Comments on Goal 1: Effective learning and student success

[uhplan]

This is for your comments on Goal 1: Effective learning and student success.

If you have comments regarding the Objectives and/or the Action Strategies of Goal 1, please post within those specific topics.

[Em]

I'm very heartened to see that effective learning seems to be high on the list. I'd like to see this translated into system resources allocated to quality, rather than quantity, outcomes.

This strategic plan update as posted gives a very different impression from the December 13 HITS session, where the message *seemed* to be

1) we (at the 4-years) will be allocated money based on taking in more CC transfer students. Transfers are our most challenging students. They have much lower persistence/graduation rates than those who enter in the first year.

2) we will be allocated money based on awarding higher numbers of degrees. (While admitting larger numbers of the students that are least likely to graduate--see above).

Remediation comes to mind as a way to accomplish those two goals, but remedial classes themselves have high dropout and failure rates compared to non-remedial classes. So instituting a substantial remedial program is likely to make attrition worse.

It seems the only way to accomplish the objectives stated in the December 13 HITS session would be to lower our classroom standards and inflate grades. At UH Hilo our NSSE data already show that already are perceived to have low academic rigor, so this is not an encouraging prospect for us.

There are certainly some non-academic barriers to success that we need to address--for example, before we do anything else, we clearly need on-campus drop-off childcare that is available during all class times. People have been asking for this on our campus for nearly 20 years, and the need is as great now as it ever was.

I hope our focus is not on looking good on some national comparisons in the short term (e.g. % of population with 4-year degrees), but on building the reputation and quality of the UH system. This is what will build our human capital in the long term.