September 5, 2017
Vickie Shields
It is hard to believe that Nevada State now has over 4,000 students enrolled, but it's true! The official enrollment numbers for fall semester 2017 topped 4,000 on the afternoon of August 25th. Equally exciting, NSC was listed in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Almanac as the second fastest growing baccalaureate public institution in the nation between 2005-2015 at 127.1%! The first fastest growing public institution was University of Hawaii-West Oahu at 213.8%. To give a bit of context, the University of Hawaii-West Oahu was founded in 1976.
 
I would like to thank everyone who participated in the discussion at Convocation about raising the NSC admissions standards. The discussion was robust and productive. The Provost’s Office has collected and compiled the results. I discussed the results with the Executive Team at our retreat on August 29th.
 
On Saturday, August 26th, I was honored to have brunch and conversation at the Craft Kitchen with a group of faculty members representing the three Schools. The meet-and-greet event was organized by Abby Peters, Assistant Professor of Business, who polled the participating faculty beforehand on certain topics such as, “what are you most excited about in your areas?”, and “what would ideal communication look like?” It was a wonderful and thoughtful discussion. I appreciate the opportunity to get to know faculty members better and for them to get to know me. It would be wonderful if we could keep these cross-school, cross-disciplinary events and gatherings going throughout the year. I throw that out as a challenge to everyone! Whenever possible, let’s think of who from each school could and should be present. Intellectual diversity is a beautiful thing.
Tony Scinta
Nevada State College reached several historical milestones this past week, including our largest ever enrollment (as noted by Provost Shields), our largest incoming freshman class, and our best retention rate for first-time, full-time students. Getting there was no small feat, and I once again want to acknowledge the role the entire college plays in an achievement of this scale, from the tireless efforts of our student affairs divisions, to the superb degree programs and learning experiences crafted by our faculty and academic leadership. 

Going forward, one of our major goals is to facilitate the success of these students both inside and outside the classroom. In regards to the former, this week we began rebuilding our First-Year Experience (FYE) with the launch of a revised, 3-credit college success course. Led by new first-year lecturers Nate Silva, Mayra Infante Sheridan, and Dawn Butler, the college success course reflects a creative integration of “NSC-style” innovation and evidence-based practices. It is the inaugural cornerstone in the development of a robust experience that is meant to launch students on a pathway to baccalaureate attainment. To this end, the FYE Steering Committee will be meeting later this week to discuss the evolution of the program. 
Sandip Thanki
Notice how new students drove enrollment gains in 2017. These figures are as of 9/5, so they may change slightly.
Laura Naumann
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF FALL CONVOCATION?
Tell us how we did and make recommendations for Spring Convocation! Many thanks to the Professional Development Committee for their hard work in executing a close-to-flawless day. If you missed any of the day’s events or want to relive the moments, check out Ian’s photos from the day.
 
PROVOST-SPONSORED SEED GRANTS (up to $2,000) – CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The Office of the Provost sponsors the Seed Grant competition every Fall and Spring. Funds up to $2,000 are awarded to full-time faculty to conduct scholarly/creative work that will put them in a better position to present or publish their work and/or apply for external funding. Applications for the fall competition are due to Laura.Naumann@nsc.edu by the end of business on Monday, October 2nd. Faculty who would like help with their submissions should email the Pre-Awards Grants Coordinator at Cordellia.Vanover@nsc.edu. 
 
INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD UPDATES
Are you planning on conducting surveys with students? You may be conducting “research with human subjects” if you have the intent to present or publish findings from the data you collect. Check out the new IRB Canvas webpage to learn more about what types of research need IRB approval and how to apply. IRB protocol applications are due the last day of each month. Contact the IRB Administrator Paul Buck ( Paul.Buck@nsc.edu) if you have more questions.
 
GRANTS MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP SIGNUPS
Kevin Butler, Vice President of Finance and Business Operations, is rescheduling his presentation on grants management that he would have presented at Fall Convocation. His presentation will discuss important terminology, regulations, and reporting for external grants and sponsored projects. Kevin will host a few workshops during the week of October 9th – 12th. If you’re interested in attending, please complete this doodle poll so that we can determine the best times to offer the workshops.
 
NEW PROCEDURES FOR NOTIFICATION OF EXTERNAL GRANT SUBMISSIONS
The Sponsored Projects Office (SPO) office has updated its procedures for grant submissions (download the flowchart)! Any NSC employee who plans to apply for an external grant must notify the SPO of his or her intention to apply PRIOR to submission. The SPO should be notified as far in advance of the submission deadline as possible, whether or not SPO is responsible for processing the final submission. To simplify this process and notify the relevant constituents, SPO has developed an online Grant Funding (RFP) Review Form where Principal Investigators should submit basic information about the funding announcement and submission deadline. To help SPO prepare for all grant deadlines this semester, please complete the online form ASAP if you know you are applying for a grant that is due between now and December. (Faculty applying for internal NSC Seed Grants do not need to submit this form).
Rich Yao
Academic Advising Center: The Academic Advising staff has been working hard all summer preparing for the record number of incoming freshman to NSC. There were a total of 494 students who attended the 8 New Student Orientations, and due to demand, the advising team hosted another 5 “mini” orientation sessions, which included an additional 113 students. While the big increase in new freshman is wonderful (thank you Admissions and Recruitment), it also created additional challenges in finding available classes for all of the students, particularly in English, Math, and CEP. The Advising Team would like to thank everyone in Registrar’s office and LAS for their work in accommodating all of our students. We’d like specifically recognize Krystal Lynn Martinez and Anna Vishnevsky for all of their help registering our new students, and Kim Smith, Gwen Sharp, and Adam Davis for somehow finding a way to add so many new sections of required classes. 

Staffing Update: As you all know, the Advising Team has been woefully understaffed for quite some time. The good news is that we have made 5 new hires:

  • Sam Goodrich, an NSC graduate and a long-time member of our Academic Success Center.
  • Vincent Nava, a former member of our Recruitment team
  • Margie Toves, an NSC graduate with a Master’s Degree in Social Work from UNLV.
  • Danielle Buckner, who earned her Master’s Degree in College Student Personnel – Student Affairs from Western Illinois University
  • Stefany Sigler, who earned her Master’s Degree in Leadership Studies in Higher Education North Central College in Naperville, IL

Moving forward, the Advising Center will operate in “teams,” which will provide better coverage and service to our students and faculty. The three teams will be comprised of the following members:

STEM/Pre-Professional Team: Alicia LaMotte, Margie Toves, Sam Goodrich
Humanities/Social Sciences Team: Stefany Sigler, Vincent Nava.
Pre-Education Specialist: Danielle Johnson

Angie Freeman will continue to serve as our Success and Retention Specialist, and Elizabeth Brandise will serve as the Coordinator of the Advising Center. She will provide additional assistance and support to our Director, Alex Kunkle.

Our advising team will be reaching out to all department heads very soon to ensure improved communication and collaboration with academic faculty. We want to ensure that the academic faculty is taking an active role in informing our advising, and we look forward to the increased dialogue. Ultimately, this level of collaboration will help to improve our student success. Please be sure to take the time to welcome our new advising team.
Gregory Robinson
I’m happy to announce that LaKiasha Hollingsworth has accepted the role as permanent Director of the TRiO-SSS program. Please join me in congratulating her. The search committee, which included Philip LaMotte, Leilani Carreño, Andreana Franco, and Christina Caputo, did a tremendous job evaluating the candidates for this role.

Dr. Chris Garrett, Director of the CTLE, is reporting that 34 full-time and part-time faculty have committed to participating in CTLE Faculty Learning Communities this fall on topics such as online teaching and learning, effective teaching practices, time management, and facilitating learning. In addition, the CTLE team, including Sierra Adare-Tasiwoopa api and Christine Draper, have several upcoming faculty development sessions scheduled, including "Tech in 20 sessions," which cover important topics in 20 minutes or less. For example, the Tech in 20 sessions on October 5th and 6th are about making classes accessible. Finally, have you seen the CTLE Canvas page ? It features an extensive list of resources for faculty, a schedule of development sessions, and a directory of student support services. Nate Silva created this site as part of this summer’s Teaching Fellows Institute (TFI).

In other news, we've been having some good discussions with the TMCC faculty about a 3 + 1 degree that works with our existing BA in Visual Media. We're still working out the details on both ends, but we're making some positive steps toward supporting our statewide mission.
NSC Office of the Provost | 702-992-2663 | http://nsc.edu/provost
Be Bold | Be Great | Be State