By Kassondra Granata
President Jack Miller recently created a CCSU report card in an attempt to grade the progress made on goals in the university’s 2005 strategic plan.
The report card, distributed to administrators and faculty in a speech before the start of this academic term, evaluates each goal and assigns a letter grade to draw attention to each area of focus.
“It’s a grade of the institution’s progress, not any department or person in particular,” Miller said. “If there was anyone to put blame on for the University’s progress, it would be me.”
Miller said the mission of CCSU is to produce broadly educated, culturally and globally aware students who will continue to spread their knowledge after graduation. The report card, he believes, will help realign faculty and staff in pursuit of this mission.
Miller’s report card contains four different areas of focus: International Education, Workforce and State Economic Development, Community Engagement and Interdisciplinary Studies and Cross-Curricular Initiatives.
Under each element, there are objectives listing the University’s goals with a letter grade reviewing their success so far.
“I thought since we’ve been at these goals for five years, it’s time to do something more formal,” Miller said.
Miller sat down at the end of the summer and reviewed each objective, personally assigning a letter grade to each goal and referred it to the executive committee for feedback.
Each element has an array of different grades, ranging from A to D, based on the achievements that CCSU has made by working towards their goal.
“I don’t think there was any goal or objective that we didn’t put any effort towards working on,” Miller said. “As you can see, there are no F’s.”
Miller determined the grades through observations and data. He compared the difference between the starting position and the current position concerning each goal.
“What I did was I looked at the data, looked through the Noel-Levitz surveys from the teacher’s and student’s voice, and I placed a grade,” Miller said.
The data for each objective is measured through reports, numerical data, and a variety of surveys such as the Noel-Levitz surveys from students, faculty, and employees.
Miller said the purpose of the report card was to bring attention to campus issues.
“Mainly it’s just a way to get people to look at it,” Miller said.”It’s not a grade of anyone, it’s a way to get people’s attention, and it worked.”
In the objective of increasing diversity of students, faculty and staff, Miller assigned the grade of ‘A.’
“We definitely deserved the grade we received,” said Leah Skinner, assistant director of admissions. “We have been making a lot more efforts towards diversity in admissions.”
Skinner, who is also the coordinator of diversity recruitment, has been developing programs in order to admit students that come from a different ethnic background.
“We have been bringing in students of other ethnicities onto campus for a tour for a half a day,” Skinner said. “In that tour we show them the campus, eat in the cafeteria amongst other things, giving them the real feel of campus.”
Skinner also initiates high school visiting programs along with presenting scholarships that range from $500 to full tuition.
Larry Hall, the director of recruitment and admissions was also satisfied with the grade that the department received.
“Like [Skinner] said, we have been working very hard to push past the goal and make CCSU a diverse campus.” Hall said.
According to Miller, the report card received mainly positive feedback. He is contemplating repeating this formality when the time comes to reevaluate their objectives.
“We’ll examine the goals like we do every year but maybe we’ll find another way to present it. We might do it like the report card or we might find another way.” Miller said.
