Author: Carolyn Shaw

During fall 2021, Wichita State launched its new 2025 Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Plan with the overarching goals of expanding enrollments to 17,000 students, increasing first to second-year retention rate to 75%, and closing the equity gap for underserved students. The success of the new plan is dependent on the contributions of everyone on campus.

Check out the featured strategy this week to see if it aligns with work in your area:

Strategy 1.5 Offer opportunities to develop graduate teaching assistants, (GTAs), faculty and staff competencies around issues relating to first-generation students and other underrepresented populations.

Ideas for the classroom:  Ensure that all GTAs engage in professional development to improve support for underserved students and encourage first-gen faculty to connect with and share their stories with our first-gen students.

Ideas beyond the classroom:  Engage in regular professional development opportunities; identify and celebrate first-generation staff members and develop ways for students who visit the office to note this identity.

Shout-outs to: Dr. Bobby Berry, assistant dean for Diversity and Outreach and convener of the First-Gen Affinity group. Berry led a book discussion of “Eat First, Cry Later: Life Lessons of a First-Generation College Graduate, Penn State Alumna and Female CEO.”

Dr. Jason Bosch, assistant dean for Student Success and the College of Engineering, facilitates the Spirit Strong program for first-gen freshmen by offering tutoring, peer mentoring, professional development workshops and scholarships.

For more information, contact Dr. Carolyn Shaw at 316-978-7130 carolyn.shaw@wichita.edu

As we begin a new semester, Wichita State’s COVID frequently asked questions (FAQs) for instructors have been updated for the spring 2022 semester. The page includes information about hybrid classes, current classroom capacities and safe behaviors that comply with campus policies.

During fall 2021, Wichita State launched its new 2025 Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Plan with the overarching goals of expanding enrollments to 17,000 students, increasing first to second-year retention rate to 75%, and closing the equity gap for underserved students. The success of the new plan is dependent on the contributions of everyone on campus.

Check out the featured strategy this week to see more steps departments can take to promote student success.

Strategy 3.3 Promote faculty dialogue and engagement around best practices for student success

• Promote early feedback and timely grading for students’ awareness of their academic performance (Student Early Alert System reports and early formative assignments).
  • Students may not be familiar with how to view their grades in Blackboard or how to see electronic comments on their graded work. Take a moment to provide instructions for students to track their progress and be responsive to your feedback.
  • Students need graded work before the class withdrawal deadline of April 1 to help them make informed decisions about their progress and likelihood of success in class.
• Encourage departments to establish metrics beyond the Student Perception of Teaching Effectiveness (SPTE) for quality instruction to use in annual evaluations.
  • The SPTE is an imperfect metric to assess instructional quality. Policy 4.31.IV.4.d allows departments to use multiple criteria to evaluate teaching.
• Support ongoing professional development for graduate teaching assistants (GTA) related to student retention.
  • Many of our graduate students will move on to become instructors of record for classes following graduation. We strengthen our graduate student’s ability to compete in the job market when we give them strong teaching skills, while also helping our current undergraduates be successful.
• Create a teaching partnership program that pairs junior and senior faculty to share teaching practices.

Shout-outs: WSU’s College of Applied Studies (CAS) has provided a robust faculty mentoring program for 10 years, with 25 mentor-mentee pairs this year. This program, coordinated by Dr. Jody Fiorini, CAS interim senior director of Faculty Development and department head brings the partners together monthly to engage in dialogue around teaching and research. The Office of Instructional Resources (OIR) collaborates with the Graduate School every semester to provide specialized GTA training sessions at the Academic Resources Conference (ARC) to help our GTA’s learn classroom management skills.

For more information, contact Dr. Carolyn Shaw 316-978-7130 or  carolyn.shaw@wichita.edu.

During fall 2021, Wichita State launched its new 2025 Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Plan with the overarching goals of expanding enrollments to 17,000 students, increasing first to second-year retention rate to 75%, and closing the equity gap for underserved students. The success of the new plan is dependent on the contributions of everyone on campus.

Check out the featured strategy this week to see if it aligns with work in your area.

Strategy 2.2 Promote, empower and measure coordinated marketing efforts and campaigns across the campus. Create a successful pipeline of messaging celebrating aspects of the life and work of the university.

• Ideas from the classroom:  Share creative and successful student projects with communication leaders on campus. Our students’ accomplishments should be celebrated. To do this, contact Trish.gandu@wichita.edu, Office of Strategic Communications marketing and advertising manager, Bobby.Gandu@wichita.edu Undergraduate Admissions assistant vice president, or nate.koch@wichita.edu WSU Foundation associate vice president for marketing and communication.
• Ideas beyond the classroom:  Participate in the annual Strategic Communications Seminar Feb. 3. Follow, share and retweet social media posts by campus offices to amplify their impact. View the master list of social media accounts 
• Shout-outs: There are a lot of departments on campus who already do a great job engaging in marketing and external outreach. For example, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) Twitter and ODI Instagram accounts do a great job celebrating different facets of identity on campus, the WSU University Libraries Facebook creates engaging throwback posts using items from Special Collections that celebrate our history and the Office of Admissions provides imaginative videos to the official Wichita State University TikTok.

For more information, contact Dr. Carolyn Shaw 316-978-7130 or carolyn.shaw@wichita.edu.

During fall 2021, Wichita State launched its new 2025 Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Plan with the overarching goals of expanding enrollments to 17,000 students, increasing first to second-year retention rate to 75%, and closing the equity gap for underserved students. The success of the new plan is dependent on the contributions of everyone on campus.

Check out the featured strategy this week to see if it aligns with work in your area.

Strategy 1.3: Promote greater campus connections with alumni and community supporters who can become ambassadors for the university with pride in and knowledge of the latest campus developments.

• Ideas for the classroom: Invite alumni or experts in the community to your class or to a department event to share their knowledge and connect them to current students. Share with alumni and community experts the newest developments in your program.
• Ideas beyond the classroom: Develop and distribute regular newsletters for your area that reach an external audience. Include promotion through social media. Invite alumni to meet with prospective students to share the value of their WSU experiences.
• Shout-out: The College of Health Professions has actively engaged its more than 9,000 alumni by creating a family photo album and bringing alumni back to campus for visits. 

For more information, contact Dr. Carolyn Shaw at 316-978-3010 or carolyn.shaw@wichita.edu

During fall 2021, Wichita State celebrated an end to its first five-year strategic enrollment management plan (SEM). WSU completed 34 tactics in the original plan and established an additional 97 tactics as ongoing practices, successfully incorporating these initiatives as part of its regular processes. This lead to an increase of 7% in overall enrollment since 2016 despite the pandemic. 

Also in fall 2021, a new 2025 SEM Plan was launched with the overarching goals of expanding enrollments to 17,000 students, increasing the university’s first to second-year retention rate to 75%, and closing the equity gap for underserved students. The success of the new plan continues to be dependent on the contributions of everyone on campus.

For more information, contact Dr. Carolyn Shaw at 316-978-3010 or carolyn.shaw@wichita.edu.

Mark your calendar and join us 3:30 – 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22 at Rhatigan Student Center Ballroom for a Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) update and celebration.

SEM has had a great year and wants to recognize its campus-wide efforts. Comments will begin at 4 p.m.

David Vuletich, senior director of Research Advisory Services with the Education Advisory Board, will provide a workshop presentation titled, “The Faculty Role in Retention and Student Success,” at 2 p.m. today, Sept. 28 at the Rhatigan Student Center (room 142).

David has earned Bachelor’s degrees in astrophysics and chemical physics from Michigan State University, a dual-title Ph.D. in biochemistry and astrobiology from the Pennsylvania State University, and an MBA from Indiana University.

Please contact carolyn.shaw@wichita.edu for a Zoom link.

After a national search, Aaron Hamilton is the next director of Wichita State University’s OneStop Student Services.

Hamilton received both his Bachelor of Arts in communications and his Master of Public Administration degrees from WSU. He previously worked at WSU Undergraduate Admissions since 2003. During this time, Hamilton served in progressive leadership roles as senior recruitment coordinator; assistant, associate and senior associate director of admissions. Hamilton also served on the President’s Diversity Council, was appointed the government relations chair for the Great Plains Association of College Admissions Counselors (GPACAC), and worked as president and treasurer for the Kansas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (KACRAO).

In this new role, Hamilton will oversee the activities of OneStop, which provides first-level of support for all students in matters relating to admissions, registration, financial aid, student accounts. and general advising. OneStop also provides advising for all first-year students, providing seamless support for students navigating the complexities of college before they arrive on campus.

The OneStop is an important part of the Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team and reports directly to the associate vice president for SEM, Dr. Carolyn Shaw. OneStop began in 2014 in an effort to support students better and reduce the amount of work it would take students to resolve their nonacademic issues.

Wichita State University provides its students with a webpage that contains information about course designs for classes. The webpage is based on submissions and updates made by faculty.

Students can see how much of their courses are expected to be in-person, what the exam requirements include, and what to do on their first day of class. 

If instructors have not provided information, students can contact them directly.