News of the UTSA Graduation Initiative
Fifty-three
Volume 2, Issue 2 April 2009
Outstanding Sophomore Scholarship
Inside this issue:
On March 3rd, 2009, members of the UTSA Scholarships are intended as an incentive for
community gathered to celebrate the awarding students to remain for their second year and
Outstanding Sophomore 1
Scholarship of the first ever Outstanding Sophomore on to graduation. Ideally, these students would
Scholarships to ten, first-year students. Each also consider pursuing graduate studies with
Welcome 2 received a $5,000 scholarship toward tuition UTSA, after receiving their degree.
and fees for their second year at UTSA. Dr.
Late Intervention 2 Recipients of the scholarships are: Bonnie
Patricia Glenn, Associate Dean for Retention
Caulfield (Interdisciplinary studies), Cassidy
3
and Graduation, presided over the ceremony
Teaching and Learning Chesser (not yet decided), Jon Edwards
Center attended by recipients, their friends
and families, faculty,
Beyond Graduation 4 administrators, and staff.
Rates
Selection of the recipients occurred
Student Money and 5
on February 2, 2009 at a gathering
Time Matters in the Office of Inclusion and
Progress Update 5 Community Engagement. From a
pool of eligible students, 10 were
Student Population 7 randomly selected to receive the
scholarships. Among the attendees
We Are Moving 7
were UTSA Student Government
Association President, Christina
Policy Watch 8
Gomez, two sophomore senators, Front: Bonnie Caulfield, Nick Garcia. Back: Prakash Mammen (represented by
Jerome Gomez), Rachel Skarke, Jon Edwards, Derek Smith, Joshua “Blue” Garcia,
8 and one junior senator, who all
Distance Education Nichole Montalbano. Not pictured: Cassidy Chesser, Christina Starkey.
participated in the selection
Welcome Back! 9 process. (Political Science), Joshua “Blue” Garcia
(Biology), Nick Garcia (Biology), Prakash
10 Funding for the scholarships was initiated by
Team Member Profile Mammen (Pre-business - Accounting), Nichole
the Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate
Montalbano (Criminal Justice), Rachel Skarke
Studies, Dr. Lawrence Williams, and jointly
(Music), Derek Smith (Kinesiology), and
sponsored by the offices of Undergraduate
Christina Starkey (Mathematics). Seven of the
Studies and the Graduation Initiative. Since
recipients were available to attend the
2007, the Graduation Initiative has researched
ceremony (see accompanying photo) – the
the question of why students who start college
other three had class at that time. The
at UTSA do not remain to graduate from UTSA.
Graduation Initiative congratulates the
One of our findings showed that a greater than
recipients of the 2009-2010 Outstanding
expected number of high-achieving students
Sophomore Scholarship!
leave to attend other universities after their
freshman year. The Outstanding Sophomore –Linda Chalmers
Page 2 Fifty-three
Welcome to Our Third Issue
Welcome to the third issue of Fifty-three. It We’ll also discuss some of the other university
seems like just last month we distributed issue services that are working hard to help raise our
two rather than half a year ago. There’s been a institutional graduation rates.
lot of activity in that time. The biggest news
With the legislature in session this year, we can
story of the past few months, and a significant
expect all sorts of new and interesting legisla-
concern for many, has been the state of the
tion related to education. We provide a brief
world economy. We too are concerned that
overview of what we’re following on the policy
economic factors will impact on our students’
http://www.utsa.edu/gi
front. In addition, we also discuss recent
ability to complete their education.
changes in our student demographics that may
In this issue, several stories describe what the provide some insight into trends on student
Graduation Initiative is doing to help students enrollment.
deal with the financial concerns ranging from
On a more personal side, we profile one of our
offering scholarships and grants to providing a
team members so you can get to know the
means for educating students on better fiscal
people behind the names you see here. We
management.
also brief you on our move to new offices.
In the last issue, we reviewed the common,
Mostly though, we want to provide you with
institutional barriers identified by our research.
information about what we are doing and
In this issue, we’ll discuss progress made
what’s happening related to graduation.
across the university to reduce or overcome
those barriers. Much is going on in all the col- Student success is our success!
leges and at the institutional level.
Patricia Glenn & Clint Rodenfels
We will highlight some of our programs and UTSA Graduation Initiative
give you updates on what our team of dedi- graduation.initiative@utsa.edu
cated analysts have been working on recently. (210) 458-4687
Late Intervention—Second Year of Strong Results
For the second year in a row, the Late Interven- August 2008 marked the end of activities fo-
tion program shows significant results in help- cusing on the 2002 cohort of entering stu-
ing students achieve a timely graduation. dents. This effort started with students who
We’ve discussed the Late Intervention program were in their fifth-year of studies and had an
in previous issues. In summary, this program additional four semesters ahead of them in
uses a case manage- which they could take
ment approach coupled classes (summer 2007,
with a financial aid 139 students participating fall 2007, spring 2008,
grant to help students in the Late Intervention and summer 2008).
achieve a timely Additionally, we were
graduation. Each Re- achieved a 6-year rate of able to offer these stu-
tention and Graduation dents an increased
Analyst has a case load graduation more than twice Graduation Incentive
of students, from one
or more colleges, who
that of similar peers Award of up to $4,000.
In our initial review of
are overdue for timely
the 2002 cohort students, we identified 433
graduation. The analyst contacts each student,
who had not graduated. These students ap-
discusses barriers they are experiencing, and
peared within range of achieving their under-
helps them work through the barriers.
See “Late Intervention” next page
Page 3 Fifty-three
Late Intervention (continued)
graduate degree by the end of their sixth year semesters through the end of their sixth year at
and also met the following criteria: UTSA (August 2008). The rate of graduation for
Rates of 6-year the Late Intervention group was 86.3%
• Greater than 60 earned semester credit
Graduation hours at the start of spring 2007
(120/139) while the comparison group
achieved a rate of 40.1% (119/294). The dif-
• Minimum institutional GPA of 2.0 ference in graduation outcomes between the
groups is significant (χ2 (1, N=433)=81.363,
Participants: 86% • Enrolled in the university as of fall 2006
p<0.001). Late Intervention participants were
• Sufficient progress along degree path to more than twice as likely to graduate than simi-
Others: 40% enable graduation within six-years lar, non-participating students.
Of those 433 students contacted, 139 partici- The analysts of the Graduation Initiative are
pated in the Late Intervention program. These currently working with students from the 2003
students constituted our Late Intervention cohort and conducting outreach to students
group. The remaining 294 students (433 eligi- from the 2004 cohort. With two years of data,
ble less the 139 participating) constituted a we are encouraged by the impact of the Late
comparison group allowing us to measure the Intervention program and look forward to help-
efficacy of the intervention against similar stu- ing more students achieve a timely graduation,
dents who did not receive the intervention. raising the overall UTSA graduation rate.
We followed the progress of the intervention –Clint Rodenfels
and comparison groups for the remaining four
Teaching and Learning Center
The “UTSA Graduation Improvement Plan,” and 2. Teaching to facilitate the strategic learning
several of the individual college plans, identi- of students
fied areas of faculty development that should
3. Documenting the teaching effectiveness of
Teaching & Learning help to increase student success. These rec-
faculty and teaching assistants
Center Offerings ommendations applied to adjunct and non-
tenure track faculty and to faculty having ten- 4. Using technology to increase teaching and
• Professional
ure or on the tenure track. An underlying as- learning effectiveness
Development
Workshops sumption was that students who took classes
from faculty with advanced instructional skills In addition to a full schedule of workshops
• Resource Library would be more engaged with the university, throughout the semester, the TLC works one-on
-one with instructors to provide constructive
• ThankMyProf would have greater opportunities to learn, and
Program would make improved progress towards a feedback on making positive changes along
timely graduation. the four primary themes. The TLC has been
• Teaching Tips especially helpful in assisting recitation lead-
• Grants UTSA is fortunate to have a vibrant and proac- ers, teaching assistants, and doctoral students
tive Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) that with developing effective and professional in-
• Classroom focuses on faculty development. The TLC is an structional skills.
Observations
organization that “inspires, supports, and rec-
• Faculty Interest ognizes good teaching practices, effective as- Faculty interested in the services of the TLC
Groups sessment, and student engagement.” They should contact the center’s director, Barbara
offer a range of services to all faculty and Millis, or review their informative web site
• New Faculty
graduate students across four primary themes: (http://www.utsa.edu/tlc).
Orientation
1. Promoting strategic teaching among –Clint Rodenfels
faculty
Page 4 Fifty-three
Measuring Student Success Beyond Graduation Rates
UTSA 6-year Graduation Every fall semester, our office eagerly antici- picture develops when you consider the addi-
pates the arrival of the official retention and tional 14.9% of these students who originally
CB Cohort 6-year
Entry Year Graduation graduation rates for UTSA. These annual rates started with UTSA and later graduated from
measure undergraduate student persistence another Texas institution. Together, that means
1998 27.1% and success from the most recent academic 49.1% of students starting at UTSA graduated
year back to the cohort of students starting at within 10-years.
1999 30.0%
UTSA six years earlier. Because of the complex-
The rates above only consider our first-time, full
2000 28.1% ity in the reporting process, these rates are
-time students. Many students who graduate
generally not available until sometime in Octo-
2001 31.3% from UTSA began their higher education at
ber or November.
another institution. Because these students
2002 30.7% In 2007, as we mentioned in a previous edition transfer to UTSA with a wide range of accumu-
Source: UTSA Office of Institutional of Fifty-three, we were excited by a jump in the lated credit hours, it is difficult to quantify an
Research UTSA six-year graduation rate by over three accurate rate of graduation for them. In this
percentage points (from 28.1% to 31.3%). Last case, it is useful to look at the total number of
year, we were somewhat disappointed when degrees produced by UTSA’s colleges. In fact,
this same rate dropped by
just over half a percentage UTSA Undergraduate Degrees Awarded by College
point to 30.7%. This was not
College 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08
unexpected however as
UTSA’s recent six-year
COA 51 66 118 109 134
graduation rates exhibit a
saw-tooth pattern with an COB 889 994 991 1032 1002
increasing year followed by a
decrease. On the positive COEHD 406 510 629 656 601
side, this latest rate de-
COE 170 142 182 191 198
creased less than the last
two cycles. COLFA 863 967 959 991 1014
All UTSA colleges, services, COPP 191 184 168 188 172
and university leadership are
working to improve our COS 342 409 445 482 475
graduation rates and it is the
Total 2912 3272 3492 3649 3596
mission of the Graduation
UTSA 10-year Rates
Initiative to assist in this Source: UTSA Fall 2008 Fact Book
1996 to 2006
effort, continually moving toward measurable
this is the primary metric used by “Closing the
Graduated UTSA 34.2% improvement. At the same time, while these
Gaps: The Texas Higher Education Plan,” pub-
rates are very important, we also look at other
Graduated other lished by the THECB. The second of four goals
14.9% measures of student success. For example, the
Texas Institution in this plan focuses on closing the gap in stu-
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
dent success and specifically sets a 2015 tar-
Total Graduated (THECB) publishes reports on the progress of
49.1% get to “increase by 50 percent the number of
in 10-years all students attending college in Texas over a
degrees, certificates and other identifiable stu-
10-year period. The most recent report lists
Still Enrolled-UTSA 3.0% dent successes from high quality programs.”
results on the progress of first-time, full-time
UTSA is a strong contributor in our state’s ef-
students who entered UTSA in fall 1996. After
Still Enrolled-Other forts to reach this goal.
6.7% 10-years, 34.2% of these students had gradu-
Texas Institution
ated from UTSA (compared to the 1996 co- –Clint Rodenfels
Total Persisting hort’s six-year graduation rate of 25.5%, see—
9.7%
After 10-years http://www.txhighereddata.org/Interactive/
Source: THECB GradRates.cfm#BU). An even more impressive
Page 5 Fifty-three
Student Money and Time Matters
$
An economic recession seems an apt time to This will give students the opportunity to work
launch our Student Money and Time Matters through personal finance basics at their own
program. Similar services around the state and pace and to address their particular areas of
country are assisting thousands of students interest. Our web site will also offer time man-
with personal finance basics at a time when
tuition, the cost of living, and the cost of going Student enrollment at UTSA
to school are rising at alarming rates. Students
need to be equipped to make careful decisions increased by 15.7% while
about the accumulation of debt before and
after they graduate. For example, the UTSA Fall at the same time,
2008 Fact Book reveals that from 2003 to
student indebtedness
&
2007, the dollar amount of loans awarded to
UTSA students increased from $88,901,678 to increased by 35.3%
$120,285,209, a percentage change of
35.3%. Over this same time frame, enrollment agement tips, financial calculators, work-
only increased by 15.7% (from 24,665 to sheets, useful links, and feature “Ask Rowdy
28,533) indicating that UTSA students were Cents,” a question-and-answer dialogue about
taking on greater loan debt to pay for their edu- real student money matters.
cation.
In preparation for the launch of Student Money
Student Money and Time Matters will begin and Time Matters, Senior Retention and
with an attractive and informative web site Graduation Analyst, Linda Chalmers, has been
designed by a UTSA student. Launching in May, recognized as a Certified Personal Finance
the website will provide students (and their Counselor (CPFC®) through the Center for Fi-
families) a wealth of information about money nancial Certifications, a division of The Institute
and time management (www.utsa.edu/ for Financial Literacy. We anticipate being able
moneymatters). Additionally, we have negoti- to provide face-to-face personal finance coun-
ated an agreement with the National Endow- seling for our students at a future point.
ment for Financial Education for our site to
–Linda Chalmers
serve as a portal to their online CashCourse.
Semester Progress Update
In July 2008, the Graduation Initiative pre- of Business (COB) Undergraduate Advising Cen-
Top UTSA Institu-
sented the “UTSA Graduation Improvement ter created additional walk-in advising opportu-
tional Barriers to
Plan” to the Provost. At the end of the fall 2008 nities. The College of Education and Human
Graduation semester, we provided the Provost with an Development (COEHD) Undergraduate Advising
1. Problems with update on progress towards the recommenda- Center implemented an online chat feature
academic advising tions in that plan. The UTSA Graduation Im- providing students with an additional avenue
2. Student under- provement Plan focused on five institutional for communication. The Downtown Under-
preparation barriers to graduation: 1) problems with aca- graduate Advising Center posted a web-based
3. Course availability demic advising, 2) student under-preparation, survey for students to indicate what classes
4. Reliance on adjunct 3) course availability, 4) reliance on adjunct are needed at the downtown campus. The Col-
faculty faculty, and 5) costs of education. Following lege of Sciences (COS) Undergraduate Advising
are selections from the progress report. Center hosted an orientation session for faculty
5. Cost of education
advisors and undergraduate advisors of record
Problems with Academic Advising
(UGAR) to increase communication between
Several efforts were identified as addressing
faculty and the advising center. The College of
problems with academic advising. The College
See “Progress” next page
Page 6 Fifty-three
Progress (continued)
Liberal and Fine Arts (COLFA) Undergraduate institutional level. The Provost made funding
Advising Center also hosted an orientation for available to offer full-time, 3-year, rolling con-
UGARs, providing information on duties and tracts to 24 adjunct faculty members. Further,
responsibilities to ensure that their role com- the Provost committed significant resources
plements that of the academic advisors. and personnel to the Teaching and Learning
Student Under-preparation
Efforts to address student under-preparation “Issues related to the cost
occurred in several areas. From an institutional
perspective, UTSA implemented increased ad- of education have become
missions standards for the 2008 incoming
freshman class. The College of Engineering
especially significant given
(COE) and COS jointly implemented the Jump the current economic
Start summer program to help incoming fresh-
man students refresh and sharpen their math conditions.”
skills. Additionally, the COE piloted two residen-
tial freshman Learning Communities. The
Center (see story earlier in this issue) to in-
COLFA Psychology Department continued their
crease opportunities for faculty development
efforts during summer orientation to provide
and to hone teaching skills.
customized Meeting of the Colleges sessions,
allowing incoming psychology majors to meet Cost of Education
with faculty members and discuss their chosen Issues related to the cost of education have
major. In the College of Public Policy (COPP), become especially significant given the current
the Criminal Justice department is working with economic conditions. While the state legisla-
the Teaching and Learning Center to test ture currently debates several bills in this area,
“clicker” technology in large, introductory crimi- UTSA has also made progress along this front.
nal justice courses. The COS launched a pilot employment pro-
gram, increasing the number of work study and
Course Availability
non-work study student positions in the college
The Criminal Justice department is also ad-
with the intent of helping students focus on
dressing the area of course availability by pub-
their education rather than outside jobs. At the
lishing an online, three-year schedule of course
institutional level, the Graduation Initiative has
offerings to help students better plan their pro-
been preparing a new outreach program, Stu-
gress towards a degree. The COB instituted the
dent Money and Time Matters, to help students
use of doctoral teaching assistants which con-
increase their financial awareness and become
tributed to an increase in course offerings al-
better managers of their time and money (see
lowing for an additional 10% more registrations
story earlier in this issue).
in fall 2008 over that of fall 2007. The COLFA
Philosophy department has begun developing a These efforts are all geared towards helping
fully online course that will allow students to students to overcome barriers in their progress
take the class according to their own schedule towards a degree. Many of these efforts, and
(with the added benefit of freeing-up a class- others, are on-going and scheduled to continue
room for another class). The Graduation Initia- into the future. While no single program, ac-
tive has also been working with the colleges to tion, or effort will significantly increase our
help identify those courses that may factor into graduation rates, the combination of all these
delays in student progress towards a degree. efforts, along with an increased campus focus
on undergraduate retention and graduation,
Reliance on Adjunct Faculty will help move our rates upward.
Addressing issues related to the reliance on
adjunct faculty has been done primarily on an –Clint Rodenfels
Page 7 Fifty-three
UTSA Student Population Changes: 2004 to 2008
It’s sometimes amazing the change that can also increased almost 33 percent from 2004
to 2008 and the number of students from
occur in less than five years. Take for instance
UTSA students. The number of students en- other nations increased more than ten percent.
Outside of South Texas, the
Comparing UTSA’s Freshmen to the State of Texas largest groups of UTSA stu-
Estimated Texas population UTSA first-time, full-time dents hail from the Gulf Coast
aged 17, 2007 freshmen, 2008 and Central Texas.
Number Percent Number Percent
While the number of first time
Male 190,287 51.35 Male 2,379 49.06
undergraduates admitted as
Female 180,257 48.65 Female 2,470 50.94
regular admits and provisional
Anglo 150,600 40.64 Anglo 1,921 39.62
admits stayed very stable from
Hispanic 51,607 41.81 Hispanic 1,836 37.86
2004 to 2008, the number of
Black 154,936 13.93 Black 494 10.19
first time undergraduates ad-
Other 13,401 3.62 Other 598 12.33
mitted as part of the Coordi-
Total 370,544 Total 4,849
nated Admission Program
Source: Texas State Data Center, UTSA Fact Book
(CAP) with UT Austin increased over fifty per-
cent during the same time period. The CAP
rolled at UTSA from Bexar County decreased
students made up almost one-quarter of new
more than nine percent from 2004 to 2008
first-time undergraduate admits in 2008.
while the number of students from other Texas
You’ll find further comparisons of UTSA fresh-
counties increased more than 34 percent over
men to the Texas population in the table.
the same time period. In addition, the number
of students enrolled at UTSA from other states –Jinny Case
We Are Moving
From our inception, the Graduation Initiative room 2.03.14B – right next to the north eleva-
has been borrowing space from the Tomás tors. We’re excited about the move as this will
Rivera Center for Student Success (TRC) in be the first time since our launch that all team
their University Center offices. We are grateful members will be housed in the same location.
for their generosity. However, the TRC Our phone numbers will remain the same and
will be moving from their current there should be no disruption in the services
location in the UC to entirely we provide to the university community. Up-
new offices on the first floor of dates on our move will be available on our web-
the Multidisciplinary Studies site (www.utsa.edu/gi).
(MS) building. At the
–Clint Rodenfels
same time, the
Learning Com-
munities team
will be joining the
rest of the TRC in
their first floor
space.
Because the current TRC offices in
the UC will be renovated for other uses by
Student Affairs, the Graduation Initiative will
be moving as well. In mid-April, we will relo-
cate to the second floor of the MS building,
Page 8 Fifty-three
Policy Watch: New President, New Congresses, New Agendas
As the 81st Legislature meets in Austin and the of interest to UTSA which are being considered
111th Congress meets in Washington, agendas by the 81st Texas Legislature.
related to higher education are beginning to
On March 3, UTSA students, staff, and alumni
take shape. At the federal level, President
visited state lawmakers to advocate for UTSA.
Obama’s stimulus package, signed into law in
Top UTSA priorities for this legislative session
February 2009, includes
funds for increasing the maxi-
State Legislative mum amount available for
Themes Pell Grants, increases to stu-
dent loan limits, and in-
• Four-year tuition
freeze for incoming creases to tax credits for stu-
freshmen dents. The proposed budget
seeks similar increases, and
• In-state tuition rates
making these increases per-
for all veterans, de-
pendents, & spouses manent.
of veterans At the state level, bills are
• Mandatory online being filed and the committee
performance reports process is fully underway. In
for public institutions the Governor’s recent “State
of higher education of the State” address, he
• Creation of a national called on the state legislature UTSA President, Ricardo Romo and Speaker of the House, Joe Straus (R-SA) stand with
UTSA students, staff, and alumni in the Texas State Capitol on March 3, 2009.
research university to increase funding in the
fund to support Texas Grant Program, freeze tuition for four include funding for the San Antonio Life Sci-
emerging research years at the level students pay as entering ence Institute (SALSI) and the Experimental
universities
freshmen, and extend in-state tuition rates to Science Instructional Building, while Student
• Incentive funding all veterans. Government Association members discussed
based on perform- the importance of fully funding the Texas Grant
ance indicators out- More than 2,000 bills related to higher educa-
Program with legislators.
lined by the THECB tion have been filed during this new state legis-
lative session. The box to the left shows areas –Kristi Meyer
Distance Education: Solving Problems, Meeting Needs
Late last December, the National Center for graduation identified by students was their
Education Statistics (NCES, part of the U.S. inability to find the classes they need available
Department of Education) released a report on at the times needed. Second, a common con-
Distance Education offerings at institu- cern raised by faculty and administrators, spe-
tions of higher education. The report, cific to offering sufficient courses, was the ex-
“Distance Education at Degree-Granting treme shortage of available classroom space
Postsecondary Institutions: 2006- restricting the number of courses that can be
07” (http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/ offered.
pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009044) pro-
We discuss both of these issues in the “UTSA
vides fascinating insights into the use
Graduation Improvement Plan” (http://www.
of distance education among 4,265
utsa.edu/gi/documents/utsa_graduation_
Title IV-eligible, degree-granting institu-
improvement_plan.pdf). Among our recommen-
tions of higher education. This is of par-
dations in the plan was an increase in the use
ticular interest to the Graduation Initiative
of online and hybrid courses in order to reduce
for two reasons. First, the primary barrier to
See “Distance Education” next page
Page 9 Fifty-three
Distance Education (continued)
the number of physical seats required for the skilled personnel necessary to assist fac-
classes. According to the NCES report, 65% of ulty with the creation and presentation of
UTSA institutions offer some form of online or other online, hybrid, video, or other types of distance
distance education course. However, almost all education. The Center for Distance Learning &
institutions (97%) with more than 10,000 stu- Academic Technology already supports 69
69 Online Courses dents enrolled offered some form of distance online courses, 130 interactive video courses,
education (Table 1, p. 5). Of those institutions and 2,140 course sections with WebCT. While
with more than 10,000 students, 67% offered these numbers are significant, the infrastruc-
130 ITV Courses
entire degree or certifi- ture already in place
cate programs through can support even more
2,140 WebCT
distance education
“Almost all institutions courses. Currently,
Course Sections (Table 6, p. 10). (97%) with more than there are 22 interactive
video (ITV) classrooms
Clearly, distance edu-
cation has been ac-
10,000 students enrolled available, providing the
capacity to record be-
cepted as a main- offered some form of tween 600 and 700
stream course delivery
method. Perhaps even distance education” classes per semester.
more important, to- Faculty interested in
day’s students, having been reared digitally, pursuing a distance education option for their
already have established expectations for ac- courses should contact The Center for Distance
cessing all sorts of services electronically, in- Learning & Academic Technology (http://
cluding education. With students desiring dlc.utsa.edu/) and discuss all the available
greater availability of classes along with having options UTSA has to offer. By providing more
expectations for online learning coupled with class options to students, we can remove barri-
the university experiencing an extreme short- ers to student progress (real and perceived),
age of classrooms in which to offer needed allowing them greater opportunity to achieve a
courses, distance education seems a natural timely graduation.
and effective solution to the problem.
–Clint Rodenfels
Fortunately, UTSA has both the technology and
Welcome Back! Reaching out to Former Students
From our inception, the Graduation Initiative prise the first-time-in-college cohort. Earlier in
has focused on efforts to improve the univer- this newsletter, we discussed our new Student
sity’s graduation rate. By definition, this cre- Money and Time Matters program that will pro-
ates a locus of activity around those who start vide assistance to all UTSA students. We also
at UTSA as first-time, full-time, fall-entering have another student outreach program under
students as they comprise the population upon development that will seek to re-enroll former
which we base the graduation rate metric. UTSA students.
However, we also recognize the need to help all
This program, Welcome Back!, will encourage
students succeed in their pursuit of an under-
students who left UTSA before completing their
graduate degree. Since the THECB’s “Closing
degree to return and pursue the final classes
the Gaps” plan focuses on the total number of
needed so they can graduate. In early 2008, at
degrees produced, as well as this being an
the request of the THECB, the Graduation Ini-
area of concern for the state legislature and
tiative conducted a pilot program. At that time,
the community in general, we are expanding
we sent letters to over 2,700 former students
our efforts beyond those students who com-
See “Welcome Back!” next page
Page 10 Fifty-three
Welcome Back! (continued)
who left UTSA prior to achieving their degree. we can encourage them to pursue their bene-
We learned several lessons from that effort fits. Second, by keeping employers informed of
and will build on that experience in designing our program, we can encourage them to share
Welcome Back! our program’s information with their employ-
ees, furthering our reach into the community.
This new program will conduct outreach to stu-
Third, by having employers understand the
dents who left UTSA in good standing and were
challenges employed students face in complet-
close to achieving their degree, perhaps with
ing their degrees (e.g., needing to take required
100 or so applicable credit hours. Employing a
classes at times that conflict with work sched-
case management approach, we will initially
ules), we seek to encourage flexibility in the
work with these students to help them under-
workplace that will allow employed students
stand the process for re-enrolling and then,
latitude in completing their degrees promptly.
ongoing, to ensure that they progress towards
their degree. We are currently in the planning stage for Wel-
come Back! and anticipate the program launch-
Additionally, this program will reach out to large
ing by the end of summer. Over the next few
employers in the local community, many of
months, we will be meeting with various de-
whom offer educational benefits to their em-
partments on campus along with representa-
ployees. By communicating with employers, we
tives from the local business community to
anticipate achieving three goals. First, we will
discuss collaborative strategies for helping
gain an understanding for the benefits avail-
students to return to UTSA to succeed.
able in various companies so that if program
participants work for one of these employers, –Diane Elizondo
Team Member Profile: Kristi Meyer
In each edition of our newsletter, we will profile held several positions at UTSA, primarily in an
Graduation Initiative one of our team members. This issue, we focus advising capacity. She has worked in the Col-
on Kristi Meyer, Senior Retention and Gradua- lege of Liberal and Fine Arts Undergraduate
Patricia Glenn
tion Analyst. Kristi has been with UTSA since Advising Center, the Colleges’ Freshman Advis-
Associate Dean for Reten-
tion & Graduation 2002 and a member of the Graduation Initia- ing Center, and the Transfer Advising office.
tive since 2007. She works with the faculty, Prior to arriving at UTSA, Kristi worked at The
Clint Rodenfels
staff, and students of the College of Engineer- Psychological Corporation as a project coordi-
Director
ing as well as the College of Education and nator. Additionally, she served in the U.S. Army
Jinny Case Human Development. Kristi holds a Master of as a Spanish Linguist and Intelligence Analyst.
Senior Retention and Arts in Political Science from the University of
Graduation Analyst Kristi’s research interests include policy stud-
Texas at San
Linda Chalmers ies, legislation analysis, gender studies, and
Antonio (UTSA),
Senior Retention and higher education. Kristi has published several
and a Bachelor
Graduation Analyst articles and presented at numerous national
of Arts in Politi-
and state conferences in both Political Science
Diane Elizondo cal Science from
and Academic Advising. In addition, Kristi holds
Retention and Graduation Stephen F. Aus-
an adjunct faculty position at San Antonio Col-
Analyst tin State Univer-
lege, where she teaches introductory Political
Kristi Meyer sity.
Science.
Senior Retention and
Prior to joining
Graduation Analyst Kristi enjoys traveling, listening to live music,
the Graduation
Gerardo Pacheco and hanging out with her dog Kasey.
Initiative, Kristi
Graduate Assistant Kristi Meyer,
Sr. Retention & Graduation Analyst