Brittany Kima and Sue Monahan
In 2016, Western Oregon University’s (WOU) graduation rates fell behind its peers. The typical transfer student graduated with almost a year’s worth of excess credits. Students and faculty were often confused by the university’s degree requirements. Getting a transfer course approved for general education required walking around campus seeking signatures from individual faculty.
These problems did not seem to be caused by WOU students, though students were certainly affected by them. They were about the university and how it did things. To address these problems, WOU created a faculty task force to investigate alternatives for general education and university degree requirements. In 2018, faculty adopted a new general education program and streamlined degree requirements to better serve the needs of today’s students. This work has resulted in higher graduation rates across diverse groups of students and a reduction in excess credits among transfer students.
The process started by looking at data.
The Problem
WOU’s four- and six-year graduation rates were lower than they should have been, given the institution’s student-centered values. For cohorts that started in 2004-2006, an average of 17.6% of students graduated within four years. About 42% graduated in six years. It took WOU students too long to graduate, and they finished college with “excess credits” (credits over the 180 needed to earn a WOU undergraduate degree). In 2016, transfer students finished with an average of 40.5 excess credits, nearly a year’s worth of credits. First-time students graduated with an average of 17.7 excess credits.
Time to graduation and excess credits matter to WOU students: extra time in college has opportunity costs because students are not able to get their post-college lives started, and extra credits carry a financial cost.
WOU had established academic support programs, and these programs improved outcomes for students who were eligible and participated. But not enough students benefited from those targeted supports. Looking to improve, WOU realized that it was time to look at what the university required of students. Was it possible that students’ paths to graduation were hindered by the curriculum that had evolved over the last forty years?
Examination of the curriculum revealed:
Figure 1: Twelve Buckets of Requirements
This work benefits first-time students, who experience a more coherent and streamlined path to graduation. Because the new general education requirements aligned with the Associate of Arts – Oregon Transfer Degree (AAOT), it also benefited transfer students. AAOT degree holders have completed all general education requirements; they are no longer surprised by additional requirements not covered by their AAOT course work.
“We were hoping to improve student outcomes and experiences with the general education reform. Part of this was done through revising the curriculum but we also made great strides in developing more streamlined processes to help students maximize the number of transfer credits that satisfied graduation requirements.” says Rob Winningham, Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs.
In 2018, WOU addressed other buckets that complicated a student’s path to degree completion.
“It is hard to look at what you do every day and ask if there is a way to do it better,” says Dr. Sue Monahan, then Associate Provost and one of the leaders of this work. “Our students have changed, and we realized that to serve them best, we needed to change too. The work of curricular review and revision was what we could do. We can’t always help students with their work schedules or family responsibilities. But we can make sure that what we require of them, taken all together, makes sense for students.”
Results
As a result of this work, graduation rates have risen and excess credits at graduation have decreased, especially for transfer students. In the five years since WOU began implementing changes, four-year graduation rates have increased by 50%, or ten percentage points. Six-year graduation rates have also increased. WOU’s transfer students now graduate with just over 200 total credits; excess credits beyond 180 have been reduced by nearly 50%, the equivalent of more than one term’s worth of credits.
Moreover, the benefits of the curriculum change have benefited all groups of students at WOU. Irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or familial college experience, all groups of students have seen increases in their graduation rates.
A Foundation for the Future
Beyond smoothing the path to graduation, the review and revision of general education aimed to improve student learning. “We wanted to build a program from the ground up based on learning outcomes for what we wanted all students to gain from a college education,” says Dr. Breeann Flesch, an applied mathematician who co-chaired the task force. “We wanted to ensure that WOU students were getting a transformative education, so we built in high-impact practices, like the first-year seminars.”
Curricular review and revision is paying dividends for WOU students. It has also resulted in a firmer foundation for the university going forward. The new general education program has jumpstarted cross-disciplinary collaborations in its first-year seminars and the potential for learning communities. High impact learning practices are embedded in each student’s general education experience. A now established General Education Committee is responsible for these university requirements and assessment of the program, ensuring greater cohesion and program quality going forward.
And in an era where it is hard to find resources for new initiatives, WOU has embedded improvement in the curriculum itself, creating durable and sustainable gains in student success.
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Taking the approaches used yesterday to budget reduction in today’s volatile environment no longer works. Institutions need new strategies that are dynamic, comprehensive, and practical. This session will introduce participants to The Budget Reduction Tool designed to help budget decision-makers take a student-centered approach to implementing a consistent and effective budget reduction strategy that considers streamlining processes in addition to allocating resources effectively. The Budget Reduction Tool helps budget decision-makers assess and make decisions to invest in initiatives and programs that align with strategic initiatives, have the greatest positive impact on student success and creates the least amount of disruption to realizing operational efficiencies.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 10:00 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. PST
Link to Budget Reduction Tool.
Institutional Speakers:
Dr. Ana Karaman is an accomplished higher education administrator with broad, deep, and diverse experience and expertise in institutional planning, finance, and operations at both public and private non-for-profit universities. Ana’s expertise and experience include developing multi-year financial plans to support implementation of strategic plans, overseeing annual operating budgets in access of $400M and endowments in access of $300M, working with various budgeting models including RCM, financing institutional needs via various vehicles including bond issuances, PPPs, and other financial facilities. Ana led successful legislative requests, developed and implemented master plans and oversaw delivering diverse major capital projects. In addition, Ana has overseen offices of human resources, public safety, procurement, enterprise risk management, facilities management, and others.
Ana serves as Vice President for Finance & Administration and CFO at Western Oregon University.
Tressa is passionate about helping institutions of higher education become more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and efficient deliverers of education. In addition to being a higher education strategist, Tressa is also a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) thought partner and influencer. Tressa helps organizations create long lasting systems and policies that identify and remove barriers that impede student success and institutional effectiveness. Tressa currently serves as a Project Director with Sova helping build capacity for large-scale change in higher education and workforce development.
Tressa has more than 20 years of middle and senior level leadership experience at various types of higher education, private industry, and non-profit institutions. Prior to joining Sova, Tressa served in various capacities including, Senior Consultant at Anderson Blake Consulting; Vice Provost at Strayer University; Vice President for Administration and Director of Institutional Research at Arkansas Baptist College; Campus College Chair for Graduate Business Programs at the University of Phoenix, Vice President of CFA International, and President of Detroit BAEO.
Tressa earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Theory & Constitutional Democracy and a Master of Arts (MA) in Higher Educational Administration from Michigan State University. She also earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Doctor of Management (DM) in Organizational Leadership from the University of Phoenix.
In 2020, Washington State University’s general education program launched Core to Career, a faculty development program that helps faculty recognize how a focus on career readiness can increase student engagement and equips faculty with the language and facilitation strategies to deliver a classroom and curricular experience that students see as intentionally focused on their career and self-development. However, with its focus on faculty, the program has often been less-than-intentional about its relationship with student-facing career professionals. Audience members will learn about and discuss the challenges to and steps for growing career readiness campus-wide in intentional, equitable, sustainable, and meaningful ways.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 10:00 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Thabiti Lewis is Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at WSU Vancouver and Professor of English whose books include Ballers of the New School: Race and Sports in America and Conversations with Toni Cade Bambara. Dr. Lewis earned his Ph.D. from Saint Louis University, in St. Louis, Missouri, where he is also from, and joined the faculty at WSU in 2007. At WSU Vancouver, Dr. Lewis leads campus-wide efforts to foster cultures of inclusion and equity for students, staff, and faculty alike. Dr. Lewis teaches courses in multi-cultural and Black American literature.
Amanda Morgan is Associate Director of the Academic Success and Career Center at Washington State University, where she leads the Career Services and Employer Relations team. Morgan is a first-generation college student who earned a master’s in education administration and has over fifteen years of student services experience.
Clif Stratton is Vice Chancellor for Academic Engagement at WSU Pullman and Associate Professor of History, whose books include Education for Empire: American Schools, Race, and the Paths of Good Citizenship and Power Politics: Carbon Energy in Historical Perspective. Dr. Stratton earned his Ph.D. from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is also from, and joined the faculty at WSU in 2010. The former director of WSU’s University Common Requirements program, Dr. Stratton led efforts to design and implement Core to Career at WSU Pullman. Dr. Stratton teaches courses on modern American and global history with emphases on histories of race and empire.
Our project, the Course Learning Outcomes Worksheet tool, brings evidence together regarding student achievement of program and course learning outcomes. In addition, the worksheet asks the user to look at the student DFWI rates along with disaggregated class data all in the same class. The user looks for achievement gaps and is asked to make improvement decisions based on this data. Those improvement strategies are documented and implemented prior to the class being offered again.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Dr. Afjeh’s research successes include increasing departmental external research funding to over $4 million annually; building an on-site research program with more than 20 researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center; recruiting faculty and providing resources to enhance strength in advanced materials and biomedical engineering; and developing a master’s degree program in engineering with an energy engineering focus, with participation of faculty and industry partners; and developing professional master’s degree programs for industry, as well as a multi-disciplinary, collaborative energy engineering program in partnership with the colleges of Business and Law.
Dr. Afjeh’s research projects have been sponsored by industry as well as leading federal agencies such as NASA, Department of Energy and National Institutes of Health. His research focus areas include computational fluid dynamics in turbomachinery, propulsion systems, experimental investigation of bearings and rotating components, wind turbine design and analysis, and aerodynamics of phonation, a research project sponsored by the NIH.
Dr. Afjeh earned his Ph.D. and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toledo; and his B.S in Mechanical Engineering from Arya Mehr University of Technology (now Sharif University of Technology) in Iran. He is also a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Dr. Janette Isaacson is a graduate of Seattle University, where she earned a doctorate in educational leadership plus a Masters in Counseling (2001), a graduate of the University of Phoenix, where she earned a Master’s in Education teaching diverse learners (1986), and a graduate of the University of Washington where she earned a Masters in Health Informatics and Health Information Management (2023).
20+ years Medical Imaging / Health Sciences, Online Program Director, OIT Teacher Excellence Nominee (2021-2023), Past Institutional Assessment Chair, Accreditation Committee Member, DEI Data Scorecard Committee, NWCCU Mission Fulfillment Fellow, NWCCU Data Equity Fellow, NWCCU Accreditation Site Visitor, spearheaded the development of on-campus faculty data dashboards to present disaggregated underrepresented student data for all programs to aid in the identification of institutional equity gaps in student retention, graduation, DFWI, and post-graduation success.
The Idaho State Board of Education recently adopted major amendments to its policy on academic freedom – the first substantive updates since the 1980s. The revised policy now defines the academic freedom and responsibility of students. Clear policy language provides a framework to institutional leaders for navigating the complex intersection of academic freedom and learning environments in politically fraught times. Students can boost their understanding of academic freedom to become successful in their endeavors, and to participate as engaged citizens in today’s world. How can we, as administrators, leaders, and instructors, facilitate student empowerment by increasing their literacy of academic freedom?
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 3:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
TJ Bliss is a higher education administrator and educational researcher. He is the Chief Academic Officer for the Idaho State Board of Education and a member of the alumni board for Brigham Young University. Bliss was formerly the Chief Advancement Officer at the Wiki Education Foundation, an Education Program Officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Director of Assessment and Accountability at the Idaho State Department of Education. Bliss’ writing, research, and advocacy for Open Educational Resources has been reported on in various outlets, including the Washington Post, EdSurge, and Inside Higher Ed.
Torrey Lawrence is the Provost and Executive Vice President of the University of Idaho. In this role he serves as the university’s chief academic officer, directly responsible for the general direction of all academic programs, endeavors, and instructional services on the Moscow campus as well as the university’s statewide academic, outreach, and research initiatives. He has served in this role since 2020 but has been a faculty member at UI since 1998. He earned music degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Oregon.
Amy Vecchione is the Assistant Director of Research and Innovation at eCampus Center, Boise State University. As an educational leader, Amy works to improve student success through emering and high-impact practices. She recently co-authored the book From At-Risk to At-Promise: Academic Libraries Supporting Student Success.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 3:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Kate is an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences. She received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of South Carolina and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory before joining the faculty at WSU. Dr. McAteer attended the HERS Leadership Institute in 2019 and in 2021 completed the first AASCU Student Success Institute for Provosts, a program designed for provosts ‘to lead and implement the type of transformational change necessary to meet the evolving needs of today’s increasingly diverse student body.
Rilie supports rpk’s clients in fulfilling mission and student success under a sustainable financial model. Her work with clients focuses particularly on optimizing academic portfolios and developing best practice academic and administrative business processes, along with applying a deep understanding of change management and support for capacity building.
The Oregon Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts grant has been exploring innovative ways to facilitate transfer from community colleges to private liberal arts institutions. As we talk with students and review data, we have come to understand that many community college students believe a private college education is out of their reach. This is particularly true for culturally diverse students who often rely on trusted friends and family members for information. Reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time is challenging. Doing this well is a goal of our grant. We will share our progress.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 10:55 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Linda Samek is a former faculty member, dean, and provost at George Fox University. She is currently the project director for the Oregon Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts project. Samek has experience in PreK-12, community college, and public and private four-year post secondary education.
Gerardo Ochoa is vice president for enrollment management and student success at Linfield University. He has served Linfield in multiple capacities since 2004. Ochoa holds a formal appointment as an officer of the board and has served in various university-wide committees, including the President’s Diversity Advisory Committee (chair) and the university strategic planning and budget council.
In addition to being a college administrator, Ochoa is a co-author and independent consultant of Path to Scholarships®, a college readiness curriculum. Since 2006, he has worked with thousands of diverse students from urban and rural high schools, community colleges, private colleges and state universities on college access and affordability. He consults with higher education institutions on the inclusion of Latinx students, best practices to engage and serve undocumented students, and teaching strategies that draw on talents and address the needs of first-generation students. He believes in the power of personal stories to build empathy, create opportunities and influence change. As keynote speaker, his story of perseverance has reached audiences convened by organizations such as the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, the Northwest Public Employees Diversity Conference, the Ford Family Foundation, Portland State University, including a TEDx Talk.
Ochoa holds an Education Master from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and minor in Latin American history from the University of Oregon. He is an American Leadership Forum Fellow and an alumnus of the Senior Leadership Academy sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges and the American Academic Leadership Institute. He is a contributing author for Latinx/a/os in Higher Education and a guest education writer for the Somos Timbers Magazine.
Erika Masaki is an instructor of political science at Lane Community College . Her teaching and research interests are political theory, international relations, and environmental politics.
Teamwork and collaboration are among employers’ highest-rated skills. However, the act of teaching and assessing these skills is often limited to courses explicitly addressing them. We envisioned creating a toolkit from a multifaceted team of faculty that can help ANY instructor understand some of the fundamentals of teaching and assessing student teamwork and collaboration in their courses. This toolkit has built-in ready-to-go components that can be deployed by any instructor that wants to more effectively teach and assess student teamwork and collaboration skills. Our group will share the toolkit we made as well as the process of creating it.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Elaine is a full-time instructor in the Basic and Transitional Studies Department and Co-Chair of Ensure Learning, Seattle Central’s program review and assessment committee.
Who defines “success” for students at any institution? Shouldn’t it be the students? Following Board-approved guidelines and well-defined outcomes, this session will discuss what can happen when students are allowed and expected to take charge of their educational experience. Results and evidence will be presented describing the significant learning and transformation that took place in a General Education College Success Course. Participants will be engaged in imagining the “what ifs” at their own institutions when control shifts from faculty to learners. Could that be what success in college is really all about?
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 2:35 p.m. – 3:35 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Alynda Kusch currently serves as the First Lady of Ensign College. At Ensign College since 2016, Alynda has led a variety of studies focused on improving the student experience. In addition she has taught courses in Culinary Arts, Religious Education, and Student Success. Alynda holds a bachelor’s degree from BYU-Idaho and served there as an adjunct faculty member in the Culinary Arts program.
Bruce C. Kusch, Ensign CollegeThis presentation discusses the challenges small, non-profit colleges and universities face in developing processes aimed at closing student achievement gaps and systematic inequities in learning outcomes. Overworked faculty, weak assessment data, lack of technological infrastructure, conflicting priorities, and strategic confusion all conspire to keep institutions entrenched and student achievement inequitable. Yet despite this landscape, Bastyr University devised and embarked on an ambitious one year plan to identify and begin closing equity gaps for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) students in recruitment, retention, completion and learning related to information literacy, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and professional behavior.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Erika Del Villar, Bastyr University Dr. Erika Lorenzana Del Villar (she/her/siya) is the Associate Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Bastyr University. She is a DEI practitioner, educator, and sociologist specializing in human rights, international relations, social movements, and building inclusive climates in higher education. Erika earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology with a Certificate in Human Rights from the University of Connecticut, her M.A. in International Relations from New York University, and her B.A. in Political Science, minor in French Studies from the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. She is a proud Filipino-American, wife, and mother of two beautiful daughters.
Wendy Gordon is an associate professor and Chair of the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University in Kenmore, WA. Dr. Gordon’s teaching and research interests include the provision of midwifery care in home and birth center settings; the role of racism in perinatal health disparities; and the ability to translate and evaluate research. Dr. Gordon holds a BS in Chemical Engineering, an MPH from Oregon Health & Sciences University with a focus in health disparities, and a Doctorate in Midwifery from Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
Based in Kenmore, WA, Ann Kenady is Senior Instructional Designer for Bastyr University. Ann holds a certificate in instructional design and a certificate in online teaching and is an active member of Quality Matters. Ann works collaboratively across divisions to establish metrics and mileposts for creating equitable, accessible, and inclusive online learning experiences, while assisting faculty with online and hybrid course design and instructional best practices.
Susan Seymour is the Director of Institutional Effectiveness at Bastyr University. Her entire career has been focused on learning assessment and she is particularly interested in measuring learning that is “difficult”. Her dissertation investigated learning related to social consciousness and her current interests are in ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are tied to observable and measurable outcomes rather than performative activities and aspirational statements that lack accountability and impact. She earned her B.S. in Construction Management and M.S. in Technology Education from Colorado State University and her Ph.D. in Education – Curriculum and Instruction from Utah State University.
As a way to combat the college completion crisis, particularly among the most underserved student populations, BYU-Idaho and Ensign College have taken a certificate-first approach to help students stay on track and complete their degrees. Learn how placing the focus on skills first has yielded increased retention & persistence rates.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 10:55 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Boyd Baggett serves as the Accreditation Liason Officer. He came to BYU-Idaho in 2008 to teach Religious Education and received the Exemplary Faculty Award in 2017. Boyd earned a Bachelor of Science from Brigham Young University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School, graduating Cum Laude.
Previous to Brigham Young University-Idaho, Boyd practiced law in Idaho and Utah. He also taught seminary for the Church Education System.
Jon Nichols serves as the Assistant to the President for Strategy, Planning, & Assessment at Ensign College. He received his bachelor’s in Marketing and his Executive MBA from the University of Utah.
Jon spent over ten years at the University of Utah overseeing their Professional, Online, and Executive MBA programs. He led the design, development, and launch of the Online MBA program, the first fully online program at the University of Utah. He would go on to become a senior product manager for WGU Labs, where he worked closely with early-stage ed-tech companies and community colleges around the country.
Drs. Aman and Barber will explore the critical role of both futuring and strategic planning in improving institutional effectiveness. Attendees will be presented with insights into the differences between futuring and strategic planning approaches and how they complement each other. Futuring allows colleges and universities to anticipate potential changes and disruptions, fostering creativity and adaptability. Strategic planning provides a structured framework for implementing specific goals and ensuring efficient allocation of resources toward mission fulfillment. The presentation will emphasize the importance of prioritizing futuring before strategic planning in higher education institutions to develop comprehensive and achievable strategies toward fulfill of Standards 1.B.3 and 1.B.4.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 2:35 p.m. – 3:35 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Lori Barber is Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs at College of Eastern Idaho (CEI). Prior to this position, she served in various leadership roles at the College. She led the creation of the General Education transfer degrees at CEI, first as Dean of General Education. She holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Innovation from Arizona State University. Lori completed her Master’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies where she researched the history and anthropology of food. She serves on numerous state level education committees in Idaho, including the Idaho Workforce Development Council and Council on Academic Affairs and Programs (CAAP).
In 2017, a delegation of community members from Cottage Grove, Oregon came to see the president at Lane Community College to explore how the college could help southern Lane County create a FQHC to address a lack of affordable, accessible healthcare. Data showed there was a decline in students coming from that area as well as a shortage of healthcare workers. The college brought together stakeholders to discuss the idea and by 2022, plans were established to create a FQHC/Allied Health Training Facility. This presentation will demonstrate how the power of collaboration can help colleges solve even the most insurmountable problems.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 2:35 p.m. – 4:35 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Dr. Margaret Hamilton retired from Lane Community College in Oregon in 2022 as President Emeritus after a 40 year career in higher education. While at Lane, Dr. Hamilton led the college through a new Strategic Plan, a seven-year Self-Study leading to full accreditation, and a successful $121.5M bond campaign-all during a pandemic. Dr. Hamilton holds a Ph.D from Widener University, a MSN from University of Delaware, and a BSN from SUNY, Plattsburgh. Her collaborative work with the community led to the development of a Federally Qualified Health Center in southern Lane County. Dr. Hamilton now serves as an independent consultant.
Metrics of institutional success have been based on student completions, and completions are based on finishing prescribed degree programs. What if there were a category for helping students complete exactly what they needed in the first place? Shouldn’t that be a “success”? This session describes a new way of thinking about 1.C and redefining success for the future of higher education.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 10:55 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
As VP of Compliance & Accreditation at Western Governors University (or “WGU”—America’s leading competency-based, online, non-profit university with 140,000+ students and 305,000+ graduates in each of the USA’s states and territories), Lucas Kavlie’s team of compliance professionals maintains trust through engagement between the university and external agencies (i.e., accrediting bodies, state authorization bodies, professional licensing/certification agencies, and other quality frameworks) in all American jurisdictions (states, commonwealths, territories, and the District of Columbia). In his career, Lucas has overseen the submission of hundreds of compliance or regulatory affairs applications—without rejection. He is a member of CHEA’s Committee on Recognition.
