USSC
University Student Success Committee
The University Student Success Committee (USSC) will develop a comprehensive plan to establish a vibrant academic community dedicated to student success and capable of achieving desired enrollment goals and graduation rates. This University-wide plan will include timelines, as well as designation of responsibility for implementation and assessment.
Charge
Develop and implement an enrollment management plan that engages the entire WMU community and the Kalamazoo community and that results in WMU’s having an enrollment of at least 28,500 students by 2010 with a freshman-to-sophomore retention rate of at least 85 percent, an undergraduate graduation rate of 65 percent, and an undergraduate-to-graduate-student proportion of 75% to 25%.
Elements of the Charge
The committee shall:
- Use the concept of the student as lifelong learner (i.e., grade and middle school development, recruiting from both high schools and community colleges, retention, graduation, and alumni and successful careers).
- Engage and provide evidence that the entire WMU community contributes to creating, implementing, and evaluating the plan.
- Engage and provide evidence that the Kalamazoo community contributes to creating, implementing, and evaluating the plan.
- Call upon subcommittees formed by appropriate expertise to develop plans for the segments.
- Request a preliminary review of the draft plan by the vice provost for institutional effectiveness and the vice provost for academic operations.
- Submit a draft University Enrollment Management Plan to the provost by November 30, for review by the provost and the vice presidents.
- Lead the implementation of the plan, modifying it as needed.
- Regularly report to the provost progress against the plan and its metrics, for dissemination to the president and others.
The enrollment management plan will include, but is not limited to:
- Primary enrollment management goals for enrollment, retention, and graduation at the University level.
- Enrollment goals for each of the enrollment segments at the University and college levels.
- Retention and graduation goals for each of the enrollment segments at the University and college levels.
- Enrollment and retention-related goals and metrics for enrollment management supporting areas:
- The colleges, including Lee Honors College and the Graduate College
- Extended University Programs
- Haenicke Institute for Global Education
- University Libraries
- ATIS
- Academic advising
- Undergraduate Admissions
- Student Financial Aid
- First-Year Experience
- Center for Academic Support Programs
- SAIR
- Division of Student Affairs
- Intercollegiate Athletics
- Accounting Services
- University Relations
- Alumni Affairs
- Community Outreach
- Information Technology
- Enrollment management segments that address both undergraduate and graduate programs.
- The specific needs of each segment of the student population to ensure student success.
- Metrics by which success can be determined in each of the enrollment segments, as well as in each of the stages of the student as lifelong learner.
- Barriers to student success, prioritized, and the means to remove the barriers.
- Identification of accountable individuals, specific responsibilities, time line, and implementation costs.
- An ongoing communication plan and process map that allow the community to follow the progress made and the successes attained.
- A means of assessing the effectiveness of the communication plan annually.