Present: The number of faculty members that attended the meeting was less
than half; however, all the members of the AFA except Dean K. Green were
present;

Professor Victoria Muñoz chaired the meeting.

NB. It should be noted that because of the speed by which the presentations
were made, these minutes would only capture the major issues that were
raised and discussed. This is to say that this is a summary of the general
issues that were presented, raised, and discussed.

The Chair called the meeting to order at 4:35 p.m. She first thanked the
attendees for coming; and she read the items of the agenda sent to the
faculty members.

Professor Muñoz also informed the faculty that the items to be presented
were generated from the responses of the faculty to the AFA's memorandum.
Some of these items are: questions related to merit, scholarship, exit,
demographics, why students stay at Wells, etc. Two areas that were not
going to be addressed were: (1) the sexual orientation of students; (2)
national trends on retention, admissions, financial aids, etc.

Upon a suggestion from a presenter, the order of presentation was slightly
shifted to allow Ms. Cathleen Bellomo to make her presentation after that
of Ms. Susan Sloan instead of Ms. Meghan McCune who was scheduled to be the
second presenter. The order of presentations was as follows: (1) Susan
Sloan (Director of Admissions), (2) Cathleen Bellomo, Director of Financial
Aid (3), Meghan McCune (Student), and (4) Terry Martinez (Dean of
Experiential Learning).

Ms. Susan Sloan, explained, using several tables and many charts with
percentages from 1997 to 2005, the complexity of the process of admissions
and recruitment, including categories of students, ranking of students, the
SAT scores, the Henry Wells Scholarship, types of communities students come
from (urban versus rural, small versus medium or large towns and cities),
GPAs of students, etc. Her report reflected the work of the EMT and its
division of labor.

Ms. Cathleen Bellomo's presentation was on Financial Aid and various
criteria used to provide financial assistance to students to lead them to
decide to come to Wells, respecting diversity, income, results of tests,
etc. She focused on the question of merit versus need in the awarding of
the Henry Wells Scholarship programs since 1968 and why it was changed, and
the criteria that are used to distribute scholarship.

The change in the Henry Wells Scholarship was needed to make recruitment
more inclusive and supportive of diversity. She described financial aid as
having three main objectives: (1) Number (affordability); (2) Quality; and
(3) Diversity. The stability of the number is the key factor behind the
decision making process in financial aid. Some of the questions she dealt
with included: What are the best ways for Wells to achieve its enrollment
goals? Are the SAT scores the best measurements to define academic
achievements? How should Wells College achieve both quality and diversity?

Ms. Meghan McCune explained how she collected the data/information she
presented. It is in the Dining Hall in about three weeks that she had
interviews and conversations with many students on various issues related
to admissions, financial aid, internships, etc.

Tour guides tend to highlight only or mostly the positive things at Wells.
She believes that this should be improved to include other aspects of the
College because when students come and discover other untold stories later,
they may constitute the factors for some students to leave. The College
should encourage students to attend classes when they come to visit the
campus. Students stay at Wells for faculty. And the relationship with the
faculty members is a determining factor for them to stay.

Concerning financial aid, students want to return to merit and leadership
criteria. The College should invest on high achievers. Students perceive the
Internship and Career Services as not working well. The quality of students must be
addressed and learning environment should be improved because it is
currently low.

Dean Terry Martinez announced that Dean Green was not going to be present
because of an emergency but that she might join the meeting later. She
touched on the aspects of withdrawal form, exit interviews, effective
retention, first year College survey that Prof. Nan DiBello is working on,
and on the issues of medium, short, and long term assessment. Dean Green is
focusing on students who leave and who stay. The current system or practices of
examining and analyzing the data for effective retention is too sketchy.

There is a need to collect data from various sources and make a long-term
assessment a priority and also use comparison of information on a yearly
basis. There is also a need to change the orientation and counseling
services, changes to these have already been made. EMT programs continue
to have informal discussions with the seniors and faculty. Improvements of
the RAs training have been made. And we have to make sure that we have
conversations with students who want to withdraw. Dean Green is working on this aspect.
 

Comments and Issues raised from the Faculty members and the Presenters

Recruitment of students with high scores or higher achievers;
=46undraising for supporting more merit and endowed faculty chairs;
Increase the academic programs to make the products more attractive;

There is an agreement on the above issue but it should be noted that every
school is competing to have those students (high achievers); thus, there is
a need to have special mechanisms of recruitment. It should be noted that
the higher income the higher the SAT scores.

A request was made to have data in raw numbers related to all the items
discussed and distribute them before the faculty meeting.

The issue of reporting to the market people was also raised;
The majority of the students come from urban areas and smaller towns around;
What lessons can be learned from past trends?

At the national level, students are transferring more today than in the past=
;
There is a significant number of students that has withdrawn but has come
back to Wells; what does that mean? This group should be evaluated.
There are students who leave for financial and personal reasons;
The identification of the national trends is still relevant and should be
pursued;
Students have more psychological problems today;
Did students who stayed visit classes while visiting campus?
Encouraging students to visit classes;
Reporting to the regular faculty meetings on each area was recommended;
=46rom the student's perspectives, finding internships is a problem for many
students and creating ways of assessing them is also important;

Ms. Susan Sloan will report to the faculty with numbers and percentages in
November.

The meeting adjourned at 6:02 P.M.

Respectfully submitted.

Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo

Secretary Pro tem