A K LEO T H E
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28 to TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013 VOLUME 109 ISSUE 24
Serving the students of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
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REGENTS ENDORSE INITIATIVE TO INCREASE NUMBER OF COLLEGE CERTIFICATES
PHOTO COURTESY OF HAWAI‘I GRADUATION INITIATIVE
Gov. Neil Abercrombie, CCA President Stan Jones and Linda Johnsrud. NOELLE FUJII News Editor The Board of Regents endorsed the Hawai‘i Graduation Initiative at its September meeting for the second time, approving strategies to improve student success and graduation. “What they endorsed this time was actually all the strategies,” said Linda Johnsrud, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs/Provost. “So we’ve got strategies in these three areas, and we just felt it was good to share these with the board and then also get the board’s endorsement.” The strategies included promoting college preparation, ensuring efficient transfer of students and credits, and enabling on-time graduation. The initiative’s ultimate goal is to increase the number of working-age adults that hold a college degree to 55 percent by 2025. The goal was endorsed by the BOR in 2008.
AN INCREASE OF 25 PERCENT Johnsrud said that the university system has increased the number of degrees/certificates awarded by 25 percent. She said the campuses are doing the
work to ensure that students are working toward degrees and certificates. “The campuses are really doing the work to make sure that more students than in the past, you know, take 15 credits, or they declare their majors earlier,” Johnsrud said. “Campuses have defined the academic pathways for all of their programs to make it easier for students to get from their freshman year to their senior year.” The Mānoa campus’ graduation rates have increased. In 2012, Mānoa’s normal time graduation rate increased by almost 55 percent from the previous year, according to Pearl Imada Iboshi, Ph.D., director of the Institutional Research and Analysis Department for the UH system. Its six-year graduation rate is now a little more than 57 percent, compared to 46 percent three years ago. The campus’ four-year graduation rate is now more than 20 percent – almost doubled from 10 years ago. According to Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Reed Dasenbrock, the rate is still low. “But more students are graduating more quickly, so we do believe we’re making more progress,” Das-
enbrock said. “We’ve had some record graduating classes. … We are becoming more successful at getting students to graduate.” Johnsrud said the goal of a 25 percent increase is for the 200815 period, and the university is starting to work on what its goal should be from 2015-20. “And since the census data came out, since we’ve set these goals we realized that even though we were really pleased that we got the increase of 25 percent, we actually need to ramp that up more if we want to obtain the ultimate goal of 55 percent of the working-age population,” Johnsrud said. “So the fact that our enrollment increased really helps. But our focus is on making sure that more of those students succeed than in the past.”
INCREASING COLLEGE CERTIFICATES AT UH MĀNOA Dasenbrock said the Mānoa campus has some of its own initiatives that aim to increase the number of degrees and certificates the campus awards. “So there’s no real dissonance or conflict between what we want to do with Mānoa and with what the
Hawai‘i Graduation Initiative is trying to do,” Dasenbrock said. “But, I think the Mānoa initiatives mostly came out of our own planning around accreditation. And so, the phrase ‘Hawai‘i Graduation Initiative’ is mainly primarily associated with the system effort, but what we’re trying to do matches that perfectly.” Dasenbrock said the Mānoa campus has increased its connectivity to the community college system. The campus offers automatic admission and reverse credit transfer for community college students. “If you’re on track to get an associate’s of arts, you can get an email saying you are admitted to the UH campus of your choice,” Dasenbrock said. “That was a Mānoa initiative. We’ve also started something called reverse credit transfer where if you start at a community college and then you come over here, your credits can transfer back so you get an associate’s of arts.” UH Mānoa has also improved how it connects with students when they first come to the university, including allowing freshmen to register around the same time as continuing students and making sure that students are getting the right credits.
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“There’s a set of things we’re doing to try to make sure that students have the tools so they know kind of where they’re going,” Dasenbrock said. “Four-year degree plans on the web is an important part of that. We’re asking departments to review their requirements to try to make sure that students can move through more quickly.” The campus is also working on an initiative to help students declare their majors faster. Johnsrud said one of the reasons the university has pushed to increase the number of degrees and certificates is because of a study compiled by the Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce. “One of the reasons that we have pushed degrees and certificates is there has been a study done across the nation, and it indicates state-bystate the number of jobs that are going to require postsecondary degrees,” Johnsrud said. “And for Hawai‘i, it’s 65 percent. So just underscores the need for more of our citizens to have a degree or certificate.” To learn more about the Hawai‘i Graduation Initiative, go to hawaii. edu/hawaiigradinitiative/.