 A new endowment connected with Northwestern’s Title III Strengthening Institutions grant has been established with several different components working together to reach the ultimate goal of increasing student success at Northwestern. |
A new endowment connected with Northwestern Oklahoma State University’s Title III Strengthening Institutions grant has been established with several different components working together to reach the ultimate goal of increasing student success at Northwestern.
An account has been established through Northwestern’s Foundation to match $10,000 a year from the grant with hopes of reaching $100,000 at the end of the five year grant. Federal funds of $1.57 million fund 100 percent of this five-year sponsored project that includes a maximum of $50,000 for an endowment. Northwestern must match this amount with private, non-governmental funding sources. The endowment will allow certain aspects of the grant to continue even after the grant has ended.
One component of the grant is to monitor those students that would be considered “at risk.” Intrusive advising is used and consists of frequently checking up on students. Dr. Mike Knedler, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, said advisers contact these students and ask them how things are going, providing extra support for that particular body of students.
“We have created this early alert system on Rangernet where instructors go if they notice a student is having problems,” Knedler said. “It’s a more robust early alert system than what we used to have in place.”
The second component of the grant is faculty development and course redesign.
“The faculty development is for exploration of new pedagogical methods to engage students in the modern world in the learning environment,” Knedler said. “It allows an opportunity for faculty to gather together to explore new methods of teaching, new assessment methodology, in order to help students be successful. Students aren’t the same as they were 20 years ago. You can’t teach them the same and expect them to produce the same results.”
Course redesign will allow for the redesign of gateway courses, particularly general education courses that all students are required to take such as Composition I, Biology and College Algebra. Knedler said these are large courses that sometimes students struggle with and course redesign will help ensure student success.
Knedler composed the grant and Dr. Dennis Angle, Title III Director, manages the day to day running of the grant. There is an institutional monitoring team that meets periodically to review progress.
For more information or questions regarding this grant, contact Angle at (580) 327-8130 or drangle@nwosu.edu .
### Northwestern Foundation Release ###