OXFORD, Miss. – The University of Mississippi has won four Best Practices Awards for 2008 – one in each category of the awards – from the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning.
UM was the only university to win four awards, placing first or second in each category. The IHL announced the awards Feb. 19 at its regular monthly meeting in Jackson. Winners are chosen by institutional peer groups and receive $10,000 for first place and $5,000 for second place.
“These awards reflect the dedication of our faculty and staff to be good stewards of our resources while providing the best possible educational experiences for our students,” Chancellor Robert Khayat said. “We strive to be innovative in all our efforts, and we hope other institutions can use these examples as patterns for their own successful programs.”
The term “best practice” refers to programs or techniques that have produced outstanding results in a situation and that can be adapted for other institutions or situations. The IHL Best Practices winners are shared with other universities and colleges across the state and nation.
The Contractual Readmission Program is a system to help students returning from academic suspension or dismissal to develop into self-directed learners who successfully complete their degree requirements. A joint effort of the UM Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and the Department of Leadership and Counselor Education, the program combines prescribed coursework, mentoring and counseling to help students set and attain goals.
“In the Contractual Readmission Program, we attempt to match undergraduate students that need assistance in getting back on track with graduate students learning to facilitate that journey,” said Susan Mossing, assistant director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. “It is a synergistic relationship that is challenging and rewarding for everyone.”
The Information Technology award is for an automated system to equate coursework from other institutions to UM academic credits. About 53 percent of Ole Miss undergraduate students have completed coursework at community colleges and/or other universities, and these courses must be verified to allow prerequisite checking and degree audit.
“This project is remarkable because of the enormous effort and coordination from many different areas across campus, including academic departments, dean’s offices, and the Registrar and Admissions offices,” said Kathy Gates, the university’s chief information officer. “For example, academic departments play a crucial role in providing literally thousands of transfer regulations that define how external academic work maps to UM courses.”
This is the third straight year that UM has won first place in the technology category.
Winning second place in the Business, Finance and Administration category, the Interactive Employee Appraisal System replaces the old system of conducting annual employee evaluations using paper forms with an interactive online system. A collaboration among the offices of the Provost, Human Resources and Information Technology, the new system reduces waste, speeds the appraisal process and provides easy access to evaluation information for supervisors making tenure and promotion decisions.
Established in 2003, the Luckyday Success Program provides training to help about 130 incoming freshmen – all recipients of Luckyday Opportunity Scholarships – adjust from high school to college each year. Funded by the Luckyday Foundation, the scholarship program provides up to $28,000 per eligible student for four years of undergraduate study. Combining a one-week orientation retreat, required weekly study hours, academic counseling and parental involvement, the Luckyday Success Program has helped boost the retention rate of Luckyday scholars at the university to 88.5 percent, compared to the overall UM student retention rate of 78.3 percent.