Establish a team of professional advisors to complement the Faculty. Advising Council to guide each incoming student regarding his or her academic and professional goals and the use of various academic support services.
Create learning communities on campus, particularly in housing, through establishing a pilot living/learning community where faculty, Student Affairs staff, Residence Life, academic support services and students can work to accomplish common educational goals and objectives.
Include developmental education in the University's long-range strategic planning and budgeting process.
Promote the importance and understanding of developmental education across the campus.
The Student Success and Retention Task Force made recommendations that supported those of the DEC, while adding a few of its own, such as
Establish an electronic means for taking attendance (e.g. swipe cards).
Set aside one evening each week for quiet study time when no campus activities are scheduled.
Implement a Code of Behavior for students. (Link to Final Draft-Student Success Taskforce Report_pp5-14.pdf)
After investigating the status of the recommendations in the Developmental Education Committee Report, the QEP Committee found that the University had taken action on several of them, as, for example, the creation of mission statements for developmental classes in each area, the inclusion of developmental education in the University's long-range planning and budget, and the hiring of seven additional faculty to teach developmental classes, the latter of which was of great importance to reduce class sizes. (Link to Dev_Ed_report_subcommittee_SueF.pdf) (Link to QEP Committee Minutes 1-30-2008.pdf) The University has hired a full-time Director of Developmental Education. (Link to Director_DevEd_Ad.pdf). The Director has a critical role to play in establishing an official program, helping coordinate curriculum development, initiating greater faculty development, and collaborating with the Director of the QEP. By the time the QEP is implemented, a more cohesive developmental program will be in place.
Because more than 80 percent of KSU's entering freshman require at least one developmental course, and half require two, the QEP Committee strongly endorsed the belief that the actions taken to improve student learning for developmental students would need to be continued in those gateway courses at KSU that often prove to be stumbling blocks to academic success (see Table 4, p. 14):
ENG 101: English Composition I
ENG 102: English Composition II
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