Agendas & Meetings

NPC Minutes of the Board of Trustees Meeting

(November) December 1, 2021

The National Park College Board of Trustees met in a regular session on December 1, 2021.  The regular meeting began at 3:30 PM in the Student Commons Conference Center on the National Park College campus. Trustees present Mike Bush, Joyce Craft, Gail Ezelle, Jim Hale, Forrest Spicher, and Raymond Wright.

Staff and faculty members, and students present in-person were Melony Martinez, James Montgomery, Chris Coble, Brian Kroening, Brad Hopper, Erika Rico, Janice Ivers, Yolanda Cox, Kelli Embry, Nicole Herndon, Steve Trusty, Nathan Ritter, Nathan Pool, Wade Derden, Michelle Godwin, Darla Thurber, Bill Allison, John Hogan, Julie LaRue, Juanita Brewer, Jill Houlihan, Bruce Hankins, Sam Christian, Cari Elliott, Melissa Krafft, Jamie Walsh, Katherine Hughes, Amy Watson, Blake Butler, Jessie Ellis, Roger Fox, Jerry Thomas, Anne Benoit, Connie Poteet, and Chris Coble.

The media was notified of the meeting. Audio recording was sent to Brandon Smith with Sentinel Record.

Chair Forrest Spicher provided a welcome and provided the invocation.

Chair Forrest Spicher introduced the students of the month for October, November, and December 2021. Chair Spicher congratulated Erica, Jamie, and Katherine for being elected as Students of the Month and thanked the instructors for their service and commitment to educating young minds.

1. Zane Jeffers introduced Erica Rico for the Business Division, October student of the month.
2. Roger Fox introduced Jamie Walsh for the Communication and Arts Division, November student of the month.
3. James Montgomery introduced Katherine Hughes for the Social Sciences Division, December student of the month.

Items for Action

1. Trustee Bush made a motion to approve the October 27, 2021, minutes as presented. Trustee Craft seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.
2. Trustee Hale made a motion to approve the August Financial Statements as presented by Bruce Hankins, Chief Financial Officer. Trustee Wright seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.
3. Wade Derden, Vice President for Academic Affairs, presented Academic Program changes. Dr. Derden requested that each program change be voted on separately. He first presented a request for program deletion of the Technical Certificate in Production Technology as noted in the Board of Trustee packet. Trustee Harrington made a motion to approve the deletion of TC Production Technology. Trustee Bush seconded, and the motion passed unanimously. Dr. Derden presented the addition of the BSN degree as noted in the Board of Trustee packet. Trustee Hale made a motion to approve the submission of the Bachelor of Science Degree to the Department of Higher Education. Trustee Wright seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.  
4. Julie LaRue, Director of Human Resources, presented the ratifications of personnel actions. Trustee Bush made a motion to approve the ratifications as presented. Trustee Craft seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.

Items for Report

1. Yolanda Cox, Director of Academic Services, presented an update on National Park University Center (NPUC). Dr. Cox shared an overview, stating that NPUC is designed to help students transfer to a 4-year institution. She spoke about the degrees offered, the university partners, completion rates and the results of a student survey. Dr. Cox noted that National Park college is often a student’s first step on their path to a bachelor’s degree. NPUC is designed to help students make that transfer to a four-year college or university. To give an overview of the program, Dr. Cox talked about NPUC’s degrees, university partners, completion rates, and results of a recent student survey. Dr. Cox explained that the first NPUC degrees were offered in fall of 2016 and through these degrees NPUC has been able to provide numerous transfer opportunities to students throughout the state of Arkansas. We now have 81 degrees with 533 students enrolled in them this semester. She emphasized that, through our partnership with SAU, we are now able to provide these three “start here, finish here” degree programs in the stem areas of biology pre-health, chemistry pre-health professional biochemistry, and computer science general. Between 2016 and 2019 the college conferred 476 transfer degrees and 368 of those were the general associate of arts transfer degree and 108 were our NPUC degrees. 83 of the associates of arts graduates went on to complete their bachelor's degree and 54 or 50% of our 108 NPUC graduates went on to complete their bachelor’s degree. Dr. Cox explained that NPUC transfer graduates graduate at 50% compared to the state of Arkansas which is 39%. NPUC will continue to work to increase our completion rate, but we are very proud of this one. This semester, a survey was sent to the 54 students who had completed their bachelor’s degree through one of our transfer degrees and the participants did not include the associate of arts general degrees or the nursing graduates. The focus has been on the articulated 2 + 2 degrees. The response rate was 59% with three key findings. The first one was our commitment to guarantee course transfer. National Park college is increasing the number of bachelors level graduates in Garland County.
2. Board Chair Report presented by Chair Spicher. Chair Spicher thanked Dr. Cox and the academic affairs team for their hard work. He mentioned that NPUC is increasing the number of bachelors completion's that are staying in our area which just raises the level of competency and vibrancy in our community and we're also able to keep more talented people in our community. Chair Spicher explained that the work that the college and board are doing is going to help solve that deficit so keep up the good work. Regarding the nursing program Bachelor of Science, Chair Spicher commented that we're getting one step closer, and he appreciates the groups vision, the colleges vision, the work of the trustees, and the work of administration. Chair Spicher said thanks to all the trustees for their participation in board meetings, committee meetings, committee work and activities that occur on campus. Chair Spicher thanked the board of trustees for their support of the National Park Foundation and thanked them for their financial investment and for their support of athletics on campus. He thinks that cross pollination of sports teams and the student support is very conducive to the vibrancy of the campus. He had someone recently comment that they haven't felt the kind of excitement and vibrancy on this campus like there is now and they pointed at athletics as being part of it. He commented that education is in the classroom and behind the screen but it's a total campus atmosphere that is very strong on this campus. So, thank you all, thank you trustees for your support of the many things that have happened in a short period of time so keep up the good work.
3. Presidents Report presented by Dr. John Hogan. President Hogan Chair Spicher and echoed the congratulations for our students of the month, Katherine, Jamie, and Erica three shining examples of why we're leaning into this and continuing to invest and do what we do and make a few comments about BSN approval as well. Dr. Hogan specified that BSN is a solution that sums everything up and is the baseline for what is needed in our healthcare community. Mr. Spicher referred to bachelor prepared nurses meeting a standard because the patient care standards are higher when a bachelor’s prepared nurse delivers that care. He commented that he is grateful for the approval, partnership, and support along this ride. Dr. Hogan was grateful and thanked Dr. Cox, NPUC, Dr. Derden, Janice Ivers, and the team Annie and Connie and Jill. He stated that he is very impressed by those data and thinks that NPUC needs to get some broader attention because of that success. 50% NPUC completion rate and 39% is the average for an Arkansas university. The national average for Community College transfer is well below that. Dr. Hogan emphasized how much effort how much investment Dr. Cox, Dr. Derden, and our college has made to make these pathways seamless for our students, which he thinks will ultimately result in more partners who are interested in delivering things on premise. Dr. Hogan appreciates it and is grateful. He mentioned that our students are winning because of that. We may have to bring some things forward for a vote is early as January if we do that, that will be a conceptual sort of approval that will enable us to get the next layers of dollars and cents and the answers that we need. We're not going to expect you to make a vote to commit funds in January, but He wants you to be prepared that our goal is to have a solid plan for how we will implement phase one. If you have any questions about that Dr. Hogan will be glad to talk to you and Trustee Wright, Kelli, and Brad are all available to do that. We are going to present some formal reports on the Higher Learning Commission visit that happened in early November once we get those formal approvals. The process is the team submits their report and then there's a series of formal approvals that we go through. Any kind of public conversation about what was included would not be well timed, but I am very grateful to the folks on this campus, the students, the faculty and staff, Dr. Derden and the HLC team, and all of you for your participation and all the community participation we had. Dr. Hogan then thanked Chair Spicher and everyone for being here today.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 4:21 PM.

Forrest Spicher, Chair
Joyce Craft, Secretary/Treasurer