Summer School Optimization Taskforce
Purpose
The Summer School Optimization Task Force is charged with conducting a comprehensive review of the university’s summer school program with the goal of enhancing academic and budgeting efficiency, aligning instructional resources with student demand, leveraging faculty talent and availability during summer sessions to support student success and timely degree completion.
Objectives
- Operational Review: Evaluate current summer school structures, including course scheduling, faculty assignments, enrollment patterns, and budgetary models and actual expenses.
- Academic Efficiency: Analyze the relationship between faculty instructional effort and student credit hour production to identify opportunities for improved resource utilization and instructional alignment.
- Student Success and Matriculation: Assess how summer offerings contribute to student progression, retention, and on-time graduation. Identify high-impact courses and pathways that support these outcomes.
- Strategic Recommendations: Develop actionable recommendations to:
- Optimize course offerings based on student demand and academic need.
- Align summer programming with institutional goals.
- Improve faculty workload balance and compensation models, paying careful attention to any ongoing or new differences in instructional pay for academic year overloads and summer school.
- Enhance marketing and communication strategies to increase student participation, especially among those who choose summer school at other institutions.
- Devise a sustainable, predictable enrollment management and budget model.
Members
- Allen Guidry, Associate Provost for Learner Operations
- Chris Rowland, Associate VC for Administration & Finance Operations & Athletics Business Affairs
- Ruth Lee, Director of Financial Administration, POSO
- Angela Anderson, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Academic Success and Registrar
- Greg Harris, Director of Institutional Research
- Peter Francia, Director of Center for Survey Research
- Mark Bowler, Chair of Faculty
- Meghan Millea, University Budget Committee
- Karen Vail-Smith, General Education and Instructional Effectiveness Committee
- Eli Hvastkovs, Faculty Welfare Committee
- Amy Frank, Admission & Retention Policies Committee
- Allison Danell, Dean, Harriot College of Arts & Sciences, Taskforce Chair
- Andre Green, Dean, College of Education
- Bim Akintade, Dean, College of Nursing
- Mike Harris, Dean, College of Business
- Debra Jackson, Dean, Graduate School
Timeline
The task force will convene in September, 2025, with a final report and recommendations due by January, 2026.
Potential Considerations/Discussions:
- Define objectives to meet with Summer Instruction? (Our guiding principles)
- Maximize enrollment (DFW, upper levels, pathways)
- Establishing section size limits and maxima (there are current guidelines)
- Should we consider offering graduate assistantships during Summer?
- How do we fund? Current proposal is 85% of 2024 departmental contribution to create a pool. 1. The # of SCH’s being produced and the per SCH contribution is not consistent (nor could it be, since disciplines pay differently). Again, the funding from department has come from what they have available.
- Evaluate a change in summer pay structure (including practices at peer institutions) to reduce inequitable or inconsistent practices in academic year overloads vs. summer school pays.
Requested data:
- Are students taking Summer courses elsewhere? Is there data on the number of transfer hours submitted after a Summer for continuing students? If yes, what is being transferred in- upper or lower?
- Is the cost of Summer School the deterrent for fewer enrollees? Are there adjustments to fees that we could consider? What are the impacts?
- Current section size enrollment per Faculty (Ying has provided this analysis- attached to this email)
- Cost of instructional pay in Summer compared to SCH generation by College