THE
NORTHWEST MISSOURIAN nwmissourinews.edu
Thursday | October 30, 2014
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Fixing failure Students receive assistance to improve academic skills
classroom. “One of the biggest features of this program is that we are working with students to build academic skills by us-
DARCIE BRADFORD Chief Reporter | @darcie_jeanne_7
ing the classes they are enrolled in,” Pregeant said. “We
Students at Northwest have a wealth are working on note taking skills, reading comprehension of resources to take advantage of. Re- and writing skills using the classes they are enrolled in. It cently, that wealth has been added to makes the content more relevant to them.” with the hiring of academic success coaches. The goals of the success coaches, according to Provost Three new faculty members were hired this fall to serve Timothy Mottet, are to have a resource available to stuas success coaches for many first time freshmen. This tri- dents who are on academic probation and to retain stumester, the success coaches work from the B.D. Owens dents. Library in the Talent Development Center. “Every year there are approximately 250 students on Senior Nick Shepherd is excited about the new pro- academic probation, most of which tend to be first year gram. He only wishes it was available when he was a students,” Mottet said. “The ultimate goal is for students freshman. to return to Northwest the following semester and not be “I think it is a great idea,” Shepherd said “I did not have on academic probation.” proper study habits as a freshmen but if I would have had According to past institutional data from the 2013that opportunity I would have utilized this program and I 2014 school year, by the end of the 2013 fall semester, 214 think it would have helped me succeed.”
students were on academic probation. Of those 214, 53
According to success coach Kat Donovan, in the fall, did not return to enroll in the spring. the coaches work with students who have been condition-
However, the number of students finding themselves
ally admitted to the University due to stipulations of low on academic probation is slowly decreasing each year. In high school GPA or ACT scores. For the spring trimester, 2009, by the end of the fall semester, 270 first time freshthe coaches will work with all students on academic pro- man were on academic probation. In 2013, the number bation, or students with below a 2.0 grade point average.
went down by three percent and only 214 first time fresh-
There are 90 students under the wings of the academic man were on academic probation. success coaches. That number is expected to rise to approximately 250 students in the spring semester.
Success Coach Heidi Webster said that she believes the program is working and that students are receiving the
The 90 conditionally-admitted students are required new program well. by their enrollment contracts to hold weekly meetings
“From what we can see so far from the midterm point
as determined by the assistance program. The coaches we think it is working. To see their overall score in a class structure meetings to help students further develop skills go up 30 percent in 10 weeks is a really awesome feeling.” such as note taking, reading comprehension and writing Webster said. skills.
Mottet said that involving success coaches on campus
Success coach Ashley Pregeant shares how the pro- has been in the works for a while. SEE SUCCESS | A5
gram motivates students to further their skills in the
Computer Science master’s program faces cap, limits number of students JAMES HENDERSON III Chief Reporter | @jendersoniii
The enrollment cap looming over the applied computer science master’s program could threaten opportunities for international students at Northwest. Over the last two years, demand to be a part of the Program has soared. It reached the point in which the University is facing a problem with a lack of faculty and facility resources, according to Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Michael Steiner. Bharath Patsa, a student in the Master’s program from India, cautions the University when it comes to capping this program. He warns that if this program limits its applicants, it will have a negative impact on students attempting to come from India to America. “People would have to go other universities with not as good course-
work and struggle with getting their graduate degrees,” Patsa said. “They shouldn’t limit the number of students in the program so as many people can have the opportunity to have this good education.” Steiner said the only option at this point is to continue capping the students allowed in the program. “We want to limit the program to a target number of students that will still allow us to maintain a high quality program,” Steiner said. Steiner said that while the program has seen a massive increase in the last two years, it reached its limit going into last spring’s semester. The program had another large number of applicants going into this fall semester. Steiner said he believes while this is a good problem, it is a problem none the less. He declined revealing the exact ratio of students and faculty, but insists that it is a high number.
“It’s above what we are comfortable with so we are making improvements to fix that,” Steiner said. It is impossible to ignore the effect that capping will have on international students. According to Steiner, the applied computer science Master’s program consists of 485 international students. These students are predominantly from India and Steiner said the number of domestic students is comparatively a handful. Despite the reliance international students have on the program, Steiner does not think this will be a problem for international growth on Northwest’s campus. He said they are pursuing growth in other programs which still allow opportunities for international students to take advantage of. However, Steiner is sensitive to this problem and said that the University is being careful in the future with this situation. “I think the growth of international students at Northwest has
been a tremendous benefit to the community,” Steiner said. “One of the reasons we don’t want to outgrow our capacity is because we want to keep that a positive, and not create a circumstance where this growth problem is detrimental to the success of our program.” Naveen Kunisetty, also from India, completely understands why students would want to come to this country. “The United States is the place where software is born,” Kunisetty said. “There are a lot of opportunities here.” He said that people choose to go to Northwest specifically because of the structure of the program. “They (the faculty) start with the basics instead of expert level coursework,” Kunisetty said. “This keeps fresh students with no computer science experience from getting lost.” Steiner said they have recently
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approved a plan to increase the number of faculty in the program for the fall of 2015. He also said at that point they will reevaluate the situation of the program and decide what to do about it. Steiner also said that money, in this case, is not a primary issue. “We are focused more on looking at our resources and maintaining a high quality program rather than worrying about money,” Steiner said. The growing issue facing the computer science program is one that the department, as well as the Board of Regents, will address as the year progresses.
see A4 for related content: the missourian editorial board makes a case for hiring more computer science professors