From Commitment to Action

The institutions participating in AASCU’s SSEI Initiative joined with the goal of advancing student success for every student on their campus.  

Previous research on the initiative highlighted the importance of leadership commitment, data utilization, and institutional culture as key areas for transformation. In this paper, AASCU conducted interviews with participating institutions to better understand how they have begun to lay the groundwork for transformation on their campus, the barriers they may have faced on this journey, and the ways in which participation in the SSEI Initiative influenced institutional understanding toward student success.

The SSEI Initiative supported institutions by fostering collaboration across campus and with the rest of their cohort, resulting in the breakdown of silos and an increased collective impact. The initiative also helped institutions understand the need for data disaggregation, improved data literacy among staff, and made progress in data utilization and the evolution of data infrastructure and tools. Finally, SSEI has both reinforced and advanced existing priorities for student success.