Happy 2016

January 4, 2017

Dear TWU Community,

I first want to extend to each of you my warmest wishes for a very rewarding, fulfilling, and healthy 2016.

Thanks to your commitment, creativity, and most of all your hard work, 2015 was not just a good but a truly great year. A capstone for me was to get holiday wishes and a Star Trek T-shirt from our Faculty Senate, with the message that we are on a path to “boldly go where no university has gone before.”

Working together, we are on an upward trajectory that will distinctively position Texas Woman’s University in the Lone Star State and beyond. Helping us get there are the more than 130 ideas and suggestions from you throughout the year — and we have considered all of them! Beginning in 2016, the ‘virtual suggestion box’ that is on the Chancellor’s website will now also include responses and actions so that suggestions can be tracked.

After a recent presentation I gave to both the Board of Regents and the Faculty Senate, I was encouraged to share my thoughts with the entire university community about how TWU aligns within the current context of higher education. I will do this via video in a couple of weeks so you can watch it at your convenience. During the spring semester, I hope to meet with many of you in small interactive discussion sessions to further explore these ideas.

As we leave 2015 behind, I think it is important to highlight and celebrate some of what we achieved together this past year. Below is an abbreviated run-through of my “top 10” list.

#1 Supporting faculty excellence

Much of TWU’s unique culture depends on the outstanding ways our faculty share their expertise, empower and enable students in academic and service activities, engage in research, and prepare all of our students for the challenges they will face in their careers and as global citizens. Across our campuses this past year, TWU faculty experts made many new inroads with community partners that can support the important work of the university for many years to come. To acknowledge faculty excellence, we undertook a number of initiatives designed to both recognize and better support faculty on all three campuses.

• We created a new Center for Faculty Excellence to provide our faculty with opportunities to interact, learn, and contribute to conversations and strategies regarding effective and innovative pedagogy.
• We initiated a pilot project to raise our faculty’s visibility on TWU’s website. These profiles continue to be entered into an online database that is easily accessible by the media. Faculty participating in this initiative also will receive special training for media interviews and participate in “one minute with faculty” video snippets that will link to their website profiles.
• We opened a new Center for Research Design and Analysis, thus consolidating and enhancing current and past services that support faculty — and student — qualitative and quantitative research.
• We distributed more than $400,000 in TARGET funds, an initiative supported by the TWU Higher Education Fund allocation provided by the state specifically for equipment and infrastructure. This funding has given our faculty an opportunity to make a case for more resources that directly affect their teaching and/or research efforts.
• We funded a concept, high-tech classroom for faculty to explore uses of the latest digital technology for teaching.
• We developed an Innovation Fund out of existing fund balances (i.e., non-recurring funds for one-time use) so that faculty can apply to create new professional and master’s degree programs, student retention initiatives, and operational efficiency initiatives.
• We admitted students for two new bachelor of science degree programs in informatics and health informatics this past fall. These programs are hallmarks of collaboration, interdisciplinary thinking and inter-professional cooperation, approaches that promise to lead us into a bold new future in education. This spirit of working together has guided TWU since its early days, and it’s a spirit on which the faculty at TWU continue to build.

#2 Driving student success

Our focus on helping students succeed expanded significantly last year, with the opening of the new Houston Pioneer Center for Student Excellence, the growth of honors programs, and the expansion of student career services. Students are at the heart of all that we do, so it is with great pride that we celebrate the many new growth opportunities provided for students both inside and outside the classroom.

• Since the fall opening of the Houston Pioneer Center, we have introduced “Just Write” sessions, “Learning Styles” workshops, the “Language of Scholarship” program, and academic coaching. On average, about 75 students in Houston now access services and use collaborative study spaces every day. The center also began coordinating program development across the university, including: hosting of the Graduate Student Council Professional Development series; serving as the site for all Houston-based Disability Support Services testing, and implementing programs targeting support for specific colleges, majors and academic departments.
• We now have more than 750 available student internships. More than 1,700 students are using TWU Connect, the internship, jobs, and volunteer database. Five TWU students were invited to attend the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ annual “The Fed and You” event. Several of these students are now interviewing for summer 2016 internships.
• We reached out to employers to secure high-profile internships for our students and provided support for them to enhance their applications’ competitiveness. One example of a newly created employer partnership with TWU is GSATi, a highly successful, woman-owned technology firm that moved its headquarters to Denton. GSATi has begun working with TWU to help students achieve success in a field historically dominated by men.
• We continue to implement improvements in academic advising outlined in the “Meaningful Change through Shared Responsibility” plan. Thanks to the Instructional Enhancement Fee, we are hiring two academic transitions advisors and four coordinators for undergraduate academic advising who will be in place later this spring. These positions will fill a vital gap to help students progress within their degree planning process and augment the professionalization of academic advising at TWU.
• Last fall, the Strategic Retention Council developed and implemented a pilot program to provide TWU with an opportunity to intervene and assist students beginning to experience financial, personal or other challenges via a new “early warning” process. The project already has resulted in nearly 200 individual student interventions conducted by peer-leaders with oversight by the Pioneer Center for Student Excellence and Undergraduate Studies and Academic Partnerships. Preliminary qualitative data indicate that students, as well as the peer leaders, have benefitted from the intervention. Final results will be available early this spring.
• We continue to support the Student Veterans Association, which connects veteran and active military students to a wide range of resources, and helps with their transition to college life, advocates for their unique needs, and supports their academic success. We held our first-ever Veterans Week in November, and the TWU Student Veterans Association president attended the U.S. Global Leadership Institute. He had a rare opportunity to discuss with state and national political leaders the role local student veterans can provide in global security attainment.
• We created the SUCCESS (Supporting Undergraduates Collectively by Creating Educational opportunities to Enhance Skills and Scholastic achievement) mentoring program, which is designed to assist first-generation, first-year college students in making a successful and enjoyable transition to college by creating an educationally supportive network during their first year at TWU. This initiative includes cultivation of peer associations, which are important in creating opportunities for leadership and cultural support and can provide a supportive educational environment aimed at student development and academic success.
• The Multicultural Student Network was created last year to heighten diversity/cultural awareness and sensitivity within the TWU community. Representatives provided diversity education and training, planned and implemented cultural celebrations, activities and events and liaised between the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Outreach, and other multicultural organizations, which gave students the ability to express their ideas, concerns, and suggestions.
• The Center for Student Development created a new social justice and diversity curriculum for orientation leaders. Also, the center sponsored an alternative breaks program that organized a service trip during the university's spring break.
• Helping Hands Service Ambassadors, along with the Center for Student Development, have worked to encourage a life of civic engagement for students through service activities, education and advocacy, and have worked with community agencies in efforts to bring about positive change.
• The Leadership Institute has continued to provide opportunities outside the classroom for service and other transcendent experiences that leads to proven success for former students of TWU.

#3 Responding to the unique needs of our Dallas and Houston campuses

Over the past year, faculty and staff have provided a large number of ideas and recommendations to improve the services and working conditions on our Dallas and Houston campuses. We added backup personnel from Denton, reorganized online learning support to better meet faculty needs, and optimized use of personnel. We also began addressing the need to improve marketing and communications capabilities on both campuses by first redesigning an existing position in Dallas and planning an additional person in Houston. Our goal is to provide the same high levels of service on all of our campuses.

• We reached agreement on local responsibility for building cleanliness and building appearance and removed the restrictions on food in rooms except where health and safety are a concern (e.g., labs, instrument rooms, etc.).
• We also extended hours in Dallas and Houston from 5 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday, for students. In addition, faculty and staff will soon have 24/7 access to the buildings. Before the implementation of extended hours, security staff needed to be hired and trained, which we hope will result in finalized building hours sometime this spring.
• We have a simplified scheduling policy to make it easier for people to schedule space and promote opportunities for outside partners (e.g., hospital associations, nursing groups and other such academic affiliations) to use TWU space. We look forward to hosting our first TIRR (The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research) Memorial Hermann event in February.
• We repurposed underused administrative offices, opened the Pioneer Center in Houston and are now working on similar plans for Dallas.

#4 Making TWU a great place to work

We made a number of policy changes this past year designed to improve the quality of all of our workplaces. In addition to changes made in Dallas and Houston, we’ve also made changes affecting all three campuses. For example, we changed policies to allow staff flex time and identify some special days when employees can bring certain pets into their workspaces (see the University Policy website). With an eye to the future, and a commitment to sustainable and consistent compensation and salary adjustments, we are redesigning our performance evaluation process for both faculty and staff. Additionally, we have moved forward in the development of a more granular, merit-based pay process as part of the overall TWU compensation strategy. These and many other changes are intended to continue to make TWU a great place to work, while providing a clear focus on institutional priorities as we each contribute to the success of the university.

• TWU is ranked among the safest colleges in the bestcolleges.com list.

• University-wide staff committees completed their work on a new proposed staff performance evaluation system. The proposals are under consideration with rollout expected this month.
• On December 1, TWU issued a one-time lump sum amount of 2% to regular employees achieving certain performance criteria. For 2016, we will develop a compensation system that supports a new performance evaluation program with a focus on performance pay.
• TWU seeks to achieve a work environment that maximizes productivity and flexibility for supervisors and staff. Therefore, the university last year rolled out the use of flex work schedules designed to meet the operational and customer service needs of the university while ensuring that university business goals are met.
• TWU recognized that affinity groups have the potential to connect faculty and staff with each other and with the greater university community and now offers support for the creation of such groups.
• Because TWU is concerned about a healthy work/life balance for our faculty and staff, a policy was created to allow certain pets on campus at certain times.
• The Texas Government Code authorizes all state universities to offer recognition leave for staff employees. Paid time off may now be granted to staff employees as a reward for outstanding performance as documented by a staff employee performance evaluation or for exceptional contributions by staff performing special projects of significant importance.
• We have aggressively developed a new TWU emergency management plan with an expected completion in late spring. We will host some tabletop exercises in the ensuing months as we begin to implement the plan. We have more people involved, much earlier, so we can make decisions and provide communication, alerts, and updates in a more timely fashion.
• The butterfly garden project on the Denton campus was initiated and championed by a group of faculty from the department