Postsecondary Value Symposium
Advance postsecondary value through strategy, storytelling, and action.
Stewardship of Public Lands Past Cohorts
Return to program landing page.2024 Cohort
Scott W.
Bonham
Associate Professor
Western Kentucky University
Paul
Cook
Professor of English
Indiana University Kokomo
Tiffany
Deater
Assistant Professor of Environmental Film & Literature
State University of New York at Oswego
Kyle
Fredrick
Professor of Geology
Pennsylvania Western University
Lesley
Graybeal
Director of Service-Learning
University of Central Arkansas
Jarrod
Hagadorn
Professor, Cinema and Screen Studies
State University of New York at Oswego
Hannah
Hanshaw
AmeriCorps Program Director
University of Central Arkansas
Ian
Kaleoʻokalani Pilago
Center for Maunakea Stewardship: Education and Outreach Coordinator
University of Hawai’i at Hilo
Steven
Koether
Assistant Professor – Biological Sciences; ADP Coordinator
Sam Houston State University (TX)
Katrina
Lacher
Chair and Professor; Director, Sustainability Studies
University of Central Oklahoma
Julie
Lester
Professor, Political Science
Middle Georgia State University
Matthew S.
Makley
Professor and Chair, Department of History
Metropolitan State University of Denver (CO)
Cayle
Moreo
Sustainability Director
Indiana State University
Alana
Ortiz
DEI Specialist
University of Hawai’i at Hilo
Sarah
Praskievicz
Associate Professor
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Nathan A.
Schaumleffel
Associate Professor & Program Coordinator, Public Lands & Recreation Administration Program & Nonprofit Leadership Program
Indiana State University
Nona
Shipman
Co-Director, One World One Water Center
Metropolitan State University of Denver (CO)
Jennifer
Stotter
Director, Office of Equal Opportunity
University of Hawai’i at Hilo
Scott
Turner
Professor of Political Science
University of Montevallo (AL)
Jeffrey
Wozniak
Associate Professor
Sam Houston State University (TX)
Kim
Yates
Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Environmental Education
Northern Kentucky University
Katherine
Young
Professor and Chair, Department of Administration of Justice
University of Hawai’i at Hilo
Bridging Student Readiness Gaps
Join experts from EAB for a discussion on the student readiness crisis.
AASCU’s Toolkit for Measuring and Advancing Belonging
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2025 American Democracy Project Summit Schedule
Preliminary schedule subject to change.
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2025 Summer Meeting Schedule
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Helping Today’s Student Navigate the Information Landscape
Journalists from The New York Times discuss media literacy, AI, and misinformation.
AASCU 2025 Summer Meeting for Academic and Student Affairs Leaders
Regional public university colleagues learn from each other’s challenges and successes.
Academic Planning for Equitable Student Success
An initiative designed to elevate the importance of the course schedule and leverage it to improve student outcomes in higher education.
Contact us to learn more.Removing barriers to student success.
One of the most essential elements to a student’s academic success is getting the courses they need to complete their degree. Yet, research indicates that at most institutions, the course schedule has become a structural barrier to success.
AASCU received funding from The Ascendium Education Group to improve course scheduling and ensure that access to courses required for degree completion is not a barrier to success, especially for low-income students and students of color.
Created in partnership with Ad Astra, the project included: two convenings, monthly webinars, benchmarking with technical assistance, data coaching, and change management consulting for eleven institutions. These structured engagements supported institutional capacity for data-informed course scheduling and improved scheduling policies and practices.
Participants
- After an initial application process, 11 institutions from AASCU’s Student Success Equity Intensive were selected to participate. The following map identifies the states represented by participating institutions and the number of participants in that state.
Guam
Puerto Rico
U.S. Virgin Islands
Outcomes
Through this work, institutions have identified actionable strategies to:
- Improve degree velocity
- Close equity gaps
- Improve course scheduling policies and practices
- Align academic resources with student needs and academic pathways
Program Impact
Increase in momentum
For students starting in Fall 2023, there was an 8% increase in the overall momentum year rate, with rates for Native American, Black/African-American, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiians having an average increase of between 7% and 13%.
Increase in degree velocity
The average annual productive credits increased by 1% for students starting in Fall 2023 as opposed to students beginning in Fall 2022.
Texas A&M University
Had an increase of students taking 15+ credits per semester from 23% in fall 2023 to 45% in fall 2024.
Western Kentucky University
Had 25% improvement in the Overloaded Course Ratio, specifically in first-year (100-level) courses, between fall 2023 and fall 2024.
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
From fall 2023 to fall 2024, classroom utilization increased by 5%, while Primetime Compression decreased by 11%; in Fall 2024 Off-Grid Waste decreased over two percentage points compared to Fall 2023.
Texas A&M University-San Antonio
From fall 2023 to fall 2024, overall primetime utilization increased in classrooms while off-grid meeting pattern utilization decreased by 10% and off-grid waste decreased by three percentage points.
“Helping our member institutions reengineer their course scheduling policies and practices to put students at the center is a critical component of AASCU’s strategy to scale student success. The course schedule is the engine of degree completion. You simply cannot drive better outcomes without a course schedule designed with student success in mind.”
Resource
Course Scheduling Playbook
The playbook, created as a result of this initiative, is a guide for any institution interested in levering their course schedule as a strategy for improving student success. It introduces project phases designed to drive innovation and momentum, project management strategies, and relevant metrics, to support the teams empowered to do this work.
Supported by:
In partnership with:
Questions about Academic Planning for Equitable Student Success? Let us know.
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2025 American Democracy Project Summit Call for Proposals
Submit proposals by March 18.Meeting theme
Full Participation
AASCU invites submissions to present at the American Democracy Project Summit, happening July 13-14, 2025 in Indianapolis, IN. We seek a diversity of perspectives and experiences, and we especially encourage presentations that include students and feature teams.
Democracy can be frustrating, slow, and contentious. Often, the civic engagement work done on a campus can feel isolated and be un- or under-appreciated. This meeting will change that narrative by showcasing that, through AASCU’s American Democracy Project, there are resources and a community that exists to help build and grow civic engagement within higher education.
Meeting details.Proposal formats
Topical Sessions (45-minute sessions): Presentations, which could be led by an individual or a group, designed to share best practices and/or facilitate conversations about the practical application of civic and community engagement projects. If accepted, you may be paired with another concurrent session to share the 45-minute time block.
Ignite Talks (5-minute sessions): Designed for individuals to share compelling, innovative practices on a large stage, ignite talks use 20 slides that automatically advance every 15 seconds and requires speakers to be concise, prepared, and dynamic.
Poster Sessions: Textual and graphical presentations of civic engagement projects or research.
Proposal topics
We recognize how interconnected the field of civic engagement is. This topic selection allows us to maintain a diverse portfolio of options.
What are the key features of the thriving democracy we hope to enact and support through our work?
- Navigating legislative challenges
- Incorporating and supporting student voice
- Redefining political engagement
- Incorporating diverse voices in our work
- Higher education’s democratic responsibility
- Honoring community voices and wisdom—especially for indigenous-serving institutions
- Exploring/understanding foundational, democratic documents and their relationship to current affairs
- Understanding interrelated concepts of civic engagement, democratic engagement, civic learning service learning, activism, and advocacy
What knowledge, skills, and dispositions contribute to a thriving democracy, and how do we embed this in our work?
- Voter engagement work and results
- Increasing civic engagement beyond social sciences; encouraging interdisciplinary efforts
- Practicing/modeling difficult conversations/dialogues
- Digitial literacy
- Bringing curricular and co-curricular efforts together
- High impact practices
- Experiential learning
- AI possibilities
- Address the colonization of our educational system
How can we build the institutional culture, infrastructure, and relationships needed to support learning that enables a thriving democracy?
- Institution-wide collaboration and building campus stakeholders
- Collaborating with other campuses
- Building leadership supports for civic engagement
- Aligning institutional mission/values with civic engagement
- Integrating campus and community efforts
- Building regional support structures
- Understanding different campus models for student engagement
- Implement and assess institution-wide civic learning objectives
