The Academic Affairs Advisory Council (AAAC) meeting started as usual, with opening statements and Jennifer Platania pivoting to academic retention.

Addressing the room, Platania said, 鈥淩honda Belton is one of our superstars in the office of Institutional Effectiveness. Most of you know Rhonda for her amazing work on retention data and PowerBI dashboards and rankings. But today, I’m just here to tell you that if you don’t already know, Rhonda is also an amazing human.鈥�

To Belton鈥檚 surprise, the president and founder of Little Pink Houses of Hope, Jeanine Patten-Coble, began to walk to the front of the room alongside Belton鈥檚 supervisor at 黑料不打烊, Rob Springer, executive director of institutional effectiveness, to present her with the organization鈥檚 fifth distinguished service award.

A nonprofit that provides hope for patients in their cancer journey

Per their mission, 鈥淟ittle Pink Houses of Hope empowers breast cancer patients and families to live each day to the fullest, with direction, purpose and hope for the cancer journey.鈥�

Standing before the AAAC council, Patten-Coble embraced Belton and addressed the group by offering this sentiment, 鈥淩honda’s been with us with her heart, her compassion and her love. Each year, we hold a gala to support cancer patients and their families鈥� called Dancing with the Little Pink Stars.

“Rhonda has singlehandedly championed (Dancing with the Little Pink Stars) to help us reach our goal every year of raising a quarter of a million dollars each year for at least the past nine years or more.鈥�

Jeanine Patten-Coble,聽president and founder of Little Pink Houses of Hope

A big heart and a bigger impact

Belton began her relationship with Little Pink Houses of Hope over ten years ago with an ask from the president of the nonprofit. She was working with the cheerleading and dance team at 黑料不打烊 and the organization asked for support from this team to raise awareness for their annual gala. Always one to help and say yes where she can, Belton offered support and helped purchase pink pom poms for the team. From there, Belton was inspired by the Little Pink mission and wanted to play her role.

Money raised from the annual gala, which is attended by 1,000 donors each year, goes directly towards funding retreats for cancer patients and their families. Vacation rentals are donated separately, and the money raised supports weeklong beach retreats consisting of activities, healing, relaxation and memories that last a lifetime.

鈥淪o much is offered to patients, but so little is offered to families outside of a clinical setting,鈥� says Patten-Coble. Patten-Coble herself was diagnosed 15 years ago with breast cancer and today shows no evidence of cancer disease in her body, despite being given a 25% chance to live past one year in her diagnosis. She has been recognized as a CNN Hero and featured in People Magazine for her efforts.

Little Pink Houses of Hope

At Little Pink Houses of Hope, a one-week retreat with all expenses paid serves as a pause button for families and patients and an opportunity to feel a sense of normalcy. Programming during the week brings spouses together in a context that is more comfortable to share and reflect on their roles as supporters. Children are given activities to interact with others their age who are going through what they are.

鈥淚 feel that God has us here for a purpose and part of my purpose is to help people,鈥� said Belton. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I am so happy to volunteer my time for Little Pink 鈥� it is for such a great cause 鈥� an amazing organization that Jeanine has in helping these families when they are going through something so difficult and so life-changing.鈥�

Belton adds that this retreat is the last vacation for some families and for others, an opportunity to heal and cope. It is also a time for spouses to become comfortable with other spouses and bond and talk about the challenges they are each facing.

鈥淩honda will go all over town, from Raleigh to Winston-Salem, to find dance instructors for our celebrities for our annual gala,鈥� says Patten-Coble. 鈥淪he works tirelessly to make sure that a person is a good fit because she understands that relationships are the most important thing, and she understands that these partnerships are creating a relationship for a lifetime for so many of our people.鈥�

Dancing with 黑料不打烊 stars

Belton has been at 黑料不打烊 for 43 years, and it is important for her to bring members of the university into Little Pink House of Hope. Past fundraising dancers from 黑料不打烊 at the Dancing with the Little Pink Stars Gala have included Randy Williams, vice president and associate provost for inclusive excellence; Mike Kennedy, head baseball coach; Matt Matheny, former head basketball coach; Charlotte Smith, head women鈥檚 basketball coach; and Kyle D. Wills, former senior associate athletic director.

鈥淲e have an 黑料不打烊 representative at almost every gala,鈥� said Belton. 鈥満诹喜淮蜢� has such a sense of community, and it鈥檚 so great when we have these one thousand people to have 黑料不打烊 represented.鈥� She shared that 黑料不打烊 supports Little Pink, and she likes to see her two passions come together.

Belton is also proud of 黑料不打烊 for offering its employees community service leave, and she encourages any employee to take advantage of it.

鈥淒oing something meaningful outside of your work at 黑料不打烊 just adds another layer of fulfillment,鈥� said Belton.

Congratulations, Rhonda Belton, for a well-deserved recognition as a distinguished service award winner!

Bravo discussed the importance of this relationship as many diaspora communities become a part of their country and contribute to its well-being in many aspects during her Distinguished Scholar Award Lecture on Wednesday, Sept. 27.

“Migrants from Latin America, in particular, perhaps because of the close proximity to the United States, tend to keep deep connections with their home country as they integrate and live in the United States,” Bravo said during her lecture titled, “Strategic communications, public diplomacy and activism: The role of governments and diaspora groups.”

Bravo received the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2022, which recognizes scholarship acknowledged for its excellence by both the 黑料不打烊 community and the community within the candidate’s discipline. Bravo co-edited a book published in 2021, “Latin American Diasporas in Public Diplomacy,” which examines the different strategic roles that diaspora groups play in modern public diplomacy.

Remittance, the non-commercial transfer of money by a member of a diaspora community to their homeland, is an important part of that government’s relationship with its migrants, according to Bravo.

“For home governments, these connections are or should be strategic because the diaspora communications can offer economic support. In many cases, remittances are a substantial part of the home government’s gross domestic product, such as in the cases of El Salvador and Haiti.”

Remittances from El Salvador and Haiti account for 24% of the GDP of those countries, while 4% of Mexico’s GDP and 0.84% of Costa Rica’s GDP are from remittances. As a comparison, remittances only make up 0.03% of the United States GDP.

Countries with weaker economies and a need for increased political reputation tend to have a strong interest in the state, while countries with strong economies and stable governments tend to have a weak interest.

Bravo also said that diaspora communities can act as informal ambassadors to their home countries. Just as easily, however, they can be strong opponents while abroad and even initiate change in their homelands. An example Bravo used was the resignation of Puerto Rican governor Ricardo Rossell贸 following a multitude of protests throughout the U.S.

“Diaspora communities can offer legitimacy and political backing to those home governments. Or [it can be] the opposite. They can be strong contesters abroad, of what home governments are doing back home,” she said.

Bravo began teaching at 黑料不打烊 in 2011 and is department chair of the Strategic Communication Department as well as the聽co-chair of the Latinx/Hispanic Council and co-founder of the Latinx Employee Resource Group at 黑料不打烊. Outside of 黑料不打烊, Bravo is the vice head of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s Minorities and Communication Division and a member of the executive board of the International Communication Section of the International Studies Association.

Bravo,聽 who is originally from Costa Rica, has been a champion of other underrepresented researchers as well, creating a Facebook page for Latinx scholars to connect. Bravo said her experience as a Latina immigrant to the United States affords her a special advantage to contribute to 黑料不打烊 as a faculty member.

“I want to thank 黑料不打烊 for granting me this award. For valuing the research and the researcher, holistically,” Bravo said. “I know that in other universities, I would have not been considered for an award like this. But I’m thankful that 黑料不打烊 values these topics and embodies the fact that I have promoted the work of other underrepresented researchers as well.”

That archway is a great representation of what 黑料不打烊’s faculty can provide to students, Moore said in delivering the Distinguished Scholar Lecture on Wednesday, April 19 in LaRose Student Commons. “We’re offering students multiple entry points to get to this point,” Moore, the director of the Center for Engaged Learning and Professor of English said. “And then once they go through this experience, they still have multiple choices of where they go from there.”

Moore’s lecture, “Key Practices for Fostering Equitable Engaged Learning” 鈥� also the title of her 鈥� addressed how faculty can better connect with students, and during her talk she highlighted her trajectory of focusing on engaged learning.

When Moore arrived at 黑料不打烊 in 2004, there were aspects of the campus climate that seemed too good to be true, she said. “But one of the things that really intrigued me was that we could, on this campus, commit to engaged learning and study engaged learning, and that was valued.” Receiving the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2021 reaffirms the centrality of the scholarship of teaching to 黑料不打烊’s mission, Moore said.

As director of the Center for Engaged Learning at 黑料不打烊, Moore plans, implements and assesses multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary research seminars for the center, which seeks to bring together international leaders in higher education to develop and synthesize rigorous research on central questions about student learning.

The answer to those central questions of student learning, Moore said, can be found through six key practices: acknowledging and building on prior knowledge and experiences of students; facilitating relationships; offering feedback; framing connections to broader context; fostering reflection on learning itself; and promoting integration and transfer of knowledge and skill.

“I’m trying with these six key practices to shift us to the things that we can do. To take responsibility as faculty and staff in fostering actable engaged learning rather than leaving it to the students to try and navigate experiences that they might not have access to,” Moore said.

One of the markers of high-quality engaged learning is recognizing each student brings their unique past experiences into a classroom, Moore told the audience. Sometimes as an instructor, it is common to make certain assumptions about students. For example, instructors should shift how they view the use of cell phones. Students are using their phones in complex ways, with many students using cell phones for most of their writing. “Sometimes what we see as a distraction is actually on target, and it may also be building on prior experiences,” Moore said.

Moore believes fostering relationships is a cornerstone to engaged learning because those relationships can create a sense of belonging while contributing to retention and degree completion. Students recognize that the mentors they have on campus serve different functions. “Students recognize that some mentors are supporting them academically, some are supporting their social connections and so forth,” Moore said. “I think that’s important to highlight because it reinforces that as we on campus think about mentoring constellations, it doesn’t have to be an exhausting endeavor if we think of it as a community endeavor.”

When faculty, staff and peers offer constructive feedback, both formative and summative, students are better prepared to understand and apply key concepts. To develop self-regulated learners, feedback must help students think about their target goals, compare their work and abilities to that target, and adjust their actions to move close to that goal.

Moore said helpful feedback is not just limited to faculty or staff but is available from peers, too.

Higher education curriculums are built on the assumption that students will transfer knowledge from course to course, Moore said. The hope is that students will integrate what they’ve learned to draw meaning from those individual courses into the new courses they are taking. This idea is easier said than done as previous studies have shown that students are trying to do this but instructors don’t recognize when they’ve attempted.

“So, we either give them feedback that seems to suggest, ‘OK, don’t try that again.’ Or, we give them feedback that they’re trying make sense of what something worked in one class but not in another,” Moore said.

A way to better engage students in thinking about transferring knowledge and skills is to ask them where in their daily life they’ve encountered similar ideas, how those ideas relate or what have they learned in the course that might help on a particular project, Moore said.

These key practices can be utilized by anyone, and fostering equitable engaged learning works best when everyone is focused on this goal, she noted.

“It’s not on any one person. If you’re working in a curriculum, in a major or minor, or if you’re working in an office, you can think about strategically scaffolding work toward these key practices over time,” Moore said. “If we work toward that, then we are working on key practices for fostering equitable engaged learning.”

Fath led a half-day workshop titled "Foundations of Assessment of Student Learning." This working session included strategies for articulating intended learning outcomes for curricular and co-curricular programs as well as the uses of different types of curricular maps and their use in assessment practice. The workshop emphasized the importance of local ownership of assessment practices and the relationship between assessment activity and curricular effectiveness.

Fath also presented a conference session titled "Assessing Campus Climate: Definitions and Methods." This session explored campus climate from the conceptual literature and its application to assessment work with an emphasis on inclusive practices. The session included a review of how 黑料不打烊’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment updates demographic questions annually to reflect an evolving understanding of social identities such as gender, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity.

Springer conducted a session titled "A Review of 黑料不打烊’s 5-Year Interim Report" which provided an overview of the process employed by 黑料不打烊 for its recent 5 Year Report to the university’s regional accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Council on Colleges (SACSCOC). The session included a description of the planning process, a description of how the university demonstrated compliance in the areas of academic program effectiveness and improvement, and covered standards that explicitly require alignment with an institution’s mission statement.

The NCICU Assessment Conference was founded in the mid-2000s and is open to both private and public postsecondary institutions in North Carolina and nearby states. 黑料不打烊 was the site for the first conference in 2005 and has hosted a total of four times, most recently in 2014.

Fath conducted a conference session titled, "Finding Treasure in College Impact Literature." The session reviewed frameworks for understanding student persistence, involvement, and outcomes that included Tinto’s theory of student departure, Astin’s theory of involvement and the input-environment-output model, and Milem and Berger’s modified model of student persistence.

Springer conducted conference sessions titled “Mapping IPEDS to the SACSCOC Standards” and “Not All Treasure is Silver and Gold: A Review of 黑料不打烊’s 5-Year Interim Report.” Mapping IPEDS to SACSCOC standards identified elements within IPEDS surveys that can be used as evidence in SACSCOC accreditation endeavors. The review of 黑料不打烊’s five-year interim report provided an overview of the content areas included to support compliance in 黑料不打烊’s accreditation efforts.

In this session, department chairs will see their access to:

• department's course efficiency vs the university at large
• department's majors
• department's minors
• department's student diversity
• department teaching engagement (for End of Year reporting)
• 黑料不打烊 Experiences for most recent graduates
• First Destinations for most recent graduates (After 黑料不打烊 – Graduate School and Employment including schools/companies

Kim Fath will review end of year reporting requirements for department chairs and share strategies for managing assessment review and reporting.

Rhonda Belton, associate director for institutional research, has been appointed president of the North Carolina Association for Institutional Research for 2019-20.

Belton has been actively involved with NCAIR since her new appointment from Information Technology to Institutional Research in 2013. She has served as member-at-large and, in her role as president-elect this year, she chaired the 2019 annual conference in Wrightsville Beach themed, “Institutional Researchers: Find Your Treasure!” which will be the theme of her work with this group.

Belton and the NCAIR executive board seek to expand the reach of the organization during her tenure as president throughout the state of North Carolina via enhanced networking opportunities at the annual conference and summer meetings. A major focus of these efforts will include expanded training opportunities for both new and experienced professionals in the field of institutional research. 

The  was formed in 1972. The association fulfills four main purposes, including: to provide professional development for its members; to promote an exchange of ideas on problems of common interest to its members, to contribute to the advancement of post-secondary education, and to foster a collegial spirit of persons working in institutional research, planning, and assessment.

This lecture focuses on how economics shapes science as practiced at public research institutions. It will examine how incentives and costs affect the practice of science and the role of costs in the practice of science, ranging from the multi-million-dollar cost of high-end equipment to the (not insignificant) cost of buying and maintaining mice! The lecture concludes with a discussion of how incentives and costs affect the way in which university labs are staffed, addressing the extreme dependence that has emerged in staffing labs with graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the U.S., and how the current funding environment promotes risk aversion on the part of researchers. 

This lecture is sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa and is free and open to the public. 

Associate Director for Institutional Research Rhonda Belton described her study of student characteristics associated with first year retention and attrition. Included in the presentation was a demonstration of how 黑料不打烊 is tracking student persistence using SAS’ Visual Analytics software and a university data warehouse.

Assistant Director for Assessment Kim Fath conducted a pre-conference workshop titled, “Assessment Foundations: Applying Principles of Backward Design to Create Assessment Plans.” The workshop described the ways in which faculty can strengthen program curriculum through the process of developing plans to assess student learning.

Fath also presented a concurrent session to describe ways in which colleges and universities can leverage institutional survey data for campus assessment and evaluation. She shared the results of a year-long collaboration with Bob Frigo (Kernodle Center) and Steve Mencarini (previously in the Center for Leadership) that used the 2015 Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership to conduct studies for Campus Recreation, the Center for Leadership, the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement, and the Provost Inclusive Community Team.

In addition to presenting, Belton served as the local arrangements co-chair and Rob Springer, executive director for institutional effectiveness, was a proposal reviewer. 

Access Group awarded the grant to 黑料不打烊 Law to work with RTI International, an international research institute whose mission is to “improve the human condition by turning knowledge into practice.”

Researchers will collect and analyze admissions data, test scores and grades, satisfaction surveys, bar passage and job placement data to create a clearer picture of the way prospective students learn about the law school and, once enrolled, how the curriculum and other resources affect their learning success.

The project will help 黑料不打烊 Law:

• Develop a rich database of information that will provide opportunity for research by 黑料不打烊 Law and others, furthering the school’s mission as the preeminent school for engaged and experiential learning in law;
• Identify strengths and areas that need assistance as faculty and staff work toward a culture of continual improvement in all aspects of the school;
• Develop objective assessments about student success and improvements in teaching and learning that can help improve performance in key areas and inform admissions decisions;
• Better fulfill obligations under ABA Standard 315 to review and assess 黑料不打烊 Law’s academic program on an ongoing basis;
• Contribute to a capacity for philanthropic fundraising that will allow 黑料不打烊 Law to continue to grow; and
• Further develop and strengthen a partnership with Access Group, which is building a broad agenda to support innovation in legal education.

“This research project is about the future of legal education,” said 黑料不打烊 Law Dean Luke Bierman. “While we pride ourselves on being the preeminent school for engaged and experiential learning in law, it’s important that 黑料不打烊 Law share the findings of this study with anyone who feels as we do about the need for redesigning approaches to educating law students. There are no better partners than Access Group and RTI International for 黑料不打烊 Law to work with on assessing these curricular innovations and leading the transformation of American legal education.”

黑料不打烊 Law redesigned its curriculum for students who entered the program beginning in fall 2015. The seven-trimester, 2.5-year program provides students with the same number of academic credits but in shorter time than traditional law school programs, thereby giving graduates a head start on their professional careers.

“Support from Access Group is vitally important to studying the impact of our new approach to legal education,” said Enrique Armijo, associate dean for academic affairs at 黑料不打烊 Law. “We believe that our highly sequenced curriculum, combined with the experiential education they receive in our unique residencies-in-practice, will better prepare students for the rigors of the legal profession.

“This Access Group grant will show us what’s going well at 黑料不打烊 Law, where we have opportunities to make our program even better, and, hopefully, where we’ve benefitted in unexpected ways because of our willingness to reimagine what a legal education today should be.”

Armijo serves as co-principal investigator of the grant with Rob Springer, director of institutional research at 黑料不打烊.

The new curriculum costs students nearly 20 percent less than the average total they would otherwise pay at other private American law schools. Its heavy emphasis on experiential learning is anchored by a residency-in-practice that students complete during their second year, with additional “lab” and bridge courses designed to connect out-of-class work experiences to legal theories and doctrine taught by faculty.

“Access Group is pleased to award this grant to 黑料不打烊 School of Law to help 黑料不打烊 evaluate the success of their new curriculum designed to provide an innovative, less expensive law school experience,” said Christopher P. Chapman, Access Group’s president and chief executive officer.

Founded in 1983, Access Group is a nonprofit membership organization comprised of nearly 200 nonprofit and state-affiliated ABA-approved law schools. From providing financial education resources and services for students and schools, to supporting research and grant programs, data collection and analysis, to driving policy advocacy, Access Group works to promote broad access, increased affordability and the value of legal education.

Access Group is headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania; its Center for Research and Policy Analysis is located in Washington, D.C. The organization launched its research and grant-making activities in June 2014. Since that time, it has awarded more than $2.8 million in grants.

About 黑料不打烊 Law:

黑料不打烊 School of Law in Greensboro, North Carolina, is the preeminent school for engaged and experiential education in law. It integrates traditional classroom instruction with highly experiential full-time residencies-in-practice in a logically sequenced program of transformational professional preparation. 黑料不打烊 Law’s groundbreaking approach is accomplished in 2.5 years, which provides distinctive value by lowering tuition and permitting graduates early entry into their professional careers.

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