UNews - director of Integrated Planning

Committed to caring, Mirau supportive of SOS

trevor.kenney — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 22:12:34 +0000

Heather Mirau began her career at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge as director of Housing, Food & Conference Services. It was a position that suited her ambitions well – not just professionally, but personally too. Mirau always felt a responsibility to help students succeed, and as the department’s director, she monitored the pulse of the campus population and addressed the needs of residents as they arose.

Heather Mirau may have changed roles at the U of L but her commitment to students remains.

While Mirau has many memories and stories over her years at the U of L, the plight of one particular student stands out in her mind above the rest. Mirau describes the student as a shy, but friendly young man with a bright mind and positive attitude. By all accounts he had a promising future, but there was one problem: the student was struggling financially – and rather desperately at that.

“Every once in a while I’d buy his lunch to keep him going,” Mirau recalls. “Unfortunately there were a lot of stories on campus like his, and there continues to be today. Financial struggle is a very real issue for a lot of students, and it has ripple effects across the entire university.”

Mirau’s career has advanced over the years and her commitment to student success has grown right along with it. Three years ago she became director of Integrated Planning, a position that gives Mirau the opportunity to serve the needs of students in a much broader way. While her professional contributions have undoubtedly made a difference in countless students’ lives – as she did with the financially struggling resident years ago – Mirau continues to contribute personally to students as well by making ongoing donations to the Supporting Our Students (SOS) fund.

“If you care about students and want to help them succeed, the SOS fund is a great way to do that,” says Mirau. “SOS alleviates some of the financial pressure that many students face, which allows them to focus on their studies and become more engaged in university life. When you contribute to SOS, you become part of a caring community. You help shift the social dynamic on campus and proactively create the kind of university the U of L aims to be.”

Mirau believes that the size of the U of L gives the institution a unique advantage in its ability to become the type of university that attracts students based not only on programming, but also on cultural climate.

“We are a closely knit community. There’s a connective thread that runs throughout the institution,” says Mirau. “We are Alberta’s Destination ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and that defines how we support our students.”

SOS offers financial assistance to students in all Faculties and programs at the U of L. Contributors can choose a fund designation for their gifts or leave the allocation to the discretion of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

“It brings us together as a caring community and that’s something I really want to be a part of,” says Mirau of SOS. “Everyone who contributes to SOS feels the energy that’s created through the fund, and it grows with every new donation. The positive effects absolutely snowball.”

Join Heather and support our students today.

Finding the factors that influence students

trevor.kenney — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 19:04:50 +0000

The Recruitment and Retention Project (RRP) Team has identified a need to better understand the risk factors that impact new high school students and their persistence (retention) rate from the first to the second year of post-secondary studies. Further, the RRP Team is looking to develop strategies to enhance recruitment and improve student retention as a result.

The Predictive Modelling Subject Matter Team (SMT) was created to identify and review risk factors that impact persistence of new high school students. Through Institutional Analysis, the SMT evaluated data with Noel-Levitz, a higher education consulting firm, to identify significant factors that influence U of L learners' persistence rates. The result was a model that can now be used to predict new high school student persistence.

The Predictive Modelling SMT subsequently identified the need to develop an applicant-to-enrolment model to effectively target recruitment efforts. Noel-Levitz assisted in the development of this second model.

While related, the created models are very distinct, since risks and potential solutions for the applicant to enrolment phase are unique from the risk and solutions to the first- to second-year phase of a student's time at university.

"These two models will improve our ability to target recruitment and retention initiatives much more effectively," says Mandy Moser, team leader of the Predictive Modelling SMT and manager, Institutional Analysis.

"Identification of risk factors and the knowledge that is generated by the application of predictive models is critical to a student-centred approach that will permit the delivery of more timely and effective services for our learners," adds Heather Mirau, director of Integrated Planning.

The goals of the models and the resulting strategic initiatives are to further increase learner engagement and satisfaction, to enhance recruitment and to improve retention. As an added benefit of the consulting process, the U of L now has an improved understanding of how to effectively employ institutional data that, in turn, allows for future in-house development of predictive modelling to inform and facilitate recruitment and retention strategies.

The Predictive Modelling SMT is now entering the next stage of the process – sharing the information with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ as a whole.

Later this month (Feb. 14-15), a Noel-Levitz representative will present the two models and facilitate sessions with ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ employees to develop potential recruitment and retention strategies. Any inquiries regarding these sessions can be forwarded to either Mandy Moser (mandy.moser@uleth.ca) or Heather Mirau (mirau@uleth.ca).

The following factors significantly impact an applicant's likelihood of enrolling

Residence
Geographic region
Program
Application date
Entering average
Campus

The following factors significantly impact a first-year student's likelihood of persisting

Residence
Application date
Entering average
Loans
Scholarships

This story first appeared in the February 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Enhancing student engagement the focus of learning circles

trevor.kenney — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 20:49:52 +0000

How better to engage students in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge community than to involve them in building the supportive culture they want and need?

This creative method of developing a supportive campus community is the basis of the Learning Circles project, and involves the creation of high performance teams (HPTs). Learning Circles is another Recruitment and Retention Project (RRP) with a goal of enhancing the student-centred service commitment of the U of L.

Craig Milner, an instructor in the Faculty of Management, and Heather Mirau, director of integrated planning, have been co-leading a group of employees and two sets of students who represent various disciplines and years of study in this pilot project. Its goal is to establish a process for developing a culture of HPTs based on self-management principles.

"Each team develops its own team culture within a guided process for achieving a level of high performance," explains Milner, who is well acquainted with the use of HPTs, and has a rich background in guiding and training high performance teams. He brings this knowledge into the classroom as well, teaching management students on how to construct effective HPTs.

Through valuable teamwork, students support each other in helping to build a supportive campus community.

To date, the teams have been meeting on a weekly basis, sometimes independently and sometimes in a group setting.

The employee team is known as the Dots and is meant to serve only as a source of connectivity for the students to find the expertise they need on campus to help them succeed. In cases where the employees may not know the department or person a student needs, it is their role to find that contact. In so doing, both the employee and the student learn what services are available and how they can be accessed.

"We really have great resources and expertise on campus, and sometimes it's a matter of simply finding those connections," says Mirau. "This is a great opportunity for both our students and employees to learn about all the services that are available to our students."

The project will look to add more individuals to each team in the spring semester, giving them an opportunity to ease into the team culture, at which time the teams will organically split and repeat the process to continue to take in more students and employees.

The Learning Circles have been well received by those participating in the pilot project.

"The experience has helped me analyze my own education and in turn create a strategy to improve my campus experience," says Nicole Meurs, a second-year management student majoring in human resources. "With the support of my fellow teammates and the knowledge sharing and resources of our Dots, it has really opened my eyes to everything that is available to us."

Jennifer McArthur, a learning strategist in the Counselling Services office, says her involvement with the HPTs has been very rewarding.

"It's been great to work with the students and help create those connections for them, and it's also been a real learning experience for our group too," she says.

Anyone wishing to participate in a Learning Circle is urged to contact any of the following: Kristy Burke (kristy.burke@uleth.ca), Lynette LaCroix (lynette.lacroix@uleth.ca), Nicole Leusink (nicole.leusink@uleth.ca), Jennifer McArthur (j.mcarthur@uleth.ca), Craig Milner (craig.milner@uleth.ca), and Heather Mirau (mirau@uleth.ca).

This story first appeared in the January 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

UNews - director of Integrated Planning

Committed to caring, Mirau supportive of SOS

Related Topics

Finding the factors that influence students

The following factors significantly impact an applicant's likelihood of enrolling Residence Geographic region Program Application date Entering average Campus

The following factors significantly impact a first-year student's likelihood of persisting Residence Application date Entering average Loans Scholarships

Related Topics

Enhancing student engagement the focus of learning circles

Related Topics

The following factors significantly impact an applicant's likelihood of enrolling

Residence
Geographic region
Program
Application date
Entering average
Campus

The following factors significantly impact a first-year student's likelihood of persisting

Residence
Application date
Entering average
Loans
Scholarships