Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System Office of the Secretary 1860 Van Hise Hall 1220 Linden Drive Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (608)262-2324 DATE: September 24, 2010 TO: Each Regent FROM: Jane S. Radue PUBLIC MEETING NOTICE Agenda for meetings of the Board of Regents and Committees, to be held at UW- Oshkosh Reeve Union, 748 Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, Wisconsin on October 7 & 8, 2010 Thursday, October 7, 2010 10:00 a.m. All Regents – Reeve Union 227 (Ballroom) 1. UW-Oshkosh Presentation: “UW-Oshkosh's ‘Principles for Progress and Prosperity:’ A Compact to Better Educate More People” 2. UW System’s Participation in the National Access to Success Initiative 12:00 p.m. Regent/student lunch – Room 201 12:00 p.m. Lunch – general participants – Reeve Union Underground 1:00 p.m. Education Committee – Reeve Union 227 1:00 p.m. Joint Meeting of Business, Finance, and Audit Committee and Capital Planning and Budget Committee – Reeve Union 202 1:30 p.m. Business, Finance, and Audit Committee – Reeve Union 202 1:30 p.m. Capital Planning and Budget Committee – Reeve Union 306 Friday, October 8, 2010 9:00 a.m. Board of Regents meeting – Reeve Union 227 (Ballroom) Persons wishing to comment on specific agenda items may request permission to speak at Regent Committee meetings. Requests to speak at the full Board meeting are granted only on a selective basis and should be made in advance of the meeting, to the Secretary of the Board at the above address. Universities: Madison, Milwaukee, Eau Claire, Green Bay, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Parkside, Platteville, River Falls, Stevens Point, Stout, Superior, Whitewater, Colleges: Baraboo/Sauk County, Barron County, Fond du Lac, Fox Valley, Manitowoc, Marathon County, Marinette, Marshfield/Wood County, Richland, Rock County, Sheboygan, Washington County, Waukesha, Extension: Statewide Persons with disabilities requesting an accommodation to attend are asked to contact Jane Radue in advance of the meeting at (608)262-2324. Information about agenda items can be found at http://www.uwsa.edu/bor/meetings.htm or may be obtained from the Office of the Secretary, 1860 Van Hise Hall, Madison, WI 53706, (608)262-2324. The meeting will be webcast at http://www.uwex.edu/ics/stream/regents/meetings/ on Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. until approximately 12:00 p.m., and Friday, October 8, 2010 at 9:00 a.m. until approximately 12:00 p.m. October 7, 2010 Agenda Item 2 THE UW SYSTEM’S PARICIPATION IN THE NATIONAL ACCESS TO SUCCESS INITIATIVE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BACKGROUND Launched in 2008, the UW System’s Growth Agenda for Wisconsin represents the university’s strategic efforts to produce more college graduates, stimulate job creation, and strengthen Wisconsin communities. In April 2010, UW System President Kevin Reilly sharpened the focus for the second phase of the Growth Agenda to advance two core goals: increasing the number of Wisconsin residents who have a college degree, and leveraging the UW’s research capacity to grow more well-paying jobs. Under the title of More Graduates for Wisconsin, this work includes specific, measurable targets for moving Wisconsin forward in educating more students with a 21st-century quality education. As More Graduates for Wisconsin was being developed, including numerical goals for increased educational attainment by Wisconsin residents, the UW System joined a national initiative called Access to Success. Launched in late 2007 by almost two dozen public higher education systems that were members of the National Association of System Heads (NASH), Access to Success has adopted two, interrelated goals: 1) to increase the number of college graduates in their states; and 2) to ensure that those graduates are more broadly representative of their states’ high school graduates, in particular in terms of race and income. NASH is partnering with the Education Trust, an independent organization promoting academic achievement for pre-kindergarten through college students, to support the participating systems and report regularly to the public on the progress being made. The UW System joined Access to Success in Summer 2009, and the number of systems in the initiative is currently 24. At the October 2010 meeting, the Board will hear a presentation on the UW System’s participation in Access to Success. REQUESTED ACTION No action requested; for information only. DISCUSSION Through ambitious goals, new metrics, and deliberate action, Access to Success makes good on the commitment of public higher education systems to promote access, equity and excellence. And while the initiative aligns with President Obama’s goal to restore the nation’s preeminence in educational attainment, it operates outside of any government mandates and in the midst of the country’s worst recession since the Great Depression. Specifically, the 24 systems have pledged to cut in half by 2015 the gaps in retention and graduation rates for low- income and students of color compared to their more affluent, white peers. The potential impact of this work is enormous: the 24 systems in the initiative represent 378 two-year and four-year campuses and over three million students. As NASH and the Education Trust have 2 documented, collectively, these systems educate almost 40 percent of undergraduates attending four-year public colleges and universities, and almost 20 percent of all undergraduates nationwide. Digging deeper into these figures, the Access to Success systems enroll 27 percent of low-income students in public higher education and 44 percent of the African-American, Latino, and American-Indian students enrolled in public four-year institutions. (More information can be found at: http://www.edtrust.org/sites/edtrust.org/files/access2success/A2S_BaselineReport.pdf .) The work of the initiative hinges on the more rigorous analysis of data and setting of measureable goals than previously practiced at most institutions across the nation. Moreover, each participating system will measure performance and progress in the context of its own state’s population, starting from its own baseline data and not in comparison to other state systems. The broad metrics to be observed comprise three areas: 1) Access: Does a higher education system’s entering class reflect the socioeconomic and racial/ethnic profile of its state’s high school graduates? 2) Success: How do the success rates of low-income and underrepresented minority students compare with those of other students within the system? And 3) Access+Success: Do the system’s graduates reflect the diversity of the state’s high school graduates? The UW System has developed a dynamic process by which to deliver on its commitment to Access to Success and its More Graduates goals, one that involves dialogue between the System and UW institutions, the collection of baseline data, specific goals developed in concert with each UW institution, and detailed plans by which to achieve those goals according to the metrics established by the initiative. Like its work on LEAP and Inclusive Excellence, the UW System’s involvement in Access to Success bespeaks its commitment to comprehensive and systemic transformation in the way the System educates students, and positions the System to act as the catalyst for that transformation. The UW System is one of the premier public higher education systems in the world, providing quality education to thousands of students every year, at each of its institutions. And yet, Plan 2008, the Equity Scorecard Project, the Climate Study—all of these initiatives have provided hard—and disturbing—evidence detailing Wisconsin’s failure to educate all of its students equitably. The Board of Regents has strongly advocated more intentional efforts to eradicate the achievement gap between students of color and their white peers. The multiple initiatives in which the UW System is involved are interrelated and interdependent. They support and strengthen one another, and they bring under one framework, that of the Growth Agenda’s More Graduates for Wisconsin, the work that is critical to Wisconsin’s future. More Graduates, including the Access to Success initiative, comprises ambitious, evidence-driven work to ensure that the UW System fulfills its promise to develop the state’s human potential, create new jobs, and strengthen local communities. And it represents the System’s willingness to confront head-on the biggest challenges to public higher education, the country’s economic viability in the global economy, and the threat to American democracy posed by the continued stratification by race and income of the nation’s educational systems. RELATED REGENT POLICIES Regent Resolution 8970: "Resolution to Endorse the UW System's Commitment to Diversity in Phase II of Plan 2008," adopted 2/11/05. Revised September 27, 2010 BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM I.1. Education Committee - Thursday, October 7, 2010 Reeve Union UW-Oshkosh Oshkosh, Wisconsin 10:00 a.m. All Regents – Reeve Union 227 (Ballroom) 1. UW-Oshkosh Presentation: “UW-Oshkosh's „Principles for Progress and Prosperity:‟ A Compact to Better Educate More People” 2. UW System‟s Participation in the National Access to Success Initiative 12:00 p.m. Regent/student lunch – Room 201 12:00 p.m. Lunch – general participants – Reeve Union Underground 1:00 p.m. Education Committee – Reeve Union 227 a. Consent Agenda: 1. Approval of the Minutes of the August 19, 2010, Meeting of the Education Committee; 2. Approval of School of Medicine and Public Health Appointments to the Oversight and Advisory Committee of the Wisconsin Partnership Fund for a Healthy Future; [Resolution I.1.a.(2)] 3. UW-Oshkosh: Second Reading of Revised Mission; [Resolution I.1.a.(3)] b. Education Committee Priorities for 2010-11. c. UW-Milwaukee: Replication of Successful Charter Schools. [Resolution I.1.c.] d. Presentation of Campus Academic Plans: 1. UW-Green Bay; 2. UW-Oshkosh. e. Presentation on the Role of Equity-Mindedness in Inclusive Excellence.