Student Success Equity Intensive

This cohort experience accelerates transformation by providing specific and customized support so that your institution can make data-informed decisions to close equity gaps and achieve student success goals for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and low-income students.

Work with subject matter experts in data analytics, equity, student success, advising, institutional transformation, and strategic and systems planning:

• Collaborate across institutions to uncover shared challenges and solutions to achieving equitable student outcomes
• Collaborate with cross-campus teams to develop, articulate and act on a shared vision for student success and prioritized action plan
• Recognize individual strengths and growth opportunities to build the long-term ability to contribute to transformation

Take an integrated, student-centered, comprehensive approach to transformation:

• Leverage a continuous improvement process to make informed, data-driven decisions grounded in the reality of students
• Articulate an equity imperative to help everyone see their role in ensuring the institution is student-ready
• Hear success stories from other campuses and experts in the field and understand how to apply learnings to their own context

One of the cornerstones of AASCU’s student success efforts is our emphasis on engaging senior leaders in key positions at your institution as a student success team. Team members work together to understand and elevate student experiences, review data to inform student success strategies aligned with institutional strengths and growth opportunities and engage others on their campus in transformation.

To participate in the Student Success Equity Intensive, institutions must assemble a campus team consisting of at least the following required roles:

• President: A visionary committed to long-term success with students and the community at the center; empowers teams & creates an environment ready for change.
• Campus Team Lead: A trusted partner & main liaison to the AASCU team. This person should be someone close to Student Success work & be able to champion the tangible work of institution-wide transformation and keep their teams aligned, on-target, & in-motion. Note: This position can be held by any of the roles below.
• Provost: A thought-leader and operational strategist who can help bring clarity and direction to the ambiguity that can quickly stall efforts.
• Data Lead: A subject matter expert who values evidenced-based decision making and informs the campus team’s understanding of the student experience by collecting, managing, and analyzing data.

There is no limit to the number of participants. Additional team member(s) may include VPs, Directors, etc. from the following areas:

• Students (Strongly Encouraged)
• Student Success
• Faculty
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• Student Affairs
• Student Financial Aid

Program Structure

• A cohort of institutions committed to closing equity gaps for Black, Latinx, Indigenous and low-income students
• Team-based learning journey with peers, including online modules and webinars
• In-person & virtual convenings for connecting with content experts and collaborating with your campus team and other cohort members
• Institutional assessment and personalized AASCU coaching aligned to your specific goals and current needs
• Access to tools, resources, templates, subject-matter experts, and peer learning community

Time Commitment

Bi-Monthly cohort calls with full teams from each campus in the cohort (2-Hours); quarterly team calls with your institution specific team and AASCU coach (1 Hour; 3 Hour ITA x2); Monthly coaching calls between Campus Team Lead and AASCU coach (45-minutes); and quarterly call with the president and provost.

There is a great deal of support provided to your institution as part of SSEI. Your institution will participate in data gathering, consensus conversations and be invited to working sessions (regional and national). You will receive Technical Assistance and be invited to workshops, professional development that align to key areas that you identify and that will help support your work to close equity gaps. We work hard to ensure that the meetings and support commitments are not an undue burden on staff time.

Beyond these formal convenings, we recommend that teams meet regularly (semi-weekly or monthly) to get the most out of the experience.

We are looking for equity-driven AASCU institutions that are committed to closing equity gaps and creating opportunities for the success of Black, Latinx, indigenous and low-income students to join our AASCU Student Success Equity Intensive.

As a first step, please complete this self-assessment tool to help you see where your institution is along a spectrum of readiness for a multi-year transformation initiative to close equity gaps for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and low-income students. We hope the self-assessment aids in your decision to participate in the Student Success Equity Intensive. You may download a PDF preview of the self-assessment to help collaborate with your team before submitting the final answers. You may complete the self-assessment multiple times.

Participation Criteria

• Institution serves historically marginalized students, including Pell-eligible and students of color.
• Institution is committed to ensuring the success of Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and low-income students.
• Institution is actively involved in supporting our local community and building long-term relationships with local stakeholders.
• Institution prioritizes evidence-based approaches to student success that use student-level data and stakeholder inputs.
• Institution is committed to gaining awareness of and investing in efforts to end systemic racism.
• Leaders are willing to engage stakeholders at all levels in decision-making, especially in developing and sharing a vision.

You may download a PDF preview of the application.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Nyala Watkins.

Thanks to the generous support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, there is no cost of participation.