Planning Grant For Assessment And Improvement Of Alaska's Tribally-controlled College's Science, Mathematics, Engineering And Technology Programs

Ilisagvik College, Barrow AK

Investigators

Abstract

Ilisagvik College in Barrow, Alaska is the lead college in the Consortium for Alaska Native Higher Education, Inc. (CANHE), a non-profit group of Alaska Native organizations creating and supporting new Alaska Native-serving colleges in Alaska. CANHE was established, in part, because only 4% of Alaska Natives (1990) have achieved baccalaureate degrees. Alaska Natives are poorly represented as students in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology (SMET) programs in Alaska's universities and colleges, as teachers in the Alaska schools, and in the occupations requiring these skills. Data on Alaska Native higher education achievement is not well collected. It is obvious to Alaska natives, however, that different techniques must be used to attract and retain Native and rural students in SMET programs than those used for years by the state university. Ilisagvik will serve as the lead and mentor institution for the planning and assessment effort over the10 months of the project. Ilisagvik will engage a project manager to conduct the assessment. A CANHE member task force will create a mission statement defining the planning goals, priorities and project milestones. An external advisory board will be chaired by Dr. Edna MacLean, the president of Ilisagvik College, and will review the planning effort and evaluate the progress. The task force and manager will gather data from each of the six members and examine their missions, their long-term goals and priorities. The regional needs and strengths will become part of the CANHE SMET master plan which will include the colleges' resources, governance, culture, technology requirements, and funding strategies. The plan will include assessment of faculty needed and the skills available for staff instruction, and inventory the technology requirements and the infrastructure support needed in each region. Beyond the specific benefits of the assessment to Ilisagvik College, the benefits will multiply by involving all the CANHE members in the process and the ultimate implementation of the plan. The group will design practical cost-effective methods to create, expand and collaboratively improve SMET programs for the dispersed potential student body including collaboration with other regions, some centralizing support activities, and integrating incentives to be involved for faculty and students. Given the vast roadless distances between communities, the primitive state of rural Alaska telecommunications and information infrastructure and the high cost of such services when available, there are numerous problems of distance delivery to be identified, understood and resolved. Ilisagvik developed a new Information Technology A.A.S. curriculum and acquired some of the infrastructure to carry out the classes through previous funding from NSF, the American Association of Community Colleges, the M. J. Murdock Foundation, and the Microsoft Corporation. Other programs are being developed by CANHE members. These assets can be shared across the state to improve SMET delivery. Collectively the colleges can register a greater number of students for these courses from the multi-regional Native student body and deliver them with a smaller number of faculty also taking administrative advantages of cross-registration benefits. The data, assessment, and draft plan will be reviewed with the board and organizational leadership of each regional colleges prior to adoption to affirm, and modified if required, so that it addresses the needs, direction and resources of each region.