Meeting Minutes: Regents Administrative Committee on Student Affairs (RACSA)
March 8, 2001
Columbus State University
The Spring Meeting of the Regents' Administrative Committee on Student Affairs was held on March 8, 2001 on the campus of Columbus State University. RACSA Chair, Charlie Nutt, called the meeting to order at 1:00 PM. Earl Bagley, Vice President of Columbus State extended a welcome and introduced staff who assisted with preparations for the meeting.
As a first order of business, Dr. Nutt distributed copies of the RACSA assessment document and a draft of proposed by-laws revisions for clearly defining the mission, purpose and structure of the RACSA committee and its relationship to the Central Office and other administrative groups.
Lee Wilcox (Georgia Institute of Technology) provided an update on the status of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Project. Approximately 5000-6000 surveys were returned and results will be presented by system and by clusters (Research, Regional and State Universities, and 2-year Colleges). Results should be available in approximately one month.
Dr. Fullerton (Central Office) gave his report and indicated that new Banner responsibilities will consume approximately 80% of his time. Changes will be made in campus contacts. Banner Project Leaders should be users rather than technical people. A second person should be identified for technical support. A letter will be sent to presidents with information about Banner related issues and infrastructure.
Dr. Fullerton announced that a new Vice Chancellor has been selected and an announcement should be forthcoming from Dr. Papp naming that individual. [Since our meeting, it has been announced that Dr. Frank A. Butler has been selected as Vice Chancellor for Academic, Faculty, and Student Affairs.] Additional announcements were made indicating that the SAC budget will be now be managed by the Central Office as recommended by state auditors and the 2 additional CPC requirements have received harsh criticism and are under review.
Fred Barnabei (Augusta State University) was asked to comment on the system budget. The 24 million for health insurance loss has been replaced and will be expended by June 30. ETAC money will be released in 4 weeks and must be disbursed by June 30. Lee Wilcox recapped discussions from a recent regional meeting indicating that Georgia continues to be at the top of the regional list in terms of salaries for faculty and staff. Maximum merit increases of 4.5 % are anticipated. It is important to note, however, that in DTAE schools, faculty received 4.5% and staff 3.5%.
Tonya Lam (Central Office) indicated that the OIIT staff is pleased that Dr. Fullerton has been assigned responsibility for Banner coordination in the system. This should establish a sense of direction within the system. Fullerton and Lam are working collaboratively to build a stronger relationship with OIIT. The system will implement Banner 5.0, which will be released to campuses on June 8. Campuses will be asked to submit plans for migration to the 5.0 version including plans for producing the October 1 Financial Aid Report. System enhancements will be reviewed to determine which should continue or be deleted and which should be improved. OIIT will provide staff training in using Banner 5.0.
All 34 system campuses are using Georgia EASY and have recorded approximately 52,000 hits to date. This is being monitored in terms of the percentage of these that actually complete the application process. Tonya also discussed the CAPP degree audit program, which is currently available only to registrars. Banner 5.0 will made this available to faculty and students as well. A pilot project is underway at Georgia College and State University and North Georgia College and State University. One million dollars has been requested for implementation. The success of the degree audit program is dependent on some stability in degree requirements and prerequisites. Each change in an academic program of study must be noted. DARS has also been reviewed but would be more costly to implements since CAPP is designed to work with Banner.
Lam announced that the HOPE application is available on line and the Georgia Student Finance Authority is encouraging its use. This will increase the need for manual entry by financial aid offices but this should be corrected by summer.
Training for Banner users will be available in state this year and will include DTAE institutions. The first session will be held on September 19 in Augusta. In January, a SIRS workshop was held with a goal of standardizing data coding for more efficient report generation and consistency with the system. This will also allow the Central Office to review data without the extra steps of having institutions extract data and prepare reports.
A new Web page for the system should be implemented by June 2001. The new site will allow for posting of notices, meetings, and approved minutes from administrative groups. Dr. Nutt mentioned the need for more visibility for Student Affairs on the system Web site. RACSA minutes will be added to the site after approval.
Nutt also pointed out the need for IT staffs on campuses to assist with Banner applications. Fullerton suggested pooling IT resources among institutions. This process will be facilitated by the use of standardized data. Assistance from the Central Office is limited because of demands in other areas. Projects require staff time and other resources and those without adequate funding will not be attempted. Projects demand time and money. It was also announced that an internship position would be developed in the Central Office for student services leaders.
Penny Wills (Floyd College) discussed the Bookends Project, which involves enrollment management on 2-year campuses. Two Key areas of focus are the Post Secondary Option and offering 4-year degrees on 2-year campuses. A large number of these programs exist but are not formally defined. Important issues such as selection of faculty and availability of student services must be resolved. Very few 2-year faculty members are approved to teach even though they are eligible by SACS standards. PSO is key issue and requires clarification of incentives offered by high schools and funding. Most PSO students are eligible for HOPE. An effort is being made to encourage high schools to identify eligible students so that direct contact can be established and opportunities communicated directly to students and parents. Using HOPE to fund PSO tuition might encourage high schools to address this more effectively since they would not be subject to reduced funding.
It was announced that a Financial Aid Consortium has been established and is chaired by Tonya Lam. The purpose of the Consortium is to create a seamless process for transient students. Students will continue to have responsibility for navigating the process but this should make the process less cumbersome. Refunds will be sent directly to students via Banner and PeopleSoft. The new process will require additional work for campuses, particularly Financial Aid Offices, but will be much easier for students. The new process will involve the following: A consortium agreement will be completed by the student and sent to the host institution by the home institution. The host institution must monitor enrollment status frequently to reduce liability for the home institution. For example, if an award is disbursed at the home institution and a student withdraws without notification to the home institution, the home institution is liable for the award. Effective management of the process will require communication between the home and host institution. Host institutions must provide information to home institutions and the Central Office must require all institutions to follow consortium agreements. System financial aid officers have expressed concern about liability for actions taken or not taken by host institution. The next meeting on these issues will be March 23. This initiative also has implications for Georgia GLOBE. This is a heavily debated issue and is applicable only to system institutions. Questions may be directed to Tonya Lam. Tom Walter (Gainesville College) reminded members that institutions are currently liable for all funds disbursed to students who are not in attendance. Attendance must be verified with faculty.
Nancy King (Kennesaw State University) provided an update on the 'Report Card' on system accountability. A letter indicating the four types of indicators was distributed. These are Overall effectiveness, program effectiveness, 'seamless process' issues, and economic impact. Institutions will be required to develop six to ten indicators for each of the four categories by a May deadline. The final report will be disseminated by Dec. 2002. Results will be reported by sectors rather than individual campuses and will include graduation and retention rates and the employment rate of graduates. There is still discussion on how to effectively assess community service, leadership, etc. For other indicators, test scores, HOPE retention rates, satisfaction with campus life, and feedback from employers may be used. A panel of system administrators has been appointed to establish specific indicators based on focus group input. There is a possibility that results may be used in the future for performance based funding.
Dr. Nutt then gave members the opportunity to attend one of two discussion groups on privatized housing and enrollment management. He pointed out that the system would hold a meeting on privatized housing on March 26. Reports from both groups were assigned for the next day.
The meeting was adjourned following the breakout session with an announcement that dinner would be served at 6:00 PM.
March 9, 2001
Charlie Nutt called the meeting to order at 8:30 am and began by thanking Earl Bagley for the previous evening.
The following announcements were made:
Charles Bowen (Dalton College) presented information on the upcoming GCPA conference.
Tom Walter (Gainesville College) gave an update on ACPA.
Joe Buck (Armstrong Atlantic) provided information on NASPA and SACSA. The SACSA conference held in Savannah was very successful. He encouraged inactive RACSA members to become active in SACSA. The organization has undergone administrative changes and has appointed Buck as part-time Executive Director. All suggestions regarding SACSA should be forwarded to Dr. Buck. The next SACSA conference will be held in Orlando, FL.
Penny Wills (Floyd) indicated that she plans to attend the NASPA conference in Seattle. More than 257 programs will be presented and are listed on the NASPA Web site.
Nancy King (Kennesaw) announced that Charlie Nutt is the new President-elect for NACADA. The next conference for this group will be held in Ottawa.
A note with greeting to Jim Puryear from RACSA was circulated.
Dr. Nutt reminded members of an upcoming conference on advising to be held at ABAC. The keynote address will focus on eCore. The conflict with the GCPA meeting was pointed out and use of a professional meeting schedule of events will be used for future planning. Dr. Nutt accepted responsibility for distributing calendar for planning purposes.
Dr. Buck initiated a discussion on services for distance learners. He indicated that SAC has new standards for providing services for distance learners that will be considered in future accreditation reviews. The Western Interstate Compact for Higher Education (WICHE) has produced a listing of Web sites that represents 'best practices' in terms of services for distance learners. Student Affairs professionals may refer to these sites as plans are developed for serving on-line students. Dr. Buck agreed to send the document to Dr. Nutt for distribution to RACSA members.
Dr. Lange (Georgia Southern University) brought up the importance of working with graduate students and promoting the student affairs profession and associated graduate programs. He indicated that brochures on the graduate program at Georgia Southern were available for those interested.
Committee reports were given and began with the Admissions and Registrars' Report. These two groups will hold a joint meeting this year. They will focus on SIRS and other issues associated with reporting to the Central Office. The Consortium arrangement and the impact for financial aid will continue to be an issue. The time line for setting tuition and fees was identified as another important issue since the current time line interferes with efficient awarding.
The report for Career Center Directors highlighted an upcoming tour of high tech companies. There are currently more than 8000 resumes on line and there has been a significant increase in the number of employers using Georgia Hire.
The Student Activities Group will hold their next meeting at Macon State College. Plans are to discuss the impact of technology on student activities. There are still unresolved issues with Pipeline and associated funding. The alternate product under consideration (Mascot) is not longer available.
Wills (Floyd) suggested inviting these various sub-groups to meet with RACSA at future meetings.
Dr. Nutt indicated that Cathie Hudson (Central Office) offered the assistance of RACIE in presenting a workshop on assessment. He asked for suggestions on the best approach for pursuing such a workshop. Nutt asked for input on the best approach and secured volunteers to work on items that should be communicated to RACIE. Persons accepting this responsibility were Melanie McClellan, Penny Wills, Judy Bryant, Hazel Scott and Charlie Nutt.
A pilot project is underway at Perimeter on a new survey style. A group was identified to review the survey and insure that results are comparable to results obtained using a different approach. The group consists of Tom Walter, John Colson and Charlie Nutt.
Reports from the break out sessions from the previous day were presented. Nancy King presented information on privatized housing. Commuter campuses are giving increased attention to privately developed student housing. Joe Buck, who has expertise in this area, identified four elements that must be considered: Design, Financing, Management, and Construction. The relationship between management and the institution is also critical. It was suggested that programming and peer advisors be a major focus from the beginning of a housing project. There is a need to address policies and procedures associated with privatized housing. For example, the presence in housing of students from other campuses may pose problems.
Ron Koger (Southern Poly) presented for the group on enrollment management. Much of this discussion focused on organizational patterns. On many campuses traditional organizational structures have changed and, in some cases, this change may have weakened the role of student affairs on campuses and in the enrollment management process. An emphasis must remain on campus-wide responsibility for strategic enrollment planning. It is critical that the institutional President drives enrollment management processes. A close relationship between academic and student affairs administrators is essential regardless of organizational structure. The combining of services and management can work if based on strong collaboration. The differences between services and management must be highlighted with resulting recognition that one is dependent on the other.
Jane Thompson (Clayton College and State University) presented information from the RACSA Technology Committee, which met the day before following the breakout sessions. Since this was the first meeting held by the Committee, discussion focused primarily on clarification of the charge and on identification of pertinent issues for review. This Committee was established by Charlie Nutt for the primary purpose of clarifying the technology issues of system institutions and effectively communicating issues and needs related to technology to the Central Office. In addition, the committee will provide feedback to the Central Office on new and current technology initiatives that impact service delivery to students and enrollment practices in the system. The RACSA Technology Committee will serve a liaison role between the Central Office and system student affairs practitioners to foster collaboration on making decisions that are in the best interest of students and efficient/effective delivery of services. The committee will encourage systemic planning and consideration of broad-based impact in reviewing proposed initiatives and in providing the Central Office with information for future initiatives. The Chair-Elect of RACSA will serve as chair of this committee.
The Committee discussed the following:
- Identification of issues related to the role of technology in our work with students
- Generation of a prioritized list of needs and issues
- Identification of an effective means for communicating with the Central Office
- Identification of system 'best practices' and enhanced opportunities for resource and information sharing
- Identification of 'spin off' from technical advancements that may impact student development (i.e. sense of belonging, face-to-face communication skills, socialization, etc.) and proposed solutions for addressing these issues
- Development of strategies to increase participation in system decision-making and avoid duplication of effort
- Identification of issues and development of strategies relating to services for distance and on-line students
As a first step, Thompson will send a brief e-mail survey to all RACSA members requesting input on identification of key technology issues in system institutions. This information will be presented at the Summer RACSA meeting.
Wills (Floyd) announced the inclusion of a student affairs track in the Teaching/Learning with technology initiative initiated by system academic affairs administrators. She encouraged RACSA members to showcase innovations using technology. In addition, she reported on experience shared by several student affairs practitioners of taking an on-line class. The goal of this activity was to increase understanding of on-line learning experiences from both a faculty and student perspective. A question was raised about the possibility of developing a four-week on-line program on student services and technology. Tim Wise (ABAC) suggested expanding this approach to include other professional groups. It was pointed out that NASPA currently has four such courses and that we might benefit equally by using an existing experience. It was suggested that developing an in house program would be more cost effective. The RACSA Chair referred this matter back to the committee. The Technology Committee will discuss and bring a recommendation to the summer meeting. Dr. Nutt asked that all technology related issues be referred to the technology committee via telephone or e-mail.
Dr. Nutt called the attention of the group to the need for review of the RACSA organizational structure. At the present time, no guidelines exist for the Chair or Chair-Elect of RACSA. Committees should be identified and defined, as should standard procedures such as those used for elections. In addition, a mission statement should be developed that accurately defines the role of RACSA and updates system changes and titles. Nutt encouraged members to review the draft that was distributed. Wills suggested appointed of a policy committee and Wise called for a 'steering' or articulation committee. This group would serve a purpose similar to that of the Academic Affairs Executive Committee. A primary responsibility would be review of all system policy changes and communication of these changes to RACSA members. In addition, this group could serve as liaison with other system advisory and administrative groups.
Fred Barnabei expressed some concern that increased formality of structure might negatively impact the characteristic flexibility and openness of the RACSA group. Thompson pointed out that our lack of organizational structure might have a negative impact on our ability to influence system decisions. Bowen suggested asking the Academic Affairs group if they feel that structure has been beneficial. Walters emphasized the importance of an executive committee to serve as a resource for the chair and voiced support for more organizational structure. Scott (Georgia State) pointed out that structure could facilitate rather than restrict effectiveness. Buck emphasize the role that the academic affairs committee plays in developing the agenda for the summer meeting. This seems to result in increased influence over the program in that this group is better prepared than the Student Affairs group to identify issues and topics. An executive committee could equalize opportunities to influence meeting agendas and generate more advanced planning. Lange (Georgia Southern) indicated support for an executive committee and stated that it could generate broader-based input. Loss of flexibility can be prevented through collaboration and partnering and structure will allow systemic collaboration with other groups. Charlie Nutt and Jane Thompson will prepare a proposal on committee structure for the summer meeting. Information will be collected from other groups in terms of organizational effectiveness.
Lee Wilcox (Georgia Institute of Technology) pointed out the need for clarification of the mission statement and emphasized that it should not duplicate campus mission statements. Tom Walter (Gainesville) suggested separating out the mission statement and including a vision statement. He indicated that RACSA had a vision statement at one time and Walter agreed to attempt to locate a copy of this document. The revision of RACSA by-laws should list all current groups, highlight collaborative efforts, revise all titles and make sure groups are listed accurately. New RACSA members supported this and indicated that it would be helpful to new system Vice Presidents. Every new member should be given a copy of this document soon after joining the system. Members were encouraged to look for old RACSA documents that might be incorporated into the redrafting of the by-laws and forward these to Nutt or Thompson. Nutt and Thompson will incorporate all suggestions into a proposed draft to be reviewed at the summer meeting. A draft will be distributed prior to the meeting for preliminary review prior to discussion.
When the governance and committee structure is clearly defined, an effort should be made by the Chair to assign each new RACSA member to a group soon after arrival. There was unanimous support for this from RACSA members.
The joint summer meeting with Academic Affairs will be held June 3-5 at Sea Palms Resort on St. Simons Island. The theme for the meeting is accountability and benchmarking. Nutt asked for suggestions for the second day business meeting and addressed the issue of restricted time for conducting business. Wise pointed out that Student Affairs Officers stayed an extra day in the past to deal with business items. Several logistics problems associated with arriving early or staying late were pointed out. It was decided that a breakfast meeting would be held on Tuesday in addition to regular meeting from 11:00 to 12:00.
In terms of agenda items for consideration, Judith Bryant requested information on student insurance options. The development of a system plan would lower the cost for participants. Fullerton indicated that this had been discussed and was not generally supported as an approach since insurance is optional for most students.
Nutt agreed to collect information on practices related to student insurance and present at the summer meeting.
Tim Wise thanked RACSA for the support during the recent series of crises on his campus. It was pointed out that most campuses do not have adequate human resources to respond adequately to campus crises and the impact on staff can be significant. Wise suggested the development of a statewide crisis response team composed of skilled volunteers from various campuses. A resource guide of people in the state who are willing to assist during a campus crisis could be compiled. Assistance could be in the form of a visit to the campus in need or a telephone response. Ron Koger indicated the Counseling Center Directors might have such a system in place. John Colson (Waycross) pointed out the need for resources to support volunteer responses. Lee Wilcox offered to send the formal response protocol developed at his institution. Nutt asked all RACSA members who have a developed plan to send him a copy, which he will distribute to the membership. Joe Buck pointed out that frequently support is readily available through informal channels as well. Tim Wise agreed to work with the counseling group to identify a list of volunteers to be presented at the summer meeting.
Wise presented information on the annual conference on campus alcohol and drug issues.
Nutt distributed a report for SAC President Nells Peterson and communicated his apologies for missing the meeting. Nutt praised Peterson for focusing on student issues during interviews for the new Vice Chancellor. SAC issues continue to focus on student fees and the new fee and budget review process. The proposal to waive sales tax on textbooks was rejected by the Governor because of the significant loss of revenue it represented.
Earl Bagley (Columbus) asked for clarification on the process used at the Central Office to review and make decisions on proposed fees and budgets. Barnabei (Augusta) indicated that a fiscal affairs staff member reviewed each proposal in the past and a decision was rendered. The new process assigns a budget analyst to each campus. These analysts will review proposals, collect additional information and present to a review committee. Final review will be conducted by the Senior Vice Chancellor prior to the rendering of a decision by the Board.
Additional information was requested on the role of student review in determining outcome. Some campuses have the impression that student endorsement must be 100% for a fee increase to be supported by the Central Office. Others are under the impression that the process assures that students are aware of all proposed increases and budgets. Unanimous endorsement is not a prerequisite for approval. The outcomes of the current process should answer this and other related questions.
Joe Buck commended Charlie Nutt for conducting an efficient and productive meeting. Minutes from the last meeting were approved and seconded by Wise and Lange. It was decided that future minutes would be reviewed and approved via e-mail as soon as possible following a meeting. This will facilitate a timely posting on the Central Office Web site.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:55.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jane Thompson
Chair-Elect