04/21/21
K-State Current - April 21, 2021
K-State Current is a weekly news update for the Kansas Board of Regents to apprise the Regents on a few of the many successes and achievements made by K-State faculty, staff and students.
K-State News
Establishing clear performance goals to close gaps in undergraduate retention and graduation rates
Dear K-State community,
"Walk the Talk" is the title of our Action Plan for a More Inclusive K-State. One of the ways a university holds itself accountable for walking the talk is to set clear measurable institutional goals and then regularly report progress. We know this works. In 2011, we set ambitious targets to measure our students' success and persistence to graduation. Our university strategic plan calls for institutional first-year retention and six-year graduation rates comparable to our peer institutions by 2025 and colleges and departments set goals in support of these targets. We are well on our way to achieving those goals, but we need to go much further to ensure all students are supported from recruitment through graduation.
Although K-State has long tracked the equity gaps that exist for historically underserved students with a goal of reducing those gaps, we had not established clear institutional performance targets. Setting achievable retention and four- and six-year graduation rates across specific student populations that meet or exceed peer averages is a Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Plan priority. Noting that "persistence and degree completion are of paramount importance in today's competitive job market," our Diversity Action Plan calls for measurable goals to increase retention and graduation rates among students of color.
Increasing undergraduate retention and graduation rates, closing equity gaps for historically underrepresented groups, and reporting progress with specific performance metrics is not only a K-State commitment, but also a state goal, as recognized in the Kansas Board of Regents new strategic plan, Building a Future.
Today we are announcing an expanded set of institutional retention and graduation performance goals adopted as part of the Strategic Enrollment Management initiative. These goals will also be incorporated into university strategic planning and diversity, equity, and inclusion work as we look beyond 2025.
You can view the University Performance Goals for Undergraduate Retention and Graduation rates here.
The key institutional measures now include:
- Both first-year and second-year freshmen retention rates.
- Both four-year and six-year freshmen graduation rates.
- A transfer student retention and graduation rate.
Performance goals are set across student populations, including all freshmen and by race and ethnicity, international, gender, Pell recipients, and first-generation students. Short-term (by 2025) and intermediate (by 2030) targets have been established, using this year as the baseline.
These new performance goals are a result of a collaboration between the diversity action plan step four team and the strategic enrollment management leadership team. We thank them for this very important work.
Establishing measurable targets for retention and graduation goals is important, but won't guarantee success. Ultimately, success will be determined by what we do to achieve those goals — what strategies we put into place. There is much work to do. Look for future communications regarding ongoing and planned initiatives and how you can be engaged.
Access for all is a value at the core of our historical land-grant mission. We aim to help our students meet their personal, academic, and career goals. To be a truly student-centered university, we must focus together on supporting the success of all our students.
Sincerely,
Chuck Taber, provost and executive vice president
Thomas Lane, vice president for student life and dean of students
Jeannie Brown Leonard, vice provost for student success
Charlie and Debbie Morrison, Southlake, Texas, have invested $10.2 million in student well-being initiatives at Kansas State University.
Mental health and overall well-being are important to the Morrisons, and with this investment, they are creating the Morrison Center for Student Well-being. The new center will oversee all aspects of student well-being campuswide.
“One of the Division of Student Life’s key strategic goals is to ‘champion students’ holistic well-being’,” said Thomas Lane, vice president for student life and dean of students. “The Morrison family’s generous gift will greatly help advance student well-being on campus through the creation of the Morrison Center for Student Well-being. The center will gather data to identify current issues impacting student well-being and be a centralized hub for promoting, coordinating and scaling up Student Life well-being programs, as well as help promote other campus wellness initiatives. Additionally, the center will serve as a home for ‘gatekeeper’ training for faculty, staff and students to recognize and refer students with a well-being concern and connect students to information and resources through a number of different engagement activities. This intentional approach to increasing student well-being at K-State would not be possible without the Morrison family’s dedication and commitment.”
The Morrisons additionally gave a generous gift to the Cats’ Cupboard, K-State’s food pantry. With this investment comes the naming of the director position, which will now be known as the Morrison Family Director of Cats’ Cupboard. Since its inception, Cats’ Cupboard has been a vital resource for K-State’s efforts in combatting food insecurity. In 2020, the food pantry served more than 9,400 K-State community members and increased the number of households served by 6% from 2019.
“The truly generous donation by the Morrison family helps ensure Cats’ Cupboard is here not only for today’s students, but for future generations of Wildcats,” Lane said. “This endowed fund will provide continual support for the work of Cats’ Cupboard leadership in identifying new and innovative ways to meet the basic food needs of our students and strengthen partnerships with our academic programs engaged in understanding and promoting food security.”
The Morrisons have also invested in K-State’s student athletes with a gift to help create space and programming for mental health and wellness services. The investment will enable more staff to be hired and provides funds for suicide prevention training, bystander training, research, mental health treatment and a biofeedback/performance lab.
“We are so appreciative of this generous gift from the Morrison family, which will greatly impact our student-athletes,” Athletics Director Gene Taylor said. “Mental health and wellness is a major focus for us as a department, and this contribution will allow us to provide more staff and services for our student-athletes in this important area.”
Aware that being a first-generation student to college carries its own challenges, the Morrisons have established a scholarship, using matching funds contributed by Otis and Wanda Gilliland, for first-generation students in the College of Business Administration.
“Supporting first-generation students is critical to our goal of providing access to K-State for all students. Twenty-one percent of the student body in the College of Business are the first in their family to go to college, so this is obviously an important category of student for the college,” said Kevin Gwinner, Edgerley Family Dean of the College of Business Administration. “Often first-generation families are in lower income categories and so find it harder to support children going on to four-year schools. However, with starting salaries for business students over $50,000 and college graduates’ lifetime earnings being three times the amount of a non-college graduate, it has never been more important for students to earn a college degree. The financial support from the Morrison scholarship will put the dream and reward of earning a college degree that much closer for these students.”
“Our gifts are to help students who are struggling, which is all students at some point. College is a big life transition, with stresses and pressure,” said the Morrisons. “These investments will provide students access to the assistance they need, while maintaining their dignity without scrutiny. K-State family supported us when we needed it, so we are paying it forward.”
“As awareness of the need to address overall well-being in our students has come to the forefront, we thank the Morrisons for their investments,” said President Richard Myers. “Students can’t succeed academically if they are struggling in other areas of their lives. Having a Center for Student Well-being to oversee all aspects of health and wellness for our students will provide an enormous benefit to our students and help them succeed.”
As Kansas State University’s strategic partner for philanthropy, the KSU Foundation inspires and guides philanthropy toward university priorities to boldly advance K-State family. Visit www.ksufoundation.org for more information.
K-State Faculty Highlights
Debra Bolton joins board of trustees of The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy's Kansas board of trustees announces the addition of Debra Bolton to the board.
Bolton, a human scientist and geographer, serves as director of intercultural learning and academic success in Kansas State University's Department of Diversity and Multicultural Student Affairs. She also serves in a faculty capacity in the geography and geospatial sciences department.
Her continued research focuses on health, well-being, environmental/social connectedness, and belonging in underrepresented, historically excluded, and displaced populations in Kansas and in Indigenous populations in the United States. A former commissioner for the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism, Bolton applies her research and life experiences to her work goals and to her interests in environmental stewardship.
"My birthplace is the beautiful mountains of Colorado, so my love of the land and its flora and fauna stands as a long tradition of my family and ancestors of Indigenous/Native traditions," Bolton said.
Bolton's combination of traditional knowledge and scholarly research adds a unique asset to The Nature Conservancy's board and work in Kansas. She will serve on the governance and land protection and stewardship committees.
The Nature Conservancy is a global conservation organization dedicated to conserving the lands and waters on which all life depends. The Nature Conservancy's relationship with K-State dates back to 1971 when it established the Konza Prairie Biological Station under a management agreement with K-State's division of biology in 1971. Konza is The Nature Conservancy's northernmost nature preserve in the Flint Hills, and K-State continues to utilize Konza as a site for long-term ecological research. The conservancy has permanently protected 190,000 acres and 600 miles of freshwater streams in Kansas.
Bolton joins trustees from across the state, including Chuck Rice, K-State distinguished professor in soil microbiology, and Mary Ice, K-State alumna.
K-State Student News
Graduate students in interior architecture & industrial design present at EDRA
Lauren Fitzpatrick, left, and Emily Block
Two graduate students from the interior architecture & industrial design department in the College of Architecture, Planning & Design will present at the nationalEnvironmental Design Research Association conference, May 19-23.
The annual conference brings together a multi-disciplinary community to exchange knowledge and findings on the theory, teaching, research and practice of environmental design that put diverse human needs at its focus.
Emily Block, fifth-year student, Hastings, Nebraska, will present “Redesigning Dying Malls: An Opportunity to Address the Housing Crisis and Reinvigorate Communities." In this ongoing research, Block is looking into the possible ways to redesign dying malls in order to address the ongoing housing crisis, revive remaining businesses, and reinvigorate communities through the analysis of data gathered by a series of semi-structured interviews with retail business owners, community members and employees of existing homeless shelters.
Lauren Fitzpatrick, a graduate post-baccalaureate, Kearney, Missouri, will present “Wellness Focused Design Guidelines for Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy Facilities." As a post-baccalaureate student with a prior degree in equestrian studies, Fitzpatrick is working to develop a set of design guidelines in this ongoing research, focusing on improving patient and staff experience as well as ensuring equine welfare by controlling environmental stressors in equine-facilitated psychotherapy facilities.
“Both research projects are promising fresh and useful output that have the potential to improve the spatial experience and life quality for occupants,” said Kutay Guler, assistant professor. “We are expecting that the findings will be received well by the broad design community and build on the existing literature on healthcare facilities and emergency shelters.”
K-State junior awarded national DOE scholarship
Broderick Sieh, Kansas State University junior in mechanical engineering from Stanton, Nebraska, has been awarded a $7,500 scholarship by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy Integrated University Program.
Since 2009, the Integrated University Program has awarded nearly 850 scholarships and fellowships, totaling approximately $50 million in awards.
Sieh, who is enrolled in the nuclear option of the mechanical engineering program, has also been previously awarded an American Nuclear Society scholarship for undergraduate students studying nuclear engineering.
Sieh's adviser is Hitesh Bindra, associate professor and Steve Hsu Keystone research scholar in the Alan Levin Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at K-State.