ASCEND Podcast

Many students are figuratively drowning from the weight of their personal lives or scholastic endeavors. They feel lost. They feel alone. They feel hopeless. They are frustrated, confused, and lacking confidence. Many are just crying to be noticed and for someone to simply recognize that they are alive, that they have a purpose, and that someone sees them for who they are. Most faculty and staff are not licensed psychologists, psychiatrists, or any other doctor specializing in these issues. But one thing we have found is that so often there is nothing more powerful than someone who cares. We might not be able to heal everyone, but a loving word, gesture, smile, or embrace can go a long way.

With this in mind, there are a few times a year that we invite our student leaders and each staff member across Student Affairs to carve out 15-30 minutes each day for a couple of weeks (typically during midterms and heading into finals) to “Focus on 5.” The task is to wander the campus and find five students each day to chat with, say hello to, eat lunch with, check on, or simply shake their hand and look them in the eye so they know that at least one person saw them and recognized their existence. We have found that amazing things happen when we get out of our offices and focus on five students each day. Focusing on five is a great way to nudge your team to make connections with students.

Dr. Monica Brockmeyer, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Urban Studies and Associate Professor, Department Computer Science at Wayne State University, joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share her knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts!

Monica Brockmeyer, Ph.D., an experienced and pioneering higher education leader and Founder of Change By Degrees consulting.  Until the end of 2022, she was senior associate provost for student success at Wayne State University in Detroit, where she led the university to impressive gains in graduation rates.  Under her leadership, the university increased its six-year graduation rate from 26% to 60% in just eleven years, making WSU the fastest improving large public university in America. This accomplishment was recognized by the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) prestigious Degree Completion Award from the in 2018.

As a first-generation college student, Dr. Brockmeyer was the first on both sides of her family to earn post-high school degrees. She understands and appreciates the fear and anxiety that can accompany students on uncharted educational journeys and in her leadership and consulting roles, she seeks to simplify the process while increasing success not only for students, but for universities seeking to endure.

Dr. Brockmeyer has been named a Crain’s Notable Woman in Higher Education and the MIACADA Pacesetter Award. Her contributions to academic advising, curriculum development, student success, strategic planning, enrollment management, technology and predictive analytics, accreditation, and shared governance have made a lasting impact on the higher education community.

A healthy campus culture will have a strong partnership between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs. This is something that most campuses struggle with as sometimes there is a natural tension between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs. While Student Affairs professionals sometimes push too hard and too fast with initiatives, it is important for them to remember that Student Affairs exists to support the academic mission of the institution, not the other way around. The most effective institutions we have seen in creating a shared campus culture between these two divisions comes when Student Affairs includes their Academic Affairs colleagues from the very beginning of an initiative and invites feedback, brainstorming, thinking, and significant solution-seeking. When ideas around a retention initiative are co-created, there is much stronger participation by faculty and a willingness to be part of the solution.

Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, President for Amarillo College, joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts!

Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, President for Amarillo College since 2014. Amarillo College was named the 2023 Aspen Prize Co-Winner for Community College Excellence.

Russell’s leadership is focused on improving student success through systemic and cultural change centered on one word: LOVE.  Under Russell’s leadership, Amarillo College developed the systemic Culture of Caring targeting removal of poverty barriers that was featured in The Atlantic (June 2018) and in the documentary on AmazonPrime, The Antidote.

Dr. Lowery-Hart previously served as Vice-President of Academic Affairs for Amarillo College and named the National Council of Instructional Administrators Academic Leader of the Year for 2014. He received his Ph.D. from Ohio University; M.A. Texas Tech University; and, B.S. from West Texas State University. 

A great way to provide support for staff, faculty, and students is to make them aware of the campus and community resources and services that are available to them. Hoping that students remember everything from their orientation or that faculty and staff have the time necessary to research and memorize where to send students for help is not a very efficient strategy. We recommend that campuses produce and distribute a single document of campus resources.

Dr. Karnell “Dr.K” McConnell-Black (he/him) is the vice president for student life at Reed College in Portland, OR.  He has over 15+ years of experience in higher education. Karnell has a bachelor’s degree in communication, a master’s in education, and a doctorate in education. He has served in a variety of professional roles, including coordinator of orientation and first-year programs at Loyola University Chicago; director of student involvement, leadership, and orientation; and vice president of student affairs and dean of students at Westminster College. He also served as the president of the Association of Orientation, Transition, and Retention in Higher Education (NODA). Karnell is the current chair of the NASPA 2023 Western Regional Conference and is also a senior impact fellow with the Aspen Institute.

Karnell’s professional philosophy is guided by an inclusive excellence praxis that centers the student experience as fundamental in defining the success of the institution (Kuh et al., 2005). As a result, he brings a focus to how senior-level administrators balance the market needs of institutional sustainability and the impact of student-centric measures that enhance a student’s ability to navigate the world post-college. Additionally, he illuminates the meaning-making processes that underserved students engage in when navigating non-academic elements of college (i.e. outside of class college experiences).

Data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) suggests that there is a large gap between the percentage of employers that rate recent students as proficient in particular skills and the percentage of students who consider themselves proficient in the same skills. We must do better as educators to help our current students and recent graduates be better prepared to succeed in the workforce. 

Dan Carpenter, Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success Innovation at Purdue University, joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts!

Dan Carpenter serves as the Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success Innovation at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. In this role he leads the Student Success Programs department whose various interconnected programs assist students in progressive stages of development; and have as their ultimate goals an increased rate of student degree completion, future employment or study, dedicated citizenship, and responsible leadership in the state, nation, and world. In addition to this role, he will soon provide leadership to the team that will serve Purdue students at Indianapolis in a similar manner after the dissolution of Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis in the fall of 2024.

Dan has been a member of Purdue University staff since 2008, was named Executive Director of Student Success Programs since 2015 and was recently named Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success Innovation. Prior to joining Purdue, he served as a commissioned officer in the US Army for 22 years culminating in final assignment as Army ROTC Department Head at Purdue University and retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.

We all have a pretty good idea of the data points that signal a student may be less likely to persist or retain. RIGHT?

Yet, many campuses have purchased expensive software solutions that promise sophisticated data analysis to predict student retention. And, while we know that these programs work well, we have found that many of these third-party models are not significantly more accurate than homegrown predictions we can produce with easily accessible data.

Each year, our campus reviews a handful of key data points for all our incoming students and creates an internal score that guides our outreach and support efforts. While this activity lacks complicated statistical analysis, we have found that our process predicts retention at a surprisingly high level.

Don’t over complicate things. Get a group of smart people around a table and come up with the 10 data points that you think will help predict whether or not a student will retain. Create a score for each student and then go after those who need your support!

Dr. Stephanie Foote, Vice President for Teaching, Learning, and Evidence-Based Practices at the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, joins co-hosts Jared Tippets and Eric Kirby to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights on how campuses can increase their retention and student success efforts!

Stephanie M. Foote is the Vice President for Teaching, Learning, and Evidence-Based Practices at the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education. Stephanie is also a lecturer at Stony Brook University Before joining the Institute staff, Stephanie was a Professor and founding director of the Master of Science in First-Year Studies, and faculty fellow for High-Impact Practices at Kennesaw State University. 

Stephanie has dedicated her career to supporting students as they transition to and through higher education, and most recently her research and practice have focused on centering humanity in course design/redesign and creating inclusive and responsive learning environments.