Contribute to an environment that promotes the development and maintenance of quality master's and doctoral programs.
Objective
Promote Faculty Research
Faculty that are active researchers are better prepared to be mentors and bring an expertise to the classroom that promotes knowledge of the literature, appreciation of research and emphasize the scientific practitioner model. Creating and disseminating knowledge is a key component of graduate programs. The Office of Graduate Studies shall contribute to an environment that promotes faculty research.
KPI
Funds For Faculty Travel
Funding for faculty travel will promote faculty research and development. The amount of funding the Office of Graduate Studies can provide the academic colleges is an indicator of success with respect to promoting faculty research. Funding for faculty research will increase 5%.
Result
Faculty Travel
Last year we funded 115,000 in faculty travel. This year, we funded $128,000. This is an increase of 11%.
Action
Faculty Travel
We have been able to fund faculty travel with increases. We asked the deans what was needed to help promote faculty travel, and they believed more support for untenured faculty was needed to start research agendas. We will continue to fund faculty travel at this amount, but also set aside 20% of the funds for untenured faculty.
Objective
Promote Student Research
Creating and disseminating knowledge is a key component of graduate programs. The Office of Graduate Studies will encourage and facilitate student research.
KPI
Funds For Student Travel
Funding for students to travel to present their work at professional conferences serves to promote and reward research. The amount of funding the Office of Graduate Studies can provide the academic colleges is an indicator of success with respect to promoting knowledge of the literature and research among the students. We will increase funding by 5%.
Result
Student Travel
We funded $115,000 in student travel last year. This year we funded $130,000 in student travel. We also offered workshops on how to present at professional conferences in order to improve the research products of our graduate students. Attendance at the workshops was approximately 72 students over the year. At the workshops, we surveyed students asking what their needs were for support of their research. Students stated that they needed more help with their dissertations and theses.
Action
Student Travel
We will continue to fund student travel and let departments know that we are supporting other student research costs, such as surveys, instruments, etc. We will provide two workshops on conference presentations and work with the library to provide librarian support for those writing a dissertation or thesis. We provided a survey to graduate students at the workshops asking what they need to support them in their program. Students wanted more help with the dissertations and theses, so we will be providing writing workshops for those writing theses and dissertations as well as a boot camp for them.
Objective
Promote Program Assessment
Graduate programs should develop and maintain processes and procedures to assess their effectiveness. The Office of Graduate Studies will promote the development of a university-wide process for program reviews.
KPI
Complete Reviews Of 6 Graduate Programs.
A systematic process for program review promotes quality. A process that encourages a self-study to include an external component contributes to a continuous improvement process. Complete reviews of 6 graduate programs and make changes to the programs based on outside reviewers' suggestions.
Result
Program Review
Wecompleted reviews of 8 programs, including Computing and Information Science MS, Counseling MED, Counseling MA, Counselor Education Ph.D., Digital Forensics MS, Information Assurance and Security MS, Library Science MS, School Psychology SSP. All responses were sent to the THECB. In addition, we checked to be sure that we completed all changes for last year's reviews. We met with each of the programs a second time to ensure that all changes were addressed.
Action
Program Review
We will follow up next year with each program to ensure that all issues from the review were addressed. Funding for the programs that were reviewed has been set aside to help programs address issues arising from the reviews. We will review 8 more programs next year.
Goal
Effective And Efficient Administrative Practices
The Office of Graduate Studies will contribute to the creation and maintenance of effective and efficient administrative practices.
Objective
Catalog Improvements
Make improvements to the catalog both undergraduate and graduate in order to make them more effective for students.
KPI
Improve Catalogs By Standardization.
Improvements to the catalogs are necessary since they are now completely online. The improvements need to make the catalog more user friendly and more accurate.
Result
Catalog Improvements
We have established a process with DELTA to improve the technical difficulties that have hampered the catalog process. Somer Franklin and Kaley Plunkett are working with the Provost's Office to update the faculty information that will then be used in the catalog. This information needs to be moved from a legacy program into Banner. We have met with the Provost, IT, DELTA, and Registrar's to pick a curriculum and catalog software program. We are meeting throughout this year to begin buying and implementing the new software. A catalog change request form has been developed. It is being placed into an electronic format. We have also met with Registrar's to begin standardizing the language in the catalog. The first improvement will be with the designation of minor and specialization. In the past, there were numerous terms used for these items.
Action
Catalog Improvements
We will continue the process of moving the faculty information into Banner for use in the Catalogs. We will continue the process of standardization, focusing on the need for making the catalog work closely with DegreeWorks, and making it useful in the advising process. We will explore degree maps to help with advising and discuss how best to display degree plan information with advisors and students. We will develop a form so that requests for degree plans and catalog and prerequisites correspond and remain accurate. We will work to implement the new software.
Objective
Curriculum Process Improvement
Improve the curriculum process to provide better information to the university community.
KPI
Curriculum Improvement
Improvements to the curriculum process should include building a process that includes the Registrar's Office and provides communications across necessary areas on campus to keep everyone informed of the process.
Result
Curriculum Improvement
Over the past year, we have worked with the Registrar's Office to streamline the curriculum process by reducing misinformation, improving communication of any changes, and addressing issues with accurate degree plans. We revamped the University Curriculum Committee, so that the Registrar's person who builds courses in Banner is on the committee and each college has a representative that also serves on their college committee. We built a communication process to send information to Registrar's, departments, marketing, SHSU online, advising, and other important entities.
Action
Curriculum Improvement
We will build workflow charts for all curriculum processes.
Objective
Create A Curriculum Plan For Academic Affairs
Develop a Curriculum Plan that incorporates strategic planning, budget, and new TSUS requirements.
KPI
Curriculum Plan
Develop and complete the Curriculum Plan and develop budget spreadsheets and white paper forms to use with the plan.
Result
Curriculum Plan
We have built a Curriculum Plan that begins the planning process to include 5 years. This plan includes Job Market demand, student demand, and budget needs. The first rendition of this plan showed curriculum desires that cannot be supported with funding in the budget; thus, the leadership is working to prioritze the curriculum. This will help solidify our strategic plan.
Action
Curriculum Plan
We will work with academic deans to further develop the Curriculum Plan and integrate the plan into our Strategic Plan and budgeting system.
Goal
Retention
Provide inclusion and retention of quality students
Objective
Develop And Implement Programming For Academic, Professional And Career Development
Create and provide workshops promoting academic presentations, dissertation and thesis completion, resumes and cv preparation, IDEA training, etc.
KPI
Programming
Provide programming for graduate students including resume and vita building, conference presentation, dissertation and thesis tips, template workshops, and teaching evaluations. Evaluate workshops.
Result
Programming
We provided the following workshops: Dissertation Start to Finish Conference Presentation Resume and Vita Building Dissertation Tips and Tricks Template Workshop Thesis Tips and Tricks IDEA Workshop How to Propose a Conference Presentation 246 students attended the sessions.
Students rated the sessions as either Good or Excellent and provided suggestions for future sessions.
Action
Programming
Students wanted to have leadership training, so we will work with graduate student organizations to begin a leadership program. We have also scheduled the following events suggested by students and faculty: Cite it Right: Why, When, and How to Cite Sources Stress Management How to Become a Faculty Member Creating an Educational Philosophy We will continue to offer the workshops since they received high ratings both for student satisfaction with the workshop and how much the students learned.
Objective
Athlete Advising
Provide advising for athletes who are entering graduate school to ensure that they are successfully enrolled.
KPI
Athlete Advising
Advise athletes who want to enter graduate school and move them to enrollment in their senior year.
Result
Athlete Advising
Advised 10 of the 11 students--3 juniors and 8 seniors. Of the seniors, 4 have been accepted into a program and 4 are working on acceptance for the spring semester. The juniors had one who did not come for advisement and two who will apply next year.
Action
Athlete Advising
We will present information to the graduate advisors at our fall luncheon concerning the important timelines for athletes trying to get into graduate school. We will give a list of the workshops for graduate students to the athletes academic mentor.
Objective
Acknowledge Graduate Student Excellence
Provide graduate students a venue to celebrate accomplishments in their programs.
KPI
Awards
Develop and implement TA and Research Awards.
Result
Awards
TA awards and Research awards were given to graduate students at the first Graduate Studies Awards Banquet. Students who participated in the Research Exchange were recognized as well as those who won for Best Research, Most Impactful Research, Most Creative Research, and Best in Presentation. Additionally, 5 students were recognized as Outstanding Teaching Assistants.
Action
Awards
We will implement the Thesis/Dissertation Awards next year, and begin to publicize other student accomplishments on our website.
Goal
Quality Communications
Provide quality communciations with entities inside and outside SHSU.
Objective
Publicize Graduate Student Research And Accomplishments
Create a venue to publicize graduate student research and accomplishments.
KPI
Create A Graduate Studies Magazine
Create a graduate studies magazine to publicize graduate student research and accomplishments.
Result
Graduate Studies Magazine
The magazine has been completed and will be printed at the first of September. All faculty, students, and alumni will be sent a link to the electronic version. Hard copies will be sent to legislators, alumni board, and other select groups. Additionally, we sent Weston Rose to the University Research Magazine Association to obtain ideas on how to improve the magazine, and he submitted the draft to a group of reviewers. We have received their comments and will use those comments to improve the product next year.
Action
Graduate Studies Magazine
We will take feedback from the University Research Magazine Association and use the feedback to improve the magazine. We will use the new Digital Media graduate student to help improve the technical aspects of the online version.
Objective
Improve Graduate Advisor Communication
Develop a systematic way to provide communications to the graduate advisors about changes in Graduate Studies.
KPI
Graduate Advisors Communication
Provide a luncheon each full semester for graduate advisors in order to communicate important changes in Graduate Studies.
Result
Graduate Advisors Communication
Provided two luncheons during the year where we provided information regarding changes in Graduate Studies. Approximately, 48 of the 54 graduate advisors attended. This has alleviated much of the confusion with the programs.
Action
Communication
Next year we will add a meeting with administrative assistants in the departments and chairs as we have seen that the communication has not been flowing back from either the deans or the graduate advisors to the chairs and departmental secretaries. Both of these entities need to be clearly informed since they are vital to the processes in our office.