Recipient Organization
NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY
1620 STANDLEY DR ACADEMIC RESH A RM 110
LAS CRUCES,NM 88003-1239
Performing Department
Fish, Wildlife & Conservation
Non Technical Summary
This Conference Grant addresses the NIFA priority to "promote and strengthen the ability of HSIs to carry out higher education programs that attract, retain and graduate outstanding students capable of enhancing the nation's food, agriculture, natural resources and human sciences professional and scientific workforce" by developing a plan to 1) expand the capacity of New Mexico State University (NMSU) Community Colleges by offering entry level natural resource classes and 2) to make targeted upper division natural resource classes available online to "sister" HSI institutions nationwide to assist students with qualifications for federal natural resource positions. This is a joint initiative by NMSU - Las Cruces, the four NMSU community colleges (Alamogordo, Carlsbad, Dona Ana and Grants), and the USDA Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The major goals of this conference grant are to 1) develop a mechanism to make New Mexico State University (NMSU) College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) entry-level classes within natural resource disciplines available for New Mexico students in the NMSU community college system and 2) to work with NMSU administration, faculty, and federal agency partners (USDA Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service) to explore the feasibility of and identify mechanisms to make critical upper division natural resource classes available online to HSI's nationwide to assist students in qualifications for federal jobs.
Project Methods
Our plan is to bring all participants together to a central location for three, one-day conferences. The central location will be the NMSU campus in Albuquerque, NM. Albuquerque was chosen as it will allow agency representatives to easily participate and their participation is essential. The three events have been spaced throughout the year (fall 2018, winter 2018-2019, and spring 2019) so that following each meeting we can summarize progress and chart a plan for the next meeting. The spacing of the events will allow us to circulate a summary of the meeting to all participants following each conference, gather information vital to the success of the upcoming conference, and circulate a plan and agenda for the upcoming conference with time for input from all participants prior to the conference. Each conference will build on the preceding conference. Prior to the first conference we will share information on federal job qualifications for natural resource positions and sample science degree programs from "sister" HSI institutions. For each conference the morning session will be devoted to the objective of making entry level NMSU-ACES natural resource classes available to NMSU community colleges. The afternoon will be devoted to a session on making targeted upper division natural resource classes available nationwide. Participants will include Dr.s Desmond and Hawkes, representatives from each of the 4 NMSU community colleges, the five ACES department heads from natural resource related disciplines and representatives from the USDA Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service. In addition, Dean Flores, Dean of the College of Agricultural, Environmental and Consumer Sciences at NMSU will attend the first conference. Following the first confernece we will also be joined by NMSU faculty who teach the targeted classes. At the first conference there will be three goals 1) administrative issues such as articulation agreements and distribution of student credit hours (SCHs), 2) to agree on classes to target at both the community college and upper division levels and 3) online training and certications such as quality matters to ensure online classes are developed and taught meeting appropriate standards. Administrative discussions about student credit hours (SCHs) for classes will be necessary as NMSU main campus will lose some SCHs because of the transition of classes to the community colleges (and this will concern department heads), however this program should increase the number of transfer students to main campus and ultimately the number of upper division SCHs on the NMSU main campus. Our first conference will center around what barriers exist and how to overcome these barriers. At this first conference we will also determine what classes to offer at the community colleges and HSI's nationwide. Suggestions for this will be put together prior to the conference with the assistance of our agency advisors based on required coursework for federal job qualifications. At the end of this first conference all department heads and administrators should be on board with moving forward with the idea of offering entry level classes to the community colleges and select upper division classes to HSI's nationwide, and we should have identified and agreed on specific classes to target for both objectives. Before the second conference we (Martha Desmond and the respective department head) will reach out individually to faculty that teach the targeted classes, discuss the initiative and invite them to the second conference. The goals of Conference 2 include 1) mechanics of making current classes available in an online platform and sharing material with other instructors, 2) fitting classes at community colleges into regular schedules, and 3) how to make this program work financially (how are we going to fund additional instructors). At this meeting we will discuss incentives for making these classes available, including teaching buyouts for faculty to make classes available in an online platform, using revenue generated from the distance education classes to support the program long-term (there is a standard for this at NMSU), assistance from the NMSU Distance Education Program in the development of the online classes (for actual development of courses and for faculty training) and targeting grants to fund the initial phase of the program and to advertise and recruit across HSIs. At the end of this conference we will be ready to develop a proposal to implement our plan. The initial draft will be done between the second and third conferences and will be distributed to all participants prior to the 3rd conference. There will be different timelines for implementation of various aspects of the program based on available and future funding, ie what we can do immediately and what funding sources to target to fund other aspects of the program while it is new and has not generated funding. At this third and final meeting we will discuss the final implementation plan and timelines. For example, a successful program will be self-sustaining, revenue brought in from the distance education program will support this program, however, we will need initial funds to promote the program with other HSI's (both administrators and students) and support additional instructors for the classes. In addition to an implementation plan, we anticipate having a grant proposal developed by March 2019 to seek funds for the early stages of this program to help make it sustainable. This will include funding for instructors (including PhD students) to teach at community colleges & upper division classes online, advertising and recruiting for our online classes at HSI's nationwide (administrators, faculty and students) and establishing a natural resources advising mechanism at each of the NMSU community colleges.