In this episode, I’m talking with Allison Chase Padula, Assistant Provost for Student Success at Roger Williams University. Roger Williams University is a liberal arts college in Bristol, Rhode Island.  We discuss how this liberal arts institution navigates the enrollment cliff, mental health crisis, and enduring impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. We also talk about their transition from a faculty advising model to a first-year professional advising model and how student success analytics and intelligent case management software enable faculty and staff to deliver proactive student support. Their innovative approach ensures that all students are successful while also ensuring faculty aren't stretched too thin. To do this, faculty and professional advisors use actionable analytics to provide proactive support and create an environment where all students can be successful.   Show Notes: [2:10] - Allison shares her background in higher education and her current role at Roger Williams University. [3:47] - Roger Williams University is a Liberal Arts institution, but it offers something unique. [4:55] - There are demographic changes on the horizon, and they are trying to plan for it. [6:27] - The pandemic left institutions with many big questions. [8:02] - At about the same time as the pandemic, Roger Williams was working on their vision and strategic planning. [9:55] - Student success is a key component of their strategic planning and is prominent in their vision. [11:01] - Allison shares how each component in the strategic planning has aligned many other initiatives that are making a difference. [12:14] - Allison describes some of the services they offer for first-year students and the extra support they need. [13:39] - At Roger Williams, they offer seminars that help explain things to first-year students, and they have moved to a first-year professional advising model. [14:57] - Civitas gives staff the tools needed to advise these first-year students best. [16:27] - After their first year, students move to a different advisor that gives them the preparation for their later years in the institution and what comes next. [17:49] - Change management presents challenges but also opportunities. [19:00] - There is a lot of change happening at the same time at Roger Williams. It’s important to know how people react to change. [20:52] - With the new advising model for first-year students, advisors get the time and space to really connect with their students. [22:54] - What are the challenges in higher education that we don’t always do a good job of communicating? [25:00] - Proactively supporting students at scale can be tricky. Data is an important piece that helps. [27:38] - Allison shares the experience of showing faculty and staff how to use the Civitas learning tools that will change the way they reach students. [30:21] - Early outreach makes all the difference. [31:36] - How do we make the decisions institutionally that make us student-ready?   Links and Resources: Explore the Civitas Learning Platform

Today we have a panel of guests! Joining today is Landon Peterson, Director of Academic Advising at Snow College, Julia Carlo, Executive Director of Advising at Northeastern State University, and our own Rob Friedhoff, Vice President of Community Development at Civitas Learning. If you’d like to hear a previous episode with Rob Friedhoff, he spoke about boosting academic advising capacity in Season 1, Episode 7. In our discussion today, we discuss how to use student success analytics to deliver the right support instead of the same one to every student. We share ways to diversify student outreach and intervention to better serve students and maximize limited resources. We discuss how to navigate the challenges and opportunities that come with change management. With the perspective of two institutions using the same tools, you can see the different approaches to the same goal and how this change in advising has impacted students in both.   Show Notes: [2:19] - Today, we’re focusing on tailoring support with shrinking resources. [5:40] - Julia shares how her team is shifting from the same support model to finding the right support through Civitas Learning. [7:54] - The bottom quartile students are typically not those who advocate for themselves and take advantage of open advising. [9:56] - There’s “magic” in advising, especially when we are able to help the students who need it the most. [11:27] - Landon describes the changes made at his institution that created a synergy between departments and advising and created more space for students. [13:03] - The students that need to be seen the most are often the least engaged. [14:59] - Change is hard and can be approached differently. Julia implemented change gradually, and she describes the growing pains. [18:17] - There was 100% participation over time, and the institution saw the impact. [19:45] - It’s not about ignoring the student's need, it’s prioritizing how much of a need we can meet. [21:14] - Katy shares a story to help with peak registration periods. [23:19] - The results have kept advisors motivated during busy periods of the year. [25:01] - Civitas has data points for predictors of success that are specific to your institution. [27:48] - Landon describes the outcomes and their impact on student retention. [30:00] - Julia explains the impact and the data that shows it just by acknowledging a student once by an advisor. [32:07] - Faculty and advisor relationships are powerful. [34:35] - Leverage and celebrate those who are doing the work. [37:22] - Find what works for students and help them get what they need. That’s the goal. Knowing the data is part of telling that story.   Links and Resources: Episode 7: Boost Academic Advising Capacity & Effectiveness with Rob Freidhoff Utah State University Eases Academic Advisor Capacity Constraints Civitas Learning Website Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

In this episode, Dr. John Rindy covers a lot of ground when discussing proactive academic support. Dr. Rindy is the Assistant Vice President for Career and Academic Progress at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania and has changed their strategies to be data informed action. Dr. Rindy shares Slippery Rock’s initiatives on how to help all students succeed with increasing student need and shrinking resources. You’ll also learn how to use data analytics to tailor student success programs and initiatives to create capacity for proactive support and improve student outcomes as well as how to build a coalition and facilitate change management between faculty and student success support staff to ensure that institutions are delivering the most effective student success initiatives and strategies possible. Slippery Rock promises a lot and through the work of Dr. Rindy and his colleagues and the five pillars they focus on throughout a student’s higher education journey, they are able to deliver on the promise of student success.   Show Notes: [2:27] - Dr. Rindy shares his background in the corporate world and current role in higher education. [3:35] - At Slippery Rock, enrollment is a big focus. [5:22] - One part of the strategic plan is the promise that students will be successful and how they make sure they can be. [6:46] - If it moves, they measure it and then use the measurements in daily decisions. [8:02] - John gives an example of how they measured ending GPA and were able to identify students proactively who needed support. [9:47] - One idea was to have first year students write a letter to themselves that is then sent back to them at the end of the year. [11:41] - What predictors in data analytics can be used to tailor student success programs? [13:42] - With strong participation in student success programs at Slippery Rock, the data can show the impact. [16:07] - At many institutions, student success initiatives fall in the hands of academic advisors, but at Slippery Rock, it’s a little different. [17:52] - Conveying information isn’t the goal. It’s provoking action. [20:40] - Change management can be a struggle. John shares the work behind change management at Slippery Rock. [22:00] - People are interested in retention but they truly don’t understand what their role is in regards to retention. [24:17] - Retention is important but there are pieces of data that we can look at that can have a surprising impact on it. [26:06] - What differences do they see at Slippery Rock since taking a data informed approach to student success? [27:21] - Advocacy amplifies identity. [29:02] - How do you move the needle once you hit these higher goals? [30:58] - There are five pillars Slippery Rock focuses on from the beginning of admissions all the way through: goals, relationships, values, acting on values, and mindset.   Links and Resources: Civitas Learning Website Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

Rethinking strategies can be a challenge, but with the many changes we are seeing in higher education post-Covid, redesigning systems could be the key to student success. At SUNY Broome Community College, Dr. Penny Kelly explains that they’ve taken some new approaches to how they use data and technology. Dr. Kelly is the Vice President of Academic Affairs at SUNY Broome and with the collaboration of faculty and staff, the institution is now implementing guided pathways and transitioning to a caseload based academic advising model. According to Penny, these changes have not only helped with enrollment, but with retention as well, and these initiatives have boosted the student experience through relationship building.   Show Notes: [2:03] - Penny shares her background and current role at SUNY Broome Community College. [4:34] - To remain sustainable post-Covid, SUNY Broome needed to take a data informed approach and rethink strategies. [6:10] - The community surrounding the school has initiatives to get more students into the pipeline through community college. [8:50] - One focus for SUNY Broome right now is implementing guiding pathways and revising the academic advising model. [10:43] - It was hard to measure success during the pandemic, but we’re starting to see promising data after implementing a new advising model. [12:39] - What data has been tracked or closely monitored over the last year? [15:09] - The transition was a little tough, but the change has made a significant difference in relationship building with students. [17:08] - The first step was getting the buy-in of faculty and staff and that might take some time. [19:06] - These initiatives don’t only help enrollment, but also retention. [22:06] - Penny compares what they used to do and what they do now in student outreach. [24:16] - Data can really make you rethink how you communicate with students. [26:45] - The new advising model has helped with streamlining the student experience. [28:25] - It can be challenging to rethink things and change things up. [29:28] - Spend more time with students and take your time. SUNY Broome’s approach has been to take the time with relationship building.   Links and Resources: Civitas Learning Website Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

Today’s guest is Patti Neuhold-Ravikumar, former University of Central Oklahoma President and CEO and Principal Consultant of Arc C-Suite Advisory. To kick off Season 2 of Next Practices, Patti digs deep into the strategies behind building a student success model that also supports the financial health of an institution. Patti shares what leaders should think about when building a financially healthy institution, new and alternative approaches you should consider when developing financially sustainable student success approaches, and what pieces you need to have in place to establish a student success model that supports the financial well-being of your institution. We’ve also written a downloadable resource on this topic for you, which you can CLICK HERE to download now.   Show Notes: [2:28] - Patti shares her background, current role in consulting, and experience in higher education. [3:41] - There are several challenges higher education is seeing right now, including demographic changes and the aftermath of the pandemic. [4:27] - Prioritize what you have and how to utilize it. [5:24] - It is easier and less expensive to retain a current student than to recruit a new one. [7:35] - Retention is a common problem for all regional universities. [9:21] - We have to be strategic about financial aid distribution and spending to make the most impact. [10:37] - Faculty members are the first line of defense. There needs to be a cohesive relationship with student success initiatives. [12:35] - Data and communication are the keys to making decisions about student success. [14:54] - Early alerts are only the first step. Initiate communication with what the data is telling you. [17:21] - It is important to take a holistic approach. [18:18] - Patti shares an example of how your strategies can change, adjust, and flow. A strategy is a living process. [20:11] - It’s not everyone’s responsibility to take action on things.  [21:24] - A strategy is very rarely done. It’s something repeatable. [23:12] - We all get stuck sometimes. There’s a natural friction point when it comes to student success. Patti explains how to manage this. [25:51] - Create an atmosphere of trust and productive conflict. [28:33] - Having a unified understanding and vision is crucial but it is easier said than done but should be at the top of the priority list. [30:31] - The meetings that Patti describes need to be filled with people who have the authority to make decisions. [32:33] - There can be issues that arise with data trust. [33:53] - A single source of data is the gold standard. [35:45] - Allow people to interact with the data to better understand it. [37:35] - We don’t have the time to waste. The information needs to be ready and you have to act. [39:17] - The health of one department relies on the others. [40:21] - Contact Patti through email at Patti@arc.consulting   Links and Resources: Download Leadership Brief: Achieving Financial Stability with Student Success Civitas Learning Website Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

We are so excited to announce that Next Practices Season 2 begins on May 16th! All new conversations with higher ed leaders across the country. In each episode, we’ll talk about higher ed’s most pressing challenges like closing equity gaps, delivering proactive student support at scale, removing barriers to graduation, and building financially healthy institutions. And more! Listen to this sneak peek with an upcoming guest, former University of Central Oklahoma President Patti Neuold-Ravikumar.   Show Notes: [1:29] - Patti shares the communication and data behind the collaborative and intentional work within an institution. [2:48] - What is the difference between a strategy and a vision? [4:26] - Intentional action fills a gap. [5:52] - Strategy is rarely ever done because it is repeatable with new iterations along the way. It is a living process   Links and Resources: Civitas Learning Website Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

Today I’m speaking with Rob Freidhoff, Vice President of Community Development at Civitas Learning. Rob has extensive experience in higher ed as an academic advisor, advising administrator, Strategic Enrollment Manager, educational consultant focused on improving advising practices, and as an Associate Vice President for Student Success.  In this episode, we’re talking about improving advising effectiveness. In our conversation, we cover how to use data analytics and intelligent case management technology to ease capacity constraints, why data analytics and intentional advising philosophies like appreciative and developmental advising need each other, and where to start when implementing a data analytics and intelligent case management software on your campus.   Show Notes: [2:40] - Rob has recently joined the Civitas Learning team. He shares his extensive background and talks about his newest role. [4:59] - Having conversations and building relationships help Rob with his ultimate goal of student success. [6:12] - Building a strong advising team is a loaded question. Rob says the most important first step is to be clear on expectations. [7:33] - Most advisors are in positions where they are performing duties that shouldn’t need to be done by an advisor. [8:40] - To avoid advisor overwhelm, software helps determine which students need priority. [10:01] - By nature, academic advisors want to help. But some students need minimal assistance while others need more support. [12:06] - How do we honor and respect differences between students who need less and those who need more support? [14:07] - Having somebody else, even student workers, could reach out to students over the phone. [16:08] - There’s a predictive tool that helps get students in the advisor’s office, but then the advising team must take over and know what style will help with the student. [18:05] - You don’t have to know it all. You have to become an expert at referrals. [19:47] - When done well, advising is an art. [21:24] - When the predictive analytics tool arrives on campus, users must learn how to use it. [23:16] - What used to be different programs are now all combined into one robust system with Civitas Learning. [24:40] - Creating groups is another helpful feature that Rob describes. [26:35] - Now students, especially those who come from K-12 public schools, are accustomed to having everyone have access to their school records. [29:20] - Rob and Katy discuss the silos colleges can put themselves into.  [30:42] - There should be a commonality between advisors. [33:13] - How do we have check-ins to make sure that we’re on the way to goals? [35:47] - Advising is a challenging career path. Give yourself grace. [37:04] - You can get started and make a difference even without knowing every aspect of the software you’re using. Start simple and then build from that success. [39:35] - There can be some really good success if you develop a training team using people across advising teams.   Links and Resources: Explore the Civitas Learning Student Impact Platform Download: Advising and Student Success Playbook Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

Dr. Gene VanSickle, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Programs at the University of North Georgia, emphasizes the crucial role of data in enhancing student success. He discusses how consistent data usage can transform challenges, particularly those heightened by the pandemic, into actionable insights. Gene highlights the importance of building a data-literate culture across campuses for proactive support and intervention. He also advocates for collaboration among faculty and staff to address declining enrollment and improve outcomes through informed strategies.

In higher education institutions, we are all familiar with the need to use data. We know this, but in many ways, we could be letting some opportunities fall through the cracks due to the lack of collaboration and unified goals throughout an entire campus. The University of Texas at San Antonio has been refining its use of data for the last decade, and Dr. Tammy Wyatt joins the podcast today to share their approach and the results they’ve seen. In this episode, Dr. Wyatt discusses building a student success coalition that incorporates everyone on campus, using data and analytics to unify institutional goals, and how access to actual data insights builds consensus and buy-in. She shares the step-by-step process for building a collaborative data-informed campus culture at your institution and how this can impact student success. We continue to explore how to use data-informed approaches to answer urgent questions and go beyond best practices in solving today’s higher ed challenges.   Show Notes: [2:12] - What are the most pressing challenges UTSA is working on solving? [3:30] - At UTSA, they are focusing on the positives that have come out of the pandemic, including being open to multiple modalities of learning. [4:47] - Everyone’s role across the institution is to help students succeed. Dr. Wyatt shares some of the strategies used at UTSA. [6:15] - A team works together to utilize student success technology tools to meet unified goals and approaches by assessing data together. [8:06] - The technology tools used are integral to their program. [9:01] - Dr. Wyatt describes the monthly meetings with the Student Success Team. [10:10] - No matter their major, all students have basic needs in higher ed. [11:48] - There are a lot of factors involved in creating this ecosystem. [13:35] - Rather than having redundancies and competition between colleges, UTSA has a unified approach. Dr. Wyatt shares examples of what changes she has seen. [16:14] - There is not a one-size-fits-all solution for all students. Using data to inform approaches can empower institutions to adapt and build upon best practices. [18:16] - Dr. Wyatt shares that there is always constant refining in goals and strategies all based on data. [20:50] - By seeing the visual data, it impacted support staff on the success of their work and where they could be doing more. [22:54] - It used to be more common for students to seek services themselves, but coming out of Covid and the varying needs of students, outreach is important. [24:36] - Rather than being reactive, using data has been used to be proactive. [26:28] - Dr. Wyatt shares the short-term results of their work. [28:56] - Using mid-term data, UTSA reached out to students over the phone to help students in need. [30:51] - Dr. Wyatt is very optimistic about their next outreaches based on the success of their call campaign following mid-terms. [33:26] - Work smarter, not harder. Use the data in front of you. [35:20] - Now, UTSA has made large-scale changes to cultivate a culture of data-inspired outreach. They are now working on refining. [37:37] - Dr. Wyatt shares the key takeaways of their approach at UTSA. [39:24] - Data can be used in real-time. There shouldn’t be any wasted time across campus. [41:40] - You can start by looking for low-hanging fruit and start to see momentum.   Links and Resources: Civitas Learning Website Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts The University of Texas at San Antonio

Technology helps student success professionals better understand their students and more efficiently serve their diverse needs in a rapidly changing higher ed landscape. In this episode, we explore how institutions can maximize their investment in student success solutions to help students achieve their academic goals. Today’s guest is Dr. Chelsy Pham, Vice President of Information Technology at Hartnell College. She helps us dive into the technical aspects of student success and why data is essential to help provide opportunities. She breaks down the step-by-step process of finding the right student success software and ways to get the entire campus on board. We discuss software vendor must-haves and why it is crucial to find the purpose of the program you need before shopping around. And although IT is the department that gets everything up and running, it’s ultimately the users on the frontline, so Dr. Pham demonstrates the importance of their buy-in.   Show Notes: [2:22] - Dr. Pham sees the challenges in the demands in technology and how students are changing how they use technology. [3:09] - Sometimes students do not have the opportunity to develop technology literacy prior to college. [4:32] - Dr. Pham describes ways to help students gain access to technology. [5:51] - A lot of times, students aren’t able to ask for help. Data in the background shows who may need a nudge. [7:52] - Part of the solution is to have staff available to help students, but another part is having tools in place that allow you to see who needs support. [9:00] - When looking at what tools to introduce, Dr. Pham asks what difference is this going to make and to whom? [9:57] - Look at the purpose before looking at the tool. Once you have your purpose, think about your “wishlist”. [11:06] - Sometimes we want a really slick program and thinking about ways it would work for you, look for tools that match your existing purpose. [12:24] - From Dr. Pham’s perspective, a major consideration is the amount of IT support and maintenance that would be needed. [13:41] - The most important quality of a product is the amount of support provided by the vendor. [15:14] - If you don’t have campus adoption, you don’t have a product at all. It’s crucial to get buy in ahead of time. [17:40] - You also want a probation period ahead of time and see how vendors respond to colleagues. [19:14] - Credibility is also something to consider. [20:57] - Once a product is set up and a team has come together working on it, the team becomes close and communicative. Open communication is important. [22:17] - If something isn’t working out, open communication, close the loop, and deal with it. [23:39] - Sometimes, you need to go back to a wishlist and see if the product needs to be maintained or retired. [25:04] - In IT, services are implemented, but it is really the users that are on the frontline with students. [27:06] - Don’t make it your idea. The product isn’t for IT. It’s for helping students succeed.   Links and Resources: Civitas Learning Website Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts Hartnell College