Members absent: Alexander, Bellaver, Cunningham, Ober, Prater, Twibell
Interim Provost Deborah Balogh convened the meeting at 7:35 a.m. Copies of submissions to the Comment Box were distributed.
Announcements
Dr. Balogh announced that the next meeting will be held on Friday, November 11, 2005, 7:30-9:00 a.m., in the Forum Room.
There are no minutes available for approval today.
Review of Administrative Retreat Discussions and Action Plans:
Dr. Balogh reported that the recent Administrative retreat, held on October 24 and 25, was productive. Several items related to Strategic Planning were clarified. Referring to "a national model" contained within the proposed Vision statement, Dr. Balogh said that the phrase does not mean that every department will achieve a national ranking, but rather that every department will assess its opportunities and unique characteristics. An objective might be that three to five programs will be added to our current list of nationally ranked programs in the next several years.
At the retreat there was also discussion of our mission of providing immersion experiences. The data that Ball State has collected to date show that "immersion" is already an institutional strength. The president would like to see an "immersion audit" so that we can capture additional data and assess how we might improve in this area. Also, we will want to study how immersion experiences are currently funded. In order to learn how to customize more fully immersion experiences for our students, Honors College will experiment with personalized curriculum development.
The concept of a personal university was also discussed at the retreat. In order to explore how to customize learning experiences for our students, Honors College will consider options for experimenting with personalized curriculum development.
Other items that were discussed at the Administrative Retreat were a definition of "entrepreneurial" (a definition might be "thinking differently") and assessment of "customer service."
In the discussion that followed, task force members made the following comments:
- "Distinctiveness" means "differentiation." We need to get out of the "other" category in Indiana (where all higher education institutions except Indiana University and Purdue University seem to be placed). We should not let the institutions in the "other" category determine our brand.
- We need to re-label "immersion" for our external audience.
- We need to talk with the silent majority about "immersion." This segment of the faculty will be receptive if they understand how it can be done and how it can be handled administratively.
- Are we to be a "public Ivy"?
- How can we attract better students, thereby becoming a more selective institution? Immersion experiences are one strategy. It would be good to see a continuum or a profile of strategies that attract the better students.
- "Immersion" may be the best idea voiced yet at this planning table.
- This group probably has more information than the broader audience about what our students value and how extensive immersion experiences already are. We need to provide this information to the rest of the internal audience. Data will show that immersion experiences are not an add-on; they contribute to depth and integration of knowledge.
- The University Senate received the University Core Curriculum Task Force II report on Thursday, November 3. It recommends a three-hour immersion experience as part of the core. Each department would decide what that means. It would not mean an increase in hours for the student.
- When in the curriculum would we require an immersion experience? There may be some students who would not be interested. However, the requirement would probably not have to be fulfilled in the major.
- Under the proposed Mission statement, every unit would provide an opportunity for an immersion experience, but would not guarantee the same.
- The literature shows that deeper learning takes place when there is an immersion experience.
- Experiential learning is not just an event, but a process.
- Experiential learning is very important to students. Their response is almost always positive.
- There is some concern about financing immersion experiences, but a lot of the concern expressed at the forums was about the definition of "immersion." Perhaps it would be good to provide a cross-discipline panel or something similar of persons representing departments that do provide immersion experiences. The purpose would be for these departments to tell others how they do it.
- Some people may think that the immersion experience must last for an entire semester or even an entire year. However, there are many ways to provide for the experience. As an example, Journalism provides an experience two days a week for one semester.
- The goal is a "transformational recognition" by the student; that recognition may come gradually.
- In a survey, 49% of our graduates said that they had had experiential learning at Ball State; that figure is down a bit from a previous survey. For most of our students, it is a semester or summer experience. Hallmark schools in experiential learning usually have large technical programs, but there are lots of things that we can do and need to do.
At this point in the discussion, the question was raised about whether the task force might be moving toward a different Vision statement. The following was proposed: "Ball State University will be a very selective academic community that guarantees for all students immersive, integrative learning experiences and that advances knowledge, improves economic vitality, and works toward a sustainable quality of life." It was then suggested that "qualified" should be inserted before "students."
It was pointed out by one member that we do not deal with environmental sustainability in the Vision statement, and that is what we are known for, along with technology. We need the "world around us" in the Vision.
The discussion continued with the following comments:
- It is not just one immersive experience that will differentiate us; we need a portfolio with a variety of immersive experiences to make us different.
- Just as we differentiated ourselves in the area of computer literacy in the major beginning in 1985, we must start now with a declaration that we will provide immersion experiences.
- Sometimes Ball State has been viewed as having institutional low self-esteem. The idea of its becoming a national model was incorporated in the Vision statement of the current Strategic plan; we should not take out that level of aspiration now. The Goals and Objectives will become more critical in the next plan.
- It is the Objectives that will drive institutional behavior.
- We must be future-oriented.
- We should probably add "very selective" to our Mission statement.
It was observed that some of this discussion could be captured in the implementation guide.
Suggestions from Open Forums and Discussion of Next Steps
One task force member stated a colleague thought some of the boxes on the handout should have been filled in; however, the task force intentionally had decided to leave them blank.
Another suggestion was that college forums should be held for broader representation of participants. At the very least, task force members should encourage their colleagues to look at the Webcasts of the forums. Also, even though there had been a previous decision to make the Webcasts available to an internal audience only, it was now decided to make them open access. Dr. Balogh will send a note to tell the university community that the Open Forum video is available on the Web site. Linda Hanson then asked that Items 2 and 3 in the Mission statement be reversed on the Web site, and approval was granted.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 a.m.
RELATED LINK:
Agenda for November 4, 2005