Strategic Plan. Kean Ocean Administrative Unit

Transcription

1 Strategic Plan Kean Ocean Administrative Unit Mission Statement (under review as part of Program Review): The mission of Kean Ocean is to extend the university s mission of providing access to affordable public education into Ocean County and south central New Jersey. In this regard, Kean Ocean will continue to offer baccalaureate completion and graduate programs to the state s sixth largest, fastest growing, and most underserved county, promoting the local economy and human resources by offering degrees in as many curricular areas as demand will support and with as much economy and efficiency as the partnership s sharing of resources will allow. This is possible through a co-operation with Ocean County College. Kean Ocean operations will continue to combine Kean and Ocean County College support services, supplementing or enriching them as necessary to deliver at the site the equivalent of Kean Union instruction, services, and facilities. I n o r d e r t o e n s u r e s u s t a i n a b l e a n d r e l e v a n t o p p o r t u n i t i e s t o t h e p e o p l e o f O c e a n C o u n t y a n d i t s e n v i r o n s, Kean Ocean will continue to collaborate with OCC and Ocean County government to plan, build, and finance a major expansion of the college s campus which will include a discrete campus sector for multiple Kean Ocean academic, administrative, and residential buildings. Vision Statement (under review as part of Program Review): To grow Kean Ocean to between 2500 and 3000 students in the next five years (with the aim of achieving between 1000 and 1500 students in the lifetime of this three year plan) and by the end of Kean s overall Strategic Plan, to grow Kean Ocean from an additional instructional site of Kean University into an administratively autonomous branch campus which will then enrol between students. Kean Ocean will provide those students with full and unimpeded access to all university services, whether through physical duplication on site or through means of remote interaction with the home campus. In this way Kean Ocean students will be fully enfranchised and satisfied members of the Kean University community. Strengths: The major strength for Kean Ocean is the committed and supportive partnership of Ocean County College. In addition to providing the land for the Gateway Building, they provide support services and infrastructure (library, facilities and maintenance, disability and counseling services, writing and tutoring center, campus safety and more). From everyone beginning with President Jon Larson down to their support staff, Kean University receives support and commitment to making the partnership grow. The Ocean County Freeholders are also strongly committed to the partnership and provide support for both institutions to realize their shared vision of an expanded Kean Ocean campus with five total buildings (Kean Ocean Facilities Page 1 of 10

2 Master Plan). 1 Kean is very fortunate to have Ocean County College as a partner and must work to maintain close ties to the institution, its administration, faculty staff and students. Evidence in both the need for and success of the partnership is provided in the charts below: Top Ten County College Sender Institutions to Kean University New Students Only FALL 2003 FALL 2013 Rank College # % College # % 1 Union Ocean Middlesex Union Brookdale Middlesex Essex Essex Raritan Valley Raritan Valley Morris Brookdale Ocean Bergen Bergen Morris Hudson Hudson Mercer Burlington Total 681 (100%) 1045 (100%) Data from Page 2 of 10

3 Weaknesses: A major weakness for the Kean Ocean program is the sense of disconnect from and lack of communication with the main campus. Often times, the Kean Ocean Program is an afterthought when programming and initiatives are started at the Union campus. Mandatory trainings leave our operation completely unstaffed with over an hour trip between the location and the programming. More consideration needs to be given to the needs of serving students, faculty and staff without necessitating a trip to the Union campus. Related to the previous issues, is the issue of credibility. Kean Ocean has (in recent years in particular) suffered from credibility issues, especially when it comes to the academic areas or course and degree programmatic offerings. Implied and stated promises that the complete degree can be earned without leaving the Ocean County College campus have been repeatedly disregarded due to cancellation of courses, a lack of a comprehensive examination of course offerings, frequencies, and a lack of faculty interest or willingness to advise, advocate and staff Kean Ocean classes. We must do a better job of living up to our promise of getting a full degree in Toms River. Another weakness is the lack of full time staff for many key areas at Kean Ocean. In particular, the areas of the Registrar, Financial Aid, and faculty support are under staffed, or in the case of faculty support, without full time staffing altogether. During peak periods, we are unable to keep up with the work demand, and are often times not able to handle vacation or sick time, having these particular functions grind to halt on those occasions. We must increase staffing if we hope to improve turn around and institutional response times, key factors in increasing enrollments. The data for Financial Aid processing at Kean Ocean is below. Financial Consortium Agreements Processed at Kean Ocean: Summer Fall Spring Summer Fall Spring Summer Fall Spring Summer Fall Verifications Processed at Kean Ocean: : were Kean Ocean students that brought their paperwork into the Kean Ocean office, and 204 were assigned from Union. Academic Specialist coverage : additional 30 verifications per week generally Walk-In Students for Financial Aid: Based on log-in sheets: During busier periods (pre-semester/start of semester/end of semester) Average of per day. Average of students per day during slow periods. Page 3 of 10

4 s: Average of financial inquiries per day to Kean . An additional per week via the account (due to alphabetical assignment V- Z): Phone Calls: Based on call logs: During busier periods (pre-semester/start of semester/refund period) Average of calls per day. Average of per day during slow periods. Lastly, an overdependence on offices in Union makes for inefficient, and either greatly delayed responsiveness or overall non-responsiveness to the operational needs of the program. For example, dependence on data processing of transcripts and applications through Union can add days to weeks in some cases to the completion, admission and evaluation of prospective student application files. Cases of multiple resending of transcripts being reported, with our inability to verify their receipt makes us look extremely disorganized and dysfunctional. Likewise, scheduling, adding or cancelling classes takes a week or more, when it could be completed in one to two days if handled on site. More autonomy and independence in the administrative functioning of our operation will allow for faster and more accurate responses to constituent needs. Opportunities: There are numerous opportunities for the continued growth and success of the Kean Ocean program. The Southern Educational Center in Manahawkin represents a largely untapped opportunity to serve students in southern Ocean County. Expanding our presence there, offering more degree completion programs, especially in Nursing, Education, and Business, can grow our enrollments and allow us an entrée into Atlantic County and Atlantic City. The demographic for Ocean County represent an aging population with numerous retirement communities. Additionally, southern and western Ocean Counties are experiencing building and population growth, so this represents an opportunity to grow our graduate programming in an intelligent and controlled way to meet the needs of the community. Allied health professions (Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Physician Assistant, Speech Pathology, Social Work and Therapeutic Recreation) all will be in demand to serve the population needs. Also, bringing the Master s in Special Education will bring large graduate enrollments to compliment the successful Counselor Education program we currently offer. Recruiting outside of Ocean County College, and Ocean County in particular represents another relatively unexplored source of potential enrollment. Currently our out of county students come largely by word of mouth or through our web application. By expanding our recruitment efforts into Monmouth, Burlington, Mercer, northern Atlantic, and southern Middlesex counties and developing a comprehensive marketing campaign specifically for Kean Ocean will help us grow our numbers more rapidly. The future addition of residence halls to Kean Ocean will allow us to more aggressively extend our reach into south Jersey (Salem, Atlantic, Camden, Gloucester, Cumberland and Cape May counties) will make Kean ocean a major player in Page 4 of 10

5 southern New Jersey The performing arts represent another major opportunity. With the development of a new performing arts A.A. degree at Ocean County College combined with the plan to relocate the Ocean County Performing Arts Vo-Tech High School onto the Ocean County College campus, we will have the opportunity to greatly expand our offerings in the performing arts. Threats: The major threats to the Kean Ocean operation are challenges from other educational institutions attempting to encroach on Kean s partnership and enter into competing arrangements that can draw and dilute the applicant pool for Kean Ocean. The major four-year players in the South Jersey region are Rowan University (62 miles southwest of Ocean County College) and the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (45 miles southwest of Ocean County College). Stockton was initially approached by Ocean County College to form a Kean Ocean type partnership, but turned down the offer. They have subsequently regretted this opportunity and are constantly looking to expand operations into Ocean County, especially southern Ocean County. 2 In 2012 Stockton opened Stockton at Manahawkin, 3 which is near the site of Ocean County Colleges Southern Educational Center in Manahawkin, and have made overtures to Ocean County College about expanding their offerings and partnering with them to offer degrees in Manahawkin. This represents a real threat to our supremacy in Ocean County, and can drain off from a branch location with approximately 1500 students. We must not be complacent and allow ourselves to lose our strategic and competitive advantage our presence on Ocean County College s campus provides us. Likewise, Rowan is making in-roads into south central New Jersey through its partnership with Gloucester County College, 4 and is also trying to create additional partnerships with other county colleges in southern New Jersey. 2 Should Kean be complacent or leave this venture, it will be quickly replaced by either Stockton or Rowan. Fairleigh Dickenson University is also actively courting Ocean County College students, recruiting them to become residential students on their campus. 5,6 They also currently offer three degrees (two baccalaureate and one master s degree) on the Ocean County College campus. 7 It is the goal of this strategic plan to address the major weakness and also take advantage of the opportunities presented above. Page 5 of 10

6 Kean Ocean Goals and Objectives A) Review Undergraduate and Graduate program offerings at Kean Ocean, for purposes of new offerings and discontinuing ineffective offerings. This is an extension of Kean University Strategic Plan Goal 1. A.1 By January 30, 2014 discontinue the B. S. Information Technology program for Kean Ocean, due to consistent low enrollment and lack of ability to offer the entire degree at Kean Ocean. (Academic Year ) A.2 By May 1, 2014, the Generic B.S.N. program will complete the approval process and be prepared for implementation for the Fall 2014 semester. An initial cohort of fifty students will begin the program in Fall 2014 (Academic Years and ) A.3 By January 1, 2015 develop articulation for a B. A. Communication/Communication Studies and market program for the Fall 2015 admission cycle. The goal is to achieve an initial cohort of 20 students. (Academic Years and ) A.4 By September 2015, commission a feasibility study to examine the possibilities of offering Graduate Degrees in the Allied Health Professions (Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech Pathology and Social Work) at Kean Ocean (Academic Year and beyond) A.5 By January 1, 2016 develop articulations for the new A.A. in Performing Arts form OCC, to offer Theatre and Music at Kean Ocean. Begin to market the programs for the Fall 2016 admission cycle. The goal is to achieve an initial cohort of 10 students. (Academic Year ) B) Attract and retain more transfer and graduate students for Kean Ocean. This is an extension of Kean University Strategic Plan Goal 2. B.1 By December 1, 2013, develop and implement instant application/admission/decision days for Kean Ocean. Use as a baseline for monitoring growth, and based data collected, explore days, times and frequencies of the offerings. Look for a 10% growth per year over subsequent two years. (Academic Years , and ) B.2 By February 1, 2014, develop and implement During March 2014, the first Kean Ocean Open House, combining Graduate and Undergraduate. Use as a baseline for monitoring growth, and based data collected, explore days, times and frequencies of the offerings. Look for a 200 additional students growth per year over subsequent two years, for a total head count of 2000 by Fall 2016 (an overall 40% increase in head count). (Academic Years , and ). B.3 By May 1, 2014 develop and implement a comprehensive marketing plan for Kean Ocean, targeting Ocean, Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth, southern Middlesex and northern Atlantic counties (withing a 40 minute driving radius of Kean Ocean). This will include branding for Kean Ocean. Expenditures and ventures will be correlated with application and enrollment statistics to monitor effectiveness over the subsequent two years. (Academic Years , and ). Page 6 of 10

7 B.4 By July 1, 2014 hire a second Financial Aid professional staff member. This person hired to improve the response times in processing of financial aid documents and awards for Kean Ocean, as well as decrease response times for answering phones, responding to messages and s. Once hired, establish AY as the baseline. Look to achieve a 24 hour response time in all areas by the end of (Academic Years and ). B.5 By January 1, 2015, develop and implement a regional recruitment plan that targets Ocean, Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth, southern Middlesex and northern Atlantic counties. Establish baseline demographics from each region and their admission to Kean Ocean. Using as a starting point, look for 5% growth per annum from each of the counties for and (Academic Years and ). C) Ensure Kean Ocean fosters a campus environment which reflects the Union campus and reflects our institutional commitment to equity, inclusivity and social justice. Extension of Kean University Strategic Plan Goal 4. C.1 By June 30, 2014 request and develop a full time Student Affairs professional for Kean Ocean. This would be a joint initiative of the Division of Student Affairs and the Division of Academic Affairs. By January 1, 2015, recruit and hire a person to staff this position. Having this person in place will help ensure the equity and inclusivity of the student experience at Kean Ocean. (Academic Years , and ). C.2 During AY begin local control over the scheduling, registration and advisement processes for Kean Ocean. In the past there has been too much dependence on Union, which has resulted in delays, missed opportunities and lack of institutional flexibility. (Academic Years , and ). C.3.1 By December 1, 2013, implement the use of AdvisorTRAC for New Student Registrations held at Kean Ocean. Use this to monitor registration patterns for new students and adjust the process accordingly. C.3.2 By September 1, 2014, implement the use of AdvisorTRAC for faculty office hours and continuing student advisement held at Kean Ocean. Use this to monitor registration patterns for new students and adjust the process accordingly. C.3.3 By June 1, 2014, train staff on use of EMS and conduct space utilization study for the Gateway building. Assume responsibility for scheduling/adding/cancelling all Kean Ocean classes locally. C.3.4 By January 1, 2015 conduct a thorough review of the course frequencies for scheduling purposes to ensure offerings allow for a timely progress to degree completion. Develop 2 year graduation plans, by entry term (Fall or Spring) for Kean Ocean students. C.3.5 With the advent of our own space, by July 1, 2015 transform Kean Ocean schedule to mirror more closely the schedule run at Kean Union, including implementing college hours and meeting times more parallel with Kean Union. C.3 By July 1, 2016, develop for implementation, in conjunction with the Division of Student Affairs, a multicultural series for Kean Ocean students. This series is to be implemented during Academic Year (Academic Year and beyond) Page 7 of 10

8 D) Augment Kean Ocean s academic, economic and cultural community partnerships with Ocean County College, Ocean County and the South Central New Jersey region (Atlantic, Burlington, Monmouth, Ocean, Mercer and southern Middlesex counties). (Extension of Kean University Strategic Plan Goal 5) D.1 In preparation for bringing performing arts to Kean Ocean and the great Ocean County community, establish collaborative performances between Kean and Ocean County College. The performances would be open to the community and jointly promoted/publicized. Expand this operation as new venues and opportunities develop. (Academic Years , and ) D.2 By September 1, 2014 establish a coordinated Sandy Day of Service between Ocean and Union, and establish a Sandy Memorial Park on the Kean Ocean location. (Academic Years and ) D.3 Beginning May 1, 2014 and completed and implemented by September 1, 2015, a system to routinely transport students between campuses on a daily basis (shuttle busses or other means of transportation). (Academic Years and ) D.4 By October 1, 2014 develop and implement The Dean Presents A Faculty Research Colloquium a series of presentations for Kean Ocean and OCC students, faculty and staff. This would rotate amongst the six colleges and would include a Dean s Social after the presentation, where the Kean Ocean students would have the opportunity to meet and interact with their Dean and faculty from the Union campus. (Academic Years and ) D.5 By January 1, 2015, establish Kean Ocean Faculty/Staff Advisory Committee, with representation from both locations, to establish and improve the connections between campuses. (Academic Years and ) D.6 To better showcase the Kean Ocean partnership to the higher education community, jointly host the NJTCA 2 year 4 year meeting at Gateway building, by May 30, (Academic Years and ) E) Ensure that Kean Ocean Students, faculty and administrators are provided with the technological resources and innovative technological solutions necessary to meet Kean Ocean s instructional, research and administrative needs. (Extension of Kean University Strategic Plan Goal 9) E.1 By March 1, 2014, fully implement utilization of Recruiter to create a paperless admission process for Kean Ocean from application to admission packet to registration. Use as a baseline and look to improve open rates and click through rates of 80% by the end of Academic Year (Academic Years , and ) E.2 By March 1, 2014 implement Kean Ocean Data Processing Center. Establish baseline processing times, with a 5 day intake, processing, completion, decision and notification turn around time for initial implementation. Over the next three years, work to cut one day per year off, so that by Fall 2016 cycle, there will be a 36 hour turn around time. (Academic Years , and ) E.3 By September 1, 2014, develop and establish a laptop classroom and a student access computer laboratory for the use of Kean Ocean students. Establish AY as the Page 8 of 10

9 baseline and monitor usages of both facilities. Look to increase usage of these facilities by 10% during the subsequent Academic Year. (Academic Years and ) E.4 Beginning development July 1, 2014 and completed implementation by July 1, 2015 develop and implement an effective data exchange process between Ocean County College and Kean University. This will aid both institutions, streamline processes and improve response times for student issues and needs. Monitor and improve process as needed. (Academic Years , and ) E.5 By July 1, 2016 convert the entire Kean Ocean Administrative Office to a paperless workflow, where possible and practical. Administrative office. (Academic Year ) Page 9 of 10

10 References 1. DRAFT _001.PDF 2. Conversations with Dr. Jon Larson, President of Ocean County College and Dr. James McGinty, Executive Vice President of Ocean County College and Ocean County College liaison to Kean Ocean Gloucester County College takes on Rowan name, forms partnership with university: _announced_partnership_with_rowan_campus_name_change.html 5. F.D.U. Offers 40% Tuition Discount To OCC Students: F.D.U. website: Page 10 of 10