In early January, when things were looking a bit grim, we had thoughtful conversations on campus about how to proceed with our spring semester. At the time, several high-profile colleges were opting to start remotely and the state legislature abruptly ended our vaccine mandate. After considering all the options, we chose to be back and bold, starting on time with a wide range of class modalities. Now we’re seeing the results of that decision. According to our incredible data dashboard, 2,178 of our students opted for at least one in-person course. Also, as Sandip’s update explains, there is a sizable uptick in the number of students back on campus each day of the week compared to Spring 2020. Those numbers aren’t at pre-pandemic levels, but they are getting closer. 

By returning this spring, we knew there would be challenges. Thus far, we’ve been able to manage them effectively. Students and faculty have been diligent about new masking guidelines, self-reporting, and isolation procedures. Our COVID-19 Incident Management Committee continues to meet weekly and share updates. I've seen how students have benefited from your flexibility and empathy, and I am delighted to learn of students who worked with instructors to make progress in their classes when safety concerns paused their attendance. For all of you that have helped by listening to students and giving them options, you have my sincere gratitude. 

Moving forward, we’ll continue to be vigilant and careful, but we’ll also have more time to revel in the sight of students eating at the café, working in groups, and attending events. They remind us every day of why we chose Nevada State.

The ECC (Extra-Contractual Compensation) policy revision is complete! Hooray! I want to thank everyone who gave input on policy drafts, especially through Faculty Senate members. Special thanks need to be extended to the ECC policy task force, who have been working since September 2021 to:

 

The new policy has achieved all these things.

 

Restrictions on the amounts and types of activities allowed to earn ECC are still in place.

 

The ECC policy task force members are Samantha Jewell, Logan Kennedy, Kevin Butler, Eric Gilliland, Gwen Sharp, and Vickie Shields.

The past two weeks have been the work equivalent of a tapas dinner – an array of small and varied plates instead of a main course, but I still feel plenty full. Here’s the dish on what went down (it sounds like I’m auditioning for TMZ):

This is no small plate, only my part in it was, but I worked with Sandip, President Pollard, and members of her team on our metrics presentation to the Board of Regents (forthcoming in March).

Vice Provost Sharp and I have been consulting with the academic deans on forthcoming existing program review reports. Sometimes referred to as a 10-year Program Review, these are comprehensive reports that examine programs from many angles (IR metrics, curricular analyses, outcomes assessment, etc.) and must be completed, per Board policy, a minimum of every ten years.

As noted above, part of our existing program review – and our overall effort to analyze and improve our programs – is the annual assessment of programs, which alternates between Learning Outcomes Assessment and Program Assessment. The latter is what we conducted in fall 2021, specifically through a data-driven analysis of key metrics (e.g., DFWI rates) and equity gaps, and the Provost’s Office has been reviewing the resulting reports so we can work with assessment chairs to “close the loop” on their recommendations.

Some of my most interesting conversations in the last few weeks – and months – have dealt with our recruitment pipeline, and the different strategies we are deploying to roll out the welcome mat for prospective fall 2022 students. The most recent one, which we kicked off for the first time last week, is a calling campaign to all fall 2022 applicants and admits. A big thanks to Andrea Martin and her team for that undertaking.

I plan to hit this one in more detail next week, but I’ve been huddling up with Tom Nicholas, our Director of Workforce Development, on prospective grants and programming that can comprise the foundation of this new division.