Strategic Enrollment and Retention Plan

In its Blueprint for Success, Boise State University outlines five major goals, which will guide the institution’s work over the next 5 years. Goal 1, “Improve Educational Access and Student Success,” begins with Strategy 1: “Create and enact a comprehensive, strategic enrollment and student success plan, including components related to supporting the whole student, recruitment, retention, graduation, and addressing equity gaps.”

In Fall 2022, the University launched its Strategic Enrollment and Retention Plan (SERP), which aims to:

• Raise the level of college attainment of Idahoans in general.
• Increase college attendance among those students who are typically less likely to attendcollege in the first place.
• Increase attainment (retention and graduation) among those students typically less likely to graduate.
• Address equity gaps in access and attainment for four target student groups:
  1. Rural students
  2. Hispanic/LatinX students
  3. Pell Grant Eligible students
  4. First Generation students

The University SERP comes at a time when many institutions of higher education are examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on enrollment, retention, and graduation. As the U.S. Office for Civil Rights (2021) reports:

COVID-19, with all of its tragic impacts on individuals, families, and communities, appears to be deepening divides in educational opportunity across our nation’s classrooms and campuses. Although the pandemic’s effects will be studied for many years to come, we know from early studies that for many students, educational gaps that existed before the pandemic— in access, opportunities, achievement, and outcomes— are widening.

We have a rare moment as a country to take stock and to begin the hard work of building our schools back better and stronger—with the resolve necessary to ensure that our nation’s schools are defined not by disparities but by equity and opportunity for all students (emphasis in original).Education in a Pandemic: The Disparate Impacts of COVID-19 on America’s Students

The College of Arts and Sciences is committed to the University’s goal of reducing gaps in access, retention, and completion. We recognize the persistence of these gaps as a complex, entrenched problem that requires all units within COAS— and across the university— to align in a common mission and vision and to work collaboratively to improve educational outcomes.

Toward this end, COAS is developing its own Strategic Enrollment and Retention Plan, which proposes a framework for coordinating student success work across the College. The COAS SERP is a living document that will be updated yearly, as we collaborate and make progress towards our shared goals. The primary focus for the 2023-2024 academic year is Strategic Retention. In this document, we describe our strategic planning and implementation framework, define key equity concepts, set specific retention goals, and outline our strategic retention priorities. In addition, we introduce 3 new COAS-led retention initiatives that will be officially launched in Fall 2024.

We have chosen Collective Impact as a framework for SERP design and implementation. This framework has 5 essential conditions for successful initiatives ⁶, which guide the organization of the COAS SERP document.

Common Agenda

In the Introduction to our SERP, we begin to define the problem we are trying to solve:

• Widening educational disparities across the U.S.
• Disproportionate, negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on underserved communities

Relevant Sections

Relevant SERP Sections to follow:

• The Collective Impact Framework
• Equity Concepts and Guiding Principles

Shared Measurement

The Blueprint for Success establishes universal goals for access, retention, and completion at Boise State University, and the BSU SERP identifies target student groups who are further away from these goals than the general population. In the COAS SERP, we summarize the equity gap data available to us at the College level, and we set specific, measurable student success goals.

Relevant Sections

Relevant SERP Sections:

• University Retention and Graduation Rate Goals
• COAS Approach to Understanding and Addressing Equity Gaps

Mutually Reinforcing Activities

The goal of the COAS SERP is not simply to add more work to everyone’s plates. We recognize that COAS schools, departments, faculty, and staff are already doing incredible work in the area of student success. Our aim is to make this work more visible; to support this work through improved access to data, tools, and strategies; and to align COAS student success efforts, with a focus on equitable outcomes.

Relevant Sections

Relevant SERP Sections:

The COAS Student Success Network

Continuous Communications

All Collective Impact efforts must build a system of communication across the network that is consistent but not burdensome. When we work more intentionally and efficiently together, we also make it easier for students to connect to the resources they need.

Relevant Sections

Relevant SERP Sections to follow:

Networked Communication for Collective Impact

Strong Backbone

With a common agenda that focuses on closing equity gaps, we need dedicated leadership and support teams. These teams will oversee the sharing of strategies and resources and will work to ensure that all members of our community—students, faculty, and staff— have a voice in SERP design and implementation.

Relevant Sections

Relevant SERP Sections:

• COAS-Led Strategic Retention Initiatives
• Backbone Support

Kania and Kramer’s (2011) article “Collective Impact,” published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, launched a flurry of interest in and conversation around the “Collective Impact Model.”⁷ The most downloaded article in the history of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, it has more than one million downloads and thousands of academic citations. The article begins by stating a clear but bleak reality: “The scale and complexity of the US public education system has thwarted attempted reforms for decades.” In the Collective Impact approach, intractable problems demand networked solutions. While a single organization or unit can chip away at a large-scale problem, a network of organizations aligned around a common agenda can create transformative and sustainable change. To achieve Collective Impact, a group of leaders across units decide “to abandon their individual agendas in favor of a collective approach to improving student  achievement.” This idea of “abandoning their agenda” does not mean that the individual units cast aside their values or compromise their unique contributions; instead, it means that they join an ecosystem rather than working in isolation.

Our university SERP activates us around the complex, intractable social problem of closing persistent equity gaps. As previously stated, the university has set the goal of cutting equity gaps in half for four key student populations: Rural, Hispanic, Pell Grant Eligible, and First Generation. These are persistent gaps, and that means one-time solutions are unlikely to hold. A problem at this scale requires collective action that will lead to closing gaps in a sustainable way, disrupting long-standing patterns of inequity.

For an example of Collective Impact at work in higher education, the Division of Academic Affairs at the University of San Diego launched an initiative called “Erasing Equity Gaps via Collective Impact.” Their mission is “to leverage and enhance the disparate mentoring, training, and support systems at UC San Diego that have the potential to jointly improve the experience, climate, and performance for all of our undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and academics.” They depict the idea of “jointly” improving experience, climate, and performance
as a progression from “individualized actions” to “isolated impacts” to “coordinated effort.”

Student support efforts, for example, are often “isolated actions” that exist in separate units. In some cases, cross-unit collaborations allow for some “isolated impacts” to occur. In a Collective Impact approach, the goal is to achieve “coordinated efforts” where all units move in the same direction as they deliver vital forms of student support (“sharing information toward a shared goal”). With shared goals of student support, satisfaction, and self-efficacy, units can “leverage common datasets, tools and assessments” across programs to expand resources and increase access to support. The Collective Impact approach at UC San Diego can be boiled down to “working together more intentionally.”⁸

Importantly, though, Collective Impact is not simply a synonym for “collaboration.” Collective Impact provides a detailed and distinctive collaborative process that begins when isolated programs with similar missions and goals work to intentionally network their efforts. The process involves five essential conditions, beginning with creating a common agenda to anchor the work.⁹

The Five Conditions of Collective Impact

1. It starts with a common agenda: This means coming together to collectively define the problem and create a shared vision to solve it.
2. It establishes shared measurement: That means tracking progress in the same way, allowing for continuous learning and accountability.
3. It fosters mutually reinforcing activities: This means integrating the participants’ many different activities to maximize the end result.
4. It encourages continuous communications: That means building trust and strengthening relationships
5. And it has a strong backbone: This means having a team dedicated to aligning and coordinating the work of the group

The “common agenda” helps to guard against the pervasive force of “siloing” at universities that perpetually draws attention back to the home unit. With a common agenda, stakeholders can focus on the needs of their home unit while also advancing the shared vision of the network. “Shared measurements” and “mutually reinforcing activities” enhance the work of the home unit by increasing access to data, assessments, tools, and strategies. That means, instead of each program inventing in isolation, or gathering and analyzing data in isolation, the work becomes visible and shared across the network. Finally, Collective Impact requires two layers of infrastructure. All Collective Impact efforts must build a system of “continuous communications” across the network that activates consistent (and not burdensome) communication across units. In addition, sustaining the Collective Impact work requires a “strong backbone” with customized support that aligns with the goals (e.g., coordinated research planning and data collection support for the network).

While the idea of networked student support across a unit as large as COAS may seem daunting, the COVID pandemic revealed our capacity for cross-unit  innovation and collaboration. As UC San Diego notes, “Our recent experiences dealing with the pandemic have demonstrated that the collective power of our concerted actions amplifies the effect of these individuals’ work.”¹⁰ When we embrace a Collective Impact approach, we work more intentionally and efficiently toward our student support goals, and our connections to each other make it easier for students to connect to the resources they need as they navigate their educational journey.

The University’s Blueprint for Success sets ambitious goals for the university in the area of student success.²³ Among these are first-year retention and 6-year graduation rate goals.

Blueprint for Success: First-Year Retention Rate goals

Blueprint for Success: 6-Year Graduation Rate Goals

In addition to these broad goals, the university has identified four target student groups, which are the focus of the University’s Strategic Enrollment and Retention Plan (SERP): Rural students, Hispanic/LatinX students, Pell Eligible Students, and First Generation Students.

To determine graduation rate goals for each target group, the university first identified a baseline graduation rate, using the Fall 2015 Cohort of First-Time Full Time (FTFT) students. Next, the university identified the gap between each target group’s baseline graduation rate and the rate for all other FTFT students in the same cohort. The University SERP states that within 5 years, the goal is to reduce each target group equity gap by 50%. This means that, by 2028, the University would like to see the following equity gap reductions:

University SERP Equity Gap Goals

Although SERP implementation is in its early stages, the University is tracking access, retention, and graduation rates yearly. In its most recent update, the University found that, for 3 of the 4 Target Student Groups, Fall 2016 Cohort graduation rate gaps were larger than Fall 2015 Cohort gaps, and there was a change in the gap between Urban and Rural Students. The increase in equity gaps in just one year’s time is likely connected to the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Fall 2016 Cohort experienced several years of intense pandemic conditions, from 2019 to 2021.

Equity Gaps in Graduation Rates: Fall 2013 – Fall 2016 Cohorts

Six Year Graudation Rate of FTFT Freshman Residents and Nonresidents Combined Target based on Fall 2015 Cohort

Graph 1 Table of Data

Six Year Graduation Rate of FTFT Freshman Residents and Nonresidents Combined Target based on Fall 2015 Cohort

Graph 2 Table of Data

Six Year Graduation Rate of FTFT Freshman Residents and Nonresidents Combined Target based on Fall 2015 Cohort

Graph 3 Table of Data

Six Year Graduate Rate of FTFT Freshmen Idaho Urban and Rural Only Target based on Fall 2015 Cohort

Graph 4 Table of Data

In addition to highlighting equity gaps between each SERP Target Group and “All Others,” the University’s Institutional Effectiveness office has begun the process of looking at SERP intersectionality. While some students may only have one SERP identity (e.g., Hispanic), others may have 2 or more (e.g., Hispanic and First Generation). In addition, Institutional Effectiveness is disaggregating data to better understand equity gaps among Idaho Residents in particular. Their most recent report, prepared for the Provost’s Office, summarizes SERP identity intersectionality for both First Time and Transfer Idaho Residents who are part of the Fall 2021 Full-Time Cohort.

The majority of Idaho Resident students in this Cohort have one or more SERP identities. This is the case for both First Time and Transfer students, though the proportion of students with SERP identities is larger for the Transfer group: 78% of Transfer students and 61% of First Time students have one or more SERP identities.

First-Time, Full Time, Idaho Residents

• No SERP Identities – 39%
• 1 SERP Identities – 33%
• 2 SERP Identities – 20%
• 3 SERP Identities – 7%
• 4 SERP Identities – 4%

Transfer, Full=Time, Idaho Residents (n=624)

• No SERP Identities – 22%
• 1 SERP Identities – 31%
• 2 SERP Identities – 32%
• 3 SERP Identities – 12%
• 4 SERP Identities – 3%

Graduation Rates

Institutional Effectiveness also found differences in graduation rates for students with one or more SERP identities and students with no SERP identities. For Idaho Residents who began their career at Boise State in Fall 2016, the 4-year and 6-year graduation rates look different across No SERP and 1+ SERP categories.

Fall 2016 Cohort, FTFT Idaho Residents 4-Year Graduation Rates

• 0 SERP Identities – 33%
• 1 or more SERP Identities – 24%

Fall 2016 Cohort, FTFT Idaho Residents 6-Year Graduation Rate

• 0 SERP Identities – 62%
• 1 or more SERP Identities – 45%

The University’s universal goal for all first-time, full-time students is 65%. If we look at the 2016 Cohort, we can see that students with 0 SERP identities are not very far from this goal. Students with 1 or more SERP identities, however, are much further from this goal, with a 6-year graduation rate of only 45%. This underscores the importance of data disaggregation and reminds us that our focus must not only be on overall graduation rates, but also persistent equity gaps in student success outcomes.

COAS is committed to the University’s goal of reducing equity gaps and improving retention and graduation rates for all students. As can be seen in the University’s recent status updates, and in the COAS-specific data we share in this section, some student groups are closer to the  University’s retention and graduation goals than others.

To organize how we might approach bringing all students closer to the University’s goals, we are drawing on john a. powell’s Targeted Universalism framework²⁵, which helps institutions to set ambitious universal goals for all members of a community and to design targeted intervention strategies for particular groups that are the furthest from these goals:

How Do We Help All Students Reach Our Student Success Goals?

1. Establish a universal goal based upon a broadly shared recognition of a societal problem and collective aspirations.

The Blueprint for Success sets universal first-year retention and 4- and 6-year graduation rate goals for First-Time and Transfer Full-Time students. (See the Blueprint for Success Goal 1 Metrics.)

2. Assess general population performance relative to the universal goal.

The University’s retention and graduation goals are based on the performance of the general student population of First-Time and Transfer Full-Time students. (These numbers can also be found under the Blueprint’s Goal 1 Metrics.)

3. Identify groups that are performing differently with respect to the goal. Groups should be disaggregated.

The University SERP identifies 4 target student groups that are performing differently with respect to the University’s retention and graduation rate goals. COAS is also examining how SERP groups are performing in comparison to the general population of COAS majors. To do this, we are using Fate Data (year-to-year enrollment data), which includes not only first-time, full-time students, but all students enrolled with a COAS major.

It should be noted that the 4 SERP Target Groups are just a start. Both the University and COAS have begun to identify additional student groups that are currently performing differently with respect to our retention and graduation goals. These groups include:

• Idaho Residents
• Men
• Under-Represented Minority (URM) Students (American Indian or Alaska Native, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander)
• Transfer students

4. Assess and understand the structures that support or impede each group or community from achieving the universal goal.

This is a crucial step that is often missed in university strategic planning. Equity gap data helps us to identify which groups are in need of attention, but it does not provide any magical answers as to why some student groups are performing better than others and what interventions are needed. Compiling equity gap data is one step in a larger process of needs assessment and strategy planning.

Needs assessment involves a number of research strategies, including the identification and examination of existing qualitative data (e.g., student surveys, focus groups); review of existing research on underrepresented students and promising practices; and the design and  implementation of additional data collection efforts. Ideally, these research activities are conducted in collaboration with students who are members of the groups in focus.

5. Develop and implement targeted strategies for each group to reach the universal goal.

Once we have a better understanding of particular groups’ experiences at BSU— the barriers they’ve faced and the supports they need— we can move to designing targeted interventions. The recommendation here is to focus on changes to structures, rather than isolated efforts that impact a small number of students. When structural deficits are addressed, based on what was learned about a particular student group, it is often the case that these structural changes also benefit many other students, not just the target group. This brings us back to the universal goal. Through targeted interventions, we bring not only one group closer to the goal, but several groups at one time.

To help orient COAS to the universal goals set by the University and the COAS-level data available for examining year-to-year retention and equity gaps, we have compiled a SERP Appendix of tables and figures, which provide more detailed information regarding University  benchmarks and goals, as well as the demographics of our COAS majors and key equity gaps in need of attention. This Appendix is divided into two major sections, based on the types of data we have been able to access thus far. As we gain access to additional data and initiate new data collection efforts, we will update the COAS SERP Appendix accordingly.

COAS SERP Appendix

1. University-Level Data

• University Access Goals and Status Updates
• University Graduation Rate Goals and Status Updates
• First Year Retention & Graduation Rates for Idaho Residents vs. Non-Residents
• SERP Intersectionality for First-Time and Transfer Idaho Resident Students

2. COAS Success Rates for Fall 21 – Fall 22 (Baseline)

• The number of students who were enrolled in a particular Fall semester and who were retained, graduated or no longer enrolled by the following Fall.
• Disaggregation of Fate Data across variables such as SERP identity, Gender, and Idaho Residency.
• COAS students who did not return to BSU in Fall 2022, broken down by Academic Level, Academic Standing, SERP Identity, and other variables.

The Office of Institutional Effectiveness has provided Colleges with access to Fate Data, through dashboards available on their website. Fate Data is not Cohort-based, but rather is based on “the enrollment status of a group of undergraduate students for a given fall semester (10th day) one year later in the following fall semester.” This data includes all undergraduate degree-seeking students, whereas official University retention and graduation rates are limited to First-Time, Full-Time students. Numbers displayed on the Fate Dashboards for COAS include both Associate’s and Bachelor’s degree-seeking students who have a COAS Major.

The Fate Data Dashboards allow us to take an enrollment snapshot of any given year and to explore how many students returned the following year. We can look at all COAS majors, or focus on a particular student group (e.g., students with Freshman standing) and disaggregate further (e.g., Men and Women). The Fate Dashboard displays a “Success Rate” for each group or subgroup, defined as “The percent of students who enrolled at Boise State (even if in a different major) the next fall or graduated before the next fall.” For example, if the Success Rate for a particular group is 67%, this means that 33% of the students in that group did not return to Boise State the following year.

In Summer 2023, Institutional Effectiveness took a snapshot of Fall 2021 COAS Fate Data, so we could use this as a baseline for setting Success Rate goals. The overall COAS Success Rate for all majors in Fall 2021 was 82%. The SERP Appendix breaks this data down further and highlights key equity gaps in our baseline data. In the following sections, we draw on this data to set Success Rate goals for students with Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior standing, and we identify student groups that are further away from our Success Rate goals than other student groups.

COAS Strategic Retention Goals

The universal Success Rate goal we have set for all COAS majors by 2030 is 90%. Achieving this goal means that, from the time we began our strategic planning process, up until 2030, we will have raised our overall baseline Success Rate by 10%. Over time, this means we will need to improve our success rates by about 2% each year, from 2024 to 2030.

COAS SERP Univeral Goal

Achieve a 90% Success Rate for all COAS majors by 2030

Once a universal success rate goal is set, it is important to examine the performance of the general population of COAS majors relative to the universal goal, and to identify student groups that are further away from the universal goal than others. The following table displays our Fall 2021 baseline data, broken down by Academic Standing.

General Population Performance Relative to the Universal Goal

A total of 910 undergraduate COAS majors enrolled in Fall 2021 did not return to Boise State in Fall 2022. The largest losses occurred among students with Freshman standing: 31% of these students (279/886) were no longer enrolled the following Fall. If we had achieved an overall 90% Success Rate for Fall 2021 to Fall 2022, we would have retained 400 additional COAS students in that year.

Given that Success Rates vary considerably across Academic Standing, we have also set specific Success Rate goals for students with Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior Standing.

Success Rate Goals, broken down by Academic Standing

(Percent enrolled who were retained or graduated the following Fall)

COAS SERP Groups and Equity Gaps

COAS Equity Gap Goal:

Cut equity gaps in half by 2030, with a focus on the following student groups:

• First Generation Students
• Hispanic Students
• Pell Eligible Students
• Idaho Residents

The University has identified four groups that are performing differently than the general student population in regards to a number of retention and completion goals: First Generation students, Hispanic students, Pell Eligible students, and Rural Idaho students. Similarly, within COAS, we can see equity gaps in Success Rates for these students when we examine our Fate Data. Over the course of the pandemic, many of these gaps widened.

SERP Target Group Success Rate Gaps for COAS, 2017-2021²⁷

In our SERP Appendix, we provide raw counts for the number of students that were either retained or graduated the following fall, for each SERP Group and All Others, and we highlight key equity gaps. In the following figures, we display the Success Rates for each SERP Group and All Others in relation to the universal Success Rate goal of 90%. We also display Idaho Rural and Urban students alongside Non-Residents. When we focus on this baseline data, we can see that the 4 SERP Target Groups are further away from our universal Success Rate goals than the general population of COAS majors. Both Idaho Rural and Idaho Urban students are further from this goal than Non-residents.

COAS Group Success Rates

COAS Success Rate Goal: 95%

Idaho Residents vs. Non-Residents

COAS Success Rate Goal: 95%

Idaho Groups – Freshman Standing

COAS Success Rate Goal: 75%

Idaho Residents vs. Non-Residents – Freshman Standing

COAS Success Rate Goal: 75%

SERP Groups – Junior Standing

COAS Success Rate Goal: 90%

Idaho Residents vs. Non-Residents – Junior Standing

COAS Success Rate Goal: 90%

The equity gaps we have observed in our baseline data mirror the gaps we highlighted in the Introduction to our SERP. These gaps have persisted for decades, and they were worsened by the pandemic. Thus, in addition to our universal Success Rate goal, we also aim to cut these equity gaps in half by 2030.

Additional Student Groups in Need of Attention

Both the Provost’s Office and COAS have begun the process of disaggregating student success data further, to identify additional student groups in need of attention. These groups include Men, Under-represented minority students (in addition to Hispanic students, this includes Black, American Indian, and Pacific Islander students), Transfer students, Part-Time students, and students enrolled in fully online programs. The SERP Appendix displays COAS Success Rates and equity gaps for these groups.

In addition, in its 2021 report, the U.S. Office for Civil Rights²⁸ identified students with disabilities and students with LGBTQIA+ identities as groups disproportionately, negatively impacted by the pandemic. Persistent equity gaps in retention and completion related to disability, gender, age, and first-generation status also impact student veterans. Nationally, 62% of student veterans are first-generation, 85% are over the age of 24, and 73% are men²⁹. As we design our COAS-led retention initiatives, we will collaborate with support offices on campus to learn more about the barriers faced by these students.

Moving from Strategic Planning to Strategic Implementation

Since receiving our initial baseline data from Institutional Effectiveness, we have made substantial progress in setting Success Rate goals and identifying student groups who are further away from these goals than others. We are now poised to move from strategic planning into strategic implementation.

COAS SERP Strategic Planning

Fall 2022, Complete

• Fall 2021 Fate Data provided by Institutional Effectiveness and chosen as baseline
• Fate Data further disaggregated by Academic Standing, SERP Group, Idaho Residency, Gender, and Enrollment Status

Fall 2023, Complete

• Success Rate Goals Set for all COAS majors and each academic standing
• SERP groups examined to determine how far from the goal they are when compared to other groups
• Success Rate goals and equity gaps shared with  the College through the dissemination of the COAS Strategic Enrollment & Retention Plan
• Innovation Hub call for proposals announced, with a focus on student success

Spring 2023, In progress

• Engage COAS departments in strategic retention planning, through opt-in Listening Tours and Data Walks
• Introduce COAS-led initiatives that are focused on achieving our Success Rate goals; initiate soft launch/pilot phase
• Select projects for Innovation Hub funding

COAS SERP Strategic Implementation

Fall 2024, In progress

• Launch COAS-led initiatives and Innovation Hub student success projects; begin tracking students who participate
• Begin tracking semester to semester retention for all COAS majors, each academic standing, and each SERP group

Fall 2026-Fall 2027, In progress

• Half-way checkpoint for progress towards our Success Rate goals; share progress report with College and University
• Mid-Point Goal: 86% Success Rate

Fall 2029-Fall 20230, In progress

• 5-year check point for progress towards our Success Rate goals; share culminating report with College and University
• Goal by 2030: 90% Success Rate

In the following sections, we outline our strategic implementation vision in more detail.

In a college as large and complex as ours, there is much that we could and should do to support our students and address inequities (e.g.,  advising and mentoring, inclusive pedagogies, basic needs and wrap-around services, social and community engagement, career readiness and experiential education, and so on). The question becomes: where do we begin?

In 2022-23, we assembled an Implementation Team of 22 faculty and staff members from across the college to focus on implementation of Student Success and Retention (SSR) strategies. We prioritized the creation of a college-level SERP that would adapt the university-level goals for the complexities of our college. Our process began with an in-depth needs assessment that surfaced the many barriers that disrupt not only student success, but also the success of our faculty and staff. Guided by the goal of closing persistent equity gaps, we must address these barriers and constraints directly in order to design feasible, sustainable strategies. If, for example, a strategy ends up creating an additional burden for a faculty or staff group that is already experiencing burn-out, we have not created a feasible, sustainable strategy for addressing equity gaps.

Coordination and alignment of student success initiatives is challenging and complex. To accomplish this work, we are drawing on existing frameworks for leadership and equity-minded strategic planning. One of these frameworks, Collective Impact, we have already described at length. The second framework is Marshall Ganz’ “Snowflake” Model of Distributed Leadership. This model is a community organizing strategy where leadership is not held by a single individual or several individuals in charge of isolated initiatives. Rather, leadership is distributed across a network, so that initiatives can be interconnected and aligned.³⁰

Kania et al.’s Collective Impact model³¹ outlines how distributed leadership might be utilized to combat complex, entrenched social problems. Collective Impact provides a distinctive collaborative process that begins when isolated programs with similar missions and goals work intentionally to align their efforts.

Both the “Snowflake” Model of Distributed Leadership and the Collective Impact model inform how we plan to organize and align student success work across the College.

Student Success Leadership Team

The Leadership Team oversees the common agenda and is responsible for reporting regularly on SERP progress.

• Kelly Myers, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Success, leads the student success mission in COAS
• Casey Iezzi, COAS SERP Lead, coordinates the alignment of student success initiatives and tracks progress towards our shared retention and equity goals
• José Lee-Perez, Director of First Year Experiences, leads our effort to better support students across their first year at Boise State
• David Brandt, Associate Director of Advising Services, leads our advising team and works closely with our newly formed COAS Advising Council to provide both proactive and responsive advising support
• Megan Gambs, Associate Director of Student Success Initiatives, leads our work to create new ways of understanding and supporting students who stop out or who are considering stopping out

Priority Areas

Three Members of the Leadership Team each oversee one Priority Area. These leaders plan COAS-level Retention Strategies (described in detail below), and they help individu-als and teams who are working on related initiatives connect to the network.

• First Year Experience: All new students will be empowered to maximize their academic and personal well-being, discover their unique skills, and build meaningful relationships.
• Advising: All COAS students will receive clear and consistent advising support from orientation through graduation.
• Stop Out Prevention and Support: All COAS students who have considered stopping out, or who have stopped out with some credit and no credential, will feel welcome, valued, and seen through our dedicated support systems.

Backbone Support

The Leadership Team and the SSR Implementation Team are working to build Backbone Support for the Network, and they have identified three specific types of support that are needed to sustain and align our student success work.

• Faculty and Staff Support: Support those who support our students. Recognize and address burnout. Make visible and reward faculty and staff student success efforts.
• Student Voices and Leadership: Engage students in the strategic planning and implementation process.
• Research Planning and Data Support: Improve data access and support data-informed deci-sion-making.

Retention Strategies

These strategies include COAS-led initiatives, as well as projects and initia-tives happening within COAS Schools, Departments, and Programs. A major goal of the Student Success Network is to facilitate connection and alignment of student success efforts across the college, so that their collective impact can be tracked over time.

COAS-Led Strategic Retention Initiatives

In Spring 2024, the Student Success Leadership Team will introduce three new initiatives that are designed to improve student retention in the College over the next 5 years. These initiatives are not meant to eliminate or overshadow other student support work in the College. We still need nuanced student support at the department and program level, and we will remain responsive to student needs as they surface. What we are adding is a college-level commitment to reducing equity gaps through targeted interventions, and that commitment demands coordinated strategies with new kinds of leadership, assessment, and invention.

The theme that unites each of our strategic retention initiatives is “You Are Here.” Our goal is for students to experience an overwhelming message of welcoming and belonging— We are so happy you are here! In addition, we want to help students identify and reflect on where they are, where they have been, and where they want to go.

Priority Area Lead

José Lee-Perez

Vision

Create an extended first-year student onboarding experience that supports college readiness, student transition, and self-efficacy in equitable educational environments. Elements will foster early student success in five focus areas: sense of capability, connectedness, sense of purpose, sense of resourcefulness, and academic self-efficacy.³²

Our approach will:

1. Build meaningful relationships
2. Set clear expectations and motivations for students
3. Promote active learning
4. Integrate student support into the learning process
5. Validate students’ journeys and ensure students know where they stand

Signature Initiatives

FYE Weeks of Welcome

Our “Weeks of Welcome’’ design employs a unique integration of student support systems, experiences, and events (what we call the “SEE” approach). Through a combination of new and existing programming, we strategically place SEE markers throughout the first part of the fall semester, culminating in Bronco Social. Through our coordinated “Weeks of Welcome,” resources and programming in both Academic and Student Affairs become more visible to students, better integrated into classrooms, and intentionally delivered according to student needs.

FYE Spring Re-Welcome

To celebrate the importance and accomplishment of returning in the spring, and to re-energize our first-year students, we will formally re-welcome them when they return in the spring. The re-welcome provides another opportunity to reorient our students to the resources and support we offer.

Priority Area Lead

David Brandt

Objective

Improve consistency of COAS technical advising and build self-efficacy in our students
so that all COAS students:

1. Know where to go for advising
2. Get a timely response from an advisor
3. Receive the advising information they need and have a clear sense of next steps

Our approach will:

Increase self-efficacy in our students because they understand the following:

• Their degree requirements at the college and university level
• Where exactly they are in their degree plan and what they need to do next
• How to connect to resources and opportunities
• Key university policies and processes

Signature Initiatives

Enhanced Technical Advising

We will bring all professional advisors under the umbrella of COAS Advising and Student Success to enhance our capacity to deliver clear and consistent technical advising to all COAS students. The advising team will engage in consistent data tracking, proactive outreach, and strategic campaigns that will result in increased retention, streamlined time to degree, and improved graduation rates. We will address equity gaps through improved accessibility and consistency of technical advising.

Spring Group Advising

To address fall to spring melt, the COAS Advising team will implement group advising for first-year students in their spring semester. This approach formally extends orientation-support into the spring, with targeted recruitment designed for our SERP populations.

Graduation Checks

We will launch a semesterly system for grad check appointments aimed at removing barriers and increasing graduation rates. Our process includes the following steps each semester:

• Run report on students with 98+ credits Strategic communication sent to all COAS students who meet the criteria of 98+ credits
• COAS Advising Team offers dedicated timeslots specifically for “Graduation Check Appointments”
• Students are guided through the steps for finalizing their degree. Through these appointments, advisors surface barriers to graduation and work to address them. All students leave with a clear path to graduation.

Priority Area Lead

Megan Gambs

Objective

Create a clear path to dedicated support for students who are considering stopping out, or who have stopped out with Some Credit and No Credential (SCNC)³³

Our approach will:

Launch a new office dedicated to Student Persistence and Re-Enrollment that provides a place for students to come to reflect on their educational experience, explore their goals, and identify the best path forward for them. All programming affiliated with the Office will extend our “You Are Here” theme from our First Year Experience, with four distinct phases:

• YOU ARE HERE: Understand the landscape, the student experience, and where you are
• WHERE YOU’VE BEEN: Understand where you have been: What worked? What didn’t? When and How did you thrive? Why? What strengths do you bring to this journey?
• WHERE YOU WANT TO GO: Identify where you want to go. Explore, connect, and build meaningful relationships across campus.
• HOW TO PREPARE FOR YOUR JOURNEY: What do you need to do to be ready? Consider everything from building your network to habit building to thinking through what needs to be in place for you to be successful next semester.

Signature Initiatives

Bronco Gap Year Relaunch

Housed within the Office of Student Persistence and Re-Enrollment, the reimagined Bronco Gap Year program offers our students a one-semester pause, or break, with guided support from COAS staff that keeps them connected (or re-engaged) with the university.

Bronco Check-in

The Office of Student Persistence and Re-Enrollment gives students the opportunity to connect with COAS staff to “check-in” about their current university experience. Based on the needs of the student, COAS staff will support students in guiding them through a relationship-rich path to success, connecting students with resources and opportunities.

Bronco Break

As a third component of the Office of Student Persistence and Re-Enrollment, Bronco Break provides students with a hard-stop break. In this low-touch program, students will not be enrolled in classes or in the guided pause program (Bronco Gap Year), but the office will stay connected to students through strategic communications and warm invitations.

Finish Line Initiative

The Finish Line Initiative aims to re-engage and re-enroll students who have stopped out with 90+ credits. As part of this initiative, we will also explore ways to financially support students with SCNC in their path to graduation, drawing on existing initiatives that have proven successful at peer and aspiring institutions. (See, for example, Georgia
State’s Panther Retention Grants.)³⁴

The SSR Implementation Team, in collaboration with the Student Success Leadership Team, will support strategic retention initiatives, with a focus on identifying and building the infrastructure needed to sustain these initiatives and achieve our retention goals. The Backbone also plays a crucial role in ensuring that all members of our community—students, faculty, and staff—have a voice in SERP implementation.

To ensure broad community participation, COAS convened the SSR Implementation Team in Fall 2022, and this team continues to plan and develop Backbone infrastructure. To date, 30 COAS faculty and staff have served on this team.

Student Success and Retention Implementation Team Membership

Fall 2023 – Spring 2024

• Casey Iezzi
• Clay Cox
• Cynthia Campbell
• Dan Scott
• David Brandt
• Debra Purdy
• John Bieter
• Jon Schneider
• Jose Lee-Perez
• Karen Viskupic
• Kathrine Johnson
• Kelly Myers
• Manda Hicks
• Nancy Tacke
• Nico Diaz
• Nicole Brun-Mercer
• Sarah Dalrymple
• Jason Herbeck
• Megan Gambs
• Kimberly Henderson

Fall 2022 – Spring 2023

• Casey Iezzi
• Clay Cox
• Eric Landrum
• Jason Herbeck
• John Bieter
• Jon Schneider
• Joseph Low
• Karen Viskupic
• Kelly Myers
• Kimberly Henderson
• Kristin Snopkowski
• Larissa Samson
• Lori Gray
• Manda Hicks
• Melanie Jones
• Melissa Keith
• Michael Kreiter
• Nancy Tacke
• Nico Diaz
• Nicole Brun-Mercer
• Sarah Dalrymple
• Beverly Sherman
• Debra Purdy
• Kathrine Johnson

The SSR Implementation Team has established four working groups that will focus on key areas of Backbone Support. These working groups include:

Faculty and Staff SERP Advisory Board

This team focuses on assessing the structures that either support or impede faculty and staff as they work to help students navigate their path to graduation. Two key questions guide this work: (1) How do we recognize and address burnout? (2) How do we make visible and reward faculty/ staff student success efforts?

Advising Council

The COAS Advising Council assembles a team of stakeholders from across the college (faculty, staff, and students) to help the COAS Advising Director identify and prioritize college-level advising strengths, needs, and challenges.

COAS SERP Data Team

This team provides COAS units with research support, with a focus on data access and data-informed decision-making. The Data Team will assess department data needs, lead equity-focused data walks, and model how data can be used to design targeted interventions and assess impact.

COAS Student Leadership

The COAS Student Success Team formed a partnership with our COAS ASBSU representatives. Through monthly meetings, we share updates from the college and from ASBSU, and we work on dedicated projects. Our first project focuses on gathering student perspectives on advising experiences and needs.

Key Accomplishments and Next Steps

Since we began our SERP planning work in the Fall of 2022, we have made significant progress. We are now at a crucial stage where we are moving from strategic planning to strategic implementation. To clearly document our progress and next steps, we are using a tool developed by the Tamarack Institute, which outlines 5 Phases of Collective Impact initiatives.³⁵ In the Table below, we list key strategies for each phase and outline what COAS has accomplished thus far.

1 Assess Readiness, Fall 2022-Spring 2023

Complete:

• Assemble Student Success and Retention Implementation Team
• Conduct needs assessment
• Name priority areas

2 Initiate Action, Spring 2023-Fall 2023

Complete:

• Hire Student Success Leadership Team to advance priority projects and reach retention targets
• Begin outreach to COAS academic leadership and campus partners
• Analyze baseline data to identify key issues and gaps

3 Organize for Impact, Fall 2023-Spring 2024

Complete:

• Determine initial working groups and establish backbone support
• Create common agenda, clear problem definition, and population level goals; distribute via the SERP
• Design high level (COAS-led) retention initiatives
• Call for SERP-focused Innovation Hub NOIs

Not Started:

• Incorporate community voice through department listening tours, data walks, and collaboration with ASBSU
• Develop metrics and milestones for COAS-led retention initiatives

4 Implementation, Spring 2024-Fall 2024

Not Started:

• Initiate COAS-led retention strategies
• Identify and initiate SERP-related Innovation HUB projects
• Determine shared measurement systems and align student success initiatives across the College

5 Sustain Action & Impact, Fall 2024 Onward

Not Started:

Collect, track, and report progress on each COAS retention initiative and related Innovation Hub project

We enter the organization and implementation phase with a clearly defined plan, while maintaining our commitment to a learning-centered approach. As we learn more from data analysis, student experiences, and faculty and staff perspectives, we will adapt our plans. As stated previously, the SERP is a living document that emphasizes process. We will work and learn together, and we
will not shy away from difficult questions and complex barriers. We will maintain our focus on retaining more students and reducing persistent equity gaps in access, retention, and completion.