Faculty senate hears from administration on progress made on strategic plannin

Meritt Drake

Fort Lewis College Faculty Senate met on Thursday to hear from President Tom Stritikus and Provost Jesse Peters about work being done to create a strategic plan for the college.

Strategic Plan Progress

There are four groups working on the strategic plan, Stritikus said. These groups are mechanisms for organizing work and thinking of initiatives, he said.

The groups are: Students at the Center, Community Responsiveness, Scholars in Action, and Systems to Do Our Work.

There will be input sessions held Oct. 24 and Oct. 25 where students and staff can voice concerns or suggestions to the group that fits their interests, Stritikus said.

“We want students to come and offer feedback and guidance,” Stritikus said. “They have a different idea of the college process than faculty does.”

Another group being formed will visit nine communities in the area, from Farmington up to Montrose, Stritikus said. On these visits, the group will ask the communities how FLC can serve them and the students that come from their community, he said.

Andrew Gulliford, professor of history and environmental studies, brought up his concern about not getting input from Native American students, especially Alaskan Natives, he said.

The group will also be traveling to Shiprock, Ariz. and Window Rock, Ariz. to hear from the Native American communities, Stritikus said. Stritikus will also look into addressing students from other areas, like Oklahoma or Alaskan Native communities about their specific needs, he said.

Liberal Arts Core outcomes changed

Senate voted unanimously to remove the FLC liberal arts learning outcomes.

Learning outcomes determine what a student should be able to do and understand by the end of a course.

In the past, FLC has used 10 learning outcomes created by the state of Colorado, as well as five outcomes created by FLC, to assess students, Sarah Roberts-Cady, professor of women’s studies, said.

Learning outcomes tell what the student should be able to by the end of a course.

“We’ve been ignoring FLC’s outcomes and focusing on the state’s outcomes at the time when we created FLC outcomes,” Roberts-Cady said. “We wanted to do something unique, but now we want to be unique in how we deliver to these outcomes, not by having more. Many of FLC’s outcomes overlapped with the state outcomes anyways, so we want to reduce redundancy.”

Projects from the Provost’s Office

Three teams have been formed to focus on three different initiatives to help with student retention,  Provost Jesse Peters said. The team focus on a freshman seminar experience, a summer bridge program, and professional advisement strengthening, he said.

Peters is modeling these programs after other schools which have had success in these areas, he said.

President Stritikus is creating a student diversity advisement team which will advise Stritikus on ways to create equality among all students, Peters said. A faculty version will also be formed, Peters said.

“I feel like we’re doing a lot of new stuff and it overlaps with strategic plan committees,” said Peters. “We’re all targeting similar issues.”.

Spanish Department

Due to the removal of the Spanish major and minor faculty senate voted to delete twenty-two courses from the Spanish department.