CASC Higher Learning Commission Assessment Team’s ‘story’ going to get national attention
Carl Albert State College’s Higher Learning Commission (HLC) Assessment Team is going to get to tell their “story” twice this fall in two national venues as CASC Institutional Effectiveness Officer/Assessment Outcome Specialist Kelly Kellogg and CASC Student Support Services Coordinator/Counselor Kim Hughes told the CASC Board of Regents in Tuesday afternoon’s meeting inside the Regents Room at the F.L. Holton Business Center.
Kellogg told the board that in 2018, the assessment team, comprised of “five continuous improvement evangelists,” and its project outline called “The Assessment Revolution” were created.
Hughes said its four-year project to improve in several areas, which included maturing from the course to academic program level such as how can CASC do its job better for students campus-wide and not just in the classroom, assessing general education outcomes and implementing co-curricular (student clubs and organizations) and nonacademic assessments.
“This is a way to tell our data story,” Hughes said.
In October when the assessment team graduated from HLC Academy, Hughes said the team members were asked to see how CASC could sustain what was already being done and in what areas CASC could improve — and what lessons have been learned.
Hughes talked about the challenges in order to fulfill the request, such as change management (how to handle changes and dealing with staff’s responses to those changes), program assessment leaders (PALs, professionals in areas who can lead groups along), mission-based assessments, curriculum mapping and pilot projects/associations assessments.
Hughes mentioned two national/international settings the CASC HLC Assessment Team will get to showcase its “story” — one is the Council for Accreditation for Two-Year Colleges Sept. 25-27 and at the Assessment Institute, which will be Oct. 9-11 at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI).
“I think kudos to Carl Albert (State College), to Kelly, to (CASC Vice-President of Academic Affairs) Dr. (Marc) Willis and (CASC President) Dr. (Jay) Falkner in getting on board with this and helping us develop something that’s being recognized everywhere,” Hughes said.
Kellogg said the assessment team is going to implement new assessment processes and advancing current initiatives.
“There’s a lot of work,” Kellogg said. “It’s a four-year project, but we’re so excited to share Carl Albert’s ‘data story’ on a national and international level. People are contacting us for advice.”
Falkner told the board that the ending balance in June was $8,231,118, which is $1,231,201 better than at the end of June 2021.
In his report, Falkner said that when he went before the State Board of Regents for the budget and tuition hearing, the board was complimentary about CASC’s efforts to implement a three-percent tuition hike when compared with other schools in the state.
New Board of Regents Chairman Ron Lawson mentioned how well Regent and former chairman Belva Barber and Regent Deanna Reed have done representing the board at the CASC Development Foundation meetings, the board unanimously approved re-appointing Barber and Reed once again.
In his Enrollment and Recruitment Subcommittee report, CASC VicePresident of Enrollment Management/ Interim VP of Student Affairs Bill Nowlin said CASC Recruiter Hunter Sisemore and his staff are now getting out to schools more to go recruit students and, with the use of technology, reaching out to them by texting methods. Then, Nowlin mentioned the second step is to actually get them as CASC admitted students. He also said retention efforts are ongoing to keep CASC students at the local two-year junior college.
“We’re going to try to finish strong over the next three weeks,” Nowlin said.
In his Allied Health Subcommittee report, Willis said that CASC’s physical therapy assistants (PTA) program had a total of 60 applications, of which 45 were completely filled out. He said the CASC program currently accepts 17 students, which is the number that have currently enrolled in the PTA program, and Willis said that those who graduated the program last spring are finishing up their licensure exams.
Willis had a Wednesday afternoon update of 36 nurses who have passed their licensures and four more waiting to take their exam.
Willis also added Wednesday that eight of nine PTA nurses who tested in July passed.
Willis said there were 66 total completed applications for the CASC nursing program, with 48 of those accepted by the program with 40 of those having already enrolled.
Willis said the Payroll and Compensation Subcommittee agreed to make nursing one of the top priorities as far as pay goes, which led to three new nurses being hired — Nicole Heck, Maria Sanchez and Dr. Julie Scott, all of whom will come on this fall semester.
Willis said the CASC nursing facility upgrades are complete, with new carpeting, painting and furniture. He is hoping with some American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and other grants to help fund the construction of simulation labs and simulation lab experiences for the nursing students.
Willis mentioned the possibility of having nursing students who also may wish to be athletes without the possible need of going through the prerequisites of the allied health program.
“It depends a lot on the students,” Willis said. “It depends a lot on the circumstance are. We certainly don’t want to turn anybody away or discourage anyone from either of those pursuits.”
In his progress report, CASC Chief Financial Officer Brian Roberts said that Megaphone Pro Solutions, Incorporated, a Sallisaw-based firm, has helped some technology glitches with the CASC website.
“Ours (website) needed significant work,” Roberts said. “In April 2021, we had issues with the website. People would go do a Google search, and would not find us (CASC). Fast forward to May ’22, now there are no errors with our website. They are finding us.”
CASC Director of State Assessment Services and Human Resources Will Higgins told the board the 2020 COVID Policy featured strict guidelines due to the pandemic starting. He also told the board the 2021 COVID Policy made it more possible for CASC staff and students to “move freely.” After getting some information from the Oklahoma Deputy General Counsel member Whitney Herzog Scimeca, in order to take more advantage of the 2021 COVID Policy, the 2020 COVID Policy needed to be removed. So, Higgins asked the Regents if they would approve removing the 2020 COVID Policy and making the 2021 COVID Policy the main guidelines to follow, and the board unanimously approved Higgins’ request.
Nowlin gave the board a Title IX Policy update. He mentioned that in the June 14 meeting, CASC Director of Marketing and Community Relations Holly Bormann shared with the Regents changes to Title IX Policy. Some of the major changes are expanding definitions, contact information added, expanded definition of sexual harassment, domestic violence and sanctions after a hearing, a better defined report than a formal complaint, better defined CASC jurisdiction on events and programs under CASC administration and operation and outlined steps in an investigation.
“The biggest change that was made was that under the previous guidelines, if a person refuses to subject themselves to cross examination during a Title IX hearing, the decision maker, meaning the person reviewing the evidence, was prohibited from considering information that person provided during the prior investigation,” Bormann said. “Now, if a person does not wish to be subjected to cross examination, the decision maker can consider the information they provided during the investigation in the basis of justification of their final ruling. Our policy was updated to reflect that.”
Lawson made mention that he did not have a chance prior to the June 14 meeting to look it over, but Nowlin said that changes were made to denote clarifications as well as minor typos corrected.
After a 34-minute executive session, the board approved all the personnel matters. The board approved the retirement of CASC Student Support Services Retention Specialist Sheryl Scott-Jones effective Aug. 31 as well as the resignations/terminations of CASC Business Office/State Assessment Services Clerk Savannah Fabian effective July 31, CASC Multimedia Specialist Dylan Loggains effective July 31, CASC Student Support Services Guidance Specialist Rachel Kardokus effective July 29, CASC Enrollment and Advisement Specialist Rhianna Maxfield effective Aug. 10, CASC Enrollment Management Assistant Kaitlyn Morris effective Aug. 10 and CASC Nursing Instructor Cara Stewart effective July 31.
The board also approved all the hirings/ changes of status — nursing instructors Heck, Sanchez, Scott, Maurica Anderson, Heather Dodson, Patricia Dollar, Stephanie Mann and Rebecca Sanders, Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions (NASNTI) tutoring specialist Terrie Bengs, information technology director Jerry Ellis, director of CASCSallisaw/workforce development coordinator Jamie Henson, campus police officer Michael Jackson, assistant baseball coach Austin Jarvis, enrollment management director Rachel Johnson, athletic director Jake Lords, assistant A.D. Paul Pulley, assistant softball coach/Stivers Center staff member Tayla Topaha, student account manager Rose Price, Power I Program specialist Jessie Reagan and student affairs administrative assistant Ka Xiong along with Morris as competitive cheerleading coach.