Title: P1246990921ZoSDk
1 The NCA Traffic Jam Session
2- The Subcommittee on CELEBRATING the Acquisition,
Discovery, and Application of Knowledge - Life of Learning
- North Central AssociationCriterion 4d
3The Criterion 4d Road Warriors
- George Bennett
- Randy Brooks
- Steve Fiol
- Michael Koluch
- Brian Posler
- Sarah Shupenus
- Debbie Slayton
- Rene Verry
- Ed Walker
- David Womack
- Jacque Wrigley
4The Charge of the Criterion 4d Life of
Learning Subcommittee
- To study and write a report on how well the
organization promotes a life of learning for its
faculty, administration, staff, and students by
fostering and supporting inquiry, creativity,
practice, and social responsibility in ways
consistent with its mission.
5The Focus of the Criterion 4d Life of
Learning Sub-Committee
- To document and consider how well we
- Celebrate, facilitate, and encourage a life of
learning. - Recognize accomplishments, publications,
engagement in intellectual inquiry, professional
academic performances, and related activities at
Millikin University.
6A mon avis dit Sarah ...
- Les questions began the discussion
- Les questions helped to define the scope
- Les questions helped to clarify the evidence
needed - Les questions and evidence are guiding the
narrative - Cest vrai! Les questions sont tres, tres, tres
important!
La Tour Eiffel
7Questions ObjectivesObjectives
Evidence Evidence
Narrative
8Question 1
- How do we operationally define a life of
learning in a responsible manner?
9Objective to be met by Question 1
- Define Millikin Universitys operational
definition of what is meant by the statement The
organization provides support to ensure that
faculty students, and staff acquire, discover,
and apply knowledge responsibly.
10Question 2
- How do we demonstrate that alife of learning in
a responsible manner is congruent with the
mission of the University?
11Objective to be met by Question 2
- Demonstrate why the realization of the
operational definition is important to/congruent
with the mission of Millikin University.
12Question 3
- What are the best ways to paint a written
portrait of exemplars of a life of learning in a
responsible manner on Millikins campus?
13Objective to be met by Question 3
- Paint a written portrait of exemplars of a life
of learning in a responsible manner on
Millikins campus.
14Question 4
- What evidence exists or should exist to support
our written portrait of exemplars of a life of
learning in a responsible manner?
15Objective to be met by Question 4
- Provide evidence of how the academic departments,
divisions, colleges, and schools (in cooperation
with non-academic areas) promote curricular and
co-curricular activities that integrate acquired
knowledge with the practices of discovery and
application.
16Question 5
- What mechanisms are employed to encourage,
facilitate, recognize, and celebrate a life of
learning in a responsible manner?
17Objective to be met by Question 5
- Describe the mechanisms employed to shape,
recognize, and celebrate a life of learning in a
responsible manner.
18Self-Study Subcommittee Analysis Process
- Create Study guide questions (Completed)
- Identify data needs (Completed)
- Obtain data (Ongoing)
- Summarize data (Ongoing)
- Write self-study committee report (First
draft) - Review conduct gap analysis (Spring, 2006)
WE ARE HERE!
19 The NCA Traffic Jam
20Narrative Evidence Objective 1
- Millikin University ensures that faculty,
students and staff acquire, discover, and apply
knowledge responsibly. This value of acquiring,
discovering, and applying knowledge responsibly
is promoted and accomplished through both
informal and formal mechanisms within the
University. Formally, this commitment is
communicated within University documents
including the Faculty Policies Procedures
manual, the Millikin University Student Handbook,
the Millikin University Bulletin. It is
reflected both informally in the facultys daily
interactions and formally in the minutes of the
University Faculty, College, School, and Division
meetings. - In addition, because of Millikin Universitys
long history of outreach to the community, we
assert that the efforts of this institution of
higher education also prepare external audiences
beyond the immediate University community to
acquire, to discover, and to apply knowledge
responsibly. This intentional extension of
responsibility to audiences beyond the faculty,
students, and staff is an important facet of the
role which this University plays within the
community. - We believe that knowledge -- when acquired,
discovered, and applied responsibly -- will be
evidenced by - on-going inquiry which is encouraged, fostered,
and supported by the University community - creative endeavors exhibited in all disciplines
- the integration of practice and theory and
- meaningful and sustained social engagement.
- Faculty Policies Procedures
- Millikin University Student Handbook
- Millikin University Bulletin
- Informal examples
- Formal examples
21Narrative Evidence Objective 2
- The organization promotes a life of learning for
its faculty, administration, staff, and students
by fostering and supporting inquiry, creativity,
practice, and social responsibility in ways
consistent with its mission. - Millikin University has situated itself very well
to achieve this criterion. Creation of a life of
learning, by fostering these named values, lives
at the very heart of our mission. - In 1901, Millikin's founder, James Millikin,
envisioned a University "where the scientific,
the practical, and the industrial shall have a
place of equal importance, side by side, with the
literary and the classical." His goal for us
echoes precisely the fourth criterions emphasis
on inquiry, creativity, and practice. - The founder's ideas were new, powerfully simple,
and distinctively American. They redefined the
nature of a small, private university the
programs it would offer and the people it would
serve. - Has Millikin University been able to fulfill the
promise of education envisioned by our founder?
The evidence we have collected and analyzed
allows us to answer in the affirmative. - In more recent times, we have defined our mission
and vision more narrowly. - Our Mission to deliver on the promise of
education. - At Millikin, we prepare students for
- professional success,
- democratic citizenship in a global environment,
and - a personal life of meaning and value.
- The underpinning of our mission is the offering
of an educational experience that integrates the
traditional liberal arts functions and the
practical arts of the professions. Our students
discover and pursue their full potential,
personally and professionally, to do well and to
do good. Their discovery is theory and practice
driven, guided by faculty and staff, within an
inclusive and broadly accessible learning
community. - Vision to be recognized as a distinctive
Midwestern university - Where theory, practice, and reflection guide our
curriculum. - Where integrated learning, collaborative
learning, and engaged learning dominate our
culture. - Where students, faculty, staff, and
administrators are engaged and stimulated. - The three prepares in our mission statement are
ubiquitous on campus, and they guide everything
we do. We find that because we are so mission
driven, and because our mission fosters the
values in Criterion Four, that our modern
understanding of our mission is a primary reason
that we are so successful at creating a life of
learning. Our very focus on preparation
results in a very forward-looking emphasis on
creation of a life of learning. - For 100 years Millikin students' lives have been
transformed by practical education like
internships, volunteerism and service learning.
100 of our students participate, and through
these among other ways, our university develops a
sense of social responsibility.
- Career Center Success Report
- Alumni Development Millikin Quarterly
- Internships
- Volunteerism
- Service Learning
- Student Research
22Narrative Evidence Objective 3
- Millikin University promotes a life of learning
for its faculty, administration, staff, and
students by fostering and supporting inquiry,
creativity, practice, and social responsibility
in ways consistent with its mission. Indeed, the
university mission gets to the heart of a life of
learning. In order to deliver on the promise of
education, we "prepare students for professional
success, democratic citizenship in a diverse and
dynamic global environment, and a personal life
of meaning and value." Inquiry, creativity,
practice, and social responsibility are essential
for each of these three "prepares." Successful
professionals implement what they have learned in
novel and innovative ways while asking questions
of themselves and their vocational fields. These
activities occur within an ethical framework.
Citizens engage in the work of ordering their
lives together through governmental, economic,
religious, and cultural institutions. This work
requires investigating others' viewpoints and
arriving at creative compromises through the
exercise of persuasion and authority within
accepted legal and moral boundaries. People who
live lives of meaning and value establish
priorities and pursue those priorities with
energy and vigor. Because inquiry, creativity,
practice, and social responsibility are necessary
for the fulfillment of the Millikin University
mission, we can say that the mission is central
to a life of learning. The ongoing preparation of
students for lives of learning involves the
transmission and generation of knowledge. To that
end, Millikin University ensures that faculty,
students, and staff acquire, discover, and apply
knowledge responsibly. - Members of the Millikin community often engage in
activities that integrate inquiry, creativity,
practice, and social responsibility. For example,
in 2004 three faculty members from the Department
of Chemistry and two faculty members from the
School of Nursing worked together on an
interdisciplinary project about what chemistry
topics nursing students need to know and how
those topics are or should be taught. This
project resulted in three papers that were
presented at a major national conference of
chemical educators. More importantly, the faculty
members involved discovered common themes among
various chemistry and nursing courses (see final
Nyberg report). - Many students in the natural sciences perform
undergraduate research and present their results
in venues ranging from local seminars to national
conferences. Research, by definition, involves
inquiry and practice. It usually also involves
creativity in the form of designing experiments
to answer a certain question, differentiate
between two possible explanations, or to
circumvent an obstacle. Social responsibility
operates at two levels the research must be
conducted in a responsible manner, and the
research might have an application that achieves
a desirable social goal. For instance, in
2004-2005, a senior chemistry student designed a
straightforward method to analyze how iron in
baby formula changes upon exposure to air. She
found that within 24 hours all of the iron is
converted to a form that the body cannot absorb.
She also found that vitamin C can prevent such a
change from taking place (see Shondra Furto
poster and/or research report).
- Institutional Review Board Guidelines
- Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium
- Interdisciplinary faculty work
- Student research report
- Research Poster
23Narrative Evidence Objective 4
- Through a combination of fostering inquiry,
creativity, practice and social responsibility,
Millikin promoted a life of learning for its
students. By means of related sets of policies
and procedures, the University deliverers on the
promise of education. All these benchmarks are
anchored around the Millikin Mission that
prepares our students for professional success,
democratic citizenship in a global environment,
and a personal life of meaning and value. - The Division of Student Development has the
primary charge of blending in and out of the
classroom learning with quality programs and
services. Below are just a few of the
initiatives - First Week Program
- Social Norming Campaign
- TIPS Alcohol Awareness Training
- Living, Learning Communities in the Residence
Halls - Students serving on university committees (i.e.
Board of Trustees, Presidents Student Advisory
Council) - Service Learning Program
- Black History Month (programs and lectures)
- Students are able to participate in these
programs from freshman to senior year. Each of
the above initiatives is anchored by the
Universitys mission. The best way to
demonstrate and assess our success is by listing
a few examples. During the universitys January
immersion period, twenty Millikin students (along
with three faculty chaperones) traveled to
Mississippi for two weeks to assist with relief
efforts. The students videotaped their
experiences in a moving documentary. Over two
hundred faculty, staff, students and parents
attended to show their support. - Another example of students putting the mission
into action was a collaborative fundraising
effort by the Greek organizations and the
Rotaract Club to sponsor a community social event
designed to raise money for the local American
Red Cross. - In all, Millikin is very proud of the efforts of
our students to actuate the mission in their
day-to-day lives. They do this with both aplomb
and passion.
24Narrative Evidence Objective 5
- In our commitment to a life of learning, members
of the Millikin community regularly engage in a
variety of activities that integrate inquiry,
creativity, practice, and responsibility. For
example, - The undergraduate Research Poster Symposium, now
in its 13th year, annually showcases juried
(faculty) student scholarship. Bringing together
seniors, juniors, sophomores and some freshmen in
the sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry,
communication, mathematics, physics, political
science, psychology), humanities (e.g., English,
Philosophy), and professional schools (e.g.,
business, education, nursing), the poster
symposium enables students who have engaged in
scholarship (B or better) in regular classes,
independent studies, and internships, and the
SURF and JMS programs to share their work with
peer, faculty, staff, trustees, and community
visitors attending the symposium. Due to the
generosity of Judith and G. Richard Locke
(trustees) and the Honor Society of Phi Kappa
Phi, faculty judges award 1300 in prize money to
1st, 2nd, and 3rd place posters. These students
not only provide tangible role models of a life
of learning, they also illustrate professional
skills, and exemplify the ideal of knowledge as a
publicly shared trust available to all. The
student scholars vividly demonstrate how learning
enriches our understanding of the world, offers
remedies for societal problems, and provides us
with further opportunities to grow. - Another example of our commitment to inquiry,
creativity, practice and social responsibility is
the Millikin University Human Research
Participants Review Board (IRB). In compliance
with federal guidelines (45CFR) and
discipline-based professional ethics codes (e.g.,
American Psychological Association), all
non-exempt research, and some exempt research (at
researcher request) conducted at the University
is reviewed by a board comprised of scientists,
non-scientists, and a non-invested community
member who are selected to maximize diversity of
perspective (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity, etc.).
Students, as well as faculty, submit proposed
research for ethics compliance review throughout
the academic year and demonstrate a strong
commitment to best practices, professionalism,
and social responsibility. - At the departmental level, the Behavioral
Sciences Research Group on Gender Issues
promotes a life of learning for faculty and
students by fostering and supporting inquiry on
how gender produces benefits and liabilities in
society, at work, and in personal relationships.
In collaboration with faculty, students master
the literature and develop their research skills
to creatively and responsibly test theory
predictions. Typically, junior and senior, and
sometimes outstanding sophomores are included in
the research group. Students and faculty work
in collaboration to develop, conduct, and then
publish the research studies the group
undertakes. Over the past 6 years of its
existence, the faculty-student collaborative
research group has produced high claiber research
that has been published in peer-reviewed journals
in psychology.
- Example of artistic scholarship
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