Initiative Description
To revitalize faculty, administration and staff and to enhance student success was initially and continues to be the change initiative of Stephen F. Austin State University's (SFA) participation in the ACE Project on Leadership and Institutional Transformation. Visually, the comprehensive change initiative is represented by a logo of overlapping arrows, depicting a synergistic relationship between the two elements of the change statement. For the first phase of the ACE project, our focus was more on the revitalization of faculty, staff and administration. We concentrated on issues involving the use of technology, avenues for professional development and training, and more effective ways to facilitate better communication. The intent at this time is to move toward a more balanced approach with an increased emphasis on the student success aspect of the initiative. We see the planning for and initiation of a Teaching Excellence Center as our major concrete initiative.
External Forces
A number of external forces could have a significant impact on SFA's future. The growth in resident population of Texas continues to be significant, however, the rate of increase has dropped from an annual percent change in 1994 and 1995 of 2.0 to 1.8 in 1996. Projections show an average of 1.7 annual percentage change from 1998 through 2003. With the aging of the "baby boom" generation, the population of the U.S., as well as the State of Texas, is aging. This, of course, has implications for student enrollment which in turn has a major impact on tuition and fee revenue plus state formula funding. It also has implications for faculty.
The aquisition and retention of high quality, new faculty is especially important to SFA. A major continuing concern of the University is the advancing age of its instructional faculty. The average age of the faculty is now 51 years of age. It is predicted that a significant number of the current full-time faculty will retire between 1999 and 2003. Over the last six years, 85 faculty members retired. Forty-five of those spent three to five years in the modified employment program teaching half time until full retirement. Competition for faculty is keen, and sometimes SFA's geographic location makes it difficult to attract some faculty we would like. Once on campus, we keenly feel the responsibility to help new faculty fit in, become a part of the community, and grow professionally.
SFA's heavy dependence upon money received through formula funding, special item appropriations, and State capital funds, combined with a modest record of soliciting private funds (though increasing), has made it difficult to pursue some of the initiatives we would like. The beginning of the Teaching Excellence Center is heavily dependent on currently requested special item funding.
Higher education has been subject to a sharp increase in externally imposed accountability. The Texas Legislature has become increasingly concerned about cost effective delivery of programs and has developed through the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and other state agencies a wide variety of reporting requirements to increase institutional accountability. While many of these developments are justified because of the publicized abuses of some institutions, the resulting explosion of reporting requirements and paperwork has placed a heavy burden on the administrative staff. The result has been a dramatic increase in the need for staff employees to respond to external agencies, using institutional resources which are increasingly diverted from academic programs.
Results and Update
The major activity for the past year related to institutional change and the ACE Project has been the development of the institution's five-year plan. When the Final Project Report was completed for the ACE Project in December 1997, ten action steps were cited as critical to maintaining the momentum that started with the implementation of the ACE Project. The first action step was to, "incorporate and institutionalize results of ACE Project in SFA 03 planning cycle." The SFA Board of Regents formally adopted that plan on January 19, 1999.
Dr. Angel appointed the Commission on the Future in the fall of 1997 to develop the SFA 03 Plan. The core members of the 30 person Commission were the nine ACE Project team members. Chaired by the Vice President for Academic Affairs, who also serves as the ACE Project Team Chair, the Commission was organized into eight working groups and met regularly for the 1997-98 academic year. The working groups brought recommendations to the full Commission for review and inclusion in SFA 03. As part of the planning process, the Commission used many means, including electronic media, to receive input from all interested constituents of SFA--students, faculty, staff, regents, alumni, community members, as well as any other interested parties.
Coinciding with preparation for the SFA 03 document was preparation for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools review for reaffirmation of accreditation to culminate in 2000. Titled,"SFA 03, A Rededication to Student Success," the planning document is structured around eight key initiatives which are supported by 34 goals. The first two initiatives set the stage for a document which incorporates our collective learning from the ACE Project: 1) Create an Environment for Student Success and 2) Program for Student Needs. SFA's new mission statement has as its first sentence, "SFA is a dynamic, learning-centered university dedicated to enhancing student success."
In addition to the work noted above, we have seen continued progressive change for the New Faculty Orientation process and the development of Teaching Circles. These two activities address the breaking down of silos and building a sense of community which were two of the criteria, originating from the PEW Roundtables, which we used in selecting our comprehensive change issue initially. We have seen evidence of progress with the New Faculty Orientation. New and continuing faculty have provided excellent comments. More specifically, however, when the program was started in the summer of 1997 we had a somewhat difficult time getting members on the committee from each college. When the call came to increase the membership size of the committee in spring 1998, we had more volunteers than we could use. The teaching circles have helped faculty from across campus meet each other and share ideas. New friendships have been formed, and participation almost doubled from spring 1998 to fall.
Continuing challenges are communication and time demands, in addition to the impact of external forces noted above. We are confident, however, that progress and growth can be accomplished. It will likely be by gathering a few people at a time to build a large base to reach out to, and less time has to be spent individually convincing people of the needs and benefits of participation.
Sustaining Change
A major factor in sustaining momentum and interest has been the use of technology (e-mail, listserves and webpages) to frequently communicate with people. Also, we have worked hard to integrate as many new people in the process as possible. We encourage others to take on leadership roles whenever we see their interest. For example, a second-year faculty member, graduate of the New Faculty Orientation program, now conducts technology workshops for new faculty.
We have not been without results which are less than desirable. One which stands out is the ACE Innovations program. Members of the SFA campus community who are utilizing innovative ideas and techniques in classrooms or departmental offices were urged to share them with others through a special feature on the ACE web page called ACE Innovations. To open communication lines, learn from others, and share the wealth of knowledge and expertise were all original goals of the committee responsible for spearheading this project. We think the project never gained momentum because we "dumped" it on others without first helping those others develop a vested interest in the project. With hindsight, we realize that we must continue encouraging others to become involved in the various initiatives, but we must first help them become involved on a broad level before assigning a specific task. In addition, we've been schooled in patience. Progress may at times seem exceedingly slow. The rewards, however, can be great.
In conclusion, the ultimate strategy for sustaining change will be embedding
the change in our five-year plan. As in the SFA 98 process (SFA's first
five-year plan), more specific objectives and strategies to implement SFA
03 will be developed, assessed, and updated as necessary annually at the
college, school, division, and department levels as part of the implementation
process. Each unit will report goal accomplishments at the end of each academic
year. Goal accomplishments lead both to recognition and rewards.