BREAKING: Sul Ross Hires Consultant to assist with a “Five-Year Transformation Process”
By: Maya Tinajero, Skyline Editor
ALPINE – It appears that a year’s worth of issues, such as an apparent drop in retention, a lawsuit from a previous professor, as well as budget cuts from the U.S. Department of Education have finally sent Sul Ross officials to search for help.
In an email sent out to faculty and staff yesterday, the Office of the Provost announced that Sul Ross would be “working with the Gardner Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on improvements in teaching, learning, retention, and completion on a five-year transformation process.”
The email itself also stated that the university would be administering an “Institutional Transformation Assessment (ITA)” as well as a “Readiness, Willingness, and Ability (RWA) survey” as a “launch point in this process to prioritize our efforts to meet this goal.” The survey is supposed to become available to those included in the email chain by Monday, the 16, but did not specify what “goal” the university is looking to achieve. Also, per the email, faculty and staff can expect “sensemaking sessions” to “discuss the results of the survey and identify areas of potential improvement and prioritization resulting in a strategic plan for student success.” These “sensemaking sessions” are to be led by Gardner Institute staff later in the semester.
According to their website, the Gardner Institute is meant to “help higher education institutions harness their greatest strengths and navigate their most pressing challenges.” The organizations’ website offers some insight into their method of operations, listing efforts such as “the development of consortia, the facilitation of a variety of evidence-based student success improvement efforts,” as well as “the administration and evaluation of national surveys, and other institutional transformation efforts.” Apparently supported by various philanthropic funders, the institutions approach, as listed on their website, is to guide rather than direct, illuminate data, integrate moving pieces, elevate the role of faculty, build a foundation for lasting change, and align students with institutional success.
Along with most universities, Sul Ross has faced a number of challenges in recent years, starting with the onset of Covid. In the past year alone, the university lost millions of dollars in federal grants as a result of Trump Administration cuts to education programs designed to support Hispanic-serving institutions, enrollment and retention has dropped, a lawsuit has been filed by a senior staff member alleging gender discrimination in salaries, and the bump up of the sports program to Division 2 status resulted in the football team losing all eleven games.
Despite previous mention of surveys and “sensemaking sessions” there are no other specifics as to what this “five-year transformational process” will require. The Skyline reached out to the Office of the Provost for clarification on the matter but did not receive a response.