Dear PSU Campus Community,
I write to update you on our progress on Students First. While many pressing issues are facing all of us right now, I want to be sure that you know that we remain constant in our commitment to students. Indeed, the PSU community’s commitment to students has no better evidence than the compassion with which you are reaching out to and supporting our students during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the national upheaval we are facing in confronting systemic and historically ingrained racism and violence towards black, brown, and indigenous people in the United States.
It is essential that our Students First work be integrated into the necessary work that we need to do as a campus in addressing racism and colonization within our community. The Students First Leadership Council will ensure that all activities going forward prioritize these goals.
While all of the Students First committees continue to work to achieve their stated goals, I want to highlight several key areas of work that are particularly impactful.
Support Early Identification of Students at Risk
Student Success Advocate, Fall 2020 pilot
- Use of predictive modeling and data analytics to proactively connect at-risk students to support.
- Make recommendations for policy changes that will better support student persistence.
Early Alerts and Proactive Outreach, Ongoing
- Early Alerts Scale-Up Initiative is for professional advisors and faculty to partner to identify students who might be at risk of not succeeding in selected high impact courses across PSU.
- Proactive outreach works to support the academic advising community with developing enhanced tools and practices to proactively outreach to students who might be likely to leave PSU, including a comprehensive communications strategy for all undergraduates at PSU.
Make Student Success Data Available, Create a Culture of Evidence-Based Decision Making
- Students First Dashboard, July 1, 2020
An investment in a set of cloud-based Tableau licenses allows for streamlined access to the transformed data views that already exist in Cognos to create a dashboard that includes both student success metrics and progress towards goals. The addition of a self-service analytics tool will free PSU’s “citizen data scientists” to use the growing DataMASTER warehouse data more spontaneously and creatively. An example of the dashboard is included below this message.
Specific and Targeted Student Support
- Transfer and Returning Student Resource Center, Ongoing
The Transfer and Returning Student Resource Center (TRSRC) will help prospective students smoothly transition to PSU, work to create a culture of belonging for transfer and returning students, and support transfer and returning student degree completion through early and proactive academic and career advising and provision of assistance with accessing PSU resources and services.
Improve access and discoverability of resources; Improve Communication with Students
Custom myPSU, Upcoming
- OIT and OSS pilot to create internal myPSU that is more personalized and better connects students to services and resources
- Student Communications Project and Work Group, Ongoing
- New current students webpage, Complete
OSS, OIT, and UCOMM partnership in collaboration with units and students to redesign the current student page with the end goal of making it easier for students to find what they are looking for.
Respond to student feedback and ensure findings inform student success work
- Exit Survey, May - June 2021
Better understand how PSU could have better-supported students that leave PSU without a degree. - Student Experience Survey, May - June 2020
Annual survey to ensure student feedback is incorporated into our work. Measures a sense of belonging, overall satisfaction, service, and classroom experience.
Respond to student needs during the remote environment
The organization of Students First and the underlying value of collaboration and coordination allowed for the following to support our students during the transition to remote instruction.
- Adapted the Learning + Online learning module to Remote Learning Toolkit for students. Complete
- Pulse survey administered to students designed to quickly respond to student needs including personal outreach. Complete
Please feel free to share your feedback and project ideas via the Students First Ideas and Interest Form. I am grateful to the entire PSU community for your continued care and support for all of our students.
Thank you,
Susan Jeffords, Ph.D.
Provost and Vice President for Student Affairs
