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Retention Council Minutes

RETENTION COUNCIL

Thursday December 02, 2010: 9:00-11:00am
280N York Lanes

Attendees: John Amanatides, Michael Ah Choon, Jeffrey Ball, Ronda Bessner, Robert Bishop, Cherie Bova, Paul Brienza, Mauro Buccheri, Carolyn Cannon, Peter Cribb, Laura D'Amelio (on behalf of Donna Cope), Joseph De Souza, Pamela Edgecombe, Rosanna Furgiuele, Grase Kim, David Leyton-Brown, Polly MacFarlane, John B.Mayberry, Don Murdoch, Praveen Muruganandan, Modupe Olagun, Lillian Polsinelli (On behalf of Susan Dimock), Brian Poser, Marie Rickard, Mark Robertson, Catherine Salole, Garry Spraakman, Lynda Tam, Stanley Tweyman, Marty Williams, Mark Wilson, Bart Zemanek


Guest: Katherine Morris
Chair: Norma Sue Fisher-Stitt                                       Co-Chair: Rob Tiffin
Note Taker: Suharshi Perera

  1. Review of notes from October 05th Meeting
    Rob Tiffin asked the members to introduce themselves.

  2. Fall Co-Curricular Week (FCW)

    Brian Poser & Don Murdoch distributed statistics on Fall Co-Curricular Week.
    • Academic Standard Curriculum & Pedagogy Committee is launching a survey in January regarding the impact of the Fall Curricular Week.
    • Timing of the survey is very important
    • Some of the questions are; Year of the student (1, 2, 3...etc.), whether they are taking full year/half year courses etc...
    • Compared to last year attendance has doubled this year. Over 1000 students participated in various activities offered by about 20 service units on Campus.
    • Most of the attendees were First Year students. 70% of the students belonged to age category 17-24.
    • Feedbacks from students regarding the sessions were positive as they found the sessions to be very useful. 88.6% would recommend the sessions to others.
    • Career Centre sessions were popular with the students
    • Students mentioned the primary source of information regarding the Fall Curricular Week was obtained via e-mail from the university. FCW website came in second. Posters & social media (Facebook, Twitter) were not as effective.
    • FCW should be promoted early in the term through Professors.
    • Students want more interaction with Faculty and Faculty participation was below what was expected
    • Some members commented about the timing of the FCW as it happens before many midterm exams. Some faculty members think the currently scheduled FCW occurs too early in the term.
    • During the FCW Online Offerings should also be made to students.
    • Students tend to work to earn more money during the FCW.
    • Asking faculty to hold a make-up/review class or office hours during the FCW will be beneficial to students. Schulich & Fine Arts have discussed this initiative at their faculty councils.
    • Enrolment Model - Context for FCW. There is a decline in First year to Second Year retention. Third to Fourth year retention rates have improved.

  3. Data Reports (Guest - Katherine Morris)

    • Katherine Morris (Office of Institutional Research & Analysis) was invited to talk about BUSSE, CUSAC, November 01 Data & Exit Surveys
    • NESSE, the University will participate this year (last participation 2008). York had the lowest participation rate (20%). Needs to have a promotional campaign to encourage student participation.
    • BUSSE is focused on incoming First Year Students (see preliminary analysis). Female students tend to want a better campus environment. It was evident from the survey that First-Generation students need additional supports (First Generation Grant is currently being used for TYP, ACMAPS, WAY & the writing center). First-Generation students should be targeted at the Orientation. First Generation students scored lower compared to other students.
    • Students from LA&PS scored lower than others on some items, such as perceptions around difficulty levels of university courses. Students from Schulich think they are academically very engaged and also tend to believe they are academically prepared.
    • Since LA&PS is home to half of the student body their responses have a huge impact on Survey Results.
    • Lack of self-esteem of students, many believe that employers’ perceptions are that York doesn’t provide a good education. We need to build positive messaging with students.
    • Number of Alumni coming back to support Students (talk about their experience) is increasing. 
    • CUSAC (1st year undergraduate student survey), York is a category 3 school (Undergraduate + Graduate+ Professional Schools). 88% of student respondents are 18 years or younger. 68% of Students belong to a Visible Minority. 79% live with Parents.

  4. Sub-Committee Updates

    Advising Sub-Committee:

    • group has collected information from Faculties about advising needs and is reviewing and identifying common themes, e.g., training needs; possibility of training workshops during February Reading Week.
    • A handout was also distributed.

      Peer Mentoring:
    • group has prepared an initial listing of mentoring activities and has drafted a peer mentoring survey for areas which are engaged in peer mentoring (respondents can be interviewed if they prefer)
    • based on input will compile results and identify common elements and best practices, and consider what elements should be centralized and which should be Faculty-based
    • possibility of multi-tiered approaches, e.g., Aboriginal mentoring

      Students:
    • focus is on incoming transition programs
    • group is surveying to identify what is being done, challenges and opportunities; also looking at programs at other universities (e.g., UBC)
    • students find information they receive overwhelming and conflicting, so there is a need to develop a strategy to coordinate key messaging and when, how and by whom the messages should be delivered (coordination of print materials could also achieve savings)
    • may be opportunities to link the Red Zone to College orientation

      Faculty:
    • there will be a Learning Commons retreat on December 8
    • way to improve faculty participation needs to be brainstormed

      Year-to-Year/Orientation
    • committee presented data on Fall Co-curricular Week and results were reviewed briefly
    • academic-related workshops were most positively received
    • attendance doubled from last year
    • possibility has been suggested of changing the timing of Co-curricular Week (note: next year’s dates are firm)
    • suggestions for future: start planning earlier and promote Co-curricular Week as part of recruitment, conversion and advising; develop messaging including social media; earlier commitment of hosts; develop “streams” for particular audiences (strong students, students in trouble, students with interests in particular areas, undeclared majors, athletes, etc.); include off-campus activities; involve student clubs and faculty members in encouraging students to participate; develop early alert surveys to identify who needs help and what kind of help 

      Data and Resources:
    • BUSSE results (lead-up to NSSE in 2011) which relate to students’ engagement in high school and anticipated engagement in university were reviewed; of particular interest are responses of first generation students
    • OIRA will be reviewing data from surveys to synthesize information, look for common themes, and map against retention

5. AIF Proposal

  • Patrick Monahan has launched the Academic Innovation Fund.
  • Call for proposals will go out within the next two weeks and are due on February 15.
  • Proposal will be reviewed under three categories and will be vetted by an adjudication committee.
  • There was a discussion about the role of Retention Council in vetting the proposals. Members thought this might result in a conflict of interest as some of them will be submitting proposals.

6. Winter Term Orientation

  • ACMAPS orientation for Mature Students will be on January 5th
  • Number of incoming students are lower than last year

7. Thematic Floors & Learning Communities