This week I continue to address issues and questions that were collected during the Engagement Session in August. Last week my focus was communication, and this week I address questions received about university retention efforts and supporting student success.
Our primary goal
As I highlighted as early as my first week on campus, I am deeply committed to supporting the students who have selected UW-Stout. These students have chosen UW-Stout as their university. It is, therefore, our primary responsibility to ensure that we deliver on our promise to deliver an exceptional learning environment and provide them with opportunities for success.
In order to work towards enhanced strategic action regarding retention, we created a new Retention Committee during spring 2020. This committee is co-chaired by interim associate provost, Amanda Barnett, and retention specialist, Amy McGovern, and includes appointed governance representatives. Some of the work of this committee to date includes:
- Current Student Communications Plan – assessing campus-wide communications sent to students and ensuring that the content is supportive and distributed in a coordinated effort across various areas.
- Exit Surveys – reviewing student exit surveys and reaching out to willing students to learn why students leave and how we can improve.
- EAB Navigate – working with the EAB Navigate Analytics team to expand the use of Navigate as a retention tool to support student success.
- Retention Website – publishing a Stout Cloud Retention Site that includes a variety of retention resources and information.
Advanced retention planning for Fall 2020
The pandemic magnified the need for UW-Stout to adjust our student retention efforts to respond to new conditions, challenges, and student needs. A very successful initiative was the development of a special General Education Cohort for first year students who wanted to pursue their education 100% online during the fall, but through a more “connected” experience designed to allow them to build community with each other and the campus, as well as prepare them to transition seamlessly to onsite learning when they are ready to do so. A similar CI General Education Plan was also promoted this fall to provide a more comprehensive offering of general education courses for non-traditional students.
Students interested in the first-year General Education Cohort were routed through Dr. Tina Lee, our General Education Director, who made a personal connection with each student during the summer and helped them evaluate if this cohort met their long-term learning goals, or if there were other options better suited for them. Once students were enrolled in the GE Cohort, faculty and instructional staff members teaching in the program worked to design learning opportunities that allowed students to connect with their peers and other campus resources. We have also heard from our two-year partners that the CI GE Plan has been extremely helpful for students preparing to transfer to UW-Stout.
I have been impressed by the innovative, retention-oriented curriculum developed by the faculty and instructional staff involved with these two pilots, which includes activities and strategies such as:
- First-year GE Students: encouraging group interaction through activities such as group scavenger hunts, discussion boards and “open mic-type” forums; writing a vision statement to help students explore their goals for college; integrating breathing and meditation activities into coursework to relieve stress; and encouraging students to seek out campus resources by incorporating them into their assignments.
- Non-Traditional CI GE Students: surveying students regarding which types of course content are most preferred to best meet their needs and educational goals; incorporating real-time Teams chats; and assigning coursework related to their current employment both for relevancy and to help with time management.
Our Involvement Center has also been extremely creative and thought of ways to keep our on-campus students engaged safely outside of formal learning environments. This has included efforts like transforming popular events such as Backyard Bash to virtual formats; offering a mix of virtual, hybrid, and socially distanced in-person events; and sponsoring a “Rock the Vote” event. Our student organizations and other areas such as Blue Devil Productions, University Housing, the Qube, Urec, and others have also worked hard to modify events and activities that can provide students with opportunities to stay involved. All of these efforts, both within and outside of formal learning environments, are critical to successful student retention.
How you can help with retention
As we continue to deal with the challenges associated with COVID-19 this fall, it is critical that we continue to think creatively and carefully about student retention. Many students will face time in isolation and quarantine. This means that during this time, they will shift to remote learning, and many will experience heightened stress, feelings of disengagement, and loneliness. They may reach out to instructors with questions and concerns that go beyond academic content and seek guidance from instructors as mentors. In addition to remaining connected with these students through their learning and twice-daily wellness checks, there are many small, but powerful things the campus community can do to support our students during this time:
- Sign a Dining Card: A project is underway to deliver notecards to every unit on campus. I ask your assistance in adding a handwritten note to these cards, which will then be delivered to students who are in quarantine or isolation along with their meals. The Child and Family Studies Center is also helping children enrolled to create artwork and special notes of encouragement for our students.
- Remain Flexible: We all may be asked to do things outside of how we normally operate and go even further above and beyond what we are already doing. I ask that faculty and instructional staff reach out to students who stop coming to class or disengage, as well as remain empathetic towards and supportive of students as they navigate this complex space, deal with illness, and confront personal challenges that conditions present.
- Visit the Retention Website: You will discover many additional resources and ways you can assist with student retention now and as we move forward through this challenging time by visiting the retention site.
Thank you
Most of all, thank you for all that you are doing to support our students and each other during this difficult time. As we enter week three of the semester, I remain proud of our university. We have tackled the challenges directly, and all of us—faculty, staff, and students—are doing an excellent job moving forward. We are dealing with our current issues, progressing, and planning for the future, and we are doing it well.
Best regards,
Katherine P. Frank
Chancellor
