ASCEND Podcast

The 3rd week of each semester, we administer a survey to all new incoming students. The purpose of this survey is to check in with students to see how they are doing now that orientation is over, classes have begun, and the “honeymoon phase” has started to wear off. 

In this episode you will find a list of topics that we seek answers to from our new students. The data we capture from our students via this survey has become incredibly helpful in guiding our outreach efforts. Each semester we spend weeks 4-6 aggressively reaching out to students who respond one way or another to particular questions on this survey. And, just like with the other data we collect, we are able to compare retention rates of students depending on the way they answer these questions. Ultimately, it helps us build our profiles of students that are at-risk and need attention from our support services on campus.

Carolina Recchi,  the co-founder and co-CEO of EdSights, 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!

Carolina is the co-founder and co-CEO of EdSights, a company that utilizes artificial intelligence and behavioral science to help students persist. EdSights serves 100+ institutions and supports 1M students every week. Carolina started EdSights with her sister Claudia and their work was featured in multiple publications including the Chronicle of Higher Ed, Inside Higher Ed, and Forbes - who named the two sisters among the 30 most influential people in education under the age of 30.

Course registration seasons are the time of year where the rubber meets the road. This is when you find out if any of your initiatives to increase persistence and retention efforts have actually worked. Despite the importance of re-registering students, far too many campuses do not treat it with the seriousness that it deserves. Is registration on your campus a primary focus or an afterthought? Do campus activities give way to registration events or vice-a-versa? We found that by making registration a campus-wide three-week holiday, you dramatically increase the likelihood of having students register before they leave for the holidays or for the summer. Through this campus-wide holiday, which we call 'Comeback Kid,' we have significantly increased the number of students registering for the next semester by the time finals week rolls around.

In summary, the registration season needs to be a top priority on campus. If students do not register to come back, everything else we do to help students be successful will have been irrelevant. There are so many ways to nudge students to register if you simply think outside the box and make it a priority. 

Dr. Neil Burton from Clemson 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!

Dr. Neil Burton is the Executive Director of the Center for Career and Professional Development at Clemson University.  His educational background includes a B.A. in Journalism from the University of South Carolina, a M.A. in English from Clemson University, and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Clemson University.  Prior to assuming his current role in July 2011, Neil worked for the Cooperative Education Program at Clemson for 13 years, and in the University’s Office of Student Financial Aid for six years.  Neil holds the rank of Lecturer at Clemson, and has taught everything from freshman composition to doctoral seminars at Clemson and two other universities in the local area.

Some of Neil’s accomplishments include:

• Creating an on-campus internship program that annually serves about 1,000 students
• Hosting the first national symposium on Career Competencies
• Creating a program to provide tailored academic services and internships to underserved, Pell-eligible first-generation students
• Initiating a campus-wide mentoring program to connect students to successful alumni and friends of the University who can provide professional guidance
• Initiating a program to promote career development and employment opportunities for students on the autism spectrum
• Conducting external reviews of university Career Centers across the country
• Leading the #1 ranked Career Services unit in the US (2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 per Princeton Review)

A simple way to engage students is to create a homegrown bucket list of items each student should do before they graduate. This list provides students with activities to do with others or on their own, both of which help connect the student to your institution. 

Dr. Leslie Webb 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!

Dr. Leslie Webb brings an equity mindset and a high level of cultural consciousness to her work. Leslie is a relational leader and a steward of place and the student and staff experience. She focuses on helping units evolve to meet contemporary needs and solve the complex challenges of today. Leslie joined the University of Montana campus in August 2022 and serves as Vice Provost focusing on student success and retention and supporting a vibrant campus life. She loves the outdoors, is an avid trail runner, and a mom to two college attending humans and one Boxer named Tater. 

One of the more effective strategies for influencing the culture of an organization is for the leader to create a motto, approach, or concept that the team can rally around. This gives everyone something to think about, ponder on, and be a part of. In the end, it becomes a rallying cry that all desire to be associated with. A perfect example of this concept would be The Disney Way, where every cast member knows exactly how to act and what is expected of them and every guest knows how they will be treated. On our campus we created a campus motto (“The SUU Way”) that we all understand and live by. The actual word you choose is not as important; creating a motto that has meaning and significance is what matters. This strategy has allowed us to easily hold one another accountable, especially when a staff member does not live up to our agreed-upon standards of service to our students.

Peer mentoring programs have become all the rage in higher education. It seems like every campus has implemented a peer mentoring program as the research has shown that peer mentors are one of the best, most cost-efficient things campuses can do to move the needle on retention and completion. However, from our experience working with other campuses, we have found that not all peer mentoring programs are created equally.  In this episode, the hosts talk about successful peer mentoring programs.

Dr. Rick Sluder 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. Sluder serves as Vice Provost for Student Success and Dean of University College at Middle Tennessee State University.  He leads MTSU’s Quest for Student Success 2025, which includes enhancing faculty development, closing achievement gaps, increasing online offerings, and building a culture of service that supports learning.  As Dean, he oversees work with undecided students, adult degree completion, corporate outreach, online learning, summer sessions, and academic outreach to high school students.  Having served at MTSU for 8 years, Rick has 22 years prior experience at the University of Central Missouri as Vice Provost, Dean, and faculty. 

In most instances, colleges spend a significant amount of time, energy, and resources on recruiting a new student to campus. But how many colleges spend similar time, energy, and resources on recruiting students back each semester? By launching strategic, well-timed, broad recruit-back campaigns, you can remind your students why your university is best suited for them, why you need them, and also provide them with key facts and data points to respond to friends and family who ask questions such as, “Why don’t you move closer to home and attend a local college?” or “Why are you going to that school?”  As a university, we need to continue to be in the ‘recruit-back’ mindset each and every semester and understand that at any moment, these “customers” might vote with their feet by silently leaving our institution for another school.