Self-study submitted to NEASC, September 2011 - Castleton State ...

Castleton State CollegeInstitutional Overviewcollege; by their senior year there is no gap between them and the national sample. Castletonfreshmen rated their academic ability significantly lower than similar self-ratings by students inthe national sample; by their senior year this difference is cut in half. Although they started outgiving themselves lower ratings on their leadership ability, by senior year, their self-ratings ofthis trait are equal to those of the national sample.While there was no difference between Castleton and national freshmen on their self-rated desireto become an authority in their chosen fields, by the time they are seniors, Castleton’s studentswant to achieve more in this regard than do students across the country. Castleton new studentsdid not consider it as important to influence the political structure or social values, as did theirnational counterparts. In their senior year, Castleton students’ aspirations in both these areasexceeded those of students in the national cohort. Castleton students go from being much lessinclined to think it is important to keep up with political affairs to much more like their nationalcolleagues in this regard. Finally, there is a significant shift in our students’ ideas about theimportance of raising a family: as freshmen, Castleton seniors thought it was significantly lessimportant to do this than did students in the national sample. As seniors, they are much morelikely to believe that raising a family is important. Indeed, there is no difference between ourstudents as they finish their Castleton careers and the national cohort on this dimension.All considered, these new CIRP data are a heartening affirmation of Castleton’s efforts toprovide a transformational experience for students.Principal findings of the Self-StudyThe recent self-study has helped us distill several important themes:• In so many ways—the vitality of student life; enrollment growth; faculty, staff, andstudent morale; campus buildings and grounds; the college’s image in the community;our relationship with the VSC central administration—Castleton is both much strongerand better than it was 10 years ago.• Early in the last decade, we developed a plan for addressing the profound demographicchanges taking place in Vermont and the Northeast. By improving facilities and byexpanding programs, services, out-of-state recruiting, and residential capacity, we haveweathered the first round of these challenges.• Fast approaching our self-imposed limit of 2000 full-time on-campus undergraduates, wemust now implement a new set of strategies for meeting the fiscal challenges of the nextperiod. These include generating new revenues by adding low-residency graduateprograms, increasing fund-raising and grant writing, and introducing profitable camps,conferences, and auxiliary enterprises. In addition, the Castleton Polling Institute underdevelopment has the potential to boost our image across the region, thus enhancing outof-staterecruitment.• Since our last review, we have made great strides in assessing student learning outcomesand institutional effectiveness. And the leadership of the Program Assessment Committeehas brought about dramatically increased faculty commitment. Nonetheless, we still havemuch to do to create a campus-wide “culture of evidence.”xi