The campus plans have been coded for reoccuring themes among campus strategies. These strategies are common practices in other campuses and allow intercampus team conversations.

Administrative Structure 

Description: 

As part of their institutional intentionality many campuses are organizing committees, creating administrative positions, and changing reporting lines to focus specifically of first year student success. 

Example:

Create new upper-level administrative position to focus on student success; Link multiple student success initiatives into a unit reporting to a single academic unit head; Select and empower a RFY Advisory Council to integrate the efforts of multiple university project teams into a collaborative network focused on student learning and success for first year students.

Advising/Intrusive Advising

Description:

Intrusive advising requires advisors reach out to students. Programs utilizing proactive intrusive advising build structures that incorporate intervention strategies for students who otherwise might not seek advising. This is often used in conjunction with other strategies such as predictive analytics.

Example:

Require two required advising sessions per semester for first-year freshman; Provide students with timely information and alerts about their progress (e.g., taking courses out of sequence, not following graduation plans, grades, choice of major, etc.) and suggestions for redirection; Implement a centralized student advising center to support intentional advising and faculty mentorship.

Campus Communications (with students)

Description:

Many campuses have reexamined their communications with students. Campus efforts include reviewing communication in the form of letters, emails, and other messaging focused on probation, inclusion, and student belonging.

Example:

Change probation and suspension letters to positive and encouraging tone; Provide support resources; Inform freshmen about equity, inclusion, and diversity through academic and culturally based places and events on campus; Review all correspondence with prospective and registered students and revise with a growth mindset tone. 

Curriculum

Description:

A number of campuses are re-envisioning their curriculum for first year students. This may include general education reform, creating or advising first year cohorts, or engaging faculty in the creation of curriculum that emphasizes student belonging.

Example:

Create first year interdisciplinary courses within general education; Maximize the proportion of major requirements and/or liberal studies and/or diversity credits taken in the first year; Explore solutions that will enable innovative first-year curriculum from units that are currently barred from initiating curriculum.

Data Analytics/Predictive Analytics

Description:

Data analytics refer to the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about students. The data can be used for the purpose of understanding student learning and the context in which it occurs. Predictive analytics is the practice of extracting information from existing data sets in order to determine patterns and predict future outcomes and trends. See also: Early Alert Systems.

Example:

Collect and analyze data regarding residency retention rates for first year students after 1st semester and 1st year; Identify data already available for determining descriptions of our students who traditionally have not progressed successfully and use data to assist students before they arrive and after they begin; Improve the timely sharing and transparency of first-year institutional research data, define baselines, and agree upon key performance indicators across academic and student affairs.

Early Alert Systems

Description: 

Early alert systems are designed to identify students experiencing difficulties in the classroom. The problems are identified by instructors and may range from such things as tardiness/absences, poor test grades, or learning difficulties.

Example: 

Promote broad campus participation in early alert functionality through system; Develop a learning-management system with early-warning capabilities and which includes academic and non-academic elements of students' experiences; Share student success data to empower faculty to be active participants in students' pathways to success.

Faculty Development

Description:

The faculty development efforts across campuses are varied. Many of the RFY campuses are providing programming for faculty/professional development related to other student success efforts such as advising, student belonging, growth mindset, grit, first year learning communities, and first year seminars. 

Example:

Design faculty-to-faculty mentor program for new faculty, particularly in their first year, that includes learning community elements to improve student and faculty climate and the student's first year experience; Provide professional development in intrusive advising and growth mindset/sense of belonging.

Faculty Incentives

Description:

A number of campuses are incentivizing faculty to join in campus-wide student success efforts. These efforts include direct funding but also teaching awards, professional development opportunities, and changing tenure and promotion guidelines to include these efforts.

Example:

Create teaching enhancement award program focused on improving pedagogy in
"milestone" courses; Provide funding for course redesign participation and implementation; Begin provost-led communication campaign to celebrate faculty's role in student success.

First Year Seminars

Description:

Several campuses are either creating or retooling their freshman seminar course.

Example:

Require University 100 for all first-time freshmen; Revise the first year seminar as the link to the new meta major learning communities; Review development and current structure of freshman seminar and request any related data.

Gateway Course Revision

Description:

All of the RFY campuses have been asked to identify gateway courses. Although the definitions vary slightly by campus, most include the core courses that all freshman take. A number of campuses have further limited the pool by focusing on courses that have high DFW rates. Many campuses are working with faculty to redesign these courses to include both pedagogical changes and non-cognitive components.

Example:

Use existing data to identify high DFW courses in the first year to focus mindset and sense of belonging curriculum changes; Redesign five "gateway" courses to improve student learning and success and historically high DFW rate courses; Redesign high-DWF courses and with high levels of first-year students to incorporate active learning, strengths-based pedagogy, and non-cognitive development. 

Growth Mindset

Description:

A growth mindset refers to a person’s belief that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. A growth mindset leads to academic resilience. Many campuses are working to foster growth mindsets for their students.

Example:

Design and implement a growth-mindset intervention for all students, with a follow-up activity that will be delivered to all students sometime during their first year.

Guided Pathways/Pathways 

Description:

Guided pathways are coherent and easy-to-follow college-level programs of study that are aligned with requirements for success in employment and at the next stage of education. Programs, support services, and instructional approaches are redesigned and re-aligned to help students clarify their goals, choose and enter pathways that will achieve those goals, stay on those pathways, and master knowledge and skills that will enable them to advance in the labor market and successfully pursue further education.

Example:

Identify and publish clear pathways to success in all degree programs; Identify clear pathways (degree maps) to persistence and publish for each degree plan; Streamline pre-requisites and co-requisites to provide intuitive, navigable major progressions and reduce curricular complexity 

Meta-majors

Description:

Meta-majors create sets of courses that fulfill academic requirements for a broad discipline or program grouping such as STEM, business, or health sciences. Meta-majors are a lever to help provide a foundation for undecided students’ decision-making process. They are designed to guide students through the completion of their early academic requirements within their specified broad program area.

Example:

Develop meta-majors with a well-defined yearlong pattern of courses for new freshmen to prevent "choice paralysis" and encourage timely graduation; Use meta-major information in a more systematic and intentional manner to increase student interactions with faculty from a variety of disciplines; Create exploratory degree concentrations/meta-majors for students and implement block scheduling for the respective cohorts.

Orientation Revision

Description:

Several campuses are revising freshman orientation. This may include focusing on the high school to college transition, providing growth mindset training, or developing a first 40 days plan.

Example:

Offer a "reorientation" at week 6 and bring freshman students back in/back together to meet with a student success coach; Review and revise orientation programs to be consistent with retention, recruitment, and belonging/growth mindset principles; Redesign Welcome Week so that students come to campus earlier and have more time to get a schedule finalized

Policy/Policy Change

Description: 

Many campuses are reviewing current policies to ensure they align with student success goals.

Example:

Rethink placement testing; Audit current student policies and office practices which apply to first-year students and where applicable to achieve consistency and coherence, propose amendments to those whose impact on first-year student success is significant; Develop a 30 credit review process to ensure first year students are on track.

Remediation/Co-requisite Remediation

Description:

Co-requisite developmental education enrolls students in remedial and college-level courses in the same subject at the same time. Students receive targeted support to help boost their understanding and learning of the college-level course material.

Example:

Allow students to complete MTH 87 (developmental) and MTH 116 (college level quantitative reasoning) in one term; Create non-remedial approach to learning that targets high-risk courses rather than high-risk students.

Scheduling 

Description:

Many campuses are reconsidering the way that they do scheduling with the goal of helping students complete their coursework in a timely manner.

Example:

Implement block scheduling (potentially using a cohort model) of core classes for freshmen through entire first year; Offer multiple semester registration; Implement earlier, multi-term enrollment process to facilitate students enrollment in needed courses.

Student Belonging 

Description:

The term belonging refers to students' subjective perception of being accepted and respected in their particular school setting. Many of our campuses are working on increasing students’ sense of belonging through belonging interventions.

Example:

Strengthen students' self-efficacy and sense of belonging through advising practices and growth mindset; Conduct focus groups with students on perceptions and experiences regarding a "sense of belonging" and their first year experiences; Organize informal meetings between members of the faculty and groups of first-year students.

Student Engagement 

Description:

Students that are connected to the campus community are more likely to persist.

Example:

Use social media and co-curricular tech portals to recruit and track student involvement in co-curricular clubs and events; Increase communication with students regarding the opportunities for curricular and extra-curricular activities and services that are aligned with student interest and eligibility; Expand service learning opportunities for first year students.

Teaching/Pedagogy

Description:

A number of campuses are focusing on innovations in the classroom.

Example:

Promote pedagogy that highlights diversity awareness and cultural competence and levels the playing field for all students/promote teaching environment that fosters "inclusive excellence"; Promote growth-mindset and grit pedagogies in faculty teaching and learning communities; Ensure all first and second-year courses are designed with engaged pedagogies through the review of courses as programs go through academic program review.