We’re in the dog days of summer, which can only mean one thing: Fall semester is just around the corner! I do hope that everyone had a happy and productive summer (however you define that for yourself). August 1st marked a milestone in the Provost’s Office: the 2020-2025 strategic plan, Delivering on the Promise, was completed and sent to the Board of Regents for approval at the September 5-6 Board meeting in Carson City! Pause, reflect, celebrate!!
I am excited to share the new strategic plan with all of you at Fall Convocation on August 21st. I will be sharing where we are in implementation planning at Convocation also, along with other updates.
New Library Resources
The Library has been hard at work on several exciting initiatives benefiting students and faculty. Here are a few things to keep on your radar as the Fall semester approaches:
Over $113K. That’s how much money students will be saving annually on textbooks as a result of this summer’s No-Cost Textbook Institute. During the Institute, instructors Anthony Anderson, Christine Beaudry, Becky Cash, and Krystle Oates eliminated textbook costs from one of their courses by replacing them with freely available materials. If you are interested in grant opportunities for adopting an OER (open educational resources) solution for your class, please email Nathaniel King at nathaniel.king@nsc.edu and Tiffany Garrett at tiffany.garrett@nsc.edu.
New library computer lab for students. RSC-236, also known as the Innovation Commons, has been renovated into a computer lab space for quiet study. Both computers and open work space are now available for student use during the same hours that the Library is open.
Expanded free laptop lending. Forty new PC laptops are available for 7-day checkout from the Library service desk. Chromebooks are also available for same-day checkout. This free service is available to all students, staff, and faculty with an NSHE ID.
New library website. Scheduled to launch at the start of the Fall semester, the Library is working on a new website designed to improve usability and streamline access to resources. The URL will remain nsc.edu/library. Keep an eye out for more updates closer to launch.
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Accreditation Progress Report
We are entering the “tweaking and refining” phase of assembling our Self-Evaluation Report for the “mission fulfillment” visit from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (or “NWCCU” to you and me). This is the big one, the report that examines the degree to which we are fulfilling our institutional mission and achieving our Core Themes, which aim to 1) Foster Educational Opportunity, 2) Promote Student Success, and 3) Strengthen the Community.
A more detailed breakdown is on the way, but generally the College has fared quite well in the pursuit of our foremost goals, especially considering the resource constraints we faced for much of our existence (Exhibit A: Nevada State began this accreditation cycle with a shade under 30 full-time faculty
for the entire institution
). New degree programs have been added and existing ones have improved; the scope, utilization, and positive impact of student services generally have increased, and both our retention and graduation rates have shown meaningful gains since 2012, when this period of evaluation began.
This isn’t the first or last time you will see this reminder, but the whole process will culminate this fall from October 9-11 when an NWCCU-appointed accreditation team visits campus to conduct their assessment.
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Accessibility Tip
If you're creating tables in a Word document, a
few quick, easy additions will make sure they're accessible to screen readers.
Emergency Alert Notifications
Given the recent earthquakes in the southwest, I wanted to mention that
Southern Nevada on the Alert is a free state service that provides phone, text, and/or email alerts about any emergencies affecting your area. This includes earthquakes, flooding, hazmat incidents, and other issues. If you'd like to receive these alerts, sign up at the website. The City of Henderson also provides tips on putting together an
emergency preparedness plan for your home.
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Welcome to all the new faculty and staff!
We hope you find this newsletter helpful. Our goal is to publish one on the first and third Wednesday of each month, just to let everyone know what is happening in the Provost’s Office.
Website
We have pages for each degree in LAS and SOE now! Students have been using the contact forms on them every day since they were posted.
Take a look at the degree page for a complete listing. As we did these updates to degree pages, we also made some major strides in other areas, including:
- updating all the faculty profiles with the most recent information we have;
- updating the college policies page – it is now searchable!
- making major changes to the Advising pages
- Training several more employees in updating the website, which will allow us to make more frequent updates
Dual Credit
We’ve added two new dual credit partners this fall: Foothill High School and Coronado High School, bringing our total to five. We’re also piloting some new dual credit partnerships at Spring Valley HS, Rancho HS, and Shadow Ridge HS, which will focus solely on teacher education. Andrea Martin and I will be busy over the next few weeks trying to manage all the applicants. We expect dual credit partnerships will account for 800-1,000 NSC students this fall.
Nepantla Ceremony of Completion
I’m excited to address all the
Nepantla students and their families this Friday. This is the 7th cohort of students to complete the Nepantla Summer Bridge Program. Special thanks to Johanna Araujo, Dr. Leila Pazargadi, and Joe Freiburger, who went above and beyond to make the program a success once again.
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Are you excited about classes starting? I am! New school year, new students, new ideas, new challenges; and for our continuing students, the light at the end of the tunnel looks a little closer.
A number of Student Affairs leaders attended conferences, workshops, and/or trainings, sharing their expertise or updating their subject matter knowledge. Alex Kunkle attended The Global Community for Academic Advising International Conference in Hasselt, Belgium and presented three different times: Advising in Turbulent Times: How Academic Advisors Can Help Students Navigate a Tumultuous World; Shame-less: Supporting Students Experiencing Shame and Guilt Through Academic Advising; and Whither Academic Advising and Tutoring in the Age of Data Analytics. Congratulations Alex!
Phil LaMotte and Carlos Navarro traveled to Arizona State University with NSSA members to participate in the National Association for Campus Activities Student Government Institute- West. Laura Hinojosa attended ASIST Suicide Prevention Training.
Finally, Sharneé Walker and I, along with 14 other PHENOMENAL NSC women and a few PHENOMENAL NSC student leaders, attended the two-day Women in Leadership Conference at the MGM Grand Conference Center.
The events of this past weekend have me a little emotional because I'm worried, as a country, we are becoming normalized to evil acts and ugly rhetoric. I want to end my update with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
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Overall, how is Nevada State College doing? In the past 5 years, our enrollment (+44% for all enrolled students), 1-yr retention (+7% for all incoming students) and 6-yr graduation (+6% for first-time, full-time students) are on the rise. But how much do our students like being at NSC?
Some insights are provided by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which we administer almost every year. One NSSE question asks, “How would you evaluate your entire educational experience at the institution?” Ninety-six percent of our first-year students and 89% of our seniors say “Excellent” or “Good.” Even better, for our first-year students, this is over 10% higher than our Far West Public institutional peers.
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- Aug 14-15: New Faculty Orientation
- Aug 21: Fall Convocation (campus-wide)
- Aug 26: First day of fall classes
- Sept 27: Academic program assessment day on campus
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NSC Office of the Provost | 702-992-2663 | http://nsc.edu/provost
Be Bold | Be Great | Be State
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