All blueprints lead to a finished product.

At West Virginia University, that finished product is a successful Mountaineer, complete with a college degree. To help students reach that goal, the University has created the Blueprint for Student Success, an initiative begun by President Jim Clements upon his arrival in 2009 and maintained as part of the University’s 2020 Strategic Plan for the Future.

Clements charged key administrators with developing this Blueprint after recognizing a need to improve retention and graduation rates among students. University officials hope to unveil a final comprehensive plan this fall.

Provost Michele Wheatly and Associate Provost Elizabeth Dooley brought together a team representing both Academic Affairs and Student Affairs to explore, design and implement a student success plan.

The goal is simple, said Bernadette Jungblut, director of assessment and retention at WVU: “We want students to stay at WVU and earn their degrees at WVU.”

Nationally, fewer than 75 percent of first-year students at public, four-year institutions return for their second year, and only about four in 10 earn a degree within five years. Getting that degree makes a big difference: according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the median annual salary for college graduates is almost twice as much as high school graduates, and the employment rate for college graduates is significantly higher.

Jungblut is just one of dozens of campus officials crafting the Blueprint. So far, they have identified five areas that shape the project:

Enhancing the first-year experience
Students must feel a sense of belonging the first second they set foot onto campus. This is why strengthening their first-year experience at WVU is crucial.

Officials have already developed a First Year Academy, which debuted in August 2011, to fill this need. The academy is a requirement for all incoming first-year students and includes activities in which they learn about their majors, academic departments and available resources on campus. Approximately 5,000 new students entered WVU last fall.

“During the First Year Academy, students visited their academic homes; unit administrators and faculty members greeted students, introduced students to the curriculum and provided a foundation for success. We want to communicate a clear message to our students: academics are important – the hallmark of the university experience”, Dooley said.

Another element of this category includes the revamping of the Residential Faculty Leaders program.

Each residence hall now has a specific academic theme, and students can choose their residence hall based on their major or interests. Braxton Tower, for instance, has an engineering and energy theme.

At-risk intervention
The Blueprint provides an early intervention component to catch students who might not be adjusting well to the college experience.

“If we can identify these students early enough, perhaps we could turn them around by mid-semester,” Dooley said.

Last year, the biology, geology, chemistry, math, statistics and history programs participated in a pilot project for at-risk intervention. Faculty were asked to identify certain indicators that could jeopardize student success, such as poor attendance, tardiness, low performance on quizzes/exams and not engaging in class participation. If those indicators popped up within four weeks of the semester, faculty and resident faculty leaders helped connect those students to resources, such as free tutoring, available to turn them around.

In some cases, students who are in good academic standing and without holds on their records may not be registered for the next semester. Officials try to connect with those students to determine what factors might lead to them not returning to WVU – and to address those challenges.

“A number of students who were registered last spring were not registered for the fall,” Jungblut said. “Where are they? Are they transferring? If so, we try to reach out to those students to enable them to come back.”

Focus on students of color
Resident faculty leaders work with students on the Our WVU Communities initiative, which hosts events focusing on diversity, inclusion and promoting increased access to educational opportunities for first generation students and students of color. One recent event brought ESPN SportsCenter anchor Jay Harris to campus to discuss the importance of education in achieving success.

The University hosts other special programs for students of color during the First Year Academy. In August, the Center for Black Culture and Research hosts its annual Horace and Geraldine Belmear Reception, which welcomes new black students and faculty.

A group of WVU officials looking at “Differentiated Programming for Students of Color” will also review data about the undergraduate experiences of students of color compared to other students’ experiences.

Advising and course scheduling
“Certain subgroups of students need additional advising support,” Jungblut said. “Advisors will be working with them in enhanced ways. Advising is one of the biggest challenges for any university campus.”

The Blueprint tries to establish and implement the best practices for advising of, and course scheduling for, students. This involves connecting pre-majors and General Studies students to colleges and departments.

Service excellence
Are some students not succeeding at WVU because they’re dissatisfied with the services provided to them?

If so, the Blueprint strives to improve the quality of those services.

Officials review student surveys such as the Student Satisfaction Inventory and the Graduating Senior Survey to identify any barriers between students and the University processes.

“We want to reduce the red tape that students face,” Jungblut said.

Blueprint in action
Graduate student Evan Widney has seen the Blueprint shape academic lives already. As a graduate assistant in the Office of Student Success and Retention Programs, Widney has worked with some students who were in danger of falling through the cracks.

“The outreach efforts that have been created, or re-energized, through the Blueprint are certainly, I believe, helping the WVU student population to be more successful,” said Widney, who’s studying educational leadership. “It is my belief that the rich culture of engagement that has been promoted, especially recently, at WVU has been hugely beneficial to overall student success and persistence.”

Widney said he’s worked with students who have been “positively impacted by the various initiatives” of the Blueprint.

“I believe the Blueprint further demonstrates WVU’s commitment to successfully educating and retaining a diverse student body,” he said. “I think it is evidence of the University’s willingness to admit a wide array of students with varying levels of prior academic success and the subsequent capacity to promote positive change in all students, as seen in part through the success of students at the collegiate level that may not have excelled at the secondary level. WVU, through this initiative and others, has shown itself to be an agent of positive change for the community, the state, and all those it touches.”

For a list of groups working on the Blueprint, visit http://strategicplan.wvu.edu/the_map/workgroup_reports/tudent_success.

-WVU-

js/03/02/12

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