and Services. The committee also looked for some particularly effective practices in graduate programming that might make certain graduate programs in the state stand out as different from the traditional programs. Two doctoral programs in particular were identified in this regard. One is the Ph.D. in English, which revamped the curriculum and students’ teaching experiences to give graduates a wider variety of employment opportunities. The other is the Ph.D. program in Mathematical Sciences, which includes applied experiences for students that prepare them not only for employment in higher education but also for business and industry employment. A report on the graduate program review must be included in NIU’s productivity report to the IBHE in August.
Trustee Raymond asked in what form these reports are presented to the IBHE. Dr. Moody replied that since the onset of the P·Q·P initiative, public universities have been required to report annually on productivity improvements in academic programs, research and public service, and general university operation. The report includes budgetary information, particularly the reallocation of resources. The IBHE also often requires a special report on issues identified as having statewide importance. The special topic this year was the graduate review.
In answer to a question from Vice Chair Grans, Dr. Moody indicated that follow-up activities as a result of the review would be ongoing for the next two or three years and that he would be bringing periodic updates to the Committee.
Agenda Item 7.c. – 1997 Review of Undergraduate Education Summary
Dr. Rosalie Hewitt provided some highlights from the annual undergraduate education report. The Illinois Board of Higher Education requires Illinois public universities to submit an annual report on undergraduate education. Since 1992, the IBHE has identified specific topics for the focus of each annual report. For 1997, the IBHE asked that universities conduct a reappraisal, summarizing key improvements in undergraduate education over the past five years and identifying plans for further improvements and a time frame for implementation.
Many of NIU’s improvements were in the areas of access and preparation. Dr. Hewitt said that recruitment activities had been expanded to focus on increased admissions contacts with high schools and community colleges. The Office of Admissions has worked with faculty and college advisers to contact students and to meet with students as they tour the campus. The University Honors Program, the alternative admissions program and the Office of Admissions have all created electronic databases to help track prospective students. There have been a number of reviews and revisions of academic policies and procedures by faculty committees and the college advising deans, and many of these policies related to transfer and articulation. In the area of general education, faculty committees have reviewed the core competency requirements in English, mathematics and communication studies and the distributive studies choices in humanities and the arts, social sciences, sciences and mathematics, and interdisciplinary studies. These reviews have led to a comprehensive review of the program, which will be disseminated to faculty in Fall 1997 for discussion.
Another improvement over the past five years has been in teacher certification. A new universitywide oversight committee has been created as well as a new office of teacher certification. The university underwent accreditation reviews and received accreditation from both the National Council for Accreditation Teaching Education and the Illinois State Board of Higher Education. All of the colleges have strengthened their technological and scientific laboratories, and new facilities in the sciences, in foreign languages, and in the visual and performing arts have been added. The President and the Provost have initiated a number of the improvements at the university level. Dr. Hewitt mentioned two task forces which have been very significant: the Task Force for the Improvement of the Undergraduate Experience, which did its work in 1995-96, and the Task Force for the Multicultural Curriculum, which has been in existence for four years and oversees a summer institute for faculty.
Dr. Hewitt stated that plans for the future include strengthening faculty development in instructional technologies; expanding peer tutoring facilities and activities; developing new web technologies in Registration and Records and in admissions applications and course scheduling; strengthening current partnerships with the public schools and community colleges; and continuing to build on the benefits of the recent merger of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs.
Trustee Raymond inquired whether IBHE might produce a comparison of the public universities’ progress and new initiatives for the last five years. Dr. Hewitt said that the IBHE would put out a summary of all the university reports. She added that the public universities often share reports. Trustee Raymond asked if dialogue between NIU and colleagues at the other universities gives a sense of whether NIU is ahead or behind the others. Dr. Hewitt expressed the belief that NIU was leading in multicultural curriculum transformation and certain kinds of instructional technologies, like computer-assisted instruction. Other universities, she said, particularly the University of Illinois at Urbana, are farther along in use of the Internet and web technologies for teaching, but that is also in NIU’s future plans. Dr. Hewitt said NIU has been very strong in the areas of registration and records, including the degree auditing system, the T.R.A.C.S. registration system, and electronic transcripts. Dr. Hewitt said the University of Illinois at Urbana has asked NIU to join with it in a HECA (Higher Education Cooperation Act) grant to develop its technology for registration and records, and she thought that was a clear indication that the UI recognized NIU as a leader in this area.
Trustee Raymond asked if there was any program supported by IBHE to bring people from the various universities together to share best practices and ideas and what people are doing in these areas. Dr. Hewitt said there is not a formal mechanism at present; but in various disciplines, such as teacher education, there are state-level committees that work together and share information. The Illinois Articulation Initiative has contributed to more interaction among the faculty in the same disciplines at public universities, community colleges and private universities. Trustee Raymond said he was interested in receiving more information on the Task Force on Improving Undergraduate Experience at a future meeting. Dr. Moody said that this task force has achieved a great deal and that a report could be presented at the next meeting.
Vice Chair Grans commented that one thing she would like to see more of is the university working with the high school counselors who are usually the ones who determine how students are first introduced to a campus. Dr. Trustee Raymond commented that his daughter had just graduated from high school, and he was very disappointed at the lack of guidance given by her high school counselor. He asked if, as one of the preeminent institutions in the state preparing the future teachers of Illinois, there was anything that NIU could do to specially train high school counselors. Hewitt replied that NIU invites counselors to campus and that the Admissions Office visits each high school two or three times a year. Trustee Raymond suggested the possibility of coming up with some sort of a continuing education program especially designed for counselors to help raise the quality of their performance. Dr. Hewitt said she would pursue that point.
Agenda Item 7.d. – Update on Admissions for Fall 1997
The Committee asked at its last meeting to be provided with an update of admission figures for the Fall 1997 semester. Dr. Hewitt reported that as of the first week in June, there was an increase of over six percent in the number of new freshman applications received compared to the same time in 1996. This increase also represents a three percent increase over applications received in 1995 and a 12 percent increase over applications received in 1994. There was close to a nine percent increase over 1996 in new freshman students admitted to the university, a six percent increase over 1995 and an 11.5 percent increase over 1994. New freshman students who have confirmed by June 1 that they are attending NIU now total 2,072, a six percent increase over the number at this time in 1996, but a lower number than at this time in 1994 and 1995. All of these increases over 1996 include increases in African American, Hispanic/Latino and Asian American students as well.
In recent years, confirmation figures have not been as stable an indication of attendance as they once were, because students now tend to confirm later than they used to, although they still have the intention of entering the university. Other indicators, such as orientation reservations, housing deposits, taking a placement test and submission of financial aid requests are now factored in projections for students’ decisions to attend. All of these indicators show substantial increases at this time. New freshman orientation reservations are up by 16 percent over this time last year. New student testing is also up 16 percent. Housing reservations are up seven percent, and new freshman applications for financial aid packages increased over this time last year. All of these offices have made special efforts to contact prospective students earlier than in past years. Dr. Hewitt reported that new transfer student applications are up two percent over last year with admissions up 13 percent and confirmations up 11 percent. Dr. Hewitt stated that transfer enrollment is expected be higher in Fall 1997 than last year, but still within the 2,000 to 2,200 range that, historically, NIU has had each year.
President La Tourette stated that the series of twenty-some orientation sessions mentioned by Vice Chair Grans earlier are all-day sessions which had begun the previous day. The orientation sessions are held for new freshmen and transfer students and their parents. Dr. La Tourette said the Board will see a large number of students and families walking around the campus as they go through this orientation process and asked that they stop and say hello if they had a chance.
Vice Chair Grans said she had been informed by Parliamentarian Davidson that the Committee could turn to the university recommendations for discussion only. These items will then be presented to the full Board for approval.
UNIVERSITY RECOMMENDATIONS
Agenda Item 6.a. – Request for New Specialization Within a Degree Program
Dr. Waldeland stated that the Department of Biological Sciences has experienced increased interest in an opportunity for people at the master’s level to specialize in anatomy. Most of these students are preparing to teach anatomy at community colleges. Therefore the Department of Biological Sciences is proposing to offer a formal specialization in Human Anatomical Sciences. It will be a 30-hour program like the regular M.A. in biological Sciences. Students who opt for the specialization will take three courses in common with the other master’s students, but the remainder of the program will consist of 22 hours in Human Anatomical Sciences. The final project will require students to prepare teaching materials that would assist in the teaching of anatomy and physiology. The students in the specialization will also be required to be graduate assistants in anatomy laboratories so they will have appropriate teaching experience. This specialization will utilize existing courses; therefore, there are no staffing or budget increases.
Agenda Item 6.b. – Request for Program Consolidation
Dr. Waldeland said that one of the decisions made in conjunction with the graduate review this year was the decision to consolidate three master’s programs in Music. The thinking on this proposal, she said, goes back to the initial P·Q·P "hit" list where the IBHE identified one other master’s program in music as a target for elimination due to its low enrollment. The School of Music looked at its curriculum and decided to eliminate two of its five M.M. programs and to consider consolidating the remaining three. The department has worked for the last two years to arrive at a common core of courses for a single master’s program with areas of study. They have come up with a required core they believe will improve the program and produce well-prepared graduates. The School now proposes to consolidate the three master’s programs into a single master’s program. The way the IBHE handles the inventory of programs, this is best treated as two deletions and a change of the remaining program title.
Agenda Item 6.c. – Request to Delete Existing Program and Specialization
The Home Economics Resources and Services M.S. program was a result of a merger of two programs in the early 1980s. This is a very small program, with only two students currently. The faculty has agreed to its deletion as part of this year’s program review and graduate program review processes.
Dr. Waldeland stated that the other deletion is one that is connected to the creation of the Master of Science in Taxation (M.S.T.) approved by the Board last year at this time. The Department of Accountancy is now offering a Master of Science in Taxation at Hoffman Estates because that was where the concentration of the professionals interested in the program is located. At the time of requesting the new program, the department believed that there would be a continuing audience on campus for the specialization in taxation in the Master of Accounting Science (M.A.S.); however, most students with an interest in taxation have changed to the M.S.T. Consequently, the department proposes to eliminate the specialization, which included six courses in taxation. An area of study in taxation, which will allow students to take three or four courses, will continue to be offered in the (M.A.S.). This change will shift the department faculty resources to the new program. Any students currently in the specialization will be able to finish it. When asked by Vice Chair Grans if this move would affect recruitment, Dr. Waldeland said that it would not.
Agenda Item 6.d. – Request for New Research and Public Service Center
Dr. Waldeland said that requests for new research and public service centers are very rare. When a faculty group has a certain level of expertise, the university examines the possibility that organizing a center would be advantageous and that a center could bring in sufficient external funding to offset any general revenue commitment to it at a significant ratio. There is a group of faculty here at NIU that is very expert in the area of family violence and sexual assault. The core group is in the Department of Psychology, but the center would include faculty from other departments who are doing related work. For the last five years, the faculty members have worked together in a kind of informal arrangement called the Program for Family Violence and Sexual Assault. The program group has more than established its ability to attract external funding and has gained good deal of national and even international visibility. The group has received a significant grant for training graduate students in this field from the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Waldeland said the faculty group has demonstrated the viability of its being an organized research and public service center, and the university is pleased to recommend it to the Board for approval. She then introduced the lead faculty member for this effort, Joel Milner, who is an NIU professor, and Frederick Schwantes, Chair of the Department of Psychology.
In answer to a question from Trustee Raymond, Dr. Waldeland said the center would be a locus for interdisciplinary research and will train the people who will provide counseling in various agencies and other settings. The center faculty does consultation with agencies that do counseling, but the university already has a Psychological Services Center. There is a community-based center called Safe Passage that provides shelter and services for victims of domestic violence, with which the program has worked with a great deal. This center will not be a direct service provider but will train the service providers, and it will conduct research that will then be used by the service providers.
In answer to a question from Trustee Raymond, Dr. Waldeland said that the NIMH grant would support the training of ten predoctoral students to develop expertise in this area. They may then become clinical psychologists who provide direct service or they might become faculty members who will train other people. The faculty make themselves available as consultants to agencies that wish to have updating or assistance in how to deal with both victims and perpetrators of family violence and sexual assault. Dr. Milner added that the center would evaluate treatment protocols and advise agencies and intervention professionals on what works. If clinics use techniques that can be demonstrated to be effective, they cannot begin to reduce the population of victims and perpetrators. Dr. Milner said that the center would do the background work to evaluate the effectiveness of what we have been doing for decades.
OTHER MATTERS
There were no Other Matters to be discussed.
NEXT MEETING DATE
The next meeting date will be communicated to the Committee at a later date. Vice Chair Grans called for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Trustee Raymond so moved, seconded by Student Trustee Marquez. The motion was approved.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:45 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sharon M. Mimms
Recording Secretary
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