Colleges have been experimenting with various student-success models for years, but a sharp increase in first-generation and minority enrollment has given the task a new urgency. At Texas A&M University at San Antonio, where I am president, we are constantly evaluating ways to make our procedures “student centered” and keep our students on track to graduation.
Our institution saw enrollment rise by 21 percent in 2016, when we transitioned from an upper-division campus to a four-year university. We are now one of the fastest-growing universities in Texas. Among our students, 78 percent are first-generation, 70 percent are Hispanic, and 64 percent are eligible for Pell Grants. As we develop new policies to support our students, we try especially hard to help them build upon their strengths and explore possible careers, and to recognize the crucial role their families play.
Nearly a year before our first-year students arrived on campus in the fall of 2016, we invited national experts to help us identify practices that ensure students graduate in a timely fashion. Our data on student performance and graduation rates helped us accelerate new programs focused on academic success and career development for first-year and transfer students. Here are some of the steps we have taken to support student success and improve graduation rates:
JagX: This weeklong immersion program for first-year students, held before classes start, is designed to build their engagement and sense of belonging. Daily sessions examine obstacles faced by first-generation students, and link academic expectations, university traditions, and campus culture with hands-on, personalized learning. Our aim is to give students persistence skills early on, to improve their chances of graduating in four years.
Jaguar Tracks: Students migrate from JagX to Jaguar Tracks, a four-year program designed to improve career readiness and build student accountability and motivation. Students earn one credit each year. In the first year, instructors are paired with student mentors who help new students navigate academic, social, and personal challenges. The second year focuses on helping students to articulate their own identities and to understand diversity and global awareness. Coursework for the third and fourth years focuses on academic goals, and is taught by faculty members in the relevant disciplines.
While some faculty members initially voiced concerns about fitting in an extra teaching obligation, our need for a student-centered format prevailed after we held a series of discussions and meetings. Those who had expressed concerns became supportive once they understood that the new program was closely aligned with the strategic plan we were developing.
Block Scheduling: Because so many of our students must juggle jobs, classes, transportation issues, and family demands, we have created a compact block system that allows them to take courses in a contiguous, prearranged schedule. For example, a student might have a three-hour block of courses three times a week, rather than having morning and afternoon courses with large chunks of time in between. In an effort to be flexible, we have even offered Saturday courses and courses that start at 6 a.m.
Student Success Coaches: Because data suggest that underserved or underrepresented populations benefit from readily available academic support, we developed a team of eight student-success coaches to help all freshmen, sophomores, and struggling students. We also started an early-alert warning system, in which faculty members post information about attendance, missing assignments, or poor scores. That triggers an electronic alert to coaches, who then contact the student.
Our success coaches serve as a resource hub, easing the transition from high school to college and helping students navigate the university. Through workshops and one-on-one sessions on alternative study skills, note-taking, reading comprehension, and goal-setting, the coaches encourage students to link their personal strengths, values, and interests with their intended accomplishments.
Undergraduate Research: Most students from historically underrepresented populations have limited exposure to professional opportunities in white-collar occupations. Our Mays Center for Experiential Learning and Community Engagement helps students make connections. Faculty members also bolster undergraduate research by emphasizing field-based coursework and service learning.
For example, Megan Wise de Valdez, an associate professor of biology, includes undergraduate students in her research on the breeding patterns of mosquito species associated with the Zika and West Nile viruses. Every spring our students participate in an undergraduate research symposium to showcase faculty and student work.
Family First Seminar: Families play a vital role in the success of first-generation students. (I know this firsthand, since I am one myself.) But we were not doing enough to develop the cultural understanding of these students’ parents, who told us that coming to campus seemed like a foreign experience. Many did not understand the academic journey their children were about to take. Family First is a nine-week program designed to help parents and other family members better understand university life and student development. Parents receive a syllabus for the seminar and meet with faculty and staff experts to learn about academic success, financial aid, internships, study abroad, and more. Parent-engagement studies have found that family programs can ease students’ transition to college by helping them reduce stress, perform better academically, and develop a heightened sense of autonomy and responsibility.
Our student-centered approach is a work in progress — one that requires a relentless commitment to data and a willingness to examine each step in the student-life cycle. We constantly track the progress of all interventions, and make adjustments when necessary.
We learned, for example, that more than 86 percent of the students who met with a coach during the fall of 2016 returned the following semester. Of those students who did not meet with a coach, not one returned. Our data also show a growing trend among traditional-age students transferring from community colleges, so we need to make sure our academic-success programs are relevant for them, too.
Our goal as a public university is to prepare our students — many from underserved communities — for a prosperous future in a fast-paced, complex world. In doing this, we are also adapting to a “new normal” in enrollment trends that other colleges would do well to consider.
Cynthia Teniente-Matson is president of Texas A&M University at San Antonio.