Homepage

Committee Directive and Membership

About SFA Masteries

Strategic Plan Information

Committee Activities and Research

Communication and Career Preparation Mastery Committees


Committee Activities and Research: Benchmarking and Research Summaries

 

We have worked on basic benchmarking of our assigned action steps, researched other universities using masteries approaches , and begun communication with the campus community about masteries implementation at SFA.

There are three initiatives (and many corresponding Action Steps) that fall under the responsibility of the Distinctive Identity Implementation Committee:

 


Initiative F: Emphasize the personal attention students receive at SFASU

Action Step 20: increase participation in and success of SFA101 and Jack Camp

  • Enrollment and retention information related to SFA 101 can be acquired through the SFA 101 office. These offices are currently finishing a review of the programs.

Action Step 21: increase the number of departments offering senior-year capstone/transition programs

  • Committee member Wanda Mouton (and previous member David Hollier) have conducted a survey of all SFA departments and are compiling benchmarking findings.

Action Step 22: provide more assistance to students experiencing problems such as anxiety disorders, binge-drinking, sexually transmissible diseases and eating disorders

  • Committee member Norman Markworth personally contacted the directors of the SFA Student Health Services (www.sfasu.edu/healthservices/), Counseling and Career Services (www.sfasu.edu/ccs/), Academic Advising Center www.sfasu.edu/advising/), and SFA 101 (www.sfasu.edu/sfa101/). He also reviewed the respective web sites and written materials for all SFA student support services, including Academic Advising/TX Success Initiative, AARC, Counseling Services, Career Services, Student Employment Center, Disability Services, Health Services, Multicultural Center, Residence Life, and Student Affairs.
  • See summaries of Student Support Services and Health Center Services

Action Step 5: improve mentoring/advising programs

  • This step overlaps with and is encompassed in the benchmarking activities in Action Step 22 above.

 

Initiative G: Emphasize the integrated university experience offered by SFASU

Action Step 23: increase links between extracurricular activities and the university's mission and core values

  • The DI Implementation Committee met with members of the STAMATS marketing creative visits team on May 5, 2004, at SFASU. The Committee presented to the team members a working paper outlining a number of key points from the Strategic Plan and Action Steps concerning SFASU Distinctive Identity. There was considerable dialog about the masteries program with the Committee explaining the approach and responding to questions from the STAMATS members. The Committee emphasized the need for inclusion of the masteries initiative in marketing efforts without overtly promoting the program, since the initiative is in its formative stage and approximately two years from implementation.

Action Step 24: establish a regular university-sponsored lecture series (SFA Lecture Series)

  • A sub-committee was appointed in the Fall 2003 to develop and implement the creation of a lecture series. The format for the lecture series was devised by a distinctive identity sub-committee, together with members from the university community (comprising a University Lecture Series committee appointed in January, 2004), and was approved by the SFASU Provost. It was implemented in the Spring 2004, through the creation of a web site in cooperation with the SFA Web Development Office, at http://www.sfasu.edu/pubaffairs/lecture/. The ULS Committee continues to work on the series with promotion of the SFA Lecture Series, selection and funding for the University Speakers and submissions for the Regents Speakers for the Fall 2004.

Action Step 25: encourage all students starting their very first semester to participate in a co-curricular or extracurricular organization

  • In March, 2004, Committee member, Keaton Grubbs, learned from the SFA Office of Student Affairs that participation in co-curricular and extracurricular student organization activities has risen during the past five years. This is exhibited in the increases in total reported numbers of organizations members. An exact number or percentage of the student population is not available, because there are duplications in students participation in multiple organizations. The total number of student organizations, 220, is approximately double that of five years ago. Today's typical student wants to join a group but not necessarily a large group, and special interest groups are popular. The SFA trends mirror the national trends in these respects. Greek participation at SFA is in the average range for similarly sized and situated universities. These numbers are more precise than general organization participation. Information about the Office of Student Activities programs are disseminated through the web site, the Organizations Fair each fall, booths at orientation, Jack Camp, sorority/fraternity recruitment, and the Multi-Cultural Center.

Action Step 26: create more residence-based learning communities

  • See Action 27 below.

Action Step 27: turn more class projects into service-learning opportunities by making public presentations, poster sessions and open-houses more common

  • This step overlaps with Action Step 11, [expand service learning and community involvement activities for students], and Action Step 26 [above]. Members have begun the process of identifying stakeholders and accumulating information on service-learning opportunities, residence-based learning communities course development strategies, and implementation for coordination with other SFASU implementation committees. Here is a summary of a campus-wide survey about service-learning efforts in each department.

Action Step 28: establish a "Campus Visual Identity Committee" to advise the university in regards to the purchase and placement of art on the campus, landscape design, the renovation of university structures and new construction

  • This committee was established in the spring of 2004. Chair and contact...

 

Initiative H: Develop a program of specific areas of mastery which all SFASU graduates will possess at the time of graduation

Action Step 29: create an implementation advisory committee for the masteries approach

  • An implementation committee was formed in December of 2003. Nominations and appointments to implementation advisory sub-committees for Communication Mastery areas such as information literacy, writing, oral, and artistic communications, and for the Career Preparation Mastery will be conducted in the Fall 2004.

Action Step 30: provide the campus with further information and learning opportunities about the masteries approach

Action Step 31: adopt a set of masteries to expect of all SFA graduates and identify the courses and other initiatives by which these masteries can be attained

  • The DI Committee has been conducting initial research on various competencies programs in universities across the nation. Web-based research, personal interviews, and conference attendance have been employed in reviewing these programs. This is an ongoing process, and the DI Committee contemplates further and continuing activities in this Action Step into the Fall 2004. The information will provide the jumping-off point for the implementation work of the DI Committee and the Sub-committees in the Fall 2004.
  • For a summary of ongoing work, go to: Research on Masteries and Assessment at Other Universities

Action Step 32: put in place and continually refine methods by which the university can determine that the knowledge and skill areas are, in fact, being mastered