Student Achievement

51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ recruits, retains, and graduates a diverse body of students through innovative learning experiences, access to mentoring and research opportunities, and the vibrant campus community.

Undergraduate Education

Improve student outcomes and maintain and strengthen our access mission.

Tasks:
  • Support success of low-income and first-generation students to drive social mobility.
  • Maintain student satisfaction and inclusive campus climate.
  • Reduce financial barriers through student success-focused philanthropy, strategic financial aid leveraging, and financial literacy education.

Metrics: first-year retention, 4-year, and 6-year graduation rates disaggregated by race/ethnicity, Pell status, first-generation status, and age; Social Mobility Index; financial aid packages awarded; student engagement; campus inclusion climate

Improve undergraduate retention rates.

Tasks:
  • Close retention gaps among underserved student populations.
  • Ensure adequate academic advising capacity and support proactive advising practices.
  • Increase number of students participating in peer mentoring.
  • Increase co-curricular participation.

Metrics: student-to-advisor ratio; percentage of students completing gateway math and English in first year (disaggregated); percentage of students who complete 30 credits in an academic year (disaggregated)

Improve 4-year and 6-year graduation rates and close graduation gaps.

Tasks:
  • Close graduation gaps among underserved student populations.
  • Increase percentage of students who have completed a milestone experience by the end of the third year of enrollment.
  • Increase percentage of course sections offered online and provide support services that meet the needs of online students.
  • Accelerate degree progression by encouraging continuous, full-time+ enrollment.

Metrics: milestone course completion; milestone course credits; online course sections

Graduate Education

Engage in strategic recruitment, retention, progression, and completion to grow and diversify our graduate student body and promote equitable outcomes.

Tasks:
  • Engage multiple tactics to support both centralized and program-specific strategic graduate recruitment to expand international, national (outside S. NV), and regional applicants, admits, and new student matriculation.
  • Establish a comprehensive omnichannel communications, marketing, and advertising plan to successfully promote graduate programs at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ and garner national and international attention as a first-choice graduate school.
  • Engage recruitment strategies and complementary holistic admissions practices to cultivate a more diverse student body overall, and to specifically increase inclusion of underrepresented minorities, first generation, economically disadvantaged, sex/gender diverse, and highly competitive graduate student applicants, admits, and new student matriculation.
  • Facilitate and support the development and management of transparent and actionable graduate data; track and report on relevant graduate data and provide easy access to information, data, reports, and dashboards that drive strategic program innovation, aid decision-making, support our GEM efforts, and promote student success and completion.
  • Train and support graduate faculty and graduate program staff to develop and deploy expertise in graduate enrollment management that reflects nationally accepted best practices and leading-edge operations to better support graduate student retention, progression, timely completion, and success.
  • Generate a campus-wide GEM plan for admissions, enrollment, graduation, and targeted time-to-degree.
  • Deliver a personalized graduate student experience that provides information and support to students as they need it in a "just in time" format.
  • Grow our graduate programs, increase enrollment, and graduate more doctoral students annually.

Metrics: applications, admits, and enrollment; continuing enrollment; graduate FTE; graduate coordinator training; graduate faculty training

Cultivate a diverse, inclusive, and equitable campus environment that optimizes support for graduate student success.

Tasks:
  • Create a campus infrastructure to support student well-being so that they can focus on their research, scholarship, and creative activities, including reasonably priced housing, programming to support student mental, emotional, and physical well-being, and financial wellness resources.
  • Address graduate program alignment with career pathways, provide customizable interdisciplinary experiences, and track graduate student first placement and career trajectories for academic purposes, distinct from philanthropic outreach.
  • Increase nationally competitive Graduate Assistantships, grant-funded GA positions, need-based and merit scholarships, and research fellowships to expand equitable access and outcomes for graduate student success.
  • Provide engaged and responsive nonacademic advising to foster a just and equitable campus climate free from discrimination and prejudice that supports fair treatment, successful and timely student progression, and equitable completion rates that are program-specific and consistent across student groups.
  • Design and support innovative admissions gateways, pipelines, and pathway program tracks to increase and diversify recruitment, and admit, engage, and graduate students with (racially, ethnically, culturally, gendered, etc.) diverse experiences, interests, and needs.
  • Recognize, respect, and celebrate diversity in all its forms within the Graduate College, enact an inclusive, equitable, anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-discriminatory perspective, and ensure that an inclusive and just culture prevails including specific support to promote access and equity for BIPOC students.
  • To engage in strategic alumni, individual, and corporate development work to increase direct philanthropic support for our students, as well as financial resources for programming that helps ensure student success including programs to promote access and equity.

Metrics: graduate faculty status; ratio students to graduate faculty; access awards; graduate fellowships; graduate academy participants; Grad Advantage program participants

Align programs to promote career success and provide students with academic curriculum and co-curricular experiences to prepare them to become experts in their disciplines and leaders in their fields.

Tasks:
  • Provide nationally recognized, research-informed leadership and professional development opportunities, as well as co-curricular microcredentials, to ensure that all graduate students have career-ready transferable skills that supplement and enhance their academic training and support post-graduate success.
  • Design and deliver innovative graduate programs to attract competitive students and support diverse student populations and interests, including but not limited to interdisciplinary programs, design-your-own interdisciplinary programs, certificates, badges, micro-master’s, and stackable certificates.
  • Provide nationally recognized, research-informed leadership and professional development opportunities, as well as co-curricular micro-credentials, to ensure that all graduate students have career-ready transferable skills that supplement and enhance their academic training and support post-graduate success.
  • Provide a strong infrastructure of support for graduate faculty to facilitate program innovation and excellence, and ensure the delivery of consistently high-quality, tier one, transformative student experiences that lead to diverse career pathways and post-graduate success.

Metrics: graduate and professional degrees conferred; graduate certificates awarded; climate survey (graduate); exit survey (graduate); Grad Academy opportunities and satisfaction

Career Development and Progression

Offer degree and certificate programs for the 21st century economy that are valued by employers and associated with high-demand occupations in the region.

Tasks:
  • Evaluate available degree and certificate programs as they relate to high-growth job sectors, and to the outputs compared to demand.
  • Ensure that academic programs incorporate interdisciplinary content to build bridges to high-demand occupations.
  • Support alternative credentialing programs as a pathway to lifelong learning and degrees (e.g., industry recognized credentials, military credentials, and stackable and micro-credentials).
  • Establish protocols for increasing corporate partnerships, input into the curriculum, and engagement in career and hiring activities.

Metrics: enrollment in high demand occupations, degrees in high demand occupations, median annual earnings and employment rate by educational attainment

Integrate workforce readiness into all academic programs.

Tasks:
  • Regularly review the program curriculum for currency and alignment with workforce needs.
  • Create mechanisms to support college/school advisory boards, local and regional employers, and other external stakeholders' input into the curriculum.
  • Align career competencies with UULOs and integrate them into the curriculum, co-curriculum, and community and campus-based programs.
  • Develop and structure student opportunities for quality experiential learning and access to internships, applied research, creative work, or community service projects that enhance workplace skills and build professional networks across campus.

Metrics: Employer satisfaction, corporate partnerships, employers engaged in Handshake, internships

Promote active student participation in career planning through a lifecycle approach to workforce readiness.

Tasks:
  • Create Experiential Major Maps which help students explore majors and reflect on career-relevant skills and hands-on experiences in preparation for career positions and graduate programs.
  • Integrate career professionals into academic advising centers so that these professionals can help academic advisors and faculty members to discuss career planning during student advising sessions, and integrate professional development into the student experience.
  • Develop infrastructure to incentivize students to engage in career readiness activities.

Metrics: student engagement, web analytics