Category Archives: News

School of Arts and Humanities Summer Workshops

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In June and July, faculty members from the School of Arts and Humanities participated in two planning workshops, engaging with members of the QEP Committee to further develop the vision, goal, student learning outcomes, and activities of the QEP.

In the June workshop, a group of ten Arts and Humanities faculty members, along with nine members of the QEP Committee, reviewed the recent history of the QEP development, including the recommendations and suggestions received during the SACS on-site visit, the faculty and student feedback from the community forums held in May, and the working QEP framework and goal statement. The faculty members reflected on and discussed the state of career preparation from a disciplinary perspective and offered guidance on the conceptualization of “career” in the context of the QEP. The group reviewed career development theories and approaches emerging from the QEP Literature Review process, refined the student learning outcomes, and began to brainstorm activities that align with student learning outcomes.

The second QEP Summer workshop was held in July, with 13 Arts and Humanities faculty members and 13 QEP Committee members participating. This workshop focused almost entirely on fine-tuning the student learning outcomes and identifying high impact activities to fulfill the learning outcomes.

Throughout these two workshops, the Arts and Humanities faculty members offered critical feedback and creative suggestions that have greatly enhanced the development of the QEP. Their contributions ensure that we are offering a program of career exploration and preparation that addresses an issue of high interest and need among students, is focused on student learning, and is true to the identity of St. Edward’s.

QEP Co-Directors Named and School Identified

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The Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Committee continues to refine and enhance the QEP and is pleased to share these recent developments:

  • QEP Co-Directors Named
    • Faculty Co-Director: Kim Garza, Associate Professor of Graphic Design
    • Staff Co-Director: Erin Ray, Student Academic Support Services
  • QEP Pilot School Identified
    • The School of Arts & Humanities will serve as the pilot school for the Quality Enhancement Plan. Faculty members from the following departments are participating in summer workshops to help shape the QEP:
      • Languages, Literatures and Cultures
      • Literature, Writing and Rhetoric
      • Performing Arts
      • Philosophy
      • Religious and Theological Studies
      • Visual Studies

QEP Community Forum Results

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The Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Committee held Community Forums in May to engage St. Edward’s faculty, staff and students in the QEP refinement process. Over 250 community members provided feedback on the refinement of the QEP topic and framework.

Using the feedback from these forums, the QEP Committee has further refined the QEP topic and framework. The current working definition of the QEP is as follows:

  • The goal of the QEP is to engage students in an iterative process of career exploration, preparation and experience to support the evolution of their professional lives.
  • The three elements of the QEP Framework are:
    • Discover, Discern, Explore
    • Build, Develop, Prepare
    • Engage, Experience
  • More than providing students a single experience of career preparation, the QEP framework may be used throughout a graduate’s professional life as their career evolves and changes over time.

The QEP Committee wishes to thank all faculty, staff and students who participated in the community forums for their thoughtful engagement and feedback. As it continues the revision process, the QEP Committee will be moving from topic refinement to revising the Student Learning Outcomes, activities and assessment plan for the QEP.

Additional opportunities to engage with the QEP refinement process will be announced in Horizon and posted on this site.

The iterative process of student learning

Update on QEP from President Martin

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From the Office of the President, April 25, 2017–

I want to extend my thanks to all in the St. Edward’s University community who welcomed the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) on-site committee to our campus earlier this month as part of our normal process of re-accreditation. The committee expressly stated that it felt a sense of true hospitality and that St. Edward’s stands as an “example of an institution whose mission permeates every corner of the campus, from its curriculum to its co-curricular activities to its way of thinking and talking about the purpose of higher education in general.” In particular, I want to thank those on the on-site logistical and technical teams who made themselves available around the clock to support the needs of our visitors.

QEP
A major focus of an on-site visit is the review of the required Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).  Reflecting the fine work of our QEP committees, the on-site committee praised our proposed QEP as noble and ambitious and in keeping with our Holy Cross mission. They did, however, offer some specific and very useful recommendations about the QEP design:

  • Narrow the focus of QEP activities by honing and articulating a clearer definition of “vocation.”
  • Reduce the number of student learning outcomes to be tracked.
  • Consider piloting the QEP within a smaller subset, such as a school or a group of targeted majors.

These recommendations are intended to be helpful and ensure the success of the QEP going forward.  They will allow us to re-engage in community dialogue that will sharpen the focus and reduce the scope to be more manageable and measurable.

Next Steps
The university will prepare a written response to the recommendations and submit it to SACSCOC by September 7, 2017.

  • The QEP Implementation Team, led by Nicole Trevino, AVP for Student Academic Support Services, has a plan to gain broad-based community input — including several faculty, staff and student forums over the next few weeks — to refine the QEP topic of vocation and its associated goals.
  • Forum invitations will appear in Horizon and other communication channels soon; I encourage each of you to participate.
  • Work will continue through August as the response gets finalized for the September deadline.
  • The QEP Implementation Team will share further updates with the community in August.

The September written response should conclude our portion of a very long and important process of re-accreditation. I greatly appreciate the enormous number of hours of work contributed by so many people across campus who have been involved in the process over the last two years. They gathered data, wrote the Compliance Certification and the Focus Report, hosted the on-site committee and selected, developed and planned the implementation of the QEP. Thanks to their service, we have impressed SACSCOC representatives with a very strong presentation of the mission and quality of our beloved university. All the reports will be reviewed by the SACS board of trustees in a process that leads to re-accreditation in December 2017.

George E. Martin, PhD

Final Quality Enhancement Plan Submitted to SACSCOC

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Our final draft of our Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) has been submitted to SACSCOC as part of our ten-year reaccreditation cycle.  The full draft is available to community members in Box: https://stedwards.box.com/s/062r4d5xb5f5ykvsg6ljs0gp551vb25t

The executive summary is below:

St. Edward’s University’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), Vocation: Discovering One’s Purpose in a Changing World, will provide our first time traditional undergraduate students with a four-year, integrated plan for vocational discovery. Our goal is to emphasize and enrich the Holy Cross tradition of vocation by inviting students to answer:

  1. what contribution do I want to make;
  2. how am I preparing to make this contribution;
  3. in what context(s) can I make this contribution(s);
  4. how do I integrate my liberal arts experience with complex problems faced by the world today?

At the heart of our mission is the cultivation of the mind in concert with the heart as well as the Holy Cross practice of preparing useful citizens for society. The intertwining of these concepts forms a core component of our identity—a component embodied in vocational discovery. Our definition of vocation embraces the Latin roots of the term VOCARE (to call) and VOX (voice) meaning calling. As part of our mission to help students “understand themselves, clarify their personal values and recognize their responsibility to the world community” we are committed to cultivating their callings and life purpose(s). In addition, we recognize that our students are facing an ever-changing world due to accelerating technological, economic and cultural shifts. Our mission is “to instill the critical skills that flex, bend and weather life’s tests.” Continue reading →

2017-2018 Innovation Fellowships to Support QEP

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light bulb turned onThe Office of Academic Affairs, the Center for Teaching Excellence, the Munday Library, and the Office of Instructional Technology of St. Edward’s University invite proposals from faculty for the 2017-18 Innovation Fellowship to be submitted by March 10, 2017. These fellowships will support faculty who need time, resources, and expertise to include pedagogical experimentation in their courses by providing a $1200 stipend, the opportunity to participate in the Summer 2017 Innovation Institute, May 15-26, 2017, and the opportunity to be part of a community of faculty fellows focused on pedagogical innovation. Continue reading →

QEP Components to Focus on Advising, Mentorship, and Reflection

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The QEP Development Committee has identified a number of components that contribute to the overall theme of “Vocation: Discovering One’s Purpose in a Changing World”.  These components are areas where we will advance our identified student learning outcomes. Based on input from the campus community and data about student engagement, the QEP Development Committee has recommended that the QEP focus explicitly on the following areas:

Advising + Mentorship : Integrating curricular and co-curricular experiences to help students identify, explore, and achieve their vocational goals

Reflection : Structured exercises for students to make connections across experiences and to develop a personal narrative.

QEP components with advising & mentoring and reflection highlighted

Efforts for the QEP will focus on advising & mentoring and student reflection.

Continue reading →

QEP Curriculum Development Mini-Grants CFP

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Call for Proposals:  Vocation: Discovering One’s Purpose in a Changing World, QEP Curriculum Development Mini-Grants

I. Eligibility

All full-time faculty.  Full-time staff who work directly with students.  All applicants must attend Helping Students Find Their Purpose: A QEP Workshop for Faculty & Staff  (workshop dates are Friday, September 16 or Saturday, September 17).

II.  Program Description

Competitive mini-grants will be awarded for curriculum development that incorporates vocational discovery into: (a) an existing course, (b) a new course, (c)  a co-curricular activity, in order to advance the new QEP. Continue reading →

Fall 2016 QEP Brainstorming Sessions

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Prior to the start of fall semester 2016 several members of the QEP Topic Development Committee led a brainstorming session at the President’s Leadership Retreat that involved 85 members from across the campus community (director level to vice presidents) to identify ways in which they (1) see the goals of our QEP currently being enacted at St. Edward’s, and (2) envision ways in which their areas might develop new initiatives to realize the proposed goals.   On August 23, an identical brainstorming session was held during the day-long, general faculty meeting. Both the administrative and faculty sessions were organized in round-table format where each table was assigned one goal and one student-learning outcome. Open-ended notes were taken by table leaders during the discussions.   After brainstorming, each table reported out to the entire group.  Results for these sessions are available online in box for members of the university community.

Leadership Retreat Brainstorming Session:  https://stedwards.box.com/s/nmvwks6dvjtcb9q32tvnoep594894tiy

General Faculty Meeting Brainstorming Session: https://stedwards.box.com/s/bzvd6lczy5bezhpiy9ot2hzimnb65bvp

See other feedback on the QEP gathered from the university community on the Results page.