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Portland State University's initiative to assist students close to graduation.
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Crossing the "Last Mile"Strategies for helping students overcome graduation obstacles
Facts about PSU
Fall 2011: 23,222 Undergraduates
Challenges:
Most recent 2 year retention rate: 56.8%
Most recent 6 year graduation rate: 34.8%
(Data from PSU Office of Institutional Research & Planning, First-time, Full-time Frosh)
Context of Last Mile @ PSU
Several student success initiatives
• Pathways to Degree Completion• Address Needs of Unprepared Students• Early Identification of Students at Risk• High Risk Course Redesign
Context of Last Mile @ PSU
Recently implemented Advising Initiative
• Mandatory orientation (Fall 2010)
• Mandatory frosh advising (Fall 2010)
• Recent hiring of additional advising staff inDecember 2010
Last Mile Committee is born
June 2010Goal: 50 graduations
Departments involved• Degree Requirements• Academic Units• Undergrad advising• Student Financial Aid• Bursar’s Office• Faculty Senate representative
Resources
Seed funding
$51,084 in remissions (~$4,200 used)
100 students to take one 4-credit course
$5,000 student worker (offered not used)
$500 materials (offered not used)
Flexibility (with process not outcome)
Limited financial leeway
• Reducing interest charges
Flexibility with some Academic Requirements*
• Expired catalogs
• 1 credit flexibility on some Gen Ed requirements
*That would have been approved with our ARC.
Initial cohort
768 students
Canceled degree applicants back to Fall 2005
Needed an in-depth look
Representation by Major
1. Social Science2. Business Administration3. Psychology4. Arts & Letters5. Communication Studies6. Art 7. Liberal Studies8. English9. Science10.Political Science
Weighted by program size
1. Business Administration
2. Economics
3. Architecture
4. Communication Studies
5. Child & Family Studies
6. Philosophy
7. Social Science
8. Art
9. Sociology
10.Arts & Letters
Race/Ethnicity Breakdown
455 White
97 Unknown
77 Asian
58 Latino
55 Black/African American
18 American Indian or Native Alaskan
8 Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
Weighted Race/Ethnicity Breakdown
1. Black/African American2. American Indian or Native Alaskan3. Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander4. Unknown5. Latino6. Asian7. White
Student deficiencies
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Academic Standing
735 Good Standing
16 Academic Warning
7 Academic Dismissal
4 Academic Support Program
3 Academic Probation
3 None/unknown
Last term attended
Prior to Fall 2005 64
Fall 2005 - Summer 2006 116
Fall 2006 - Summer 2007 138
Fall 2007 - Summer 2008 143
Fall 2008 - Summer 2009 192
Fall 2009 – Spring 2010 114
Current Financial Hold
Students with Holds
No Holds
Cross Campus Communication
Developed a system to facilitate communication by many entities regarding a student’s advising.
Built in Access, based on initial Excel spreadsheets of data
Data to Action
Prioritized students• 76 students who had already "completed
degree"• Students with <15 credits
Degree Audits distributed to departments to review
Departments communicated with students as needed/appropriate
Communication approach
• Delicate conversations
• Multi-method contacts to initial group
• Personal phone calls to students that were closest to graduating
Communication (cont)
Training sessions with the campus
Media coverage (video on PSU homepage, Oregonian published an article near spring graduation, student newspaper Vanguard did an article)
Shared email account for incoming contacts
Future best practices
• Pre/post batch degree audits
• Assign responsibilities/ownership
• Early proactive communication with students
Next Steps
• Standardize practices across campus
• Expand the program to students with excess credits who have not applied to graduate
• Add additional capacity
Initial Successes
From 768
130 graduated by June 2011
Expanding the pool
Spring 2011 added our second group
• 221 students
Also, group of students who found us
• 41 "manually added"
Final Outcomes
1030 students currently tracked
Over 600 staff contact attempts
188 students graduated• Graduates are disproportionately
African American or Native American
$4200 spent (10 students)
Questions & Discussion
Becki Hunt Ingersoll [email protected]
Advising & Career Services
Doug Siegler [email protected]
School of Business Administration
James Ofsink [email protected]
Student Financial Aid & Scholarships