The Graduation Rate Project was initiated by the Vice-Provost for Planning & Budgets/Director of Strategic Planning to assist colleges in understanding and using data specific to graduation rates. The primary concerns that prompted this examination of graduation rates included the following:
The project was developed and facilitated by the Vice-Provost, the Director of the Faculty Center for Professional Development, the Director of Program Assessment and Review, and Institutional Research and Assessment staff. Teams comprised of an Associate Dean and a faculty member from each college were charged with developing a college-specific plan for disseminating information about graduate rates, student retention, and student success. Specifically, teams were asked to accomplish the following objectives:
The Office of Institutional Research and Assessment provided graduation rate data for this project. The Director of the Faculty Center for Professional Development and the Director of Program Assessment and Review co-facilitated college teams in a semester-long series of lunches aimed at assisting teams in accomplishing their objectives. College teams examined patterns of retention and graduation rates by department, college and student subgroups, including the following:
Each college team developed one-hour workshops that provided an overview of the university graduation rate along with college and department-specific graduation rate data. The workshop also included college-specific recommendations for improving student success and graduation rates. Workshops were delivered in colleges at retreats, at meetings, or to invited groups (e.g., college faculty advisors, college curriculum committees, college councils). The information campaign resulted in wide-spread discussion of how graduation rates could be improved without compromising educational quality. Several ideas for changing institutional policies, organizational structures, and practices to improve graduation rates emerged from these discussions, including the following:
Data suggest that our graduation rate has improved over time, and we anticipate that it will continue to improve. However, to ensure that this trend continues, we must overcome several challenges, including the following:
