Welcome to the April Chronicle. There is much to discuss, including information about a multi-campus district study, the Board of Regents’ legislative strategies and more.
CSN Multi-Campus District Model Study
At the end of March, CSN President Michael Richards and ASCSN President Brenda Romero held the Presidents’ Chats on each campus.
The Board of Regents held a special meeting on Friday and approved the initiation of a feasibility study to look at transitioning CSN from a multi-campus single college to a multi-campus district model. Our Institutional Advisory Council has also endorsed the study. We will work with the system to propose an outline of the committee and timetables, which we will report to the Board of Regents Committee on Community Colleges at the next meeting. I hope to engage faculty, staff, students, Institutional Advisory Council and community members on this study to create improved service at each of our three campuses.
CSN Budget Priorities
The Board also discussed and endorsed legislative priorities at the Friday meeting. These are separate from ‘roll up’ items that include caseload growth and continued funding for the UNLV medical school. They will finalize these operational and capital priorities in June and then vote on them at a special Board of Regents meeting in August.
Operational enhancements:
- Faculty & Staff Compensation
The Governor directed state entities to build classified step increases into their budget requests and NSHE will request its equivalent for professional merit, which is approximately 2.5 percent. While the final merit calculation will not be completed until base budgets are constructed this summer, they estimate the request will be approximately $10 million to $10.5 million in FY 18 and $20m -$21m in FY 19.
- Formula Enhancement for Community Colleges
This would be an increase in the weight for certain Career & Technical Education credits completed and would equate to an additional estimated $7 million each year for CSN.
- A Technical Formula Adjustment for DRI
- The Workforce Innovations for a New Nevada (WINN) Fund
While this rapid response workforce training fund, enacted in the 2015 special legislative session, will not likely be part of the NSHE budget, the Board will discuss a resolution to support continued funding of this priority in the Governor’s budget.
- Silver State Opportunity Grant
NSHE is requesting that funding for the program be made permanent and that the Board request an additional $5 million in funding to expand the program to serve students enrolled in at least 12 credits, first serving students enrolled in 15 credits, with the remaining funds then serving students enrolled in at least 12 credits until all such funds are exhausted.
- Increasing Capacity System Wide
This sums up projects proposed by each institution to expand our ability to meet community needs. As part of this, CSN has proposed three pilot projects and workforce training redesign, which are described in more detail here.
Capital Priorities
CSN’s proposed Health and Science building in collaboration with Nevada State College was third on the board’s capital priority list Friday. UNR’s engineering building was first and NSC’s educational facility was second. There will likely be more discussion on these at the June meeting.
Express Enrollment Days
The Henderson Campus Master Plan
In preparation for the fall 2016 enrollment term, CSN will have numerous Express Enrollment Days beginning in June and ending in early August. Similar to the former Enrollment Bootcamp events, Express Enrollment Days will offer first-time, new-to-college students the opportunity to complete the first matriculation steps in one day:
- Placement testing for English, reading, and math
- Academic advising
- Orientation (in-person sessions available only during July and August dates; online orientation available 24/7)
While all first-time college students are encouraged to participate in Express Enrollment activities, all 2016 high school graduates from Nevada and out of state are required to complete placement, advising and orientation steps before registering for classes. To participate in Express Enrollment, students must register online in advance at either www.csn.edu/orientation or www.csn.edu/expressenrollment. Students will need to bring a valid photo ID and their NSHE ID number.
First Steps (formerly known as Mandatory Matriculation Policy)
I think we can all rally around the need for fewer acronyms and making higher education lexicon more student friendly. Therefore, I am happy to announce that we are changing the name of what was formerly called the Mandatory Matriculation Policy to First Steps. This is the Achieving the Dream expanded pilot requiring all recent high school graduates to complete placement testing, advising and orientation before enrolling. Aptly named, First Steps is the process we aspire to one day have all new students first complete prior to enrollment.
Collective Bargaining
As discussed in an email I sent last week, collective bargaining has passed and I look forward to working with our chapter of the Nevada Faculty Alliance on a contract over the coming months. By law, there is a 60-day period during which both the bargaining unit and CSN management will prepare to engage in the bargaining process.
A CSN graduate from the class of 2015 celebrates receiving his diploma.
Commencement – The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
Commencement will take place Monday, May 16, at the Thomas & Mack. I hope you will join us as we help celebrate thousands of CSN graduates. There are also a number of very important multi-cultural celebrations that will take place. For more information, click here to RSVP.
New CSN School of Math and Science Dean
Dr. John Adlish
Please join me in welcoming Dr. John Adlish as CSN’s new dean of the School of Science and Mathematics. He starts July 1. Dr. Adlish comes to us via TMCC, where he serves as chair of the Faculty Senate. He previously served as a dean there as well. A biologist by training, he has had a distinguished career involving research and publications, and is a graduate of both the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Outstanding Student Awards Announced
CSN 2013 Outstanding Student Awards Ceremony
Congratulations to this year’s Outstanding Student Awards recipients. What a wonderful bunch of students who have been chosen. That you to all the academic departments for the nominations!
- Bethany Williams, Accounting, Finance & Computer Office Technology
- Benjamin Sadberry, Applied Technologies
- Jessica Veach, Biological Sciences
- Curtis Chamblee, Business Administration
- Caryn Puritz, Communication
- Colin Izumo, Computing & Information Technology
- Nikko Angelo Religioso, Education
- Alejandra Muneton-Carrera, English
- Aubrey Williams, Fine Arts
- Jeanette Katzenmeyer, Health Related Professions
- Elene Lev, Hospitality Management
- Valentin Sanchez, Human Behavior
- Steve Ibraham, International Languages
- Ariel Blockovich, Mathematics
- Gary Mors, Media Technologies
- Jennifer Sou, Nursing
- John Dye, Physical Sciences
- Sabrina Matson, Public Safety & Human Services
- Joseph Dotson, Social Sciences
- Christel Marie San Diego, Regents’ Scholar
- Sarah Rinehart, Kim Gregory Memorial Scholarship Recipient
CSN Nurses Standout at National Conference
Nursing faculty advisor, Karen Bearer, reports that she and four students — Mayra Rivera, David Alvarez, Dawn Gonzalez, and Regie Layog — were able to attend the National Student Nurses’ Association (NSNA) Convention in Orlando last month. The students took the opportunity to learn about disaster preparedness, writing skills and pharmacology, among other topics. A first in CSN nursing’s history was also accomplished during the convention. It was the first time the CSN Student Nurses’ Association presented a resolution to the NSNA’s House of Delegates. The resolution supported increasing awareness and education regarding injection safety for patients, and was unanimously passed and adopted by the NSNA. Congratulations to our students for their accomplishment!
PTK Advisor Bruno Rhodes Honored
CSN PTK Advisor and English Professor Bruno Rhodes
Congratulations are due to English Professor and PTK Advisor Bruno Rhodes, who was selected as one of Phi Theta Kappa’s 2016 Distinguished Advisors. PTK is the national honor society for students at two-year colleges. The Distinguished Advisor Award recognizes advisors who have served at least four years and have made significant contributions to the growth of the individual chapter members, served as the chapter’s advocate on campus, and encouraged the chapter to be involved on the local, regional, and/or international level of the organization.
Cardiorespiratory Sciences Achievement
Our Respiratory Care Program received some great news recently: It was among a select group of programs that will be recognized by the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care to receive the Distinguished RRT Credentialing Success Award. The award is considered to be a measure of a program’s success in inspiring its graduates to achieve their highest educational and professional aspirations. What it means for CSN’s students is that they can expect the very best from this top-notch program.
All College Committee Openings
It is also time to solicit interest in serving on all-college committees. If you would like to be considered for any of the following committees, please email K.C. Brekken your committee of choice by June 15, 2016. We will send the comprehensive list to the vice presidents and respective chairs, after which you may be contacted by the chair to fill any vacancies that arise during the next academic year. I’d like to note that this process is in its third year and is a recommendation from the Work Climate Committee based on survey recommendations from the college. Committee participation is critical to a healthy shared-governance system.
All-College Committees
CSN held its first Human Library event this month in which volunteers became human books.
Presented by the CSN Library and the Queer-Inclusive Campus Committee, the Human Library living “books” made their experiences open and available, and “readers,” or those visiting the library, had a one-on-one or group conversation. The Human Library event was developed to create dialogue and understanding between people who might otherwise never interact.
- Academic Technology Advisory Committee
- Achieving the Dream
- Animal Care and Use Committee
- Charleston Campus Steering Committee
- Cheyenne Campus Steering Committee
- Henderson Campus Steering Committee
- Commencement Committee
- Hispanic Serving Institution Task Force
- Diversity Office Related Committees
- Institutional Review Board
- Intercollegiate Athletics Committees
- Internal Recognition Committee
- Safety & Security Committee
- Work Climate Committee
- Any Committee
Faculty & Staff Questions
Why do we have multi-cultural graduation celebrations?
These celebrations are done at many higher education institutions. They represent one of many strategic activities we have at CSN to help eliminate longstanding gaps in degree-attainment that have a direct impact and lead to disparate socioeconomic conditions. According to recent data from the Lumina Foundation, 37.4 percent of white residents in Nevada, age 25-64, have a college degree compared to 24 percent of African Americans and 13.8 percent of Hispanics in our state. Celebrations that highlight these under-represented graduates’ accomplishments among their family, friends, with their faculty and staff are important to help create the college-going culture we all want for our state. I hope you’ll join us at these events and of course, at the Commencement Ceremony on May 16.
What’s the difference between different proposals to remove Nevada’s community colleges from the Nevada System of Higher Education and the multi-campus district model that we will be studying?
I understand that there is a lot of confusion between these two. There are some public officials who advocate that Nevada’s four community colleges should be governed by a separate board, apart from the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents.
However, Regents approved a study to transition CSN from a multi-campus single college, as it is now, to a multi-campus district model, still under the Board of Regents. This study will examine if CSN should create more autonomous campuses with a more horizontal structure, similar to many of our peer colleges throughout the nation.
Now that we are expanding athletics by adding soccer teams this year, do you think this will impact our competitive edge as an educational institution?
This will enhance our competitive edge for several reasons. CSN athletes are very successful academically and can only add to our culture of student success. I also believe having a competitive soccer team for men and women, in a community that embraces this sport, will not only spread more awareness about CSN as an academic institution but as an athletic opportunity throughout the region.
CSN’s administration has a history of promoting equity among employee groups. With the new collective bargaining agreement in place with academic faculty, how will the college ensure continued equity between different employee groups at CSN?
Over the next few months, we will have much discussion about how to incorporate the new collective bargaining system into our organizational culture. CSN has received accolades for our shared governance from our accrediting body and I prize the relationships we have among our employee groups. I have every intention of maintaining and protecting equity for all of our employees, including their ability to contribute to college decision making.
With CSN exploring new administrative structures, employees are concerned about how such changes might affect their roles on campus, especially those employees that provide services at multiple campus locations. Looking at the big picture is important, but how might these big picture changes affect those employees working with students on the “front lines”?
This is an excellent question and one that must be worked out through the course of the feasibility study. I hope that employees are not anxious about potential structural shifts. Change can be uncomfortable, but if studied well and implemented collaboratively, it can be done far more smoothly. Keep in mind that the impetus for this change is to further empower our employees working with students and to diminish the distance between leadership, employees and students.
The Northwest campus is often been referred to as the S.T.E.M. or S.T.E.A.M. Campus. studies show that the arts are crucial for the development of science, technology, engineering and math, will the Northwest campus have an “A”?
Adding the arts is highly likely. As the feasibility study on CSN manageability or decentralization proceeds, there is an important principle included in the plan for the study: campuses will have a comprehensive curriculum for general education. Should the student committee adopt that principle, the arts will be part of the curriculum that is offered.
Best,
Mike