I am pleased to announce through the efforts of the Nomination Committee and Executive Committee, candidates have been selected to present for your approval at our Annual Business Meeting (Vice President, Treasurer, Nominations Committee members Representing a Private, Community College, 4 year Public MACRAO member.) As always, there will be the opportunity if you choose to nominate potential candidates from the floor.
   
    The  Nominations Committee consisted of myself and the following MACRAO members :
                              Carol Taberski, Northwestern Community College
                              Diane Praet, University of Detroit Mercy
                              Tom Bell, Westshore Community College
                              Babara McKinney, Western Michigan University
                              Evan Montague, Alma College

This year either through self nomination or individuals nominated by their fellow colleagues, many of you stepped forward to commit your time, energy, and talents to this great organization. Thank you !



    I want to insure the membership that the executive committee was extremely sensitive to your comments from last year’s survey results - make it a fair process!
    The following process took place in this year’s selection process:

• The nomination committee met at SVSU to discuss the process as well as implement strategies to attract our members to either self nominate themselves or to be nominated.
  
• Numerous communications were provided to the membership of the available leadership opportunities, either by e-mail, phone, or through our MACRAO website.
  
• Following the nomination deadline, the Nomination Committee compiled a list of potential candidates by positions that were interested in serving after the deadline date had passed.
  
• The list was give to Dorene Root, MACRAO Historian, to research each candidate’s past involvement with the organization.
• A thorough discussion on each candidate then took place by the Executive Committee. Candidates were then ranked by position they were willing to serve.
  
• Candidates were then contacted by me, this year’s chair, by rank order informing them they had been selected to serve in a leadership role. The first candidates that said yes based on their rank by position of interest were selected.
  

   
    It is important that the membership understand in the selection process, the executive team be cognizant of adequately representing our admissions and registrar members with a balance from our four year public and private universities,  community colleges as well as geography of our membership. We are a unique state organization with strong representation from both the admissions and registrar worlds, unlike the membership of our sister organizations in our surrounding states.  It is imperative as we continue to impact student success in this state, as well as keeping our Macrao mission alive, that we embrace this strategy in the nomination process.
       
    In the end we hope the candidates we have recommended through this process will uphold the wisdom of Karen Klumpp from Alma College, a former MACRAO President:
   
       
    If you have any comments, suggestions, or concerns please don’t hesitate to share them with me at jdwyer@svsu.edu in order that the Executive and Nomination committees maximize their efforts to annually find leaders who will “make a difference” with our organizations.  

Executive Committee Meeting Schedule

All MACRAO Members are welcome at Executive Committee meetings.  Comments from the membership are welcome at the beginning and end of each meeting. 

 
June 19 & 20 - MACRAO Summer Summit

July 18 - Central Michigan University, Lansing Campus

August - No Meeting

September 19 - Central Michigan University, Lansing Campus

October 17 - Hyatt Regency Dearborn, Dearborn

November - MACRAO Annual Meeting

December - TBD

AACRAO TRANSCRIPT                                                                                                                                                                                                   Written by: Cody Brumfield
Published: 08/21/2008

Controversial Survey on Transfer to Move Forward with Key Modifications

Last month, the Under Secretary's Office at the U.S. Department of Education announced a major survey of Pell Grant recipients who transferred between colleges. In so doing, the Department requested emergency clearance to conduct the survey without going through the normal regulatory process.

AACRAO immediately registered its opposition to the regulatory clearance waiver, calling the survey instrument "defective," and questioned the need for such a hasty and ill-conceived data collection effort. AACRAO also offered to work with the Department to create a survey that would yield scientifically sound data free of undue bias.

We are pleased to report that the Department revised the survey instrument and addressed many, if not all, of AACRAO's concerns. The updated instrument includes additional questions critical to understanding the transfer process, such as whether any repeated courses were, in the student’s opinion, identical. It also collects grades for any repeated coursework, which will provide much-needed context for the receiving institution's transfer decisions. In addition, the collection effort is limited in scope, with a sample size of approximately 200 students who transferred from a community college. This will allow the study to serve as a focus group for a more systematic data collection in the future.

With the modifications mentioned above, AACRAO has no objections to the proposed information collection.

###

Related Links:

Updated Survey Documents
http://edicsweb.ed.gov/browse/downldatt.cfm?pkg_serial_num=3758

 

 

 

AACRAO TRANSCRIPT

Written by: Cody Brumfield
Published: 08/21/2008

President Bush Signs Higher Education Act

With little fanfare beyond a short press release, President Bush last week signed the first full reauthorization of the Higher Education Act in over a decade. House and Senate conferees agreed to the bill's final language late last month.

The new law, which will govern higher education for at least the next five years, establishes several new grant programs and creates inducements for states to hold tuition steady. In addition, the bill authorizes year-round Pell grants, simplifies the FAFSA, and bans conflicts-of-interest in student lending.

Less welcome: a provision weakening a key safeguard against fraud, a requirement that colleges advertise subscription-based music services, and the addition of hundreds of new reporting requirements on colleges and universities.

Submitted by Carol Quigley, 8/21/2008 12:58:24 PM

Suggested Reading:

1. Higher Education in Michigan: Overcoming Challenges to Expand Access:

http://www.ihep.org/assets/files/publications/g-l/Higher_Education_in_Michigan.pdf

2. Transfer Students: Postsecondary Institutions Could Promote More Consistent Consideration of Coursework by Not Basing Determinations on Accreditation: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0622.pdf

3. The Condition of Higher Education 2008: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008031

4. Community Colleges: Special Supplement to The 2008 Condition of Education: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008033

This Special Supplement to The Condition of Education 2008 provides a descriptive profile of community colleges in the United States, examines the characteristics of students who entered community college directly from high school, and looks at rates of postsecondary persistence and attainment among community college students in general. It also compares the characteristics of these institutions and of the students who enroll in them with those of public and private 4-year colleges and universities.

How do the presidential candidates stand on EDUCATION? Let's take a look.

John McCain's Higher Education Policy

Retrieved from JohnMcCain.com at:

http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/PressReleases/ed12978d-a54f-471e-aeed-65c65bcba6da.htm

For Immediate Release August 14, 2008

Contact: Press Office 703-650-5550

Prepare for the 21st Century in Higher Education
America is facing increased competition from overseas like never before. Higher education is as much a part of that competition as the job sector, and we must rise to the challenge and modernize our universities so that they retain their status as producers of the most skilled workforce in the world. The answer is not to impose more regulations on institutions, but to encourage the government to support innovative approaches to education, removing regulatory barriers that prevent us from moving forward with new ideas.

Improve Information for Parents
Institutions report on hundreds of factors to the U.S. government every year, but the government does nothing with the information. Making this information available to families in a clear and concise manner will help more students make more informed choices about higher education.

Simplify Higher Education Tax Benefits
The existing tax benefits are too complicated, and many eligible families don’t claim them. By simplifying the existing benefits, I can ensure that a greater number of families have a lower tax burden when they are helping to send their children to college.

Simplify Federal Financial Aid
Too many programs and a complicated application process deter many eligible students from seeking student aid. The number of programs also makes it more difficult for financial aid officers to help students navigate the process. Consolidating programs will help simplify the administration of these programs, and help more students have a better understanding of their eligibility for aid.

Improve Research by Eliminating Earmarks
Earmarking is destroying the integrity of federally funded research. Billions of dollars are spent on pork barrel projects every year; significant amounts come from research budgets. Eliminating earmarks would immediately and significantly improve the federal government’s support for university research.

Fix the Student Lending Programs
We have seen significant turmoil in student lending. John McCain has proposed an expansion of the lender-of-last resort capability of the federal student loan system and will demand the highest standard of integrity for participating private lenders. Effective reforms and leveraging the private sector will ensure the necessary funding of higher education aspirations, and create a simpler and more effective program in the process.

 

How do the presidential candidates stand on EDUCATION? Let's take a look.

BARACK OBAMA

Retrieved from barackobama.com at:

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education/#higher-education

 

EDUCATION

A World class education

“I don't want to send another generation of American children to failing schools. I don't want that future for my daughters. I don't want that future for your sons. I do not want that future for America.”

— Barack Obama, Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, Des Moines, Iowa, November 10, 2007

• Early Childhood Education
• K-12
• Recruit, Prepare, Retain, and Reward Teachers
• Higher Education

 

No Child Left Behind Left the Money Behind: The goal of the law was the right one, but unfulfilled funding promises, inadequate implementation by the Education Department and shortcomings in the design of the law itself have limited its effectiveness and undercut its support. As a result, the law has failed to provide high-quality teachers in every classroom and failed to adequately support and pay those teachers.

Students Left Behind: Six million middle and high school students read significantly below their grade level. A full third of high school graduates do not immediately go on to college. American 15 year olds rank 28th out of 40 countries in mathematics and 19th out of 40 countries in science. Almost 30 percent of students in their first year of college are forced to take remedial science and math classes because they are not prepared.

High Dropout Rate: America has one of the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world. Only 70 percent of U.S. high school students graduate with a diploma. African American and Latino students are significantly less likely to graduate than white students.

Teacher Retention is a Problem: Thirty percent of new teachers leave within their first five years in the profession.

Soaring College Costs: College costs have grown nearly 40 percent in the past five years. The average graduate leaves college with over $19,000 in debt. And between 2001 and 2010, 2 million academically qualified students will not go to college because they cannot afford it. Finally, our complicated maze of tax credits and applications leaves too many students unaware of financial aid available to them.

Early Childhood Education

• Zero to Five Plan: Obama's comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan will provide critical support to young children and their parents. Unlike other early childhood education plans, Obama's plan places key emphasis at early care and education for infants, which is essential for children to be ready to enter kindergarten. Obama will create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state "zero to five" efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school.
• Expand Early Head Start and Head Start: Obama will quadruple Early Head Start, increase Head Start funding and improve quality for both.
• Affordable, High-Quality Child Care: Obama will also provide affordable and high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families.

K-12

• Reform No Child Left Behind: Obama will reform NCLB, which starts by funding the law. Obama believes teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. He will improve the assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for college and the workplace and improve student learning in a timely, individualized manner. Obama will also improve NCLB's accountability system so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather than punishing them.
• Make Math and Science Education a National Priority: Obama will recruit math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession and will support efforts to help these teachers learn from professionals in the field. He will also work to ensure that all children have access to a strong science curriculum at all grade levels.
• Address the Dropout Crisis: Obama will address the dropout crisis by passing his legislation to provide funding to school districts to invest in intervention strategies in middle school - strategies such as personal academic plans, teaching teams, parent involvement, mentoring, intensive reading and math instruction, and extended learning time.
• Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities: Obama will double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve one million more children.
• Expand Summer Learning Opportunities: Obama's "STEP UP" plan addresses the achievement gap by supporting summer learning opportunities for disadvantaged children through partnerships between local schools and community organizations.
• Support College Outreach Programs: Obama supports outreach programs like GEAR UP, TRIO and Upward Bound to encourage more young people from low-income families to consider and prepare for college.
• Support English Language Learners: Obama supports transitional bilingual education and will help Limited English Proficient students get ahead by holding schools accountable for making sure these students complete school.

Recruit, Prepare, Retain, and Reward America's Teachers

• Recruit Teachers: Obama will create new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education, including high-quality alternative programs for mid-career recruits in exchange for teaching for at least four years in a high-need field or location.
• Prepare Teachers: Obama will require all schools of education to be accredited. He will also create a voluntary national performance assessment so we can be sure that every new educator is trained and ready to walk into the classroom and start teaching effectively. Obama will also create Teacher Residency Programs that will supply 30,000 exceptionally well-prepared recruits to high-need schools.
• Retain Teachers: To support our teachers, Obama's plan will expand mentoring programs that pair experienced teachers with new recruits. He will also provide incentives to give teachers paid common planning time so they can collaborate to share best practices.
• Reward Teachers: Obama will promote new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them. Districts will be able to design programs that reward accomplished educators who serve as a mentor to new teachers with a salary increase. Districts can reward teachers who work in underserved places like rural areas and inner cities. And if teachers consistently excel in the classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well.

Higher Education

• Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit: Obama will make college affordable for all Americans by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students. Obama will also ensure that the tax credit is available to families at the time of enrollment by using prior year's tax data to deliver the credit when tuition is due.
• Simplify the Application Process for Financial Aid: Obama will streamline the financial aid process by eliminating the current federal financial aid application and enabling families to apply simply by checking a box on their tax form, authorizing their tax information to be used, and eliminating the need for a separate application.

Record of Advocacy: Obama has been a leader on educational issues throughout his career. In the Illinois State Senate, Obama was a leader on early childhood education, helping create the state's Early Learning Council. In the U.S. Senate, Obama has been a leader in working to make college more affordable. His very first bill sought to increase the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,100. As a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, Obama helped pass legislation to achieve that goal in the recent improvements to the Higher Education Act. Obama has also introduced legislation to create Teacher Residency Programs and to increase federal support for summer learning opportunities.

 

• For More Information about Barack's Plan

Pre-K to 12 Plan: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/pdf/PreK-12EducationFactSheet.pdf

College Affordability Plan: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/pdf/CollegeAffordabilityFactSheet.pdf

For more detailed information on these topics, go to: http://www.barackobama.com

NEWS from Inside Higher Education, July 30, by Doug Lederman

"The State Higher Ed Picture, 2007"

"Looking ahead, the outlook for higher education in the states is decidedly mixed and seeming to worsen by the day. But for most states, public colleges will be entering the down times with a couple good years under their belt, according to an annual report released today by the State Higher Education Executive Officers.

The study, State Higher Education Finance FY2007, is the final version of a report that the group released in February. The final report finds that in 2007 the fiscal year, state and local funds for higher education rose to $83.5 billion, up 7.7 percent over 2006. After taking enrollment growth (0.7 percent) and inflation (3.3 percent) into account, per student state and local appropriations for education in public colleges and universities grew to $6,773, an increase of 3.9 percent in constant dollars from 2006."

For the remainder of this article, go to: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/07/30/sheeo

NOTE:

   Paul Lingenfelter, President for SHEEO, is scheduled to speak at one of several workshops offered at this year's Tri-State, Great Lakes Conference this November, co-sponsored by the MACRAO Legislative Update Committee and the MACRAO Articulation Committee. Plan to attend this very important workshop, "A Call For State Leadership."

 

Written by: Cody Brumfield
Published: 07/23/2008 AACRAO TRANSCRIPT

Education Department Denied Emergency Clearance for Transfer Survey

Last week, the Under Secretary's Office at the U.S. Department of Education announced a major survey of Pell Grant recipients who transferred between colleges. In a federal register notice, The Department indicated that it had sought emergency clearance from The Office of Management and Budget to perform the survey starting July 17th, only one day after the date of publication of the notice.

AACRAO immediately registered its opposition to the approval of the Department's attempt to circumvent the regular clearance process in a letter to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the OMB. The Association's objections to the effort were shared by a number of other higher education groups, which submitted a similar letter to OMB requesting that the emergency clearance be denied. The group, which included AACRAO, pointed out that there was "no additional benefit to be derived from the unnecessary 'emergency' designation." In addition, the letter argued, precluding public comment would be unwise considering the complex and varied institutional policies on transfer and the differing perspectives of colleges, students, and government officials.

As of now, the OMB has refused to approve the Department's emergency request. It appears that the data collection clearance process will follow the normal procedures, and provide all affected groups to share their views. Should the Department choose to move forward with the survey, AACRAO would welcome the opportunity to submit formal comments and help develop a survey that facilitates an unbiased examination of credit transfer.

Committee Meetings

September 19, 2008                          1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.                      MCCA, Lansing

October 17, 2008                              10 a.m. to 12 p.m.                           MCCA, Lansing