A Message from the Dean

     

At our conference last week, the Provost spoke optimistically about the state of the university, student demand and quality, and the university’s commitment to faculty recruitment and retention.  As a college, we talked about some of the accomplishments in the past year. We also discussed priorities we have identified for this coming year. These emerge from our strategic goals and the analysis we develop during the Leadership and Coordinating Teams’ planning retreat each summer.  Some priorities for 2006-2007 include:

• continued analysis and revision of our curriculum, particularly in ethics and lifelong learning skills content
• full integration our Standards of Professional Behavior and Ethical Conduct
• completion of assurance of learning plans for all programs
• continued support for faculty research and professional development
• on-going emphasis on recruiting talented students
• exploration of new technologies
• preparation of a marketing communications plan for the college.

 We also had a brief review of the results from the EBI exit survey of graduating seniors and the survey of faculty, both completed last spring.  The student results are encouraging.  We looked at the student satisfaction responses over the seven years we have been conducting the survey, and the trend in student opinion is definitely a positive one.  As we examine our results against the six comparator institutions we selected, we are especially strong in student satisfaction with our computing resources and facilities, student organizations and extracurricular activities; quality of faculty and instruction in major courses, and overall program effectiveness.             

The faculty responses were even more positive. The trends were all upward, and the expressed level of satisfaction with many aspects of our academic and professional environment was stronger than those of all other institutions in the sample.  This indicates we have great opportunities to work together to make the college a continually-improving academic environment and professional community.

All of our college teams have the full set of results and will be reviewing them to identify areas we need to discuss further.  In particular, there are aspects of the student responses that we will want to analyze, understand, and work toward improvement. Such opportunities always exist, of course.

Our college processes and the outcomes of our past efforts hold great promise for the future. As we continue to work together positively and maintain a supportive, high-quality environment, we make progress toward fulfilling our vision for the college.

 

Again, welcome back.

Dixie