Organizational Profile

P.1 Organizational Description

a(1) The College of Health Professions (CHP), founded in 1970, is one of six degree-granting colleges at Wichita State University (WSU) one of seven state universities in Kansas. The College offers educational programs in a variety of health professions. Table P.1 identifies all of CHP educational programs and their academic levels. In addition to teaching, other outputs from the College include scholarship and service activities. Table P.1 also provides some examples these activities.

Table P.1.1 Examples of CHP Teaching, Scholarship and Service Activities

The College provides credit courses to WSU students accepted into the College’s professional programs. General-interest and pre-requisite courses are also offered for pre-professional students and the general public.

a(2)In 1998, the College began an eighteen-month strategic planning process which led to new College vision and mission statements, core values, and 21 prioritized initiatives for enhancement of academic programs, educational facilities, and student services. In addition, College personnel and the surrounding health care community renewed their commitment to work together to achieve and maintain excellence in the education of health care practitioners. The

College’s vision, mission, and core values are:

VISION: Innovation and excellence in education to promote a healthy society

MISSION: The College of Health Professions is a learning community dedicated to developing health care professionals by:

• Valuing students - our primary focus
• Integrating teaching, scholarship, practice, and service
• Partnering with the community
   

CORE VALUES:

• Excellence
• Learner-centered
• Innovation
• Collaboration
• Leadership
• Professionalism
  
  a.(3) The College employs 66 full-time faculty and administrators, 16 support staff, and dozens of part-time faculty, clinicians, lecturers, and graduate assistants. In addition, the College contracts with over 400 clinical agencies and practitioners in Kansas and the US to provide clinical experiences and education for its students. All who provide instruction and/or oversight and mentoring to students in clinical settings are fully qualified with degrees and certifications appropriate to their professional disciplines.

The College supports workforce diversity and encourages applications on an equal opportunity basis. Due in large part to the nature of the health professions workforce, currently, 72% of the College’s faculty and staff are female, and 6% are minority. College faculty, unclassified staff and administrators, lecturers, and part-time instructional and administrative personnel are Kansas Board of Regents employees and are subject to their rules, regulations, and policies. Most of the support staff are classified (employed within the Kansas State Civil Service System) and fall under the regulation of the Kansas State Department of Administration. As part of a state university, the College conforms to appropriate state and federal health and safety workplace guidelines. In addition, as part of its educational curricula, College programs practice and teach safety protocols related to health care provision.

a.(4) The College resides on the WSU campus in Ahlberg Hall, a 105,000 square foot building constructed in 1980 specifically for the College and its programs. The building contains office space for the Dean’s office, the College’s six academic departments, and College support units. Ahlberg Hall also contains six general purpose classrooms, two large lecture halls, eight dedicated instructional classrooms/laboratories, a multi-purpose Instructional Services Laboratory (ISL) with two multimedia classrooms, a distance education classroom, two computer classrooms, and computer- and media-assisted instructional technology for CHP students. The building additionally houses over 5,000 square feet in research laboratories and related support areas for College faculty and students.

The College constantly monitors conditions in Ahlberg Hall and works with University and contract personnel to update its physical facilities to provide an environment conducive to excellence in education. For the past two years, the College has received donations from local healthcare agencies. These monies were used to update the study area furniture and create a new study area, install three glass display cases in the main lobby to recognize achievement of faculty, staff, and students, mount a display board citing the College’s mission, vision, and core values, hang bulletin boards throughout the building for flyers, improve the signage, and create new art work presenting the students in the College’s programs. Instructional and research equipment are updated regularly through capital allocations provided by the College and/or University. The College maintains its own computer network with internet and e-mail access and provides all CHP personnel with computers and printers linked to the network. Students have computer, internet, and e-mail access through the College’s ISL.

Other improvements have been made to Ahlberg Hall during the past two years: new lighting fixtures in every room, expansion of a small classroom into a 35-student capacity multimedia classroom with Smart board technology, and the purchase of new tables and chairs for all ISL classrooms and nine conference/classrooms. As a result of the Strategic Plan, in 2001-2002, the College created a Welcome Center/Student Services unit charged to consolidate and coordinate recruitment, admission, retention, advising, and information services. In 2002, the College dedicated space for a classified staff lounge, meeting area, exercise room, and sick room. The College is currently undertaking over a $1,000,000 project to renovate the Dental Hygiene Clinic to modernize the 24-year-old technology and increase the number of operatories. Other projects being considered for the next two years are renovation of multiple examination rooms for the Physician Assistant, Physical Therapy, and Nursing programs, and conversion of hard-wired computer classrooms to wireless technology.

a (5) WSU is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. CHP functions under the authority of and is subject to all regulations of the Kansas Board of Regents and the State of Kansas. All eligible programs in the College are accredited by the appropriate professional organizations. The College programs and facilities are subject to applicable federal and state health and safety regulations.

b(1) The College’s primary customers are the students enrolled in its credit courses, employers of CHP graduates, WSU, and the area community. CHP’s primary market segment consists of qualified students applying for admittance to one of the College’s health professions educational programs. Key deciding factors for students in applying to educational programs include appropriate accreditation, quality of instruction and facilities, financial assistance, performance of graduates on qualifying examinations, and potential for employment in their chosen disciplines upon graduation. (See table P. 3) As an extension of our primary customers (the students), the College also serves families of students seeking a college education, the health care community which demands qualified health practitioners, and most notably, the citizenry of Kansas and the nation through the education of excellent health care providers.

The following table (P.1.1.2) identifies the customer groups and their key requirements.

The table below (P.1.1.3) identifies factors considered by students when selecting the institution as well as the specific program.

Table P.3 Selection Criteria Used by Students

b(2) Suppliers to the College include the primary, secondary, and post-secondary educational institutions which prepare students to enter higher educational programs. The College actively cultivates relationships with other educational institutions in the Wichita area and throughout Kansas to inform students of career opportunities in health care and to assist counselors, advisors, and families. The College also maintains close relationships with hospitals, clinics, practitioners, long-term care agencies, and other health care institutions, both as partners in providing educational opportunities for students and as employers of practitioners who have graduated from the College’s educational programs.

As an entity within a state university, the College looks first to Kansas residents for its student population. However, many CHP students come from out of state or even from foreign countries; these students are welcomed into College professional programs as space and their qualifications permit.

To communicate with its suppliers, its customers, and its community partners, the College employs multiple mechanisms in addition to the activities of the WSU Admission’s Office. These include printed materials, personal visits by faculty and recruiters, career fairs, open houses and tours of the College; outreach programs for targeted minority and economically-disadvantaged student populations; information provided via the College webpage; and personal appointments with counselors and advisors. College administrators and faculty maintain close relationships with the health care community through personal contacts, participation in local, state, and national organizations, service on community committees and boards, and other local activities.

P.2. Organizational Challenges

a(1)The College’s primary competitors include other state and private universities and, in some cases, community colleges, which offer similar health professions programs. Area community colleges may also be termed “competitors” as they often can provide pre-requisite courses and some certificate and associate-degree-level programs less expensively than can the University and the College. All but one of CHP professional programs has less than five identified competitors; nursing has identified greater than five, but less than ten competitors.

a(2) Kansas state universities are funded according to a model based on credit hour production: the more credit hours produced (i.e., the more students enrolled), the higher the funding level to the institution. Conversely, loss of credit hours results in decreased funding. Enrollment in most health professions programs is restricted by accreditation standards based on established faculty:student ratios, and faculty (and other support areas) are restricted by availability of state funding. Therefore, although, in general, demand for health professions programs remains high, the College faces a continual “vicious cycle” of trying to increase credit hour production to enhance funding to maintain excellence in its programs, while enrollments in those programs are constrained by existing funding levels and the resultant limitations on faculty, staff, and other support resources.

Cost of education (tuition) and availability of financial assistance to students is a major factor in student enrollment. Associate degree programs are significantly less expensive and may lead to the same credential. Tuition levels are set by the Kansas Board of Regents and are not within College control. The decline of the economy over the past two years has resulted in lay-offs of 11,000 individuals in Wichita alone. Many of these persons wish to find alternate careers and are considering health fields as an option. This has resulted in increased applications for many CHP programs, but tuition for these unemployed students is a significant factor. Although the College has some scholarship funds allocated specifically for its students, those funds are limited, and many area residents who would otherwise apply to CHP find themselves unable to afford the cost of college education. The two larger state universities tend to have larger endowments for student aid, which proves attractive to local residents for whom cost is the deciding factor, as well as for students from other areas of the state and the nation. Because of the stock market, projected rated for CHP scholarships have been markedly reduced.
 

b(1) The College must effectively compete for funding, resources, and prestige not only with similar colleges in other universities, but also within the structure of WSU itself. The College’s ability to provide excellent educators and facilities depends partly on its ability to position itself as an acknowledged and integral part of the university. The College is recognized by its community partners as essential to the continued success of the Wichita and Kansas health care community, but one of the College’s primary challenges is to ensure the University itself recognizes and values that relationship. Although health care is the third-largest “industry” in the Wichita metropolitan area, the College often stands in the shadow of the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Business. Ensuring the university administration is fully cognizant of the vital role which the College plays in the health of our local and state communities is a major challenge for the immediate future.

Widespread economic downturn has resulted in a large state deficit which will have a severe impact on state agencies. Securing and maintaining funding levels adequate to provide excellent educational programs are among the most important of the College’s challenges for the future.

Another compelling challenge for the College is the ability to attract and retain excellent faculty, administrators, and staff. Health professions faculty and staff are in desperately short supply throughout the country, and the College’s Midwestern location makes it less attractive to many than institutions on either coast. As part of the state university system, the College has limited financial resources and cannot match the higher salaries offered by out-of-state and private institutions. Although Wichita and Kansas have much to offer in quality of life, cost of living, and lifestyle, attracting potential faculty to the area to discover its more subtle attributes is a constant challenge, as is retaining faculty who find they can increase their salaries, often by 25% or more, upon leaving for other institutions. Health practitioners earn more in the practice setting than in academia, which further depletes the pool of potential faculty.

c(1) As part of its strategic planning process, the College has implemented plans for continual assessment of performance and processes through constituent surveys, periodic reviews, and evaluation mechanisms. College faculty, staff, and student leaders meet annually in day-long College retreats to discuss and act upon issues of College-wide import; all constituents are informed of and invited to attend Executive Council and College Association meetings; representatives from every constituent group are included on College committees, task forces, and work groups; input is constantly sought and encouraged from personnel on issues ranging from general policy development to physical facilities needs; and College administrators, faculty, and staff are evaluated annually by their peers and colleagues.
 

Guided by the CHP Dean, constant assessment and improvement have become watchwords in the College’s evolving culture of excellence. In 2002 the College bylaws were revised to include assessment as a function of the graduate and undergraduate curriculum committees and to create a new Strategic Planning Oversight Committee which will continuously review, assess, and make recommendations concerning the College’s Strategic Plan with input from all College constituents (faculty, staff, students, and university and community partners.)