Chapter 5: SMSU as a Connected Organization

Collaborating

The University has found creative ways to collaborate with a number of external entities, providing “seamless learning pathways” between high schools and the University, between the University and graduate programs, between the University and employers, and between the University and the business community.

Examples include

• Career Center—The mission of the Career Center is to provide professional assistance and intervention to Missouri State students and alumni through the use of career counseling, internship and fulltime job searches, and vocational and educational information, so they may make insightful career decisions. A description of services and constituents for this center can be found on its FAQs page.

Recently, CASE, received $8 million in federal Defense Department grants to help fund their work as an interdisciplinary, applied-science development-research center.

• CASE—The Center for Applied Science and Engineering (CASE) is an interdisciplinary, applied-science development-research center that combines the expertise of faculty and students from Missouri State with the expertise of research and development scientists from leading advanced technology corporations. The primary focus of CASE is to facilitate research that moves from high-risk research and development to product development. Recently, CASE received $8 million in federal Defense Department grants to help fund the activities of this research center. The Center policies include an innovative, industry-friendly intellectual property arrangement. CASE currently has 12 corporate partners and provides research space, state-of-the art equipment, and the intellectual environment for CASE-associated faculty, students, and corporate-partner scientists to work together. In collaboration with the City of Springfield, CASE is developing the Jordan Valley Innovation Center, a dedicated facility that will co-locate the research of several corporate partners with the research of CASE associate faculty and their students. The renovation is to be completed in early 2007.
• Nurse Anesthesia—By collaborating with The Southwest School of Anesthesia at St. John’s hospital, Missouri State has developed the M.S. in Nurse Anesthesia, wherein clinical instruction is integral to the program. Approximately one-half of the courses are taught with on-the-job clinical experiences for the students.
• Clinical Instruction—A dozen master’s programs and many undergraduate programs have health-related aspects. These programs require clinical education experiences, such as internships, externships, and clinical rotations. During the last three years, for example, the M.S. in Physician Assistant Studies developed agreements and placed students in more than 200 clinical practice sites in 93 communities and 19 states. More than 50 of these sites are recurrent clinical-practice placement sites for Missouri State students.
• Joplin-Based MAT—The Master of Arts in Teaching is an innovative program that provides individuals with a subject-based bachelor’s degree with the required pedagogy competencies for secondary teacher certification while obtaining a master’s degree. Considerable program work is in secondary school settings. Missouri State regularly offers this program from the Springfield campus. However, in an effort to extend resources and meet regional needs, Missouri State and Missouri Southern State University have collaborated to provide students a jointly taught, Joplin-based MAT program involving faculty from both institutions, with both institutions acknowledged on the diploma.

In 1997, the University joined with the University of Missouri to offer an Ed.D in Educational Leadership.

• Cooperative Doctorate—In 1997, the University joined with the University of Missouri-Columbia to offer an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership. After several years, SMSU added Joplin as an additional access site for the program. For this statewide effort, the curriculum and operations of the program have been guided by the faculty of the collaborating institutions. The Ed.D. course work is part of the Missouri State offerings with faculty in the Missouri State Department of Educational Administration teaching and mentoring student research, but the degree is conferred by the University of Missouri—Columbia. Every two years approximately 20 students enter the Missouri State component of the program.
• Service Grants—The University collaborates with community groups, county and city governments, and state agencies on many grant-funded programs. Examples include
  • Work with county and city governments by the Center for Resource Planning and Management
  • Collaboration between Greene County and the Ozarks Environmental and Water Quality Institute
  • Joint grants with the Community Foundation of the Ozarks
  • Projects with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
  • Missouri Local Government Program projects.
• Southwest Regional Professional Development Center—The College of Education engages in a number of initiatives with K-12 schools that are community based and focused on meeting the needs of those most directly dependent on higher education for support. These projects include supporting area schools at risk of losing state accreditation, regional outreach projects for meeting the needs of children with disabilities, working with Hispanic children and their families, and working in schools and communities with high poverty rates. Additional examples include the Ozarks Partnership Teachers Enhancement Initiative (OPTEI) program, a “Teacher Quality Enhancement" project funded by the United States Department of Education, as well as the Niangua Assistance Project.
• The BASE Program—Developed by the Springfield Public School system for “at-risk” high school students, this program has helped lower the dropout rate for the school district. Since 1998, the Educational Technology Center (ETC) has partnered with the BASE program by having more than 15 BASE students work for the equipment delivery area of the ETC. All of these students have had a very positive impact on the ETC, and the social and work skills they have gained through the partnership have been invaluable to their subsequent successes.
• Accreditations and Certifications—The University has regularly sought and achieved professional accreditation for those undergraduate and graduate programs that have specialized accrediting organizations. Among Missouri State’s numerous undergraduate programs, only six of those that could be accredited are not. For the graduate programs, sixteen organizations provide discipline-specific accreditation for more than half of the University’s 43 graduate degree programs (Graduate Catalog, p. 49). Only two relatively new master’s programs (M. Health Administration and M. Public Health), among those graduate programs where such accreditation exists, have not yet sought this distinction.

The English Language Institute provides courses in language and culture … encourages curiosity and community building … helps students make a transition into their graduate program of choice.

• Departmental activities for high school students - Almost every college and department sponsors activities that bring secondary school students and teachers to campus. While these events are recruitment tools for the University, they also serve constituents by introducing students to campus facilities, by giving them a taste of academic life at the university level, and by providing faculty with input from teachers on how the departments might better serve their needs.
• International student programs - Missouri State houses several programs that assist international students in making a transition into American academic life, both at the undergraduate and graduate level:
  • The English Language Institute provides courses in language and culture for students whose TOEFL scores are below those required for admission to the Graduate College. Housed within the College of Continuing Education, these courses are offered at five levels; students are placed in course levels according to their abilities. The relatively small course size fosters collegiality and encourages curiosity and community building, thus helping students make a transition into their graduate programs of choice.
    • The English Department provides sections of Writing I, a required component of the General Education program, for non-native speakers of English.
    • The College of Business began a collaboration in 2000 with the International School for Management Studies (ISMS), a division of the Madras School of Social Work in Chennai (Madras) India. The two institutions have a joint agreement facilitating entrance into Missouri State’s MBA program by students from India. Twenty-four credit hours of MBA Foundation courses may be completed at the International School for Management Studies, and the subsequent 33 credit hours of the MBA program are completed on the Missouri State campus. The MBA is granted by Missouri State.

    In 2000 the University system established an educational cooperative project with Liaoning Normal University in Dalian, China.

    • In 2000, the University system also established an educational cooperative project with Liaoning Normal University (LNU) in Dalian, China, known as the Missouri State—LNU Branch Campus in China. As a result of an institutional change approved by the Higher Learning Commission, the West Plains campus began awarding Branch Campus students the AA degree, and two classes have now graduated from that program. In 2004, SMSU sought and obtained HLC approval to offer through the College of Business Administration a B.S. in General Business at the University’s campus in Dalian. Classes are open to Branch Campus students who have completed the Missouri State-West Plains A.A. degree as well as to advanced-standing students from LNU and elsewhere. Missouri State’s Business program offered at Dalian in collaboration with LNU has been officially approved by the State Council of the Chinese government in Beijing.

These numerous examples demonstrate that Missouri State has been willing to engage in partnerships and collaborations that challenge its autonomy.