Kansas State University

A Next-Gen K-State priority: Implementing the Student Success Playbook to improve undergraduate student outcomes

Submitted by Chuck Taber

Dear Colleagues, 

Providing an exceptional undergraduate student experience and improving retention and graduation rates has long been a strategic focus of K-State's student success efforts. Today we are known as leaders in promoting student success with the highest first-year retention and graduation rates among our Kansas Regents universities. Delivering improved student outcomes across all student populations is a key priority of our Next-Gen K-State university strategic plan as demonstrated by the student success performance targets set out in the plan.

The Kansas Board of Regents, or KBOR, strategic plan, Building the Future, also calls for improving student outcomes. In 2022, the National Institute for Student Success, or NISS, presented recommendations for improving student outcomes in all Regent universities. The NISS K-State Diagnostic Analysis and Playbook is a result of that work, and it aligns with our Next-Gen K-State and strategic enrollment management, or SEM, work already underway. Making progress in the Playbook priority action areas is both a university and KBOR priority. To do this, a roadmap and implementation plan is needed. 

This initiative will be a multiyear effort to drive progress on our Next-Gen K-State and SEM plans to improve undergraduate student services and retention and persistence to graduation rates for all student populations across all modalities — in-person, hybrid and online. Success will require working collectively across our campuses, colleges and central units in four priority action areas: 

1. Data-informed, coordinated, proactive academic advising: Standardize advising technology and protocols to deliver data-informed, coordinated and proactive advising to students across K-State.
2. Structured pathways: Create structured pathways, including scaled learning communities, to guide students into their academic studies and through the first year and beyond.
3. Coordinated student communications: Coordinate student communications to prioritize and direct information to students in a timely, proactive and personalized manner.
4. Strengthened financial aid: Strengthen financial aid through collaboration with other units and coordinated, proactive outreach to students. 

We have formed a Playbook Implementation Team charged with leading the universitywide effort to build and implement a K-State Student Success Playbook Roadmap and Implementation Plan that addresses the priority focus areas in the NISS Playbook and advances the Next-Gen K-State strategic plan and its enrollment and undergraduate student success metrics. To be successful, the team must broadly engage students, the university advising community — professional and faculty advisors — student services staff, and other key stakeholders in the work; communicate its importance as well as progress to the broader K-State community; and develop strategies to support necessary change. 

The Implementation Team will be supported by four task forces being formed in the coming weeks to support the work in each of the four priority action areas. Members of the Implementation Team will serve as the leadership team for the overall effort and as co-chairs for the associated task forces. The Implementation Team will be chaired by Vice President and Dean of Students Thomas Lane, who will also serve as the university liaison to KBOR. The team will report to the provost and be incorporated as part of a new SEM governance structure being designed this fall.

The team members are:

• Thomas Lane, vice president and dean of students, Division of Academic Success and Student Affairs, chair.
• Mirta Chavez, assistant vice president, student belonging and inclusion, Division of Academic Success and Student Affairs, and co-chair, Effective Student Transition Pathways Task Force.
• Gary Clark, senior associate dean and professor, College of Engineering, and co-chair, Financial Aid Task Force.
• Kevin Cook, director, student life communications and parent engagement, Division of Academic Success and Student Affairs, and co-chair, Coordinated Student Communications Task Force.
• Melinda Cro, assistant dean for student success and engagement and professor, College of Arts and Sciences, and co-chair, Data-Informed Proactive Advising Task Force.
• Pamela Erickson, director, student success and advising, Global Campus, and co-chair, Data-Informed Proactive Advising Task Force.
• Karen Goos, vice provost, Division of Enrollment Management, and co-chair, Financial Aid Task Force.
• Trisha Gott, associate dean and assistant professor, Staley School of Leadership, and co-chair, Effective Student Transition Pathways Task Force.
• Roger Schieferecke, assistant dean and director, Center for Student Success and Professional Services, College of Education, and co-chair, Coordinated Student Communications Task Force.

I want to thank Vice President Lane and the members of the Implementation Team for providing leadership to this initiative. I also want to express my appreciation to KBOR and our state legislature for their support of this important work. As announced last week in our budget investment letter, we have received $2M in one-time state funding to address the Playbook recommendations as well as $3.9 million for need-based financial aid. Finally, I want to thank all of you across the university who work hard every day to serve our students and provide them with both access and opportunity to realize their educational goals. 

Thanks for all you do! 

Chuck
Provost and executive vice president