Stan State Community,
As the CSU is in the midst of year two of the Graduation Initiative 2025, our Graduation Rate Excellence and Assessment Team (GREAT) has been working hard to support efforts across our University that foster student success. The team is pleased to share some updates.
The University’s response in the first year of Graduation Initiative 2025 was incredible. Academic advising in the departments and colleges intensified, we added 84 sections to our Winter, Spring, and Summer course schedules, and Winter and Summer Session tuition waivers were offered to students on the cusp of graduating. Together, these strategies enabled 161 on-the-cusp students to graduate by Summer 2017, rather than coming back to the University the next academic year to complete their degrees. As a result of these efforts, our University made substantial progress on three of the six Graduation Initiative 2025 Goals assigned to our campus by the Chancellor’s Office. Moreover, the University has already met one of the 2025 Goals, entirely eliminating the graduation rate gap between underrepresented minority (URM) and non-URM students. Read more about our progress on our goals in our Graduation Initiative 2025: First-Year Results [1].
In addition to these on-the-cusp efforts, nine GREAT-funded projects across the University have touched lives of hundreds of students, increasing engagement and support, setting the stage for students to thrive and succeed in their college careers. For more details about these GREAT-funded projects and their impact, read their First-Year Outcomes [2] report.
Learning from its efforts in the first year, GREAT has refined its charge, reorganized the team, and expanded its membership. The GREAT Steering Committee designed a team that now has 10 workgroups, and membership includes nearly 80 faculty, students, staff, and administrators from across the University. To learn more about GREAT, to provide input or suggestions for how to foster student success at Stan State, or to join the team, please visit our GREAT website [3]. We look forward to continuing to support our University’s efforts in promoting student success.
Sincerely,
Shawna Young & Jovonte Willis
GREAT Co-chairs
