Time & Location: 8:30 – 10:30 a.m., 220 Seymour
Attendees
Voting Members
- Joy Bhadury
- Davida Bloom
- Steven Breslawski
- Frances Dearing
- Scott Haines
- Jim Haynes
- Tom Hernandez
- Debbie Jacob
- Sara Kelly
- Kadathur Lakshmanan
- Jose Maliekal
- Brad Menear
- Dave Mihalyov
- Sandeep Singh
- Kathryn Wilson
Non-Voting Members
- Denise Copelton: Co-Chair
- Crystal Hallenbeck
- Kathleen Peterson
- Karen Riotto
- Lou Spiro: Co-Chair
Guests
- John Follaco
- Janet Roy
- Jamie Scheid
- Susan Stites-Doe
- Robert Wyant
Regrets
Voting Members
- Mike Andriatch
- Shanelle Hodge
- Josh Johannes
- Teresa Major
- Chantelle Nasri
- Cherise Oakley
- Summer Reiner
Non-Voting Members
- President Macpherson
- Melissa Wight
The meeting was called to order at 8:33am
Announcements
Dr. Copelton announced that the minutes from the March 29, 2018 meeting are not currently available and will be distributed as our next meeting.
Division Presentations
Note: Presentations are available on Blackboard and on the JPBC website.
The following questions, answers and discussion points occurred during the following presentations:
Division of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs
Presented by Dr. Katy Wilson, Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs
Dr. Haynes – As you know, earlier in the semester we were notified that students who were awarded work study funds were using it at a low rate. Have you explored ways to hire students who have been awarded work study funds? Have you maximized that opportunity
Dr. Wilson – Yes. We think there are a couple issues around that. One was when we thought the State was going to force us to go to a much higher rate and BASC did not want two types of payroll for students. So, they stopped using work-study two years ago. Now we have that back. The other thing is we had stopped letting BSG use it, so now we are going to let them use it. They are running the pay for the late night activities now so they should be able to use it. We are redeploying and being smarter with our work study.
Dr. Breslawski – What do we pay to recruit a student? How does that change when we go
downstate?
Dr. Wilson – We employ people that are from downstate. It is our graduates who are Outstanding Students. For example, our recruiter in Long Island was one of our Outstanding Students. She is from Long Island and lives in Long Island. She has been the recruiter for three years. We do not pay her living expenses. We only pay for her salary. I know we did the figures about a year ago for cost per student. I don’t know it off the top of my head, but I can get it for you.
Dr. Breslawski – Outside of recruiting, once the student gets here, what is the cost per student to do what EMSA does if we net out fees? I know there is an athletic fee that pays some of those costs but I know some of those costs aren’t paid for by fees, right? Dorm costs are paid by dorms but there are things that aren’t paid for. So, what is the cost per student? How is that changing over time?
Dr. Wilson – You are asking what is a really complex question. I would say the service offices like Financial Aid, Registration and Records those offices are State dollars and should be State dollars. Athletics, Recreation, the three areas of Health, Counseling and Prevention and Career is some of it State and some of it is fee. Some of the areas are fee based. Even their staffing and benefits are fee based. The areas that are on State are lined up pretty well with State dollars.
Mr. Spiro – Another way to look at it is we are primarily tuition and fee based. We get very little State support. Without the students, we don’t get the tuition and fees. Are you looking for a cost benefit per student?
Dr. Breslawski – I am trying to figure out beyond the core academic costs, what is the cost per student and how is it changing over time?
Dr. Wilson – I think the areas where we have seen the most growth would be Athletics because they have costs that they can’t contain meaning bus costs, hotels and food. Those are things outside of their control. Then, I think our Health and Counseling. The number of students using counseling has grown. I have watched the numbers go through the roof and it doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. Those are our big growth areas. I can breakdown the cost of what it takes to recruit, but in terms of things that are funded by tuition, funded by State, funded by fee and cost benefit analysis, that would take research to develop that number.
Dr. Maliekal: In terms of the scholarship program that we are thinking about, we talked about getting high parameter students. We talked about giving scholarships based on need. When we give scholarships, might we also consider giving scholarships based on success protection? As Mr. Spiro mentioned three meetings ago, when you think in terms of risk to the institution, one of the important parameters is the reputation. We increase our reputation when we increase protection and graduation rates. There may be some national data out there that we could use to channel our precious scholarship monies based on students who have the greatest potential to succeed at a college. Is that something we are looking into or might look into?
Dr. Wilson: I think what you see and I believe you have been working with Mr. Wyant on the
financial leveraging program. The Assistant Deans are working with Undergraduate Admissions and that’s exactly what we are trying to do. We are looking at our Tier 1 Students and what is going to draw them here. We are looking at particular majors; we are looking at the sciences and math. Business as well. We have been putting more money and high parameter students in business this year. If you are saying putting more money on students who are exceedingly high parameter, that almost does back to where they are given a full ride.
Dr. Maliekal: I am not saying exceeding high parameter students. There may be studies out there that will give us predictors of future success based on the city schools and high schools average.
Dr. Wilson: We do that now. Mr. Wyant talk a little bit what we do.
Mr. Wyant: We do a predictive model approach with our name buys. They are looking at all of those different factors. The likelihood that the student is going to enroll. So, we are actually giving money to students who might have the propensity to enroll instead of blindly giving money to students who don’t have a chance to enroll even if money influences them. Obviously, we are looking at different majors like Dr. Wilson said. I think the first group we looked at financial leveraging was the stem and business because those are the areas we wanted to increase our high parameter students because they are going to retain beyond just the first year. We are also looking at the program that is a predictive program that allows us to do three predictive models. The likelihood they are going to enroll; the likelihood that if we give them dollars how that changes their likelihood to enroll; and the likelihood that if we give them dollars and they enroll, the likelihood that will actually retain. So, it is a three-tier predictive model program. The challenge is that it is very expensive, so we are doing some research on this particular program that would enhance our financial aid leveraging. When we are looking at the student, we are looking at many different factors including demonstrating interest because if a student is demonstrating interest during the undergraduate recruitment cycle, they are at least engaged to the campus. Which means they will be engaged here, which we all know if they are engaged here, they are likely to retain.
Dr. Maliekal: Sometimes the best laid out plans may not succeed, which means we might be
recruiting students that may need more help. Something that Dr. Breslawski alluded to. I hope
there is emphasis on booking scholarship money using the gift fund to launch Academic Success Center. I hope in turn we can think in terms of institutionalizing providing support for students who that need that support by identifying them earlier on.
Dr. Haynes: That is what EagleSUCCESS is trying to do. It is critical that faculty raise flags as soon as they see an indication of a problem.
Dr. Maliekal: The College has mixed record when it comes to HIPS and CHIPS. Perhaps we can plan before we introduce initiatives to have greater buy-in. So that what happened in the past in terms of success can be avoided. Maybe discussions are happening. If they are not, I am hoping we can start those discussions because we have had a mixed bag when it comes to HIPS and CHIPS.
Dr. Haynes: What’s the mixed bag? The division at the Provost level has been working on this for at least six years.
Dr. Maliekal: There was a resolution at Senate.
Dr. Haynes: I do remember that.
Dr. Maliekal: I am trying to anticipate such things and take steps so that there is not repetitions of things. Those were my observations.
Dr. Wilson: Dr. Haynes has been a good partner in this and I believe our incoming Provost will be in good partner in this. Wisconsin is way ahead of SUNY with high impact practices and making the language being very involved. Dr. Heyning brings with her many things and one is her experience around high impact practices. I think that is going to be helpful as she works with the Deans and the Chairs throughout your division on how things are communicated.
Division of College Communications
Presented by Mr. Dave Mihalyov, Chief Communications Officer
Dr. Copelton: Is this $45,000 salary position different then the prior one on the previous slide?
Mr. Mihalyov: Yes.
Dr. Copelton: So, this is in addition to the other one?
Mr. Mihalyov: Yes. They are two different positions. One is for more marketing and one is for more public relations and public communications.
Dr. Haynes: Can you describe briefly, what that viewbook does when a student first touches the system? How we are able to customize to the individual student?
Mr. Mihalyov: They will go in and just from a service standpoint; you can design it from an athletic feel, campus life feel or an academic feel. Everything from that point, the photos and
backgrounds that show up will follow that theme. We ask a ton of different areas: are you
interested in dining; are you interested in living on campus; are you interested in clubs; are you interested in Greek life; what academic fields are you considering studying? Once you provide all of that information, automatically we pull from a repository and a personalized viewbook is made for you. So, if you want study potentially Biology and Nursing we will draw in information from those two departments and those are the two primary academic departments you will see in your viewbook. You might get an overview of the College, but you are not going to learn about Anthropology if you don’t select that. So, it really customizes your specific interests and you get information about dining halls if that is of interest to you or fraternities if that is of interest to you. It really goes pretty in-depth. It is modeled on how on department websites are set up, but it will give you information, for example if you are interested in Biology, what are your career outlooks; what are some of our alums doing; what kind of research is our faculty doing. It pulls in some pretty cool information and it can be sent to your email or it can sent to you via text. It is a pretty nice tool and it has saved us a lot of money.
Dr. Copelton: I have sort of a broad question because you started out noting that you haven’t
done a market research survey in about ten years. Remind me when we moved to the reconfiguration of our name and the shield logo.
Mr. Mihalyov: I started here in August of 2008, so I want to it say it was approximately a year before that.
Dr. Copelton: So, that would have been before the last market research survey.
Mr. Mihalyov: Yes.
Dr. Copelton: So, do we know how people have responded to the minimization, for the lack of a better way of putting it, of the State University of New York and the rebranding effort that this was all part of?
Mr. Mihalyov: My understanding of the intent of minimizing State University of New York was to raise the profile of the College and make us stand apart from our fellow SUNY schools. It has been mixed to be honest with you. I think you have people that will always forevermore call SUNY Brockport no matter how many times we tell them The College at Brockport. We see that in the media. It is getting better now. It all depends on what reporter gets the story and when they first become familiar with us. We still have people in the sports department that a year or two ago were referring to us as SUC Brockport because I think that is what we were called back in the mid-seventies. People are going to call us what they want to call us. I think it did maybe elevate us a little bit. I am not sure how well it went over with our alumni.
Dr. Copelton: I guess that was part of my concern was how alumni reacted to that and obviously I wondering too has it had any impact on giving which I know that is not necessarily something you can answer.
Mr. Mihalyov: I will say that lately I have not heard much push back on that. I think when the logo was changed that caused a lot of stress because people identified the Hartwell tower, but I think the last ten years’ worth of folks really don’t have an issue with it.
Dr. Singh: I have a budget related question. If I added the numbers all up and if you got
everything that you are asking for, your budget would go up about 50%.
Mr. Mihalyov: Well when I say our budget is north of $400,000 a year that does not include
personnel costs.
Dr. Singh: A related question that I have is that any unit has to consistently readjust their
personnel, and being a service organization this is the biggest component of our costs. As a State institution, our only opportunities to hire come when people retire and people leave. Are there certain positions in your unit, which you foresee could be moved down the priority list?
Mr. Mihalyov: Yes, we have four people right now that primarily focus on graphic design. We probably don’t need four graphic designers anymore. We need more people that have the ability to do web design type work or video type work. We are trying to cross train those that have the ability to learn new skills and have them help us in the ways that we need. We do have a few positions that when those individuals retire we will likely not replace that position as it stands; it may remain vacant or shift the position to an area of greater need.
Dr. Maliekal: Can we think about a training to promote the Event Management System? That
would be very beneficial.
Mr. Mihalyov: I know Jan is trying to create training and work with the campus to get people to use the system.
Dr. Maliekal: You mentioned the Daily Eagle is almost nine and a half years old and we are
looking for new ways to push information out. Are there social media platforms where this can be done rather than waiting for an email?
Mr. Mihalyov: One advantage of email is that everyone gets it. With social media, I don’t think there is one way you could reach every employee. Most of those things you have to either sign up to follow or what have you. If we push it out on Instagram, if you don’t follow us on Instagram, you aren’t going to get it. So, social media is great for many things but it is not necessarily a way to ensure that everyone gets it.
Dr. Breslawski: I recently needed a video for a local economic development group. I reached out to the Communications Department to see if they had students who could do the storyboard, shoot the video and edit the video. They were very excited to help me because they need it for their portfolio. I couldn’t believe what a good job they did with minimal direction from me. So, I am wondering if you could hire an adjunct to teach a course where they ask departments on campus if they need a video and you might be able to get some help that way.
Mr. Mihalyov: Between social media and video, we probably have five to six student interns a semester that help us with that type of thing. We do send people to the Communications
Department sometimes when we can’t help them and we have partnered with them several times.
Dr. Breslawski: I am just wondering with the increasing need, maybe it could be systematized over there.
Mr. Mihalyov: It could.
Dr. Peterson: On your forth slide, when you say we need more external video support and the web programmer, those are real needs. We are looking at our Masters program and I am sure you are in Business too. We want videos that are professional videos that are done introducing our students to our facilities and to our faculty. As we continue to grow these programs that are online, our students have to feel like they know us and how else to do we do that then through videos?
Mr. Mihalyov: Well, I think one of the purposes of this group is to look at everyone’s
presentations and in some way make recommendations or provide thoughts on what they think the College needs. What are really trying to do as the Cabinet is to break out of the divisional need mentality and look at what does the College need. There may be a line available in this division and there isn’t a line available in that division but the need in that division is so much greater, so what do we do? There are so many areas that need help.
Dr. Bhadury: Now that we have eight years of data for the Daily Eagle, what is the click rate? How many people actually view it?
Mr. Mihalyov: I don’t know that off hand, but it is part of our annual report so I have that
information.
Dr. Bhadury: The reason being, if that number is very low it might be important to ask what to do about it. Including the option of is there a different way.
Mr. Mihalyov: Again, we are doing these focus groups and we are talking about what does the College need.
Ms. Jacob: I have an email from Gian back in the fall that the number of people the Daily Eagle is sent to fluctuates during the year but now it is 2350. From July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2017, page views for the Daily Eagle were 220,000 and the average time was 2.38 minutes.
Dr. Bhadury: What I have seen at other universities is that they have decentralized much of the marketing by creating empty templates, just as we have empty PowerPoint templates with The College at Brockport logo, so giving them empty templates for newsletters, alumni communications and all of that. Making it the responsibility of the unit.
Mr. Mihalyov: We have tried to create templates for various things. We don’t do departmental newsletters anymore, departments do it. Yes, that is the direction we are heading.
Dr. Copelton: You indicated that if the lines you are requesting don’t get funded and in that
event, you would likely have to look at things your division is doing now that maybe they shouldn’t be doing. Can you tell me a little bit more about this process and where you are on that? As you said, realistically you aren’t going to get these four lines. So, what is the process the division is going to take in terms of looking at what you are doing and evaluating what you need to keep doing and what you shouldn’t be doing?
Mr. Mihalyov: We have already, from a director’s standpoint; those conversations have begun about big picture. What do we think could potentially go away? We get approximately 1200 jobs that come in as requests for our services.
Ms. Jacob: Those are only print jobs. That doesn’t take into consideration any of the web work, public relation, video or any of the digital ads.
Mr. Mihalyov: Starting in mid-May we are going to take a real serious look at this and over of summer, try to come up with some plan. We will also be working with Cabinet on this plan.
Other Items from the Committee
None at this time.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 am
Next Meeting: April 5, 2018, 8:30 – 10:30 am
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