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FRANKFORT — Kentucky State University (KSU) is partnering with the Foundation for Student Success, which is hosted by The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS). The mission of the Foundation for Student Success (FSS) is to stimulate and support the use of predictive analytics and other emerging technologies to help institutions of higher education identify at-risk students and to develop interventions to increase their chances of success. None of FSS’s work will be for commercial purposes, and its results will be publicly available.

KSU will participate as a mentee institution from 2017-2019. The mentee institutions will commit to undertake a guided quest to shift the culture of their campuses in ways that have shown to be successful in increasing the success rates of Black and/or Latino students. Each mentee institution will be linked to a mentor institution that has many of the same characteristics (e.g. type of institution, rural/urban, size, types of students).  Staffs from each mentee institution will work with its mentor’s staff to help start the process of campus culture change.  Mentee institutions will be asked to report on their activities and progress plus fill out a benchmarking survey at the beginning and end of the award period. KSU’s mentor institution is Rutgers University – Newark.  KSU joins Northeastern Illinois University and Texas Southern University as peer mentee institutions.

On March 27^th, representatives from the Office of Educational Support, Dr. Erin Wheeler, Dr. Walter Malone, and Brittany Motley, visited with the chancellor and provost, as well as various vice chancellors and deans from enrollment management, student life, academic departments and student success of Rutgers University. During this meeting, Rutgers staff discussed challenges, initiatives, and successes related to increasing enrollment, retention and graduation rates of under-represented minority students.  Mentee institutions also discussed common issues and current strategies in place to assist minority students. At the conclusion of the visit, mentee institutions created an action plan and a project to implement on their respective campuses.

Throughout 2017, FSS staff will coordinate monthly conference calls with their three mentees as they begin to set their goals for the following year.   The Mentor staff will be available for consultations with their mentees as their plans to change their campuses’ cultures are implemented.  Over the course of the two-year project, case studies will be developed of the Mentor Institutions’ activities that resulted in increased success for targeted students, and of their work with you. In 2018, the Mentor Institutions will be featured in a webinar for the general higher education community.

KSU’s two-year project will be to create a Student Success Task Force to infuse and promote Student Success principles in every area of the institution.  The task force will be comprised of faculty, staff, and students and led by the Office of Educational Support.

If you would like to be a part of this special initiative by joining the task force, please email Brittany Motley at Brittany.Motley@kysu.edu.