Betsy Boze, Dean, School of Business (Chair)
Jim Holt, Dean, Workforce Training/Continuing Education
Sylvia Peña, Dean, School of Education
William Harris, Chair, Academic Senate
Victor Fuhro, Assistant VPAA
René Villarreal, Interim Registrar & Director of Admissions
Anne Rentfro, Associate Prof., BSN Degree Completion Program
Virginia Wood, Associate Professor, Behavioral Sciences
Report of the Task Force on Enrollment Planning
Working Group on Programs and Courses
This report is organized around the five levels of programs offered by UTB/TSC:
Workforce Training
Technical Programs
TSC Academic Programs
Dual Enrollment
UTB Lower Division
UTB Upper Division
Graduate
Following an overall assessment of UTB/TSC program offerings, strengths, concerns, and recommendations are reported for each level of program.
The UTB/TSC partnership offers students an opportunity to go to college that they would not have if we weren’t here. UTB/TSC is close to home and reasonably priced. Small class sizes provide more personalized attention in a less intimidating or competitive environment. The bi-cultural nature of the partnership as a whole and some programs in particular are assets. Open admission provides a critical strength to many traditionally underserved populations.
UTB/TSC has progressed substantially in the past decade, but we are still perceived much as we were before the partnership. The community outside of Brownsville is unaware of the partnership and that we are now also a university. Open admissions, while an important part of our mission provides challenges to academic programs. It is difficult to teach to students with significantly different levels of preparation. Some students eventually graduate more because of persistence in seeking a degree than from their academic achievement. Graduate programs are weak because they draw almost exclusively from our own under-prepared students.
· Marketing
The Lower Rio Grande Valley is largely unaware of UTB/TSC’s programs. Although it is not within the specific charge to this Working Group, it is important to stress that UTB/TSC needs a coherent plan for marketing our programs, versus only advertising registration activities. But it is important to acknowledge that raising awareness is only one step in supporting our programs.
· Target distinct populations
UTB/TSC students can be segmented in many ways and it is important that we become more sophisticated in our understanding of the student population that we serve. For example, our students can be grouped in terms of traditional and nontraditional, college ready and in need of remediation, work force training, occupational technology or four-year programs, international or domestic, Mexican or U.S., graduate or undergraduate. Perhaps, the characteristics that supercede all others are the two unique populations of day and evening students. Many programs require that students attend both day and night classes in order to complete a degree. For example, faculty may incorrectly assume that a day student is able but simply chooses to not attend at night. A similar assessment is not usually made of the evening students due to the assumption that employment precludes daytime class attendance. But the obligations and demands on day students—child or parent care, evening work hours, transportation—are just as real and non-negotiable. Programs must be scheduled for these distinct populations. If the demand for a program is not sufficient to warrant both day and evening schedules, then it should be clearly identified as either a day-program only or night-program only. Doing so would prevent students from investing years trying to earn a degree in which the program of study is never available to them in its entirety.
Despite that fact that classroom space is severely limited, courses tend to be offered in relatively few time slots. Better use could be made of our facilities, while providing the students with more options, if course times were better managed. For example, few classes are offered at 7 or 8 a.m. or mid-afternoon any day of the week. Similarly, weekend course offerings have been few, sporadic and random. As one example, a coherent weekend Associate of Arts program may be a viable and potentially popular alternative to fill this gap.
· Support programs with greatest potential
Program growth and enrollment is one indicator of student demand. There are many reasons why programs may have small enrollments. It is justifiable to support small programs for a variety of reasons such as centrality to the mission, regional importance, and interdependence with other programs however, in other cases continuing to fund no or low productivity programs is not a good use of resources. Unless there is a good rationale for an exception, in general funding should flow to successful and fast growing programs that are in high student demand.
Program quality is the quickest and best way to make UTB/TSC a university of first choice. Programs that have a regional, state or national accrediting body should be encouraged to seek and receive accreditation in a reasonable time frame, unless there are supportable reasons for not doing so. Such reasons include but are not limited to a significant mismatch between the program and the accrediting agency’s philosophy or the results of a careful cost-benefit analysis indicating that accreditation is not worth the investment. To the extent possible, the institution is encouraged to identify short term funding to achieve national norms in programs for which they are determined to be the desired goal. For those programs in which accreditation is determined to be the desired goal, seeking and achieving it should be one standard by which the sustainability of those programs are assessed.
· Guidelines for sustainability of current programs
Poor quality and unsustainable programs may hurt the university financially and tarnish its reputation. Once established, it is difficult and painful to close a program. Programs tend to take on a life of their own, even though their need has become questionable. In a supportive, positive and collegial atmosphere all programs should be routinely assessed to determine if they warrant continued support. Guidelines for assessing whether or not a program should continue to be supported might include the following:
- Essential to the mission of UTB/TSC
- Minimum number of graduates (similar to THECB guidelines)
- Program graduates find growing or stable employment opportunities
- Sufficient enrollment to financially support the program and/or
- Program is a support for other majors that are sustainable and/or
- Program is essential for regional economic development
· Guidelines for new programs
UTB/TSC needs additional degree programs to grow and attract more students. But it is difficult to determine the extent to which new programs attract new students versus spreading existing students over more majors, thus resulting in a higher cost per program. Some of our current programs need additional support in order to strengthen them; accordingly, UTB/TSC should be deliberate in the development of new degree programs to insure that its resources are not spread too thinly.
It is essential to provide oversight as new programs are developed and implemented. Currently, programs are developed by the faculty and often for the faculty. Few undergraduate or graduate program proposals have ever been turned down at the campus level, which may be very appropriate for a young and developing institution. However, it seems that curriculum committees view their role primarily as reviewing the required forms for consistency and completion, and to a lesser extent as one of quality control. In order to increase quality control, it is suggested that new program proposals meet the following guidelines as a condition of their approval, keeping in mind that not every new program can or should meet each guideline to the same extent.
- Supports the UTB/TSC mission
- Sustainable student demand
- Demonstrated and sustainable employment potential above a living wage
- Support regional economic development
- Have the potential to become truly self-supporting in less than five years and/or
- Have the potential to develop grants and external funding and/or
- Provides a service function to other programs
- Not pirate significantly from existing programs
A faculty committee (perhaps the UG Curriculum Committee and Graduate Committee), along with administration, should be charged with reviewing projected costs, growth and commitments for new programs. Each level of review should include questions about sustainability. What is more, when a new program is proposed faculty should ask each other if they are willing to limit their own requests, along with the support of current programs and faculty, while a new program is given the resources and support it needs to become fully functional.
Workforce Training
Workforce Training and Continuing Education helps fulfill the mission of UTB/TSC, meets community and demographic needs and offers a growing number of programs. These programs provide entry-level opportunities for students that may not otherwise come to the university. Some of these programs serve as feeder programs into technical and some academic programs. This component of UTB/TSC is moving towards self-sufficiency, with the goal of eventually giving back to the campus at large.
In the past, inadequate facilities have hampered Workforce Training but the move to Duffy Plaza and the addition of the new Technical Training Center should resolve these concerns. Workforce Training and Continuing Education has experienced significant success and growth, including a 51 percent increase in enrollments (duplicated) to 11,024. An additional twenty- percent increase is anticipated for FY 2002. Tuition revenues increased fourteen percent ($376,833) for a total of $3,082,179 in FY 2001.
Because of its location outside of the traditional academic and technical programs, some faculty do not know about Workforce Training and Continuing Education. Some feel that Workforce Training programs provide good publicity to UTB/TSC, while others are concerned that it compromises our image as a university. Also, some faculty are concerned about Workforce Training and Continuing Education programs that divert potential students away from on-campus academic and technical programs.
A review of local and national labor market forecasts indicate that Workforce Training programs will be very successful in providing employment opportunities for its graduates. Workforce Training is poised to present programs that result in high demand and high paying jobs, as forecasted at both the national and regional level. Indeed, some of these programs are already on
line. Some of these high demand employment areas are waiters and waitresses, food preparation workers and home health aides. It may be fruitful to develop more programs in the areas of community involvement activities such as children’s programs.
Texas Southmost College’s (TSC) technical programs are important to the mission of UTB/TSC, meet important community needs, have significant impact upon the lives of students, and perhaps have the biggest economic impact for the dollar invested than any other program on campus. Many of these programs are strong and successful, and some are even recognized as exemplary by the State of Texas. Unfortunately, the community is largely unaware of the excellent courses and programs that we offer. Transferability of technical credits to the BAAS and the new BAT degrees and the new Technical Training Center should strengthen these programs even further.
Technical programs have not received a lot of attention or funding since the partnership. There is a perception that they have gone unnoticed for a decade and are forced to compete with academic and new programs for funds, space and faculty. Technical faculty that resign or retire are replaced with academic faculty. Some programs have only one faculty and some have none. There are a limited number of majors to choose from and some of the existing programs may soon become obsolete or out dated. Perkins funding has been cut, further limiting the ability of programs to keep up with technological needs. In many programs the facilities and faculty are insufficient for growth.
Faculty in technical programs are challenged with teaching specific subject matter while accommodating students that cannot pass the TASP. With the exception of the BAAS degree and the new BAT program, credits are not transferable to baccalaureate degrees, other academic majors or other institutions.
TSC’s out of district tuition makes the cost of enrollment prohibitive for out-of-district students. Some in-district students find that Texas State Technical College (TSTC) is equally convenient. TSTC is more centrally located for much of the valley and is less expensive. It provides similar programs, plus others not offered by UTB/TSC. South Texas Community College (STCC) has many more locations and is less expensive and more accessible to students from the mid and upper-valley. Both TSTC and STCC are perceived as being more student-friendly in their recruiting and registration than UTB/TSC.
Tech-Prep of the Rio Grande Valley has not produced many students that can actually be tracked in our programs and some faculty question the wisdom of awarding academic or technical credit to already under-prepared students.
Technical programs should be assessed for sustainability or accreditation using the same criteria as all other programs. These programs must examine their differential advantages and strengths. We should ask, in which programs can TSC be the best in the region? Where appropriate, we should partner with TSTC. If a program is not strong, we should not offer it.
Regional labor projections suggest that future high demand positions include: social work, office managers, retail sales, medical and health services management, home health aids. Other fast growing areas are auto body repair, registered nurses, child care, police patrol officers, vehicle salespersons, tool and die, office manager, and foreman. TSC should review these program as potential offerings.
As the partnership has developed, over time, the number and quality of full-time teaching faculty, along with library resources, have improved dramatically. Students are often taught by terminally qualified faculty and have access to university resources in a community college environment and cost. Transferability of academic credits is seen as one of the biggest advantages.
Because of our mission and open admissions, the majority of TSC students are in developmental education. Even those who successfully complete their developmental work are not always fully prepared for college.
Many of the same problems that affect the technical programs also face academic programs—image, high TSC out-of-district tuition and inadequate facilities for specialized instruction (e.g., psychology lab).
Students are not able to take the courses they need in the appropriate sequence because there are not enough sections offered, perhaps because there are insufficient full-time faculty to offer more sections. This limits our growth.
Lower Division enrollment has declined slightly in the past few years. Many of our students are taking general education courses at Texas State Technical College in Harlingen, whose enrollment has increased. Academic advisors report more students seeking our degree requirements, with the stated intent of enrolling for as many courses as possible at TSTC. Students report that TSTC offers the entire General Education curriculum at lower cost with a better schedule, greater access, easier registration, and many more Saturday class offerings.
TSTC’s inroads into the lower valley may be due in part to STCC’s presence in the Mid and Upper-Valley. When STCC opened it diverted lower division students from UT Pan American and TSTC. Because STCC diverted Mid and Upper Valley students from TSTC, the latter began to recruit and draw more Lower Valley students.
To counter this, UTB/TSC must be aggressive in meeting student needs. We should develop a Weekend Associate of Arts degree, with the commitment that student cohorts would be able to earn the entire program on weekends only. A TASP exempt student taking two weekend courses per semester, plus one in the summer, should be able to complete the Associate’s in four years. Students could accelerate this program through the addition of weekday or evening courses but would not be required to do so. Weekend courses would be open to all eligible students, not just the weekend Associate of Arts cohorts. Preliminary reaction to this proposal among the academic deans appeared positive.
Assuming a 20-course sequence, the fourth and subsequent years would require a minimum of eight courses per semester to serve the four cohorts (with a minimum of four summer classes). If the Weekend Associates is offered, The School of Business will supplement it with the Business and Accounting courses necessary to offer a Weekend Associates in Business Administration.
Dual Enrollment can be a tremendous marketing tool for the partnership resulting in high visibility, positive image and short-term enrollment increases. Dual Enrollment has increased from 195 students in 2000-2001 to an astonishing 578 enrollments in Fall 2001. High school instructors teaching Dual Enrollment courses are now SACS qualified and approved by UTB/TSC Department Chairs.
The dual enrollment program is perceived by some faculty as lacking credibility in part because the students are taking university level courses from their own high school instructors. (The same issue must be raised regarding our on campus freshmen taking evening courses with adjunct that were their high school teachers). Some UTB/TSC faculty complain of lack of supervision for dual enrollment instructors but this is improving with the addition of a full-time coordinator in the Division of Workforce Training.
Some private colleges and universities will not accept dual enrollment course credits. Some high school administrators and teachers erode the credibility of dual enrollment by promoting it as a safety net for students who may not score high enough on the AP Exam. Dual enrollment thus becomes a back door to receive academic credit towards college attendance. There is concern among the faculty about possible repercussions when these students have received TSC academic credit and go on to fail the subsequent course at other universities.
There is also concern that dual enrollment may create even more unprepared students since they will not be required to take further college instruction in these subjects (i.e. they may take their last English class as a senior in high school). Other concerns include the loss of income from students that would normally pay to take these same courses as part of their UTB/TSC degree program but instead pay only $5 through dual enrollment.
Improvements have been made in the oversight of the high school faculty teaching dual enrollment courses. Many of these teachers are our evening adjuncts that have taught for us for several years. Final exams are approved by the UTB/TSC Department Chairs and in English classes student portfolios are reviewed. Where possible, it would be appropriate to use UTB/TSC faculty to teach dual enrollment and even have students come on our campus to attend courses.
The Working Group recommends that the data be reviewed comparing students’ scores on the AP Exam with their grades in the Dual Enrollment classes, thus insuring that we are not giving credit to students who have not mastered college level material.
UTB Lower Division accounts for a small but important proportion of our credit hours. UTB lower division provides opportunities for cohort groups in some colleges. It attracts students that would otherwise not come here because it allows out of district and Mexican students to pay in-state tuition instead of the higher TSC out-of-district tuition.
Although almost all of our students think of themselves as UTB students, those who know the difference between the community college and the university perceive UTB Lower Division as more prestigious. Some students simply prefer to attend a university.
In some disciplines the university formula funding rate is higher than the community college rate. In some instances, UTB lower division provides for higher financial aid distribution.
Most of our students do not understand the “U” suffix on their course schedules. They are largely unaware that there is a tuition differential between enrolling in a TSC Lower Division and UTB Lower Division course. Scheduling the two types of classes in the same room with the same professor causes problems in course and room scheduling, requires dual grade sheets and complicates reporting requirements.
The 2001 Deans and Chairs Summer Workshop included extensive discussion of state formula funding to UTB versus TSC. In keeping with that discussion, programs should consider offering the majority, if not all, seats from the higher funding entity. Similarly, programs should review their CIP code offerings to make sure that their courses are being offered in the most appropriate and highest funded category.
UTB/TSC should consider implementing an Associate of Arts Honors Program. While this has the potential to remove some of our best and brightest students from the mainstream classes, the intent is to recruit and retain students that are looking for a more challenging and enhanced program. UT Pan American has had an honors program for many years and Texas A&M Kingsville recently began one. It would be relatively easy and inexpensive to offer an Honors Program to a cohort of day students that could take their English classes and some combination of their General Education curriculum together. Such a program could be started with only a Director and clerical assistance.
UTB Upper Division
One of UTB’s greatest strengths is that we provide many students with the opportunity to attend a university, get an education and earn a degree without leaving home. Baccalaureate degrees increase the students’ earning potential. An increased number of baccalaureate degree holders increases the attractiveness of the region to employers, thereby improving regional economic development. Recently, UTB’s upper division enrollment has become the fastest growing in the university.
The number of majors from which students may select is increasing also, particularly in the life and health sciences and engineering technology. The Bachelor’s of Arts in Applied Sciences (BAAS) and the Bachelor’s of Applied Technology (BAT), a very recent addition, allow students with technical degrees the opportunity to earn a baccalaureate without having to start their education over.
For a university that wants and needs to grow quickly, UTB has too few academic majors available to students. Also, there are too few faculty which limits the number of sections. Programs also suffer from a lack of infrastructure (classrooms, library, labs) and limited quality control due in part to open admissions and grade inflation.
One important indicator of quality instruction is that students are prepared to succeed. However, at UTB/TSC, some students matriculate from the open admission community college, on to the university baccalaureate programs without the benefit of advising, or the enforcement of prerequisite or admissions requirements.
· To this end, departments should review their prerequisite course requirements and begin enforcing them immediately.
· To increase quality control, departments may want to consider minimum admissions requirements that would include the lower level prerequisites and minimum grades in key prerequisite classes.
· Because we cannot offer all the degrees we would like to or immediately hire all the faculty we need, we should explore more distance education opportunities – both receiving and sending.
UT Pan American no longer offers the BAAS degree, leaving us with an important opportunity to expand the educational offerings for the technical workforce of the Rio Grande Valley. We should aggressively and consistently market these programs. We already offer the BAAS in Harlingen. We believe that we could double or triple the enrollment in this program with students from the mid and upper valley at no additional cost beyond advertising and advising.
Graduate Programs
Even more than undergraduate students, the graduate student population is bound locally by jobs and family. UTB graduate programs provide opportunities for adult students to earn post-baccalaureate degrees without leaving the valley. These programs enhance the image of the partnership. Some of our master’s programs have been strengthened substantially in the past few years. New graduate degree programs have been approved or are on the road to approval (e.g., public health nursing and biology). Entry requirements for graduate programs while minimal are now being consistently enforced.
Because our graduate programs to a great extent draw only from our own under graduates, enrollment growth has been limited. What is more, the quality of our graduate programs has not improved at the rate that we would like. We need to improve quality control at each level (input, throughput, output). Because of grade inflation, few students are removed from programs due to low academic achievement. It is unreasonable and inappropriate to fail students on the comprehensive examination who have earned A’s and B’s in their classes. It is the perception of some faculty that while we are providing the opportunity to earn degrees, they are not necessarily at the level of graduate education.
Quality programs attract quality students. UTB/TSC graduate programs need to increase
the quality of our graduates. While we need to increase the number of graduate
degrees that we offer, this should be undertaken very carefully and
deliberately. It is important that
UTB/TSC develop a thoughtful, meaningful, and realistic plan for increasing its
programs. Furthermore, while the Working
Group is excited about providing doctoral education for students in the Lower
Rio Grande Valley, caution should be exercised in developing doctoral programs
until we are sure that we can attract qualified students and adequately support
new programs without jeopardizing existing ones.