BOT committee focuses on faculty, student success

FAMU Trustee Kristin Harper. Photo courtesy: Kellogg Photogrpahy

The Strategic Planning/Performance Measures Committee for Florida A&M University’s Board of Trustees reviewed a presentation Tuesday morning in the Grand Ballroom.

The committee’s point of emphasis is to focus on enhancing the campus experience for all students academically from an analytical standpoint.

Survey respondents, listening groups and focus groups from students, alumni, faculty, staff and administrators help them take the temperature of the institution. These responses are the primary source of information used by the committee.

The brief presentation by Trustee Kristin Harper covered multiple areas that surround the student experience. Stakeholder engagement seemed to be the priority.

The presentation and subsequent discussion focused primarily on student and faculty success, and how that affects their engagement.

Identifying and retaining faculty and students with a high-performance culture was heavily stressed in the dialogue between the committee and members of the Board of Trustees.

Objectives were introduced by the committee when referencing faculty and students’ success.

“Pursue pathways that position FAMU on a trajectory to become a Carnegie R1 institution,” was one of the recommendations.

A Carnegie R1 university, according to carnegieclassifications.com, is an institution that practices the highest level of research performance possible. There are only 146 schools nationally that hold this recognition.

FAMU has been listed as a Carnegie R2 school since 2018 and is one of 10 Historically Black Colleges and Universities to hold the classification, according to famu.edu.

Elevating student success outcomes to the high excellence range among state and national scales was also stressed in the committee’s meeting.

Kim Moore, vice chair of the Board of Trustees, expanded on student success by proposing that more academic support services and resources being available. The committee’s presentation also briefly discussed possible curriculum changes and the allocation of financial support for the benefit of student academic success.

Board of Trustees member and president of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Michael Dubose, expressed his thoughts at the conclusion of the committee’s presentation.

“It was a good presentation. I have faced similar issues within my company, but interim fixes aren’t the answer,” Dubose said.

FAMU President Larry Robinson noted that strategic planning is “important” and is being “prioritized” by himself and the university’s leadership team.

Other BOT members praised the committee’s findings and the hard work and dedication of Robinson and his team. They agreed that the Strategic Planning/Performance Measures Committee is “vital to the progression of the university.”

The meeting marks the committee’s last presentation in “Phase 2” of a 15-month analysis period. A presentation of the final plan from the committee will be reviewed at the board’s meeting in June.

The committee’s meeting adjourned shortly after 11 a.m.