Preamble

Student throughput is an issue which affects many aspects of the university, including resources, class scheduling, student satisfaction, and our image to the citizens of California. We strongly believe that student throughput is very important, and we have found that throughput is affected by a variety of factors. In order for throughput to be effectively managed we must all take a positive approach to the various issues and problems which have caused increases in student throughput. In this light, we believe that there should be rewards to departments and colleges for making improvements in throughput quality.

We should all realize that we have a commitment to the students who have been admitted to our university-we should also have a commitment to enabling them to graduate from Cal Poly in a timely fashion. The following report outlines the committee's recommendations for achieving success in student throughput. We genuinely believe that student throughput can be positively influenced if we all take an honest look at these issues and work to improve the quality of education
here at Cal Poly.

Background

The Student Throughput Committee was formed during Winter Quarter 1993 as an Ad Hoc Committee of the Academic Senate. The committee was given the tasks of investigating issues which affect the throughput of students at Cal Poly and formulating a blueprint for action for the university. The committee reviewed the results of the Student Progress Committee as a starting point, and then added new items.of concern and categorized the results according to importance.

A wide variety of campus administrators were interviewed in order to gain their perspective on the throughput problem, including: Jim Maravialia (Admissions), Euel Kennedy (ESS), Tom Zuur (Records), Paula Ringer (ESS), Stacie Breitenbach (CENG Advising Center), Bev Hensel (CBUS Advising Center), and Lucy Rodriguez (Admissions). A survey of nearly one thousand students was also conducted during Spring Quarter 1993 in order to determine what the throughput problems are from the student's perspective. A listing of the survey questions and the results are attached as an appendix.

Recommendations

The following recommendations are presented as a blueprint for achieving success in student throughput. The committee believes that presenting these recommendations in a concise format will be most efficient and valuable to the campus community. The recommendations are made within four general areas: 1) Advising and Student Support, 2) Curriculum Issues, 3) Class Availability, and 4) Senior Problems.

1) Advising and Student Support

* Community College Transfer

• Evaluations should be available for all transfer students before they first register at Cal Poly.
• Each department should be encouraged to re-exan-dne their curriculum with regards to community college transfer issues (200 vs. 300 level course issues, etc.).
• Articulation agreements between Cal Poly and the community colleges should be more flexible and "friendly" to the transfer.
• Procedures for accepting transfer credit from community colleges should be more flexible and "friendly" to the transfer student.

* Advising

• Every student should be given the name, office location, and phone number of their appropriate advisor (or advisors) when they enter the university.
• Intrusive advising should occur before a student first registers at Cal Poly (START is a successful program which could be used as a model).
• Advisors should be introduced to students during WOW Week.
• Departments should take advantage of Admission Office mailings in order to inform new students about advising issues.
• Colleges should consider doing one of the following:
• institute advising centers (CENG and CBUS Centers are successful models), or
• give annual seminars to faculty who will be serving as advisors to inform them of new and changing information.

* Support Services

• All student support services should be consolidated, both physically and logistically (that is, they should be located in one building on campus, and be part of one campus organization).
• Services need to be made more available to the students--if budget cuts are affecting services, then student assistants should be used to fill in the work gaps where appropriate.
• A directory should be provided to students, faculty, and staff explaining where they should go in order to get help with various academic problems.
• Support services (tutoring, etc.) should be available for all students, while realizing that proactive support is necessary for targeted student groups.

A lack of flexibility has been one of the key causes of student throughput problems, which in turn has been created by the overstructured curriculum. There has been a lack of flexibility in GE&B, advisor-approved electives, and other areas which are described below.

* Changing Majors

• The administration should formulate a policy which prevents departments and/or colleges from taking unwarranted action against students who want to change majors.
• Every department should reduce the barriers which students face in changing majors.

* College-Wide Undeclared Major
 
• The administration and faculty should consider admitting college-wide undeclared majors.
• The undeclared majors should be required to declare a major by the end of their second year at Cal Poly.
• The undeclared majors should be asked to express a program interest and then receive advising from that program at the earliest possible time in their education.


* GE&B
 

• It is vitally important that GE&B requirements be streamlined and be made more flexible.
• Decisions regarding GE&B cannot be made effectively if resources are directly tied to course allocations.
• Departments should provide more opportunity for students to be flexible in their GE&B choices.
• The GE&B system should have more flexibility for students-the categories should be more openly defined and double counting via multi-content courses should be made more flexible.
• The faculty should insure that GE&B addresses "what is important for our students to know."
• The GE&B system should provide departments the opportunity to be flexible in choosing paths for their students.


* Reducing Graduation Unit Requirements
 

• Departments should consider reducing the number of units required for graduation.
• Departments should consider reducing the number of small unit courses which are required for their students.
• Flexibility should be built into the curriculum as much as possible (electives, scheduling, etc.).
• Mis-numbered Courses


Good progress has been made with the Community College transfer issue of courses which have been mislabeled as 300 level, when in fact they contain 200 level information. A continued effort should be made to improve this type of flexibility.

* Scheduling/Classrooms

• Scheduling should serve the best interests of the students.
• Scheduling should continue to be de-centralized, with as much flexibility as possible given to the departments.
• Departments should take a careful look at their scheduling to insure that student scheduling is logical and flexible.
• Every effort should be made to insure that the published class schedule is followed whenever possible.
• There should be expanded availability of the theater and large classroom spaces for lecture course use.

* Scheduling Conflicts

• Departments should attempt to insure that they do not schedule conflicts for their own students.
• Departments should consider off-hour scheduling of labs and other multi-hour courses in order to avoid scheduling conflicts for students.

* Viable Summer Term
It is obvious from our survey that students want a viable summer term. This is a problem which needs to be planned for and resolved.

• The university ought to make a commitment to a summer term.
• The university should address and solve the resource issues for summer term before offering the term to the students.
• The university should establish a clear and equitable policy for faculty to teach during the summer term.

* Survey Students to Identify Current Bottlenecks
Departments should be encouraged to perform regular surveys of their students in order to determine what problems are occurring with class scheduling and availability.

4) Senior Problems

* Senior Projects

The university has already made progress in giving the departments a great deal of latitude in defining Senior Projects. However, inflexible regulations within the departments and/or colleges can cause the Senior Project to be an unnecessarily burdensome task for the student. Students need to be prepared for conducting independent work, and the Senior Project should be seen as a way to accomplish this goal.

• There needs to be university-wide policies for Senior Project grading and requirements-the Acaden-dc Senate Instruction Committee should be asked to make recommendations for these policies.
• Departments should insure that support and advising for Senior Projects is consistent for all students, and that the Senior Project is a meaningful and valuable experience for their students.
• The university should consider doing away with "ST. grading for Senior Projects in order to make the "in progress" grades more meaningful to the students.
• The independent thought and study required in order to complete a Senior Project should be instilled in students earlier in the curriculum.
• The university should consider a special summer-term Extended Ed. program for encouraging students to return to the university and finish their Senior Projects.

* Senior Evaluations and 'The End Game"

• Good progress has been made in insuring that students have their Senior Evaluations in a timely fashionimprovements should continue to be made so that all students received a meaningful and timely Senior Evaluation.
• The university should consider offering the students a chance to submit an "End Game" form which would detail how the students would fulfill their remaining graduation requirements. This could eliminate the students from having to fill out individual petitions for each exception.

These are the results of the Student progress Survey which was conducted during Spring Quarter 1993. The survey was administered to 967 students in randomly selected classes--there were a proportionate number of classes at the lower and upper division levels so as to accurately represent the student body. These results only represent the raw data which was collected-anyone interested in obtaining more detailed information from the survey should contact Russell Cummings at X2562.

Percentage of students surveyed according to college:

Agriculture             23%                 Engineering                   23%
Architecture             7%                 Liberal Arts                   17%
Business                  9%                 Science & Math             19%
UCTE                     1%

Percentage of students surveyed according to class level:

Freshman                10%                 Senior                 51%
Sophomore             10%                 Graduate               3%
Junior                      26%

1. When did you first enroll at Cal Poly (quarter and year)?

0 - 4 years ago                            73%
5 - 6 years ago                            22%
more than 6 years ago                   5%

2. Did you transfer into Cal Poly?

Yes                42%
No                 57%

If yes, approximately what percentage of your transfer units were accepted by Cal Poly?

90% - 100% of units                   35% of students
70% - 90% of units                     34% of students
less than 70% of units                  31% of students
 

3. How many quarters have you attended Cal Poly?

1 - 3 quarters                  19%
4 - 6 quarters                   21%
7 - 9 quarters                   21%
10 - 12 quarters               19%
more than 12 quarters       18%
 

4. How many units are you presently taking?

1 - 11 units                                 9%
12 - 16 units                             76%
more than 16 units                     15%
 

5. How many in-class hours per week do you have this quarter?

1 - 11 hours                               11%
12 - 16 hours                             41%
17 - 21 hours                             33%
more than 21 hours                    15%
 

6. How many units did you take last quarter?

1 - 11 units                                 7%
12 - 16 units                             76%
more than 16 units                    17%
 

7. Have you ever worked while taking classes at Cal Poly?

Yes                 66%                No     34%

If yes, please indicate:

a) how many quarters you worked.

1 - 3 quarters                             44%
4 - 6 quarters                             25%
7 - 9 quarters                             15%
more than 9 quarters                  16%

b) how many hours you worked per week on the average.

less than 10 hours                        14%
10 - 19 hours                              43%
20 - 29 hours                              33%
30 hours or more                        10%


c) did working ever make you reduce the number of courses/ units that you otherwise would have taken?

Yes            51%                       No              49%

Co-op                         30% said Yes
Internship                     45% said Yes

Average = 6.2 quarters

Average = 2.2 substitutions.

0 courses                         56%
1 or 2 courses                  34%
3 or more courses            10%

Yes             30%                         No             70%

Yes             37%                        No             63%

14. How many courses have you taken here which were unnecessary for your degree or G.E. requirements in order to:

a) carry 12 units per quarter?

0 courses                         68%
1 or 2 courses                  17%
3 or more courses            15%

b) satisfy you personal needs or interests?

0 courses                         46%
1 or 2 courses                  27%
3 or more courses            27%

15. Have you ever dropped out of Cal Poly?

Yes             9%                                     No             91%

1 or 2 quarters                          62%
3 or more quarters                    38%

16. Time when class. meets.                             Average= 3.7
17. Day when class meets.                               Average = 3.2
18. Reputation of instructor.                             Average = 3.9
19. Amount of studying required.                     Average= 3.4
20. Difficulty level of course.                            Average = 3.4
 

The following is a list of factors that may have affected your academic progress since you entered Cal Poly. For each factor that affected you atany time, please answer the corresponding questions. (Do not answer questions about factors that did not affect your progress.)

21. Obtaining courses required by your major.

a) why was this a problem (check all that apply)

space was unavailable                                     63%
schedule conflict with other courses                 68%
prerequisite not met                                         26%
other                                                               13%

b) how did you deal with this problem (check all that apply)

re-arranged my schedule                   58%
reduced my unit load                         22%
took unnecessary courses                  11%
other                                                 19%

a) why was this a problem (check all that apply)

space was unavailable                                     71%
schedule conflict with other courses                 52%
prerequisite not met                                          8%
other                                                                5%

b) how did you deal with this problem (check all that apply)

re-arranged my schedule                     68%
reduced my unit load                           12%
took unnecessary courses                      6%
other                                                   13%

23. Obtaining sequential courses.

a) why was this a problem (check all that apply)

space was unavailable                                        42%
schedule conflict with other courses                    38%
prerequisite not met                                           14%
other                                                                   8%

b) how did you deal with this problem (check all that apply)

re-arranged my schedule                             38%
reduced my unit load                                   22%
took unnecessary courses                              6%
other                                                           11%

24. Obtaining support and core courses.

a) why was this a problem (check all that apply)

space was unavailable                                51%
schedule conflict with other courses            44%
prerequisite not met                                    12%
other                                                            5%

b) how did you deal with this problem (check all that apply)

re-arranged my schedule                             45%
reduced my unit load                                     9%
took unnecessary courses                              4%
other                                                           10%

25. Obtaining courses offered once a year.

a) why was this a problem (check all that apply)

space was vmavailable                                 39%
schedule conflict with other courses              35%
prerequisitenot met                                     12%
other                                                             6%

b) how did you deal with this problem (check all that apply)

re-arranged my schedule                             31%
reduced my unit load                                     8%
took unnecessary courses                              2%
other                                                           15%

26. Time changes or cancellations of courses.

b)how did you deal with this problem (check all that apply)

re-arranged my schedule                             33%
reduced my unit load                                     9%
took unnecessary courses                             2%
other                                                            5%

        Yes             31%                                No             69%

If yes, for how many quarters?

1 or 2 quarters                  69%
3 or more quarters             31%

28. Have you ever reduced your academic load to meet non-academic concerns (e.g. work, family, personal issues, etc.)?

        Yes             50%                                No                 50%

 If yes, for how many quarters?

1 or 2 quarters                      59%
3 or more quarters                41%

29. Has inaccurate or inadequate advising delayed your progress?

            Yes                 30%                     No         70%

Explain-these explanations are on the original surveys.
 

30. Other (please describe and indicate for how many quarters the issue delayed your progress.
 

20% responded--these explanations are on the original surveys.

31. How often have you taken fewer units than you could have only because of your personal preference, and not because of any of the factors mentioned in items 20 through 29 above?

0 quarters                            47%
1 or 2 quarters                     31%
3 or more quarters               22%

32. Has finishing your Senior Project delayed your progress?

            Yes                 12%                     No                     88%

33. How important is it for your academic progress to be able to take courses at Cal Poly during summer quarter? (1 to 5 scale, 1-not important, 3-moderately important, 5--very important)

1 - not important                                    15%
2,3 & 4 - moderately important                51%
5 - very important                                    34%

34. Completing a degree as quickly as possible:                        Averaae = 3.8

35. Obtaining an internship or Co-op:                                       Average = 3.3

36. Taking advantage of extra-curricular activities:                    Average = 3.2

37. Having fun while going to school:                                        Average = 3.7
 

38. How satisfied are you with your rate of progress towards your degree at Cal Poly? (1 to 5 scale, 1-very dissatisfied to 5-very satisfied)

Dissatisfied            24%
Neutral                  35%
Satisfied                41%