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I’ll start with the question that surely is at the forefront of everyone’s mind: No, I did not fully participate in Barbenheimer. We caught one half of the much ballyhooed double feature and, given that my posse consisted of an 11-year old son and a 13-year old daughter, Barbie won out over the 3-hour movie about the “destroyer of worlds” (and thumbs up all around from my viewing party).
Vital signs
Speaking of “thumbs up,” a lot of good, smart work has gone into our enrollment and student success efforts, and we’re seeing the dividends of those efforts in our latest data on “vital signs” (e.g., headcount, credit hours, retention, etc.). We still have a way to go before the semester starts, so I don’t want to deliver the numbers prematurely, but if the trend holds it surely will be a focal point of the next update.
First-Year Recruitment
In a stirring example of the power of teamwork, members of Admissions & Recruitment, our Vice Provosts, and Ivan from Marketing all united to create a fantastic new iteration of our recruitment presentation for first-time students (essentially, high school juniors and seniors). This presentation will serve as one of the centerpieces of a recruitment campaign that emphasizes the exciting union of the new (our university status) and our enduring strengths (great teaching, a welcoming and supportive environment). I expect that it is going to be a tremendous year.
CSN Transfer Partnership
One of our most important pairings, eclipsing even the marriage of Barbie and Oppenheimer, is the relationship between Nevada State University and the College of Southern Nevada. As mentioned previously, we are working on a new Memorandum of Understanding as the foundation of this enhanced collaboration, and to help punctuate these efforts we recently met with several members of the CSN leadership team to discuss the next steps and give them a tour of our campus. Aside from the punishing heat, the meeting and tour were a rousing success, and our CSN counterparts came away from the meeting with a richer sense of what our campus has to offer.
Provost Chronicles
When we first launched this newsletter, a major impetus was to simply give our faculty and staff a better awareness of what we actually do in the Provost’s office. In striking a balance between interesting, mission-fulfilling initiatives vs. the many hours of meetings that occupy much of our day, there’s a tendency for these updates to tilt in the direction of the former. However, it bears noting that so much of our work necessarily involves the resolution of issues that may not affect a large number of people but are critical in establishing a highly functional, equitable, and supportive institutional environment. Much of my time in recent months has been dedicated to this type of issue, but rarely do they make it on the marquee of a newsletter (and they often cannot, for reasons of confidentiality).
Quick hitters:
- AASCU Student Equity Project – in our prior update I mentioned a trip to Indianapolis to facilitate this project, and since then we’ve made another trip for the same initiative, this time to Baltimore (largely funded by the AASCU folks, thankfully). All told, in roughly a 5-week stretch I made four trips to the east coast, including one to . . .
- The Symposium on Transforming the Foundational Education Experience – at this meeting, we gave a presentation on the effectiveness of our dual enrollment program, including noteworthy gains in access and success at the college level.
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Livable Centers Feedback
The City of Henderson is conducting a study of how to develop the area around campus into a livable community. You can give feedback via their survey through July 31st. They will use the feedback as they create development scenarios, and will present a community workshop on the results on September 6th, 4-7 p.m. in CEB 211/212.
Publications, Honors, & Grants
Policy Updates
The Chancellor's office approved the updates to the campus bylaws from last year. This includes clarifying tenure requirements and including revisions to the grievance policy for faculty.
Planning to Apply for a Grant?
Be sure to fill out the Grant Funding Review Form to let us know so we can review it and make sure there are no issues or concerns.
Publication Outlet
The Journal of Interactive Technology & Pedagogy publishes short-form "Teaching Fails" pieces highlighting "ideas that fell flat." This is an interesting way to highlight the challenges in pedagogy and to help others learn by discussing mistakes. Thanks to Molly Appel (English) for letting me know about it!
AI and Assignments
I know many faculty are trying to figure out how, or whether, to integrate AI such as ChatGPT into the classroom. This paper provides several examples of how to do so, with sample assignments.
We will host a Provost Speaker Series event on the topic of AI and pedagogy on October 17, with Prof. Marc Watkins as the speaker.
CEDI Schedule of Events
The CEDI has released their events schedule for Fall 2023. These are great opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to engage with and support diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice topics on campus.
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Website Update
Yoodle has been hard at work on the new website. According to Vincent Rennie, who has been leading the effort on our end: “Once the website backend is ready for me to access, we will begin the process of migrating all the existing content on the nsc.edu website to the new website. This task will be comprehensive and will require many hours of work. I will be looking to gain assistance internally, along with hiring additional contractors with related experience to expedite the migration process.”
WICHE Work
I’m currently at the WICHE Academy for Leaders in the Humanities, meeting with other faculty participating in the program. Our primary goal is to determine some shared guidelines for implementing this program at Nevada State and (hopefully) make the Provost Fellow a regular part of our effort to provide more leadership opportunities for faculty.
Provost Search
I’ve been sworn to secrecy so many times that I’m not sure what I can share, but I think it is safe to say that the search is progressing nicely. I’m excited to bring our candidates to campus and have them share their vision for Academic Affairs.
Admissions and Recruitment
I’ve had several opportunities recently to work more with Andrea, Charles, and the Admissions & Recruitment Team regarding our recruitment efforts for next year. This is the most challenging time of the year for them because they are hustling to manage all the new admissions while recruiting for next year. So, if you see anyone from the A&R team, give them a high five – they are all working hard to support our students.
Peer-to-Peer Training
It is coming up on August 8th and August 10th! A big thank you to Cristina Caputo, Rachel Herzl-Betz, and Anita Houston, who all worked for months to assemble what will easily be the best all-campus, all-student training event in NS history.
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8/8 and 8/10: Peer-to-Peer Support Training. All day, CEB 211/212
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8/21: Fall Professional Development Day, 9-2, KAB Auditorium (agenda)
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8/22: PEER Project Faculty Semester Kick-off, 11-1 pm, RSC Ballrooms B&C
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9/6: College Area Livable Centers Study Community Open House, 4-7 p.m., CEB 211/212
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9/26: PEER Project & Provost Speaker Series co-hosts Dr. Rebecca Pope-Ruark on the topic of faculty burnout, followed by an academic leadership listening session, 2:30-4:30, KAB Auditorium and Zoom (link TBA)
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10/17: Provost Speaker Series hosts Prof. Marc Watkins on the topic of AI and pedagogy, 3:30-4:30, Zoom (link TBA)
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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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