Metrics to Inform Action Planning for Low Degree Conferring (LDC) Academic Programs

Dear Academic Affairs Colleagues,

The Office of Academic Affairs is grateful for the high level of contribution and engagement in a transparent and collaborative process to determine metrics and a strategy for low conferring degree programs. Thanks in particular to the Department Chairs, California Faculty Association (CFA), Senate Executive Committee (Senex), Integrated Curriculum Committee (ICC), and Academic Affairs Leadership (OAA) for their feedback. Next steps are to create action plans for each program which will be linked in the table of low-degree conferring programs above. Listed below are common themes, values, and data that have been identified as important to our process and will serve as our “metrics” to inform these action plans for each of the low-degree conferring programs for our campus. 

Deans and/or Associate Deans will meet with Department Chairs and/or Program Leaders to collaboratively construct action plans of no more than two pages for each degree program and/or concentration of a degree program by April 30, 2024, so that we can submit them together to the Chancellor’s Office by the deadline of May 10, 2024. I am happy to join these conversations if desired as is the Associate Vice President of Academic Programs and Dean of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies Dr. Carmen Bustos-Works. 

Some or all of the metrics below will be applied or used to gather additional information to inform program degree action plans. These action plans will build off our already established process in program review and may consist of strategies aimed at growing programs, identifying resources to support that growth, planning curricular changes, gathering additional data, and having honest conversations about the ongoing viability of some degree programs. It will also be used to identify responsible parties and timelines for implementation. These are already built into our internal processes for department action plans and align with the request from the Chancellor’s Office.  Many of these programs recently went through a program review process and we can build directly on existing action plans in place or are in the process of a program review in which case we can use the action plan established here to complete the MOU in the process. For the remaining, we will make sure these plans align with the program review process when the time comes. 

Our overall goals for increasing the number of students in these areas will be based on the financial cost of the program, regional workforce demand, student success- in particular the success of BIPOC students, service to general education, and how the programs uniquely contribute to Humboldt. Below are the six metric categories the campus community identified as most important to inform action planning.

Cal Poly Humboldt Metrics: 

• Alignment of academic programming with our declared value of being a different kind of polytechnic centering arts, humanities, environment and social impact, interdisciplinarity, traditional ecological knowledge, and STEM programming. 

• Unique/Rare programs at Humboldt, in the CSU, in CA, and Nationally.

Financial Metrics:

• Additional cost of offering major/concentration above General Education and core classes and/or are upper division (UD) courses offset by large enrolled lower division (LD) classes?

• Cost of delivering the program vs money saved by cutting the program in consideration of things like Full-Time Equivalent Students (FTES), Student Faculty Ratio (SFR), and Weighted Teaching Units (WTUs).  

• Revenue generation by grants and other activities.

Demand metrics: 

• Regional, State, and National Workforce demand.

• Value and Service of programming to the North Coast Community.

Student Success Metrics;

• Program graduation rates.

• Program retention rates.

• How programs serve or impede BIPOC student success. One example of how this may be measured is by an equity gap analysis.  

General Education (GE) and Value of Interdisciplinarity metrics

• Service to university General Education.

• Value of courses that serve requirements beyond their program; valuing interdisciplinarity. 

Enrollment Trend Metric

• Enrollment trends in academic programs over the past seven years (as opposed to just the last year). 

Academic degree programs have different strengths and challenges. Honoring those differences, not every metric and associated action plan will be the same. Deans and/or Associate Deans in partnership with Department Chairs and/or Program Leaders will determine which metrics to adopt, specific targets and goals to identify, data to collect, and timeframes to meet these goals. These action plans will be collected and reviewed by Dr. Carmen Bustos-Works and approved by me similar to the program review process. 

It is my commitment to continue to lead this process with transparency, shared governance, and reliance on your expertise as an academic affairs division. I am truly grateful for your partnership.

Sincerely,

Jenn Capps, PhD

Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs

Cal Poly Humboldt