Goal 5

Strategic Goal 5: Create a student life environment that enhances participation in campus events.

Success Indicators:

1. Increase participation at co-curricular activities by at least 25 percent by 2011, using the first year as a baseline.

  Timeline, Reports, Team Members.                    Task Force Findings.                  

Action Step 1: Implement a comprehensive communication plan to publicize campus events.

1. Institute an easy-to-use, comprehensive, sortable online calendar for all events.
2. Utilize existing student-friendly technology to communicate information about events.
   • Use the large screens in the Falcon Center and Caperton Center.
   • Establish kiosks and bulletin boards.
   • Utilize Facebook and other communication systems students are using.
   • Send out descriptive, inviting emails about events.
   • Institute a single campus portal for logging in to all campus communication.
   • Advertise activities in the residence halls so that residents never wonder if there is anything to do. 
3. Research ways to effectively use the campus newspaper to communicate information about events to a larger segment of the student population.  
4. Reorganize and expand the current contact information directories to facilitate contact with people who can most readily answer questions and solve problems.
5. Coordinate publicity with community education and regional stewardship.

Action Step 1 Assessment: Randomly survey event participants.  Track online calendar site visits.

Action Step 2:  Develop expectations and incentives for student, faculty, and staff participation in co-curricular events.

1. Constitute a representative committee of faculty, students, and staff members to develop a written statement of our institutional expectations for broad-based participation in co-curricular events.
2. Communicate institutional expectations for co-curricular events in widespread, appropriate venues (e.g., Freshmen Seminars, every course syllabus, faculty handbook, student handbook, brochures, faculty meetings, new student, faculty and staff orientation).
3. Investigate potential accountability measures and long-term documentation for student participation in co-curricular events (e.g. portfolios that satisfy requirements for a specific class or requirements for a major, and/or requirements for achieving a liberal studies ability).
4. Create incentives and opportunities for participation by coordinating existing activities (e.g. theatre attendance built into faculty holiday dinner).
5. Build incentives and rewards for student, faculty, and staff participation in co-curricular activities.   Examples:
   • Students
     • Reduce admission costs
     • Explore credit or extra credit opportunities in several classes.
   • Classified staff
     • Explore use of release time.
     • Reduce membership costs in Falcon Center for playing in intramurals with students or being a regular at sporting events.
   • Faculty and non-classified staff
     • Explore credit in annual evaluations.
     • Reduce membership costs in Falcon Center for playing in intramurals with students or being a regular at sporting events.
     • Explore participation of faculty and staff with students in music groups, discussion groups, book clubs
6. Take advantage of campus offerings by building event publicity and participation into classes when appropriate.
7. Publicize schedules well in advance so that faculty at on and off-campus locations can build events into their course activities.

Action Step 2 Assessment: Survey venues (faculty handbook, student handbook, Freshmen Seminar syllabus, etc.), to see if the expectation of participation/attendance at co-curricular events has been conveyed to everyone.  Survey event participants.

Action Step 3: Expand and diversify student authority and responsibility for programming and delivery of co-curricular events.

1. Create criteria for extracurricular events that enhance student life socially, intellectually, and culturally.
2. Create a workable-sized (5-10) programming advisory council charged with design of co-curricular events that will appeal to diverse student populations (on and off campus, non-traditional, international, academic groups).
3. Add student representation to the lectureship committee.
4. Provide a vehicle for attending to student suggestions and concerns about the student life environment.
5. Explore delivery systems for co-curricular events that will appeal to diverse student populations (on and off campus, non-traditional, international).  Examples:
   • Create technological solutions like taping, streaming, simulcast, online presentations.
   • Take on-campus co-curricular events to off-campus locations wherever feasible.
6. Expand the capacity and impact of co-curricular events.  Examples:
   • Build in roundtable discussions before or after the event involving faculty, community experts,  graduate students, and upperlevel undergraduate students in hosting these discussions.
   • Create an online forum for discussions of intellectual events which is moderated by faculty and/or graduate students.
   • Use themes wherever possible to broaden the participation and dialogue: e.g. films that support books; speakers that support a dance troupe.
   • Expand movie or film offerings.
   • Expand events that appeal to families and children.
   • Explore and expand capacity for student travel and scholarship outside of the campus (e.g. outdoor activities, events in other cities or countries, lectureships, dances, social events).
   • Pilot the campus-wide reading of a common book followed by author visit and discussions.
   • Pilot an initiative to get community members and civic organizations to bring their interests and expertise to the campus and to off-campus sites. 

Action Step 3 Assessment: Conduct satisfaction surveys to see if new programming/delivery strategies of co-curricular events have been effective and are meeting needs of students, faculty, staff, and community members.