STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE
FOCUS GROUP SUMMARY
 

Based upon any information you have, how would you assess Moorhead State?s performance regarding the career goal?

• Preparation for the global market place is part of the distinction of a four-year institution from tech schools. Therefore, it is important to talk about what kind of career education you get at a 4 year institution. One area is the global market place -I think we do try to do that. One concern is that we have eliminated some programs in the past such as out language programs.
• I like the approach to calling it career sensitive education because it is a change from a few years ago where the goal was to just become certified. Now we look more at how prepared students are for world they will find. Need to encourage freshmen to get into workplace ?do shadowing and find out what work settings are like early because they don?t understand what work is about. We need to encourage new students to make connections with careers as well as the university, so down the line they will be ready to proceed.
• I would like to see more involvement with the businesses in the area helping us decide where to focus. We have strong businesses in FM and the Tri-state area. We need to include business partnering or input on what they are looking for. Some of the tech schools are working directly with businesses.
• We should be more familiar with workplace demands and projections and provide that information to students. I hire people in a tech field and I know what I look at when I hire.
• I really approve and like the PSEO. I have five grandchildren and its very good for them to be able to get ahead so they can define their goals a bit more.
• New faculty perspective ? I would like to see training for new faculty. I didn?t know about Eurospring and exchange programs.
• Are there supports here for diverse people to become effective. I know someone from a diverse culture who really struggles.
• I?m a new faculty member ?to me "careers" says looking for a job instead of educating people for the world around and to educate them to think about as to what they are and have a stronger sense of their role in the community and the world. This language shifts the university focus and makes us seem more job oriented instead of educating students to think more broadly. One of things that attracted me to MSU was emphasis on liberal studies ? but it seems to conflict when we use the career language. Students don?t all have marketplace majors, but students are finding employment in areas for which they are educated. Being sensitive to marketplace is important but education is also for self-development. The marketplace is fickle. Do we serve students well if we are training people for a job? We want to train them to think critically, stand on their feet and shift when the market shifts. Those with degrees in philosophy may lead to a career in middle management at NCI ?was that person a failure as a philosophy major because he is not "employed in his field" ?not really. On the MnSCU survey, that person would not be evaluated as having a successful placement. E.g. there was a history major working in attorney general?s office ?that?s a failure too on the survey as the question asks for the connection between the degree and the career ? but that student thinks it is a success. It may be easier to measure this kind of success if the student has teaching degree but liberal arts graduates can go into anything. What about the 50 percent of teachers who go into something else after teaching 5 years?
• People need to participate in public and community service ?I don?t know if there is a specific effort to train students to do that, but I don?t see a lot of it. Service club memberships are decreasing, younger people are not coming in. We need students involved and involvement promoted on campus with service clubs, community involvement. Put it on their resume. In my business, it is required

2. How could career preparation at MSU be improved?

• If web registration is down, no one on this campus cares if the person who fixes it has a degree in liberal arts as long as he or she has training to fix it and get it running.
• We need to change people?s ideas on education. An early awareness program to get grade school people interested in going to college asked kids "what do you want to be?" We need ask, "What do you want to do?" Liberal arts gives broader training to let you roll when market changes. I want to see a broader experience, which is what MSU is supposed to provide. There has been a big shift in last few years in students ? they are here to get a job-they don?t want to think. Maybe we do need to move back to educate parents too. A parent?s identity revolves around his or her job, so no wonder it carries over into students. We do it all the time. Maybe we need to talk about this to freshmen-what a university education is trying to do. There are jobs out there for lots of majors-why are you here- think bigger. When they come in the door-start talking about careers right away. Need a program for freshmen or even before freshman. National program on school to work actually begins in kindergarten. The purpose is to help students see what their capabilities are. There is an increase in job shadowing, collaboration. Our obligations are retention. We need outside agencies to collaborate to show students why they are here and why they should stay the course. We are actually training for careers which are a cluster of opportunities within a certain discipline.
• People in work force now who are looking for career changes need information as they look for new or enhanced careers. We need to have evening courses, network, technology, email. We need options.

3.  ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION NOTES- Other Goals

• When I see transitions I note that transition should also be into communities and into careers and broader citizenship in our world. It is a better handle than careers to focus a lot of the above topics. This is a call to merge goals of careers and transitions into one goal.
• Needs to be more concentrated effort in meeting needs of students who do not fit the 18 year old mold focus on non-traditional students and their needs. Use technology to look at more ways to offer courses on line on TV, distance education, other modes to get away from classroom.
• It seems like Community refers to a need to be creative and flexible. If we have a teacher who wants to do a 2 hour night class and can?t, then that goal could be thrown out.? note that we need to meet the needs of our clients. Note that Mary College is coming in to market to just the audience we are talking about ? amazing that the market exists.
• Goal 1 ? does innovative programs cover the idea of offering courses in different ways?. Note these are very general. Can we go off campus ? teach a course at Norwest or at a business to provide what is needed for employees in their time? A model for that is graduate education ? educational leadership provides night course to students all over the state. At another institution I taught a course Friday night and Saturday morning, but then I won?t come in Monday. Not just the faculty has to change, but the business office, reimbursement methods, how do we get funded. Admissions would be open on Saturday- other offices open other hours. That says it more than quality. We are not asking more, we are asking different.
• Another issue is the gap between the haves and have nots is widening and we aren?t able to bring the have nots into the university to succeed. Need to energize and enrich their education and the university could play a role in this such as offering mini academies for lower level students to help them get a vision of what they could accomplish.
• Question: How is MSU viewed in the business community? From the Foundation perspective, MSU stands behind CC and NDSU in fund raising. Fewer MSU people are involved in the more publicized events while CC people are. CC, NDSU very good at communication of strengths, but we don?t do as much here as we should. MSU is a good institution but we sit back and get beat up by everyone else. My job has changed a lot and you do have to do more with less ? MSU may have to put in that expectation. We need our students to be willing to participate too. They are career minded, but not community-minded. Some schools require service learning as a graduation requirement. Seems like a cycle ? we talk about student pride, faculty pride, - why would we feel pride if we don?t toot our own horn much? If we start the good marketing, promotion, it will cause feelings of pride and snowball into more. How to assess student pride? Hard to assess something not very evident- I got most of my pride from being an athlete ? make most connections there. The university has not built that sense of community with students. Most of our loyal alumni have belonged to some kind of group like Owls, Circle K, athletics.
• Does that relate to increased costs and needs to work?
  After 4 years, they are well-indoctrinated. There is a significant strategic plan to do this, but it doesn?t happen here.
• Very impressed with MSU attempt to build communication with new faculty members ? invitation to dinner to see Ann Frank next week ?does help me thing the organization cares about me. We need to make contact with our graduates in the same way.
• I know a recent graduate who gets something from placement every two months and he is very pleased. Here we get listings, but must pay for them. All these things reflect how we spend our money ? that is strategic planning.