Strategic Progress Report - June 2018
Health Sciences
- Henry P. Becton School of Nursing and Allied Health
- The March 2018 issue of nursejournal.org featured the Five Best Nurse Practitioner Programs in New Jersey and ranked the FDU School of Nursing and Allied Health MSN Nurse Practitioner Program as #1.
- The 2017 NCLEX-RN official report was released on March 5, 2018 and FDU's pass rate was an impressive 91.38%, among the highest in New Jersey. The 2017 Certification Exam result for the Family Nurse Practitioner Program was 100%.
- The MSN program at the Florham Campus now has 31 students, and 20 new students have been accepted for the summer 2018 term.
- Sixty-one incoming freshmen have been accepted to the BSN program at the Florham Campus and 27 incoming freshmen have been accepted to the BSN Program at the Metropolitan Campus.
- School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
- Noran Osman, a graduate of the Class of 2018, has been selected as the inaugural fellow within the BD Health Economics and Research Fellowship, slated to begin on July 1, 2018 at BD Headquarters in Franklin Lakes, N.J.
- The Master of Public Health program has been approved by the New Jersey Presidents' Council.
- The School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has agreed to an interprofessional affiliation with the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University. Students from pharmacy and other health science disciplines will begin a partnership to engage in interprofessional initiatives around the core Interprofessional Education Consortium (IPEC) values of foundation, appreciation, communication and collaboration.
- For the second year in a row, the School was selected as one of the top two best places to work in New Jersey, according to NJBiz Magazine. The School was recognized for this honor at a recent ceremony and reception, where the top 100 companies in the state gathered for an unveiling of their overall ranking.
- The School recently completed a focused on-site visit from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), seeking its next term for continued accreditation. The team visited the School on April 25-26, 2018, and met with a number of key members of the team, including deans, faculty, staff, students, preceptors and other partners. The School was recognized for a number of strengths within the program, and a formal recommendation for continued accreditation will be made in late June 2018 by the ACPE Board of Directors.
International School of Hospitality and Tourism Management
- An updated Pro Forma for the hotel on the Metropolitan Campus has been finalized and will be shared with the prospective owner/developer later this week. Once a model for proceeding has been agreed to, we will engage an architect to determine the appropriate size, design and estimated cost of the hotel.
- The School was unable to recruit a class for the MS in Hospitality Management Studies at Wroxton College, due in large part to changes in immigration laws in the United Kingdom and FDU's need to apply for accreditation to offer a full degree in the UK. The School will explore other models, including offering the degree online, with an optional low residency requirement at Wroxton or in Vancouver or New Jersey.
Silberman College of Business
- Silberman launched a six-part networking speakers' series for alumni, faculty and students at the Union League Club in New York City. Each event had about two dozen attendees. Our goal for next year is to double the number of attendees.
- The College's placement record remains strong, with about 87% of eligible juniors and seniors on internships. To grow placements, the College has hired an additional placement and outreach director who is based primarily at the Metropolitan Campus, which is where the College has the greatest need. The College's first-ever direct hire into HSBC's commercial banking unit from the undergraduate program occurred this year (at a starting salary of $65,000), with several other students following in the queue with HSBC internships.
- The College held the first of two events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the naming of the College for Samuel "Buddy" Silberman on April 3, 2018 at the Rainbow Room in New York City. This was a nostalgic remembrance event that mobilized alumni to become engaged for the fundraising event, which is set for September 27, 2018 at the Pierre Hotel in New York City.
- The College raised $250,000 last fall to fund the hiring of two new staff. One previously mentioned was for placement and outreach. The second was a social media and communications (SMC) manager. Within three weeks of hiring the SMC manager, significant increases in social media metrics were observed.
- Silberman is rebranding the College and all messaging as "A Business Education that is Life Changing."
School of Public and Global Affairs
- Advertising for the MA in Global Affairs, a program for diplomats designed by diplomats, launched on June 1, 2018 in the daily publication UN Wire.
- The School is sponsoring a workshop on June 7, 2018 for full- and part-time faculty on Project-Based Teaching and Learning, which will be presented by the Center for Project-Based Learning at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
- The School submitted Letters of Interest to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for projects totaling $660,000.
School of the Arts
- The School of the Arts Dance Studio is on schedule for completion for the start of the fall 2018 semester. It will include a state-of-the-art dance floor that will enhance performance. Motion capture equipment has been purchased for our Animation program, and scholarship dollars have been designated for incoming students-all as part of the first installment ($150,000) of a $500,000 gift committed earlier this academic year.
- More than 40 students have applied for housing in the School of the Arts Living-Learning Community to be initiated this coming fall.
- A welcome Convocation for the first School of the Arts class will be held on October 24, 2018.
University Advancement
- Giving to scholarships continues to increase, with several new scholarships ranging from $25,000 to $240,000 (spend-down and endowed) created in the last three months alone.
- Giving to FDU is up by more than 20% through April 2018, to $4,272,985.
- We are on track to have the most successful Charter Day Dinner ever, with commitments well over $600,000 and still growing.
- Sustaining and growing the number of donors to the University continues to be problematic, with the number of alumni donors down by 7%, while alumni donations are up by 40%.
- To combat the decline in the number of donors, FDU purchased the online, social media-giving platform called Classy, which during its first use in May 2018 generated 200 alumni donations totaling $18,691.
- The Capital Campaign Steering Committee for One University Many Dreams met in April 2018 at NJPAC. Commitments to date are in excess of $38 million. Production of a campaign video began in May 2018 for viewing at the Capital Campaign Kick-off Dinner on December 4, 2018 at BD headquarters in Franklin Lakes, N.J.
Other Important Strategic Initiatives
- The consultants (Lismore Advisors and ACTA) issued their report in March 2018. It contained many recommendations but, in summary, stated that we should continue with our plan to create centers of excellence such as the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, that we must restructure and reorganize academic units, and that we need to reduce duplication of functions across the two New Jersey campuses.
- During the past year, there were eight meetings of the Advisory Committee and two Town Hall meetings (one on each campus) to discuss the need for, and potential models for, restructuring.
- We have begun bringing faculty from the same or similar departments on the Metropolitan and Florham campuses together to discuss merging and, where appropriate, a common curriculum.
- We are working on aligning the teaching schedules on the two New Jersey campuses to allow for more efficient interactions.
- The Learning House has been working with faculty on instructional design for many of the new programs that will be launching this fall. They have also begun marketing and are starting to enroll students.
- Retention/Graduation Rates
- Following up on one of the recommendations of the Task Force on the First-Year Experience, we have implemented a common online testing for math placement (Accuplacer) for all incoming students on both campuses.
- We have enrolled 19 students for our first Honors Academy class that is launching this fall, designed to attract high-achieving students to FDU. The inaugural class has an average high school GPA of 3.98 and an average SAT or ACT score of 1426 or 30, respectively.
- Conducted employment assessment of graduating students this spring; early results look good.
- Established career interest assessment to be integrated into first and second semester CORE classes for freshmen, with interpretation/advisement by Career Services staff beginning in fall 2018.
- In the process of hiring a Scholarship Coordinator to manage applications for scholarships, disbursements of awards, and to assist with stewardship.
- Conducted non-cognitive assessment of a select group of freshmen this spring; results are being interpreted and assignment of support will be provided in fall 2018.
- Non-cognitive assessment will be delivered to all incoming freshmen and transfer students in June 2018; results will be interpreted in July 2018; support services to those at risk of attrition will be applied in fall 2018.
- Have engaged marketing consultants on positioning/branding the institution; exhaustive discovery phase is complete; potential repositioning will be shared in June 2018; marketing plan will be implemented in summer 2018.
- Marketing to promote Centers of Excellence has begun - first effort is Silberman ads in Terminal C at Newark Liberty Airport; outdoor media (billboards) have been scheduled too.
- Refinement to admission process has been implemented for upcoming recruitment cycle including self-report, test-optional, and potentially auto-admit.
- Assessing $50 fee for submission of the Application for Admission for upcoming cycle.
- University-wide campus visit program has been implemented.
- In development stage of offering hospitality certifications to hotel staff in Caribbean market at select properties/islands.
- Established arrangement to have a permanent staff member with ELS partner based in China; entire international recruitment model changing for new cycle.
- Refined metrics have been proposed for the Strategic Plan, which will enable us to benchmark the health of the institution and to react as we progress.
- In partnership with academic units, developing proposal for revitalizing summer enrollment for 2019.