I’m excited to announce that the revised Promotion and Tenure policy was voted on and approved by Faculty Senate last night. The policy will now move from my office to President Patterson for review and final approval.

The revisions address many of the concerns I’ve noted and have been made aware of in my time as Provost. I am looking forward to making the process more efficient and transparent for faculty. A dedicated task force of faculty and administrators worked for over a year and a half to develop an evidence-based process that brings Nevada State into better alignment with other teaching-focused institutions. Among the biggest changes is the move away from external reviewers; instead, unit-level committees will provide an initial review and recommendation of candidates. The policy also incorporates a promotion ladder for non-tenure-track lecturers and addresses promotion and tenure for academic faculty who have other professional duties in place of, or as well as, a teaching assignment. I am grateful for the task force’s dedication, the faculty who provided feedback along the way, and the Senate Executive Board for helping identify appropriate compromises and improvements at key junctures. I am confident that these efforts will strengthen the link between this policy and our core values. Please join me in thanking the members of the task force: Angel Ball, Joanna Shearer, Jonathan Dunning, June Eastridge, Lauren Johnson, Nathaniel King, Serge Ballif, Shartriya Collier, Sherri Coffman, Susan Growe, and Gwen Sharp (chair).

 

The individual academic units have created separate committees to revise unit-level expectations and policies on promotion and tenure.

 

Before the pandemic, I asked a group of faculty to craft a white paper outlining the steps needed to revise our Core Curriculum. I’m glad to report that they have completed that task and much more. The Core Curriculum Revision Committee met regularly, even during unprecedented times, and collaborated with multiple groups on campus to craft a carefully detailed plan, titled “Promoting Integrated Learning and Transforming Teaching: Recommendations for Revising the Core Curriculum at Nevada State College.” The committee also worked with the campus community to expand our Essential Learning Outcomes from three to twelve, ultimately arriving at a set of outcomes that better represents our values and aspirations. As I bring this committee’s work to a close, I’d like to thank them for their contributions: Heidi Batiste, Amanda Carter, Jennifer Edmonds, Tiffany Garrett, Pete La Chapelle, Ludy Llasus, Chris Harris, and Chris Garrett (Chair). 

 

I’m looking forward to the next steps in this important revision.  

We are purchasing a license for the CITI human subjects training; starting this summer, we will use it for human subjects training. CITI offers a broader range of trainings on specific elements of human subjects protections than we can develop and keep updated ourselves. CITI trainings also include topics required by some grant funding agencies and meet standards required by other institutions' IRBs (some no longer accept human subjects trainings developed by institutions).

I will provide more information once our account is up and running. If you have a current human subject certificate through our internal course, it will remain active until the expiration date.

We held this year's URCW Conference on April 23rd, during national Undergraduate Research Week. I want to give a huge thank you to all the faculty who served as mentors for student projects; to the faculty and staff who served as moderators or judges; and the planning committee that helped put the virtual conference together (Adam Davis, Aster Sigel, Carol Lee, Christine Beaudry, Emily Hoover, Laura Naumann, and Susan Growe).

We recorded the keynote address by Dr. Julia Lee (the first 20 seconds or so are cut off, so it starts mid-sentence, but it was right at the beginning of her talk).

Laura Naumann (Psychology) is soliciting participation on a survey of faculty work experiences to inform her application for a NSF ADVANCE grant to support faculty retention through implementation of equitable work and recognition practices. Participate by May 31, 2021, at https://tinyurl.com/nscfacultyexp2021

The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (which is the authority on the appropriate use of English in formal writing) has accepted "they" as a singular third-person pronoun (used in place of "he or she") and as a non-binary option for referring to others. For those looking for more inclusive, less gendered language, this is a welcome change.

A committed group of faculty worked for over a year and a half to evaluate our current Core Curriculum and develop a plan to improve it. This committee created a detailed white paper outlining their suggestions for new Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs), new initiatives, and a new assessment plan. After getting feedback from a Faculty Senate survey, the committee proposed these twelve essential learning outcomes, grouped into three categories:

Moving forward, the committee is recommending an implementation model which would require every class in the Core Curriculum to emphasize two of these outcomes. One of those two must be from the final category, which includes: Civic Engagement; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Critical Literacy; and Ethical Reasoning.

When I presented the ELOs to the Faculty Senate, we had a fair number of abstentions in our brief straw poll. This suggests that people might like more information or aren’t certain how the outcomes will be implemented. While some of these questions are ongoing, there is room to increase our communication with the campus community, making our process as transparent as possible. If you have any questions, suggestions, or thoughts about the Core Curriculum, please write me at Gregory.Robinson@nsc.edu.

Last year, twenty participants completed more than 150 hours of writing, brainstorming, researching, and revising as part of the Summer Faculty and Staff Writing Group. That commitment led to new lesson plans and dissertation chapters, as well as published articles, poems, and short stories. I'm happy to announce that we are ready to continue this tradition.

The Writing Center invites applications from all faculty and staff members who would like a built-in structure to draft, reflect, and work toward personal writing goals. All NSC faculty and staff are welcome. They offer two 3-hour writing sessions per week, each of which includes structured reflection and enthusiastic support.

For more information, please email Jollina.Simpson@nsc.edu

Mental Health Awareness is important every month, but May is when we turn the spotlight on self-care. Please take a few minutes out of your busy day to allow yourself some self-care and check in with your family and friends, making sure they’re okay as well. If you’re in the RSC on the 13th, I will be dancing in my office and in the hallway to anything by Earth, Wind, and Fire. All are welcome to join me.

I am excited to share the news about a change in the academic advising model. After an in-depth review and conversations with multiple campus stakeholders, the Academic Advising Center is moving to a centralized advising model. Effective July 1st, 2021, the Academic Advising Center will advise all students at Nevada State, with a few exceptions. Students who are admitted to the School of Nursing or School of Education; graduate students; and students who are part of the RN-to-BSN program will continue to be advised by the wonderful faculty in those units. All other majors will be assigned to an advisor in the Academic Advising Center. For more information, contact Alex Kunkle, AAC Director.

Please help me congratulate the new Nevada State Student Alliance (NSSA) leaders. These students will begin their term on May 1st and will serve until April 2022.

Student Body President-Elect: Lauren Porter

Executive Vice President-Elect: Dara Colon

Executive Secretary-Elect: Lizbeth Vega-Santiago

Sergeant at Arms-Elect: James Meriweather

Vice President of Involvement-Elect Noah Maatouk

Vice President of Public Relations-Elect: Hyra Alenton

Vice President of Funding: Tessa Espinosa

Senator-Elect: Geovanna Sanchez

Senator-Elect: Melissa Hernandez

NSSA has 10 vacant senate seats. Do you know a student who may be interested in serving on NSSA? Please have them email NSSA.Elections@nsc.edu for details on how to join.

First, let me give a huge shout-out to Phil Lamotte, Carlos Navarro, and Yesica Placencia-Flores for their hard work, energy, and enthusiasm in bringing virtual engagement to our students. They are trying EVERYTHING to connect with our students. Who would have thought pairing the recognition ceremony with a drive-in movie would be a huge hit! On April 30th at the West Wind Drive-in Movie, the Office of Student Life recognized our student leaders and celebrated their continued commitment to Nevada State. Congratulations to every student leader honored and celebrated; I hope you all enjoyed Shrek.

By Fall 2020, Nevada State graduated 5,660 students. This number is expected to cross 6,000 this semester. How many of our alumni graduated with minors? Out of our 5,660 graduates, 924 (16%) had at least one minor. Out of those, 330 (36%) graduated with a minor in Psychology, 161 (17%) with a minor in Counseling (Addiction Treatment), 93 (10%) with a minor in Business, 78 (8%) with a minor in Sociology, and 57 (6%) with a minor in Chemistry.

Over 70% of our alumni are transfer students. Since transfer students bring in at least 12 credits of prior work, their average time to graduation is 3.6 years. The average was 3.8 years, less than a semester more, for students who graduated with a minor.