Summer 2008 update

I hope that you are having both a restful and productive summer.  On campus, things keep moving and I wanted to bring you up to date on a few of the most important.  Particularly, I thought that you might be interested in the legislature, enrollment, branding, and our application for “Carnegie Engaged” status.

At this writing the budget is not finished.  The Conference Committee is meeting and there are discussions regarding both operating budgets and capital.  As things stand now, funding is included for WCU’s key priorities: enrollment growth, forensic science, and planning money for the new education building, but that can change.  

Some of you may have picked up on the fact that despite massive increases in applications, the freshman class may not be much larger than last year’s class.  This seems largely to be the result of concern over gas prices and fear for the economy.  There also is indication that this is not only an issue at WCU.  A national admission publication shows that it is affecting many schools around the country including Harvard and Wisconsin.  Many schools have dipped into their waiting lists and others may have lowered their standards to make their classes.  We decided at WCU that we needed to improve significantly the quality of our entering class if we were to effectively implement our QEP and improve our retention rates.  Therefore, I asked admissions not to revert to lower standards that we used last year just to increase the number of entering students.  The result of these actions and conditions will be a higher quality freshman class that should be 2% to 5% larger than last year’s.  One of the unusual aspects of this year’s class is that contacts with students indicate that many people still have not solidified their plans on where to attend school.  Therefore, our admissions staff is continuing to work with admitted students to help them make good decisions about where to attend in the fall.  We do expect, therefore, that this year’s class will be the most academically prepared in our history.

Turning to branding, that process is continuing and making progress.  We have settled on athletic logos and clarified our colors.  These changes will be introduced as the students return in the fall.  We have had a committee working with Stamats over the summer and it appears that there are some emerging themes that are getting positive review.  We hope to be able to introduce these core themes in the early fall so that they can begin to impact our admissions and fundraising efforts during the next academic year.  I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who responded to the Stamats questionnaire in the spring.  That questionnaire allowed Stamats to identify key words (rather than phrases) that respondents felt identified the University.  These words helped inform the next phase of institutional brand development.

Finally, you may recall that President Bowles specifically asked WCU to apply for Carnegie Engaged status.  This is a new category of institution that Carnegie is tracking and President Bowles feels that it fits our institution well.  We have been admitted to candidacy status.  During the course of the next two months, a team of WCU representatives will be gathering information and documenting evidence to support our application to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for community engagement status. It is an elective classification, and a successful outcome would affirm our institutional commitment to community engagement as reflected in our mission, role, and culture. It would also demonstrate our ongoing partnerships with our local and regional communities in the areas of curricular engagement and outreach in the context of engagement. Alignment between institutional mission, practices, and outcomes is critical if we are truly an engaged university. WCU’s response to the UNC Tomorrow initiative, our development and implementation of the synthesis plan for our faculty, students, and staff, our adoption of all four models of scholarship proposed by Ernest Boyer (discovery, teaching and learning, integration, and application/engagement), as well as our commitment to the regional stewardship philosophy, underscore our belief that we are an engaged university. Erskine has endorsed these initiatives, as well as many others, and is supportive of our application for community engagement status from Carnegie. Carol Burton, assistant vice chancellor for Undergraduate Studies, and Gary Jones, associate professor in the College of Business, are coordinating the application which is due September 1.

It is most important to note that the Carnegie Foundation defines community engagement as the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.  This definition fits very well the direction of the institution including our adoption of Boyer, our QEP and the long tradition of working with the people of the mountains.

Again, I hope that you are having a good summer.  I look forward to seeing you in August.

Best,

John