Minutes of the Education, College Readiness and Success Committee of the Board of Trustees of the State University of New York June 12, 2012 Pursuant to a notice of meeting duly given on May 25, 2012, the Education, College Readiness and Success Committee of the Board of Trustees of the State University of New York held a meeting on June 12, 2012 at 8:30 a.m. at SUNY Plaza, Albany, New York. Committee Members Present: Kenneth O’Brien, Chair Trustee Good Trustee Lewin Trustees not present: Trustee Hunt Trustee Spielvogel Others Present: Senior Vice Chancellor Duncan-Poitier, Committee Liaison Ms. Ashida, Dr. Kesper, Ms Miller Barker, and Mr. Rossi Chair O’Brien convened the meeting at 8:30 a.m. Approval of Meeting Minutes * Since there was the absence of a quorum, the minutes of the May 9th Committee meeting could not be approved. Remarks of the Chair As part of his opening remarks, Chair O’Brien reported that he and other members of the SUNY Board of Trustees interviewed candidates for the boards of charter schools. Based on those interviews, the Charter School Institute will be making recommendations regarding charter school board membership in the near future. Chair O’Brien then turned to Senior Vice Chancellor Duncan-Poitier to begin her report. Senior Vice Chancellor’s Report Before commencing the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education discussion, the Senior Vice Chancellor provided an update on three funding opportunities to support education pipeline activities. * A $3.5 million award was executed on June 11, 2012 with the New York State Education Department for SUNY’s teacher education programs. This award provides professional development or teacher education programs on the new common core standards, performance assessment and clinically-rich teacher preparation. This initiative is funded through the federal Race-to-the-Top program. * Two other funding possibilities, being pursued by the Office of Community Colleges and the Education Pipeline for a total of $17.5 million, include: a workforce development initiative in which all 30 community colleges have joined together for the education and preparation of nearly 4,000 New Yorkers ($14.6 million); and a graduate mentoring program for students in STEM education with the National Science Foundation ($2.9 million) in which SUNY is partnering with the New York Academy of Science. The Senior Vice Chancellor will provide the Committee additional information on these programs at future meetings. An update was also provided about Stony Brook University’s summer Research Fellows’ Program for community college students. Committee members commended the selection process which resulted in excellent candidates: 7 high achieving students from SUNY community colleges, 5 of the 7 having 4.0 GPAs with the lowest GPA of 3.85. This program is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The Committee members discussed opportunities to share this approach and success with the other University Centers. STEM The principal item on the Committee’s agenda was a presentation on the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program and SUNY’s role in STEM. The Senior Vice Chancellor was joined by Margaret Ashida, Director of the SUNY Empire State STEM Learning Network on the SUNY Education Pipeline team. In her opening comments, the Senior Vice Chancellor emphasized that the STEM program, as well as all the activities in the Office of Community Colleges and the Education Pipeline, is directly related to closing the leaks in the education pipeline and furthering SUNY’s Strategic Plan. A discussion followed on SUNY’s STEM activities being undertaken through this Network. The Senior Vice Chancellor brought to the attention of the Committee that the Empire State STEM Learning Network started at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and moved to SUNY to take advantage of SUNY’s statewide reach and its partnerships with the K-12 system and business and industry. Empire STEM is developing a network that is similar to the cradle-to-career network approach for driving collective impact. The Senior Vice Chancellor emphasized that this work is so important and the challenge so great that no one entity can do it alone. These STEM networks are currently in 5 of the 10 economic development regions of the State and there are plans for establishing these networks in all 10 economic development regions. Also, it was pointed out that STEM networks are in line with SUNY’s Strategic Plan and all six of SUNY’s Big Ideas. State and National Data and Priorities The Senior Vice Chancellor reported that out of 100 ninth graders in New York State, only 19 will graduate with either an Associate’s degree within 3 years or a Bachelor’s degree within 6 years. In addition, she mentioned that the latest graduation data reported by the New York State Education Department indicated that graduation rates went up less than 1 percent. The most significant related point on this matter is that fewer than 25 percent of those students are graduating in the STEM fields, where the demand is high. The STEM fields are predicted to grow faster than other occupations. Unfortunately, number of degrees in STEM fields is declining while the number of STEM jobs is growing. The importance of STEM to all of the Education Pipeline initiatives was discussed in detail and generated a great deal of interest by Committee members. This includes efforts to better prepare teachers in STEM fields and imbedding STEM into SUNY’s Smart Scholars Early College High Schools, cooperative education, and other programs and disciplines. The concept of STEM hubs was briefly described. The STEM hubs, regional STEM networks, connect stakeholders in regions across the State for system collective impact, similar to the cradle-to-career network concept. As was mentioned earlier, regional STEM hubs have been launched in 5 of the 10 economic development regions of the State. A profile of the Southern Tier hub was presented with specific information and data about its environment, partnerships, transformation design and priorities. Given the interest in more discussion of STEM and its priority to the Committee, Chair O’Brien indicated that the Committee will be discussing SUNY’s STEM program in greater detail this fall, including ways to address the extreme shortages of women and students of color in these fields. Adjournment * Chair O’Brien adjourned the Committee meeting at 9:30 a.m. 1 | Page