Transfer Advisory Group (TAG) September 17, 2007 Meeting Notes

Transcription

1 Transfer Advisory Group (TAG) Meeting Notes Participants: Jim Anderson, MSU Moorhead; Rocky Ammerman, Northland CTC; Dawn Bjork, Ridgewater College; Carmella Gaynor, Hennepin Technical College, Andrew Hlubek, MSU,Mankato; Rick Kangas, Central Lakes College; Linda VanderMaten, Normandale CC; Carol Ziehlsdorf, Winona State University; Louise Hoxworth, JoAnn Simser, Office of the Chancellor. Not present: Charlotte Nordstrom, Century College, Mary D Andrea, and Gina Boeckermann Welcome-- New TAG members: Rocky Ammerman, Northland CTC; Dawn Bjork, Ridgewater College April 4, 2007 Meeting Notes reviewed no changes. Notes will be posted on MnTransfer.org, educators and advisors, Transfer Specialist Quicklinks. Jeannie Ender will be the new transfer associate at MSU, Mankato. Note: MSU, Mankato. Crystal is now with the MN DOER. (MSU, Mankato should send information to Gina for the Transfer Specialist list.) DARS/CAS Update handout provided. Most institutions are now developing new procedures for creating and distributing the MnTC Audit. DARS team will present MnTC Audit Guiding Principles at MN DARS User conference (Oct 1-3). Contact Mary D Andrea or Gina Boeckermann with questions. Internal audit: Office of Internal Auditing conducted an audit of student success, and campus implementation of DARS and CAS was a major consideration. The results and full findings will be presented to the Board at Nov. meeting. Individual campuses have been sent preliminary findings. We expect additional need for DARS/CAS training and increased numbers at scheduled training (Basic, TA, CAS, and Third Thursday/Friday). Trainings/participants (since April 2007) Transfer Articulation= 5 attendees, 3 campuses Interactive Audit= 5 attendees, 3 campuses 3 rd T/F= 35 attendees, 30 campuses Individual campus request= 11 attendees, 5 campuses Future Trainings: Basic Encoding - September CAS Administrator and CAS "Train the Trainer" for Advisors - October 16 Third Thursday and Friday September 20-21, October 18-19, November 15-16, December Transfer Articulation - October Down South Open Lab - November 6 Exceptions - Special Topics Session - November 15 Up North Open Lab - November 28 MnTC Audit - Special Topics Session - December 4

2 New Board policies and procedures DARS team will present MnTC Audit Guiding Principles at the MN Users Conference (Oct. 1-3). A special workshop session on the MnTC Audit will be held Dec. 4 th. Captivate presentations ( DARS Overview How to Read a DARS Audit How to Enter a Student's Transfer Courses in DARS CAS Overview How to Use CAS Interactive Degree Audit Tutorial Future plans: Course Equivalency Builder, CAS 4.0, Military, IB MN DARS/CAS User Conference 69 attendees, from 31 of 37 institutions (Oct.1-3, 2007). Agenda is posted on line at: AP/CLEP AP and CLEP have been encoding by the DARS Team for all MnSCU institutions. As of 9_6_07, 20 institutions are using the correct (CAS readable) set for AP, and 17 institutions are using the correct set up for CLEP. A push for 100% participation will occur during the next three months. This is for students. Curriculum updates The Curriculum Updates for academic year are available for inserting into DARS. Institutions can request all the new courses (almost 3000!), or just the 287 new MnTC course inserts. Request the Curriculum updates with the form posted on the web-site: CAS 4.0 The new version of CAS is planned for release in Jan All of the CAS clients are required to change to new version on the same day. Some of the new student features are IB, Military, easier navigation. Below is a screen print of the new home page: Prepared by Program Collaboration and Transfer staff Page 2 of 8

3 Further questions on the DARS/CAS updates: contact Mary or Gina. Transfer Specialist Conference, October 11-12, 2007, Radisson Hotel, Roseville. Manuel Lopez, Associate Vice Chancellor Continuous Improvement, who is now responsible for Program Collaboration and Transfer will give the welcome. Cheryl Stinard, University of Central Florida and Sonya Joseph, Valencia Community College: speakers on collaboration between 2- and 4-year colleges/universities. Finola Finlay will provide session on transcript evaluation Military breakout session only have one student and Landon Pirius identified for the student panel. Suggestion is incorporate one student with Don, Jennifer and two veterans affairs representatives. VA representatives are available throughout the state. A new MN GI Bill makes a new benefit available beyond their federal benefits. We may have two military sessions one student panel and Don et al. Volunteers to moderate student session: Jim Anderson and Rick Kangas. Prototype of redesigned MnTransfer.org web site is available. Vicky Frank from Seward will demonstrate it at the conference. Hot topics session. Prepared by Program Collaboration and Transfer staff Page 3 of 8

4 o o Volunteer to moderate Hot Topics session: Carol Ziehlsdorf and Carmela Gaynor Ask that an Office of the Chancellor staff member be present. Sometimes one person presents a practice at one institution that varies from system policy or procedure, but because it was presented at a statewide meeting, others think it is the system perspective which it may not be. Should be presented as suggestions. Ask for other hot topics. Suggested topics (must apply to institutions other than MnSCU as well): Military personnel, how does that impact admissions and tuition? How do accepting military credits affect financial aid? Ask financial aid representative to be part of the discussion. How do institutions accept military credits in transfer? As a lump sum? As applied to a particular program? How does a maximum credit life requirement effect transfer of credits for military personnel? How do institutions use ACE guidelines? Are institutions accepting military credits toward the MnTC? Cynthia Bruce from ACE did a presentation at the 2006 conference. Using SMARTS and AARTS transcripts to validate credits military personnel. Students can use a petition process that goes to department faculty. Pass information along as Best Practices. Admission requirements for GPA at universities. Trends and rationale. Competitive admission criteria. Advising to students who do not meet the criteria. Paula Brugge UMN-TC coming to Normandale on Mon. D grades Calculation of GPA, cumulative; 2.0 GPA requirement for MnTC. Calculation of GPA for professional programs. Inclusion of PSEO courses. Transfer of credits from nationally accredited institutions. Inver CC, MSU, Mankato and MSU Moorhead have similar processes. Schools with national accreditation reviewed individually on a case by case basis. General education: Are other states honoring MnTC? Psychological issues mental health issues, related to active shooters, military experience. How to provide resources. MnSCU only 2 nd day o Cynthia Mehoves will provide ISRS update. Most registrars have put MnTC goals into ISRS. Registrars have been requested to input competencies, but only a few institutions have entered competencies thus far. o Louise and Lori Schroeder will demo the Transfer Center efolio site o May need more time for clarification of policies and procedures o MnSCU Hot Topics: St. Cloud State University has limited number of courses in MnTC it puts students at a disadvantage because other colleges/university may not accept courses as MnTC because SCSU has not designated it in a goal area. Students that are transferring from other colleges or universities and have completed the MnTC to SCSU must then complete the SCSU general education program. Other universities incorporate the MnTC within their general education requirements. Bemidji SU has done a great job of communicating which courses are MnTC. placement cut scores, CLEP, AP Prepared by Program Collaboration and Transfer staff Page 4 of 8

5 New event: optional dinner at end of 1 st day with conference presenters. TAG meeting notes Prepared by Program Collaboration and Transfer staff Page 5 of 8

6 Updates on Transfer Institutional MnTC Review Website: 37 plans submitted Dec. 15, 2006; many plans, summaries of suggestions re: guidelines, MnTC competencies and goals and requests for Office of the Chancellor support posted. Reports are due 1/30/08. reminder sent to CAO s last week. Process for proposing changes in guidelines or to MnTC. o Any recommendations would be discussed in college and university curriculum committees and with discipline faculty across the system. o A written proposal documenting the change requested and the rationale should be submitted to JoAnn Simser joann.simser@so.mnscu.edu o Proposals will be presented to transfer oversight committee for review and o recommendations Senior vice chancellor of academic and student affairs will review proposed changes and recommendations and decide on whether they will be proposed to the University of Minnesota and work with the UMN to determine the process. Louise and JoAnn are available to visit with groups at regional or state meetings and at a college or university about MnTC and transfer topics. Clarifications on Policy 3.21 and 3.37 and related procedures. Scenarios are excellent, very helpful in discussing the issues at campuses. May need to limit time to discuss each scenario at the Transfer Specialist Conference... These are good workshop scenarios for Transfer Orientation. The group discussed the scenarios: 1. Transfer from U of MN and regionally accredited institutions. Clarified that a MnTC Audit will be sent with outgoing transcripts so receiving institutions will know what goal competencies were met by courses and whether goal areas or entire MnTC was completed. 2. Transfer from other non-mnscu institutions (that are regionally accredited) Does the college or university need to send a MnTC audit to institutions other than MnSCU and the U of MN? Each institution must send a MnTC audit with each transcript sent to each system institution and the University of MN. It is up to the institution if they wish to send MnTC audits to other institutions. They may be helpful to the students in having their credits accepted as general education elsewhere. 3. Assignment of goal areas in courses transferred from system institutions. Colleges and universities should no longer assign goal competencies for courses according to the receiving institution s goal areas. The sending institution determines the goal area competencies met by courses. 4. Grade requirements: Colleges and universities have varying practices and policies concerning D grades. It is OK for colleges and universities to have policies requiring a minimum GPA to transfer Ds; however, the purpose of the procedure is so that institutions can t completely deny the transfer of Ds from other institutions. 5. Credits from non-regionally accredited and international institutions. Abbreviation of the institution is on the MnTC audit; may be difficult to determine abbreviation, but you will have the Prepared by Program Collaboration and Transfer staff Page 6 of 8

7 transcript or perhaps the application for admission. Important that student knows that the decision is for that institution only. U of M will honor the degree, but may not honor all the credits. Colleges and universities need to have a procedure in place for evaluating credits from nonregionally accredited institutions. What are the implications of accepting the degree but not the course credits or vice versa? Does an institution need to accept credits from institutions that are not accredited by any accrediting body? The Joint Statement on the Transfer and Award of Credits ( >Programs and Services >Center for Lifelong Learning> Policy Guidelines) lists as one of three criteria for the determination of transfer credit the educational quality of the sending institution. Accreditation speaks primarily to the first of these considerations (educational quality), serving as a basic indicator that an institution meets certain minimum standards. Users of accreditation are urged to give careful attention to the accreditation conferred by accrediting bodies recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation ( Institutions and accreditors need to assure that transfer decisions are not made solely on the source of the accreditation of a sending program or institution. While acknowledging that accreditation is an important factor, receiving institutions ought to make clear their institutional reasons for accepting or not accepting credits that a student seeks to transfer The institution is not required to accept credits from an institution that is not accredited. 6. Credit for prior learning once it is evaluated by a system college or university as meeting goal area competencies, next school must accept it the same way for MnTC. This includes AP, CLEP. The course does not need to be equivalent. May need a minimum grade in a course for program requirements. Credit for prior learning would include military credits. Add separate scenario for military credit. Treated the same as credit for prior learning or as credit from a non-regionally accredited institution? The scenario would be similar to credit for prior learning. Would leadership training be accepted as composition? Should be consistent and based on policy and procedure, not on the person making the decision. A state college or university must recognize courses and award educational credits for courses that were part of a veteran s military training or service if the courses meet the standards of the American Council on Education or equivalent standards for awarding credit. MN Statute Chapter 197 ACE guidelines recommend credit allocations for types of courses ( >Programs and Services >Center for Lifelong Learning> Military Programs), but faculty need to determine applicability. Credit life requirements may come into play as well. Many are seeing military transcripts with credits taken in the 60 s or 70 s. Institutions are now seeing National Guard soldiers returning from IRAQ with military benefits. They are presenting AARTS and SMART transcripts and expecting that these will be considered the same as transcripts from accredited higher education institutions and that the credits will transfer. More information about transfer for Military/Veterans is available on 7. Transfer of non-mntc courses. Equivalency is up to the faculty. Scenario happens for specific programs. Other institutions do not need to honor waivers. Nutrition is problematic because if it is in Biology it can count toward MnTC but not if it is in health or physical education. Students are coming to advising sessions with laptop and CAS at hand. Students are using CAS to research course equivalencies to include information in waiver petitions. 8. Appeals used to complete the MnTC. Goal competencies follow you, waiver decisions may not. Prepared by Program Collaboration and Transfer staff Page 7 of 8

8 Redesign of MnTransfer.org/articulation agreements. The Web site will have an articulation agreement database to manage the agreements, make the agreements accessible, and allow institutions to verify accuracy and dates. A person will be designated at each institution to input agreements online. Suggestions: Send out an to CAO requesting articulation agreements be updated and contact person be designated. It would be helpful to coordinate reviews with catalog revisions, e.g. March. Ask Vicky to provide demonstration of new MnTransfer at CAO, CSAO, deans meeting. What is definition of articulation agreement? Are program planners or transfer guides, articulation agreements? Start a list of designated contact persons at each campus that would be updated every year. We could have it on MnTransfer.org. A template for articulation agreements is available on mntransfer.org. Transfer Specialist as Resources Add Develop Institutional Web page on transfer Rick Kangas. Add military issues SMARTS and AARTS. Post it on MnTransfer; send out an announcement to transfer specialists listserve, with a request to send any additions to Louise Transfer Orientation, February 19-20, 2008, Wells Fargo Place The orientation will be on the agenda of the next TAG meeting. Expense reimbursements: In order to be reimbursed for meeting expenses, participants must now submit two forms, the Request for Reimbursement of Campus Employee Travel/Business Expenses by Office of the Chancellor (new) and the Employee Expense Report. If expenses exceed $100, the campus business office must sign off on the request. Expenses to be reimbursed to the college or university should be invoiced to the Office of the Chancellor by the campus business office. Next meeting: FY08 meetings: Monday, Sept 17; 2007; Thursday, January 31, 2008; Thursday April 10, Please put these dates on your calendar and let Louise know immediately if you have a conflict. Prepared by Program Collaboration and Transfer staff Page 8 of 8