Poteau Daily News

CASC shines in latest Higher Learning Report

By David Seeley PDN Editor

Carl Albert State College Vice-President of Academic Affairs Dr. Marc Willis gave the CASC Board of Regents a stellar Higher Learning Report update during Tuesday afternoon’s meeting at the J.T. and Mary Jo Stites Building at the CASC-Sallisaw campus.

Willis said on March 3 that CASC was formally notified that the Higher Learning Commission’s institutional acts of the council continue its accreditation of the college with the next the next re-affirmation scheduled for the 2032-33 school year.

“CASC has successfully met every component of the HLC review,” Willis said. “This is a feat that has not been accomplished in at least 30 years.”

In the Allied Health Subcommittee Report, the majority of the time was spent talking about the CASC nursing program.

Willis said the search for the next nursing program director is underway, and he said that applications are due May 1.

Willis said that the sophomore class started the spring semester with 35 students, with one student being let go due to a plagiarism incident. Of the remaining 34 students, 33 of them have passing grades. In the freshmen class, the spring semester began with 36 students with 32 of those passing.

Willis said there are new clinical facilities this semester thanks to arrangements made with Eastern Oklahoma Medical Center as well as hospitals in Sallisaw

and Stilwell.

Willis said that for the 2023 fall semester, CASC saw 108 nursing program applications returned with 74 of them meeting requirements. There were 58 traditional applicants, with 53 admitted and 51 of those having been accepted. There were 12 advanced placement students submit applications, with 11 of those being admitted and nine of those having been accepted. There are five re-admits, and the average retention students’ cumulative grade-point average is 3.49.

Willis also said there was a request made Friday for a late applicant, who might also get in the program this fall. Two Regents, Belva Barber and Carroll Huggins, shared concerns of the late-requested student getting in before the alternative ones get in — even if the late-requested student might have better credentials. Willis said the Allied Health Subcommittee would look into that.

Barber also questioned the nursing program’s faculty to student ratio, and she said that she is in favor of increasing the faculty numbers to meet the amount of students if that becomes necessary.

CASC President Jay Falkner said the cap is a maximum number of 120 students, which has not been met yet.

With regards to the physical therapy assistant program, Willis said that CASC Physical Therapy Assistant Program Director/Instructor Kendal Repass said there is a 100-percent licensure passing rate from the last class, with 91 percent of those passing on their first attempt, and the graduation percentage and post-licensure employment rate were each 100 percent. Willis said for the incoming class, there were 49 applications completed with seven incompletes with 17 of those 49 admitted into the program but that number has a strong chance of upping to 20.

Willis also shared with the Regents about three academic program modifications due to their lack of productivity, which were all approved by the board.

The first was to the associate of art exercise/personal training, which was formed in 2018. Willis said that as of last fall, there were only four declared majors.

The second was the associated of applied science in computer technology, which was originally added to the course catalog in 1979 and was modified in 2020. Willis said there are currently 16 declared majors, but his major concern about feeling the need to first suspend then delete the program is due to CASC’s associated of applied science in cyber security that was added in 2021. Willis said the cyber security program provides a more modern technology program, and the plan is to essentially do away with the computer technology program and replace it with the cyber security program.

The third was a group of three out of five work force certificate programs — hospitality and hotel management, law enforcement procedures and occupational skills — which were added in 2017. The workforce-certificate programs allowed those students to enter the job market without having two years of education. The three programs chosen were the three with the least “productivity.”

Willis’ proposal was to suspend the programs for the next school year (2023-24), then delete any or all of them the following school year (2024-25). He did say for any students still enrolled in them, they will still be able to finish the program by way of CASC’s teach-out system.

Barber asked Willis if he and other staff had looked to see if CASC could get help through its partners of Eastern Oklahoma State College in Wilburton and Connors State College in Warner so that the programs would not have to be deleted. Willis said that avenue has not been taken but could be explored.

In his report, Falkner told the board about the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education’s strategic plan known as “Blueprint 2030,” which focused on producing workforce, growing the student pipeline, focusing on student success and improving system efficiency and effectiveness.

In his Payroll and Personnel Subcommittee Report, Falkner said that new CASC campus policeman Michael Jackson is helping the school in trying to get an increase the number of campus security officers as well as letting the board know that the CASC teachers will get a pay raise thanks to actions taken in the Oklahoma Legislature. The Regents also approved changes and four policies and procedures, which were all approved by the board. The first one dealt with forming a Behavior Intervention Team. “We’ve had a Student Conduct Committee that have dealt with issues after the fact,” CASC Vice-President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Bill Nowlin said. “The national trend is that most institutions have a team that deals with more prevention. President Falkner got with me and said that we needed to have one of these.”

The other three dealt with responsibilities of divisional chairpersons, instructors and teaching load, namely with regards to clarification of oncampus hours.

“It all revolves around one central point,” Willis said. “We have always operated under the practice that our full-time faculty are on campus for 27 hours a week. Our divisional chairpersons receive a six-hour release time from their teaching load. We have just always added those six hours to their office hours. It’s the same with the other policies. We’ve never had to worry about how the policies were written because our contracts was for 15 hours on inclass instruction and 12 hours of office hours. With the increase of online education, some of the online class instructors are having to dip into that 15 hours of contract load. These three policies (changes) are just basically clarifying practice into policy of the expectation of 27 physical hours on campus.” Falkner let the board know that CASC was awarded $300,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds — after asking for $1.7 million. He said that about $294,000 of those funds will be used to purchase a SimMan mannequin for the nursing programs, nursing Anne and Kelly mannequins and an electronic medical station for the nursing programs at both the Poteau and Salilsaw campuses.

Before the executive session took place, CASC-Sallisaw Campus Director Jaime Henson took the Regents and others in attendance through the new nursing wing. After the executive session, the board approved the retirement off CASC Science Instructor Beverly Afzali effective June 30, the regisnations/terminations of CASC Residential Life Coordinator Randy Armstrong (effective March31), Enrollmentand Advisement Specialist Sandra Dobbs (Feb. 28), Colleague Administrator Allen Scroggins (March 31) and Enrollment and Advisement Specialist I Jessica Southerland (March 8), new hires Troy Glenn as an educational opportunity academic advisor and Lucas Martin as a janitor and the changes of status for Willis, Dean of Enrollment Management Rachel Johnson, Director of Recruitment and Student Engagement Hunter Sisemore and Director of Enrollment and Advisement Ka Xiong.

In his financial report, Falkner told the board that CASC had $9,192,856 at the end of January and $10,087,450 at the end of February. He said that January’s number was $1.7 million-plus better than January 2022 and February’s number was $1.5 million-plus better than February 2022. CASC Chief Financial Officer Brian Roberts told the Regents that a lofty financial numbers were due to a large financial aid payment that was made to the school. Roberts also told the board that the internal audit had no exceptions, and the Regents unanimously approved it.

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2023-03-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

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