December 10, 2007

President Wilson convened the fourth meeting at 12:00 p.m. He asked if there were any questions or comments on the notes of the November 19, 2007 SPBC meeting. The notes were accepted as distributed. The future dates of Committee meetings were noted.

Retention and Graduation Rates. President Wilson opened discussion on the chart regarding retention and graduation rates. Michael Thompson reported that the chart was new and calculated this semester. The good news is that IWU does a good job retaining students. IWU's first-year to sophomore retention rate is 92%, which is very good compared to many institutions in our benchmark group. This percentage figure does not include transfer students. The few institutions that surpass IWU's retention rate tend to have better resources.

Michael then addressed the graduation rates. The four-year graduation rates are improving over time, and the latest six-year graduation rate is 82%. There were clarifying questions to which Michael Thompson responded. Michael stated that although the goal for students to complete their degree remains at four years, the six-year graduation rate is largely considered the benchmark for institutions concerning degree completions.

President Wilson started the conversation concerning the selection of peer institutions. He emphasized that several of the peer institutions utilized in the past have been aspirational institutions. We will have to wrestle with the question of which peer institutions to use in the future for benchmarking purposes. Michael Thompson has conducted an examination of potential peer institutions for IWU that emphasizes similarities concerning financial resources. President Wilson asked Michael to present his study at our next meeting in January.

Diversity Initiatives - Beth Cunningham. President Wilson moved the meeting on to Diversity Initiatives. Beth Cunningham noted that compared to institutions in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM), we were at the median for female full-time instructional faculty and somewhat ahead for international and ALANA faculty. The chart depicted data for the last 4 years. Up until 2006, IWU had been above the median of its peers in terms of full-time female instructional faculty. The University's percentage has remained stable over time, while its peers have slowly made gains in this area. IWU is currently tied for seventh place among its peers, which is a change from its second place status in 2002. Beth noted that we are challenged with hiring more ALANA and female faculty. Beth showed data from the National Science Foundation web site on the number of doctoral degrees awarded in 2004 by field, race/ethnicity, and gender to highlight fields with low numbers of underrepresented groups and women. In some academic areas such as chemistry and accounting there are a limited number of minorities who earn PhD's and some of them go on to industry, leaving even fewer for academic institutions. There was discussion on how best to attract these few candidates to the campus, and then how to go the extra mile once we have them on campus for an interview. Kathy Lewton brought up the idea of bringing in masters degree personnel and then assisting their completion of the doctoral program. Beth Cunningham's concern was their ability to succeed and make it through the tenure process. Discussion ensued on the qualifications of faculty and how to encourage MA's to go on to Ph.D.'s. She also addressed the challenge of finding Ph.D.'s in certain fields. Dan Klotzbach asked if we were assuming a certain threshold to attain. Beth stated that an acceptable target might be to reflect the percentage in faculty that we have in students. President Wilson commented that we were doing very well in the number of international faculty, and that we were competitive with our peer institutions. We should aspire to build our numbers over time.

Diversity Initiatives - Kathy Cavins. Kathy reported that we were doing okay with enrollment of ALANA students; however, the number of first year ALANA students slightly declined this year. Kathy would like our campus to mirror our society. President Wilson asked whether we were retaining these students. He mentioned that we should bring a table on first-time, first-year ALANA students to the January meeting.

Kathy Cavins also stated her goal of creating more ALANA professional staff to relate to our ALANA students. At this time we have only one person in the multicultural student affairs office and this puts a heavy load on that person's time. Beth Cunningham mentioned that the ALANA faculty members mentor more students than other faculty. President Wilson asked the Committee to bring the section on diversity from the Strategic Plan to the January meeting to discuss progress on each element. A question was raised as to whether there were additional diversity data, initiatives or input available. Several members of the Committee reported additional sources of data.

Kathy Cavins stated that relationship building and internship programs are ways to recruit student affairs staff. Illinois State University has a master's program in the field of student services. However there are 1,100 to 1,200 other schools recruiting these graduates. Kathy realizes that IWU offers entry level professional positions and most of the staff we have will eventually leave IWU in order to advance in the field. Kathy suggested that once we hire staff we need to develop them. She reported that 9-month positions in the residence halls have been changed to 12-month positions, so it is not necessary for these staff to find summer work to sustain themselves.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:08 pm.

Distributed to all faculty and staff: Jan. 16, 2008