Year One Updates

The Strategic Plan Breakthrough Objective Committees have each undertaken an important cross-sectional aspect of our Division of Student Affairs goals to create structure and offer direction to the 16 departments committed to achieving our mission.

DOSA Strategic Plan year one updates infographiC [PDF]

 

Equity and Social Justice | Year One Updates

Breakthrough Objective: The OHIO Division of Student Affairs will ensure that a framework of equity and social justice is embedded in its day-to-day work.

Equity and Social Justice Key Result A: We will be the kind of division that values growth, strives for inclusion and cultivates community.

  1. The committee researched, discussed and decided to alter Key Result A.
  2. A definition was established to create clarity around this breakthrough objective.
    • Social Justice is defined as an active process and commitment to promoting equity through the (1) Identification and removal of barriers, (2) facilitation of learning (3) cultivation of community, and (4) empowerment of people.

Equity and Social Justice Key Result B: Cultural competency will be built into the job descriptions of all DOSA employees, and the skills/cultural competence of its staff will be evaluated annually.   

  1. Common expectations and directions were created to begin the updating of all administrative, classified and graduate student positions to include social justice and equity vernacular.  

Equity and Social Justice Key Result C: Every employee will have a personal professional development goal around equity and social justice; each department will develop and implement a yearly service growth and improvement plan around equity and social justice.  

  1. The current division professional development forms were altered to include equity and social justice goals. These new forms were implemented for individual employees in January 2019.
  2. Structural framework for departmental reporting was integrated into the annual report process.

Equity and Social Justice Key Result D: Every employee will be provided quality equity and social justice training annually by the division.

  1. This new Key Result was created in Year 1.

Future direction: Current and future progress toward key objectives can be found on the Equity and Social Justice committee page.

Learning Goals | Year One Updates

Breakthrough Objective: The OHIO Division of Student Affairs will create, measure and improve upon common student learning goals across departments.

Learning Goals Key Result A: Conduct a learning goal audit to see what is already being done to meet our DOSA learning goals of the eight core competencies. This audit will determine which goals fit within the mission and scope of each department. 

  1. Collaborative efforts between this committee, the Division of Student Affairs, and the University Curriculum Council (UCC) resulted in revision of terminology. Updates to the terminology allow for the division to work in unison with academics and provide avenues for future collaboration on common goals for OHIO students. 
  2. Incorporated UCC terminology recommendations:
    • Learning Outcomes will become Learning Goals
      • Learning goals refer to broad, general statements about what is to be learned. They are typically abstract, intangible, long-term, and often hard to measure.
    • Competencies will become Learning Objectives
      • Instructional learning objectives describe what an instructor intends to address in a course, module, or other learning experience. They are generally less broad than goals yet broader than student learning outcomes.
    • Objectives will become Learning Outcomes
      • Learning outcomes describe the learning that will take place through concise statements, made in specific and measurable terms, of what students will know and/or be able to do as the result of having successfully completed an educational experience.
    • Assessment will be defined as the ongoing process of systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to determine how well student learning matches expectations (Suskie, 2009).
  3. An audit was conducted with each department to create a baseline in determining if and how student employees and student non-employees are currently being engaged in each of the eight identified goals. The audit tool gathered information to identify: (1) how the goals were measured; (2) the process to evaluate if students were meeting goals; and (3) assessment of each of the learning goals. 

Learning Goals Key Result B: Compile departmental competencies and skills for all learning goals across the entire division. Identify divisional gaps in the delivery of the goals. In collaboration with this committee, each department will examine the effectiveness of the assessment tools used to measure learning goals. Communicate results with division.

  1. The committee reviewed the results of the audit and are in the midst of identifying divisional gaps in the delivery of the goals.
  2. The next step is to communicate effectively with departments on the plan to begin the examination of the effectiveness of the assessment tools used to measure learning goals.
  3. All departments have been tasked with collaborating with committee members to identify two or three internal goals to improve student development and retention of the identified competencies. 

Future direction: Current and future progress toward key objectives can be found on the Learning Goals committee page.

Retention and Graduation | Year One Updates

Breakthrough Objective: The OHIO Division of Student Affairs will work to engage all students in meaningful programs, services and activities to increase retention and graduation rates.

Retention and Graduation Key Result A: DOSA will identify and enhance programs and services that help students build community.

  1. Examined best practices in Student Affairs literature and research related to retention. 
  2. Defined sense of belonging for our division.
  3. Created and administered Sense of Belonging program audit within the division. 

Retention and Graduation Key Result B: Engagement between DOSA staff and at-risk students will increase.

  1. Learned about MOSN and how it can be utilized to identify at-risk students. 
  2. Committee workgroup formed to determine feasibility and make recommendations on division supervisor access to MOSN. 
  3. The Committee recommended no integration of division student employee supervisors with MOSN as FERPA prevents supervisors from viewing or resolving flags on student employees and the program offered little potential for return on investment.

Retention and Graduation Key Result C: DOSA will expand the OHIO Basic Needs Initiative.

  1. Moved food pantry to more desirable location and established food pipeline to ensure nutritious food available to students with food insecurity.
  2. Meal Bank pilot launched with 500 donated meals (Fall) 2,000 (Spring) and 83 users.
  3. Emergency Microgrant program launched (Spring) with 45 initial applicants and $11,500 disbursed.
  4. A brand was developed for Bobcats Helping Bobcats, and the corresponding website was reviewed and updated to improve user experience.

Future direction: Current and future progress toward key objectives can be found on the Retention and Graduation committee page.