University of New Mexico Provost Reed Dasenbrock has created a Graduation Task Force charged with identifying the most critical factors affecting graduation rates at the university and proposing strategies to improve them. The group will be co-chaired by Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Dean of University College Peter White and Associate Provost Wynn Goering.
Photo: Provost Reed Dasenbrock calls for a graduation task force.
“We've known for a long time that UNM students struggle to complete their degrees in a timely way and we've learned a great deal about the issue in previous initiatives,” said Dasenbrock. “That is why I am charging this task force to focus on solutions – to devise practical strategies that can have an immediate impact on the problem.”
Dasenbrock is calling for the group to report its recommendations to him by mid-January, in time for consideration in the Fiscal Year 2008 budget cycle.
Task force members include Terry Babbitt, director, Recruitment Services and interim director of Admissions; Mark Chisolm, director, Institutional Research; Jennifer Gomez-Chavez, manager, College Enrichment Program; Nancy Lopez, assistant professor, Sociology; and Mark Ondrias, associate dean, Student Academic Affairs.
Dasenbrock says these seven constitute a project steering committee that will in turn appoint other subcommittees to focus on specific elements of the task.
“The days when we could content ourselves with simply giving students the chance to attend UNM are over,” said Dasenbrock. “If we haven't done everything we can to help them complete their educational goals, we haven't done our jobs. That's the new bottom line.”
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at June 27, 2006 04:35 PM